Patients' beliefs about the causes of heart disease: relationships with risk factors, sex and socio-economic status.

Background: Patients' beliefs about the causes of their heart disease (causal attributions) are important to effective medical communication, psychological adaptation, and adherence to advice. We assessed the extent to which causal attributions relate to risk factors, sex and socio-economic status in men and women diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome.

Design: We conducted an interview and questionnaire study of 171 acute coronary syndrome patients assessed within 5 days of admission to three hospitals in the London area.

Reviewing health promotion in nursing education.

The [World Health Organisation, 2000. Nurse and Midwives for Health: A WHO European Strategy for Nursing and Midwifery Education. WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen] European Strategy for Nursing and Midwifery Education calls for the explicit inclusion and application of health promotion in all nursing curricula.

Acute depressed mood as a trigger of acute coronary syndromes.

Background: Some cases of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) may be triggered by emotional states such as anger, but it is not known if acute depressed mood can act as a trigger.

Methods: 295 men and women with a verified ACS were studied. Depressed mood in the two hours before ACS symptom onset was compared with the same period 24 hours earlier (pair-matched analysis), and with usual levels of depressed mood, using case-crossover methods.

Pathophysiological processes underlying emotional triggering of acute cardiac events.

Acute negative emotional states may act as triggers of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), but the biological mechanisms involved are not known. Heightened platelet activation and hemodynamic shear stress provoked by acute stress may contribute. Here we investigated whether patients whose ACS had been preceded by acute anger, stress, or depression would show heightened hemodynamic and platelet activation in response to psychophysiological stress testing.

The health-promoting school: what role for nursing?

Aim: To review the existing literature on health-promoting schools and put forward recommendations for continuing progress.

Background: The World Health Organisation's Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986 sought to create a framework for health promotion action that conveyed the notion of capacity building as it related to specific settings. It provided the catalyst from which the health-promoting school movement emerged, against the backdrop of health professionals adapting to the changing needs and demands of clients and the evolving social context of the communities in which they live.

Post-traumatic stress disorder in patients with cardiac disease: predicting vulnerability from emotional responses during admission for acute coronary syndromes.

Objectives: To assess frequency and predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), measured by the Post Traumatic Stress-self report version, at three months after admission for acute coronary syndromes (ACS).

Design: Two-phase prospective study.

Setting: Four coronary care units.

Triggering of acute coronary syndromes by physical exertion and anger: clinical and sociodemographic characteristics.

Objective: To investigate the role of vigorous physical exertion and anger as triggers of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and to identify the clinical and sociodemographic correlates of triggering.

Design: Prospective observational clinical cohort study.

Setting: Four coronary care units in the London area.

Nocturnal stomatal conductance and implications for modelling δO of leaf-respired CO in temperate tree species.

Variation in the oxygen isotope composition of within-canopy CO has potential to allow partitioning of the ecosystem respiratory flux into above- and below-ground components. Recent theoretical work has highlighted the sensitivity of the oxygen isotope composition of leaf-respired CO (δ) to nocturnal stomatal conductance. When the one-way flux model was tested on Ricinus communis L.

Project management and action research: two sides of the same coin?

Purpose: To put forward the, to date, unidentified viewpoint that organisational action research and project management have many shared properties--making it a useful exercise to compare and contrast them in relation to organisational management structures and strategies.

Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual exploration, drawing on a wide range of supporting literature, is used here.

Findings: Project management represents a mainstay strategy for much of the organisational research seen in health care management--and has done for many years.

Workplace health promotion: the role and responsibility of health care managers.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986 provided the catalyst from which the Health Promoting Workplace movement emerged. Here, an extensive review of the available workplace-related health literature provides the basis for critical discussion and recommendations for health care managers. The findings suggest that health care managers, who practice in all health service settings, should be aiming to initiate and promote radical health promotion reform as set out in the WHO settings-based movement.

The Health Promoting Prison (HPP) and its imperative for nursing.

The World Health Organisation's (WHO) Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986 provided the catalyst from which the Health Promoting Prison (HPP) movement emerged. Here, an extensive review of the available prison-related health literature provides the basis for critical discussion and recommendations for nursing services and prison-related health care. The findings suggest that current prison-based nursing services are seriously neglected and woefully lacking in structure and resources.

Frequency of distress and fear of dying during acute coronary syndromes and consequences for adaptation.

Experiencing an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) may provoke a range of negative emotional responses, including acute distress and fear of dying. The frequency of these emotional states has rarely been assessed. This study examined the presence and severity of the fear of dying and acute distress in 184 patients with ACS and analyzed its correlates and consequences.

Sap flow rates and sapwood density are critical factors in within- and between-tree variation in CO2 efflux from stems of mature Dacrydium cupressinum trees.

Measurements of CO2 efflux from stems and branches, sap velocity, and respiratory activity of excised wood cores were conducted in Dacrydium cupressinum trees that differed in diameter, age, and canopy emergence. The objective of this study was to determine if consistent linkages exist among respiratory production of CO2 within stems, xylem transport of CO2, and the rate of CO2 diffusing from stem surfaces. Stem CO2 efflux was depressed during periods of sap flow compared with the efflux rate expected for a given stem temperature and was positively correlated with sapwood density.

Recent advances in analytical construct resins.

The area of solid-phase synthesis has witnessed exponential growth in the last fifteen years, but difficulties associated with the monitoring and analysis of resin-bound reactions and products have been apparent due to a limited number of analytical methods available. With the substrate tethered to an insoluble support traditional chromatographic monitoring is only possible after cleavage. In order to address this 'analytical bottleneck' Geysen, in 1996 elaborated Merrifield's initial dual linker strategy by incorporating an encoding system between two in-line linkers.

Photosynthesis and reflectance indices for rainforest species in ecosystems undergoing progression and retrogression along a soil fertility chronosequence in New Zealand.

Measurements of photosynthesis at saturating irradiance and CO2 partial pressure, Amax, "adjusted" normalised difference vegetation index, RaNDVI, and photochemical reflectance index, RPRI, were made on trees sampled along a soil chronosequence to investigate the relationship between carbon uptake and ecosystem development in relation to nutrient availability. Measurements were made on the three most dominant species at six sites along the sequence in South Westland, New Zealand with soil age ranging from < 6 to 120,000 years resulting from the retreat of the Franz Josef glacier. The decrease in soil phosphorus availability with increasing soil age and high soil nitrogen availability at the two youngest sites, due to the presence of a nitrogen-fixing species, provided marked differences in nutrient availability.