Identification of a proton sensor that regulates conductance and open time of single hERG channels.

The hERG potassium channel influences ventricular action potential duration. Extracellular acidosis occurs in pathological states including cardiac ischaemia. It reduces the amplitude of hERG current and speeds up deactivation, which can alter cardiac excitability.

Effects of Vaginal Lubricants on In-Vitro Progressive Spermatozoa Motility.

Vaginal lubricants are used to solve intercourse difficulties or as sexual enhancers, but recent reports raise questions about their safety in terms of fertility. In this study, twenty semen samples were tested against commercially available vaginal lubricants for progressive spermatozoa motility and vitality with varying exposure time intervals. Results showed that the vaginal lubricant which least affected progressive spermatozoa motility was the oil-based vaginal lubricant, which kept the mean percentage of progressive spermatozoa motility within the minimum normal range of 32%, following 60 minutes of exposure.

Technical rationality and the decentring of patients and care delivery: A critique of 'unavoidable' in the context of patient harm.

In recent decades, debate on the quality and safety of healthcare has been dominated by a measure and manage administrative rationality. More recently, this rationality has been overlaid by ideas from human factors, ergonomics and systems engineering. Little critical attention has been given in the nursing literature to how risk of harm is understood and actioned, or how patients can be subjectified and marginalised through these discourses.

New risks: the intended and unintended effects of mental health reform.

In crisis situations, the authority of the nurse is legitimised by legal powers and professional knowledge. Crisis stakeholders include those who directly use services and their families, and a wide range of health, social service and justice agencies. Alternative strategies such as therapeutic risk taking from the perspective of socially inclusive recovery policy coexist in a sometimes uneasy relationship with mental health legislation.

A comparison of ABAcard(®) p30 and RSID™-Semen test kits for forensic semen identification.

The screening and confirmatory tests available to a forensic laboratory allow evidence to be examined for the presence of bodily fluids. With the majority of evidence being submitted involving sexual assaults, it is important to have confirmatory tests for the identification of semen that are straightforward, quick, and reliable. The purpose of this study was to compare two commonly used semen identification kits utilized by forensic laboratories: ABAcard(®) p30 and Rapid Stain Identification of Human Semen (RSID™-Semen).

Emotional competence and nursing education: a New Zealand study.

Effective nursing practice requires the ability to recognise emotions and handle responses in relationships with clients and their families. This emotional competence includes nurses managing their own emotional life along with the skill to relate effectively to the multiple colleagues and agencies that nurses work alongside. The research was designed to explore the views of nurse educators about the challenges they encounter when seeking to assess a student's development of emotional competence during the three year bachelor of nursing degree.