Showing papers by "Keele University published in 1996"

Nitrate Removal in Stream Riparian Zones

Abstract: This review considers the role of stream riparian zones in regulating the transport of nitrate (NO 3 - ) in groundwater flow from uplands to streams. The current consensus is that most riparian zones effectively remove NO 3 - from subsurface water. However, research has not focused on the relationship between hydrology and chemistry within the context of the riparian zone hydrogeologic setting. Most riparian zones that remove NO 3 - occur in landscapes with impermeable layers near the ground surface. In this setting, small amounts of groundwater follow shallow horizontal flow paths that increase water residence time and contact with vegetation roots and organic-rich riparian soils. Limited research suggests that riparian zones have less effect on NO 3 - transport in hydrogeologic settings where groundwater has little interaction with vegetation and sediments because flow occurs mainly across the surface, or at depth beneath the riparian zone before discharging to the stream. Considerable uncertainty surrounds the relative importance of vegetation uptake and microbial denitrification in NO 3 - removal from subsurface water in riparian zones. Plant NO 3 - uptake requires the presence of the root zone below the water table. Information is lacking on the vertical distribution and seasonal dynamics of fine root biomass in relation to water table fluctuations. High denitrification rates have been reported in 0 to 10 cm surface soils of riparian zones in the USA, France, and New Zealand. However, rapid NO 3 - removal from groundwater also occurs in riparian locations where the water table is always >0.5 m below the surface. Denitrification at depth within the saturated zone has been studied to a limited extent and has been found not to occur at some sites. An interdisciplinary approach in which patterns of NO 3 - depletion and the role of NO 3 - removal processes are related to groundwater flow paths is needed to provide a better understanding of NO 3 - regulation in riparian zones.

Apoptosis: Molecular Regulation of Cell Death

Abstract: The field of apoptosis is unusual in several respects. Firstly, its general importance has been widely recognised only in the past few years and its surprising significance is still being evaluated in a number of areas of biology. Secondly, although apoptosis is now accepted as a critical element in the repertoire of potential cellular responses, the picture of the intra-cellular processes involved is probably still incomplete, not just in its details, but also in the basic outline of the process as a whole. It is therefore a very interesting and active area at present and is likely to progress rapidly in the next two or three years.

The role of practice in the development of performing musicians

Abstract: A sample of 257 young people aged between eight and 18 who had undertaken individual instrumental tuition were interviewed in depth about their performing history from the start of playing. A subset of 94 of these individuals also kept a practice diary for a 42-week period. The data collected allowed estimates to be calculated of the amount of time devoted to various types of practice and other activities. The sample was selected in order to encompass a wide range of levels of musical achievement, from pupils at a highly selective specialist music school through to individuals who had abandoned instrumental study after less than a year of formal instruction. Data about formal examination successes confirmed the very wide range of achievement in the sample. It was discovered that there was a strong relationship between musical achievement and the amount of formal practice undertaken. Weaker relationships were discovered between achievement and amount of informal playing. There was no evidence that high achievers were able to gain a given level of examination success on less practice than low achievers. High achievers tended to be more consistent in their pattern of practice from week to week, and tended to concentrate technical practice in the mornings. These data lend strong support to the theory that formal effortful practice is a principal determinant of musical achievement. © The British Pschological Society.

Three dimensional structure of human C-reactive protein

Abstract: The structure of the classical acute phase reactant human C-reactive protein provides evidence that phosphocholine binding is mediated through calcium and a hydrophobic pocket centred on Phe 66. The residue Glu 81 is suitably positioned to interact with the choline group. A cleft on the pentameric face opposite to that containing the calcium site may have an important functional role. The structure provides insights into the molecular mechanisms by which this highly conserved plasma protein, for which no polymorphism or deficiency state is known, may exert its biological role.

Glutathione S-transferase GSTT1 genotypes and susceptibility to cancer: studies of interactions with GSTM1 in lung, oral, gastric and colorectal cancers

Abstract: Allelism in glutathione S-transferase GSTM1 and GSTT1 has been suggested as a risk factor in various cancers. Accordingly, we describe a group of case-control studies carried out to identify associations between GSTT1 genotypes and susceptibility to lung, oral, gastric and colorectal cancers. The frequencies of the putatively high risk GSTT1 null genotype were not increased in the lung, oral or gastric cancer cases compared with controls but the frequency of this genotype was significantly increased (P = 0.0011, odds ratio = 1.88) in the colorectal cancer cases. No significant interactions between the GSTT1 and GSTM1 null genotypes were identified in the cancer groups studied. Indeed, no significant associations between GSTM1 genotypes and susceptibility were identified though further evidence was obtained that the protective effect of GSTM1*A and GSTM1*B is not equal. The data complement studies showing that GSTT1 null is associated with an increased susceptibility to total ulcerative colitis and suggests that this enzyme is important in the detoxification of unidentified xenobiotics in the large intestine.

A comparison between the time-management skills and academic performance of mature and traditional-entry university students

Abstract: Time-management skills are acknowledged to be important but there has been little actual research on this topic with students. In this study we examined the scores obtained from 293 first-year students of psychology on a British version of an American time-management scale. The students were divided into three age groups: traditional-entry students - aged less than 21 years (N = 172); borderline mature students - aged 21–25 years (N = 50) and older mature students - aged more than 25 years (N = 71). Our analyses indicated (i) that women students in general reported significantly greater time-management skills than did men students, and (ii) that our older mature students reported significantly better time-management skills than did the other two groups. Academic performance, however, was only modestly predicted by age and scores on one component of the time-management scale.

Environment sustainabilities: An analysis and a typology

Abstract: Most approaches to the business of considering environmental sustainability have taken either a definitional or a discursive form. Both these approaches have their limitations. Better is an analytical strategy revolving around the distillation from the literature of the questions to which any theory of environmental sustainability would have to have an answer. This produces a framework for analysis which can be transformed into a typology by grouping the answers to those questions into four ‘conceptions of sustainability’. Two ‘diagnostic packages’ may be proposed for determining the causes of, and solutions to, unsustainability. These conceptions and packages are useful in themselves for orientation purposes in the increasingly complex territory occupied by discussions of environmental sustainability, but they also have potential for use as tools when considering the normative implications of sustainability policies.

Financial Development, Economic Growth and Banking Sector Controls: Evidence from India

Abstract: This paper uses newly collected data from the Reserve Bank of India to examine the effects of various types of banking sector controls on the process of financial deepening. With the exception of a lending rate ceiling, these controls are found to influence financial deepening negatively, independently of the well known effect of the real interest rate. Exogeneity tests suggest that financial deepening and economic growth are jointly determined. Thus, policies which affect financial deepening may also have an influence on economic growth. The role of banking sector controls in the process of economic development has received considerable attention in the literature. The traditional approach, due to McKinnon (I973) and Shaw (I973), postulates that government intervention in the pricing and allocation of loanable funds, dubbed 'financial repression', inhibits financial development by depressing real interest rates (see

The clinical course of shoulder pain: prospective cohort study in primary care

Abstract: Current knowledge of the clinical course and efficacy of treatment for shoulder pain comes mainly from studies of hospital patients. However, only a few patients experiencing such pain require referral to a specialist. Although shoulder pain is common in the general population, the outcome of patients presenting in general practice is unknown.1 We conducted a prospective cohort study to determine the outcome of shoulder pain in primary care. Twelve general practitioners recruited 166 patients who consulted with a new episode of shoulder pain during one year. They recorded demographic information, diagnosis, management, and an assessment of passive elevation of the shoulder; patients assessed the disability associated with their symptoms with a validated 22 item disability questionnaire.2 To assess outcome, identical disability questionnaires were sent to patients six and 18 months after consultation, together with a question measuring self assessed change in symptoms …

Patients, society, and the increase in self medication.

Abstract: Self medication with over the counter medicines has long been a feature of the lay health system. With the reclassification of certain drugs, the public can buy preparations that were previously available only prescription. Sales of over the counter medicines are now equivalent to a third of the NHS drugs bill; governments throughout the world see self medication as a way of shifting some of the cost of health care onto consumers. The trend towards increased self care and with it the increasing empowerment of patients has many potential benefits; collaboration between doctors and pharmacists will be critical.

The role of parental influences in the development of musical performance

Abstract: Interviews were conducted with 257 children and their parents; all of the children had studied a musical instrument but differed in the extent of their mastery. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of parents in the development of musical ability. It was discovered that the most successful children had parents who were the most highly involved in lessons and practice in the earliest stages of learning. These successful music learners often had parents who were involved with music themselves. Parental involvement in music typically took the form of listening to music rather than performing it, and tended to increase over the child's learning period. The children who failed to continue with lessons had parents who were, on average, less interested in music and who did not change their own degree of involvement with music over their child's learning period. Overall, the most musically able children had the highest levels of parental support.

Enhancement of vowel coding for cochlear implants by addition of noise

Abstract: Profoundly deaf people, who gain no benefit from conventional hearing aids, can receive speech cues by direct electrical stimulation of the cochlear nerve1,2. This is achieved by an electronic device, a cochlear implant, which is surgically inserted into the ear. Here we show physiological results from the isolated sciatic nerve of the toad Xenopus laevis, used to predict the response of the human cochlear nerve to vowels coded by a cochlear implant. These results suggest that standard analogue cochlear implants do not evoke the patterns of neural excitation that are normally associated with acoustic stimulation. Adding noise to the stimulus, however, enhanced distinguishing features of the vowel encoded by the fine time structure of neural discharges. On the basis of these results, and those concerning stochastic resonance3–5, we advocate a cochlear implant coding strategy in which noise is deliberately added to cochlear implant signals.

Selected ion flow tube: a technique for quantitative trace gas analysis of air and breath.

Abstract: The selected ion flow tube (SIFT) technique for trace gas analysis of air and breath is based on soft chemical ionisation of the trace gases to the exclusion of the major air and breath gases, in fast-flowing inert carrier gas, exploiting the ion-molecule reactions that occur between the trace gases and the pre selected precursor ions (H3O+, NO+ and O2+). The physics and ion chemistry involved in the SIFT technique are described, as are the kinetics of the ion-molecule reactions that are exploited to quantitatively analyse the trace gases. Fast on-line data-acquisition hardware and software have been developed to analyse the mass spectra obtained, from which partial pressures of the trace gases down to about 10 parts per billion can be measured. The time response of the instrument is 20 ms, allowing the profiles of the trace gas concentrations on breath to be obtained during a normal breathing cycle. Pilot results obtained with this SIFT technique include detection and quantification of the most abundant breath trace gases, analysis of cigarette smoke, detection of gases present on smokers' breath and accurate measurement of the partial pressures of NH3, NO and NO2 in air. The simultaneous analysis of several breath trace gases during a single exhalation is clearly demonstrated, and thus different elution times for isoprene and methanol along the respiratory tract are observed. This technique has great potential in many clinical and biological disciplines, and in health and safety monitoring.

European Environmental Taxes and Charges: Recent Experience, Issues and Trends

Abstract: The use of environmental taxes and charges in OECD countries increased by over 50% between 1987 and 1994. While revenues raised by environmental taxes and charges remain small relative to overall taxation, they comprise a rising proportion in most European countries. Several European countries have either undertaken or are considering systematic shifts in taxes away from labour and onto the use of environmental resources. Potential negative effects on competitiveness, and regressive distributional effects, are the major cause of concern with regard to the introduction of environmental taxes. A number of ways of mitigating such effects exist and have been implemented.

Influence of previous pain experience on the episode incidence of low back pain: results from the South Manchester Back Pain Study

Abstract: Background: A pathological cause cannot be identified for most new episodes of low back pain (LBP) presenting to the general practitioner. One important potential influence on susceptibility is previous pain experience. To accurately investigate the contribution of this phenomenon to the onset of new episodes of LBP a prospective population study is required. Aims: To determine the relationship of prior pain in the back and other musculoskeletal sites to risk of subsequent new episodes of LBP. Methods: The population studied included all 2715 adults from the South Manchester Back Pain Study who were free of LBP during the month prior to the baseline survey. At baseline a detailed musculoskeletal pain history was obtained. New episodes of LBP over the subsequent 12 months were ascertained by: (i) prospectively monitoring all primary care consultations in the study cohort (consulting episodes) and (ii) a follow-up survey after 1 year to determine new episodes during that 12-month period not leading to consultation (non-consulting episodes). Results: The 12-month cumulative incidence of new consulting episodes was 3% in males and 5% in females, and for new non-consulting episodes 31% in males and 32% in females. Those with a history of previous LBP had twice the rate of new episodes, both consulting and non-consulting, compared to those with no LBP in the past. Neck pain or pain in other musculoskeletal sites at baseline also doubled the risk of a subsequent new episode of LBP. Adjusting for psychological distress and the other pain variables had little influence on the findings. Conclusion: In those currently free of LBP a previous history of the symptom substantially increases the risk of a further episode, with pain in other sites an equally strong independent predictor of subsequent LBP.

Actor-network theory, technology and medical sociology : an illustrative analysis of the metered dose inhaler

Abstract: Actor-network theory is a form of relational materialism that codifies a body of ideas developed in the sociology and history of technology. At its centre is a non-dualistic account of the relation between ‘society’ and ‘technology’. In this view society is produced through the mutually constituting interaction of a wide range of human and non-human entities (including machines and technologies). This paper outlines some of the key ideas of actor-network theory and suggests that they might be usefully incorporated into medical sociology (and/or anthropology). An illustrative example is given which demonstrates some aspects of the application of such a non-dualist approach to a particular medical device, the metered dose inhaler (MDI), widely used in the treatment and management of asthma. Within a shifting network of socio-technical relations the MDI and various human actors are seen to have mutually constituted each other. Competencies were created and distributed and linked to panoptical practices of surveillance, control and modification. These included attempts to change both the technologies and the human actors who came into relationship with it. The intricate and mutually constitutive character of the human and the technological in the processes and relationships of sickness and healing is thus demonstrated.

Helping the earth begins at home The social construction of socio-environmental responsibilities

Abstract: This paper evaluates the British government's current (and five-year old) campaign for energy conservation, ‘Helping the Earth Begins at Home’. The paper starts by reviewing some of the arguments which can be used to support this type of policy initiative which, on the face of it, urges people to consider the global implications of local actions. The argument then turns to focus upon the ideological work that was invested into the production of the campaign, and in particular the redefinition of legitimate concern (for the global) and legitimate sites of activity (the local). Following this, the paper investigates the ways in which the campaign was consumed (read, ignored, rejected, acted upon) by members of the public. Long interview transcripts with householders in Bristol, UK, are analysed and represented to Illustrate the weaknesses of the campaign. The paper finishes by drawing together some of the implications of this work for socio-environmental action.

The Novel Selected-ion Flow Tube Approach to Trace Gas Analysis of Air and Breath

Abstract: We present an overview of the development and use of our selected-ion flow tube (SIFT) technique as a sensitive, quantitative method for the rapid, real-time analysis of the trace gas content of atmospheric air and human breath, presenting some pilot data from various research areas in which this method will find valuable application. We show that it is capable of detecting and quantifying trace gases, in complex mixtures such as breath, which are present at partial pressures down to about 10 parts per billion. Following discussions of the principles involved in this SIFT method of analysis, of the experiments which we have carried out to establish its quantitative validity, and of the air and breath sampling techniques involved, we present sample data on the detection and quantification of trace gases on the breath of healthy people and of patients suffering from renal failure and diabetes. We also show how breath ammonia can be accurately quantified from a single breath exhalation and used as an indicator of the presence in the stomach of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. Health and safety applications are exemplified by analyses of the gases of the gases of cigarette smoke and on the breath of smokers. The value of this analytical method in environmental science is demonstrated by the analyses of petrol vapour, car exhaust emissions and the trace organic vapours detected in town air near a busy road. Final examples of the value of this analytical method are the detection and quantification of the gases emitted from crushed garlic and from breath following the chewing of a mint, which demonstrate its potential in food and flavour research. Throughout the paper we stress the advantages of this SIFT method compared to conventional mass spectrometry for trace gas analysis of complex mixtures, emphasizing its selectivity, sensitivity and real-time analysis capability. Finally, we note that whilst the current SIFT is strictly laboratory based, both transportable and portable instruments are under construction and development. These instruments will surely extend the application of this analytical technique into more areas and allow greater exploitation of their on-line and real-time features.

Citizenship and Sovereignty in the Post-Westphalian State:

Abstract: Traditional concepts of citizenship and sovereignty have come under pressure from the combined challenge of globalization and the subnational revolt. Against this background this article sets out a...

IN SEARCH OF THE HIGH LIFE Drugs, Crime, Masculinities and Consumption

Abstract: Contemporary social theory draws our attention again to the role of consumption in the construction of the self. The project of constructing self-identity through consumption increasingly relies on global rather than parochial images and traditions, and often proceeds via mimicry. In this paper the biographical narratives of a group of young male offenders are used to explore some of the problems and possibilities of growing up male on the margins of civil society. It is suggested that drug use, drug dealing, and 'normal' crime serve as important cultural and emotive resources for scripting a particular, and powerful, masculine identity on the street. Thus, some conventional themes in delinquency theory are recast in the terms of modern social theory and cultural studies. (Abstract Adapted from Source: British Journal of Criminology, 1997. Copyright © 1997 by Oxford University Press) Juvenile Male Juvenile Offender Juvenile Crime Male Offender Male Crime Crime Causes Juvenile Substance Use Male Substance Use Substance Use Causes Drug Use Causes Masculinity Gender Role Ideology Drug Trafficking Sociocultural Factors Juvenile Delinquency Delinquency Causes Self-Concept 05-00

Synthesis and structure of a layered titanosilicate catalyst with five-coordinate titanium

Abstract: TITANIUM occurs widely in the Earth's crust, traces of it being present in most rocks, soils and clays. It is estimated that titanosilicate minerals alone number more than 100; but, remarkably, in only one of these does the Ti(IV) ion take up fivefold coordination. This is in fresnoite1 (Ba2TiSi2O8), which contains square-pyramidal TiO5 polyhedra. In the course of a programme2–11 to produce new microporous and mesoporous solid catalysts, we have discovered an unusual non-centrosymmetric, tetragonal layered solid (Na4Ti2Si8O22·4H2O), designated JDF-L1, which promises to have interesting applications in materials chemistry. This material contains five-coordinate Ti(IV) ions in the form of TiO5 square pyramids in which each of the vertices of the base is linked to SiO4 tetrahedra [TiO·O4(SiO3)4] to form continuous sheets. The structure was solved by applying ab initio methods to data obtained by X-ray absorption spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction. The interlamellar Na+ ions of JDF-L1 are replaceable by protonated amines, and after treatment with a mixture of dilute acid and hydrogen peroxide the parent solid selectively oxidizes phenol to quinone. These results indicate that the material should have useful catalytic, intercalation and ion-exchange properties analogous to those of aluminosilicate clays.