Advanced Innovative Engineering (United Kingdom)

Introduction and AimsThe healthcare industry has a substantial carbon footprint and the recent 2022 Health and Care Act has committed the NHS to net zero carbon by 2040. In 2022, BASL published its Sustainability Strategy and committed to reduce the Association’s carbon footprint. The sustainability of different ways of presenting posters is not known. The aim of this study was, therefore, to analyse and compare the carbon footprint of three different options of organising and displaying posters during the 2022 BASL annual conference.MethodsA comparative analysis of the carbon footprint of three different models of poster display was performed using a cradle to grave process-based carbon footprinting methodology; namelyIndividual delegate printing and transporting to the venueCentral printing of all posters in the host cityElectronic displaysThis included raw material extraction, production, delivery, use and disposal of items. This was based on the 80 posters displayed. Of note only 66 of the posters displayed in Leeds were printed centrally and the analysis was split into option 2a (this scenario) and option 2b (all 80 posters printed centrally). It is important to note that local printing was on fully recycled material that was then recycled at the end of the meeting.ResultsThe carbon footprint of option 1 (individual delegate printing) was estimated at 117 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (kgCO2e); the equivalent of driving 345 miles. Option 2a had a carbon footprint of 46 kgCO2e, 40% of option 1’s carbon footprint. Option 2b reduced the footprint further to 31 kgCO2e (figure 1). Displaying 80 posters on 6 digital screens over 3 days had an estimated carbon footprint of 38 kgCO2e (or 112 miles; a return trip from London to Oxford). In all three options, the majority of the carbon footprint burden was the result of transportation of materials to and from the venue.Discussion and ConclusionsSubstantial carbon saving can be achieved by moving away from the traditional model of individual delegates printing and transporting their own posters. Surprisingly, local printing and display on poster boards had a better carbon footprint than electronic displays. In addition, this model has the added advantage of allowing researchers to continuously stand by their posters and interact/network with other meeting delegates. This data underlines the importance of not making assumptions about relative environmental impacts of current and future practices without undertaking specific analyses comparing them.

ALSUntangled reviews alternative and off-label treatments for people living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (PALS). Here we review ozone therapy. Ozone therapy has possible mechanisms for slowing ALS progression based on its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and mitochondrial effects. A non-peer-reviewed report suggests that ozone treatment may slow progression in a mTDP-43 mouse model of ALS. One verified “ALS reversal” occurred on a cocktail of alternative treatments including ozone. There are no ALS trials using ozone to treat PALS. There can be potentially serious side effects associated with ozone therapy, depending on the dose. Based on the above information, we support an investigation of ozone therapy in ALS cell or animal models but cannot yet recommend it as a treatment in PALS.

C6-BD equipped with AIE and ESIPT characteristics was used to visualize the cell membrane with high selectivity, stability, and wash-free operation. It also universal for imaging of bacteria and fungi with light-excited killing via ROS generation.

The electrochemical properties of layered cathodes can be enhanced by doping with aluminium. However, understanding of the underlying mechanism of Al ion behaviour is deficient, which obstructs its further application. Herein, we adjusted the aluminium content in model LiNi0.85-xCo0.15AlxO2 (LNCA) materials; the sample with the optimum aluminium content (x = 0.05) exhibited excellent electrochemical performance (98.6% capacity retention at 275 mA g-1). Meanwhile, for the samples with excessive aluminium (x = 0.15, 0.30), fast decay of the cycling stability could be observed. Meanwhile, their reversible capacities in the initial cycles were also greatly inferior to the theoretical values. These abnormal phenomena can be attributed to structure cracking and the impedance of Li-ion migration in samples with higher aluminium content. According to the microstructure observations, an unexpected beneficial heterostructure was found to cover the samples with optimum aluminium content, while in the samples with higher aluminium content, this heterostructure was not present. Furthermore, as confirmed by activation barrier calculations, Al ions were found to prefer to thermodynamically occupy the tetrahedral interstices instead of the octahedral sites in Li layers in a high delithiation state. Due to this selective occupancy, proper aluminium content can improve the stability of layered cathodes during cycling. However, excessive aluminium content instead impedes the formation of beneficial surface heterogeneity during synthesis and deeply affects Li-ion migration during cycling. Therefore, the electrochemical performance of the samples with higher aluminium content suffered severe decay. These results and discoveries significantly advance the guidance of microstructural design for next-generation layered cathode materials.

HEP Analysis Facility is a cluster designed and implemented in Scientific Linux Cern 5.5 to grant High Energy Physics researchers one place where they can go to undertake a particular task or to provide a parallel processing architecture in which CPU resources are shared across a network and all machines function as one large supercomputer.

It is shown that the well-known Lorentz formula for time dilation can be derived from a distance–time graph plotted for a spaceship communicating with Earth.

Contraceptive research always hits the headlines—as long as the news is bad. In contrast, the revelation that hormone replacement therapy may increase the risk of venous thromboembolism was met by indifference. Two winters have passed since the “pill scare” of October 1995, yet there must be few users, prescribers, and prescriber—cum—users who are not struggling to come to terms with the impact of the action taken by the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) in response to the research projects in question. These found a minimally different risk of venous thromboembolism with different brands of the combined oral contraceptive. The conclusion was that the absolute risk for a combined oral contraceptive containing desogestrel or gestodene was 30 per 100 000 women each year, 15 per 100 000 a year for a “second generation” combined oral contraceptive, and 5 per 100 000 a year for non-pregnant non-users. Before the publication of the studies in question research had suggested that the risk of venous thromboembolism and low dose combined oral contraceptives was, wait for it, 30 per 100 000 annually. As a …

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