Northwest Arkansas Community College

In 2021, Canada revised its Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) law, removing the "reasonably foreseeable death" requirement. Opponents of MAID voiced concerns about a "slippery slope" leading to broader access, with some arguing the line has already been crossed. I examine the arguments against expanded eligibility, particularly those presented by Tom Koch (2023). Koch's reasoning, I submit, is flawed, lacking nuance in its understanding of the slippery slope and relying on a problematic argument about healthcare access.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide a way for students to gain research experience in a classroom setting. Few examples of cell culture CUREs or online CUREs exist in the literature.

Hydraulic fracturing flowback and produced water is a highly impaired wastewater containing dissolved salts polar and non-polar organic compounds, oil and surfactants.Here a combined electrocoagulation - microfiltration - membrane distillation process has been used to treat this wastewater.Electrocoagulation followed by microfiltration was used to pretreat the wastewater prior membrane distillationThe initial total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration was extremely high being 245,300 mg L^-1.After electrocoagulation, the total organic carbon (TOC) was reduced from 120 mg L^-1 to 64 mg L^-1.Tangential flow microfiltration using a 0.1μm pore size polyethersulfone membrane was used to sep. the particulate matter after electrocoagulation and to further reduce the TOC to 44 mg L^-1.Membrane distillation was used to desalinate the pretreated produced water resulting in a high quality treated water (TDS of 56 mg L^-1 and TOC 1 mg L^-1).Three membranes with very different surface morphol. were used: com. available polyvinylidene fluoride, electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) nanofibers and multiwalled carbon nanotube coated polytetrafluoroethylene.The TDS in the retentate increased to over 350,000 mg L^-1.During membrane distillation, the temperature of the feed tank was maintained at 36°C while the feed entered the module at 60°C in order to minimize scaling on the membrane.The surface properties of an ideal membrane that is resistant to wetting and provides high flux is likely to depend on the TDS and properties of the wastewater.