Immunizations - Not Just for Kids

Immunizations/vaccinations are beneficial for most people of all ages. Yet the mistaken belief persists that, with the exception of the flu vaccine, children should be the primary recipients of this important area of primary disease prevention. In fact, older persons require immunization as well. As people grow older they become increasingly vulnerable to a variety of illnesses, and, as informal caregivers of young children, grandparents need to be sensitive to their role in preventing the spread of contagious diseases to the young

Temperature telemetric transmitter Patent

Temperature telemetric transmitter with frequency determining tank circuit for short range transmissio

Pressure variable capacitor

Fabrication of pressure-telemetry transducer

Life cycle energy and carbon analysis of domestic combined heat and power generators

Micro Combined Heat and Power (micro-CHP) generators combine the benefits of the high-efficiency cogeneration technology and microgeneration and is being promoted as a means of lowering greenhouse gas emissions by decentralizing the power network. Life Cycle Assessment of energy systems is becoming a part of decision making in the energy industry, helping manufacturers promote their low carbon devices, and consumers choose the most environmentally friendly options. This report summarizes a preliminary life-cycle energy and carbon analysis of a wall-hung gas-powered domestic micro-CHP device that is commercially available across Europe. Combining a very efficient condensing boiler with a Stirling engine, the device can deliver enough heat to cover the needs of a typical household (up to 24kW) while generating power (up to 1kW) that can be used locally or sold to the grid. Assuming an annual heat production of 20 MWh, the study has calculated the total embodied energy and carbon emissions over a 15 years operational lifetime at 1606 GJ and 90 tonnes of CO2 respectively. Assuming that such a micro CHP device replaces the most efficient gas-powered condensing boiler for domestic heat production, and the power generated substitutes electricity from the grid, the potential energy and carbon savings are around 5000 MJ/year and 530 kg CO2/year respectively. This implies a payback period of the embodied energy and carbon at 1.32 - 2.32 and 0.75 - 1.35 years respectively. Apart from the embodied energy and carbon and the respective savings, additional key outcomes of the study are the evaluation of the energy intensive phases of the device’s life cycle and the exploration of potential improvements

Techniques for ruling improved large diffraction gratings Final report, 1 Mar. 1966 - 31 Jan. 1971

Techniques for ruling improved large diffraction grating

A mechatronic approach to supernormal auditory localisation

Remote audio perception is a fundamental requirement for telepresence and teleoperation in applications that range from work in hostile environments to security and entertainment. The following paper presents the use of a mechatronic system to test the efficacy of audio for telepresence. It describes work to determine whether the use of supernormal inter-aural distance is a valid means of approaching an enhanced method of hearing for telepresence. The particular audio variable investigated is the azimuth angle of error and the construction of a dedicated mechatronic test rig is reported and the results obtained. The paper concludes by observing that the combination of the mechatronic system and supernormal audition does enhance the ability to localise sound sources and that further work in this area is justified

You Tube if you want to – a Web 2.0 approach to staff development in web conferencing

How can we identify and make best use of potential resources in a staff development programme promoting web conferencing? What are the resources we should use? This paper regards web conferencing as a potentially powerful tool at the disposal of an institution intent on exploring new models of blended and online learning appropriate to the changing needs of 21st-century learners. It presents web conferencing in the user-centric context of Web 2.0 – the social web technologies whose educational impact is to empower online communication, collaboration, participation and sharing of resources. Based on findings from an 18-month period of evaluation and initial implementation at Leeds Met, it outlines practical staff development approaches in the related areas of user-created content and community involvement that could promote a more efficient and focused dissemination of the insights and experiences of a local, national and world-wide user group

Product market reforms, labour market institutions and unemployment

We analyze the impact of product market competition on unemployment and wages, and how this depends on labour market institutions. We use differential changes in regulations across OECD countries over the 1980s and 1990s to identify the effects of competition. We find that increased product market competition reduces unemployment, and that it does so more in countries with labour market institutions that increase worker bargaining power. The theoretical intuition is that both firms with market power and unions with bargaining power are constrained in their behaviour by the elasticity of demand in the product market. We also find that the effect of increased competition on real wages is beneficial to workers, but less so when they have high bargaining power. Intuitively, real wages increase through a drop in the general price level, but workers with bargaining power lose out somewhat from a reduction in the rents that they had previously captured