Designing sustainable medical devices

Stakeholders in the medical device manufacturing industry are becoming more concerned about the environmental impact of their products and processes. The consumers are also becoming more aware of the negative impact that manufacturers can have on the environment. Government initiatives continue to increase environmental awareness through the development of new policy and legislation, encouraging industry to become more accountable for the environmental impact of their products and operations. The ISO 14001 standard, Environmental Management Systems-Requirements with Guidance for Use, sets guidelines to enable businesses to recognize the environmental effects of their products and processes. Departments can use the tool to set targets to lower the environmental impact and identify areas of high environmental concern when designing, purchasing, and marketing products. Research in these areas will be used to develop the environmental scoring tool to aid in the design of future sustainable medical devices

Planetary nebulae in M32 and the bulge of M31: Line intensities and oxygen abundances

We present spectroscopy of planetary nebulae in M32 and in the bulge of M31 that we obtained with the MOS spectrograph at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Our sample includes 30 planetary nebulae in M31 and 9 planetary nebulae in M32. We also observed one H II region in the disk of M31. We detected [O III]$\lambda$4363 in 18 of the planetary nebulae, 4 in M32 and 14 in the bulge of M31. We use our line intensities to derive electron temperatures and oxygen abundances for the planetary nebulae.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Serie

Polarization in the Lagoon nebula

A V-band polarimetric survey of stars associated with the Lagoon nebula was conducted. The data were combined with existing photometric and spectroscopic observations in order to investigate the alignment of magnetic field lines with identifiable symmetry axes and to evaluate the nature of dust in the immediate vicinity. Although stars are not in general highly polarized, electric vectors align with the minor axis of the Lagoon nebula, perpendicular to the major axis of the spatial distribution of massive stars. The observations indicate that the collapse of the molecular cloud progenitor was inhibited along directions perpendicular to magnetic field lines. Considering the low polarization efficiency and the high ratio of total to selective extinction, smaller grains of intranebular dust appear to have been destroyed

Hybrid TiO2 Solar Cells Produced from Aerosolized Nanoparticles of Water-Soluble Polythiophene Electron Donor Layer

Hybrid solar cells (HSCs) with water soluble polythiophene sodium poly[2-(3-thienyl)-ethyloxy-4-butylsulfonate] (PTEBS) thin films produced using electrospray deposition (ESD) were fabricated, tested, and modeled and compared to devices produced using conventional spin coating. A single device structure of FTO/TiO2/PTEBS/Au was used to study the effects of ESD of the PTEBS layer on device performance. ESD was found to increase the short circuit current density (Jsc) by a factor of 2 while decreasing the open circuit voltage (Voc) by half compared to spin coated PTEBS films. Comparable efficiencies of 0.009% were achieved from both device construction types. Current-voltage curves were modeled using the characteristic solar cell equation and showed a similar increase in generated photocurrent with an increase by two orders of magnitude in the saturation current in devices from ESD films. Increases in Jsc are attributed to an increase in the interfacial contact area between the TiO2 and PTEBS layers, while decreases in Voc are attributed to incomplete film formation from ESD

Patients as researchers - innovative experiences in UK National Health Service research

Consumer involvement is an established priority in UK health and social care service development and research. To date, little has been published describing the process of consumer involvement and assessing ‘consumers’ contributions to research. This paper provides a practical account of the effective incorporation of consumers into a research team, and outlines the extent to which they can enhance the research cycle; from project development and conduct, through data analysis and interpretation, to dissemination. Salient points are illustrated using the example of their collaboration in a research project. Of particular note were consumers’ contributions to the development of an ethically enhanced, more robust project design, and enriched data interpretation, which may not have resulted had consumers not been an integral part of the research team

Entanglement Detection Using Majorization Uncertainty Bounds

Entanglement detection criteria are developed within the framework of the majorization formulation of uncertainty. The primary results are two theorems asserting linear and nonlinear separability criteria based on majorization relations, the violation of which would imply entanglement. Corollaries to these theorems yield infinite sets of scalar entanglement detection criteria based on quasi-entropic measures of disorder. Examples are analyzed to probe the efficacy of the derived criteria in detecting the entanglement of bipartite Werner states. Characteristics of the majorization relation as a comparator of disorder uniquely suited to information-theoretical applications are emphasized throughout.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur