bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Genetic selection reveals the role of a buried, conserved polar residue
Authors: Johnson R. Jeremy , Lin Shawn R. , Raines Ronald T. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe burial of nonpolar surface area is known to enhance markedly the conformational stability of proteins. The contribution from the burial of polar surface area is less clear. Here, we report on the tolerance to substitution of Ser75 of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease (RNase A), a residue that has the unusual attributes of being buried, conserved, and polar. To identify variants that retain biological function, we used a genetic selection based on the intrinsic cytotoxicity of ribonucleolytic activity. Cell growth at 30°C, 37°C, and 44°C correlated with residue size, indicating that the primary attribute of Ser75 is its small size. The side‐chain hydroxyl group of Ser75 forms a hydrogen bond with a main‐chain nitrogen. The conformational stability of the S75A variant, which lacks this hydrogen bond, was diminished by ΔΔG = 2.5 kcal/mol. Threonine, which can reinstate this hydrogen bond, provided a catalytically active RNase A variant at higher temperatures than did some smaller residues (including aspartate), indicating that a secondary attribute of Ser75 is the ability of its uncharged side chain to accept a hydrogen bond. These results provide insight on the imperatives for the conservation of a buried polar residue.
Emotional intelligence: a review of the literature with specific focus on empirical and epistemological perspectives
Authors: Akerjordet Kristin , Severinsson Elisabeth 
Published: July 2007

Aims and objectives.  The aim of this literature review was to evaluate and discuss previous research on emotional intelligence with specific focus on empirical and epistemological perspectives.Background.  The concept of emotional intelligence is derived from extensive research and theory about thoughts, feelings and abilities that, prior to 1990, were considered to be unrelated phenomena. Today, emotional intelligence attracts growing interest worldwide, contributing to critical reflection as well as to various educational, health and occupational outcomes.Method.  Systematic review.Findings.  The findings revealed that the epistemological tradition of natural science is the most frequently used and that, therefore, few articles related to humanistic sciences or philosophical perspectives were found. There is no agreement as to whether emotional intelligence is an individual ability, non‐cognitive skill, capability or competence. One important finding is that, regardless of the theoretical framework used, researchers agree that emotional intelligence embraces emotional awareness in relation to self and others, professional efficiency and emotional management. There have been some interesting theoretical frameworks that relate emotional intelligence to stress and mental health within different contexts. Emotional learning and maturation processes, i.e. personal growth and development in the area of emotional intelligence, are central to professional competence.Conclusions.  There is no doubt that the research on emotional intelligence is scarce and still at the developmental stage. Clinical questions pertaining to the nursing profession should be developed with focus on personal qualities of relevance to nursing practice. Different approaches are needed in order to further expand the theoretical, empirical and philosophical foundation of this important and enigmatic concept.Relevance to clinical practice.  Emotional intelligence may have implications for health promotion and quality of working life within nursing. Emotional intelligence seems to lead to more positive attitudes, greater adaptability, improved relationships and increased orientation towards positive values.
Illuminating the essential elements of the role of the clinical placement co‐ordinator: a phenomenological inquiry
Authors: McNamara Martin S 
Published: July 2007

Aims and objectives.  The research aims to illuminate the essential elements of the role of the clinical placement co‐ordinator.Background.  Clinical placement co‐ordinators were introduced to Irish health‐care settings to support the clinical learning of nursing students after the ending of the apprenticeship model of nurse training and in the context of reforms culminating in the introduction of the BSc (Nursing) degree as the sole route of entry to practice in 2002.Design.  A phenomenological design was used in order to explicate the necessary and sufficient elements of the role from clinical placement co‐ordinators’ accounts of their experiences of and in the post.Methods.  In‐depth, unstructured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of five clinical placement co‐ordinators. The interview process was guided by Crotty's framework for phenomenological data collection and analysed using Moustakas’ modification of Van Kaam's method of data analysis.Results.  Analysis and interpretation of the rich, narrative descriptions elaborated for each of the five participants revealed three essential elements pervading each account: being a dedicated presence for nursing students; facilitating the establishment, maintenance and development of the clinical teaching partnership between staff nurses and students; and monitoring the clinical learning environment to ensure safe practice. Each element emerged as necessary and sufficient from the accounts of each respondent, thus capturing the essence of the clinical placement co‐ordinator role.Conclusions.  The exclusive focus on students’ clinical learning needs is the essential element of clinical placement co‐ordinators’ role, requiring them to marshal human and other resources to optimize the clinical learning environment.Relevance to clinical practice.  Optimizing students’ clinical learning is a joint endeavour but benefits from the availability in clinical settings of a dedicated support person for students and staff.
Predictors of recognition and practice of family nursing among healthcare professionals in Japan
Authors: Takemoto Hitomi , Hagihara Akihito , Kinoshita Miyuki , Matsuoka Midori , Baba Michie , Nobutomo Koichi 
Published: July 2007

Abstract  Background.  Although many nurses have become aware of the importance of family‐centered nursing, very little is known about the advanced knowledge and intervention skills of family nursing in Japan.Objectives.  We examined the characteristics of their recognition of family nursing and factors related to the practice of family nursing.Methods.  The subjects were nursing staff at a large hospital in Fukuoka, Japan (n = 596). A study using self‐administered questionnaires was conducted in October 2002. Factor analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyse the data.Results.  Of 596 nurses, 376 returned questionnaires (63·6%). The study achieved the following findings. (1) The nurse's recognition of family nursing had four subscales: skills required to interview family members to construct a trusted relationship; assessment of family structure and family functioning; interventional skills of family nursing; and skills to collect information on family members. (2) The predictors of family nursing recognition were ‘gender’, ‘job position in hospital’, ‘individual experience of caring for their family members’, ‘length of clinical experience’ and ‘types of wards where they work’. (3) The predictors of practice of family nursing were ‘interventional skills of family nursing’, ‘skills to collect information on family members’ and the ‘total of four skills’.Conclusions.  It is implied that the acquisition of knowledge and skills of family nursing in hospital settings are invaluable to consciousness‐raising and practice of family nursing.Relevance to clinical practice.  As the factors related to practice or recognition of family nursing have been identified, the present findings are useful for hospital administrators who want to promote family nursing in their hospitals.
Postpartum Taiwanese women: their postpartum depression, social support and health‐promoting lifestyle profiles
Authors: Chen Ching‐Min , Kuo Shu‐Fen , Chou Yu‐Hua , Chen Hsiu‐Chuan 
Published: July 2007

Background.  To reach the Millennium Development Goals, maternal health‐promoting behaviours need to be encouraged after childbirth; little is known about the health‐promoting behaviour among first‐time mothers during their postpartum period.Aim.  To examine levels of engagement in health‐promoting behaviours and related factors among postpartum women in Taiwan.Methods.  This cross‐sectional study was conducted through a convenience sample of 122 qualified women. Participants self‐completed a questionnaire and mailed it back using a stamped, self‐addressed envelope from July to September 2003. Instruments of this study included a demographic questionnaire as well as three Likert‐type scales: the Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile scale, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression scale and a self‐developed social support scale.Results.  The average overall Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile score was low (mean, 2·83 SD 1·35), with exercise rated lowest among the six subscales. Postpartum women perceived that they had high levels of social support from their mothers‐in‐law, mothers and husbands. An astonishing 42·6% of women experienced postnatal depression. Based on results of multiple regressions, 25% of the variance in health‐promoting lifestyle practices was explained by postpartum depression and social support. Social support was found to predict all subscales significantly except exercise. Postpartum depression can significantly predict self‐actualization, interpersonal relationships, nutrition and stress management. All modifying factors were excluded from the regression model.Conclusions.  This study validates the theoretical relationships among concepts in the Health Promotion Model. Nursing interventions are recommended which are tailored to enhance women's social support and decrease their depression to promote their pursuit of healthy lifestyles.Relevance to clinical practice.  This study highlights the implications of social support to nursing practice, especially in Chinese culture which has a strict ritual during a women's postpartum period. Findings of this study provide information and data for service planning and community care to support postpartum care in the communities.
Seizing possibilities for positive family caregiving in nursing homes
Authors: Kellett Ursula 
Published: July 2007

Aims.  This paper explores the ways family members reconstruct meaning through seizing possibilities for positive caregiving in nursing homes.Background.  The importance of the ability of family caregivers to adapt and accommodate has been well documented in international family caregiving research. Through engagement in caregiving activities, families learn to modify, adapt and accommodate to changes in their situation and relationships. The support family caregivers experience in learning to accommodate change is crucial in enabling them to reconstruct positive aspects of caregiving in a long‐term aged care context.Method.  In this study, a hermeneutic phenomenological approach was adopted informed by the philosophical world views of Heidegger and Gadamer. Data collected by in‐depth interviews and participant observations, from a purposeful sample of 14 family caregivers, underwent hermeneutic analysis.Results.  Five shared meanings associated with seizing possibilities for positive caregiving were revealed: accommodating new and different ways of caring; feeling a part of the nursing home community; seeing the whole picture; learning to care in stress‐reducing ways and learning to seize possibilities for self.Conclusion.  This paper illustrates how families, through caregiving experience in nursing homes, learn to become active managers, negotiating, accommodating and redeveloping a sense of future viewed with hope, strength and positive anticipation.Relevance to clinical practice.  By highlighting what is attributed significance by families, a critical examination of the difficult issues which obstruct the development of meaningful partnerships among nurses, family and their relatives is facilitated. In particular, an examination of tensions at an ideological level supports the need for future research to focus its efforts on examining the ways of implementing nursing care that facilitates partnerships that incorporate and build upon positive and equal relations among staff, families and residents in the context of the nursing home setting.
Ethics approval, guarantees of quality and the meddlesome editor
Authors: Long Tony , Fallon Debbie 
Published: July 2007

Aims.  The authors aim to challenge accepted views about the dissemination of ethically acceptable research, presenting a case for adopting an alternative strategy.Background.  A previous editorial proposed additional ethical censorship of articles submitted for publication in JCN based on the requirement to produce evidence of formal research ethics committee approval.Main arguments.  Such regulation would be both ineffective and undesirable. Much worthwhile, ethical research in the UK falls outside the remit of National Health Service research ethics committees but is subject to alternative means of ethical guidance and scrutiny. A case study demonstrates the difficulties faced by such researchers and illuminates alternative means to ensure and demonstrate ethical research conduct. If researchers comply with relevant requirements pertaining to their discipline, this should be sufficient for the journal. A full discussion should be presented by the author of ethical difficulties faced in the project and how these were addressed.Conclusion.  Regulation of the ethical acceptability of work published in journals has not been widely addressed in the literature. This paper presents challenging arguments, introducing wider perspectives on ethical regulation from other disciplines and proposing an alternative strategy. Answers to the specific questions posed by the editor are offered, concluding that the proposed scheme should not be implemented. The normal process of peer‐review should be the means of ensuring the publication of ethically acceptable research.Relevance to clinical practice.  Health care in the UK is situated both within the National Health Service and in the private and voluntary sectors, and the boundary between health and social care continues to be eroded. More clinical research studies will be undertaken that do not fall within the remit of National Health Service research ethics committees. The issues discussed here will become pertinent to an ever‐wider group of researchers and clinicians.
Identification of active methanotrophs in a landfill cover soil through detection of expression of 16S rRNA and functional genes
Authors: Chen Yin , Dumont Marc G. , Cébron Aurélie , Murrell J. Colin 
Published: July 2007

SummaryActive methanotrophs in a landfill soil were revealed by detecting the 16S rRNA of methanotrophs and the mRNA transcripts of key genes involved in methane oxidation. New 16S rRNA primers targeting type I and type II methanotrophs were designed and optimized for analysis by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. Direct extraction of RNA from soil enabled the analysis of the expression of the functional genes: mmoX, pmoA and mxaF, which encode subunits of soluble methane monooxygenase, particulate methane monooxygenase and methanol dehydrogenase respectively. The 16S rRNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers for type I methanotrophs detected Methylomonas, Methylosarcina and Methylobacter sequences from both soil DNA and cDNA which was generated from RNA extracted directly from the landfill cover soil. The 16S rRNA primers for type II methanotrophs detected primarily Methylocella and some Methylocystis 16S rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis of mRNA recovered from the soil indicated that Methylobacter, Methylosarcina, Methylomonas, Methylocystis and Methylocella were actively expressing genes involved in methane and methanol oxidation. Transcripts of pmoA but not mmoX were readily detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR), indicating that particulate methane monooxygenase may be largely responsible for methane oxidation in situ.
The Analysis of Seasonal Long Memory: The Case of Spanish Inflation*
Authors: Arteche Josu 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis paper describes semiparametric techniques recently proposed for the analysis of seasonal or cyclical long memory and applies them to a monthly Spanish inflation series. One of the conclusions is that this series has long memory not only at the origin but also at some but not all seasonal frequencies, suggesting that the fractional difference operator (1−L12)d should be avoided. Moreover, different persistent cycles are observed before and after the first oil crisis. Whereas the cycles seem stationary in the former period, we find evidence of a unit root after 1973, which implies that a shock has a permanent effect. Finally, it is shown how to compute the exact impulse responses and the coefficients in the autoregressive expansion of parametric seasonal long memory models. These two quantities are important to assess the impact of aleatory shocks such as those produced by a change of economic policy and for forecasting purposes, respectively.
Prevalence of and risk factors for HIV‐associated neuropathy in Melbourne, Australia 1993–2006
Authors: Smyth K , Affandi JS , McArthur JC , Bowtell‐Harris C , Mijch AM , Watson K , Costello K , Woolley IJ , Price P , Wesselingh SL , Cherry CL 
Published: July 2007

ObjectivesThe aim of the study was to describe the prevalence of and risk factors for HIV‐associated sensory neuropathy (HIV‐SN) in 2006 [the era of stavudine, didanosine and zalcitabine (dNRTI)‐sparing highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)] and to compare our findings with data obtained in the same clinic in 1993 (pre‐HAART) and 2001 (frequent use of dNRTI‐containing HAART).MethodsThis was a cross‐sectional comparative study using convenience sampling. HIV‐positive adults attending a tertiary referral clinic over a 2‐week period were screened for HIV‐SN using the AIDS Clinical Trials Group screening tool. HIV‐SN was defined as present if the patient had both neuropathic symptoms and abnormal signs. Demographic, clinical, laboratory and treatment data were considered as possible risk factors for HIV‐SN, and results were compared with data obtained in the same clinic in 1993 and 2001.ResultsOne hundred patients were screened. The prevalence of HIV‐SN was 42%, which was unchanged since 2001 (44%) despite a significant reduction in the use of dNRTIs. HIV‐SN remained much more common than in 1993 (42% vs 13%; P<0.0001). The only independent associations with HIV‐SN in 2006 were increasing patient age and a history of exposure to either stavudine or indinavir. This compares with 1993 when neuropathy was increased in those with Mycobacterium avium complex infection, and 2001 when patient age and use of stavudine and didanosine were the independent associations with HIV‐SN in this clinic.ConclusionsHIV‐SN remained common among ambulatory patients in 2006 (42% prevalence) despite a significant reduction in the use of dNRTIs. In addition to patient age and stavudine exposure, indinavir use may be a risk factor for HIV‐SN.
Race and ethnicity impact on the maximum proliferative response in peripheral blood lymphocytes from HIV‐seropositive individuals
Authors: Kolber MA , Saenz MO , Gómez‐Marín O , Tamariz LJ 
Published: July 2007

SummaryThe effects of race and ethnicity on immunological function have not been fully studied in patients infected with HIV‐1. To study such differences, 54 patients on virally suppressive highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) with CD4 counts >200 cells/μL had their peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) evaluated for response to recall antigen. Significant differences were found in the maximum responses for PBL from black individuals compared with those from white individuals, and the differences were highly significant when responses for African‐Americans were compared with those for white‐Hispanics. These findings support work delineating ethnicity and race as significant variables to be taken into account when looking at vaccination strategies and responsiveness to therapeutic pharmacological interventions.
BUILDING RELATED HOME ACCIDENTS: A PRELIMINARY STUDY
Authors: WEBBER GERALD M. B. , CLARK ALAN J. 
Published: July 2007

In the period August 1975 to July 1977 the Building Research Station undertook a pilot study to obtain data on home accidents in co‐operation with the Watford General Hospital. Subject to precautions regarding medical confidentiality, information was recorded on patients who attended the Accident and Emergency Department of the hospital following an accident in or around a dwelling.In order to facilitate comparison with data on fatalities, use was made of the International Classification of Diseases ‘External Cause of Injury’ system to categorize accident events. It was found that the four main types of non‐fatal accident were falls, accidents caused by cutting or piercing instruments, by striking against or being struck by objects, and by hot substances and steam. The study also showed that building features and services might rank relatively highly in terms of the frequency with which they become involved as agents in accidents when compared to other common household items.
Part II. Discussion of Five More Consumer Topics and Suggestions for Future Research*
Authors: EPSTEIN JOYCE 
Published: July 2007

This a continuation of a paper which appeared in the last issue of the Journal of Consumer Studies and Home Economics. The first part of the paper dealt with studies of consumer representation, particularly in the nationalized industries (which show its weaknesses and inadequacy); with studies of information and education (which show the limited usefulness and slow progress of each); and with work done on the real needs of consumers (which shows the deep uncertainties which exist about what those real needs are).Here five further topics of consumer research are considered and suggestions are made for future research.
AN EXPLORATORY COST‐BENEFIT STUDY OF A BRITISH STANDARD FOR UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE FABRIC
Authors: BOGGIS FRED , BOURNER BRIAN 
Published: July 2007

Without an evaluation of the costs and benefits arising from the production of standards for consumer goods, consumer policy makers will be operating with incomplete information in their decision‐making.A standard specification for a fabric used in upholstered furniture is costed to see what resources were used in its preparation and what benefits can be estimated to have accrued to the consumer.