An investigation of the relationship between thermal imaging and digital thermometer

BACKGROUND: A number of research papers and theoretical clinical models summarising how temperature of the skin over the knee may be altered according to different pathological processes have been published. Thermal imaging (TI) is generally regarded as the ‘Gold’ or ‘reference’ standard for measuring skin temperature, however this technology is not widely accessible to most musculoskeletal physiotherapists working in clinical environments. This is largely due to the time required for analysis of the thermal images and high cost of the equipment. A digital thermometer (DT) is portable with a convenient display of results which could offer an inexpensive substitute. AIM: This study determined interchangeability between thermal imaging and a digital thermometer, using Bland-Altman limits of agreement, to determine skin temperature differences between right and left knees. METHOD: 71 healthy participants in the age group of 8 to 40 participated in the study. Data were collected in two phases. The first phase was as part of a public engagement event at the Lancashire Science Festival where school children were invited to learn about science. The second phase of data collection took place as part of a PhD study where staff and students at the university were recruited via electronic advert and posters displayed around the campus. All subjects were free from lower back or lower limb problems and had not had any previous lower limb surgery. RESULTS: Matched paired t tests showed no significant difference between temperature difference between right and left using DT and TI (t= 1.41, df= 69, P= 0.08). The DT and TI were interchangeable to measure knee skin temperature difference with a limit of agreement of -0.64 and 0.75; this limit of agreement is acceptable based on previous literature where skin temperature differences between affected and non-affected knees are equal to or greater than 1°C. CONCLUSION: This study concludes that an inexpensive handheld digital thermometer shows acceptable agreement with a thermal imaging camera. Clinically a handheld digital thermometer has the potential to play an important role in the localized assessment of skin temperature in physiotherapy and can offer an inexpensive substitute to thermal imaging; due to the massive difference in cost it is worth considering the adoption of digital thermometry in routine musculoskeletal physiotherapy practice

Influence of shot peening on high-temperature corrosion and corrosion-fatigue of nickel based superalloy 720Li

High-temperature corrosion fatigue, a combination of corrosion with a fatigue cycle, is an emerging generic issue affecting power generation and aero gas turbine engines and has the potential to limit component life. Historically, surface treatments, such as shot peening have been used to improve component life and have been optimised for fatigue response. Research into optimisation of shot peening techniques for hot corrosion and high-temperature corrosion fatigue has shown 6–8A 230H 200% coverage to provide overall optimum performance for nickel-based superalloy 720Li based on the limited data within this study. Utilisation of electron backscatter diffraction techniques, in combination with detailed assessment of corrosion products have been undertaken as part of this work. The resultant cold-work visualisation technique provides a novel method of determining the variation in material properties due to the shot peening process and the interaction with hot corrosion. Through this work it has been shown that all three shot peening outputs must be considered to minimise the effect of corrosion fatigue, the cold work, residual stress and surface roughness. Further opportunity for optimisation has also been identified based on this work

Genealogical Reference Material Collection - Accession 1386

The Genealogical Reference Material Collection consists of genealogical publications collected by the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections and often includes serials with which that the Ida Jane Dacus Library at Winthrop University maintained a subscription. The collection is continually added to. This collection is a valuable source for any persons researching family genealogy.https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/manuscriptcollection_findingaids/2222/thumbnail.jp

Assessing the potential of utilisation and storage strategies for post-combustion CO2 emissions reduction

The emissions reduction potential of three carbon dioxide handling strategies for post-combustion capture is considered. These are carbon capture and sequestration/storage (CCS), enhanced hydrocarbon recovery (EHR), and carbon dioxide utilization (CDU) to produce synthetic oil. This is performed using common and comparable boundary conditions including net CO2 sequestered based on equivalent boundary conditions. This is achieved using a “cradle to grave approach” where the final destination and fate of any product is considered. The input boundary is pure CO2 that has been produced using a post-combustion capture process as this is common between all processes. The output boundary is the emissions resulting from any product produced with the assumption that the majority of the oil will go to combustion processes. We also consider the “cradle to gate” approach where the ultimate fate of the oil is not considered as this is a boundary condition often applied to EHR processes. Results show that while CCS can make an impact on CO2 emissions, CDU will have a comparable effect whilst generating income while EHR will ultimately increase net emissions. The global capacity for CDU is also compared against CCS using data based on current and planned CCS projects. Analysis shows that current CDU represent a greater volume of capture than CCS processes and that this gap is likely to remain well beyond 2020 which is the limit of the CCS projects in the database