A hermeneutic analysis of the process of conducting clinical interviews

1. Although no right way to interview exists, an interviewer should develop a comfortable, personal style. 2. Allowing an interview to follow its own course while remembering the overall interview agenda will contribute to quality of the data. 3. Interviewing skills are enhanced as the interviewer develops a personal style and becomes comfortable as a practitioner.     

Increased response/recovery lifetimes and reinforcement of polyaniline nanofiber films using carbon nanotubes

We have prepared high surface area, conductive, mechanically robust, responsive polyaniline–carbon nanotube composite films. These were produced by filtration from dilute dispersions of polyaniline nanofibers and single-walled carbon nanotubes. Unlike polyaniline alone, these composites are mechanically stable, maintain large intractable surfaces and exhibit greatly enhanced response/recovery behavior to changes in their local environment. This is illustrated by exposing the films to ammonia.     

Enhancing the carbon sink in European agricultural soils: including trace gas fluxes in estimates of carbon mitigation potential

The possibility that the carbon sink in agricultural soils can be enhanced has taken on great political significance since the Kyoto Protocol was finalised in December 1997. The Kyoto Protocol allows carbon emissions to be offset by demonstrable removal of carbon from the atmosphere. Thus, forestry activities (Article 3.3) and changes in the use of agricultural soils (Article 3.4) that are shown to reduce atmospheric CO₂levels may be included in the Kyoto emission reduction targets. The European Union is committed to a reduction in CO₂ emissions to 92% of baseline (1990) levels during the first commitment period (2008–2012). We have shown recently that there are a number of agricultural land-management changes that show some potential to increase the carbon sink in agricultural soils and others that allow alternative forms of carbon mitigation (i.e. through fossil fuel substitution), but the options differ greatly in their potential for carbon mitigation. The changes examined were, (a) switching all animal manure use to arable land, (b) applying all sewage sludge to arable land, (c) incorporating all surplus cereal straw, (d) conversion to no-till agriculture, (e) use of surplus arable land to de-intensify 1/3 of current intensive crop production (through use of 1/3 grass/arable rotations), (f) use of surplus arable land to allow natural woodland regeneration, and (g) use of surplus arable land for bioenergy crop production. In this paper, we attempt for the first time to assess other (non-CO₂) effects of these land-management changes on (a) the emission of the other important agricultural greenhouse gases, methane and nitrous oxide, and (b) other aspects of the ecology of the agroecosystems. We find that the relative importance of trace gas fluxes varies enormously among the scenarios. In some such as the sewage sludge, woodland regeneration and bioenergy production scenarios, the inclusion of trace gases makes only a small (<10%) difference to the CO₂-C mitigation potential. In other cases, for example the no-till, animal manure and agricultural de-intensification scenarios, trace gases have a large impact, sometimes halving or more than doubling the CO₂-C mitigation potential. The scenarios showing the greatest increase when including trace gases are those in which manure management changes significantly. In the one scenario (no-till) where the carbon mitigation potential was reduced greatly, a small increase in methane oxidation was outweighed by a sharp increase in N₂O emissions. When these land-management options are combined to examine the whole agricultural land area of Europe, most of the changes in mitigation potential are small, but depending upon assumptions for the animal manure scenario, the total mitigation potential either increases by about 20% or decreases by about 10%, shifting the mitigation potential of the scenario from just above the EU's 8% Kyoto emission reduction target (98.9 Tg C y⁻¹) to just below it. Our results suggest that (a) trace gas fluxes may change the mitigation potential of a land management option significantly and should always be considered alongside CO₂-C mitigation potentials and (b) agricultural management options show considerable potential for carbon mitigation even after accounting for trace gas fluxes. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Impact of H+ ion irradiation on Matrimid®. I. Evolution in chemical structure

Ion beam irradiation can be used to modify the structure and gas transport properties of glassy polymers. This is the first of two studies that focus on the impact of H⁺ ion irradiation on the structure and permeation properties of the polyimide Matrimid®. Specifically, the evolution in chemical structure after H⁺ irradiation over a range of fluences was analyzed using FTIR spectroscopy and dissolution studies. Although H⁺ ion irradiation at very low ion fluences induced little modification in the chemical structure, irradiation at relatively high ion fluences resulted in crosslinking of the irradiated films. The branched structure of the aliphatic methyl (CH₃) was the most sensitive to the H⁺ ion irradiation. The para‐disubstituted aromatic ring showed the strongest resistance toward ion irradiation and required fairly high doses to induce degradation. Two potential crosslinking mechanisms related to the degradation of the aliphatic methyl and the benzophenone carbonyl were presented. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 90: 2010–2019, 2003     

Discovery of a Potent,CNS‐Penetrant Orexin Receptor Antagonist Based on an N,N‐Disubstituted‐1,4‐diazepane Scaffold that Promotes Sleep in Rats

Silent Night : Antagonism of the orexin (or hypocretin) system has recently been identified as a novel mechanism for the treatment of insomnia. Herein, we describe discovery of a dual (OX₁R/OX₂R) orexin receptor antagonist featuring a 1,4‐diazepane central constraint that blocks orexin signaling in vivo. In telemetry‐implanted rats, oral administration of this antagonist produced a decrease in wakefulness, while increasing REM and non‐REM sleep.

     

Mechanisms underlying the effects of membrane fouling on the nanofiltration of trace organic contaminants

The influence of membrane fouling on the retention of four trace organic contaminants - namely sulfamethoxazole, ibuprofen, carbamazepine, and triclosan - by nanofiltration membranes was investigated in this study. Humic acid, alginate, bovine serum albumin, and silica colloids were selected as model foulants to simulate various organic fractions and colloidal matter that are found in secondary treated effluent and surface water. The effects of membrane fouling on the separation process was delineated by comparing retention values of clean and fouled membranes and relate them to the membrane properties (under both clean and fouled conditions) as well as physicochemical characteristics of the trace organic contaminants. Membrane fouling was dependent on the physicochemical properties of the model foulants. Initial foulant-membrane interaction could probably be a major factor governing the process of membrane fouling particularly by the organic foulants. Such membrane-foulant interaction was also a dominating factor governing the effects of membrane fouling on the membrane separation efficacy. In good agreement with our previous study (Nghiem and Hawkes, 2007 [1]), the effects of fouling on retention were found to be membrane pore size dependent. In addition, results reported here suggest that these effects could also be foulant dependent. It was probable that the influence of membrane fouling on trace organic retention could be governed by four distinctive mechanisms: modification of the membrane charge surface, pore blocking, cake enhanced concentration polarisation, and modification of the membrane hydrophobicity. The presence of the fouling layer could affect the retention behavior of charged solutes by altering the membrane surface charge density. While the effect of surface charge modification was clear for inorganic salts, it was less obvious for the negatively charged pharmaceutical species (sulfamethoxazole and ibuprofen) examined in this investigation, possibly due to the interference of the pore blocking mechanism. Evidence of the cake enhanced concentration polarisation effect was quite clear, particularly under colloidal fouling conditions. In addition, organic fouling could also interfere with the solute-membrane interaction, and therefore, exerted considerable influence on the separation process of the hydrophobic trace organic contaminant triclosan.     

Scouring at Bed Sills as a Response to Flash Floods

The temporal development of clear-water local scour depth at bed sills in uniform gravel beds is considered. Experiments are presented on the development of scour holes under unsteady hydraulic conditions, with the triangular-shaped hydrographs tested being of different durations and different rates of flow variation. Based on the experimental results and a theoretical framework, a method is given for the definition and prediction of the scouring process under unsteady flows in terms of a dimensionless temporal parameter. A “flash flood” is here defined as an event for which the scour doesn’t attain its potential magnitude, i.e., the equilibrium value for the peak hydrograph flow rate. This flood nature is dependent on both the characteristics of the flood event itself and the characteristics of the stream. A quantitative measure of what constitutes a flash flood is given in terms of the identified temporal parameter. Results show that the ratio between the final scour depth and the potential scour depth at a bed sill for a given hydrograph can be estimated as a function of the identified temporal parameter.