Qualitative study of Chinese widows in Hong Kong: Insights for psycho-social care in hospice settings

In an exploratory, phenomenological study of seven Chinese widows in Hong Kong, five major themes are identified: relationship with the deceased, relationship with others, grief reactions, coping and emotional expression. This paper focuses on the first theme: the widows' relationship with the deceased husband along a timeline from the time of diagnosis to after death. The experiences in the final days with the deceased were frequently referred to when the informants talked about this theme. This paper aims to give added voice, based on the experience of Chinese widows, to the possible role of hospice and palliative care on influencing the bereavement experience. Issues of awareness and acceptance of death, the supportive environment and support for family carers, the moment of death, creation of legacies, and sensitivity towards cultural embedded practices, are discussed. It is hoped that the experiences of these bereaved widows will stimulate new research to elucidate and verify the findings reported in this paper. © 2006 Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd.postprin

Aid conditionalities, international Good Manufacturing Practice standards and local production rights: a case study of local production in Nepal

© 2015 Brhlikova et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Department for International Development [RES-167-25-0110] through the collaborative research project Tracing Pharmaceuticals in South Asia (2006 – 2009). In addition to the authors of this paper, the project team included: Soumita Basu, Gitanjali Priti Bhatia, Erin Court, Abhijit Das, Stefan Ecks, Patricia Jeffery, Roger Jeffery, Rachel Manners, and Liz Richardson. Martin Chautari (Kathmandu) and the Centre for Health and Social Justice (New Delhi) provided resources drawn upon in writing this paper but are not responsible for the views expressed, nor are ESRC or DFID. Ethical review was provided by the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh, and ethical approval in Nepal for the study granted by the Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC)

Branching dendrites with resonant membrane: a “sum-over-trips” approach

Dendrites form the major components of neurons. They are complex branching structures that receive and process thousands of synaptic inputs from other neurons. It is well known that dendritic morphology plays an important role in the function of dendrites. Another important contribution to the response characteristics of a single neuron comes from the intrinsic resonant properties of dendritic membrane. In this paper we combine the effects of dendritic branching and resonant membrane dynamics by generalising the “sum-over-trips” approach (Abbott et al. in Biol Cybernetics 66, 49–60 1991). To illustrate how this formalism can shed light on the role of architecture and resonances in determining neuronal output we consider dual recording and reconstruction data from a rat CA1 hippocampal pyramidal cell. Specifically we explore the way in which an Ih current contributes to a voltage overshoot at the soma

Predictive use of the Maximum Entropy Production principle for Past and Present Climates

In this paper, we show how the MEP hypothesis may be used to build simple climate models without representing explicitly the energy transport by the atmosphere. The purpose is twofold. First, we assess the performance of the MEP hypothesis by comparing a simple model with minimal input data to a complex, state-of-the-art General Circulation Model. Next, we show how to improve the realism of MEP climate models by including climate feedbacks, focusing on the case of the water-vapour feedback. We also discuss the dependence of the entropy production rate and predicted surface temperature on the resolution of the model

An Integrated-Photonics Optical-Frequency Synthesizer

Integrated-photonics microchips now enable a range of advanced functionalities for high-coherence applications such as data transmission, highly optimized physical sensors, and harnessing quantum states, but with cost, efficiency, and portability much beyond tabletop experiments. Through high-volume semiconductor processing built around advanced materials there exists an opportunity for integrated devices to impact applications cutting across disciplines of basic science and technology. Here we show how to synthesize the absolute frequency of a lightwave signal, using integrated photonics to implement lasers, system interconnects, and nonlinear frequency comb generation. The laser frequency output of our synthesizer is programmed by a microwave clock across 4 THz near 1550 nm with 1 Hz resolution and traceability to the SI second. This is accomplished with a heterogeneously integrated III/V-Si tunable laser, which is guided by dual dissipative-Kerr-soliton frequency combs fabricated on silicon chips. Through out-of-loop measurements of the phase-coherent, microwave-to-optical link, we verify that the fractional-frequency instability of the integrated photonics synthesizer matches the $7.0*10^{-13}$ reference-clock instability for a 1 second acquisition, and constrain any synthesis error to $7.7*10^{-15}$ while stepping the synthesizer across the telecommunication C band. Any application of an optical frequency source would be enabled by the precision optical synthesis presented here. Building on the ubiquitous capability in the microwave domain, our results demonstrate a first path to synthesis with integrated photonics, leveraging low-cost, low-power, and compact features that will be critical for its widespread use.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Magnetic variation anomalies in northern England and southern Scotland

Single-station transfer functions linking the time variations of the vertical and horizontal components of the magnetic field at stations in northern England and southern Scotland have been compiled into a uniform data set. From hypothetical event analysis we show here that there are two distinct anomalies in the Borders region. One runs south-west to north-east, immediately to the south-east of the Southern Uplands Fault; the second follows the Northumberland Basin, and seems to exist because the conductive sedimentary rocks filling the basin create a link between the Irish and North Seas. If the Iapetus suture is marked by a conductivity anomaly, as has been suggested, these results place it beneath the Southern Uplands, unless it is masked by the surface conductor in the Northumberland Basin

Seizures and disturbed brain potassium dynamics in the leukodystrophy megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts

OBJECTIVE: Loss of function of the astrocyte-specific protein MLC1 leads to the childhood-onset leukodystrophy "megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts" (MLC). Studies on isolated cells show a role for MLC1 in astrocyte volume regulation and suggest that disturbed brain ion and water homeostasis is central to the disease. Excitability of neuronal networks is particularly sensitive to ion and water homeostasis. In line with this, reports of seizures and epilepsy in MLC patients exist. However, systematic assessment and mechanistic understanding of seizures in MLC are lacking. METHODS: We analyzed an MLC patient inventory to study occurrence of seizures in MLC. We used two distinct genetic mouse models of MLC to further study epileptiform activity and seizure threshold through wireless extracellular field potential recordings. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings and K+-sensitive electrode recordings in mouse brain slices were used to explore the underlying mechanisms of epilepsy in MLC. RESULTS: An early onset of seizures is common in MLC. Similarly, in MLC mice, we uncovered spontaneous epileptiform brain activity and a lowered threshold for induced seizures. At the cellular level, we found that although passive and active properties of individual pyramidal neurons are unchanged, extracellular K+dynamics and neuronal network activity are abnormal in MLC mice. INTERPRETATION: Disturbed astrocyte regulation of ion and water homeostasis in MLC causes hyperexcitability of neuronal networks and seizures. These findings suggest a role for defective astrocyte volume regulation in epilepsy. Ann Neurol 2018;83:636-649

A laypeople’s typology of cosmetic surgeries using cluster analysis

Interest in cosmetic surgery has been steadily growing, with the term “cosmetic surgery” now serving as a broad label for a diverse array of aesthetic procedures. However, major differences exist between these treatments, raising questions about the validity of grouping them under a single, uniform category. Going beyond prior research that has typically treated cosmetic surgery as a rather homogeneous construct, we examine how people perceive cosmetic procedures and highlight the distinctions they may recognize between them. Using a cluster analysis methodology, we present the first systematic typology of cosmetic surgeries based on the perspective of laypeople. By considering key treatment characteristics such as invasiveness, visibility, and degree of transformation, we identify six distinct types of cosmetic procedures: (1) surgical augmentations, (2) surgical adjustments, (3) surgical reductions, (4) minimally invasive reductions, (5) minimally invasive augmentations, and (6) concealed surgical reductions. This new typology paves the path for future research to explore specific motives and expectations tied to each category, offering more fine-grained insights into the decision-making processes behind cosmetic surgery and a more nuanced understanding of public opinion about these procedures.</p