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IntroductionPediatric psychiatric inpatients are among the most vulnerable individuals in society. While the use of seclusion and restraint is well chronicled in the field of research in this population, there is limited literature describing the effects, meaning, and attitudes of mandating the wear of clothing in hospital settings. This research explores the phenomenon of the practice of mandatory wear of hospital-issued clothing and its meaning to patients and the awareness and attitudes of this practice among staff caring for this population. This research aims to improve understanding of the experiences of patients regarding this practice at a large, urban hospital providing care for children using a mixed methods design. A qualitative, descriptive phenomenological analysis was conducted through individual interviews with adolescent patients (N = 5) on an inpatient psychiatric unit. Additionally, a cross-sectional self-reported questionnaire examined the awareness and attitudes toward this practice among unit staff (N = 41). The patients’ attitudes toward clothing restrictions was predominantly negative, noting a lack of self-expression, feeling like a mental health patient, desires to wear ones’ personal clothing, and feelings of shame and punishment. Among the staff there was a modest correlation between age, number of years practicing as a health professional, and years practicing in a pediatric setting with feelings of a need for a change in the clothing policy to allow patients to wear their own clothing on admission. Staff age and number of years working at the institution demonstrated a modest correlation between awareness of legal statutes regarding patients’ rights to their own clothing. This research found a readiness among staff to adopt a clothing policy that would permit patients to wear their own clothing on admission, which would improve the negative experiences described among the patients in the sample.FundingNo Funding

Nitroxide-mediated emulsion polymerization of n-butyl methacrylate (BMA) can produce highly living and well-controlled polymer chains when polymerized in the presence of 10 mol % styrene (St) using a one-pot, differential monomer addition technique. When n-BMA-co-St is polymerized in the presence of a surfactant above the critical micelle concentration, bimodal particle size distributions are obtained, likely as a result of combined micellar and aggregative nucleation mechanisms. This phenomenon is not observed for the more hydrophilic monomer system of methyl methacrylate and styrene. In the absence of surfactant, however, it is possible to prepare stable, monomodal latexes. Using N-tert-butyl-N-(1-diethylphosphono-2,2-dimethylpropyl) nitroxide (SG1), we report the first nitroxide-mediated polymerization of n-butyl methacrylate with a small amount of styrene in a facile surfactant-free emulsion polymerization system. The surfactant-free system requires no separate macroinitiator synthesis step and produc...

Styrene/acrylic acid (S/AA) mixtures were copolymerized in concentrated 50 wt % 1,4-dioxane solutions at 120 °C at two ratios of additional free nitroxide mediator, N,N-tert-butyl-N-[1′-diethylphos...

A nucleation efficiency scale for isotactic poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) was obtained with self-nucleation and nonisothermal differential scanning calorimetry experiments. The maximum nucleation efficiency occurred at the highest concentration of self-nucleating sites, and the minimum efficiency occurred in the absence of these sites (pure PLLA polymer melt). Blends of PLLA and isotactic poly(D-lactide) (PDLA) led to the formation of a 1/1 stereocomplex. In comparison with the homopolymer (PLLA), the stereocomplex had a higher melting temperature and crystallized at higher temperatures from the melt. Small stereocomplex crystallites were formed in PLLA/PDLA blends containing low concentrations of PDLA. These crystallites acted as heterogeneous nucleation sites for subsequent PLLA crystallization. Using the PLLA nucleation efficiency scale, we evaluated a series of PLLA/PDLA blends (0.25–15 wt % PDLA). A maximum nucleation efficiency of 66% was observed at 15 wt % PDLA. The nucleation efficiency was largely dependent on the thermal treatment of the sample. The nucleating ability of the stereocomplex was most efficient when it was formed well before PLLA crystallization. According to the efficiency scale, the stereocomplex was far superior to talc, a common nucleating agent for PLLA, in its ability to enhance the rate of PLLA crystallization. In comparison with the PLLA homopolymer, the addition of PDLA led to reduced spherulite sizes and a reduction in the overall extent of PLLA crystallization. The decreased extent of crystallization was attributed to the hindered mobility of the PLLA chains due to tethering by the stereocomplex. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 39: 300–313, 2001

Model polyisoprene−polylactide (PI−PLA) diblock copolymers were synthesized by a combination of living anionic polymerization and controlled coordination-insertion polymerization. Living anionic polymerization of isoprene followed by end-capping with ethylene oxide yielded hydroxyl-terminated polyisoprenes (PI−OH) with narrow molecular weight distributions. In a second step, an aluminum alkoxide macroinitiator was formed from the equimolar reaction of triethylaluminum with the PI−OH prepolymer and subsequently utilized for the ring-opening polymerization of lactide to produce the desired PI−PLA diblock copolymer. The final molecular weight of each block was controlled through manipulation of the monomer-to-initiator ratio in both polymerizations. Well-defined blocks were obtained as evidenced by the narrow molecular weight distributions and the absence of homopolymer as characterized by GPC analysis. Molecular characterization of the block copolymers by spectroscopy (1H NMR, 13C NMR, and IR) and elemental...

In this work, we seek to understand the nature of the relationship between increasing alkoxyamine initiator concentration and increasing particle size for the SG1-mediated, two stage emulsion polymerization of n-butyl acrylate. Using a difunctional alkoxyamine, based upon the commercially available BlocBuilder MA, we studied the impact of various factors on the particle size in the 1st stage (particle nucleation) of the polymerization; these include ionic strength, pH, buffer (type and concentration) and surfactant concentration. The results suggest that superswelling of the particles during nucleation has significant influence on the behaviour of the system. In applying these strategies, we demonstrate that colloidally stable latexes can be created at 45 wt% solids with molecular weight >70 kg mol−1.

Controlled architecture polymers, including block copolymers, have been an area of interest for a number of years. Block copolymers have been shown to be useful as viscosity index improvers, for example; block copolymers of poly (dienes or hydrogenated dienes) and poly(styrene). However, anionic polymerization, the method used to produce commercial styrenic block copolymers, has limitations on the types of monomers that can be used. Controlled Radical Polymerization (CRP) uses a free radical initiating system and a polymerization controller. This technology results in block copolymers containing a wider range of monomer compositions and leads to predictable structures, molecular weights and polydispersities. Furthermore, these block copolymers can be produced using standard free-radical polymerization techniques by virtue of a new nitroxide capable of controlling a wide range of monomers including acrylic and methacrylic monomers. We have found that acrylic block copolymers formed via CRP, produce excellent viscosity index (VI) improvement in lubricating oils. These acrylic block polymers, in some cases, can exhibit greater than 50% viscosity index improvement as compared to random copolymers or other block compositions. Reported are the results of an experimental design study investigating the composition of the acrylic blocks, molecular weight, and block architecture (diblock, triblock, and gradient) on the resultant VI.