Intentions to work with older adults: a critical exploration of psychology students’ motivations and ambition

Objectives: Previous studies offer insight into volunteering intentions and career aspirations but reveal little about work with older adults. Given the aging population, this research investigates attitudes towards older adults amongst Psychology undergraduates. Associated volunteer intentions and motivations, as well as career aspirations were also explored. Design: A questionnaire design was used in order to access motivations, intentions and attitudes. Method: Psychology undergraduates (N = 188) completed the Volunteer Function Inventory and the Attitudes to Older Adults Scale. Current volunteering status and career aspirations were measured, including likelihood of seeking future employment with older adults. Results: Negative statements about older people were rejected by these students, however, positive statements were not highly endorsed. Intentions to volunteer were high (although only 26.6% were currently volunteering), with career enhancement being the most important motivational factor (x2 (5) = 609.59, p < .001). The majority aspired to work in the applied psychologies or some sort of public service role. Despite this, only 5 students (2.7%) thought themselves very likely to work with older people. Conclusions: Despite an encouraging absence of negative attitudes to older adults amongst these students, there was an evident lack of positive attitudes and plans to work with this demographic group. Given their career aspirations and the ageing population, this may suggest a worrying naivety within the sample regarding their likelihood of working with older adults. Pedagogical input around the realities of the social world appears warranted. Longitudinal research should explore how the current measures map onto actual career trajectories

Material Morphology and energy barriers to electrical ageing

A distribution of the parameters representing activation energy of the ageing process within the Dissado-Montanari-Mazzanti (DMM) lifetime model has been shown to model experimental lifetime distributions of PET films well. The results imply small differences in the local environments of the moieties involved in the ageing process. Very small changes in the minimum activation energy values have a pronounced effect on the resultant lifetimes of polymer specimens. Changes in the distributions of activation energies with field and temperature can be explained by assuming the ageing process to be one whereby polymer segments on lamella surfaces crystallise to create free volume within the polymer

Effect of side chains on the dielectric properties of alkyl esters derived from palm kernel oil

Alkyl ester derivatives were synthesized from laboratory purified palm kernel oil. The steps in the synthesis involved transesterification of palm kernel oil to produce a methyl ester, followed by epoxidation and then the grafting of side chains by esterification with propionic and butyric anhydride. The dielectric and thermal properties of the ester derivatives were analyzed and compared with the methyl ester. The melting point of the ester derivatives were found to reduce with side chain attachment and antioxidant improved its thermal stability. The dielectric loss was dominated by mobile charged particles and the chemical modification appeared to increase the rate at which electric double layer was formed at the electrode-liquid interface. The esters possessed excellent breakdown strengths suggesting that the processing to optimize their physical properties did not have a negative influence on their electrical breakdown strength. This product may prove useful as an insulation fluid in Electrical Power Transformers

Charge distribution and electroluminescence in cross-linked polyethylene under dc field

The intent of this paper is to cross-correlate the information obtained by space charge distribution analysis and electroluminescence (EL) detection in cross-linked polyethylene samples submitted to dc fields, with the objective to make a link between space charge phenomena and energy release as revealed by the detection of visible photons. Space charge measurements carried out at different field levels by the pulsed electro-acoustic method show the presence of a low-field threshold, close to 15-20 kV mm-1, above which considerable space charge begins to accumulate in the insulation. Charges are seen to cross the insulation thickness through a packet-like behaviour at higher fields, starting at about 60-70 kV mm-1. EL measurements show the existence of two distinct thresholds, one related to the continuous excitation of EL under voltage, the other being transient EL detected upon specimen short circuit. The former occurs at values of field corresponding to charge packet formation and the latter to the onset of space charge accumulation. The correspondence between pertinent values of the electric field obtained through space charge and EL analyses provides support for the existence of degradation thresholds in insulating materials. Special emphasis is given to the relationship between charge packet formation and propagation, and EL. Although the two phenomena are observed in the same field range, it is found that the onset of continuous EL follows the formation at the electrodes of positive and negative space charge regions that extend into the bulk prior to the propagation of charge packets. Charge recombination appears to be the excitation process of EL since oppositely charged domains meet in the material bulk. To gain an insight into specific light-excitation processes associated with charge packet propagation, EL has been recorded for several hours under fields at which charge packet dynamics were evidenced. It is shown that current and luminescence oscillations are detected during charge packet propagation, and that they are in phase. The mechanisms underlying EL and charge packets are further considered on the basis of these results

Challenges and opportunities in the development of novel antimicrobial therapeutics for cystic fibrosis

Chronic respiratory infection is the primary driver of mortality in individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). Existing drug screening models utilised in preclinical antimicrobial development are unable to mimic the complex CF respiratory environment. Consequently, antimicrobials showing promising activity in preclinical models often fail to translate through to clinical efficacy in people with CF. Model systems used in CF anti-infective drug discovery and development range from antimicrobial susceptibility testing in nutrient broth, through to 2D and 3D in vitro tissue culture systems and in vivo models. No single model fully recapitulates every key aspect of the CF lung. To improve the outcomes of people with CF (PwCF) it is necessary to develop a set of preclinical models that collectively recapitulate the CF respiratory environment to a high degree of accuracy. Models must be validated for their ability to mimic aspects of the CF lung and associated lung infection, through evaluation of biomarkers that can also be assessed following treatment in the clinic. This will give preclinical models greater predictive power for identification of antimicrobials with clinical efficacy. The landscape of CF is changing, with the advent of modulator therapies that correct the function of the CFTR protein, while antivirulence drugs and phage therapy are emerging alternative treatments to chronic infection. This review discusses the challenges faced in current antimicrobial development pipelines, including the advantages and disadvantages of current preclinical models and the impact of emerging treatments

Some Abnormal Reactions of Organomagnesium Halides

Nitro and nitroso groups react with methylmagnesium halides (and other RMgX compounds) to give methane and some ethane. The gases so evolved make it necessary to correct for the ordinary determination of active hydrogen by means of the Zerewitinoff method. Accordingly, the new hydroxy structure proposed for o-nitrobenzaladehyde finds no support on the basis of gas evolved when treated with alkylmagnesium halides

Comparative genomics of isolates of a pseudomonas aeruginosa epidemic strain associated with chronic lung infections of cystic fibrosis patients

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the main cause of fatal chronic lung infections among individuals suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF). During the past 15 years, particularly aggressive strains transmitted among CF patients have been identified, initially in Europe and more recently in Canada. The aim of this study was to generate high-quality genome sequences for 7 isolates of the Liverpool epidemic strain (LES) from the United Kingdom and Canada representing different virulence characteristics in order to: (1) associate comparative genomics results with virulence factor variability and (2) identify genomic and/or phenotypic divergence between the two geographical locations. We performed phenotypic characterization of pyoverdine, pyocyanin, motility, biofilm formation, and proteolytic activity. We also assessed the degree of virulence using the Dictyostelium discoideum amoeba model. Comparative genomics analysis revealed at least one large deletion (40-50 kb) in 6 out of the 7 isolates compared to the reference genome of LESB58. These deletions correspond to prophages, which are known to increase the competitiveness of LESB58 in chronic lung infection. We also identified 308 non-synonymous polymorphisms, of which 28 were associated with virulence determinants and 52 with regulatory proteins. At the phenotypic level, isolates showed extensive variability in production of pyocyanin, pyoverdine, proteases and biofilm as well as in swimming motility, while being predominantly avirulent in the amoeba model. Isolates from the two continents were phylogenetically and phenotypically undistinguishable. Most regulatory mutations were isolate-specific and 29% of them were predicted to have high functional impact. Therefore, polymorphism in regulatory genes is likely to be an important basis for phenotypic diversity among LES isolates, which in turn might contribute to this strain's adaptability to varying conditions in the CF lung

Coaxial multi-mode cavities for fundamental SRF research in an unprecedented parameter space

Recent developments in superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) research have focused primarily on high frequency elliptical cavities for electron accelerators. Advances have been made in both reducing RF surface resistance and pushing the readily achievable accelerating gradient by using novel SRF cavity treatments including surface processing, custom heat treatments, and flux expulsion. Despite the global demand for SRF based hadron accelerators, the advancement of TEM mode cavities has lagged behind. To address this, two purpose-built research cavities, one quarter-wave and one half-wave resonator, have been designed and built to allow characterization of TEM-mode cavities with standard and novel surface treatments. The cavities are intended as the TEM mode equivalent to the 1.3GHz single cell cavity, which is the essential tool for high frequency cavity research. Given their coaxial structure, the cavities allow testing at the fundamental mode and higher harmonics, giving unique insight into the role of RF frequency on fundamental loss mechanisms from intrinsic and extrinsic sources. In this paper, the cavities and testing infrastructure are described and the first performance measurements of both cavities are presented

Inhibitors of Leishmania mexicana phosphoglycerate mutase identified by virtual screening and verified by inhibition studies

Cofactor-independent phosphoglycerate mutase has been proposed as a therapeutic target for the treatment of trypanosomatid diseases. In this paper, we report the identification of compounds that could potentially be developed as selective inhibitors of cofactor-independent phosphoglycerate mutase from Leishmania mexicana (LmiPGAM). Virtual screening was used in this search, as well as compounds identified by high-throughput screening. A ligand-based virtual screen programme, ultra fast shape recognition with atom types (UFSRAT), was used to screen for compounds resembling the substrate/product, before a structure-based approach was applied using AutoDock 4 and AutoDock Vina in a consensus docking scheme. In this way eight selected compounds were identified. In addition, three compounds from the Library of Pharmacologically Active Compounds (LOPAC) were selected from the published results of high-throughput screening of this library. The inhibitory effects of these compounds were tested at a fixed concentration of 1 mM. The results showed that seven compounds inhibited LmiPGAM activity and of these, two compounds (one each from high-throughput and virtual screening) showed substantial inhibition (i.e. 14% and 49% remaining activity, respectively). Taken together, the findings from this study indicate that these compounds have potential as novel inhibitors that specifically target LmiPGAM