Nurses’ responses in spiritual encounters with patients, and issues that influenced these responses; a comparison of medical nurses, oncology nurses and Macmillan nurses

Background Spiritual care is considered an important aspect of palliative care. Patients with heart failure have palliative care needs, but are more likely than those with cancer to be cared for on general wards. Aims To explore the responses of nurses in encounters that could be considered spiritual and issues that influenced these responses, and to explore the differences between medical ward nurses, oncology ward/department nurses and Macmillan nurses. Methods The Critical Incident Technique, with semi-structured interviews of 9 medical, 9 oncology and 9 Macmillan nurses. Demographical data was collected using a questionnaire. Setting A regional hospital and the Macmillan nursing service in the Highlands of Scotland. Results Nurses constantly negotiated the boundaries between what is and what is not appropriate in the nursing role. There was a tension between their role to respect patients’ beliefs and wishes and to minimise stress and suffering. The nurses were thrown into conflict when patients refused optimal symptom relief or when those who were not terminally ill refused life saving treatment. In this study, providing comfort, relieving suffering and saving lives that could be saved, took priority over patients’ religious and spiritual beliefs or wishes. The Macmillan nurses felt less responsible for providing answers or resolutions, and were more likely to use a pathway of listening, discussing, exploring and clarifying. The medical nurses worked in an environment that often was not conducive to provide spiritual care, with less access to support than the other nurses. Conclusion Medical ward nurses need appropriate support and preparation, as well as the time and space to provide holistic care. Some of the Macmillan nurses’ skills would be transferable to nurses working in any area of nursing. A greater understanding of the reasons for various religious beliefs and wishes may help nurses to accept them more fully, which may reduce stress both in nurses and patients

Cultivation and analysis of anthocyanins containing-, blue potatoes

Anthocyanins, as secondary plant substance in different agricultural crops such as potatoes and cereals have positive effects on health due to their antioxidant capacity. Therefore food industry, nutritional medicine and consumers have an increasing interest in these crops. The objectives of the interdisciplinary research project (AGIP) starting in march 2006 are ascertainment and assessment of the impact of different agricultural production processes and production intensities. Furthermore, the impact of different ways of food preparation concerning anthocyanin content and antioxidative capacity in selected cultivated plants will be tested. Main focus will be on potatoes due to the fact that potatoes as a staple food are consumed in large quantities. Therefore potatoes can be an important quantitative source for anthocyanins

Dynamical Effects from Asteroid Belts for Planetary Systems

The orbital evolution and stability of planetary systems with interaction from the belts is studied using the standard phase-plane analysis. In addition to the fixed point which corresponds to the Keplerian orbit, there are other fixed points around the inner and outer edges of the belt. Our results show that for the planets, the probability to move stably around the inner edge is larger than the one to move around the outer edge. It is also interesting that there is a limit cycle of semi-attractor for a particular case. Applying our results to the Solar System, we find that our results could provide a natural mechanism to do the orbit rearrangement for the larger Kuiper Belt Objects and thus successfully explain the absence of these objects beyond 50 AU.Comment: accepted by International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos in Aug. 2003, AAS Latex, 27 pages with 6 color figure

Infrastructure for genomic interactions: Bioconductor classes for Hi-C, ChIA-PET and related experiments [version 1; referees: 2 approved]

The study of genomic interactions has been greatly facilitated by techniques such as chromatin conformation capture with high-throughput sequencing (Hi-C). These genome-wide experiments generate large amounts of data that require careful analysis to obtain useful biological conclusions. However, development of the appropriate software tools is hindered by the lack of basic infrastructure to represent and manipulate genomic interaction data. Here, we present the InteractionSet package that provides classes to represent genomic interactions and store their associated experimental data, along with the methods required for low-level manipulation and processing of those classes. The InteractionSet package exploits existing infrastructure in the open-source Bioconductor project, while in turn being used by Bioconductor packages designed for higher-level analyses. For new packages, use of the functionality in InteractionSet will simplify development, allow access to more features and improve interoperability between packages.Cancer Research UK (Grant ID: A17197)This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from F1000 Research via http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.8759.

Bifurcation for Dynamical Systems of Planet-Belt Interaction

The dynamical systems of planet-belt interaction are studied by the fixed-point analysis and the bifurcation of solutions on the parameter space is discussed. For most cases, our analytical and numerical results show that the locations of fixed points are determined by the parameters and these fixed points are either structurally stable or unstable. In addition to that, there are two special fixed points: the one on the inner edge of the belt is asymptotically stable and the one on the outer edge of the belt is unstable. This is consistent with the observational picture of Asteroid Belt between the Mars and Jupiter: the Mars is moving stablely close to the inner edge but the Jupiter is quite far from the outer edge.Comment: AAS Latex file, 31 pages, accepted for publication in International Journal of Bifurcation and Chao

Lead-based paint on playground equipment in public children’s parks in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni

Objective. To determine the use of lead-based paint in public playgrounds in the municipalities of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.Methods. Forty-nine public parks were selected from the municipalities of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni. Lead levels in paint on playground equipment were measured in situ using a hand-held Thermo Scientific NITON XLP 700 Series X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyser.Results. Playground lead levels ranged from ‘too low to detect’ to 10.4 mg/cm2. The mean and median lead concentrations were 1.9 mg/cm2 and 0.9 mg/cm2 respectively. Forty-eight per cent of lead paint measurements exceeded the internationally accepted reference level of 1 mg/cm2.Conclusion. The study shows that lead-based paint is widely used in public playgrounds in the three study municipalities, and most likely throughout South Africa. We suggest key actions to ensure that children’s playgrounds in South Africa are lead-free zones, and that childhood lead exposure in these settings is prevented

Effects of Probiotic Bacillus sp. on Food Convertion and Growth of Catfish Pangasius hypophthalmus

A triplicate experiment was conducted to evaluate the addition of probiotic Bacillus sp. into the diet on feed convertion and growth of catfish Pangasius hypophthalmus. Twenty fish with an initial body weight of 1,85 ± 0,09 g were stocked in a 60-1 aquarium. During rearing period, fish were fed on the diet three times a day at satiation. Prior the feeding, probiotic (contained Bacillus sp. 4,2x106 CFU.ml-1) were added into the diet at a dosage of 0, 5, 15 or 25 ml.kg-1 diet. The probiotic were added once a day at the noon. The results showed that maximum protein retention, lipid retention, growth rate, and minimum feed convertion was found in the group of fish fed on the diet supplemented with 15 ml probiotic kg-1 diet. Irrespective to the dosage of probiotic, food consumption and survival rate of fish were the same among the treatments. Key words : Probiotic. Bacillus sp.. catfish Pangasius hypophthalmus.   ABSTRAK Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui dosis yang optimal dari probiotik Bacillus sp. yang ditambahkan pada pakan komersil terhadap konversi pakan dan pertumbuhan benih ikan patin Pangasius hypophthalmus. Dua puluh ekor ikan patin dengan bobot rata-rata 1.85 ± 0,09 g ditebar dalam setiap akuarium frekuensi 50x40x35 cm yang diisi air 60 1. Selama 40 had masa pemeliharaan. ikan diberi pakan buatan berkadar protein 27% dengan frekwensi tiga kali sehari, at satiation. Sebelum diberikan ke ikan, pakan tersebut ditambah produk probiotik (mengandung Bacillus sp. 4,2 x 106 CFU/ml) dengan dosis 0, 5, 15 atau 25 ml/kg pakan. Pakan yang mengandung probiotik hanya diberikan sekali setiap hari, yakni pada pukul 13.00. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa adanya penambahan probiotik dalam pakan sampai dosis 15 ml/kg pakan menyebabkan terjadinya peningkatan retensi protein, retensi lemak dan laju pertumbuhan harian ikan, serta menurunkan konversi pakan. Penambahan probiotik lebih lanjut (25 ml/kg pakan) menurunkan kinerja pertumbuhan di atas. Sementara itu. kelompok ikan di setiap perlakuan mengkonsumsi pakan dalam jumlah yang tidak berbeda nyata, yaitu antara 132,43 g sampai 137,84 g. Hasil penelitian juga menunjukkan bahwa penambahan probiotik di dalam pakan tidak memberikan adanya perbedaan yang nyata terhadap tingkat kelangsungan hidup ikan, yaitu antara 98,3% - 100%. Kata kunci: Probiotik. Bacillus sp.. ikan patin Pangasius hypophthalmu