“We’re just stuck in a daily routine”:Implications of the temporal dimensions, demands and dispositions of mothering for leisure time physical activity

The reduced physical activity of women when they become mothers is a public health priority. Existing studies show that mothers have little time for leisure, or time that is fragmented and requiring negotiation with others. However, the temporal features of mothering are undertheorised and qualitative studies tend to focus on how mothers can skilfully construct physically active identities and balance societal expectations about being a "good mother". In line with other research that focuses on the configuration of everyday practices that condition the "possibilities" for health-related practices like physical activity, we shift our focus away from the resisting capacities of mothers to the temporal features of mothering practices. We interrogate the lived experiences of 15 mothers of preschool children in deprived urban areas and illuminate the inherent temporal dimensions, demands and dispositions of mothering practices that condition the possibility of leisure time physical activity being undertaken. Together, these temporal features mean mothering practices can readily work against leisure time physical activity. The focus on the mothering practices rather than mothers brings a novel perspective for developing public health policy designed to support mothers into regular leisure time physical activity

Implications of polishing techniques in quantitative x-ray microanalysis

The implications of the polishing techniques in quantative x-ray microanalysis were discussed. Two and three body abrasive wears, polishing procedures and techniques and characterization of polished surfaces were also discussed. Varying the nature of polishing materials was found to result in different surface and subsurface chemical, physical and textural damages

A method to measure the effective gas path length in the environmental or variable pressure scanning electron microscope

A simple method is described to determine the effective gas path length when incident electrons scatter in the gas above the specimen. This method is based on the measurement of a characteristic x-ray line emitted from a region close to the incident beam. From various experimental measurements performed on various microscopes, it is shown that the effective gas path length may increase with the chamber pressure and that it is also often dependent of the type of x-ray bullet

Boundary characterisation of X65 pipeline steel using analytical electron microscopy

Analytical electron microscopy was used to characterise grain boundaries (GBs) and interphase boundaries (IBs) of X65 pipeline steel. There was no segregation of P or S at the proeutectoid ferrite GBs. This indicates that contrary to literature expectations, P and S are unlikely to be involved in the mechanism of SCC of pipeline steels. There was Mn segregation at IBs between pro-eutectoid ferrite and pearlitic cementite, and desegregated from the IBs between pro-eutectoid ferrite and pearlitic ferrite. This pattern of Mn segregation is attributed to diffusion in the process zone ahead of the pearlite during the austenite to pearlite transformation and diffusion in the IBs between the proeutectoid ferrite and pearlite. A new mechanism was proposed for pearlite formation. A GB carbide first forms at an a! : a GB, and then grows along the alpha/gamma interface. Subsequently pearlite initiates from this interface carbide. (C) 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers