Admission assessment: Linking a standardized admission exam to nursing program outcomes

This article reports the results of an academic program evaluation in which standardized admission test scores are compared to intermediate and final program outcomes. We used two intermediate program measures of progress-first semester nursing grades and performance on a standardized exit exam prior to graduation. Program final outcomes compared are student attrition and graduate nurses’ performance on the NCLEX-RN. The analysis resulted in identifying statistically significant relationships between entrance exam scores and first semester grades. Statistically significant relationships were seen between entrance exam scores and performance on a pre-graduation exit exam. There was a statistically significant relationship between entrance exam scores and NCLEX-RN pass rates. These results indicate that admission testing is a viable option for use as part of an admission process for baccalaureate nursing programs

Adding insult to injury:Illegitimate stressors and their association with situational well-being, social self-esteem, and desire for revenge

Implying an offense to self, appraising a stressor as indicating a lack of consideration by others should have effects beyond its stressfulness per se. In Stress-as-Offense-to-Self theory (SOS), such stressors are called “illegitimate stressors.” We assessed situations appraised as stressful in two diary studies (N 1 = 117, N 2 = 137). Outcome variables were feelings of resentment in both studies, plus nervousness, anxiety, and sadness in Study 1 and depressive mood, threat to social self-esteem, and desire for revenge in Study 2. Controlling for stressfulness, perceived illegitimacy predicted affective reactions that are outward-directed (feelings of resentment [Studies 1 and 2], threat to social self-esteem and desire for revenge [Study 2]); it also predicted sadness in Study 1 but not depressive mood in Study 2, nor nervousness (Study 1). Thus, not all hypotheses were confirmed but the pattern was as expected, in that results were consistent regarding outcomes typically associated with the attribution of blame. The independent contribution of perceived illegitimacy aligns well with the underlying Stress-as-Offense-to-Self theory. Practical implications refer to efforts to avoid illegitimate stressors, for instance by perspective-taking, by showing appreciation and support, and by supporting such behaviours through keeping stressors in general at a manageable level

The relationship between hospital patients' ratings of quality of care and communication

Objective To assess the relationship between hospital patients' quality of care ratings and their experiences with health-related information exchanges and communication during hospitalization. Design Cross-sectional multivariate dimensional analysis of data from a quality of care experience questionnaire of hospital patients comparing scores across three levels of reported satisfaction. Setting and participants Five thousand nine hundred and fifty-two patients from a Swiss University Hospital responded to the questionnaire at discharge during 2010. Main outcome measures Survey questions measuring patients' evaluation of quality of care, patient loyalty and overall satisfaction. Results Different levels of reported satisfaction are associated with differing experiences of health-related information and communication during a hospital stay. Conclusions Patients who report lower satisfaction appear to attribute to the hospital staff enduring negative dispositions from behaviours that may be due to specific situational contexts. Negative experiences appear to influence scores on most other communication and information domains. Patients who report higher satisfaction, in contrast, appear to differentiate negative experiences and positive experiences and they appear to relativize and compartmentalize negative experiences associated with their hospital sta

Association studies of up to 1.2 million individuals yield new insights into the genetic etiology of tobacco and alcohol use.

Tobacco and alcohol use are leading causes of mortality that influence risk for many complex diseases and disorders1. They are heritable2,3 and etiologically related4,5 behaviors that have been resistant to gene discovery efforts6-11. In sample sizes up to 1.2 million individuals, we discovered 566 genetic variants in 406 loci associated with multiple stages of tobacco use (initiation, cessation, and heaviness) as well as alcohol use, with 150 loci evidencing pleiotropic association. Smoking phenotypes were positively genetically correlated with many health conditions, whereas alcohol use was negatively correlated with these conditions, such that increased genetic risk for alcohol use is associated with lower disease risk. We report evidence for the involvement of many systems in tobacco and alcohol use, including genes involved in nicotinic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission. The results provide a solid starting point to evaluate the effects of these loci in model organisms and more precise substance use measures

Linking Brand Equity to Customer Equity

equity and brand equity are two of the most important topics to academic researchers and practition-ers. As part of the 2005 Thought Leaders Conference held at the University of Connecticut, the authors were asked to review what was known and not known about the relationship between brand equity and customer equity. During their discussions, it became clear that whereas two distinct research streams have emerged and there are distinct differences, the concepts are also highly related. It also became clear that whereas the focus of both brand equity and customer equity research has been on the end consumer, there is a need for research to understand the intermediary’s perspective (e.g., the value of the brand to the retailer and the value of a customer to a retailer) and the consumer’s perspective (e.g., the value of the brand versus the value of the retailer). This article represents general conclusions from the authors ’ discussion and suggests a modeling approach that could be used to investigate linkages between brand equity and customer equity as well as a modeling approach to determine the value of the manufacturer to a retailer

The Ccr4-Not Complex Interacts with the mRNA Export Machinery

The Ccr4-Not complex is a key eukaryotic regulator of gene transcription and cytoplasmic mRNA degradation. Whether this complex also affects aspects of post-transcriptional gene regulation, such as mRNA export, remains largely unexplored. Human Caf1 (hCaf1), a Ccr4-Not complex member, interacts with and regulates the arginine methyltransferase PRMT1, whose targets include RNA binding proteins involved in mRNA export. However, the functional significance of this regulation is poorly understood.Here we demonstrate using co-immunoprecipitation approaches that Ccr4-Not subunits interact with Hmt1, the budding yeast ortholog of PRMT1. Furthermore, using genetic and biochemical approaches, we demonstrate that Ccr4-Not physically and functionally interacts with the heterogenous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) Nab2 and Hrp1, and that the physical association depends on Hmt1 methyltransferase activity. Using mass spectrometry, co-immunoprecipitation and genetic approaches, we also uncover physical and functional interactions between Ccr4-Not subunits and components of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) and we provide evidence that these interactions impact mRNA export.Taken together, our findings suggest that Ccr4-Not has previously unrealized functional connections to the mRNA processing/export pathway that are likely important for its role in gene expression. These results shed further insight into the biological functions of Ccr4-Not and suggest that this complex is involved in all aspects of mRNA biogenesis, from the regulation of transcription to mRNA export and turnover

Search for the Epoch of Reionisation with HERA: Upper Limits on the Closure Phase Delay Power Spectrum

Radio interferometers aiming to measure the power spectrum of the redshifted 21 cm line during the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) need to achieve an unprecedented dynamic range to separate the weak signal from overwhelming foreground emissions. Calibration inaccuracies can compromise the sensitivity of these measurements to the effect that a detection of the EoR is precluded. An alternative to standard analysis techniques makes use of the closure phase, which allows one to bypass antenna-based direction-independent calibration. Similarly to standard approaches, we use a delay spectrum technique to search for the EoR signal. Using 94 nights of data observed with Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), we place approximate constraints on the 21 cm power spectrum at $z=7.7$. We find at 95% confidence that the 21 cm EoR brightness temperature is $\le$(372)$^2$ "pseudo" mK$^2$ at 1.14 "pseudo" $h$ Mpc$^{-1}$, where the "pseudo" emphasises that these limits are to be interpreted as approximations to the actual distance scales and brightness temperatures. Using a fiducial EoR model, we demonstrate the feasibility of detecting the EoR with the full array. Compared to standard methods, the closure phase processing is relatively simple, thereby providing an important independent check on results derived using visibility intensities, or related.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication by MNRA

Genetic diversity fuels gene discovery for tobacco and alcohol use

Tobacco and alcohol use are heritable behaviours associated with 15% and 5.3% of worldwide deaths, respectively, due largely to broad increased risk for disease and injury(1-4). These substances are used across the globe, yet genome-wide association studies have focused largely on individuals of European ancestries(5). Here we leveraged global genetic diversity across 3.4 million individuals from four major clines of global ancestry (approximately 21% non-European) to power the discovery and fine-mapping of genomic loci associated with tobacco and alcohol use, to inform function of these loci via ancestry-aware transcriptome-wide association studies, and to evaluate the genetic architecture and predictive power of polygenic risk within and across populations. We found that increases in sample size and genetic diversity improved locus identification and fine-mapping resolution, and that a large majority of the 3,823 associated variants (from 2,143 loci) showed consistent effect sizes across ancestry dimensions. However, polygenic risk scores developed in one ancestry performed poorly in others, highlighting the continued need to increase sample sizes of diverse ancestries to realize any potential benefit of polygenic prediction.Peer reviewe