bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Nursing staff shortages and job satisfaction in Iran: Issues and challenges
Authors: Zarea Kourosh , Negarandeh Reza , Dehghan‐Nayeri Nahid , Rezaei‐Adaryani Morteza 
Published: June 2009

AbstractIn most countries, nurses are the largest group of health‐care professionals that provide direct and indirect care to patients in a variety of health settings. The quality of care is strongly linked to their performance, and shortages of nursing staff cause suffering and diminished patient care. In 2008, it was estimated that there were 90 026 nurses in Iran, but health‐care facilities need ∼ 220 000 nurses in order to deliver optimal nursing care. This review article provides a detailed description of the nursing shortage and related factors in Iran. It is hoped that this will inform both Iranian and international policy‐makers and administrators about the current situation in this country.
Facilitation of corticospinal excitability in the tibialis anterior muscle during robot‐assisted passive stepping in humans
Authors: Kamibayashi Kiyotaka , Nakajima Tsuyoshi , Takahashi Makoto , Akai Masami , Nakazawa Kimitaka 
Published: June 2009

AbstractAlthough phasic modulation of the corticospinal tract excitability to the lower limb muscles has been observed during normal walking, it is unclear to what extent afferent information induced by walking is related to the modulation. The purpose of this study was to test the corticospinal excitability to the lower limb muscles by using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial electrical stimulation of the motor cortex while 13 healthy subjects passively stepped in a robotic driven‐gait orthosis. Specifically, to investigate the effect of load‐related afferent inputs on the corticospinal excitability during passive stepping, motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in response to the stimulation were compared between two passive stepping conditions: 40% body weight unloading on a treadmill (ground stepping) and 100% body weight unloading in the air (air stepping). In the rectus femoris, biceps femoris and tibialis anterior (TA) muscles, electromyographic activity was not observed throughout the step cycle in either stepping condition. However, the TMS‐evoked MEPs of the TA muscle at the early‐ and late‐swing phases as well as at the early‐stance phase during ground stepping were significantly larger than those observed during air stepping. The modulation pattern of the transcranial electrical stimulation‐evoked MEPs was similar to that of the TMS‐evoked MEPs. These results suggest that corticospinal excitability to the TA is facilitated by load‐related afferent inputs. Thus, these results might be consistent with the notion that load‐related afferent inputs play a significant role during locomotor training for gait disorders.
GABAergic transmission in the rat ventral pallidum mediates a saccharin palatability shift in conditioned taste aversion
Authors: Inui Tadashi , Yamamoto Takashi , Shimura Tsuyoshi 
Published: June 2009

AbstractWe previously found that the blockade of γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA)A receptors in the ventral pallidum (VP) alters the taste palatability of a conditioned stimulus (CS) from aversive to ingestive after the establishment of conditioned taste aversion (CTA). Because these results suggest that GABAergic transmission in the VP mediates decreased palatability of the taste in CTA, the present study aimed to examine the effects of taste stimulation on the extracellular release of GABA in the VP using in vivo microdialysis. Initially, rats received a paired presentation of 5 mm saccharin or 0.3 mm quinine solution with an intraperitoneal injection of 0.15 m lithium chloride (S‐CTA and Q‐CTA groups) or saline (S‐control and Q‐control groups). After conditioning, microdialysis was carried out before, during and after the presentation of the CS via an intra‐oral cannula. We measured the latency of the first aversive orofacial responses to the CS as behavioral indices. In the S‐CTA group, which rapidly rejected the CS (within 100 s), the GABA efflux was significantly increased (147%) and was maintained for 2 h. On the other hand, the S‐control group expressed no aversive responses and showed no significant alterations in GABA efflux. Although the Q‐CTA group immediately expressed aversive responses to the CS (within 30 s), GABA release was not changed by presentation of the CS, which was similar in the Q‐control group. These findings suggest that the palatability shift from ingestive to aversive in conditioned aversion to saccharin, but not quinine, is mediated by the change in GABAergic transmission in the VP.
Examination of outcome following abdominoperineal resection for adenocarcinoma in Oxford
Authors: Chambers W. , Khan A. , Waters R. , Lindsey I. , George B. , Mortensen N. , Cunningham C. 
Published: June 2009

AbstractAim  Abdominoperineal resection (APR) has been shown to have poor outcomes compared with anterior resection (AR) in the treatment of rectal cancer. We compared APR outcomes with those for low AR.Method  Lower third rectal cancers treated at the John Radcliffe Hospital with APR and low AR were examined using a prospectively collected database augmented with review of patient records. For all cases (APR and low AR), a range of patient, cancer and outcome data were collected. A selected group was created on the basis of exclusions. Outcomes for the global and selected APR and low AR groups were compared using the Kaplan–Meier method. CRM+ve and CRM−ve APR cases were compared.Results  Between 1994 and 2003, 70 APR and 93 low AR were performed. After exclusions, 42 APR and 81 low AR remained. Median follow‐up was 4.8 years. Five year survival for the APR group was significantly worse than for the low AR group. The APR group showed significantly fewer T0 cancers and significantly more T3 cancers. CRM R1 involvement was significantly higher for the APR group. The CRM+ve APR group contained significantly more later stage cancers, more defective resection specimens, more abscesses and fistulas and was associated with more local recurrence.Conclusions  These data showed that APR led to worse results than low AR in terms of overall survival and circumferential margin involvement, but that the cancers treated with APR tended to be more locally advanced.
Stoma‐related complications and stoma size – a 2‐year follow up
Authors: Persson E. , Berndtsson I. , Carlsson E. , Hallén A.‐M. , Lindholm E. 
Published: June 2009

AbstractAim  The purpose of the study was to prospectively describe stoma configuration and evaluate stoma‐related complications and their association with possible risk factors.Method  All elective patients (n = 180) operated on with a formation of colostomy, ileostomy or loop‐ileostomy between 2003 and 2005 were included in the study. Follow up took place on the ward postoperatively and five times during 2 years after discharge. On these occasions the diameter and height of the stoma were recorded. Complications such as peristomal skin problems, necrosis, leakage caused by a low stoma, stenosis, granuloma formation, prolapse and peristomal hernia formation were evaluated.Results  Most complications occurred 2 weeks after discharge; 53% of patients with colostomies, 79% with loop‐ileostomies and 70% of patients with end‐ileostomy had one or more complications. The most common complication was skin problems and it was most common in patients with end‐ileostomies (60%) and loop‐ileostomies (73%). Postoperatively at ward review, the most common complication was necrosis, which occurred in 20% of patients with a colostomy. Granuloma formation was most frequent in colostomies. Almost all patients with an end‐ileostomy and loop‐ileostomy with a height lower than 20 mm had leakage and skin problems as had half of the patients with a colostomy height lower than 5 mm.Conclusion  To prevent stoma‐related complications, it is important to produce an adequate height of the stoma, with early and regular follow ups and adjustment of the appliance. To work closely in collaboration with the colorectal surgeons is of utmost important to provide feedback and in turn, to improve stoma outcome.
Soraphen, an inhibitor of the acetyl‐CoA carboxylase system, improves peripheral insulin sensitivity in mice fed a high‐fat diet
Authors: Schreurs M. , Van Dijk T. H. , Gerding A. , Havinga R. , Reijngoud D.‐J. , Kuipers F. 
Published: June 2009

Aim: Inhibition of the acetyl‐CoA carboxylase (ACC) system, consisting of the isozymes ACC1 and ACC2, may be beneficial for treatment of insulin resistance and/or obesity by interfering with de novo lipogenesis and β‐oxidation. We have evaluated effects of pharmacological inhibition of ACC by soraphen (SP) on high fat (HF) diet–induced insulin resistance in mice.Method: Male C57Bl6/J mice were fed control chow, a HF diet or a HF diet supplemented with SP (50 or 100 mg/kg/day).Results: Body weight gain and total body fat content of SP‐treated animals were significantly reduced compared with HF‐fed mice. Fractional synthesis of palmitate was significantly reduced in mice treated with SP, indicative for ACC1 inhibition. Plasma β‐hydroxybutyrate levels were significantly elevated by SP, reflecting simultaneous inhibition of ACC2 activity. Mice treated with SP showed improved peripheral insulin sensitivity, as assessed by hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemic clamps.Conclusion: Pharmacological inhibition of the ACC system is of potential use for treatment of key components of the metabolic syndrome.
Transformational Leadership and Employee Well‐Being: The Mediating Role of Trust in the Leader and Self‐Efficacy
Authors: Liu Jiayan , Siu Oi‐Ling , Shi Kan 
Published: June 2009

Although transformational leadership (TL) is considered a kind of positive leadership, which can elevate followers in the long term, the mechanism of how TL influences employee well‐being remains a relatively untouched area. Based on survey data collected from 745 employees from the People's Republic of China (Beijing, n= 297; Hong Kong, n= 448), results revealed that employees' trust in the leader and self‐efficacy partially mediated the influence of TL on job satisfaction, and fully mediated the influence of TL on perceived work stress and stress symptoms. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.Bien que le leadership transformationnnel (TL) soit considéré comme une sorte de leadership positif qui peut faire progresser les suiveurs sur le long terme, le mécanisme par lequel TL contribue à leur bien être reste relativement inexploré. Les résultats basés sur des données collectées auprès d’un échantillon de 745 employés de la République Populaire de Chine (Beijin, n = 297; Hong Kong, n = 448), montrent que la confiance des suiveurs dans le leader et l’auto‐efficacité sont en partie dus à l’influence du TL sur la satisfaction au travail et sont entièrement dus à l’influence du TL sur le stress perçu au travail et les symptômes de stress. Les implications de ces résultats pour la recherche et la pratique sont discutées.
In defence of the indefensible: an alternative to John Paley's reductionist, atheistic, psychological alternative to spirituality
Authors: Nolan Steve 
Published: June 2009

AbstractJohn Paley has rightly observed that, while spirituality is widely discussed in the nursing literature, the discussions are uncritical and unproblematic. In an effort ‘to reconfigure the spirituality‐in‐nursing debate, and to position it where it belongs: in the literature on health psychology and social psychology, and not in a disciplinary cul‐de‐sac labelled “unfathomable mystery” ’, Paley has proposed an alternative, reductionist approach to spirituality. In this paper, I identify two critiques developed by Paley: one political, the other ‘logical’. Paley's political critique claims the concept of ‘spirituality’ has been appropriated by nursing theorists as part of an attempt to accrue professional power and jurisdiction over occupational territory. I suggest that Paley's analysis masks his own exclusivist, secularizing jurisdictional claim made at the expense of spirituality. Paley's so‐called ‘logical’ critique is motivated by an intention to ‘determine what the “spirituality” terrain looks like from the naturalistic point of view’. However, noting a number of inconsistencies, I challenge his ‘logical move’ as a naïve attack on a straw man. In place of Paley's reductionism, I propose my own alternative alternative and argue (after Foucault) that ‘spirituality’ is a discourse, a non‐reductionist attempt, in a post‐religious society, to speak about the human condition open to the unknown. I conclude with a definition and a description of empirically congruent spirituality.
Social structure and nursing research
Authors: Nairn Stuart 
Published: June 2009

AbstractThe concept of social structure is ill defined in the literature despite the perennial problem and ongoing discussion about the relationship between agency and structure. In this paper I will provide an outline of what the term social structure means, but my main focus will be on emphasizing the value of the concept for nursing research and demonstrate how its erasure in some research negatively effects on our understanding of the nurses' role in clinical practice. For example, qualitative research in nursing has largely focused on agency through such theories as phenomenology, hermeneutics, and symbolic interactionism. The result is that social structure may be erased or seen as epiphenomena of agency. My purpose is to provide a theoretical discussion of social structure and how such a discussion can help us to understand how nurses live and experience clinical practice. While not denying the importance of agency, I will argue that the thinned out approach to social structure places limits on our understanding of the constraints nurses experience in their working lives. The result is that nurses' attitudes and clinical failings are individualized, resulting in ever more calls for improved education, when a more thorough examination of structural issues may elucidate more fundamental problems.
Cultural safety and the challenges of translating critically oriented knowledge in practice
Authors: Browne Annette J. , Varcoe Colleen , Smye Victoria , Reimer‐Kirkham Sheryl , Lynam M. Judith , Wong Sabrina 
Published: June 2009

AbstractCultural safety is a relatively new concept that has emerged in the New Zealand nursing context and is being taken up in various ways in Canadian health care discourses. Our research team has been exploring the relevance of cultural safety in the Canadian context, most recently in relation to a knowledge‐translation study conducted with nurses practising in a large tertiary hospital. We were drawn to using cultural safety because we conceptualized it as being compatible with critical theoretical perspectives that foster a focus on power imbalances and inequitable social relationships in health care; the interrelated problems of culturalism and racialization; and a commitment to social justice as central to the social mandate of nursing. Engaging in this knowledge‐translation study has provided new perspectives on the complexities, ambiguities and tensions that need to be considered when using the concept of cultural safety to draw attention to racialization, culturalism, and health and health care inequities. The philosophic analysis discussed in this paper represents an epistemological grounding for the concept of cultural safety that links directly to particular moral ends with social justice implications. Although cultural safety is a concept that we have firmly positioned within the paradigm of critical inquiry, ambiguities associated with the notions of ‘culture’, ‘safety’, and ‘cultural safety’ need to be anticipated and addressed if they are to be effectively used to draw attention to critical social justice issues in practice settings. Using cultural safety in practice settings to draw attention to and prompt critical reflection on politicized knowledge, therefore, brings an added layer of complexity. To address these complexities, we propose that what may be required to effectively use cultural safety in the knowledge‐translation process is a ‘social justice curriculum for practice’ that would foster a philosophical stance of critical inquiry at both the individual and institutional levels.
Applying Antonio Gramsci's philosophy to postcolonial feminist social and political activism in nursing
Authors: Racine Louise 
Published: June 2009

AbstractThrough its social and political activism goals, postcolonial feminist theoretical approaches not only focus on individual issues that affect health but encompass the examination of the complex interplay between neocolonialism, neoliberalism, and globalization, in mediating the health of non‐Western immigrants and refugees. Postcolonial feminism holds the promise to influence nursing research and practice in the 21st century where health remains a goal to achieve and a commitment for humanity. This is especially relevant for nurses, who act as global citizens and as voices for the voiceless. The commitment of nursing to social justice must be further strengthened by relying on postcolonial theories to address issues of health inequities that arise from marginalization and racialization. In using postcolonial feminist theories, nurse researchers locate the inquiry process within a Gramscian philosophy of praxis that represents knowledge in action.
A Semiparametric Analysis of the Term Structure of the US Interest Rates*
Authors: Iacone Fabrizio 
Published: June 2009

AbstractThe short end of the US$ term structure of interest rates is analysed allowing for the possibility of fractional integration and cointegration. This approach permits mean‐reverting dynamics for the data and the existence of a common long run stochastic trend to be maintained simultaneously. We estimate the model for the period 1963–2006 and find it compatible with this structure. The restriction that the data areI(1) and the errors areI(0) is rejected, mainly because the latter still display long memory. This result is consistent with a model of monetary policy in which the Central Bank operates affecting contracts with short term maturity, and the impulses are transmitted to contracts with longer maturities and then to the final goals. However, the transmission of the impulses along the term structure cannot be modelled using the Expectations Hypothesis.
Disability, Minority, and Difference
Authors: BARNES ELIZABETH 
Published: June 2009

abstractIn this paper I develop a characterization of disability according to which disability is in no way a sub‐optimal feature. I argue, however, that this conception of disability is compatible with the idea that having a disability is, at least in a restricted sense, a harm. I then go on to argue that construing disability in this way avoids many of the common objections levelled at accounts which claim that disability is not a negative feature.
Identifying Putative Promoter Regions of Hermansky‐Pudlak Syndrome Genes by Means of Phylogenetic Footprinting
Authors: Stanescu Horia , Wolfsberg Tyra G. , Moreland R. Travis , Ayub Mariam H. , Erickson Elizabeth , Westbroek Wendy , Huizing Marjan , Gahl William A. , Helip‐Wooley Amanda 
Published: June 2009

SummaryHPS is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by oculocutaneous albinism and prolonged bleeding. Eight human genes are described resulting in the HPS subtypes 1–8. Certain HPS proteins combine to form Biogenesis of Lysosome‐related Organelles Complexes (BLOCs), thought to function in the formation of intracellular vesicles such as melanosomes, platelet dense bodies, and lytic granules. Specifically, BLOC‐2 contains the HPS3, HPS5 and HPS6 proteins. We used phylogenetic footprinting to identify conserved regions in the upstream sequences of HPS3, HPS5 and HPS6. These conserved regions were verified to have in vitro transcription activation activity using luciferase reporter assays. Transcription factor binding site analyses of the regions identified 52 putative sites shared by all three genes. When analysis was limited to the conserved footprints, seven binding sites were found shared among all three genes: Pax‐5, AIRE, CACD, ZF5, Zic1, E2F and Churchill. The HPS3 conserved upstream region was sequenced in four patients with decreased fibroblast HPS3 RNA levels and only one HPS3 mutation in the coding exons and surrounding exon/intron boundaries; no mutation was found. These findings illustrate the power of phylogenetic footprinting for identifying potential regulatory regions in non‐coding sequences and define the first putative promoter elements for any HPS genes.
Seasonal pattern of depth selection in smallmouth bass
Authors: Suski C. D. , Ridgway M. S. 
Published: June 2009

AbstractThe current study used a stationary acoustic telemetry array to monitor the depth selection of adult smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu in a large, oligotrophic lake in Ontario, Canada. At an annual scale, smallmouth bass demonstrated regular, seasonal changes in inhabited depths: fish occupied shallow water during the summer (2–5 m depth) and descended to deeper water (12–15 m depth) during winter under ice. Smallmouth bass remained above the thermocline in the summer, seasonal depth patterns did not vary across fish size and movements to and from seasonal depths were closely linked to the development and degradation of the thermocline. At finer time scales, smallmouth bass exhibited diel vertical migrations in summer, with fish moving to <2 m at night, and then descending to 3–5 m during the day. This pattern remained constant during the summer period examined, and varied with size such that larger fish remained deeper than smaller fish. During winter, depth did not vary across the 3‐month monitoring period (c. 14 m), but small (<2 m) changes in depth were observed periodically, suggesting limited movements were occurring. Results are further discussed in the context of climate change and reproductive success for this species.
Quantitative genetics parameters show partial independent evolutionary potential for body mass and metabolism in stonechats from different populations
Authors: Tieleman B. I. , Versteegh M. A. , Helm B. , Dingemanse N. J. 
Published: June 2009

AbstractPhenotypic variation in physiological traits, such as energy metabolism, is commonly subjected to adaptive interpretations, but little is known about the heritable basis or genetic correlations among physiological traits in non‐domesticated species. Basal metabolic rate (BMR) and body mass are related in complex ways. We studied the quantitative genetics of BMR, residual BMR (on body mass), mass‐specific BMR and body mass of stonechats originating from four different populations and bred in captivity. Heritabilities ranged from 0.2 to 0.7. The genetic variance–covariance structure implied that BMR, mass‐specific BMR and body mass can in part evolve independently of each other, because we found genetic correlations deviating significantly from one and minus one. BMR, mass‐specific BMR and body mass further differed among populations at the phenotypic level; differences in the genetic correlation among populations are discussed.