Foster caring as ‘professional parenting’: A grounded theory of the relationships between parent and professional in long-term foster care

Whilst it has been suggested that fostering involves being both a parent and a professional, little is known about how foster carers manage these roles. This study aimed to develop an explanatory theory and model of the processes involved in fostering looked after children and the relationship between the roles of parent and professional. Ten foster carers offering intended long-term placements to looked after children and five social care professionals who provide support to foster carers were interviewed. Data were analysed using grounded theory. A preliminary model was developed which suggested that the relationship between the two roles changed over time. Many described initially identifying with the parental role before experiencing challenges that necessitated also taking a professional one. Over time, these separate roles appeared to blend and become interconnected, such that foster carers became ‘professional–parents’. These findings extend our understanding of the complexity of the foster carer role and may link to existing role theories. They may also have important clinical implications for the support and training of foster carers, particularly in the early stages of the fostering journey. Further research, including the use of more diverse samples, is needed to extend these findings

Anti-intruder port protection “MAC (Magnetic ACoustic) System”: advances in the magnetic component performance

In the following, we report the advances made in the development of a magnetic component for peripheral monitoring of port environments for anti-intruder systems. The project was initiated by the Office of Research and Development, COMFORDRAG, Italian Navy, in 2004, with the aim of improving the detection performance of current acoustic-based anti-intruder systems, in the vicinity of quays or the seabed or in acoustic-shadow zones behind natural or artificial objects. In the five-year period from 2004 to 2008, the system has been subjected to detection-performance tests in experiments involving divers equipped with air tanks and rebreather kits in real port environments and, at the same time, the associated signal processing has been subjected to development, to enhance detection performance. In tests involving simulated diver attacks against a vessel moored alongside a quay in the port of La Spezia, the system has been proved particularly effective by detecting 9 divers out of 9. The processing of the magnetic signal has been enhanced by implementing an amplitude threshold, as a means of filtering the passive energy components, termed Passive Energy Cutting (PEC), that is, the elimination of components that comprise no useful information regarding diver transits. The use of PEC boosts the reliability of the system in terms of detection versus false alarm rate, as evidenced by the comparison of the ROC curves for the system with and without PEC

Spectroscopic characterization, DFT calculations, in vitro pharmacological potentials, and molecular docking studies of N, N, O-Schiff base and its trivalent metal complexes

In this study, trivalent metal complexes of the category: [M(L)(H2O)nCly] obtained from the interaction of metal3+ ion salts with organic N, N, O-Schiff base (HL) (where: HL = 4-{(Z)-((2-{(E)-((2-hydroxyphenyl)methylidene)amino}ethyl)imino)methyl}-2-methoxyphenol; n, y = 1 or 2 and M = Ti(III), Fe(III), Ru(III), Cr(III) and Al(III)) were synthesized and characterized viz molar conductance, FT-IR, and UV–Vis spectroscopies, elemental analyses, thermal analyses (TGA and DTA), and UV–Vis spectroscopy, theoretical calculations. A distorted octahedral structure around the metal ions was proposed based on the obtained experimental and calculated data. Thermal examination of the complexes signposts the step-by-step disintegration to give the final decomposition product as metal oxides. Moreover, DFT calculations were executed utilizing the B3LYP/LANL2DZ theory level, which revealed that the synthesized metal (III) complexes were more stable than the free ligand (HL). The value of ΔE for HL is 4.60 eV while the related values for the complexes of Cr(III) (C1), Ru(III) (C2), Fe(III) (C3), Al(III) (C4), and Ti(III) (C5) are respectively 2.59, 3.68, 3.15, 1.64, and 2.75 eV. Scavenging abilities of DPPH and ABTS radicals by the test compounds revealed promising antioxidant behavior. It was observed that the compounds are proficient DPPH radical scavengers in a dose-dependent configuration. Ru(III); IC50 = 1.69 ± 2.68 µM for DPPH and Ti(III); IC50 = 8.70 ± 2.78 µM for ABTS performed best. Similarly, the complexes demonstrated higher antimicrobial activities compared to HL against the designated strains, while ciprofloxacin acted as a standard antibiotic. Furthermore, the ligand and its most effective complexes C2 and C5 were docked against the targets S. aureus DNA gyrase (2XCT), S. pneumoniae DNA gyrase (5BOD), and E. coli DNA gyrase (5L3J). The binding sites were evaluated and the docking results showed that the studied molecules bind to the targets through classical O—H…O and/or N—H…O hydrogen bonds, as well as via hydrophobic contacts

Distinct APC subtypes drive spatially segregated CD4+ and CD8+ T-Cell effector activity during skin infection with HSV-1

Efficient infection control requires potent T-cell responses at sites of pathogen replication. However, the regulation of T-cell effector function in situ remains poorly understood. Here, we show key differences in the regulation of effector activity between CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells during skin infection with HSV-1. IFN-γ-producing CD4+ T cells disseminated widely throughout the skin and draining lymph nodes (LN), clearly exceeding the epithelial distribution of infectious virus. By contrast, IFN-γ-producing CD8+ T cells were only found within the infected epidermal layer of the skin and associated hair follicles. Mechanistically, while various subsets of lymphoid- and skin-derived dendritic cells (DC) elicited IFN-γ production by CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells responded exclusively to infected epidermal cells directly presenting viral antigen. Notably, uninfected cross-presenting DCs from both skin and LNs failed to trigger IFN-γ production by CD8+ T-cells. Thus, we describe a previously unappreciated complexity in the regulation of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell effector activity that is subset-specific, microanatomically distinct and involves largely non-overlapping types of antigen-presenting cells (APC).The work was funded by grant (APP628423 and APP1059514) and fellowship support from the National Health and Medical Research Council Australia (NHMRC)and the Australian Research Council (ARC). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Uniform electron gases

We show that the traditional concept of the uniform electron gas (UEG) --- a homogeneous system of finite density, consisting of an infinite number of electrons in an infinite volume --- is inadequate to model the UEGs that arise in finite systems. We argue that, in general, a UEG is characterized by at least two parameters, \textit{viz.} the usual one-electron density parameter $\rho$ and a new two-electron parameter $\eta$. We outline a systematic strategy to determine a new density functional $E(\rho,\eta)$ across the spectrum of possible $\rho$ and $\eta$ values.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 5 table

Patient-reported symptom burden of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease Type 1A: findings from an observational digital lifestyle study

Objectives: This study aims to explore the impact of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A) and its treatment on patients in European (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) and US real-world practice. Methods: Adults with CMT1A (n = 937) were recruited to an ongoing observational study exploring the impact of CMT. Data were collected via CMT&Me, an app through which participants completed patient-reported outcome measures. Results: Symptoms ranked with highest importance were weakness in the extremities, difficulty in walking, and fatigue. Almost half of participants experienced a worsening of symptom severity since diagnosis. Anxiety and depression were each reported by over one-third of participants. Use of rehabilitative interventions, medications, and orthotics/walking aids was high. Conclusions: Patient-reported burden of CMT1A is high, influenced by difficulties in using limbs, fatigue, pain, and impaired quality of life. Burden severity appears to differ across the population, possibly driven by differences in rehabilitative and prescription-based interventions, and country-specific health care variability

Project momo: Multiwavelength observations and modeling of oj 287

Our project MOMO (Multiwavelength observations and modeling of OJ 287) consists of dedicated, dense, long-term flux and spectroscopic monitoring, and deep follow-up observations of the blazar OJ 287 at >13 frequencies from the radio to the X-ray band since late 2015. In particular, we are using Swift to obtain optical-UV-X-ray spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and the Effelsberg telescope to obtain radio measurements between 2 and 40 GHz. MOMO is the densest long-term monitoring of OJ 287 involving X-rays and broad-band SEDs. The theoretical part of the project aims at understanding jet and accretion physics of the blazar central engine in general and the supermassive binary black hole scenario in particular. Results are presented in a sequence of publications and so far included: detection and detailed analysis of the bright 2016/17 and 2020 outbursts and the long-term light curve; Swift, XMM, and NuSTAR spectroscopy of the 2020 outburst around maximum; and interpretation of selected events in the context of the binary black hole scenario of OJ 287 (papers I–IV). Here, we provide a description of the project MOMO, a summary of previous results, the latest results, and we discuss future prospects. View Full-TextKeywords: active galactic nuclei; blazars; jets; black holes; supermassive binary black holes; OJ 287; spectral energy distributions; Neil Gehrels Swift observatory; XMM-Newton; NuSTAR</p