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Structure and Properties of Some Layered U2O5 Phases: A Density Functional Theory Study
Get PDFU2O5 is the boundary composition between the fluorite and the layered structures of the UO2→3 system and the least studied oxide in the group. δ-U2O5 is the only layered structure proposed so far experimentally, although evidence of fluorite-based phases has also been reported. Our DFT work explores possible structures of U2O5 stoichiometry by starting from existing M2O5 structures (where M is an actinide or transition metal) and replacing the M ions with uranium ions. For all structures, we predicted structural and electronic properties including bulk moduli and band gaps. The majority of structures were found to be less stable than δ-U2O5. U2O5 in the R-Nb2O5 structure was found to be a competitive structure in terms of stability, whereas U2O5 in the Np2O5 structure was found to be the most stable overall. Indeed, by including the vibrational contribution to the free energy using the frequencies obtained from the optimized unit cells we predict that Np2O5 structured U2O5 is the most thermodynamically stable under ambient conditions. δ-U2O5 only becomes more stable at high temperatures and/or pressures. This suggests that a low-temperature synthesis route should be tested and so potentially opens a new avenue of research for pentavalent uranium oxides
The Insurance Act 2015: a new regime in insurance law?
No full textThis article considers whether the ‘biggest reform to insurance contract law in more than a century’ has heralded a new regime in insurance law
Examining Information Retrieval and Image Processing Paradigms in Multidisciplinary Contexts
No full textExamining Information Retrieval and Image Processing Paradigms in Multidisciplinary Contexts is a key source on the latest advancements in multidisciplinary research methods and applications and examines effective techniques for managing and utilizing information resources. Featuring extensive coverage across a range of relevant perspectives and topics, such as knowledge discovery, spatial indexing, and data mining, this book is ideally designed for researchers, graduate students, academics, and industry professionals seeking ways to optimize knowledge management processes
Activity pacing is associated with better and worse symptoms for patients with long-term conditions
Get PDFBackground: Activity pacing has been associated with both improved and worsened symptoms, and its role in reducing disability among patients with long-term conditions has been questioned. However, existing studies have measured pacing according to unidimensional subscales, and therefore the empirical evidence for pacing as a multifaceted construct remains unclear. We have developed a 26-item Activity Pacing Questionnaire (APQ-26) for chronic pain/fatigue containing 5 themes of pacing: activity adjustment, activity consistency, activity progression, activity planning, and activity acceptance.
Objective: To assess the associations between the 5 APQ-26 pacing themes and symptoms of pain, physical fatigue, depression, avoidance, and physical function.
Methods: Cross-sectional questionnaire study design. Data analyzed using multiple regression.
Participants: A total of 257 adult patients with diagnoses of chronic low back pain, chronic widespread pain, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis.
Results: Hierarchical multiple regression showed that activity adjustment was significantly associated with increased physical fatigue, depression, and avoidance, but decreased physical function (all Ps≤0.030). Activity consistency was associated with decreased pain, physical fatigue, depression, and avoidance, but increased physical function (all Ps≤0.003). Activity planning was associated with reduced physical fatigue (Ps=0.025) and activity acceptance was associated with increased avoidance (Ps=0.036).
Conclusions: Some APQ-26 pacing themes were associated with worse symptoms and others with symptom improvement. Specifically, pacing themes involving adjusting/reducing activities were associated with worse symptoms, whereas pacing themes involving undertaking consistent activities were associated with improved symptoms. Future study will explore the causality of these associations to add clarification regarding the effects of pacing on patients’ symptoms
Optical Communication among Oscillatory Reactions and Photo-Excitable Systems: how UV and Visible Radiation can Synchronize Artificial Neuron Models
No full textNeuromorphic engineering promises to have a revolutionary impact in our societies. A strategy to develop artificial neurons (ANs) is to use oscillatory and excitable chemical systems. Herein, we use UV and visible radiation as both excitatory and inhibitory signals for the communication among oscillatory reactions, such as the Belousov-Zhabotinsky and the chemiluminescent Orban transformations, and photo-excitable photochromic and fluorescent species. We present the experimental results and the simulations regarding pairs of ANs communicating by either one or two optical signals, and triads of ANs arranged in both feed-forward and recurrent networks. We find that the ANs, powered by the energy of electromagnetic radiation and/or chemically, can give rise to the emergent properties of in-phase, out-of-phase, anti-phase synchronizations and phase-locking, dynamically mimicking the communication among real neurons
Effecting change in local government: local authority chief executives as emotional actors
No full textMost change management initiatives fail. Here, we explore data which emerged from a larger research study of local authority chief executives’ subjective experiences of New Labour’s modernisation programme and argue that the route to change so often taken by central government is detrimental to the successful embedding of change within local government because it ignores fundamental human reactions to coercion and control. We demonstrate that the seeds of failure are sown in the processes adopted as much as in the content of any programme of change. A contributory factor to such failures is the apparent reliance on the part of legislators that their policies and procedures will receive a neutral reaction. We show that the reality is that legislation is responded to and enacted by people who react in ways designed to defend their own positions, irrespective of the worth of those positions. Whether seen as actors in the policy implementation process, or as agents of change, chief executives act and react emotionally. This contributes to our theoretical understanding of the policy process and the practical application of change programmes. This article will be of interest to those in central and local government who are promoting or responding to chang
Using construct elicitation and laddering in the education of social work students: exercises in reflexive practice
No full textExperience of touch in health care: a meta-ethnography across the health care professions
No full textTouch mediates health professionals’ interactions with patients. Different professionals have reported their practices but what is currently lacking is a well-theorized, interprofessional synthesis. We systematically searched eight databases, identified 41 studies in seven professions—nursing (27), medicine (4), physiotherapy (5), osteopathy (1), counseling (2), psychotherapy (1), dentistry (1)—and completed a meta-ethnographic line-of-argument synthesis. This found that touch is caring, exercises power, and demands safe space. Different professions express care through the medium of touch in different ways. They all, however, expect to initiate touch rather than for patients to do so. Various practices negotiate boundaries that define safe spaces between health care professions and patients. A metaphor—the waltz—integrates the practice of touch. Health care professionals connect physically with patients in ways that form strong relationships between them while “dance steps” help manage the risk that is inherent in such an intimate form of connectio
Star quality? Song, celebrity and the jukebox musical in 'Mamma Mia!'
No full textThe 2008 film adaptation of ‘jukebox’ stage musical Mamma Mia! garnered mixed reviews. Its reception ranged from wild enthusiasm to outright condemnation, with many critics expressing confusion at the film's often unusual mixture of slick professionalism and cheery, improvisatory exuberance. Despite this lack of critical consensus, Mamma Mia! was a huge box office hit, and has enjoyed particular success amongst female audiences – often partially attributed to the trio of women at its helm: screenwriter Catherine Johnson, producer Judy Craymer, and director Phyllida Lloyd. But this particular understanding of authorship is only half the story in a narrative based around the music of Swedish superstars ABBA, and with leading roles performed by recognisable A-list stars in a cinematic – and musical – environment far outside their usual context.
The potential for simultaneous pleasure and discomfort engendered by these dual registers of musical and personal celebrity is a key way in which Mamma Mia! destabilises conventional registers of ‘quality’, embracing ideas of performativity and literal role-play whilst also fostering the appearance of genuine, unfiltered (although sometimes uncomfortable) realism. Mamma Mia intensifies the musical’s oft-noted juxtaposition of artifice and transparency, using the disco-inflected Europop of ABBA’s familiar hits as a backdrop to the audible ‘imperfections’ of highly personal vocal performance. The film’s aesthetic of enthusiastic amateurism provides a forum in which individualised, and potentially queer modes of engagement are actively fostered. I propose three registers of performance central to this balancing act: the sincere, the camp, and the celebratory. These registers, which can frequently be found in the jukebox musical more widely, foreground musical performance as an axis around which shifting character, star, and audience subjectivities are constructed
An evaluation of Minor Groove Binders as anti-fungal and anti-mycobacterial therapeutics
No full textThis study details the synthesis and biological evaluation of a collection of 19 structurally related Minor Groove Binders (MGBs), derived from the natural product distamycin, which were designed to probe antifungal and antimycobacterial activity. From this initial set, we report several MGBs that are worth more detailed investigation and optimisation. MGB-4, MGB-317 and MGB-325 have promising MIC80s of 2, 4 and 0.25 μg/mL, respectively, against the fungus C. neoformans. MGB-353 and MGB-354 have MIC99s of 3.1 μM against the mycobacterium M. tuberculosis. The selectivity and activity of these compounds is related to their physicochemical properties and the cell wall/membrane characteristics of the infective agent
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