Retention of toxic chromium from aqueous phase by H3PO4-activated lignin: Effect of salts and desorption studies

In this study, the feasibility of using H₃PO₄-activated lignin for hexavalent chromium adsorption has been investigated. The composite of activated lignin was characterized using FTIR, XRD and SEM with EDAX analysis. It was observed that the pH had a strong effect on the adsorption capacity; adsorption of Cr(VI) was more favorable at acidic pH with maximum uptake at pH 2. The adsorption equilibrium data were best represented by Koble-Corrigan isotherm. The monolayer sorption capacity obtained from the Langmuir model was found to be 77.85 mg/g. Adsorption showed pseudo-second order rate kinetics and the process involving the rate-controlling step is complex as it involves both film and intraparticle diffusion processes. The NaOH desorbing agent was able to release approximately 84% of metal ions. Thermodynamic parameters showed that the sorption process is exothermic and non-spontaneous. The overall Cr(VI) retention on the activated lignin surface perhaps includes both the physical adsorption of Cr(VI) and the consequent reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III). (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Does Job Search Monitoring Intensity Affect Unemployment? Evidence from Northern Ireland

Because unemployment benefit reforms typically package together a number of changes, few existing evaluations have been able to isolate the effects of changes in job search monitoring intensity on benefit recipient stocks or flows. Those few studies that do so draw mixed conclusions. This paper provides new estimates of monitoring impacts by exploiting plausibly exogenous periods where search monitoring has been temporarily withdrawn - with the regime otherwise unchanged - during a series of benefit office refurbishments in Northern Ireland. As we would expect from search theory, withdrawal of monitoring significantly increases the stock of unemployment benefit recipients via reduced outflows. © The London School of Economics and Political Science 2008.

Comparison of dynamics of wildtype and V94M human UDP-galactose 4-epimerase-A computational perspective on severe epimerase-deficiency galactosemia

UDP-galactose 4'-epimerase (GALE) catalyzes the interconversion of UDP-galactose and UDP-glucose, an important step in galactose catabolism. Type III galactosemia, an inherited metabolic disease, is associated with mutations in human GALE. The V94M mutation has been associated with a very severe form of type III galactosemia. While a variety of structural and biochemical studies have been reported that elucidate differences between the wildtype and this mutant form of human GALE, little is known about the dynamics of the protein and how mutations influence structure and function. We performed molecular dynamics simulations on the wildtype and V94M enzyme in different states of substrate and cofactor binding. In the mutant, the average distance between the substrate and both a key catalytic residue (Tyr157) and the enzyme-bound NAD(+) cofactor and the active site dynamics are altered making substrate binding slightly less stable. However, overall stability or dynamics of the protein is not altered. This is consistent with experimental findings that the impact is largely on the turnover number (kcat), with less substantial effects on Km. Active site fluctuations were found to be correlated in enzyme with substrate bound to just one of the subunits in the homodimer suggesting inter-subunit communication. Greater active site loop mobility in human GALE compared to the equivalent loop in Escherichia coli GALE explains why the former can catalyze the interconversion of UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine and UDP-N-acetylglucosamine while the bacterial enzyme cannot. This work illuminates molecular mechanisms of disease and may inform the design of small molecule therapies for type III galactosemia.

International differences in sport medicine access and clinical management

I undertook the 2012 ECOSEP travelling fellowship, sponsored by Bauerfeind, between May and August 2012, which involved visiting 5 European sport medicine centres and spending approximately one week in each centre. The 5 centres included: National Track and Field Centre, SEGAS, Thessaloniki, Greece; Professional School in Sport & Exercise Medicine, University of Barcelona, Spain; Sport Medicine Frankfurt Institute, Germany; Isokinetic Medical Group, FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, Bologna, Italy, and Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Mile End Hospital, England. Throughout the fellowship, the clinical cases which were routinely encountered were documented. The following sections detail my experiences throughout the fellowship, the sports of the athletes and the injuries which were treated at each of the sport medicine centres during the fellowship visit and the different forms of management employed. © 2012, CIC Edizioni Internazionali

The British are not coming! UK higher education and the nonprofit sector

The rationale for the growth of nonprofit management education in the United States has recently been charted by O'Neill (2005). Ten years previously, the United States and the United Kingdom were at similar levels of development. By 2006 the parallel lines had been broken. Why has nonprofit management education expanded in the United States while provision of graduate education for the voluntary sector in the United Kingdom has stood still? This article explores the factors that have prevented parallel growth in education provision. It argues that the university as an institution, both in terms of its nature and its power structures, is one of those factors. It presents the story of the closing of the world's first voluntary sector course at the London School of Economics and concludes with reflection on the likely future of voluntary sector management education provision in the United Kingdom.

Belfast's Traditional Music Scene: A Narrative of Change and Development

Today Belfast is home to a vibrant traditional music scene. There have never been more sessions, concerts, classes or lectures devoted to traditional music in the north's biggest city. A complex system of promoters, performers and listeners has emerged in a city that is growing in confidence as it moves away from the dark days of the Troubles. But how does this system function? While Dowling (2014) has examined the development of traditional music-making in Belfast as it shifted from a pre-conflict to conflict ridden environment, little research has been carried out into the reasons behind the boom in traditional music-making in a post-conflict setting.

This paper examines the impact upon the traditional music scene of the first wave of students to arrive in Belfast after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. These musicians, such as Donal O'Connor, Ruadhrai O'Kane and Aidan Walsh have had a lasting impact upon the lives of musicians native to Belfast, helping to bring traditional music to new venues and audiences.

The work of Belfast-based music schools with varying remits, such as Belfast Trad., and the Andersonstown School of Traditional and Contemporary Music, is also examined for the purpose of illustrating how both adults and young people are being educated about their musical heritage.

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.