bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Restitution from Public Authorities
Authors: Virgo Graham
Published: January 2010

This chapter is concerned with the application of the grounds of restitution and principles in one particular context, namely, where a restitutionary claim is brought against public authorities. There is a public law dimension to such a claim which always requires careful consideration. Indeed, there is growing evidence that a distinct ground of restitution exists to establish a restitutionary claim in unjust enrichment against a public authority and only this ground of restitution is available for such claims. The chapter discusses constitutional considerations and establishment of unjust enrichment as reasons why public authorities should be treated differently from other defendants, the grounds of restitution (including mistake, duress, extortion by colour of office, and total failure of consideration), and recommendation of the Law Commission as to the right to restitution and the special defences.
Incapacity
Authors: Virgo Graham
Published: January 2010

Incapacity can operate as a ground of restitution in its own right, in that it enables the claimant who is incapacitated to secure restitution where the incapacity arises from mental disorder, minority, or institutional incapacity. In each of these cases, there is a strong policy of protection to ensure that the person who is incapacitated does not suffer from entering into foolish transactions. This chapter examines whether the defendant's incapacity in some way can operate as a defence to defeat a restitutionary claim regardless of the nature of that claim. It discusses restitutionary claims founded on the reversal of unjust enrichment, restitutionary claims founded on wrongdoing such as tort and equitable wrongdoing, restitutionary claims founded on the vindication of property rights, mental incapacity, institutional incapacity, and whether a defence of incapacity should be recognised.
Introduction: From the Contract of Employment to the Personal Employment Contract—Expansion and Restatement
Authors: FREEDLAND FBA MARK R.
Published: January 2010

This introductory chapter describes the scope of the book and the method of analysis used. It identifies the differences between the present volume and the original work. It also considers the changes in employment law in recent years, including the relationship between the common law of the contract of employment and statutory employment law.
Formation and Internal Structure
Authors: FREEDLAND FBA MARK R.
Published: January 2010

This chapter considers when or in what conditions the law will recognize that a personal employment contract has been validly made and has come into existence, and also what internal structure the law accords to personal employment contracts. Topics discussed include the role or function of the conditions of formation, contractual intention and the formation of personal employment contracts, legality and the informal economy, restraint of trade and economic freedom in the formation of personal employment contracts, the two-level structure of personal employment contracts, and contractual continuity of employment.
Performance and Breach
Authors: FREEDLAND FBA MARK R.
Published: January 2010

This chapter focuses on the argument that distinctions between entire and divisible contracts, and between performance of work and readiness and willingness to work, provide a rather unsatisfactory set of techniques for the analysis and development of the relationship between performance, breach, and entitlement to remuneration and benefits in the modern practice of employment relations. It considers the shortcomings of those techniques with special reference to the area of entitlement to remuneration during absence due to sickness, and during periods when partial industrial action can be taken. It sketches an outline, based on recent case law, of an application of the proposed general principle of fair management and performance to the construction of the relationship between performance, remuneration, and benefits.
Wrongful Termination by the Employing Entity
Authors: FREEDLAND FBA MARK R.
Published: January 2010

This chapter argues that the association between the unrestricted notice rule and the remedial approach to wrongful dismissal is crucial to the understanding of the whole of the law of termination of personal work contracts. The unrestricted notice rule and the remedial approach to wrongful dismissal have formed a nexus or complex of ideas, the combined impact of which upon the law of termination of personal work contracts has been allowed to become and to remain a dominant one. The chapter calls into question that domination, in the sense that it questions whether a body of law of termination of personal work contracts constructed around that central theoretical complex can adequately meet the various interpretative demands currently made upon it.
Termination by Other Means
Authors: FREEDLAND FBA MARK R.
Published: January 2010

This chapter argues that the law of personal employment work contracts has developed in such a way and to such a point that it is extremely difficult to provide a clear and logical overall account of the law relating to the evolution, termination, and transformation of those contracts. The case law and legislation, upon which such an account would have to be based, have become intractably complex, to the point where it can be considered impossible to resolve all the intricacies, ambiguities, and inconsistencies to which they give rise. The first part of the chapter proposes a general theory of termination and transformation, which seeks to explain the causes of those difficulties, and presents a conceptual scheme which may help minimize them. The remainder of the chapter develops and applies the general theory in relation to the specific aspects of termination and transformation.
Transformation and Transfer
Authors: FREEDLAND FBA MARK R.
Published: January 2010

This chapter discusses the category of transformation. The first section considers the topic of transformation and its relation to those of formation and termination, in terms of an underlying notion of the elasticity of the personal employment contract. The remainder of the chapter discusses the particular dimensions of transformation, specifically those of (1) change mode or suspension, and (2) change of parties to the personal employment contract. The chapter concludes by considering the complex topic of transfer of contracts under the TUPE Regulations.
Western Imperialism in the Middle East 1914-1958
Authors: Fieldhouse D. K.
Published: January 2010

The term ‘Fertile Crescent’ is commonly used to refer to the group of territories extending around the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates. In this book, it is assumed to consist of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Palestine. Much has been written on the history of these countries, which originated from the Ottoman Empire after 1918 and became Mandates under the League of Nations. This book provides a comparative overview of how Britain and France came to rule these five portions of the Ottoman empire during 1914-1958 and how they dealt with them. It examines contrasting imperial techniques for controlling these temporary dependencies, as well as the interaction between western imperialism in its final phase and the power of nascent Arab nationalism. Essentially, these European powers converted what had been relatively quiescent provinces of the Ottoman empire into some of the least stable and internationally explosive states in the world. This was certainly not the intention of the mandatory powers, and the reasons for this outcome are specific to each of the five territories. This book investigates why it happened.
War and Partition of Ottoman Empire, 1914–1922
Authors: Fieldhouse D. K.
Published: January 2010

In November 1914, the Ottoman empire went to war against Russia, Britain, and France. On October 31, 1918, by the Armistice of Mudros, the war ended with the Ottoman armies suffering almost total defeat. The result was the dismemberment of the empire and, after a further four years of confusion and fighting, the emergence of the state of Turkey in Anatolia and a small part of Eastern Thrace, north of Istanbul, and of five newly defined territories under British or French control called mandates. This chapter examines why the Ottomans went to war on the side of Germany and against the Entente, and how they fought their war; the aims and war strategies of the British and French, and how they fit with the aims of the Arabs, particularly the Hashemites; and how far these various aims were realized during the period of diplomacy and fighting between 1918 and 1922.
Introduction: Gut and Anti-Gut
Authors: GRIGORY E. VOLOVIK
Published: January 2010

The book studies relations of condensed matter with particle physics and cosmology. The fundamental links between cosmology and particle physics have been well established and is widely exploited in the description of the physics of the early universe (baryogenesis, cosmological nucleosynthesis, etc.). The connection of these two fields with the third ingredient of modern physics — condensed matter — allows us to simulate the least understood features of high-energy physics and cosmology: the properties of the quantum vacuum (also called aether, spacetime foam, quantum foam, Planck medium, etc.). The new concept inspired by condensed matter physics is opposite to the fundamental concept of broken symmetries used in Grand Unification Theory (GUT). In the anti-GUT scenario, gravity and the relativistic quantum field theory, such as the Standard Model of particle physics and GUT, are effective theories. They are emergent phenomena arising in the low-energy corner of the physical vacuum, where the system acquires physical laws and symmetries, which it did not have at higher energy.
Two-Fluid Hydrodynamics
Authors: GRIGORY E. VOLOVIK
Published: January 2010

The analog of matter in the background of superfluid vacuum consists of quanta of sound waves (phonons), which form a dilute gas. This gas of quasiparticles represents the so-called normal component of the liquid, which bears all the entropy of the liquid. In a local equilibrium, the normal component is characterised by temperature and its velocity. The two-fluid hydrodynamics is the system of equations describing the motion of two subsystems — the superfluid vacuum and normal component. Dynamics of normal component fully reproduces the dynamics of relativistic matter in the presence of a gravity field. Though the corresponding ‘Einstein equations’ for ‘gravity’ itself are not covariant, by using the proper superflow fields many phenomena related to the classical and quantum behavior of matter in curved spacetime can be simulated, including black-hole physics. This chapter also considers energy momentum tensor for matter, effective acoustic metric, the meaning of covariant and contravariant components of 4-momentum, particle current and quasiparticle momentum, normal and superfluid densities, global and local thermodynamic equilibrium, Tolman's law, and event horizon.
Three Levels of Phenomenology of Superfluid 3He
Authors: GRIGORY E. VOLOVIK
Published: January 2010

There are three levels of phenomenology of 3He-A: the Ginzburg–Landau level in the vicinity of transition temperature, the London level which studies statics and dynamics of the soft variables describing the ‘vacuum’ in the vicinity of a given vacuum manifold, and the analog of the relativistic quantum field theory that arises in 3He-A in the low temperature limit. This chapter examines these three levels in more detail and discusses different contributions to particle current including the fermionic charge, chemical potential for quasiparticles, Fermi surface emerging from the Fermi point, non-zero density of states in the presence of flow which leads to nonzero normal component at zero temperature, parameters of effective theory in London limit and fundamental constants, how to improve quantum liquid to make the closer connection to relativistic quantum fields, the universal temperature correction to Newton constant in general and in effective gravity emerging in 3He-A in particular, and the hierarchy of Planck scales as origin of precision of symmetries in effective theory.
Topological Classification Of Defects
Authors: GRIGORY E. VOLOVIK
Published: January 2010

The effective metric and effective gauge fields are simulated in superfluids by the inhomogeneity of the superfluid vacuum. In superfluids, many inhomogeneous configurations of the vacuum are stable and thus can be experimentally investigated in detail, since they are protected by r-space topology. In particular, the effect of the chiral anomaly has been verified using such topologically stable objects as vortex-skyrmions in 3He-A and quantized vortices in 3He-B. Other topological objects can produce non-trivial effective metrics. In addition, many topological defects have almost direct analogs in some relativistic quantum field theory. Topological defects are results of spontaneously broken symmetry. This chapter discusses the spontaneous symmetry breaking both in 3He-A and 3He-B, which is responsible for topologically stable objects in these phases, and analogous ‘superfluid’ phases in high-energy physics, such as chiral and color superfluidity in quantum chromodynamics (QCD).
Symmetry Breaking In 3He-A And Singular Vortices
Authors: GRIGORY E. VOLOVIK
Published: January 2010

The symmetry breaking pattern in A-phase of 3He is similar to that in electroweak phase transition. This chapter discusses the topology of singular topological defects in 3He-A and in analogous phases in high-energy physics. There are two types of hedgehog in 3He-A — one is analogous to ‘t Hooft–Polyakov magnetic monopole, while another one to Dirac monopole terminating Dirac string. Among the linear defects there is half-quantum vortex, which is analog of Alice string. A particle that moves around an Alice string continuously flips its charge, or parity, or enters the ‘shadow’ world. The pure mass vortex can continuously transform to disclination which is analog of antigravitating string. Singular doubly quantized vortex, which is analog of electroweak Z-string, is topologically unstable and may decay into non-singular texture. The fractional vorticity and fractional flux in cuprate d-wave superconductors and chiral superconductors are also discussed.
Continuous Structures
Authors: GRIGORY E. VOLOVIK
Published: January 2010

When several distinct energy scales are involved, the vacuum symmetry is different for different length scales: the larger the length scale, the more the symmetry is reduced. The interplay of topologies on different length scales gives rise to many different types of topological objects, which are described by relative homotopy groups. This chapter discusses the continuous structures generated by relative homotopy groups, such as soliton terminating on a half-quantum vortex, skyrmion — the doubly quantized vortex in 3He-A, meron — the fraction of skyrmion, continuous structures in spinor Bose condensate and superconductors, semilocal strings in the Standard Model of particle physics, and the vortex sheet. The vortex sheet is the chain of alternating circular and hyperbolic merons concentrated inside the topological soliton in 3He-A and the chain of kinks in the domain wall in chiral superconductors. The chapter also discusses topological transitions between continuous textures, which are mediated by singular topological defects. For example, destruction of topological soliton in 3He-A occurs via creation of the loop of half-quantum vortex.
Vortex Mass
Authors: GRIGORY E. VOLOVIK
Published: January 2010

The mass (inertia) of an object is determined as the response of the momentum of the object to its velocity. This chapter discusses the inertia of an object moving in the quantum vacuum of the Galilean quantum liquid. If it is a foreign object like a 3He atom moving in the quantum vacuum of superfluid 4He, then in addition to its bare mass the object acquires an extra mass, since it involves some part of the superfluid vacuum into motion. If the object is an excitation of the vacuum, like a vortex, all its mass is provided by the liquid. In addition to the associated hydrodynamic mass, which is similar to associated mass of external body moving in the liquid, there are two more contributions to a vortex mass. The ‘relativistic’ mass is the consequence of effective metric in superfluids. It is obtained as vortex energy divided by square of speed of sound, which plays the role of speed of light. In fermionic superfluids the Kopnin mass is added, which results from the fermion zero modes in the vortex core. This mass is related to peculiar phenomenon in quantum field theory. In the limit of smooth core these bound states behave as chiral massless fermions in the presence of magnetic field, and the additional vortex mass results from the non-zero density of states in magnetic field.
Casimir Effect and Vacuum Energy
Authors: GRIGORY E. VOLOVIK
Published: January 2010

This chapter opens the part of the book devoted to quantum vacuum in non-trivial gravitational background and to vacuum energy. There are several macroscopic phenomena, which can be directly related to the properties of the physical quantum vacuum. The Casimir effect is probably the most accessible effect of the quantum vacuum. The chapter discusses different types of Casimir effect in condensed matter in restricted geometry, including the mesoscopic Casimir effect and the dynamic Casimir effect resulting in the force acting on a moving interface between 3He-A and 3He-B, which serves as a perfect mirror for the ‘relativistic’ quasiparticles living in 3He-A. It also discusses the vacuum energy and the problem of cosmological constant. Giving the example of quantum liquids it is demonstrated that the perfect vacuum in equilibrium has zero energy, while the nonzero vacuum energy arises due to perturbation of the vacuum state by matter, by texture, which plays the role of curvature, by boundaries due to the Casimir effect, and by other factors. The magnitude of the cosmological constant is small, because the present universe is old and the quantum vacuum is very close to equilibrium. The chapter discusses why our universe is flat, why the energies of the true vacuum and false vacuum are both zero, and why the perfect vacuum (true or false) is not gravitating.
Analogs Of Event Horizon
Authors: GRIGORY E. VOLOVIK
Published: January 2010

A black hole is the region from which the observer who is outside the hole cannot obtain any information. The event horizon represents the boundary of the black hole region. Analogs of the black hole horizon can be realised in such condensed matter where the effective metric arises for quasiparticles. The simplest way to do this is to exploit the liquids moving with velocities exceeding the local maximum attainable speed of quasiparticles. Then, an inner observer who uses only quasiparticles as a means of transferring the information, finds that some regions of space are not accessible for observation. For this observer, who lives in the quantum liquid, these regions are black holes. This chapter discusses different arrangement in superfluids, which may simulate the event horizons; the moving vierbein wall; Laval nozzle; and horizon emerging for ripplons at the interface between 3He-A and 3He-B. The effective Painlevé–Gullstrand metric, which naturally arises in moving superfluids, leads to the simple description of Hawking radiation in terms of quantum tunnelling of quasiparticles across the event horizon. This consideration is extended to the astronomical black holes. Black hole instability beyond the horizon and modified Dirac equation for fermions in the black hole environment are considered.
Nitrogen depletion in the fission yeastSchizosaccharomyces pombecauses nucleosome loss in both promoters and coding regions of activated genes
Authors: Kristell Carolina , Orzechowski Westholm Jakub , Olsson Ida , Ronne Hans , Komorowski Jan , Bjerling Pernilla
Published: January 2010

Gene transcription is associated with local changes in chromatin, both in nucleosome positions and in chemical modifications of the histones. Chromatin dynamics has mostly been studied on a single-gene basis. Those genome-wide studies that have been made primarily investigated steady-state transcription. However, three studies of genome-wide changes in chromatin during the transcriptional response to heat shock in the budding yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiaerevealed nucleosome eviction in promoter regions but only minor effects in coding regions. Here, we describe the short-term response to nitrogen starvation in the fission yeastSchizosaccharomyces pombe. Nitrogen depletion leads to a fast induction of a large number of genes inS. pombeand is thus suitable for genome-wide studies of chromatin dynamics during gene regulation. After 20 min of nitrogen removal, 118 transcripts were up-regulated. The distribution of regulated genes throughout the genome was not random; many up-regulated genes were found in clusters, while large parts of the genome were devoid of up-regulated genes. Surprisingly, this up-regulation was associated with nucleosome eviction of equal magnitudes in the promoters and in the coding regions. The nucleosome loss was not limited to induction by nitrogen depletion but also occurred during cadmium treatment. Furthermore, the lower nucleosome density persisted for at least 60 min after induction. Two highly induced genes,urg1+andurg2+, displayed a substantial nucleosome loss, with only 20% of the nucleosomes being left in the coding region. We conclude that nucleosome loss during transcriptional activation is not necessarily limited to promoter regions.
Methylnaltrexone bromide for the treatment of opioid‐induced constipation in patients with advanced illness – a cost‐effectiveness analysis
Authors: EARNSHAW S. R. , KLOK R. M. , IYER S. , MCDADE C.
Published: January 2010

Aliment Pharmacol Ther 31, 911–921

Background  Opioid‐induced constipation is a common adverse event in patients with advanced illness and has a significant negative impact on patients’ quality of life and costs.

Aim  To examine the cost‐effectiveness of treating opioid‐induced constipation with methylnaltrexone bromide (MNTX) plus standard care compared with standard care alone in patients with advanced illness who receive long‐term opioid therapy from a third‐party payer perspective in the Netherlands.

Methods  A decision‐analytical model was created in which advanced‐illness patients with constipation were treated with MNTX plus standard care or standard care alone. Clinical efficacy in terms of percentage of patients with rescue‐free laxation and time to rescue‐free laxation were obtained from a randomized, controlled clinical study. Resource use, costs, utilities and mortality were obtained from published literature and supplemented with data from clinical experts.

Results  Treatment with MNTX plus standard care results in more days without constipation symptoms. Cost of MNTX was mostly offset by reduction in other constipation‐related costs. Thus, treating with MNTX plus standard care is cost‐effective, with an incremental cost per QALY of €40 865. Results were robust to changes in all parameters.

Conclusions  Although using MNTX may increase total costs, MNTX plus standard care is cost‐effective in treating advanced‐illness patients with opioid‐induced constipation.
An estimate of greenhouse gas (N2O and CO2) mitigation potential under various scenarios of nitrogen use efficiency in Chinese croplands
Authors: HUANG YAO , TANG YONGHUA
Published: January 2010

It is well recognized that improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) can directly reduce nitrous oxide (N2O) emission in cropland and indirectly reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) release from nitrogen (N) production, while such a reduction has not been well quantified in China. We estimated the greenhouse gas (GHG; N2O and CO2) mitigation potential (MP) from Chinese cropland and its regional distribution by quantifying NUE and determining the amount of over‐applied synthetic N under various scenarios of NUE. We estimated that synthetic NUE in the late 1990s was 31±11% (mean±SD) for rice, 33±13% for wheat, and 31±11% for maize cultivation. Improving NUE to 50% could cut 6.6 Tg of synthetic N use per year, accounting for 41% of the total used. As a result of this reduction, the direct N2O emission from croplands together with CO2 emission from the industrial production and transport of synthetic N could be reduced by 39%, equivalent to 60 Tg CO2 yr−1. The MP was probably underestimated because organic N supply was not taken into account when estimating NUE. It was concluded that improving N management can greatly reduce GHG (N2O and CO2) emissions in Chinese croplands, and mitigation in the Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, Hubei, Anhui, and Hebei provinces should be given priority.
Career motivation in nursing students and the perceived influence of significant others
Authors: McLaughlin Katrina , Moutray Marianne , Moore Christopher
Published: January 2010

mclaughlin k., moutray m. & moore c. (2010) Career motivation in nursing students and the perceived influence of significant others. Journal of Advanced Nursing66(2), 404–412.

Title.  Career motivation in nursing students and the perceived influence of significant others

Aim.  This paper is a report of a study investigating the motivation of nursing students, their reasons for entering nursing and the perceived influence of others in their decision‐making.

Background.  There is an abundance of research into why students drop out of nursing education, but less well‐studied is their motivation for entering it in the first place. In addition, little is known about the role of significant others in their decisions.

Method.  The participants were a convenience sample of 68 undergraduate nursing students in the second year of their programme. They provided answers to essay topics and the data were analysed using the principles of grounded theory. The data were collected in 2007.

Findings.  Whilst altruism was a major theme in the essays, the opportunities nursing presented were also deemed influential. Personal/self development was viewed as equally important as the desire to care. Family members in the healthcare profession were perceived to be great sources of both emotional and instrumental support.

Conclusion.  The diversity within nursing and the reported opportunities that nursing presents are important motivators for nursing students, and recruitment campaigns should aim to make these more explicit. There is a need for more qualitative research into indicators of successful nursing students if we are to address not only student dropout, but also to recruit those most likely to complete their education and remain in the nursing profession.
Risk behaviours among early adolescents: risk and protective factors
Authors: Wang Ruey‐Hsia , Hsu Hsiu‐Yueh , Lin Shu‐Yuan , Cheng Chung‐Ping , Lee Shu‐Li
Published: January 2010

wang r.‐h., hsu h.‐y., lin s.‐y., cheng c.‐p. & lee s.‐l. (2010) Risk behaviours among early adolescents: risk and protective factors. Journal of Advanced Nursing66(2), 313–323.

Title.  Risk behaviours among early adolescents: risk and protective factors.

Aim.  This paper is a report of a study conducted to examine the influence of risk/protective factors on risk behaviours of early adolescents and whether protective factors moderate their impact.

Background.  An understanding of how risk and protective factors operate to influence risk behaviours of early adolescents will better prepare nurses to perform interventions appropriately to reduce risk behaviours of early adolescents.

Method.  A cross‐sectional study was carried out, based on a sample of public junior high schools (from 7th to 9th grades) in one city and one county in Taiwan. An anonymous questionnaire designed to measure five risk factors, six protective factors and risk behaviours was administered from October 2006 to March 2007. Data from 878 students were used for the present analysis. Pearson’s correlations, anova with random effect models, and generalized linear models were used to analyse the statistically significant explanatory variables for risk behaviours.

Findings.  Gender, perceived father’s risk behaviour, perceived mother’s risk behaviour, health self‐efficacy, interaction of health self‐efficacy and perceived peers’ risk behaviour, and interaction of emotional regulation and perceived peers’ risk behaviour were statistically significant explanatory variables of risk behaviours. Health self‐efficacy and emotional regulation moderated the negative effects of peers’ perceived risk behaviour on risk behaviours.

Conclusion.  All protective factors were negative statistically correlated with risk behaviours, and all risk factors positively statistically correlated with risk behaviours. Male adolescents should be considered an at‐risk group for risk behaviour intervention. Nurses could provide early adolescents with training regarding health self‐efficacy improvement, self‐esteem enhancement, emotional regulation skills to reduce their risk behaviours.
Stress and health in novice and experienced nursing students
Authors: Jimenez Cristobal , Navia‐Osorio Pilar Martínez , Diaz Carmen Vacas
Published: January 2010

jimenez c., navia‐osorio p.m. & diaz c.v. (2010) Stress and health in novice and experienced nursing students. Journal of Advanced Nursing66(2), 442–455.

Title.  Stress and health in novice and experienced nursing students

Aim.  This paper is a report of a study conducted to identify the differences in novice and experienced nursing students’ reports of stress and health.

Background.  Stress from clinical practice and its impact are international yet culturally mediated phenomena. Nursing students are under considerable stress during clinical practice periods, putting their education and health at risk. However, there is little or no empirical evidence about the stress suffered by nursing students and its impact on their health throughout clinical practice.

Methods.  We performed cross‐sectional research using standard information gathering tools. This study was carried out with 357 students from all 3 years of a nursing diploma programme at a Spanish nursing college (71% response rate). The data were collected over an 8‐month period in 2004–2005.

Findings.  We identified three types of stressors (clinical, academic and external) and two categories of symptoms (physiological and psychological) linked to clinical practice. Factor analysis identified six major sources of stress and six important symptoms. Students perceived clinical stressors more intensely than academic and external stressors, and showed psychological symptoms more frequently than physiological symptoms. Nursing students from all 3 years perceived moderate stress at similar levels. Experienced students perceived more academic stressors than novices. Although the students were healthy, second year students were the most vulnerable to somatic and psychic anxiety, and common symptoms.

Conclusion.  We suggest informing students about possible stressors associated with their profession, and introducing interventions to support development of professionalism, social skills and coping capacity for clinical practice.
Detection of patient risk by nurses: a theoretical framework
Authors: Despins Laurel A. , Scott‐Cawiezell Jill , Rouder Jeffrey N.
Published: January 2010

despins l.a., scott‐cawiezell j. & rouder j.n. (2010) Detection of patient risk by nurses: a theoretical framework. Journal of Advanced Nursing66(2), 465–474.

Title.  Detection of patient risk by nurses: a theoretical framework.

Aim.  This paper is a description of a theoretical framework of how nurses detect and interpret patient risk signals in the context of organizational attitudes and procedures related to patient safety.

Background.  The ability to detect when patients are at increased risk for harm is a challenge faced by nurses worldwide. How nurses are able to discriminate patient risk warning signals from background noise is not well understood. Also, the impact of system‐level factors on nurses’ signal detection capabilities has not been investigated.

Data sources.  Computerized database searches were used to identify nursing, organizational science, and cognitive psychology literature from 1964 to 2009 pertinent to the framework.

Discussion.  The patient risk detection theory synthesizes concepts of signal detection theory and high reliability theory. Signal detection theory explains the decision‐making processes of nurses as they scan for signals of potential patient harm. High reliability theory explains how nurses’ signal detection capacities are facilitated when healthcare settings operate as high reliability organizations making patient safety the top priority.

Conclusion.  The patient risk detection theory facilitates understanding of both individual and organizational factors that influence nurses’ ability to detect risk in complex healthcare settings. It can be used to guide research on interventions to enhance signal detection by nurses and increase patient safety in today’s complex care environments. The theory can also be used to guide design of training programmes that permit nurses to develop practical skills in signal detection.
Cystatin C and risk of vascular and nonvascular mortality: a prospective cohort study of older men
Authors: Emberson J. R. , Haynes R. , Dasgupta T. , Mafham M. , Landray M. J. , Baigent C. , Clarke R.
Published: January 2010

Abstract.  Emberson JR, Haynes R, Dasgupta T, Mafham M, Landray MJ, Baigent C, Clarke R (University of Oxford, Oxford, UK). Cystatin C and risk of vascular and nonvascular mortality: a prospective cohort study of older men. J Intern Med 2010; 268: 145–154.

Objective.  To assess the relevance of cystatin C, as a marker of mild‐to‐moderate renal impairment, for vascular and nonvascular mortality in older people.

Design.  Prospective cohort study.

Setting.  Re‐survey in 1997 to 1998 of survivors in the 1970 Whitehall study of London civil servants.

Subjects.  Five thousand three hundred and seventy‐one men (mean age at resurvey: 77 years) who took part in the resurvey and had plasma cystatin C concentration measured.

Main outcome measures.  Cause‐specific mortality over subsequent 11 years (1997 to 2008).

Methods.  Cox regression was used to estimate the associations of cystatin C with vascular and nonvascular mortality, before and after adjustment for prior disease and other risk factors (including lifetime blood pressure).

Results.  During an 11.0‐year follow‐up period, there were 1171 deaths from vascular causes [26 per 1000 per year (py)] and 1615 deaths from nonvascular causes (36 per 1000 py). Compared with men with cystatin C in the bottom fifth of the distribution, men in the top 10th had about two‐fold higher mortality rates from vascular and nonvascular mortality (fully adjusted P both <0.001) even after adjustment for prior disease and all measured confounders, including lifetime blood pressure. The fully adjusted relative risks per 50% higher cystatin C concentrations were 1.66 [95% CI 1.48 to 1.85] for vascular mortality, 1.92 [95% CI 1.66 to 2.22] for ischaemic heart disease mortality and 1.46 [95% CI 1.31 to 1.61] for nonvascular mortality.

Conclusions.  In older men, plasma concentration of cystatin C, probably as a marker of mild renal disease, is a strong independent predictor of both vascular and nonvascular mortality.
Effect of gender on prognosis in patients with myocardial infarction and type 2 diabetes
Authors: Venskutonyte L. , Malmberg K. , Norhammar A. , Wedel H. , Rydén L.
Published: January 2010

Abstract.  Venskutonyte L, Malmberg K, Norhammar A, Wedel H, Rydén L (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm; and Nordic School of Public Health, Göteborg; Sweden). Effect of gender on prognosis in patients with myocardial infarction and type 2 diabetes. J Intern Med 2010; 268:75–82.

Background.  Diabetes is associated with a markedly increased cardiovascular risk, but the role of gender on the combined effects of diabetes and myocardial infarction has been less well explored.

Methods.  The Diabetes Mellitus and Insulin Glucose Infusion in Acute Myocardial Infarction 2 (DIGAMI2) trial recruited 837 men and 416 women with type 2 diabetes hospitalized due to myocardial infarction and followed for a median of 2.1 years. The effects of gender on diabetes‐specific risk factors and conventional cardiovascular risk predictors of unfavourable outcome were analysed using a Cox proportional hazards model.

Results.  Women were older, more frequently had hypertension and previous heart failure than men, and were more often treated with diuretics. More men were smokers. Treatment during hospitalization, at discharge and during follow‐up, did not differ significantly, apart from the more frequent use of diuretics in women. Total mortality did not differ between genders, but the combined cardiovascular end‐point of death, re‐infarction or stroke was more common in women (38.9% vs. 32.1%). This difference disappeared after age adjustment. Age and previous heart failure were independent risk predictors in both genders, whereas diabetes complications were an additional risk factor in women only. Blood glucose level at randomization and updated glucose concentration during follow‐up were independent predictors of poor outcome in men but not in women.

Conclusions.  Age and not gender itself explained the increased cardiovascular event rate seen in women compared with men. A heavier risk factor burden was seen amongst women. Improved risk factor control instituted before the development of a myocardial infarction should be attempted as a possible means of improving the outcome.
Novel tuberculosis vaccination strategies based on understanding the immune response
Authors: Kaufmann S. H. E.
Published: January 2010

Abstract.  Kaufmann SHE (Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany). Novel tuberculosis vaccination strategies based on understanding the immune response (Foresight). J Intern Med 2010; 267: 337–353.

The current tuberculosis (TB) vaccine bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) fails to protect against adult pulmonary TB. Yet, its capacity to control miliary TB in newborn infants forms the basis for development of novel vaccine candidates. These either exploit genetic modification of BCG to create a viable replacement vaccine or use BCG to prime the immune response followed by boost with a novel subunit vaccine. This could ultimately result in a combination vaccination schedule comprising a prime with a live BCG replacement followed by a subunit vaccine boost. Ultimately, vaccination strategies that achieve sterile eradication of, or prevent infection with, tubercle bacilli would be an ambitious highly promising goal.
Mating system variation and morph fluctuations in a polymorphic lizard
Authors: OLSSON MATS , HEALEY MO , WAPSTRA ERIK , SCHWARTZ TONIA , LEBAS NATASHA , ULLER TOBIAS
Published: January 2010

In polymorphic male painted dragon lizards (Ctenophorus pictus), red males win staged contests for females over yellow males, and yellow males have greater success in staged sperm competition trials than red males. This predicts different reproductive strategies in the wild with red males being more coercive or better mate guarders than yellow males. Yellow males would be expected to sire more offspring per copulation and have a greater proportion of offspring from clutches with mixed paternity. However, here we show using microsatellites that the frequency of mixed paternity in the wild is low (< 20% on average across years), that all morphs on average have the same number of offspring sired per year, and that mating system variation (polyandry vs. monandry) is strongly correlated with perch density on male territories. Furthermore, a logistic regression on male successful vs. unsuccessful mate acquisition showed that red males were under negative selection when they dominated the population, which suggests ongoing frequency dependent selection on male colouration.
Ever deeper phylogeographies: trees retain the genetic imprint of Tertiary plate tectonics
Authors: HAMPE ARNDT , PETIT RÉMY J.
Published: January 2010

Changes in species distributions after the last glacial maximum (c. 18 000 years bp) are beginning to be understood, but information diminishes quickly as one moves further back in time. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Magri et al. (2007) present the fascinating case of a Mediterranean tree species whose populations preserve the genetic imprints of plate tectonic events that took place between 25 million years and 15 million years ago. The study provides a unique insight into the pace of evolution of trees, which, despite interspecific gene flow, can retain a cohesive species identity over timescales long enough to allow the diversification of entire plant and animal genera.
Microbial diversity and community structure in Fynbos soil
Authors: SLABBERT ETIENNE , KONGOR RAPHAEL Y. , ESLER KAREN J. , JACOBS KARIN
Published: January 2010

The Fynbos biome in South Africa is renowned for its high plant diversity and the conservation of this area is particularly important for the region. This is especially true in the case of endangered vegetation types on the lowlands such as Sand Fynbos, of which only small fragments remain. The question is thus whether the diversity of the above‐ground flora is mirrored in the below‐ground microbial communities. In order to determine the relationship of the above‐ and below‐ground communities, the soil community composition of both fungal and bacterial groups in Sand Fynbos was characterized over space and time. A molecular approach was used based on the isolation of total soil genomic DNA and automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis of bacterial and fungal communities. Soil from four different sites was compared to resolve the microbial diversity of eubacterial and fungal groups on a local (alpha diversity) scale as well as a landscape scale (beta diversity). The community structures from different sites were compared and found to exhibit strong spatial patterns which remained stable over time. The plant community data were compared with the fungal and the bacterial communities. We concluded that the microbial communities in the Sand Fynbos are highly diverse and closely linked to the above‐ground floral communities.
Species discovery in marine planktonic invertebrates through global molecular screening
Authors: GOETZE ERICA
Published: January 2010

Species discovery through large‐scale sampling of mitochondrial diversity, as advocated under DNA barcoding, has been widely criticized. Two of the primary weaknesses of this approach, the use of a single gene marker for species delineation and the possible co‐amplification of nuclear pseudogenes, can be circumvented through incorporation of multiple data sources. Here I show that for taxonomic groups with poorly characterized systematics, large‐scale genetic screening using a mitochondrial DNA marker can be a very effective approach to species discovery. Global sampling (120 locations) of 1295 individuals of 22 described species of eucalanid copepods identified 15 novel evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) within this marine holoplanktonic family. Species limits were tested under reciprocal monophyly at the mitochondrial (mt) gene 16S rRNA, and 13 of 15 lineages were reciprocally monophyletic under three phylogenetic inference methods. Five of these mitochondrial ESUs also received moderate support for reciprocal monophyly at the independently‐inherited nuclear gene, internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2). Additional support for the utility of mt DNA as a proxy for species boundaries in this taxon is discussed, including results from related morphological and biogeographic studies. Minimal overlap of intra‐ESU and inter‐ESU 16S rRNA genetic distances was observed, suggesting that this mt marker performs well for species discovery via molecular screening. Sampling coverage required for the discovery of new ESUs was found to be in the range of >50 individuals/species, well above the sampling intensity of most current DNA Barcoding studies. Large‐scale genetic screening can provide critical first data on the presence of cryptic species, and should be used as an approach to generate systematic hypotheses in groups with incomplete taxonomies.
The myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2) gene product zinc finger protein 9 (ZNF9) is associated with sarcomeres and normally localized in DM2 patients' muscles
Authors: Massa R. , Panico M. B. , Caldarola S. , Fusco F. R. , Sabatelli P. , Terracciano C. , Botta A. , Novelli G. , Bernardi G. , Loreni F.
Published: January 2010

R. Massa, M. B. Panico, S. Caldarola, F. R. Fusco, P. Sabatelli, C. Terracciano, A. Botta, G. Novelli, G. Bernardi and F. Loreni (2010) Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology36, 275–284 The myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2) gene product zinc finger protein 9 (ZNF9) is associated with sarcomeres and normally localized in DM2 patients' muscles

Aims: Myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2) is caused by a [CCTG]n intronic expansion in the zinc finger protein 9 (ZNF9) gene. As for DM1, sharing with DM2 a similar phenotype, the pathogenic mutation involves a transcribed but untranslated genomic region, suggesting that RNA toxicity may have a role in the pathogenesis of these multisystem disorders by interfering with common cellular mechanisms. However, haploinsufficiency has been described in DM1 and DM2 animal models, and might contribute to pathogenesis. The aim of the present work was therefore to assess ZNF9 protein expression in rat tissues and in human muscle, and ZNF9 subcellular distribution in normal and DM2 human muscles. Methods: Polyclonal anti‐ZNF9 antibodies were obtained in rabbit, high pressure liquid chromatography‐purified, and used for Western blot, standard and confocal immunofluorescence and immunogold labelling electron microscopy on a panel of normal rat tissues and on normal and DM2 human muscles. Results: Western blot analysis showed that ZNF9 is ubiquitously expressed in mammalian tissues, and that its signal is not substantially modified in DM2 muscles. Immunofluorescence studies showed a myofibrillar distribution of ZNF9, and double staining with two non‐repetitive epitopes of titin located it in the I bands. This finding was confirmed by the visualization of ZNF9 in close relation with sarcomeric thin filaments by immunogold labelling electron microscopy. ZNF9 distribution was unaltered in DM2 muscle fibres. Conclusions: ZNF9 is abundantly expressed in human myofibres, where it is located in the sarcomeric I bands, and no modification of this pattern is observed in DM2 muscles.