Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Reliability of the French-Canadian Version of the European Heart Failure Self-Care Behaviour Scale-9.

Background And Purpose: The purposes of this methodological study were to adapt the European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale-9 to the French-Canadian population and to evaluate its reliability.

Methods: The adaptation process consisted of translation, back-translation, evaluation by an expert committee, and pretesting. Reliability was evaluated with stability criteria (test-retest) and internal consistency.

An integrative literature review on nursing interventions aimed at increasing self-care among heart failure patients.

Objective: to analyze and summarize knowledge concerning critical components of interventions that have been proposed and implemented by nurses with the aim of optimizing self-care by heart failure patients.

Methods: PubMed and CINAHL were the electronic databases used to search full peer-reviewed papers, presenting descriptions of nursing interventions directed to patients or to patients and their families and designed to optimize self-care. Forty-two studies were included in the final sample (n=4,799 patients).

Flat ion milling: a powerful tool for preparation of cross-sections of lead-silver alloys.

While conventional mechanical and chemical polishing results in stress, deformation and polishing particles embedded on the surface, flat milling with Ar+ ions erodes the material with no mechanical artefacts. This flat milling process is presented as an alternative method to prepare a Pb-Ag alloy cross-section for scanning electron microscopy. The resulting surface is free of scratches with very little to no stress induced, so that electron diffraction and channelling contrast are possible.