Dementia and Identity

This thesis explores the multiple ways identity can be affected by dementia. It primarily concerns how ‘personal identity’ is affected in the early to moderate stages of dementia, and secondarily concerns how ‘personhood’ can be threatened in the late stages of dementia. When a patient’s personal identity or personhood is called into question due to their dementia, there are significant practical implications for their health and moral status. These can include issues involving autonomy, implementation of advanced directives and right to treatment. It is important to consider these issues given the increasing rates of dementia in developed countries and the substantial burden of disease this has on healthcare systems. Descriptive accounts of ‘identity’, ‘memory’ and ‘dementia’ are provided to inform discussion of these issues. Distinctions are drawn between ‘object’ and ‘agency’ theories of identity, ‘archival’ and ‘process’ models of memory, and ‘frontotemporal’ and ‘non-frontotemporal’ dementia subtypes. An agency theory of personal identity, which emphasises a person’s relationships and meaningful actions, is put forward as the more suitable approach to these problems, as it aligns better with the emerging process model of memory and better explains the direct and indirect ways dementia can affect a person’s identity. The findings of a qualitative study interviewing experienced health care professionals about these issues are also reported. This study found clinicians’ approaches to be broadly supportive of conclusions drawn by the theoretical work of this thesis, and helped to clarify where further research is needed

Fortissat minewater geothermal district heating project: case study

This study summarises the findings of a feasibility assessment for a potential minewater geothermal energy system in the vicinity of the James Hutton Institute’s Hartwood Home Farm, North Lanarkshire in Scotland’s Central Belt. This study aimed to assess the potential for Scotland’s first minewater geothermal scheme in a rural area with social deprivation. While focused on the specifics of the location, the project is conceived as a readily replicable and fully operational minewater geothermal district heating system demonstrator project that would act as proof of concept for duplication elsewhere. This study concluded that, with current support mechanisms, the scheme is technically and financially viable, breaking even or better with a network scenario covering the ‘representative’ communities of Allanton and Hartwood. As might be expected, there are considerable economies of scale, with the scheme becoming commercially viable when the network is extended to the town of Shotts

Tunable Surface Properties of Aluminum Oxide Nanoparticles from Highly Hydrophobic to Highly Hydrophilic

The formation of materials with tunable wettability is important for applications ranging from antifouling to waterproofing surfaces. We report the use of various low-cost and nonhazardous hydrocarbon materials to tune the surface properties of aluminum oxide nanoparticles (NPs) from superhydrophilic to superhydrophobic through covalent functionalization. The hydrocarbon surfaces are compared with a fluorinated surface for wettability and surface energy properties. The role of NPs’ hydrophobicity on their dynamic interfacial behavior at the oil–water interface and their ability to form stable emulsions is also explored. The spray-coated NPs provide textured surfaces (regardless of functionality), with water contact angles (θ) of 10–150° based on their surface functionality. The superhydrophobic NPs are able to reduce the interfacial tension of various oil–water interfaces by behaving as surfactants

Branched Hydrocarbon Low Surface Energy Materials for Superhydrophobic Nanoparticle Derived Surfaces

International audienceWe present a new class of superhydrophobic surfaces created from low-cost and easily synthesized aluminum oxide nanoparticles functionalized carboxylic acids having highly branched hydrocarbon (HC) chains. These branched chains are new low surface energy materials (LSEMs) which can replace environmentally hazardous and expensive fluorocarbons (FCs). Regardless of coating method and curing temperature, the resulting textured surfaces develop water contact angles (θ) of ~155° and root-mean-square roughnesses (Rq) ≈ 85 nm, being comparable with equivalent FC functionalized surfaces (θ = 157º and Rq = 100 nm). The functionalized nanoparticles may be coated onto a variety of substrates to generate different superhydrophobic materials

Immune senescence in aged nonhuman primates ☆

a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Aging is accompanied by a general dysregulation in immune system function, commonly referred to as 'immune senescence'. This progressive deterioration affects both innate and adaptive immunity, although accumulating evidence indicates that the adaptive arm of the immune system may exhibit more profound changes. Most of our current understanding of immune senescence stems from clinical and rodent studies. More recently, the use of nonhuman primates (NHPs) to investigate immune senescence and test interventions aimed at delaying/reversing age-related changes in immune function has dramatically increased. These studies have been greatly facilitated by several key advances in our understanding of the immune system of old world monkeys, specifically the rhesus macaques. In this review we describe the hallmarks of immune senescence in this species and compare them to those described in humans. We also discuss the impact of immune senescence on the response to vaccination and the efficacy of immunorestorative interventions investigated in this model system

The chemical suitability for recycling of zinc contaminated steelmaking by-product dusts: The case of the UK steel plant

Basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS) dust and blast furnace (BF) dust from former and operating steelmaking facilities in the United Kingdom have been characterized by MP-AES, SEM-EDX, particle size analysis, TGA-DSC, combustion analysis, 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy, and powder XRD. These materials are a potentially valuable source of Fe for ironmaking, but their contamination with zinc precludes their recycling via the conventional sinter plant/BF route. XRD suggested some of the zinc present in the material is in the form of sub-stoichiometric zinc ferrites ZnxFe3-xO4, making hydrometallurgical separation less effective. BF dust contains 40 wt.% levels of fixed carbon (Cfix) indicating it could be useful as an alternative reductant in rotary hearth furnace processes such as FASTMET. The rotary hearth furnace appears to be the most suited separation technique available due to its lack of sensitivity to zinc present in zinc ferrite compounds, and reintegration of the recovered iron into the steelmaking process