Analysis of nitrogen tetroxide samples Final report

Chemical analysis of nitrogen tetroxide trace impuritie

Dairy bioactives and functional ingredients with skin health benefits

The potential of whey from Italian cheese productions to support skin health and anti-ageing mechanism was studied. The effect of whey on dermal and epidermal cells was evaluated. Whey inhibited the activity of elastase and tyrosinase enzymes by 60% and 32%, respectively. Whey cytotoxicity against tested skin cell lines, human fibroblasts (HDFa) and keratinocytes (HaCaT) was not observed. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of the samples was noted, after treatment with whey intracellular ROS level was decreased by 87% in comparison with the hydrogen peroxide-treated cells. Fibroblasts produced a significant amount of extracellular matrix molecules, collagen I, elastin and glycosaminoglycans as a result of treatment with tested whey. In addition, the ability of samples to improve the cell barrier integrity of keratinocytes was proven. The obtained results indicate that pure whey supports skin health and shows potential to be used by the cosmetic industry

The efficiency of immobilised glutamate oxidase decreases with surface enzyme loading: an electrostatic effect, and reversal by a polycation significantly enhances biosensor sensitivity

The apparent Michaelis constant, KM, for glutamate oxidase (GluOx) immobilised on Pt electrodes increased systematically with enzyme loading. The effect was due, at least in part, to electrostatic repulsion between neighbouring oxidase molecules and the anionic substrate, glutamate (Glu). This understanding has allowed us to increase the Glu sensitivity of GluOx-based amperometric biosensors in the linear response region (100 ± 11 nA cmâ2µMâ1 at pH 7.4; SD, n = 23) by incorporating a polycation (polyethyleneimine, PEI) to counterbalance the polyanionic protein. Differences in the behaviour of glucose biosensors of a similar configuration highlight a limitation of using glucose oxidase as a model enzyme in biosensor design

The efficiency of immobilised glutamate oxidase decreases with surface enzyme loading: an electrostatic effect, and reversal by a polycation significantly enhances biosensor sensitivity

The apparent Michaelis constant, KM, for glutamate oxidase (GluOx) immobilised on Pt electrodes increased systematically with enzyme loading. The effect was due, at least in part, to electrostatic repulsion between neighbouring oxidase molecules and the anionic substrate, glutamate (Glu). This understanding has allowed us to increase the Glu sensitivity of GluOx-based amperometric biosensors in the linear response region (100 ± 11 nA cmâ2µMâ1 at pH 7.4; SD, n = 23) by incorporating a polycation (polyethyleneimine, PEI) to counterbalance the polyanionic protein. Differences in the behaviour of glucose biosensors of a similar configuration highlight a limitation of using glucose oxidase as a model enzyme in biosensor design

Strategies for Developing Sustainable Design Practice for Students and SME Professionals

Designers and engineers seem finally to be awakening to the challenge that sustainable development has given. Educators and students alike are keenly aware of the need to become more effective in the training and practice of their specific disciplines with respect to sustainability. \noindent In the past four years since this research has developed, there has been a marked change in the mass market appeal for sustainable products and services. Implementation of sustainable design practice from both recent graduates and also innovative small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at a local level is slow. One would assume that the consumer drive would push a change in design practice but perhaps the complexities of sustainable design along with the lack of experience in the field are providing barriers to designers and marketers alike. In addition the SME sector alone makes up the bulk of industry within the European Union (EU) varying in some countries from 80-95% of the total numbers of companies (Tukker et al. 2000). These industries by their nature find it difficult to dedicate expertise solely to sustainable development issues. The strategy outlined in this paper intended to introduce concepts of sustainable design thinking and practice to both SMEs and undergraduate students. \noindent This current and ongoing research qualitatively assesses appropriate models for educating for sustainable design thinking with SME employees and undergraduate design students. The sample groups include Industrial Design and Product Design undergraduate students in Ireland at the Institute of Technology, Carlow (IT Carlow), The University of Limerick (UL) and a sample of SMEs in the South East of Ireland, with broad national participation from other students of design and professionals from industry. Current levels of understanding of students and SME professionals of key environmental and social issues are measured

Grip Force Reveals the Context Sensitivity of Language-Induced Motor Activity during “Action Words

Studies demonstrating the involvement of motor brain structures in language processing typically focus on \ud time windows beyond the latencies of lexical-semantic access. Consequently, such studies remain inconclusive regarding whether motor brain structures are recruited directly in language processing or through post-linguistic conceptual imagery. In the present study, we introduce a grip-force sensor that allows online measurements of language-induced motor activity during sentence listening. We use this tool to investigate whether language-induced motor activity remains constant or is modulated in negative, as opposed to affirmative, linguistic contexts. Our findings demonstrate that this simple experimental paradigm can be used to study the online crosstalk between language and the motor systems in an ecological and economical manner. Our data further confirm that the motor brain structures that can be called upon during action word processing are not mandatorily involved; the crosstalk is asymmetrically\ud governed by the linguistic context and not vice versa

The Political Economy of Non-Traditional Security: Explaining the Governance of Avian Influenza in Indonesia

Given the common association of non-traditional security (NTS) problems with globalisation, surprisingly little attention has been paid to how the political economy context of given NTS issues shape how they are securitised and managed in practice. We argue that security and its governance are always highly contested because different modes of security governance invariably privilege particular interests and normative agendas in state and society, which relate directly to the political economy. Drawing on critical political geography, we argue that, because NTS issues are perceived as at least potentially transnational, their securitisation often involves strategic attempts by actors and coalitions to ‘rescale’ their governance beyond the national political and institutional arenas, into new, expert-dominated modes of governance. Such efforts are often resisted by other coalitions, for which this rescaling is deleterious. As evidenced by a case study of avian influenza in Indonesia, particular governance outcomes depend upon the nature of the coalitions assembled for and against rescaling in specific situations, while these coalitions’ make-up and relative strength is shaped by the political economy of the industries that rescaling would affect, viewed against the broader backdrop of state-society relations

Search for charginos in e+e- interactions at sqrt(s) = 189 GeV

An update of the searches for charginos and gravitinos is presented, based on a data sample corresponding to the 158 pb^{-1} recorded by the DELPHI detector in 1998, at a centre-of-mass energy of 189 GeV. No evidence for a signal was found. The lower mass limits are 4-5 GeV/c^2 higher than those obtained at a centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV. The (\mu,M_2) MSSM domain excluded by combining the chargino searches with neutralino searches at the Z resonance implies a limit on the mass of the lightest neutralino which, for a heavy sneutrino, is constrained to be above 31.0 GeV/c^2 for tan(beta) \geq 1.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure

Hadronization properties of b quarks compared to light quarks in e+e- -> q qbar from 183 to 200 GeV

The DELPHI detector at LEP has collected 54 pb^{-1} of data at a centre-of-mass energy around 183 GeV during 1997, 158 pb^{-1} around 189 GeV during 1998, and 187 pb^{-1} between 192 and 200 GeV during 1999. These data were used to measure the average charged particle multiplicity in e+e- -> b bbar events, _{bb}, and the difference delta_{bl} between _{bb} and the multiplicity, _{ll}, in generic light quark (u,d,s) events: delta_{bl}(183 GeV) = 4.55 +/- 1.31 (stat) +/- 0.73 (syst) delta_{bl}(189 GeV) = 4.43 +/- 0.85 (stat) +/- 0.61 (syst) delta_{bl}(200 GeV) = 3.39 +/- 0.89 (stat) +/- 1.01 (syst). This result is consistent with QCD predictions, while it is inconsistent with calculations assuming that the multiplicity accompanying the decay of a heavy quark is independent of the mass of the quark itself.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure