bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Percolation characteristics of a water‐repellent sandy forest soil
Authors: Wessolek G. , Schwärzel K. , Greiffenhagen A. , Stoffregen H. 
Published: November 2007

SummaryIn a tracer experiment TDR transect measurements were made to study percolation behaviour in a 120‐year‐old pine stand (Pinus sylvestris) on a water‐repellent sandy soil (Haplic Arenosol). The experiment (with potassium iodide) showed an 80% labelling of the total flow in organic layers, whereas the area of transport in the mineral soil was sharply reduced to 12–30%. The average diameters of these preferential flow paths were about 8–15 cm. The TDR measurements indicate a homogeneous flow only for a short period from February until April. At this time of the year preferential flow is insignificant, because the soil is at approximately field capacity and not repellent to water. During summer (May to September) the soil dries out, and most precipitation results in preferential flow during this period. For any daily rainfall exceeding 10 mm, water infiltrates down to 1 m depth in the soil, which nevertheless, is still within the root zone. This kind of deep percolation results in the subsoil’s wetting to field capacity (pF 1.8) earlier than the topsoil. A one‐dimensional numerical model (SWAP) was used to simulate mean water balance with hydraulic functions with and without a water‐repellency term. From the results of our tracer experiment we showed that the de‐watering process in spring could be simulated well using the traditional piston flow concept, while the rewetting behaviour could be described more realistically using the mobile–immobile concept for water repellency.
Stream food web response to a salmon carcass analogue addition in two central Idaho, U.S.A. streams
Authors: KOHLER ANDRE E. , RUGENSKI AMANDA , TAKI DOUG 
Published: November 2007

Summary1. Pacific salmon and steelhead once contributed large amounts of marine‐derived carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus to freshwater ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest of the United States of America (California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho). Declines in historically abundant anadromous salmonid populations represent a significant loss of returning nutrients across a large spatial scale. Recently, a manufactured salmon carcass analogue was developed and tested as a safe and effective method of delivering nutrients to freshwater and linked riparian ecosystems where marine‐derived nutrients have been reduced or eliminated.2. We compared four streams: two reference and two treatment streams using salmon carcass analogue(s) (SCA) as a treatment. Response variables measured included: surface streamwater chemistry; nutrient limitation status; carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes; periphyton chlorophyll a and ash‐free dry mass (AFDM); macroinvertebrate density and biomass; and leaf litter decomposition rates. Within each stream, upstream reference and downstream treatment reaches were sampled 1 year before, during, and 1 year after the addition of SCA.3. Periphyton chlorophyll a and AFDM and macroinvertebrate biomass were significantly higher in stream reaches treated with SCA. Enriched stable isotope (δ15N) signatures were observed in periphyton and macroinvertebrate samples collected from treatment reaches in both treatment streams, indicating trophic transfer from SCA to consumers. Densities of Ephemerellidae, Elmidae and Brachycentridae were significantly higher in treatment reaches. Macroinvertebrate community composition and structure, as measured by taxonomic richness and diversity, did not appear to respond significantly to SCA treatment. Leaf breakdown rates were variable among treatment streams: significantly higher in one stream treatment reach but not the other. Salmon carcass analogue treatments had no detectable effect on measured water chemistry variables.4. Our results suggest that SCA addition successfully increased periphyton and macroinvertebrate biomass with no detectable response in streamwater nutrient concentrations. Correspondingly, no change in nutrient limitation status was detected based on dissolved inorganic nitrogen to soluble reactive phosphorus ratios (DIN/SRP) and nutrient‐diffusing substrata experiments. Salmon carcass analogues appear to increase freshwater productivity.5. Salmon carcass analogues represent a pathogen‐free nutrient enhancement tool that mimics natural trophic transfer pathways, can be manufactured using recycled fish products, and is easily transported; however, salmon carcass analogues should not be viewed as a replacement for naturally spawning salmon and the important ecological processes they provide.
Feedbacks between phosphorus deposition and canopy cover: The emergence of multiple stable states in tropical dry forests
Authors: DeLONGE MARCIA , D'ODORICO PAOLO , LAWRENCE DEBORAH 
Published: November 2007

AbstractDry forests represent a large percentage of tropical forests and are vulnerable to both anthropogenic and natural disturbances, yet important aspects of their sensitivity to disruption remain poorly understood. It is particularly unclear how changes in land‐use or tropical storm patterns may affect the resiliency of phosphorus (P)‐limited neotropical forests. In these systems, vegetation is sustained in the long‐term by atmospheric P‐inputs through rainfall, dust, or fog. Past research supports the idea that dust and fog deposition are dependent on canopy density (e.g. leaf area index). Thus, the canopy may function as a ‘trap’ for P, enabling a positive feedback between vegetation and P‐deposition. We developed a conceptual model to investigate how Neotropical vegetation may respond to reduced P‐deposition due to canopy losses. The model suggests that a canopy‐deposition feedback may induce bistable vegetation dynamics; under some conditions, forests may be unable to naturally recover from relatively small disturbances.
Temperature and vegetation effects on soil organic carbon quality along a forested mean annual temperature gradient in North America
Authors: FISSORE CINZIA , GIARDINA CHRISTIAN P. , KOLKA RANDALL K. , TRETTIN CARL C. , KING GARY M. , JURGENSEN MARTIN F. , BARTON CHRISTOPHER D. , MCDOWELL S. DOUGLAS 
Published: November 2007

AbstractBoth climate and plant species are hypothesized to influence soil organic carbon (SOC) quality, but accurate prediction of how SOC process rates respond to global change will require an improved understanding of how SOC quality varies with mean annual temperature (MAT) and forest type. We investigated SOC quality in paired hardwood and pine stands growing in coarse textured soils located along a 22 °C gradient in MAT. To do this, we conducted 80‐day incubation experiments at 10 and 30 °C to quantify SOC decomposition rates, which we used to kinetically define SOC quality. We used these experiments to test the hypotheses that SOC quality decreases with MAT, and that SOC quality is higher under pine than hardwood tree species. We found that both SOC quantity and quality decreased with increasing MAT. During the 30 °C incubation, temperature sensitivity (Q10) values were strongly and positively related to SOC decomposition rates, indicating that substrate supply can influence temperature responsiveness of SOC decomposition rates. For a limited number of dates, Q10 was negatively related to MAT. Soil chemical properties could not explain observed patterns in soil quality. Soil pH and cation exchange capacity (CEC) both declined with increasing MAT, and soil C quality was positively related to pH but negatively related to CEC. Clay mineralogy of soils also could not explain patterns of SOC quality as complex (2 : 1), high CEC clay minerals occurred in cold climate soils while warm climate soils were dominated by simpler (1 : 1), low CEC clay minerals. While hardwood sites contained more SOC than pine sites, with differences declining with MAT, clay content was also higher in hardwood soils. In contrast, there was no difference in SOC quality between pine and hardwood soils. Overall, these findings indicate that SOC quantity and quality may both decrease in response to global warming, despite long‐term changes in soil chemistry and mineralogy that favor decomposition.
Crohn’s disease patients homozygous for the 3020insC NOD2 mutation have a defective NOD2/TLR4 cross‐tolerance to intestinal stimuli
Authors: Kullberg Bart Jan , Ferwerda Gerben , De Jong Dirk J. , Drenth Joost P. H. , Joosten Leo A. B. , Van der Meer Jos W. M. , Netea Mihai G. 
Published: November 2007

SummaryMutations in nucleotide‐binding oligomerization domain‐2 (NOD2), leading to defective recognition of bacterial peptidoglycans, are associated with Crohn’s disease. The underlying mechanism that results in increased inflammation in the guts of the patients bearing NOD2 mutations is still unclear. We hypothesized that NOD2 engagement leads to cross‐tolerance to stimulation of Toll‐like receptors (TLR), and we investigated whether patients with Crohn’s disease who bear NOD2 mutations display a disturbed NOD2/TLR cross‐tolerance. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells preincubated with NOD2 ligands were specifically down‐regulated for the production of tumour necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) induced by the TLR4 ligand lipopolysaccharide, as well as by intestinal microorganisms, whereas the production of anti‐inflammatory cytokines was not modulated. While in cells isolated from patients with Crohn’s disease with the wild‐type NOD2 allele, the NOD2 engagement led to a similar cross‐tolerance to TLR4‐dependent stimulation of TNF‐α, the cross‐tolerance between NOD2 and TLR4 was absent in the cells of five patients homozygous for the 3020insC NOD2 mutation, leading to uninhibited release of TNF‐α by TLR4 ligands and intestinal bacteria. In conclusion, we propose the absence of NOD2/TLR4 cross‐tolerance as a central mechanism for the increased susceptibility to Crohn’s disease in individuals with NOD2 mutations.
Optimisation of the medium composition for production of protease and soybean peptides by Bacillus subtilis SHZ using response surface methodology
Authors: Yu Bo , Lu Zhao‐Xin , Bie Xiao‐Mei , Lu Feng‐Xia , Huang Xian‐Qing 
Published: November 2007

SummaryResponses surface methodology was employed to enhance the production of protease and soybean peptides by Bacillus subtilis SHZ. For screening of medium composition significantly influencing protease and soybean peptides yield, the two‐level Plackett–Burman design was used. Among thirteen variables tested; KH2PO4, glucose and defatted soybean flour (DSF) were selected based on their high significant effect on both protease activity and soybean peptides yield. Then, a three‐level Box–Behnken design was employed to optimise the medium composition for the production of the protease and soybean peptides in submerged fermentation. Mathematical models were then developed to show the effect of each medium composition and their interactions on the production of protease and soybean peptides. The model estimated that, the maximal protease activity (320 ± 1 U mL−1) could be obtained when the concentrations of glucose, KH2PO4, DSF were set at 8–9 g L−1, 2–3 g L−1, 55–65 g L−1, respectively; while a maximal yield of soybean peptides (8.5 ± 0.1 g L−1) could be achieved when the concentrations of glucose, KH2PO4, DSF were set at 7–9 g L−1, 3–4 g L−1 and 55–58 g L−1, respectively. These predicted values were also verified by validation experiments.
Younger‐onset Alzheimer's disease: learning from the experience of one spouse carer
Authors: WILLIAMS OLWEN , KEADY JOHN , NOLAN MIKE 
Published: November 2007

Summary

There are estimated to be 17 000 younger sufferers of dementia currently living in the UK. At present, individualized service and practice initiatives for younger sufferers and their carers remain fragmented and poorly developed. This is despite potential additional caregiving stressors caused by the age of onset, such as financial difficulties due to disruption in the work pattern, children still living at home, and the sufferer's decreased life expectancy.
Drawing on an individual carer's personal case history, this article details a spouse carer's individual experience of her husband's decline through the stages of younger‐onset Alzheimer's disease. Pointers for policy and practice for younger sufferers and their carers are drawn from this case history and a role for the community psychiatric nurse is outlined.
Dependency, skill mix and grade mix and their effects on health visiting practice
Authors: GIBBINGS SALLY M. 
Published: November 2007

Summary

The use of dependency in assessing types of skill mix and of grade mix in health‐visiting practice is discussed.
With regard to the present system, where computer information systems may be used to give an indication of the skill mix required, the emphasis on efficiency rather than effectiveness is discussed. Note is made of the disproportionate emphasis of physical over psychological, social and emotional needs.
The implications of skill mix and grade mix in the community setting are discussed, with special reference to the advent of health‐care assistants, nursery nurses, and other non‐health‐visiting staff.
Finally, the inevitable influence of politics on health care, and its relationship to skill mix, grade mix and dependency is considered.
Utilizing Peplau's psychodynamic theory for stroke patient care
Authors: JONES ADRIAN 
Published: November 2007

Summary

A theory which enables the recipient of care to identify health‐care needs is paramount.
Hildegard Peplau's (1952) theory of psychodynamic nursing enables this process to occur in collaborative identification and resolution of need.
The psychodynamic approach can direct the user to focus on the psychosocial problems created by a stroke.
The advantages and limitations of the theory are still to be investigated with the continued application to varied clinical situations.
There is a need to generate an expanded research‐based taxonomy of psycho‐social interventions for this client group.
Partnership in care: parents' views of participation in their hospitalized child's care
Authors: COYNE IMELDA T. 
Published: November 2007

Summary

This paper describes parents' experiences of participation in their hospitalized child's care on a general surgical paediatric ward.
The findings indicate that parents chose to participate because of concern for the child's emotional welfare. Influencing‐ factors included sense of parental duty, past experiences with hospitals, and concern for consistency of care.
Parents' readiness to care was encouraged by a supportive family network, support from other parents, familiarity and experience with care.
Parents were willing to adapt their parenting skills in order to be able to care for their child at home and were willing to perform more care provided it did not cause pain for the child, had the nurses' approval and increased their confidence and competence as carers.
Lack of information, non‐negotiation of roles, inadequate facilities, feelings of anxiety and loneliness were the difficulties parents experienced.
What kind of nurses do patients want?
Authors: WEBB CHRISTINE , HOPE EVIN 
Published: November 2007

Summary

This article discusses whether certain aspects of ‘New Nursing’ which involve changes in nurse‐patient relationships and the emphasis of the nurse's role fit with patients' preferences for their care.
It reports on a study investigating these issues, and concludes that patients in general want a warm and friendly style of nursing, but a substantial minority do not agree with the use of patients' first names.
Patients' evaluations of the most important nursing activities focus on listening to patients' worries, teaching them about their conditions, and relieving pain.
Impaired autonomy–the challenge of caring
Authors: SINES DAVID 
Published: November 2007

Summary

The aim of this paper is to present an informed argument in favour of changing power relationships between learning disability nurses and their clients and to do so through an examination of the influence that they have on quality of life issues for people whose autonomy is impaired.
The challenge of empowerment and enhanced autonomy is considered to be at the ‘cutting edge’ of the learning‐disability agenda with its increasing focus on the provision of supported living opportunities for clients in the community.
Features related to institutional methods of care delivery continue to exist in some services and as a result clients may still be expected to conform to the dominant themes of time, order, control and regimentation,
The application of social and environmental engineering techniques to the field of learning disability care is prerequisite for the development of more positive alternatives to the mental‐handicap hospital as a focus for care provision.
The main requirement for persons whose autonomy is impaired will be the promotion of equal power sharing between clients and carer. This process will involve a number of transactional considerations such as advocacy, risk taking and shared action planning.
The emergence of a new paradigm for nursing practice will result in the solution for shifting the balance of power in the emergent world of consumerism for clients whose autonomy is impaired.
Patients' perceptions of the quality of psychiatric nursing care: findings from a small‐scale descriptive study
Authors: BEECH PAULA , NORMAN IAN J. 
Published: November 2007

Summary

This study tested a development of the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) (Flanagan, 1954) in a field‐study to gather incidents of high‐ and low‐quality nursing care as perceived by 24 patients with mental‐health problems in two admission wards of a psychiatric hospital. The development of the CIT used took the form of an interactive, guided interview, developed previously for the same purpose with other groups of patients and their nurses and is discussed in detail elsewhere. This paper describes the results of the study which throws light on patients' perceptions of high‐ and low‐quality nursing care in an acute‐care setting.
Qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed 239 indicators of high‐ and low‐quality psychiatric nursing care which were grouped into six main categories. Patients' responses indicated the importance attached to the therapeutic functions of the psychiatric nurse, in particular the value placed by patients on nurses being active listeners. Aspects of practice most often identified as of poor quality included nurses' failure to explain their actions, the negative impact of nurses' group behaviour on ward atmosphere, their inadequate knowledge base and the negative consequences of inadequate staffing.
The CIT fulfilled its potential as an interactive method of eliciting the views of this patient group of the quality of nursing care.
Whooping‐cough vaccination: historical, social and political controversies
Authors: DYSON SIMON 
Published: November 2007

Summary

New acellular whooping cough vaccines may have the effect of leading us to forget that infectious diseases such as whooping cough have declined in the context of particular historical, social conditions and persist in the context of particular types of social inequalities.
The debates over the existence of damage from whole‐cell whooping cough vaccine, and the respective risks of the vaccine and the disease arc still unresolved owing to methodological limitations of studies on both sides of the argument.
One‐sided health ‘education’ campaigns on whooping cough vaccine have questionable ethics, and suppression of dissenting views is counterproductive.
Health professionals and parents have a right to know the political context of the debate.
Quality audit – a review of the literature concerning delivery of continence care
Authors: SWAFFIELD JEAN 
Published: November 2007

Summary

This paper outlines the role of quality audit within the framework of quality assurance, presenting the concurrent and retrospective approaches available.
The literature survey provides a review of the limited audit tools available and their application to continence services and care delivery, as well as attempts to produce tools from national and local standard setting. Audit is part of a process; it can involve staff, patients and their relatives and the team of professionals providing care, as well as focusing on organizational and management levels.
In an era of market delivery of services there is a need to justify why audit is important to continence advisors and managers. Effectiveness, efficiency and economics may drive the National Health Service, but quality assurance, which includes standards and audit tools, offers the means to ensure the quality of continence services and care to patients and auditing is also required in the purchaser/provider contracts for patient services.
An overview and progress to date of published and other a projects in auditing continence care and service is presented. By outlining and highlighting the audit of continence service delivery and care as a basis on which to build quality assurance programmes, it is hoped that this knowledge will be shared through the setting up of a central auditing clearing project.
Assessing health needs in people with severe learning disabilities: a qualitative approach
Authors: CALLAN LYNN , GILBERT TONY , GOLDING KATHY , LOCKYER TERI , RAFTER KATHY 
Published: November 2007

Summary

The nursing assessment, and the contribution it makes to the identification of an individual's health needs, is often a complex and multidimensional process. This is always true when the individual concerned has a severe learning disability.
The nurse should develop the assessment in partnership with individuals who may experience major communication difficulties, or have unappreciated levels of perceptual or cognitive dysfunction. They may also live with the ongoing possibility that their affective or behavioural responses may be misinterpreted as ‘challenging behaviour’.
This case study focuses upon one particular young man with a severe learning disability living in a community home. Drawing upon the principles of qualitative research methods, especially those of ‘grounded theory’, this study aims to demonstrate how these can be used to develop a uniquely person‐centred assessment.
A systematic process of observation, analysis and reflection produces a detailed picture of the individual and his or her particular health states.
The strength of this approach is threefold. Firstly, the person is considered as an active participant and remains the central focus. Secondly, in contrast to many other forms of assessment, the person is viewed as dynamic with ever changing needs. Thirdly, the process of nursing judgement is made explicit and integrated into the assessment process.
Nursing home residents' perceptions of relocation
Authors: NAY RHONDA 
Published: November 2007

Summary

The lived experience of relocating to a nursing home is explored from the perspective of 19 residents of Australian nursing homes.
The interpretative research methodology is informed by hermeneutic phenomenology.
In‐depth interviews were conducted with 19 nursing home residents living in nursing homes in NSW. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed to identify emergent themes.
The themes are described and interpreted to provide an understanding of the relocation experience.