Reducing Cost of Healthcare Facilities by Decreasing Nursing Turnover

Registered Nurse (RN) turnover is costly for hospitals and healthcare facilities. The problem that healthcare administrators face today is their inability to retain nurses for long periods of time and the detrimental effects that come from the lack of retention. The purpose of this quantitative secondary data analysis is to explore the relationship between the retention of RNs and the geographic regions in which they work. The theoretical framework for this study was Barney\u27s concept of viewing people as resources. Deidentified secondary data of RNs was utilized from the Healthforce Center at the University of California San Francisco to probe differences in retention rates between full-time and part-time RNs and the differences in retention rates between new graduate and specialty RNs in California geographic regions. The data was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistical techniques to perform a t test of independent means. As a result, it was determined that there was no significance in geographic regions in California influencing the retention rates of full and part-time RNs neither was there a significant finding that geographic regions in California influence the retention rates of new graduate RNs or specialty nurses. It was concluded that the retention of RNs is determined by how well they are maintained and managed. A recommendation would be to investigate retention strategies that create longevity among RNs. This study can contribute to positive social change by having a cohesiveness that builds trust and creates a better work environment and positive outcomes for healthcare facilities which will reduce overall cost

“How do we get to them?” Insights on Preconception and Interconception Health for Women in Rural Northwest Ohio

Background: Rural women in the United States are at increased risk for poor preconception and interconception health. In a previous study, women living in Hardin County, a Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Area and maternity care desert in rural northwest Ohio expressed their concerns and their need for more resources to improve their health. As a follow-up study, key informants of Hardin County were interviewed to provide further insight on current resources for preconception and women’s health available to community members, barriers and challenges community members face, and interventions could be implemented in the county to improve health and pregnancy outcomes. Methods: A purposive sample of 14 key informants from community assets in Hardin County were recruited and individually interviewed with semistructured questions from 2 domains: perceived needs and barriers to care. Interview recordings were transcribed, precoded, and thematically analyzed. Participants received a $20 gift card as a token of appreciation. Results: Three themes were characterized from the data: current resources available, community observations, and suggested intervention strategies. Key informants identified the federally-qualified health center and YMCA, among others, as potentially underutilized resources for reproductive-age women. The small-town culture was described as both an advantage and disadvantage when trying to raise awareness about preconception/interconception health. Interventions built on partnerships and utilizing various outlets were suggested. Childcare, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and trust were issues crossing multiple themes. Conclusion: Key informants gave direction on available resources for reproductive-age women and potential approaches to provide education and outreach regarding preconception/interconception health and care

A critical appraisal of the criminalisation and prosecution of sexual violence under international criminal law

Magister Legum - LLMSexual violence leaves the victims psychologically traumatised and stigmatised in the eyes of its community. Used on a large scale, sexual violence can destabilise a society as a whole and when used during armed conflicts, it serves as a powerful weapon against members of a community. During armed conflicts, sexual violence is widespread and systematically used as a tool of war and this makes sexual violence amount to crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes. This research paper critically analyses and evaluates sexual violence as an international crime, as well as its prosecution under international criminal law mainly by the International Criminal Court (hereafter ICC), International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (hereafter ICTY) and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (hereafter ICTR). It discusses the problem of selectivity that can be observed in prosecuting sexual violence that has in fact, left many victims of sexual violence dissatisfied. By doing so, it analyses the law as it is to determine whether the law applied during sexual violence prosecutions is sufficient. The paper also states recommendations that can contribute to the effective prosecution of sexual crimes under international criminal law.South Afric

Temporal cathepsin and matrix metalloproteinase activity in tendon extracellular matrix damage

Tendinopathy, or tendon overuse, is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders affecting athletes, laborers, and aging adults. If left untreated, overuse injury can progress to partial or full-thickness tears that require surgical intervention. In order to develop preventative treatment strategies, it is important to identify the factors that initiate tendon damage. The multifactorial etiology of tendon overuse includes imbalances in proteases and their endogenous inhibitors that lead to the degradation of extracellular matrix (ECM). Cysteine cathepsins and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have been implicated in tendon pathogenesis. Though several studies have published the effects of a single protease on tendon degradation, this does not provide a complete picture of a very dynamic proteolytic network at play in a pathologic environment. Cells can produce and secrete many proteases and endogenous inhibitors simultaneously that can interact with each other and impact matrix degeneration. It is not well understood how cathepsins and MMPs work cooperatively within and between families to effectively degrade tendon ECM. Our lab has identified a temporal regulation of cathepsin K and cathepsin L in a rat model of rotator cuff overuse, demonstrating upregulation of cathepsins K and L early in the injury time course, while only cathepsin L continued to be upregulated during later time points. The objective of this research is to investigate the proteolytic contribution to tendon damage. It is hypothesized that cathepsins, especially cathepsin K as the most potent collagenase, act in sequence to facilitate ECM degeneration. This study uses a rat model of rotator cuff tendinopathy to determine the temporal roles of cathepsins and MMPs in supraspinatus tendon overuse injury, as well as a mouse Achilles tendon model to determine the sequential actions of multiple cathepsins on tendon matrix degradation. Together, this work determines the biochemical roles of cathepsins and MMPs on tendon damage and elucidates mechanisms of protease regulation. Understanding how the dynamic proteolytic network contributes to tendon degradation will better inform clinical treatment strategies to prevent progression to tendon failure.Ph.D

Effects of Clarity and Group Membership

Reciprocal-trust relationships are at the very foundation of our social contracts with one another. Trust and the implied promise of reciprocity have real world effects on how we make decisions in our personal and professional lives. When we have received a benefit from another person, and later have an opportunity to give a benefit back to that same person, we often use the level of trust implied by the initial benefit received as a guide to the amount of benefit we should return. The current study investigated how the clarity of the trusting individual\u27s intentions to trust and his/her group membership affect the trusted party\u27s reciprocity decisions. Participants in the study completed four rounds of a trust games (which was call an investment activity), each time ostensibly with a different interaction partner. They played two rounds where they were able to see how much the other person had initially been given (the clear condition), and two rounds where they were not able to see (the cloaked condition). They also played two rounds (one clear and one cloaked) with people who possessed the same thinking style was them (their in-group) and two rounds (one clear and one cloaked) with people who possessed a different thinking style from their own (their out-group). An analysis of the results revealed that there was a significant Visibility x Group Membership interaction predicting the amount that participants returned. Whereby, participants returned significantly less to out-group members (in comparison to in-group members), but only when the other person\u27s intentions to trust had been obscured

Seasonal and inter-annual variability in abundance of the main tropical tunas in the EEZ of Cˆote d’Ivoire (2000-2019)

The seasonal and inter-annual variability in abundance of the main “local tropical tuna resources” in the EEZ of Cˆote d’Ivoire was analysed with catch and effort data from French and Spanish purse seiners over the period 2000–2019. A seasonal spatio-temporal model developed by Thorson et al. (2020a) was used to estimate abundance indices for the main tropical tunas by commercial category ( = 10 kg, which correspond roughly to maturity stage: immature and mature respectively), and fishing mode (free school sets and FAD sets). Furthermore, we decomposed the abundance time series into intrinsic mode functions using the CEEMDAN algorithm. The decomposition procedure made it possible to filter out the noise in the signal and extract the seasonal and inter-annual components of the abundance indices. A generalized additive model (GAM) was applied to the abundance indices to reveal the influences of environmental factors on species abundance and spatio-temporal distribution. Biological interpretations of the seasonal and inter-annual variability in tropical tuna abundance were made and the possible effects of environmental variables on this abundance discussed. Our results suggest that there are two main fishing seasons in the EEZ of Cˆote d’Ivoire. It was also found that mature yellowfin tunas are abundant between the first and second quarter of the year while the best season for skipjack occurs between the third and fourth quarter. In addition, we observed a considerable change over time in the seasonal and inter-annual variability of tropical tunas in this area.Versión del edito

Export structure and economic growth in a developing country: case of Cote d’Ivoire

The aim of this paper is to examine the interactions between export structure and economic growth in Côte d'Ivoire. To reach this goal, we used a modeling based on the ARDL Bounds test of Pesaran (2001). We arrive at the results on the export basket of Côte d'Ivoire and the index of diversification act negatively on the economic growth both in short and long term. But this diversification seems to be concentrated in some sectors. These results suggest a diversification in the export basket by including other sectors and also a structural transformation of the Ivorian economy