Efficacy and mechanistic insights into endocrine disruptor degradation using atmospheric air plasma

Endocrine disruptors are a class of contaminants found in water and process effluents at low concentrations. They are of concern due to their high estrogenic potency. Their presence in the environment has led to the search for effective techniques for their removal in wastewater. For this purpose, an atmospheric air plasma reactor was employed for the study of the degradation of three endocrine disruptor chemicals (EDC) namely; bisphenol A (BPA), estrone (E1) and 17β-estradiol (E2) within a model dairy effluent. Identification of the plasma induced active species both in the gas and liquid phases were performed. Also studied was the influence of an inhibitor, namely tertiary butanol, on the degradation of the EDCs. The results demonstrate that air plasma could successfully degrade the tested EDCs, achieving efficacies of 93% (k=0.189min−1) for BPA, 83% (k=0.132min−1) for E1 and 86% (k=0.149min−1) for E2, with the process following first order kinetics. The removal efficacy was reduced in the presence of a radical scavenger confirming the key role of oxygen radicals such as OH in the degradation process. The intermediate and final products generated in the degradation process were identified using UHPLC-MS and LC-MS. Based on the intermediates identified a proposed degradation pathway is presented

Rapid Determination of Macrolide and Lincosamide Resistance in Group B Streptococcus Isolated from Vaginal-Rectal Swabs

Objective. Our objective was to assess the ability of real-time PCR to predict in vitro resistance in isolates of group B streptococcus (GBS). Methods. The first real-time PCR assays for the genes known to confer resistance to erythromycin and clindamycin in GBS were developed. Three hundred and forty clinical GBS isolates were assessed with these assays and compared with conventional disk diffusion. Results. The presence of an erythromycin ribosome methylation gene (ermB or ermTR variant A) predicted in vitro constitutive or inducible resistance to clindamycin with a sensitivity of 93% (95% CI 86%–97%), specificity of 90% (95% CI 85%–93%), positive predictive value of 76% (95% CI 67%–84%), and negative predictive value of 97% (95% CI 94%–99%). Conclusion. This rapid and simple assay can predict in vitro susceptibility to clindamycin within two hours of isolation as opposed to 18–24 hours via disk diffusion. The assay might also be used to screen large numbers of batched isolates to establish the prevalence of resistance in a given area

Contemporary Capacity-Building in Educational Contexts

Contemporary Capacity-Building in Educational Contexts extends current understandings of what capacities and capacity-building are and of the dimensions that maximise their prospects of success in current educational policy-making and provision. It does this by exploring how capacity-building is implemented among nine groups of research participants, including Australian, Dutch and English circus families, migrants and refugees in an Australian regional town, and a university education research team. These data sets are analysed to address eight 'hot topics' and 'wicked problems' in contemporary education: consciousness; creativity; dis/empowerment and agency; diversity and identity; forms of capital and currencies; knowledge sharing; regionality and rurality; and resilience

Urease and Nitrification Inhibitors—As Mitigation Tools for Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Sustainable Dairy Systems: A Review

peer-reviewedCurrently, nitrogen fertilizers are utilized to meet 48% of the total global food demand. The demand for nitrogen fertilizers is expected to grow as global populations continue to rise. The use of nitrogen fertilizers is associated with many negative environmental impacts and is a key source of greenhouse and harmful gas emissions. In recent years, urease and nitrification inhibitors have emerged as mitigation tools that are presently utilized in agriculture to prevent nitrogen losses and reduce greenhouse and harmful gas emissions that are associated with the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers. Both classes of inhibitor work by different mechanisms and have different physiochemical properties. Consequently, each class must be evaluated on its own merits. Although there are many benefits associated with the use of these inhibitors, little is known about their potential to enter the food chain, an event that may pose challenges to food safety. This phenomenon was highlighted when the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide was found as a residual contaminant in milk products in 2013. This comprehensive review aims to discuss the uses of inhibitor technologies in agriculture and their possible impacts on dairy product safety and quality, highlighting areas of concern with regards to the introduction of these inhibitor technologies into the dairy supply chain. Furthermore, this review discusses the benefits and challenges of inhibitor usage with a focus on EU regulations, as well as associated health concerns, chemical behavior, and analytical detection methods for these compounds within milk and environmental matrices.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Irelan

Advertising Bans and the Substitutability of Online and Offline Advertising

The authors examine whether the growth of the Internet has reduced the effectiveness of government regulation of advertising. They combine nonexperimental variation in local regulation of offline alcohol advertising with data from field tests that randomized exposure to online advertising for 275 different online advertising campaigns to 61,580 people. The results show that people are 8% less likely to say that they will purchase an alcoholic beverage in states that have alcohol advertising bans compared with states that do not. For consumers exposed to online advertising, this gap narrows to 3%. There are similar effects for four changes in local offline alcohol advertising restrictions when advertising effectiveness is observed both before and after the change. The effect of online advertising is disproportionately high for new products and for products with low awareness in places that have bans. This suggests that online advertising could reduce the effectiveness of attempts to regulate offline advertising channels because online advertising substitutes for (rather than complements) offline advertising.Google (Firm)WPP (Firm

Naming, framing, and sometimes shaming : reimagining relationships with education research participants

A key element of the project of reimagining participants in education research in hopefully more productive, respectful and transformative styles is recognising and making explicit the diverse means by which such participants are named, framed and sometimes shamed in research projects. This proposition derives from the argument, which is elaborated in this chapter, that researchers’ naming practices about the participants in their studies are inevitably ideological and political, and reflect underlying sociocultural attitudes that frame and position those participants in particular ways. Furthermore, that framing and positioning sometimes entail a process of shaming specific groups of participants, whether explicitly or implicitly, but with a definitely deleterious impact. The chapter explores the naming, framing and sometimes shaming of education research participants by presenting qualitative data about two groups of learners: students identified as having disabilities; and students whose parents’ ethnicity and/or occupational status require them to be mobile (AUTHORS, 2009a). Despite the diversity manifested by the two groups, they share experiences of being positioned by the formal education system as different and even deviant, and consequently of being marginalised by that system.The chapter also identifies the principles of relationality, reciprocity and transformative research that education researchers can evoke to ensure that their naming practices in relation to research participants are based on such principles, and that the framing that informs research is made explicit and interrogated for its potential impact, including the need to avoid shaming participants by essentialising their difference. These principles have been used by the authors and other researchers in the two fields canvassed here. At the same time, the sociocultural forces that foster naming, framing and sometimes shaming are ever-present, and need to be guarded against if relationships with education research participants are to be reimagined on a deeper and longer-term basis

Risks and dilemmas, virtues and vices : engaging with stakeholders and gatekeepers in Australian traveller education research

Scott and Usher (1999, pp. 129-134) have postulated three possible models of analysing the rights and responsibilities of researchers and researched: covert research; open democratic research; and open autocratic research. While we eschew characterising our research as “covert”, we are less definitive about whether and how it is “democratic” and/or “autocratic”. Partly this dilemma derives from uncertainties involved in identifying stakeholders with ‘legitimate’ involvement in the conduct and outcomes of a research project. Partly this dilemma also reflects the risks attendant on stakeholders becoming gatekeepers, and/or when stakeholders’ expectations of the project diverge. We illustrate these risks and dilemmas by reference to an ongoing research project investigating the educational experiences and opportunities of Australian occupational Travellers – specifically, itinerant circus and fairground people. This critically reflexive illustration is informed by our deployment of selected elements of Pring’s (2002) provocative delineation of the “virtues” and “vices” of educational researchers. We argue that Pring’s depiction of “the virtuous research community” (pp. 125-126), augmented by the principles of co-operative communities, provides a more contingent and nuanced basis than Scott and Usher’s (1999) “democratic” versus “autocratic” research for engaging with the multiple and sometimes conflicting interests of stakeholders and gatekeepers in Australian Traveller education research

Social capital, lifelong learning, and Australian occupational travellers : implications for regional, rural, and remote education

This paper examines lifelong learning according to alternative understandings of capital. The authors argue that a more nuanced and contingent conception of capital is needed to understand the lifelong learning of Australian occupational Travellers. The paper considers implications of this argument for lifelong learning in regional, rural, and remote locations

Riding waves of resonance: Morphogenic fields and collaborative research within Australian travelling communities

This article explores the theme of collaboration in relation to biochemist Rupert Sheldrake's concept of morphogenic fields. We contend that this idea, with its emphasis on the role of resonance in generating self-organising systems and cooperative action, has application for our research into the culture and educational experiences of Australian travelling communities

Researching education with marginalized communities

Researching Education with Marginalised Communities brings together two important 21st century themes. The authors consider the what, where and why of marginalisation, that insidious phenomenon whereby certain groups of people are deemed inferior on the basis of factors that they cannot control. Through intensive and extensive research the book also explores the role of education research in enabling those involved, whether on the margin or at the centre, to achieve comprehensive awareness of marginalisation and to combine forces to combat the stigma of discrimination. The six groups of marginalised learners included in the book live in Australia, the UK, Continental Europe, Japan and Venezuela, and include mobile circus and fairground communities; teachers of Traveller children; pre-undergraduate university students; vocational education students with disabilities and their teachers; environmental lobbyists and policy makers; and retired people. All chapters explain how researching education with marginalised communities can be carried out effectively and ethically