Effect of an interactive therapeutic robotic animal on engagement, mood states, agitation and psychotropic drug use in people with dementia: A cluster-randomised controlled trial protocol

Introduction: Apathy, agitated behaviours, loneliness and depression are common consequences of dementia. This trial aims to evaluate the effect of a robotic animal on behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia in people with dementia living in long-term aged care. Methods and analysis: A cluster-randomised controlled trial with three treatment groups: PARO (robotic animal), Plush-Toy (non-robotic PARO) or Usual Care (Control). The nursing home sites are Australian Government approved and accredited facilities of 60 or more beds. The sites are located in South-East Queensland, Australia. A sample of 380 adults with a diagnosis of dementia, aged 60 years or older living in one of the participating facilities will be recruited. The intervention consists of three individual 15 min non-facilitated sessions with PARO or Plush- Toy per week, for a period of 10 weeks. The primary outcomes of interest are improvement in agitation, mood states and engagement. Secondary outcomes include sleep duration, step count, change in psychotropic medication use, change in treatment costs, and staff and family perceptions of PARO or Plush-Toy. Video data will be analysed using Noldus XT Pocket Observer; descriptive statistics will be used for participants’ demographics and outcome measures; cluster and individual level analyses to test all hypotheses and Generalised Linear Models for cluster level and Generalised Estimation Equations and/or Multi-level Modeling for individual level data. Ethics and dissemination: The study participants or their proxy will provide written informed consent. The Griffith University Human Research Ethics Committee has approved the study (NRS/03/14/HREC). The results of the study will provide evidence of the efficacy of a robotic animal as a psychosocial treatment for the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. Findings will be presented at local and international conference meetings and published in peer-reviewed journals.

Introducing a new limit states design concept to railway concrete sleepers: An Australian experience

Over 50 years, a large number of research and development projects with respect to the use of cementitious and concrete materials for manufacturing railway sleepers have been significantly progressed in Australia, Europe, and Japan (Wang, 1996; Murray and Cai, 1998; Wakui and Okuda, 1999; Esveld, 2001; Freudenstein and Haban, 2006; Remennikov and Kaewunruen, 2008). Traditional sleeper materials are timber, steel, and concrete. Cost-efficiency, superior durability, and improved track stability are the main factors toward significant adoption of concrete materials for railway sleepers. The sleepers in a track system, as shown in Figure 1, are subjected to harsh and aggressive external forces and natural environments across a distance. Many systemic problems and technical issues associated with concrete sleepers have been tackled over decades. These include pre-mature failures of sleepers, concrete cancer or ettringite, abrasion of railseats and soffits, impact damages by rail machinery, bond-slip damage, longitudinal and lateral instability of track system, dimensional instability of sleepers, nuisance noise and vibration, and so on (Pfeil, 1997; Gustavson, 2002; Kaewunruen and Remennikov, 2008a,b, 2013). These issues are, however, becoming an emerging risk for many countries (in North and South Americas, Asia, and the Middle East) that have recently installed large volumes of concrete sleepers in their railway networks (Federal Railroad Administration, 2013). As a result, it is vital to researchers and practitioners to critically review and learn from previous experience and lessons around the world.

A Comparison of the Implementation of the Employment Provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) in the United States and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 in the United Kingdom

This summarizes the results of recently conducted surveys in the United States and Britain to assess employer response in each of these countries to their respective employment disability nondiscrimination legislation.

An ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopic study of the electron states of iodine complexes with electron donors

HeI photoelectron spectra of the vapour phase complexes of diethylether and diethylsulphide with iodine have been investigated for the first time. The iodine orbital ionization energy decreases on complexation while the donor lone-pair orbital ionization energy increases markedly; the shifts are considerably larger in the sulphide complex as expected on the basis of enthalpy considerations.

Mexican Workers in the United States Labour Market: A Contemporary Dilemma

"Ever since the present political boundary separating Mexico and the United States was established in 1848 by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and partially amended in 1853 by the Gadsden Purchase, there has been migration of Mexican citizens into the United States. In fact the border between the two nations was completely open until, with the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, the Border Patrol was established and it became a felony to enter the United States illegally. No quota, however, was applied to immigration from Mexico until 1968. During that year legislation became effective which restricted total annual immigration from all Western Hemisphere nations to 120,000, with a maximum of 40,000 from any one country. Both these figures are regularly exceeded. In 1973, for instance, there were 173,123 legal immigrants from all Western Hemisphere nations, including 70,141 Mexicans. That the real flow exceeds the quotas is explained by the numerous exemptions allowed. With the exception of only three years since 1960, legal immigration from Mexico to the United States has exceeded that of every other nation in the world."

Tripartite Entanglement versus Tripartite Nonlocality in Three-Qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-Class States

We analyze the relationship between tripartite entanglement and genuine tripartite nonlocality for three-qubit pure states in the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger class. We consider a family of states known as the generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states and derive an analytical expression relating the three-tangle, which quantifies tripartite entanglement, to the Svetlichny inequality, which is a Bell-type inequality that is violated only when all three qubits are nonlocally correlated. We show that states with three-tangle less than 1/2 do not violate the Svetlichny inequality. On the other hand, a set of states known as the maximal slice states does violate the Svetlichny inequality, and exactly analogous to the two-qubit case, the amount of violation is directly related to the degree of tripartite entanglement. We discuss further interesting properties of the generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger and maximal slice states.

Enhancement of Tunneling Density of States at a Junction of Three Luttinger Liquid Wires

We study the tunneling density of states (TDOS) for a junction of three Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid wires. We show that there are fixed points which allow for the enhancement of the TDOS, which is unusual for Luttinger liquids. The distance from the junction over which this enhancement occurs is of the order of x=v/(2 omega), where v is the plasmon velocity and omega is the bias frequency. Beyond this distance, the TDOS crosses over to the standard bulk value independent of the fixed point describing the junction. This finite range of distances opens up the possibility of experimentally probing the enhancement in each wire individually.

Behaviour of acceptor states in semiconducting BaTiO3 and SrTiO3

The semiconductivity inMTiO3 (M=Ba, Sr) in the temperature range of practical applications is greatly influenced by the electronic charge redistribution among the acceptor states, arising from the frozen cation vacancies as well as the transition metal ion impurities. The conductivity measurements and defect chemistry investigations above 800 K indicate that the predominant lattice defects areM− and oxygen vacancies. There is dominantp-type conduction at higherP O 2 values in acceptor doped materials at high temperatures. However, they are insulating solids around room temperature due to the redistribution of electrons between the neutral, singly-or doubly-ionised acceptor states. Results fromepr and resistivity measurements show that the above charge redistribution is dependent on crystal structure changes. Hence the electron or hole loss by the acceptor states is influenced by the soft modes which also accounts for the differences in electrical properties of BaTiO3 and SrTiO3. The results are also useful in explaining the positive temperature coefficient in resistance and some photo-electrochemcial properties of these solids.

Albert Einstein during naturalization oath ceremony for United States citizenship; Trenton, New Jersey Portraits Groups

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An investigation of bond formation in the weakly bound first excited 1Σ and lowest 3Σ states of HeH+

The role of the electronic kinetic energy and its Cartesian components is examined during the formation of the first excited 1�£ and the lowest 3�£ states of HeH+ employing wavefunctions of multi-configuration type with basis orbitals in elliptic coordinates. Results show that the bond formation in these states is preceded primarily by a charge transfer from H to He+ rather than by polarisation of the H-orbital by He+

Herman Sommerfeld with unidentifed men and women on board a ship from Tallin to Helsinki (and on to the United States) Portraits Groups

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Representation and properties of para-Bose oscillator operators. II. Coherent states and the minimum uncertainty states

The energy, position, and momentum eigenstates of a para-Bose oscillator system were considered in paper I. Here we consider the Bargmann or the analytic function description of the para-Bose system. This brings in, in a natural way, the coherent states ||z;alpha> defined as the eigenstates of the annihilation operator ?. The transformation functions relating this description to the energy, position, and momentum eigenstates are explicitly obtained. Possible resolution of the identity operator using coherent states is examined. A particular resolution contains two integrals, one containing the diagonal basis ||z;alpha><−z;alpha||. We briefly consider the normal and antinormal ordering of the operators and their diagonal and discrete diagonal coherent state approximations. The problem of constructing states with a minimum value of the product of the position and momentum uncertainties and the possible alpha dependence of this minimum value is considered. Journal of Mathematical Physics is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics.

Degenerate rhombohedral and orthorhombic states in Ca-substituted Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3

Neutron powder diffraction and temperature dependent dielectric studies were carried out on Ca-substituted Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3, i.e., (Na0.5Bi0.5)(1-x)CaxTiO3. Stabilization of an orthorhombic phase even at a low Ca concentration (0.05 < x < 0.10) suggests that Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NBT) is susceptible to orthorhombic distortion. The orthorhombic and rhombohedral phases coexist for x=0.10, suggesting these phases to be nearly degenerate. The orthorhombic distortion favoring tendency of Ca assists in promoting the inherent instability with regard to this structure in pure NBT, which was reported recently.

Amide-based Room Temperature Molten Salt as Solvent cum Stabilizer for Metallic Nanochains

A simple and efficient method for spontaneous organization of long assemblies of gold nanoparticles is described. This is achieved in a molten solvent containing acetamide, urea and ammonium nitrate that acts as a solvent cum stabilizer. There is no external aggregating agent or stabilizing agent added to the system. Depending on the concentration of the metal salt in the ternary melt, either chain-like assemblies or individual nanoparticles could be obtained. The amine groups present in the components of the melt (acetamide and urea) help in the stabilization of nanoparticles. Ammonium ions present in the eutectic mixture are likely to assist in the organization of the particles. The method is simple, highly reproducible and does not require any templating agent for the formation of chain-like assemblies.