Supporting nurses study: lay supporters and their work.

Nurse teachers are familiar with the study support arrangements made through the university, but what sorts of support do nurse learners obtain from lay sources? Within part time modes of study and particularly where students have multiple other commitments as professionals, partners and parents, the support obtained from friends and family may be critical to student success. This paper describes the work of lay supporters who assisted post registration, undergraduate nurses completing a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing studies by distance learning. Research was designed using grounded theory methodology and provided a substantive account of the ways in which students and lay supporters negotiated help.

Overnight central and peripheral temperature changes in normal infants.

Aim: To explore the relationship between central and peripheral temperature in normal infants after being put down to sleep.

Methods: Overnight shin and rectal temperatures of 21 normal infants were continuously recorded at home for three nights at 2 wk, 6 wk, 3 mo and 5 mo of age. Parents documented the start and end of feed/nappy changes during the night.

Academic voices and the challenges of tutoring.

This paper describes grounded theory research conducted amongst postregistration learners completing an undergraduate programme in nursing studies by distance learning at a UK higher education institute. The focus of enquiry was upon student support and learning. Research was conducted between 1996 and 2001 and included 41 interviews with students, 22 interviews with tutors, 24 tutorial observations and 69 field observations conducted within the distance learning centre.

Understanding the origins of practice problems.

Set against a background of modern-day nursing practice becoming ever more complex, this article aims to help nurses solve problems by understanding their origins' and recognising them when they occur.

ATM's leucine-rich domain and adjacent sequences are essential for ATM to regulate the DNA damage response.

The ATM protein kinase regulates the DNA damage response by phosphorylating proteins involved in cell cycle checkpoints and DNA repair. We report here on the function of the predicted leucine zipper (LZ) motif, and sequences adjacent to this, in regulating ATM activity. The predicted LZ sequence was deleted from ATM, generating ATMDeltaLZ, and expressed in an ATM-negative AT cell line.

Exposure of sink drain microcosms to triclosan: population dynamics and antimicrobial susceptibility.

Recent concern that the increased use of triclosan (TCS) in consumer products may contribute to the emergence of antibiotic resistance has led us to examine the effects of TCS dosing on domestic-drain biofilm microcosms. TCS-containing domestic detergent (TCSD) markedly lowered biofouling at 50% (wt/vol) but was poorly effective at use levels. Long-term microcosms were established and stabilized for 6 months before one was subjected to successive 3-month exposures to TCSD at sublethal concentrations (0.

Phenomenological research and older people.

Phenomenology has become one of the most popular research approaches used by nurses in health care today. Its inherent appeal is that it assists the researcher to explore the lived experience of others. Given nurses' concern for the needs and problems of older people this has obvious appeal.

Conference on plant-made pharmaceuticals. 16-19 March 2003, Québec City, Québec, Canada.

The Conference on Plant-Made Pharmaceuticals was an inaugural event organized by Molecular Farming Association Inc, a non-profit organization created in 2000 to support the emergence of plant-made biopharmaceuticals and plant-factory companies. The meeting was sponsored by the Government of Canada, the Gouvermement du Québec and the Société Générale de Financement, along with 20 companies involved in plant-made pharmaceuticals and related activities. Although there was very little discussion of new biopharmaceuticals under development with these systems, this was the first meeting where participants could survey the entire breadth of technologies and approaches that are being taken to produce biopharmaceuticals in transgenic plants.

Antennal morphology as a physical filter of olfaction: temporal tuning of the antennae of the honeybee, Apis mellifera.

There are many different antennal morphologies for insects, yet they all have the same functional role in olfaction. Chemical signals are dispersed through two physical forces; diffusion and fluid flow. The interaction between antennal morphology and fluid flow generates a region of changing flow velocity called the boundary layer.

Recovery of infectivity from cDNA clones of nodamura virus and identification of small nonstructural proteins.

Nodamura virus (NoV) was the first isolated member of the Nodaviridae, and is the type species of the alphanodavirus genus. The alphanodaviruses infect insects; NoV is unique in that it can also lethally infect mammals. Nodaviruses have bipartite positive-sense RNA genomes in which RNA1 encodes the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and the smaller genome segment, RNA2, encodes the capsid protein precursor.

Central and peripheral temperature change in normal infants.

The purpose was to explore the relationship between the fall in rectal temperature seen in normal infants after being put down to sleep and the concomitant rise in peripheral shin temperature. In this observational study 21 normal infants had continuous overnight peripheral shin and central rectal temperature recorded, for three nights at 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months and 5 months of age. Parents documented the start and end of feed/nappy changing episodes during the night.

A simple and rapid scanning electron microscope preparative technique for delicate "gymnodinioid" dinoflagellates.

Light microscopy (LM) is routinely used to investigate delicate (unarmoured and lightly armoured) "gymnodinioid" dinoflagellate species but at this level of resolution, morphological features such as apical grooves, apical pores, thin thecal plates, and scales are often difficult to observe, thereby necessitating the use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Good results were obtained when harvested cells were fixed with osmium tetroxide (OsO(4)) as the primary fixative, adhered with poly-L-lysine to round glass coverslips, dehydrated in an ethanol series, and dried with hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS). Poly-L-lysine has in the past effectively been used to adhere biological material such as human red blood cells, mouse leukemic cells, and marine dinoflagellates to glass coverslips.

Enquiry-based learning: an introductory guide.

Enquiry-based learning uses real life situations to analyse and possibly refine nursing practice. Bob Price discusses the process.

Ligation of a primer at a mutation: a method to detect low level mutations in DNA.

Detection of low frequency mutations following exposure to mutagens or during the early stages of cancer development is instrumental for risk assessment and molecular diagnosis. We present a sensitive new method to detect trace levels of DNA mutations induced within a large excess of wild-type sequences. The method is based on mutation-induced generation of new restriction enzyme recognition sites.

A PCR-based amplification method retaining the quantitative difference between two complex genomes.

With the increasing emergence of genome-wide analysis technologies (including comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), expression profiling on microarrays, differential display (DD), subtractive hybridization, and representational difference analysis (RDA)), there is frequently a need to amplify entire genomes or cDNAs by PCR to obtain enough material for comparisons among target and control samples. A major problem with PCR is that amplification occurs in a nonlinear manner and reproducibility is influenced by stray impurities. As a result, when two complex DNA populations are amplified separately, the quantitative relationship between two genes after amplification is generally not the same as their relation before amplification.

An amplification and ligation-based method to scan for unknown mutations in DNA.

A new approach is presented for the sensitive and selective scanning for unknown DNA mutations, based on ligation-mediated PCR and the use of the glycosylases TDG and MutY. These two highly selective enzymes together can detect about 70% of commonly observed polymorphisms and mutations in human tumors. DNA is cross-hybridized to form mismatches at the positions of point mutations, de-phosphorylated to eliminate any pre-existing phosphorylated DNA ends, and then exposed to enzymatic treatment to remove mismatched thymidine (TDG) or adenine (MutY).

Long-term neuropsychiatric consequences of "ecstasy" (MDMA): a review.

The recreational drug "ecstasy" (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA) is widely used by young people throughout the world. Experimental studies indicate that MDMA damages serotonergic neurons in animals and possibly in humans. Repeated use may induce long-term neurotoxic effects, with cognitive and behavioral implications.

Outpatient management of pelvic inflammatory disease.

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is a spectrum of inflammatory disorders of the female genital tract involving at least the endrometrium and may include the fallopian tubes, ovaries, and pelvic cavity. Over 1 million women each year are treated for PID in the United States, and it is one of the most serious infections diagnosed in women due to its sequelae. Women with PID acutely experience pain and are at risk for sepsis; however, the significant increases in ectopic pregnancy and infertility are the most disturbing long-term complications.

Enhancement of the protective efficacy of an oprF DNA vaccine against Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The outer membrane protein F gene (oprF) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was recently shown by us to protect mice from P. aeruginosa chronic pulmonary infection when used as a DNA vaccine administered by three biolistic (gene gun) intradermal inoculations given at 2-week intervals. In the present study, we used two different strategies to improve the protective efficacy of the DNA vaccine.

An anomalous median nerve avoiding injury in a gunshot wound to the antecubital fossa.

We report the case of a 19 year old man who received a gunshot wound to the soft tissues of his left elbow. He presented with an ischaemic hand due to transection of the brachial artery bifurcation anterior to the elbow joint. He was spared an associated median nerve injury by an anomalous course of the nerve through the antecubital fossa.

Effect of vitamin D3 supplementation level on the postmortem tenderization of beef from steers.

The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of different doses of vitamin D3 (VITD) on beef feedlot performance, plasma and muscle Ca2+, tissue residues, and improvement of Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBS) and panel tenderness. A total of 167 steers were fed one of six levels of VITD. The VITD treatments (28 steers/treatment) were 0, 0.

Magnetic resonance imaging-guided stereotactic limbic leukotomy for treatment of intractable psychiatric disease.

Objective: To assess the efficacy and complication rates of magnetic resonance imaging-guided stereotactic limbic leukotomy for the treatment of intractable major depressive disorder (MDD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Methods: We conducted preoperative evaluations and postoperative follow-up assessments of efficacy and complications for 21 patients who underwent limbic leukotomy. Efficacy was based on physician- and patient-rated global assessments of functioning, as well as evaluations using disease-specific rating scales commonly used in studies of MDD and OCD.

Gaining the most from your tutor.

The transition to university education can prove a difficult one for nursing students, especially if they are unsure of how best to work with an academic tutor. Tutors' roles are not the same as those of school teachers or college nurse education teachers. As well as teach, they aid learning and the development of individual thought.

Problem-based learning in clinical practice facilitating critical thinking.

Problem-based learning has established a strong reputation within education programs delivered to a wide variety of healthcare professionals. Nevertheless, most accounts of problem-based learning relate to classroom settings, where issues of patient safety and competing demands upon time are not a primary concern. The authors explore ways in which problem-based learning may be utilized within clinical practice to enhance the professional development of nurses.