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Heavy metals play a crucial role in the economic development of any nation. Industries utilizing heavy metals, consequently, emanate a large volume of metal-containing liquid effluents. Since metals are non-renewable and finite resources, their judicious and sustainable use is the key. Hazardous metal-laden water poses threat to human health and ecology. Apart from metals, these industrial effluents also consist of toxic chemicals. Conventional physical–chemical techniques are not efficient enough as it consumes energy and are, therefore, not cost effective.

It is known that biomaterials namely microorganisms, plants, and agricultural biomass have the competence to bind metals, in some cases, selectively, from aqueous medium. This phenomenon is termed as “metal biosorption.” Biosorption has immense potential of becoming an effective alternative over conventional methods. The authors in the present chapter have used secondary data from their previous research work and attempted to develop few strategic models through their feasibility studies for metal sustainability.

Individuals develop and perform and process their identities in relationships with others as well as with the environment in which they find themselves, Many of these relationships with others are characterized by fundamental inequalities. In finding their identities, the subordinate in the relationship develops an identity that typically take steps – by vocal and non-vocal gestures – to perform this particularized identity. The identification of self is not only related to the others, with eachindividual in reflective communication, but also reflections characterized by inequality. In continuing to do so, he or she will experience a certain powerlessness, indeed what Marx called alienation.

Relational autonomy proposes that persons are socially embedded, with decisions being made within social relationships. Through this theoretical lens, this article explores how the healthcare professional–patient relationship can affect pregnant women’s decisions to accept pertussis and influenza vaccines.

Hackney was chosen as the study site as it has very low vaccine uptake rates. In-depth interviews were conducted with 40 pregnant and recently pregnant women, as well as 10 healthcare professionals. Interviews explored experiences of the UK's National Health Service (NHS) health care and views towards vaccination in pregnancy. An observation of a consultation between a pregnant patient and her General Practitioners (GPs) was also conducted in order to understand how the vaccination discussion takes place.

The findings of this study indicate that advice from friends and family can greatly influence a pregnant woman’s vaccination decisions. The patient’s social context, including influences on her decisions, must be understood by healthcare professionals, so that discussions about concerns can take place. If close relationships with patients are formed, healthcare professional advice is more likely to be trusted. With support from healthcare professionals, patients feel competent, empowered to make the right decision for them, and are more likely to vaccinate.

This research will help to inform contextualised policies aimed at increasing vaccination acceptance and reducing inequality in access to vaccination during pregnancy in Hackney.

To the author’s knowledge, this chapter is the first to apply the theory of relational autonomy to views towards maternal vaccination and decision making. It provides valuable insights into how healthcare professionals’ interactions with their pregnant patients can influence vaccination acceptance. The chapter contains advice on how both healthcare professionals and policy-makers can include mothers in vaccine decision-making processes in more personalised ways, by adopting a dialogue that appreciates and understands the social processes around vaccination concerns.

This chapter provides a critical analysis of the literature on individuals in cultural transitions in higher education, namely, international students in culturally unfamiliar contexts; teachers of international students and culturally more diverse classrooms; and local students in increasingly culturally diverse classes. All these individuals are actors exposed to new and shifting cultural experiences expected to impact their motivation and engagement. Two broad perspectives emerging from the literature were used to organize the chapter: a perspective of adaptation representing research grounded in unilateral, bilateral or reciprocal conceptualizations, and a perspective of transformation, capturing experiential learning research leading to personal and academic development. The analysis highlights how motivation is a critical, yet under-examined construct. This leads to numerous suggestions for future research including: addressing the neglected role of agency in research on international students' sociocultural adaptation and the lack of research on successful processes of adaptation; examining the confounding issue of socialization into new cultural-educational environments and level of proficiency in the medium of instruction, which impacts on engagement; and scrutinizing the posited link between deep-level motivated engagement in cultural transitions and the emergence of transformative experiences. A case is made for research on individuals' engagement and motivation in cultural transitions to be conceptually and methodologically stronger and broader, moving from studies of single groups of individuals in need of adaptation, to investigations of the co-regulated, reciprocal adaptations of actors and agents operating in complex sociocultural contexts where power dynamics related to knowledge and language affect participation and engagement with cultural 'others'.

Research suggests that African-Caribbeans are less likely than their white British counterparts to ask for mental health support (Cooper et al., 2013). This is despite research identifying that minority groups as a whole, when compared to the white majority, report higher levels of psychological distress and a marked lack of social support (Erens, Primatesta, & Prior, 2001). Those who do request support are less likely to receive antidepressants (British Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities, 1994; Cooper et al., 2010) even when controlling for mental health symptom severity, with African-Caribbeans less likely to make use of medication for depression even when prescribed (Bhui, Christie, & Bhugra, 1995; Cooper et al., 2013). Studies reporting on reasons for black people being less likely to attend for mental health consultation with their GP suggest a variety of explanations why this may be, focussing both on the suspicion of what services may offer (Karlsen, Mazroo, McKenzie, Bhui, & Weich, 2005) and the concern of black clients that they may experience a racialised service with stigma (Marwaha & Livingstone, 2002). Different understandings and models of mental illness may also exist (Marwaha & Livingstone, 2002). Different perspectives and models of mental health may deter black people from making use of antidepressants even when prescribed. Despite a random control trial showing that African-Caribbean people significantly benefit from targeted therapy services (Afuwape et al., 2010), the government, despite a report by the Department of Health in 2003 admitting there was no national strategy or policy specifically targeting mental health of black people or their care and treatment has not yet built on evidence-based success. One important aspect recognised by the Department of Health (2003), was that of the need to develop a mental health workforce capable of providing efficacious mental health services to a multicultural population. Although there were good strategic objectives little appeared to exist in how to meet this important objective, particularly in the context of research showing that such service provision could show real benefit. The Department of Health Guidelines (2003) focussed on the need to change what it termed as ‘conventional practice’, but was not specific in what this might be, or even how this could improve services to ethnic minorities. There was discussion of cultural competencies without defining what these were or referencing publications where these would be identified. There was a rather vague suggestion that recent work had begun to occur, but no indication that this had been evaluated and shown to have value (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2001). Neither British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy nor British Psychological Society makes mention of the need for cultural competencies in organisational service delivery to ethnic minority clients. This chapter will describe, explore and debate the need for individual and organisational cultural competencies in delivering counselling and psychotherapy services to African-Caribbean people to improve service delivery and efficacious outcomes.

In this self-study, a pre-service teacher educator and her students in a pre-service teacher education program course elective – “21st Century Teaching and Learning with Technology” – explored and reflected upon the complexities of imbedding inquiry-based learning as both a method of teaching and for learning about integrating technology into teaching practice. They discovered that inquiry activities incorporating application, synthesis, and critical analysis functioned as effective learning vehicles through which individuals can explore their own orientations and understandings. An authentic task for learning in which students were tasked with taking on responsibility for a cross-disciplinary, multi-grade professional development workshop for classmates proved to be the cornerstone upon which students gained self-efficacy in terms of beliefs in personal abilities to integrate technology, refined pedagogical perspectives, and theorized ways to enhance and nurture inquiry-based teaching and learning environments in 21st century classrooms that infuse technology. Their development was due, in part, to how their instructor presented learning content and modeled practice that was shaped by philosophies of teaching and learning.

Canada's rural economy today is a dynamic source of economic growth and jobs are available in the natural resource extraction, manufacturing, agri-food and service sectors, yet despite this relatively favourable outlook, a profound socio-economic transformation is taking place. Within Ontario, the nation's largest and most economically diversified province and the focus of this study, the agri-food sector seeks new ways to deal with heightened competitive pressures and unstable commodity prices, in part by securing a relatively inexpensive and reliable labour force, while transnational auto-parts firms have looked increasingly to small town Ontario as fertile ground to transplant new ‘flexible’, niche manufacturing facilities. This multifaceted process has had a distinct impact on the regional economy, migratory labour flows and community social dynamics. As Harvey (1996) makes note, the effects of capital's re-spatialization have been uneven, and the state's role in this process contradictory, simultaneously facilitating capital mobility while regulating labour's (im)mobility (see also, Peck, 1996; Antonio & Bonanno, 2000). This chapter presents research findings and examines the impact of capital/labour flows on the changing character of three small communities in the heart of rural south-western Ontario – Bradford, Strathroy and Tillsonburg – with a particular focus on the conditions under which migrants and immigrants are socially included and excluded from the communities where they work. Based on these case studies, I argue that while small town Canada has managed to benefit partially from opportunities linked to a globalizing economy, the formal and informal means of socially incorporating this new transnationalized labour force is lagging significantly behind, reflecting in fact a regressive turn in Canadian labour-market regulation, while the concern for sustainable community development is largely ignored.

We examine the informational roles of trades and time between trades in the domestic and overseas US Treasury markets. A vector autoregressive model is employed to assess the information content of trades and time duration between trades. We find significant impacts of trades and time duration between trades on price changes. Larger trade size induces greater price revision and return volatility, and higher trading intensity is associated with a greater price impact of trades, a faster price adjustment to new information and higher volatility. Higher informed trading and lower liquidity contribute to larger bid–ask spreads off the regular daytime trading period.

More than ever before, public transit must compete in the transport market. This competition is, on the one hand, against steadily increasing car traffic; and on the other hand, between public transit operators. This, in turn, leads to new demands regarding the type, content and quality of data needed for planning and management. Frequently, traditional travel behaviour surveys do not provide sufficiently accurate and detailed information about public transit demand. To plan public transit, frequently a precise description of all trip stages, including the first and the last mile, is necessary. To achieve this, an adaptation of the traditional survey methods is necessary. In many countries, public transit associations have been established to integrate services offered by individual public transit operators with the help of through-ticketing and a coordination of lines and timetables into what looks, to the user, like a single system. To distribute revenue among the operators involved, detailed surveys of passengers are needed. Measuring the quality of public transit service and surveying customer satisfaction are new tasks. Such data are the basis for quality assurance and are essential for gaining and keeping customers of the public transit system. New technologies such as the Global Positioning System, automated passenger counts and Smart Card Payment Systems offer new possibilities to collect data more efficiently and cost-effectively. This article covers essential aspects of surveys and the collection of data that are crucial for the planning and management of public transit; it points to state-of-the-art methods and offers potential solutions.