Stress, depression, workplace and social supports and burnout in intellectual disability support staff

Background: Staff providing support to people with intellectual disabilities are exposed to stressful work environments which may put them at an increased risk of burnout. A small prior literature has examined predictors of burnout in disability support staff, but there is little consensus. In this study, we examined direct and indirect associations between work stressors (i.e. challenging client behaviour), staff emotional response to the behaviour (i.e. perceived stress, anxiety, depression), social and organisational support resources, and staff burnout. Methods: A short survey examined client behaviour, staff psychological stress, anxiety, depression, social support (number, satisfaction), organisational support and burnout in 80 disability support staff in a community setting. Results: Burnout levels were similar to or slightly lower than normed values for human services staff. Cross-sectional regression analyses indicated that depression symptoms and organisational support were related to worse emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation, whereas less social support was related to less personal accomplishment. Social support satisfaction (but not social support number or organisational support) moderated between high psychological stress to less emotional exhaustion. Conclusions: Taken together, these results suggest that depression symptoms and low organisational support were frequently concurrent with burnout symptoms. Furthermore, worker's personal and organisational supports may have helped bolster their sense of personal accomplishment, and buffered against the potential for emotional exhaustion

A solution processable fluorene-benzothiadiazole small molecule for n-type organic field-effect transistors

We report an n-type organic semiconductor [2-({7-(9,9-di-n-propyl-9H-fluoren-2-yl}benzo[c][1,2,5] thiadiazol-4-yl) methylene]malononitrile (herein referred to as K12) for use in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). K12 can be processed by spin-coating from solution or by vacuum deposition, organizing into highly orientated microcrystalline structures at modest (75 degrees C) annealing temperatures. OFETs with n-octyltrichlorosilane or hexamethyldisilazane monolayers, or poly(propylene-co-1-butene) (PPCB) modified dielectric surfaces were prepared. The mobility, ON/OFF ratio, threshold voltage, and current hysteresis were found to be dependent on the thermal history of the film and surface onto which it was deposited. The highest OFET mobility achieved was 2.4 X 10(-3) cm(2)/V s, for spin-coated films with a PPCB modified silicon dioxide dielectric. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3569818

A flexible n-type organic semiconductor for optoelectronics

n-Type organic semiconductors are important for a range of optoelectronic applications including organic photovoltaic devices, light-emitting diodes, and field effect transistors (FETs). In spite of this clear motivation there has been significantly less development of n-type compounds relative to p-type systems. We have developed a simple, small molecule n-type material, 2-[(7-{9,9-di-n-propyl-9H-fluoren-2-yl}benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol-4-yl)methylene]malononitrile (K12), that can be processed either by spin-coating from solution or evaporation in vacuum. The thermal properties of K12 enable the film morphology to be controlled at easily accessible temperatures allowing the charge mobility to be tuned over two orders of magnitude. The electron mobility in the films was found to be independent of the initial processing conditions (solution or evaporation). The electron mobility measured in a FET configuration was of the order of 10(-3) cm(2) V-1 s(-1) for films prepared via either processing method whilst Photoinduced Charge Extraction in Linearly Increasing Voltage (PhotoCELIV) gave a mobility of order 10(-4) cm(2) V-1 s(-1)

High-generation dendrimers with excimer-like photoluminescence for the detection of explosives

We report three generations of dendrimers incorporating either a fluorene or spirobifluorene core with carbazole dendrons and fluorene surface groups that are effective sensing materials for the detection of nitrated explosives by fluorescence quenching. The photophysical properties of the dendrimers were investigated with a combination of steady-state absorption and photoluminescence and time-resolved photoluminescence. We show that the first-generation dendrimers behave as single chromophores while the higher-generation dendrimers contain multiple chromophores that interact to give excimer-like emissive states. Stern−Volmer measurements with nitrated analytes show that the quenching efficiency decreases with generation for the planar fluorene-cored dendrimers and increases with generation for the more three-dimensional spirobifluorene-cored dendrimers. These contrasting trends are shown to be caused primarily by changes in the quenching efficiency of static interactions with the nitrated analytes, which is a consequence of the choice of core. Our results highlight the potential for exploiting such excimer-like states for chemical sensing, particularly in the case of nitrated explosives