bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
To get a better job or do the job better: motivations of registered general nurses to participate in post‐registration degrees
Authors: Davey Barbara , Murrells Trevor 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThe pre‐registration education of nurses in the UK changed in the early 1990s from a hospital‐based apprenticeship model to a more academic route through diplomas or degrees. The move towards degree‐level education for nurses is driven by the twin aims of raising the status of nursing and improving patient care. However, a substantial proportion of the workforce qualified through the traditional certificated route and there is little research into their response to the emphasis on degrees. This paper presents findings from the sixth questionnaire in a longitudinal study of traditionally trained nurses who qualified in 1990/91. It discusses the plans and motivations to take post‐registration degrees of 620 nurses 8 years after qualification. A quarter had post‐registration degrees and a further fifth planned to take their first degree in the future. Just under a fifth of those nurses who had completed or were completing post‐registration degrees chose a subject other than nursing. Reported motivations to take degrees were related to changing jobs, nursing career plans, wanting intellectual stimulation, improving self‐confidence and improving practice. Wanting intellectual stimulation was a very important motivation to take both nursing and non‐nursing degrees. Most nurses undertaking non‐nursing degrees were also motivated by a desire to leave nursing. Although nursing career plans were an important motivation for those taking nursing or healthcare‐related degrees, this was not as important as improving practice. Educators should build on nurses’ desire to learn and improve practice by ensuring that degree programmes are designed to deliver appropriate clinical skills.
Composition and foraging behaviour of mixed‐species flocks led by the Grey‐cheeked Fulvetta in Fushan Experimental Forest, Taiwan
Authors: Chen Chao‐chieh , Hsieh Fushing 
Published: March 2003

Thirty‐two species were recorded in mixed‐species bird flocks led by the Grey‐cheeked Fulvetta Alcippe morrisonia in Fushan Experimental Forest, Taiwan. Flocks averaged (± se) 5.8 ± 0.2 species and 51.4 ± 2.7 birds. Most participants were resident species (86.3%), some were elevational migrants (12.6%) and a few were latitudinal migrants (1.1%). Flock size was determined primarily by the abundance of Grey‐cheeked Fulvettas, the most abundant species (68.1%). Flocks moved at an average rate of 10.8 ± 0.7 m/min, with larger flocks moving faster than smaller flocks. In moving flocks, canopy species were usually near the front, while understorey species usually followed. Fulvettas gave higher‐intensity alarm calls and dived down more frequently in response to avian threats, especially raptors, than to non‐avian threats. The overall foraging niche‐breadth of the fulvetta was greater than that of any attendant species. Each species in a flock had a unique foraging niche. Most attendant species exhibited low foraging niche‐overlap with the Grey‐cheeked Fulvetta. Both the predator avoidance and the foraging efficiency hypotheses for mixed‐species flocking were supported. The Grey‐cheeked Fulvetta plays a critical role in the function of mixed‐species flocks. A large flock formed around the Grey‐cheeked Fulvetta provides attendant species with numerous opportunities for obtaining food and protection from predators.
Osmotic determinants of postlens tear film morphology and hydrogel lens movement
Authors: Little Simon A. , Bruce Adrian S. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryThe determinants of postlens tear film (PTF) composition in hydrogel lens wear are poorly understood, although this layer has important roles in lens movement and corneal integrity. We investigated the hypothesis that the PTF could be depleted by instillation of hypotonic saline, using a randomized, double masked, placebo controlled study design. Solutions of 0.90, 0.60 and 0.45% NaCl were instilled into the eyes of 12 subjects wearing ionic and non‐ionic high water content hydrogel lenses. Postlens tear film appearances in specular reflection were categorized as amorphous, faint coloured or coloured, where the coloured patterns represent a progressive thinning of the PTF. With instillation of the hypotonic solutions (0.60 and 0.45% NaCl), the appearance of the PTF in specular reflection changed to a faint coloured or coloured pattern in at least 67% of subjects for each lens type (Friedman ANOVA, P < 0.002). For the 0.45% NaCl solution, median lens movement decreased from 0.50 to 0.10mm (Friedman ANOVA, P = 0.02); however, there were no significant changes in measured lens parameters and no difference between lens types. Postlens tear film depletion due to a hypotonic shift in tear osmolality, as demonstrated here, may explain the clinically observed phenomenon of lens binding.
Reading‐related wavelength and spatial frequency effects in visual spatial location
Authors: Solman Robert T. , Dain Stephen J. , Lim Hae‐Sook , May James G. 
Published: March 2003

SummarySpecific deficits in the processing of transient visual stimuli have been identified in reading‐disabled children, and it has been shown that the filtering out of some medium to high spatial frequencies and some visible wavelengths impacts on their performance in a number of visual tasks. To assess further how these light diffusing and colour filtering manipulations might mediate visual processing, this study compared the letter‐naming accuracy and visual spatial location judgements of eighteen poor readers with those made by eighteen good readers of the same age. Naming and spatial discrepancy measures were recorded for briefly displayed target letters at varying eccentricities, for each child, under a normal (NI) condition and wearing blue (Be), yellow (Yw), diffusion (Dn), blue with diffusion (BeDn), and yellow with diffusion (YwDn) optical framed lenses. A preliminary analysis of the data detected larger spatial discrepancies for the poor readers, and this finding was consistent with the presence of a deficit in transient (or magnocellular) activity in these children. Both the naming accuracy data and the spatial location data showed filter‐dependent differences in reading ability. The letter‐naming data showed that the addition of the blue filter to the diffusion lens significantly depressed performance only for the good readers, and that the addition of the yellow filter to the diffusion lens significantly improved performance only for the poor readers. Comparison of the spatial discrepancies showed that the rate at which location accuracy declined with increasing target eccentricity was smaller for the blue and yellow lenses than for normal viewing in the case of the good readers but not in the case of the poor readers. Some of these effects are consistent with the proposition that increased stimulation of the blue cones relative to the red and green cones reduces tonic inhibition in the magnocellular pathways and increases the level of transient activity, but others are more problematical. It is cautioned, therefore, that while the short‐wavelength lenses show some differentiation between good and poor readers, this should not be interpreted as supporting the efficacy of prescribed, coloured or diffusing optical filters as a remediation technique.
Dependence on angle and wavelength of light scattered by the ocular lens
Authors: Hemenger Richard P. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryAsymptotic expansions of formal expressions for scattered light make explicit their dependence on scattering angle and wavelength. Such expansions are given for two cases of scatterer geometry. In one case the sources of scatter are assumed randomly positioned and randomly oriented. In the other case lens fibers, incorporated into a model of the crystalline lens fiber architecture, are the assumed sources of scatter. Calculated results based on scatter by lens fibers are in much better agreement with recent measurements on excised lenses (van den Berg, T. J. T. P. and IJspeert, J. K., Light scattering in donor lenses. Vision Res. 35, 169–177, 1995) than those based on randomly positioned and randomly oriented scatterers.
The crossed‐cylinder aberroscope: an alternative method of calculation of the aberrations
Authors: Smith G. , Applegate R. A. , Howland H. C. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryThe distorted retinal grid image in the cross‐cylinder aberroscope is conventionally analysed using a method based upon orthogonal polynomials. This method restricts the amount of data that can be extracted from the grid image and requires the real grid that is placed between the cross‐cylinders to be pre‐distorted, with the amount of pre‐distortion depending upon the vertex distance. We present an alternative method based upon the minimization of least squares that does not have these restrictions and show that it gives essentially the same results as the original orthogonal polynomial method. Furthermore, the minimization of least squares method also provides a measure of ‘goodness’ of fit (e.g. the minimum of the sum of the squares of the deviations).
Reading performance in unilateral age‐related macular degeneration
Authors: Bowers Alex 
Published: March 2003

Purpose: To compare reading performance as mediated by the healthy eye and the affected eye of individuals with recent onset, unilateral, exudative age‐related macular degeneration.Methods: The reading performance of eight subjects (76.3 ± 5.3 years) was assessed under monocular viewing conditions with the affected and the healthy eye. Eye movements were recorded using a spectacle‐mounted, infrared limbal reflection system whilst the subjects read short stories (65 words) printed in 16 point Times Roman font at a working distance of 25 cm. Comprehension was assessed by ‘free’ recall at the end of each story.Results: Acuity in the affected eyes ranged from 0.40 to 0.80 (log MAR) and in the healthy eyes from 0.00 to 0.20. When using the affected eye, reading speed was reduced by 50%, compared to reading with the healthy eye, though comprehension scores were similar. There was also a significant increase (P < 0.01) in the durations of fixation pauses, the time between the initiation of the return sweep and the first forward saccade on the subsequent line and the numbers of regressive saccades, with each forward saccade covering fewer letters. Fixation durations were positively correlated with the mean depth of the field defect.Conclusions: The results seem to indicate that although the motor aspects of reading are affected in the initial stages of the visual loss, comprehension is relatively unaffected for short, simple passages of text.
Shipley Ophthalmological Assessment Project (SOAP)
Authors: Bueno Guillermo , Hurst Mark 
Published: March 2003

Purpose: To assess whether the establishment of a community‐based ophthalmic assessment clinic could reduce the number of unnecessary referrals to outpatient departments and decrease the waiting time for cases requiring urgent treatment.Methods: An ophthalmic assessment clinic, staffed by an optometrist, was established at Windhill Green Medical Centre, Bradford. Referrals, of any ophthalmic nature, were made to the clinic by GPs in the area. The optometrist worked to a protocol, designed jointly by the ophthalmologists at the Eye Unit of Bradford Royal Infirmary and the Optometry Department at the University of Bradford.Results: Over a period of one year, 206 referrals from local GPs were examined at the assessment clinic; 81 (39%) of the patients were subsequently advised to seek an ophthalmological opinion as matters of varying urgency, whilst 125 (61%) were placed under the routine care of their optometrist. Of those patients originally referred to the assessment clinic with raised intraocular pressure and floaters and flashers, only a small proportion (23% and 5%, respectively) were subsequently referred to ophthalmological opinion. As far as optometrists' referrals were concerned, no provisional diagnosis was made in 35% of cases (52 from the 146 referrals initiated by the patient's optometrist).Conclusions: The assessment clinic has proven to be efficient and cost‐effective in screening out cases which did not require further ophthalmological investigation. Analysis of the data from the scheme highlights a problem of communication between optometrists and GPs.
The leaching of nickel from new and used metal spectacle frames
Authors: Walsh Glyn , Mitchell John W. C. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryFifty “used” and 373 new spectacle frames were tested for evidence of nickel release using dimethylglyoxime and ammonia. Nearly all the “used” frames (96%) tested positive. A lower proportion (24.5%) of new frames showed evidence of nickel leaching. It is suggested that this is evidence of non‐conformance with the current British Standard (British Standard 6625, 1985) although all our suppliers believed that their frames conformed with BS 6625 (1985).
A generalization of Prentice's law for lenses with arbitrary refracting surfaces
Authors: Gómez‐Pedrero J. A. , Alonso J. , Canabal H. , Bernabeu E. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryA generalization of the Prentice's law is presented in this paper. The idea consists of removing some (but not all) of the approximations that comprise the paraxial approach. In that way, we obtain a new formulation that permits us to compute the prismatic power of a lens made up of arbitrary refracting surfaces, and to improve the precision obtained by Prentice's law when applied to monofocal lenses. The resulting formalism is simple and manageable and its derivation leads us to a precise definition of the local dioptric power matrix, introduced in a previous paper, as well as a better understanding of the same.
A preliminary study on the Ocular Blood Flow (OBF) of Hong Kong Chinese
Authors: Lam Andrew K. C. , Chan Henry , Fan Wallace , To Chi‐Ho 
Published: March 2003

SummaryThe Ocular Blood Flow (OBF) Tonometer is an objective instrument to measure the Pulsatile Ocular Blood Flow (POBF), Pulse Amplitude (PA) and Pulse Rate (PR). It also provides the minimum intraocular pressure (IOPmin) simultaneously. This preliminary study applied the OBF Tonometer on 74 Hong Kong Chinese. They had their POBF measured followed by the Goldmann Applanation Tonometer (GAT). The OBF tonometer overestimates the IOP slightly. The average POBF result was smaller (661.2 μl/min) than the previous studies. The effect of myopia of our sample (mean spherical equivalent −4.27 D) could be one of the contributing factors. Other factors include age and racial difference. Twenty‐two subjects had their POBF measured again by the same practitioner and different practitioner for the reproducibility variation assessments. The POBF, PA and IOPmin were found to be repeatable between sessions. The POBF “norm” in Hong Kong Chinese needs to be established from a larger sample size and from a comparison on an age and refraction matched Caucasian group.
A 6‐year longitudinal optometric study of the refractive trend in school‐aged children
Authors: Pointer Jonathan S. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryThis report describes the analysis of the refractive data of optometric patients examined annually between the ages of 7 and 13 years. The results indicate a declining hypermetropic/increasing myopic refractive trend in 73% of the 41 individuals who attended over the entire 6 years of the investigation: overall, there was a mean rate of change of −0.09 D pa. Annual myopic incidence values of between 3.5 and 12% were found, resulting in a rise in myopic prevalence in this clinical population from 5 to nearly 40% over the course of the study. For the refractive classification adopted here, the juvenile myopic patients emerged from a pool of previously emmetropic subjects: the proportion of hypermetropic patients remained approximately stable over the 6 years reviewed.The age‐related annual rates of myopic prevalence are approximately a factor of two greater in this self‐selected clinical population compared to those reported for investigations in a general population. The inference is that children who were classed as emmetropic at age 7 should continue to be reviewed annually by the optometrist who should be alert to the possibility of clinically significant degrees of myopia emerging later.
Assessment of information included on the GOS 18 referral form used by optometrists
Authors: Lash S. C. 
Published: March 2003

AbstractPurpose: To audit the information included on GOS 18 forms used by UK optometrists when referring patients to an ophthalmologist.Methods: All GOS 18 forms received in a hospital ophthalmology department over a 10‐week period were photocopied and the categories of information presented were recorded.Results: A total of 444 forms were analysed. The two most common referral categories were cataract 36.7% (n = 163) and glaucoma 18.4% (n = 82). Only 7% (n = 11) of cataract referrals included details regarding effect on patient's lifestyle and willingness for surgery. Forty‐seven per cent (n = 77) of referrals for cataract resulted in patients being listed for surgery. Eighty‐two per cent (n = 67) of referrals for glaucoma included disc assessment, intraocular pressure and visual fields. Five per cent (n = 22) of optometrists gained the patients' consent for release of clinical information. Thirty‐one per cent (n = 137) of forms had no practitioner name and 6% (n = 27) gave no practice address.Conclusion: Information included on GOS 18 forms could be improved with regard to cataract referrals. Feedback from ophthalmologists would be facilitated by inclusion of practitioner/practice details, and by completion of the consent section on the GOS 18.
Nutritional Issues in the Management of Advanced Liver Disease
Authors: Jurewitsch Brian , Kim Young‐In 
Published: March 2003

AbstractPatients with advanced liver disease require aggressive management of the protein‐calorie malnutrition associated with the diagnosis. However, toxicity and tolerance thresholds for nutritional intervention are very low. These thresholds are defined largely by the failing liver's metabolic derangements. Attention needs to be given to ensuring optimal amino acid nutriture without precipitating hepatic encephalopathy. Adequate calorie provision is necessary for maximal use of the administered protein. Micronutrient disposition in the chronic liver disease patient is compromised for metals, necessitating monitoring of iron status and possibly that of copper. Vitamin A status also may need to be determined, especially in light of its implicated hepatotoxin status with large cumulative doses. The iatrogenic liver disease induced by long‐term total parenteral nutrition is relatively rare but frequently amenable to refinement of the regimen, in addition to intervention with carnitine supplementation in select cases. The above insights are important in tailoring the nutritional plan and will lead to better patient outcomes in concert with medical intervention.
Comparison of diagenetic and low‐grade metamorphic evolution of chlorite in associated metapelites and metabasites: an integrated TEM and XRD study
Authors: Árkai  , Mata M. P. , Giorgetti  , Peacor  , TÓth  
Published: March 2003

Chlorite is a common sheet silicate that occurs in various lithologies over a wide grade range involving diagenesis and low‐grade metamorphism. Thus, the reaction progress of chlorite offers a unique opportunity for direct correlation of zonal classification of metasedimentary rocks based on illite crystallinity with metabasite mineral facies. To provide such correlation, chlorite crystallinity indices, apparent mean crystallite sizes and lattice strains, crystallite size distributions and compositions of chlorite from coexisting metapelites and metabasites were determined by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), analytical electron microscopy (AEM) and electron microprobe (EMP) methods. Samples were from Palaeozoic and Mesozoic formations of the Bükkium (innermost Western Carpathians, Hungary) that underwent Alpine (Cretaceous) orogenic metamorphism. Metapelites range in grade from late diagenesis to epizone, whereas metabasites vary from prehnite–pumpellyite through pumpellyite–actinolite to greenschist facies.Despite significant differences in composition, mineral assemblages and textures, reaction progress, as measured in part by chlorite crystallinity, in metapelites paralleled that in metabasites. Chlorite crystallinity and mean crystallite size increase and the proportion of mixed layers in chlorite decreases, whereas the calculated lattice strain does not change significantly with increasing metamorphic grade. Similar trends, but (especially at higher grades) significant differences, were found in mean crystallite size values using various methods for XRD line profile analyses. The increase in crystallite size with increasing grade was demonstrated also by direct TEM measurements on ion‐milled whole‐rock samples, but with a larger scatter of data at higher grades. In spite of the different kinds of mixed layering in chlorite (Mg‐rich smectitic, mostly random, local corrensite‐like units in metabasites, and Fe‐rich berthierine and dioctahedral smectite in metapelites), XRD‐calculated and TEM‐measured parameters were found to be reliable tools for measuring reaction progress and metamorphic grade of the same degree in both lithotypes.