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Production of Green Fuel: A Digital Baffle Batch Reactor for Enhanced Oxidative Desulfurization of Light Gas Oil Using Nano-Catalyst
Get PDFYesA digital baffle batch reactor (DBBR) for oxidative desulfurization (ODS) reactions is designed and applied here in order to reduce the sulfur concentration presented in light gas oil (LGO) based on a novel homemade nano-catalyst (Copper Oxide (CuO)/Activated Carbon (AC)). With efficient impregnation, good pore size distribution, high activity and higher surface area, the designed nano-catalyst (CuO/AC) demonstrated excellent catalytic efficiency. To evaluate the effectiveness of nano catalyst (prepared experimentally), several experiments related to ODS reactions using the digital baffle batch reactor are carried out under moderate process conditions (reaction temperature (100, 120 and 140 °C), contact time (15, 30 and 45 min) and oxidant (H2O2) amount (2, 3 and 5 ml)). The experimental outcomes indicated that increasing the reaction temperature, batch time and oxidant amount lead to reduced sulfur concentration of oil feedstock leading to a greener fuel. The efficiency of sulfur conversion is reported to be 83.1 % using the modified nano-catalysts and new reactor (DBBR) at reaction temperature 140 oC, batch time 45 min and H2O2 amount of 5 ml. So, such new results using DBBR for ODS reactions based on CuO/AC as a new modified nano catalyst has not been reported in the public domain and it is considered as new results
Using routine healthcare data to evaluate the impact of the Medicines at Transitions Intervention (MaTI) on clinical outcomes of patients hospitalised with heart failure: protocol for the Improving the Safety and Continuity Of Medicines management at Transitions of care (ISCOMAT) cluster randomised controlled trial with embedded process evaluation, health economics evaluation and internal pilot
Get PDFYesIntroduction Heart failure affects 26 million people globally, approximately 900 thousand people in the UK, and is increasing in incidence. Appropriate management of medicines for heart failure at the time of hospital discharge reduces readmissions, improves quality of life and increases survival. The Improving the Safety and Continuity Of Medicines management at Transitions (ISCOMAT) trial tests the effectiveness of the Medicines at Transition Intervention (MaTI), which aims to enhance self-care and increase community pharmacy involvement in the medicines management of heart failure patients.
Methods and analysis ISCOMAT is a parallel-group cluster randomised controlled trial, randomising 42 National Health Service trusts with cardiology wards in England on a 1:1 basis to implement the MaTI or treatment as usual. Around 2100 patients over the age of 18 admitted to hospital with heart failure with at least moderate left ventricular systolic dysfunction within the last 5 years, and planned discharge to the geographical area of the cluster will be recruited. The MaTI consists of training for staff, a toolkit for participants, transfer of discharge information to community pharmacies and a medicines reconciliation/review. Treatment as usual is determined by local policy and practices. The primary outcome is a composite of all-cause mortality and heart failure-related hospitalisation at 12 months postregistration obtained from national electronic health records. The key secondary outcome is continued prescription of guideline-indicated therapies at 12 months measured via patient-reported data and Hospital Episode Statistics. The trial contains a parallel mixed-methods process evaluation and an embedded health economics study.The study was funded as part of a National Institute for Health Research Programme Grant for Applied Research (RP-PG-0514-20009)
Sensory-processing sensitivity predicts fatigue from listening, but not perceived effort, in young and older adults
No full textYesPurpose: Listening-related fatigue is a potential negative consequence of challenges experienced during everyday listening, and may disproportionately affect older adults. Contrary to expectation, we recently found that increased reports of listening-related fatigue were associated with better performance on a dichotic listening task (McGarrigle et al., 2021a). However, this link was found only in individuals who reported heightened sensitivity to a variety of physical, social, and emotional stimuli (i.e., increased ‘sensory-processing sensitivity’; SPS). The current study examined whether perceived effort may underlie the link between performance and fatigue.
Methods: 206 young adults, aged 18-30 years (Experiment 1) and 122 older adults, aged 60-80 years (Experiment 2) performed a dichotic listening task and were administered a series of questionnaires including: the NASA task load index of perceived effort, the Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale (measuring daily life listening-related fatigue) and the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (measuring SPS). Both experiments were completed online.
Results: SPS predicted listening-related fatigue but perceived effort during the listening task was not associated with SPS or listening-related fatigue in either age group. We were also unable to replicate the interaction between dichotic listening performance and SPS in either group. Exploratory analyses revealed contrasting effects of age; older adults found the dichotic listening task more effortful, but indicated lower overall fatigue.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that SPS is a better predictor of listening-related fatigue than performance or effort ratings on a dichotic listening task. SPS may be an important factor in determining an individual’s likelihood of experiencing listening-related fatigue irrespective of hearing or cognitive ability.This research was supported by an ESRC New Investigator Award (ES/R003572/1) to Ronan McGarrigle
Perceptions of Healthcare Workers (HCWs) towards childhood immunization and immunization services in Fiji: a qualitative study
Get PDFYesChildhood immunization has been globally recognized as the single most effective strategy in preventing childhood diseases and mortality. The perceptions of healthcare workers are important as their behavior and attitudes influence parental decision-making process. This research aimed to explore the factors that influence healthcare workers' experience and perceptions about delivering childhood immunization in Fiji.
A qualitative study was conducted in three randomly selected health centers in Suva, Fiji from March 1st to April 5th, 2021. Five focus group discussions were conducted with healthcare workers who were chosen purposively, had worked in the health center for at least 6 months and included either gender. Those that did not consent or did not meet the inclusion criteria were excluded. The interviews were guided by semi-structured open-ended questionnaire and were recorded into a digital voice recorder. The data were coded, sorted, and then categorized into themes, and transcribed onto Microsoft Word. Thematic analysis was utilized to sort the key phrases from the recorded interviews.
There were a total of 22 participants for the focus group discussions, with their ages ranging from 25 to 51 years, included 3 medical officers, 1 nurse practitioner and 18 registered nurses. Three major themes emerged, which included: healthcare worker factors, parental factors and health system factors. Subthemes identified from the healthcare worker factors were worker knowledge and attitudes. The subtheme for parental factors that emerged were defaulters, parental attitudes, perceived behavior and religious beliefs. For health system factors the subthemes were service delivery, registration, infrastructure, staff turnover, staff training and changes to the immunization schedule.
Some of the perceived barriers reported by the healthcare workers were parental religious beliefs, parental knowledge and attitude, social or physical factors (finances, transportation, childcare and work conflicts), access to health services, immunization services and policies, hours of operation, waiting time and missed opportunities. Health workers acknowledged that they have an important role to play in immunization as they are the source of information and motivation for parents. Further studies are needed to be conducted nationally to determine the perceptions of healthcare workers towards immunization and how the services can be improved on a national level
“Will we ever return to normality? Findings from Phase 2 (Oct-Dec 2020) of the Born in Bradford Covid-19 Adult Survey
Get PDFYesBorn in Bradford (BiB) have carried out surveys of BiB participants during the first national
lockdown (April – June 2020) and at a second Phase (Oct – Dec 2020). A third survey took place
between June – July 2021. Participants were from either the BiB’s Growing Up (GU) or Better
Start (BiBBS) cohorts and had children in pre-school, primary and secondary school age groups.
This report presents a summary of the findings identified in Phase 2 (29th October 2020 –
23rd December 2020) of the Born in Bradford’s Covid-19 adult survey.The Health Fund Covid-19 Award; Wellcome Trust; ESRC; NIHR: Applied Research Collaboration, Yorkshire and Humber; ActEarly UK Preventative Research Partnership Consortium; NIHR Clinical Research Network; National Lottery Community Fun
The top 100 global water questions: Results of a scoping exercise
Get PDFYesGlobal water security presents a complex problem for human societies and will become more acute as the
impacts of climate change escalate. Water security connects the practical water and sanitation challenges
of households to the dynamics of global hydroclimates and ecosystems in the Anthropocene. To ensure
the successful deployment of attention and resources, it is necessary to identify the most pressing questions
for water research. Here, we present the results of a scoping exercise conducted across the global water
sector. More than 400 respondents submitted an excess of 4,000 potential questions. Drawing on expert
analysis, we highlight 100 indicative research questions across six thematic domains: water and sanitation
for human settlements; water and sanitation safety risk management; water security and scarcity; hydroclimate-ecosystem-Anthropocene dynamics; multi-level governance; and knowledge production. These questions offer an interdisciplinary and multi-scalar framework for guiding the nature and space of water research
for the coming decades
Analytical models of mean secondary velocities and stream functions under different bed-roughness configurations in wide open-channel turbulent flows
Get PDFYesTurbulence-induced secondary currents are commonly present in straight natural as well as artificial open channels without bed forms. Different structures of cellular secondary currents can be seen in open-channel flows due to various bed configurations. In our study, mathematical models of turbulence-induced secondary currents in the vertical and transverse directions within a straight open rectangular channel with alternate rough and smooth longitudinal bed strips are proposed. The proposed models are derived using appropriate theoretical and mathematical analysis. Most of the previous models of secondary currents in the literature are proposed empirically and without proper mathematical derivations. The effects of fluid viscosity and eddy diffusivity are included in the present study to make it more practical. Initially, the governing equation for vertical secondary flow velocity is derived from continuity and the Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes equations. Then, the proposed problem is divided into two sub-considerations, corresponding to the base flow and perturbed flow. Finally, these sub-problems are analytically solved using method of variables separation with suitable boundary conditions. Different models to consider two different types of bed-roughness configurations (i.e. equal and unequal lengths of smooth and rough longitudinal bed strips) are obtained. Apart from velocity formulations, models of the stream function are proposed for these two types of bed configurations. All proposed models are validated using existing experimental data for the various bed configurations in open-channel flows and satisfactory results have been obtained. These present models are also compared with empirical models from the literature and they are found to be more effective in representing both types of bed-roughness configurations. The effects of bed configuration on the streamlines of settling velocity are also investigated. Results show that laterally-skewed secondary cells (which occurs due to unequal smooth and rough bed strips), have significant effects on the closed ω-streamlines in terms of shape and location of the centre of these streamlines. More precisely, it is found that the area of the downflow zone proportionally increases with the length of rough-bed strips
Facial image processing in computer vision
No full textNoThe application of computer vision in face processing remains an important research field. The aim of this chapter is to provide an up-to-date review of research efforts of computer vision scientist in facial image processing, especially in the areas of entertainment industry, surveillance, and other human computer interaction applications. To be more specific, this chapter reviews and demonstrates the techniques of visible facial analysis, regardless of specific application areas. First, the chapter makes a thorough survey and comparison of face detection techniques. It provides some demonstrations on the effect of computer vision algorithms and colour segmentation on face images. Then, it reviews the facial expression recognition from the psychological aspect (Facial Action Coding System, FACS) and from the computer animation aspect (MPEG-4 Standard). The chapter also discusses two popular existing facial feature detection techniques: Gabor feature based boosted classifiers and Active Appearance Models, and demonstrate the performance on our in-house dataset. Finally, the chapter concludes with the future challenges and future research direction of facial image processing
Volunteering in the community: Understanding personal experiences of South Asians in the United Kingdom
Get PDFYesUpstanding civic action is central to individual and community well-being, particularly when communities comprise rich and diverse membership. However, not all groups in society have the same opportunities and resources to volunteer. This is particularly true for South Asian people, who are often reported to be less likely to volunteer. Research into the experience and meanings that this ethnic group attributes to volunteering has been exceptionally scarce. Informed by a community psychology perspective, this qualitative study conducted nine semistructured interviews with British South Asians involved in formal volunteering activities. The aim was to explore their personal experiences and motivations regarding volunteering for their community of belonging. Results from reflexive thematic analysis were grouped under three themes. These were (1) volunteering cultivated individual well-being, (2) South Asians who volunteer often experience social injustice and marginalisation and (3) volunteering for South Asians is intrinsically tied to religious and cultural motivations. British South Asians faced personal and social obstacles in accessing fundamental health and social care in their communities of belonging. Religion, and community social capital were positive volunteering strategies for British South Asians. Positive impacts of well-being included becoming closer to faith and increased sense of meaning/purpose and recognising of individual strengths. These findings offer valuable insights and recommendations for community organisations and governmental bodies to better promote volunteering for ethnic minorities. We suggest the adoption of cultural and religious sensitivity, along with strategies to remove barriers in access to opportunities and support for volunteering
A gene deriving from the ancestral sex chromosomes was lost from the X and retained on the Y chromosome in eutherian mammals
Get PDFYesThe mammalian X and Y chromosomes originated from a pair of ordinary autosomes. Over the past ~180 million years, the X and Y have become highly differentiated and now only recombine with each other within a short pseudoautosomal region. While the X chromosome broadly preserved its gene content, the Y chromosome lost ~92% of the genes it once shared with the X chromosome. PRSSLY is a Y-linked gene identified in only a few mammalian species that was thought to be acquired, not ancestral. However, PRSSLY's presence in widely divergent species-bull and mouse-led us to further investigate its evolutionary history.
We discovered that PRSSLY is broadly conserved across eutherians and has ancient origins. PRSSLY homologs are found in syntenic regions on the X chromosome in marsupials and on autosomes in more distant animals, including lizards, indicating that PRSSLY was present on the ancestral autosomes but was lost from the X and retained on the Y in eutherian mammals. We found that across eutheria, PRSSLY's expression is testis-specific, and, in mouse, it is most robustly expressed in post-meiotic germ cells. The closest paralog to PRSSLY is the autosomal gene PRSS55, which is expressed exclusively in testes, involved in sperm differentiation and migration, and essential for male fertility in mice. Outside of eutheria, in species where PRSSLY orthologs are not Y-linked, we find expression in a broader range of somatic tissues, suggesting that PRSSLY has adopted a germ-cell-specific function in eutherians. Finally, we generated Prssly mutant mice and found that they are fully fertile but produce offspring with a modest female-biased sex ratio compared to controls.
PRSSLY appears to be the first example of a gene that derives from the mammalian ancestral sex chromosomes that was lost from the X and retained on the Y. Although the function of PRSSLY remains to be determined, it may influence the sex ratio by promoting the survival or propagation of Y-bearing sperm.The group of D.C.P. is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Whitehead Institute, and philanthropic gifts from Brit and Alexander d’Arbeloff, Authur W. and Carol Tobin Brill, and Charles Ellis