763 research outputs found
Deterministic Illusion in the Organizational Sciences: Service or Sabotage?
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68881/2/10.1177_105256298000500309.pd
Attenuating the link between threatened egotism and aggression
Research has found that narcissists behave aggressively when they receive a blow to their ego. The current studies examined whether narcissistic aggression could be reduced by inducing a unit relation between the target of aggression and the aggressor. Experimental participants were told that they shared either a birthday (Study 1) or a fingerprint type (Study 2) with a partner. Control participants were not given any information indicating similarity to their partner. Before aggression was measured, the partners criticized essays written by the participants. Aggression was measured by allowing participants to give their partner loud blasts of noise through a pair of headphones. In the control groups, narcissists were especially aggressive toward their partner. However, narcissistic aggression was completely attenuated, even under ego threat, when participants believed they shared a key similarity with their partner. Copyright © 2006 Association for Psychological Science
Nurse-led versus doctor-led care for bronchiectasis
Background: Specialist nursing roles to manage stable disease populations are being used to meet the needs of both patients and health services. With increasing cost pressures on health departments, alternative models such as nurse-led care are gaining momentum as a substitute for traditional doctor-led care. This review evaluates the safety, effectiveness, and health outcomes of nurses practising in autonomous roles while using advanced practice skills, within the context of bronchiectasis management in subacute, ambulatory, and/or community care. Objectives: To compare the effectiveness of nurse-led care versus doctor-led care in the management of stable bronchiectasis. Search methods: We searched the Cochrane Airways Group Specialised Register and bibliographies of selected papers in addition to grey literature such as electronic clinical trials registries. Searches were current as of March 2018. Selection criteria: Randomised controlled trials were eligible for inclusion in the review. Data collection and analysis: Two reviewers extracted and entered data from included studies. Primary outcomes were numbers of exacerbations requiring treatment with antibiotics, hospital admissions, and emergency department attendances. Main results: We included one United Kingdom (UK) study in the review. In this randomised controlled trial, a total of 80 participants, with a mean age of 58 years, were treated for 12 months by a specialist nurse or doctor, then were crossed over to the other clinician for the next 12 months. Two participants died during the study period. Six participants failed to cross over to nurse-led care because of unstable bronchiectasis. Overall, the level of study completion was high. Data show no difference in the numbers of exacerbations requiring treatment with antibiotics (rate ratio 1.09, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.91 to 1.30, 80 participants, moderate-certainty evidence). Investigators reported more hospital admissions in the nurse-led care group (rate ratio 1.52, 95% CI 1.04 to 2.23, 80 participants, moderate-certainty evidence) and did not report emergency department attendance. For secondary outcomes, participants in the nurse-led care group used more healthcare resources during the first year of the trial. Increased admissions and greater use of resources made treatment costs for nurse-led groups' higher. Total costs for both years of the study were ÂŁ8,464 and ÂŁ5,228 for nurse-led care compared with doctor-led care. However, by the second year, treatment costs were almost equitable between the two groups, which may reflect the nurses' learning of how to better treat people with bronchiectasis. No statistically significant changes were observed in quality of life, exercise capacity, mortality, or lung function. Wide confidence intervals led to uncertainty regarding these results. Adverse events were not an outcome for this review. Authors' conclusions: This update of the review shows that only one trial met review criteria. Review authors were unable to demonstrate effectiveness of nurse-led care compared with doctor-led care on the basis of findings of a single study. The included study reported no significant differences, but limited evidence means that differences in clinical outcomes between nurse-led care and usual care within the setting of a specialist clinic remain unclear. Further research is required to determine whether nurse-led care is cost-effective, if guidelines and protocols for bronchiectasis management are followed does this increases costs and how effective nurse-led management of bronchiectasis is in other clinical settings such as inpatient and outreach
Long-term response of spring wheat to N and P fertilization in southwestern Saskatchewan
Non-Peer Reviewe
CASSETTE—clindamycin adjunctive therapy for severe Staphylococcus aureus treatment evaluation: Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial
Background
Exotoxins are important virulence factors in Staphylococcus aureus. Clindamycin, a protein synthesis inhibitor antibiotic, is thought to limit exotoxin production and improve outcomes in severe S. aureus infections. However, randomised prospective data to support this are lacking.
Methods
An open-label, multicentre, randomised controlled trial (RCT) will compare outcome differences in severe S. aureus infection between standard treatment (flucloxacillin/cefazolin in methicillin-susceptible S. aureus; and vancomycin/daptomycin in methicillin-resistant S. aureus) and standard treatment plus an additional clindamycin given for 7 days. We will include a minimum of 60 participants (both adult and children) in the pilot study. Participants will be enrolled within 72 h of an index culture. Severe infections will include septic shock, necrotising pneumonia, or multifocal and non-contiguous skin and soft tissue/osteoarticular infections. Individuals who are immunosuppressed, moribund, with current severe diarrhoea or Clostridiodes difficile infection, pregnant, and those with anaphylaxis to β-lactams or lincosamides will be excluded.
The primary outcomes measure is the number of days alive and free (1 or 0) of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) within the first 14 days post randomisation. The secondary outcomes measure will include all-cause mortality at 14, 42, and 90 days, time to resolution of SIRS, proportion with microbiological treatment failure, and rate of change of C-reactive protein over time. Impacts of inducible clindamycin resistance, strain types, methicillin susceptibility, and presence of various exotoxins will also be analysed.
Discussion
This study will assess the effect of adjunctive clindamycin on patient-centred outcomes in severe, toxin-mediated S. aureus infections. The pilot study will provide feasibility for a much larger RCT.
Trial registration
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12617001416381p. Registered on 6 October 2017
Polyakov Loops versus Hadronic States
The order parameter for the pure Yang-Mills phase transition is the Polyakov
loop which encodes the symmetries of the Z_N center of the SU(N) gauge group.
On the other side the physical degrees of freedom of any asymptotically free
gauge theory are hadronic states. Using the Yang-Mills trace anomaly and the
exact Z_N symmetry we construct a model able to communicate to the hadrons the
information carried by the order parameter.Comment: RevTex4 2-col., 6 pages, 2 figures. Typos fixed and added a paragraph
in the conclusion
Average Lattice Symmetry and Nanoscale Structural Correlations in Magnetoresistive Manganites
We report x-ray scattering studies of nanoscale structural correlations in
the paramagnetic phases of the perovskite manganites
La(CaSr)MnO,
LaSrMnO, and NdSrMnO. We find
that these correlations are present in the orthorhombic phase in
La(CaSr)MnO, but they disappear
abruptly at the orthorhombic-to-rhombohedral transition in this compound. The
orthorhombic phase exhibits increased electrical resistivity and reduced
ferromagnetic coupling, in agreement with the association of the nanoscale
correlations with insulating regions. In contrast, the correlations were not
detected in the two other compounds, which exhibit rhombohedral and tetragonal
phases. Based on these results, as well as on previously published work, we
propose that the local structure of the paramagnetic phase correlates strongly
with the average lattice symmetry, and that the nanoscale correlations are an
important factor distinguishing the insulating and the metallic phases in these
compounds.Comment: a note on recent experimental work, and a new reference adde
Partial Deconfinement in Color Superconductivity
We analyze the fate of the unbroken SU(2) color gauge interactions for 2
light flavors color superconductivity at non zero temperature. Using a simple
model we compute the deconfining/confining critical temperature and show that
is smaller than the critical temperature for the onset of the superconductive
state itself. The breaking of Lorentz invariance, induced already at zero
temperature by the quark chemical potential, is shown to heavily affect the
value of the critical temperature and all of the relevant features related to
the deconfining transition. Modifying the Polyakov loop model to describe the
SU(2) immersed in the diquark medium we argue that the deconfinement transition
is second order. Having constructed part of the equation of state for the 2
color superconducting phase at low temperatures our results are relevant for
the physics of compact objects featuring a two flavor color superconductive
state.Comment: 9 pp, 4 eps-figs, version to appear in PR
Advances in ab-initio theory of Multiferroics. Materials and mechanisms: modelling and understanding
Within the broad class of multiferroics (compounds showing a coexistence of
magnetism and ferroelectricity), we focus on the subclass of "improper
electronic ferroelectrics", i.e. correlated materials where electronic degrees
of freedom (such as spin, charge or orbital) drive ferroelectricity. In
particular, in spin-induced ferroelectrics, there is not only a {\em
coexistence} of the two intriguing magnetic and dipolar orders; rather, there
is such an intimate link that one drives the other, suggesting a giant
magnetoelectric coupling. Via first-principles approaches based on density
functional theory, we review the microscopic mechanisms at the basis of
multiferroicity in several compounds, ranging from transition metal oxides to
organic multiferroics (MFs) to organic-inorganic hybrids (i.e. metal-organic
frameworks, MOFs)Comment: 22 pages, 9 figure
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