An ammonia monitor for the water industry

Following the emergence of the European Community as a unified trading and economic entity, the various member states are required to follow certain directives governing their social affairs. Many of these directives concern the quality of the air we breathe, and the water that we use for consumption or in industrial processes. In order to comply with these directives a major overhaul of the water industry in the UK was required. For example, in many coastal towns and resorts there has never been any formal sewage treatment since, traditionally, all waste was dumped at sea through outfall pipes. Because this is no longer acceptable, whole new treatment systems are required

Oral health perspectives of maternal women and their health care providers

Historically pregnant women have been discouraged from dental treatment during their pregnancies due to long-held beliefs, unsubstantiated by evidence, that dental treatment during pregnancy is unsafe. Most dental procedures have been demonstrated to be safe during pregnancy, and current guidelines informing the standard of care for dental treatment in pregnant patients reflect this. Additionally, it has been established that underserved populations have reduced access to dental care in the United States, putting individuals within that population at greater risk for oral disease. These are both contributory factors to the disparate oral health outcomes and disparities in access to dental care observed in pregnant women of underserved populations. The public health relevance is clear in that those existing disparities in oral health outcomes and access to dental care observed in populations categorized as being of low socioeconomic status are increased in severity by pregnancy, a natural life event experienced by a majority of women. While it is known that disparities exist, little information is available on specific factors in the patient-provider relationship that may contribute to these disparities. It is therefore important that qualitative data gathering be conducted to better define perspectives on the topic of oral health during pregnancy in populations of pregnant women, their medical providers, and social service providers who interact with pregnant women. Resulting data will be used to identify gaps in knowledge on oral health during pregnancy with the intention that any identified gaps become targets for future public health interventions

To check or not to check : investigating the factors influencing young people’s use of drug checking services in Aotearoa New Zealand festivals : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

This study investigated how attitudes and social norms impact young people’s use of drug checking services in Aotearoa New Zealand festivals. This study used concepts from the theory of planned behaviour to determine the differences between the people who are likely to use a drug checking service and those who are not. Drug checking is deeply rooted in a harm reduction approach, where the focus of drug safety has changed from a prosecution focus to an approach which focuses on reducing drug related harm. Internationally, drug checking services have reduced drug related harm, yet there is currently very little research in New Zealand which investigates young people’s drug use and use of drug checking services in festivals. Whilst the introduction of the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Act (2021) has enabled drug checking agencies such as Know Your Stuff New Zealand to operate at New Zealand festivals, there are still obstacles which are preventing people from utilising drug checking services. This research used an online, anonymous survey to investigate current drug and festival trends, reasons for using, or not using drugs, reasons for using, or not using drug checking services and how attitudes and social norms impact drug checking behaviour. Chi square analysis and a stepwise logistic regression were used to assess these factors. Results show that those who are more likely to use a drug checking service hold more cautious or conservative attitudes and may do so as they are less experienced with drugs and are concerned to reduce any risk of harm, should they use drugs at festivals. In contrast, those who are unlikely to use a drug checking service, have more liberal attitudes and social norms towards drug checking as they may have greater experience or more confidence in the provenance of their drugs. In order to improve drug checking services and consequently, drug checking behaviours for those who do and do not use drug checking services, there must be an increase in marketing, better accessibility and greater education surrounding drug checking services in festivals in Aotearoa New Zealand

Leaching of copper sulphide minerals - a surface based approach

Copper(I) sulphide was examined as a model substrate for investigating the mechanisms and kinetics of chalcopyrite bioleaching. Surface evaluation techniques allowed the rate of copper extraction to be directly related to the surface species and EPS composition. The findings demonstrated that copper(I) sulphide has a higher reactivity and unchanging EPS.<br /

The electronic medication complete communication (EMC2) study: Rationale and methods for a randomized controlled trial of a strategy to promote medication safety in ambulatory care

AbstractBackgroundAdverse drug events (ADEs) affect millions of patients annually and place a significant burden on the healthcare system. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has developed patient safety information for high-risk medications that pose serious public health concerns. However, there are currently few assurances that patients receive this information or are able to identify or respond correctly to ADEs.ObjectiveTo evaluate the effectiveness of the Electronic Medication Complete Communication (EMC2) Strategy to promote safe medication use and reporting of ADEs in comparison to usual care.MethodsThe automated EMC2 Strategy consists of: 1) provider alerts to counsel patients on medication risks, 2) the delivery of patient-friendly medication information via the electronic health record, and 3) an automated telephone assessment to identify potential medication concerns or ADEs. The study will take place in two community health centers in Chicago, IL. Adult, English or Spanish-speaking patients (N=1200) who have been prescribed a high-risk medication will be enrolled and randomized to the intervention arm or usual care based upon practice location. The primary outcomes of the study are medication knowledge, proper medication use, and reporting of ADEs; these will be measured at baseline, 4weeks, and three months. Intervention fidelity as well as barriers and costs of implementation will be evaluated.ConclusionsThe EMC2 Strategy automates a patient-friendly risk communication and surveillance process to promote safe medication use while minimizing clinic burden. This trial seeks to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of this strategy in comparison to usual care

Energy consistent framework for continuously evolving 3D crack propagation

This paper presents a formulation for brittle fracture in 3D elastic solids within the context of configurational mechanics. The local form of the first law of thermodynamics provides a condition for equilibrium of the crack front. The direction of the crack propagation is shown to be given by the direction of the configurational forces on the crack front that maximise the local dissipation. The evolving crack front is continuously resolved by the finite element mesh, without the need for face splitting or the use of enrichment techniques. A monolithic solution strategy is adopted, solving simultaneously for both the material displacements (i.e. crack extension) and the spatial displacements, is adopted. In order to trace the dissipative loading path, an arc-length procedure is developed that controls the incremental crack area growth. In order to maintain mesh quality, smoothing of the mesh is undertaken as a continuous process, together with face flipping, node merging and edge splitting where necessary. Hierarchical basis functions of arbitrary polynomial order are adopted to increase the order of approximation without the need to change the finite element mesh. Performance of the formulation is demonstrated by means of three representative numerical simulations, demonstrating both accuracy and robustness.Comment: 35 pages, 17 figure

Financial control, blame avoidance and Radio Caroline: Talkin’ ‘bout my generation

This research examines the use of financial mechanisms that simultaneously impose controls and facilitate blame avoidance by public office-holders. A qualitative historical examination is used to examine legislation designed to prevent Radio Caroline, a pirate radio station, from broadcasting into Britain in the 1960s. Radio Caroline made a mockery of the British Government’s power to manage radio through a monopolist, the British Broadcasting Corporation. In addition, Radio Caroline played the type of rock music the British Government sought to suppress as representing the undesirable side of youth culture. This research examines the suppression of Radio Caroline through the Marine & Broadcasting (Offences) Act (UK) 1967 and the legislative scapegoating of Radio Caroline by targeting its revenue-earning potential. Inter-generational conflict underpinned the legislative scapegoating of Radio Caroline. This research demonstrates how financial controls can mask scapegoating and blame avoidance strategies by governments

Discovering causal models of self-regulated learning

New statistical methods allow discovery of causal models from observational data in some circumstances. These models permit both probabilistic inference and causal inference for models of reasonable size. Many domains, such as education, can benefit from such methods. Educational research does not easily lend itself to experimental investigation. Research in laboratories is artificial and potentially affects measurement; research in authentic environments is extremely complex and difficult to control. In both environments, the variables are typically hidden and only change over the long term, making them challenging and expensive to investigate experimentally. I present an analysis of causal discovery algorithms and their applicability to educational research, an engineered causal model of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) theory based on the literature, and an evaluation of the potential for discovering such a theory from observational data using the new statistical methods and suggest possible benefits of such work