Measuring the impact of revised mental health legislation on human rights in Queensland, Australia.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) (CRPD) has been instrumental for initiating and shaping the reform of mental health legislation in many countries, including the eight Australian jurisdictions. Multiple approaches have been proposed to assess and monitor the compliance of States Parties' mental health legislation with the CRPD, and to evaluate its success in protecting and promoting the human rights of people with disabilities. This article reports an effort to index the impact of legislation on human rights by measuring changes in the prevalence of compulsory treatment orders applied to people with mental illness after the introduction of CRPD influenced mental health legislation in the Australian state of Queensland. We found that despite reforms intended to enhance patient autonomy, the prevalence of compulsory treatment orders increased after implementation of the new legislation. Possible reasons behind this unintended consequence of the legislative reform may include a lack of systematized voluntary alternatives to compulsory treatment, a paternalistic and restrictive culture in mental health services and risk aversion in clinicians and society. We recommend that the reforms in mental health policy as well as legislation need to go further in order to achieve the goals embodied in the human rights framework of the CRPD.

Atmospheric pressure ionization mass spectrometry as a tool for structural characterization of lignin.

RATIONALE: Lignin occurs in a broad range of forms, e.g., native as the main support for plant walls, and processed, for which its structure depends on the nature of the industrial isolation method, such as in paper production or in biorefineries. Due to the variety of lignin sources, there is no unified agreement on the structure of lignin or even its molecular weight (MW). METHODS: The focus of this review is on the application of atmospheric pressure ionization methods to lignin analysis by mass spectrometry (MS), namely electrospray ionization (ESI) or direct analysis in real-time (DART). Specific parameters affecting ionization including electrolytes and solvents are discussed. RESULTS: The main challenge for MW determination of lignin is its heteropolymer character as well as the mass range limitations of MS instrumentation. To date, only a few studies have successfully used the mass range above m/z 1500. We present the advantage of ESI in generating multiply charged ions, allowing for a further increase in the mass range of deconvoluted mass spectra. While some methods such as DART do not address the mass range problem, they may serve as excellent imaging tools suitable for structural characterization of lignin. CONCLUSIONS: A literature review presents the recent accomplishments in lignin MS analysis by atmospheric pressure ionization techniques. Although significant breakthroughs have been made, it is essential to further improve the operating conditions and validate the methods for a broader range of feedstocks with the results being confirmed using other methods.

The extent of tebuconazole leaching from unpainted and painted softwood.

Exposure to water and high air humidity may affect the preservation of wood products as many preservatives are water-soluble and thus likely to leach. In this study, depletion of a common fungicide, tebuconazole (TAZ), from treated wood was investigated using a 14C-labeled tracer. The wood species and treatment technique were chosen to be representative of products such as windows and doors; specifically, ponderosa pine was dip treated with a solvent-based, metal-free formulation. The impact of different aqueous settings including high air humidity, and either simulated continuous or intermittent rain was evaluated over a period of two months. Along with the exposure type, the effect of end-grain sealing on TAZ loss was explored. Despite the exposure of treated wood to laboratory-simulated harsh environmental conditions, more than 60% of the originally sorbed TAZ remained in the wood under all scenarios. While high air humidity did not lead to TAZ depletion, simulated continuous rain led to a TAZ leaching mainly from the end grain. TAZ leaching was found to be higher for unpainted wood, where up to 40% of the originally sorbed TAZ was prone to depletion from an end grain. End-grain sealing with water-based primer and paint led to a substantial two-fold reduction of TAZ leaching. Unexpectedly, wood exposure to intermittent rain caused additional TAZ loss that could not be explained only by water leaching.