The use of professional portfolios and profiles for career enhancement.

Since 1995, registered nurses and midwives have been obliged to develop and maintain a professional portfolio of evidence reflecting the learning activities that they have undertaken and how these have informed and influenced their practice. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that rather then just a retrospective account of continuing professional development activities, a portfolio can be used as a vehicle for engaging in self-assessment and personal development planning. Possible structures and type of evidence are explored and portfolios in the context of gaining accreditation for prior experiential learning, and in particular for those nurses in advanced clinical roles, are discussed

Economic Interpretations of Intergenerational Correlations

Economic theory offers interpretations of intergenerational correlations that are different from the theories of other disciplines, and have important policy implications. Our paper presents a subset of those theories, and shows how they are consistent with observed mobility patterns as they vary across countries, demographic groups, and economic status measure. The data may suggest that the economic approach overemphasizes credit constraints, although more work is needed to further develop some of the alternative economic models. We also show how, in the models, 'progressive' policy may reduce mobility depending on how the policy is administered and how mobility is measured.

Quantitative Determination of the Adiabatic Condition Using Force-Detected Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

The adiabatic condition governing cyclic adiabatic inversion of proton spins in a micron-sized ammonium chloride crystal was studied using room temperature nuclear magnetic resonance force microscopy. A systematic degradation of signal-to-noise was observed as the adiabatic condition became violated. A theory of adiabatic following applicable to cyclic adiabatic inversion is reviewed and implemented to quantitatively determine an adiabaticity threshold $(\gamma H_1)^2/(\omega_{osc}\Omega) = 6.0$ from our experimental results.Comment: 5 pages, 3 fig

Theories of addiction and their clinical implications

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW TITLE The impact of the disease model of addiction on the self-perception and recovery potential of substance users: A systematic review ABSTRACT Scientific discourse about addiction might have implications for the way that problematic substance users see themselves and their recovery journey. Proponents of the brain disease model of addiction (BDMA) argue that emphasising the biological determinants of addiction should reduce problematic substance users’ negative self-perception (blame, shame) and enhance their potential for recovery. Critics of the BDMA predict the opposite, arguing that emphasising biological determinants is likely to increase problematic substance users’ negative self-perception and reduce their recovery potential. The current systematic review collated studies that have tested these predictions. Systematic searches of PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science Core Collection were conducted in January 2024. Eligible studies included correlational and/or experimental framing designs that measured/manipulated substance users’ beliefs in a disease construct of addiction to detect correlations/effects on their negative self-perception or recovery potential. Risk of bias was assessed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies. Synthesis was conducted through vote counting based on direction of correlations/effects and summarised narratively due to significant heterogeneity in study design. After title and abstract screening, full-text review, and reference list checks, a total of 16 studies were included in the review. Nine studies were correlational designs with mostly treatment-engaged participants whereas the other seven were experimental framing designs with harmful substance users. A variety of outcomes indexing recovery potential were identified including relapse status, substance use severity, self-efficacy, treatment attendance, treatment motivation, and problem recognition. Indices of negative self-perception included self-blame, perceived discrimination to self, and shame. Seventy-seven effects were extracted from the 16 studies and vote counted. Forty-two relationships were identified in correlational studies: 19 null, 10 beneficial, and 12 iatrogenic for recovery potential, and one null for negative self-perception. Thirty-five effects were identified in framing studies: 20 null, one beneficial, and seven iatrogenic on recovery potential, and six null, zero beneficial, and one iatrogenic on negative self-perception. Null effect was the most common finding but the significant effects indicated limited support for the iatrogenic hypothesis. However, a systematic research program is required before strong claims can be made about whether scientific discourse emphasising the brain disease model of addiction affects substance users’ negative self-perception and recovery potential. This finding was interpreted in light of conceptual ambiguities in defining a disease model of addiction and methodological difficulties inherent in quantifying the precise aspects of beliefs about the causes and nature of addiction that are most pertinent to substance users’ negative self-perceptions and recovery potential. Additionally, ideologically driven epistemic grandiosity and associated economic incentives towards a more reductionist view of science were implicated, along with opposition to such trends. Recommendations for future research into substance users’ beliefs about addiction include a greater emphasis on qualitative methodologies alongside a shift towards within-subject in-person designs for quantitative research. Additionally, the focus on addiction aetiology is questioned, and a shift towards research that focuses on the processes, subjective and objective, that lead substance users towards recovery from addiction is advocated. EMPIRICAL STUDY TITLE The impact of explanatory theories of addiction on the perceived recovery potential of treatment-engaged substance users ABSTRACT Significant time, effort, and financial resources are invested into neurobiological addiction research, influenced by the seductive allure of theories like the brain disease model of addiction (BDMA). Critics of this approach suggest it has not delivered effective treatments and argue that such research about substance users results in epistemic violence, turning substance users into “neurobiological others” which both marginalises them from wider society and undermines their potential for recovery. Alternative addiction theories attempt to broaden the research focus towards psychological and social factors, promoting a more social justice approach to addiction. This study investigated whether emphasising biological over social causal factors in addiction has a negative impact on substance users’ potential for recovery, with the exception of reducing self-blame. A within-subjects design was used to explore the impact of simplified biological and social addiction theories on ten outcome variables that tapped constructs linked to participants perceived recovery potential from addiction. Participants were 34 working age adult service users from a drug and alcohol service in Southern England, UK. The study hypotheses were mostly supported with worse scores on measures of therapeutic alliance, social support, recovery optimism, belief in the probability of relapsing, and self-predicted substance use, and a better score on the measure of self-blame under the framing of the biological compared to the social addiction theory. No support was found for any difference between the two addiction theories on measures of self-efficacy and coping, resilience, treatment motivation, or negative affect about self. These findings were interpreted using the mixed blessing model of biogenetic explanations (Haslam & Kvaale, 2015) which suggests blame is reduced through attributions of uncontrollability at the cost of increasing prognostic pessimism through psychological essentialism. By contrast, the social theory presented in the study offered an inversed mixed blessing, increasing prognostic optimism at the cost of increasing participants blame towards themselves. The inclusion of genetic vulnerability within the biological theory presented in the study may be the reason such a mixed blessing was found (Loughman & Haslam, 2018). The results of the study provide support for the value of in-depth exploration of substance users understandings of their addiction as a critical aspect of treatment. In clinical psychology, professional and service user knowledge and experience can be integrated into formulations of addiction that emphasise “what's happened to you?” over “what's wrong with you?” (Harper & Cromby, 2022), and suggest pathways to recovery that fit with substance users’ needs and capabilities. This emphasis on shared understanding and collaboration is a direct challenge to scientific knowledge generated about substance users and instead promotes scientific knowledge that is both for and from those struggling with addiction. Such an ethical position is essential in the human sciences generally, but is particularly important in the applied science of clinical psychology and related mental health professions. It is hoped that the findings of this study will be of use to those struggling with addiction and the people supporting them on their journey towards recovery

Targeting of anionic membrane species by lanthanide(III) complexes: towards improved MRI contrast agents for apoptosis

No abstract available

Magnetocaloric effect in Gd/W thin film heterostructures

In an effort to understand the impact of nanostructuring on the magnetocaloric effect, we have grown and studied gadolinium in MgO/W(50 $\textrm{\AA}$)/[Gd(400 $\textrm{\AA}$)/W(50 $\textrm{\AA}$)]$_8$ heterostructures. The entropy change associated with the second order magnetic phase transition was determined from the isothermal magnetization for numerous temperatures and the appropriate Maxwell relation. The entropy change peaks at a temperature of 284 K with a value of approximately 3.4 J/kg-K for a 0-30 kOe field change; the full width at half max of the entropy change peak is about 70 K, which is significantly wider than that of bulk Gd under similar conditions. The relative cooling power of this nanoscale system is about 240 J/kg, somewhat lower than that of bulk Gd (410 J/kg). An iterative Kovel-Fisher method was used to determine the critical exponents governing the phase transition to be $\beta=0.51$, and $\gamma=1.75$. Along with a suppressed Curie temperature relative to the bulk, the fact that the convergent value of $\gamma$ is that predicted by the 2-D Ising model may suggest that finite size effects play an important role in this system. Together, these observations suggest that nanostructuring may be a promising route to tailoring the magnetocaloric response of materials