Laser action from a terbium beta-ketoenolate at room temperature

Laser activity is achieved in a solution of terbium tris at room temperature in a liquid solvent of acetonitrile or p-dioxane. After precipitation, the microcrystals of hydrated tris chelate are filtered, washed in distilled water, and dried. They show no signs of deterioration after storage

Barriers to reporting non-motor symptoms to health-care providers in people with Parkinson's

Background: Non-motor symptoms (NMS) are common in Parkinson's disease (PD) and cause significant distress. A high rate of non-declaration of NMS by patients to healthcare providers (HCP) means that many NMS remain untreated. Current understanding of the factors preventing disclosure of NMS to HCPs is limited. The present study aimed to i) further assess the prevalence of NMS and associated distress, ii) establish current rates of NMS reporting across a range of sources, and iii) explore overall and any symptom specific barriers to help-seeking for NMS. Methods: 358 PD patients completed a cross-sectional survey of NMS severity, reporting and barriers to help-seeking. A series of Generalised Estimating Equations were used to determine whether barriers were symptom specific. Results: A mean of 10.5 NMS were reported by each patient. Rates of non-reporting of NMS ranged from 15 to 72% of those experiencing distressing symptoms. The most commonly reported barriers to help-seeking were acceptance of symptoms; lack of awareness that a symptom was associated with PD, and belief that no effective treatments were available. Symptom specific barriers were found for sexual dysfunction (embarrassment), unexplained pain and urinary problems (belief about lack of treatment availability). Conclusion: A diverse range of barriers prevent PD patients reporting NMS to HCPs and these barriers differ between NMS. The study provides the foundations for developing interventions to increase reporting by targeting individual NMS. Increasing rates of help-seeking for NMS by patients to their Parkinson's healthcare providers will increase appropriate clinical care which may improve quality of life and well-being

An exploration of worry content and catastrophic thinking in middle-aged and older-aged adults with and without Parkinson's disease

Objective: Worry is a common and distressing problem in Parkinson’s disease(PD). However, little is known about the nature and content of worry in PD and how it might differ to non-PD populations. The study aimed to explore the content and nature of worry in middle and older aged adults with and without PD. Method: 4 groups of participants: 20 PD patients(10 high worry, 10 low worry) 19 middle and older aged adults(10 high worry, 9 low worry) completed the Catastrophising Interview(CI) for three worry topics. Worriers were classified(high/low) based on Penn State Worry Questionnaire scores. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis. Results: High worriers showed a greater diversity of worry topics than low worriers. Health worries differentiated high and low worriers in the non-PD sample but were common across all PD participants. The CI revealed that the root concern of worry was often different to that initially described. In particular, PD high worriers were more likely to express underlying concerns about negative self-perception and death/severe incapacity. Conclusion: The CI was able to identify the root cause of worry, demonstrating the value of this technique in the exploration and treatment of worry and psychological distress. Exploring worry content may help to distinguish patients with problematic worry, with worries about self-perception and death/severe incapacity characteristic of high worriers. Therapeutic interventions designed to alleviate problematic worry and distress in PD need to take account of the realities of living with PD and the potentially realistic nature of worries which may appear catastrophic in a healthy population

Guided Poster Tour

Objective 1) To identify patient barriers to help-seeking for non-motor symptoms (NMS) from their Parkinson’s healthcare provider, 2) To determine whether barriers are symptom specific (e.g. embarrassment disclosing sexual problems) or patient specific (e.g. misattribution of a range of NMS to old age). Background NMS are common in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and cause significant distress and decreased quality of life. A high rate of non-declaration of NMS by patients to healthcare providers means that many NMS remain unrecognized and untreated, even in specialist clinical services. Current understanding of the factors preventing disclosure of NMS to healthcare professions is limited. Method 358 PD patients completed the Non-motor Symptom Questionnaire and a barriers to help-seeking for NMS questionnaire developed from previous qualitative work. A Generalised Estimating Equation was used to determine whether barriers were symptom or individual specific. Results The sample had a mean age of 66.3 years, mean disease duration of 5.9 years and were 52.5% male. Urinary urgency was the most common NMS (65%) and sexual dysfunction was the symptom most frequently not disclosed (52%). Barriers to symptom disclosure varied dependent on symptom type. Pain and sleep problems were commonly not thought to be symptoms of PD. Bowel and bladder symptoms were often simply accepted as part of daily life and participants were unsure about the availability of effective treatments. Patients experienced embarrassment discussing sexual dysfunction. Conclusion Our results highlight the barriers which prevent PD patients reporting NMS to their Parkinson’s clinical team and the diversity of these barriers between different NMS. Strategies to improve rates of reporting must target individual NMS. For example, effective interventions might provide information regarding treatment efficacy for bowel and bladder symptoms or develop communication skills and normalising information for sexual dysfunction. The study provides the information needed to develop such individualised interventions. Increasing rates of disclosure of NMS by patients to their Parkinson’s healthcare providers will ensure patients receive appropriate clinical care which may increase quality of life and well-being

Examining Chemotherapy-Related Cognitive Changes in Colorectal Cancer Patients: A Feasibility Trial

Introduction: Research suggests that chemotherapy may be related to decline in patients’ cognitive functions. Objectives: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of a multi-site study designed to examine the nature and extent of chemotherapy-related cognitive changes in colorectal cancer patients. Method: Data was collected over 8 months using objective and self-reported measures of cognitive functioning and self-reported quality of life, fatigue and mood questionnaires. The assessment battery was administered pre- and mid-chemotherapy treatment to a consecutive sample of colorectal cancer patients across three Londonbased NHS Trusts. Participants included patients who had undergone colorectal surgery and were scheduled to have adjuvant chemotherapy treatment, or no further cancer treatment. Main outcome measures: Recruitment procedures, rate of recruitment, suitability of exclusion/inclusion criteria, acceptability of data collection procedures and the battery, and attrition rates. Results: From 1 April 2014 to 1 December 2014, 42 eligible participants were invited to take part in the trial. Of the 17 that completed pre-chemotherapy assessments, only 1 withdrew at follow-up due to reasons of ill health from disease recurrence. All participants completed the entire battery and indicated that they found the trial acceptable. Conclusions: What went wrong: Strained researcher resources; loss of eligible participants to competing studies, restrictive upper age limit. Possible solutions: Removal of upper age limit, an increased dedicated research team to increase rate of recruitment. The large multi-site study is feasible with suggested amendments and is acceptable to patients and medical teams. Acceptability of trial to medical teams is further evidenced by requests of collaboration from two additional London based NHS Trusts. Lessons learned: This feasibility trial provides evidence to other researchers designing similar studies in this area of an acceptable design and the need for appropriate funding for resources to recruit large enough consecutive samples of patients with solid tumour cancers

Research in the general area of non-linear dynamical systems Final report, 8 Jun. 1965 - 8 Jun. 1967

Nonlinear dynamical systems research on systems stability, invariance principles, Liapunov functions, and Volterra and functional integral equation

Nuclear Bar Catalyzed Star Formation: 13^CO, C18^O and Molecular Gas Properties in the Nucleus of Maffei 2

(Abridged) We present resolution maps of CO, its isotopologues, and HCN from in the center of Maffei 2. The J=1-0 rotational lines of 12^CO, 13^CO, C18^O and HCN, and the J=2-1 lines of 13^CO and C18^O were observed with the OVRO and BIMA arrays. The 2-1/1-0 line ratios of the isotopologues constrain the bulk of the molecular gas to originate in low excitation, subthermal gas. From LVG modeling, we infer that the central GMCs have n(H_2) ~10^2.75 cm^-3 and T_k ~ 30 K. Continuum emission at 3.4 mm, 2.7 mm and 1.4 mm was mapped to determine the distribution and amount of HII regions and dust. Column densities derived from C18^O and 1.4 mm dust continuum fluxes indicate the CO conversion factor in the center of Maffei 2 is lower than Galactic by factors of ~2-4. Gas morphology and the clear ``parallelogram'' in the Position-Velocity diagram shows that molecular gas orbits within the potential of a nuclear (~220 pc) bar. The nuclear bar is distinct from the bar that governs the large scale morphology of Maffei 2. Giant molecular clouds in the nucleus are nonspherical and have large linewidths. Dense gas and star formation are concentrated at the sites of the x_1-x_2 orbit intersections of the nuclear bar, suggesting that the starburst is dynamically triggered.Comment: 50 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Vaccination timing of low-birth-weight infants in rural Ghana: a population-based, prospective cohort study

Objective: To investigate delays in first and third dose diphtheria–tetanus–pertussis (DTP1 and DTP3) vaccination in low-birth-weight infants in Ghana, and the associated determinants. Methods: We used data from a large, population-based vitamin A trial in 2010–2013, with 22 955 enrolled infants. We measured vaccination rate and maternal and infant characteristics and compared three categories of low-birth-weight infants (2.0–2.4 kg; 1.5–1.9 kg; and <1.5 kg) with infants weighing ≥2.5 kg. Poisson regression was used to calculate vaccination rate ratios for DTP1 at 10, 14 and 18 weeks after birth, and for DTP3 at 18, 22 and 24 weeks (equivalent to 1, 2 and 3 months after the respective vaccination due dates of 6 and 14 weeks). Findings: Compared with non-low-birth-weight infants (n=18 979), those with low birth weight (n=3382) had an almost 40% lower DTP1 vaccination rate at age 10 weeks (adjusted rate ratio, aRR: 0.58; 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.43–0.77) and at age 18 weeks (aRR: 0.63; 95% CI: 0.50–0.80). Infants weighing 1.5–1.9 kg (n=386) had vaccination rates approximately 25% lower than infants weighing ≥2.5 kg at these time points. Similar results were observed for DTP3. Lower maternal age, educational attainment and longer distance to the nearest health facility were associated with lower DTP1 and DTP3 vaccination rates. Conclusion: Low-birth-weight infants are a high-risk group for delayed vaccination in Ghana. Efforts to improve the vaccination of these infants are warranted, alongside further research to understand the reasons for the delays

Biogenesis of mitochondrial porin

We review here the present knowledge about the pathway of import and assembly of porin into mitochondria and compare it to those of other mitochondrial proteins. Porin, like all outer mitochondrial membrane proteins studied so far is made as a precursor without a cleavble lsquosignalrsquo sequence; thus targeting information must reside in the mature sequence. At least part of this information appears to be located at the amino-terminal end of the molecule. Transport into mitochondria can occur post-translationally. In a first step, the porin precursor is specifically recognized on the mitochondrial surface by a protease sensitive receptor. In a second step, porin precursor inserts partially into the outer membrane. This step is mediated by a component of the import machinery common to the import pathways of precursor proteins destined for other mitochondrial subcompartments. Finally, porin is assembled to produce the functional oligomeric form of an integral membrane protein wich is characterized by its extreme protease resistance