bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Traditional postpartum practices among Thai women
Authors: Kaewsarn Pattaya , Moyle Wendy , Creedy Debra 
Published: March 2003

Background. Culture is often related to notions of well‐being, illness, healing and health that inform individuals in their day‐to‐day activities. The postpartum period is noted for traditional practices related to rest, healing and the consumption of food and drinks, but a contemporary view of these practices is needed. Aim. To gain an understanding of the traditional practices that Thai women follow in relation to postpartum care and the rationales underpinning such practices. Methods. This descriptive study surveyed 500 Thai women living in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand and attending their first postpartum hospital clinic appointment. A self‐completion questionnaire was specially developed and pilot tested, and then administered to women attending the clinic. Data analysis. Descriptive statistics were used in relation to the incidence of particular behaviours. Chi‐square analyses were conducted to determine relationships between demographic characteristics and traditional practices. Results. The majority of Thai women adhered to traditional postpartum practices related to the notion of regaining ‘heat’. These included ‘lying by fire’, food restrictions, taking hot baths and consuming hot drinks. Other activities involved not exposing the body to heat loss by keeping covered, not shampooing the hair, avoiding the wind and sexual abstinence. Younger, less educated, primiparous women were more likely to report traditional practices. Mothers and mothers‐in‐law were most influential in recommending these behaviours. Conclusions. Traditional postpartum practices are still dominant in contemporary Thai culture and are perpetuated by close female family relatives. Health professionals need to be aware of clients' culture and consider the extent to which professional care complements the mothers' traditional beliefs. Nurses need to educate women about the benefits of contemporary postpartum care and to provide strategies to help them to integrate their beliefs and the practices recommended in contemporary health care practice.
Nurses who left the British NHS for private complementary medical practice: why did they leave? Would they return?
Authors: Andrews Gavin J. 
Published: March 2003

Background. Although the successful retention of National Health Service (NHS) nursing staff is a policy concern, evidence suggests that substantial numbers of registered nurses continue to leave the profession, and some to own and run small caring‐related business. At the same time, private complementary medicine has undergone a rapid expansion in recent years, and initial impressionistic evidence suggests that many therapists are former nurses. Aims. The paper investigates the motivations and experiences of nurses who have either left nursing altogether, or substantially reduced their involvement, and who now practise complementary medicine in the private sector. It also investigates the issue of whether they would consider returning to practise complementary medicine within the NHS. Methods. A combined questionnaire (n  = 63) and semi‐structured interview (n  = 11) survey was used to collect detailed attitudinal data from respondents. The analytical approach to the interview data used a form of constant comparative analysis which was derived from the principles of grounded theory. In particular, the interviews were developed and refined from each other as they progressed. Results. The majority of therapists operate independently, either from their own homes or from small rented premises. They were originally motivated by a disillusionment with the health service and particular aspects of their former jobs. However, equally they were attracted by the therapies themselves, the conceptual paradigms which underpin them and the different experiences of practice. Despite stating a disillusionment with the NHS, most respondents expressed a cautious willingness to potentially re‐enter the NHS to practise complementary medicine. Conclusion. Many practising complementary therapists are registered nurses who may be willing to re‐enter the formal health service. It is therefore argued that a greater synergy between orthodox and complementary medicine may be one way of addressing shortages of nursing labour, and in particular this form of drop‐out, whilst meeting evolving consumer health care demands.
Evaluating health promotion: a model for nursing practice
Authors: Whitehead Dean 
Published: March 2003

whitehead d. (2003) Journal of Advanced Nursing 41(5), 490–498

Evaluating health promotion: a model for nursing practice Aims. To investigate the place and validity of effective process in evaluating health promotion practice in nursing and, in doing so, develop a specific model for this purpose. Background/rationale. The failure of many nurses to provide successful health promotional programmes is underpinned by a distinct lack of evaluation research activity. Without this type of activity, health‐related nursing practice remains limited in its scope and nature. This article seeks to redress this situation by proposing a specific evaluation model that assists the nurse in their attempts to include evaluative research activity in future health promotion practice. Method. This article draws on existing literature to develop an evolving theoretical perspective for health promotion practice in nursing. The proposed model was developed from this perspective. Conclusion. Evaluation is an essential activity for any health promotion programme. Failure to include it in practice ensures that attempts to conduct health promotion are usually rendered ineffective and unsuccessful. Evaluation models are valuable tools that nurses can incorporate routinely into existing frameworks of practice, alongside other models of health education/health promotion, such as planning models. The development of this model is intended to enable nurses to review their current practice and offer a further framework for those who wish to extend their current health promotion repertoire.
Nursing care of dead bodies: a discursive analysis of last offices
Authors: Quested Beverleigh , Rudge Trudy 
Published: March 2003

Background. Nurses care for patients before they are born, after they have died and during the lifetime in between. This paper explores nursing care of the patient after they have died including the actions by nurses in preparation of the body, the covering with a shroud, and the transfer to the mortuary. Aims. The analysis of a procedure manual excerpt Last Offices, which directs care of the dead patient aims to explore nursing care practices in regard to dead patients, as well as the impact of the health care institution and society at large on these care practices. Method. An acute care teaching hospital located in a major Australian city was approached and permission was granted to access their procedure and policy manuals. The Last Offices excerpt of the procedure manual was discursively analysed. Findings. It is the contention of this paper that, through their care, nurses enact the transition between life and death, and from person to corpse. Furthermore, nurses mediate the move from embodied person to becoming dead, and in so doing traverse the cultural, ontological and epistemological breaks that death entails.
Pain and anxiety management in the postoperative gastro‐surgical setting
Authors: Manias Elizabeth 
Published: March 2003

Background. Despite increasing knowledge and technological advances, patients continue to experience pain and anxiety in the postoperative setting. Aim of the study. The aim of this study was to examine how nurses managed patients' pain and anxiety within the gastro‐surgical hospital setting. Methods. An observational design was selected to examine nurses' management of postoperative patients' pain and anxiety. Six nurses who were involved in direct patient care in one of two gastro‐surgical wards in a public teaching hospital in Melbourne, Australia, were randomly selected to participate. The observation period comprised a fixed 2‐hour segment, and each nurse was observed on three different occasions. Findings. Patient assessment was a major concern for participants, which was influenced by the modes of assessment used, patients' medical condition and operation procedure, and their self‐reports of pain or anxiety. Communication with health care professionals and policy and protocol concerns also affected nurses' pain and anxiety management decisions. Formal communication through the multidisciplinary ward round tended to be somewhat fragmented, as the medical consultant did not seek out the bedside nurse. Nurses had good knowledge of unit policies and protocols and, while attempting to enforce them, spent considerable time encouraging medical colleagues to abide by these guidelines. Finally, nurses made complex clinical judgements which extended beyond the administration of analgesics or antianxiety drugs. Study limitations. It is possible that nurses demonstrated a raised awareness of how they managed patients' pain and anxiety during observation periods. Conclusions. The study confirmed the importance of examining the complexities of the clinical context in determining how nurses manage pain and anxiety in the postoperative setting.
The effect of neighbours on the mortality of harvester ant colonies
Authors: Gordon Deborah M. , Kulig Alan 
Published: March 2003

1.  This study investigates how the density and size of conspecific neighbours affected the mortality of established colonies. Data were from a population of 250–300 colonies of the red harvester ant [Pogonomyrmex barbatus (F. Smith)], on a 10‐ha site, from 1988 to 1995. 2.  Colonies are more likely to die as they grow older. 3.  Small neighbours tend to lower the probability of dying. 4.  The probability of dying varied significantly from year to year. 5.  There was little effect of crowding on mortality. 6.  There appeared to be no spatial effects, on the scale of 25. m, on the probability of dying. 7.  Previous work shows effects of density on the founding of new colonies and on the reproductive output of established ones. The results presented here indicate that competition with neighbours rarely causes the death of established colonies.
Metapopulations of moths on islands: a test of two contrasting models
Authors: Nieminen Marko , Hanski Ilkka 
Published: March 2003

1.  We describe a generalized mainland‐island metapopulation model which includes migration among the island populations. We test model predictions with quantitative data on more than 200 species of moths in two contrasting networks of small islands. The data include a direct measure of migration rate, based on trapping of moths on rocky skerries with no local populations of the vast majority of species. 2.  We predicted that moths which are strong fliers but uncommon on the islands have a higher incidence on scattered islands than on islands in a group, because the latter ‘compete’ for immigrants from the mainland. In contrast, we predicted that weakly flying species with potentially large local populations on the islands occur more frequently on islands in a group due to enhanced colonization rate. 3.  Both predicted patterns were observed. Island occupancy increased significantly with the number of individuals caught on the rocky skerries, which is our measure of migration rate from the mainland, supporting the basic assumption that the species occur on the islands in a balance between colonizations and extinctions. 4.  These results demonstrate that the moth metapopulations on islands represent a mixture of Levins’s and mainland‐island metapopulations, and that the mixture is different for different species in the same landscape.
The effect of age at first breeding on Ural owl lifetime reproductive success and fitness under cyclic food conditions
Authors: BROMMER JON E. , PIETIÄINEN HANNU , KOLUNEN HEIKKI 
Published: March 2003

1.  Individuals are expected to balance the costs and benefits underlying the trade‐off between current and future reproduction. If starting to breed does not seriously lower future reproductive output, individuals that start breeding early in their life should have a higher fitness than individuals that postpone their breeding career. We studied how the fluctuations in food supply interacted with Ural owl’s age at first breeding, lifetime reproductive success (LRS) and fitness. 2.  During the period 1977–95, 126 Ural owl females started and ended their breeding career in a study area in southern Finland. Voles, the owls’ main food source, showeda 3‐year cycle of low, increase and peak population numbers. We recorded when the females started to breed and how many fledglings they produced. For 57 females the age at first breeding was known. 3.  LRS of female Ural owls varied from 0 to 33 fledglings (mean 6.7±0.52 SE). The variance in LRS was explained by variation in the components: breeding lifespan (97%); nest success (23%); and average clutch size (15%). 4.  Survival of breeding females was low (62%) after a peak year, when the vole population crashed. In other phases the survival was 85–95%. Females that started breeding in a peak year had half the LRS of females that started in an increase year. 5.  There was a strong interaction between the vole cycle and age at first breeding. 1‐year‐olds started in a peak and 2‐year‐olds in an increase year. 6.  There was no effect of age at first breeding on LRS for females that started breeding in the same phase of the vole cycle. 7.  Females that started breeding at age 1–3 years had equal fitness, whereas females that started at age ≥4 had a lower fitness. Females that postponed first breeding as a two‐year‐old in an increase year had a lower fitness than females that did not do so. Females that postponed first breeding as a 1‐year‐old in a peak year had equal fitness to females that did not do so. 8.  Cyclic fluctuation in food supply clearly constrains the option as to during what phase and at what age to start breeding. In terms of fitness, the optimal age to start breeding depends on the phase of the vole cycle at hatching.
Patch exploitation by the parasitoids Cotesia rubecula and Cotesia glomerata in multi‐patch environments with different host distributions
Authors: Vos Matthijs , Hemerik Lia , Vet Louise E. M. 
Published: March 2003

1. We analysed the foraging behaviour of two closely related parasitoid species (Cotesia rubecula and Cotesia glomerata) with respect to leaving tendencies from patches in different environments. We investigated how intrapatch experiences like contact with feeding damage and encounters with hosts influence patch leaving decisions. We also estimated the effect of experiences in previously visited patches on leaving decisions in the present patch. 2. For this analysis we applied the proportional hazards model (Cox 1972) to data collected in three versions of a multiple patch set‐up. These set‐ups consisted of different host species or combinations of host species: (1) Pieris rapae, (2) Pieris brassicae and (3) both P. rapae and P. brassicae. The larvae of these hosts differ in their spatial distribution on plants: P. brassicae occur in clusters and the distribution of larvae is heterogeneous; P. rapae larvae feed solitarily. 3. The specialist parasitoid C. rubecula used a simple strategy: highest leaving tendency on empty leaves, lower leaving tendency on leaves infested with the non‐preferred host P. brassicae, lowest leaving tendency on leaves infested with the preferred host, P. rapae. In the environment with both host species, the leaving tendency only decreased on leaves infested with P. rapae. 4. The generalist C. glomerata used a more complex set of rules. (a) Multiple ovipositions on the present patch decreased the leaving tendency on leaves containing the gregarious host. (b) Once the parasitoid had encountered two or more hosts, it had a lower leaving tendency during subsequent patch visits. (c) The leaving tendency increased with the number of visits on infested leaves. In environments where the less preferred host P. rapae was present, C. glomerata switched to the same simple type of rule as used by C. rubecula. 5. Neither of the two Cotesia species used a count‐down rule, in which ovipositions increase the leaving tendency. We discuss how patch exploitation by both Cotesia species compares to the patch exploitation mechanisms as proposed by Waage (1979) and Driessen et al. (1995). 6. We formulate an ‘adjustable termination rate’ model for patch exploitation in both Cotesia species in multi‐patch environments.
Abundances of red fox and pine marten in relation to the composition of boreal forest landscapes
Authors: KURKI SAMI , NIKULA ARI , HELLE PEKKA , LINDÉN HARTO 
Published: March 2003

Summary

The effects of human‐caused fragmentation of boreal forest on the abundance of red fox Vulpes vulpes L. and pine marten Martes martes L. were studied by combining the Finnish wildlife‐triangle snow‐track data (1990–94) with land‐use and forest resources data employing the GIS. Two study areas (each 45 000 km2) located in northern and southern Finland were selected for the investigation.
The extent of landscape that best explained predator abundance (tracks per 10 km 24 h−1) was the same (about 100 km2) in both species and study areas.
The decreasing proportion of older forest and the increasing proportions of young forest and agricultural land in the landscape positively affected track density of red fox. The relationship between agricultural land and fox abundance, however, was characterized by a convex curve peaking at 20–30% of agricultural land. With the habitat classification used, landscape composition explained 26% and 11% of the spatial variation in fox abundance in the northern and southern study area, respectively.
The relationship between landscape composition and pine marten abundance was not as clear as in that of red fox. Landscape composition explained 10% and 6% of spatial variation in pine marten abundance in the northern and southern study area, respectively. In both areas a positive impact occurred with the increasing proposition of young forest in the landscape, but in the northern area the negative effect of increasing proportion of agricultural land was dominant.
The abundances of red fox and pine marten were not negatively correlated, indicating that competition or intraguild predation by red fox do not determine abundance of pine marten on a landscape scale.
A general increase in predation pressure by generalist predators in fragmented forest landscapes has been an intensively discussed conservation problem during recent years. We conclude that the red fox is a species potentially able to cause elevated predation pressure in boreal landscapes fragmented by human activities, but that the evidence against the pine marten is weaker.
Senescence in a short‐lived migratory bird: age‐dependent morphology, migration, reproduction and parasitism
Authors: Møller A. P. , DE Lope F. 
Published: March 2003

1. Senescence reflects age‐dependent changes in residual reproductive value. Annual survival rates of the barn swallowHirundo rusticaL. increased from 1‐ to 2‐year‐old individuals, but decreased among 5 years old or older individuals. Estimates of age‐dependent reproductive value showed a similar pattern.2.Longitudinal data from two long‐term population studies were used to test whether a number of different measures of performance (condition‐dependent morphological traits, migratory performance, reproductive success, intensity of parasitism) changed among individuals when reaching old age.3.The length of the outermost tail feathers (a secondary sexual character) decreased among old individuals, while two measures of individual developmental instability increased with age. Migratory performance decreased in old barn swallows as reflected by a delay in spring arrival at the breeding grounds. Reproductive performance measured as seasonal reproductive success decreased with age. The intensity of infestations with an haematophagous mite and a mallophagous ectoparasite increased among old barn swallows.4.These results suggest that the condition‐dependent secondary sexual character, developmental stability, and measures of migratory and reproductive performance deteriorated, and the frequency of parasitism increased among old individuals. Ageing was thus associated with a general deterioration of performance.
Shaping the body mass distribution of Passeriformes: habitat use and body mass are evolutionarily and ecologically related
Authors: Polo Vicente , Carrascal Luis M. 
Published: March 2003

1.The effect of habitat structure on the distribution of the number of species by body size classes was analysed for 277 Passeriformes of the Western Palearctic.2.The evolutionary history of the group accounted for 68% of the interspecific variation in body mass (estimated with the phylogenetic autoregressive method). The phylogenetic effect decreased from the most recent taxonomic level towards the earlier phases of evolutionary history. In a more fine‐grained study with a subset of 55 passerine species living in central Spain, phylogeny explained significant proportions of the interspecific variation in body mass (62%), habitat use (foraging on the ground vs. foraging in the foliage of scrub/trees; 27%) and structural complexity of preferred habitats (12%).3.Throughout the evolutionary history there has been a considerable concentration of species around a body mass of 10–40 g (increase in kurtosis), and species with greater body masses have also appeared (increase in skewness).4.When the effect of evolutionary history on present‐day variation in body mass was removed (specific component of the phylogenetic autoregressive method), the distributions of body masses changed with the structural complexity of preferred habitats: species from woodland habitats were lighter (mainly because of the large frequency of small‐sized species) and their body masses were less concentrated around the modal class than in species from open‐country habitats. Results for the phylogenetic component (attributable to the phylogenetic relatedness of the species) were similar to those of the specific component.5.Habitat use (i.e. the use of foraging substrata) was strongly correlated with body mass in a subset of 55 species living in central Spain: species foraging on the ground were heavier than those foraging in foliage and small branches of scrub/trees. This result was significant with both specific and phylogenetic components. Habitat use and structural complexity of preferred habitats were significantly correlated using both the specific and the phylogenetic components: species that mainly forage on the ground are mainly open‐country species, while species that forage in pliable and slender substrata have mainly woodland habitats. Structural complexity of preferred habitats was negatively related to body mass, although this correlation was only significant using phylogenetic residuals (specific component).6.These results show that the evolutionary history of Western Palearctic Passeriformes has not produced neutral variation in body mass with respect to habitat preferences and habitat use.