Monitoring multicomponent transport using in-situ FTIR spectroscopy

The permeation of aqueous solutes through membranes is of critical importance in many applications, including fuel cells and solar-driven electrochemical cells. In these devices, the undesirable crossover of small organics through a membrane separating halves of the electrochemical cell reduces device efficiency. The techniques traditionally used to measure organic permeation through a membrane, such as gas chromatography, typically require aliquot sampling and are limited by the chromatograph’s capability to resolve analytes and water. In-situ FTIR spectroscopy, is capable of quantitative measurement of organic permeation through membranes in a simple diffusion cell without aliquot sampling. Furthermore, in-situ FTIR is capable of the simultaneous measurement of multicomponent permeation, provided that each analyte has a distinct IR signature. Within the context of devices for solar fuel production, membranes are desired that facilitate the ion transport necessary to feed the electrochemical reactions while meeting various additional selectivity and permeability demands. For example, in an artificial photosynthesis device, water is oxidized to O2 and CO2 is reduced to a liquid transportation fuel, such as methanol or ethanol. However, the catalysts responsible for CO2 reduction are non-specific, producing a library of small molecule products. Here, we demonstrate the use of in-situ FTIR spectroscopy to quantitatively determine the concentration of single and multicomponent mixtures of various CO2 reduction products including methanol, formate and acetate. We then apply this methodology to the in-situ monitoring of the permeation of single and multicomponent mixtures across commercially available membranes, such as Nafion 117 and Selemion AMV, using a diffusion cell. Membrane permeabilities are extracted from time-resolved half-cell concentration data using fee volume models. Membrane permeabilities and selectivities calculated from the single component permeation experiments are compared to those calculated for solutes in multicomponent permeation experiments. In some instances, the membrane permeability to an organic solute changes substantially, sometimes by orders of magnitude, when co-solutes are present. These results and their implications will be discussed in the context of next-generation energy devices. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

The Intertwined Renewable Energy–Water–Environment (REWE) Nexus Challenges and Opportunities: A Case Study of California

In our built environment, societal production of energy and clean water is inextricably linked to the natural resources from which they are derived. Acknowledgement and consideration of the coupling of energy, water, and the environment (the energy–water–environment nexus) will be critical to a sustainable future. This is particularly true as we transition away from historical energy sources (e.g., coal, petroleum, natural gas) and into the widespread adaptation of renewable energy (RE) sources (e.g., solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, bioenergy) as a strategy to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and consequently slow global climate change. This transition is fraught with both challenges and opportunities at the county, state, national, and international levels, as addressing future societal needs with respect to energy and water, and the environment requires recognition of their interdependence and development of new technologies and societal practices. In this study, the focus is on the RE–water–environment (REWE) nexus. In California, the REWE nexus is becoming increasingly important in achieving 100% clean electricity from eligible RE and zero-carbon resources by 2045 and in the face of climate change and population and economic growth. In this context, California’s RE deployment and renewable electrical generation, its RE legislative information, REWE nexus, and intertwined REWE nexus challenges and opportunities in California (e.g., administrative–legal, technology development, digitalization, and end-of-life RE waste) are comprehensively discussed to identify the knowledge gaps in this nexus and solutions

An Interactive Social Media Workshop Using Lego® Serious Play®

Through a #SocMedHE19 conference workshop, the aim was to provide a supportive and open way to discuss the use of social media and to explore any concerns or barriers raised; as well as to gain insights into their professional use of different social media in learning and teaching. A generic overview of Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Flipgrid were given, drawing on examples of our own learning, teaching and sharing practices in our local institutions. We then wanted to engage the delegates (staff and students) to explore these specific tools themselves and consider how they could be utilised in their own practice. An innovative approach was taken to facilitate and capture this discussion using Lego® Serious Play®, Padlet and Flipgrid. This paper considers how effective this interactive approach was and to what extent it encouraged open discussion about the perceived enablers and barriers to using this selection of social media tools. Key findings highlight the benefits of using social media tools in a classroom setting, enabling participants to increase understanding and confidence of each available tool and exposing them to utilising it pedagogically. The workshop enabled participants to connect with one another, expanding their network and to share potential ideas for learning and teaching. The need for ongoing support for colleagues who are not familiar with the approaches used and implementation in a classroom setting was strongly recommended by participants

The National Teaching Repository − Sharing effective interventions: Learning from each other so that we can continue to enhance and improve what we do

The National Teaching Repository (NTR) is a widely recognised Open Educational Resource (OER) that has made a significant impact on the global higher education community. Recently, the UNESCO Secretariat invited the NTR team to present reports on the repository’s reach and impact (Wooff and Irving-Bell, 2022), which has prompted this article. In it, we provide an overview of the NTR’s origins, values, and vision, and we also extend an invitation for you to join us in this exciting initiative

Drinking in the dark: shedding light on young people’s alcohol consumption experiences

This paper draws on 12 months of ethnographic research to explore the drinking experiences of young people, aged 15-24, living in the suburban case study locations of Chorlton and Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK. This paper moves beyond the contemporary geographical imaginary of alcohol consumption as a city-centre issue, to explore suburban indoor and outdoor drinking cultures. Through paying attention to atmospheres of darkness and lightness, I show how drinkscapes are active constituents of young people’s drinking occasions, rather than passive backdrops. More than this, I illustrate how young people transform dark and light drinkscapes, thereby shaping the drinking practices of themselves and others. Through looking at the interplay between the curating of an atmosphere, and the experience of that atmosphere when bodies, and practices are inserted into it, this paper offers a different take on the ‘drinking at home is bad, drinking in public spaces is good’ argument, with original policy suggestions

Search for Doubly-Charged Higgs Boson Production at HERA

A search for the single production of doubly-charged Higgs bosons H^{\pm \pm} in ep collisions is presented. The signal is searched for via the Higgs decays into a high mass pair of same charge leptons, one of them being an electron. The analysis uses up to 118 pb^{-1} of ep data collected by the H1 experiment at HERA. No evidence for doubly-charged Higgs production is observed and mass dependent upper limits are derived on the Yukawa couplings h_{el} of the Higgs boson to an electron-lepton pair. Assuming that the doubly-charged Higgs only decays into an electron and a muon via a coupling of electromagnetic strength h_{e \mu} = \sqrt{4 \pi \alpha_{em}} = 0.3, a lower limit of 141 GeV on the H^{\pm\pm} mass is obtained at the 95% confidence level. For a doubly-charged Higgs decaying only into an electron and a tau and a coupling h_{e\tau} = 0.3, masses below 112 GeV are ruled out.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections for Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel at s√=8 TeV with ATLAS

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV. The analysis is performed in the H → γγ decay channel using 20.3 fb−1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The pp → H → γγ fiducial cross section is measured to be 43.2 ±9.4(stat.) − 2.9 + 3.2 (syst.) ±1.2(lumi)fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations

Measurement of the production of a W boson in association with a charm quark in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The production of a W boson in association with a single charm quark is studied using 4.6 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√ = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. In events in which a W boson decays to an electron or muon, the charm quark is tagged either by its semileptonic decay to a muon or by the presence of a charmed meson. The integrated and differential cross sections as a function of the pseudorapidity of the lepton from the W-boson decay are measured. Results are compared to the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD calculations obtained from various parton distribution function parameterisations. The ratio of the strange-to-down sea-quark distributions is determined to be 0.96+0.26−0.30 at Q 2 = 1.9 GeV2, which supports the hypothesis of an SU(3)-symmetric composition of the light-quark sea. Additionally, the cross-section ratio σ(W + +c¯¯)/σ(W − + c) is compared to the predictions obtained using parton distribution function parameterisations with different assumptions about the s−s¯¯¯ quark asymmetry

Measurement of χ c1 and χ c2 production with s√ = 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

The prompt and non-prompt production cross-sections for the χ c1 and χ c2 charmonium states are measured in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.5 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The χ c states are reconstructed through the radiative decay χ c → J/ψγ (with J/ψ → μ + μ −) where photons are reconstructed from γ → e + e − conversions. The production rate of the χ c2 state relative to the χ c1 state is measured for prompt and non-prompt χ c as a function of J/ψ transverse momentum. The prompt χ c cross-sections are combined with existing measurements of prompt J/ψ production to derive the fraction of prompt J/ψ produced in feed-down from χ c decays. The fractions of χ c1 and χ c2 produced in b-hadron decays are also measured

Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy s√=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/R c = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ΛR c) of approximately 30