Chemistry on the inside: green chemistry in mesoporous materials

An overview of the rapidly expanding area of tailored mesoporous solids is presented. The synthesis of a wide range of the materials is covered, both inorganically and organically modified. Their applications, in particular those relating to green chemistry, are also highlighted. Finally, potential future directions for these materials are discussed

Developmental Stages of Learning Psychotherapy

The contradictory philosophies of the major schools of psychotherapy present a dizzying array of alternative approaches for the psychiatry resident. The academic efforts that have been made to synthesize differing approaches to psychotherapy have not met with widespread acceptance. Part of the reason why such a synthesis has been slow in coming may be found in the stages of development the practitioner goes through in learning psychotherapy. The concepts of developmental psychology discussed by Chandler (7) in describing the adolescent\u27s confrontation with relativism and epistemological loneliness can help us understand some of the cognitive problems faced by the psychiatry resident. Unfortunately, most residents choose one particular approach to psychotherapy during training, and adhere to that method throughout their professional careers. The philosophical approach of pluralism describes a less limiting solution to the problem of differing world views, and may provide a model for a more integrated approach to psychotherapy

Validity and Reliability of a Bilateral Assessment of Locomotor Skills in Children

Background: There is a paucity of empirical research on motor asymmetry in healthy children using currently available assessments. Objective: This study sought to develop bilateral tests for quantitative and qualitative assessment of locomotor skills in typically developing children and assess their validity and reliability. Methods: A sample of 78 children (35 girls; 7.34±0.53 years) underwent testing using three newly constructed bilateral tests: side rolling, single leg skips and single leg hops. Results: Between subject reliability (Cronbach alpha: 0.97 to 0.98; 0.98 to 0.99; 0.98 to 0.99, respectively), within-subject reliability (Coefficient of Variation: 0.04 to 0.10; 0.05 to 0.11; 0.07 to 0.13, respectively), and between-rater reliability (Intraclass Correlation:0.81 to 0.92, 0.79 to 0.94, and 0.83 to 0.91, respectively), of all 3 tests were found to be very high. Further, considering laterality, the results indicate very high construct validity (explained variance by single-extracted factor ranged from 94.48 to 96.68, from 97.56 to 98.57 and 96.53 to 98.09, respectively). Conclusion: The results suggest that the newly constructed tests can be implemented as a reliable and valid tool for the assessment of bilateral locomotor skills in children

Gravitational-Wave Detection using Multivariate Analysis

Searches for gravitational-wave bursts (transient signals, typically of unknown waveform) require identification of weak signals in background detector noise. The sensitivity of such searches is often critically limited by non-Gaussian noise fluctuations which are difficult to distinguish from real signals, posing a key problem for transient gravitational-wave astronomy. Current noise rejection tests are based on the analysis of a relatively small number of measured properties of the candidate signal, typically correlations between detectors. Multivariate analysis (MVA) techniques probe the full space of measured properties of events in an attempt to maximise the power to accurately classify events as signal or background. This is done by taking samples of known background events and (simulated) signal events to train the MVA classifier, which can then be applied to classify events of unknown type. We apply the boosted decision tree (BDT) MVA technique to the problem of detecting gravitational-wave bursts associated with gamma-ray bursts. We find that BDTs are able to increase the sensitive distance reach of the search by as much as 50%, corresponding to a factor of ~3 increase in sensitive volume. This improvement is robust against trigger sky position, large sky localisation error, poor data quality, and the simulated signal waveforms that are used. Critically, we find that the BDT analysis is able to detect signals that have different morphologies to those used in the classifier training and that this improvement extends to false alarm probabilities beyond the 3{\sigma} significance level. These findings indicate that MVA techniques may be used for the robust detection of gravitational-wave bursts with a priori unknown waveform.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figure

Immigrant wage and employment assimilation: A comparison of methods

We compare alternative methods for estimating immigrant wage and employment assimilation using unique panel data over 2001-2009 for a large, nationally-representative sample of immigrants. Previous assimilation estimates have been mainly based on cross-sectional data and have therefore suffered from a range of potential biases. We find that a fixed-effects model generates estimated employment assimilation profiles that are flatter and significantly different to those produced by cross-sectional and synthetic cohort methods. However, there are no significant differences in the wage assimilation profiles across alternative methods

Catalytic performance of carbonaceous materials in the esterification of succinic acid

Mesoporous carbonaceous materials have outstanding potential in many different applications such as adsorption, medicine and catalysis. We have recently reported the synthesis of a new form of mesoporous carbon, named Starbon((R)), obtained after low temperature carbonization of expanded starch. Such starch-derived mesoporous materials have several tunable properties including surface energies (ranging from hydrophilic to hydrophobic surfaces), which can be easily controlled by the degree of carbonization (from 200 to 700 degrees C). Due to the diversity of surface functional groups, Starbons((R)) can be easily chemically modified. Treatment of Starbon((R)) materials with sulfuric acid gave a solid acid that has promising properties as heterogeneous catalyst. Comparative catalytic studies with some other similar commercial carbonaceous materials such as DARCO((R)) and NORIT (R), as well as phosphorous-containing microporous carbons, are reported. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The Effects of Combined Movement and Storytelling Intervention on Motor Skills in South Asian and White Children Aged 5–6 Years Living in the United Kingdom

Early motor development has an important role in promoting physical activity (PA) during childhood and across the lifespan. Children from South Asian backgrounds are less active and have poorer motor skills, thus identifying the need for early motor skill instruction. This study examines the effect of a movement and storytelling intervention on South Asian children’s motor skills. Following ethics approval and consent, 39 children (46% South Asian) participated in a 12-week movement and storytelling intervention. Pre and post, seven motor skills (run, jump, throw, catch, stationary dribble, roll, and kick) were assessed using Children’s Activity and Movement in Preschool Study protocol. At baseline, South Asian children had poorer performance of motor skills. Following the intervention, all children improved their motor skills, with a bigger improvement observed for South Asian children. Early intervention provided remedial benefits to delays in motor skills and narrowed the motor skills gap in ethnic groups

P-cymenesulphonyl chloride : A bio-based activating group and protecting group for greener organic synthesis

A bio-derived protecting/activating group has been synthesized by introducing a sulphonyl chloride group to the aromatic ring of p-cymene derived from citrus peel waste. The resulting p-cymenesulphonyl chloride was evaluated as an activating group by reacting with 1-octanol, 2-octanol, phenol and piperidine, and further reactions of the activated alcohols. The comparison to tosyl chloride demonstrates that the bio-based alternative can be effectively utilized as a direct replacement for the current fossil derived equivalent

Synthesis of unsaturated polyester resins from various bio-derived platform molecules

Utilisation of bio-derived platform molecules in polymer synthesis has advantages which are, broadly, twofold; to digress from crude oil dependence of the polymer industry and secondly to reduce the environmental impact of the polymer synthesis through the inherent functionality of the bio-derived platform molecules. Bulk polymerisation of bio-derived unsaturated di-acids has been employed to produce unsaturated polyester (UPEs) which have been analysed by GPC, TGA, DSC and NMR spectroscopy, advancing on the analysis previously reported. UPEs from the diesters of itaconic, succinic, and fumaric acids were successfully synthesised with various diols and polyols to afford resins of MN 480-477,000 and Tg of -30.1 to -16.6 °C with solubilities differing based on starting monomers. This range of properties allows for many applications and importantly due to the surviving Michael acceptor moieties, solubility and cross-linking can be specifically tailored, post polymerisation, to the desired function. An improved synthesis of itaconate and succinate co-polymers, via the initial formation of an itaconate bis-diol, is also demonstrated for the first time, resulting in significantly improved itaconate incorporation