Proportionality and the Human Rights Act: a year in reflection

Article discussing the concept of proportionality and its role in the application of the UK Human Rights Act in achieving a balance between rights and responsibilities. The author sees that act as having had a revolutionary effect on ways of thinking which have proved to be the single most significant change to legal practice in recent centuries. Article based on the 4th annual lecture presented to the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at IALS given by Cherie Booth QC (Barrister-at-law and founding member of Matrix chambers) on 29th October 2001. Published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

2017 Research & Innovation Day Program

A one day showcase of applied research, social innovation, scholarship projects and activities.https://first.fanshawec.ca/cri_cripublications/1004/thumbnail.jp

Para-infectious brain injury in COVID-19 persists at follow-up despite attenuated cytokine and autoantibody responses

To understand neurological complications of COVID-19 better both acutely and for recovery, we measured markers of brain injury, inflammatory mediators, and autoantibodies in 203 hospitalised participants; 111 with acute sera (1–11 days post-admission) and 92 convalescent sera (56 with COVID-19-associated neurological diagnoses). Here we show that compared to 60 uninfected controls, tTau, GFAP, NfL, and UCH-L1 are increased with COVID-19 infection at acute timepoints and NfL and GFAP are significantly higher in participants with neurological complications. Inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-12p40, HGF, M-CSF, CCL2, and IL-1RA) are associated with both altered consciousness and markers of brain injury. Autoantibodies are more common in COVID-19 than controls and some (including against MYL7, UCH-L1, and GRIN3B) are more frequent with altered consciousness. Additionally, convalescent participants with neurological complications show elevated GFAP and NfL, unrelated to attenuated systemic inflammatory mediators and to autoantibody responses. Overall, neurological complications of COVID-19 are associated with evidence of neuroglial injury in both acute and late disease and these correlate with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses acutely

Human rights and the protection of the citizen

A Liverpool John Moores University podcast where Cherie Booth QC reflects on the state of human rights and the protection of the citizen

Remediation of Chlorinated Alkanes by Vitamin B12 and Zero-Valent Iron

Chlorinated alkanes were heavily used in a wide range of industrial applications including as degreasers, paint strippers, chemical intermediates, and soil fumigants. These compounds are an environmental concern due to the adverse health effects associated with them and have been detected in environmental matrices including soils and groundwater. Chlorinated alkanes are recalcitrant, and current remediation methods that employ zero-valent iron (ZVI) are unable to directly dehalogenate these compounds, limiting the available approaches for in situ remediation of these widely utilized chemicals. This study employed a novel approach for the remediation of 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP), 1,2-dichloropropane (1,2-DCP), 1,3-dichloropropane (1,3-DCP), 1-chloropropane (1-CP), and 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCA) in the presence of ZVI and vitamin B12, a naturally occurring electron mediator. Batch reactions were performed in order to determine a kinetic model for the associated degradation mechanisms. Dechlorination byproducts were confirmed through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) coupled to a purge and trap. Free chloride was quantified by ion chromatography (IC) utilizing suppressed conductivity detection. In the absence of vitamin B12, reductive dechlorination of chlorinated alkanes was observed to not occur when exposed to only reactive ZVI particles (<5 μm). However, in the presence of ZVI combined with vitamin B12, complete reductive dechlorination was observed and followed a pseudo-first-order reaction

Advanced practice profiles and work activities of nurse navigators: an early-stage evaluation

Background: Effective coordination and integration of care between health care providers is critical to manage complex, chronic medical conditions. Aim: Describe the advanced practice profile and activities of nurse navigators who provide a service for patients with chronic health conditions. Design: An observational study was conducted in four health services, in Queensland, Australia. Methods: In part one, nurse navigators completed a survey incorporating the Advanced Practice Role Delineation tool. In part two, nurse navigators completed a work activity diary, capturing the time spent performing daily activities, modes of communication and referral sources. Findings: Twenty-three and 18 nurse navigators participated in the survey and diary, respectively. Participants were experienced nurses, working full-time. Participants reported spending a great extent of time performing direct comprehensive care, support of systems and education in surveys. The diaries captured a mean of 20 working days per participant, a total of 5,748 work activities. including care of 615 patients. The majority of nurse navigator activities were performed within the direct comprehensive care domain. Communication predominantly occurred with patients, families, hospital health professionals either in person, at a healthcare facility or via phone. Discussion: Our research identified three focus areas of nurse navigator activities: direct comprehensive care, support of systems and education. Further work is required to extend the nurse navigators’ unique contribution to research and publication and professional leadership. Conclusions: This study established baseline knowledge regarding advanced practice profiles and work activities of nurse navigators, which can be utilised to improve current processes and future enhancement of the role

Optimization and comparison of multiple solar energy systems for public sanitation service buildings in Tibet

Qinghai Tibet Plateau, known as ‘Roof of the World’, is the highest and largest plateau on Earth, with an average elevation of 4900 m and spanning nearly two-thirds the size of the European continent. The energy consumption characteristics of public sanitation service buildings in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau are significantly different from traditional public buildings. It has unique advantages that allow these facilities to use the local enriched solar energy resources to meet the energy demand. This study proposes eight potential solar energy system schemes to obtain a suitable solar energy supply system and design an optimization method for public sanitation service buildings. The optimization models aimed at the life cycle cost for each solar energy system are established, and the equipment capacity in the system is optimized and simulated. Firstly, the optimized life cycle cost and equipment capacity of different solar energy system are compared and analyzed. Then, the short-term dynamic operation performance and the system's energy conservation, economic and CO2 emission reduction performance are comprehensively analyzed. Finally, the sensitivities of economic parameters and equipment price to the system optimization results are analyzed. The results indicate that the life cycle cost of the integrated solar hot water and heat storage system is 43% lower than that of the standalone solar hot air heat supply system and the standalone photovoltaic system. An optimized integrated system consisting of photovoltaic, photothermal, thermal storage, and power storage has the best comprehensive performance. The annual energy saving ratio of the integrated system is ∼85%, and the life cycle cost saving rate is about 50%. In addition, the sensitivity analysis shows that the electricity price is the most significant factor for life cycle cost compared to the annual interest and inflation rates. The price of a solar collector and air source heat pump have the most significant impact on the life cycle cost optimization results of a photovoltaic-photothermal-thermal and power storage integrated system