Religion and perceived stress among undergraduates during fall 2001 final examinations.

To examine the relationship of religion and perceived stress, 97 undergraduate college students responded to the Perceived Stress Scale, the Spiritual Well-being Scale, and the Intrinsic/Extrinsic-Revised scale during a period of extreme national stressors during Fall 2001, namely, the September 11th terrorist attacks, anthrax scare, and war in Afghanistan, in addition to the local stressor of pending final college examinations. Scores on the Perceived Stress Scale were negatively correlated to scores on Existential Well-being (-.66), Religious Well-being (-.

Socioeconomic factors and processes associated with domestic violence in rural Bangladesh.

Context: Although the pervasiveness of domestic violence against women in Bangladesh is well documented, specific risk factors, particularly those that can be affected by policies and programs, are not well understood.

Methods: In 2001-2002, surveys, in-depth interviews and small group discussions were conducted with married women from six Bangladeshi villages to examine the types and severity of domestic violence, and to explore the pathways through which women's social and economic circumstances may influence their vulnerability to violence in marriage. Women's odds of experiencing domestic violence in the past year were assessed by logistic regression analysis.

Chronic wasting disease in Canada: Part 1.

The purpose of part 1 is to provide an overview of published literature (1980-2002) on chronic wasting disease (CWD) to inform Canadian readers about the disease and to explain Canadian regulatory approaches to the surveillance and control of CWD. Much of the scientific information is drawn from American publications obtained from internet searches in PubMed and Medline databases. The following keywords were used: chronic wasting disease, prion, diagnosis, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, CWD and deer, CWD and elk, and CWD and environment.

Emotional and social dysfunction in patients following surgical treatment for brain tumour.

Patients following brain surgery for tumour were assessed using the Emotional and Social Dysfunction questionnaire on a self-rating and partner version of the questionnaire. Analyses were performed on those patients who had self-ratings following surgery for astrocytoma (n=13), meningioma (n=26), neuroma (n=13) and pituitary adenoma (n=17). Patients with astrocytoma were rated highest when compared to the other tumour groups, although all groups of patients performed more poorly on some of the individual scales compared to a matched control group of extra-cerebral neurosurgery patients and terminally ill cancer patients.

Nonlesional central lobule seizures: use of awake cortical mapping and subdural grid monitoring for resection of seizure focus.

Object: Surgical treatment options for intractable seizures caused by a nonlesional epileptogenic focus located in the central sulcus region are limited. The authors describe an alternative surgical approach for treating medically refractory nonlesional perirolandic epilepsy.

Methods: Five consecutive patients who were treated between 1996 and 2000 for nonlesional partial epilepsy that had originated in the central lobule were studied.

Sex education sources and attitudes toward sexual precautions across a decade.

75 college students responded to Moore and Barling's AIDS questionnaire. Coopersmith's Self-esteem Inventory, and a background survey regarding sex education and sexual and religious activity. The most commonly reported sources of sex education were peers, parents, and high school courses, respectively.

The ESDQ: a new method of assessing emotional and social dysfunction in patients following brain surgery.

The Emotional and Social Dysfunction Questionnaire (ESDQ) has been designed to overcome some of the difficulties of inappropriately applying psychiatric based questionnaires to brain-damaged populations. Two-hundred and twenty-five patients were assessed following brain surgery (BS) using a self-rating patient version of the ESDQ and 211 of these patients were rated by their partner. A factor analysis using a varimax rotation and principal components analysis found the partner results to show eight factors including, Anger, Helplessness, Emotional Dyscontrol, Indifference, Inappropriateness, Fatigue, Maladaptive behaviour, and Insight.

Sequence, expression, and polymorphism of the Peromyscus leucopus Mhc class Ib gene, M4.

The H2 M region harbors about 20 class I genes or gene fragments the function of which are largely obscure. The rat Mhc ( RT1) appears to contain several orthologs of H2 M region genes although orthologs in more distantly related species have yet to be clearly identified. In this report, the sequence of a genomic clone containing a Peromyscus leucopus Mhc ( Pele) class I gene is presented and based on sequence similarity was found to be the Pele ortholog of H2-M4.

Effects of brief training on application of the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale.

31 staff members within one VA medical center were briefly trained in using the Global Assessment of Functioning scale. At both pre- and posttraining participants provided Global Assessment of Functioning scores and identified their GAF-derivation strategies for two vignettes describing hypothetical patients. Analysis showed that initially there was inter- and intrarater inconsistency in strategy for deriving scores and that training increased consistency.

Alterations of PPARalpha and its coactivator PGC-1 in cisplatin-induced acute renal failure.

Background: In this study we examined whether a recently characterized coactivator of Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha), Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-gamma-coactivator-1 (PGC-1) plays a role in the regulation of fatty acid oxidation during cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity.

Methods: Studies in mouse kidneys used quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to measure peroxisomal acyl coenzyme A (acyl-CoA) and PGC-1 mRNA levels and in situ hybridization to localize PGC-1 mRNA. Studies in LLCPK1 cells used quantitative RT-PCR and biochemical assays to measure mRNA levels and enzyme activities of peroxisomal acyl-CoA, mitochondrial carnitine palmitoyl transferase (CPT) and PGC-1.

Tics and problem behaviors in schoolchildren: prevalence, characterization, and associations.

Objective: Tic disorders are the most common movement disorder diagnosed in children and have symptoms that fluctuate in frequency and intensity over time. We conducted an 8-month longitudinal observational study to determine the variations in frequency of motor tics and associated problem behaviors.

Methods: A total of 553 children, kindergarten through sixth grade, were observed monthly from November 1999 to June 2000 by 3 raters.

Paying for reproductive health services in Bangladesh: intersections between cost, quality and culture.

In 1997 a consortium of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh began to implement health sector reform measures intended to expand access to and improve the quality of family planning and other basic health services. The new service delivery model entails higher costs for clients and requires that they take greater initiative. Clients have to travel further to get certain services, and they have to pay more for them than they did under the previous door-to-door family planning model.

An examination of senior nursing roles: challenges for the NHS.

Wellhouse NHS Trust moved its inpatient services to the new Barnet General Hospital in 1997 and merged with Chase Farm Hospital NHS Trust in 1999. To assist with the trust's management of resulting changes in care provision, a short project was conducted to examine the nursing services provided by ward managers (20) and senior nurses (27), that is nurses who undertake specialist/ advanced nursing practice. The project also aimed to present the views of the stakeholders (66) with regard to nursing in the trust and nurse-led services.

Determination and confirmation of the amnesic shellfish poisoning toxin, domoic acid, in shellfish from Scotland by liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.

During 1998 and early 1999, shellfish samples from sites in Scotland were found to contain the amnesic shellfish poisoning toxin, domoic acid (DA). Two different techniques, liquid chromatography (LC) with UV diode-array detection and LC with mass spectrometric (MS) detection, were used to detect and confirm DA in shellfish extracts. The LC/UV method was validated for routine monitoring by recovery experiments on spiked mussel and scallop tissues with a certified mussel tissue used as reference material.

Build your own infection control link nurse: an innovative study day.

Infection control is everyone's business and it is important that all members of staff observe good infection control practice. An effective infection control link nurse system has been shown to support and develop this approach. The strength of ward-based infection control link nurses depends upon their effectiveness as role models and their ability to influence practice on their wards and beyond.

Awake craniotomy for aggressive resection of primary gliomas located in eloquent brain.

Objective: To determine with intraoperative neurologic and language examinations the maximal tumor resection achievable with acceptable postoperative neurologic dysfunction in patients undergoing awake stereotactic glial tumor resection in eloquent regions of the brain.

Patients And Methods: Between October 1995 and December 2000, 65 patients underwent frameless stereotactic resection of glial tumors located in functioning tissue. During the resection, continuous examinations by a neurologist and speech pathologist were performed.

"A little encouragement": health services and domestic violence.

The aim of this study was to identify those elements of health care which women who have experienced domestic violence consider to represent quality care and explore opportunities for an area health service to improve its service delivery to these women. To do this nine focus groups were conducted with six urban and three rural groups, recruited from Women's Support Services and Refuges, and 65 women participated. A trained facilitator conducted the focus groups with a representative from each participating organisation.

A review of senior nurses' roles in an acute trust.

The relationship between the managerial and clinical roles of senior nurses should be given more attention. Senior nurses believe some colleagues do not understand their role and feel they need more support.

Alcohol and drug use in second-year medical students at the University of Leeds.

Objective: In view of recent media attention concerning the high level of alcohol and drug use reported in a group of newly qualified junior doctors, the aim of the present study was to assess the alcohol and drug habits of a group of current medical students.

Methods: Information about alcohol and illicit drug use was obtained from 136 second-year medical students (46 men, 90 women) at the University of Leeds by means of a personally administered questionnaire. Levels of anxiety and depression were also assessed.

Domestic violence: examining nurses' and doctors' management, attitudes and knowledge in an accident and emergency setting.

Despite the increasing awareness of the important role that Accident and Emergency (A&E) personnel have in the diagnosis and management of domestic violence victims, there is limited knowledge about the nurses' or doctors' knowledge of or attitudes to domestic violence in Australian health care settings. In addition nursing and medical staff still receive very little training in working with domestic violence victims. This study was conducted to examine the existing knowledge, attitudes to and management strategies for domestic violence victims among 111 nurses and doctors in two rural and two country hospitals.

cDNA cloning and expression of a novel family of enzymes with calcium-independent phospholipase A2 and lysophospholipase activities.

Previous studies have suggested that activation of calcium-independent PLA2 (CaIPLA2) is an early event in cell death after hypoxic injury in proximal tubule cells. An approximately 28-kD CaIPLA2 with preferential activity toward plasmalogen phospholipids has been recently purified from rabbit kidney cortex (D. Portilla and G.