Nurses\u27 understanding and management of iron deficiency in Australia: A cross-sectional, exploratory study

Objectives: To assess the experiences and knowledge of nurses in the area of iron deficiency. Design: A cross-sectional, exploratory study using online survey. Setting: Data were collected from nurses working at various primary, secondary and tertiary Australian health practices and organisations. Participants: Australian nurses currently in practice. Method: Australian nurses currently in practice were invited to complete an online survey about their work background, personal experiences with iron deficiency and iron-deficiency identification and treatment. The survey included a nine-item questionnaire to assess knowledge of iron-deficiency risk factors and biochemistry. Results: A total of 534 eligible nurses participated in the survey. Participants were more likely to be female, aged 55-64 years, and working in general practice. Just under half (45.1 %) reported being diagnosed with iron deficiency themselves. Unusual fatigue or tiredness was the most frequent symptom that alerted nurses to potential iron deficiency in patients (reported by 91.9 % of nurses). Nurses who had participated in formal training around iron deficiency in the last 5 years demonstrated a significantly higher knowledge score (4.2 ± 2.1) compared with those who had not or were not sure about their formal training status (3.7 ± 1.9, p = 0.035). Knowledge around the understanding of functional iron deficiency was limited. Conclusions: Nurses report personal experiences of iron deficiency and show good knowledge of symptoms, demonstrating the potential for them to take a leading role in managing iron deficiency in patients. Educational programmes are required to address knowledge gaps and should be offered via various methods to accommodate a diverse nurse cohort. Our research highlights the potential for an expanded scope of practice for nurses in the primary care setting in the area of iron deficiency

Assessment of Influence and Inter-Relationships of Soil Properties in Irrigated Rice Fields of Bangladesh by GIS and Factor Analysis

Rosana G. Moreira, Editor-in-Chief; Texas A&M UniversityThis is a paper from International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR, Commission Internationale du Genie Rural) E-Journal Volume 9 (2007): Assessment of Influence and Inter-Relationships of Soil Properties in Irrigated Rice Fields of Bangladesh by GIS and Factor Analysis. Manuscript LW 07 022. Vol. IX. November, 2007

Energy saving scoop type rotary tiller blade for deep tillage

The energy consumption for the land preparation is excessive during the primary and secondarytillage operations; because of the high draft force required. Many researchers were reported that thereverse rotational rotary ti lIer had an advantage for the deep ti IIing on the power req uirement comparedto the conventional rotary tiller. The reverse rotational rotary tiller can be used for deep tillage withless energy requirement. Three types of scoop type rotary tiller blades were fabricated by changingdesign parameters of the horizontal portion of the scoop surface of the blade for reverse rotational inorder to minimize the re-tillage during deep tillage achieving low power consumption. Blades withcutting angles 25°, 35 and 55° were tested with conventional blade (45° cutting angle) at 15.6% soilmoisture conditions.When compared the maximum power and the torque at maximum power, blade with angle 35° showedbest performance, while others were in the order of conventional type (45°»55°>25°. In terms of soiltilth, significantly better performances were shown by the blades with angles 35° and 45° with reducingbulk density and cone penetration resistance values. Blade with angle 35° showed highest backwardthrowing distance as 660 mrn. Blade with angle 55° showed lower backward throwing distance.Blade with angle 35° performed best with lowest power consumption, higher pulverization and backwardthrowing ability and can be recommended for reverse rotation in deep tillage

An Investigation into the effect of monocultural plantation of eucalyptus camaldulensis on soil fertility status

The effect of Eucalyptus camaldulensis monoculture on soil fertility statusin the dry zone was studied comparatively with another monoculture of Tectonagrandis and a naturalforest located in the same area over a period of 5 months.Total litter production of Eucalyptus was 370.68 kglha as compared with1349.07 kglha in Tectona grandis (study period overlapped the leaf senescence)and 217.75 kglha in the natural forest. Litter decomposition was 40.22% inEucalyptus while it was 40.27% and 44.95% in naturalforest, and Tectona respectively.Nutrient release to litter at the time of fall did not differ between thevegetation types. However, it differed between the tree components and nutrients,the orders being leaves>twigs>bark and N>P>K>Ca.Significant differences (p;;;::0.05)were seen in moisture content, pH, organicmatter content, total nitrogen percentage, available potassium and calcium betweenthe soils in the vegetation types

IMECE2004-60039 IMPLEMENTATION OF HIGH BANDWIDTH SENSOR ARRAYS USING FEEDBACK MECHANISMS

ABSTRACT Proposed in this paper is a new method to implement the high operating bandwidth sensor arrays. In certain control applications, it is necessary that a high bandwidth sensor be used to improve the efficiency of feedback. The design of a single sensor with the desired high bandwidth may not be easy and economically feasible. It is shown that the idea of sensor arrays can be utilized to obtain a cost effective and efficient solution to the problem posed. It is discussed that an effective data fusion scheme is necessary in order to implement the proposed sensor array that consists of low bandwidth pass-band sensors with possible overlapping operating regions. Moreover, we point out that obtaining accurate sensor models may not be always easy in practice and this may make the proposed sensor arrays inapplicable for certain applications. To address this issue, a new implementation scheme that utilizes feedback mechanisms to combine multi-sensor data is developed. The proposed framework is validated using simulation examples

Impact of Salmonid alphavirus infection in diploid and triploid Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) fry

With increasing interest in the use of triploid salmon in commercial aquaculture, gaining an understanding of how economically important pathogens affect triploid stocks is important. To compare the susceptibility of diploid and triploid Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) to viral pathogens, fry were experimentally infected with Salmonid alphavirus sub-type 1 (SAV1), the aetiological agent of pancreas disease (PD) affecting Atlantic salmon aquaculture in Europe. Three groups of fry were exposed to the virus via different routes of infection: intraperitoneal injection (IP), bath immersion, or cohabitation (co-hab) and untreated fry were used as a control group. Mortalities commenced in the co-hab challenged diploid and triploid fish from 11 days post infection (dpi), and the experiment was terminated at 17 dpi. Both diploid and triploid IP challenged groups had similar levels of cumulative mortality at the end of the experimental period (41.1 % and 38.9 % respectively), and these were significantly higher (p < 0.01) than for the other challenge routes. A TaqMan-based quantitative PCR was used to assess SAV load in the heart, a main target organ of the virus, and also liver, which does not normally display any pathological changes during clinical infections, but exhibited severe degenerative lesions in the present study. The median viral RNA copy number was higher in diploid fish compared to triploid fish in both the heart and the liver of all three challenged groups. However, a significant statistical difference (p < 0.05) was only apparent in the liver of the co-hab groups. Diploid fry also displayed significantly higher levels of pancreatic and myocardial degeneration than triploids. This study showed that both diploid and triploid fry are susceptible to experimental SAV1 infection. The lower virus load seen in the triploids compared to the diploids may possibly be related to differences in cell metabolism between the two groups, however, further investigation is necessary to confirm this and also to assess the outcome of PD outbreaks in other developmental stages of the fish when maintained in commercial production systems

Venezuela e ALBA: regionalismo contra-hegemônico e ensino superior para todos

Partindo de um quadro teórico neo-gramsciano crítico à globalização, este artigo aplica a nova teoria do regionalismo (NTR) e a teoria do regionalismo regulatório (TRR) à sua análise e teorização dos tratados de comércio da Aliança Bolivariana para os Povos da Nossa América (ALBA-TCP) como regionalismo contra-hegemônico na América Latina e Caribe (ALC). A ALBA está centrada na ideia de um Socialismo do Século XXI, que, como (inicialmente) também a Revolução Bolivariana da Venezuela, substitui a 'vantagem competitiva' pela 'vantagem cooperativa'. Em seu caráter de conjunto de processos multidimensionais e transnacionais a ALBA-TCP opera dentro de/transversalmente a um número de setores e escalas, ao mesmo passo que as transformações estruturais são movidas pela interação de agentes do Estado e agentes não estatais. A política de Educação Superior para Todos (ESPT) do governo venezuelano rejeita a agenda neoliberal globalizada de mercadorização, privatização e elitismo e reinvindica educação pública gratuita em todos os níveis como um direito humano fundamental. A ESPT está sendo regionalizado em um espaço educacional emergente da ALBA e assume um papel-chave nos processos de democracia direta e participatória, dos quais a construção popular (bottom-up) da contra-hegemonia e a redefinição política e econômica da ALC dependem. Antes de produzir sujeitos empreendedores conformes ao capitalismo global, a ESPT procura formar subjetividades ao longo de valores morais de solidariedade e cooperação. Isso será ilustrado com referência a um estudo etnográfico de caso da Universidade Bolivariana da Venezuela (UBV).This paper employs new regionalism theory and regulatory regionalism theory in its analysis and theorisation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) as a counter-hegemonic Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) regionalism. As (initially) the regionalisation of Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution, ALBA is centred around the idea of a 21st Century Socialism that replaces the 'competitive advantage' with the 'cooperative advantage'. ALBA, as a set of multi-dimensional inter- and transnational processes, operates within and across a range of sectors and scales whilst the structural transformations are driven by the interplay of state and non-state actors. The Venezuelan government's Higher Education For All (HEFA) policy, which is being regionalised within an emergent ALBA education space, assumes a key role in the direct democratic and participatory democratic processes upon which a bottom-up construction of counter-hegemony depends. HEFA challenges the globalised neoliberal higher education agenda of commoditisation, privatisation and elitism. Rather than producing enterprising subjects fashioned for global capitalism, HEFA seeks to form subjectivities along the moral values of solidarity and cooperation

Nonperturbative renormalization group approach to frustrated magnets

This article is devoted to the study of the critical properties of classical XY and Heisenberg frustrated magnets in three dimensions. We first analyze the experimental and numerical situations. We show that the unusual behaviors encountered in these systems, typically nonuniversal scaling, are hardly compatible with the hypothesis of a second order phase transition. We then review the various perturbative and early nonperturbative approaches used to investigate these systems. We argue that none of them provides a completely satisfactory description of the three-dimensional critical behavior. We then recall the principles of the nonperturbative approach - the effective average action method - that we have used to investigate the physics of frustrated magnets. First, we recall the treatment of the unfrustrated - O(N) - case with this method. This allows to introduce its technical aspects. Then, we show how this method unables to clarify most of the problems encountered in the previous theoretical descriptions of frustrated magnets. Firstly, we get an explanation of the long-standing mismatch between different perturbative approaches which consists in a nonperturbative mechanism of annihilation of fixed points between two and three dimensions. Secondly, we get a coherent picture of the physics of frustrated magnets in qualitative and (semi-) quantitative agreement with the numerical and experimental results. The central feature that emerges from our approach is the existence of scaling behaviors without fixed or pseudo-fixed point and that relies on a slowing-down of the renormalization group flow in a whole region in the coupling constants space. This phenomenon allows to explain the occurence of generic weak first order behaviors and to understand the absence of universality in the critical behavior of frustrated magnets.Comment: 58 pages, 15 PS figure

(INVITED) Methods for determining the refractive indices and thermo-optic coefficients of chalcogenide glasses at MIR wavelengths

Chalcogenide glasses have attracted much attention for the realization of photonic components owing to their outstanding optical properties in the mid-infrared (MIR) region. However, relatively few refractive index dispersion data are presently available for these glasses at MIR wavelengths. This paper presents a mini review of methods we have both used and developed to determine the refractive indices and thermo-optic coefficients of chalcogenide glasses at MIR wavelengths, and is supported by new results. The mini review should be useful to both new and established researchers in the chalcogenide glass field and fields of MIR optics, fiber-optics and waveguides. Three groups of methods are distinguished: (1) spectroscopic ellipsometry, (2) prism-based methods, and (3) methods using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) transmission data. The mini review is supported by a brief discussion of refractive index models

Effect of ionic activity products on the structure and composition of mineral self assembled on three-dimensional poly(lactide- co -glycolide) scaffolds

A biomimetic approach involving the self-assembly of mineral within the pores of three-dimensional porous polymer scaffolds is a promising strategy to integrate advantages of inorganic and organic phases into a single material for hard tissue engineering. Such a material enhances the ability of progenitor cells to differentiate down an osteoblast lineage in vitro and in vivo , compared with polymer scaffolds. The mechanisms regulating mineral formation in this one-step process, however, are poorly understood, especially the effects of ionic activity products (IP) of the mineralizing solution and incubation time. The aims of this study were to define the structure and composition of mineral formed within the pores of biodegradable polymer scaffolds as a function of IP and time. Three-dimensional poly(lactide- co -glycolide) scaffolds were fabricated by solvent casting/particulate leaching and incubated for 4–16 days in six variants of simulated body fluid whose IPs were varied by adjusting ionic concentrations. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy demonstrated the formation of carbonated apatite with sub-micrometer sized crystals that grew into spherical globules extending out of the scaffold pore surfaces. As IP increased, more mineral grew on the scaffold pore surfaces, but the apatite became less crystalline and the Ca/P molar ratio decreased from 1.63 ± 0.005 to 1.51 ± 0.002. Since morphology, composition, and structure of mineral are factors that affect cell function, this study demonstrates that the IP of the mineralizing solution is an important modulator of material properties, potentially leading to enhanced control of cell function. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2007Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57403/1/31437_ftp.pd