Using a multicultural lens to understand illnesses among Haitians living in America.

Currently, ethnic and racial minority individuals represent a large proportion of the U.S. population, and researchers expect that they will represent the majority of the population by 2050. This shift in U.S. demographics calls for a greater awareness and integration of cultural issues into the assessment and treatment of ethnically and linguistically diverse clients. This article examines the unique beliefs and manifestations of illnesses among Haitians in connection with the American Psychological Association's (APA, 2002) Multicultural Guidelines. The authors use a common culture-bound syndrome, Séizisman, to illustrate the cultural beliefs, assessment, and treatment of illnesses among Haitians. In so doing, they demonstrate how to incorporate the APA Multicultural Guidelines into treatment with clients of diverse cultural and racial backgrounds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Application of a Three-dimensional Wind Driven Circulation Model to Assess the Locations of New Drinking Water Intakes in Lake Ontario

A 3D transport model is used to perform a comparative analysis of several potential drinking water intakes located along the northwest shore of Lake Ontario between Toronto and Oshawa. The model is specifically used to assess each intake under both long- and short-term transport of a potential pollutant release from the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station and potential and actual pollutant releases from local land sources respectively. A model based on a 500 m grid resolution is calibrated using data collected in the aftermath of the 1992 tritium spill at the Pickering Nuclear Generation Station and subsequently used to simulate long-term transport. A model based on a 100 m grid resolution is verified using drogue studies and used to simulate short-term transport events. Both models are used to assess pollutant levels at each of nine potential intake locations under different wind scenarios and pollutant releases. Field data for the study included water quality and flow measurements from local sewers and rivers, and estimates of pollutant levels from the local waste water treatment plants. This paper describes the model setup for both the long-term and short-term transport models, calibration using field data, long-term transport modeling, short-term transport modeling, and the comprehensive analysis approach used to evaluate the nine potential intake locations proposed. Results indicated that four intakes in particular outperformed other intake locations by maintaining bottom pollutant levels within governmental standards and warning times that exceeded 20 hours.     

Modulating drug release from poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid microparticles by the addition of alginate and pectin

The aim of the present work is the characterization of PLGA microparticles including biopolymers for the controlled release of tilmicosin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic. Microparticles were prepared using the double-emulsion solvent evaporation technique. The effect of alginate and pectin incorporation over particle size and porosity, encapsulation efficiency (EE) and pH-responsive drug release was evaluated. Formulations presented a mean particle size of 5.5 μm approximately and a drug EE ranged from 22%–57%. PLGA-Alginate particles showed an increased porosity. Tilmicosin release profiles from PLGA and PLGA-biopolymer microparticles were affected by the particular combination of polymers and the pH of the release medium. The experimental data was simulated using a mathematical model, which takes into account the autocatalytic polymer degradation and the different mechanisms of drug transport. The combination of PLGA and biopolymers strongly influenced the morphology of the particles, offering the possibility of controlling the drug release profiles according to the therapy.     

The pedagogical challenges to collaborative technologies

Collaborative technologies offer a range of new ways of supporting learning by enabling learners to share and exchange both ideas and their own digital products. This paper considers how best to exploit these opportunities from the perspective of learners’ needs. New technologies invariably excite a creative explosion of new ideas for ways of doing teaching and learning, although the technologies themselves are rarely designed with teaching and learning in mind. To get the best from them for education we need to start with the requirements of education, in terms of both learners’ and teachers’ needs. The argument put forward in this paper is to use what we know about what it takes to learn, and build this into a pedagogical framework with which to challenge digital technologies to deliver a genuinely enhanced learning experience.     

Ultraprecise 3D Printed Graphene Aerogel Microlattices on Tape for Micro Sensors and E-Skin

3D printed graphene aerogels hold promise for flexible sensing fields due to their flexibility, low density, conductivity, and piezo-resistivity. However, low printing accuracy/fidelity and stochastic porous networks have hindered both sensing performance and device miniaturization. Here, printable graphene oxide (GO) inks are formulated through modulating oxygen functional groups, which allows printing of self-standing 3D graphene oxide aerogel microlattice (GOAL) with an ultra-high printing resolution of 70 µm. The reduced GOAL (RGOAL) is then stuck onto the adhesive tape as a facile and large-scale strategy to adapt their functionalities into target applications. Benefiting from the printing resolution of 70 µm, RGOAL tape shows better performance and data readability when used as micro sensors and robot e-skin. By adjusting the molecular structure of GO, the research realizes regulation of rheological properties of GO hydrogel and the 3D printing of lightweight and ultra-precision RGOAL, improves the sensing accuracy of graphene aerogel electronic devices and realizes the device miniaturization, expanding the application of graphene aerogel devices to a broader field such as micro robots, which is beyond the reach of previous reports.     

Photocatalytic activity of a new composite material of Fe (III) oxide nanoparticles wrapped by a matrix of polymeric carbon nitride and amorphous carbon

Polymeric carbon nitride was synthesized from urea and doped with Cu and Fe to act as co-catalysts. The material doped with Fe was a new composite material composed of Fe(III) oxides (acting as a co-catalyst) wrapped by the polymer layers and amorphous carbon. Furthermore, the copper doped material was described in a previous report. The photocatalytic degradation of the azo dye direct blue 1 (DB) was studied using as photocatalysts: pure carbon nitride (CN), carbon nitride doped with Cu (CN-Cu) and carbon nitride doped with Fe (CN-Fe). The catalysts were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method (BET), etc. The adsorption phenomenon was studied using the Langmuir and Freundlich models. For the kinetic study, a solution of 500 mg L^?1 of DB1 was treated with each catalyst, visible light and H₂O₂. The dye concentration was measured by spectrophotometry at the wavelength of 565 nm, and the removal of the total organic content (TOC) was quantified. BET analysis yielded surface areas of 60.029, 20.116 and 70.662 m²g^?1 for CN, CN-Cu and CN-Fe, respectively. The kinetics of degradation were pseudo-first order, whose constants were 0.093, 0.039 and 0.110 min^?1 for CN, CN-Cu and CN-Fe, respectively. The total organic carbon (TOC) removal reached the highest value of 14.46% with CN-Fe.     

Carbon nano-onion composites: Physicochemical characteristics and biological activity

Carbon nano-onion/surfactant (CNO/surfactant) composites offer the possibility to easily produce the soluble nanostructures. That approach combines the hydrophilicity of surfactants with the robustness of carbon structures to produce composites with superior and unusual physicochemical properties. We used the following surfactants: hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS), 4-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)phenyl-polyethylene glycol (Triton X-100), and polyethylene glycol sorbitan monolaurate (Tween 20) to non-covalently modify CNO surfaces. The existence of stable CNO composites are clearly evidenced by direct transmission electron microscopy observations, which are also supported by thermogravimetric analyses. Dynamic light scattering and zeta potential confirmed their dispersion and stability. Additionally, the biological activity of well-dispersed CNO/surfactant composites against a strain of Escherichia coli was assayed. In vitro antimicrobial assays for the composites revealed that only the CNO/CTAB composite decreased cell viability. This activity could be assigned to the simple composite dissociation in water solutions, however antimicrobial properties of the composite are slightly better when compared with pure CTAB. This indicate some synergic effect with respect to the properties of the pure surfactant.