Do you have any regrets for putting your parents in a nursing home

In a way I do, at least in the beginning. I was her beneficiary and I knew that if she stayed at home all her money would go to her at-home care, and when that ran out, my husband and I would be footing the bill as we already were for his own mother. It would be putting us in a deep financial hole that I didn’t feel was fair to my husband who has worked his ass off his entire life since age 14. These are all my “excuses” for allowing medicade  to pick up the tab for a woman who paid into the system her entire life also, since age 16.

What I find surprising, in retrospect, is how much I was in denial about her health. I always pride myself on being so brutally honest about facing the truth, but when it came to my own mother, I actually never thought she was as “bad off” as she really was; so I would feel guilty that she should be left with 2 other “out of it” roommates in a nursing home. I went there almost every day, engaged her in Bingo and all the other activities they offered, and refused to notice how under par her participation was.

For years I would tease her that if she ever stopped playing scrabble, I’d know it was time to call the undertaker. We played Scrabble all day, almost every day, for the last ten years of her life that she relocated from FL to CA (before the nursing home). We would call ourselves “Scrabble Sluts” and stay up til 2 or 3 a.m. hard at work playing cut-throat games. But, it was in the nursing home, when she started playing her own weird game that I could no longer deny the writing on the wall. Still, I felt guilty then and still feel a twinge now and then until I snap myself out of it and take a realistic look at the facts. The woman was in no condition to be at home the last 18 months of her life, so let her, and it, RIP.

Refer: Carol Cotton

Cosmology

Cosmology is a branch of astrophysics and is concerned with the very large scale structure of the universe, and its formation and history during its 13.8 billion year lifetime.

Astrophysics is a branch of physics concerned with all of the physical processes in the universe from the solar system on out, including, but not limited to, planetary science, stars and their formation and evolution, galaxy properties and their formation and evolution (which overlaps with cosmology).

(Source: Stephen Perrenod)

Cosmology serves three major functions.

1.     It organizes the sciences into a common theme and plot (theory) so they work together.

2.     This conceptualization provides means for practical lay interface with the sciences for general social function.

3.     The more accurate the theory, the closer to a sustainable model by which civilization can shape itself into a cooperative balance with nature.

It also serves secondary purposes like inspiring people into science or learning. Ignorance of the few is strength of the many, so encouraging education inspires people to also think for themselves. And of course if it is inspirational, it is also popular and profitable in the media and entertainment.

Ideally, a cosmology should be a working and evolving theory based on our most advanced conceptualizations and understandings that are themselves based exclusively in empirical facts. Not conjecture. Not hypothesis. Not interpretations. Based on how things actually work. I know it is unpopular, but we in science don’t have all the answers. We’re not supposed to. Knowing everything is the job of religion. Our job is understanding.

Quantum Relativity says a lot about cosmology, but the bottom line is the universe is the background within which big bangs happen. It then explains how the fabric of space time, the universe, and big bang processes work. Most importantly, it provides this handy architecture to assemble the physical sciences, and mathematical protocols to make that workable.

(Ref: Akademe Foundation)

Surfaces and Interfaces

Surface science is the study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, including solid–liquid interfaces, solid–gas interfaces, solid–vacuum interfaces, and liquid–gas interfaces. It includes the fields of surface chemistry and surface physics. Some related practical applications are classed as surface engineering. The science encompasses concepts such as heterogeneous catalysis, semiconductor device fabrication, fuel cells, self-assembled monolayers, and adhesives. Surface science is closely related to interface and colloid science. Interfacial chemistry and physics are common subjects for both. The methods are different. In addition, interface and colloid science studies macroscopic phenomena that occur in heterogeneous systems due to peculiarities of interfaces.

Surface physics can be roughly defined as the study of physical interactions that occur at interfaces. It overlaps with surface chemistry. Some of the topics investigated in surface physics include friction, surface states, surface diffusion, surface reconstruction, surface phonons and plasmons, epitaxy, the emission and tunneling of electrons, spintronics, and the self-assembly of nanostructures on surfaces. Techniques to investigate processes at surfaces include Surface X-Ray Scattering, Scanning Probe Microscopy, surface enhanced Raman Spectroscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS).

The study and analysis of surfaces involves both physical and chemical analysis techniques.

Several modern methods probe the topmost 1–10 nm of surfaces exposed to vacuum. These include X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, low-energy electron diffraction, electron energy loss spectroscopy, thermal desorption spectroscopy, ion scattering spectroscopy, secondary ion mass spectrometry, dual polarization interferometry, and other surface analysis methods included in the list of materials analysis methods. Many of these techniques require vacuum as they rely on the detection of electrons or ions emitted from the surface under study. Moreover, in general ultra high vacuum, in the range of 10⁻⁷ pascal pressure or better, it is necessary to reduce surface contamination by residual gas, by reducing the number of molecules reaching the sample over a given time period. At 0.1 mPa (10⁻⁶ torr) partial pressure of a contaminant and standard temperature, it only takes on the order of 1 second to cover a surface with a one-to-one monolayer of contaminant to surface atoms, so much lower pressures are needed for measurements. This is found by an order of magnitude estimate for the (number) specific surface area of materials and the impingement rate formula from the kinetic theory of gases.

Purely optical techniques can be used to study interfaces under a wide variety of conditions. Reflection-absorption infrared, dual polarisation interferometry, surface enhanced Raman and sum frequency generation spectroscopies can be used to probe solid–vacuum as well as solid–gas, solid–liquid, and liquid–gas surfaces. Multi-Parametric Surface Plasmon Resonance works in solid-gas, solid-liquid, liquid-gas surfaces and can detect even sub-nanometer layers. It probes the interaction kinetics as well as dynamic structural changes such as liposome collapse or swelling of layers in different pH. Dual Polarization Interferometry is used to quantify the order and disruption in birefringent thin films. This has been used, for example, to study the formation of lipid bilayers and their interaction with membrane proteins.

X-ray scattering and spectroscopy techniques are also used to characterize surfaces and interfaces. While some of these measurements can be performed using laboratory X-ray sources, many require the high intensity and energy tunability of synchrotron radiation. X-ray crystal truncation rods (CTR) and X-ray standing wave (XSW) measurements probe changes in surface and adsorbate structures with sub-Ångström resolution. Surface-extended X-ray absorption fine structure (SEXAFS) measurements reveal the coordination structure and chemical state of adsorbates. Grazing-incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) yields the size, shape, and orientation of nanoparticles on surfaces. The crystal structure and texture of thin films can be investigated using grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD, GIXRD).

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is a standard tool for measuring the chemical states of surface species and for detecting the presence of surface contamination. Surface sensitivity is achieved by detecting photoelectrons with kinetic energies of about 10-1000 eV, which have corresponding inelastic mean free paths of only a few nanometers. This technique has been extended to operate at near-ambient pressures (ambient pressure XPS, AP-XPS) to probe more realistic gas-solid and liquid-solid interfaces. Performing XPS with hard X-rays at synchrotron light sources yields photoelectrons with kinetic energies of several keV (hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, HAXPES), enabling access to chemical information from buried interfaces.

Modern physical analysis methods include scanning-tunneling microscopy (STM) and a family of methods descended from it, including atomic force microscopy. These microscopies have considerably increased the ability and desire of surface scientists to measure the physical structure of many surfaces. For example, they make it possible to follow reactions at the solid–gas interface in real space, if those proceed on a time scale accessible by the instrument.

Source: Wikipedia