What we need as we get older : needs assessment for the development of a community geriatrics service in an Australian context

Background: The aim of this study was to inform the development of a Community Geriatrics Service (CGS) that addressed the healthcare and social needs of community dwelling older people in an Australian context. Methods: Stakeholders (N = 108) took part in a ‘needs assessment’ involving 30-min semi-structured interviews with general practitioners (GPs; N = 49), and three 2-h focus groups (community engagement meetings; N = 59) with older people, informal caregivers, allied healthcare workers, and nursing home directors. Data were transcribed and thematically coded, mapped to source and weighted to the frequency that the theme was raised across sources. Results: Five themes informing CGS development and delivery emerged: active health conditions (management of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, falls, multimorbidity, and other relevant conditions), active social challenges (patient non-compliance, need for aged care social workers, caregiver stress, elder abuse, social isolation, and stigma), referrals (availability of specialists, communication, specialist input, and advance care directives), access (lack of transport options, and inaccessibility of local geriatrics clinics and specialists), and awareness (lack of awareness, knowledge, and resources). Conclusions: The CGS will need to address access, referral processes and health system navigation, which were perceived by stakeholders as significant challenges. These findings warrant the development of a CGS with an integrated approach to aged care, pertinent for the health and social needs of the elderly

Density-Functional-Based Determination of the CH3-CH4 Hydrogen Exchange Reaction Barrier

Due to the overbinding that is inherent in existing {\em local} approximations to the density-functional formalism, certain reaction energies have not been accessible. Since the generalized gradient approximation significantly decreases the overbinding, prospects for density-functional-based reaction dynamics are promising. Results on the generalized-gradient based determination of the CH3-CH4 hydrogen exchange reaction are presented. Including all Born-Oppenheimer effects an energy barrier of 9.5 kcal/Mole is found which is a very significant improvement over the local-density approximation.Comment: 5 twocolumn pages (needs twocolumn.sty), revtex, 3 figures, To appear in Chem.Phys.Let

Stability of Asn_n [n=4, 8, 20, 28, 32, 36, 60] Cage Structures

We present all-electron density functional study of the geometry, electronic structure, vibrational modes, polarizabilities as well as the infrared and Raman spectra of fullerene-like arsenic cages. The stability of As$_n$ cages for sizes 4, 8, 20, 28, 32, 36, and 60 wherein each As atom is three-fold coordinated is examined. We find that all the cages studied are vibrationally stable and while all the clusters are energetically stable with respect to isolated arsenic atoms, only As$_{20}$ is energetically stable against dissociation into As$_4$. We suggest that the Raman spectra might be a means for observing the As$_{20}$ molecule in gas phase.Comment: Uses elsart.cls (Elsevier Science), (Better pictures can be obtained from authors); Manuscript to appear in Chemical Physics Letter

Fragmented Authority from Ancien Régime to Modernity: a Quantitative Analysis

This paper performs a systematic analysis that examines institutional fragmentation in terms of customs tariffs within states west of the Rhine from 1700 to 1815 and between states east of the Rhine from 1815 to 1871. Internal customs zones are measured in two ways: physical size and urban population. Both methods use 175 sample cities as described by De Vries (1984) in England, France, the Netherlands, and Spain as the basic unit of account. The results indicate that customs zones west of the Rhine were small prior to the French Revolution but grew dramatically from 1789 onwards. They thus provide definitive evidence of divided authority in Ancien Régime Europe. The measurement of external customs zones uses 117 sample cities in the German and Italian territories. The findings indicate a remarkable degree of institutional consolidation between states east of the Rhine over the 1800s

Effectiveness and analysis of factors predictive of discharge to home in a 4-year cohort in a residential transitional care unit

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and identify factors predictive of home discharge in a cohort of patients admitted to the residential Transitional Aged Care Program (r‐TACP) after a stay in an acute hospital. Methods: A retrospective observational cohort study of patients admitted to a single r‐TACP unit between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2017 was carried out. Baseline patient characteristics and discharge outcomes were analyzed. Results: Three hundred sixty‐nine patients were admitted during the study period. The discharge outcomes were as follows: 68% returned home, 17% went onto residential care, 14% were readmitted to hospital, and 1% died. Factors associated with not returning home were increased age, increased comorbidities, and lower Barthel Index on admission to the r‐TACP. Conclusion: Our r‐TACP is an effective program that successfully returns the majority (67.8%) of older patients home after an acute hospital admission. Older patients with greater comorbidities and poorer baseline functional status in our program were less likely to return home

Magnetic ordering, electronic structure and magnetic anisotropy energy in the high-spin Mn10_{10} single molecule magnet

We report the electronic structure and magnetic ordering of the single molecule magnet [Mn$_{10}$O$_{4}$(2,2'-biphenoxide)$_{4}$Br$_{12}$]$^{4-}$ based on first-principles all-electron density-functional calculations. We find that two of the ten core Mn atoms are coupled antiferromagnetically to the remaining eight, resulting in a ferrimagnetic ground state with total spin S=13. The calculated magnetic anisotropy barrier is found to be 9 K in good agreement with experiment. The presence of the Br anions impact the electronic structure and therefore the magnetic properties of the 10 Mn atoms. However, the electric field due to the negative charges has no significant effect on the magnetic anisotropy.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to PR

A particle-number-conserving Bogoliubov method which demonstrates the validity of the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation for a highly condensed Bose gas

The Bogoliubov method for the excitation spectrum of a Bose-condensed gas is generalized to apply to a gas with an exact large number $N$ of particles. This generalization yields a description of the Schr\"odinger picture field operators as the product of an annihilation operator $A$ for the total number of particles and the sum of a ``condensate wavefunction'' $\xi(x)$ and a phonon field operator $\chi(x)$ in the form $\psi(x) \approx A\{\xi(x) + \chi(x)/\sqrt{N}\}$ when the field operator acts on the N particle subspace. It is then possible to expand the Hamiltonian in decreasing powers of $\sqrt{N}$, an thus obtain solutions for eigenvalues and eigenstates as an asymptotic expansion of the same kind. It is also possible to compute all matrix elements of field operators between states of different N.Comment: RevTeX, 11 page

Hubbard-U calculations for Cu from first-principles Wannier functions

We present first-principles calculations of optimally localized Wannier functions for Cu and use these for an ab-initio determination of Hubbard (Coulomb) matrix elements. We use a standard linearized muffin-tin orbital calculation in the atomic-sphere approximation (LMTO-ASA) to calculate Bloch functions, and from these determine maximally localized Wannier functions using a method proposed by Marzari and Vanderbilt. The resulting functions were highly localized, with greater than 89% of the norm of the function within the central site for the occupied Wannier states. Two methods for calculating Coulomb matrix elements from Wannier functions are presented and applied to fcc Cu. For the unscreened on-site Hubbard $U$ for the Cu 3d-bands we have obtained about 25eV. These results are also compared with results obtained from a constrained local-density approximation (LDA) calculation.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 5 table

Measurement of one-particle correlations and momentum distributions for trapped 1D gases

van Hove's theory of scattering of probe particles by a macroscopic target is generalized so as to relate the differential cross section for atomic ejection via stimulated Raman transitions to one-particle momentum-time correlations and momentum distributions of 1D trapped gases. This method is well suited to probing the longitudinal momentum distributions of 1D gases in situ, and examples are given for bosonic and fermionic atoms.Comment: 4 pages, 2 .eps figure

Modeling Elasticity in Crystal Growth

A new model of crystal growth is presented that describes the phenomena on atomic length and diffusive time scales. The former incorporates elastic and plastic deformation in a natural manner, and the latter enables access to times scales much larger than conventional atomic methods. The model is shown to be consistent with the predictions of Read and Shockley for grain boundary energy, and Matthews and Blakeslee for misfit dislocations in epitaxial growth.Comment: 4 pages, 10 figure