bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The status of training and education in information and computer technology of Australian nurses: a national survey
Authors: Eley Robert , Fallon Tony , Soar Jeffrey , Buikstra Elizabeth , Hegney Desley 
Published: September 2008

Aims and objectives.  A study was undertaken of the current knowledge and future training requirements of nurses in information and computer technology to inform policy to meet national goals for health.Background.  The role of the modern clinical nurse is intertwined with information and computer technology and adoption of such technology forms an important component of national strategies in health. The majority of nurses are expected to use information and computer technology during their work; however, the full extent of their knowledge and experience is unclear.Design.  Self‐administered postal survey.Methods.  A 78‐item questionnaire was distributed to 10,000 Australian Nursing Federation members to identify the nurses’ use of information and computer technology. Eighteen items related to nurses’ training and education in information and computer technology.Results.  Response rate was 44%. Computers were used by 86·3% of respondents as part of their work‐related activities. Between 4–17% of nurses had received training in each of 11 generic computer skills and software applications during their preregistration/pre‐enrolment and between 12–30% as continuing professional education. Nurses who had received training believed that it was adequate to meet the needs of their job and was given at an appropriate time. Almost half of the respondents indicated that they required more training to better meet the information and computer technology requirements of their jobs and a quarter believed that their level of computer literacy was restricting their career development. Nurses considered that the vast majority of employers did not encourage information and computer technology training and, for those for whom training was available, workload was the major barrier to uptake. Nurses favoured introduction of a national competency standard in information and computer technology.Conclusions.  For the considerable benefits of information and computer technology to be incorporated fully into the health system, employers must pay more attention to the training and education of nurses who are the largest users of that technology.Relevance to clinical practice.  Knowledge of the training and education needs of clinical nurses with respect to information and computer technology will provide a platform for the development of appropriate policies by government and by employers.
Views of xerostomia among health care professionals: a qualitative study
Authors: Folke Solgun , Fridlund Bengt , Paulsson Gun 
Published: September 2008

Aim.  To explore and describe views of xerostomia among health care professionals.Background.  Xerostomia (dry mouth) is caused by changes in quality and quantity of saliva due to poor health, certain drugs and radiation therapy. It is a common symptom, particularly among older people and has devastating consequences with regard to oral health and general well‐being.Methods.  Data were obtained and categorised by interviewing 16 health care professionals. Qualitative content analysis was chosen as the method of analysis.Design.  Qualitative.Results.  The latent content was formulated into a theme: xerostomia is a well‐known problem, yet there is inadequate management of patients with xerostomia. The findings identified three categories expressing the manifest content: awareness of xerostomia, indifferent attitude and insufficient support.Conclusions.  Although xerostomia was recognised as commonly occurring, it was considered to be an underestimated and an ignored problem. Proper attention to conditions of xerostomia and subsequent patient management were viewed as fragmentary and inadequate. Additional qualitative studies among patients with xerostomia would be desirable to gain further understanding of the problems with xerostomia, its professional recognition and management.Relevance to clinical practice.  A holistic view, positive professional attitudes and enhanced knowledge of xerostomia seem essential to augment collaboration among health care professionals and to improve compassion for and support of patients with xerostomia.
A literature review of principles, policies and practice in extended nursing roles relating to UK intensive care settings
Authors: Srivastava Namita , Tucker Janet S , Draper Elizabeth S , Milner Michelle ,   on behalf of the UK PICU Staffing Study
Published: September 2008

Aims.  To provide an overview of the literature relating to the principles, policy and practice of extended nursing roles in UK intensive care settings to date; to review and critically assess evidence of impact, outcomes and effect on practice and provide suggestions for future research.Background.  It is known that career development opportunities, new technologies, patient needs, as well as the reduction in junior doctors’ hours, are driving the development of new roles for nurses. Policy initiatives aim to expand nursing roles to support professional substitution. In adult, neonatal and paediatric intensive care, specialist trained nurses and designated advanced nursing practitioners are increasingly taking on extended practice of clinical tasks previously undertaken by medical staff. As yet there are no statutory regulations on the perceived scope and definition of the role of extended and advanced roles.Design.  Systematic review.Methods.  Search of electronic databases and selection of policy and peer‐reviewed reports and reviews of extended nursing roles or advanced nursing practitioners in UK intensive care settings.Results.  Chronological review shows policy development proceeding in a relatively ad hoc way. There is limited information available about how extensively or effectively extended nursing roles are being implemented in intensive care settings in the UK, particularly in adult and paediatric intensive care. To test local initiative findings for reliability and generalisability, a more robust evidence base is required.Conclusions.  More data are needed on definition and outcomes of extended nursing roles in intensive care and care process measures should be developed to better inform implementation of nurse role development in the UK.Relevance to clinical practice.  The review of policy and research evidence in this paper may better inform clinicians working in adult, neonatal or paediatric intensive care, as they continue to be challenged by expansion and development of their role. It may also help to form a basis and evaluation for future research into extended and advanced nursing roles in intensive care settings.
Microsatellite data show evidence for male‐biased dispersal in the Caribbean lizardAnolis roquet
Authors: JOHANSSON HELENA , SURGET‐GROBA YANN , THORPE ROGER S 
Published: September 2008

AbstractDispersal is a key component of an organism's life history and differences in dispersal between sexes appear to be widespread in vertebrates. However, most predictions of sex‐biased dispersal have been based on observations of social structure in birds and mammals and more data are needed on other taxa to test whether these predictions apply in other organisms. Caribbean anole lizards are important model organisms in various biological disciplines, including evolutionary biology. However, very little is known about their dispersal strategies despite the importance of dispersal for population structure and dynamics. Here we use nine microsatellite markers to assess signatures of sex‐biased dispersal on two spatial sampling scales inAnolis roquet, an anole endemic to the island of Martinique. Significantly higher gene diversity (HS) and lower mean assignment value (mAIC) was found in males on the larger spatial sampling scale. Significant heterozygote deficit (FIS), lower population differentiation (FST), mAIC and variance of assignment index (vAIC) was found in males on the smaller spatial scale. The observation of male biased dispersal conform with expectations based on the polygynous mating system ofAnolis roquet, and contributes to an explanation of the contrasting patterns of genetic structure between maternal and biparental markers that have been reported previously in this, and other anoline, species.
Linking movement behaviour to dispersal and divergence in plethodontid salamanders
Authors: LOWE WINSOR H. , MCPEEK MARK A. , LIKENS GENE E. , COSENTINO BRADLEY J. 
Published: September 2008

AbstractTo better understand the evolutionary and ecological effects of dispersal, there is growing emphasis on the need to integrate direct data on movement behaviour into landscape‐scale analyses. However, little is known about the general link between movement behaviour and large‐scale patterns of dispersal and gene flow. Likewise, although recent studies suggest that nonrandom, directionally biased movement and dispersal can promote evolutionary divergence, the generality of this mechanism is unknown. We test the hypothesis that directionally biased movement and dispersal by plethodontid salamanders interact with the topography of headwater areas to affect genetic and phenotypic divergence. Movements by Gyrinophilus porphyriticus and Eurycea bislineata show contrasting directional biases: upstream bias in G. porphyriticus and downstream bias in E. bislineata. Consistent with predictions of how these biases interact with slope to affect dispersal and gene flow, genetic distance increased with slope in G. porphyriticus and decreased with slope in E. bislineata over a standardized distance of 1 km along six headwater streams. In both species, phenotypic divergence in relative trunk length was positively related to genetic divergence. These results indicate that landscape‐scale patterns of dispersal and gene flow are closely related to movement behaviour in G. porphyriticus and E. bislineata, and underscore the value of information on movement behaviour for predicting and interpreting patterns of dispersal and gene flow in complex landscapes. This study also provides new evidence that directionally biased movement and dispersal can be important sources of intra‐ and interspecific variation in population divergence, and highlights the value of explicit, a priori predictions in landscape genetic studies.
Sediment provenance in a tropical fluvial and marine context by magnetic ‘fingerprinting’ of transportable sand fractions
Authors: MAHER B. A. , WATKINS S. J. , BRUNSKILL G. , ALEXANDER J. , FIELDING C. R. 
Published: September 2008

AbstractThe sources and fluxes of sediment to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon from north‐eastern Australian rivers have been the subject of much concern and study, with the large catchments of the Burdekin and Fitzroy Rivers thought to be the key sources at present. Here, the utility of newly developed magnetic ‘fingerprinting’ methods for identifying sediment provenance, both onshore and offshore, and in association with individual large flood events, is investigated. Within the Burdekin catchment, sediments are mobilized from different subcatchments by runoff generated by intense, localized rainfall events. Magnetic measurements were made on untreated and acid‐treated samples of river channel sediments within the Burdekin River subcatchments and from the estuarine and inner shelf depocentres of Burdekin River sediments. The acid treatment removes all discrete magnetic particles and coatings, and leaves magnetic inclusions (protected within host silicate grains) as the basis of the measured magnetic signature of a sample. The magnetic properties of the acid‐treated samples display statistically distinct sediment provenance groupings. Sand samples from the Upper Burdekin River appear magnetically distinct from samples from tributaries of the Burdekin (e.g. Hann Creek, Fanning River) and also from nearby coastal rivers, including the Haughton. Suspended sand samples from a Burdekin flood event in 2000 appear to have a different source compared with those from floods in 1998 and 1999. Comparisons of the terrestrial, acid‐treated sand fractions with the same, acid‐treated, sand‐size fractions from transects taken offshore suggest that the surface sediments in Upstart Bay and Bowling Green Bay have different sources. Some of these sources are as yet unidentified but may represent the unsampled, lower‐discharge south‐western Burdekin subcatchments, and/or along‐shore drift of sand from the south, perhaps even from the Fitzroy River, over millennial timescales of cyclone pumping. The magnetic inclusion method precludes any obfuscation or confounding of sediment source, which might arise from hydraulic sorting and/or post‐depositional magnetic diagenesis or authigenesis.
Correlates of HIV testing among women in Malawi: results from the 2006 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey
Authors: Siziya Seter , Muula Adamson S. , Rudatsikira Emmanuel , Mataya Ronald H. 
Published: September 2008

SummaryWe report a study of women 15–49 years aimed at assessing correlates of HIV testing and having received test results in a nationally representative survey of women in Malawi. A total of 26 259 women were recruited into the study, of whom 3712 (14.1%) had ever been tested for HIV infection and received their results. We found that age and education were not significantly associated with HIV testing but marital status, wealth, region were. Contrary to our expectations that women who had delivered a child were more likely to have been ever tested when accessing prenatal and intra‐partum care, we found that women who had delivered a child in the 2 years before the survey were less likely to have ever been tested. We suggest that by 2006 when the survey was conducted, prenatal and intra‐partum care were not important avenues for HIV testing in Malawi.
Analysis of circulating populations of Plasmodium falciparum in mild and severe malaria in two different epidemiological patterns in Madagascar
Authors: Durand Rémy , Ariey Frédéric , Cojean Sandrine , Fontanet Arnaud , Ranaivo Louise , Ranarivelo Lanto‐Alisoa , Vonimpaisomihanta Jeanne Aimée , Menard Didier , Pietra Virginio , Le Bras Jacques , Modiano David , Randrianarivelojosia Milijaona 
Published: September 2008

SummaryObjective  To investigate whether the severity of Plasmodium falciparum attack in endemic areas was associated with the multiplicity of infection (MOI) and/or with a particular genotype(s).Method  In two areas of different malaria transmission pattern in Madagascar (Sainte‐Marie – mesoendemic and Tsiroanomandidy – hypoendemic) the number and the proportions of msp‐2 genotypes within isolates were determined for each patient using a capillary electrophoresis genotyping method. DNA sequencing was performed to identify the msp‐2 allelic family of dominant clones.Results  Eighty six uncomplicated and 33 severe cases were included in Sainte‐Marie and 48 uncomplicated and 69 severe cases were included in Tsiroanomandidy. We found no association between the MOI and severity of malaria as the same mean number of msp‐2 genotypes was found in isolates from uncomplicated and from severe malaria cases (3.72 and 3.73, respectively, P>0.05). The study of the association of dominant clones with clinical status showed no particular genotype or allelic family associated with malaria severity.Conclusions  Severity of malaria was not associated with higher MOI in our study. Severity did not appear restricted to some particular genotypes either. On the contrary, severe malaria appeared to be caused by very common genotypes in the studied areas. More comprehensive explorations including immunity and genetic factors of the host are needed to acquire new information about this complex condition.
Determination of threshold concentrations of multiple allergenic extracts for equine intradermal testing using normal horses in three seasons
Authors: Baxter Christina G. , Vogelnest Linda J. 
Published: September 2008

AbstractForty‐one normal horses were evaluated for reactivity to intradermally injected aqueous allergens to determine allergen threshold concentrations (TC), with potential relevance to equine intradermal testing (IDT). Horses were tested three times over 1 year to assess seasonal variation in reactivity, using three to five serial dilutions of 27 allergens each time. Injection sites were evaluated after 15 min, 1 h, 4 h and 24 h. The highest allergen concentration at which < 10% of horses demonstrated positive reactivity (subjective score of ≥ 2, scale of 0 to 4) at 15 min was considered the TC. The TC was determined for nine pollens (2000 to > 6000 PNU mL−1), four moulds (4000 to > 6000 PNU mL−1), seven insects (ant, horse fly 125 PNU mL−1; house fly, cockroach 250 PNU mL−1; moth 60 PNU mL−1; mosquito 1000 PNU mL−1;Culicoides nebeculosis1 : 5000 w v−1) and three of four storage mites (1 : 10 000 w v−1). The TC was not determined due to excessive reactivity at the lowest concentrations tested for dust mites (Dermatophagoides farinae[< 1 : 12000 w v−1],D. pteronyssinus[< 1 : 30 000 w v−1]), andAcarus siro(< 1 : 10 000 w v−1). Minor variation in the TC for specific allergens occurred in different seasons. Progressive sensitization with repeat testing occurred for grain mill dust mix. Positive reactivity at 1 h and 4 h occurred in > 10% of horses for nine of 19 allergens (pollens, mosquito, storage mites) at their determined TC. Positive reactivity was rare at 24 h. This study in normal horses suggests that appropriate testing concentrations of allergens for equine IDT in atopic horses may be ≥ 1000 PNU mL−1for pollens and moulds, 60 to 250 PNU mL−1for most insects and < 1 : 12 000 w v−1for dust mites; and that reactions at 1–4 h may be insignificant.
CT‐Soft Tissue Window of the Cranial Abdomen in Clinically Normal Dogs: An Anatomical description using Macroscopic Cross‐Sections with Vascular Injection
Authors: Rivero M. A. , Vázquez J. M. , Gil F. , Ramírez J. A. , Vilar J. M. , De Miguel A. , Arencibia A. 
Published: September 2008

SummaryThe aim of this study was to provide a detailed anatomic atlas of the cranial abdomen by means of computed tomography (CT). Three mature dogs, all mixed breed males, were used. The dogs were sedated, anaesthetized and positioned in sternal recumbency. CT scans from the eighth thoracic vertebra to the fourth lumbar vertebra were performed using a third‐generation equipment (TOSHIBA 600HQ scanner) with 1 cm slice thickness. CT‐images of the cranial abdomen were taken with soft‐tissue window (WL: −14, WW: 658) settings. Dogs were killed and vascular‐injection technique was performed: red and blue latex filled the vascular system. Injected dogs were frozen in the same position as used for CT examination and sectioned with an electric bandsaw at 1‐cm‐thick intervals. The cuts matched as closely as possible to the CT‐images. The anatomic sections were compared and studied with the corresponding CT‐images, and clinically relevant abdominal anatomic structures were identified and labelled on the corresponding CT‐images. The results of our study could be used as a reference for evaluating CT‐images of the canine cranial abdomen with abdominal diseases.
Tympanic Ossicles and Pharyngeal Arches
Authors: Whyte J. , Cisneros A. , Yus C. , Fraile J. , Obón J. , Vera A. 
Published: September 2008

SummaryWe have performed a study on 11 human embryos regarding the development of the tympanic ossicles and their relationship with the first pharyngeal arch. After performing measurements to date the embryos and foetuses chronologically, we performed a meticulous dissection of the temporal bones. Subsequently, they were fixed in 10% formol, decalcified with 2% nitric acid, embedded in Paraplast, sectioned in 7‐mm sequences and stained with Martin’s trichrome technique. In the 21‐ and 24‐mm cranium‐raquis (CR) length human embryos, we have observed the head of the malleus and the body of the incus close to Meckel’s cartilage, in addition to the handle of the malleus, the long limb of the incus and the stapes. Between them there was a mesenchymal band inside the primordium of the tympanic cavity. In the 27‐mm CR embryo, the various components of the malleus and incus were fusing, and in the 30‐mm CR embryo the union was complete. From our observations, we can conclude that the malleus and the incus are derived from the first and second pharyngeal arches.
Expression of Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 4α in Developing Mice
Authors: Kanazawa T. , Konno A. , Hashimoto Y. , Kon Y. 
Published: September 2008

SummaryHepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF) 4α, a transcription factor of the nuclear hormone receptor family, is generally expressed in some endoderm‐derived epithelial tissues such as hepatocytes. In mice, an alternative promoter referred to as the P2 promoter is located upstream from the P1 promoter, resulting in the transcription of at least nine isoforms. In this study, we investigated the expression of Hnf4α in adult and embryonic mouse tissues, paying special attention to the developing metanephros by using immunohistochemistry and reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction for the detection of P1 and/or P2 promoter‐derived products. In adult mouse tissues, the kidney was the only organ expressing Hnf4α controlled only by the P1 promoter, and HNF4α was detected in the nuclei of epithelial cells in the proximal tubules, but not in other components of the nephron. In the metanephros, HNF4α was detected first at the epithelial cell nuclei in part of the comma‐shaped body, distributed widely throughout the developing nephron and finally restricted to the proximal tubules. Interestingly, it was noted that Hnf4α mRNAs from stomach, pancreas and kidney tissues in embryonic periods were transcribed by both promoters. Immunohistochemistry for HNF4α and HNF1α revealed that both factors involved the same network of transcription factors, giving the impression that HNF4α was upstream of HNF1α.
Activation of Antioxidant System by KCl Improves the Chilling Tolerance in Hybrid Maize
Authors: Farooq M. , Aziz T. , Cheema Z. A. , Hussain M. , Khaliq A. 
Published: September 2008

AbstractAs maize is a chilling‐sensitive crop, low temperatures during the early stages of development can be injurious to crop growth and development. Prime mechanism behind chilling‐induced damage is oxidative stress. This study was undertaken to improve the chilling tolerance in hybrid maize by seed priming with KCl. For priming, seeds of the maize hybrid Hycorn 8288 were soaked in 50, 100 and 150 mg l−1 aerated solution of KCl for 24 h and then re‐dried close to original weight. Primed and untreated seeds were sown at 27 °C (optimal temperature) and at 15 °C (chilling stress) under controlled conditions. Seed priming improved the performance of maize under both normal and stress conditions. It was found that the chilling tolerance in maize is well associated with the enhanced capacity of the anti‐oxidative system. Priming with KCl significantly improved the chilling tolerance mainly by the activation of antioxidants including catalase, superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase enzymes. KCl treatments also improved the germination rate and time, root and shoot length, and fresh and dry weights of seedlings compared with control. Soluble sugars and α‐amylase activity determined as general metabolic indicators of stress were also improved by seed priming with KCl. Other possible bases of chilling tolerance in maize included maintenance of high tissue water contents, reduced electrolyte leakage and carbohydrate metabolism. Seed treatment with 100 mg l−1 KCl was the best treatment to improve the performance of hybrid maize both under normal and chilling stress conditions.