Development of dithizone based fibre optic evanescent wave sensor for heavy metal ion detection in aqueous environments.

Detection of highly toxic heavy metal ions requires rapid, simple, sensitive and selective detection methods in the environment. Optical fibre based sensing facilitates the remote, continuous and in-situ detection approaches in the environment. Herein, we report the development of a dithizone based fibre optic sensor with a simple procedure to detect heavy metal ions in the aqueous environment using an evanescent wave sensing approach. The chromogenic ligand dithizone and its spectral specificity with metal ions has been elaborated in this work. Paper presented at Sensors and their Applications XVII, held 16-18 September 2013 at Rixos Libertas, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Delivering organisational adaptation through legislative mechanisms: Evidence from the Adaptation Reporting Power (Climate Change Act 2008)

There is increasing recognition that organisations, particularly in key infrastructure sectors, are potentially vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events, and require organisational responses to ensure they are resilient and adaptive. However, detailed evidence of how adaptation is facilitated, implemented and reported, particularly through legislative mechanisms is lacking. The United Kingdom Climate Change Act (2008), introduced the Adaptation Reporting Power, enabling the Government to direct so-called reporting authorities to report their climate change risks and adaptation plans. We describe the authors' unique role and experience supporting the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) during the Adaptation Reporting Power's first round. An evaluation framework, used to review the adaptation reports, is presented alongside evidence on how the process provides new insights into adaptation activities and triggered organisational change in 78% of reporting authorities, including the embedding of climate risk and adaptation issues. The role of legislative mechanisms and risk-based approaches in driving and delivering adaptation is discussed alongside future research needs, including the development of organisational maturity models to determine resilient and well adapting organisations. The Adaptation Reporting Power process provides a basis for similar initiatives in other countries, although a clear engagement strategy to ensure buy-in to the process and research on its long-term legacy, including the potential merits of voluntary approaches, is required

Is subdiffusional transport slower than normal?

We consider anomalous non-Markovian transport of Brownian particles in viscoelastic fluid-like media with very large but finite macroscopic viscosity under the influence of a constant force field F. The viscoelastic properties of the medium are characterized by a power-law viscoelastic memory kernel which ultra slow decays in time on the time scale \tau of strong viscoelastic correlations. The subdiffusive transport regime emerges transiently for t<\tau. However, the transport becomes asymptotically normal for t>>\tau. It is shown that even though transiently the mean displacement and the variance both scale sublinearly, i.e. anomalously slow, in time, ~ F t^\alpha, ~ t^\alpha, 0<\alpha<1, the mean displacement at each instant of time is nevertheless always larger than one obtained for normal transport in a purely viscous medium with the same macroscopic viscosity obtained in the Markovian approximation. This can have profound implications for the subdiffusive transport in biological cells as the notion of "ultra-slowness" can be misleading in the context of anomalous diffusion-limited transport and reaction processes occurring on nano- and mesoscales

Polymer nanoparticle identification and concentration measurement using fiber-enhanced raman spectroscopy

We present a measurement technique for chemical identification and concentration measurement of polymer nanoparticles in aqueous solution, which is achieved using Raman spectroscopy. This work delivers an improvement in measurement sensitivity of 40 times over conventional Raman measurements in cuvettes by loading polymer nanoparticles into the hollow core of a microstructured optical fiber. We apply this "fiber-enhanced" system to measure the concentration of two separate samples of polystyrene particles (diameters of 60 nm and 120 nm respectively) with concentrations in the range from 0.07 to 0.5 mg/mL. The nanoliter volume formed by the fiber presents unique experimental conditions where nanoparticles are confined within the fiber core and prevented from diffusing outside the incident electromagnetic field, thereby enhancing their interaction. Our results suggest an upper limit on the size of particle that can be measured using the hollow-core photonic crystal fiber, as the increasing angular distribution of scattered light with particle size exceeds the acceptance angle of the liquid-filled fiber. We investigate parameters such as the fiber filling rate and optical properties of the filled fiber, with the aim to deliver repeatable and quantifiable measurements. This study thereby aids the on-going process to create compact systems that can be integrated into nanoparticle production settings for in-line measurements

Infant midnasal stenosis: Reliability of nasal metrics

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Midnasal stenosis is a poorly defined entity that may be a component of other conditions of nasal obstruction contributing to respiratory distress in infants. We sought to establish whether midnasal vault narrowing is a component of well-defined syndromes of nasal narrowing, such as bilateral choanal atresia and pyriform aperture stenosis, and to characterize the nasal anatomy of patients with syndromic craniosynostosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A convenience sample of patients with pyriform aperture stenosis, bilateral choanal atresia, and Apert and Crouzon syndromes with maxillofacial CT scans was identified. Patients with Pierre Robin Sequence were used as controls. Nasal measurements were performed at the pyriform aperture, choana, and defined midnasal points on axial and coronal CT scans. Intra- and interrater reliability was quantified with the intraclass correlation coefficient. T tests with Bonferroni adjustment were used to assess differences from controls. RESULTS: The study included 50 patients: Eleven had pyriform aperture stenosis, 10 had Apert and Crouzon syndromes, 9 had choanal atresia, and 20 were controls. Measurements in patients with pyriform aperture stenosis and Apert and Crouzon syndromes were narrower than those of controls at all measured points (P .001). Measurements in patients with choanal atresia were only narrow in the posterior half of the nose (P .001). The intra- and interrater reliability of midnasal and pyriform measurements was very good to excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.87). The choanal measurement was good (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.76 – 0.77). CONCLUSIONS: Pyriform aperture stenosis, Apert and Crouzon patients were narrower at all measured points compared to controls. Bilateral choanal atresia patients were only narrower in the posterior half of the nose. More research is needed to evaluate the clinical implications of these radiographic findings

Psychological interventions to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The quality of evidence that psychological interventions are effective in improving glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) is weak. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological interventions in T2D to assess whether their effectiveness in improving glycemic levels has improved over the past 30 years. We applied the protocol of a systematic review and aggregate meta-analysis conducted to January 2003. We added network meta-analysis (NMA) to compare intervention and control group type against usual care. MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Cochrane Controlled Trials Database, Web of Science, and Dissertation Abstracts International were searched from January 2003 to July 2018. Only randomized controlled trials (RCT) of psychological interventions for adults with T2D reported in any language were included. The primary outcome was change in glycemic control (glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in mmol/mol). Data were extracted from study reports and authors were contacted for missing data. 94 RCTs were eligible for inclusion in the systematic review since the last review. In 70 RCTs (n=14 796 participants) the pooled mean difference in HbA1c in those randomized to psychological intervention compared with control group was −0.19 (95% CI −0.25 to −0.12), equivalent to a reduction in HbA1c of 3.7 mmol/mol, with moderate heterogeneity across studies (I2=64.7%, p<0.001). NMA suggested the probability of intervention effectiveness is highest for self-help materials, cognitive–behavioral therapy, and counseling, compared with usual care. Limitations of this study include that there is a possibility that some studies may have been missed if diabetes did not appear in the title or abstract. The effectiveness of psychological interventions for adults with T2D have minimal clinical benefit in improving glycemic control. PROSPERO registration number CRD42016033619

Systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials of psychological interventions to improve glycaemic control in children and adults with type 1 diabetes

Aim We conducted a systematic review aggregate and network meta‐analysis of psychological interventions for people with type 1 diabetes to assess their effectiveness in improving glycaemic levels. Methods We searched the following databases from 1 January 2003 to 1 July 2018: MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, Cochrane Controlled Trials, Web of Science, clinicaltrials.gov, Dissertation Abstract International. We included randomized controlled trials (RCT) of psychological interventions for children and adults with type 1 diabetes reported in any language. We extracted data on publications, participant characteristics at baseline, intervention and control group, and data for the primary outcome, change in glycaemic control [HbA1c (mmol/mol/%)]. Study authors were contacted for missing data. The review was registered with international prospective register of systematic reviews registration (PROSPERO) CRD42016033619. Results Twenty‐four adult RCTs and 23 of children with type 1 diabetes were included in the systematic review. In aggregate meta‐analysis there was no overall effect of psychological intervention compared with control on HbA1c [adults, nine RCTs, n = 1102, pooled mean difference −0.12, 95% confidence intervals (CI) −0.27 to 0.03, I2 = 29.0%, P = 0.19; children, 20 RCTs, n = 2567, −0.09, 95% CI −0.22 to 0.04, I2=54.0% P=0.002]. Network meta‐analysis suggested that probability and rank‐ordering of effectiveness is highest for attention control groups (b = −0.47, 95% CI −0.80 to −0.12) followed by cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) (−0.26, 95% CI −0.45 to −0.06) compared with usual care for adults. Conclusions Overall psychological interventions for children and adults with type 1 diabetes do not improve glycaemic control. For adults, CBT‐based interventions have the potential to be effective