Falling in love outwards: Eco-social work and the sensuous event

Summary: Social work is a discipline that focuses on the person-in-the-environment. However, the social domains of influence have traditionally received more attention from the profession compared with the impact of the natural world on human well-being. With the development of ecological theories, and growing threats to the environment, this gap has been addressed and now the notion of eco-social work is attracting more interest. This article builds on this corpus of work by exploring, and augmenting, the thinking of the philosopher, David Abram, and his phenomenological investigation of perception, meaning, embodiment, language and Indigenous experience. The implications for eco-social work are then addressed.

Findings: The development of Abram’s philosophical thesis is charted by reviewing his presentation of the ideas of the European phenomenologists, Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It is argued that Abram uses phenomenology to explore the character of perception and the sensual foundations of language which, in Indigenous cultures, are connected with the natural world. A gap in Abram’s thinking is then revealed showing the need to set human perception and language within an understanding of power. Overall, this re-worked thesis is underpinned by a meta-narrative in which ecology engages with philosophy, psychology and Indigenous experience.

Applications: By grounding such ideas in Slavoj Žižek’s construct of the sensuous event, three applications within social work are evinced, namely: (i) reflecting on the sensuous event in social work education; (ii) rekindling the sensuous event with Indigenous Peoples; and (iii) instigating the sensuous event with non-Indigenous populations.

A study of the kinetic solvent isotope effect on the destruction of microcystin-LR and geosmin using TiO2 photocatalysis

We have previously reported the effectiveness of TiO₂ photocatalysis in the destruction of species generated by cyanobacteria, specifically geosmin and microcystin-LR. In this paper we report an investigation of factors which influence the rate of the toxin destruction at the catalyst surface. A primary kinetic solvent isotope effect of approximately 1.5 was observed when the destruction was performed in a heavy water solvent. This is in contrast to previous reports of a solvent isotope effect of approximately 3, however, these studies were undertaken with a different photocatalyst material. The solvent isotope effect therefore appears to be dependent on the photocatalyst material used. The results of the study support the theory that the photocatalytic decomposition occurs on the catalyst surface rather than in the bulk of the solution. Furthermore it appears that the rate determining step is not oxygen reduction as previously reported. 

Photocatalytic destruction of geosmin using novel pelleted titanium dioxide

Geosmin is produced by cyanobacteria and actinomycetes in surface waters. It causes undesirable earthy off-flavours in freshwater fish and is a major concern for the drinking water industry. This paper presents the first published study on the use of the novel pelleted Ti0₂ photocatalyst, Hombikat K01/C, for the removal of geosmin from water. Ti0₂ in pelleted form eliminates the requirement for the separation of the catalyst from the water following treatment which is normally the case with the widely used powdered catalysts. A laboratory reactor was designed to limit system loss since the compound adsorbs to a wide range of surfaces. Initial concentration, aeration rate and irradiation were evaluated. It was found that degradation of geosmin followed the Langmuir-Hinshelwood model. Elevated aeration had no effect on the photocatalytic removal of geosmin, but increasing irradiation was found to increase degradation rates. The catalyst proved effective within 10 min under optimum conditions. 

PESSTO monitoring of SN 2012hn: further heterogeneity among faint Type I supernovae

We present optical and infrared monitoring data of SN 2012hn collectedby the Public European Southern Observatory Spectroscopic Survey forTransient Objects. We show that SN 2012hn has a faint peak magnitude(MR ˜ -15.65) and shows no hydrogen and no clearevidence for helium in its spectral evolution. Instead, we detectprominent Ca II lines at all epochs, which relates this transient topreviously described `Ca-rich' or `gap' transients. However, thephotospheric spectra (from -3 to +32 d with respect to peak) of SN2012hn show a series of absorption lines which are unique and a redcontinuum that is likely intrinsic rather than due to extinction. Linesof Ti II and Cr II are visible. This may be a temperature effect, whichcould also explain the red photospheric colour. A nebular spectrum at+150 d shows prominent Ca II, O I, C I and possibly Mg I lines whichappear similar in strength to those displayed by core-collapsesupernovae (SNe). To add to the puzzle, SN 2012hn is located at aprojected distance of 6 kpc from an E/S0 host and is not close to anyobvious star-forming region. Overall SN 2012hn resembles a group offaint H-poor SNe that have been discovered recently and for which aconvincing and consistent physical explanation is still missing. Theyall appear to explode preferentially in remote locations offset from amassive host galaxy with deep limits on any dwarf host galaxies,favouring old progenitor systems. SN 2012hn adds heterogeneity to thissample of objects. We discuss potential explosion channels includingHe-shell detonations and double detonations of white dwarfs as well aspeculiar core-collapse SNe.

A constructive approach for examination timetabling based on adaptive decomposition and ordering

In this study, we investigate an adaptive decomposition and ordering strategy that automatically divides examinations into difficult and easy sets for constructing an examination timetable. The examinations in the difficult set are considered to be hard to place and hence are listed before the ones in the easy set in the construction process. Moreover, the examinations within each set are ordered using different strategies based on graph colouring heuristics. Initially, the examinations are placed into the easy set. During the construction process, examinations that cannot be scheduled are identified as the ones causing infeasibility and are moved forward in the difficult set to ensure earlier assignment in subsequent attempts. On the other hand, the examinations that can be scheduled remain in the easy set.

Within the easy set, a new subset called the boundary set is introduced to accommodate shuffling strategies to change the given ordering of examinations. The proposed approach, which incorporates different ordering and shuffling strategies, is explored on the Carter benchmark problems. The empirical results show that the performance of our algorithm is broadly comparable to existing constructive approaches.

Serum- and HDL3-serum amyloid A and HDL3-LCAT activity are influenced by increased CVD-burden

BACKGROUND: High density lipoproteins (HDL) protect against cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, increased serum amyloid-A (SAA) related inflammation may negate this property. This study investigated if SAA was related to CVD-burden.

METHODS: Subjects referred to the rapid chest pain clinic (n = 240) had atherosclerotic burden assessed by cardiac computerised tomography angiography. Subjects were classified as: no-CVD (n = 106), non-obstructive-CVD, stenosis<50% (n = 58) or moderate/significant-CVD, stenosis ≥50% (n = 76). HDL was subfractionated into HDL2 and HDL3 by rapid-ultracentrifugation. SAA-concentration was measured by ELISA and lecithin cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) activity measured by a fluorimetric assay.

RESULTS: We illustrated that serum-SAA and HDL3-SAA-concentration were higher and HDL3-LCAT-activity lower in the moderate/significant-CVD-group, compared to the no-CVD and non-obstructive-CVD-groups (percent differences: serum-SAA, +33% & +30%: HDL3-SAA, +65% and +39%: HDL3-LCAT, -6% & -3%; p < 0.05 for all comparisons). We also identified a positive correlation between serum-SAA and HDL3-SAA (r = 0.698; p < 0.001) and a negative correlation between HDL3-SAA and HDL3-LCAT-activity (r = -0.295; p = 0.003), while CVD-burden positively correlated with serum-SAA (r = 0.150; p < 0.05) and HDL3-SAA (r = 0.252; p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with HDL3-LCAT-activity (r = -0.182; p = 0.006). Additionally, multivariate regression analysis adjusted for age, gender, CRP and serum-SAA illustrated that HDL3-SAA was significantly associated with modifying CVD-risk of moderate/significant CVD-risk (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: This study has demonstrated increased SAA-related inflammation in subjects with moderate/significant CVD-burden, which appeared to impact on the antiatherogenic potential of HDL. We suggest that SAA may be a useful biomarker to illustrate increased CVD-burden, although this requires further investigation.

Protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial of an intervention to increase the use of traffic light food labelling in UK shoppers (the FLICC trial)

Background: Traffic light labelling of foods—a system that incorporates a colour-coded assessment of the level of total fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt on the front of packaged foods—has been recommended by the UK Government and is currently in use or being phased in by many UK manufacturers and retailers. This paper describes a protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial of an intervention designed to increase the use of traffic light labelling during real-life food purchase decisions.

Methods/design: The objectives of this two-arm randomised controlled pilot trial are to assess recruitment, retention and data completion rates, to generate potential effect size estimates to inform sample size calculations for the main trial and to assess the feasibility of conducting such a trial. Participants will be recruited by email from a loyalty card database of a UK supermarket chain. Eligible participants will be over 18 and regular shoppers who frequently purchase ready meals or pizzas. The intervention is informed by a review of previous interventions encouraging the use of nutrition labelling and the broader behaviour change literature. It is designed to impact on mechanisms affecting belief and behavioural intention formation as well as those associated with planning and goal setting and the adoption and maintenance of the behaviour of interest, namely traffic light label use during purchases of ready meals and pizzas. Data will be collected using electronic sales data via supermarket loyalty cards and web-based questionnaires and will be used to estimate the effect of the intervention on the nutrition profile of purchased ready meals and pizzas and the behavioural mechanisms associated with label use. Data collection will take place over 48 weeks. A process evaluation including semi-structured interviews and web analytics will be conducted to assess feasibility of a full trial.

Discussion: The design of the pilot trial allows for efficient recruitment and data collection. The intervention could be generalised to a wider population if shown to be feasible in the main trial.