>Magister Scientiae - MSc / Over the past 5 years, South Africa has been experiencing a severe drought. This has caused industrial and agricultural processes, to compete for a limited supply of water. Since the economy relies mostly on agricultural activities, water consumption by industrial processes is taking its toll. One of these processes is the introduction of wet flue gas desulphurization (FGD) treatment at Eskom coal fired power stations. This dissertation explores the possibility of using membrane technology as a means of water recovery after the coal combustion flue gas has been treated with wet FGD. A lab-scale permeance testing system was specially built and modified to have complete thermal control of the environment inside the system. The permeance testing system produced a gas, similar to that of a wet FGD treated flue gas, which was then tested. A tubular lab-scale membrane module was designed and produced for the permeance testing system. The permeance figures of both Nitrogen gas and water vapour were determined for the membrane used in module production. These figures coincided with figures provided by the supplier, which warranted successful permeance testing. After success of the lab-scale testing, the data was used to design and develop a pilot-scale membrane module. This module was designed to meet pre-determined requirements as set forth by the project team. Producing lab-scale membrane modules helped identify and address possible problems in pilot-scale module design. This lead to the successful design and construction of a pilot-scale membrane module that could be used to recover the water that is needed to run the wet FGD process.

Background: Many patients discharged from the hospital do not appropriately fill their discharge medications. At Boston Medical Center, an urban safety net facility, a bedside discharge medication delivery service was pilot tested in 2012 to ensure pediatric patients with asthma left in possession of their new medications. The service was expanded to all pediatric discharges in 2013. It is unknown whether beside delivery increases the proportion of written prescriptions captured by the hospital-owned pharmacy or if the service achieves a positive return on investment. Whether such a service improves patients’ satisfaction, medication adherence, or clinical outcomes is also unknown. Methods: Two primary methodologies were used to evaluate the impact of this novel service. The first evaluated the relative risk of filling a prescription in the hospital- owned pharmacy after the expansion of delivery eligibility criteria using two years of discharge prescription information, corresponding pharmacy fill data, and a hierarchical model with generalized estimating equations (GEE) to account for non-independent events. Initial patient-level impacts of the delivery service were evaluated through a pilot randomized controlled trial to test logistics and obtain empiric estimates of study parameters. Results: Patients were 1.44 times more likely to fill a medication at the hospital- owned pharmacy providing the delivery service after the intervention (95%CI 1.3-1.59). The increased profit generated by prescriptions captured as a result of offering the delivery service is estimated to be equivalent to 8-15% of a pharmacist full-time- equivalent (FTE), whereas only 3% of an FTE was required to provide the service, indicating a positive return on investment. Pilot study data suggest families did not differ significantly with regards to perceived satisfaction or reported outcomes whether randomized to usual care or delivery. Conclusion: A service to deliver discharge medications can yield a positive return on investment, allowing an institution to offset uncompensated care. To further study the intervention, a trial with randomization at the level of the ward or institution is needed. / 2017-10-02T00:00:00Z

<p>I start with a sample of 26,998 CEOs from the Compustat Executive Compensation (ExecuComp) database starting January 1, 1991 and ending January 1, 2009. I then match the sample with the FAA’s Airmen Certification database using the CEO’s first name, middle initial, and last name. Names with a match are coded as pilots and names without a match are coded as non-pilots. Following Roychowdhury (2006) I remove all firms in regulated industries (SIC codes between 4400 and 5000) as well as banks and financial institutions (SIC codes between 6000 and 6500). The resulting sample consists of 255 pilot-CEOs and 3,935 non-pilot-CEOs. I then merge the CEO dataset to the Compustat Fundamentals Annual database to obtain a final sample consisting of 1,038 CEO-pilot firm-years and 18,455 CEO-non-pilot firm-years. All variables are winsorized at the 1% and 99% levels.</p><p><a></a> </p><div><br><div><p><br></p></div></div>

In Sweden the industries releases about 50 TWh / year of low temperature waste heat[1], often in the form of humid air flows. Today, conventional flue gas condensation is only exploiting a minor part of the energy from these flows. It is a well-established and profit­able way of improving the efficiency of district heating plants and other boilers for wet fuels. How­ever, the condensation is only applicable when the dew point of the flue gas is above the temperature demand for the heating net. The paper industry gives a good illustration of the limitations for conventional condensation: several MW of wet air streams with dew points of 60-65 ̊ C are released but cannot be recovered since the tempe­ra­ture demand is 70-80 ̊ C for the heating net. Different technologies for more advanced waste heat recovery are developing and this report is evaluating a demonstration plant for “hygro­scopic condenser”, which uses a hygroscopic solution that allows condensation above the dew point. The hygro­scopic solution is potassium formate, which enables condensation to start about 20 ̊ C above the dew point and is sufficiently non-toxic and non-corrosive. The objective of this work is to evaluate both the equipment and the process during some initial tests at the paper mill at Holmen, Braviken. The aim is also to suggest improvements of the process, the components and the additional equipment for future continuous operation.  The equipment consists of two main parts:  a hygroscopic absorption stage and a regene­ration stage. The major part of the humid air is led into an absorption column where vapor is absorbed by the formate solution and rises its temperature. This recovered waste heat is transferred to the heating net by a plate heat exchanger. The regeneration unit is used to maintain the hygroscopic concentrations by evaporation of vapor from the formate solution (amount of absorbed vapor = amount of evaporated vapor). The regene­rator is driven by process steam from the existing 3.5 bar net. The evaporated vapor is led to a conventional condenser where the regeneration energy can be recovered and the condensate is bled off.  The recovered heat from the process (hygroscopic absorber + regeneration condenser) is used in the heating net at Holmen, Braviken (VVG-net).    The initial tests have been made during 15 hours of initial operation, when the equipment has delivered about 3 MWh in total. The tests show a good temperature performance since the dew point of the humid air has been lowered from about 60oC to 47oC. The reco­vered heat was used for heating from 65oC to about 80oC. During the initial tests the capacity has not yet reached the design values. As an example the delivered heat was measured to 280 kW where­of 46kW from absorbed vapor, 129 kW from the sensible heat in the incoming humid air and 105 kW from the regeneration. The bottle-neck parts of the equipment have been localized and will be overseen during the summer of 2011 and the process is planned to be in use during the autumn with an output capacity of 500kW. The coefficient of performance (COP) is calculated to just below 2 during normal operation but was about 2.7 in the test runs due to the high portion of sensible heat. [1]Förekomst av industriellt spillvärme vid låga temperaturer,  Ingrid Nyström, Per-Åke Franck, Industriell Energianalys AB, 2002-04-15

Sexual mindfulness has been shown to improve couple's relationship and sexual satisfaction. Mindfulness research has mostly been conducted with White participants, largely leaving out the perspectives of diverse participants. This study piloted an online culturally-adapted version of the Sexual Mindfulness Project with Black and interracial couples (N=26 heterosexual individuals in a committed relationship from three different continents; age range 23€“44) to understand the program's acceptability and impacts. Qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys showed that couples enjoyed the program and experienced positive relational and sexual impacts post-intervention, including improved relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, communication, and sexual mindfulness. Implications to improve the program curriculum and delivery are discussed.

The problem of this study was to compare two methods of instruction in helicopter pilot ground training in terms of cost of training and support services and customer satisfaction upon completion of training. The purpose of the study was the evaluation of a specialized program of instruction taught on videotape by comparison with conventional instruction. The significance of the study was related to savings in costs of instruction per trainee. Research questions for the study sought significant differences between mean scores achieved by students receiving the two treatments. Data providing information on specific characteristics of the learners were gathered as a preliminary step to establish similarity of the students in the two groups compared. A table of random numbers was used to select subjects from the population of student pilots entering training for the Bell model 206B helicopter during the months of March, April and May 1981. Upon completion of the course, all students were asked to complete an evaluation opinionaire relating to satisfaction with selected aspects of the instructional program.

(One-hour Magical Realism Dramedy TV Series) An awkward New Jersey man moves to a small tourist trap town on the gulf coast of Florida where the folk are quirky magical, mythical beings and he works as a caregiver for an elderly mermaid.

During the last decade, the number of runway incursions at airports in the United States and worldwide has increased. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has developed the Runway Safety Program (RSP) to address these concerns and improve the safety of the National Airspace System (NAS). The purpose of this study was to determine whether the FAA 2009-2011 RSP has effectively reduced runway incursions at the nation's 5 busiest airports using data from 3 years before and 3 years after the RSP. A comparison group interrupted time-series design was used to determine the impact of the RSP. A public policy framework served as the theoretical foundation for this study. Data were collected from the FAA on runway incursions occurring from October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2014 and assessed for appropriate inclusion criteria. An analysis of the dataset using chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests established that though the RSP has made progress, it has not effectively reduced runway incursions at the nation's 5 busiest airports. The RSP has decreased the number of runway incursion caused by air traffic controllers, reduced the overall severity of runway incursions, as well as positively influenced when, during the phase of flight, most runway incursions happen. An increase in pilot deviations suggests finding better ways to reduce these type of runway incursions is critical, especially with the forecasted growth in air travel. Continued deployment of runway safety technology is also important. With increased aviation safety, positive social change will occur through enhanced public safety while traveling, safer working environments at airports, as well as economic stimulus resulting from increased aviation activities benefiting individuals and developing countries throughout the world.

<p>The dissertation research was conducted to examine articles, research, and studies that have been collected in recent years to understand energy management for general aviation airplane pilots. The experiment was broken down into four phases with control and treatment groups which have evaluated the real-world problem of energy management in aviation. The four phases were to fly a flight profile, evaluate the energy state of the airplane within the flight by video, fly the same flight profile again, and a post-flight interview with the pilots. The idea of this experiment was to recognize the lack of understanding in energy management in pilots, build a conceptual model, and lastly verify and validate Phase II of the model by utilizing previous studies and research. Additionally, the three main goals were to assess the ability to interpret energy management, assess the ability to control the aircraft, and lastly, to interview for perception of energy management. The data was collected on the flight training device’s G1000, and the researcher analyzed the data using R, Minitab, Excel, and NVivo. The research provided ideas for creating a future model to evaluate energy management, validated by testing Phase II of the model to understand assessing energy management in real time, and interviewed pilots on their experiences with energy management, identified gaps in general aviation research, and suggested methods of how to facilitate understanding of energy management.</p>

The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the benefit of offering a percussion ensemble class in secondary public schools. I looked at two elements of music education: playing time and relevant instruction. The research questions focused on the difference in playing time and relevant instruction between percussionists in the concert band and percussionists in the percussion ensemble, as well as differences between the concert band subgroups (brass, woodwind, percussion). 6 separate instrumental groups were observed: 4 concert bands and 2 percussion ensembles (N=6). Students were randomly selected from each instrument subgroup (brass, woodwind, percussion, percussion ensemble) for observation. A mixed model ANOVA was used to compare the playing time per hour of each instrument subgroup. A second mixed model ANOVA was used to compare the relevant instruction received per hour of each instrument subgroup. As anticipated, the concert band percussionists experienced significantly less playing time and relevant instruction than both the brass and woodwind subgroups. The percussion ensemble subgroup did not experience a significant difference in either playing time or relevant instruction from the concert band percussionstudents. However, informal observations of the rehearsals indicated a difference in the scope and depth of the playing time and instruction experienced by these two subgroups. Implications from these observations are also discussed.