Radon remediation: an analysis of dose-reduction, durability and effectiveness

Radon is a colourless, odourless, inert, radioactive gas found in Group 8 of the Periodic Table; it is formed by the decay of uranium in soils and rocks. The half-life of radon is 3.8 days. Radon, in the built environment, is the second largest cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoking and is responsible for 3-5% of the UK cancer deaths. Radon can accumulate in workplaces to levels (400 Bq.m3), above which action is required under UK legislation by employers to remediate so as to reduce levels and lower the risk to human health. The remediation and post-remediation research programme in the NI-IS properties in Northamptonshire is perhaps the most mature in the UK, commencing in 1993. This thesis includes a review of the main remediation projects in National Health Service (NHS) properties in Northamptonshire. Data has been obtained from a range of sources, post-remediation, to enable a cost-effectiveness assessment. Using direct radon measurements and questionnaires, to determine occupancy, dose reduction has been calculated for all members of staff in the remediated venues. The reduction in dose is lower than the reduction in radon. The trends in radon levels post-remediation have been investigated night-time levels are reduced more than daytime levels and this has a clear implication for dose to staff The effective lifetime of the remediation systems has been investigated. Remediation systems, operated through a clear management system, have been found to remain effective up to eight years after installation. A Decision Support System to support radon management in the workplace is proposed as well as suggestions for future researc

Metal-assisted reactions. Part 25. Heterogeneous and homogeneous catalytic transfer hydrogenolysis of allyloxytetrazoles to yield alkenes or alkanes

Transfer hydrogenolysis of 5-allyloxy- 1-phenyltetrazoles using either a heterogeneous or a homogeneous palladium catalyst and a hydrogen donor leads to cleavage of the allyloxy C-O bond to yield an alkane or an alkene and 1-phenyltetrazolone, depending on the catalyst used

3-Hydroxy-2,6-dinitroacetophenone: an unusual substitution pattern resulting from nitration of 3-hydroxyacetophenone

Nitration of 3-hydroxyacetophenone gives 2,6-dinitro-3-hydroxyacetophenone, C8H6N206, in which the nitro groups have entered the sterically least favourable positions in the aromatic nucleus. None of the expected substitution in the 4-position was observed. The two nitro groups flanking the carbonyl side chain are different in that one is in the plane of the aryl ring but the other is twisted well out of the plane

The first law of thermodynamics and 2d CFT descriptions for near-extremal and near-EVH black holes

In this thesis we investigate the quantum aspects of black holes near extremality. In particular we seek evidence that a near-extremal black hole has a microscopic description in terms of a two dimensional conformal field theory (CFT). We first demonstrate how the low temperature expansion of the first law of thermodynamics leads to an expression for the entropy of extremal black holes which can be recast as the Cardy formula for the entropy of a chiral two dimensional CFT, in agreement with the Extremal Black Hole/CFT correspondence. We apply Sen’s entropy function formalism to fortify this result by reproducing it in a gravitational setup. We extend our first law analysis to a class of near-Extremal Vanishing Horizon (near-EVH) black holes. These black holes have low entropy and temperature, and their geometries contain locally asymptotically AdS3 throats in the near horizon region. The low temperature expansion of the first law is compatible with the first law for a three dimensional BTZ black hole. As the BTZ black hole has an AdS/CFT description in terms of a non-chiral two dimensional CFT, our result can be viewed as thermodynamic evidence for the EVH/CFT correspondence, which states that gravity on the near horizon EVH geometry is described by a 2d CFT. A near-EVH black hole, or low energy excitation around an EVH black hole, is described by excitations of the dual 2d CFT. As case studies of our first law analysis and the EVH/CFT correspondence, we focus on two asymptotically AdS5× S5 classes of near-EVH black holes. The two cases have interesting individual properties and, by the AdS/CFT correspondence, dual descriptions as states in N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory . We can compare these (UV) pictures to the two dimensional descriptions that emerge from the near horizon, or low energy, dynamics. All EVH near horizon geometries have local AdS3 factors which become BTZ black holes when the configurations are excited from EVH to near-EVH. In the study of static black holes with three R-charges, we examine the non-BPS and near- BPS regimes separately. While the non-BPS near horizon limit is locally regular, in the near- BPS case the near horizon procedure requires focussing geometrically on a strip of the horizon, and the degrees of freedom of the dual CFT2 can be associated with stretched strings between giant gravitons in the transverse five-sphere. The near-EVH limit of non-BPS stationary charged black holes is obtained by taking the vanishing limit of one or both of the angular momenta. When one of the momenta is small, the AdS3 angle is a combination of azimuthal angles in the AdS5 and S5 regions of the geometry. Taking the vanishing limit of both of the angular momenta leads to a near horizon limit which contains a BTZ black hole that is non-trivially fibred by a three-sphere. For each of the case studies we use the AdS3/CFT2 dictionary to specify dual IR CFT2 descriptions of the black holes. We outline a map between the UV and IR near-EVH excitations and demonstrate how the first law reduces in the near-EVH limit to the first law of a BTZ black hole. As a consistency check we compare our results with those of the Kerr/CFT correspondence

Are first year undergraduate medical students competent in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation?

Performing high quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is paramount to patient survival, and the successful application of CPR knowledge and skills largely depends on the education and training the rescuers have received. Medical students are expected to be proficient in basic CPR skills upon graduation, and as such may be required to demonstrate the ability to deliver CPR to patients at any point during their medical degree. Similar to other Australian Medical Schools, James Cook University (JCU) requires all first year medical students to submit a certificate of completion of an Australian Credited First Aid and CPR course, from a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). Currently, no additional training or assessment of students’ competence in basic CPR knowledge and skills are included in Years1-3 of the medical curriculum, even though further activities in Years4-6 of the course build on fundamental CPR knowledge and skills

Bond energy/eond order relationships for N-O linkages and a quantitative measure of ionicity: the rôle of nitro groups in hydrogen bonding

The nitro group is active in metabolic systems and can be found as an integral part of a number of useful curative drugs and many toxic substances. The basis for much of this activity is not fully understood. It is not necessarily caused directly by through-bond electronic effects but may also be due to direct H-bonding to nitro or to indirect interference by the nitro group with existing H-bonding. An unusual effect of a nitro substituent on kinetic results from urethane addition/elimination reactions (Scheme 1) has been ascribed to some form of self-association, which was neither specified nor quantified. To investigate self-association phenomena caused by a nitro group, a bond energy/bond order formula for N–O bonds has been developed and then used to interpret relative amounts of covalent and ionic contributions to total N–O bond energy. Calculated bond energies were then used to obtain enthalpies of formation for H-bonds to nitro groups in crystals and in solution. Similar results from solution data reveal that direct H-bonding to nitro is much weaker than in crystals, unless intramolecular H-bonding can occur. The results revealed that the 'self-association' effects observed for nitro substituents in urethanes (Scheme 1) were not caused by nitro participating directly in intermolecular bonding to NH of another urethane but by an indirect intramolecular action of the nitro group on pre-existing normal NH–O amide/amide type H-bonding

3-( E )-But-2-enoxy-1,2-benzisothiazole 1,1-dioxide: unusual C—O—C ether bond lengths and reactivity

Ethers such as the title compound, C~HIINO3S, (1), rearrange thermally to give N-allyl isomers, (2), in high yield. The X-ray structure determination of the title ether shows a central C--O--C linkage which has one very short (notional) C--O single bond and one exceptionally long single C--O bond. The thermal migration of allyl from the O to the N atom involves the breaking of one of the ether bonds in (1) and a shortening of the other as it becomes a formal carbonyl group in the product (2). The rearrangement is thus considerably assisted by the ground-state structure of the starting ether, in which the bond to be broken is already stretched and the one that is to form a carbonyl group is already a substantial partial double bond

Thermal rearrangement of 3-allyloxy-1,2-benzisothiazole 1,1-dioxides: an unusual inversion of products of sigmatropic [3,3]-shift to give the [1,3]-Isomers

3-Allyloxy-1,2-benzisothiazole 1,1-dioxides isomerize thermally to give [3,3]- and [1,3]-products 6 of sigmatropic shift, of which the former reacts further to give solely the [1,3]-isomer

Emergent IR dual 2d CFTs in charged AdS5 black holes

We study the possible dynamical emergence of IR conformal invariance describing the low energy excitations of near-extremal R-charged global AdS5 black holes. We find interesting behavior especially when we tune parameters in such a way that the relevant extremal black holes have classically vanishing horizon area, i.e. no classical ground-state entropy, and when we combine the low energy limit with a large N limit of the dual gauge theory. We consider both near-BPS and non-BPS regimes and their near horizon limits, emphasize the differences between the local AdS3 throats emerging in either case, and discuss potential dual IR 2d CFTs for each case. We compare our results with the predictions obtained from the Kerr/CFT correspondence, and obtain a natural quantization for the central charge of the near-BPS emergent IR CFT which we interpret in terms of the open strings stretched between giant gravitons.Comment: 37 page, 3 .eps figure

Higher total faecal short chain fatty concentrations correlate with increasing proportions of butyrate and decreasing proportions of branched chain fatty acids across multiple human studies

The Rowett Institute (University of Aberdeen) receives financial support from the Scottish Government Rural and Environmental Sciences and Analytical Services (RESAS). Studies 779 and 780 were supported by a grant from the World Cancer Research Fund.Peer reviewedPublisher PD