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Optimizing cathode contact layer thickness for enhanced efficiency and durability in solid oxide fuel cell stacks
No full textThe introduction of a contact layer between the cathode and the interconnect effectively reduces their interfacial resistance and improves overall solid oxide fuel cell performance. In this study, LaCo0.4Ni0.6O3 (LCN) was selected as the cathode contact material due to its excellent electrical conductivity, excellent chemical compatibility, and thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) well matched with adjacent cell components. A series of thicknesses of the LCN layer was systematically investigated to elucidate its impact on cell performance. Experimental results demonstrated a peak power output of 104.28 W at 750 °C with an optimal LCN thickness of 0.4 mm, accompanied by robust long-term stability. A 22-cell stack achieved a total power output of 1144.8 W at 750 °C, maintaining stable operation with an average efficiency decay of only 0.5 % over five thermal cycles. Excessive thickness hindered reactant gas diffusion, while inadequate thickness caused localized cathode overheating (“burning”), leading to premature cell failure. These findings underscore the necessity of optimizing LCN contact layer thickness to achieve a balance between electrical performance, gas transport efficiency, and thermal management in SOFC stacks
Damage equivalent strain as a metric for tidal turbine blade fatigue scenario comparison
No full textTidal turbine blades are a key component for small, medium, and utility scale tidal turbines given their role as the power capture interface. Common practice is to instrument a turbine blade using strain gauges in order to monitor maximum loads as well as load cycles. The calculation of some fatigue parameters requires the conversion of strain to stress, however, this is not always trivial especially when material properties are highly directional or complex geometries are present. This paper presents a windowed approach using strain as a proxy for stress to enable fatigue scenario comparison. Strain recorded on a transverse axis crossflow turbine blade allows fatigue comparison between a range of scenarios during field testing as well as field-laboratory comparisons. It was found that turbine revolution frequency dominates the fatigue of a transverse axis crossflow turbine eclipsing the fatigue impact of dynamic flow features conducive to a real tidal environment in a way that would not be present for a horizontal axis turbine. This allows blade life to be monitored using a revolution counter. Simplified indicative fatigue comparisons enable rapid identification and mitigation of high damage scenarios beyond the example case presented in this paper facilitating the extension of turbine blade life.<br/
Healthcare decarbonisation education for health profession students: a scoping review
No full textClimate change is the greatest health threat of the 21st century, with healthcare contributing approximately 4–5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonising healthcare, the deliberate reduction of emissions across all healthcare activities, is essential to reduce the health sector’s environmental impact while maintaining equitable, high-quality care. Preparing future health professionals for sustainable, low-carbon practice is increasingly recognised as critical; however, education on healthcare decarbonisation remains inconsistent and weakly embedded in curricula. This scoping review mapped existing educational resources for pre-registration health profession students. Following the JBI methodology, six databases (Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and GreenFILE) were searched in April 2025 (updated in October 2025). Data were thematically analysed. In total, 32 studies met inclusion criteria, comprising 17 mixed-methods, 11 quantitative, and 4 qualitative designs. Most interventions were multimodal, addressing sustainability or climate change through simulation, digital, formal, or didactic methods. Knowledge and attitudes were the most frequently evaluated outcomes. Thematic analysis identified knowledge and awareness, attitudes and emotional responses, behavioural intent and action, identity formation through collaborative learning, and barriers to decarbonisation. Findings suggest that blended, interactive, and technology-enhanced education improves knowledge, attitudes, and identity, but sustained impact requires longitudinal, skills-based, and policy-aligned interventions to drive meaningful healthcare decarbonisation action
Development, validation, and application of an innovative UHPLC-Orbitrap-HRMS method for multi-class analysis of endocrine disruptors in bottled water: Influence of bottle material, water source, and retail price
No full textBackgroundEndocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are linked to chronic conditions such as hormonal cancers, metabolic disorders, and reproductive dysfunction. They can enter drinking water through inadequate wastewater treatment and poor waste disposal, contaminating surface and groundwater. Bottled water adds risk due to leaching of packaging chemicals, especially from plastics. Since even low-level exposure may harm health, systematic monitoring is crucial. This requires advanced analytical methods able to detect and quantify multiple EDC classes at trace concentrations in bottled drinking water.ResultsThis study developed and validated a comprehensive multi-residue method to quantify 25 EDCs across eight chemical classes - hormones, microbial agents, mycotoxins, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, phenols, phthalates, and sunscreen agents - and to screen 983 additional suspected EDCs in drinking water. The method, based on solid-phase extraction coupled with ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography–high resolution mass spectrometry, was optimized using factorial design to ensure accuracy and reliability. Validation with still water demonstrated excellent linearity (R2 ≥ 0.99), low detection limits (0.5–5.0 ng L−1), and compliance with international criteria for recovery, precision, and measurement uncertainty. Cross-validation on sparkling water further confirmed robustness, with only 17β-estradiol showing slightly elevated recovery at the lowest concentration. Stability tests showed analytes remained intact for 72 h under dark conditions. Application to 37 Belgian bottled waters revealed 17 EDCs, with bisphenol B and acetaminophen most abundant. More compounds occurred in plastic than glass bottles, while mineral water showed higher α-zearalanol than spring water. Notably, premium plastic bottled water contained increased phthalate levels.SignificanceThis study presents a robust method for multi-class EDC analysis in bottled drinking water, offering high sensitivity and broad coverage, including EU watch list substances. Using an extensive suspect screening database from international inventories, it is the first Belgian study to map diverse EDCs in popular bottled water brands. The findings provide crucial data for public health risk assessment and inform regulatory and commercial decisions, emphasizing packaging, source type, and retail price as key factors
Finding health in a disadvantaged place: Ethnic differences in multimorbidity by neighbourhood deprivation in England and Wales
No full textThis paper brings together research on ethnic inequalities in multimorbidity and differences in multimorbidity by neighbourhood deprivation to ask whether minority ethnic populations in England and Wales face health inequality when living in deprived neighbourhoods. We use four waves of Understanding Society data collected between 2018 and 2023 to identify the presence of two or more chronic conditions (i.e. multimorbidity). An ethnic group-specific neighbourhood deprivation index (EGDI) is linked to individual respondents for 93,568 person waves. Adjusted logistic regression models show that the Bangladeshi and Pakistani minority ethnic groups have 25 % lower probabilities of multimorbidity compared with the White British group. Underdiagnosis of conditions might explain some of this difference in the Bangladeshi group. The relationship between multimorbidity and neighbourhood deprivation was strongest for the health domain of EGDI. For the summary EGDI score, those living in the most deprived neighbourhoods are 1.4 times more likely to report multimorbidity compared with those living elsewhere. South Asian minority ethnic groups appear to be insulated, by 10 percentage points, from these negative neighbourhood effects, relative to the White British majority. These findings are largely consistent for all cause multimorbidity and physical only multimorbidity and an alternative neighbourhood deprivation measurement for all people (i.e. not ethnic-group specific). Our findings suggest that a holistic approach to population health, bringing together medical specialisms and broad public health policy, is required to improve diagnosis of chronic conditions across ethnic groups and to reduce the negative effects of the health context for all
Microbes and medicines: interrelationships between pharmaceuticals and the gut microbiome
No full textThe human gut microbiome plays a critical role in modulating pharmacological and toxicological responses to medications. With a gene pool vastly exceeding that of the human host, the gut microbiome acts as a metabolically active organ capable of transforming, inactivating, or accumulating drugs. This review explores the bidirectional interplay between prescription medicines and the gut microbiome, encompassing three key mechanisms: direct biotransformation by microbial enzymes, indirect modulation of host metabolism and signaling pathways, and drug bioaccumulation within microbial cells. Particular attention is given to six major drug classes: immunotherapeutics, chemotherapeutics, antidepressants, statins, hypoglycemics, and antihypertensives. The ways in which individual microbial profiles can influence therapeutic outcomes are also reviewed. We examined how common non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals can significantly alter microbial diversity and promote antimicrobial resistance. Strategies to enhance drug efficacy through microbiome modulation, including probiotics, prebiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), are critically assessed. Experimental models ranging from in vitro batch and chemostat systems to animal and clinical studies are compared in terms of their utility for studying drug‒microbiome interactions. Finally, emerging evidence suggesting the gut microbiota composition may serve as a predictive biomarker for personalized medicine and therapeutic success is highlighted. Understanding and harnessing the complex interrelationships between medicines and microorganisms could offer novel avenues to optimize treatment outcomes and mitigate adverse drug effects.<br/
Techniques and metrics for evasion attack mitigation
No full textEvasion attacks pose a substantial risk to the application of Machine Learning (ML) in Cybersecurity, potentially leading to safety hazards or security breaches in large-scale deployments. Adversaries can employ evasion attacks as an initial tactic to deceive malware or network scanners using ML, thereby orchestrating traditional cyber attacks to disrupt systems availability or compromise integrity. Adversarial data designed to fool AI systems for cybersecurity can be engineered by strategically selecting, modifying, or creating test instances. This paper presents novel defender-centric techniques and metrics for mitigating evasion attacks by leveraging adversarial knowledge, exploring potential exploitation methods, and enhancing alarm detection capabilities. We first introduce two new evasion resistance metrics: adversarial failure rate (afr) and adversarial failure curves (afc). These metrics generalize previous approaches, as they can be applied to threshold classifiers, facilitating analyses for adversarial attacks comparable to those performed with Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve. Subsequently, we propose two novel evasion resistance techniques (trainset size pinning and model matrix), extending research in keyed intrusion detection and randomization. We explore the application of proposed techniques and metrics to an intrusion detection system as a pilot study using two public datasets, ‘BETH 2021’ and ‘Kyoto 2015’, which are well-established cybersecurity datasets for uncertainty and robustness benchmarking. The experimental results demonstrate that the combination of the proposed randomization techniques consistently produces remarkable improvement over other known randomization techniques.<br/
The double life of a Palestinian translator: A bridge between wounds and words
No full textDit betoog beschouwt het vertalen van Gazaanse verhalen als een vorm van getuigenis afleggen over een wereld die dreigt te verdwijnen, waarbij taal zowel een overlevingsmiddel als een strijdtoneel wordt. In het licht van voortdurende pogingen tot het monddood maken en uitroeien van het Palestijne volk, bevindt de Palestijnse vertaler zich in een tussenpositie waarin hij/zij het verdriet van dat huidige moment, zoals geuit in alle intensiteit van het Arabisch, dient te vertalen naar een taal die zaken vaak onpersoonlijk, emotieloos en gecensureerd uitdrukt, en wellicht nooit is ontworpen om dergelijke mate van verwoesting te kunnen omvatten. Dit betoog reflecteert op de ethische kant van het vertalen van verhalen die zijn geboren temidden van het puin, van getuigenissen die zijn gevormd tussen luchtaanvallen, tussen herinneringen en de dreiging van stilte. Elk te vertalen woord moet een terrein doorkruisen dat vol ligt met machtsrelaties, taalkundige verhullingen of verbloemingen, en onverschilligheid. Dit dwingt de vertaler om de dunne lijn te bewandelen tussen enerzijds het afzwakken van menselijk verdriet ten behoeve van de leesbaarheid van de vertaling, en anderzijds het behouden van de urgentie ervan in een taal die in de regel menselijk lijden op geneutraliseerde wijze communiceert. Uitgaande van de Palestijnse ervaring, stelt dit betoog dat vertalen niet langer slechts een linguïstische oefening betreft, maar een politieke en morele taak, beladen met de verantwoordelijkheid om normalisering van gewelddadige bezetting en volksuitroeiing tegen te gaan, alsmede het scheppen van ruimte voor stemmen van hen die misschien niet meer leven als hun zinnen zijn uitgesproken. Tijdens het vertalen van Palestijnse bronnen draagt de vertaler niet alleen betekenis over, maar probeert tegelijkertijd ook Palestijns leven, autonomie en erfgoed te behouden in een wereld die daar vaak pas aandacht voor heeft als een te laat is
Disability disclosure at the point of entry to the workplace: A qualitative systematic review of barriers and facilitators experienced by graduating students
No full textPyamilySeq: exposing the fragility of conventional gene (re)clustering and prokaryotic pangenomic inference methods
No full textPangenomics has become a central framework for exploring microbial diversity and evolution, enabling researchers to distinguish genes that define shared biological function from those that drive adaptation. However, this relies on clustering genes by sequence similarity, a process that is far less deterministic than often assumed. This study introduces PyamilySeq, a transparent and flexible toolkit designed to diagnose and quantify hidden biases within gene clustering and pangenome inference methodologies. Using PyamilySeq, we can see how clustering thresholds (often hard-coded and poorly documented) and paralog handling can substantially alter gene family composition. Surprisingly, even parameters unrelated to clustering, such as decimal precision (0.8 versus 0.80), output selection, and even CPU and memory allocation, can alter gene family assignments, challenging the assumption that identical clustering thresholds yield consistent results. Furthermore, tools often fail to report biologically meaningful or representative sequences for gene families, undermining downstream analyses. These findings reveal systematic fragilities in gene clustering and pangenome construction and highlight that pangenomics is not merely a data-driven task but a methodological one, where transparency, reproducibility, and interpretability are as critical as biological insight. This work calls for a re-evaluation of how pangenomes are constructed and compared, and advocates for methodologies that make their assumptions explicit and their results verifiable.<br/