Social Work and Pornography:some ethical considerations

On the back of recent high-profile cases, the subject of internet pornography has become the focus of media and political attention. Social workers are increasingly likely to be drawn into this issue through requirements to provide courts with reports or taking child protection decisions relating to clients' use of child or, potentially, extreme pornography. Within a risk paradigm, they may look for answers based on technical and ‘scientific’ knowledge. We argue here that pornography is, first and foremost, an ethical issue. This article offers a preliminary exploration of some of the ethical issues it raises. We take as a starting point that whatever we might personally think about it, pornography is a fact of everyday life. Yet, in the current political and social climate it has become deeply moralised. We argue that social workers might legitimately adopt a range of value positions in relation to pornography that these need to be opened up to ethical debate

Search for nucleon decays with EXO-200

A search for instability of nucleons bound in $^{136}$Xe nuclei is reported with 223 kg$\cdot$yr exposure of $^{136}$Xe in the EXO-200 experiment. Lifetime limits of 3.3$\times 10^{23}$ and 1.9$\times 10^{23}$ yrs are established for nucleon decay to $^{133}$Sb and $^{133}$Te, respectively. These are the most stringent to date, exceeding the prior decay limits by a factor of 9 and 7, respectively

Searches for Double Beta Decay of 134^{134}Xe with EXO-200

Searches for double beta decay of $^{134}$Xe were performed with EXO-200, a single-phase liquid xenon detector designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{136}$Xe. Using an exposure of $29.6\text{ kg}\!\cdot\!\text{yr}$, the lower limits of $\text{T}_{1/2}^{2\nu\beta\!\beta}>8.7\cdot10^{20}\text{ yr}$ and $\text{T}_{1/2}^{0\nu\beta\!\beta}>1.1\cdot10^{23}\text{ yr}$ at 90% confidence level were derived, with corresponding half-life sensitivities of $1.2\cdot10^{21}\text{ yr}$ and $1.9\cdot10^{23}\text{ yr}$. These limits exceed those in the literature for $^{134}$Xe, improving by factors of nearly $10^{5}$ and 2 for the two antineutrino and neutrinoless modes, respectively.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Characterization of an Ionization Readout Tile for nEXO

A new design for the anode of a time projection chamber, consisting of a charge-detecting "tile", is investigated for use in large scale liquid xenon detectors. The tile is produced by depositing 60 orthogonal metal charge-collecting strips, 3~mm wide, on a 10~\si{\cm} $\times$ 10~\si{\cm} fused-silica wafer. These charge tiles may be employed by large detectors, such as the proposed tonne-scale nEXO experiment to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay. Modular by design, an array of tiles can cover a sizable area. The width of each strip is small compared to the size of the tile, so a Frisch grid is not required. A grid-less, tiled anode design is beneficial for an experiment such as nEXO, where a wire tensioning support structure and Frisch grid might contribute radioactive backgrounds and would have to be designed to accommodate cycling to cryogenic temperatures. The segmented anode also reduces some degeneracies in signal reconstruction that arise in large-area crossed-wire time projection chambers. A prototype tile was tested in a cell containing liquid xenon. Very good agreement is achieved between the measured ionization spectrum of a $^{207}$Bi source and simulations that include the microphysics of recombination in xenon and a detailed modeling of the electrostatic field of the detector. An energy resolution $\sigma/E$=5.5\% is observed at 570~\si{keV}, comparable to the best intrinsic ionization-only resolution reported in literature for liquid xenon at 936~V/\si{cm}.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, as publishe

Digital Tools to Support the Systematic Review Process: An Introduction

\ua9 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Background: The introduction of systematic reviews in medicine has prompted a paradigm shift in employing evidence for decision-making across various fields. Its methodology involves structured comparisons, critical appraisals, and pooled data analysis to inform decision-making. The process itself is resource-intensive and time-consuming which can impede the timely incorporation of the latest evidence into clinical practice. Aim: This article introduces digital tools designed to enhance systematic review processes, emphasizing their functionality, availability, and independent validation in peer-reviewed literature. Methods: We discuss digital evidence synthesis tools for systematic reviews, identifying tools for all review processes, tools for search strategy development, reference management, study selection, data extraction, and critical appraisal. Emphasis is on validated, functional tools with independently published method evaluations. Results: Tools like EPPI-Reviewer, Covidence, DistillerSR, and JBI-SUMARI provide comprehensive support for systematic reviews. Additional tools cater to evidence search (e.g., PubMed PICO, Trialstreamer), reference management (e.g., Mendeley), prioritization in study selection (e.g., Abstrackr, EPPI-Reviewer, SWIFT-ActiveScreener), and risk bias assessment (e.g., RobotReviewer). Machine learning and AI integration facilitate workflow efficiency but require end-user informed evaluation for their adoption. Conclusion: The development of digital tools, particularly those incorporating AI, represents a significant advancement in systematic review methodology. These tools not only support the systematic review process but also have the potential to improve the timeliness and quality of evidence available for decision-making. The findings are relevant to clinicians, researchers, and those involved in the production or support of systematic reviews, with broader applicability to other research methods

Search for squarks and gluinos with the ATLAS detector in final states with jets and missing transverse momentum using √s=8 TeV proton-proton collision data

A search for squarks and gluinos in final states containing high-p T jets, missing transverse momentum and no electrons or muons is presented. The data were recorded in 2012 by the ATLAS experiment in s√=8 TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, with a total integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1. Results are interpreted in a variety of simplified and specific supersymmetry-breaking models assuming that R-parity is conserved and that the lightest neutralino is the lightest supersymmetric particle. An exclusion limit at the 95% confidence level on the mass of the gluino is set at 1330 GeV for a simplified model incorporating only a gluino and the lightest neutralino. For a simplified model involving the strong production of first- and second-generation squarks, squark masses below 850 GeV (440 GeV) are excluded for a massless lightest neutralino, assuming mass degenerate (single light-flavour) squarks. In mSUGRA/CMSSM models with tan β = 30, A 0 = −2m 0 and μ > 0, squarks and gluinos of equal mass are excluded for masses below 1700 GeV. Additional limits are set for non-universal Higgs mass models with gaugino mediation and for simplified models involving the pair production of gluinos, each decaying to a top squark and a top quark, with the top squark decaying to a charm quark and a neutralino. These limits extend the region of supersymmetric parameter space excluded by previous searches with the ATLAS detector

Measurement of the production of a W boson in association with a charm quark in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The production of a W boson in association with a single charm quark is studied using 4.6 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√ = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. In events in which a W boson decays to an electron or muon, the charm quark is tagged either by its semileptonic decay to a muon or by the presence of a charmed meson. The integrated and differential cross sections as a function of the pseudorapidity of the lepton from the W-boson decay are measured. Results are compared to the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD calculations obtained from various parton distribution function parameterisations. The ratio of the strange-to-down sea-quark distributions is determined to be 0.96+0.26−0.30 at Q 2 = 1.9 GeV2, which supports the hypothesis of an SU(3)-symmetric composition of the light-quark sea. Additionally, the cross-section ratio σ(W + +c¯¯)/σ(W − + c) is compared to the predictions obtained using parton distribution function parameterisations with different assumptions about the s−s¯¯¯ quark asymmetry