Presidential Views of Leadership in Seventhday Adventist Higher Education

Dissertation Notice: Ph.D. dissertation, University of South Florida, 2014. Full Text of Dissertation This qualitative study explored the perceptions of presidential leadership in Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) higher education in North America. The perceptions included the identification of leadership competencies and leadership styles that promote the mission of the SDA church in higher education. The study also identified the personal and professional experiences of SDA college and university presidents that contributed to their successful accession to the presidency. The presidents came from the 12 non-medical SDA colleges and universities in the continental United States and Canada. The three themes that emerged relevant to the perceptions of presidential leadership were succession planning, increased professionalization of the presidency, and increased presidential tenure

Pharmacokinetics and protein binding of morphine in horses

Morphine could be detected in horses dosed with 0.1 mg of drug/kg of body weight for up to 48 hours in blood and 144 hours in urine. This dose of morphine elicited no observ­able effects and is a suggested an­algesic dose. Computer analysis revealed that a 3-compartment open system was the best fitting model with a serum half life of 87.9 minutes and a urine half life of 101.1 minutes. Binding to equine serum proteins was linear over a drug con­centration range of 3.88 x 10-5M to 3.50 x 10-aM and averaged 31.6%. In RBC-partitioning experiments, 78.1 % of the drug was found in the plasma fraction. The data indicated that a horse should not be given morphine closer than 1 week before a race

Public Stigma, Familiarity With Mental Illness, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services

Public stigma and adverse beliefs and attitudes toward individuals with mental illness can negatively influence help seeking. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to assess associations and the effect of stigmatized attitudes toward mental illness and familiarity with mental illness on help-seeking attitudes in three community health clinics in the Bahamas. Attribution theory and theory of planned behavior provided the framework for the study. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 366 individuals who completed a self-administered questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic questions, the Attribution Questionnaire that assessed stigmatizing attitudes and beliefs toward individuals with mental illness, and the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyze data from respondents to the questionnaire. Results revealed that age was significantly associated with attitudes toward seeking mental health services (ATSMHS), and the psychological openness and help-seeking propensity subscales respectively. Religion and education were also significantly associated with ATSMHS. Public stigma about mental illness was significantly associated with ATSMHS and the subscales psychological openness and indifference to stigma respectively. Multiple regression analysis revealed that age, ethnicity, religion, and public stigma were significant predictors of ATSMHS. Based on research findings, interventions that target public stigma, sociodemographic and cultural factors, and attitudes towards seeking mental health services can result in positive social change and enhance help seeking for mental health problems

DETECTION OF MORPHINE AND ITS ANALOGUES USING ENZYMATIC HYDROLYSIS

The invention relates to a method for hydrolyzing drug glucuronic acid conjugates present in mammalian body fluids, the conjugates being derived from a narcotic analgesic, antagonist, or agonist-antagonist whose metabolism includes conjugation with glucuronic acid. The method comprises incubating the body fluid sample at from about 60 to about 70° C., for at least about 1 hour, with 3-glucuronidase derived from Patella vulgata, and substantially increases the sensitivity of chromatographic techniques for the detection of morphine and its analogues

The feasibility of introducing rapid diagnostic tests for malaria in drug shops in Uganda

BACKGROUND: National malaria control programmes and international agencies are keen to scale-up the use of effective rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for malaria. The high proportion of the Ugandan population seeking care at drug shops makes these outlets attractive as providers of malaria RDTs. However, there is no precedent for blood testing at drug shops and little is known about how such tests might be perceived and used. Understanding use of drug shops by communities in Uganda is essential to inform the design of interventions to introduce RDTs. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study, with 10 community focus group discussions, and 18 in-depth interviews with drug shop attendants, health workers and district health officials. The formative study was carried out in Mukono district, central Uganda an area of high malaria endemicity from May-July 2009. RESULTS: Drug shops were perceived by the community as important in treating malaria and there was awareness among most drug sellers and the community that not all febrile illnesses were malaria. The idea of introducing RDTs for malaria diagnosis in drug shops was attractive to most respondents. It was anticipated that RDTs would improve access to effective treatment of malaria, offset high costs associated with poor treatment, and avoid irrational drug use. However, communities did express fear that drug shops would overprice RDTs, raising the overall treatment cost for malaria. Other fears included poor adherence to the RDT result, reuse of RDTs leading to infections and fear that RDTs would be used to test for human immune deficiency virus (HIV). All drug shops visited had no record on patient data and referral of cases to health units was noted to be poor. CONCLUSION: These results not only provide useful lessons for implementing the intervention study but have wide implications for scaling up malaria treatment in drug shops