Social background concealment among first-generation students: The role of social belonging and academic achievement concerns

Although higher education has become more accessible to people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, the transition to university is more difficult for first- compared to continuing-generation students. Previous research showed that social identity processes are key to understand differences between first- and continuing-generation students’ experiences at university. In the present paper, we argue that social background identity concealment may occur as a coping process among first-generation students. A longitudinal study among 829 first-year university students showed that first-generation students indeed concealed their social background at university more than continuing-generation students. This was especially the case when they had experienced concerns about their social belonging at university, indicating that identity concealment resulted from concerns to fit in at university. Finally, social background concealment was related to a decrease in well-being, suggesting that concealment is a costly social identity management strategy. Instead, universities should put in efforts to increase first-generation students’ sense of belonging

A characteristic lengthscale causes anomalous size effects and boundary programmability in mechanical metamaterials

The architecture of mechanical metamaterialsis designed to harness geometry, non-linearity and topology to obtain advanced functionalities such as shape morphing, programmability and one-way propagation. While a purely geometric framework successfully captures the physics of small systems under idealized conditions, large systems or heterogeneous driving conditions remain essentially unexplored. Here we uncover strong anomalies in the mechanics of a broad class of metamaterials, such as auxetics, shape-changers or topological insulators: a non-monotonic variation of their stiffness with system size, and the ability of textured boundaries to completely alter their properties. These striking features stem from the competition between rotation-based deformations---relevant for small systems---and ordinary elasticity, and are controlled by a characteristic length scale which is entirely tunable by the architectural details. Our study provides new vistas for designing, controlling and programming the mechanics of metamaterials in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: Main text has 4 pages, 4 figures + Methods and Supplementary Informatio

Phonological and syntactic phrasing in Bemba relatives

Tone as a distinctive feature used to differentiate not only words but also clause types, is a characteristic feature of Bantu languages. In this paper we show that Bemba relatives can be marked with a low tone in place of a segmental relative marker. We treat this low tone as a morpheme rather than as just triggering a change in tone pattern that can then be related to relativization. The low tone strategy of relativization, which imposes a restrictive reading of relatives, manifests a phonological phrasing that requires the head noun to be phrased together with the relative clause that it modifies as opposed to non-restrictives where this is not the case. The paper shows that the resultant phonological phrasing favours a head-raising analysis of relativization where the head noun is considered to be inside CP. Despite the syntactic use of the relative tonal morpheme we see that it is also subject to purely phonological constraints that results in its being unable to be used to mark headless relatives. This paper therefore highlights the phonology-syntax connection and shows that phonology can directly inform syntactic analyses. © Walter de Gruyter

Sabine Otten

This chapter gives biographical information, and, more importantly, summarizes Sabine Otten's mein areas of research interests and -findings

Static non-reciprocity in mechanical metamaterials

Reciprocity is a fundamental principle governing various physical systems, which ensures that the transfer function between any two points in space is identical, regardless of geometrical or material asymmetries. Breaking this transmission symmetry offers enhanced control over signal transport, isolation and source protection. So far, devices that break reciprocity have been mostly considered in dynamic systems, for electromagnetic, acoustic and mechanical wave propagation associated with spatio-temporal variations. Here we show that it is possible to strongly break reciprocity in static systems, realizing mechanical metamaterials that, by combining large nonlinearities with suitable geometrical asymmetries, and possibly topological features, exhibit vastly different output displacements under excitation from different sides, as well as one-way displacement amplification. In addition to extending non-reciprocity and isolation to statics, our work sheds new light on the understanding of energy propagation in non-linear materials with asymmetric crystalline structures and topological properties, opening avenues for energy absorption, conversion and harvesting, soft robotics, prosthetics and optomechanics.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, Supplementary information (11 pages and 5 figures

Dying at home in Belgium: a descriptive GP interview study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>While increasing attention is being paid to enabling terminal patients to remain at home until death, limited information is available on the circumstances in which people at home actually die. Therefore this study aims to describe patient characteristics, functional and cognitive status and physical and psychological symptom burden in the last three months of life among Belgian patients dying at home, according to their GPs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In 2005, a nationwide and retrospective interview study with GPs took place on people dying at home in Belgium as reported by Sentinel Network of GPs in Belgium. GPs registered all deaths (patients aged 1 year or more) weekly and were interviewed about all patients dying non-suddenly at home, using face-to-face structured interviews.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Interviews were obtained on 205 patients (90% response rate). Between the second and third month before death, 55% were fully invalid or limited in self-care. In the last week of life, almost all were fully invalid. Fifty four percent were unconscious at some point during the last week; 46% were fully conscious. Most frequently reported symptoms were lack of energy, lack of appetite and feeling drowsy. Conditions most difficult for GPs to manage were shortness of breath, lack of energy and pain.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Many people dying at home under the care of their GPs in Belgium function relatively well until the last week of life and cognitive status seems to be preserved until the end in many cases. However, symptoms which GPs find difficult to control still manifest in many patients in the final week of life.</p

Are There Differences in the Prevalence of Palliative Care-Related Problems in People Living With Advanced Cancer and Eight Non-Cancer Conditions? A Systematic Review

AbstractContextIf access to effective palliative care is to extend beyond cancer patients, an understanding of the comparative prevalence of palliative care problems among cancer and non-cancer patients is necessary.ObjectivesThis systematic review aimed to describe and compare the prevalence of seventeen palliative care-related problems across the four palliative care domains among adults with advanced cancer, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, chronic heart failure, end-stage renal disease (ESRD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, multiple sclerosis, motor neuron disease, Parkinson's disease, and dementia.MethodsThree databases were searched using three groups of keywords. The results of the extraction of the prevalence figures were summarized.ResultsThe electronic searches yielded 4697 hits after the removal of 1784 duplicates. Of these hits, 143 met the review criteria. The greatest number of studies were found for advanced cancer (n=57) and ESRD patients (n=47), and 75 of the 143 studies used validated scales. Few data were available for people living with multiple sclerosis (n=2) and motor neuron disease (n=3). The problems with a prevalence of 50% or more found across most of the nine studied diagnostic groups were: pain, fatigue, anorexia, dyspnea, and worry.ConclusionThere are commonalities in the prevalence of problems across cancer and non-cancer patients, highlighting the need for palliative care to be provided irrespective of diagnosis. The methodological heterogeneity across the studies and the lack of non-cancer studies need to be addressed in future research

Cementitious Barriers Partnership (CBP): Training and Release of CBP Toolbox Software, Version 1.0 -13480

ABSTRACT The Cementitious Barriers Partnership (CBP) Project is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration supported by the Office of Tank Waste Management within the Office of Environmental Management of U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE). The CBP program has developed a set of integrated tools (based on state-of-the-art models and leaching test methods) that improve understanding and predictions of the long-term hydraulic and chemical performance of cementitious barriers used in nuclear applications. Tools selected for and developed under this program are intended to evaluate and predict the behavior of cementitious barriers used in near-surface engineered waste disposal systems for periods of performance up to or longer than 100 years for operating facilities and longer than 1,000 years for waste management purposes. CBP software tools were made available to selected DOE Office of Environmental Management and field site users for training and evaluation based on a set of important degradation scenarios, including sulfate ingress/attack and carbonation of cementitious materials. The tools were presented at two-day training workshops held at U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Savannah River, and Hanford included LeachXS™/ORCHESTRA, STADIUM®, and a CBP-developed GoldSim Dashboard interface. Collectively, these components form the CBP Software ToolBox. The new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency leaching test methods based on the Leaching Environmental Assessment Framework (LEAF) were also presented. The CBP Dashboard uses a custom Dynamic-link library developed by CBP to couple to the LeachXS™/ORCHESTRA and STADIUM® codes to simulate reactive transport and degradation in cementitious materials for selected performance assessment scenarios. The first day of the workshop introduced participants to the software components via presentation materials, and the second day included hands-on tutorial exercises followed by discussions of enhancements desired by participants. Tools were revised based on feedbac