Separation of fischer-Tropsch Wax from Catalyst by Supercritical Extraction.

Although alkanes are the major constituent of a Fischer-Tropsch wax, significant quantities (e.g., up to 30 wt %) of long-chain alcohol and alkene compounds can also be found in a F-T wax. With the lack of experimental data, the effect that the hydroxy and double-bond functional groups have on the phase behavior of systems containing long- chain hydrocarbons is unknown. Therefore, the phase behavior of the system n-hexane/1-hexadecanol was measured for comparison with the previously measured system n-hexane/hexadecane. Vapor and liquid equilibrium compositions and mixture critical points were measured at 198.9, 251.3, 299.2, and 349.9 {degrees}C at pressures ranging from 6.2 to 46.4 bar. Temperature and pressure measurements for all isotherms are believed to be accurate to better than plus or minus 3 and 4 percent, respectively. Results indicate that the addition of the alcohol group to a C 16 hydrocarbon chain significantly affects the phase behavior with hexane, with the two-phase region extending to significantly higher (i.e., up to about 10 bar higher) pressures. The presence of an alcohol group was also found to be an impediment to obtaining a good fit of the experimental data with the Peng-Robinson equation

Interwoven histories: Mental health nurses with experience of mental illness, qualitative findings from a mixed methods study

The effects of mental health nurses' own experience of mental illness or being a carer have rarely been researched beyond the workplace setting. This study aimed to explore how the experience of mental illness affects mental health nurses' lives outside of and inside work. A sample of 26 mental health nurses with personal experience of mental illness took part in semistructured interviews. Data were analysed thematically using a six-phase approach. The analysis revealed the broad context of nurses' experiences of mental illness according to three interwoven themes: mental illness as part of family life; experience of accessing services; and life interwoven with mental illness. Participants typically described personal and familial experience of mental illness across their life course, with multiple causes and consequences. The findings suggest that nurses' lives outside of work should be taken into account when considering the impact of their personal experience of mental illness. Similarly being a nurse influences how mental illness is experienced. Treatment of nurses with mental illness should account for their nursing expertise whilst recognizing that the context for nurses' mental illness could be much broader than the effect of workplace stress

Interim analyses of data as they accumulate in laboratory experimentation

BACKGROUND: Techniques for interim analysis, the statistical analysis of results while they are still accumulating, are highly-developed in the setting of clinical trials. But in the setting of laboratory experiments such analyses are usually conducted secretly and with no provisions for the necessary adjustments of the Type I error-rate. DISCUSSION: Laboratory researchers, from ignorance or by design, often analyse their results before the final number of experimental units (humans, animals, tissues or cells) has been reached. If this is done in an uncontrolled fashion, the pejorative term 'peeking' has been applied. A statistical penalty must be exacted. This is because if enough interim analyses are conducted, and if the outcome of the trial is on the borderline between 'significant' and 'not significant', ultimately one of the analyses will result in the magical P = 0.05. I suggest that Armitage's technique of matched-pairs sequential analysis should be considered. The conditions for using this technique are ideal: almost unlimited opportunity for matched pairing, and a short time between commencement of a study and its completion. Both the Type I and Type II error-rates are controlled. And the maximum number of pairs necessary to achieve an outcome, whether P = 0.05 or P > 0.05, can be estimated in advance. SUMMARY: Laboratory investigators, if they are to be honest, must adjust the critical value of P if they analyse their data repeatedly. I suggest they should consider employing matched-pairs sequential analysis in designing their experiments

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum