bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Administrative claims data analysis of nurse practitioner prescribing for older adults
Authors: Murphy Andrea L. , Martin‐Misener Ruth , Cooke Charmaine , Sketris Ingrid 
Published: August 2009

AbstractTitle.  Administrative claims data analysis of nurse practitioner prescribing for older adults. Aim.  This paper is a report of a study to identify the patterns of prescribing by primary health care nurse practitioners for a cohort of older adults.Background.  The older adult population is known to receive complex pharmacotherapy. Monitoring prescribing to older adults can inform quality improvement initiatives. In comparison to other countries, research examining nurse practitioner prescribing in Canada is limited. Nurse practitioner prescribing for older adults is relatively unexplored in the international literature. Although commonly used to study physician prescribing, few studies have used claims data from drug insurance programmes to investigate nurse practitioner prescribing.Method.  Drug claims for prescriptions written by nurse practitioners from fiscal years 2004/05 to 2006/07 for beneficiaries of the Nova Scotia Seniors’ Pharmacare programme were analysed. Data were retrieved and analysed in May 2008. Prescribing was described for each drug using the World Health Organization Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical code classification system by usage and costs for each fiscal year.Results.  Antimicrobials and non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs consistently represented the top ranked groups for prescription volume and cost. Over the three fiscal years, antimicrobial prescription rates declined relative to rates of other groups of medications. Prescription volume per nurse doubled and cost per prescription increased by approximately 20%.Conclusion.  Prescription claims data can be used to characterize the prescribing trends of nurse practitioners. Research linking patient characteristics, including diagnoses, to prescriptions is needed to assess prescribing quality. Some potential areas of improvement were identified with antimicrobial and non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory selection.
HIV/AIDS and universal precautions: knowledge and attitudes of Nepalese nursing students
Authors: Mahat Ganga , Eller Lucille Sanzero 
Published: August 2009

AbstractTitle.  HIV/AIDS and universal precautions: knowledge and attitudes of Nepalese nursing students. Aim.  This paper is a report of a study exploring Nepalese nursing students’ knowledge and attitudes about HIV/AIDS and universal precautions.Background.  Nepal is facing an HIV epidemic, and nurses are primary caregivers for people living with HIV/AIDS. Insufficient knowledge and negative attitudes on the part of nursing students translate into fear, stigmatization and unwillingness to care for patients with HIV/AIDS.Method.  Data were collected in 2005 for this cross‐sectional study in which we examined HIV/AIDS‐related knowledge, attitudes and universal precautions in three levels of Nepalese nursing students (N = 127). Instruments included the HIV/AIDS Knowledge Questionnaire, HIV/AIDS Attitudes Questionnaire, HIV/AIDS Transmission Attitudes Questionnaire and Universal Precautions Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and chi‐square analyses were employed to examine socio‐demographic data. One‐way anova, with level in school as the between‐groups factor, were calculated to examine students’ knowledge and attitudes.Findings.  Nepalese nursing students have a large knowledge gap and negative attitudes, regardless of level of education. Their HIV/AIDS knowledge differed statistically significantly by group but there were no statistically significant group differences in general attitudes towards HIV/AIDS. Although knowledge of universal precaution improved with year of education, overall universal precautions knowledge was poor among all students, regardless of level of education.Conclusion. Nursing curricula must include adequate and culturally relevant content on HIV/AIDS, attitudes towards people living with AIDS, and universal precautions.
Evaluation of empathy measurement tools in nursing: systematic review
Authors: Yu Juping , Kirk Maggie 
Published: August 2009

AbstractTitle. Evaluation of empathy measurement tools in nursing: systematic review.Aim. This paper is a report of a systematic review conducted to analyse, evaluate and synthesize the rigour of measures used in nursing research to assess empathy, in order to identify a ‘gold standard’ for application in future studies.Background. Empathy is considered essential to the provision of quality care. We identified 20 different empathy measures used in nursing research. There are inconsistencies between tools, indicating both the inherent complexity of measuring empathy and the need to evaluate the rigour of the measures themselves.Data sources. An extensive search was conducted for the period 1987 and 2007 using the Medline, CINAHL and PsycINFO databases and the keywords ‘empathy’, ‘tool’, ‘scale’, ‘measure’, ‘nurse’ and ‘nursing’. Twenty‐nine studies were identified as relevant, in which 20 different empathy measurement tools were used. Twelve tools met the inclusion criteria for this review.Method. Twelve measures were critically reviewed and analysed. A 7‐criterion framework was developed to appraise the rigour of the empathy measures, with a score range of 0–14 for each measure.Results. Quality scores obtained were low (2–8 of 14). Validity and reliability of data were commonly reported, but responsiveness to change was tested in only three measures. None of the measures were psychometrically robust or covered all the domains of empathy. User involvement was limited and only five were developed in nursing settings.Conclusion. Most measures have undergone rigorous development and psychometric testing, although none is both psychometrically and conceptually satisfactory. Empathy measures need to cover all relevant domains reflecting users’ own perspectives and be tested with appropriate populations in relevant care settings.
Work sampling: a quantitative analysis of nursing activity in a neuro‐rehabilitation setting
Authors: Williams Heather , Harris Ruth , Turner‐Stokes Lynne 
Published: August 2009

AbstractTitle.  Work sampling: a quantitative analysis of nursing activity in a neuro‐rehabilitation setting. Aim.  The aim of this investigation was to establish the distribution and proportion of nursing activity represented by patient‐related care activities (direct and indirect), and other nursing activities (unit‐related and personal) within one inpatient neurological rehabilitation unit.Background.  A set of tools has been developed for estimating the care/nursing hours required for direct hands‐on patient care in hospital rehabilitation settings. However, to apply this information to estimate the actual staffing requirements in relation to a given caseload, it is necessary to know the proportion of nursing workload assigned to other activities and how this may vary throughout the day.Method.  A work sampling study was conducted during 2004. A snapshot of nursing activity was recorded at 5‐minute intervals from 06·00 to 23·55 spread over 2 weeks, with one session from 06·00 to 15·25 and the second from 15·30 to 23·55.Results.  A total of 8883 nursing activities were observed and recorded over 126 hours and categorized as follows: 4060 (46%) direct patient care, 2218 (25%) indirect patient care, 874 (10%) unit‐related and 1731 (19%) personal time. The proportions of direct care fluctuated throughout the day, with direct care activities mainly concentrated in early mornings and to a lesser extent evenings.Conclusion.  Direct patient care accounted for less than half of the nursing activity in a rehabilitation setting. Estimates of staffing requirement must also take account of the time required for indirect care and non‐patient related activity.
Being and doing politics: an outdated model or 21st century reality?
Authors: Carnegie Elaine , Kiger Alice 
Published: August 2009

AbstractTitle. Being and doing politics: an outdated model or 21st century reality?.Aim. This paper presents a discussion of how critical social theory can be used as a tool for research, reflection and exploration of the political role of the nurse.Background. Sociological theory can be used to examine ideologies within nursing systems in order to contribute to the future development of the profession. The importance of critical social theory has been identified in the literature as being directly relevant to holism which is central to the nature of nursing.Data sources. Texts published in English were identified from 1990 to 2008 using the keywords critical social theory, community nursing, political advocacy, social justice, sociological theory, health inequalities, health democracy, equity and inequality.Discussion. Critical social theory can be used as a tool to highlight ethical ways to practise nursing. One reason for examination of the community nurse’s political role is a shift in focus from the individual as patient to communities experiencing health inequalities. Nursing needs to decide whether the profession will work at the political level, and where advocacy and citizenship are located within a community role.Conclusion. Nurse educators must prepare nurses for political participation, and nurse managers need to focus on national and local contexts in order to encourage policy analysis and community engagement within nursing practice. An understanding of critical social theory can aid decision‐making in relation to global and local policy, enable the nursing profession to respond to social injustice, and permit nurses to work with communities in the pursuit of community health.
The De‐Escalating Aggressive Behaviour Scale: development and psychometric testing
Authors: Nau Johannes , Halfens Ruud , Needham Ian , Dassen Theo 
Published: August 2009

AbstractTitle. The De‐Escalating Aggressive Behaviour Scale: development and psychometric testing.Aim. This paper is a report of a study to develop and test the psychometric properties of a scale measuring nursing students’ performance in de‐escalation of aggressive behaviour.Background. Successful training should lead not merely to more knowledge and amended attitudes but also to improved performance. However, the quality of de‐escalation performance is difficult to assess.Method. Based on a qualitative investigation, seven topics pertaining to de‐escalating behaviour were identified and the wording of items tested. The properties of the items and the scale were investigated quantitatively. A total of 1748 performance evaluations by students (rater group 1) from a skills laboratory were used to check distribution and conduct a factor analysis. Likewise, 456 completed evaluations by de‐escalation experts (rater group 2) of videotaped performances at pre‐ and posttest were used to investigate internal consistency, interrater reliability, test–retest reliability, effect size and factor structure. Data were collected in 2007–2008 in German.Findings. Factor analysis showed a unidimensional 7‐item scale with factor loadings ranging from 0·55 to 0·81 (rater group 1) and 0·48 to 0·88 (rater group 2). Cronbach’s alphas of 0·87 and 0·88 indicated good internal consistency irrespective of rater group. A Pearson’srof 0·80 confirmed acceptable test–retest reliability, and interrater reliability Intraclass Correlation 3 ranging from 0·77 to 0·93 also showed acceptable results. The effect sizerof 0·53 plus Cohen’sdof 1·25 indicates the capacity of the scale to detect changes in performance.Conclusion. Further research is needed to test the English version of the scale and its validity.
Increasing syrphid fly diversity and density in sown flower strips within simple vs. complex landscapes
Authors: Haenke Sebastian , Scheid Barbara , Schaefer Matthias , Tscharntke Teja , Thies Carsten 
Published: August 2009

Summary1. The structural complexity of agricultural landscapes influences the local biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Hence, developing effective biodiversity management requires a better understanding of the relative importance of local and landscape changes, especially for functionally important organisms such as hoverflies benefiting from flowering plants.2. We examined hoverfly (Diptera: Syrphidae) communities in broad and narrow sown flower strips, in naturally developed grassy strips and in wheat fields (as a control). We also investigated the effects of these four habitat types on syrphid occurrence in the adjacent wheat fields.3. The relative influence of local vs. landscape effects was tested by selecting study sites along a gradient of structural complexity from simple landscapes (∼100% arable land) to complex landscapes (up to 70% semi‐natural habitats such as fallows, field margins, hedges and grassland). Landscape complexity was assessed within landscape sectors of 0·5–4·0 km radius around strips.4. Syrphid density and in particular, the density of aphidophagous species, was higher in narrow and broad sown flower strips compared to grassy strips and wheat–wheat boundary controls at the milk‐ripening stage of the wheat. In addition, species richness of aphidophagous syrphids within wheat fields adjacent to broad sown flower strips was higher at the wheat peak‐ripening stage. This indicates a spillover between habitats and a positive effect of these sown flower strips on potential biocontrol of cereal aphids. Flower densities and syrphid diversity and density, respectively, were closely related.5. Species richness and abundance in the sown flower strips increased as the proportion of arable land in the surrounding landscape increased, suggesting that within structurally simple landscapes (at 0·5–1 km radius around the sites) syrphid flies concentrated on the most rewarding resources within the sown flower strips. Sown flower strips were more effective at increasing syrphid species richness and abundance in simple landscapes, presumably because the creation of flower resources made the greatest difference in such homogeneous, intensively managed arable landscapes.6. Synthesis and applications.Agri‐environment schemes should take the surrounding landscape characteristics into account when considering using sown flower strips to enhance syrphid density and diversity, and their biocontrol function, in arable landscapes. Creating locally such flower strips is more effective in simple landscapes containing a high proportion of arable land, while in complex landscapes, keeping the overall diversity is important.
The youngest split in sympatric schizothoracine fish (Cyprinidae) is shaped by ecological adaptations in a Tibetan Plateau glacier lake
Authors: ZHAO KAI , DUAN ZI YUAN , PENG ZUO GANG , GUO SONG CHANG , LI JUN BING , HE SHUN PING , ZHAO XIN QUAN 
Published: August 2009

AbstractAlthough new empirical evidence shows that sympatric speciation has occurred in some species, there are few indisputable model organisms for this process of speciation. The two subspecies (Gymnocypris eckloni eckloniandG.e.scoliostomus) of the schizothoracineGymnocyprisfish species complex from a small glacier lake in the Tibetan Plateau, Lake Sunmcuo, fit several of the key characteristics of the sympatric speciation model. We used combined mitochondrial control region sequences and the cytochromebgene (1894 bp) to address the phylogenetics and population genetics of 232 specimens ofG.e.eckloniandG.e.scoliostomus, as well as all of its closely related sister species. We found that: (i) a total of four old lineages were uncovered in the widespreadG.e.eckloni, of which only one was shown to be shared with allG.e.scoliostomusindividuals and (ii) the new subspecies (G.e.scoliostomus) evolved in Lake Sunmcuo from the ancestralG.e.ecklonipopulation within approximately 0.057 Ma. These two taxa of the species complex are morphologically distinct, and reproductive isolation is further suggested. Ecological disruptive selection based on morphological traits (e.g. mouth cleft characters) and food utilization may be a mechanism of incipient speciation of two sympatric populations within Lake Sunmcuo. This study provides the first genetic evidence for sympatric speciation in the schizothoracine fish.
Fine‐scale comparative phylogeography of a sympatric sister species triplet of subterranean diving beetles from a single calcrete aquifer in Western Australia
Authors: GUZIK M. T. , COOPER S. J. B. , HUMPHREYS W. F. , AUSTIN A. D. 
Published: August 2009

AbstractCalcrete aquifers in the arid Yilgarn region of central Western Australia are a biodiversity hotspot for stygofauna. A distinct pattern of interspecific size class variation among subterranean dytiscid beetle species has been observed in 29 of these aquifers where either two or three small, medium and/or large sympatric species are found that are in some cases sister species. We used a 3.5 km2 grid of bores to sample dytiscids on a fine‐scale and employed a comparative phylogeographical and population genetic approach to investigate the origins of a sympatric sister species triplet of diving beetles from a single aquifer. Mitochondrial DNA sequence data from the Cytochrome oxidase c subunit I gene revealed that all three species have high levels of haplotype diversity with ancient (∼1 million years ago) intra‐specific coalescence of haplotypes, but low levels of nucleotide diversity. Population analyses provide evidence for multiple expansion events within each species. There was spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of genetic variation and abundance both within and among the three taxa. Population analyses revealed significant fine‐scale differentiation with isolation by distance for Paroster macrosturtensis and P. mesosturtensis, but not the smallest species P. microsturtensis. Haplotype network analyses provided limited or no evidence for past population fragmentation within the large and small species, but substantial historical divergence was observed in P. mesosturtensis that was not spatially structured. A patchy population structure with contemporaneous and historical isolation by distance in the three species is likely to have been a significant isolating and diversifying force, preventing us from ruling out a potential role for allopatric divergence during speciation of this beetle sister triplet.
Pleistocene refugia and polytopic replacement of diploids by tetraploids in the Patagonian and Subantarctic plantHypochaeris incana(Asteraceae, Cichorieae)
Authors: TREMETSBERGER KARIN , URTUBEY ESTRELLA , TERRAB ANASS , BAEZA CARLOS M. , ORTIZ MARÍA ÁNGELES , TALAVERA MARÍA , KÖNIG CHRISTIANE , TEMSCH EVA M. , KOHL GUDRUN , TALAVERA SALVADOR , STUESSY TOD F. 
Published: August 2009

AbstractWe report the phylogeographic pattern of the Patagonian and Subantarctic plantHypochaeris incanaendemic to southeastern South America. We applied amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) analysis to 28 and 32 populations, respectively, throughout its distributional range and assessed ploidy levels using flow cytometry. While cpDNA data suggest repeated or simultaneous parallel colonization of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego by several haplotypes and/or hybridization, AFLPs reveal three clusters corresponding to geographic regions. The central and northern Patagonian clusters (∼38–51° S), which are closer to the outgroup, contain mainly tetraploid, isolated and highly differentiated populations with low genetic diversity. To the contrary, the southern Patagonian and Fuegian cluster (∼51–55° S) contains mainly diploid populations with high genetic diversity and connected by high levels of gene flow. The data suggest thatH. incanaoriginated at the diploid level in central or northern Patagonia, from where it migrated south. All three areas, northern, central and southern, have similar levels of rare and private AFLP bands, suggesting that all three served as refugia forH. incanaduring glacial times. In southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, the species seems to have expanded its populational system in postglacial times, when the climate became warmer and more humid. In central and northern Patagonia, the populations seem to have become restricted to favourable sites with increasing temperature and decreasing moisture and there was a parallel replacement of diploids by tetraploids in local populations.
Testing for local adaptation in Avena barbata: a classic example of ecotypic divergence
Authors: LATTA ROBERT G. 
Published: August 2009

AbstractForty years ago, Robert Allard and colleagues documented that the slender wild oat, Avena barbata, occurred in California as two multi‐locus allozyme genotypes, associated with mesic and xeric habitats. This is arguably the first example of ecotypes identified by molecular techniques. Despite widespread citation, however, the inference of local adaptation of these ecotypes rested primarily on the allozyme pattern. This study tests for local adaptation of these ecotypes using reciprocal transplant and quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping techniques. Both ecotypes and 188 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between them were grown in common garden plots established at two sites representative of the environments in which the ecotypes were first described. Across four growing seasons at each site, three observations consistently emerged. First, despite significant genotype by environment interaction, the mesic ecotype consistently showed higher lifetime reproductive success across all years and sites. Second, the RILs showed no evidence of a trade‐off in performance across sites or years, and fitness was positively correlated across environments. Third, at QTL affecting lifetime reproductive success, selection favoured the same allele in all environments. None of these observations are consistent with local adaptation but suggest that a single genotype is selectively favoured at both moist and dry sites. I propose an alternative hypothesis that A. barbata may be an example of contemporary evolution – whereby the favoured genotype is spreading and increasing in frequency – rather than local adaptation.
An external heat pulse method for measurement of sap flow through fruit pedicels, leaf petioles and other small‐diameter stems
Authors: CLEARWATER MICHAEL J. , LUO ZHIWEI , MAZZEO MARIAROSARIA , DICHIO BARTOLOMEO 
Published: August 2009

ABSTRACTThe external heat ratio method is described for measurement of low rates of sap flow in both directions through stems and other plant organs, including fruit pedicels, with diameters up to 5 mm and flows less than 2 g h−1. Calibration was empirical, with heat pulse velocity (vh) compared to gravimetric measurements of sap flow. In the four stem types tested (Actinidia sp. fruit pedicels, Schefflera arboricola petioles, Pittosporum crassifolium stems and Fagus sylvatica stems), vh was linearly correlated with sap velocity (vs) up to a vs of approximately 0.007 cm s−1, equivalent to a flow of 1.8 g h−1 through a 3‐mm‐diameter stem. Minimum detectable vs was approximately 0.0001 cm s−1, equivalent to 0.025 g h−1 through a 3‐mm‐diameter stem. Sensitivity increased with bark removal. Girdling had no effect on short‐term measurements of in vivo sap flow, suggesting that phloem flows were too low to be separated from xylem flows. Fluctuating ambient temperatures increased variability in outdoor sap flow measurements. However, a consistent diurnal time‐course of fruit pedicel sap flow was obtained, with flows towards 75‐day‐old kiwifruit lagging behind evaporative demand and peaking at 0.3 g h−1 in the late afternoon.