The issues affecting mental health nursing in Uganda

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Estimates are that up to 35% of the Ugandan populations have a mental health condition; however access to psychiatric care, particularly for people living in rural areas, is poor. Additionally, cultural and lay beliefs and stigma affect both the individual with mental illness and healthcare professionals. The Ugandan government has recognized the need to modernize legislation and develop policies designed to provide modern psychiatric services to the whole population. Strategies include, passing new legislation, integrating services into primary care, including psychiatric illness in nurse education. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that this rhetoric is not being fully enacted. This paper reviews the issues affecting the development and delivery of improved mental health services, with a particular focus on psychiatric nursing. Actions that have already successfully addressed issues with psychiatric services in Uganda are highlighted and conclusions drawn regarding the development of future services

BLAME IT ON THE WEATHER: COST AND DESIGN OF MANURE MANAGEMENT UNDER EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS ON NORTH CAROLINA SWINE FARMS

The majority of pig farms in North Carolina use a lagoon-sprayfield system to manage manure. Although economical, the lagoon-sprayfield system is sensitive to weather conditions. This study examines the cost of manure management under extreme weather and scrutinizes National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) design criteria and regulations.Farm Management,

Visual acuity testing. From the laboratory to the clinic

AbstractThe need for precision in visual acuity assessment for low vision research led to the design of the Bailey–Lovie letter chart. This paper describes the decisions behind the design principles used and how the logarithmic progression of sizes led to the development of the logMAR designation of visual acuity and the improved sensitivity gained from letter-by-letter scoring. While the principles have since been adopted by most major clinical research studies and for use in most low vision clinics, use of charts of this design and application of letter-by-letter scoring are also important for the accurate assessment of visual acuity in any clinical setting. We discuss the test protocols that should be applied to visual acuity testing and the use of other tests for assessing profound low vision when the limits of visual acuity measurement by letter charts are reached

Invariant local twistor calculus for quaternionic structures and related geometries

New universal invariant operators are introduced in a class of geometries which include the quaternionic structures and their generalisations as well as 4-dimensional conformal (spin) geometries. It is shown that, in a broad sense, all invariants and invariant operators arise from these universal operators and that they may be used to reduce all invariants problems to corresponding algebraic problems involving homomorphisms between modules of certain parabolic subgroups of Lie groups. Explicit application of the operators is illustrated by the construction of all non-standard operators between exterior forms on a large class of the geometries which includes the quaternionic structures.Comment: 44 page

Reference-Free Validation of Short Read Data

High-throughput DNA sequencing techniques offer the ability to rapidly and cheaply sequence material such as whole genomes. However, the short-read data produced by these techniques can be biased or compromised at several stages in the sequencing process; the sources and properties of some of these biases are not always known. Accurate assessment of bias is required for experimental quality control, genome assembly, and interpretation of coverage results. An additional challenge is that, for new genomes or material from an unidentified source, there may be no reference available against which the reads can be checked.-mers. We apply our methodology to wide range of short read data and show that, surprisingly, strong biases appear to be present. These include gross overrepresentation of some poly-base sequences, per-position biases towards some bases, and apparent preferences for some starting positions over others.The existence of biases in short read data is known, but they appear to be greater and more diverse than identified in previous literature. Statistical analysis of a set of short reads can help identify issues prior to assembly or resequencing, and should help guide chemical or statistical methods for bias rectification

Clinical academic career pathway for nursing and allied health professionals: clinical academic role descriptors

The clinical academic pathway outlined highlights the range of typical practice and research-focused activities that a practitioner on a clinical academic career pathway might normally engage in at different levels and points along this career path. The activities are intended as a guide for practitioners interested in learning more about the practice and research components of a clinical academic career, as well as those already employed in clinical academic roles. They may also be useful for health care organisations and Higher Education Institutions as a tool for developing clinical academic roles

Older adults and “scams”: Evidence from the Mass Observation Archive

Purpose The issue of financial abuse is highlighted the Care Act (2014). One category of financial abuse is consumer fraud or “scams”. Evidence suggests that scams are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, yet how scams impact older adults remains under-researched. This paper reports the data from 80 older adults’ written response to a Mass Observation Archive Directive, commissioned in autumn 2015, focusing on scams. Study design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was utilised with data captured via written responses to a set of questions. There was no limit on the length of written accounts and respondents remained anonymous. Data were analysed thematically, resulting in 4 key themes. Findings The data indicated scams impact individuals in terms of health and wellbeing, irrespective of whether they have experienced financial loss, and trigger implementation of strategies intended to avoid being defrauded. There was also evidence of scam related stigma with individuals who are defrauded being subject to derision and censure. Originality/value This paper adopts an original approach to collecting rich, candid data about an under-researched topic. The authors highlight that anti-scam interventions should equip individuals to identify and avoid scams without inciting fear or anxiety; proposing this may be facilitated by drawing on health and safety risk assessment protocol when designing anti-scam interventions. Social implications Individuals who have been victimised by fraudsters may need access to practical and emotional support. This requires the design of appropriate interventions and the stigma associated with being scammed to be addressed