Evaluation and mechanistic investigation of a AuPd alloy catalyst for the hydrocarbon selective catalytic reduction (HC-SCR) of NOx

The ability of a gold palladium bimetallic catalyst to selectively oxidise toluene has been used to enhance the hydrocarbon selective catalytic reduction of NOx, a reaction in which the interaction of partial oxidation intermediates is considered important. The combination of gold with palladium has a synergistic effect, producing a catalyst that is more active for NOx conversion than the arithmetic sum of the corresponding mono-metallic materials. Three regimes in the conversion profile of the AuPd catalyst are proposed relating to production and consumption of toluene derived species, such as benzaldehyde and benzonitrile. The possible role of these reaction intermediates in the toluene HC-SCR reaction is examined. Using 15NO, the formation of N2 and N2O is observed via the direct interaction between the nitrogen atom of benzonitrile and 15NO. The higher activity of the bimetallic catalyst for the NOx reduction reaction by toluene is discussed in the context of these partial oxidation intermediates.

European Economic and Social Constitutionalism after the Treaty of Lisbon

European studies frequently regard the economic and social dimensions of EU integration as diametrically opposed, maintaining that this state of affairs is beyond change. This edited collection challenges this perceived wisdom, focusing on the post-Lisbon constitutional landscape. Taking the multi-layered polity that is Europe today as its central organising theme, it examines how the social and the economic might be reconciled under the Union's different forms of governance. The collection has a clear structure, opening with a theoretical appraisal of its theme, before considering three specific policy fields: migration policy and civic integration, company law and corporate social responsibility and the role of third sector providers in public healthcare. It concludes with three case studies in these fields, illustrating how the argument can be practically applied. Insightful and topical, with a unique interdisciplinary perspective, this is an important contribution to European Union law after the Lisbon Treaty

Child Poverty in Northern Ireland: Results from the Poverty and Social Exclusion Study

- There is general agreement that the measurement of child poverty is based on both low income and deprivation.

- Adjusting incomes for different household types, measuring before or after housing costs, and the selection of deprivation items all have an impact on poverty rates.

- The consensual poverty method, which takes account of what the population considers to be basic necessities, is described. The study found a high level of agreement on the basic necessities for children.

- The study found that only a few children lacked very basic necessities such as three meals a day and adequate clothing, but a third of all children (150,000) were deprived of an annual holiday and 75,000 children are growing up in cold and damp homes.

- Overall, the study found that 24% or 106,000 children are living in low income households and are deprived of four or more items.

- The study found those who had a ‘high experience’ of the conflict were significantly more deprived than those with no conflict experience and that a fifth of all children are living with an adult/s who have ‘high experience’.

Cyclic nanoindentation and nano-impact fatigue characterisation of functionally graded TiN/TiNi shape memory film

This paper investigates the mechanism of nanoscale fatigue of functionally graded TiN/TiNi films using nano-impact and multiple-loading-cycle nanoindentation tests. The functionally graded films were deposited on silicon substrate, in which TiNi films maintain shape memory and pseudo elastic behavior, while a modified TiN surface layer provides tribological and anti-corrosion properties. Nanomechanical tests were performed to comprehend the localized film performance and failure modes of the functionally graded film using NanoTestTM equipped with Berkovich and conical indenter between 100 μN to 500 mN loads. The loading mechanism and load history are critical to define film failure modes (i.e. backward depth deviation) including the shape memory effect of the functionally graded layer. The results are sensitive to the applied load, loading type (e.g. semi-static, dynamic) and probe geometry. Based on indentation force-depth profiles, depth-time data and post-test surface observations of films, it is concluded that the shape of the nanoindenter is critical in inducing the localized indentation stress and film failure, including shape recovery at the lower load range. Elastic-plastic finite element (FE) simulation during nanoindentation loading indicated that the location of subsurface maximum stress near the interface influences the backward depth deviation type of film failure. A standalone, molecular dynamics simulation was performed with the help of a long range potential energy function to simulate the tensile test of TiN nanowire with two different aspect ratios to investigate the theory of its failure mechanism.

Ethnic Segregation, Moral Panics and Social Class: A Comparative Study of the Experiences and Perspectives of Working Class and Middle Class Children in Belfast

This paper begins by describing the moral panics that have tended to emerge sporadically in Northern Ireland over the last few years with regard to young people’s involvement in sectarian violence in Belfast. Within this, while these young people have been cast in the traditional role of folk devils, the paper will show how younger children also tend to be explicitly identified and named in an ambiguous way through such moral panics; playing a deviant role as participators, and sometimes instigators, of sectarian violence but also carrying the symbolic responsibility of representing Belfast’s future. It will be shown that it is because of this ambiguous position that it is adults rather than the children themselves that tend to be held responsible for their actions; either as rioters using the children as political pawns or as parents guilty of neglect. With this as a starting point the paper then explores the perspectives and experiences of two groups of 10-11 year old children living in Belfast and the impact of these moral panics on them. One group of children, living in affluent middle class areas were found to be appropriating and re-working these broader moral panics into more general discourses of derision that tended to pathologize working class children and communities more generally. For the other group of children, living in economically deprived areas with high levels of sectarian tensions and violence, their experiences of such violence and their participation in it are discussed. It will be shown that for these children, the broader moral panics that exist tend to have the effect of reinforcing the processes that tend to segregate and exclude them.

Dup discourses on violence and their impact on the northern ireland peace process

This paper analyses the Democratic Unionist Party's (DUP) discourses about paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland. Drawing on narrative analysis of DUP discourses reported in Northern Ireland's largest unionist newspaper, the News Letter (1998-2006), it explores the relationship between the party's identity, its discourses about republican and loyalist paramilitaries, and the impact of these words on the DUP's electoral success and on the peace process. The paper argues that these discourses may haunt the progress of peace-building, not least because the DUP will find it hard to disentangle itself from a history of scepticism and nay-saying even as it takes a leading role in a devolved Executive designed by an Agreement it longscorned.

Economic evaluation and its place in dentistry

Objective: This review intends to examine current research surrounding economic assessment in the delivery of dental care. Economic evaluation is an acknowledged method of analysing dental care systems by means of efficiency, effectiveness, efficacy and availability. Though this is a widely used method in medicine, it is underappreciated in dentistry. As the delivery of health care changes there has been recent demand by the public, the profession, and those funding dental treatment to investigate current practices regarding programs themselves and resource allocation.
Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted regarding health economics. The initial search was carried out using Pubmed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and The Cochrane Library with search terms “health AND economics AND dentistry”. A secondary search was conducted with the terms “heath care AND dentistry AND”. The third part of the entry was changed to address the aims and included the following terms: “cost benefit analysis”, “efficiency criteria”, “supply & demand”, “cost-effectiveness”, “cost minimisation”, “cost utility”, “resource allocation”, “QALY”, and “delivery and economics”. Limits were applied to all searches to only include papers published in English within the last eight years.
Results: Preliminary results demonstrated a limited number of economic evaluations conducted in dentistry. Those that were carried out were mainly confined to the United Kingdom. Furthermore analysis was mainly restricted to restorative dentistry, followed by orthodontics, and maxillofacial surgery, thereby demonstrating a need for investigation in all fields of dentistry.
Conclusion: Health economics has been overlooked in the past regarding delivery of dental care and resource allocation. Economic appraisal is a crucial part of generating an effective and efficient dental care system. It is becoming increasingly evident that there is a need for economic evaluation in all dental fields.

Energy levels, radiative rates and electron impact excitation rates for transitions in Fe XIV

Energies and lifetimes are reported for the lowest 136 levels of Fe XIV, belonging to the (1s(2)2s(2)2p(6)) 3s(2)3p, 3s(3)p(2), 3s(2)3d, 3p(3), 3s(3)p(3)d, 3p(2)3d, 3s(3)d(2), 3p(3)d(2) and 3s(2)4l configurations. Additionally, radiative rates, oscillator strengths and line strengths are calculated for all electric dipole (E1), magnetic dipole (M1), electric quadrupole (E2) and magnetic quadrupole (M2) transitions. Theoretical lifetimes determined from these radiative rates for most levels show satisfactory agreement with earlier calculations, a swell as with measurements. Electron impact excitation collision strengths are also calculated with the Dirac atomic R-matrix code (DARC) over a wide energy range up to 260 Ryd. Furthermore, resonances have been resolved in a fine energy mesh to determine effective collision strengths, obtained after integrating the collision strengths over a Maxwellian distribution of electron velocities. Results are listed for all 9180 transitions among the 136 levels over a wide range of electron temperatures, up to 10(7.1) K. Comparisons are made with available results in the literature, and the accuracy of the present data is assessed.

Developing and evaluating the integration of Life and Social Sciences teaching to first-year Nursing and Midwifery students

Title: Evaluating the integrating of life and social sciences teaching to first-year nursing and midwifery students

Objectives: To evaluate an integrated teaching and learning approach to first-year nursing students, combining the life, social sciences and public health with a more integrated and clinical focused approach to teaching delivery

Background: Historically within the School of Nursing and Midwifery the life sciences and social sciences had been taught as separate modules with separate teaching teams. This had reflected in a somewhat dis-integrated approach to student learning and understanding without clear clinical focus on application. With focus upon student learning the teaching teams engaged with a stepped, incremental and progressive movement towards developing and delivering a more integrated structure of learning, combining the life sciences, social sciences and public health teaching and learning within the one extended first-year module. The focus was particularly on integrated understanding and clinical relevance. This paper discusses both the approach to developing the integrated model of teaching and the evaluation of that teaching.

Results: The module, combining life, social science and Public health teaching was positively evaluated by the students. Evaluations are compared and contrasted from to nursing student intakes.

The Evaluation and Quantitation of Dihydrogen Metabolism Using Deuterium Isotope in Rats

Purpose: Despite the significant interest in molecular hydrogen as an antioxidant in the last eight years, its quantitative metabolic parameters in vivo are still lacking, as is an appropriate method for determination of hydrogen effectivity in the mammalian organism under various conditions.

Basic Procedures: Intraperitoneally-applied deuterium gas was used as a metabolic tracer and deuterium enrichment was determined in the body water pool. Also, in vitro experiments were performed using bovine heart submitochondrial particles to evaluate superoxide formation in Complex I of the respiratory chain.

Main Findings: A significant oxidation of about 10% of the applied dose was found under physiological conditions in rats, proving its antioxidant properties. Hypoxia or endotoxin application did not exert any effect, whilst pure oxygen inhalation reduced deuterium oxidation. During in vitro experiments, a significant reduction of superoxide formation by Complex I of the respiratory chain was found under the influence of hydrogen. The possible molecular mechanisms of the beneficial effects of hydrogen are discussed, with an emphasis on the role of iron sulphur clusters in reactive oxygen species generation and on iron species-dihydrogen interaction.

Principal Conclusions: According to our findings, hydrogen may be an efficient, non-toxic, highly bioavailable and low-cost antioxidant supplement for patients with pathological conditions involving ROS-induced oxidative stress.

Beyond Criminal Justice: An anthology of abolitionist papers presented to conferences of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control over the past decade

Beyond Criminal Justice presents a vision of a future without brutal, authoritarian and repressive penal regimes. Many of the papers brought together here have been unavailable for more than two decades. Their republication indicates not only their continuing theoretical importance to abolitionist studies but also how they provide important insights into the nature and legitimacy of criminal processes in the here and now. Contributors highlight the human consequences of the harms of imprisonment, evidencing the hurt, injury and damage of penal incarceration across a number of different countries in Europe. Focusing on penal power and prisoner contestation to such power, the moral and political crises of imprisonment are laid bare. The contributors to Beyond Criminal Justice explore the urgent need for a coherent, rational and morally and politically sophisticated theoretical basis for penal abolitionism. Advocating a utopian imagination and at the same time practical solutions already implemented in countries around Europe - alongside grappling with controversial debates such as abolitionist responses to rape and sexual violence - the book steps outside of common sense assumptions regarding 'crime', punishment and 'criminal justice'. Beyond Criminal Justice will be of interest to students of criminology, zemiology, sociology, penology and critical legal studies as well as anyone interested in rethinking the problem of 'crime' and challenging the logic of the penal rationale.

Corneal structure and biomechanics: impact on the diagnosis and management of glaucoma.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW:

Highlights recent studies relating to the impact of corneal structure and biomechanical properties on glaucoma evaluation and management.

RECENT FINDINGS:

Central corneal thickness has been shown to play a role in the interpretation of intraocular pressure. Central corneal thickness has also been suggested as a glaucoma risk factor. The potential role of other corneal factors, such as stromal makeup, in the accurate measurement of intraocular pressure and the assessment of glaucoma risk remains to be determined.

SUMMARY:

Improved understanding of central corneal thickness and corneal biomechanical properties may someday lead to a better understanding of glaucoma risk and its assessment.