Anything becomes possible at the LSE

by Lisa Muggeridge, MSc student in the Department of Sociology at the LSE At long last inequality is the watchword on the lips of economists, academics, politicians, and media alike. The evolution of the financial crisis into social and political crisis, has left many wondering how they didn’t notice inequality widening. Leaving them to wonder what equality meant in the first place and how inequality actually shapes the economy and society. The London School of Economics recently formed the International Inequalities Institute as a response to the growing anxieties relating to inequality. Ironically the LSE is of one of the universities in the golden triangle at the apex of the higher education and class reproduction hierarchy in the UK

The Implications of Population Aging for Economic Growth

I use a reduced form regression model to determine the extent to which population aging accounts for economic growth in each of the nine regions of the world. Predominantly, I build upon the research of Bloom et al. (2010), which is central to formulating my regression equation. I separate the difference between each region’s average growth rate from the world average growth rate into demographic and non-demographic effects using the estimated coefficients. The results suggest that more economically developed regions have potentially benefited from population aging, while less economically developed regions have not.Honors Thesi

Scaling heat and mass flow through porous media during pyrolysis.

The modelling of heat and mass flow through porous media in the presence of pyrolysis is complex because various physical and chemical phenomena need to be represented. In addition to the transport of heat by conduction and convection, and the change of properties with varying pressure and temperature, these processes involve transport of mass by convection, evaporation, condensation and pyrolysis chemical reactions. Examples of such processes include pyrolysis of wood, thermal decomposition of polymer composite and in situ upgrading of heavy oil and oil shale. The behaviours of these systems are difficult to predict as relatively small changes in the material composition can significantly change the thermophysical properties. Scaling reduces the number of parameters in the problem statement and quantifies the relative importance of the various dimensional parameters such as permeability, thermal conduction and reaction constants. This paper uses inspectional analysis to determine the minimum number of dimensionless scaling groups that describe the decomposition of a solid porous material into a gas in one dimension. Experimental design is then used to rank these scaling groups in terms of their importance in describing the outcome of two example processes: the thermal decomposition of heat shields formed from polymer composites and the in situ upgrading of heavy oils and oil shales. A sensitivity analysis is used to divide these groups into three sets (primary, secondary and insignificant), thus identifying the combinations of solid and fluid properties that have the most impact on the performance of the different processes

Modelling In-situ Upgrading of Heavy Oil Using Operator Splitting Methods

Heavy oil and oil sands are important hydrocarbon resources that account for over 10 trillion barrels (Meyer et al., 2007), nearly three times the conventional oil in place in the world. There are huge, wellknown resources of heavy oil, extra-heavy oil, and bitumen in Canada, Venezuela, Russia, the USA and many other countries. The oil sands of Alberta alone contain over two trillion barrels of oil. In Canada, approximately 20% of oil production is from heavy oil and oil sand resources

Adaptive mesh optimization for simulation of immiscible viscous fingering

Viscous fingering can be a major concern when waterflooding heavy-oil reservoirs. Most commercial reservoir simulators use low-order finite-volume/-difference methods on structured grids to resolve this phenomenon. However, this approach suffers from a significant numerical-dispersion error because of insufficient mesh resolution, which smears out some important features of the flow. We simulate immiscible incompressible two-phase displacements and propose the use of unstructured control-volume finite-element (CVFE) methods for capturing viscous fingering in porous media. Our approach uses anisotropic mesh adaptation where the mesh resolution is optimized on the basis of the evolving features of flow. The adaptive algorithm uses a metric tensor field dependent on solution-interpolation-error estimates to locally control the size and shape of elements in the metric. The mesh optimization generates an unstructured finer mesh in areas of the domain where flow properties change more quickly and a coarser mesh in other regions where properties do not vary so rapidly. We analyze the computational cost of mesh adaptivity on unstructured mesh and compare its results with those obtained by a commercial reservoir simulator on the basis of the finite-volume methods

Modelling Heat and Mass Transfer in Porous Material during Pyrolysis using Operator Splitting and Dimensionless Analysis

Dimensionless analysis isused to improve the computational performance when using operator splitting methods to model the heat and mass transfer during pyrolysis. The specific examples investigated are thermal decomposition of polymer composite when used as heat shields during space-craft re-entry or for rocket nozzle’s protection, and the In-Situ Upgrading (ISU) of solid oil shale by subsurface pyrolysis to form liquid oil and gas. ISU is a very challenging process to model numerically because a large number of components need to be modelled using a system of equations that are both highly non-linear and strongly coupled. Inspectional Analysis is used to determine the minimum number of dimensionless groups that can be used to describe the process. This set of dimensionless numbers is then reduced to those that are key to describing the system behaviour. This is achieved byperforming a sensitivity study using Experimental Design torank the numbers in terms of their impact on system behaviour. The numbers are then sub-divided into those of primary importance, secondary importance and those which are insignificant based on the t-value of their effect, which is compared to the Bonferroni corrected t-limit and Lenth’s margin of error. Finally we use the sub-set of the most significant numbers to improve the stability and performance when numerically modelling this process. A range of operator splitting techniques is evaluated including the Sequential Split Operator (SSO), the Iterative Split Operator (ISO) and theAlternating Split Operator (ASO

The effects of two different doses of ultraviolet-A light exposure on nitric oxide metabolites and cardiorespiratory outcomes

Abstract Purpose The present study investigated different doses of ultraviolet-A (UV-A) light on plasma nitric oxide metabolites and cardiorespiratory variables. Methods Ten healthy male participants completed three experimental conditions, 7 days apart. Participants were exposed to no light (CON); 10 J cm2 (15 min) of UV-A light (UVA10) and 20 J cm2 (30 min) of UV-A light (UVA20) in a randomized order. Plasma nitrite [NO2 −] and nitrate [NO3 −] concentrations, blood pressure (BP), and heart rate (HR) were recorded before, immediately after exposure and 30 min post-exposure. Whole body oxygen utilization (V̇ O2), resting metabolic rate (RMR) and skin temperature were recorded continuously. Results None of the measured parameters changed significantly during CON (all P>0.05). V̇ O2 and RMR were significantly reduced immediately after UVA10 (P<0.05) despite no change in plasma [NO2 −] (P>0.05). Immediately after exposure to UVA20, plasma [NO2 −] was higher (P=0.014) and V̇ O2 and RMR tended to be lower compared to baseline (P=0.06). There were no differences in [NO2 −] or V̇ O2 at the 30 min time point in any condition. UV-A exposure did not alter systolic BP, diastolic BP or MAP (all P>0.05). UV-A light did not alter plasma [NO3 −] at any time point (all P>0.05). Conclusions This study demonstrates that a UV-A dose of 20 J cm2 is necessary to increase plasma [NO2 −] although a smaller dose is capable of reducing V̇ O2 and RMR at rest. Exposure to UV-A did not significantly reduce BP in this cohort of healthy adults. These data suggest that exposure to sunlight has a meaningful acute impact on metabolic function

Global impacts of energy demand on the freshwater resources of nations

The growing geographic disconnect between consumption of goods, the extraction and processing of resources, and the environmental impacts associated with production activities makes it crucial to factor global trade into sustainability assessments. Using an empirically validated environmentally extended global trade model, we examine the relationship between two key resources underpinning economies and human well-being—energy and freshwater. A comparison of three energy sectors (petroleum, gas, and electricity) reveals that freshwater consumption associated with gas and electricity production is largely confined within the territorial boundaries where demand originates. This finding contrasts with petroleum, which exhibits a varying ratio of territorial to international freshwater consumption, depending on the origin of demand. For example, although the United States and China have similar demand associated with the petroleum sector, international freshwater consumption is three times higher for the former than the latter. Based on mapping patterns of freshwater consumption associated with energy sectors at subnational scales, our analysis also reveals concordance between pressure on freshwater resources associated with energy production and freshwater scarcity in a number of river basins globally. These energy-driven pressures on freshwater resources in areas distant from the origin of energy demand complicate the design of policy to ensure security of fresh water and energy supply. Although much of the debate around energy is focused on greenhouse gas emissions, our findings highlight the need to consider the full range of consequences of energy production when designing policy

The perceived impact of COVID-19 and associated restrictions on young people with epilepsy in the UK: Young people and caregiver survey.

PURPOSE: To garner the views of young people with epilepsy and caregivers regarding the impact of COVID-19 and subsequent restrictions in the UK. MEHODS: An online survey was used to explore the views of young people with epilepsy (n = 71) and caregivers (n = 130) in June 2020. It included questions on the impact of the pandemic and associated restrictions on the child's epilepsy and on child and parental wellbeing. RESULTS: One in three young people and 29 % of caregivers reported that the young person's seizures had increased during the pandemic (only 10 % of young people and 8% of caregivers reported a decrease). Half of young people reported that they were more reluctant to go to hospital. Thirty-one percent of young people and 20 % of parents reported difficulties getting epilepsy medication whilst a significant minority of young people (18 %) and caregivers (25 %) reported that the young person had investigations/assessments cancelled by their hospital. The majority of young people reported their sleep (72 %), mood (64 %) and levels of physical activity (53 %) had deteriorated. Caregivers experienced increases in stress (55 %) and anxiety (52 %). Epilepsy nurses were seen as the most helpful support CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that the pandemic and associated restrictions have had a negative impact on young people with epilepsy. Perceived increases in seizures, reluctance to go to hospital and cancelled investigations are likely to impact on epilepsy management. The wider psychosocial impact is also likely to be significant with increases in child and caregiver mental health problems in an already vulnerable group