A study of the potential impacts of space utilization

Because the demand for comprehensive impact analysis of space technologies will increase with the use of space shuttles, the academic social sciences/humanities community was surveyed in order to determine their interests in space utilization, to develop a list of current and planned courses, and to generate a preliminary matrix of relevant social sciences. The academic scope/focus of a proposed social science space-related journal was identified including the disciplines which should be represented in the editorial board/reviewer system. The time and funding necessary to develop a self-sustaining journal were assessed. Cost income, general organizational structure, marking/distribution and funding sources were analyzed. Recommendations based on the survey are included

Residual Stresses and Critical Initial Flaw Size Analyses of Welds

An independent assessment was conducted to determine the critical initial flaw size (CIFS) for the flange-to-skin weld in the Ares I-X Upper Stage Simulator (USS). A series of weld analyses are performed to determine the residual stresses in a critical region of the USS. Weld residual stresses both increase constraint and mean stress thereby having an important effect on the fatigue life. The purpose of the weld analyses was to model the weld process using a variety of sequences to determine the 'best' sequence in terms of weld residual stresses and distortions. The many factors examined in this study include weld design (single-V, double-V groove), weld sequence, boundary conditions, and material properties, among others. The results of this weld analysis are included with service loads to perform a fatigue and critical initial flaw size evaluation

Factors that contribute to social media influence within an Internal Medicine Twitter learning community

Medical societies, faculty, and trainees use Twitter to learn from and educate other social media users. These social media communities bring together individuals with various levels of experience. It is not known if experienced individuals are also the most influential members. We hypothesize that participants with the greatest experience would be the most influential members of a Twitter community. We analyzed the 2013 Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine Twitter community. We measured the number of tweets authored by each participant and the number of amplified tweets (re-tweets). We developed a multivariate linear regression model to identify any relationship to social media influence, measured by the PageRank. Faculty (from academic institutions) comprised 19% of the 132 participants in the learning community (p < 0.0001). Faculty authored 49% of all 867 tweets (p < 0.0001). Their tweets were the most likely to be amplified (52%, p < 0.01). Faculty had the greatest influence amongst all participants (mean 1.99, p < 0.0001). Being a faculty member had no predictive effect on influence (β = 0.068, p = 0.6). The only factors that predicted influence (higher PageRank) were the number of tweets authored (p < 0.0001) and number of tweets amplified (p < 0.0001) The status of “faculty member� did not confer a greater influence. Any participant who was able to author the greatest number of tweets or have more of his/her tweets amplified could wield a greater influence on the participants, regardless of his/her authority

Rare Copy Number Variants in \u3cem\u3eNRXN1\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eCNTN6\u3c/em\u3e Increase Risk for Tourette Syndrome

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a model neuropsychiatric disorder thought to arise from abnormal development and/or maintenance of cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits. TS is highly heritable, but its underlying genetic causes are still elusive, and no genome-wide significant loci have been discovered to date. We analyzed a European ancestry sample of 2,434 TS cases and 4,093 ancestry-matched controls for rare (\u3c 1% frequency) copy-number variants (CNVs) using SNP microarray data. We observed an enrichment of global CNV burden that was prominent for large (\u3e 1 Mb), singleton events (OR = 2.28, 95% CI [1.39–3.79], p = 1.2 × 10−3) and known, pathogenic CNVs (OR = 3.03 [1.85–5.07], p = 1.5 × 10−5). We also identified two individual, genome-wide significant loci, each conferring a substantial increase in TS risk (NRXN1 deletions, OR = 20.3, 95% CI [2.6–156.2]; CNTN6 duplications, OR = 10.1, 95% CI [2.3–45.4]). Approximately 1% of TS cases carry one of these CNVs, indicating that rare structural variation contributes significantly to the genetic architecture of TS

Strangeness nuclear physics: a critical review on selected topics

Selected topics in strangeness nuclear physics are critically reviewed. This includes production, structure and weak decay of $\Lambda$--Hypernuclei, the $\bar K$ nuclear interaction and the possible existence of $\bar K$ bound states in nuclei. Perspectives for future studies on these issues are also outlined.Comment: 63 pages, 51 figures, accepted for publication on European Physical Journal

UK/Europe and the rest of the world "How can you think about losing your mind?": A reflexive thematic analysis of adapting the LivDem group intervention for couples and families living with dementia

Introduction: Despite the psychological challenges that dementia creates, comparatively little attention has been paid to how individuals or families can be helped to adjust to dementia. One of the few interventions to do this is the Living well with Dementia (LivDem) post-diagnostic course. LivDem focuses on supporting individuals to talk more openly about their dementia. However, while family supporters attend preliminary and follow up sessions, their role is limited and finding a way for them to be more actively involved might enhance the impact of the intervention and make it more flexible. We therefore set out to explore how the current LivDem intervention could be adapted for couples and families.Method: We completed eleven semi-structured interviews and focus groups with four groups of stakeholders: people living with dementia and their families: LivDem facilitators; researchers in this area; and psychotherapists with experience of working with couples or families living with dementia. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.Results: Four main themes were generated: “Hear the impact on everybody”; People who are “ready to do that”; “It’s such a fine line”; and “You deal with it in your family”. Participants emphasised that the intervention needs to be delivered by willing and skilled facilitators to people who are ready to talk in their family context; and this intervention needs to be embedded within connected services. Conclusions: Stakeholders felt that it would be possible to adapt the LivDem model for couples and families so long as a number of conditions were met. An adapted family or couple version of LivDem has the potential to facilitate improved adaptation to dementia and to be incorporated into dementia pathways and delivered with the NHS and the voluntary sector. Further research is needed to establish the feasibility of such an intervention

Quality of family relationships and outcomes of dementia:a systematic review

Objectives: Evaluation of the association between the quality of relationship between a person with dementia and their family carer and outcomes for the person with dementia.Design: Systematic review.Eligibility criteria: Cohort studies of people with clinically diagnosed dementia and their main carers. Exposures of interest were any elements of relationship quality, e.g. attachment style, expressed emotion, coping style. Our primary outcome was institutionalisation, and secondary outcomes were hospitalisation, death, quality of life, and behavioural and psychiatric symptoms of dementia (‘challenging behaviour’).Data sources: Medline, Embase, Web of Science, PsycInfo, the Cochrane Library and Opengrey were searched from inception to May 2017.Study appraisal and synthesis methods: The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess risk of bias. A narrative synthesis of results was performed due to differences between studies.Results: Twenty studies were included. None of the studies controlled for all pre-specified confounding factors (age, gender, socio-economic status, and severity of dementia). Reporting of results was inadequate with many studies simply reporting whether or not associations were ‘statistically significant’ without providing effect size estimates or confidence intervals. There was a suggestion of an association between relationship factors and global challenging behaviour. All studies evaluating global challenging behaviour provided statistical evidence of an association (most p-values below 0.02). There was no consistent evidence for an association for any other outcome assessed.Conclusions: There is currently no strong or consistent evidence on the effects of relationship factors on institutionalisation, hospitalisation, death or quality of life for people with dementia. There was a suggestion of an association between relationship factors and challenging behaviour, although the evidence for this was weak. To improve our ability to support those with dementia and their families further robust studies are needed

“You just can’t do that in dementia care”: Barriers to partnership working within dementia services for people from South Asian communities

Background: People from South Asian communities are under-represented at all levels of dementia services. Consequently, there is pressure for the statutory sector to deliver services in partnership with Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprises (VCFSEs). This study set out to explore the constraints to effective partnership working which prevent dementia care from being delivered in an equitable way.Methods: Data collection consisted of two phases. First, we interviewed seven people with experience of partnership working and developed three fictional vignettes that were representative of the challenges they faced. We then used these vignettes to stimulate discussion in focus groups and interviews with 13 VCFSE and 16 statutory sector participants. Data was analysed using deductive thematic analysis.Findings: Three themes were developed during the analysis. First, White British-centric services focused on the challenges for statutory services in meeting the needs of South Asians, developing flexible, responsive services and making inclusive partnership working truly meaningful. Second, VCFSE participants (but not statutory service participants) associated a failure to deliver effective partnership working with unconscious bias operating within systems, leading to the devaluing of their expertise and to their views being ignored. Finally, participants emphasised the need to prioritise relationships if they were to meet the challenges of developing partnership working.Conclusion: We identified three constraints acting to prevent effective partnership working. First, the different meanings that statutory and VCFSE participants attach to challenges threatens their ability to develop a shared understanding of the needs of communities. Second, a reluctance to explicitly address service deficiencies can mean that stereotypes remain unaddressed. Finally, while both parties lacked power to change the fundamentals of service delivery, power and resources were also unbalanced with VCSFE services being more reliant on the statutory sector