Evidence of traffic-related pollutant control in soil-based Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS)

SUDS are being increasingly employed to control highway runoff and have the potential to protect groundwater and surface water quality by minimising the risks of both point and diffuse sources of pollution. While these systems are effective at retaining polluted solids by filtration and sedimentation processes, less is known of the detail of pollutant behaviour within SUDS structures. This paper reports on investigations carried out as part of a co-ordinated programme of controlled studies and field measurements at soft-engineered SUDS undertaken in the UK, observing the accumulation and behaviour of traffic-related heavy metals, oil and PAHs. The field data presented were collected from two extended detention basins serving the M74 motorway in the south-west of Scotland. Additional data were supplied from an experimental lysimeter soil core leaching study. Results show that basin design influences pollutant accumulation and behaviour in the basins. Management and/or control strategies are discussed for reducing the impact of traffic-related pollutants on the aqueous environment

"Building back better": seeking an equitable return to sport-for-development in the wake of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic affected sport programming by restricting in-person activities. Concurrently, global outcry for racial justice for Black and racialized communities promoted calls-to-action to assess equitable practices in sport, including Sport for Development (SfD). This study critically examined SfD ‘return to play’ programming to include perspectives from racialized persons’ lived experiences. We present findings based on data collected from MLSE Foundation’s Change the Game (CtG) research, which explored questions of sport inequity to ‘build back better’. Outcomes further SfD discourses challenging (potentially) harmful structures affecting participants, including under reported effects of racialization. The study used a mixed-method methodology with quantitative analysis of survey data, and thematic analysis of personal experience within an anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and decolonial conceptual framework

Biases in the Measurement of Ambient Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) by Palmes Passive Diffusion Tube: A Review of Current Understanding

Palmes-type passive diffusion tubes (PDTs) are widely used to measure levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in air quality studies. Molecules of NO2 diffuse down the concentration gradient established in the tube by their reactive conversion into nitrite (NO2−) with triethanolamine (TEA) absorbent at the inner end. The relatively low uptake rate for the tube geometry means that exposure-averaged NO2 concentration can be calculated from first principles using the diffusion coefficient, D, for NO2 in air. This review provides a critical assessment of the current understanding of sources and extent of potential bias in NO2 PDT measurements in each of the following methodological stages: preparation of the absorbent; quantification of the absorbed NO2−; deployment in the field; calculation of the exposure-average NO2 concentration from the absorbed NO2−; and assessment of PDT bias through comparison against a chemiluminescence NO2 analyser. The review has revealed strong evidence that PDT measurement of NO2 can be subject to bias from a number of sources. The most significant positive biases are ambient wind flow at the entrance of the tube potentially leading to bias of tens of percent, and within-tube chemical reaction between NO and O3 causing bias up to ~25% at urban background locations, but much less at roadside and rural locations. Sources of potentially significant negative bias are associated with deployment times of several weeks in warm and sunny conditions, and deployments in atmospheres with relative humidities <~75% which causes incomplete conversion of NO2 to NO2−. Evidence suggests that biases (positive or negative) can be introduced by individual laboratories in the PDT preparation and NO2− quantification steps. It is insufficiently acknowledged that the value of D is not accurately known—some controlled chamber experiments can be interpreted as indicating that the value of D currently used is too low, giving rise to a positive bias in PDT-derived NO2 concentration. More than one bias may be present in a given PDT deployment, and because the biases act independently the net effect on PDT NO2 determination is the linear sum of individual biases acting on that deployment. The effect of net bias can be reduced by application of a local “bias adjustment” factor derived from co-locations of PDTs with a chemiluminescence analyser. When this is carried out, the PDT is suitable as an indicative measure of NO2 for air quality assessments. However, it must be recognised that individual PDT deployments may be subject to unknown variation in the bias adjustment factor for that deployment

Illusory perceptions of space and time preserve cross-saccadic perceptual continuity

When voluntary saccadic eye movements are made to a silently ticking clock, observers sometimes think that the second hand takes longer than normal to move to its next position. For a short period, the clock appears to have stopped (chronostasis). Here we show that the illusion occurs because the brain extends the percept of the saccadic target backwards in time to just before the onset of the saccade. This occurs every time we move the eyes but it is only perceived when an external time reference alerts us to the phenomenon. The illusion does not seem to depend on the shift of spatial attention that accompanies the saccade. However, if the target is moved unpredictably during the saccade, breaking perception of the target's spatial continuity, then the illusion disappears. We suggest that temporal extension of the target's percept is one of the mechanisms that 'fill in' the perceptual 'gap' during saccadic suppression. The effect is critically linked to perceptual mechanisms that identify a target's spatial stability

Data for 'Something in the way she moves': the functional significance of flexibility in the multiple roles of protein disulfide isomerase (PDI)

Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) has diverse functions in the endoplasmic reticulum as catalyst of redox transfer, disulfide isomerization and oxidative protein folding, as molecular chaperone and in multi-subunit complexes. It interacts with an extraordinarily wide range of substrate and partner proteins, but there is only limited structural information on these interactions. Extensive evidence on the flexibility of PDI in solution is not matched by any detailed picture of the scope of its motion. A new rapid method for simulating the motion of large proteins provides detailed molecular trajectories for PDI demonstrating extensive changes in the relative orientation of its four domains, great variation in the distances between key sites and internal motion within the core ligand-binding domain. The review shows that these simulations are consistent with experimental evidence and provide insight into the functional capabilities conferred by the extensive flexible motion of PDI