Mental health services required after disasters: Learning from the lasting effects of disasters

Extent: 13p.Disasters test civil administrations’ and health services’ capacity to act in a flexible but well-coordinated manner because each disaster is unique and poses unusual challenges. The health services required differ markedly according to the nature of the disaster and the geographical spread of those affected. Epidemiology has shown that services need to be equipped to deal with major depressive disorder and grief, not just posttraumatic stress disorder, and not only for victims of the disaster itself but also the emergency service workers. The challenge is for specialist advisers to respect and understand the existing health care and support networks of those affected while also recognizing their limitations. In the initial aftermath of these events, a great deal of effort goes into the development of early support systems but the longer term needs of these populations are often underestimated. These services need to be structured, taking into account the pre-existing psychiatric morbidity within the community. Disasters are an opportunity for improving services for patients with posttraumatic psychopathology in general but can later be utilized for improving services for victims of more common traumas in modern society, such as accidents and interpersonal violence.A. C. McFarlane and Richard William

Crystal growing by electrodeposition from dense gaseous solutions

Single crystals and dendritic formations of silver are grown on platinum electrodes by electrodeposition from a dense gaseous solution of silver nitrate in ammonia. Process is modification of hydrothermal process, and also differs from standard electrodeposition by permitting single crystals to be grown from hydrogen-bonded solvents

Distribution anisotropy: the influence of magnetic interactions on the anisotropy of magnetic remanence

The anisotropy of magnetic remanence (AMR) is often used as a tool for examining magnetic anisotropy of rocks. However, the influence of magnetostatic interactions on AMR has not been previously rigorously addressed either theoretically or experimentally, though it is widely thought to be highly significant. Using a three-dimensional micromagnetic algorithm, we have conducted a systematic numerical study of the role of magnetostatic interactions on AMR. We have considered both lineation and foliation, by modelling assemblages of ideal single domain grains and magnetically non-uniform magnetite-like cubic grains. We show that magnetostatic interactions strongly affect the measured AMR signal. It is found that depending on the orientation of the single-grain anisotropy and grain spacing it is possible for the AMR signal from a chain or grid of grains to be either oblate or prolate. For non-uniform grains, the degree of anisotropy generally increases with increasing interactions. In the modelling of AMR anisotropy, saturation isothermal remanence was chosen for numerical tractability. The influence of interactions on other types of more commonly measured AMR, are considered in light of the results in this paper. © The Geological Society of London 2004.Accepted versio

Photoelectrochemical electrodes

The surface of a moderate band gap semiconductor such as p-type molybdenum sulfide is modified to contain an adherent film of charge mediating ionene polymer containing an electroactive unit such as bipyridimium. Electron transport between the electrode and the mediator film is favorable and photocorrosion and recombination processes are suppressed. Incorporation of particles of catalyst such as platinum within the film provides a reduction in overvoltage. The polymer film is readily deposited on the electrode surface and can be rendered stable by ionic or addition crosslinking. Catalyst can be predispersed in the polymer film or a salt can be impregnated into the film and reduced therein

Vortex Fluctuations in the Critical Casimir Effect of Superfluid and Superconducting Films

Vortex-loop renormalization techniques are used to calculate the magnitude of the critical Casimir forces in superfluid films. The force is found to become appreciable when size of the thermal vortex loops is comparable to the film thickness, and the results for T < Tc are found to match very well with perturbative renormalization theories that have only been carried out for T > Tc. When applied to a high-Tc superconducting film connected to a bulk sample, the Casimir force causes a voltage difference to appear between the film and bulk, and estimates show that this may be readily measurable.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, Revtex 4, typo correctio

Probing Proton Strangeness with Time-Like Virtual Compton Scattering

We document that p(gamma,e+e-)p measurements will yield new, important information about the off-shell time-like nucleon form factors, especially in the phi meson region (q^2 = M^2_{phi}) governing the phi N couplings g^{V,T}_{\phi N N}. Calculations for p(gamma,e+e-)p, utilizing vector meson dominance, predict measurable phi enhancements at high |t| compared to the expected phi background production from pi, eta and Pomeron exchange. The phi form factor contribution generates a novel experimental signature for OZI violation and the proton strangeness content. The phi N couplings are determined independently from a combined analysis of the neutron electric form factor and recent high |t| phi photoproduction. The pi, eta and Pomeron transition form factors are also predicted and the observed pi and eta transition moments are reproduced.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Hardware configuration for a real-time multiprocessor simulator

The Real-Time Multiprocessor Simulator (RTMPS) is a multiple microcomputer system used to investigate the application of parallel-processing concepts to real-time simulation. This users manual describes the set-up and installation considerations for the RTMPS hardware. Any modifications or further improvements to the RTMPS hardware will be documented in an addendum to this manual

Topic Maps as a Virtual Observatory tool

One major component of the VO will be catalogs measuring gigabytes and terrabytes if not more. Some mechanism like XML will be used for structuring the information. However, such mechanisms are not good for information retrieval on their own. For retrieval we use queries. Topic Maps that have started becoming popular recently are excellent for segregating information that results from a query. A Topic Map is a structured network of hyperlinks above an information pool. Different Topic Maps can form different layers above the same information pool and provide us with different views of it. This facilitates in being able to ask exact questions, aiding us in looking for gold needles in the proverbial haystack. Here we discuss the specifics of what Topic Maps are and how they can be implemented within the VO framework. URL: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~aam/science/topicmaps/Comment: 11 pages, 5 eps figures, to appear in SPIE Annual Meeting 2001 proceedings (Astronomical Data Analysis), uses spie.st