Necessary Reconstruction: The Child Welfare System

This research has been composed of both primary and secondary research aimed to shine light on the most pressing issues within the child welfare system. It not only demonstrates the detrimental tolls the system has had on the children but also the tolls it has had on the public servants working within the system. This research is a gateway to awareness of the realities and necessary changes the system so desperately needs

Artificial weathering pools of calcium-rich industrial waste for CO2 sequestration

Processes of carbonation of calcium-rich aqueous industrial wastes from acetylene production were performed mimicking rock weathering, using the atmospheric carbon dioxide as reactant. This residue was carbonated exposing it to the air in artificial pools with controlled solid-to-liquid and surface-to-volume ratios, and the efficiency of this simple mineral carbonation process was maximized. Considering realistic values of just one acetylene production plant, the intelligent handling of the calcium-rich waste would make it possible to counteract the emission of around 800t of carbon dioxide per year, so the CO2 emissions of the acetylene production could be completely compensated and its carbon footprint significantly reduced.X-ray diffraction patterns and thermogravimetric analyses reported the conversion, up to 88%, of the calcium hydroxide into calcium carbonate under atmospheric conditions. So, considering a realistic industrial scale-up, 476kg of CO2 could be captured with 1t of dry waste. The morphology of the grains is resolved by electron microscopy, and can be described as needles 15nm wide and 200nm long arranged in grains smaller than 1 micron. We exploit these nanometric textural parameters (nanometric pores and particles having a specific surface area ∼50m2/g) to design an efficient carbon fixation procedure. The aim of this work is to propose this simple carbonation technology, based on aqueous alkaline industrial waste, as a contribution to reducing global CO2 emissions.Junta de Andalucía TEP115Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PIA42008-3

Understanding the Lived Experiences of Ethnic-Racial Minority Former Foster Youth Who Identify as Queer

This qualitative study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the lived experiences and meaning making of former foster youth of color who identify as both ethnic-racial minorities and as either gender or sexual minorities. A total of three participants took part in this study. All participants identified as a former foster youth with at least one foster care placement in the United States, as an ethnic-racial minority, and as a gender or sexual minority. In the lived experiences of the participants three themes, and several subthemes, emerged: identity, cultural prejudice, and power dynamics. The findings supported the hypothesis former foster youth with intersecting ethnic-racial minority identities and queer identities face complex interactions at home and in the foster care system. These interactions included identity concealment and exploration being modulated by caregivers, culturally prejudicial treatment from caregivers and the foster care system at large, and power dynamics between caregivers and foster youth. The compounding influences were found to lead to experiences of anticipated stigma and harm, internalized self-hatred, and social isolation. This study found buffers to these negative experiences as increasing foster youth agency, acceptance and understanding of minority identities, and a perception of caregivers as authentically compassionate

A symmetry adapted approach to vibrational excitations in atomic clusters

An algebraic method especially suited to describe strongly anharmonic vibrational spectra in molecules may be an appropriate framework to study vibrational spectra of Na$^+_n$ clusters, where nearly flat potential energy surfaces and the appearance of close lying isomers have been reported. As an illustration we describe the model and apply it to the Be$_4$, H$_3^+$, Be$_3$ and Na$_3^+$ clusters.Comment: 8 pages with 2 tables, invited talk at `Atomic Nuclei & Metallic Clusters: Finite Many-Fermion Systems', Prague, Czech Republic, September 1-5, 199

Comment on ``Boson-realization model for the vibrational spectra of tetrahedral molecules''

An algebraic model in terms of a local harmonic boson realization was recently proposed to study molecular vibrational spectra [Zhong-Qi Ma et al., Phys. Rev. A 53, 2173 (1996)]. Because of the local nature of the bosons the model has to deal with spurious degrees of freedom. An approach to eliminate the latter from both the Hamiltonian and the basis was suggested. We show that this procedure does not remove all spurious components from the Hamiltonian and leads to a restricted set of interactions. We then propose a scheme in which the physical Hamiltonian can be systematically constructed up to any order without the need of imposing conditions on its matrix elements. In addition, we show that this scheme corresponds to the harmonic limit of a symmetry adapted algebraic approach based on U(2) algebras.Comment: 9 pages Revtex, submitted February 199

A general algebraic model for molecular vibrational spectroscopy

We introduce the Anharmonic Oscillator Symmetry Model to describe vibrational excitations in molecular systems exhibiting high degree of symmetry. A systematic procedure is proposed to establish the relation between the algebraic and configuration space formulations, leading to new interactions in the algebraic model. This approach incorporates the full power of group theoretical techniques and provides reliable spectroscopic predictions. We illustrate the method for the case of ${\cal D}_{3h}$-triatomic molecules.Comment: 35 pages TEX, submitted to Annals of Physics (N.Y.