The well-being of British expatriate retirees in southern Europe

This article examines the personal outcomes of overseas residence in later life, by analysing some findings from the first large-scale, comparative study of the retirement of British citizens to southern Europe. Four study areas are compared: Tuscany in Italy, Malta, the Costa del Sol of Spain, and the Algarve region of Portugal. The analysis focuses on the expressed reasons for moving to and residing in the areas, the reported advantages and disadvantages, and the respondents' predictions of whether they would stay or leave in response to adverse and beneficial events. Overall the subjects give very positive reports, but there are considerable differences among the four areas. The associations of individual variation in well-being with both a person's ‘temporal commitment’ to the area and to facets of their social integration are analysed. The onset of severe incapacity, sufficient to prevent the continued running of a home, is the event most likely to cause people to leave their adopted areas of residence

Who Says Professionals Are Ethical? A Cross-sectional Analysis of Ethical Decision Making, Attitudes and Action

This study examines how different groups (students, full-time employees and IT professionals) respond to ethical IT decisions. Each group operates within a particular ethical work climate, socializing ethical and unethical, professional and or unprofessional behaviors facing ethical IT dilemmas. Two-hundred and forty respondents across three groups assessed two vignettes depicting ethical IT dilemmas, one of a programmer hacking into bank software and another of an employee using computer equipment for personal work. The results suggest that for students and IT professionals, levels of professionalism was linked to ethical and whistleblowing behavior, but this relationship was absent for other non-IT employees regardless of the ethical dilemma. In addition, we find overwhelming support for the link between ethical work climates involving laws, rules, and codes and levels of professionalism for all groups, but other work climates were only salient for non-IT professionals

The Virtuous and the Vicious: The Effects of Professionalism and Machiavellianism on Ethical IT Decision Making

Information technology (IT) professionals have countless opportunities to engage in inappropriate, negligent, and unethical behavior in the development and use of IT. This study explores how different levels of professionalism and Machiavellianism influence the ethical decision making (EDM) involving (IT) issues. Two-hundred and forty graduate students are surveyed using two vignettes depicting ethical IT dilemmas, one of a programmer hacking into bank software and another of an employee using computer equipment for personal work. The results find mixed, but positive support for the ethical decision making model and the effects of professionalism on ethical behavior outcomes. Higher levels of professionalism increased people’s ability to recognize ethical IT dilemmas, use moral equity judgments, engage in ethical behavior, but report unethical behavior less. Machiavellianism decreased the recognition of ethical IT dilemmas and decreased the use of moral equity judgments, but only when the ethical consequences are prominent

The politics of meaning in the commemoration of the First World War in Britain, 1914-1939

This thesis explores the meanings which commemoration of the First World War had for contemporaries. It examines the activity of war memorial committees, the conduct of ceremonies, and the interpretations of commemoration offered in newspapers, speeches and reminiscences, to discover how the public response to war was shaped into a formal commemorative practice. It focuses particularly on the erection of memorials, which might be either monuments or socially useful facilities. It is shown that commemoration was conducted through the institutions of local politics, including local government bodies and voluntary associations. Discussions about the choice and design of memorials reflected the political and religious preoccupations of those who contributed to them. Where factions formed around competing proposals for a memorial, they reflected existing divisions within the community. The argument is that commemoration was concerned with far more than mourning the war dead. It had a didactic purpose, and encouraged the discussion of contemporary political issues in terms which related these to the example of good citizenship set by the dead. What commemoration should mean to the general public became a matter for political debate. There was a consensus that the memory of the dead should be kept sacred, but how their example ought to be understood was open to differing interpretations. These differences were expressed through the partisan attribution of meanings to the symbolism of memorials and ceremonies. The sacred task of honouring the dead thus provided an opportunity for adherents of political, social or religious causes to promote their interests, in so far as they could articulate them as reflections on the war and its effects

Tidal influence on Rutford Ice Stream, West Antarctica: observations of surface flow and basal processes from closely-spaced GPS and passive seismic stations

High-resolution surface velocity measurements and passive seismic observations from Rutford Ice Stream, West Antarctica, 40 km upstream from the grounding line are presented. These measurements indicate a complex relationship between the ocean tides and currents, basal conditions and ice-stream flow. Both the mean basal seismicity and the velocity of the ice stream are modulated by the tides. Seismic activity increases twice during each semi-diurnal tidal cycle. The tidal analysis shows the largest velocity variation is at the fortnightly period, with smaller variations superimposed at diurnal and semi-diurnal frequencies. The general pattern of the observed velocity is two velocity peaks during each semi-diurnal tidal cycle, but sometimes three peaks are observed. This pattern of two or three peaks is more regular during spring tides, when the largest-amplitude velocity variations are observed, than during neap tides. This is the first time that velocity and level of seismicity are shown to correlate and respond to tidal forcing as far as 40 km upstream from the grounding line of a large ice stream

Phase transitions in BaTiO3_3 from first principles

We develop a first-principles scheme to study ferroelectric phase transitions for perovskite compounds. We obtain an effective Hamiltonian which is fully specified by first-principles ultra-soft pseudopotential calculations. This approach is applied to BaTiO$_3$, and the resulting Hamiltonian is studied using Monte Carlo simulations. The calculated phase sequence, transition temperatures, latent heats, and spontaneous polarizations are all in good agreement with experiment. The order-disorder vs.\ displacive character of the transitions and the roles played by different interactions are discussed.Comment: 13 page

Theory, Simulation and Nanotechnological Applications of Adsorption on a Surface with Defects

Theory of adsorption on a surface with nanolocal defects is proposed. Two efficacy parameters of surface modification for nanotechnological purposes are introduced, where the modification is a creation of nanolocal artificial defects. The first parameter corresponds to applications where it is necessary to increase the concentration of certain particles on the modified surface. And the second one corresponds to the pattern transfer with the help of particle self-organization on the modified surface. The analytical expressions for both parameters are derived with the help of the thermodynamic and the kinetic approaches for two cases: jump diffusion and free motion of adsorbed particles over the surface. The possibility of selective adsorption of molecules is shown with the help of simulation of the adsorption of acetylene and benzene molecules in the pits on the graphite surface. The process of particle adsorption from the surface into the pit is theoretically studied by molecular dynamic technique. Some possible nanotechnological applications of adsorption on the surface with artificial defects are considered: fabrication of sensors for trace molecule detection, separation of isomers, and pattern transfer.Comment: 12 pages, 2 Postscript figures. Submitted to Surface Science (1998

Binaphthyl-1,2,3-triazole peptidomimetics with activity against Clostridium difficile and other pathogenic bacteria

Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is a problematic Gram positive bacterial pathogen causing moderate to severe gastrointestinal infections. Based on a lead binaphthyl-tripeptide dicationic antimicrobial, novel mono-, di- and tri-peptidomimetic analogues targeting C. difficile were designed and synthesized incorporating one, two or three d-configured cationic amino acid residues, with a common 1,2,3-triazole ester isostere at the C-terminus. Copper- and ruthenium-click chemistry facilitated the generation of a 46 compound library for in vitro bioactivity assays, with structure-activity trends over the largest compound subset revealing a clear advantage to triazole-substitution with a linear or branched hydrophobic group. The most active compounds were dicationic-dipeptides where the triazole was substituted with a 4- or 5-cyclohexylmethyl or 4,5-diphenyl moiety, providing MICs of 4 μg mL-1 against three human isolates of C. difficile. Further biological screening revealed significant antimicrobial activity for several compounds against other common bacterial pathogens, both Gram positive and negative, including S. aureus (MICs ≥2 μg mL-1), S. pneumoniae (MICs ≥1 μg mL-1), E. coli (MICs ≥4 μg mL-1), A. baumannii (MICs ≥4 μg mL-1) and vancomycin-resistant E. faecalis (MICs ≥4 μg mL-1)

First-principles study of (BiScO3){1-x}-(PbTiO3){x} piezoelectric alloys

We report a first-principles study of a class of (BiScO3)_{1-x}-(PbTiO3)_x (BS-PT) alloys recently proposed by Eitel et al. as promising materials for piezoelectric actuator applications. We show that (i) BS-PT displays very large structural distortions and polarizations at the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) (we obtain a c/a of ~1.05-1.08 and P_tet of ~1.1 C/m^2); (ii) the ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of BS-PT are dominated by the onset of hybridization between Bi/Pb-6p and O-2p orbitals, a mechanism that is enhanced upon substitution of Pb by Bi; and (iii) the piezoelectric responses of BS-PT and Pb(Zr_{1-x}Ti_x)O3 (PZT) at the MPB are comparable, at least as far as the computed values of the piezoelectric coefficient d_15 are concerned. While our results are generally consistent with experiment, they also suggest that certain intrinsic properties of BS-PT may be even better than has been indicated by experiments to date. We also discuss results for PZT that demonstrate the prominent role played by Pb displacements in its piezoelectric properties.Comment: 6 pages, with 3 postscript figures embedded. Uses REVTEX and epsf macros. Also available at http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/ji_bi/index.htm