Evaluating the Use of Daily Care Notes Software for Older People with Dementia

There has been little research to investigate the impact of software to support the care for older people with dementia care. This article reports the evaluation of software adapted to support one key person-centered task for the care of older residents with dementia – recording and sharing daily care notes. The evaluation on the dementia wing of 1 residential home for over 6 months revealed that use of the software on mobile devices carried by the carers increased the number and volume of daily care notes recorded, but only for the types of content that were already being recorded by carers. Carers reported more advantages that resulted from daily care notes once in digital form than from the documenting task, as well as barriers to the use of mobile digital software to record daily care notes.     

Sensitive Mother-to-Adolescent Disclosures After Divorce: Is the Experience of Sons Different From That of Daughters?

This study addressed two main questions: (a) Are adolescent sons and daughters exposed to sensitive maternal disclosures after divorce with similar frequency and in similar detail? and (b) Does gender act as a moderator in the association between maternal disclosures and adolescent adjustment difficulties? Forced-choice and open-ended data were collected from 194 adolescents within 2 years after their parents' divorce. Quantitative analyses revealed that although the majority of adolescents experience some level of maternal disclosure, neither frequency nor detail of maternal disclosure differed as a function of adolescent gender. Frequent and detailed maternal disclosures were associated with adolescent adjustment difficulties, primarily psychological distress. Gender did not moderate that significant association. Qualitative analysis shed light on the link between maternal disclosures and adolescent distress, suggested the importance of how disclosures are made, and revealed several gender differences in reactions to maternal disclosures. Implications of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk evaluations for the courts: Is service quality a function of specialization?

Psychologists are often asked to testify in court. However, concerns have been expressed in both the legal and psychological literatures about the quality of these services. This article presents survey results comparing the practice patterns of generally licensed psychologists with those of specialist forensic diplomates in providing risk evaluations. Results suggest that general clinicians frequently perform these evaluations, but forensic diplomates use more modern risk instruments, are more aware of the scientific literature, and provide the court with more information about the scientific basis of their testimony. The implication of these results for legal professionals, psychologist training, and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

TP63 Is Significantly Upregulated in Diabetic Kidney

The role of tumor protein 63 (TP63) in regulating insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) and other downstream signal proteins in diabetes has not been characterized. RNAs extracted from kidneys of diabetic mice (db/db) were sequenced to identify genes that are involved in kidney complications. RNA sequence analysis showed more than 4- to 6-fold increases in TP63 expression in the diabetic mice’s kidneys, compared to wild-type mice at age 10 and 12 months old. In addition, the kidneys from diabetic mice showed significant increases in TP63 mRNA and protein expression compared to WT mice. Mouse proximal tubular cells exposed to high glucose (HG) for 48 h showed significant decreases in IRS-1 expression and increases in TP63, compared to cells grown in normal glucose (NG). When TP63 was downregulated by siRNA, significant increases in IRS-1 and activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK (p-AMPK-Th¹⁷²)) occurred under NG and HG conditions. Moreover, activation of AMPK by pretreating the cells with AICAR resulted in significant downregulation of TP63 and increased IRS-1 expression. Ad-cDNA-mediated over-expression of tuberin resulted in significantly decreased TP63 levels and upregulation of IRS-1 expression. Furthermore, TP63 knockdown resulted in increased glucose uptake, whereas IRS-1 knockdown resulted in a decrease in the glucose uptake. Altogether, animal and cell culture data showed a potential role of TP63 as a new candidate gene involved in regulating IRS-1 that may be used as a new therapeutic target to prevent kidney complications in diabetes.     

Experiencing Nature: Embodying Animals in Immersive Virtual Environments Increases Inclusion of Nature in Self and Involvement With Nature

Immersive virtual environments (IVEs) produce simulations that mimic unmediated sensory experiences. 3 experiments (N = 228) tested how different modalities increase environmental involvement by allowing users to inhabit the body of animals in IVEs or watch the experience on video. Embodying sensory‐rich experiences of animals in IVEs led to greater feeling of embodiment, perception of being present in the virtual world, and interconnection between the self and nature compared to video. Heightened interconnection with nature elicited greater perceptions of imminence of the environmental risk and involvement with nature, which persisted for 1 week. Although the effect sizes were small to moderate, findings suggest that embodied experiences in IVEs may be an effective tool to promote involvement with environmental issues.     

Relevance of the acid–base approach in prediction of adhesion properties in two‐component injection moulding

We demonstrate the use of innovative wetting method in prediction of the adhesion properties of biobased polymers for two‐component injection moulding, taking into account the acid–base surface properties of joined materials. The measurements were carried out in accordance with modified Berger method by calculation of the difference in shortened acidity parameter ΔD_short between hard and soft component. Correlation factors up to 0.99 were observed between ΔD_short and peel force. In comparison to results obtained by conventional wetting methods, high potential for the selection of components with high interface adhesion and for prediction of the functionality by the acid–base approach was demonstrated. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43048.     

Rheological properties of a hydrophobically modified anionic polymer: Effect of varying salinity and amount of hydrophobic moieties

Hydrophobically modified polyelectrolytes have been suggested as an alternative to the more commonly used polyelectrolytes in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications involving polymers. Compared to regular polyelectrolytes, the hydrophobically modified polyelectrolytes are known to be more stable at high salinities. In this study, we have investigated the influence of brine salinity and ionic composition for a series of six hydrophobically modified polyelectrolytes with the same polymer backbone, but with an increasing average number of hydrophobic groups per polymer molecule. Polymer characterization has been performed using a combination of steady‐state shear viscosity and dynamic oscillatory measurements. Hydrophobic interactions leading to a change in rheological properties was only observed above a threshold value for the concentration of hydrophobe. At the threshold value, salt‐induced hydrophobic interactions were observed. For higher concentrations of hydrophobe, high salinity solutions showed one order of magnitude increase in viscosity compared to the polymer without hydrophobic groups. This could partly be explained by an increase in elasticity. These findings have important implications for polymer selection for EOR. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43520.     

Acute Generalized Exanthematous Pustulosis: Pathogenesis,Genetic Background,Clinical Variants and Therapy

Acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP) is a severe, usually drug-related reaction, characterized by an acute onset of mainly small non-follicular pustules on an erythematous base and spontaneous resolution usually within two weeks. Systemic involvement occurs in about 20% of cases. The course is mostly benign, and only in rare cases complications lead to life-threatening situations. Recent studies highlight the importance of genetic variations in interleukin-36 receptor antagonist gene (IL-36RN) in the pathogenesis of this disease. The physiopathology of AGEP remains unclear, but an involvement of innate and acquired immune cells together with resident cells (keratinocytes), which recruit and activate neutrophils via production of cytokines/chemokines such as IL-17, IL-36, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) and chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 8 (CXCL8)/IL-8, has been postulated. Treatment is based on the removal of the causative drug, supportive care, infection prevention and use of potent topical or systemic steroids.     

Properties and weldability of plasticized polylactic acid films

The objectives of the presented work were to investigate films based on polylactic acid (PLA) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) in order to improve ductility and weldability of PLA films. The effect of plasticizer amount on the thermal, rheological, and mechanical properties of PLA plasticized films was investigated. The PEG content does affect the glass transition and the cold crystallization temperature of PLA in blends, while the melting temperature was not affected by the addition of PEG. The complex viscosity of the neat PLA granules and of plasticized films showed strong temperature and angular velocity dependence. The Young's modulus and tensile strength of plasticized films were improved with increasing plasticizer concentration, while the elongation at break stays rather constant. Plasticized PLA films were furthermore heat welded. These investigations showed that plasticized PLA films can be welded by heat welding. The obtained weld strength is strongly depending on the PEG amount as well as on selected welding parameters. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40394.     

Effect of crude oil ageing on low salinity and low salinity surfactant flooding

Injection of brine with lower salinity than the connate brine has proven to give a moderate increase in oil recovery in sandstones. Recent research has shown that this process will significantly benefit from introducing surfactant optimised for low salinity environment.The mechanisms underlying increased recovery by low salinity brine injection are not yet fully understood. However, research to date suggests that they are related to complex crude oil/brine/rock interactions. With this in mind, the present paper investigates primarily how the extent of oil recovery from Berea sandstones subjected to long term exposure of crude oil is influenced by (1) low salinity water injection and (2) combined process low salinity water injection with surfactant flooding.Core displacement tests were conducted on four Berea cores (30 cm), two in a natural state and two that had been subject to extensive crude oil ageing at high temperature. Results obtained from different flooding steps are discussed in terms of oil recovery and effluent properties including turbidity, pH- and ion analysis (Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺). The results effectively illustrate that oil recoveries from the aged cores are higher during both low salinity water injection and low salinity water injection combined with surfactant flooding. An assessment of how tertiary oil recovery in aged and unaged cores varies with surfactant concentration is also presented.Effluent ion analysis from low salinity water floods showed that Mg²⁺ ions were strongly retained in the aged core while Ca²⁺ ions were being produced from both aged and unaged cores. The latter was attributed mainly to calcite dissolution. Results obtained from pressure profiles, effluent ion analysis and turbidity tests suggest higher production and elution of fine particles from the unaged core.