Challenges In Widening Participation Outreach: Is Enough Being Done To Tackle The Under-Representation Of Low-Income Students In Medicine?

Widening Participation (WP) in medicine refers to all theory, activities and policy concerned with removing barriers to entering medical school for students from lower income and under-represented backgrounds. Medical schools and other institutions including; the Medical Schools Council, the Office for Fair Access, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, have been committed to improving Widening Participation for more than a decade. As senior medical students and academics, we have been actively involved with WP work at our respective medical schools and in conjunction with the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Medical Schools Council (MSC). Yet, we have observed over the years that the pace of change seems sometimes stuttering and stagnated. Here, we have investigated the reasons why there is still such a significant under-representation of students from lower income backgrounds in medicine. In order to make the medical student intake representative of the general population, the number of applications from lower income students would need to increase five-fold. This would require a great scaling up of WP outreach work. Critical analysis demonstrates that medical schools and the other key institutions in medical education have made many nominal commitments to WP, but have yet to make any commitments that are truly binding. This may be due to the institutions lack of belief in their own capacity to scale up WP Outreach sufficiently to achieve success. Ultimately binding commitments will be needed to secure a representative intake of medical students. In order for institutions to be willing to move towards such commitments, evidence-based success in WP must first be demonstrated through collaboration on specific projects that are scalable, sustainable and impactful

An Evaluation of the Energy Consumption and Co2 Emission associated with Corn Cob Ash Compared with the Cement Clinker

This study compares the energy consumption and the carbon dioxide emission associated with the production of Corn Cob Ash with a view to determining its viability and environmental sustainability as a pozzolan. CCA meeting the requirements of ASTM C618-12 (1994) was produced through two separate processes of open air burning and controlled incineration in an electric muffle furnace. In the first method the quantity of kerosene fuel used in the burning process was measured used in computing the external energy input and the associated CO2 emission, using published World Bank data on heating, thermodynamic property and carbon content of various fuels. In the second method, the energy consumption was computed as a product of the name plate rating (in KW) of the muffle furnace and the time taken (in hours) to turn the measured quantity of corn cob to ash. The result reveals the ash yield of corn cob as an average of 3.6% and 1.7% for open air burning and controlled incineration respectively. Corresponding values for energy consumption were 4.3MJ and 216166MJ per kg of ash respectively. CO2 emission associated with the fuel consumption in open air burning was 0.27Kg per Kg of pozzolanic ash. These compare more favorably with the corresponding data of 5.16MJ and 0.97Kg CO2 established for Portland cement clinker production; in that less energy was consumed and less CO2 was emitted and at the same time found an alternative use for the biomass waste.  The paper concludes that CCA is a viable and environmentally sustainable source of pozzolan when it is derived from burning processes that take advantage of corn cob as a fuel, rather than being specially burnt in a furnace. The paper therefore recommends that biomass waste be should be promoted as a clean energy source  and the resulting ash harnessed as pozzolan as  a way of reducing the consumption of cement; leading to reduced green house gas emissions and contribution to global warming from the construction industry. Keywords: Carbon dioxide emission, Cement, Corn cob ash, energy consumption, global warming, pozzola

An Evaluation of the Influence of Corn Cob Ash on the Strength Parameters of Lateritic Soils

This paper reports the investigation of Corn Cob Ash as a pozzolan and a stabilizing agent for lateritic soils in road pavement construction.  Corn cob feedstock was obtained from Maya, a rural community in the derived savannah agro-ecological zone of South-Western Nigeria, and burnt to ashes of pozzolanic quality. Reddish brown silty clayey sand material, characterized as an A-2-6(3) material and  locally recognized as laterites was obtained from a borrow pit in Abeokuta, South-Western Nigeria and subjected to physical characterization tests according to BS 1377: 2000. The soil was subsequently mixed with CCA in varying percentages of 0%, 1.5%, 3%, 4.5%, 6% and 7.5% and the influence of CCA on the soil was determined for Liquid Limit, Plastic Limit, Compaction Characteristics, CBR and the Unconfined Compression Test. These tests were repeated on laterite-CCA-cement mix and laterite-cement mix respectively in order to detect any pozzolanicity in CCA when it combines with Portland cement and to compare results with a known soil stabilizing agent.  The result shows a similarity in the compaction characteristics of soil-cement, soil-CCA and soil-CCA-cement, in that with increasing addition of binder from 1.5% to 7.5%, Maximum Dry Density progressively declined while the OMC steadily increased. In terms of the strength parameters, the maximum positive impact was observed at 1.5% CCA addition for soil-CCA with a CBR value of 84% and a UCS value of 1.0MN/m2, compared with the control values of 65% and 0.4MN/m2 respectively. For the soil-CCA-cement mix, the strength parameters CBR and UCS continued to increase with increasing binder addition within the tested range for the ratios 1:2 and 1:1 and 2:1 CCA:cement. Significantly, the results from the soil-CCA-cement mix, indicate the pozzolanicity of CCA in that UCS values were higher by at least 14% for the 1:1 ratio, than was attained with the addition of only the corresponding quantity of cement. Keywords: Corn Cob Ash, pozzolan, CBR, UCS, biomass waste, road pavement

A Study on Suitability of Foamed Sandcrete Solid Block with Fly-Ash as Partial Replacement of Sand

In this study, the properties of foamed sandcrete solid block (FSSB) with varying percentage of sand replacement with fly-ash were investigated. These properties include workability, wet and dry density, stability, water absorption capacity and compressive strength. 150mm cube specimens were used for the determination of both the compressive strength and the dry density of the FSSB. The plastic density was investigated using a container of known volume, and its workability determined using the slump test. The fly-ash content was varied from 0 to 50% at interval of 10%. The specimens without the fly-ash served as the control. At the designed density of 1500kg/m3, the results for the control specimens at 28 day curing age was 3.74N/mm2. As for 50% sand replacement with fly-ash, the compressive strength were 2.37 N/mm, and 3.31 N/mm2 at 7-days 28-days curing age respectively, both satisfied the minimum compressive strength of 1.8N/mm2 and 2.5N/mm2 at the curing age of 7-days and 28-days respectively for conventional sandcrete block for building wall unit as allowed by Nigerian Industrial Standard (N.I.S). The result also shows an appreciable decrease in density of FSSB with 1411.8kg/m3, as compared to dense sandcrete solid block with average of 1950kg/m3, which will significantly reduce the overall dead load of the building structure. FSSB with 50% sand replacement with fly-ash also showed a much improved water absorption capacity of 9.81% as control specimen of 11.73%. Fly-ash can be used to reduce the quantity of sand used in FSSB production; thus ridding our environment of potentially harmful wastes, as well as reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources. Keywords— Foamed Sandcrete, Compressive Strength, fly-ash, dry density, stability, cemen

A Study on Suitability of Foamed Sandcrete Solid Block with Fly-Ash as Partial Replacement of Sand

In this study, the properties of foamed sandcrete solid block (FSSB) with varying percentage of sand replacement with fly-ash were investigated. These properties include workability, wet and dry density, stability, water absorption capacity and compressive strength. 150mm cube specimens were used for the determination of both the compressive strength and the dry density of the FSSB. The plastic density was investigated using a container of known volume, and its workability determined using the slump test. The fly-ash content was varied from 0 to 50% at interval of 10%. The specimens without the fly-ash served as the control. At the designed density of 1500kg/m3, the results for the control specimens at 28 day curing age was 3.74N/mm2. As for 50% sand replacement with fly-ash, the compressive strength were 2.37 N/mm, and 3.31 N/mm2 at 7-days 28-days curing age respectively, both satisfied the minimum compressive strength of 1.8N/mm2 and 2.5N/mm2 at the curing age of 7-days and 28-days respectively for conventional sandcrete block for building wall unit as allowed by Nigerian Industrial Standard (N.I.S). The result also shows an appreciable decrease in density of FSSB with 1411.8kg/m3, as compared to dense sandcrete solid block with average of 1950kg/m3, which will significantly reduce the overall dead load of the building structure. FSSB with 50% sand replacement with fly-ash also showed a much improved water absorption capacity of 9.81% as control specimen of 11.73%. Fly-ash can be used to reduce the quantity of sand used in FSSB production; thus ridding our environment of potentially harmful wastes, as well as reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources. Keywords— Foamed Sandcrete, Compressive Strength, fly-ash, dry density, stability, cement</jats:p

“BURSTING THE BUBBLE”: Service learning in schools

Background At Imperial College, we developed a novel teaching programme for medical students based within a local primary school, with the aim of developing students’ teaching skills and centring social accountability in our curriculum. Similar service‐learning programmes have shown significant benefit for student participants, including: improving communication skills, developing an understanding of the social determinants of health, and increased empathy. In partnership with a local primary school, the programme involved a group of medical students designing, developing and delivering a teaching session to primary school children. Methods Medical students completed written reflections on the programme and semi‐structured interviews were conducted with teachers who had participated in the programme. These were then thematically analysed. Results Themes from student reflections included: improvement in teaching and communication skills; and an increased awareness of social accountability. Themes from teacher interviews included: benefits of an aspirational figure in the school; engagement of the children; and the ongoing inspirational benefit for the pupils. Discussion Our analysis suggested students and the school community benefitted. Students reported the experience was an effective way to learn teaching skills and to improve their communication with children. The programme delivered skills transferrable to other clinical contexts including leadership and behavioural management, adaptability and creative thinking. Teacher interviews suggested the programme was mutually beneficial. The framing of medical students as role models raised the possibility that such programmes may help tackle the challenge of widening participation in medicine. We would recommend medical educators to consider developing other mutually beneficial service‐learning programmes