TAP Reactor Development and Application in the Kinetic Characterization of Catalysts for Heterogeneously Catalyzed Gas Phase Reactions

This manuscript describes the application and further development of the TAP technique in kinetic characterization of heterogeneous catalysis. The major application of TAP systems is to study mechanisms, kinetics and transport phenomena in heterogeneous catalysis, all of which is made possible by the sub-millisecond time resolution. Furthermore, the kinetic information obtained can be used to gain an insight into the mechanism occurring over the catalyst system. This is advantageous as heterogeneous catalysts with an improved efficiency can be developed as a result. TAP kinetic studies are carried out at low pressure (~1x10-7 mbar) and TAP pulses are sufficiently small (1013-1015 molecules) so as to maintain this low pressure. The use of a small number of molecules in comparison to the total number of active sites means the state of the catalyst remains relatively unchanged. The use of the low intensity pulses also makes the pressure gradient negligible and so allows the TAP reactor system to operate in the Knudsen Diffusion regime, where gas-gas reactions are eliminated. Hence only gas-catalyst reactions are investigated and, by the use of moment analysis of observed exit flow, rate constants of elementary steps of the reaction can be obtained.

In this manuscript, two attempts to further the TAP technique are reported. Firstly, the work undertaken at QUB to attempt to control the number of molecules of condensable reagents that can be pulsed during a TAP pulse experiment is disclosed. Secondly, a collaborative project with SAI Ltd Manchester is discussed in a separate chapter, where technical details and validation of a customised time of flight mass spectrometer (ToF MS) for the QUB TAP-1 system are reported. A collaborative project with Cardiff Catalysis Institute focusing on the study of CO oxidation over hopcalite catalysts is also reported. The analysis of the experimental results has provided an insight into the possible mechanism of the oxidation of CO over these catalysts. A correction function has also been derived which accounts for the adsorption of reactant molecules over inert materials that are used for the reactor packing in TAP experiments. This function was then applied to the selective reduction of O2 in a H2 rich ethene feed, so that more accurate TAP moment based analysis could be conducted.

Young People, Peer-to-Peer Grooming and Sexual Offending: Understanding and Responding to Harmful Sexual Behaviour within a Social Media Society

There is ample evidence that young people engage in grooming and harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) using social media with enough frequency to make those behaviours important con-cerns for both society and care providers. This article provides a critical overview of the con-ceptual and empirical foundations of peer-to-peer grooming and the use of social media with-in the context of HSB. Based on this learning, it ultimately introduces a new model of inter-vention and of professional practice, which provides the standards for micro-level decision-making about goals, methods and assessment tailored to this specific offending context.

Copyright & Risk: Scoping the Wellcome Digital Library Project (peer reviewed)

Copyright & Risk: Scoping the Wellcome Digital Library is a comprehensive case study which assesses the merits of the risk-managed approach to copyright clearance adopted by the Wellcome Library in the course of their pilot digitisation project Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics (http://wellcomelibrary.org/collections/digital-collections/makers-of-modern-genetics/#).

Signal Reception Characteristics in the Proximity of Alice and Bob for Secure Indoor Peer-to-Peer Communications At 2.45 GHz

Mutual variation of the received signal which occurs as a consequence of the channel reciprocity property has recently been proposed as a viable method for secret key generation. However, this cannot be strictly maintained in practice as the property is applicable only in the absence of interference. To ensure the propagation defined key remains secret, one requirement is that there remain high degrees of uncertainty between the legitimate users channel response and that of any eavesdropper's. In this paper, we investigate whether such de-correlation occurs for an indoor point-to-point link at 2.45 GHz. This is achieved by computing the localized correlation coefficient between the simultaneous channel response measured by the legitimate users and that of multiple distributed eavesdroppers for static and dynamic scenarios.

Evolution and Enabling Capabilities of Spatially Resolved Techniques for the Characterization of Heterogeneously Catalyzed Reactions

The development and optimization of catalysts and catalytic processes requires knowledge of reaction kinetics and mechanisms. In traditional catalyst kinetic characterization, the gas composition is known at the inlet, and the exit flow is measured to determine changes in concentration. As such, the progression of the chemistry within the catalyst is not known. Technological advances in electromagnetic and physical probes have made visualizing the evolution of the chemistry within catalyst samples a reality, as part of a methodology commonly known as spatial resolution. Herein, we discuss and evaluate the development of spatially resolved techniques, including the evolutions and achievements of this growing area of catalytic research. The impact of such techniques is discussed in terms of the invasiveness of physical probes on catalytic systems, as well as how experimentally obtained spatial profiles can be used in conjunction with kinetic modelling. Furthermore, some aims and aspirations for further evolution of spatially resolved techniques are considered.

Peer Effects in Adolescent Cannabis Use: It's the Friends, Stupid

This paper examines peer effects in adolescent cannabis use from several different reference groups, exploiting survey data that have many desirable properties and have not previously been used for this purpose. Treating the school grade as the reference group, and using both neighbourhood fixed effects and IV for identification, we find evidence of large, positive, and statistically significant peer effects. Treating nominated friends as the reference group, and using both school fixed effects and IV for identification, we again find evidence of large, positive, and generally statistically significant peer effects. Our preferred IV approach exploits information about friends of friends – ‘friends once removed’, who are not themselves friends – to instrument for friends’ cannabis use. Finally, we examine whether the cannabis use of schoolmates who are not nominated as friends – ‘non-friends’ – influences
own cannabis use. Once again using neighbourhood fixed effects and IV for identification, the evidence suggests zero impact. In our data, schoolmates who are not also friends have no influence on adolescent cannabis use.

Peer tutoring in a medical school: perceptions of tutors and tutees

Background: Peer tutoring has been described as “people from similar social groupings who are not professional teachers helping each other to learn and learning themselves by teaching”. Peer tutoring is well accepted as a source of support in many medical curricula, where participation and learning involve a process of socialisation.
Peer tutoring can ease the transition of the junior students from the university class environment to the hospital workplace. In this paper, we apply the Experienced Based Learning (ExBL) model to explore medical students’ perceptions of their experience of taking part in a newly established peer tutoring program at a hospital based
clinical school.
Methods: In 2014, all students at Sydney Medical School – Central, located at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital were invited to voluntarily participate in the peer tutoring program. Year 3 students (n = 46) were invited to act as tutors for Year 1 students (n = 50), and Year 4 students (n = 60) were invited to act as tutors for Year 2 students (n = 51). Similarly, the ‘tutees’ were invited to take part on a voluntary basis. Students were invited to attend focus groups, which were held at the end of the program. Framework analysis was used to code and categorise data into themes.
Results: In total, 108/207 (52 %) students participated in the program. A total of 42/106 (40 %) of Year 3 and 4 students took part as tutors; and of 66/101 (65 %) of Year 1 and 2 students took part as tutees. Five focus groups were held, with 50/108 (46 %) of students voluntarily participating. Senior students (tutors) valued the opportunity to practice and improve their medical knowledge and teaching skills. Junior students (tutees) valued the opportunity for additional practice and patient interaction, within a relaxed, small group learning environment.
Conclusion: Students perceived the peer tutoring program as affording opportunities not otherwise available within the curriculum. The peer teaching program provided a framework within the medical curriculum for senior students to practice and improve their medical knowledge and teaching skills. Concurrently, junior students were provided with a valuable learning experience that they reported as being qualitatively different to traditional teaching by faculty.

The influence of experimental design on the magnitude of the effect size -peer tutoring for elementary, middle and high school settings: A meta-analysis

A meta-analysis was undertaken on a form of cooperative learning, peer tutoring. The effects of experimental design on outcomes were explored, as measured by Effect Size (ES). Forty three articles with 82 effect size studies were included in the meta-analysis. Highest ES were reported for quasi-experimental studies. ES reduced as experimental design moved from single pre-test factor matched, to multiple-factor matched randomized controlled trials. ES reduced when designs used standardised, rather than self-designed measures. The implications for future meta-analyses and research in cooperative learning are explored.

The effectiveness of peer mentoring in promoting a positive transition to higher education for first-year undergraduate students: a mixed methods systematic review protocol

Background: The global transfer of nursing and midwifery education to higher education institutes has led to student nurses and midwives experiencing challenges previously faced by traditional third-level students, including isolation, loneliness, financial difficulties and academic pressure. These challenges can contribute to increased stress and anxiety levels which may be detrimental to the successful transition to higher education, thus leading to an increase in attrition rates. Peer mentoring as an intervention has been suggested to be effective in supporting students in the transition to third-level education through enhancing a sense of belongingness and improving student satisfaction, engagement and retention rates. This proposed systematic review aims to determine the effectiveness of peer mentoring in enhancing levels of student engagement, sense of belonging and overall satisfaction of first-year undergraduate students following transition into higher education.
Methods: MEDLINE, Web of Knowledge, ProQuest, Embase, CINAHL, ERIC, PsycINFO and CENTRAL databases will be searched for qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods studies on the implementation of peer assessment strategies in higher education institutes (HEIs) or universities for full-time, first-year adult students (>17 years). Included studies will be limited to the English language. The quality of included studies will be assessed using a validated Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). The findings will be presented as a narrative synthesis or meta-analysis as appropriate following sequential explanatory synthesis.
Discussion: The review will provide clear, non-biased evidence-based guidance to all third-level educators on the effectiveness of peer-mentoring programmes for first-year undergraduates. The review is necessary to help establish which type of peer mentoring is most effective. The evidence from qualitative and quantitative studies drawn from the international literature will be utilised to illustrate the best way to implement and evaluate peer mentoring as an effective intervention and will be useful in guiding future research and practice in this area. These findings may be applied internationally across all disciplines.

Peer-to-peer video streaming

The Internet as a video distribution medium has seen a tremendous growth in recent years. Currently, the transmission of major live events and TV channels over the Internet can easily reach hundreds or millions of users trying to receive the same content using very distinct receiver terminals, placing both scalability and heterogeneity challenges to content and network providers. In private and well-managed Internet Protocol (IP) networks these types of distributions are supported by specially designed architectures, complemented with IP Multicast protocols and Quality of Service (QoS) solutions. However, the Best-Effort and Unicast nature of the Internet requires the introduction of a new set of protocols and related architectures to support the distribution of these contents. In the field of file and non-real time content distributions this has led to the creation and development of several Peer-to-Peer protocols that have experienced great success in recent years. This chapter presents the current research and developments in Peer-to-Peer video streaming over the Internet. A special focus is made on peer protocols, associated architectures and video coding techniques. The authors also review and describe current Peer-to-Peer streaming solutions. © 2013, IGI Global.

Boronic acids as partners in multicomponent reactions

Tese de doutoramento, Farmácia (Química Farmacêutica e Terapêutica), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Farmácia, 2014

Students’ engagement in school and peer relations: A literature review

Este E-Book reúne um conjunto de investigações apresentadas no “I Congresso Internacional Envolvimento dos Alunos na Escola: Perspetivas da Psicologia e Educação” (ICIEAE), organizado no âmbito do “Projeto PTDC/CPE-CED/114362/2009 - Envolvimento dos Alunos na Escola: Diferenciação e Promoção” (EAE-DP), financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

The Glasgow 2014 XX Commonwealth Games and Scottish Independence: “Political Truce” or Political Truth(s)?

This paper explores the political reaction to Lord McConnell’s appeal for a political ‘truce’ in the form of a temporary halt to campaigning by all political parties and organisations involved in the debate regarding the Scottish independence referendum during the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games (BBC, 2014; McConnell, 2014). Urging both sides of the debate to cease campaigning for the two-week period of the Glasgow 2014 games, the current Labour peer and past First Minister of the Scottish Parliament cited concerns that there are “genuine concerns that the Games, and the image of Scotland, could be damaged by attempts by either side – for and against – to use the Games to promote their cause, or to use the venues for campaigning” (McConnell, 2014). Drawing upon the principles of both a critical discourse and a narrative analysis methodological approach, this paper will scrutinise the nature of the political reactions to McConnell’s proposal from a variety of perspectives on both sides of the independence referendum debate. In particular, the emphasis in the responses from both sides of the debate regarding the apolitical nature of the 2014 Games will be critiqued, drawing upon the arguments of past analyses of sporting mega-events which highlight the potential for political exploitation of such events by the host nations (e.g. Horne, 2007; Grix, 2012; Houlihan and Giulianotti, 2012; Roche, 2006). Furthermore, the findings of academic research on the political implications of hosting the Commonwealth Games will be considered (e.g. Majumdar and Mehta, 2010; Van Der Westhuizen, 2004; Macintosh and Greenhorn, 1992; Majumdar, 2011; Lockstone and Baum, 2010; Macfarlane and Herd, 1986), highlighting a number of precedents which demonstrate the numerous challenges faced in any attempts to the keep the 2014 Games free from political influence.