Nuclear-data needs for inertial-confinement fusion (ICF)

Our survey was limited to ICF programs in the United States. It included researchers in laser and heavy ion fusion, target design, target diagnostics, and conceptual reactor design. We asked each of these people to read the current data needs for magnetic fusion energy and to comment on additional data that they require

Testing T Invariance in the Interaction of Slow Neutrons with Aligned Nuclei

The study of five-fold (P even, T odd) correlation in the interaction of slow polarized neutrons with aligned nuclei is a possible way of testing the time reversal invariance due to the expected enhancement of T violating effects in compound resonances. Possible nuclear targets are discussed which can be aligned both dynamically as well as by the "brute force" method at low temperature. A statistical estimation is performed of the five-fold correlation for low lying p wave compound resonances of the $^{121}$Sb, $^{123}$Sb and $^{127}$I nuclei. It is shown that a significant improvement can be achieved for the bound on the intensity of the fundamental parity conserving time violating (PCTV) interaction.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, published versio

Transient, unsettling and creative space: Experiences of liminality through the accounts of Chinese students on a UK-based MBA

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ The Author(s) 2009.This article explores the experiences of liminality through the accounts of Chinese students on a UK-based MBA programme. The transient nature of the MBA experience, as well as the international status of the Chinese student, is resonant with conceptualizations of liminality as ‘in between’ space. Based on semi-structured interviews with 20 MBA graduates who had subsequently returned to China with their qualification, we explored their perceptions of outcomes from the course and their experiences as international students on a programme imbued with western norms and values. Results support the unsettling yet creative implications of liminality, as well as the fragmented insecure nature of identities, as individuals pass through the MBA ‘rite of passage’ in terms of ‘becoming’ a manager and entering a new phase of career. Accounts suggest the creation of hierarchical structures within liminal space whereby Chinese students, through their positioning at the margin, have uncomfortable yet illuminating encounters with alterity. At the same time, they experience levels of ambiguity and uncertainty in the post-liminal phase of China-located employments, as new western-based managerial identities collide with dominant discourses of Chinese organization

Generation and Characterization of the Anp32e-Deficient Mouse

Background: Accumulated literature suggests that the acidic nuclear phosphoprotein 32 kilodalton (Anp32) proteins control multiple cellular activities through different molecular mechanisms. Like other Anp32 family members, Anp32e (a.k.a. Cpd1, PhapIII) has been conserved throughout vertebrate evolution, suggesting that it has an important function in organismal survival. Principal Findings: Here, we demonstrate that the Anp32e gene can be deleted in mice without any apparent effect on their wellbeing. No defects in thymocyte apoptosis in response to various stresses, fibroblast growth, gross behaviour, physical ability, or pathogenesis were defined. Furthermore, combined deletion of Anp32a and Anp32e also resulted in a viable and apparently healthy mouse. Significance: These results provide evidence that significant functional redundancy exists among Anp32 family members

Forming a stable memory representation in the first year of life: Why imitation is more than child's play.

Although 9-month-old infants are capable of retaining temporally ordered information over long delays, this ability is relatively fragile. It may be possible to facilitate long-term retention by allowing infants to imitate event sequences immediately after their presentation. The effects of imitation on immediate and delayed recognition and on long-term recall were investigated using event-related potentials (ERPs) and elicited imitation, respectively. Mnemonic facilitation resulting from the opportunity to imitate was apparent using both assessments. ERP assessments at immediate and delayed recognition tests suggested that infants who were allowed to imitate had stronger memory representations of familiar stimuli relative to infants who only viewed the presentation of the events. In addition, infants who were allowed to imitate evidenced higher levels of ordered recall after 1 month relative to infants who only watched the experimenter’s demonstration. Therefore, imitation proved to have beneficial effects on explicit memory in 9 1 / 2 -month-olds, providing evidence of its effectiveness as a tool to augment mnemonic capabilities in infancy

Identifying Challenging Job and Environmental Demands of Older Nurses Within the National Health Service

Objectives: To explore the existing theoretical contexts of the job and environmental demands of the nursing profession in the National Health Service (NHS) and to investigate how these job and environmental demands impact on the personal constructs of older nurses within the NHS. Background: Nursing is the single most widely practiced profession in the healthcare sector in the United Kingdom. However, nurses contend with challenging job and environmental demands on a daily basis, which deplete them of personal constructs (or resources) required to stay in the profession. Methods: A multilevel exploratory qualitative research design was employed. Ten managers were interviewed for the preliminary study, based on which the three characteristics of an age-friendly NHS workplace were established: health, retirement, and flexibility. Then an in-depth literature review revealed that the most adversely affected job within the NHS was the nursing profession. Finally, a focus group study was undertaken with six older nurses working in the NHS. Results: The most compelling finding of this study is that older nurses would generally not want to stay on the job if they had to work in the ward area. The physical, cognitive, and sensory constructs of older nurses are negatively affected by the job and environmental demands of the ward areas. Conclusions: Understanding how these job and environmental demands of the workplace affect an older nurse’s personal constructs may help support a better design of nurse work and the wards and help extend the working lives of older nurses in the NHS

Creative reminiscence as an early intervention for depression: results of a pilot project.

Reminiscence may help in resolving conflicts from the past and making up the balance of one’s life. Life-review may be further enhanced by the creative expression of memories in stories, poems or drawings. In this way people are encouraged to create and discover metaphors, images and stories that symbolically represent the subjective and inner meaning of their lives. In this article, a new intervention, which combines reminiscence and creative expression aimed at early treatment of depression, is described. A pilot project showed that the intervention Searching for the meaning in life may generate small-sized effects in reducing depression. Additionally, it appears to generate effects of medium size in enhancing mastery. Several possible ways to improve the effectiveness of the intervention are described