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Remarkable Lives: Andrew Aldred in conversation with Jerome Carson
No full textPurpose- This paper aims to offer a profile of Andrew Aldred.Design/methodology/approach- Andrew provides a short biography and is then interviewed by Jerome. Areas covered in the interview include Andrew’s experiences during the Falklands War, his poetry and his time in hospital care.Findings- His experiences in the Falklands War brought home to Andrew the trauma of war as well as its futility. Its personal effects proved long lasting. His descent into mental illness led to years of institutional care and terrible physical complications as a result of the medications he was given.Originality/value- Andrew’s story shows his long journey of recovery from his Falklands War experiences to prolonged hospital incarceration. Poetry helped him process these experiences and finding his wife gave him the support and love to rebuild his life
Study of electrospun nanofibre formation process and their electrostatic analysis
No full textAbstractElectrospinning generates nanofibres at speeds that often surpass those of conventional man-made fibre production. This makes control and manipulation of these nanofibres that much more difficult and challenging. However, to take full advantage of the superior properties of electrospun nanofibres, their production process must be clearly understood and all possible means of fibre formation and hence fibre control explored. This article attempts to explain electrospun fibre production from first principles and uses schematics to follow the electrospinning process from inception, i.e. in the nozzle, to collection with respect to electrostatic behaviours. The complex interrelationship between the charged species in the moving solution and their subsequent polarization and the induced internal field by the applied external electric field are systematically explored and explained
Female game workers: career development, and aspirations
No full textUnderstanding the career factors that influence women's career aspirations in male-dominated occupations is important for increasing women's progression within these occupations. This chapter assesses the impact of career influencers on career aspirations of women working in the male-dominated computer games industry. An online questionnaire obtained international data from 450 women working in the computer games industry. A structural equation model was employed to investigate the influencers. Findings suggest that to increase women's career development and career aspirations within the computer games industry, self-efficacy, attitudes towards career barriers, work-life balance attitudes, person-environment fit and job satisfaction are crucial
Engineering silver nanostructures for surface acoustic wave humidity sensors sensitivity enhancement
No full textIn this paper, the sensitivity of the LiNbO3 surface acoustic wave (SAW) based humidity sensors has been enhanced with various nanostructured Ag materials, including thermally evaporated or chemically synthesized, and then thermally annealed ones. The results showed that the humidity sensitivity of the SAW devices increases with the surface roughness (porosity) of the film, and can be further improved when Ag NPs are used. Smooth Ag film deposited by evaporation onto the SAW devices did not change the humidity sensitivity noticeably, but those with chemically deposited high porosity Ag films have a good sensitivity of 80 kHz/75%RH. The SAW sensors with the Ag NPs have the highest sensitivity up to about 800 kHz/75%RH, at least one order of magnitude higher than that reported before. The SAW sensors with Ag nano-particles showed a strong non-linearity, and explained by the different chemisorption capabilities of Ag and LiNbO3 surface
Fast and sensitive determination of sulfur dioxide in herbal medicines by microchip-based field asymmetric-wave ion mobility spectrometry
No full textSulfites (sulfur dioxide) and inorganic sulfites are types of food additives and preservatives, widely used in the production of food and herbal medicines (HMs). However, the overingestion of sulfites and its associates are harmful to human health and may cause medical complications. Various methods and instruments have been developed for measuring sulfites in foods and HMs, but they typically suffer from many issues, such as high detection limitation, inaccurate and non-reliable results, time and labor-intensive sample preparation, and high cost. Herein, we present a fast, sensitive, and quantitative method to determine sulfites in HMs using field asymmetric-wave ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) coupled with a headspace bubbling method. The headspace air bubbling method is effective and efficient at generating stable sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the gas phase for FAIMS analysis. It allows sulfites with a concentration down to 1 mg kg−1 to be easily detected by this new method in 20 min, much shorter than with current technologies. The limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) are 1 mg kg−1 and 3 mg kg−1 in HMs, respectively. The new method is of great significance to ensure medical safety and for HM production quality control
Contribution to the study of experimentally-simulated toxic and metabolic encephalopathies
No full textThis current PhD Thesis (by published work / retrospective) in Neuroscience focuses on performed studies of three crucial brain enzyme activities under seven categories of experimentally- simulated toxic and metabolic encephalopathies. The studied enzymes were: (a) acetylcholinesterase (AChE, EC 3.1.1.7), (b) sodium-potassium adenosine triphosphatase (Na+,K+- ATPase, EC 3.6.3.9, formerly EC 3.6.1.3), and (c) magnesium adenosine triphosphatase (Mg2+- ATPase, EC 3.6.3.2, formerly EC 3.6.1.3). The studied experimentally-simulated toxic and metabolic encephalopathies were: (a) thyroid-hormone-related brain dysfunctions (as a result of hyper- or hypothyroidism), (b) thioacetamide-induced fulminant hepatic encephalopathy, (c) streptozotocin-induced diabetic encephalopathy, (d) experimentally-simulated Wernicke’s encephalopathy (arising from chronic ethanol consumption, dietary thiaminedeprivation and pyrithiamine-administration), (e) manganese-induced neurotoxicity, (f) lanthanum- induced neurotoxicity, and (g) nickel-induced neurotoxicity. Enzymatic activities were determined spectrophotometrically on albino Wistar rat brain homogenates. Assessments of brain homogenates’ antioxidant status, in vivo antioxidant administrations, in vitro experiments, brain homogenates’ enzymatic activity determinations, as well as pure enzyme activity determinations (under various conditions), were performed (wherever required) in order to elucidate the nature of some of the observed in vivo findings, to evaluate the potential limitations of the experimental-simulation techniques and / or to study the potential use of known antioxidants as neuroprotective agents. All experiments were performed at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The current PhD Thesis condenses and presents the significance of the aforementioned contribution to the study of experimentally-simulated toxic and metabolic encephalopathies, based on published work
The combined effects of zinc stannate and aluminium diethyl phosphinate on the burning behaviour of glass fibre-reinforced, high temperature polyamide (HTPA
No full textThe effect of changing the ratio of aluminium diethyl phosphinate (as Exolit OP1230) and zinc stannate (as Flamtard S) present within a glass-reinforced high temperature polyamide (HTPA/GF) at a constant total flame retardant level of 15 wt% is shown to have fire performance properties that depend on the ratio of both these agents. Aluminium diethyl phosphinate (AlPi) alone at 15 wt% gives LOI > 40 vol% and a V-0 rating. The introduction of zinc stannate (ZS) at levels up to 3.75 wt% maintains the LOI at about 40 vol% and the V-0 rating. Similarly, glow wire ignition temperatures and cone calorimetry results, in terms of minimal peak heat release rate, show that optimum fire performance also occurs at the [ZS] ≤ 3.75% and [AlPi] ≥ 11.25% condition.Smoke generation reduces only slightly when highest levels of AlPi are present compared with the HPTA/GF sample and then reduces further as the ratio [ZS]/[AlPi] increases. Tensile and impact properties are also optimal for the [ZS] ≤ 3.75 wt% and [AlPi] ≥ 11.25 wt% condition.At the mechanistic level, TGA studies show that for HPTA/GF, the presence of oxygen increases char residue in the 450–550 °C region compared to when heated under nitrogen. Air oxidation further increased residues above 450 °C when AlPi is present and confirms other published work that the reported volatilization occurring during pyrolysis under nitrogen is now in competition with its oxidation to aluminium phosphate. Thus residues above 450 °C in air comprise both increased char from HTPA plus residual aluminium phosphate with the latter remaining above 600 °C after the former has oxidized
The changing nature of happiness
No full textRevisiting one of the first historical studies in the developing ‘science’ of well-bein
