An evaluation of Dimethyl Ether as a potential solvent for the extraction of oil from spent coffee grounds

The world’s dependence on fossil fuel based energy is causing major environmental and economic concerns. The need for environmentally friendly and sustainable fuel alternatives has been the driving force behind the recent advancements in biodiesel technology. However, the major battle that the biodiesel industry faces today is finding low cost and high quality oil feedstocks that will allow biodiesel to become economically competitive against fossil based diesel. One feedstock that could provide this solution is oil derived from spent coffee grounds. This work presents an alternative approach to the traditional hexane based Soxhlet extraction method by extracting oil from spent coffee grounds using Dimethyl Ether. The results obtained show extraction yields similar to those achieved by the standard hexane method. To analyze the quality of the extracted oil, different methyl esters constituents of the extracted oil were characterized using GC-MS techniques, identifying mainly C14 and C16 carbon chains. Mass and energy requirements of this process were determined by developing an Aspen Plus model from the results gathered during experimentation. A techno-economic assessment was performed to prove the economic feasibility of an industrial scale processing plant. The influence of temperature, rate of extraction and extraction efficiency should be investigated in future work. Moreover, to verify and validate the results obtained from the Aspen Plus model and techno-economic assessment, further development of the model and a detailed analysis is required

Immersing the artist and designer in the needs of the clinician: evolving the brief for distraction and stress reduction in a new Child Protection Unit.

Engaging clinicians in the design of new, less stressful spaces in healthcare is an interdisciplinary challenge for artists and designers. The design brief is the primary means of ensuring shared understanding and success criteria for creative projects (Press and Cooper 2003) and highlights ambitions and constraints for the project. Conventionally the brief is prepared by the client and issued to the artist or designer. This assumes that the client knows at the outset how to articulate needs and is able to envisage the outcome. Alternative processes emerging through co-design and interdisciplinary working assume the brief is developed or evolved jointly as part of the process and is focused on the experience of the user. This paper focuses on the evolution of a meaningful brief for a Child Protection Unit in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde’s new Royal Hospital for Children. Development of the brief was driven by the art and design team and aimed at opening up mutual understanding with the clinicians. The visual mapping of dialogue between artist, interactive designer and clinicians provides a novel approach to understanding this key stage of the process. Fremantle co-ordinated the paper. Hepburn undertook the fieldwork and provided the analysis. Fremantle structured the paper and co-ordinated reviews with Hamilton and Sands

Improving community support for older people’s needs through commissioning third sector services: a qualitative study

Aim: This exploratory study of commissioning third sector services for older people aimed to explore whether service data was fed back to commissioners and whether this could improve intelligence about the population and hence inform future commissioning decisions. Background: Third sector services are provided through charities and non-profit community organisations, and services that assess and advise people for self-management or provide wellbeing support in the community have developed over recent years. Third sector services have an opportunity to reach vulnerable populations and to provide intelligence about them. Some third sector services are state funded (commissioned) in the United Kingdom (UK). While evidence is available about the commissioning of statutory health and social care, as well as private providers, there is limited evidence about how third sector health services are funded. Methods: Participants were recruited from commissioner organisations and third sector organisations, both with an interest in supporting the independence, self-management and wellbeing of older people. Organisations were recruited from five purposively selected sites within one region of England (East Midlands). Semi-structured interviews explored the relationships between commissioners and providers and the nature of funding arrangements, including co-production. Interviews also explored collection of data within the service and how data was fed back to commissioners. Focus groups were held with older people with the potential to benefit from wellbeing services.Results: Commissioning arrangements were varied, sometimes complex, and often involved co-production with the third sector. Commissioners valued third sector organisations for their engagement with the local community, value for money, outreach services and ability to provide information about the community. Assessing the needs and outcomes of individuals was integral to delivery of support and advice to older people. Diverse approaches were used to assess an individual’s needs and outcomes, although there were concerns that some assessment questionnaires may be too complex for this vulnerable group. Assessment and outcomes data were also used to monitor the service contract and there was potential for the data to be summarised to inform commissioning strategies, but commissioners did not report using assessment data in this way. While the policy context encouraged partnerships with third sector organisations and their involvement in decision-making, the relationship with third sector organisations was not valued within contract arrangements, and may have been made more difficult by the tendering process and the lack of analysis of service data.Conclusion: This exploratory study has demonstrated a diversity of commissioning arrangements for third sector services across one region of England. Most commissioners invited co-production; that is, the commissioners sought input from the third sector while specifying details of the service. Service data, including assessments of needs and outcomes, were reported to commissioners, however commissioners did not appear to use this to full advantage to inform future commissioning decisions. This may indicate a need to improve measurement of needs and outcomes in order to improve the credibility of commissioning process

Kinetic and Kinematic Asymmetries during Unloaded and Loaded Static Jumps

Abstract available in the Annual coaches and Sport Science College

Session 3: Access to Financial Services - The Promise (and Challenges) of Fintech

For many Americans, the American Dream is a dream deferred. Recently, there has been an explosion in demand for diversity, equity, and inclusion in financial services. This has coincided with an explosion of a different kind related to delivering financial services through innovations in technology, otherwise known as FinTech. We have seen a plethora of FinTech applications on our smartphones, ranging from online lending to remote deposit making. While these applications provide potential opportunities to level the playing field for those whose dream has been deferred, there remain challenges

Diesel Exhaust Inhalation Elicits Acute Vasoconstriction in Vivo

BACKGROUND: Traffic-related air pollution is consistently associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Recent human and animal studies suggest that exposure to air pollutants affects vascular function. Diesel exhaust (DE) is a major source of traffic-related air pollution. OBJECTIVES: Our goal was to study the effects of short-term exposure to DE on vascular reactivity and on mediators of vascular tone. METHODS: In a double-blind, crossover, controlled exposure study, 27 adult volunteers (10 healthy and 17 with metabolic syndrome) were exposed in randomized order to filtered air (FA) and each of two levels of diluted DE (100 or 200 μg/m3 of fine particulate matter) in 2-hr sessions. Before and after each exposure, we assessed the brachial artery diameter (BAd) by B-mode ultrasound and collected blood samples for endothelin-1 (ET-1) and catecholamines. Postexposure we also assessed endothelium-dependent flow-mediated dilation (FMD). RESULTS: Compared with FA, DE at 200 μg/m3 elicited a decrease in BAd (0.11 mm; 95% confidence interval, 0.02–0.18), and the effect appeared linearly dose related with a smaller effect at 100 μg/m3. Plasma levels of ET-1 increased after 200 μg/m3 DE but not after FA (p = 0.01). There was no consistent impact of DE on plasma catecholamines or FMD. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that short-term exposure to DE is associated with acute endothelial response and vasoconstriction of a conductance artery. Elucidation of the signaling pathways controlling vascular tone that underlie this observation requires further study

Final Design and On-Sky Testing of the iLocater SX Acquisition Camera: Broadband Single-Mode Fiber Coupling

Enabling efficient injection of light into single-mode fibers (SMFs) is a key requirement in realizing diffraction-limited astronomical spectroscopy on ground-based telescopes. SMF-fed spectrographs, facilitated by the use of adaptive optics (AO), offer distinct advantages over comparable seeing-limited designs, including higher spectral resolution within a compact and stable instrument volume, and a telescope independent spectrograph design. iLocater is an extremely precise radial velocity (EPRV) spectrograph being built for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). We have designed and built the front-end fiber injection system, or acquisition camera, for the SX (left) primary mirror of the LBT. The instrument was installed in 2019 and underwent on-sky commissioning and performance assessment. In this paper, we present the instrument requirements, acquisition camera design, as well as results from first-light measurements. Broadband single-mode fiber coupling in excess of 35% (absolute) in the near-infrared (0.97-1.31{\mu}m) was achieved across a range of target magnitudes, spectral types, and observing conditions. Successful demonstration of on-sky performance represents both a major milestone in the development of iLocater and in making efficient ground-based SMF-fed astronomical instruments a reality.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Moon Zoo: citizen science in lunar exploration

The Moon Zoo Team describe how citizen scientists can get involved and explore the Moon online