“Having Your Say” – Reflections on a Training Course For Older People Volunteering to Become Peer Visitors in Care Homes

This article analyses the “Having Your Say” training course which was designed as the initial stage of a project developing peer visitors for older people’s residential care homes. Peer visitors are older people who volunteer to take on a role aimed at capturing a “peer” perspective on the qualitative aspects of living within a residential care home 1, in contrast to the empirical and regulatory perspectives which various managerial and inspectoral regimes already address as part of their statutory obligations. This training course represents part of an ongoing programme aimed at further developing partnership working between a statutory provider, a higher education institution and a range of service user organisations including Worcestershire Association of Service Users (WASU) and Worcestershire Older Peoples’ Forum, a further intention being to evaluate the effectiveness of the actual “Having Your Say” scheme itself once it has become more fully established. Considered within the article are the processes of developing and implementing preliminary support and learning for peer visitors, the reflective learning environment’s ability to facilitate older participants’’ learning and experience in order to further inform the project and an examination of the challenges involved in working with older people in learning and teaching activities. The “Having Your Say” project is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK

Dispersion of antimony from oxidizing ore deposits

The solubilities of brandholzite, [Mg(H2O)6][Sb(OH)6]2, and bottinoite, [Ni(H2O)6][Sb(OH)6]2, at 25 °C in water have been measured. Solubilities are 1.95(4) × 10-3 and 3.42(11) × 10-4 mol dm-3, respectively. The incongruent dissolution of romeite, Ca2Sb2O7, and bindheimite, Pb2Sb2O7, at 25 °C in 0.100 mol dm-3 aqueous HNO3 was also investigated. Equilibrium dissolved Sb concentrations were 3.3 ± 1.0 × 10-7 and 7.7 ± 2.1 × 10-8 mol dm-3, respectively. These values have been used to re-evaluate the geochemical mobility of Sb in the supergene environment. It is concluded that the element is geochemically immobile in solution and in soils. This was in part validated by an orientation soil geochemical survey over the Bayley Park prospect near Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. Anomalous soil Sb levels are confined to within 100 m of known stibnite mineralizatio

Structural and compositional variations of basic Cu(II) chlorides in the herbertsmithite and gillardite structure field.

© 2017 The Mineralogical Society. This document is the author’s final accepted version of the journal article. You are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it

Raman Spectroscopy of Basic Copper (II) and Some Complex Copper (II) Sulfate Minerals: Implications for Hydrogen Bonding

Raman spectroscopy has been applied to the study of basic Cu sulfates including antlerite, brochiantite, posnjakite, langite, and wroewolfeite and selected complex Cu sulfate minerals. Published X-ray diffraction data were used to estimate possible hydrogen bond distances for the basic Cu sulfate minerals. A Libowitzky empirical expression was used to predict hydroxyl-stretching frequencies and agreement with the observed values was excellent. This type of study was then extended to complex basic Cu sulfates: cyanotrichite, devilline, glaucocerinite, serpierite, and ktenasite. The position of the hydroxyl-stretching vibration was used to estimate the hydrogen bond distances between the OH and the SO4 units. The variation in bandwidth of the OH-stretching bands provided an estimate of the variation in these hydrogen bond distances. By plotting the hydrogen bond O...O distance as a function of the position of the SO4 symmetric stretching vibration, the position of the SO4 symmetric stretching band was found to be dependent upon the hydrogen bond distance for both the basic Cu sulfates and the complex Cu sulfates

Studies of Natural and Synthetic Agardites

Agardite of formula [(Al,Nd,REE)Cu6(AsO4)3(OH)6.3H2O] has been discovered at Cobar, New South Wales, Australia. A series of synthetic agardites were analysed by X-ray diffraction and a correlation exists between the effective ionic radius of the REE3+ in the M site and the unit cell size for each respective agardite mineral. No value for the effective ionic radius of 9-coordinate Bi3+ has been reported but a value of approximately 115.5 pm is estimated from this correlation. The results of the TGA analyses show that the synthetic agardites are all fully hydrated, i.e., n = 3. Near infrared spectroscopy and mid-infrared spectroscopy has been used to characterise a group of synthetic agardites of formula ACu6(AsO4)2(OH)6.3H2O where A is a rare earth element. The hydroxyl stretching region is characterised by four bands observed at around 3568, 3489, 3382 and 3290 cm-1. The first two bands are attributed to the stretching mode of hydroxyl units and the last two bands to water stretching vibrations. The position of these bands indicates strongly hydrogen bonded water. The water in agardites is zeolitic type water. Near-IR spectroscopy shows a series of bands at 7242, 7007, 6809, 6770 and 6579 cm-1 attributed to the first overtones of the hydroxyl fundamentals. The NIR spectrum of agardite (Sm) is different and may be affected by electronic bands. Combination bands are observed at around 4404, 4343, 4340, 4294 and 4263 cm-1. Bands attributed to water combination modes are found at around 5200, 5173, 5082 and 4837 cm-1. Agardites are a group of minerals known for their REE content and have been rarely studied. NIR spectroscopy is an excellent technique for the characterisation and ready identification of these minerals

Thermal Decomposition of Agardites (REE) - Relationship Between Dehydroxylation Temperature and Electronegativity

The thermal decomposition of a suite of synthetic agardites of formula ACu6(AsO4)2(OH)6.3H2O where A is given by a rare earth element has been studied using thermogravimetric analysis techniques. Dehydration of the agardites occurs at low temperatures and over an extended temperature range from ambient to around 60 degrees Celsius. This loss of water is attributed to the loss of zeolitic water. The mass loss of water indicates 3 moles of zeolitic water in the structure. Dehydroxylation occurs in steps over a wide range of temperatures from 235 to 456 degrees Celsius. The mass loss during dehydroxylation shows the number of moles of hydroxyl units is six. There is a linear relationship between the first dehydroxylation temperature and the electronegativity of the REE

Use of Infrared Spectroscopy for the Determination of Electronegativity of Rare Earth Elements

Infrared spectroscopy has been used to study a series of synthetic agardite minerals. Four OH stretching bands are observed at around 3568, 3482, 3362, and 3296 cm⁻¹. The first band is assigned to zeolitic, non-hydrogen-bonded water. The band at 3296 cm⁻¹ is assigned to strongly hydrogen-bonded water with an H bond distance of 2.72 Å. The water in agardites is better described as structured water and not as zeolitic water. Two bands at around 999 and 975 cm⁻¹ are assigned to OH deformation modes. Two sets of AsO symmetric stretching vibrations were found and assigned to the vibrational modes of AsO₄ and HAsO₄ units. Linear relationships between positions of infrared bands associated with bonding to the OH units and the electronegativity of the rare earth elements were derived, with correlation coefficients >0.92. These linear functions were then used to calculate the electronegativity of Eu, for which a value of 1.1808 on the Pauling scale was found

Unusual post-mining sulfates from the Peelwood and Lloyd mines, New South Wales, and a comment on wattevilleite

Alpersite, monoclinic MgSO4·7H2O, and chalcanthite, CuSO4·5H2O, have been identified in efforescences on a tailings dump at the Lloyd copper mine, Burraga, New South Wales, in the same setting as that associated with an earlier reported occurrence of boothite, monoclinic CuSO4·7H2O. Analyses of alpersite gave the compositions (Mg0.628Cu0.294Zn0.059Mn0.019)SO4·7H2O and (Mg0.450Cu0.325Zn0.160Mn0.062Co0.003)SO4·7H2O; chalcanthite was of essentially stoichiometric composition. Powder X-ray analyses of a sample of a white, chrystalline efforescence lining a retention pond receiving run-off water at the Peelwood mine, Peelwood, New South Wales, showed it to consist of a member of the epsomite group, together with subsidiary amounts of the poorly characterized species wattevilleite, Na2Ca(SO4)2·4H2O(?). Dehydration of the material at 0°C gave a single phase that was identified as a member of the hexahydrite group and analyses showed it to be bianchite of composition (Zn0.582Mg0.380Mn0.037Cu0.001)SO4·6H2O. Its precursor was thus goslarite with the same cation distribution. A re-examination of the data in the ICDD powder diffraction file for wattevilleite shows that the diffraction pattern reported is that of hexahydrite, MgSO4·6H2O. Reported analytical data for wattevilleite, together with results of studies concerning phase relationships for alkali and alkaline earth supfates, indicate that it is probably a mixture of other species

Schuilingite-(Nd) from the Peelwood mine, Peelwood, New South Wales

The very rare mineral schuilingite, PbCuREE(CO3)3OH·H2O with Nd>Y, has been found in the oxidized-zone assemblage of the Peelwood mine, Peelwood, New South Wales. It was known previously only from two mines in Shaba Province, Katanga, Democratic Republi