Nonlinear Localization in Metamaterials

Metamaterials, i.e., artificially structured ("synthetic") media comprising weakly coupled discrete elements, exhibit extraordinary properties and they hold a great promise for novel applications including super-resolution imaging, cloaking, hyperlensing, and optical transformation. Nonlinearity adds a new degree of freedom for metamaterial design that allows for tuneability and multistability, properties that may offer altogether new functionalities and electromagnetic characteristics. The combination of discreteness and nonlinearity may lead to intrinsic localization of the type of discrete breather in metallic, SQUID-based, and ${\cal PT}-$symmetric metamaterials. We review recent results demonstrating the generic appearance of breather excitations in these systems resulting from power-balance between intrinsic losses and input power, either by proper initialization or by purely dynamical procedures. Breather properties peculiar to each particular system are identified and discussed. Recent progress in the fabrication of low-loss, active and superconducting metamaterials, makes the experimental observation of breathers in principle possible with the proposed dynamical procedures.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, Invited (Review) Chapte

Cognitive and social functioning correlates of employment among people with severe mental illness

We assess how social and cognitive functioning is associated to gaining employment for 213 people diagnosed with severe mental illness taking part in employment programs in Andalusia (Spain). We used the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status and the Social Functioning Scale and conducted two binary logistical regression analyses. Response variables were: having a job or not, in ordinary companies (OCs) and social enterprises (SEs), and working in and OC or not. There were two variables with significant adjusted odds ratios for having a job: “attention” and “Educational level”. There were five variables with significant odds ratios for having a job in an OC: “Sex”, “Educational level”, “Attention”, “Communication”, and “Independence-competence”. The study looks at the possible benefits of combining employment with support and social enterprises in employment programs for these people and underlines how both social and cognitive functioning are central to developing employment models

The Difference in Pharmacists’ Interventions across the Diverse Settings in a Children’s Hospital

Aims: This study aimed to document and compare the nature of clinical pharmacists’ interventions made in different practice settings within a children’s hospital. Methods: The primary investigator observed and documented all clinical interventions performed by clinical pharmacists for between 35–37 days on each of the five study wards from the three practice settings, namely general medical, general surgical and hematology-oncology. The rates, types and significance of the pharmacists’ interventions in the different settings were compared.Results: A total of 982 interventions were documented, related to the 16,700 medication orders reviewed on the five wards in the three practice settings over the duration of the study. Taking medication histories and/or patient counselling were the most common pharmacists’ interventions in the general settings; constituting more than half of all interventions. On the Hematology-Oncology Ward the pattern was different with drug therapy changes being the most common interventions (n = 73/195, 37.4% of all interventions). Active interventions (pharmacists’ activities leading to a change in drug therapy) constituted less than a quarter of all interventions on the general medical and surgical wards compared to nearly half on thespecialty Hematology-Oncology Ward. The majority (n = 37/42, 88.1%) of a random sample of the active interventions reviewed were rated as clinically significant. Dose adjustment was the most frequent active interventions in the general settings, whilst drug addition constituted the most common active interventions on the Hematology-Oncology Ward. The degree of acceptance of pharmacists’ active interventions by prescribers was high (n = 223/244, 91.4%).Conclusions: The rate of pharmacists’ active interventions differed across different practice settings, being most frequent in the specialty hematology-oncology setting. The nature and type of the interventions documented in the hematologyoncology were also different compared to those in the general medical and surgical settings

Diagnosing problems of fine sediment delivery and transfer in a lowland catchment

This paper is a product of research conducted within the REFORM collaborative project funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement 282656

Genetic and Environmental Causes of Variation in Trait Resilience in Young People

The aim of this multi-informant twin study was to determine the relative role of genetic and environmental factors in explaining variation in trait resilience in adolescents. Participants were consenting families (N = 2,638 twins in 1,394 families), from seven national cohorts (age 12–18 years, both sexes) of monozygotic and dizygotic twins reared together. Questionnaire data on the adolescents’ Ego-resilience (ER89) was collected from mothers, fathers and twins, and analysed by means of multivariate genetic modelling. Variance in trait resilience was best represented in an ADE common pathways model with sex limitation. Variance in the latent psychometric resilience factor was largely explained by additive genetic factors (77% in boys, 70% in girls), with the remaining variance (23 and 30%) attributable to non-shared environmental factors. Additive genetic sources explained more than 50% of the informant specific variation in mothers and fathers scores. In twins, additive and non-additive genetic factors together explained 40% and non-shared environmental factor the remaining 60% of variation. In the mothers’ scores, the additive genetic effect was larger for boys than for girls. The non-additive genetic factor found in the twins’ self ratings was larger in boys than in girls. The remaining sex differences in the specific factors were small. Trait resilience is largely genetically determined. Estimates based on several informants rather than single informants approaches are recommended

Expression of VEGFxxxb, the inhibitory isoforms of VEGF, in malignant melanoma

Malignant melanoma is the most lethal of the skin cancers and the UK incidence is rising faster than that of any other cancer. Angiogenesis – the growth of new vessels from preexisting vasculature – is an absolute requirement for tumour survival and progression beyond a few hundred microns in diameter. We previously described a class of anti-angiogenic isoforms of VEGF, VEGFxxxb, that inhibit tumour growth in animal models, and are downregulated in some cancers, but have not been investigated in melanoma. To determine whether VEGFxxxb expression was altered in melanoma, PCR and immunohistochemistry of archived human tumour samples were used. In normal epidermis and in a proportion of melanoma samples, VEGFxxxb staining was seen. Some melanomas had much weaker staining. Subsequent examination revealed that expression was significantly reduced in primary melanoma samples (both horizontal and vertical growth phases) from patients who subsequently developed tumour metastasis compared with those who did not (analysis of variance (ANOVA) P<0.001 metastatic vs nonmetastatic), irrespective of tumour thickness, while the surrounding epidermis showed no difference in expression. Staining for total VEGF expression showed staining in metastatic and nonmetastatic melanomas, and normal epidermis. An absence of VEGFxxxb expression appears to predict metastatic spread in patients with primary melanoma. These results suggest that there is a switch in splicing as part of the metastatic process, from anti-angiogenic to pro-angiogenic VEGF isoforms. This may form part of a wider metastatic splicing phenotype

Asthma in Black African, Black Caribbean and South Asian adolescents in the MRC DASH study: a cross sectional analysis

Extent: 7p.Background: Ethnic differences in the prevalence of asthma among children in the UK are under-researched. We aimed to determine the ethnic differences in the prevalence of asthma and atopic asthma in children from the main UK ethnic groups, and whether differences are associated with differential distributions in social and psychosocial risk factors. Methods: 6,643 pupils aged 11-13 years, 80% ethnic minorities. Outcomes were asthma/wheeze with (atopic) and without hay fever/eczema. Risk factors examined were family history of asthma, length of residence in the UK, socioeconomic disadvantage, tobacco exposure, psychological well-being, and body mass index (BMI). Results: There was a pattern of lower prevalence of asthma in Black African boys and girls, and Indian and Bangladeshi girls compared to White UK. The overall prevalence was higher in Mixed Black Caribbean/White boys, with more atopic asthma in Black Caribbean boys and Mixed Black Caribbean/White boys due to more hayfever. Poor psychological well-being and family history of asthma were associated with an increased risk of asthma within each ethnic group. UK residence for ≤ 5 years was protective for Black Caribbeans and Black Africans. Increased BMI was associated with an increased reporting of asthma for Black Africans. Adjustments for all variables did not remove the excess asthma reported by Black Caribbean boys (atopic) or Mixed Black Caribbean/White boys. Conclusion: The protective effect of being born abroad accounted for ethnic differences in some groups, signalling a role for socio-environmental factors in patterning ethnic differences in asthma in adolescence.Melissa J Whitrow and Seeromanie Hardin

Proteome Analysis of Borrelia burgdorferi Response to Environmental Change

We examined global changes in protein expression in the B31 strain of Borrelia burgdorferi, in response to two environmental cues (pH and temperature) chosen for their reported similarity to those encountered at different stages of the organism's life cycle. Multidimensional nano-liquid chromatographic separations coupled with tandem mass spectrometry were used to examine the array of proteins (i.e., the proteome) of B. burgdorferi for different pH and temperature culture conditions. Changes in pH and temperature elicited in vitro adaptations of this spirochete known to cause Lyme disease and led to alterations in protein expression that are associated with increased microbial pathogenesis. We identified 1,031 proteins that represent 59% of the annotated genome of B. burgdorferi and elucidated a core proteome of 414 proteins that were present in all environmental conditions investigated. Observed changes in protein abundances indicated varied replicon usage, as well as proteome functional distributions between the in vitro cell culture conditions. Surprisingly, the pH and temperature conditions that mimicked B. burgdorferi residing in the gut of a fed tick showed a marked reduction in protein diversity. Additionally, the results provide us with leading candidates for exploring how B. burgdorferi adapts to and is able to survive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and lay a foundation for planned in situ studies of B. burgdorferi isolated from the tick midgut and infected animals

The Inclusiveness and Emptiness of <i>Gong Qi</i>: A Non-Anglophone Perspective on Ethics from a Sino-Japanese Corporation

This article introduces a non-Anglophone concept of gong qi(communal vessel, 公器) as a metaphor for ‘corporation’. It contributes an endogenous perspective from a Sino-Japanese organizational context that enriches mainstream business ethics literature, otherwise heavily reliant on Western traditions. We translate the multi-layered meanings of gong qi based on analysis of its ideograms, its references into classical philosophies, and contemporary application in this Japanese multinational corporation in China. Gong qi contributes a perspective that sees a corporation as an inclusive and virtuous social entity, and also addresses the elusive, implicit, and forever evolving nature of organizational life that is rarely noticed. We propose gong qi can be applied in other organizations and wider cultural contexts to show a new way of seeing and understanding business ethics and organization. Rather than considering virtue as a list of definable individual qualities, we suggest that the metaphor of gong qi reveals how virtue can be experienced as indeterminate, yet immanently present, like the substance of emptiness. This, then allows us to see the virtue of immanence, the beauty of implicitness, and hence, the efficacy of gong qi