Kinetic Study on Heavy Metal Divalent Ions Removal using Zirconium-Based Magnetic Sorbent

In this research, zirconium-based magnetic sorbent synthesised by chemical co-precipitation method is explored as a potential sorbent for removal of divalent metal ions from aqueous solution. The interaction characteristics between the ions and the sorbent were elucidated by instrumental analyses such as Fourier Transform InfraRed (FT-IR) Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) surface area analyser. Results show that the sorption rate was increased with an increase in contact time and initial metal ion concentration. Moreover, a two-stage kinetics behaviour was observed, and all the batch experiments achieved an equilibrium state within 4 hours. The evaluation of the adsorption behaviour of heavy metal divalent ions onto the magnetic sorbent was explained using two kinetic models, and it was mostly found to follow the postulate of the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The validity of kinetic models applied in this study is also evaluated by using a normalised standard deviation

Low-Mass Baryon-Antibaryon Enhancements in B Decays

The nature of low-mass baryon-antibaryon enhancements seen in B decays is explored. Three possibilities include (i) states near threshold as found in a model by Nambu and Jona-Lasinio, (ii) isoscalar states with $J^{PC} = 0^{\pm +}$ coupled to a pair of gluons, and (iii) low-mass enhancements favored by the fragmentation process. Ways of distinguishing these mechanisms using angular distributions and flavor symmetry are proposed.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, no figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. D. One reference adde

Characterization of the mechanism by which the RB/E2F pathway controls expression of the cancer genomic DNA deaminase APOBEC3B

APOBEC3B (A3B)-catalyzed DNA cytosine deamination contributes to the overall mutational landscape in breast cancer. Molecular mechanisms responsible for A3B upregulation in cancer are poorly understood. Here we show that a single E2F cis-element mediates repression in normal cells and that expression is activated by its mutational disruption in a reporter construct or the endogenous A3B gene. The same E2F site is required for A3B induction by polyomavirus T antigen indicating a shared molecular mechanism. Proteomic and biochemical experiments demonstrate the binding of wildtype but not mutant E2F promoters by repressive PRC1.6/E2F6 and DREAM/E2F4 complexes. Knockdown and overexpression studies confirm the involvement of these repressive complexes in regulating A3B expression. Altogether, these studies demonstrate that A3B expression is suppressed in normal cells by repressive E2F complexes and that viral or mutational disruption of this regulatory network triggers overexpression in breast cancer and provides fuel for tumor evolution

The molecular basis of mouse adaptation by human enterovirus 71

A mouse-adapted strain of human enterovirus 71 (HEV71) was selected by serial passage of a HEV71 clinical isolate (HEV71-26M) in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells (CHO-26M) and in newborn BALB/c mice (MP-26M). Despite improved growth in CHO cells, CHO-26M did not show increased vilrulence in newborn BALB/c mice compared with HEV71-26M. By contrast, infection of newborn mice with MP-26M resulted in severe disease of high mortality. Skeletal muscle was the primary site of replication in mice for both viruses. However, MP-26M infection induced severe necrotizing myositis, whereas CHO-26M infection caused only mild inflammation. MP-26M was also isolated from whole blood, heart, liver, spleen and brain of infected mice. CHO-26M harboured a single mutation within the open reading frame (ORF), resulting in an amino acid substitution of K149-I in the VP2 capsid protein; two further ORF mutations that resulted in amino acid substitutions were identified in MP-26M, located within the VP1 capsid protein (G145-E) and the 2C protein (K216-R). Infectious cDNA clone-derived mutant virus populations containing the mutations identified in CHO-26M and MP-26M were generated in order to study the molecular basis of CHO cell and mouse adaptation. The VP2 (K149-I) change was responsible only for improved growth in CHO cells and did not lead to increased virulence in mice. Of the two amino acid substitutions identified in MP-26M, the VP1 (G145-E) mutation alone was sufficient to increase virulence in mice to the level observed in MP-26M-infected mice

Disrupting hegemonic liberalism in East Asia

10.1215/01903659-2010-009Boundary 2372199-21

Financialising public housing as an asset for retirement in Singapore

10.1080/14616718.2014.984823International Journal of Housing Policy15127-4

Taking group rights seriously: Multiracialism in Singapore

For the past close to two decades, the idea of multiculturalism has been popular with two sets of intellectuals in the West, namely political philosophers and Cultural Studies scholars who think that cultural rights of minority groups are worth and need to be protected against domination and erasure by dominant cultures. Both groups are motivated by concerns of the need to redress the histories of erasure or suppression of cultures of minority groups in the developed societies of the West; ‘minority’ is thus extended beyond ethnic and racial groups to others who are marginalized, such as gender and sexual minorities. This concern with redressing past oppressions are tied to the liberalism of both groups of concerned scholars, who see the issue ultimately as one of civil and human rights. One would expect that the issues related to multiculturalism would take on different shapes and contours in a context where liberalism in not the prevailing social and political norm, such as Singapore. In contrast to Western settler nations, such as Canada, Australia and the United States of America, where ‘official multiculturalism’ is generally involve supporting voluntary cultural activities undertaken by the ethnic groups themselves and to police racial discrimination and racism, in Singapore, multiracialism is written into the Constitution in the very founding moment of the nation in 1965; the Constitution declared that Singapore is a multiracial nation with equality for the three primary races – Chinese, Malays and Indians. Since then multiracialism has been embedded as the core rationale for many public policies. While ostensibly aimed at ‘preserving’ the cultures of the racial groups and maintaining racial harmony, the same public policies are, as shall be argued in this paper, also by the same token policies of social control

Navigating Between Limits: The Future of Public Housing in Singapore

10.1080/02673037.2013.874548Housing Studie

Maintaining housing values under the condition of universal home ownership

Housing Studies185765-78

Engendering an East Asia pop culture research community

10.1080/14649371003616177Inter-Asia Cultural Studies112202-20