Use Of Support Materials Research Articles

University Students and Sustainability Skills in Occupational Health and Safety Master Degree

<p class="apa">Education is one of the key instruments to achieving global sustainability. In fact, sustainable development has to be integrated into higher education curricula. One of the difficulties of this challenge is to know if students are able to achieve the basic skills, something that is extremely important in emergency management. Thus, assessment of student’s work outside the classroom, non-formal curriculum, is essential to adjust the subjects of education for sustainability to the philosophy of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits.</p><p class="apa">This pilot study details the measurements of the self-reported time spent by the students in different activities associated with sustainability, study habits, integration of new technologies and use of support material. Moreover, the students’ motivation and satisfaction with the course was also analysed. In this regard, two challenges were identified: teamwork and getting a better study organization.</p>

Enhancement in CO2 Adsorption on Hydrotalcite-based Material by Novel Carbon Support Combined with K2CO3 Impregnation

In recent years, a great deal of interest has been shown for high-temperature adsorption of CO2 on hydrotalcite-like compounds (HTlcs). Numerous efforts have been undertaken to enhance the CO2 capture property of HTlcs, including alkali-metal impregnation, use of support materials, and modification of chemical composition. The present work demonstrates the applicability of coal-derived graphitic material (CGM) as an effective support for neat as well as K2CO3-promoted Mg–Al HTlc, enhancing the CO2 adsorption capacity. Both surface area and basic site density affect the adsorption capacity. The K2CO3-promoted CGM-supported Mg–Al HTlc exhibited a fresh adsorption capacity of 1.10 mmol g–1 at 300 °C under a total pressure of 1 bar. After the initial drop, it maintained an average working capacity of 0.42 mmol g–1 during nine cycles of adsorption–desorption in the temperature range of 300–400 °C. The Yoon–Nelson kinetic model fit well with the experimental data.

A Pilot Study of the Views of General Practitioners Regarding Exercise for the Treatment of Depression

To investigate the views of general practitioners (GPs) regarding exercise and the treatment of depression. Twenty GPs completed a 25-item survey investigating their knowledge, beliefs, perceived benefits and barriers, and recommendations to patients regarding exercise for the treatment of depression. The exercise habits of the GPs were also recorded. GPs are positive toward exercise in the treatment of depression despite low levels of confidence in prescribing exercise or limited measurable benefits. Exercise patterns of GPs were not associated with GP exercise prescription habits. Education, use of support materials and referral schemes, and increasing exercise behavior among GPs may increase the use of exercise as treatment for people with depression.

Feasible Build Orientations for Self-Supporting Fused Deposition Manufacture: A Novel Approach to Space-Filling Tesselated Geometries

Support material is often utilised in additive manufacture to enable geometries that are not otherwise self-supporting. Despite the associated opportunities for innovation, the use of support material also introduces a series of limitations: additional material cost, cost of removal of support material, potential contamination of biocompatible materials, and entrapment of support material within cellular structures. This work presents a strategy for minimising the use of support material by comparing the geometric limits of an additive manufacture process to the build angles that exist within a proposed geometry. This method generates a feasibility map of the feasible build orientations for a proposed geometry with a given process. The method is applied to polyhedra that are suitable for close packing to identify space-filling tessellated structures that can be self-supporting. The integrity of an FDM process is quantified, and using the associated feasibility map, self-supporting polyhedra are manufactured. These polyhedra are integrated with non-trivial geometries to achieve a reduction in consumed material of approximately 50%. Nomenclature

ED handoffs: observed practices and communication errors

Objective The study objectives were to identify emergency department (ED) handoff practices and describe handoff communication errors among emergency physicians. Methods Two investigators observed patient handoffs among emergency physicians in a major metropolitan teaching hospital for 8 weeks. A data collection form was designed to assess handoff characteristics including duration, location, interruptions, and topics including examination, laboratory examinations, diagnosis, and disposition. Handoff errors were defined as clinically significant examination or laboratory findings in physician documentation that were reported significantly differently during or omitted from verbal handoff. Multivariate negative binomial regression models assessed variables associated with these errors. The study was approved by the institutional review board. Results One hundred ten handoff sessions encompassing 992 patients were observed. Examination handoff errors and omissions were noted in 130 (13.1%) and 447 (45.1%) handoffs, respectively. More examination errors were associated with longer handoff time per patient, whereas fewer examination omissions were associated with use of written or electronic support materials. Laboratory handoff errors and omissions were noted in 37 (3.7%) and 290 (29.2%) handoffs, respectively. Fewer laboratory errors were associated with use of electronic support tools, whereas more laboratory handoff omissions were associated with longer ED lengths of stay. Conclusions Clinically pertinent findings reported in ED physician handoff often differ from findings reported in physician documentation. These errors and omissions are associated with handoff time per patient, ED length of stay, and use of support materials. Future research should focus on ED handoff standardization protocols, handoff error reduction techniques, and the impact of handoff on patient outcomes.

Examination of the Use of Support Materials of Natural Origin in Wastewater Treatment

Wastewater has become continuously concentrated since 1990 in Hungary as the price of drinking water started to increase intensively from that year. Adding to that, reject water, leakages from landfills, and technological effluents of meat waste processing resulted in high specific nitrogen removal requirements at waste liquids of low COD/TKN ratio. Separated treatment of such waste streams is strongly recommended. We applied zeolite and alginite (supporting materials of natural origin and low price) in three parallel experiments to examine their effects on nitrogen removal using synthetic wastewater in these trials. First we measured the efficiency of a cyclically aerated biofilter (zeolite bed). Then we studied the efficiency of an AS SBR (zeolite powder containing activated sludge unit, operated as sequencing batch reactor), finally we substituted zeolite with alginite. The last one has not been examined for improving nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment in our country till now. We tested the three versions parallel with their proper controls. That is why one of the reactors always contained the seeding activated sludge exclusively to compare the effect of the subsidiary component (zeolite/alginite). The best results were received with using zeolite to the activated sludge. It improved both nitrogen removal and sludge settling. Addition of alginite to the AS also considerably improved sludge settling even at low dosages; therefore further pilot plant controls are recommended before any industrial application of the two support material.

Hydrogen Spillover Enhanced Hydriding Kinetics of Palladium-Doped Lithium Nitride to Lithium Imide

Hydrogen storage in complex metal hydrides often suffers from unsatisfied hydriding kinetics of the corresponding complex metals under moderated conditions, partly due to the kinetic barrier associated with the breaking of the H−H bond. Therefore, doping catalysts for H−H bond breakage become a feasible strategy to improve the hydriding kinetics because hydrogen adatoms can efficiently spill over from catalyst to complex metals. To realize this strategy, we developed a unique method to uniformly dope catalytic metal in the storage complex metals via synthesis of the eutectic of the catalytic metal and the precursory storage metal. This method eliminates the use of support materials for catalysts, while still maintaining the large surface area and uniformity of the catalysts. We demonstrated that Li3NPd0.03 with nanoscopic Pd uniformity can be prepared through nitridization of LiPd0.01 eutectic. The resulting Li3NPd0.03 exhibits enhanced hydriding kinetics over pure Li3N for the reaction Li3N + H2 ↔ Li2NH + LiH under moderate conditions. The activation barrier for the hydriding of Li3NPd0.03 was measured to be ∼28 kJ/mol. DFT calculation reveals that the hydrogen adatom migration barrier from the palladium to the nitrogen atom is ∼25 kJ/mol. These results indicate that the Pd-doped LiN3 is hydrided by hydrogen adatoms that migrate from the Pd catalyst and the kinetic barrier for such a hydriding process is mainly ascribed to the diffusion barrier of the H adatom from the palladium to the nitrogen atom.

Supported Iron Nanoparticles on Activated Carbon, Polyethylene and Silica for Nitrate Reduction

The use of support materials on the nanoparticle synthesis and applications has advantages in many aspects; resisting the aggregation and gelation of nanoparticles, providing more active sites by dispersing over the supports, and facilitating a filtering process. In order to elucidate the influence of the supports on the nitrate reduction reactivity, the supported iron nanoparticles were prepared by borohydride reduction of an aqueous iron salt in the presence of supports such as activated carbon, silica and polyethylene. The reactivity for nitrate reduction decreased in the order of unsupported Fe(0) > activated carbon(AC) supported Fe(0) > polyethylene(PE) supported Fe(0) <TEX>${\ge}$</TEX> silica supported Fe(0). Rate constants decrease with increasing initial nitrate concentration implying that the reaction is limited by the surface reaction kinetics.

57Fe Mössbauer Studies in Mo–Fe Supported Catalysts

Industrially, the Mo–Fe catalysts used in the selective oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde can rapidly deactivate. The use of support materials may reduce the high temperatures in the catalytic bed and/or increase thermal and mechanical resistance. However, during the preparation of these catalysts, or even during reaction conditions, the active species may react with the support material losing their catalytic activity. In this work silica, silicium carbide and titania were studied as supported catalysts by Mossbauer spectroscopy which proved to be a useful technique in the choice of supported materials.

High-performance anion-exchange chromatography of oligonucleotides

This paper presents techniques for the preparation and use of support materials for the resolution of oligonucleotides by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography. Methodology for both static and in situ surface modification of silica using polyethylenimine is outlined with emphasis on the contribution of stationary phase thickness and silica type in resolution and selectivity. Short columns (5.0 × 0.41 cm I.D.) are capable of fractionating both oligonucleotide homologues up to 35 bases in chain length and various nucleoside-5′-mono-, di- and triphosphates. Gradient rate is discussed in terms of resolution vs. separation time.