Navigating chronic uncertainty: a theory synthesis for nursing communication in life-limiting illness.

Background: Despite the proven benefits of early palliative care, patient communication regarding these services remains elusive. Therefore, this paper aims to (a) provide a focused literature review on nurse palliative care communication addressing chronic uncertainty in life-limiting illness (LLI), (b) define the Reconceptualization of Uncertainty in illness Theory and Problematic Integration Theory within a nursing Unitary Caring Science philosophical worldview and, (c) synthesize these theories and literature review into a unique theoretical framework for early palliative care communication in acute care nursing.

Method: Turner's theory synthesis methodology was combined with a PRISMA-style literature review.

Prevalence Rates of Depression and Anxiety among Young Rural and Urban Australians: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Globally, depression and anxiety are major public health concerns with onset during adolescence. While rural Australia experiences overall lower health outcomes, variation in mental health prevalence rates between rural and urban Australia is unclear. The aim of this paper was to estimate the pooled prevalence rates for depression and anxiety among young Australians aged between 10 and 24 years.

"You say you're inclusive, but can you show us?" The importance of cultural competence when working with sexual minorities in a mental health setting.

Objectives: Sexual minorities experience higher rates of psychological distress than heterosexual people, likely due to minority stress. While rates of help-seeking by sexual minorities are high, sexual minorities report greater dissatisfaction with mental health service providers. This dissatisfaction may result from poor cultural competence practices.

Answering the call of COVID-19: An integrated mental health response considering education, training, research, and service.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is a call that psychologists must answer with a dynamic, integrated mental health response that incorporates public education and dissemination, training, research, and service. These areas are central components to our mission at the Clinical-Disaster Research Center, housed in the Department of Psychology at the University of Mississippi and part of the university's doctoral training program in clinical psychology. We discuss some of our efforts in each of these areas in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with the hope that the information may be of use to psychologists assuming a range of professional responsibilities.

A reliable, non-invasive technique for measuring growth in tadpoles exposed to salt.

The use of chemical de-icers raises salt levels in roadside streams and ponds, which has adverse effects on tadpole development. Experiments on the effects of de-icers on tadpole development are often hampered by difficulties measuring body size without introducing handling stress that may skew results or cause unintended mortality. We have found a linear relationship between surface area and body mass in tadpoles that is unaffected by exposure to salt.

A population study comparing screening performance of prototypes for depression and anxiety with standard scales.

Background: Screening instruments for mental disorders need to be short, engaging, and valid. Current screening instruments are usually questionnaire-based and may be opaque to the user. A prototype approach where individuals identify with a description of an individual with typical symptoms of depression, anxiety, social phobia or panic may be a shorter, faster and more acceptable method for screening.

Effects of six chemical deicers on larval wood frogs (Rana sylvatica).

Widespread and intensive application of road deicers, primarily road salt (NaCl), in North America threatens water quality and the health of freshwater ecosystems. Intensive use of NaCl can be harmful to sensitive members of freshwater ecosystems such as amphibians. Detection of negative effects of NaCl application has prompted the search for alternative chemical deicers with lower environmental impacts.

Young children's ability to distinguish past and future changes in physical and mental states.

Two studies (N = 108) investigated preschool children's ability to use descriptions of past and future events to infer current physical and mental states. In Study 1, stories described characters that either acquired an object or knowledge 'yesterday', or will acquire that object or knowledge 'tomorrow'. Children were asked to identify which character currently possessed the object or knew the information.

Participants' perceptions of motivation, randomisation and withdrawal in a randomised controlled trial of interventions for prevention of depression.

Aims And Background: Little is known about how participants perceive prevention trials, particularly trials designed to prevent mental illness. This study examined participants' motives for participating in a trial and their views of randomisation and the ability to withdraw from a randomised controlled trial (RCT) for prevention of depression.

Methods: Participants were older adults reporting elevated depression symptoms (N = 900) living in urban and regional locations in Australia who had consented to participate in an RCT of interventions to prevent depression.

Leadership: a new frontier in conservation science.

Leadership is a critical tool for expanding the influence of conservation science, but recent advances in leadership concepts and practice remain underutilized by conservation scientists. Furthermore, an explicit conceptual foundation and definition of leadership in conservation science are not available in the literature. Here we drew on our diverse leadership experiences, our reading of leadership literature, and discussions with selected conservation science leaders to define conservation-science leadership, summarize an exploratory set of leadership principles that are applicable to conservation science, and recommend actions to expand leadership capacity among conservation scientists and practitioners.

NMR-spectroscopic screening of spider venom reveals sulfated nucleosides as major components for the brown recluse and related species.

Extensive chemical analyses of spider venoms from many species have revealed complex mixtures of biologically active compounds, of which several have provided important leads for drug development. We have recently shown that NMR spectroscopy can be used advantageously for a direct structural characterization of the small-molecule content of such complex mixtures. Here, we report the application of this strategy to a larger-scale analysis of a collection of spider venoms representing >70 species, which, in combination with mass spectrometric analyses, allowed the identification of a wide range of known, and several previously undescribed, small molecules.

Defensive Chemistry of Lycid Beetles and of Mimetic Cerambycid Beetles that Feed on Them.

Beetles of the family Lycidae have long been known to be chemically protected. We present evidence that North American species of the lycid genera Calopteron and Lycus are rejected by thrushes, wolf spiders, and orb-weaving spiders, and that they contain a systemic compound that could account, at least in part, for this unacceptability. This compound, a novel acetylenic acid that we named lycidic acid, proved actively deterrent in feeding tests with wolf spiders and coccinellid beetles.

Ontogenetic colour change and the evolution of aposematism: a case study in panic moth caterpillars.

1. Aposematism is a widely used antipredator strategy in which an organism possesses both warning coloration and unprofitable characters. Theoretical evidence suggests that aposematic colour should develop when high opportunity costs imposed by crypsis force an organism to engage in conspicuous behaviours.

Pinoresinol: A lignol of plant origin serving for defense in a caterpillar.

Pinoresinol, a lignan of wide distribution in plants, is found to occur as a minor component in the defensive secretion produced by glandular hairs of caterpillars of the cabbage butterfly, Pieris rapae. The compound or a derivative is appropriated by the larva from its normal food plant (the cabbage, Brassica oleracea). Pinoresinol was shown to be absent from the secretion if the larva was given a cabbage-free diet but present in the effluent if that diet was supplemented with pinoresinol.

Diversification of gut morphology in caterpillars is associated with defensive behavior.

The relationship between insect gut structure and foraging strategy has been studied for several hundred years; however, we know little about how, or even if, other common insect behaviors are linked to gut morphology. For example, many insects defend themselves by regurgitation, a behavior which is expected to be closely connected to gut structure. Caterpillars belong to an insect taxon, the Lepidoptera, with a particularly well-studied digestive tract and a known predilection for defensive regurgitation.

Frequency, severity, and morbidity of hypoglycemia occurring in the workplace in people with insulin-treated diabetes.

Objective: Hypoglycemia was examined in regularly employed people with insulin-treated diabetes to ascertain the frequency and consequences of this problem in the workplace.

Research Design And Methods: A prospective 12-month survey of 243 employed people (age range 20-69 years) with insulin-treated diabetes was performed to record the frequency, severity, and morbidity of hypoglycemia occurring at work. Details of hypoglycemic episodes included time of day, place, activity, causation, blood glucose, treatment, and morbidity.

A randomized controlled trial of fluvoxamine in prostatodynia, a male somatoform pain disorder.

Background: Prostatodynia is a common and often disabling condition that affects males and has the characteristics of a somatoform pain disorder. It presents with urogenital pain and urinary symptoms. Failure of conventional treatment and a successful uncontrolled pilot study with fluvoxamine in this condition prompted this study.

Essential fatty acid profiles differ across diets and browse of black rhinoceros.

In captivity, black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) suffer from idiopathic skin lesions that may be linked to dietary deficiencies, in particular essential fatty acid deficiency (EFAD). Therefore, a study was undertaken from July 1995 to May 1997 to characterize the diet of captive D. bicornis in North American zoos and measure fat and fatty acid composition in zoo diet, and African and North American browses.

Informatics, imaging, and healthcare quality management: imaging quality improvement opportunities and lessons learned form HCFA's Health Care Quality Improvement Program.

This article examines the use of population-based healthcare data at the interface among radiology, healthcare informatics, and health services research for the purposes of healthcare quality management. To illustrate these concepts, we draw on experience with Health Care Financing Administration's Medicare Health Care Quality Improvement Program (HCQIP). We present two HCQIP efforts that have identified opportunities to improve the delivery of imaging services, specifically studies of the diagnosis and management of congestive heart failure and cerebrovascular disease.

Outcome of AIDS patients requiring mechanical ventilation predicted by recursive partitioning.

Mechanical ventilatory support (VS) is often required for patients with AIDS. Patients, and/or their surrogates often ask the likely outcome of this intervention. To answer this question, we have developed a classification tree using clinical data from 71 patients with AIDS identified from the discharge abstracts of two hospitals between January 1990 and September 1994.

HCFA's health care quality improvement program: the medical informatics challenge.

The peer-review organizations (PROs) were created by Congress in 1984 to monitor the cost and quality of care received by Medicare beneficiaries. In order to do this, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) contracted with the PROs through a series of contracts referred to as "Scopes of Work." Under the Fourth Scope of Work, the HCFA initiated the Health Care Quality Improvement Program (HCQIP) in 1990, as an application of the principles of continuous quality improvement.