Setting up new chemical engineering degree programmes: Exercises in design and retrofit within constraints

The rise in popularity of chemical engineering among students entering university has prompted expansion of the UK provision, through increased intake into current degree programmes and with the rise of new providers. The former entails logistical challenges of processing larger numbers through existing infrastructures whilst maintaining the student experience. The latter entails challenges of designing and introducing programmes that build harmoniously on existing non-chemical engineering provision, within the constraints of university validation procedures and physical resources, and in the face of uncertainty around student and staff recruitment, while aspiring to implement best practice in chemical engineering content and pedagogy. Following a review of the UK chemical engineering landscape and a critique of literature guidance on the appropriate content of chemical engineering curricula, this paper illustrates the issues of new programme development through the approaches and experiences of a new provider, the University of Huddersfield, which introduced new chemical engineering programmes from academic year 2013-14. The paper addresses specifying the content of chemical engineering programmes to align with accreditation requirements and literature advice while maintaining distinctiveness. The constraints imposed by the need to specify and validate courses internally and to minimise substantive programme changes subsequently, whilst responding to the opportunities that arise as staff are recruited and to external developments and unplanned incidents, are highlighted and illustrated, in order to draw lessons that might help to guide other new entrants

Proteomics reveals that a high-fat diet induces rapid changes in hypothalamic proteins related to neuronal damage and inflammation

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Minimal access surgery compared with medical management for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease : five year follow-up of a randomised controlled trial (REFLUX)

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Detection of dead standing Eucalyptus camaldulensis without tree delineation for managing biodiversity in native Australian forest

In Australia, many birds and arboreal animals use hollows for shelters, but studies predict shortage of hollows in near future. Aged dead trees are more likely to contain hollows and therefore automated detection of them plays a substantial role in preserving biodiversity and consequently maintaining a resilient ecosystem. For this purpose full-waveform LiDAR data were acquired from a native Eucalypt forest in Southern Australia. The structure of the forest significantly varies in terms of tree density, age and height. Additionally, Eucalyptus camaldulensis have multiple trunk splits making tree delineation very challenging. For that reason, this paper investigates automated detection of dead standing Eucalyptus camaldulensis without tree delineation. It also presents the new feature of the open source software DASOS, which extracts features for 3D object detection in voxelised FW LiDAR. A random forest classifier, a weighted-distance KNN algorithm and a seed growth algorithm are used to create a 2D probabilistic field and to then predict potential positions of dead trees. It is shown that tree health assessment is possible without tree delineation but since it is a new research directions there are many improvements to be made

Subversion of allocation concealment in a randomised controlled trial : a historical case study

BACKGROUND: If the randomisation process within a trial is subverted, this can lead to selection bias that may invalidate the trial's result. To avoid this problem, it is recommended that some form of concealment should be put into place. Despite ongoing anecdotal concerns about their susceptibility to subversion, a surprising number of trials (over 10%) still use sealed opaque envelopes as the randomisation method of choice. This is likely due in part to the paucity of empirical data quantifying the potential effects of subversion. In this study we report a historical before and after study that compares the use of the sealed envelope method with a more secure centralised telephone allocation approach in order to provide such empirical evidence of the effects of subversion. METHODS: This was an opportunistic before and after study set within a multi-centre surgical trial, which involved 654 patients from 28 clinicians from 23 centres in the UK and Ireland. Two methods of randomly allocating subjects to alternative treatments were adopted: (a) a sealed envelope system administered locally, and (b) a centralised telephone system administered by the trial co-ordination centre. Key prognostic variables were compared between randomisation methods: (a) age at trial entry, a key prognostic factor in the study, and (b) the order in which 'randomisation envelopes' were matched to subjects. RESULTS: The median age of patients allocated to the experimental group with the sealed envelope system, was significantly lower both overall (59 vs 63 years, p < 0.01) and in particular for three clinicians (57 vs 72, p < 0.01; 33 vs 69, p < 0.001; 47 vs 72, p = 0.03). No differences in median age were found between the allocation groups for the centralised system. CONCLUSIONS: Due to inadequate allocation concealment with the sealed envelope system, the randomisation process was corrupted for patients recruited from three clinicians. Centralised randomisation ensures that treatment allocation is not only secure but seen to be secure. Where this proves to be impossible, allocation should at least be performed by an independent third party. Unless it is an absolute requirement, the use of sealed envelopes should be discontinued forthwith

Clinical and economic evaluation of laparoscopic surgery compared with medical management for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease : 5-year follow-up of multicentre randomised trial (the REFLUX trial)

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A compositional breakage equation for wheat milling

The compositional breakage equation is derived, in which the distributions of botanical components following milling of wheat are defined in terms of compositional breakage functions and concentration functions. The forms of the underlying functions are determined using experimental data for Outer Pericarp, Intermediate Layer, Aleurone and Starchy Endosperm generated from spectroscopic analysis of milled fractions of a hard and a soft wheat milled under Sharp-to-Sharp (S-S) and Dull-to-Dull (D-D) dispositions. For the hard Mallacca wheat, the Outer Pericarp, Intermediate Layer and Aleurone compositions mostly varied with particle size in similar ways, consistent with these layers fusing together as “bran” and breaking together, although with possibly a subtle difference around the production of very fine particles under D-D milling. By contrast, for the soft Consort wheat, Outer Pericarp, Intermediate Layer and Aleurone were distributed in broken particles very differently, particularly under D-D milling, suggesting a different breakage mechanism associated with differences in the mechanical properties and adhesion of the bran layers. These new insights into the nature of wheat breakage and the contributions of the component tissues could have implications for wheat breeding and flour mill operation

Planet Four: Terrains - Discovery of Araneiforms Outside of the South Polar Layered Deposits

We present the results of a systematic mapping of seasonally sculpted terrains on the South Polar region of Mars with the Planet Four: Terrains (P4T) online citizen science project. P4T enlists members of the general public to visually identify features in the publicly released Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter CTX images. In particular, P4T volunteers are asked to identify: 1) araneiforms (including features with a central pit and radiating channels known as 'spiders'); 2) erosional depressions, troughs, mesas, ridges, and quasi-circular pits characteristic of the South Polar Residual Cap (SPRC) which we collectively refer to as 'Swiss cheese terrain', and 3) craters. In this work we present the distributions of our high confidence classic spider araneiforms and Swiss cheese terrain identifications. We find no locations within our high confidence spider sample that also have confident Swiss cheese terrain identifications. Previously spiders were reported as being confined to the South Polar Layered Deposits (SPLD). Our work has provided the first identification of spiders at locations outside of the SPLD, confirmed with high resolution HiRISE imaging. We find araneiforms on the Amazonian and Hesperian polar units and the Early Noachian highland units, with 75% of the identified araneiform locations in our high confidence sample residing on the SPLD. With our current coverage, we cannot confirm whether these are the only geologic units conducive to araneiform formation on the Martian South Polar region. Our results are consistent with the current CO2 jet formation scenario with the process exploiting weaknesses in the surface below the seasonal CO2 ice sheet to carve araneiform channels into the regolith over many seasons. These new regions serve as additional probes of the conditions required for channel creation in the CO2 jet process. (Abridged)Comment: accepted to Icarus - Supplemental data files are available at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/mschwamb/planet-four-terrains/about/results - Icarus print version available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001910351730055