Graphene optical and microwave molecular sensing platforms

The unique electronic and physical structure of graphene is highly sensitive to its surroundings, producing a promising candidate for future sensor technologies. However, graphene responds equally to perturbations at both sides of its interface, such that tuning the chemical potential of the substrate at the graphene-solid interface impacts the sensor response at the graphene-gas/liquid interface. In this work, two distinct non-contact graphene sensing platforms are studied under various ambient conditions to assess their propensity towards molecular sensing. The different spectral enhancement mechanisms of graphene surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy platforms are studied through interfacing graphene to differently treated gold nanodisc substrates. Using statistical Raman analysis, the influence of the chemical enhancement mechanism with respect to the graphene Raman peaks is assessed. Moreover, Kelvin force microscopy shows that the locally enhanced electromagnetic field can induce surface chemical reactions which are dependent upon the sensor environment. Explicitly, laser illumination in an air/nitrogen ambient, p-/n-dopes the graphene sheet by -0.87 0.05 meV/ +0.75 0.07 meV. By measuring the change of resistivity of graphene upon gas adsorption using a microwave dielectric resonator, a contactless non-invasive gas sensing platform is demonstrated. This large area graphene measurement platform allows evaluation of the real time sorption processes of NO2 with graphene. Using a modified Langmuir adsorption model, the sticking coefficient is exponentially dependent upon NO2 occupancy. Consequently, the possible variation of the NO2 binding energy, which is frequently considered as the main parameter, plays only a secondary role compared to the rising adsorption energy barrier with increasing NO2 coverage. Finally, through preliminary temperature and electrical gating measurements the charge transfer affinity of graphene based NO2 sensors is explored. Interestingly, the sensor response can be hindered and/or enhanced by back gate control of the doping in graphene.Open Acces

The Contribution of Small-scale, Rural Festivals to the Social Sustainability of their Host Communities in Northumberland, UK

PhD ThesisSmall-scale festivals, as occasions for communal gathering and celebration, have long held a place in the respective local calendars of many towns and villages throughout the United Kingdom. By their nature, they are sites for social interaction, performance and participation on many levels. Some have an historic precedent going back several centuries, while a great many arose post 1980 as a result, in part, of the burgeoning tourism and heritage industries and the regeneration policies and development strategies of the pre-millennium era. The proliferation of the UK festival field raises questions of sustainability, purpose and effectiveness and of the need for greater social evaluation in response to a perceived over-emphasis on economic outcomes. While some cultural and developmental strategies do acknowledge the potential social impact of small-scale festivals, to date the emphasis has been predominantly upon the economic contribution with research into festival impact taking a particularly urban focus. This research project examined the contribution of small-scale festivals to the social sustainability of their host communities within a rural context through a case study approach in Northumberland. A comprehensive overview of the dynamic of festivals within the county between 1980 and 2012 allowed for the selection of the four case studies. The mixed-method approach combined a review of the literature, archival and field research with a range of semi-structured interviews with festival and community stakeholders. Four principle indicators were identified through which to measure the contributions of the festivals to community social sustainability. These indicators are: contribution to community pride and localness, enhancement of knowledge and understanding, contribution to the continuity of local culture, and enablement of networks of connectivity. By examining these events through a lens of social sustainability, the thesis presents an argument, as outlined in the conclusion, which supports the potential for small-scale, rural festivals to make a positive contribution to their communities. The findings within the thesis suggest that small-scale, rural festivals make a significant contribution to the social sustainability of their host communities through the networks of connections they enable temporally (with heritage), spatially (with place) ii and socially (with the individuals and groups which interact with the event). In order for these festival connections to contribute to sustainability, these events must demonstrate a balance within these connections of both consistency and innovation and an accessibility and openness within the locale. It is this accessibility and the balance of consistency and innovation which ultimately determines the festival’s contribution to the social sustainability of its host community.Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) who provided funding for my PhD, and the School of Arts and Cultures (SACs) at Newcastle University for funding a number of conference attendances

Blood money: A grounded theory of corporate citizenship; Myanmar (Burma) as a case in point

Corporate Citizenship as a social phenomena spans a growing body of corporate initiatives, nascent policy frameworks, and global civil society action. Corporate engagement with fragile states, and other situations identified as contexts of conflict and/or weak governance, is the subject of scholarly and practitioner research by those with an interest in Corporate Citizenship. In this thesis I represent the corporation as a legal entity with significant political and socio-economic impacts. Responsibility for these impacts is the subject of ongoing social critique and contest. I consider the corporate form as a site of broad protest at the environmental devastation and social dislocation that has accompanied the globalisation and intensification of neo-liberal economic activity. My analytic focus is the range of social processes involving actors from the private, civil and political sphere, through which understandings of responsible, potentially 'constructive' corporate engagement in fragile states are created, contested and transformed. Further, efforts to embed Corporate Citizenship as the normative basis for global business practice broadly reflect aspirations for greater social justice. In identifying and describing intentions, aspirations and forms of corporate engagement in fragile states, and the social process through which these change, I critically examine the discourses of development, security and governance which underpin Corporate Citizenship efforts. In this thesis I offer a grounded theory of Corporate Citizenship in Fragile States I have developed through an empirical case study of the oil and gas industry in Myanmar (Burma). Working within a social constructivist perspective in the grounded theory research tradition, I have employed an iterative analytic process to develop the theory presented. In this process the sampling of data was undertaken to challenge and develop concepts in the emerging theory, concepts identified using a method of constant comparison within and between sets of data. I continued these concurrent processes of data-collection, analysis and theoretical development until I judged the theory to be a sufficiently complete description of the focus of inquiry. A total of seven broad sets of data informed the development of the theory presented. These datasets include over a hundred interviews in seven countries with stakeholders in three joint-venture offshore exploration and production projects in Myanmar (Burma) undertaken from July 2006 to August 2009. The datasets also draw from an extensive body of corporate and advocacy group publications regarding foreign investment in Myanmar, along with other secondary data sources. In this inquiry I have explored the multiple interactions between corporate, state and civil society actors through which understandings of 'responsible' corporate engagement in Myanmar are created, enacted and transformed. I have identified and conceptualised four social processes at work in these interactions, which I describe in the grounded theories of: (1) Commercial Diplomacy (describing the use of enterprise as a conduit for foreign policy by states, particularly as it relates to 'ethical' business activity) (2) Stakeholder Activism (critiquing the aims and strategies of transnational civil society organisations who advocate for 'responsible' corporate engagement) (3) Corporate Engagement (explaining variation in the motivations and terms of corporate engagement, specifically different forms of divestment or engagement, as strategic responses to stakeholder activism, commercial diplomacy and other factors which influence the enterprise context) (4) Constructive Corporate Engagement (a conceptual framework, grounded in multiple stakeholder-views and drawing from the international development discourses of state fragility and human security, for considering the potentially constructive impacts of corporate engagement). Working within and between these four theories, I generated an overarching grounded theory of (5) Corporate Citizenship in Fragile States. From these theories I offer a critical analysis of Corporate Citizenship as the normative basis for a new articulation between the economic, social and political spheres in pursuit of a more equitable global order

A high-throughput screening method for determining the substrate scope of nitrilases

Nitrile compounds are intermediates in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals such as atorvastatin. We have developed a chromogenic reagent to screen for nitrilase activity as an alternative to Nessler's reagent. It produces a semi-quantifiable blue colour and hydrolysis of 38 nitrile substrates by 23 nitrilases as cell-free extracts has been shown

Evaluating Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion activities within Creative Industries Clusters: A report from Creative Informatics

In 2018 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) created the Creative Industries Clusters Programme (CICP), which has funded nine large-scale Creative Research and Development Partnerships (CRDPs) across the UK, including Creative Informatics. Creative Informatics (2018–2024) focuses on supporting the Creative Industries in Edinburgh and the South-East Scotland Region to use data to innovate in the production of goods and services. With a network of over 6000 people, and leading to 352 new and safeguarded jobs, Creative Informatics has had a huge impact on the creative industries in its region. But has this been done in a way that advances Equality, Diversity and Inclusion?This report evaluates the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) activities (based on data published up to July 2023) of Creative Informatics (CI) in the context of other funding, policy and research organisations also operating in the space of the Creative Industries. These organisations are Clwstwr, Bristol + Bath Creative Research + Development, and XR Stories and the associated Research England-funded project, SIGN, which are three other regional beneficiaries of the Creative Industries Clusters Programme (CICP), and the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre, which is also part of the CICP. We also offer an overview of ED&I activities by Creative Scotland as a comparable Scottish funder of the Creative Industries.Each of these organisations publishes its own material about ED&I aims, priorities, actions, accountability and reporting, and in this report we introduce the organisations and their self-stated objectives and targets. We then discuss their data collection activities as part of their monitoring practices as well as their reasons for collecting specific data, their comparisons of these data against benchmarks, and how they incorporate intersectionality. Next we look at the collaborators and beneficiaries of projects funded by these organisations and finally we address three recurring issues raised by many of the organisations: how to achieve continued improvement, change at senior levels, and socio-economic inequalities. All of this is placed in the context of wider ED&I activities within the Creative Industries. After introducing this overview of each organisation's activities, our discussion section draws out some common themes and, finally, we offer some recommendations for how to expand upon the evidence and knowledge already circulating in the Creative Industries

Diversity and inclusion in the data-driven creative economy:An analysis of Creative Industries Clusters Programme approaches

What is the role of data in our understanding of diversity and inclusion in the creative economy? How can decision-making be supported by the available data we have about the different characteristics of those employed, and innovating, in the creative economy? Focusing on the activities of Creative Informatics and other clusters in the Creative Industries Clusters Programme, this chapter will establish the importance of attending to the intersection of race, class and gender in the creative sectors and show how data can inform our understanding of mechanisms of exclusion in creative occupations. It will particularly focus on what we know about the makeup of the data-driven cultural economy and make recommendations on what we must do to ensure that both a diverse workforce and audience can engage in digital aspects of the creative industries

Playing 'Tetris' reduces the strength, frequency and vividness of naturally occurring cravings.

Elaborated Intrusion Theory (EI) postulates that imagery is central to craving, therefore a visually based task should decrease craving and craving imagery. This study provides the first laboratory test of this hypothesis in naturally occurring, rather than artificially induced, cravings. Participants reported if they were experiencing a craving and rated the strength, vividness and intrusiveness of their craving. They then either played 'Tetris' or they waited for a computer program to load (they were told it would load, but it was designed not to). Before task completion, craving scores between conditions did not differ; after, however, participants who had played 'Tetris' had significantly lower craving and less vivid craving imagery. The findings support EI theory, showing that a visuospatial working memory load reduces naturally occurring cravings, and that Tetris might be a useful task for tackling cravings outside the laboratory. Methodologically, the findings show that craving can be studied in the laboratory without using craving induction procedures

Analysis of a family 6 carbohydrate-binding module and three family 69 hyaluronidases

To investigate the interactions between a family 6 carbohydrate-binding module (CBM) from Clostridium thermocellum Xynl 1A (CtCBM6) and its target ligands and to identify the location of the ligand binding site(s) through a mutagenesis strategy, the protein was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. CtCBM6 was shown previously to interact with xylan (Fernandes et al., 1999) and, informed by the crystal structure, it was found that CtCBM6 was unusual, as it contained two potential ligand-binding clefts (Clefts A and B). Qualitative ligand specificity studies through affinity gel electrophoresis (AGE) demonstrated that CtCBM6 bound preferentially to xylans, interacts weakly with 13-glucan and some soluble substituted forms of cellulose. Quantitative analysis of ligand binding by isothermal titration calorimetry showed that CtCBM6 bound xylooligosaccharides from xylobiose to xylohexaose, with affinity increasing with chain length. The affinity of CtCBM6 for soluble xylan of varying degrees of substitution was judged to be similar. NMR spectroscopy (Dr M. Czjzek at CNRS, Marseille) indicated that xylohexaose interacts with the two solvent exposed aromatic amino acids (Tyr-34 and Trp-92) and a polar amino acid (namely Asn-120) in cleft A of CtCBM6. Site-directed mutagenesis revealed that hydrophobic stacking interactions and hydrogen bonds potentiate the binding of CtCBM6 to xylan. Surface aromatic residues Tyr-34 and Trp-92 of CtCBM6 are pivotal in the interaction between this module and its ligand, as substitution of these amino acids with alanine and methionine resulted in an 8-fold and 50-fold respective decrease in affinity of CtCBM6 for oat spelt xylan, as judged by quantitative AGE. Hydrogen-bonding interactions also made pivotal contributions to the overall binding in CtCBM6. Asn-120 was critical to ligand binding, as the mutant N120A showed —130-fold loss of binding affinity. This suggests that this residue directly participates in ligand binding via hydrogen bonds. Collectively, mutagenesis and NMR studies showed that cleft A can accommodate xylooligosaccharides and xylan, while cleft B was unable to interact with target ligands. Three hyaluronidases (Hy1P1, HylP2 and HylP3) of glycoside hydrolase family 69 (GH69) were cloned from the genome sequenced organism Streptococcus pyogenes SF370, expressed in E. coli and purified to homogeneity. Characterisation of the N-terminally tagged HylP1 (38.4 kDa), Hy1P2 (42.0 kDa) and Hy1133 (41.8 kDa) revealed activity against sodium hyaluronate with a KM for Hy1P1, HylP2 and Hy1P3 of 0.90, 2.07 and 4.35 ml mg 1, and a kcat of 1390.90, 742.01 and 1253.04 s-1, respectively. HylP1, HylP2 and Hy1P3 displayed an optimum pH of 6.5, 6.0 and 5.5, respectively, and an optimum activity at 37 °C. Moreover, PAGE analysis showed each enzyme was endo-cleaving. All three enzymes have been crystallised and sufficient quality diffraction data obtained for Hy1P1 and HylP3 (data collection and processing was performed by Dr Edward Taylor). The 3D structure of HylP1 has been solved at a resolution of 1.8 A and is composed of three monomeric strands that are intertwined to form a trimer.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Light scalars as tetraquarks or two-meson states from large Nc and unitarized Chiral Perturbation Theory

By means of unitarized Chiral Perturbation Theory it is possible to obtain a remarkable description of meson-meson scattering amplitudes up to 1.2 GeV, and generate poles associated to scalar and vector resonances. Since Chiral Perturbation Theory is the QCD low energy effective theory, it is possible then to study its large Nc limit where qqbar states are easily identified. The vectors thus generated follow closely a qqbar behavior, whereas the light scalar poles follow the large Nc behavior expected for a dominant tetraquark or two-meson structure.Comment: Invited Brief Report to appear in Modern Physcis Letters A. 15 page