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This work demonstrates polymer brushes grafted from conductive polymer films which display dynamic surface switching dependent on salt, temperature and electrode potential. The electroactivity presented by the conductive polymer and the responsiveness of the grafted brushes leads to an interface with multiple control parameters. Here, we demonstrate this concept by grafting of uncharged brushes of poly(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylates from conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), and observe a temperature- and salt-induced switch of brush conformation, and their effect on the electrochemistry of the material. The switching conditions can be tailored by copolymerizing monomers with different numbers of ethylene glycol units. In addition, these surfaces exhibit antifouling properties, leading to potential applications such as electrically-addressable biointerfaces.

This work quantitatively assesses the potential reasons behind the difference in prices paid by care home residents in England. Evidence suggests that the price paid by private payers is higher than that paid for publicly supported residents, and this is often attributed to the market power wielded by local authorities as the dominant purchaser in local markets. Estimations of private prices at the local authority level are used to assess the difference in price paid between private and public prices, the fees gap, using data from 2008 to 2010. Controlling for local area and average care home characteristics, the results indicate that both care home and local authority market power play a role in the price determination of the market.

Additional file 1: Table 1. Results from the iterative Rasch analyses from the current study in 1211 participants. Table 2. Fit Indices for Each Item in 1211 participants.

Epitaxial bilayer silicon oxide is a transferable two-dimensional material predicted to be a wide band gap semiconductor, with potential applications for deep UV optoelectronics, or as a building block of van der Waals heterostructures. The prerequisite to any sort of such applications is the knowledge of the electronic band structure, which we unveil using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and rationalize with the help of density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We discover dispersing bands related to electronic delocalization within the top and bottom planes of the material, with two linear crossings reminiscent of those predicted in bilayer AA-stacked graphene, and semi-flat bands stemming from the chemical bridges between the two planes. This band structure is robust against exposure to air, and can be controlled by exposure to oxygen. We provide an experimental lower-estimate of the band gap size of 5 eV and predict a full gap of 7.36 eV using DFT calculations.

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Physical review / B 101(8), 085121 (1-10) (2020). doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.101.085121, We report the observation of a two-dimensional electron system (2DES) at the (110) surface of the transparent bulk insulator SnO$_2$ and the tunability of its carrier density by means of temperature or Eu deposition. The 2DES is insensitive to surface reconstructions and, surprisingly, it survives even after exposure to ambient conditions—an extraordinary fact recalling the well known catalytic properties SnO$_2$. Our data show that surface oxygen vacancies are at the origin of such 2DES, providing key information about the long-debated origin of n-type conductivity in SnO$_2$, at the basis of a wide range of applications. Furthermore, our study shows that the emergence of a 2DES in a given oxide depends on a delicate interplay between its crystal structure and the orbital character of its conduction band., Published by Inst., Woodbury, NY

The need for new materials is constantly growing as their use becomes more and more critical for technological advances. Materials come in a wide variety of structures, dimensionalities, and phases...

In England, choice and control is promoted for service users in relation to social care services. Increased choice and control has also been promoted for unpaid carers, although this is still relatively underdeveloped. There is limited recognition of carers’ choice in terms of the decision of whether to provide care. Alongside the promotion of choice and control, there has also been a focus on quality of life as an outcome of social care for care-recipients and their carers. While it is known that carer choice (in terms of the decision of whether or not to provide care) is related to increased burden and poorer psychological health, there is limited evidence of the relationship between reasons for caring and care-related quality of life (CRQoL) and subjective strain in England. In this study, 387 carers were surveyed across 22 English local authorities between June 2013 and March 2014. Multiple regression analysis explored the relationship between carer-reported reasons for caring and CRQoL and strain, whilst controlling for individual characteristics (e.g. age). Reasons for caring were important predictors of CRQoL and strain. Where people were carers because social services suggested it or the care-recipient would not want help from anyone else, this was related to lower CRQoL. By contrast, where carers took on caregiving because they had time to care, this was significantly associated with better CRQoL. Carers reported greater strain where they provided care because it was expected of them. These findings are relevant to policy and practice because they indicate that, while social care systems rely on carers, the limiting of carers’ choice of whether to provide care is related to worse outcomes. Increased awareness of this relationship would be beneficial in developing policy and practice that improves the QoL of care-recipients and also their carers. \ud \ud What is known about the topic\ud • Social care policy in England seeks to promote choice for service users and carers\ud • Carer choice in terms of whether to provide care is often unacknowledged \ud • Reasons for providing care are related to subjective burden and psychological health.\ud \ud What the paper adds\ud • Caring because of social services’ or care-recipients’ expectations was related to lower care-related quality of life, which is a key outcome of adult social care \ud • Providing care because it is expected of the carer was related to greater carer strain\ud • Increased awareness of the relationship between carers’ reasons for caring and outcomes may usefully inform policy and practice that seeks to improve carers’ quality of life.

Transition metal oxide heterostructures are interesting due to the distinctly different properties that can arise from their interfaces, such as superconductivity, high catalytic activity, and magnetism. Oxygen point defects can play an important role at these interfaces in inducing potentially novel properties. The design of oxide heterostructures in which the oxygen defects are manipulated to attain specific functionalities requires the ability to resolve the state and concentration of local oxygen defects across buried interfaces. In this work, we utilized a novel combination of hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) and high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) to probe the local oxygen defect distribution across the buried interfaces of oxide heterolayers. This approach provides a nondestructive way to qualitatively probe locally the oxygen defects in transition metal oxide heterostructures. We studied two trilayer structures as model systems: the La0.8Sr0.2CoO3−δ/(La0.5Sr0.5)2CoO4−δ/La0.8Sr0...

Michele Peters,1 Laura Kelly,1 Caroline M Potter,1 Crispin Jenkinson,1 Elizabeth Gibbons,1 Julien Forder,2 Ray Fitzpatrick1 1Health Services Research Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, 2Personal Social Services Research Unit, School of Social Policy Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life, number of diseases and burden of morbidity of multimorbid primary care users and whether a simple disease count or a multimorbidity burden score is more predictive of quality of life.Patients and methods: Primary care patients with at least 1 of 11 specified chronic conditions were invited to participate in a postal survey. Participants completed the Disease Burden Impact Scale (DBIS) questionnaire, the five dimension-five level Euro-Qol (EQ-5D-5L) and standard demographics questions. The DBIS asks participants to self-report chronic conditions and to rate the impact of each condition. Descriptive statistics and analysis of variance were used to determine quality of life, count of diseases and burden of morbidity. Multiple linear regression analyses determined whether disease count or the DBIS, adjusted for demographics, was more predictive of the EQ-5D-5L scores.Results: Thirty-one percent (n=917) responded, from which 69 were excluded as they reported no or only one condition, leaving 848 (92%) in the analysis. Slightly more women (50.9%) participated; the mean age was 67.0 (SD 13.9) and the mean number of conditions was 6.5 (SD 3.49). The mean scores were: DBIS 15.5 (SD 12.00; score range 0–140, with higher scores indicating higher multimorbidity burden), EQ-5D-5L score 0.69 (SD 0.28; score range −0.28 [a state worse than death] to 1 [best possible health state]) and EQ-5D Visual Analog Scale (EQ-VAS) 65.44 (SD 23.66; score range 0–100 with higher scores meaning better health). The model using the DBIS score was more predictive of the EQ-5D-5L score and EQ-VAS than the model using the disease count (R2adj=0.53 using DBIS and R2adj=0.42 using disease count for EQ-5D-5L score, and R2adj=0.44 using DBIS versus R2adj=0.34 using disease count for EQ-VAS). All models were statistically significant (p

Denture adhesives are designed to be moisture-sensitive through the inclusion of a blend of polymer salts with varying degrees of water-sensitivity. This enables the adhesive to mix with saliva in vivo and activate its high tack, through the formation of a mucilaginous layer. We report for the first time, the use of differential scanning calorimetry to study a series of hydrophobic and hydrophilic polymeric systems in order to correlate water-structuring behavior with adhesion strength. Adhesive bonding of the more hydrophobic variants was higher than that of a commercial-based control and a more hydrophilic polymer system in both lap shear and tensile configurations. Water-binding data suggested that increasing the hydrophobicity of the maleic acid copolymer substituents led to decreased levels of freezing water. In comparison, increasing the hydrophilic nature of the polymer backbone gave higher levels of freezing water within the hydrated samples. The results of this study emphasize the importance of varying the levels of hydrophobic and hydrophilic components within denture adhesive formulations, alongside the types of water present within the adhesive systems. This phenomenon has shown the potential to fine-tune the adhesive properties and failure mode against poly(methyl methacrylate), surfaces. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 1355-1362, 2018.

Cationic polymer brushes are attractive coatings for the development of gene delivery vectors, owing to the simplicity via which they enable the control of a broad range of design parameters independently of each other. Indeed, brush chemistry, grafting density, thickness and nanoparticle cores (chemistry, size and shape) can be designed and controlled separately. Although some of these parameters have been investigated in the case of poly(dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) brushes, including grafting density and thickness, the main core studied to date with such systems has remained silica nanoparticles that display low resorption potential. In this work, we propose to make use of bioresorbable mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) for the design of brush-based gene delivery systems. We synthesise a range of MSNs with varying calcium doping levels, enabling to regulate resorption. We demonstrate the growth of PDMAEMA brushes from these bioglass nanoparticles and study some of their physico-chemical properties. We demonstrate the control of brush release from these nanomaterials, through their calcium content and surface erosion. Finally, we quantify their efficacy in a siRNA knock down model. Therefore, these systems demonstrate the feasibility of designing bioresorbable brush-based gene delivery vectors.

Introduction. The Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) was developed in England to measure people’s social care–related quality of life (SCRQoL). Objectives. The aim of this article is to estimate preference weights for the Finnish ASCOT for service users (ASCOT). In addition, we tested for learning and fatigue effects in the choice experiment used to elicit the preference weights. Methods. The analysis data ( n = 1000 individuals) were obtained from an online survey sample of the Finnish adult general population using gender, age, and region as quotas. The questionnaire included a best-worst scaling (BWS) experiment using ASCOT. Each respondent sequentially selected four alternatives (best, worst; second-best, second-worst) for eight BWS tasks ( n = 32,000 choice observations). A scale multinomial logit model was used to estimate the preference parameters and to test for fatigue and learning. Results. The most and least preferred attribute-levels were “I have as much control over my daily life as I want” and “I have no control over my daily life.” The preference weights were not on a cardinal scale. The ordering effect was related to the second-best choices. Learning effect was in the last four tasks. Conclusions. This study has developed a set of preference weights for the ASCOT instrument in Finland, which can be used for investigating outcomes of social care interventions on adult populations. The learning effect calls for the development of study designs that reduce possible bias relating to preference uncertainty at the beginning of sequential BWS tasks. It also supports the adaptation of a modelling strategy in which the sequence of tasks is explicitly modelled as a scale factor.

Long‐term care services are provided to help people manage the consequences of impairment, but their impact goes beyond the meeting of basic needs. Accordingly, the main aim was to explore the marginal effectiveness of care when measured in terms of people's overall care‐related quality of life (CRQoL) and assess changes in marginal effect for increasing intensity. The associated aim was to refine and apply an observational method to estimate marginal effectiveness. A “production function” approach was used with survey data, including Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit‐measured CRQoL, whereby we statistically modelled the expected relationship between service utilisation rates and CRQoL. This method seeks to limit endogeneity issues by controlling on observables and using instrumental variable. Using a survey of publicly funded long‐term care service users in England, we found that community‐based long‐term care significantly improved people's CRQoL but with diminishing marginal effects and effects differentiated by baseline impairment levels. There are implications for how the care system should respond to changes in global public budgets. For example, where there is unmet need, a system aimed to maximise (unadjusted) CRQoL would put more emphasis on access (more recipients) than intensity of support compared to a system operating on a needs basis.

In the field of plastic reconstructive surgery, development of new innovative matrices for skin repair is in demand. The ideal biomaterial should promote attachment, proliferation and growth of cells. Additionally, it should degrade in an appropriate time period without releasing harmful substances, not exerting a pathological immune response. The materials used should display optimized mechanical properties to sustain cell growth and limit scaffold contraction. Wound healing is a biological process directed towards restoration of tissue that has suffered an injury. An important phase of wound healing is the generation of a basal epithelium wholly replacing the epidermis of the wound. Wild silk from Antheraea mylitta meets these demands to a large extent. To evaluate the effects of the treatment, Antheraea mylitta and Bombyx mori samples were characterized by SEM-EDX, FT-IR, XRD and TGA-DSC techniques. Preliminary cell growth behavior was carried out by culturing epidermal cells and proliferation was quantified via viability assay. Moreover, Antheraea mylitta possesses excellent cell-adhesive capability, effectively promoting cell attachment and proliferation. Antheraea mylitta serves as a delivery vehicle for cells. With all these unique features, it is expected that Antheraea mylitta mat will have wide utility in the areas of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Purpose: Unpaid care is an important source of support of people with long-term conditions. Interdependence of carers’ and care recipients’ quality of life would be expected due to the relational nature of caregiving. This study aims to explore interdependence of quality of life in carer/care-recipient dyads, especially in relation to mutual interdependence due to social feedback in the caregiving relationship and also the partner effects of one partner’s experience of long-term care support on the other’s outcomes.\ud Methods: Using data collected in an interview survey of 264 adults with care support needs and their unpaid carers in England, we employed regression analysis to explore whether there is mutual interdependence of care-related quality of life within carer/care-recipient dyads for three quality of life attributes: Control over daily life, Social participation and Occupation. The influence of factors, including satisfaction with long-term care, were also considered on individuals’ and dyad partners’ care-related quality of life.\ud Results: We found mutual interdependence of quality of life at the dyad-level for Control over daily life, but not Occupation or Social participation. A partner effect of care recipients’ satisfaction with long-term care on carers’ Control over daily life was also observed. Higher care recipient satisfaction Page 2 of 28 with care services was associated with higher Control over daily life. By contrast, for Social participation and Occupation, there were only significant effects of care recipients’ satisfaction with long-term care and their own quality of life.\ud Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of considering the wider impact beyond the individual of long-term care on quality of life in the evaluation of long-term care policy and practice.

Background: The Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT-SCT4) is a multi-attribute utility index designed for the evaluation of long-term social care services. The measure comprises eight attributes that capture aspects of social care-related quality of life. The instrument has previously been validated with a sample of older adults who used home care services in England. This paper aims to demonstrate the instrument’s test-retest reliability and provide evidence for its validity in a diverse sample of adults who use publicly-funded, community-based social care in England.\ud \ud Methods: A survey of 770 social care service users was conducted in England. A subsample of 100 services users participated in a follow-up interview between 7 and 21 days after baseline. Spearman rank correlation coefficients between the ASCOT-SCT4 index score and the EQ-5D-3L, the ICECAP-A or ICECAP-O and overall quality of life were used to assess convergent validity. Data on variables hypothesised to be related to the ASCOT-SCT4 index score, as well as rating of individual attributes, were also collected. Hypothesised relationships were tested using one-way ANOVA or Fisher’s exact test. Test-retest reliability was assessed using the intra-class correlation coefficient for the ASCOTSCT4 index score at baseline and follow-up.\ud \ud Results: There were moderate to strong correlations between the ASCOT-SCT4 index and EQ-5D-3L, the ICECAP-A or ICECAP-O, and overall quality of life (all correlations ? 0.3). The construct validity was further supported by statistically significant hypothesised relationships between the ASCOTSCT4 index and individual characteristics in univariate and multivariate analysis. There was also further evidence for the construct validity for the revised Food and drink and Dignity items. The testretest reliability was considered to be good (ICC=0.783; 95% CI: 0.678-0.857).\ud \ud Conclusions: The ASCOT-SCT4 index has good test-retest reliability for adults with physical or sensory disabilities who use social care services. The index score and the attributes appear to be valid for adults receiving social care for support reasons connected to underlying mental health problems, and physical or sensory disabilities. Further reliability testing with a wider sample of social care users is warranted, as is further exploration of the relationship between the ASCOT-SCT4, ICECAP-A/O and EQ-5D-3L indices.

Background: Social care-related quality of life is a key outcome indicator used in the evaluation of social care interventions and policy. It is not, however, always possible to collect quality of life data by self-report even with adaptations for people with cognitive or communication impairments.\ud A new proxy-report version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) measure of social care-related quality of life was developed to address the issues of wider inclusion of people with cognitive or communication difficulties who may otherwise be systematically excluded. The development of the proxy-report ASCOT questionnaire was informed by literature review and earlier work that identified the key issues and challenges associated with proxy-reported outcomes.\ud \ud Methods: To evaluate the acceptability and content validity of the ASCOT-Proxy, qualitative cognitive interviews were conducted with unpaid carers or care workers of people with cognitive or communication impairments. The proxy respondents were invited to ‘think aloud’ while completing the questionnaire. Follow-up probes were asked to elicit further detail of the respondent’s comprehension of the format, layout and content of each item and also how they weighed up the options to formulate a response.\ud \ud Results: A total of 25 unpaid carers and care workers participated in three iterative rounds of cognitive interviews. The findings indicate that the items were well-understood and the concepts were consistent with the item definitions for the standard self-completion version of ASCOT with minor modifications to the draft ASCOT-Proxy. The ASCOT-Proxy allows respondents to rate the proxy-proxy and proxy-patient perspectives, which improved the acceptability of proxy report.\ud \ud Conclusions: A new proxy-report version of ASCOT was developed with evidence of its qualitative content validity and acceptability. The ASCOT-Proxy is ready for empirical testing of its suitability for data collection as a self-completion and/or interview questionnaire, and also evaluation of its psychometric properties.

Structural defects in the molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) monolayer are widely known for strongly altering its properties. Therefore, a deep understanding of these structural defects and how they affect MoS2 electronic properties is of fundamental importance. Here, we report on the incorporation of atomic hydrogen in mono-layered MoS2 to tune its structural defects. We demonstrate that the electronic properties of single layer MoS2 can be tuned from the intrinsic electron (n) to hole (p) doping via controlled exposure to atomic hydrogen at room temperature. Moreover, this hydrogenation process represents a viable technique to completely saturate the sulfur vacancies present in the MoS2 flakes. The successful incorporation of hydrogen in MoS2 leads to the modification of the electronic properties as evidenced by high resolution X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. Micro-Raman spectroscopy and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements show the high quality of the hydrogenated MoS2 confirming the efficiency of our hydrogenation process. These results demonstrate that the MoS2 hydrogenation could be a significant and efficient way to achieve tunable doping of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) materials with non-TMD elements., 15 pages, 6 figures + SI 3 pages 3 figures. Pre-print published with the authorization of ACS Publications

The mechanical properties of naturally-derived matrices and biomaterials are thought to play an important role in directing cell adhesion, spreading, motility, proliferation and differentiation. However, recent reports have indicated that cells may respond to local nanoscale physical cues, rather than bulk mechanical properties. We had previously reported that primary keratinocytes and mesenchymal stem cells did not seem to respond to the bulk mechanical properties of poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) substrates. In this study, we examine the mechanical properties of weakly crosslinked PDMS substrates and observe a liquid-like behaviour, with complete stress relaxation. We then report the observation that HaCaT cells, an epidermal cell line, proliferate readily at the surface of uncrosslinked liquid PDMS, as well as on low viscosity (0.77 cSt) fluorinated oil. These results are surprising, considering current views in the field of mechanotransduction on the importance of bulk mechanical properties, but we find that strong mechanical interfaces, presumably resulting from protein assembly, are formed at liquid–liquid interfaces for which cell adhesion and proliferation are observed. Hence our results suggest that cells sense the nanoscale mechanical properties of liquid–liquid interfaces and that such physical cues are sufficient to sustain the proliferation of adherent cells.

The non-specific adhesion of polymers and soft tissues is of great interest to the field of biomedical engineering, as it will shed light on some of the processes that regulate interactions between scaffolds, implants and nanoparticles with surrounding tissues after implantation or delivery. In order to promote adhesion to soft tissues, a greater understanding of the relationship between polymer chemistry and nanoscale adhesion mechanisms is required. In this work, we grew poly(dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA), poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(oligoethylene glycol methacrylate) (POEGMA) brushes from the surface of silica beads, and investigated their adhesion to a variety of substrates via colloidal probe-based atomic force microscopy (AFM). We first characterised adhesion to a range of substrates with defined surface chemistry (self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) with a range of hydrophilicities, charge and hydrogen bonding), before studying the adhesion of brushes to epithelial cell monolayers (primary keratinocytes and HaCaT cells) and soft tissues (porcine epicardium and keratinized gingiva). Adhesion assays to SAMs reveal the complex balance of interactions (electrostatic, van der Waals interactions and hydrogen bonding) regulating the adhesion of weak polyelectrolyte brushes. This resulted in particularly strong adhesion of PAA brushes to a wide range of surface chemistries. In turn, colloidal probe microscopy on cell monolayers highlighted the importance of the glycocalyx in regulating non-specific adhesions. This was also reflected by the adhesive properties of soft tissues, in combination with their mechanical properties. Overall, this work clearly demonstrates the complex nature of interactions between polymeric biomaterials and biological samples and highlights the need for relatively elaborate models to predict these interactions.

${\mathrm{Sr}}_{2}{\mathrm{IrO}}_{4}$ is characterized by a large spin-orbit coupling, which gives rise to bands with strongly entangled spin and orbital characters, called ${\mathrm{J}}_{1/2}$ and ${\mathrm{J}}_{3/2}$. We use light-polarization dependent ARPES to study directly the orbital character of these bands and fully map out their dispersion. We observe bands in very good agreement with our cluster dynamical mean-field theory calculations. We show that the ${\mathrm{J}}_{1/2}$ band, the closest to the Fermi level ${E}_{F}$, is dominated by ${d}_{xz}$ character along ${k}_{x}$ and ${d}_{yz}$ along ${k}_{y}$. This is actually in agreement with an isotropic ${\mathrm{J}}_{1/2}$ character on average, but this large orbital dependence in $\mathbf{k}$ space was mostly overlooked before. It gives rise to strong modulations of the ARPES intensity that we explain and carefully take into account to compare dispersions in equivalent directions of the Brillouin zone. Although the latter dispersions look different at first, suggesting possible symmetry breakings, they are found essentially similar, once corrected for these intensity variations. In particular, the pseudogaplike features close to the $X$ point appearing in the nearly metallic 15% Rh-doped ${\mathrm{Sr}}_{2}{\mathrm{IrO}}_{4}$ strongly depend on experimental conditions. We reveal that there is nevertheless an energy scale of 30 meV below which spectral weight is suppressed, independent of the experimental conditions, which gives a reliable basis to analyze this behavior. We suggest it is caused by disorder.

Objectives The Better Care Fund is the first and only national policy in England that has legally mandated the use of pooled budgets to support local health and social care systems to provide better integrated care. Methods We report qualitative findings from the first national multi-method evaluation of the Better Care Fund, focusing on its implementation, perceptions of progress and expected impacts among key stakeholders. Interviews were carried out with 40 staff responsible for Better Care Fund implementation in 16 local health and social care sites between 2017 and 2018. Results Study participants reported their experiences of implementation, and we present these in relation to three themes: organizational issues, relational issues and wider contextual issues. Participants stressed the practical and political challenges of managing pooled budgets and the complexity of working across geographical boundaries. In a context of unprecedented austerity, shared vision and strong leadership were even more vital to achieve collaborative outcomes. Conclusion Pooling budgets through the Better Care Fund can lever closer collaboration between sectors and services. Shared vision and leadership are essential to develop and foster this closer collaboration. Although some successes were reported, the study highlights that there are major cultural, operational and territorial barriers to overcome.

Background: There is increasing interest in assessing the effects of interventions on older people, people with long-term conditions and their informal carers for use in economic evaluation. The Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit for Carers (ASCOT-Carer) is a measure that specifically assesses the impact of social care services on informal carers. To date, the ASCOT-Carer has not been preference-weighted. Objectives: To estimate preference-based index values for the English version of the ASCOT-Carer from the general population in England. Methods: The ASCOT-Carer consists of 7 domains, each reflecting aspects of social care-related quality of life in informal carers. Preferences for the ASCOT-Carer social care-related quality of life states were estimated using a best–worst scaling exercise in an online survey. The survey was administered to a sample of the general adult population in England (n = 1000). Participants were asked to put themselves into the hypothetical state of being an informal carer and indicate which attribute they thought was the best (first and second) and worst (first and second) from a profile list of 7 attributes reflecting the 7 domains, each ranging at a different level (1-4). Multinomial logit regression was used to analyze the data and estimate preference weights for the ASCOT-Carer measure. Results: The most valued aspect by English participants was the "occupation" attribute at its highest level. Results further showed participants rated having no control over their daily life as the lowest attribute-level of all those presented. The position of the 7 attributes influenced participants’ best and worst choices, and there was evidence of both scale and taste heterogeneity on preferences. Conclusion: This study has established a set of preference-based index values for the ASCOT-Carer in England derived from the best–worst scaling exercise that can be used for economic evaluation of interventions on older individuals and their informal carers.

Purpose The aim of this work was to develop a mapping algorithm for estimating EuroQoL 5 Dimension (EQ-5D) utilities from responses to the Long-Term Conditions Questionnaire (LTCQ), thus increasing LTCQ’s potential as a comprehensive outcome measure for evaluating integrated care initiatives. Methods We combined data from three studies to give a total sample of 1334 responses. In each of the three datasets, we randomly selected 75% of the sample and combined the selected random samples to generate the estimation dataset, which consisted of 1001 patients. The unselected 25% observations from each dataset were combined to generate an internal validation dataset of 333 patients. We used direct mapping models by regressing responses to the LTCQ-8 directly onto EQ-5D-5L and EQ-5D-3L utilities as well as response (or indirect) mapping to predict the response level that patients selected for each of the five EQ-5D-5L domains. Several models were proposed and compared on mean squared error and mean absolute error. Results A two-part model with OLS was the best performing based on the mean squared error (0.038) and mean absolute error (0.147) when estimating the EQ-5D-5L utilities. A multinomial response mapping model using LTCQ-8 responses was used to predict EQ-5D-5L responses levels. Conclusions This study provides a mapping algorithm for estimating EQ-5D utilities from LTCQ responses. The results from this study can help broaden the applicability of the LTCQ by producing utility values for use in economic analyses.

International audience; By means of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations, we investigate the electronic structure of a Br or I atom overlayer on the Cu(111) surface produced by the well-known Ullmann coupling reaction. We found that the iodine adsorbate induces two spin–orbit split highly dispersive bands, which are well-separated from the bulk Cu 3d bands, whereas the bromine-induced bands are flat and largely hybridized with the copper states. Also, our measured constant energy maps show that the I-induced bands have a parabolic shape in the whole surface Brillouin zone, which is confirmed by our calculations. Overall, the agreement between theory and experiments is excellent, giving new insights into the electronic structure of halogen atoms on noble metals and their possible influence on the molecular electronic structure.

The nanotopography and nanoscale geometry of the extra-cellular matrix (ECM) are important regulators of cell adhesion, motility and fate decision. However, unlike the sensing of matrix mechanics and ECM density, the molecular processes regulating the direct sensing of the ECM nanotopography and nanoscale geometry are not well understood. Here, we use nanotopographical patterns generated via electrospun nanofibre lithography (ENL) to investigate the mechanisms of nanotopography sensing by cells. We observe the dysregulation of actin dynamics, resulting in the surprising formation of actin foci. This alteration of actin organisation is regulated by myosin contractility but independent of adapter proteins such as vinculin. This process is highly dependent on differential integrin expression as β3 integrin expressing cells, more sensitive to nanopattern dimensions than β1 integrin cells, also display increased perturbation of actin assembly and actin foci formation. We propose that, in β3 integrin expressing cells, contractility results in the destabilisation of nanopatterned actin networks, collapsing into foci and sequestering regulators of actin dynamics such as cofilin that orchestrate disassembly. Therefore, in contrast to the sensing of substrate mechanics and ECM ligand density, which are directly orchestrated by focal adhesion assembly, we propose that nanotopography sensing is regulated by a long-range sensing mechanism, remote from focal adhesions and mediated by the actin architecture.

Inflammatory conditions are frequently accompanied by increased levels of active proteases, and there is rising interest in methods for their detection to monitor inflammation in a point of care setting. In this work, new sensor materials for disposable single-step protease biosensors based on poly(2-oxazoline) hydrogels cross-linked with a protease-specific cleavable peptide are described. The performance of the sensor material was assessed targeting the detection of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), a protease that has been shown to be an indicator of inflammation in multiple sclerosis and other inflammatory conditions. Films of the hydrogel were formed on gold-coated quartz crystals using thiol-ene click chemistry, and the cross-link density was optimized. The degradation rate of the hydrogel was monitored using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and showed a strong dependence on the MMP-9 concentration. A concentration range of 0-160 nM of MMP-9 was investigated, and a lower limit of detection of 10 nM MMP-9 was determined.

The reduction of magnetic damping is one of the biggest challenges in low-energy-consumption spintronics and magnonics, in the pursuit of $e.g.$ low switching current for spin-transfer-torque-based technology, and long-range spin-wave propagation. This experimental study highlights ultralow damping values in high-quality epitaxial Co${}_{2}$Mn$Z$ ($Z$ = Al, Si, Ga, Ge, Sn, Sb) Heusler half-metallic magnets. As predicted theoretically, these ultralow values are intrinsically coupled to the underlying electronic structure. The width of the spin gap, as well as the location of the Fermi energy within it, play key roles in the relaxation of precessing magnetization.

The multifunctionality of graphene has the potential to unlock important developments in nanocomposite science. However, the manipulation of graphene without interfering with its unique properties and while controlling its spatial organization remains challenging. Here, the formation of a photoaddressable liquid crystalline (LC) solution through the stabilization of graphene oxide (GO) with photocleavable brushes is described. The LC behavior leads to the thermodynamic entrapment of GO into low aspect ratio domains that fail to display the properties typically predicted for graphene nanocomposites. The morphology and structural and electronic performance of these nanocomposites are regenerated through the brush cleavage, which controls the phase transition of the LC phase. These results show that kinetic control of graphene assembly can be an attractive tool toward the dynamic regulation of processable sol states and structured percolated networks for rational composite manufacturing.