Helping community-based students on a final consolidation placement make the transition to registered practice.

The pressure of role transition on new nurse registrants has affected recruitment and retention, which, along with an ageing workforce, has resulted in a global shortage of nurses that is now reaching crisis point. This article examines and discusses what can be done to attract and prepare the future workforce in the community, focusing on helping students to make the transition to registered practice that begins during their final consolidation of practice placement. There is currently limited evidence on the effectiveness of how community placement teams prepare finalist students for registered practice and this could be seen as an opportunity lost given the urgent need to recruit more registered nurses to work in primary care. Recommendations for enhancing this crucial stage of the student journey are made, and a case for the need to know more from students about how they experience their final practice placement when allocated to a community setting is presented

The <i>AKARI</i> deep fields: early results from multi-wavelength follow-up campaigns

We present early results from our multi-wavelength follow-up campaigns of the AKARI Deep Fields at the North and South Ecliptic Poles. We summarize our campaigns in this poster paper, and present three early outcomes. (a) Our AAOmega optical spectroscopy of the Deep Field South at the AAT has observed over 550 different targets, and our preliminary local luminosity function at 90 ?m from the first four hours of data is in good agreement with the predictions from Serjeant & Harrison (2005). (b) Our GMRT 610 MHz imaging in the Deep Field North has reached ?30 ?Jy RMS, making this among the deepest images at this frequency. Our 610 MHz source counts at >200 ?Jy are the deepest ever derived at this frequency. (c) Comparing our GMRT data with our 1.4 GHz WSRT data, we have found two examples of radio-loud AGN that may have more than one epoch of activity

An Essential Role for Tumor Necrosis Factor in Natural Killer Cell–mediated Tumor Rejection in the Peritoneum

Natural killer (NK) cells are thought to provide the first line of defence against tumors, particularly major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I− variants. We have confirmed in C57BL/6 (B6) mice lacking perforin that peritoneal growth of MHC class I− RMA-S tumor cells in unprimed mice is controlled by perforin-dependent cytotoxicity mediated by CD3− NK1.1+ cells. Furthermore, we demonstrate that B6 mice lacking tumor necrosis factor (TNF) are also significantly defective in their rejection of RMA-S, despite the fact that RMA-S is insensitive to TNF in vitro and that spleen NK cells from B6 and TNF-deficient mice are equally lytic towards RMA-S. NK cell recruitment into the peritoneum was abrogated in TNF-deficient mice challenged with RMA-S or RM-1, a B6 MHC class I− prostate carcinoma, compared with B6 or perforin-deficient mice. The reduced NK cell migration to the peritoneum of TNF-deficient mice correlated with the defective NK cell response to tumor in these mice. By contrast, a lack of TNF did not affect peptide-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte–mediated rejection of tumor from the peritoneum of preimmunized mice. Overall, these data show that NK cells delivering perforin are the major effectors of class I− tumor rejection in the peritoneum, and that TNF is specifically critical for their recruitment to the peritoneum

The accumulation of exercise and postprandial endothelial function in boys

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of accumulating 60min of exercise on endothelial function and triacylglycerol concentrations following the ingestion of a high-fat breakfast and lunch in 14 adolescent boys (aged 12 to 14 years). Two, 2-day main trials (control and exercise) were completed in a counter-balanced, cross-over design. Participants were inactive on day 1 of the control trial but on day 1 of the exercise trial completed 6×10min runs at 70% of peak oxygen uptake, spread over the day. On day 2, triacylglycerol concentrations and flow-mediated dilation (FMD) were measured prior to, and following, ingestion of the high-fat meals. In the control trial, FMD was reduced by 30% and 33% (P0.05). These results support the concept of accumulating physical activity for health in adolescents as the accumulated exercise attenuated the decline in FMD seen following the consumption of high-fat meals. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S

The creation of a simulated rural hospital nursing unit for the purpose of conducting research

Sherpa Romeo green journal. Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution License appliesWhile the use of simulation is gaining popularity as an educational and training method, little is known about its utility in supporting field research activities. To address this gap, the physical, psychological, and conceptual dimensions of a full-scale simulated multi-bed rural nursing unit that became the ‘field’ for a rural nursing practice study is presented. The advantages of using simulation in this manner are that it: 1) allows processes to unfold in a controlled but natural fashion; 2) supports the exploration of complex phenomena; 3) and provides comparable data sets for analysis. Items to consider prior to using a simulation environment are also discussed.Ye

Psychopolitics: Peter Sedgwick’s legacy for mental health movements

This paper re-considers the relevance of Peter Sedgwick's Psychopolitics (1982) for a politics of mental health. Psychopolitics offered an indictment of ‘anti-psychiatry’ the failure of which, Sedgwick argued, lay in its deconstruction of the category of ‘mental illness’, a gesture that resulted in a politics of nihilism. ‘The radical who is only a radical nihilist’, Sedgwick observed, ‘is for all practical purposes the most adamant of conservatives’. Sedgwick argued, rather, that the concept of ‘mental illness’ could be a truly critical concept if it was deployed ‘to make demands upon the health service facilities of the society in which we live’. The paper contextualizes Psychopolitics within the ‘crisis tendencies’ of its time, surveying the shifting welfare landscape of the subsequent 25 years alongside Sedgwick's continuing relevance. It considers the dilemma that the discourse of ‘mental illness’ – Sedgwick's critical concept – has fallen out of favour with radical mental health movements yet remains paradigmatic within psychiatry itself. Finally, the paper endorses a contemporary perspective that, while necessarily updating Psychopolitics, remains nonetheless ‘Sedgwickian’

The racist bodily imaginary: the image of the body-in-pieces in (post)apartheid culture

This paper outlines a reoccurring motif within the racist imaginary of (post)apartheid culture: the black body-in-pieces. This disturbing visual idiom is approached from three conceptual perspectives. By linking ideas prevalent in Frantz Fanon’s description of colonial racism with psychoanalytic concepts such as Lacan’s notion of the corps morcelé, the paper offers, firstly, an account of the black body-in-pieces as fantasmatic preoccupation of the (post)apartheid imaginary. The role of such images is approached, secondly, through the lens of affect theory which eschews a representational ‘reading’ of such images in favour of attention to their asignifying intensities and the role they play in effectively constituting such bodies. Lastly, Judith Butler’s discussion of war photography and the conditions of grievability introduces an ethical dimension to the discussion and helps draw attention to the unsavory relations of enjoyment occasioned by such images

Metal-based imaging agents: progress towards interrogating neurodegenerative disease.

Central nervous system (CNS) neurodegeneration is defined by a complex series of pathological processes that ultimately lead to death. The precise etiology of these disorders remains unknown. Recent efforts show that a mechanistic understanding of the malfunctions underpinning disease progression will prove requisite in developing new treatments and cures. Transition metals and lanthanide ions display unique characteristics (i.e., magnetism, radioactivity, and luminescence), often with biological relevance, allowing for direct application in CNS focused imaging modalities. These techniques include positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and luminescent-based imaging (LumI). In this Tutorial Review, we have aimed to highlight the various metal-based imaging techniques developed in the effort to understand the pathophysiological processes associated with neurodegeneration. Each section has been divided so as to include an introduction to the particular imaging technique in question. This is then followed by a summary of key demonstrations that have enabled visualization of a specific neuropathological biomarker. These strategies have either exploited the high binding affinity of a receptor for its corresponding biomarker or a specific molecular transformation caused by a target species, all of which produce a concomitant change in diagnostic signal. Advantages and disadvantages of each method with perspectives on the utility of molecular imaging agents for understanding the complexities of neurodegenerative disease are discussed

Judging distance across texture discontinuities

Sinai et al (1998 Nature 395 497 - 500) showed that less distance is perceived along a ground surface that spans two differently textured regions than along a surface that is uniformly textured. We examined the effect of texture continuity on judged distance using computer-generated displays of simulated surfaces in five experiments. Discontinuities were produced by using different textures, the same texture reversed in contrast, or the same texture shifted horizontally. The simulated surface was either a ground plane or a frontoparallel plane. For all textures and both orientations, less distance was judged in the discontinuous conditions than in continuous conditions. We propose that when a surface contains a texture discontinuity, a small area adjacent to the perceived boundary is excluded from judged distances