Individual Placement and Support and Participatory Workplace Intervention on the Work Participation of People with Disabilities: A Randomised Controlled Trial.

Purpose: This study assessed the effectiveness of Individual Placement and Support (IPS), Participatory Workplace Intervention (PWI), and IPS + PWI on work participation and health of people with work disabilities.

Methods: A randomised controlled 2 × 2 factorial trial with 120 clients and an 18-month follow-up was performed. Differences between IPS and no-IPS and between PWI and no-PWI were assessed using log-rank tests and Cox proportional hazards models.

Process Evaluation of Individual Placement and Support and Participatory Workplace Intervention to Increase the Sustainable Work Participation of People with Work Disabilities.

Purpose: This study is a process evaluation of the use of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) and Participatory Workplace Intervention (PWI) to increase the work participation of people with work disabilities. We ran the evaluation alongside a randomized controlled trial (RCT), to investigate whether and to what extent IPS and PWI were executed according to protocol.

Methods: The study population consisted of clients with work disabilities, and their job coaches who were employed by the municipality of a large city in the Netherlands.

Experiences and needs of welfare benefit recipients regarding their welfare-to-work services and case workers.

Background: This study aimed to explore the experiences and needs of (ex-)welfare benefit recipients from a large urban municipality in the Netherlands regarding their welfare-to-work services and their case workers.

Methods: Quantitative data from a client satisfaction survey that was filled out by 213 people (response rate 11%) who received welfare-to-work services was combined with results from four group interviews with a total of 15 people receiving welfare-to-work services. Verbatim transcripts from the interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis.

Effect of bicarbonate ions on the crystallization of calcite on self-assembled monolayers.

We use molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the nucleation of calcite crystals on self-assembled monolayers. We show how the presence of bicarbonate ions adsorbed on the monolayer surface can both aid nucleation and control the orientation of the growth of the crystal. Using a simple model of the nucleation process and calculated interfacial energies, we calculate the enhancement (with respect to the homogeneous nucleation rate) of the nucleation of calcite on the (012) and (0001) faces.

Thermodynamics of epitaxial calcite nucleation on self-assembled monolayers.

Classical heterogeneous nucleation theory is used to describe the epitaxial nucleation of calcite on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). Both spherical and faceted clusters are considered. The use of faceted clusters reveals a useful relation between the shape of very small crystals and the ratio of the heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation barriers.

Atomic-size oscillations in conductance histograms for gold nanowires and the influence of work hardening.

Nanowires of different natures have been shown to self-assemble as a function of stress at the contact between two macroscopic metallic leads. Here we demonstrate for Au wires that the balance between various metastable nanowire configurations is influenced by the microstructure of the starting materials, and we discover a new set of periodic structures, which we interpret as due to the atomic discreteness of the contact size for the three principal crystal orientations.

Evaluation of sample spin-polarization from spin-polarized scanning tunneling spectroscopy experiments.

Spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy has produced a great amount of images presenting magnetic contrast between different magnetic domains with an unsurpassed spatial resolution but getting values like the surface polarization has proven to be a difficult task. We will discuss in detail how to extract this information for the case of manganese layers grown on Fe(001) whiskers. Mn layers adopt a body-centered-tetragonal (bct) structure when they are grown on the Fe(001) surface at room temperature.

Amblyopia & Strabismus Questionnaire: design and initial validation.

Literature on the benefits of screening and treatment of amblyopia emphasizes the costs of insufficiently treated amblyopic patients who lose their better eye. However, patients with insufficiently treated amblyopia and strabismus who do not lose their better eye only experience a slight decrease in their quality of life, and such patients occur more frequently. We designed and validated a questionnaire for amblyopia and strabismus in order to assess the decrease in quality of life of such patients.

Highly oriented self-assembled monolayers as templates for epitaxial calcite growth.

The lateral alignment of [012] habit-modified calcite crystals with respect to a carboxylic acid terminated self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of thiols has been determined. The crystals were grown from a Kitano solution (pH 5.6-6.

Fractional conductance in hydrogen-embedded gold nanowires.

Interaction of the physically adsorbed molecular hydrogen with a breaking gold nanowire results in additional stable atomic configurations in few atom contacts and appearance of fractional peaks in the conductance histogram. This effect is explained by peculiar dynamic evolution of the hydrogen-embedded nanoconstriction due to competition between tensile and capillary forces. Dimerization within the atomic wire and hydrogen-assisted stabilization of gold dimers results in preferable atomic arrangements with conductivity close to 0.

Observation of spin-polarized surface states on ultrathin bct Mn(001) films by spin-polarized scanning tunneling spectroscopy.

We report the observation of a magnetic contrast of up to 20% in the scanning tunneling spectroscopy dI/dV maps obtained with Fe-coated tips on Mn(001) layers grown on an Fe(001) whisker at 370 K. These nanometer resolution microscopy results show that the layers couple antiferromagnetically. By normalizing the dI/dV curves by tunneling probability functions, we found a spin-dependent peak on the body-centered-tetragonal (bct) Mn(001) surface at +0.

Effects of crystal shape on the energy levels of zero-dimensional PbS quantum dots.

Nanometer-size PbS quantum dots have been made by electrodeposition on a Au(111) substrate. The deposited nanocrystals have a flattened cubic shape. We probed the single-electron energy-level spectrum of individual quantum dots by scanning tunneling spectroscopy and found that it deviates strongly from that of spherical PbS quantum dots.

Spatially resolved spectroscopy and structurally encoded imaging by magnetic resonance force microscopy of quadrupolar spin systems.

Enhancement of the sensitivity of magnetic resonance force microscopy allowed the extension of the technique to observe half-integer quadrupolar nuclei. This is demonstrated for various different compounds and nuclei with different spin numbers. The possibility of obtaining spatially localized spectral information through the quadrupole interaction is implemented by using nutation NMR.

Real-space imaging of an orbital Kondo resonance on the Cr(001) surface.

The Kondo effect is usually connected with the interaction between a localized spin moment and itinerant electrons. This interaction leads to the formation of a narrow resonance at the Fermi level, which is called the Abrikosov-Suhl or Kondo resonance. Scanning tunnelling microscopy is an ideal technique for real-space investigations of complicated electronic structures and many-body phenomena, such as the formation of the Kondo resonance or d-wave pairing in high-T(c) superconductors.

Direct observation of surface alloying and interface roughening: growth of Au on Fe(001).

Scanning tunneling microscopy studies on the growth of Au on Fe(001) are reported. A surface alloy is observed for submonolayer deposition ( <0.5 monolayer) at temperatures higher than 370 K.

Optical detection of ballistic electrons injected by a scanning-tunneling microscope.

We demonstrate a spectroscopic technique which is based on ballistic injection of minority carriers from the tip of a scanning-tunneling microscope into a semiconductor heterostructure. By analyzing the resulting electroluminescence spectrum as a function of tip-sample bias, both the injection barrier height and the carrier scattering rate in the semiconductor can be determined. This technique is complementary to ballistic electron emission spectroscopy since minority instead of majority carriers are injected, which give the opportunity to study the carrier trajectory after injection.

Influence of impurities on localized transition metal surface states: scanning tunneling spectroscopy on V(001).

The first scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements on V(001) are reported. A strong surface state is detected which is very sensitive to the presence of segregated carbon impurities. The surface state energy shifts from 0.