P2_7 Close Encounters of the Unkind

 Possible effects on satellites in Earth orbit caused by the unusually close encounter between the asteroid 9942 Apophis and Earth in 2029 are assessed. A worst case scenario for GPS, the most important system at risk, showed that the gravitational perturbation of orbits is negligible. Furthermore, it was found that Apophis will remain intact during the encounter, as its closest possible approach occurs at approximately twice the Roche limit

P2_1 James' Giant Peach Transport across the Atlantic

In Roald Dahl's children's classic James and the Giant Peacha magically enlarged fruit travels across the Atlantic Ocean, partly floated on the water and partly airlifted by a flock of seagulls. Through examining the buoyancy and modelling the seagulls as aerofoils it has been found that although the initial part of the journey is possible, given a sufficiently hollow peach, James would have to tether approximately two and a half million Common Gulls, rather than the 501 as described in the book

P2_6 A Solar Diet Plan

The solar mass loss per year from fusion and solar wind outflow was estimated, and found to be 1.836x1017 kg. Calculations showed that the contribution from fusion amount to approximately three times that of the solar wind. The effect on Earth was determined to be an increase in orbital radius of 1.38 cm per year

P2_8 The tide is high but I am still short

This work considers the acceleration due to tidal forces on Earth due to the Moon and due to Earth and the amount it would stretch a human’s cortical bones. It is found that a human’s change in height is negligible and therefore cannot be measured. It is estimated that in order for humans to feel tidal accelerations due to breaking bones, they would have to be at a distance of 151 km from a Neutron star of mass 3.98×1030 kg

P2_2 Hot Air in the House of Commons

The power output associated with the heat flow from respiration of 650 MPs debating in the House of Commons was calculated. Heat flow directly into the air and from latent heat release during re-condensation of water vapour added to the exhaled breath was found to be 10.34 kW in total

P2_4 Heat Loss in the House of Commons

A simple static thermal equilibrium model was used to approximate the heat transfer through the House of Commons chamber to the outside surroundings. Comparison to the heat input from respiration of 650 MPs, found in a previous study, showed that heating is necessary once the outside temperature is 0.2 K below that of the chamber

Effect of remote ischaemic conditioning on clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI): a single-blind randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Remote ischaemic conditioning with transient ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm has been shown to reduce myocardial infarct size in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). We investigated whether remote ischaemic conditioning could reduce the incidence of cardiac death and hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months. METHODS: We did an international investigator-initiated, prospective, single-blind, randomised controlled trial (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI) at 33 centres across the UK, Denmark, Spain, and Serbia. Patients (age >18 years) with suspected STEMI and who were eligible for PPCI were randomly allocated (1:1, stratified by centre with a permuted block method) to receive standard treatment (including a sham simulated remote ischaemic conditioning intervention at UK sites only) or remote ischaemic conditioning treatment (intermittent ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm through four cycles of 5-min inflation and 5-min deflation of an automated cuff device) before PPCI. Investigators responsible for data collection and outcome assessment were masked to treatment allocation. The primary combined endpoint was cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months in the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02342522) and is completed. FINDINGS: Between Nov 6, 2013, and March 31, 2018, 5401 patients were randomly allocated to either the control group (n=2701) or the remote ischaemic conditioning group (n=2700). After exclusion of patients upon hospital arrival or loss to follow-up, 2569 patients in the control group and 2546 in the intervention group were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. At 12 months post-PPCI, the Kaplan-Meier-estimated frequencies of cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure (the primary endpoint) were 220 (8·6%) patients in the control group and 239 (9·4%) in the remote ischaemic conditioning group (hazard ratio 1·10 [95% CI 0·91-1·32], p=0·32 for intervention versus control). No important unexpected adverse events or side effects of remote ischaemic conditioning were observed. INTERPRETATION: Remote ischaemic conditioning does not improve clinical outcomes (cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure) at 12 months in patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI. FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, University College London Hospitals/University College London Biomedical Research Centre, Danish Innovation Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, TrygFonden