bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Determination of standard times of nursing activities based on a Nursing Minimum Dataset
Authors: Myny Dries , Van Goubergen Dirk , Limère Veronique , Gobert Micheline , Verhaeghe Sofie , Defloor Tom 
Published: December 2009

myny d., van goubergen d., limère v., gobert m., verhaeghe s. & defloor t. (2010) Determination of standard times of nursing activities based on a Nursing Minimum Dataset.Journal of Advanced Nursing66(1), 92–102.AbstractTitle. Determination of standard times of nursing activities based on a NursingMinimum Dataset.Aim. This paper is a report of a study conducted to determine the standard time per nursing activity and the proportion of nursing time covered by the nursing activities of the Belgian Nursing Minimum Dataset compared to the total time of a nurse shift, and to evaluate the correlation between hospital size and standard times of nursing activities.Background. Because of a shrinking workforce and rising workload, nursing managers need tools that help them to allocate their staff to the wards. Such tools should be based on objective time measurements.Methods. The study was performed in surgical, internal medicine and elder care wards in an acute hospital care setting. In the first phase, a two‐round Delphi‐procedure was used to operationalize the definitions of nursing activities. In the second phase, the standard time for each nursing activity was determined, based on data collected over a 6‐month period during 2006–2007. A combination of 13,292 work sampling observations by external observers, 3000 recordings of direct time measurement by self‐recording and subjective time assessments yielded times that were used to analyse the duration of the nursing activities.Results. A standard time for 102 nursing activities was established. The coverage of the Belgian Nursing Minimum Dataset in the surgical, internal medicine and elder care wards was 47·5%, 46·4% and 51·0% respectively. The Belgian Nursing Minimum Dataset was found to cover almost 70% of direct and indirect nursing care.Conclusion. Further research is needed to assess the impact on the standard times of nursing activities of inefficient organizational structures and different cultural interpretations of the way an activity is conducted.
Language consistency: a missing link in theory, research and reasoning?
Authors: Webber Pamela B. 
Published: December 2009

webber p.b. (2010) Language consistency: a missing link in theory, research and reasoning? Journal of Advanced Nursing66(1), 218–227.AbstractTitle.  Language consistency: a missing link in theory, research and reasoning?Aim.  This paper is a report of a study conducted to determine if there is a lack of language consistency in nursing texts and among nursing educators related to theory, research and reasoning.Background.  Analysis of international language, communication and nursing literature revealed the essential role language consistency plays in promoting competency and desirable behavioural outcomes. It also revealed the difficulty nursing has had in gaining consistency of language associated with theory, research and reasoning.Method.  Six nursing theory, research and terminology texts with international circulation were analysed to identify key words related to theory, research and reasoning and to determine consistency of definitions among texts. Next, 97 nursing educators were surveyed to determine their ability to define the same key words. Educators were recruited during three national nursing education meetings in the United States of America between 2006 and 2007.Findings.  Analysis revealed significant variability in definitions of key words among texts and in nursing educators’ ability to match any defining words used by the texts and by each other.Conclusion.  Epistemologically, the use of inconsistent language among texts and educators may be playing a role in the continuing marginalization of theory, research and reasoning in nursing education and practice; ultimately, hindering the profession’s epistemological growth. Recommendations include a call for consensus of key words and meanings associated with theory, research and reasoning and the development of a language essentials document to support development of competency.
Critical care nurses’ experiences of grief in an adult intensive care unit
Authors: Shorter Melanie , Stayt Louise Caroline 
Published: December 2009

shorter m. & stayt l.c. (2010) Critical care nurses’ experiences of grief in an adult intensive care unit. Journal of Advanced Nursing66(1), 159–167.AbstractTitle.  Critical care nurses’ experiences of grief in an adult intensive care unit.Aim.  This paper is a report a study of critical care nurses’ experiences of grief and their coping mechanisms when a patient dies.Background.  The goal of patients entering critical care is survival and recovery. However, despite application of advanced technologies and intensive nursing care, many patients do not survive their critical illness. Nurses experience death in their everyday work, exposing them to the emotional and physical repercussions of grief.Method.  This study adopted a Heideggerian phenomenological approach, interviewing eight critical care nurses. Data collection occurred in 2007/8. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and themes generated through Colaizzi’s framework.Findings.  Participants reported feelings of grief for patients they had cared for. The death of a patient was reported as being less traumatic if the participant had perceived the death to be a ‘good death’, incorporating expectedness and good nursing care. They described how a patient’s death was more significant if it ‘struck a chord’, or if they had developed ‘meaningful engagement’ with the patient and relatives. They denied accessing formal support: however, informal conversations with colleagues were described as a means of coping. Participants exhibited signs of normalizing death and described how they disassociated themselves emotionally from dying patients.Conclusion.  There are many predisposing factors and circumstantial occurrences that shape both the nature of care of the dying and subsequent grief. Repeated exposure to death and grief may lead to occupational stress, and ultimately burn out. Emotional disengagement from caring for the dying may have an impact on the quality of care for both the dying patient and their family.
Prevalence of intellectual disabilities in Norway: Domestic variance
Authors: Søndenaa E. , Rasmussen K. , Nøttestad J. A. , Lauvrud C. 
Published: December 2009

AbstractBackground  Based on national registers, the prevalence of intellectual disability (ID) in Norway is estimated to be 0.44 per 100 inhabitants. This study aimed to examine geographic and urban–rural differences in the prevalence of ID in Norway.Methods  A survey based on the national register. Financial transfers intended to provide equal services to people with ID are based on these reports.Results  A higher prevalence was found in the North region of Norway. A negative correlation between the population density and the prevalence of ID was also found.Conclusion  There was considerable geographic and urban–rural differences in the prevalence of ID, which may be attributable to not only the large diversity of services, but also some other factors. The results were discussed with respect to the deinstitutionalisation progress, resource‐intensive services and costs. Differences also reflect some problems in diagnosing ID in people having mild ID.
Exploration of basal immune parameters in healthy infants receiving an infant milk formula supplemented with prebiotics
Authors: Raes M. , Scholtens P. A. M. J. , Alliet Ph. , Hensen K. , Jongen H. , Boehm G. , Vandenplas Y. , Rummens J. L. 
Published: December 2009

Raes M, Scholtens PAMJ, Alliet Ph, Hensen K, Jongen H, Boehm G, Vandenplas Y, Rummens JL. Exploration of basal immune parameters in healthy infants receiving an infant milk formula supplemented with prebiotics. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2010: 21: e377–e385. © 2009 Jon Wiley & Sons A/SThis double‐blind, randomized, placebo‐controlled study, aimed to explore the effect of an infant milk formula (IMF) with 6 g/l short‐chain galacto‐ and long‐chain fructo‐oligosaccharides (scGOS/lcFOS, ratio 9:1) on basal immune parameters in 215 healthy, term infants during the first 26 wk of life. After birth, the infants received breast milk or were randomized to receive an IMF with or without scGOS/lcFOS. Blood samples were collected at the age of 8 wk and 26 wk for the analysis of serum immunoglobulins, lymphocyte subpopulations, and cytokines. The scGOS/lcFOS group and the control group were compared in the statistical analysis. A breast fed group was included as a reference. In total, 187 Infants completed the study. No significant differences were observed between both formula groups in the different studied immune parameters at weeks 8 and 26. This explorative study indicates that supplementation of infant formula with a mixture of prebiotic oligosaccharides did not change the basal level of the measured parameters of the developing immune system in healthy infants with a balanced immune system during the first 6 months of life in comparison to feeding a standard infant formula and in comparison to exclusive breastfeeding.
Monoterpene engineering in a woody plant Eucalyptus camaldulensis using a limonene synthase cDNA
Authors: Ohara Kazuaki , Matsunaga Etsuko , Nanto Kazuya , Yamamoto Kyoko , Sasaki Kanako , Ebinuma Hiroyasu , Yazaki Kazufumi 
Published: December 2009

SummaryMetabolic engineering aimed at monoterpene production has become an intensive research topic in recent years, although most studies have been limited to herbal plants including model plants such as Arabidopsis. The genus Eucalyptus includes commercially important woody plants in terms of essential oil production and the pulp industry. This study attempted to modify the production of monoterpenes, which are major components of Eucalyptus essential oil, by introducing two expression constructs containing Perilla frutescens limonene synthase (PFLS) cDNA, whose gene products were designed to be localized in either the plastid or cytosol, into Eucalyptus camaldulensis. The expression of the plastid‐type and cytosol‐type PFLS cDNA in transgenic E. camaldulensis was confirmed by real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector analyses of leaf extracts revealed that the plastidic and cytosolic expression of PFLS yielded 2.6‐ and 4.5‐times more limonene than that accumulated in wild‐type E. camaldulensis, respectively, while the ectopic expression of PFLS had only a small effect on the emission of limonene from the leaves of E. camaldulensis. Surprisingly, the high level of PFLS in Eucalyptus was accompanied by a synergistic increase in the production of 1,8‐cineole and α‐pinene, two major components of Eucalyptus monoterpenes. This genetic engineering of monoterpenes demonstrated a new potential for molecular breeding in woody plants.
Bounding Volume Hierarchies of Slab Cut Balls
Authors: Larsson T. , Akenine‐Möller T. 
Published: December 2009

AbstractWe introduce a bounding volume hierarchy based on the Slab Cut Ball. This novel type of enclosing shape provides an attractive balance between tightness of fit, cost of overlap testing, and memory requirement. The hierarchy construction algorithm includes a new method for the construction of tight bounding volumes in worst case O(n) time, which means our tree data structure is constructed in O(n log   n) time using traditional top‐down building methods. A fast overlap test method between two slab cut balls is also proposed, requiring as few as 28–99 arithmetic operations, including the transformation cost. Practical collision detection experiments confirm that our tree data structure is amenable for high performance collision queries. In all the tested benchmarks, our bounding volume hierarchy consistently gives performance improvements over the sphere tree, and it is also faster than the OBB tree in five out of six scenes. In particular, our method is asymptotically faster than the sphere tree, and it also outperforms the OBB tree, in close proximity situations.
Learning‐by‐Exporting Revisited: The Role of Intensity and Persistence*
Authors: Andersson Martin , Lööf Hans 
Published: December 2009

AbstractTwo non‐mutually exclusive hypotheses can explain the empirically established export premium: self‐selection of more productive firms into export markets and learning‐by‐exporting. This paper focuses on how the temporal dimension of firms' exporting activities and the intensity of exports influence the scope of learning effects. Using a panel of Swedish firms and dynamic generalized method of moments estimation, we find a learning effect among persistent exporters with high export intensity, but not among temporary exporters or persistent exporters with low export intensity. For small firms, exports boost productivity among persistent exporters with both high and low export intensity, but the effect is stronger for persistent export‐intensive small firms.
Tough Love: Do Czech Suppliers Learn from their Relationships with Multinationals?*
Authors: Javorcik Beata S. , Spatareanu Mariana 
Published: December 2009

AbstractCountries strive to attract foreign direct investment hoping that knowledge brought by multinationals will spill over to domestic producers. While the literature has cast doubt on the existence of spillovers within industries, it has found evidence of spillovers from multinationals to the supplying sectors. However, the existing studies rely on industry‐level proxies rather than information on actual relationships between suppliers and multinationals. This study goes one step further by employing a unique dataset from the Czech Republic where such relationships can be identified. It finds evidence consistent with both high productivity firms having a higher probability of supplying multinationals as well as suppliers learning from their relationships with multinationals.
Housing Inequality in Transitional Beijing
Authors: HUANG YOUQIN , JIANG LEIWEN 
Published: December 2009

AbstractThe market transition in China has resulted in significant social inequality, including housing inequality, in a formerly egalitarian society. This article provides both a conceptual framework and an empirical analysis of housing inequality in transitional urban China. Using the 1995 1% Population Survey and the 2000 Census data for Beijing, it shows that there was significant housing inequality between different socio‐economic and institutional groups, and that the reforms in the late 1990s aggravated it. While emerging market mechanisms began to contribute to housing inequality, socialist institutions such as the household registration (hukou) system continued to be significant in the late 1990s, although there is evidence of the declining importance of other institutional factors such as political status. This study contributes to the market transition debate by arguing that different elements of the socialist institutions follow different paths in the reform and thus have different impacts on social inequality.RésuméEn Chine, le marché de transition s’est traduit par une inégalité sociale considérable, y compris en matière de logement, dans une société autrefois égalitaire. Cet article fournit un cadre conceptuel et une analyse empirique de l’inégalité du logement dans la Chine urbaine en transition. Exploitant les données de l’enquête sur 1% de la population nationale de 1995 et celles du recensement de 2000 pour Beijing, il montre qu’il existait une nette inégalité de logement entre différents groupes socio‐économiques et institutionnels, laquelle a été aggravée par les réformes de la fin des années 1990. Tandis que les mécanismes d’un marchéémergent se sont mis à alimenter l’inégalité de logement, des institutions socialistes telles que le système d’enregistrement des ménages (hukou) ont gardé leur prépondérance, même si on peut démontrer le recul d’autres facteurs institutionnels comme la position politique. Cette étude s’inscrit dans le débat sur le marché de transition en affirmant que différents éléments des institutions socialistes suivent des trajectoires différentes dans le cadre de la réforme, ayant donc des impacts différents sur l’inégalité sociale.
Characterization of Ca2+ signaling pathways in mouse adrenal medullary chromaffin cells
Authors: Wu Pei‐Chun , Fann Ming‐Ji , Kao Lung‐Sen 
Published: December 2009

J. Neurochem. (2010) 112, 1210–1222.AbstractIn the present study, we characterized the Ca2+ responses and secretions induced by various secretagogues in mouse chromaffin cells. Activation of the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) by carbachol induced a transient intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) increase followed by two phases of [Ca2+]i decay and a burst of exocytic events. The contribution of the subtypes of AChRs to carbachol‐induced responses was examined. Based on the results obtained by stimulating the cells with the nicotinic receptor (nAChR) agonist, 1,1‐dimethyl‐4‐phenylpiperazinium iodide, high K+ and the effects of thapsigargin, it appears that activation of nAChRs induces an extracellular Ca2+ influx, which in turn activate Ca2+‐induced Ca2+ release via the ryanodine receptors. Muscarine, a muscarinic receptor (mAChRs) agonist, was found to induce [Ca2+]i oscillation and sustained catecholamine release, possibly by activation of both the receptor‐ and store‐operated Ca2+ entry pathways. The RT‐PCR results showed that mouse chromaffin cells are equipped with messages for multiple subtypes of AChRs, ryanodine receptors and all known components of the receptor‐ and store‐operated Ca2+ entry. Furthermore, results obtained by directly monitoring endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondrial Ca2+ concentration and by disabling mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake suggest that the ER acts as a Ca2+ source, while the mitochondria acts as a Ca2+ sink. Our results show that both nAChRs and mAChRs contribute to the initial carbachol‐induced [Ca2+]i increase which is further enhanced by the Ca2+ released from the ER mediated by Ca2+‐induced Ca2+ release and mAChR activation. This information on the Ca2+ signaling pathways should lay a good foundation for future studies using mouse chromaffin cells as a model system.
Generation of pluripotent stem cells from eggs of aging mice
Authors: Huang Junjiu , Okuka Maja , Wang Fang , Zuo Bingfeng , Liang Ping , Kalmbach Keri , Liu Lin , Keefe David L. 
Published: December 2009

SummaryOocytes can reprogram genomes to form embryonic stem (ES) cells. Although ES cells largely escape senescence, oocytes themselves do senesce in the ovaries of most mammals. It remains to be determined whether ES cells can be established using eggs from old females, which exhibit reproductive senescence. We attempted to produce pluripotent stem cell lines from artificial activation of eggs (also called pES) from reproductive aged mice, to determine whether maternal aging affects pES cell production and pluripotency. We show that pES cell lines were generated with high efficiency from reproductive aged (old) mice, although parthenogenetic embryos from these mice produced fewer ES clones by initial two passages. Further, pES cell lines generated from old mice showed telomere length, expression of pluripotency molecular markers (Oct4, Nanog, SSEA1), alkaline phosphatase activity, teratoma formation and chimera production similar to young mice. Notably, DNA damage was reduced in pES cells from old mice compared to their progenitor parthenogenetic blastocysts, and did not differ from that of pES cells from young mice. Also, global gene expression differed only minimally between pES cells from young and old mice, in contrast to marked differences in gene expression in eggs from young and old mice. These data demonstrate that eggs from old mice can generate pluripotent stem cells, and suggest that the isolation and in vitro culture of ES cells must select cells with high levels of DNA and telomere integrity, and/or with capacity to repair DNA and telomeres.
Fragrance contact allergic patients: strategies for use of cosmetic products and perceived impact on life situation
Authors: Lysdal Susan Hovmand , Johansen Jeanne Duus 
Published: December 2009

Background: Fragrance ingredients are a common cause of contact allergy. Very little is known about these patients' strategies to manage their disease and the effect on their daily lives. Objectives: To investigate if patients with diagnosed fragrance contact allergy used scented products, how they identified tolerated products, and if fragrance allergy affected their daily living. Method: One hundred and forty‐seven patients diagnosed with fragrance contact allergy in a 20‐month period were included and received a postal questionnaire concerning the subjects of the study. One hundred and seventeen (79.6%) replied. Results: In total, 53/117 (45.3%) responded that they had found some scented products that they could tolerate. Thirty‐seven (31.6%) had not tried to find any scented products and 26 (22%) had tried but could not find any. The methods most often used were trying different products and reading the ingredient label. Of the total respondents, 17.1% reported sick‐leave due to fragrance allergy and 45.3% found that fragrance allergy significantly affected their daily living. Conclusion: Many patients with fragrance contact allergy succeeded in finding some scented products, which they could tolerate, e.g. by use of ingredient labelling, but a significant proportion had continued skin problems. Almost half of the patients perceived that fragrance allergy significantly affected their daily lives.
Contact allergens and irritants in household washing and cleaning products
Authors: Magnano Michela , Silvani Simonetta , Vincenzi Colombina , Nino Massimiliano , Tosti Antonella 
Published: December 2009

Background: Household cleaning products often contain potential allergens and irritants but allergic contact dermatitis from these products in general consumers is rarely reported in the literature. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the presence of irritants and allergens as indicated on the labels or on the product information found on the website of household cleaning products marketed in Italy. Material/Methods: We examined the labels and the product information of 291 liquid household washing and cleaning products, including 43 washing‐up liquids, 63 laundry detergents, 61 fabric conditioners, 47 spray detergents, and 77 hard surface cleaning products. We obtained the data from the product information found on the websites for 263 products and directly on the product packages for 28 products. For each product we specifically recorded the presence of surfactants, preservatives, and fragrances listed in Annex III of Directive 76/768/EEC. Results: The websites of two Italian brands do not respect EU regulations as they provide product information only with bar codes of the products. Preservatives and fragrances are the main allergens declared in the label of household cleaning products with methylchloroisothiazolinone/methylisothiazolinone (MCI/MI) listed in 35.7% and limonene in 43.6% of the products. Surfactants were listed in 16.5% of the studied products. Conclusions: Our study shows that household cleaning products in Italian market contain several allergens, particularly preservatives and fragrances. For consumers, at least in Italy, it may not be easy to retrieve product information from the website for two widely sold brands. The information had to be taken from the actual package.