A systematic review of stress in staff caring for people with dementia living in 24-hour care settings

Background: Family carers of people with dementia are at risk of psychological morbidity, and it is suggested that this may also be the case in paid carers as caring for people with dementia can be emotionally and physically demanding. Care homes have historically had difficulty recruiting and retaining staff, and job stress has previously been linked to high turnover amongst long-term care staff. We performed a systematic review of studies of the prevalence of psychological stress in staff caring for people with dementia in residential long-term care settings.Methods: We conducted a comprehensive literature search of MEDLINE, PsychINFO and Web of Science databases up to May 2009, supplemented by a search of the references of all relevant articles. Search terms encompassed nursing staff, residential care and psychological distress. Validity of studies was graded by two authors independently using a standardized checklist.Results: We identified 601 studies of which five met our inclusion criteria. Two studies reported on prevalence rates of staff distress and found 37% and 5% levels of being "at risk" from burnout, four studies reported mean stress scores and all were low.Conclusions: All studies were either small or used instruments with unsatisfactory psychometric properties and so our conclusions are limited by the lack of good quality evidence. The preliminary evidence suggests that most staff who remain working in homes do not have a high prevalence of psychological stress or level of symptoms

Measuring ligand efficacy at the mu-opioid receptor using a conformational biosensor.

The intrinsic efficacy of orthosteric ligands acting at G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) reflects their ability to stabilize active receptor states (R*) and is a major determinant of their physiological effects. Here, we present a direct way to quantify the efficacy of ligands by measuring the binding of a R*-specific biosensor to purified receptor employing interferometry. As an example, we use the mu-opioid receptor (µ-OR), a prototypic class A GPCR, and its active state sensor, nanobody-39 (Nb39). We demonstrate that ligands vary in their ability to recruit Nb39 to µ-OR and describe methadone, loperamide, and PZM21 as ligands that support unique R* conformation(s) of µ-OR. We further show that positive allosteric modulators of µ-OR promote formation of R* in addition to enhancing promotion by orthosteric agonists. Finally, we demonstrate that the technique can be utilized with heterotrimeric G protein. The method is cell-free, signal transduction-independent and is generally applicable to GPCRs

Fiscal year 1981 US corn and soybeans pilot preliminary experiment plan, phase 1

A draft of the preliminary experiment plan for the foreign commodity production forecasting project fiscal year 1981 is presented. This draft plan includes: definition of the phase 1 and 2 U.S. pilot objectives; the proposed experiment design to evaluate crop calendar, area estimation, and area aggregation components for corn and soybean technologies using 1978/1979 crop-year data; a description of individual sensitivity evaluations of the baseline corn and soybean segment classification procedure; and technology and data assessment in support of the corn and soybean estimation technology for use in the U.S. central corn belt

Upgraded demonstration vehicle task report

Vehicle/battery performance capabilities and interface problems that occurred when upgraded developmental batteries were integrated with upgraded versions of comercially available electric vehicles were investigated. Developmental batteries used included nickel zinc batteries, a nickel iron battery, and an improved lead acid battery. Testing of the electric vehicles and upgraded batteries was performed in the complete vehicle system environment to characterize performance and identify problems unique to the vehicle/battery system. Constant speed tests and driving schedule range tests were performed on a chassis dynamometer. The results from these tests of the upgraded batteries and vehicles were compared to performance capabilities for the same vehicles equipped with standard batteries

Topological Hysteresis in the Intermediate State of Type-I Superconductors

Magneto-optical imaging of thick stress-free lead samples reveals two distinct topologies of the intermediate state. Flux tubes are formed upon magnetic field penetration (closed topology) and laminar patterns appear upon flux exit (open topology). Two-dimensional distributions of shielding currents were obtained by applying an efficient inversion scheme. Quantitative analysis of the magnetic induction distribution and correlation with magnetization measurements indicate that observed topological differences between the two phases are responsible for experimentally observable magnetic hysteresis.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex

Comparison of Magnetic Flux Distribution between a Coronal Hole and a Quiet Region

Employing Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) deep magnetograms and H${\alpha}$ images in a quiet region and a coronal hole, observed on September 14 and 16, 2004, respectively, we have explored the magnetic flux emergence, disappearance and distribution in the two regions. The following results are obtained: (1) The evolution of magnetic flux in the quiet region is much faster than that in the coronal hole, as the flux appeared in the form of ephemeral regions in the quiet region is 4.3 times as large as that in the coronal hole, and the flux disappeared in the form of flux cancellation, 2.9 times as fast as in the coronal hole. (2) More magnetic elements with opposite polarities in the quiet region are connected by arch filaments, estimating from magnetograms and H${\alpha}$ images. (3) We measured the magnetic flux of about 1000 magnetic elements in each observing region. The flux distribution of network and intranetwork (IN) elements is similar in both polarities in the quiet region. For network fields in the coronal hole, the number of negative elements is much more than that of positive elements. However for the IN fields, the number of positive elements is much more than that of negative elements. (4) In the coronal hole, the fraction of negative flux change obviously with different threshold flux density. 73% of the magnetic fields with flux density larger than 2 Gauss is negative polarity, and 95% of the magnetic fields is negative, if we only measure the fields with their flux density larger than 20 Gauss. Our results display that in a coronal hole, stronger fields is occupied by one predominant polarity; however the majority of weaker fields, occupied by the other polarity

Systematic review of psychological approaches to the management of neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia

Objective: The authors systematically reviewed the literature on psychological approaches to treating the neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia.Method: Reports of studies that examined effects of any therapy derived from a psychological approach that satisfied prespecified criteria were reviewed. Data were extracted, the quality of each study was rated, and an overall rating was given to each study by using the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine criteria.Results: A total of 1,632 studies were identified, and 162 satisfied the inclusion criteria for the review. Specific types of psychoeducation for caregivers about managing neuropsychiatric symptoms were effective treatments whose benefits lasted for months, but other caregiver interventions were not. Behavioral management techniques that are centered on individual patients' behavior or on caregiver behavior had similar benefits, as did cognitive stimulation. Music therapy and Snoezelen, and possibly sensory stimulation, were useful during the treatment session but had no longer-term effects; interventions that changed the visual environment looked promising, but more research is needed.Conclusions: Only behavior management therapies, specific types of caregiver and residential care staff education, and possibly cognitive stimulation appear to have lasting effectiveness for the management of dementia-associated neuropsychiatric symptoms. Lack of evidence regarding other therapies is not evidence of lack of efficacy. Conclusions are limited because of the paucity of high-quality research ( only nine level-1 studies were identified). More high-quality investigation is needed

Exploited resources of major perches in India

The present paper reviews the studies on the exploited resources of mqjor perches from, the Indian seas. Major perches consist of fairly large sized fishes belonging to families Serranidae, Lutjanidae and Lethrinidae, popularly known as rock cods,snappers and pigface breams respectively. They form 17% of the total perch catch. The average annual production of major perches in the country during 1990-98 is estimated as 23,800t. The highest landing of major perches is from the state ofTamilnadu (49.5%), followed by Kerala (19.74%). They inhabit the rocky and coralline grounds of/" the south west and south east coasts and the Wadge Bank and also in the rocky grounds off Gujarat and Maharashtra . Along the south west and south east coasts, the peak fishing season is from December to April. This resource could be exploited more efficiently by hooks and lines as well as the traps rather than trawl nets, as the grounds are often not trawlable

Molecular astronomy of cool stars and sub-stellar objects

The optical and infrared spectra of a wide variety of `cool' astronomical objects including the Sun, sunspots, K-, M- and S-type stars, carbon stars, brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets are reviewed. The review provides the necessary astronomical background for chemical physicists to understand and appreciate the unique molecular environments found in astronomy. The calculation of molecular opacities needed to simulate the observed spectral energy distributions is discussed

Differential Susceptibility of SD and CD Rats to a Novel Rat Theilovirus

Antibodies to rat theilovirus (RTV) have been detected in rats for many years because of their serologic crossreactivity with strains of Theiler murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) of mice. Little information exists regarding this pathogen, yet it is among the most common viruses detected in serologic surveys of rats used in research. In the study reported here, a novel isolate of RTV, designated RTV1, was cultured from the feces of infected rats. The RTV1 genome contained 8094 nucleotides and had approximately 95% identity with another rat theilovirus, NSG910, and 73% identity with TMEV strains. In addition, the genome size of RTV1 was similar to those of TMEV strains but larger than that reported for NSG910. Oral inoculation of Sprague-Dawley (SD) and CD male rats (n = 10 each group) with RTV1 revealed that SD rats were more susceptible than CD rats to RTV1 infection. At 14 d postinoculation, 100% of SD rats shed virus in the feces, and 70% were positive for RTV serum antibodies. By 56 d postinoculation 30% of SD rats continued to have detectable virus in the feces, and 90% had seroconverted. In contrast, in inoculated CD rats RTV was detected only in the feces at 14 d postinoculation, at which time 40% of CD rats were fecal positive. By 56 d postinoculation only 20% of CD rats had detectable RTV serum antibodies. Our data provide additional sequence information regarding a rat-specific Cardiovirus and indicate that SD rats are more susceptible than CD rats to RTV1 infection.This work was supported by funds from a National Institutes ofHealth Postdoctoral Training in Comparative Medicine grant (T32-RR07004) and the Research Animal Diagnostic Laboratory (RADIL)