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Energy savings from flash steam recovery: An industrial case study
Get PDFYesIn oil, gas and petrochemical production complexes, steam pressure boosting technology is used to recover low-pressure steam, using both mechanical and thermal solutions to increase energy efficiency. The heat recovery from steam, especially flash steam produced in the return condensate lines, can be considered an economic and attractive solution. In an industrial case study in a gas plant located in the south-west of Iran, the LP condensate returns to the LP condenser waste with a flow rate of 96,000 kg/h and a pressure of 0.45 bar. As a result of the pressure drop, about 6800 kg/h of flash steam is generated. Therefore, in order to recover, the first the return condensate current enters a flash drum to separate the amount of steam produced by the flash operation. In this research, two strategies for increasing the pressure using a steam compressor and an ejector have been investigated. The simulation results show that flash steam recycling using steam compressors and ejectors results in energy saving for the refinery of about one million and USD100k per year, and also about 152 and 137 thousand tons equivalent to carbon dioxide emissions per year are reduced, respectively
Scoping of advanced clinical practitioner role implementation using national job advertisements: Document analysis
Get PDFYesThe aim of this study is to profile the contemporary advanced clinical practitioner (ACP) role through standardized document sets.
Documentary analysis of job descriptions (JDs), person specification and advertisements.
England based jobs advertised on NHS jobs website from 22 January to 21 April 2021.
A toatal of 143 trainee and qualified ACP roles were identified. A wide range of sectors and specialities were represented from across all English regions. The most common roles were urgent care, emergency medicine and primary care. Most qualified roles were agenda for change band 8A, although this did vary across specialities. Many roles were restricted to a small number of professions, notably nursing, physiotherapy and paramedic. Inconsistent role titles were noted. A lack of understanding of regulation across different professions was noted.
The ACP role has become an accepted across healthcare providers in England. Implementation remains varied across specialities and organizations. Eligibility criteria may relate to professional bias.
ACP roles are expanding but this may be at the detriment to advanced nursing posts. Inconsistency in role eligibility suggests some professional bias exists.
This was scoping of ACP roles across England using job advertisements. ACP roles are common across sectors and specialities but eligibility varies. The research will have impact on those looking to recruit to ACP roles as well as those refining JDs.
No EQUATOR guideline exists for document analysis.
No Patient or Public Contribution. The research relates to organizational human resource information only
Exploring the Academic - Industry Collaboration in Knowledge Sharing for Supplier Selection: Digitalizing the OEM
Get PDFYesIncreasing reliance on digital technologies has led to a significant shift in how businesses operate, with many now relying heavily on digital platforms for effective planning, communication, sales, marketing, supply chain, and logistics management. In this context, knowledge sharing platforms enable academic–industry collaboration in which exchange of ideas, opinions, experience, and expertise brings collective intelligence in cooperative learning ecosystem thereby expediting decision making. However, establishing long-term commitment among the partners, allocation of time and resources for sharing tacit knowledge, collaboration among partners with different strategic priorities, and real-time knowledge sharing capabilities are essential for effective and rapid learning in knowledge sharing platforms. The present article will examine these benefits and challenges in knowledge sharing and its impact on supplier selection platforms in Asian automakers. The findings of this article will be helpful for researchers and practitioners intending to explore the role of cooperation in knowledge sharing and digital transformation amid competitive environment prevalent in the automotive industry. The potential supplier database is first examined for qualifying the capability requirements put forth in this article and further prioritized using a multicriteria decision-making technique and analytic hierarchy process. The article results reveal that the manufacturer has highly prioritized firms’ financial transparency for supplier evaluation followed by the suppliers’ cost control, quality control, and manufacturing capabilities. The article has significant theoretical and practical implications for developing robust supplier evaluation criteria for automobile industry and a digital ecosystem for original equipment manufacturers in making supplier related decisions
Barriers and enablers to healthcare system uptake of direct oral anticoagulants for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation: a qualitative interview study with healthcare professionals and policy makers in England
Get PDFYesObjective: To better understand the factors influencing the uptake of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) across different health economies in National Health Service England from the perspective of health professionals and other health economy stakeholders.
Design: Qualitative interview study using a critical realism perspective and informed by the Diffusion of Innovations in Service Organisations model.
Setting: Three health economies in the North of England, United Kingdom.
Participants: Healthcare professionals involved in the management of patients requiring oral anticoagulants, stakeholders involved in the implementation of DOACs and representatives of pharmaceutical industry companies and patient support groups.
Intervention: Semistructured interviews (face-to-face or telephone) were conducted with 46 participants. Interviews were analysed using the Framework method.
Results: Identified factors having an impact on the uptake of DOACs were grouped into four themes: perceived value of the innovation, clinician practice environment, local health economy readiness for change, and the external health service context. Together, these factors influenced what therapy options were offered and prescribed to patients with atrial fibrillation. The interviews also highlighted strategies used to improve or restrict the uptake of DOACs and tensions between providing patient-centred care and managing financial implications for commissioners.
Conclusions: The findings contribute to the wider literature by providing a new and in-depth understanding on the uptake of DOACs. The findings may be applicable to other new medicines used in chronic health conditions.This work presents research funded by the Pharmacy Research UK (grant number: PRUK-2018-GA-1-KM) and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (grant number: N/A)
Blockchain-based secure privacy-preserving vehicle accident and insurance registration
Get PDFYesInsurance claims processing involves multiple entities and data sources, necessitating communication between human agents. Consequently, vehicle insurance claims have traditionally required significant human effort and time. Daily vehicle-related transactions, including those managed by transportation authorities, pose challenges for tracking. Centralised systems have been utilised for national solutions, but trust management, transparency, and access control issues arise. There is potential for further integration of vehicle-related transactions. This article proposes a blockchain framework for vehicle insurance to streamline the reporting of accidents and filing of insurance claims. Blockchain-based automation platforms can enhance the scale and response time of claims processing, providing users with control over additional transactions, inspection, and insurance. For experimental purposes, a blockchain was created using Hyperledger Fabric to store information about vehicles, owners, and insurance. Efficient querying of this blockchain requires specific participants, assets, and transactions. The consensus algorithm can identify invalid claims if a transaction request contains an error. By deploying blockchain technology and smart contracts, this architecture has the potential to address trust and security concerns associated with traditional insurance policies and claims
Compact highly isolated dual-band 4-port MIMO antenna for sub-6 GHz applications
Get PDFYesIn this work, a compact 4-element multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system is presented for sub-6 GHz applications. A modified M-shaped strip is used to form each antenna element in the MIMO system. To improve performance, a rectangular-shaped area is etched on the opposite side of each element in the ground plane. The
antenna size is 100 × 60 mm2. Most interestingly, the port isolation is
improved by rotating the etched areas and the corresponding radiating elements. This one-of-a-kind approach aided in the development of a highly isolated MIMO antenna with a small footprint. The theory of characteristic modes (TCM) is used to analyze the behavior of rotating the etched areas in the ground of the antenna. The antenna
provides significant port isolation above 20 dB, stable radiation patterns, and an outstanding ECC of less than 0.01. The design is simple and compact, making it suitable for MIMO operation on handheld devices
Reflections from an insider researcher ‘doing’ feminist participatory action research to co-produce a research agenda with British Pakistani women; a seldom heard group
Get PDFYesParticipation of community stakeholders in health research priority setting is an emerging trend. Despite this, the involvement of marginalised groups in research prioritisation is limited and where they are involved, sample sizes are small, where individuals are merely consulted with, rather than coproducing the research agenda. Without addressing power dynamics inherent in research prioritisation with marginalised groups, their engagement in the research process can be tokenistic and the resulting research agenda unreflective of their needs. This article, therefore, aims to generate knowledge on how feminist participatory action research was used to co-produce an obesity research agenda with British Pakistani women, a seldom heard population, living in deprived areas. The methodology enabled Pakistani women to be involved in all stages of the project, culminating in the co-production of an obesity research agenda that accurately reflects their unmet needs. Women’s engagement in the project led to their increased confidence, the formation of relationships that lasted beyond the research project, improvements to their lifestyles, and engagement in further research. Feminist participatory action research may be used by researchers as a guiding methodology due to its ability to improve women’s lives and develop research agendas for women’s health.National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Yorkshire and Humber [NIHR200166], the UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) - [MR/S037527/1], the NIHR Clinical Research Network, NIHR ARC Yorkshire and HumberResearch Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, Jul 2023
Peristomal skin complications: new materials needed to ease the ostomy care market
Get PDFYesT.S. is currently funded to study skin adhesives by a Medical Research Council Confidence in Concept grant obtained by John Bridgeman at the University of Bradford (MC_PC_19030)
Development of Concrete Mixtures Based Entirely on Construction and Demolition Waste and Assessment of Parameters Influencing the Compressive Strength
Get PDFYesDemolition and reconstruction of degrading structures alongside with the repetitive repair, maintenance, and renovation applications create significant amounts of construction and demolition waste (CDW), which needs proper tackling. The main emphasis of this study has therefore been placed on the development of concrete mixtures with components (i.e., aggregates and binder) coming entirely from CDW. As the binding phase, powdered CDW-based masonry units, concrete and glass were used collectively as precursors to obtain geopolymer binders, which were then incorporated with CDW-based fine and coarse concrete aggregates. Together with the entirely CDW-based concretes, designs were also proposed for companion mixtures with mainstream precursors (e.g., fly ash and slag) occupying some part of the CDW-based precursor combination. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) and calcium hydroxide (Ca[OH]2) were used at various concentrations and combinations as the alkaline activators. Several factors that have impact on the compressive strength results of concrete mixtures, such as mainstream precursor replacement rate, al-kaline molar concentrations, aggregate-to-binder ratios and curing conditions, were considered and these were also backed by the micro-structural analyses. Our results showed that through proper optimiza-tion of the design factors, it is possible to manufacture concrete mix-tures entirely out of CDW with compressive strength results able to reach up to 40 MPa under ambient curing. Current research is believed to be very likely to promote more innovative and up-to-date techniques to upcycle CDW, which are mostly downcycled through basic practices of road base/sub-base filling, encouraging further research and increas-ing the awareness in CDW issue
Enhancement of precise underwater object localization
Get PDFYesUnderwater communication applications extensively use localization services for object identification. Because of their significant impact on ocean exploration and monitoring, underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSN) are becoming increasingly popular, and acoustic communications have largely overtaken radio frequency (RF) broadcasts as the dominant means of communication. The two localization methods that are most frequently employed are those that estimate the angle of arrival (AOA) and the time difference of arrival (TDoA). The military and civilian sectors rely heavily on UWSN for object identification in the underwater environment. As a result, there is a need in UWSN for an accurate localization technique that accounts for dynamic nature of the underwater environment. Time and position data are the two key parameters to accurately define the position of an object. Moreover, due to climate change there is now a need to constrain energy consumption by UWSN to limit carbon emission to meet net-zero target by 2050. To meet these challenges, we have developed an efficient localization algorithm for determining an object position based on the angle and distance of arrival of beacon signals. We have considered the factors like sensor nodes not being in time sync with each other and the fact that the speed of sound varies in water. Our simulation results show that the proposed approach can achieve great localization accuracy while accounting for temporal synchronization inaccuracies. When compared to existing localization approaches, the mean estimation error (MEE) and energy consumption figures, the proposed approach outperforms them. The MEEs is shown to vary between 84.2154m and 93.8275m for four trials, 61.2256m and 92.7956m for eight trials, and 42.6584m and 119.5228m for twelve trials. Comparatively, the distance-based measurements show higher accuracy than the angle-based measurements