Gender Politics and Secure Services For Women: Reflections on a study of staff understandings of challenging behaviour.

This paper discusses the findings of a Q methodological study that investigated the complexity of professional understandings of (attitudes towards) residents in a secure unit for women with learning disabilities and challenging behaviours. Particular attention is afforded to the critical debate regarding women in psychiatric and secure care, including the significant contribution made to this literature by feminist perspectives. A multiprofessional group of staff (n = 38) participated in the study and nine distinct accounts of women's challenging behaviour are described. Despite a considerable amount of recent policy concern with the position of women in psychiatric services, the findings of this research suggest that many front line staff are reluctant to highlight gender in their explanations of women's behaviour. This supports the assertion by Williams et al. (2001), who were involved in the National Gender Training Initiative (NGTI), that most critical theorizing about women's mental health has had minimal impact at the level of individuals’ understandings of these important issues. This state of affairs suggests a powerful case for the expansion of staff training as provided in the NGTI, which makes gender central to understanding and emphasizes feminist perspectives

Global Analysis of Nucleon Strange Form Factors at Low Q2Q^2

We perform a global analysis of all recent experimental data from elastic parity-violating electron scattering at low $Q^2$. The values of the electric and magnetic strange form factors of the nucleon are determined at $Q^2 = 0.1$ GeV/$c^2$ to be $G^s_E = -0.008 \pm 0.016$ and $G^s_M = 0.29 \pm 0.21$.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

Report on Characterization of U-10 wt.% Zr Alloy

This report summarizes the chemical and structural characterization results for a U-10 wt.% Zr alloy to be used in an ultra-high burn-up nuclear fuel concept. The as-cast alloy material was received from Texas A and M University. Characterization and an initial heat treatment of the alloy material were conducted at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The as-received ingot was sectioned for X-ray analysis, metallography, SEM, TEM, and heat treatments, as shown in Figure 1

Ethyl Lactate Production from the Catalytic Depolymerisation of Post‑consumer Poly(lactic acid)

Bioplastics such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA), which are derived from renewable sources, promoted as biodegradable and implemented for numerous functions, offer a promising alternative to the enduring synthetic plastics abundant in society. However, the degradation of PLA is slow under natural environmental conditions. A chemical recycling route is thus required to couple mitigation of plastic persistence repercussions with circular economy adherence. In the present work, the production of ethyl lactate by the catalysed transesterification of post-consumer PLA was investigated. The catalyst employed was a propylendiamine Zn(II) complex. The PLA samples investigated consisted of a phone case, an infant’s toy, a film, a cup and 3D printing material. Degradation reactions were studied at 50 °C and 90 °C and the concentrations measured at two different time intervals, 1 h and 3 h. The results revealed that greater activity of the catalyst was observed at 50 °C for two PLA samples (cup, 3D print). PLA film achieved the greatest lactate yield (71%) of all samples after 3 h at 50 °C. It is concluded that the propylenediamine Zn(II) catalyst can be used to produce green solvent ethyl lactate at mild temperatures from post-consumer PLA, even in the presence of unknown additives

Zinc complexes for PLA formation and chemical recycling

A series of Zn II complexes, based on propylenediamine Schiff bases, have been prepared and fully characterized. X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy identified significant differences in the solid and solution state for the Zn II species. All complexes have been applied to the ring-opening polymerization of l-lactide with emphasis on industrial conditions. High conversion and good molecular weight control were generally achievable for Zn(A–D) 2, and high-molecular-weight poly(lactic acid) (PLA) was prepared in 1 min at a 10 000:1:33 [lactide]/[Zn]/[BnOH] loading. The more active Zn II catalysts were also applied to PLA degradation to alkyl lactate under mild conditions. Zn(A–B) 2 demonstrated high activity and selectivity in this process with PLA being consumed within 1 h at 50 °C. Zn(C–D) 2 were shown to be less active, and these observations can be related to the catalysts’ structure and the degradation mechanism. Initial results for the degradation of poly(ethylene terephthalate) and mixed feeds are also presented, highlighting the broader applicability of the systems presented

Observation of Parity Nonconservation in Møller Scattering

We report a measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry in fixed target electron-electron (Møller) scattering: A_(PV) = [-175 ± 30(stat)± 20(syst)] X 10^(-9). This first direct observation of parity nonconservation in Møller scattering leads to a measurement of the electron’s weak charge at low energy Q^e_W = -0:053 ± 0:011. This is consistent with the standard model expectation at the current level of precision: sin^2θ_W = (M_Z)_(MS) = 0:2293 ± 0:0024(stat) ± 0:0016(syst) ± 0:0006(theory)

Kinetics of Alkyl Lactate Formation from the Alcoholysis of Poly(Lactic Acid)

Alkyl lactates are green solvents that are successfully employed in several industries such as pharmaceutical, food and agricultural. They are considered prospective renewable substitutes for petroleum-derived solvents and the opportunity exists to obtain these valuable chemicals from the chemical recycling of waste poly(lactic acid). Alkyl lactates (ethyl lactate, propyl lactate and butyl lactate) were obtained from the catalysed alcoholysis reaction of poly(lactic acid) with the corresponding linear alcohol. Reactions were catalysed by a Zn complex synthesised from an ethylenediamine Schiff base. The reactions were studied in the 50–130 °C range depending on the alcohol, at autogenous pressure. Arrhenius temperature-dependent parameters (activation energies and pre-exponential factors) were estimated for the formation of the lactates. The activation energies (Ea1, Ea2 and Ea−2) for alcoholysis in ethanol were 62.58, 55.61 and 54.11 kJ/mol, respectively. Alcoholysis proceeded fastest in ethanol in comparison to propanol and butanol and reasonable rates can be achieved in temperatures as low as 50 °C. This is a promising reaction that could be used to recycle end-of-life poly(lactic acid) and could help create a circular production economy

New Measurement of Antineutrino Oscillation with the Full Detector Configuration at Daya Bay

We report a new measurement of electron antineutrino disappearance using the fully constructed Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. The final two of eight antineutrino detectors were installed in the summer of 2012. Including the 404 days of data collected from October 2012 to November 2013 resulted in a total exposure of 6.9 x 10(5) GW(th) ton days, a 3.6 times increase over our previous results. Improvements in energy calibration limited variations between detectors to 0.2%. Removal of six Am-241-C-13 radioactive calibration sources reduced the background by a factor of 2 for the detectors in the experimental hall furthest from the reactors. Direct prediction of the antineutrino signal in the far detectors based on the measurements in the near detectors explicitly minimized the dependence of the measurement on models of reactor antineutrino emission. The uncertainties in our estimates of sin(2)2 theta(13) and vertical bar Delta m(ee)(2)vertical bar were halved as a result of these improvements. An analysis of the relative antineutrino rates and energy spectra between detectors gave sin(2)2 theta(13) = 0.084 +/- 0.005 and vertical bar Delta m(ee)(2)vertical bar = (2.42 +/- 0.11) x 10(-3) eV(2) in the three-neutrino framework