Neighborhood deprivation and biomarkers of health in Britain: The mediating role of the physical environment

Background: Neighborhood deprivation has been consistently linked to poor individual health outcomes; however, studies exploring the mechanisms involved in this association are scarce. The objective of this study was to investigate whether objective measures of the physical environment mediate the association between neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and biomarkers of health in Britain. Methods: We linked individual-level biomarker data from Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Survey (2010-2012) to neighborhood-level data from different governmental sources. Our outcome variables were forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1%; n=16,347), systolic blood pressure (SBP; n=16,846), body mass index (BMI; n=19,417), and levels of C-reactive protein (CRP; n=11,825). Our measure of neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation was the Carstairs index, and the neighborhood-level mediators were levels of air pollutants (sulphur dioxide [SO2], particulate matter [PM10], nitrogen dioxide [NO2], and carbon monoxide [CO]), green space, and proximity to waste and industrial facilities. We fitted a multilevel mediation model following a multilevel structural equation framework in MPlus v7.4, adjusting for age, gender, and income. Results: Residents of poor neighborhoods and those exposed to higher pollution and less green space had worse health outcomes. However, only SO2exposure significantly and partially mediated the association between neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and SBP, BMI, and CRP. Conclusion: Reducing air pollution exposure and increasing access to green space may improve population health but may not decrease health inequalities in Britain

Student nurses' experiences and challenges in providing health education in Hong Kong

Despite a call for increased emphasis on health education within the Hong Kong acute healthcare setting, in reality nurses conduct only minimal health education and do not model good educational practice for students. At the baccalaureate level, nursing education programmes aim to provide students with practical experience of best practice and international standards of care. This study describes the experiences of nursing students in providing health education to in-patients at an obstetric unit in Hong Kong. A qualitative research study using a phenomenological approach was conducted at a major public hospital. Data were collected using participant observation, debriefing notes, students' reflective journals and semi-structured interviews. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) effective knowledge building, (b) being a professional nurse, (c) refining learned skills, and (d) greater cultural awareness. The student experiences were further influenced by the patients' responses, the expectations of both patients and nurses concerning the health educator's role, and the role of the clinical teacher. Study findings highlight the experience of the students in conducting health education, something which has not been adequately examined previously, and demonstrates the benefits of independent clinical learning. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Recent progress in CO hydrogenation over bimetallic catalysts for higher alcohol synthesis

The conversion of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, generally called synthesis gas, to higher alcohols has gained recent attention. Alcohols can be either transformed into other value-added products such as ethers or used directly as fuels or fuel additives. Various types of catalysts have been prepared and investigated for the hydrogenation of CO to higher alcohols and improvements are in progress to find a robust catalyst with high activity and selectivity towards higher alcohols. In particular, the role of the bimetallic catalyst having two active sites contributing efficiently to higher alcohol synthesis has been a focus in recent years. Herein, the recent development in bimetallic catalyst preparation and the investigations of the reaction mechanism in CO hydrogenation have been reviewed

An extrinsic-pore-containing molecular sieve film: a robust, high-throughput membrane filter

MFI type zeolites with 10 membered-ring pores (~0.55 nm) have the ability to separate p-xylene from its bulkier isomers. Despite progress in developing p-xylene selective MFI membranes, the relationship between membrane micro-structures and separation performances remains elusive. Here, we introduced non-zeolitic micropores (ca. 0.6-1.5 nm) and mesopores (ca. 2-7 nm) to a conventional microporous MFI type zeolite membrane, yielding an unprecedented Swiss cheese-like hierarchical membrane structure. Specifically, the self-pillaring twinned MFI growth around MEL cores during secondary growth was key for creating these additional, non-zeolitic pores. The uniform, embedded non-zeolitic pores allowed for reducing defect formation considerably and facilitating molecular transport, resulting in high p-xylene perm-selectivity and molar flux. Specifically, compared to a conventional, crack network-containing MFI membranes of similar thickness (~1 µm), the mesoporous MFI membranes showed almost double p-xylene permeance (~1.6 ± 0.4 × 10-7 mol·m-2·s-1·Pa-1) and a high p-/o-xylene separation factor (~53.8 ± 7.3 vs. 3.5 ± 0.5 in the conventional MFI membrane) at 225 °C. Crucially, the embedded non-zeolitic pores allowed for decreasing the separation performance degradation, which was apparently related to coke formation; this was conceptually analogous to the decreased deactivation via the introduction of mesopores to microporous catalysts

Incorporating Hierarchy into Conventional Zeolites for Catalytic Biomass Conversions: A Review

Zeolites are promising catalysts that are widely used in petrochemical, oil, and gas industries due to their unique characteristics, such as ordered microporous networks, good hydrothermal stability, large surface area, tunable acidity, and shape-selectivity. Nevertheless, the sole presence of microporous channels in zeolites inevitably restricts the diffusion of bulky reactants and products into and out of the microporous networks, leading to retarded reaction rates or catalyst deactivation. This problem can be overcome by developing hierarchical zeolites which involve mesoporous and macroporous networks. The meso- and macro-porosities can enhance the mass transport of molecules and simultaneously maintain the intrinsic shape selectivity of zeolite microporosity. Hierarchical zeolites are mainly developed through post-synthesis and pre-synthesis or in situ modification of zeolites. In this review, we evaluated both pre-synthesis and post-synthesis modification strategies with more focus on post-synthesis modification strategies. The role of various synthesis strategies on the intrinsic properties of hierarchical zeolites is discussed. The catalytic performance of hierarchical zeolites in important biomass reactions, such as catalytic pyrolysis of biomass feedstock and upgradation of bio-oil, has been summarized. The utilization of hierarchical zeolites tends to give a higher aromatic yield than conventional zeolites with microporosity solely

Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to hydrocarbons using bio-templated porous TiO2 architectures under UV and visible light

Artificial TiO2 leaves with the morphology replicating that of Camellia tree leaves were synthesized through a multi-step bio-templating approach. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy images of the final products indicated that proposed method successfully replicates the highly porous structure of the leaf photosystem, down to the thylakoids. The hierarchical pore network and morphology of the bio-templated TiO2 catalyst were demonstrated to be critical factors in successful photocatalytic reduction of CO2 under UV (370 nm) and visible (515 nm) light. The artificial TiO2 leaves increased the selectivity towards methane in CO2 photoreduction compared with benchmark commercial catalyst under UV light. The new TiO2 structures also outperformed the P25 titania by more than 1.35 times in terms of total product yield (CO + CH4) of under visible light. We hypothesized that modifying the morphology of the catalyst can alter the pathway and efficiency of photocatalytic reactions. Deposition of ruthenium dioxide on the surface of the new TiO2 architecture showed further improvement in photocatalytic activity under both UV and visible light. The photocatalytic reduction of CO2 coupled with the oxidative water splitting was also validated by kinetic modelling. The experimental data exhibited a very good fit to the pseudo first order kinetics. The understanding of the morphological contribution of the photocatalyst revealed in this study can help to augment the efficiency and selectivity of CO2 photoreduction

A hetero-epitaxially grown zeolite film and its unprecedented use as a perm-selective membrane

The secondary growth methodology to form zeolite membranes involves covering the surface of a porous support with zeolite seed particles and using a hydrothermal process to close gaps between the seeds. However, stringent requirements for homogeneous epitaxial inter-growth of the seed layer limit the number of high-quality zeolite membranes. Here, to the best of our knowledge, we, for the first time, report the successful hetero-epitaxial growth of highly siliceous ZSM-58 (DDR type zeolite) films from a SSZ13 (CHA type zeolite) seed layer. This originated from the structural compatibility of the CHA and DDR zeolites. The resulting films, now membranes, showed excellent C ₂ perm-selectivities. Furthermore, the hybrid membrane mainly comprised all-silica DDR constituents and, thus, well preserved the CO₂ permselectivity in the presence of H₂ O vapor

Healing of Microdefects in SSZ-13 Membranes via Filling with DyeMolecules and Its Effect on Dry and Wet CO2 Separations

It is quite challenging to avoid microdefect formation during hydrothermal growths and/or calcination processes, while manufacturing high-quality zeolite membranes in a reproducible manner. Even less than 1% of defects, which generally provide non-selective pathways, will considerably worsen the intrinsic, high molecular sieving-based separation performance of a continuous zeolite membrane. Herein, we propose a simple and reliable method for blocking defects using water-soluble dye molecules, which were originally used for the visualization of non-zeolitic, defective structures in a zeolite membrane. Since the dye molecules are ~1 nm in size, they cannot diffuse into the zeolitic pores and selectively access the defects. For the demonstration of dye-based defect healing, we chose a siliceous chabazite type SSZ-13 zeolite membrane (pore size = 0.37 × 0.42 nm2) with some degree of defects and investigated the effect of defect healing on the final CO2 separation performance. Since the defects were gradually filled by the dye molecules, both CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 separation performances were concomitantly increased. Intriguingly, the CO2 perm-selectivity test with ternary mixtures including H2O vapor (the 3rd largest component in the flue and natural/shale/bio gas streams) in the feed diminished CO2 separation performance. This could be ascribed to inhibited transport of the fast permeating species, here CO2, from the adsorbed H2O molecules on the dye-treated and water-friendly (relatively hydrophilic) membrane surface. On the contrary, the intact, siliceous (water-repelling or hydrophobic) SSZ-13 membranes showed improved CO2 perm-selecitivities in the presence of H2O vapor, seemingly due to defect blocking by the physisorbed H2O molecules

Integrating clinical data and tear proteomics to assess efficacy, ocular surface status, and biomarker response after orthokeratology lens wear

202204 bchyVersion of RecordOthersInnovation & Technology Fund; Collaborative Research Fund (ZG6E and ZG7B) from SEED Co Ltd., Japan and Shenzhen Science; Technology Innovation Commission (JCYJ20180507183409601)Publishe