Electron impact promoted fragmentation of alkyl-N-(1-Phenylethyl)-carbamates of primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols

Mass spectra of alkyl carbamates derived from primary, secondary, and teriary alcohols by use of deuterium labeling and high resolution mass spectroscop

Prenatal programming of postnatal obesity: fetal nutrition and the regulation of leptin synthesis and secretion before birth

Exposure to either an increased or decreased level of intrauterine nutrition can result in an increase in adiposity and in circulating leptin concentrations in later life. In animals such as the sheep and pig in which fat is deposited before birth, leptin is synthesised in fetal adipose tissue and is present in the fetal circulation throughout late gestation. In the sheep a moderate increase or decrease in the level of maternal nutrition does not alter fetal plasma leptin concentrations, but there is evidence that chronic fetal hyperglycaemia and hyperinsulinaemia increase fetal fat mass and leptin synthesis within fetal fat depots. Importantly, there is a positive relationship between the relative mass of the ‘unilocular’ component of fetal perirenal and interscapular adipose tissue and circulating fetal leptin concentrations in the sheep. Thus, as in the neonate and adult, circulating leptin concentrations may be a signal of fat mass in fetal life. There is also evidence that leptin can act to regulate the lipid storage, leptin synthetic capacity and potential thermogenic functions of fat before birth. Thus, leptin may act as a signal of energy supply and have a ‘lipostatic’ role before birth. Future studies are clearly required to determine whether the intrauterine and early postnatal nutrient environment programme the endocrine feedback loop between adipose tissue and the central and peripheral neuroendocrine systems that regulate energy balance, resulting in an enhanced risk of obesity in adult life.I. C. McMillen, B. S. Muhlhausler, J. A. Duffield and B. S. J. Yue

Selection of an instrument to evaluate the organizational environment of nurses working in intensive care: an integrative review

Objective: To determine an appropriate survey instrument to evaluate the impact of organizational structures on the work environment of intensive care nurses. Background: Internationally the demand for intensive care is increasing. Solely increasing bed capacity is not sustainable. Large capacity multi-specialty Intensive Care Units are emerging as the preferred organizational model with benefits resulting from optimizing operational synergies and economies of scale. The impact of this organizational transition on intensive care nurses is not well understood. An appropriate survey instrument for intensive care nurses is required. Design: Integrative literature review. Data Sources: CINAHL, PubMed, EMBASE and OVID Nursing databases searched for studies published between 2005 and 2013. Review methods: An integrative review and quality assessment of the studies was undertaken to select nurse outcome measures associated with organizational structures across a range of acute and critical care settings. Congruence between nurse outcome measures and nurse survey instruments tested in the literature was assessed to select instruments for further psychometric evaluation. Results: Thirty-one cross sectional quantitative studies, from fourteen countries, were reviewed. Twenty one nurse outcome measures associated with organizational factors were identified and a total of twenty five survey instruments used in the studies reviewed. Assessment of congruence and psychometric properties determined that a combination of two instruments is required to comprehensively assess the organizational environment of nurses working in intensive care units. Conclusion: The environment of nurses working in intensive care is effectively evaluated with an instrument that combines subscales from the Practice Environment Scale-Nurse Work Index and Maslach’s Burnout Inventory

Leadership skills for nursing unit managers to decrease intention to leave

Aim: To examine specific elements of nursing leadership linked to intention to leave, in public acute care hospitals. Background: Nurse turnover is a global issue receiving widespread attention due to prolonged and projected workforce shortages. Nurse management and leadership qualities have been associated with intention to leave and turnover of nurses. The role of the nurse unit managers in the retention of nurses is becoming increasingly important, particularly because of their strong influence on the quality and stability of the work environment. Methods: Data were collected from 6 2 medical, surgical, and mixed units across eleven public acute care hospitals in three Australian states (September 2 008 to August 2 010). A total of 1 ,673 nurses completed a nurse survey that included measures of intention to leave and leadership aspects of the practice environment. Analyses explored specific leadership characteristics that were associated with turnover intent. Results: The role of nursing unit managers was confirmed to be a major factor in nurses’ intention to remain or leave their current workplace. Nurses valued “human” skills more highly than other leadership characteristics, including their manager’s connection with nurses’ concerns, clarity, participation in decisions, and encouragement. Conclusion: Strong leadership qualities in the nursing unit manager have been associated with greater job satisfaction, reduced turnover intention among nursing staff, and improved patient outcomes. Nurse leaders need to be supported in an effort to retain nurses given ongoing workforce issues and to ensure high-quality patient care

Effect of Training/Competition Load and Scheduling on Sleep Characteristics in Professional Rugby League Athletes.

AbstractConlan, G, McLean, B, Kemp, J, and Duffield, R. Effect of training/competition load and scheduling on sleep characteristics in professional rugby league athletes. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2021-This study examined the effect of training/competition load, scheduling, and associated factors on sleep behavior in professional rugby league athletes. Sleep characteristics were assessed in 26 professional rugby league athletes using wrist-mounted actigraphy and nightly sleep diaries. Sleep actigraphy assessed the time into and out of bed, the duration in bed, sleep duration, efficiency, latency, wake after sleep onset, number of awakenings, and the awakening length. Sleep was measured during 3 different weeks: (a) preseason low training load (TL) (2,356 ± 322 AU), (b) preseason high TL (3,542 ± 445 AU), and (c) in-season match week (1,526 ± 409 AU). The influences of internal TL (session rating of perceived exertion load), training schedule, age, and training location on sleep behavior were analyzed. Repeated-measures 2-way analysis of variance and effect size analyses (d) compared sleep variables between training weeks. The mean weekly sleep duration was significantly lower during high TL week (5 hours 53minutes ± 14 min/night; p = 0.015, d = 0.59) compared with the low TL (6 hours 25minutes ± 8 min·night-1) or match weeks (6 hours 26minutes ± 10 min·night-1; p = 0.02, d = 2.04). Reduced sleep duration in the high TL week occurred alongside earlier out-of-bed times compared with the low TL (p = 0.003, d = 1.46) and match weeks (p = 0.001, d = 5.99). Regardless, the lowest sleep duration was on match night (p = 0.0001, d = 1.22). Earlier training start times resulted in earlier wake times (p = 0.003, d = 4.84), shorter in-bed durations (p = 0.0001, d = 0.62), and shorter sleep durations (p = 0.002, d = 0.32). Younger athletes slept for longer durations (p = 0.029, d = 1.70) and perceived their sleep quality to be superior (p = 0.006, d = 14.94) compared with older athletes. Sleep attained by rugby league athletes is influenced by training and competition schedules, with early training start times and late-night matches being primary drivers of sleep behavior. Coaching staff should have awareness surrounding the implications of training and playing schedules on athlete sleeping patterns

Battlezone: An examination of the physiological responses, movement demands and reproducibility of small-sided cricket games

As cricket training typically involves separate skill and conditioning sessions, this study reported on the movement demands, physiological responses and reproducibility of the demands of small-sided cricket games. Thirteen amateur, male cricket players (age: 22.8 ± 3.5 years, height: 1.78 ± 0.06 m, body mass: 78.6 ± 7.1 kg) completed two sessions of a generic small-sided cricket game, termed Battlezone; consisting of six repeat 8-over bouts. Heart rate and movement demands were continuously recorded, whilst blood lactate concentration and perceived exertion were recorded after each respective bout. Batsmen covered the greatest distance (1147 ± 175 m) and demonstrated the greatest mean movement speed (63 ± 9 m · min-1) during each bout. The majority of time (65-86%) was spent with a heart rate of between 51-85% HRmax and a blood lactate concentration of 1.1-2.0 mmol · L-1. Rating of perceived exertion ranged between 4.2-6.0. Movement demands and physiological responses did not differ between standardised sessions within respective playing positions (P > 0.05). The reliability for the majority of movement demands and physiological responses were moderate to high (CV: 5-17%; ICC: 0.48-1.00) within all playing positions. These results suggest that the physiological responses and movement characteristics of generic small-sided cricket games were consistent between sessions within respective playing positions. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

A Complexity Measure for Continuous Time Quantum Algorithms

We consider unitary dynamical evolutions on n qubits caused by time dependent pair-interaction Hamiltonians and show that the running time of a parallelized two-qubit gate network simulating the evolution is given by the time integral over the chromatic index of the interaction graph. This defines a complexity measure of continuous and discrete quantum algorithms which are in exact one-to-one correspondence. Furthermore we prove a lower bound on the growth of large-scale entanglement depending on the chromatic index.Comment: 6 pages, Revte

Post-match sleeping behavior based on match scheduling over a season in elite football players

© 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Objectives: (1) To objectively monitor and describe sleeping patterns of elite football players after matches during a competitive season and (2) to describe the variability in sleeping patterns between these contexts. Methods: Actimetry was used to determine sleeping patterns of 25 elite players from 1 Portuguese First League (Liga NOS) club for at least 3 normal training days (TDs) as a baseline and then after various matches, including home (HM), away (AM), day (DM) and night (NM). Actimetry-derived sleep measures included total sleep duration (TSD), sleep onset latency, sleep efficiency (SE) and wake episode duration. Results: On TD, both TSD (6:36 h) and SE (85%) were below recommended healthy ranges of 7–8 h and >90%, respectively. TSD was even less after NM compared to both TD (–65 min) and DM (–65 min) (P 0.05). Additionally, TSD was greater in AM compared to HM (+77 min, P = 0.001). Conclusions: The primary findings of this study were the significant reduction in total sleep duration and later bedtime following (night) matches compared to normal training days

Performance and Safety of COTS 18650 Li-ion Cells from Various Manufacturers

No abstract availabl

Microscopic Foundation of Nonextensive Statistics

Combination of the Liouville equation with the q-averaged energy $U_q = _q$ leads to a microscopic framework for nonextensive q-thermodynamics. The resulting von Neumann equation is nonlinear: $i\dot\rho=[H,\rho^q]$. In spite of its nonlinearity the dynamics is consistent with linear quantum mechanics of pure states. The free energy $F_q=U_q-TS_q$ is a stability function for the dynamics. This implies that q-equilibrium states are dynamically stable. The (microscopic) evolution of $\rho$ is reversible for any q, but for $q\neq 1$ the corresponding macroscopic dynamics is irreversible.Comment: revte