Friendgrief: Perspectives on the Loss of a Friend

This purpose of this study was to determine the connection between friendship and grief through interviews with professionals in the grief and loss field. The literature review explored friendship and grief within the framework of adult attachment theory. The two independent topics then merged in a discussion about the concept of Friendgrief, the grief experienced due to the death of a friend. The present qualitative study interviewed five grief and loss professionals working in various settings to discover their perspectives on Friendgrief and its implications on social work practice. The content analysis of the data was accomplished through transcription and coding of the interviews. Four major themes emerged from the data analysis: attachment, friendship, grief, and integration of the loss. The interviewees all emphasized the importance of the depth of attachment and connection within a friendship and put less emphasis on the title of the relationship. The respondents also discussed that grief is an individual experience unique to each person that goes through the process. The last major theme found in this study was the importance of the integration of the loss into one’s life. Surprisingly disenfranchised grief, which was very prominent in the literature review, was only mentioned sparingly throughout the interviews and was not determined to be an overarching theme in this study

Friendgrief: Perspectives on the Loss of a Friend

This purpose of this study was to determine the connection between friendship and grief through interviews with professionals in the grief and loss field. The literature review explored friendship and grief within the framework of adult attachment theory. The two independent topics then merged in a discussion about the concept of Friendgrief, the grief experienced due to the death of a friend. The present qualitative study interviewed five grief and loss professionals working in various settings to discover their perspectives on Friendgrief and its implications on social work practice. The content analysis of the data was accomplished through transcription and coding of the interviews. Four major themes emerged from the data analysis: attachment, friendship, grief, and integration of the loss. The interviewees all emphasized the importance of the depth of attachment and connection within a friendship and put less emphasis on the title of the relationship. The respondents also discussed that grief is an individual experience unique to each person that goes through the process. The last major theme found in this study was the importance of the integration of the loss into one’s life. Surprisingly disenfranchised grief, which was very prominent in the literature review, was only mentioned sparingly throughout the interviews and was not determined to be an overarching theme in this study

Seasonal variation of fatty acid profiles from textiles associated with decomposing pig remains in a temperate Australian environment

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. A methodology to examine the human post-mortem decomposition process has been developed through the monitoring of chemical changes to decomposition fluids absorbed by clothing. Model surface burials using clothed pigs were established during summer and winter seasons in a temperate region of Australia. Three clothing materials were investigated: cotton, polyester and cotton-polyester. Lipid decomposition products were extracted from the textiles and the fatty acid composition measured as a function of burial time using gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Two derivatisation methods for the fatty acids were compared to establish the most effective approach and it was established that a trimethylsilylation derivatisation method is the optimal preparation technique. The summer trials revealed two rates of transformation of fatty acids from unsaturated to saturated forms, with a faster rate of change occurring earlier in the trials. A different pattern of behaviour was observed for the fatty acids detected during the winter trial, with a decrease in saturated fatty acids initially observed, followed by the conversion of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids until the end of trial. The initial change observed during the winter trial was attributed to a dehydrogenation process caused by microbiological enyzymatic activity. The study has demonstrated the feasibility of examining lipid decomposition products collected in clothing from burials to provide insight into the conditions and length of burial

High-resolution x-ray diffraction study of the heavy-fermion compound YbBiPt

YbBiPt is a heavy-fermion compound possessing significant short-range antiferromagnetic correlations below a temperature of $T^{\textrm{*}}=0.7$ K, fragile antiferromagnetic order below $T_{\rm{N}}=0.4$ K, a Kondo temperature of $T_{\textrm{K}} \approx1$ K, and crystalline-electric-field splitting on the order of $E/k_{\textrm{B}}=1\,\textrm{-}\,10$ K. Whereas the compound has a face-centered-cubic lattice at ambient temperature, certain experimental data, particularly those from studies aimed at determining its crystalline-electric-field scheme, suggest that the lattice distorts at lower temperature. Here, we present results from high-resolution, high-energy x-ray diffraction experiments which show that, within our experimental resolution of $\approx6\,\textrm{-}\,10\times10^{-5}$ \AA, no structural phase transition occurs between $T=1.5$ and $50$ K. In combination with results from dilatometry measurements, we further show that the compound's thermal expansion has a minimum at $\approx18$ K and a region of negative thermal expansion for $9<T<18$ K. Despite diffraction patterns taken at $1.6$ K which indicate that the lattice is face-centered cubic and that the Yb resides on a crystallographic site with cubic point symmetry, we demonstrate that the linear thermal expansion may be modeled using crystalline-electric-field level schemes appropriate for Yb$^{3+}$ residing on a site with either cubic or less than cubic point symmetry.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Origin of Electric Field Induced Magnetization in Multiferroic HoMnO3

We have performed polarized and unpolarized small angle neutron scattering experiments on single crystals of HoMnO3 and have found that an increase in magnetic scattering at low momentum transfers begins upon cooling through temperatures close to the spin reorientation transition at TSR ~ 40 K. We attribute the increase to an uncompensated magnetization arising within antiferromagnetic domain walls. Polarized neutron scattering experiments performed while applying an electric field show that the field suppresses magnetic scattering below T ~ 50 K, indicating that the electric field affects the magnetization via the antiferromagnetic domain walls rather than through a change to the bulk magnetic order

Degradation patterns of natural and synthetic textiles on a soil surface during summer and winter seasons studied using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Textiles are a valuable source of forensic evidence and the nature and condition of textiles collected from a crime scene can assist investigators in determining the nature of the death and aid in the identification of the victim. Until now, much of the knowledge of textile degradation in forensic contexts has been based on the visual inspection of material collected from soil environments. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the potential of a more quantitative approach to the understanding of forensic textile degradation through the application of infrared spectroscopy. Degradation patterns of natural and synthetic textile materials as they were subjected to a natural outdoor environment in Australia were investigated. Cotton, polyester and polyester – cotton blend textiles were placed on a soil surface during the summer and winter seasons and were analysed over periods 1 and 1.5 years, respectively, and examined using attenuated total reflectance (ATR) spectroscopy. Statistical analysis of the spectral data obtained for the cotton material correlated with visual degradation and a difference in the onset of degradation between the summer and winter season was revealed. The synthetic material did not show any signs of degradation either visually or statistically throughout the experimental period and highlighted the importance of material type in terms of preservation. The cotton section from the polyester – cotton blend samples was found to behave in a similar manner to that of the 100% cotton samples, however principal component analysis (PCA) demonstrated that the degradation patterns were less distinct in both the summer and winter trial for the blend samples. These findings indicated that the presence of the synthetic material may have inhibited the degradation of the natural material. The use of statistics to analyse the spectral data obtained for textiles of forensic interest provides a better foundation for the interpretation of the data obtained using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, and has provided insight into textile degradation processes relevant to a soil environment

CCNE1 Amplification as a Predictive Biomarker of Chemotherapy Resistance in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is the most-deadly gynecologic malignancy, with greater than 14,000 women expected to succumb to the disease this year in the United States alone. In the front-line setting, patients are treated with a platinum and taxane doublet. Although 40-60% of patients achieve complete clinical response to first-line chemotherapy, 25% are inherently platinum-resistant or refractory with a median overall survival of about one year. More than 80% of women afflicted with ovarian cancer will recur. Many attempts have been made to understand the mechanism of platinum and taxane based chemotherapy resistance. However, despite decades of research, few predictive markers of chemotherapy resistance have been identified. Here, we review the current understanding of one of the most common genetic alterations in epithelial ovarian cancer, CCNE1 (cyclin E1) amplification, and its role as a potential predictive marker of cytotoxic chemotherapy resistance. CCNE1 amplification has been identified as a primary oncogenic driver in a subset of high grade serous ovarian cancer that have an unmet clinical need. Understanding the interplay between cyclin E1 amplification and other common ovarian cancer genetic alterations provides the basis for chemotherapeutic resistance in CCNE1 amplified disease. Exploration of the effect of cyclin E1 amplification on the cellular machinery that causes dysregulated proliferation in cancer cells has allowed investigators to explore promising targeted therapies that provide the basis for emerging clinical trials

Effective One-Dimensional Coupling in the Highly-Frustrated Square-Lattice Itinerant Magnet CaCo2−y_{\mathrm{2}-y}As2_{2}

Inelastic neutron scattering measurements on the itinerant antiferromagnet (AFM) CaCo$_{\mathrm{2}-y}$As$_{2}$ at a temperature of 8 K reveal two orthogonal planes of scattering perpendicular to the Co square lattice in reciprocal space, demonstrating the presence of effective one-dimensional spin interactions. These results are shown to arise from near-perfect bond frustration within the $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model on a square lattice with ferromagnetic $J_1$, and hence indicate that the extensive previous experimental and theoretical study of the $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model on local-moment square spin lattices should be expanded to include itinerant spin systems

A comparison of human and pig decomposition rates and odour profiles in an Australian environment

© 2018, © 2018 Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences. Cadaver-detection dogs are trained to locate victim remains; however, their training is challenging owing to limited access to human remains. Animal analogues, such as pigs, are typically used as alternative training aids. This project aimed to compare the visual decomposition and volatile organic compound (VOC) profile of human and pig remains in an Australian environment, to determine the suitability of pig remains as human odour analogues for cadaver-detection dog training. Four human cadavers and four pig carcasses were placed in an outdoor environment at the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER) across two seasons. Decomposition was monitored progressively in summer and winter. VOCs were collected onto sorbent tubes and analysed using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography–time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Visual observations highlighted the differences in decomposition rates, with pig remains progressing through all stages of decomposition, and human remains undergoing differential decomposition and mummification. Chemical and statistical analysis highlighted variations in the composition and abundance of VOCs over time between the odour profiles. This study concluded that the visual decomposition and VOC profile of pig and human remains was dissimilar. However, in cooler conditions the results from each species became more comparable, especially during the early stages of decomposition