The social construction of retirement among professionals 50-60 years old.

This study documents the range of images held about retirement among a group of professional men and women 50-60 years old. The decade of the fifties is a point of transition in the development of professionals' consciousness about retirement. Examined are the work contingencies influencing whether respondents anticipate retirement positively. Those who have unfinished agendas at work, have high job satisfaction, perceive retirement as financially unfeasible, and retain their health are least likely to anticipate retirement favorably.

Mental illness, caregiving, and emotion management.

Based on 50 in-depth interviews, this article considers how caregivers to a spouse, parent, child, or sibling suffering from depression, manic-depression, or schizophrenia manage their emotions overtime. By considering the turning points in the joint career of caregivers and ill family members, our analysis moves beyond studies that link emotions to particular incidences, momentary encounters, or discreet events. Four interpretive junctures in the caregiver-patient relationship are identified. Before diagnosis, respondents experience emotional anomie. Diagnosis provides a medical frame that provokes feelings of hope, compassion, and sympathy. Realization that mental illness may be a permanent condition ushers in the more negative emotions of anger and resentment. Caregivers' eventual recognition that they cannot control their family member's illness allows them to decrease involvement without guilt. The article concludes with a call for research that understands that emotions in groups, settings, or organizations are linked to their distinctive histories.

Professionals beyond midlife: Some observations on work satisfaction in the fifty- to sixty-year decade.

This article draws on in-depth interview data from 72 professionals between the ages of 50 and 60. The central focus is on the 39 men in the sample. Contrary to the literature citing uniformly high levels of work satisfaction among professionals, respondents describe feelings of boredom and discomfort arising out of careers that have slowed down in terms of novelty and personal growth. Data are presented contrasting work in the fifties with earlier points in respondents' careers. Attention is given to the several responses made to declining work options in the fifties. In addition, reasons for variations in work satisfaction between men and women and between those in different professions are explored.

Academics beyond midlife: some observations on changing consciousness in the fifty to sixty year decade.

This article draws on in-depth interview data collected from forty-seven professors between the ages of fifty and sixty. The central focus is on the twenty-three interviews done with the men. A review of the literature suggests that professionals in the fifty to sixty year decade are actively assessing how to divide their energies at work and between work and other life spheres. After describing how aging is experienced in the fifties by both men and women, the article describes a set of related patterns of consciousness change among the male professors interviewed. As male professors approach sixty, they express a number of interconnected feelings and concerns that distinguishes them from younger colleagues. First, they stress the need to exercise greater selectivity in the allocation of their time. They recognize that a limited amount of time lies ahead in their careers and that they must make qualitatively good decisions about the work they do. Second, the men in our sample evidence a decreased intensity toward research work. Third, many men express a growing humanism; a concern with getting beyond the objective boundaries of their respective disciplines. Last, professors begin to develop an exiting consciousness as they approach sixty.

High apparent dielectric constants in the interior of a protein reflect water penetration.

A glutamic acid was buried in the hydrophobic core of staphylococcal nuclease by replacement of Val-66. Its pK(a) was measured with equilibrium thermodynamic methods. It was 4.3 units higher than the pK(a) of Glu in water. This increase was comparable to the DeltapK(a) of 4.9 units measured previously for a lysine buried at the same location. According to the Born formalism these DeltapK(a) are energetically equivalent to the transfer of a charged group from water to a medium of dielectric constant of 12. In contrast, the static dielectric constants of dry protein powders range from 2 to 4. In the crystallographic structure of the V66E mutant, a chain of water molecules was seen that hydrates the buried Glu-66 and links it with bulk solvent. The buried water molecules have never previously been detected in >20 structures of nuclease. The structure and the measured energetics constitute compelling and unprecedented experimental evidence that solvent penetration can contribute significantly to the high apparent polarizability inside proteins. To improve structure-based calculations of electrostatic effects with continuum methods, it will be necessary to learn to account quantitatively for the contributions by solvent penetration to dielectric effects in the protein interior.