Effects of thermal influences upon the pons and medulla and upon the mid brain and diencephalon after ligation of the basilar artery.

During the past two decades, substantial advances have been made toward the understanding of various phases of heat regulation. Many threads leading to the explanation of the complete mechanism of heat regulation of the body have been unraveled. Altho the exact anatomical location, extent and relations have not yet been determined, it has become evident that the chief control of body temperature is thru the central nervous system. Especially important regions are the basal nuclei and the brain stem. Barbour has produced evidence, confirmed by Hashimoto, Prince and Hahn, Rogers, Bazett and Penfield, that temperature control occurs by means of temperature influences upon the central nervous system as well as indirectly by way of the skin. Altho the heat and cold were applied in the vicinity of the caudate nucleus, they undoubtedly influenced the thalamus and hypothalamus, as well as the corpus striatum

Green Materialities: Marketing and the socio-material construction of green products

Green products are becoming part of contemporary consumer cultures and part of everyday life. But how are green products constructed? What kind of green products are constructed? And what happens as these green products are constructed? The aim of this paper is to contribute a socio-cultural and critical understanding of green marketing by exploring and illustrating how marketing practices work to construct green products as meaningful material-symbolic artefacts in practice. Departing from an understanding of marketing as practice I analyse how a green outdoor product - a t-shirt - was constructed as green through the marketing practices of the Nordic Nature Shops. Focusing on this retail corporation and examining the practices of trail making, attending and selling, it is suggested that these t-shirts become green through a process of socio-material inscription. Through marketing practices green moral is generated and linked to the t-shirts potentially making them desirable consumption objects to be used in the construction of consumers green identities. However, this process of green making is a difficult accomplishment with ambiguous outcomes. While the tendency to inscribe commercial products with morality can be interpreted as an indication of the development of a more ethically reflective consumer culture, it can also be argued to lead to the commercialization of moralit

Monitoring Vital Signs: Development of a Modified Early Warning Scoring (Mews) System for General Wards in a Developing Country

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to develop and validate, by consensus, the construct and content of an observations chart for nurses incorporating a modified early warning scoring (MEWS) system for physiological parameters to be used for bedside monitoring on general wards in a public hospital in South Africa. METHODS: Delphi and modified face-to-face nominal group consensus methods were used to develop and validate a prototype observations chart that incorporated an existing UK MEWS. This informed the development of the Cape Town ward MEWS chart. PARTICIPANTS: One specialist anaesthesiologist, one emergency medicine specialist, two critical care nurses and eight senior ward nurses with expertise in bedside monitoring (N = 12) were purposively sampled for consensus development of the MEWS. One general surgeon declined and one neurosurgeon replaced the emergency medicine specialist in the final round. RESULTS: Five consensus rounds achieved ≥70% agreement for cut points in five of seven physiological parameters respiratory and heart rates, systolic BP, temperature and urine output. For conscious level and oxygen saturation a relaxed rule of <70% agreement was applied. A reporting algorithm was established and incorporated in the MEWS chart representing decision rules determining the degree of urgency. Parameters and cut points differed from those in MEWS used in developed countries. CONCLUSIONS: A MEWS for developing countries should record at least seven parameters. Experts from developing countries are best placed to stipulate cut points in physiological parameters. Further research is needed to explore the ability of the MEWS chart to identify physiological and clinical deterioration