Good vibrations: Do electrical therapeutic massagers work?

Health, leisure and beauty activities are increasing in popularity, with a particular emphasis on self-help and alternative health practices. One product type that has increased sales with this expansion is the hand-held electric massager. These are products that use vibration as a means of alleviating muscular strains and pains, as well as promoting relaxation. Paradoxically, these products are extremely popular as gifts, but are soon discarded. A multi-disciplinary research team was commissioned by a British manufacturer of electrical consumer products to investigate user attitudes and perceptions of existing massagers, to identify areas of user dissatisfaction. The manufacturer was also concerned about a possible stigma attached to these products because of an association with sex aids. This paper provides an account of the perceptions of both consumers and therapists regarding the use of these products. Identifying the differences between the perceptions of consumers and therapists should help provide a basis for effective integration of user needs, manufacturer requirements, designers’ skills and sound therapeutic practice. The results provide insight to support the development of more effective hand-held massagers

Failure of non-vacuum steam sterilization processes for dental handpieces

Background: Dental handpieces are used in critical and semi-critical operative interventions. Although a number of dental professional bodies recommend that dental handpieces are sterilized between patient use there is a lack of clarity and understanding of the effectiveness of different steam sterilization processes. The internal mechanisms of dental handpieces contain narrow lumens (0·8-2·3mm) which can impede the removal of air and ingress of saturated steam required to achieve sterilization conditions. Aim: To identify the extent of sterilization failure in dental handpieces using a non-vacuum process. Methods: In-vitro and in-vivo investigations were conducted on commonly used UK benchtop steam sterilizers and three different types of dental handpieces. The sterilization process was monitored inside the lumens of dental handpieces using thermometric (TM) methods (dataloggers), chemical indicators (CI) and biological indicators (BI). Findings: All three methods of assessing achievement of sterility within dental handpieces that had been exposed to non-vacuum sterilization conditions demonstrated a significant number of failures (CI=8/3,024(fails/n tests); BI=15/3,024; TM=56/56) compared to vacuum sterilization conditions (CI=2/1,944; BI=0/1,944; TM=0/36). The dental handpiece most likely to fail sterilization in the non-vacuum process was the surgical handpiece. Non-vacuum sterilizers located in general dental practice had a higher rate of sterilization failure (CI=25/1,620; BI=32/1,620; TM=56/56) with no failures in vacuum process. Conclusion: Non-vacuum downward/gravity displacement, type-N steam sterilizers are an unreliable method for sterilization of dental handpieces in general dental practice. The handpiece most likely to fail sterilization is the type most frequently used for surgical interventions

Investigating steam penetration using thermometric methods in dental handpieces with narrow internal lumens during sterilizing processes with non-vacuum or vacuum processes

Background: Dental handpieces are required to be sterilized between patient use. Vacuum steam sterilization processes with fractionated pre/post-vacuum phases or unique cycles for specified medical devices, are required for hollow instruments with internal lumens to assure successful air removal. Entrapped air will compromise achievement of required sterilization conditions. Many countries and professional organisations still advocate non-vacuum sterilization processes for these devices. Aim: To investigate non-vacuum downward/gravity displacement, type-N steam sterilization of dental handpieces, using thermometric methods to measure time to achieve sterilization temperature at different handpiece locations. Methods: Measurements at different positions within air turbines were undertaken with thermocouples and dataloggers. Two examples of commonly used UK benchtop steam sterilizers were tested; a non-vacuum benchtop sterilizer (Little Sister 3, Eschmann, UK) and a vacuum benchtop sterilizer (Lisa, W&H, Austria). Each sterilizer cycle was completed with three handpieces and each cycle in triplicate. Findings: A total of 140 measurements inside dental handpiece lumens were recorded. We demonstrate that the non-vacuum process fails (time range 0-150 seconds) to reliably achieve sterilization temperatures within the time limit specified by the International standard (15 seconds equilibration time). The measurement point at the base of the handpiece failed in all test runs (n=9) to meet the standard. No failures were detected with the vacuum steam sterilization type B process with fractionated pre-vacuum and post-vacuum phases. Conclusion: Non-vacuum downward/gravity displacement, type-N steam sterilization processes are unreliable in achieving sterilization conditions inside dental handpieces and the base of the handpiece is the site most likely to fail

Observational advances in estimates of oceanic heating

Since the early twenty-first century, improvements in understanding climate variability resulted from the growth of the ocean observing system. The potential for a closure of the Earth’s energy budget has emerged with the unprecedented coverage of Argo profiling floats, which now provide a decade (2006–2015) of invaluable information on ocean heat content changes above 2000 m. The expertise gained from Argo and repeat hydrography sections motivated the extension of the array toward the ocean bottom, which will progressively reveal the poorly known deep ocean and reduce the uncertainty of its presumed 10–15 % contribution to the global ocean warming trend of 0.65–0.80 W m−2. The sustainability and synergy of various observing systems helped to corroborate numerical models and decipher the internal variability of distinct ocean basins. Due to unique observations of the circulation in the North Atlantic, particular attention is paid to heat content changes and their relationship to dynamic variability in that region

Supporting the development and delivery of the Level 3 DEC! learning programme : enhancing the pathway to higher education and employment through local HEI and School partnership

This report outlines the key findings and benefits from this BIM4Education project, and the partnership between St. Ambrose Barlow RC High School, The University of Salford, and Class Of Your Own. The purpose of the report is to document evidence of the value for all contributors to the DEC curriculum, i.e. pupils, teaching staff, schools, and HE partners

Empathic design : emerging design research methodologies

A new relationship between product designers and the users of products is emerging. It is now being realised that users have complex supra-functional needs, which include the emotional, spiritual, social, tribal aspects of the relationship between particular products and the user/consumer'. Users seek more than mere functionality. In order to meet these needs designers need to actively develop research methodologies that are specifically aimed at collecting design relevant data which includes the often difficult to grasp elements of the supra-functional. The comfort zone for many designers involves designing products for themselves (or people like themselves) when intuition and insight can be closely matched. In modern, international markets and with increasingly demanding consumers, such approaches are inadequate. However, it is possible for designers to become directly immersed in researching users' needs and experiences rather than rely on third party research which, whilst potentially valuable, does not enable the same intimacy and potential for growth of experience for the designer. This approach is termed empathic design research. It seeks to broaden designers' 'comfort zone' by expanding the number of people they can empathise with, broadening their 'empathic horizon'. This thesis presents a body of published work by the author that explores the position of design research in relation to the changing role of Industrial/Product designers. The thesis consists of an introductory paper that pulls together the various strands in the published work. Following this a set of ten journal papers, one refereed conference paper and three book chapters is presented. The work as a whole defines a number of research approaches that designers can employ to elicit and understand users' suprafunctional needs. The papers establish the evolving context of product design and the growing interest in User-centred Design in its various forms. They examine research approaches that extend beyond user observation, involvement and draw the designer into a more empathic contact with users to illuminate functional and supra-functional requirements. Designers must learn to 'get under the skin' of the user; to develop empathy with users from population groups very different from their own in terms of culture, age and ability. This empathic intimacy can result in data generation and insight with this evaluation becoming an integral part of the designing process. The changing role of the product designer, as well as the nature of the design research process, frames the argument for adopting an empathic design research model. Finally, the author explores the implications of this important paradigm shift for design education.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Importing statistical measures into Artemis enhances gene identification in the Leishmania genome project

BACKGROUND: Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (SBRI) as part of the Leishmania Genome Network (LGN) is sequencing chromosomes of the trypanosomatid protozoan species Leishmania major. At SBRI, chromosomal sequence is annotated using a combination of trained and untrained non-consensus gene-prediction algorithms with ARTEMIS, an annotation platform with rich and user-friendly interfaces. RESULTS: Here we describe a methodology used to import results from three different protein-coding gene-prediction algorithms (GLIMMER, TESTCODE and GENESCAN) into the ARTEMIS sequence viewer and annotation tool. Comparison of these methods, along with the CODONUSAGE algorithm built into ARTEMIS, shows the importance of combining methods to more accurately annotate the L. major genomic sequence. CONCLUSION: An improvised and powerful tool for gene prediction has been developed by importing data from widely-used algorithms into an existing annotation platform. This approach is especially fruitful in the Leishmania genome project where there is large proportion of novel genes requiring manual annotation

An evaluation of the distribution of metal ions in otherwise uniform titania sol-gel layers designed for optical sensing using laser ablation inductive coupled plasma mass spectroscopy

Free-base porphyrins are bound to titania sol-gel layers deposited on glass slides. The porphyrin-containing titania layers show the UV-VIS spectra of the porphyrin and are found to be uniformly and evenly distributed. By addition of a metal salt to the titania layer, it was possible to metallate the free-base porphyrin within and change the UV-VIS absorbance of the porphyrin. The metalloporphyrins based on Cu and Zn ions could be detected by laser ablation inductive coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (LA-ICP-MS). Aggregation of metals is observed indicating that metal ions are also attaching directly to the titania. In samples where already metalized porphyrins are used little or no aggregation is observed, indicating that the titania sol gel is non-uniform in its affinity for metal ions. © 2012 SPIE

Report on the TRILATTRADE Project: Trade regulation & IP Post-Brexit

TRILATTRADE examines three thematic strands in UK-EU-Japan relations going forward: overall economic law; regulation theory and data transfers; and IP law and policy. The ESRC-funded TRILATTRADE research project seeks to model the legal framework of the trilateral UK-EU-Japan Trade, Regulation and IP relationship. Trade, regulation and IP constitute three core pillars of international, national and regional economic law and policy frameworks. This is relevant to the functional operation of trade and its innovation. The project addresses these core pillars with three interlocking thematic strands: 1. UK-Japan Trade; 2. UK-EU-Japan Regulatory Cooperation and Data Flows; and 3. UK-EU-Japan Intellectual Property. The project aims to generate trade and business opportunities as well as models for good global governance in law and policy as a future research agenda