Aducanumab for Alzheimer’s disease: the never‐ending story that nurses should know

In October 2019, the American pharmaceutical company Biogen stated intention to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the candidate drug aducanumab to be licenced as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). If approved, aducanumab would become the first new medication licenced specifically for the treatment of AD in the past decade; and approval in the US may be a precipitant for approval elsewhere

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome amongst patients with severe mental illness in the community in Hong Kong--a cross sectional study

Background: Patients with severe mental illness are at increased risk of developing metabolic disorders. The risk of metabolic syndrome in the Hong Kong general population is lower than that observed in western countries; however the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in patients with severe mental illness in Hong Kong is unknown. Method: This cross-sectional study aimed to estimate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in patients with severe mental illness in Hong Kong and to identify the relationships between metabolic syndrome and socio-demographic, clinical and lifestyle factors. Results: A total of 139 patients with a diagnosis of severe mental illness participated in the study. The unadjusted prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 35%. The relative risk of metabolic syndrome in comparison with the general Hong Kong population was 2.008 (95% CI 1.59-2.53, p < 0.001). In a logistic regression model sleep disruption and being prescribed first generation antipsychotics were significantly associated with the syndrome, whilst eating less than 3 portions of fruit/vegetables per day and being married were weakly associated. Conclusion The results demonstrate that metabolic syndrome is highly prevalent and that physical health inequalities in patients with severe mental illness in Hong Kong are similar to those observed in western countries. The results provide sufficient evidence to support the need for intervention studies in this setting and reinforce the requirement to conduct regular physical health checks for all patients with severe mental illness

Dislocation interactions mediated by grain boundaries

The dynamics of dislocation assemblies in deforming crystals indicate the emergence of collective phenomena, intermittent fluctuations and strain avalanches. In polycrystalline materials, the understanding of plastic deformation mechanisms depends on grasping the role of grain boundaries on dislocation motion. Here the interaction of dislocations and elastic, low angle grain boundaries is studied in the framework of a discrete dislocation representation. We allow grain boundaries to deform under the effect of dislocation stress fields and compare the effect of such a perturbation to the case of rigid grain boudaries. We are able to determine, both analytically and numerically, corrections to dislocation stress fields acting on neighboring grains, as mediated by grain boundary deformation. Finally, we discuss conclusions and consequences for the avalanche statistics, as observed in polycrystalline samples.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Plate-impact loading of cellular structures formed by selective laser melting

Porous materials are of great interest because of improved energy absorption over their solid counterparts. Their properties, however, have been difficult to optimize. Additive manufacturing has emerged as a potential technique to closely define the structure and properties of porous components, i.e. density, strut width and pore size; however, the behaviour of these materials at very high impact energies remains largely unexplored. We describe an initial study of the dynamic compression response of lattice materials fabricated through additive manufacturing. Lattices consisting of an array of intersecting stainless steel rods were fabricated into discs using selective laser melting. The resulting discs were impacted against solid stainless steel targets at velocities ranging from 300 to 700 m s-1 using a gas gun. Continuum CTH simulations were performed to identify key features in the measured wave profiles, while 3D simulations, in which the individual cells were modelled, revealed details of microscale deformation during collapse of the lattice structure. The validated computer models have been used to provide an understanding of the deformation processes in the cellular samples. The study supports the optimization of cellular structures for application as energy absorbers. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd

Decomposition process in a FeAuPd alloy nanostructured by severe plastic deformation

The decomposition process mechanisms have been investigated in a Fe50Au25Pd25 (at.%) alloy processed by severe plastic deformation. Phases were characterized by X-ray diffraction and microstructures were observed using transmission electron microscopy. In the coarse grain alloy homogenized and aged at $450 ^{circ}\mathrm{C}$, the bcc \alpha-Fe and fcc AuPd phases nucleate in the fcc supersaturated solid solution and grow by a discontinuous precipitation process resulting in a typical lamellar structure. The grain size of the homogenized FeAuPd alloy was reduced in a range of 50 to 100nm by high pressure torsion. Aging at $450 ^{circ}\mathrm{C}$ this nanostructure leads to the decomposition of the solid solution into an equi-axed microstructure. The grain growth is very limited during aging and the grain size remains under 100nm. The combination of two phases with different crystallographic structures (bcc \alpha-Fe and fcc AuPd) and of the nanoscaled grain size gives rise to a significant hardening of the allo

Improving communication between postgraduate researchers and the university library: a case study at De Montfort University Library and Learning Services

A well-established postgraduate researcher development program has existed at De Montfort University for many years. Library and Learning Services include modules on literature searching skills and critical appraisal. However, we recognized that researchers seemed to be disengaged with the services on offer. This concern informed a research project that considered the ways we could communicate better with researchers based on their needs. This paper explores the essential components of successful communication, such as context, timeliness and communication channels. An action-research approach was taken including focus groups and online surveys. The outcomes highlighted three significant crisis points, emphasizing the key times when researchers might need some intervention. The findings of this research identified the distinct needs of Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) and how relevant and timely communication from the library can meet these needs. It also considers the impact of how communication has improved with researchers as a result of some of our interventions

Influence of severe plastic deformation on the precipitation hardening of a FeSiTi steel

The combined strengthening effects of grain refinement and high precipitated volume fraction (~6at.%) on the mechanical properties of FeSiTi alloy subjected to SPD processing prior to aging treatment were investigated by atom probe tomography and scanning transmission electron microscopy. It was shown that the refinement of the microstructure affects the precipitation kinetics and the spatial distribution of the secondary hardening intermetallic phase, which was observed to nucleate heterogeneously on dislocations and sub-grain boundaries. It was revealed that alloys successively subjected to these two strengthening mechanisms exhibit a lower increase in mechanical strength than a simple estimation based on the summation of the two individual strengthening mechanisms

Atomic-scale modeling of the deformation of nanocrystalline metals

Nanocrystalline metals, i.e. metals with grain sizes from 5 to 50 nm, display technologically interesting properties, such as dramatically increased hardness, increasing with decreasing grain size. Due to the small grain size, direct atomic-scale simulations of plastic deformation of these materials are possible, as such a polycrystalline system can be modeled with the computational resources available today. We present molecular dynamics simulations of nanocrystalline copper with grain sizes up to 13 nm. Two different deformation mechanisms are active, one is deformation through the motion of dislocations, the other is sliding in the grain boundaries. At the grain sizes studied here the latter dominates, leading to a softening as the grain size is reduced. This implies that there is an ``optimal'' grain size, where the hardness is maximal. Since the grain boundaries participate actively in the deformation, it is interesting to study the effects of introducing impurity atoms in the grain boundaries. We study how silver atoms in the grain boundaries influence the mechanical properties of nanocrystalline copper.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX2e, PS figures and sty files included. To appear in Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. vol 538 (invited paper). For related papers, see http://www.fysik.dtu.dk/~schiotz/publist.htm

Forces Sauces and Eggs for Soldiers: food, nostalgia, and the rehabilitation of the British military

This article identifies, and considers the political implications of, the association of the contemporary British military and British soldiers with nostalgia. This aspect of the discursive project of rehabilitating the British military post-Iraq has not hitherto been theorized. The article analyses a set of exemplifying texts, four military charity food brands (Eggs for Soldiers, Forces Sauces, Red Lion Foods, and Rare Tea Company Battle of Britain Tea) to ask how nostalgic rehabilitation of the British military unfolds at the intersections of militarization, commemoration, and post-2008 “conscience capitalism”. I outline how military charity food brands are a form of “conscience capitalism” through which the perpetuation of militarized logics are produced as a notionally apolitical social “cause”, rendered intelligible within the terms of existing commoditized discourses of post-2008 vintage nostalgia. I then ask what understandings of British soldiers and the British military are constituted within the discourse of nostalgic rehabilitation, and secondly what forms of commemoration are entailed. I argue that a nostalgic generalization of soldiers and the military nullifies the potential unruliness of individual soldiers and obscures the specifics of recent, controversial, wars. Secondly nostalgic civil–military engagement entails a commemorative logic in which forms of quasi-military service are brought into the most banal spaces of everyday civilian life