The use of waste cooking oil as an alternative fuel for the diesel engine

[Abstract]: This research project is directed toward those who are looking for an alternative source of fuel for the diesel engine. This report is an investigation on how a sole user can design and fabricate a machine to manufacture biodiesel, how well the biodiesel compares with diesel in regards to performance and also the economical benefits which can be achieved by using biodiesel blended fuels. This report firstly analyses what biodiesel is, and how it can be made from waste cooking oil through both a chemical and physical process. Based on these processes, a conceptual design analysis of a biodiesel plant was then conducted and a final design proposal was developed. The proposal was then commissioned for construction and completed several months later. The biodiesel that was produced by the newly manufactured biodiesel plant was then tested at the University of Southern Queensland’s engine testing laboratory. Several blends of biodiesel with diesel were tested ranging from pure diesel, to 100% biodiesel in a small IC engine. It was found that the biodiesel blends compared quite well to the overall performance of diesel, where B25 (25% biodiesel, 75% diesel) was found to replicate the general performance of diesel the closest, B50 (50% biodiesel, 50% diesel) produced the lowest brake specific fuel consumption, B75 (75% biodiesel, 25% diesel) produced the highest usable power and torque and B100 (100% biodiesel) was found to have the highest thermal efficiency. An economical analysis was then conducted for each blend of fuel where the aim was to determine which blend of fuel was the most economical alternative to diesel. Assuming that the general maintenance (oil change etc) of using biodiesel remained the same as that of diesel, it was found that using B100 will provide the highest economical gains when used and the initial cost of the biodiesel plant will be recovered the quickest. Based on these investigations it was concluded that biodiesel is indeed a feasible alternative to diesel that can save the user in excess of 28% on their fuel costs, and that will yield similar performance characteristics when used in a common IC engine

Common Lower Extremity Injury Sites Among Service Members and Combat Sport Athletes: A Systematic Review

Title: Common Lower Extremity Injury Sites Among Service Members and Combat Sport Athletes: A Systematic Review Luke McCarthy, Tyler Hansen, Shane Murphy Purpose: Athletic training services continue to expand into nontraditional settings, with a substantial growth in treating military service members and combat sport athletes (e.g., tae kwon do, MMA, karate). Although more athletic trainers are asked to work with these populations, location and frequency of injuries within these populations is not widely disseminated in athletic training education curriculum. This systematic review was conducted to discover if common injury sites exist between service members and combat sport athletes. We hypothesized that the two cohorts shared many common injury sites, though the mechanism of injury would likely be different. Methods: A systematic review of studies between 2008 and 2020 were examined via PubMed in October of 2020. Key words used in the search include population (e.g. military OR martial arts OR MMA), anatomical area (e.g., lower extremity OR LE), and injury occurrence rate; returning 76 articles. Two independent reviewers utilized a PRISMA flowchart to select the articles to be included in the final analysis. The level of evidence was initially assessed for all included articles, with no uncontrolled cohort studies, case series, or expert opinions being included in the final analysis. Studies that did not identify injury sites were excluded, with only studies providing lower extremity injury site and frequency being selected. Injury site and frequency were extracted from articles focusing on either service members or combat sport athletes. Originality: This research is novel, in that it provides athletic trainers in these emerging settings the ability to forecast what injuries they are most likely to encounter, given the setting (e.g., training, competition, and combat). Each of these settings, as well as the age and skill level of the athletes involves different injury types (chronic versus acute). During the systematic review, there were no articles found comparing military service members and combat sport athletes. Significances: As more athletic trainers begin working in these emerging settings, knowledge about how each cohort sustains their injuries will be important. Being able to treat injuries when they occur, as well as prevent injuries from happening, will reduce the amount of time lost to rehabilitation. This increased time in rehabilitation translates to increased medical costs and strain on our healthcare system as a whole. Preventing injuries will reduce medical spending both for the individual athletes and for the federal/state government, in the case of service members. Service members and combat sport athletes sustain lower extremity injuries at both the ankle and knee; however, they differ in general mechanism. Due to the stresses of prolonged load carriage versus forceful striking, clinicians will face unique challenges working with either population. By understanding the environment service members and combat athletes are operating in, athletic trainers can have necessary supplies on hand for treatment of acute injuries, as well as plans to rehabilitate chronic injuries. Future research should focus on methods of reducing acute injuries in combat sports and more effective chronic injury prevention among service members

Semotus visum: a flexible remote visualization framework

Journal ArticleBy offering more detail and precision, large data sets can provide greater insights to researchers than small data sets. However, these data sets require greater computing resources to view and manage. Remote visualization techniques allow the use of computers that cannot be operated locally. The Semotus Visum framework applies a high-performance client-server paradigm to the problem. The framework utilizes both client and server resources via multiple rendering methods. Experimental results show the framework delivers high framerates and low latency across a wide range of data sets

Systematic Power Counting in Cutoff Effective Field Theories for Nucleon-Nucleon Interactions and the Equivalence With PDS

An analytic expression for the ${}^1S_0$ phase shifts in nucleon-nucleon scattering is derived in the context of the Schr\"odinger equation in configuration space with a short distance cutoff and with a consistent power counting scheme including pionic effects. The scheme treats the pion mass and the inverse scattering length over the intrinsic short distance scale as small parameters. Working at next-to-leading order in this scheme, we show that the expression obtained is identical to one obtained using the recently introduced PDS approach which is based on dimensional regularization with a novel subtraction scheme. This strongly supports the conjecture that the schemes are equivalent provided one works to the same order in the power counting.Comment: 6 pages; replaced version has corrected typos (We thank Mike Birse for pointing them out to u

Robust model-based analysis of single-particle tracking experiments with Spot-On.

Single-particle tracking (SPT) has become an important method to bridge biochemistry and cell biology since it allows direct observation of protein binding and diffusion dynamics in live cells. However, accurately inferring information from SPT studies is challenging due to biases in both data analysis and experimental design. To address analysis bias, we introduce 'Spot-On', an intuitive web-interface. Spot-On implements a kinetic modeling framework that accounts for known biases, including molecules moving out-of-focus, and robustly infers diffusion constants and subpopulations from pooled single-molecule trajectories. To minimize inherent experimental biases, we implement and validate stroboscopic photo-activation SPT (spaSPT), which minimizes motion-blur bias and tracking errors. We validate Spot-On using experimentally realistic simulations and show that Spot-On outperforms other methods. We then apply Spot-On to spaSPT data from live mammalian cells spanning a wide range of nuclear dynamics and demonstrate that Spot-On consistently and robustly infers subpopulation fractions and diffusion constants

A Model for Youth Financial Education in Extension Involving a Game-Based Approach

University of Idaho Extension educators have developed a library of 10 game-based personal finance programs, collectively known as the Northwest Youth Financial Education project, and have made these programs freely available for Extension educators to use. The purpose of this article is to share highlights from an associated train-the-trainer event and the impacts of one of the 10 programs as it has begun to be implemented. The Northwest Youth Financial Education project serves as a model for effective and engaging youth personal finance education that can be easily implemented or replicated in Extension

Developing an alcohol and other drug serious game for adolescents: Considerations for improving student engagement

Objectives: To explore perceptions of alcohol and other drug (AOD) education and digital game design preferences among Australian adolescents with the goal of identifying key factors to promote engagement in an AOD serious game for Australian secondary school students. Methods: Semi-structured focus groups were conducted with 36 adolescents aged between 13 and 18 years. Qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Participants described heightened engagement with AOD education that incorporated relatable and relevant real-life stories and interactive discussions. They also expressed a desire for learning to focus on practical strategies to reduce AOD harm and overcome social pressure to use AOD. Participants highlighted the importance of incorporating relatable characters and context-relevant scenarios in promoting engagement, and identified social elements, player choice, and optimal challenge as important game design considerations. Conclusions: A focus on meaningful realistic scenarios, relatable characters, relevant information and practical skills may promote high school aged students’ engagement with AOD educational content. Game designs incorporating social elements and decision-making opportunities may be conducive to promoting engagement and enhancing learning. Implications for public health: Findings from this study can be used by researchers and game designers for the development of future AOD serious games targeted at Australian adolescents