Contemporary contestations over working time: time for health to weigh in

Non-communicable disease (NCD) incidence and prevalence is of central concern to most nations, along with international agencies such as the UN, OECD, IMF and World Bank. As a result, the search has begun for ‘causes of the cause’ behind health risks and behaviours responsible for the major NCDs. As part of this effort, researchers are turning their attention to charting the temporal nature of societal changes that might be associated with the rapid rise in NCDs. From this, the experience of time and its allocation are increasingly understood to be key individual and societal resources for health (7–9). The interdisciplinary study outlined in this paper will produce a systematic analysis of the behavioural health dimensions, or ‘health time economies’ (quantity and quality of time necessary for the practice of health behaviours), that have accompanied labour market transitions of the last 30 years - the period in which so many NCDs have risen sharply

In-situ TEM observation of the response of ultrafine- and nanocrystalline-grained tungsten to extreme irradiation environments

The accumulation of defects, and in particular He bubbles, can have significant implications for the performance of materials exposed to the plasma in magnetic-confinement nuclear fusion reactors. Some of the most promising candidates for deployment into such environments are nanocrystalline materials as the engineering of grain boundary density offers the possibility of tailoring their radiation resistance properties. In order to investigate the microstructural evolution of ultrafine- and nanocrystalline-grained tungsten under conditions similar to those in a reactor, a transmission electron microscopy study with in He1 ion irradiation at 9506C has been completed. A dynamic and complex evolution in the microstructure situ 2 keV was observed including the formation of defect clusters, dislocations and bubbles. Nanocrystalline grains with dimensions less than around 60 nm demonstrated lower bubble density and greater bubble size than larger nanocrystalline (60–100 nm) and ultrafine (100–500 nm) grains. In grains over 100 nm, uniform distributions of bubbles and defects were formed. At higher fluences, large faceted bubbles were observed on the grain boundaries, especially on those of nanocrystalline grains, indicating the important role grain boundaries can play in trapping He and thus in giving rise to the enhanced radiation tolerance of nanocrystalline materials

Electrochemical deposition of platinum nanoparticles on different carbon supports and conducting polymers

Electrodeposition of Pt nanoparticles under potentiostatic conditions was performed on several types of carbon electrode supports: commercial macroporous carbon (a three-dimensional electrode), glassy carbon and graphite. Conducting polymers (poly-aniline and poly-oaminophenol) were also used. The platinum nanoparticles were obtained by different Potential Step Deposition (PSD) methods in 5 mM H2PtCl6 + 0.5 M H2SO4 aqueous solutions. The effect of the final potential, time and number of steps on the quantity, distribution and size of the platinum nanoparticles was analysed. The mechanism of the electrochemical deposition of platinum was studied through the application of theoretical modelling. The progressive nucleation mechanism provided the closest agreement with the results obtained. In addition, the chemical state and morphology of the electrodeposited materials were determined by means of SEM, TEM and XPS. The results show that the carbon material structure has a strong influence on the Pt particle structure and this, in turn, affects the catalytic activity.Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Projects CTQ2006-08958/PPQ and MAT2004-1479) and the EU (FEDER)