A Comparison of Leisure Time Spent in a Garden with Leisure Time Spent Indoors: On Measures of Restoration in Residents in Geriatric Care

During the past 20 years, findings have indicated that nature plays an active role in helping people recover from stress and fatigue. Two of the most cited theories in this field are Rachel and Stephen Kaplan's theory of recovery from Directed Attention Fatigue in nature and Roger Ulrich's theory of aesthetic and affective responses to natural environments and stress recovery. One aim of the present study is to test whether being outdoors in a green recreational environment causes people to be more focused, compared to being in a room indoors (in line with hypotheses suggested by the Kaplans). Another aim is to test whether people experience stress reduction, i.e. as evidenced by changes in blood pressure and heart rate, if they are placed in an environment with many green elements (in line with hypotheses suggested by Ulrich). The overall study design is that of an intervention study. Fifteen elderly persons living at a home for very elderly people participated. Their powers of concentration, blood pressure and heart rate were measured before and after an hour of rest in a garden or in an indoor setting. Seven elderly people were randomly chosen to have their first series of tests in a garden, while eight elderly people had their first series of tests indoors. The results indicate that powers of concentration increase for very elderly people after a visit to a garden outside the geriatric home in which they live, compared to that after resting indoors in their favourite room. The results did not show any effects on blood pressure or heart rate. It is suggested that having a one-hour rest outdoors in a garden setting plays a role in elderly people's powers of concentration, and could thereby affect their performance of activities of daily living. One important factor in this study was that both the outdoor environment and the indoor environment at the home were highly valued by participants.     

A Comparison of Leisure Time Spent in a Garden with Leisure Time Spent Indoors: On Measures of Restoration in Residents in Geriatric Care

During the past 20 years, findings have indicated that nature plays an active role in helping people recover from stress and fatigue. Two of the most cited theories in this field are Rachel and Stephen Kaplan's theory of recovery from Directed Attention Fatigue in nature and Roger Ulrich's theory of aesthetic and affective responses to natural environments and stress recovery. One aim of the present study is to test whether being outdoors in a green recreational environment causes people to be more focused, compared to being in a room indoors (in line with hypotheses suggested by the Kaplans). Another aim is to test whether people experience stress reduction, i.e. as evidenced by changes in blood pressure and heart rate, if they are placed in an environment with many green elements (in line with hypotheses suggested by Ulrich). The overall study design is that of an intervention study. Fifteen elderly persons living at a home for very elderly people participated. Their powers of concentration, blood pressure and heart rate were measured before and after an hour of rest in a garden or in an indoor setting. Seven elderly people were randomly chosen to have their first series of tests in a garden, while eight elderly people had their first series of tests indoors. The results indicate that powers of concentration increase for very elderly people after a visit to a garden outside the geriatric home in which they live, compared to that after resting indoors in their favourite room. The results did not show any effects on blood pressure or heart rate. It is suggested that having a one-hour rest outdoors in a garden setting plays a role in elderly people's powers of concentration, and could thereby affect their performance of activities of daily living. One important factor in this study was that both the outdoor environment and the indoor environment at the home were highly valued by participants.     

Mobilisation of heavy metals by deicing salts in a roadside environment

The seasonal variations of some selected heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn) and principal anions in soil solutions were monitored as a function of distance from the road at two field sites in Sweden. During the winter, the conductivity, concentrations of dissolved sodium and chloride increased dramatically due to the application of deicing agents (i.e. NaCl). Due to ion exchange, the pH decreased one unit in the soil solutions, whereas the concentrations of total organic carbon decreased due to coagulation and/or sorption to stationary solids. The heavy metal concentrations increased during the winter, but through different mechanisms. Cadmium concentrations in the aqueous phase increased as a response to ion exchange, possibly also enhanced by the formation of chloride complexes. Similarly, the concentrations of zinc increased, due to ion exchange, with calcium and protons. The mechanisms of mobilisation for copper and lead were not that clear probably due to association with coagulated or sorbed organic matter in combination with colloid dispersion.     

Uniform and position-controlled InAs nanowires on 2" Si substrates for transistor applications

This study presents a novel approach for indirect integration of InAs nanowires on 2' Si substrates. We have investigated and developed epitaxial growth of InAs nanowires on 2' Si substrates via the introduction of a thin yet high-quality InAs epitaxial layer grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. We demonstrate well-aligned nanowire growth including precise position and diameter control across the full wafer using very thin epitaxial layers (<300 nm). Statistical analysis results performed on the grown nanowires across the 2' wafer size verifies our full control on the grown nanowire with 100% growth yield. From the crystallographic viewpoint, these InAs nanowires are predominantly of wurtzite structure. Furthermore, we show one possible device application of the aforementioned structure in vertical wrap-gated field-effect transistor geometry. The vertically aligned InAs nanowires are utilized as transistor channels and the InAs epitaxial layer is employed as the source contact. A high uniformity of the device characteristics for numerous transistors is further presented and RF characterization of these devices demonstrates an f(t) of 9.8 GHz.     

Handling of buses on slippery roads during the influence of side wind—a study of the effects of different tyres

Accident statistics assembled by the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) have shown that buses are overrepresented when it comes to accidents on icy and snowy roads. For a better understanding of the problem, the performance of modern summer and winter tyres on winter road conditions had to be assessed. The objective of this work has been to go beyond standard road grip studies, and instead investigate how the driver's possibility to deal with one challenging situation depends on the tyres and tyre configuration. This paper describes a novel methodology where measurements with different tyres on ice in VTI's tyre test facility, enabled a simulator study for evaluating the impact of different tyre characteristics when driving in conditions with strong side wind on a slippery road.The main results of the study are: to deal with strong side wind, good front wheel grip is most important, and while non-studded winter tyres provided little or no improvement over summer tyres, studded winter tyres significantly reduced the risk to run off the road. Furthermore, it is very difficult for the drivers to judge, beforehand, whether a vehicle with a particular tyre configuration will perform good or bad.     

Photoinduced charge transfer and efficient solar energy conversion in a blend of a red polyfluorene copolymer with CdSe nanoparticles

We present measurements of charge transfer and the photovoltaic effect in a blend of the alternating polyfluorene copolymer poly(2,7-(9,9-dioctyl-fluorene)-alt-5,5-(4',7'-di-2-thienyl-2',1',3'-benzothiadiazole)) with branched CdSe nanoparticles. Quasi-steady-state photoinduced absorption measurements identified a long-lived charged species that formed after photoexcitation at room temperature. Photovoltaic devices based on this blend system showed a spectral response extending to 650 nm and gave a solar power conversion efficiency of 2.4% under Air Mass 1.5 Global (AM1.5G) conditions.     

Accurate polarization measurements with a dual photoelastic modulator

Measurements of the polarization effects in multimirror experiments by using a dual photoelastic modulator are described. The effect of single and multiple mirrors in polarization measurements in two and three dimensions is discussed, and experimental results show how symmetrical placement of mirrors in three-dimensional geometry can eliminate changes in the polarization. Calibration procedures for a dual photoelastic modulator and potential error sources such as misalignment of analyzer, signal dc offset, and neglect of aperture size are presented. Mirror-surface evolution and how it can disturb the polarization measurement are also addressed.     

Effects of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme on health-related quality of life in patients with prolonged musculoskeletal disorders: a 6-month follow-up of a prospective controlled study

PURPOSE: The aim of this prospective, controlled, follow-up study (6 months) was to examine the effects of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme on perceived health-related quality of life (HRQL) in patients with prolonged musculoskeletal disorders (PMSD). The programme focused on body awareness therapy and cognitive and relaxation treatment. METHOD: The rehabilitation group comprised 122 patients, and there were 114 patients in the matched control group (CG). Both groups of patients had access to primary health care. Baseline data were compared with 6-month follow-up data within and between the groups. The following measurements were employed: HRQL (Nottingham Health Profile), body awareness, postural control, pain (VAS), pain-related medicine consumption, isometric arm muscle endurance, aerobic capacity, psychosomatic symptoms, physical and psychosocial working environment and sick leave. RESULTS: Variables that improved significantly as compared with the CG were: HRQL, anxiety, pain related to movements, psychosomatic symptoms and need for pain-related medicines. CONCLUSIONS: The multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme used here improved HRQL in patients with PMSD to a greater extent than the standard treatment provided within primary heath care (p = 0.01) at least in the short term.     

Engineering the S1' subsite of trypsin: design of a protease which cleaves between dibasic residues

The serine protease trypsin was converted into a site-specific protease which hydrolyzes peptides between dibasic residues. Trypsin exhibits a high S1 specificity for Arg and Lys residues. However, the S1' specificity of trypsin is very broad, with only a slight preference for hydrophobic residues in P1'. We replaced Lys60 with Glu and Asp to introduce a high specificity for basic residues into the S1' site of trypsin. Both mutations cause a dramatic increase in the S1' specificity for Arg and Lys as measured by acyl transfer reactions. In K60E, the preference for Arg increases 70-fold while the preference for P1'-Lys increases 12-fold. In contrast, the preferences for other P1' residues either decrease slightly or remain the same. Thus, K60E prefers P1'-Arg over most other P1' residues by 2 orders of magnitude. Similar results are obtained when P1' specificity is measured in peptide cleavage assays. K60D exhibits an S1' specificity profile very similar to that of K60E, although the P1'-Arg preference is reduced by a factor of 2.5. Molecular modeling studies suggest that the high S1' specificity for Arg in K60E may be due to the formation of a salt bridge between Glu60 and the P1'-Arg of the substrate.