‘It's a double whammy’ A qualitative study of illness uncertainty in individuals with Parkinson's disease in the context of COVID-19

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of individuals with Parkinson's through the theoretical lens of illness uncertainty during the first UK full lockdown period (March–June 2020) put in place due outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Individual semi-structured interviews were carried out via telephone in May 2020 with 10 individuals with Parkinson's (six men and four women) recruited from Parkinson's UK. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the resulting data. Results: Four overarching themes emerged from the interview data: (1) COVID-19 amplifying existing fears and difficulties around the uncertainty of Parkinson's; (2) practical and psychological efforts to manage uncertainty; (3) benefit-finding as a way of acknowledging the positives of lockdown; (4) risk and future management in the context of uncertainty. Discussion: Participants reported a range of implicit and explicit strategies to cope with the ‘double whammy’ of uncertainty caused by having Parkinson's during a global pandemic. While these were generally successful in maintaining well-being, it is important that such successful accounts are used to help inform novel strategies and interventions targeting individuals who might need additional support

Psychological Interventions for People with Huntington's Disease:A Call to Arms

Background: Although Huntington's disease (HD) can cause a wide range of psychological difficulties, no review has ever been carried out on the range of psychological interventions adopted with this population. Objective: To scope the literature on psychological interventions for psychological difficulties in people affected by HD. Methods: A systematic scoping review was performed across MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Academic Search Ultimate, and Cochrane Library up to 1 March 2020. Results: From an initial return of 1579 citations, a total of nine papers were considered eligible for review. These included a qualitative investigation, three case studies, two case series, two uncontrolled pretest-posttest designs, and only one randomised control trial (RCT). Despite the wide range of psychological difficulties which can be experienced by people affected by the HD gene expansion, the adopted interventions only accounted for five main psychological outcomes (anxiety, apathy, depression, irritability, and coping). Further discussion and suggestions for future research are provided for each outcome. Conclusion: The current literature on psychological interventions in people affected by HD is extremely limited both in terms of methods and addressed clinical outcomes. Consequently, no conclusions can be offered yet as to which psychological therapy may help this population. As further more comprehensive research is urgently needed for this group, the ultimate aim of the present review is to act as a call to arms for HD researchers worldwide to help shed light on the most effective way to translate psychological theory into practice for the benefit of people affected by HD

Structural assessment of the Hoist Tower of the Arsenal of Venice

The Arsenale of Venice is a naval shipyard that played a leading role in the Venetian empire, representing a large but little known monumental complex of exceptional historical value. It was one of the most important areas of Venice, vital for the economy of the Serenissima republic for many centuries. A structure having a very specific function during the original shipbuilding is the hoist tower located in the Arsenale\u2019s main gate, the Porta Nuova, an impressive masonry construction built from the French dominators during the early 1800\u2019s, similarly to existing buildings in the Northern Europe. It is about 35 m tall and it is composed by brick masonry and Istria\u2019s stone inserts, with trapezoidal base. The evolution in the naval construction technique reduced its function until a total abandon, especially after the realization of a quay all around it, still existing nowadays. In the paper, preliminary investigations (historical documentation, direct survey, experimental characterization of masonry physical and mechanical properties, detection of damage and deterioration conditions), as well as structural analysis developed for the tower are presented. The mechanical interpretation and the safety assessment were performed through the implementation of several models of the Tower with different Finite Element procedures, taking into account both the linear and non-linear masonry behaviour

Structural differences between superconducting and non-superconducting CaCuO2/SrTiO3 interfaces

A study of the interface structure of superconducting and non-superconducting CaCuO2/SrTiO3 heterostructures grown on NdGaO3(110) substrates is reported. Using the combination of high resolution x-ray reflectivity and surface diffraction, the crystallographic structure of superconducting and non-superconducting samples has been investigated. The analysis has demonstrated the excellent sharpness of the CaCuO2/SrTiO3 interface (roughness smaller than one perovskite unit cell). Furthermore, we were able to discriminate between the superconducting and the non-superconducting phase. In the former case, we found an increase of the spacing between the topmost Ca plane of CaCuO2 block and the first TiO2 plane of the overlaying STO block, relative to the non-superconducting case. These results are in agreement with the model that foresees a strong oxygen incorporation in the interface Ca plane in the superconducting heterostructures

Emerging proton conductivity at the interface between insulating NdGa O3 and BaZr O3

This article reports on the interplay between structural properties of the interface region and emerging proton conductivity in thin films of insulating BaZrO3 perovskite deposited by pulsed laser ablation onto NdGaO3 wide-band-gap insulators. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and surface x-ray diffraction reveal the presence of a large number of misfit dislocations at the interface, allowing the full relaxation of the epitaxial strain. An analysis of the x-ray diffraction patterns reveals strain relaxation that occurs over a thickness of about 3 nm, equally divided between the film and the substrate. Electrical impedance spectroscopy measurements show a sizeable proton conductance that can mainly be attributed to the defective interface. Assuming that proton conduction occurs in the interface layer, values of interface conductivity of about 0.5 S/cm at 650 degrees C are estimated with an activation energy of about 0.86 eV. Experimental findings are explained assuming that the defective interface layer can accommodate a very large concentration of carriers whose mobility is somewhat hindered by the high concentration of structural defects at the interface

The effect of structural disorder on the hydrogen loading into the graphene/nickel interface

Hybrid materials composed by porous Ni foams coated by graphene appear appealing architectures to be applied in the field of hydrogen storage, where, due to the high surface-to-volume ratio of both components, are expected to be much more performant than their flat counterparts. In order to explore this possibility, in this study we have grown single layer graphene on nickel foams by chemical vapour deposition in ultra-high vacuum and have investigated the interaction with H atoms as a function of the temperature. By using high resolution C1s core level spectroscopy we found that nearly half of the graphene layer interacts with the support almost as strongly as with the flat ordered Ni substrate, whereas the other half is nearly free standing. Such dual electronic and structural coupling drives the hydrogenation of the graphene/foam interface. By using thermal programmed desorption combined with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy we found that in the weakly interacting graphene regions, even at very low temperatures, H atoms easily intercalate below graphene, and enter in the bulk of the foam, from where they start to desorb around 180 K. This behaviour mimics what happens when dosing H atoms on the bare Ni foam. On the contrary, H intercalation below the strongly interacting graphene regions occurs only for temperatures around and above 200 K. The thermal desorption curves demonstrated that the presence of the graphene layer does not reduce the effectiveness of H loading in the bulk of the foam. On the other hand, it does not even increase significantly the stored amount with respect to the uncoated support, but contributes to stabilizing the stored hydrogen. Although the fundamental aspects of graphene/foam hydrogenation were here investigated in a regime far below the saturation of the bulk absorption, these measurements can be the starting point for further investigations aimed at establishing the ultimate storage capability of these hybrid nano -structured tanks

Nonlinear Effects with Diastereomeric Ligand Mixtures in Enantioselective, Catalytic Additions of Terminal Alkynes Involving Copper–PINAP Complexes

A strong positive NLE has been observed with mixtures of ligand diastereomers in the addition of terminal alkynes to Meldrums’ acid-derived acceptors and imminium ions using PINAP ligands. This NLE is such that the diastereomeric ligand mixture obtained from synthesis (10–26% de) can be employed directly in the conjugate addition reaction or imminium additions, furnishing products in high ee