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Up to 40% of families are faced with a fussy, inconsolable high need infant in the first three months postpartum. A major reason for parents to seek professional help is the trying aspect of the situation with these children. The supportive role of health professionals has the greatest potential to reduce the parent’s stress and burden. To our knowledge, there are no studies on inpatient treatment for families with such infants so far.

In Switzerland, 39% of nursing home residents have a dementia related disease. Behavioral symptoms are increasingly observed as dementia progresses. These symptoms impair patients’ quality of life and are distressing to family caregivers and nurses. A person-centered approach, which includes the resident’s individual biography, reduces such symptoms. The most current literature describes how therapists include biographical information in designated therapies. However person-centered care takes place not only in specific activities. Nurses are responsible for their patients’ care 24 hours a day.

Sensing, observing and interpreting the symptoms of persons suffering from dementia is very challenging. The difficulties lie in their restricted capacity to communicate and irregular transitions from a chronic-stable to an acute-critical condition both in the course of their symptoms and in the slow but continuous process of deterioration.

Ferroelectric domain walls (DWs) are promising structures for assembling future nano-electronic circuit elements on a larger scale since reporting domain wall currents of up to 1 mA per single DW. One key requirement hereto is their reproducible manufacturing by gaining preparative control over domain size and domain wall conductivity (DWC). To date, most works on DWC have focused on exploring the fundamental electrical properties of individual DWs within single-shot experiments, with an emphasis on quantifying the origins of DWC. Very few reports exist when it comes to comparing the DWC properties between two separate DWs, and literally nothing exists where issues of reproducibility in DWC devices have been addressed. To fill this gap while facing the challenge of finding guidelines for achieving predictable DWC performance, we report on a procedure that allows us to reproducibly prepare single hexagonal domains of a predefined diameter into uniaxial ferroelectric lithium niobate single crystals of 200 and 300 μ m thickness, respectively. We show that the domain diameter can be controlled with an uncertainty of a few percent. As-grown DWs are then subjected to a standard procedure of current-limited high-voltage DWC enhancement, and they repetitively reach a DWC increase of six orders of magnitude. While all resulting DWs show significantly enhanced DWC values, their individual current–voltage (I–V) characteristics exhibit different shapes, which can be explained by variations in their 3D real structure reflecting local heterogeneities by defects, DW pinning, and surface-near DW inclination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PurposeThis study assesses whether peripherally inserted central venous catheters (PICC), impregnated with anti-infective drugs, reduce the rate of infections in neonates compared with unimpregnated catheters.MethodsA retrospective analysis was conducted on electronic patient records of neonates born between August 2014 and May 2020, who had PICCs inserted, either standard (S-PICC) or with anti-infective drugs (A-PICC). Catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSI) were diagnosed based on clinical symptoms, laboratory results, and mentioning of infection in the patient record. Data on dwell time, mechanical ventilation, insertion site, maximum C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration, and anti-infective drug use were analyzed.ResultsA total of 223 PICCs were included. The infection rates were A-PICC (18.9%) and S-PICC (12.5%), which were not significantly different (p = 0.257). A-PICCs had significantly longer dwell times than S-PICCs (median 372 vs. 219 h, p = 0.004). The time to infection was not different between the groups (p = 0.3). There were also no significant differences in maximum CRP, insertion site abnormalities, or anti-infective drug use between the groups.ConclusionThis retrospective study did not find a significant reduction in infection rates by using PICCs containing anti-infective drugs in neonates. Current antibiotic impregnations do not seem to be effective in preventing blood stream infections.

In the present paper, we study a submonoid of the symmetric inverse semigroup \(I_n\). Specifically, we consider the monoid of all order-, fence-, and parity-preserving transformations of \(I_n\). While the rank and a set of generators of minimal size for this monoid are already known, we will provide a presentation for this monoid.

Aim: To compare student nurses' expectations and newly qualified nurses' experiences regarding clinical practice in Switzerland 1 year after graduation. Design: A secondary explorative analysis of a cross‐sectional survey. Method s : The data were sourced from the Swiss National Graduate Survey of Health Professionals covering six universities of applied sciences between 2016 and 2019, with information on three cohorts of bachelor student nurses, with a 1‐year follow‐up between each year. The participants were 533 bachelor‐prepared nursing graduates. Results: The student nurses' overall expectations included the following top two prioritized aspects: 'contributing to something important' and 'adequate time to spend with patients'. Newly graduated nurses' clinical practice experiences demonstrated that not all expectations were met 1 year after graduation. The largest gaps were found in 'adequate time to spend with patients', 'work–life balance' and experiencing 'good management'. Conclusion: The most crucial expectation gaps are related to having sufficient time to spend with patients and a good work–life balance. The most important result is whether there is a shortage of places for nurses to work rather than the oft‐cited shortage of nurses. Implications for the Profession and/or Patient Care: The expectations of Swiss newly qualified nurses can be better met by an assessment in the first year about which individual perceptions of workplace characteristics cause them to make choices to change something about their work, affect their job satisfaction or influence their intention to stay. Impact: Few of the student nurses' expectations were met 1 year after graduation, therefore Swiss healthcare institutions should improve needs assessments to strengthen the nurse workforce starting early in employment. The results underscore the importance of a constructive management culture, such as that in magnet hospitals in the United States which underpins the philosophy of changing in nursing. The results can be used internationally as a benchmark and as a basis for introducing potential interventions for nurse retention. Reporting Method: This study was reported following the Standardized Reporting of Secondary Data Analyses Checklist. Patient or Public Contribution: There were no patient or public contributions. Trial and Protocol Registration: This study has not been registered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider the monoids of all partial endomorphisms, of all partial weak endomorphisms, of all injective partial endomorphisms, of all partial strong endomorphisms and of all partial strong weak endomorphisms of a star graph with a finite number of vertices. Our main objective is to determine their ranks. We also describe their Green's relations, calculate their cardinalities and study their regularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Caring for a person with dementia can be a challenging experience, often associated with chronic stress and a heavy burden on family caregivers. Dementia also impacts the relationship between the caregiver and the person with dementia. The quality of this relationship is, in turn, an important factor influencing the well-being of both dyad members. The psychoeducational intervention "Learning to feel better... and help better" has shown positive results regarding family caregivers' subjective burden, psychological distress, and self-efficacy. However, relationship quality has not been addressed in the context of this intervention. Methods: A longitudinal constructivist grounded theory approach was used to explore relationship quality as perceived by caregivers, possible changes and intervention components facilitating or preventing such changes. Three qualitative, semi-structured interviews (before, during and after the intervention) were performed with 13 family caregivers from three different intervention groups. The resulting 39 interviews were analysed regarding individual caregiver trajectories, per time point for all caregivers and regarding specific caregiver subgroups. Findings: A model focusing on sustaining relationship quality in dementia was developed. It shows strategies that family caregivers develop and apply to facilitate positive interactions and feelings of connectedness with their family members with dementia. It also indicates that mastering such strategies requires reflective skills based on specific knowledge of dementia and coping strategies, which can be enhanced through active skills training, in which caregivers are guided to work on their individual stressful situations. Factors hampering change included difficulties in accepting dementia-related changes. Conclusion: Findings suggest that psychoeducation, with active skills training based on caregivers' current daily life situations, providing systematic procedures to handle daily challenges and specific knowledge about the impact of the disease, could support them in developing and applying supportive strategies to sustain or improve their relationship to their family member with dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium niobate and lithium tantalate are among the most widespread materials for nonlinear, integrated photonics. Mixed crystals with arbitrary Nb–Ta ratios provide an additional degree of freedom to not only tune materials properties, such as the birefringence but also leverage the advantages of the singular compounds, for example, by combining the thermal stability of lithium tantalate with the larger nonlinear or piezoelectric constants of lithium niobate. Periodic poling allows to achieve phase-matching independent of waveguide geometry and is, therefore, one of the commonly used methods in integrated nonlinear optics. For mixed crystals, periodic poling has been challenging so far due to the lack of homogeneous, mono-domain crystals, which severely inhibit domain growth and nucleation. In this work, we investigate surface-near (< 1 μ m depth) domain inversion on x-cut lithium niobate tantalate mixed crystals via electric field poling and lithographically structured electrodes. We find that naturally occurring head-to-head or tail-to-tail domain walls in the as-grown crystal inhibit domain inversion at a larger scale. However, periodic poling is possible if the gap size between the poling electrodes is of the same order of magnitude or smaller than the average size of naturally occurring domains. This work provides the basis for the nonlinear optical application of lithium niobate tantalate mixed crystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we construct a free object in the variety of weakly k -nilpotent n-tuple semigroups and characterize the least weakly k -nilpotent congruence on a free n-tuple semigroup. Moreover, we present separately free weakly k -nilpotent n-tuple semigroups of rank 1, calculate the cardinality of the free weakly k -nilpotent n-tuple semigroup for the finite case, emphasize that the semigroups of the free weakly k -nilpotent n-tuple semigroup are isomorphic and the automorphism group of the free weakly k -nilpotent n-tuple semigroup is isomorphic to the symmetric group. We also describe all maximal n-tuple subsemigroups of the free weakly k -nilpotent n-tuple semigroup and all regular elements of the endomorphism semigroup of the free weakly k -nilpotent n-tuple semigroup, and provide a criterion for an isomorphism of endomorphism semigroups of free weakly k -nilpotent n-tuple semigroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider endomorphisms of an undirected cycle graph from Semigroup Theory perspective. Our main aim is to present a process to determine sets of generators with minimal cardinality for the monoids wEndCn and EndCn of all weak endomorphisms and all endomorphisms of an undirected cycle graph Cn with n vertices. We also describe Green's relations and regularity of these monoids and calculate their cardinalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferroelectric domain wall conductivity (DWC) is an intriguing and promising functional property that can be elegantly controlled and steered through a variety of external stimuli such as electric and mechanical fields. Optical-field control, as a noninvasive and flexible tool, has rarely been applied so far, but it significantly expands the possibility for both tuning and probing DWC. On the one hand, as known from second-harmonic or Raman micro-spectroscopy, the optical approach provides information on DW distribution and inclination, while simultaneously probing the DW vibrational modes; on the other hand, photons might be applied to directly generate charge carriers, thereby acting as a functional and spectrally tunable probe to deduce the local absorption properties and bandgaps of conductive DWs. Here, we report on investigating the photo-induced DWC (PI-DWC) of three lithium niobate crystals, containing a very different number of DWs, namely: (A) none, (B) one, and (C) many conductive DWs. All three samples are inspected for their current–voltage behavior in darkness and for different illumination wavelengths swept from 500 nm down to 310 nm. All samples show their maximum PI-DWC at 310 nm; moreover, sample (C) reaches PI-DWCs of several microampere. Interestingly, a noticeable PI-DWC is also observed for sub-bandgap illumination, hinting toward the existence and decisive role of electronic in-gap states that contribute to the electronic charge transport along DWs. Finally, complementary conductive atomic force microscopy investigations under illumination proved that the PI-DWC indeed is confined to the DW area and does not originate from photo-induced bulk conductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poling and structuring of ferroelectric domains form the basis for developing prospective applications using materials from the lithium‐niobate (LN) family. Applications range from second harmonic generation to electro‐optic modulators or surface acoustic wave devices. In the work presented here, hysteresis measurements are used as a standard method to quantitatively determine the poling properties of these ferroelectrics, including their spontaneous polarization Ps as well as their forward and reverse coercive fields Ec,+ and Ec,−. Systematic measurements that depend on parameters such as the ramp rate R of the applied poling voltage and the waiting time twait between domain inversions are investigated and compared between the congruent variants of LN, lithium tantalate (LT), their magnesium‐doped analogues, and stoichiometric LN. For bulk magnesium‐doped LN, for example, it is found that the resulting coercive field strongly depends on the speed of the voltage ramp, with Ec$E_{\text{c}}$ values ranging from 11 to 21 kV mm−1. These investigations are used as fundamental input for poling ferroelectric lithium niobate‐tantalate solids (LNT), a system that offers a high potential for tuning the material parameters beyond what is possible for LN or LT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Chipperfield extension of the Kunsthaus Zurich, which has made it the largest art museum in Switzerland. The extension was constructed predominantly with in-situ concrete and features a natural stone facade. The building includes an underground connection that connects the new and existing Kunsthaus buildings. The extension is considered groundbreaking in terms of sustainability, as it has reduced primary energy and greenhouse gas emissions. The facade consists of masonry blocks made of natural stone and prefabricated reinforced concrete elements. The building also incorporates state-of-the-art technical installations, such as geothermal energy and photovoltaics. The use of recycled concrete with CO2-reduced cement was prioritized in the construction process. Overall, the extension is a significant addition to the Kunsthaus Zurich and showcases innovative design and construction techniques. [Extracted from the article]

The monoid of all partial injections on a finite set (the symmetric inverse semigroup) is of particular interest because of the well-known Wagner–Preston Theorem. Let n be a positive natural number and PFI n be the semigroup of all fence-preserving partial one-to-one maps of { 1 , ... , n } into itself with respect to composition of maps and the fence 1 ≺ 2 ≻ 3 ≺ ⋯   n. There is considered the inverse semigroup IOF n par of all α ∈ PFI n such that α is regular in PFI n , order-preserving with respect to the order 1 < 2 < ⋯ < n and parity-preserving. According to the main result of the paper, it is 3 n − 6 the least of the cardinalities of the generating sets of IOF n par for 4 ≤ n. There is determined a concrete representation of a generating set of minimal size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]