The Twilight of the Public Intellectual: Germany

This essay focuses on the questions of whether German unification resulted in a wholesale retreat of intellectuals from politics and engagement with social issues, as the rhetoric of failure would indicate, or whether the key debates of the period can be read instead as a sign that Germany is on the road to becoming a more 'normal' European nation. Before returning to these issuesat the end of this paper I first provide a broad historical and theoretical context for my discussion of the role of the concerned intellectual in Germany, before offering an overview of the respective functions of literary intellectuals in both German states in the post-war period. I then address a series of key debates and discussions in 1989 and the early nineteen-nineties that were responsible for changing the forms of engagement in intellectual debates in post-unification German society. I argue that the 1990s and early years of the new millennium hastened the disappearance of the writer as a universal intellectual and focused attention on the writer as an individualist and a professional. Today's youngest generation of writer in Germany is a specialist intellectual who intervenes in political and social matters from time to time but who is not expected to take a moral-ethical stance on most issues of national and international concern. S/he is one who frequently writes about personal subjects, but may also occasionally, as witnessed after September 11, turn his or her pen to topics of global concern as in terrorism and Islam. More often than not, however, writers now leave the work of commenting on political affairs to writers of the older guard and to other 'senior' specialist intellectuals

Studies of Mercury Dynamics in Birds

1. A review is presented of the use of seabirds as biomonitors of heavy metals and factors influencing mercury dynamics in birds. 2. The effect of atmospheric deposition on mercury levels found in the plumage of seabirds was assessed and found to be negligible. No difference was found between feathers exposed for ten months to the atmosphere and feathers sealed over the same period. 3. Significant differences were found between the tip, middle and bottom portion of the feather but this was concluded to be due to natural depletion of the body pool of mercury as the feathers grew and not due to the effect of exogenous contamination. 4. The effect of age and sex upon mercury concentrations in feathers of red-billed gulls was investigated. Feather concentrations were not influenced by age nor sex in adults nor chicks. Dietary specialisation was assumed to be an important determinant of mercury levels in this species. 5. The effect of growth development on tissue distribution and excretion in kittiwake chicks was examined. No age-related changes in the retention of mercury by any of the tissues analysed were found nor were any differences in mercury excretion apparent. There was a positive correlation between the total amount of mercury going into the plumage and age which was suggested to reflect an increase in the amount of mercury circulating in the blood of older birds. 6. No difference in the mercury distribution between the liver, kidney and pectoral muscle was found which differed markedly from results of other studies. It was suggested that this may be an indication that the levels in chicks were approaching a toxic threshold. 7. Mercury accumulation and excretion were investigated in laboratory-reared black-headed gull chicks in relation to mercury intake. There was an increase in the proportion of mercury deposited in the kidney as the dose increased. The proportional accumulation of mercury in the carcass was also dose-dependent. The amount of mercury administered had no effect on the total excretion rate. 8. Mercury accumulated differentially in the internal tissues, concentrations in the kidney were greater than in the liver which in turn exceeded concentrations found in the pectoral muscle. All feather types contained much higher mercury concentrations than internal tissues and there was a consistent difference between different feather types in relation to mercury content. There was a pronounced reduction in the concentration of mercury in the primary feathers as the growth sequence progressed. 9. An average of 71% of the dose administered was excreted over the fledging period. Of this, 22% of the dose was excreted into the feathers. Sixty five percent of the total body burden of mercury was present in the plumage after the completed moult. Of administered mercury, 49% was contained in the plumage. 10. The retention and excretion of mercury after a single dose of methyl mercury was investigated in male and female quail. The role of eggs in mercury excretion was also assessed. The birds accumulated mercury rapidly in their internal tissues and lost it relatively slowly. Mercury accumulated differentially in the internal tissues. Kidney concentrations exceeded liver concentrations which exceeded pectoral muscle concentrations. 11. For up to eight weeks after mercury administration there was a difference between the mercury levels in the internal tissues of male and female birds, with less mercury in the female tissues. Twelve weeks after administration differences in the mercury levels of the kidney and pectoral muscle were still found. 12. There was no difference in mercury levels of the male and female plumage, although total mercury excretion did differ between the sexes with females losing up to 80% of their mercury intake in the first four weeks after mercury administration compared to 40% lost by male birds. Male birds lost over 80% of the mercury intake via the faeces compared to only 44% lost this way by the females. Initial mercury concentration in the eggs was over 3.5 pg/g. Over 40% of the females' intake was lost by this route supporting the use of bird eggs to sample for environmental contamination. 13. The effect of sex and species on mercury retention was examined in two species of seabird (shags and kittiwakes) after a single dose of methyl mercury. The excretion of mercury into the eggs and chicks was also assessed. Mercury accumulated differentially in the internal tissues. In both species there was no difference between the concentration of mercury found in the liver and kidney although levels in both these tissues were greater than levels found in the pectoral muscle. 14. Mercury concentrations in both species of seabird were similar. There were differences in the total amount of mercury in the tissues analysed, shag tissues having up to four times the amount of mercury in their tissues as those of the kittiwakes. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

Selenium impurity in sodium sulphate decahydrate formed by Eutectic Freeze Crystallization of industrial waste brine

Eutectic freeze crystallization (EFC) is a novel technique for the recovery of pure salt and pure water from hypersaline waste brines. It is therefore a promising technology for the treatment of industrial waste waters. The impurities caused by crystallizing salt out of multi-component brines by EFC have not yet been investigated, however. To these ends, the selenium impurity found in sodium sulphate, produced from the waste brine of a platinum operation, was investigated. It was believed that the similarity between sulphate and selenate ions allowed isomorphous substitution of selenate ions into the sodium sulphate crystals, which was the likely cause of impurity uptake. It was found that the presence of sodium chloride in the industrial brine promotes the uptake of selenium, while ionic strength of the brine and mass deposition rate of sodium sulphate did not have a significant effect on the selenium uptake. Isomorphous substitution is predicted to be the most significant mechanism by which all impurities will be taken up when applying EFC to other industrial waste brines

Examining the role of Scotland’s telephone advice service (NHS 24) for managing health in the community : analysis of routinely collected NHS 24 data

Date of Acceptance: 15/06/2015 Funding This work was supported by the Chief Scientist Office, ScottishExecutive (grant no. CZH/4/692). Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Flagellin induces β-defensin 2 in human colonic ex vivo infection with enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli

Enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) is an important foodborne pathogen in the developed world and can cause life-threatening disease particularly in children. EHEC persists in the human gut by adhering intimately to colonic epithelium and forming characteristic attaching/effacing lesions. In this study, we investigated the innate immune response to EHEC infection with particular focus on antimicrobial peptide and protein expression by colonic epithelium. Using a novel human colonic biopsy model and polarized T84 colon carcinoma cells, we found that EHEC infection induced expression of human β-defensin 2 (hBD2), whereas hBD1, hBD3, LL-37 and lysozyme remained unchanged. Infection with specific EHEC deletion mutants demonstrated that this was dependent on flagellin, and apical exposure to purified flagellin was sufficient to stimulate hBD2 and also interleukin (IL)-8 expression ex vivo and in vitro. Flagellin-mediated hBD2 induction was significantly reduced by inhibitors of NF-κB, MAP kinase p38 and JNK but not ERK1/2. Interestingly, IL-8 secretion by polarized T84 cells was vectorial depending on the side of stimulation, and apical exposure to EHEC or flagellin resulted in apical IL-8 release. Our results demonstrate that EHEC only induces a modest immune response in human colonic epithelium characterized by flagellin-dependent induction of hBD2 and low levels of IL-8

A numerically exact local solver applied to salt boundary inversion in seismic full-waveform inversion

In a set of problems ranging from 4-D seismic to salt boundary estimation, updates to the velocity model often have a highly localized nature. Numerical techniques for these applications such as full-waveform inversion (FWI) require an estimate of the wavefield to compute the model updates. When dealing with localized problems, it is wasteful to compute these updates in the global domain, when we only need them in our region of interest. This paper introduces a local solver that generates forward and adjoint wavefields which are, to machine precision, identical to those generated by a full-domain solver evaluated within the region of interest. This means that the local solver computes all interactions between model updates within the region of interest and the inhomogeneities in the background model outside. Because no approximations are made in the calculation of the forward and adjoint wavefields, the local solver can compute the identical gradient in the region of interest as would be computed by the more expensive full-domain solver. In this paper, the local solver is used to efficiently generate the FWI gradient at the boundary of a salt body. This gradient is then used in a level set method to automatically update the salt boundary

Toward target-oriented FWI: An exact local wave solver applied to salt boundary inversion

Seismic full waveform inversion (FWI) uses the gradient of the objective function for computing model updates. This requires computation of the forward and adjoint wavefields on the current model estimate. Calculating the gradient on the full computational domain is wasteful when it is only required in a limited region of interest, as is the case in 4D seismic and salt boundary estimation, for example. In this paper, a local solver is introduced that accurately computes, up to machine precision, all the wavefield interactions between model updates restricted to a region of interest and inhomogeneities in the background model outside. The local solver therefore generates exactly the same forward and adjoint wavefields in the region of interest that a full domain solver would have generated. In this paper, the exact local gradient at the boundary of a salt body is computed from these exact local wavefields. A level set method uses this gradient to automatically update the local salt boundary estimate

Person centred phenomenology : service user experiences of exercise

Purpose: The study aimed to explore the lived experience of sport and exercise amongst a group of mental health service users. Participants were recruited from a north of England NHS mental health trust that was piloting a sport and exercise intervention for adults with mental health needs. Design/methodology/approach: In depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with five mental health service users. The chosen phenomenological methodology was collaborative and interpretive. Findings: Two essential themes were highlighted; ‘Intermittent health breaking through heavy clouds of illness’ and ‘The cycle of recovery’. In addition, this person centred research identified a number of intervention benefits beyond those relating to the impact of physical activity on mental health and wellbeing. The main findings are expressed using visual imagery which participants found expressed their perceptions and experiences better than written prose. This includes the way day to day illness impacts on the journey of health for people with mental health problems. Research limitations/implications: The intervention looked to help the transition between leaving mental health services and developing a regular routine to promote recovery. The study illuminates the voices of service users and identifies that sport and exercise for mental health service users can be beneficial for recovery and feelings of belonging which can strengthen perceptions of the self. Practical implications: Social implications: Originality/value: Few studies have approached this methodological approach. This study demonstrates the value of phenomenological research with a collaborative, person centred or indeed an involved patient focus. This collaborative approach enabled a shared understanding of the phenomena

Wellness in Allied Health students: The case for change

Introduction: The case for change. There are increasing mental health issues among young people, including higher education students. millennial students face unique challenges relating to attention, critical thinking and managing stress. Specifically, allied health students engage in multiple placements in which they need to interact with real people in real time while being evaluated in assessment and treatment strategies. Some universities have been using wellness programs and mindfulness strategies to support student mental health across campuses for some time. However, as allied health students face unique challenges, there is a need for a particular focus on wellness at an individual allied health course level. The curriculum in allied health courses is determined by accreditation bodies and is comprehensive with little scope for additional information. It is possible for short activities to be embedded in tutorials and the authors argue a focus on wellness is vital for the future allied health workforce. Methodology for pilot project. This project used questionnaires to investigate student perceptions of a short program of activities to promote wellness and mindfulness in third-year speech pathology students who were also engaging in clinical placements. Results and discussion. Students were positive about the activities, developed their own wellness plan and learned new strategies to manage their mental health at university and in their future careers. Future directions. This short program could easily be adapted to other allied health courses