Alzheimer’s disease (AD) causes impairments affecting instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Transdisciplinary research in neuropsychology and virtual reality has fostered the development of ecologically valid virtual tools for the assessment of IADL, using simulations of real life activities. Few studies have examined the benefits of this approach in AD patients. Our aim was to examine the utility of a non-immersive virtual coffee task (NI-VCT) for assessment of IADL in these patients. We focus on the assessment results obtained from a group of 24 AD patients on a task designed to assess their ability to prepare a virtual cup of coffee, using a virtual coffee machine. We compared performance on the virtual task to an identical daily living task involving the actual preparation of a cup of coffee, as well as to global cognitive, executive, and caregiver-reported IADL functioning. Relative to 32 comparable, healthy elderly (HE) controls, AD patients performed worse than HE controls on all tasks. Correlation analyses revealed that NI-VCT measures were related to all other neuropsychological measures. Moreover, regression analyses demonstrated that performance on the NI-VCT predicted actual task performance and caregiver-reported IADL functioning. Our results provide initial support for the utility of our virtual kitchen for assessment of IADL in AD patients. (JINS, 2014, 20, 1–10)

Ion-beam sputtering (IBS) has been studied as a means for scalable, mask-less nanopatterning of surfaces. Patterning at the nanoscale has been achieved for numerous types of materials including: semiconductors, metals and insulators. Although much work has been focused on tailoring nanopatterning by systematic ion-beam parameter manipulation, limited work has addressed elucidating on the underlying mechanisms for self-organization of multi-component surfaces. In particular there has been little attention to correlate the surface chemistry variation during ion irradiation with the evolution of surface morphology and nanoscale self-organization. Moreover the role of surface impurities on patterning is not well known and characterization during the time-scale of modification remains challenging. This work summarizes an in-situ approach to characterize the evolution of surface chemistry during irradiation and its correlation to surface nanopatterning for a variety of multi-components surfaces. The work highlights the importance and role of surface impurities in nanopatterning of a surface during low-energy ion irradiation. In particular, it shows the importance of irradiation-driven mechanisms in GaSb(100) nanopatterning by low-energy ions and how the study of these systems can be impacted by oxide formation.

This paper is devoted to the numerical simulation of wavebreaking. It presents the results of a numerical workshop that washeld during the conference LOMA04. The objective is to compareseveral mathematical models (compressible or incompressible) andassociated numerical methods to compute the flow field during awave breaking over a reef. The methods will also be compared withexperiments.

Generation of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light for nanolithography requires the use of hot, dense plasmas. Gas discharge produced plasma (GDPP) and laser produced plasma (LPP) are the primary configurations used to generate these plasmas. Both GDPP and LPP collector mirror systems face serious issues regarding lifetime and EUV light reflectivity performance. For both configurations debris, fast ions, fast neutrals, and condensable EUV radiator fuels (Li, Sn) interact with nearby collector mirrors. Sn, in particular is used due to its high conversion efficiency in the 13.5-nm in-band spectrum. In addition to debris, collector mirrors are exposed to impurities (H,C,O,N), off-band radiation (depositing heat) and highly-charged ions leading to their degradation and consequently limiting 13.5 nm light reflection intensity.

This work presents results of Ru and Rh-based collector optics irradiated by Sn ions between at 1.3 keV and exposed to Sn thermal atoms at room temperature. In-situ metrology monitors the effects of ion implantation on ion-induced erosion and EUV reflectivity changes using low-energy ion scattering spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Results find that Sn implants at the first few monolayers leading to a mixed layer at the surface. Sn thermal atoms deposit on top of the mirror surface leading to 10-20% loss of collector mirror EUV light reflectivity.

In NTQ62, Joanna Ostrowska reported on Grotowski's last visit to his native Poland before his death in 1999. Here, Paul Allain assesses the Grotowksi inheritance in Pontedera, Italy, which had been the base for Grotowski's research since 1986 – specifically, on the second Generazioni International Theatre Festival, held there in June 2001. Paul Allain's doctoral research on the Gardzienice company took him to Poland during the years of ferment around the fall of Communism. He is presently Senior Lecturer in Drama in the University of Kent, and was co-editor of the recent Cambridge Companion to Chekhov.