Lean Enterprise Self-Assessment Tool (LESAT)

-Status report on June Executive Board commitments -Enterprise-level LESAT Beta Version -Detailed-level LESAT Development Plan -Industry and government participation and support requirements -Resource Needs -Executive Board decision on proposed next steps

Using video markschemes to support self-assessment in Chemistry

A video markscheme was created using a combination of Camtasia screen capture (on a Tablet PC) and 'live action' video taken with a camcorder. The resulting video supported students in the self-assessment of an organic chemistry exercise which had been set over the Easter vacation break. Feedback was collected from the students after the exercise and was overwhelmingly positive. The video won the 2010 award for 'Most Effective Use of Video in an Educational Context' from the Assocation for Learning Technology. DOWNLOAD THE ZIP FOLDER AND EXTRACT THE FILES TO ACCESS THEM.

Student projects: plagiarism and assessment

Within the Information Technology degree programme of the University of Reading, the students undertake a major project in their final year. The module is both a hurdle to an honours degree and significant in terms of assessment weighting. The two year history so far has shown that bad citation and plagiarism are issues, and in one case called for the due referral of a project report. In the light of experience to date, we are focusing firstly on plagiarism prevention, giving generic advice on report writing and citation practice, and secondly on detection. In the longer term, I believe we need to reflect on what capabilities we should be creating in our undergraduates and therefore what and how we should be assessing them.

Use of fibrolytic enzymes to improve the nutritive value of ruminant diets - A biochemical and in vitro rumen degradation assessment

Two commercial enzyme products, Depol 40 (D) and Liquicell 2500 (L), were characterised from a biochemical standpoint and their potential to improve rumen degradation of forages was evaluated in vitro. Enzyme activities were determined at pH 5.5 and 39 degreesC. Analysis of the enzyme activities indicated that L contained higher xylanase and endoglucanase, but lower exoglucanase, pectinase and alpha-amylase activities than D. The Reading Pressure Technique (RPT) was used to investigate the effect of enzyme addition on the in vitro gas production (GP) and organic matter degradation (OMD) of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) stems and leaves. A completely randomised design with factorial arrangement of treatments was used. Both alfalfa fractions were untreated or treated with each enzyme at four levels, 20 h before incubation with rumen fluid. Each level of enzyme provided similar amounts of filter paper (D1, L1), endoglucanase (D2, L2), alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase (D3, L3) and xylanase units (D4, L4) per gram forage DM. Enzymes increased the initial OMD in both fractions, with improvements of up to 15% in leaves (D4) and 8% in stems (L2) after 12 h incubation. All enzyme treatments increased the extent of degradation (96 h incubation) in the leaf fractions, but only L2 increased final OMD in the stems. Direct hydrolysis of forage fractions during the pre-treatment period did not fully account for the magnitude of the increases in OMD, suggesting that the increase in rate of degradation was achieved through a combined effect of direct enzyme hydrolysis and synergistic action between the exogenous (applied) and endogenous (rumen) enzymes. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Linkage disequilibrium assessment via log-linear modeling of SNP haplotype frequencies

Analyses of high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data, such as genetic mapping and linkage disequilibrium (LD) studies, require phase-known haplotypes to allow for the correlation between tightly linked loci. However, current SNP genotyping technology cannot determine phase, which must be inferred statistically. In this paper, we present a new Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm for population haplotype frequency estimation, particulary in the context of LD assessment. The novel feature of the method is the incorporation of a log-linear prior model for population haplotype frequencies. We present simulations to suggest that 1) the log-linear prior model is more appropriate than the standard coalescent process in the presence of recombination (>0.02cM between adjacent loci), and 2) there is substantial inflation in measures of LD obtained by a "two-stage" approach to the analysis by treating the "best" haplotype configuration as correct, without regard to uncertainty in the recombination process. Genet Epidemiol 25:106-114, 2003. (C) 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

An integrated assessment of carbon dioxide capture and storage in the UK

Geological carbon dioxide storage (CCS) has the potential to make a significant contribution to the decarbonisation of the UK. Amid concerns over maintaining security, and hence diversity, of supply, CCS could allow the continued use of coal, oil and gas whilst avoiding the CO2 emissions currently associated with fossil fuel use. This project has explored some of the geological, environmental, technical, economic and social implications of this technology. The UK is well placed to exploit CCS with a large offshore storage capacity, both in disused oil and gas fields and saline aquifers. This capacity should be sufficient to store CO2 from the power sector (at current levels) for a least one century, using well understood and therefore likely to be lower-risk, depleted hydrocarbon fields and contained parts of aquifers. It is very difficult to produce reliable estimates of the (potentially much larger) storage capacity of the less well understood geological reservoirs such as non-confined parts of aquifers. With the majority of its large coal fired power stations due to be retired during the next 15 to 20 years, the UK is at a natural decision point with respect to the future of power generation from coal; the existence of both national reserves and the infrastructure for receiving imported coal makes clean coal technology a realistic option. The notion of CCS as a ‘bridging’ or ‘stop-gap’ technology (i.e. whilst we develop ‘genuinely’ sustainable renewable energy technologies) needs to be examined somewhat critically, especially given the scale of global coal reserves. If CCS plant is built, then it is likely that technological innovation will bring down the costs of CO2 capture, such that it could become increasingly attractive. As with any capitalintensive option, there is a danger of becoming ‘locked-in’ to a CCS system. The costs of CCS in our model for UK power stations in the East Midlands and Yorkshire to reservoirs in the North Sea are between £25 and £60 per tonne of CO2 captured, transported and stored. This is between about 2 and 4 times the current traded price of a tonne of CO2 in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. In addition to the technical and economic requirements of the CCS technology, it should also be socially and environmentally acceptable. Our research has shown that, given an acceptance of the severity and urgency of addressing climate change, CCS is viewed favourably by members of the public, provided it is adopted within a portfolio of other measures. The most commonly voiced concern from the public is that of leakage and this remains perhaps the greatest uncertainty with CCS. It is not possible to make general statements concerning storage security; assessments must be site specific. The impacts of any potential leakage are also somewhat uncertain but should be balanced against the deleterious effects of increased acidification in the oceans due to uptake of elevated atmospheric CO2 that have already been observed. Provided adequate long term monitoring can be ensured, any leakage of CO2 from a storage site is likely to have minimal localised impacts as long as leaks are rapidly repaired. A regulatory framework for CCS will need to include risk assessment of potential environmental and health and safety impacts, accounting and monitoring and liability for the long term. In summary, although there remain uncertainties to be resolved through research and demonstration projects, our assessment demonstrates that CCS holds great potential for significant cuts in CO2 emissions as we develop long term alternatives to fossil fuel use. CCS can contribute to reducing emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere in the near term (i.e. peak-shaving the future atmospheric concentration of CO2), with the potential to continue to deliver significant CO2 reductions over the long term.

Building operational energy consumption of Chongqing and its exergy assessment

Building energy consumption(BEC) accounting and assessment is fundamental work for building energy efficiency(BEE) development. In existing Chinese statistical yearbook, there is no specific item for BEC accounting and relevant data are separated and mixed with other industry consumption. Approximate BEC data can be acquired from existing energy statistical yearbook. For BEC assessment, caloric values of different energy carriers are adopted in energy accounting and assessment field. This methodology obtained much useful conclusion for energy efficiency development. While the traditional methodology concerns only on the energy quantity, energy classification issue is omitted. Exergy methodology is put forward to assess BEC. With the new methodology, energy quantity and quality issues are both concerned in BEC assessment. To illustrate the BEC accounting and exergy assessment, a case of Chongqing in 2004 is shown. Based on the exergy analysis, BEC of Chongqing in 2004 accounts for 17.3% of the total energy consumption. This result is quite common to that of traditional methodology. As far as energy supply efficiency is concerned, the difference is highlighted by 0.417 of the exergy methodology to 0.645 of the traditional methodology.

Life cycle GHG assessment of fossil fuel power plants with carbon capture and storage

The evaluation of life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from power generation with carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a critical factor in energy and policy analysis. The current paper examines life cycle emissions from three types of fossil-fuel-based power plants, namely supercritical pulverized coal (super-PC), natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) and integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), with and without CCS. Results show that, for a 90% CO2 capture efficiency, life cycle GHG emissions are reduced by 75-84% depending on what technology is used. With GHG emissions less than 170 g/kWh, IGCC technology is found to be favorable to NGCC with CCS. Sensitivity analysis reveals that, for coal power plants, varying the CO2 capture efficiency and the coal transport distance has a more pronounced effect on life cycle GHG emissions than changing the length of CO2 transport pipeline. Finally, it is concluded from the current study that while the global warming potential is reduced when MEA-based CO2 capture is employed, the increase in other air pollutants such as NOx and NH3 leads to higher eutrophication and acidification potentials.

A method of weighting indicators in building energy efficiency assessment

This paper identifies the indicators of energy efficiency assessment in residential building in China through a wide literature review. Indicators are derived from three main sources: 1) The existing building assessment methods; 2)The existing Chinese standards and technology codes in building energy efficiency; 3)Academia research. As a result, we proposed an indicator list by refining the indicators in the above sources. Identified indicators are weighted by the group analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. Group AHP method is implemented following key steps: Step 1: Experienced experts are selected to form a group; Step 2: A survey is implemented to collect the individual judgments on the importance of indicators in the group; Step 3: Members’ judgments are synthesized to the group judgments; Step 4: Indicators are weighted by AHP on the group judgments; Step 5: Investigation of consistency estimation shows that the consistency of the judgment matrix is accepted. We believe that the weighted indicators in this paper will provide important references to building energy efficiency assessment.

Assessment of the quality of cottage cheese produced from standard and protein-fortified skim milk

The effects of milk protein fortification on the texture and microstructure of cottage cheese curd were evaluated. Protein powder (92.6% protein) was added to the skim milk at a level of 0.4% (w/w) to produce curds. Control curds with no protein powder addition were also produced. These curds were analysed for differences in yield, total solids, curd size, texture and structure. It was found that the addition of protein powder contributed to a significant yield increase, which can be attributed to increased water retention, with better curd size distribution. Control curds were firmer than the fortified curds and the structure showed less open-pore structure as revealed by electron microscopy. However, the addition of dressing masked the textural differences, and a sensory panel was unable to distinguish between cheeses produced from fortified milk and controls.

Students' assessment of immersive virtual reality as a pedagogic medium

Over the past few years a number of research studies, mainly involving desktop-based or head-mounted Virtual Reality (VR) systems, have been undertaken to determine what VR can contribute to the education process. In our study we have used the findings from a number of these studies to help in formulating a new study into the perceived merits and limitations of using VR in general, and immersive CAVE-like systems in particular, as an education tool. We conducted our study with a group of final year undergraduate students who were registered on a module that described VR in terms of the scientific issues, application areas, and strengths and weaknesses of the technology.

Advances in upper limb stroke rehabilitation: a technology push

Strokes affect thousands of people worldwide leaving sufferers with severe disabilities affecting their daily activities. In recent years, new rehabilitation techniques have emerged such as constraint-induced therapy, biofeedback therapy and robot-aided therapy. In particular, robotic techniques allow precise recording of movements and application of forces to the affected limb, making it a valuable tool for motor rehabilitation. In addition, robot-aided therapy can utilise visual cues conveyed on a computer screen to convert repetitive movement practice into an engaging task such as a game. Visual cues can also be used to control the information sent to the patient about exercise performance and to potentially address psychosomatic variables influencing therapy. This paper overviews the current state-of-the-art on upper limb robot-mediated therapy with a focal point on the technical requirements of robotic therapy devices leading to the development of upper limb rehabilitation techniques that facilitate reach-to-touch, fine motor control, whole-arm movements and promote rehabilitation beyond hospital stay. The reviewed literature suggest that while there is evidence supporting the use of this technology to reduce functional impairment, besides the technological push, the challenge ahead lies on provision of effective assessment of outcome and modalities that have a stronger impact transferring functional gains into functional independence.

Assessment of CloudSat reflectivity measurements and ice cloud properties using ground-based and airborne cloud radar observations

A quantitative assessment of Cloudsat reflectivities and basic ice cloud properties (cloud base, top, and thickness) is conducted in the present study from both airborne and ground-based observations. Airborne observations allow direct comparisons on a limited number of ocean backscatter and cloud samples, whereas the ground-based observations allow statistical comparisons on much longer time series but with some additional assumptions. Direct comparisons of the ocean backscatter and ice cloud reflectivities measured by an airborne cloud radar and Cloudsat during two field experiments indicate that, on average, Cloudsat measures ocean backscatter 0.4 dB higher and ice cloud reflectivities 1 dB higher than the airborne cloud radar. Five ground-based sites have also been used for a statistical evaluation of the Cloudsat reflectivities and basic cloud properties. From these comparisons, it is found that the weighted-mean difference ZCloudsat − ZGround ranges from −0.4 to +0.3 dB when a ±1-h time lag around the Cloudsat overpass is considered. Given the fact that the airborne and ground-based radar calibration accuracy is about 1 dB, it is concluded that the reflectivities of the spaceborne, airborne, and ground-based radars agree within the expected calibration uncertainties of the airborne and ground-based radars. This result shows that the Cloudsat radar does achieve the claimed sensitivity of around −29 dBZ. Finally, an evaluation of the tropical “convective ice” profiles measured by Cloudsat has been carried out over the tropical site in Darwin, Australia. It is shown that these profiles can be used statistically down to approximately 9-km height (or 4 km above the melting layer) without attenuation and multiple scattering corrections over Darwin. It is difficult to estimate if this result is applicable to all types of deep convective storms in the tropics. However, this first study suggests that the Cloudsat profiles in convective ice need to be corrected for attenuation by supercooled liquid water and ice aggregates/graupel particles and multiple scattering prior to their quantitative use.