Materials of SPIE Opto-Ireland 2005: Optics and Photonics Technologies and Applications

Porous materials in general have received great attention from the last century. The development of new porous materials and the preparation of new composites based on porous materials is a subject of interest. The development of porous silicon based optical composite materials opened up new ways of incorporating optically active sol-gel materials into porous silicon. High purity silica optical fibres allow the most rapid and efficient data transmission. The objective of this work is to develop micro-channel glass / porous silicon-rare earth doped xerogel and glass composites, which would serve as compact optical amplifiers and delay line devices. Micro-channel glass / porous silicon-xerogel composites have been prepared by incorporation of sol-gel prepared from tetraethoxysilane, aluminium iso-propoxide and europium chloride into the porous matrix. Both xerogel and glass composites have been studied by various techniques such as FTIR, micro-Raman, photoluminescence spectroscopy, EDX and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)

What might interrupt men's suicide? Results from an online survey of men

Objectives: Men are almost two times more likely to die by suicide than women, yet little research has focused on what is required to prevent suicide among men. This paper aims to investigate what factors interrupt suicidal behaviour in men, and to examine differences according to known suicide risk factors. Setting: Australia. Participants: 251 Australian men aged 18 years and over who had made a suicide attempt 6-18 months prior to completing the survey. Outcomes: The survey canvassed the language men use to describe their depression and suicidality, warning signs, barriers to accessing help and what is needed to interrupt a suicide attempt. ORs and ?2 were used to test for differences by age, geographic location and current depression severity. Results: Of 299 men screened and eligible to participate, 251 completed all or part of the survey. Participants identified different words and warning signs for depression compared with suicidality. The most commonly endorsed barriers to accessing help were not wanting to burden others (66%) and having isolated themselves (63%). Men overwhelmingly endorsed 'I thought about the consequences for my family' as the factor which stopped a suicide attempt (67%). 'I need support from someone I really trust and respect' was also strongly endorsed. There were few differences by age, region or depression severity. Conclusions: Participants were able to identify signs, albeit often subtle ones, that they were becoming depressed or suicidal. Similarly, most were able to identify active strategies to interrupt this downward spiral. Men wanted others to notice changes in their behaviour, and to approach them without judgement