Scandals in health-care: their impact on health policy and nursing.

Through an analysis of several high-profile scandals in health-care in the UK, this article discusses the nature of scandal and its impact on policy reform. The nursing profession is compared to social work and medicine, which have also undergone considerable examination and change as a result of scandals. The author draws on reports from public inquiries from 1945 to 2013 to form the basis of the discussion about policy responses following scandals in health-care.

Asynchrony in executive networks predicts cognitive slowing in multiple sclerosis.

Objective: Cognitive slowing is a core neuropsychological symptom of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). We aimed to assess the extent to which cognitive slowing in MS was predicted by changes in dorsolateral prefrontal networks.

Method: We assessed patients with relapsing-remitting MS and healthy controls (HCs) on measures of processing speed.

Resisting pressure from peers to engage in sexual behavior: What communication strategies do early adolescent Latino Girls use?

A content analysis of early adolescent (=12.02 years) Latino girls' (n=44) responses to open-ended questions imbedded in an electronic survey was conducted to explore strategies girls may use to resist peer pressure with respect to sexual behavior. Analysis yielded 341 codable response units, 74% of which were consistent with the REAL typology (i.

Time on the scene and interventions are associated with improved survival in pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Background: Survival is less than 10% for pediatric patients following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. It is not known if more time on the scene of the cardiac arrest and advanced life support interventions by emergency services personnel are associated with improved survival.

Aim: This study was performed to determine which times on the scene and which prehospital interventions were associated with improved survival.

Bacillus anthracis spores germinate extracellularly at air-liquid interface in an in vitro lung model under serum-free conditions.

Aims: To better understand the parameters that govern spore dissemination after lung exposure using in vitro cell systems.

Methods And Results: We evaluated the kinetics of uptake, germination and proliferation of Bacillus anthracis Sterne spores in association with human primary lung epithelial cells, Calu-3 and A549 cell lines. We also analysed the influence of various cell culture medium formulations related to spore germination.

Enhanced Raman Scattering from Vibro-Polariton Hybrid States.

Ground-state molecular vibrations can be hybridized through strong coupling with the vacuum field of a cavity optical mode in the infrared region, leading to the formation of two new coherent vibro-polariton states. The spontaneous Raman scattering from such hybridized light-matter states was studied, showing that the collective Rabi splitting occurs at the level of a single selected bond. Moreover, the coherent nature of the vibro-polariton states boosts the Raman scattering cross-section by two to three orders of magnitude, revealing a new enhancement mechanism as a result of vibrational strong coupling.

Evaluating processes of care and outcomes of children in hospital (EPOCH): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: The prevention of near and actual cardiopulmonary arrest in hospitalized children is a patient safety imperative. Prevention is contingent upon the timely identification, referral and treatment of children who are deteriorating clinically. We designed and validated a documentation-based system of care to permit identification and referral as well as facilitate provision of timely treatment.

Designing nanomaterials to maximize performance and minimize undesirable implications guided by the Principles of Green Chemistry.

The Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry were first published in 1998 and provide a framework that has been adopted not only by chemists, but also by design practitioners and decision-makers (e.g., materials scientists and regulators).

A quantitative analysis of out-of-hospital pediatric and adolescent resuscitation quality--A report from the ROC epistry-cardiac arrest.

Aim: High-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) may improve survival. The quality of CPR performed during pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (p-OHCA) is largely unknown. The main objective of this study was to describe the quality of CPR performed during p-OHCA resuscitation attempts.

Therapeutic hypothermia after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in children.

Background: Therapeutic hypothermia is recommended for comatose adults after witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, but data about this intervention in children are limited.

Methods: We conducted this trial of two targeted temperature interventions at 38 children's hospitals involving children who remained unconscious after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Within 6 hours after the return of circulation, comatose patients who were older than 2 days and younger than 18 years of age were randomly assigned to therapeutic hypothermia (target temperature, 33.

Anti-Oppressive Practice and Reflexive Lifeworld-Led Approaches to Care: A Framework for Teaching Nurses about Social Justice.

This paper was initially written for a European Academy of Caring Science workshop and aimed to provide clarity and direction about Caring Science by offering some ideas emerging from the philosophy, themes, and projects of EACS. An underpinning concept for the work of the Academy is the lifeworld. The focus of the workshop was to explore the lifeworld of the patient, student, and carer.

Central Executive Dysfunction and Deferred Prefrontal Processing in Veterans with Gulf War Illness.

Gulf War Illness is associated with toxic exposure to cholinergic disruptive chemicals. The cholinergic system has been shown to mediate the central executive of working memory (WM). The current work proposes that impairment of the cholinergic system in Gulf War Illness patients (GWIPs) leads to behavioral and neural deficits of the central executive of WM.

Optically switchable transistors by simple incorporation of photochromic systems into small-molecule semiconducting matrices.

The fabrication of multifunctional high-performance organic thin-film transistors as key elements in future logic circuits is a major research challenge. Here we demonstrate that a photoresponsive bi-functional field-effect transistor with carrier mobilities exceeding 0.2 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) can be developed by incorporating photochromic molecules into an organic semiconductor matrix via a single-step solution processing deposition of a two components blend.

Removal of thiol ligands from surface-confined nanoparticles without particle growth or desorption.

Size-dependent properties of surface-confined inorganic nanostructures are of interest for applications ranging from sensing to catalysis and energy production. Ligand-stabilized nanoparticles are attractive precursors for producing such nanostructures because the stabilizing ligands may be used to direct assembly of thoroughly characterized nanoparticles on the surface. Upon assembly; however, the ligands block the active surface of the nanoparticle.

Ultra-strong coupling of molecular materials: spectroscopy and dynamics.

We report here a study of light-matter strong coupling involving three molecules with very different photo-physical properties. In particular we analyze their emission properties and show that the excitation spectra are very different from the static absorption of the coupled systems. Furthermore we report the emission quantum yields and excited state lifetimes, which are self-consistent.

A Cohort Study of Pediatric Shock: Frequency of Corticosteriod Use and Association with Clinical Outcomes.

Introduction: Pediatric shock is associated with significant morbidity and limited evidence suggests treatment with corticosteroids. The objective of this study was to describe practice patterns and outcomes associated with corticosteroid use in children with shock.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, cohort study in four pediatric intensive care units (PICU) in Canada.

Visualization of molecular fluorescence point spread functions via remote excitation switching fluorescence microscopy.

The enhancement of molecular absorption, emission and scattering processes by coupling to surface plasmon polaritons on metallic nanoparticles is a key issue in plasmonics for applications in (bio)chemical sensing, light harvesting and photocatalysis. Nevertheless, the point spread functions for single-molecule emission near metallic nanoparticles remain difficult to characterize due to fluorophore photodegradation, background emission and scattering from the plasmonic structure. Here we overcome this problem by exciting fluorophores remotely using plasmons propagating along metallic nanowires.

RAPTR-SV: a hybrid method for the detection of structural variants.

Motivation: Identification of structural variants (SVs) in sequence data results in a large number of false positive calls using existing software, which overburdens subsequent validation.

Results: Simulations using RAPTR-SV and other, similar algorithms for SV detection revealed that RAPTR-SV had superior sensitivity and precision, as it recovered 66.4% of simulated tandem duplications with a precision of 99.

Effects of bacterial inactivation methods on downstream proteomic analysis.

Inactivation of pathogenic microbial samples is often necessary for the protection of researchers and to comply with local and federal regulations. By its nature, biological inactivation causes changes to microbial samples, potentially affecting observed experimental results. While inactivation-induced damage to materials such as DNA has been evaluated, the effect of various inactivation strategies on proteomic data, to our knowledge, has not been discussed.

Coherent coupling of molecular resonators with a microcavity mode.

The optical hybridization of the electronic states in strongly coupled molecule-cavity systems have revealed unique properties, such as lasing, room temperature polariton condensation and the modification of excited electronic landscapes involved in molecular isomerization. Here we show that molecular vibrational modes of the electronic ground state can also be coherently coupled with a microcavity mode at room temperature, given the low vibrational thermal occupation factors associated with molecular vibrations, and the collective coupling of a large ensemble of molecules immersed within the cavity-mode volume. This enables the enhancement of the collective Rabi-exchange rate with respect to the single-oscillator coupling strength.

Depressive thoughts limit working memory capacity in dysphoria.

Dysphoria is associated with persistence of attention on mood-congruent information. Longer time attending to mood-congruent information for dysphoric individuals (DIs) detracts from goal-relevant information processing and should reduce working memory (WM) capacity. Study 1 showed that DIs and non-DIs have similar WM capacities.

Is Anterior Cruciate Reconstruction Superior to Conservative Treatment?

Not all patients who have a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) elect to have surgical reconstruction. The aim of this study was to assess the short-to-medium-term results of patients who chose conservative management in comparison to patients who had reconstructive surgery within the same time period. Sixty-three patients with an ACL injury were retrospectively studied.