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No / This paper examines the extent of mental ill-health and probable depression among older people in long-term care. It presents selected findings from a study in Greater Belfast, Northern Ireland, that compared the quality of life, autonomy and mental health of older people living in nursing and residential homes with those of older people living in private households who were receiving domiciliary care. Structured interviews were conducted with 214 residents in institutions and 44 older people receiving domiciliary care. The study found that those in private households were more severely physically-impaired and had a higher level of mental ill-health than the residents of institutional homes. It is suggested, however, that the mental ill-health effects were associated less with physical impairments than with the restrictions placed on the older person's decisional autonomy, and that long-term care environments that constrain the older person's autonomy contribute to the development of depression. Although the UK National Service Framework for Older People specified that those with depression should be given treatment and support, priority should also be given to preventing the depression associated with living in long-term care settings.

The Long Wavelength Array (LWA) is a large multi-purpose radio telescope, operating in frequencies between 10 and 88 MHz, designed for both long-wavelength astrophysics and ionospheric science. The LWA will eventually consist of 53 "stations", each consisting of 256 pairs of crossed-dipole antennas whose signals are formed into beams. The Monitoring and Control System (MCS), a subsystem of each LWA station, controls the station's subsystems and also monitors their status. This thesis addresses the interface-related features of MCS. The physical interface of the MCS with each subsystem is a Gigabit Ethernet connection and the interface protocol is User Datagram Protocol (UDP). An analysis of the throughput obtained through the interface using UDP is compared to that achieved using Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). It is seen that the throughput with UDP is 15\% better than with TCP, and that UDP is a better choice for the given requirements. Implementation of a new ionospheric calibration scheme requires that the MCS be capable of repointing between astronomical sources on a 5 ms time scale. The rate at which beams can be repointed is analyzed. It is confirmed that MCS is at least 2 orders of magnitude faster than necessary, and is limited by the ethernet network throughput. Python software that facilitates the development and testing of MCS and other subsystems have been developed, and are described. / Master of Science

Yes / This systematic review identifies and reports the extent and nature of evidence to support the use of Dementia Care Mapping as an intervention in care settings. The review was limited to studies that used Dementia Care Mapping as an intervention and included outcomes involving either care workers and/or people living with dementia. Searches were conducted in PubMed, Web of Knowledge, CINAHL, PsychINFO, EBSCO and Scopus and manually from identified articles reference lists. Studies published up to January 2017 were included. Initial screening of identified papers was based on s read by one author; full-text papers were further evaluated by a second author. The quality of the identified papers was assessed independently by two authors using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. A narrative synthesis of quantitative findings was conducted. We identified 6 papers fulfilling predefined criteria. Studies consist of recent, large scale, good quality trials that had some positive impacts upon care workers’ stress and burnout and benefit people with dementia in terms of agitated behaviours, neuropsychiatric symptoms, falls and quality of life. Available research provides preliminary evidence that Dementia Care Mapping may benefit care workers and people living with dementia in care settings. Future research should build on the successful studies to date and use other outcomes to better understand the benefits of this intervention.

Les canaux sodiques sont des protéines membranaires d'une importance primordiale. Ils sont impliqués dans le déclenchement des potentiels d'action et sont nécessaires à l'excitabilité des cellules. Ils participent à la contraction des muscles striés squelettiques, cardiaques et lisses. Des dysfonctionnements de ces canaux, dûs à des mutations, peuvent engendrer de graves pathologies et atteintes cardiaques telles que le syndrome du QT long, le syndrome de Brugada, ou la cardiomyopathie dilatée. L'étude de ces mutations constitue un enjeu essentiel dans la compréhension des mécanismes de ces canaux et du développement des pathologies associées. Plus les connaissances avancent et plus il devient alors possible d'envisager des études précises sur le développement des traitements appropriés. Cette étude se concentre sur l'analyse de deux nouvelles mutations du gène SCN5A codant pour le canal Nav1.5, et a permis de mettre en évidence les caractéristiques biophysiques dysfonctionnelles de ces mutants et de confirmer le diagnostic médical. / Sodium channels are important transmembrane proteins. They are involved in the upstroke of action potential and they are necessary for the cardiac cell excitability. Their dysfunctions caused by mutations can lead to serious pathologies and cardiac impairments such as long QT syndrome, Brugada syndrome, dilated cardiomyopathy and even sudden death. The study of these mutations is a key step toward the comprehension of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved. The knowledge progress allows to lead accurate studies on drug development. This study focused on the analysis of two novel SCN5A mutations and allowed to highlight the dysfunctional biophysic characteristics of these mutants and to confirm the medical diagnosis.

No description available.

Fluorinated compounds are environmentally persistent and have been demonstrated to bioaccumulate and contribute to climate change. The focus of this work was to better understand the atmospheric chemistry of poly- and per-fluorinated compounds in order to appreciate their impacts on the environment. Several fluorinated compounds exist for which data on climate impacts do not exist. Radiative efficiencies (REs) and atmospheric lifetimes of two new long-lived greenhouse gases (LLGHGs) were determined using smog chamber techniques: perfluoropolyethers and perfluoroalkyl amines. Through this, it was observed that RE was not directly related to the number of carbon-fluorine bonds. A structure-activity relationship was created to allow the determination of RE solely from the chemical structure of the compound. Also, a novel method was developed to detect polyfluorinated LLGHGs in the atmosphere. Using carbotrap, thermal desorption and cryogenic extraction coupled to GC-MS, atmospheric measurements can be made for a number of previously undetected compounds. A perfluoroalkyl amine was detected in the atmosphere using this technique, which is the compound with the highest RE ever detected in the atmosphere. Perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) are water soluble and non-volatile, suggesting they are not susceptible to long-range transport. A hypothesis was derived to explain the ubiquitous distribution of these compounds involving atmospheric formation of PFCAs from volatile precursors. Using smog chamber techniques with offline analysis, perfluorobutenes and fluorotelomer iodides were shown to yield PFCAs from atmospheric oxidation. Dehydrofluorination of perfluorinated alcohols (PFOHs) is poorly understood in the mechanism of PFCA atmospheric formation. Using density functional techniques, overtone-induced photolysis was shown to lead to dehydrofluorination of PFOHs. In the presence of water, this mechanism could be a sink of PFOHs in the atmosphere. Confirmation of the importance of volatile precursors was derived from examination of snow from High Arctic ice caps. This provided the first empirical evidence of atmospheric deposition. Through the analytes observed, fluxes and temporal trends, it was concluded that atmospheric oxidation of volatile precursors is an important source of PFCAs to the Arctic.

Ne couvrant que 8% de l’océan mondial mais offrant 85% des ressources marines exploitées, les systèmes côtiers sont d’importantes plaques tournantes d’échanges de matières et d’énergie, jouant un rôle capital dans les cycles biogéochimiques. De plus, ces milieux sont marqués par une forte hétérogénéité spatio-temporelle des facteurs environnementaux, contribuant ainsi à leur complexité. Au cours des dernières décennies, les changements globaux s'exerçant sur ces systèmes sont devenus si intenses, que la mise en place de réseaux d'observation à long-terme est devenue cruciale afin d'extraire les grandes tendances et de prédire les changements potentiels. La question de l'identification de la réponse spécifique de ces zones d'interfaces littorales reste cependant posée. En France, le suivi des paramètres physiques et chimiques des eaux côtières est assuré depuis 1997 par le programme SOMLIT (Service d’Observation en Milieu LIToral). L'objectif de cette thèse est de donc caractériser l'évolution physico-chimique, à l'échelle décennale, des systèmes côtiers français et d'estimer les parts respectives de la variabilité naturelle et de l'influence anthropique. Dans un premier temps, l'analyse de ces séries chronologiques montre que les systèmes côtiers français présentent une variabilité temporelle importante, liée en partie aux fluctuations hydro-climatiques à méso-échelle, mais également à des échelles plus régionales. Dans un deuxième temps, le développement d'une nouvelle procédure multivariée non paramétrique, aboutissant à la construction d'états de référence relatifs et à la détection rapide des changements, permet de quantifier le phénomène de fertilisation en nutriments. Il est montré que la fertilisation peut être fortement influencée par le forçage climatique. Dans un troisième temps, après soustraction de la part de variabilité climatique naturelle, des indicateurs de fertilisation anthropique sont proposés, permettant la quantification de l'impact des activités humaines sur les systèmes côtiers français. Ce travail propose une nouvelle approche qui permet de détecter dès que les données deviennent accessibles les perturbations potentielles dans tous types de systèmes, avec plus particulièrement pour objectif de répondre aux attentes, scientifiques et sociétales, d'une gestion adaptée des milieux côtiers. / Covering only 8% of the World Ocean but with 85% of exploited marine resources, coastal systems are important areas for the exchange of materials and energy, playing a crucial role in biogeochemical cycles. Moreover, these environments are marked by strong spatial and temporal heterogeneity of environmental factors, contributing to their complexity. In recent decades, global change exerted on these systems has become so intense that the implementation of long-term monitoring programmes has become essential to extract major trends and predict potential changes. However, the identification of the specific response of these coastal systems remains posed. In France, monitoring of physical and chemical parameters of coastal waters is provided since 1997 by the programme SOMLIT (Service d'Observation en Milieu LITtoral). The aim of this PhD Thesis is therefore to characterize year-to-year variability in physic-chemical properties of the surface layer, at a decadal scale, of the French coastal systems, and to evaluate the respective influence of natural and anthropogenic variability. Firstly, the analysis of these time series shows that the French coastal systems exhibit significant temporal variability, due to hydro-climatic fluctuations at meso and regional scales. Secondly, the development of a new nonparametric multivariate procedure, resulting in the constitution of relative reference states for the rapid detection of changes, allows quantifying the fertilization in nutrient concentrations. Moreover, it is shown that fertilization can be strongly influenced by climate forcing. Thirdly, after the removal of natural climate variability, indicators of human fertilisation are proposed, allowing the quantification of the impact of human activities on French coastal systems. This study proposes a new approach to detect as soon as data become available, potential alterations in all types of systems, with the aim of meeting the scientific and societal assumptions and allowing the adaptive management of coastal environments.