Professional Hope in Working with Older Adults

Writings about hope within gerontological literature assume social workers already possess hope that they can use in their practice. The purpose of this article is to challenge this assumption and to examine ways in which social workers can sustain hope in personal life, in their agencies, and in the reform of larger social structures that impact older adults. The authors examine culture change in nursing homes as an emerging approach that can be more fully developed by applying the strengths perspective to interpersonal work with elders, agency change and broader structural change

Disentangling the Effects of Violent Victimization, Violent Behavior, and Gun Carrying for Minority Inner-City Youth Living in Extreme Poverty

Two waves of longitudinal data were used to examine the sequencing between violent victimization, violent behavior, and gun carrying in a high-poverty sample of African American youth. Multivariate logistic regression results indicated that violent victimization T1 and violent behavior T1 increased the likelihood of initiation of gun carrying T2 when examined separately (by 132% and 91%, respectively). However, only violent victimization T1 was a significant predictor of initiation of gun carrying T2 after controlling for violent behavior T1. More nuanced analyses uncovered no significant difference in the likelihood of initiating gun carrying when comparing offensive versus defensive gun carriers. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings are also discussed

Back to Addams and Richmond: Was Social Work Really A Divided House in the Beginning?

Social work has experienced unique tensions related to its professional identity and dual purpose of social reform and individualized treatment. Scholars have represented this dual purpose, epitomized by Jane Addams and Mary Richmond, as indicating irreconcilable differences. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the writings and speeches of Mary Richmond and Jane Addams, and, based on this inquiry, to assert that their respective approaches to social work are much more unified than often suggested. Specific themes examined include: acceptance and need for each other’s perspectives; compatibility and unity of perspectives; and their collaboration as critical for effecting social change. With this more complex understanding of Richmond and Addams, the authors speculate about how a more holistic approach to social work practice is needed in the 21st century

Back to Addams and Richmond: Was Social Work Really a Divided House in the Beginning?

Social work has experienced unique tensions related to its professional identity and dual purpose of social reform and individualized treatment. Scholars have represented this dual purpose, epitomized by Jane Addams and Mary Richmond, as indicating irreconcilable differences. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the writings and speeches of Mary Richmond and Jane Addams, and, based on this inquiry, to assert that their respective approaches to social work are much more unified than often suggested. Specific themes examined include: acceptance and need for each other’s perspectives; compatibility and unity of perspectives; and their collaboration as critical for effecting social change. With this more complex understanding of Richmond and Addams, the authors speculate about how a more holistic approach to social work practice is needed in the 21st century

The role of intermolecular coupling in the photophysics of disordered organic semiconductors: Aggregate emission in regioregular polythiophene

We address the role of excitonic coulping on the nature of photoexcitations in the conjugated polymer regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene). By means of temperature-dependent absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy, we show that optical emission is overwhelmingly dominated by weakly coupled H-aggregates. The relative absorbance of the 0-0 and 0-1 vibronic peaks provides a powerfully simple means to extract the magnitude of the intermolecular coupling energy, approximately 5 and 30 meV for films spun from isodurene and chloroform solutions respectively.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, published in Phys. Rev. Let

Important factors to model climate change effects on evapotranspiration

Although growers have considerable control over crop production, a major concern is the anticipated increase in evapotranspiration (ET) due to global warming. ET rates, however, are also affected by radiation, humidity, wind speed, crop morphology, and crop physiology in addition to temperature. Crop ET (ETc) is commonly estimated as the product of reference ET (ET0) and a crop coefficient (Kc), and the main factors affecting Kc values are net radiation, aerodynamic resistance, and canopy resistance differences between the reference and crop surfaces. The standardized ET0 equation has fixed values for the canopy resistance (rc), and different values are likely for other crops. The rc values might also adjust with increasing CO2 and higher temperature. Aerodynamic resistance (ra) depends on atmospheric stability, wind speed, and surface roughness. The relative aerodynamic contributions of sensible heat to ET0 and ETc could change if the canopy development or the wind speed climatology are modified by global warming. In this paper, we will discuss how the ET0 and Kc values vary with microclimate and how Kc values and ET0 rates might react to global warming

Determining exciton bandwidth and film microstructure in polythiophene films using linear absorption spectroscopy

We analyze the linear absorption spectrum of regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) films spun from a variety of solvents to probe directly the film microstructure and how it depends on processing conditions. We estimate the exciton bandwidth and the percentage of the film composed of aggregates quantitatively using a weakly interacting H-aggregate model. This provides a description of the degree and quality of crystallites within the film and is in turn correlated with thin-film field-effect transistor characteristics.Comment: Applied Physics Letters (in press); 9 pages, three figure

Mechanical Manipulation of Quantum Interference in Single-Molecule Junctions

Mechanosensitive molecular junctions, where conductance is sensitive to an applied stress such as force or displacement, are a class of nanoelectromechanical systems unique for their ability to exploit quantum mechanical phenomena. Most studies so far relied on reconfiguration of the molecule-electrode interface to impart mechanosensitivity, but this approach is limited and, generally, poorly reproducible. Alternatively, devices that exploit conformational flexibility of molecular wires have been recently proposed. The mechanosensitive properties of molecular wires containing the 1,1'-dinaphthyl moiety are presented here. Rotation along the chemical bond between the two naphthyl units is possible, giving rise to two conformers (transoid and cisoid) that have distinctive transport properties. When assembled as single-molecule junctions, it is possible to mechanically trigger the transoid to cisoid transition, resulting in an exquisitely sensitive mechanical switch with high switching ratio (> 102 ). Theoretical modeling shows that charge reconfiguration upon transoid to cisoid transition is responsible for the observed behavior, with generation and subsequent lifting of quantum interference features. These findings expand the experimental toolbox of molecular electronics with a novel chemical structure with outstanding electromechanical properties, further demonstrating the importance of subtle changes in charge delocalization on the transport properties of single-molecule devices

International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: meal frequency

Position Statement: Admittedly, research to date examining the physiological effects of meal frequency in humans is somewhat limited. More specifically, data that has specifically examined the impact of meal frequency on body composition, training adaptations, and performance in physically active individuals and athletes is scant. Until more research is available in the physically active and athletic populations, definitive conclusions cannot be made. However, within the confines of the current scientific literature, we assert that:1. Increasing meal frequency does not appear to favorably change body composition in sedentary populations.2. If protein levels are adequate, increasing meal frequency during periods of hypoenergetic dieting may preserve lean body mass in athletic populations.3. Increased meal frequency appears to have a positive effect on various blood markers of health, particularly LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, and insulin.4. Increased meal frequency does not appear to significantly enhance diet induced thermogenesis, total energy expenditure or resting metabolic rate.5. Increasing meal frequency appears to help decrease hunger and improve appetite control.The following literature review has been prepared by the authors in support of the aforementioned position statement