4,848 research outputs found
Experiences of nursing students undertaking clinical placement in a bachelor degree : a perspective of diversity
University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Health.Evidence suggests that nursing studentsâ diverse cultures and backgrounds may have a less positive experience than mainstream students during their clinical placement and leave their nursing courses at higher rates, but whether their clinical experiences play a role is unclear. Further, little is known about which socio-demographic characteristics or attributes if any, may lead to nursing students feeling different to their peers during their clinical placements and how this may affect the quality of their clinical experiences. There is therefore a need to better understand these effects not only from the studentâs perspective but from the perspective of the staff who supervise them, in order to ensure students obtain maximal benefit from their placements.
This study, âExploring Diversity Among Nursing students (EDAN) on clinical placementâ, used a mixed methods approach involving an anonymous web-based survey. A broad-based definition of diversity described by Loden and Rosener (1991) was modified and used to include age, gender, ethnicity (including language and religious belief), sexual orientation, educational background, income, marital status, parental status, work experience and disability. First, second and third year students undertaking any Bachelor of Nursing course (N=704) and university staff involved in the clinical learning environment (N = 165) were recruited from seven Australian universities.
Both quantitative and qualitative data indicated that diversity attributes affect studentsâ experience on clinical placement. When comparing the sociodemographic characteristics of those who felt different with those who did not, students who were older, male, International, had previous nursing experience, had lesser English language skills, a previous degree, non - Australian born and not in paid employment were more likely to report feeling different (p <0.001 for all characteristics except not in paid employment p <0.05). Analysis of the open-ended comments refined three themes under the construct of diversity, Difference, Difficulties and Discrimination. Subthemes within the theme of Difference were âbeing and feelingâ and âexperience, exposure and expectationâ. Within the theme of Difficulty were the subthemes ânot prepared for diversityâ encountered during the placements, âspeaking upâ about the challenges, and âsurviving financiallyâ, the financial impact of a reduction or absence of part-time employment. The subthemes within Discrimination were âprejudices do prevailâ, âsend them homeâ and âwalked awayâ. The finding that students and workforce staff for whom English is a second language affected the clinical and learning experiences of students who spoke English as a first language has not been previously reported.
The model proposed used in this study, based on diversity theories was supported by the findings and also helped to identify where further research is required. The findings are important to enable the provision of appropriate support for nursing students who feel different because of socio-demographic characteristics and will also provide guidance for universities developing curricula and the clinical placement facilities where students obtain their experience. More importantly, there is an urgent need for Australia to develop a national profile of nursing students. Changes in the socio-demographic characteristics of the nursing student population have occurred and will continue. These must be acknowledged and strategies developed both locally and nationally to manage these changes
Functional genomics and expression analysis of the Corynebacterium glutamicum fpr2-cysIXHDNYZ gene cluster involved in assimilatory sulphate reduction
RĂŒckert C, Koch DJ, Rey DA, et al. Functional genomics and expression analysis of the Corynebacterium glutamicum fpr2-cysIXHDNYZ gene cluster involved in assimilatory sulphate reduction. BMC Genomics. 2005;6(1): 121.Background: Corynebacterium glutamicum is a high-GC Gram-positive soil bacterium of great biotechnological importance for the production of amino acids. To facilitate the rational design of sulphur amino acid-producing strains, the pathway for assimilatory sulphate reduction providing the necessary reduced sulfur moieties has to be known. Although this pathway has been well studied in Gram-negative bacteria like Escherichia coli and low-GC Gram-positives like Bacillus subtilis, little is known for the Actinomycetales and other high-GC Gram-positive bacteria. Results: The genome sequence of C. glutamicum was searched for genes involved in the assimilatory reduction of inorganic sulphur compounds. A cluster of eight candidate genes could be identified by combining sequence similarity searches with a subsequent synteny analysis between C. glutamicum and the closely related C. efficiens. Using mutational analysis, seven of the eight candidate genes, namely cysZ, cysY, cysN, cysD, cysH, cysX, and cysI, were demonstrated to be involved in the reduction of inorganic sulphur compounds. For three of the up to now unknown genes possible functions could be proposed: CysZ is likely to be the sulphate permease, while CysX and CysY are possibly involved in electron transfer and cofactor biosynthesis, respectively. Finally, the candidate gene designated fpr2 influences sulphur utilisation only weakly and might be involved in electron transport for the reduction of sulphite. Real-time RT-PCR experiments revealed that cysIXHDNYZ form an operon and that transcription of the extended cluster fpr2 cysIXHDNYZ is strongly influenced by the availability of inorganic sulphur, as well as L-cysteine. Mapping of the fpr2 and cysIXHDNYZ promoters using RACE-PCR indicated that both promoters overlap with binding-sites of the transcriptional repressor McbR, suggesting an involvement of McbR in the observed regulation. Comparative genomics revealed that large parts of the extended cluster are conserved in 11 of 17 completely sequenced members of the Actinomycetales. Conclusion: The set of C. glutamicum genes involved in assimilatory model organisms E. coli and B. subtilis is used by members of this order, providing the basis for further biochemical studies.sulphate reduction was identified and four novel genes involved in this pathway were found. The high degree of conservation of this cluster among the Actinomycetales supports the hypothesis that a different metabolic pathway for the reduction of inorganic sulphur compounds than that known from the well-studied model organisms E. coli and B. subtilis is used by members of this order, providing the basis for further biochemical studies
Expression of a beta-adrenergic receptor kinase 1 inhibitor prevents the development of myocardial failure in gene-targeted mice.
Heart failure is accompanied by severely impaired beta-adrenergic receptor (betaAR) function, which includes loss of betaAR density and functional uncoupling of remaining receptors. An important mechanism for the rapid desensitization of betaAR function is agonist-stimulated receptor phosphorylation by the betaAR kinase (betaARK1), an enzyme known to be elevated in failing human heart tissue. To investigate whether alterations in betaAR function contribute to the development of myocardial failure, transgenic mice with cardiac-restricted overexpression of either a peptide inhibitor of betaARK1 or the beta2AR were mated into a genetic model of murine heart failure (MLP-/-). In vivo cardiac function was assessed by echocardiography and cardiac catheterization. Both MLP-/- and MLP-/-/beta2AR mice had enlarged left ventricular (LV) chambers with significantly reduced fractional shortening and mean velocity of circumferential fiber shortening. In contrast, MLP-/-/betaARKct mice had normal LV chamber size and function. Basal LV contractility in the MLP-/-/betaARKct mice, as measured by LV dP/dtmax, was increased significantly compared with the MLP-/- mice but less than controls. Importantly, heightened betaAR desensitization in the MLP-/- mice, measured in vivo (responsiveness to isoproterenol) and in vitro (isoproterenol-stimulated membrane adenylyl cyclase activity), was completely reversed with overexpression of the betaARK1 inhibitor. We report here the striking finding that overexpression of this inhibitor prevents the development of cardiomyopathy in this murine model of heart failure. These findings implicate abnormal betaAR-G protein coupling in the pathogenesis of the failing heart and point the way toward development of agents to inhibit betaARK1 as a novel mode of therapy
On the generalized Davenport constant and the Noether number
Known results on the generalized Davenport constant related to zero-sum
sequences over a finite abelian group are extended to the generalized Noether
number related to the rings of polynomial invariants of an arbitrary finite
group. An improved general upper bound is given on the degrees of polynomial
invariants of a non-cyclic finite group which cut out the zero vector.Comment: 14 page
Noiseless nonreciprocity in a parametric active device
Nonreciprocal devices such as circulators and isolators belong to an
important class of microwave components employed in applications like the
measurement of mesoscopic circuits at cryogenic temperatures. The measurement
protocols usually involve an amplification chain which relies on circulators to
separate input and output channels and to suppress backaction from different
stages on the sample under test. In these devices the usual reciprocal symmetry
of circuits is broken by the phenomenon of Faraday rotation based on magnetic
materials and fields. However, magnets are averse to on-chip integration, and
magnetic fields are deleterious to delicate superconducting devices. Here we
present a new proposal combining two stages of parametric modulation emulating
the action of a circulator. It is devoid of magnetic components and suitable
for on-chip integration. As the design is free of any dissipative elements and
based on reversible operation, the device operates noiselessly, giving it an
important advantage over other nonreciprocal active devices for quantum
information processing applications.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures + 12 pages Supplementary Informatio
Conservation laws and tachyon potentials in the sliver frame
Conservation laws have provided an elegant and efficient tool to evaluate the
open string field theory interaction vertex, they have been originally
implemented in the case where the string field is expanded in the Virasoro
basis. In this work we derive conservation laws in the case where the string
field is expanded in the so-called sliver -basis. As an
application of these conservation laws derived in the sliver frame, we compute
the open string field action relevant to the tachyon condensation and in order
to present not only an illustration but also an additional information, we
evaluate the action without imposing a gauge choice.Comment: 26 pages, some typos fixed, comments added, references adde
Damagnetization cooling of a gas
We demonstrate demagnetization cooling of a gas of ultracold Cr atoms.
Demagnetization is driven by inelastic dipolar collisions which couple the
motional degrees of freedom to the spin degree. By that kinetic energy is
converted into magnetic work with a consequent temperature reduction of the
gas. Optical pumping is used to magnetize the system and drive continuous
demagnetization cooling. Applying this technique, we can increase the phase
space density of our sample by one order of magnitude, with nearly no atom
loss. This method can be in principle extended to every dipolar system and
could be used to achieve quantum degeneracy via optical means.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Nanoelectromechanical coupling in fullerene peapods probed via resonant electrical transport experiments
Fullerene peapods, that is carbon nanotubes encapsulating fullerene
molecules, can offer enhanced functionality with respect to empty nanotubes.
However, the present incomplete understanding of how a nanotube is affected by
entrapped fullerenes is an obstacle for peapods to reach their full potential
in nanoscale electronic applications. Here, we investigate the effect of C60
fullerenes on electron transport via peapod quantum dots. Compared to empty
nanotubes, we find an abnormal temperature dependence of Coulomb blockade
oscillations, indicating the presence of a nanoelectromechanical coupling
between electronic states of the nanotube and mechanical vibrations of the
fullerenes. This provides a method to detect the C60 presence and to probe the
interplay between electrical and mechanical excitations in peapods, which thus
emerge as a new class of nanoelectromechanical systems.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Published in Nature Communications. Free online
access to the published version until Sept 30th, 2010, see
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v1/n4/abs/ncomms1034.htm
Theoretical survey of tidal-charged black holes at the LHC
We analyse a family of brane-world black holes which solve the effective
four-dimensional Einstein equations for a wide range of parameters related to
the unknown bulk/brane physics. We first constrain the parameters using known
experimental bounds and, for the allowed cases, perform a numerical analysis of
their time evolution, which includes accretion through the Earth. The study is
aimed at predicting the typical behavior one can expect if such black holes
were produced at the LHC. Most notably, we find that, under no circumstances,
would the black holes reach the (hazardous) regime of Bondi accretion.
Nonetheless, the possibility remains that black holes live long enough to
escape from the accelerator (and even from the Earth's gravitational field) and
result in missing energy from the detectors.Comment: RevTeX4, 12 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables, minor changes to match the
accepted version in JHE
Somatic VHL gene alterations in MEN2-associated medullary thyroid carcinoma
BACKGROUND: Germline mutations in RET are responsible for multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN2), an autosomal dominantly inherited cancer syndrome that is characterized by medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), pheochromocytoma, and parathyroid hyperplasia/adenoma. Recent studies suggest a "second hit" mechanism resulting in amplification of mutant RET. Somatic VHL gene alterations are implicated in the pathogenesis of MEN2 pheochromocytomas. We hypothesized that somatic VHL gene alterations are also important in the pathogenesis of MEN2-associated MTC. METHODS: We analyzed 6 MTCs and 1 C-cell hyperplasia (CCH) specimen from 7 patients with MEN2A and RET germline mutations in codons 609, 618, 620, or 634, using microdissection, microsatellite analysis, phosphorimage densitometry, and VHL mutation analysis. RESULTS: First, we searched for allelic imbalance between mutant and wild-type RET by using the polymorphic markers D10S677, D10S1239, and RET on thyroid tissue from these patients. Evidence for RET amplification by this technique could be demonstrated in 3 of 6 MTCs. We then performed LOH analysis using D3S1038 and D3S1110 which map to the VHL gene locus at 3p25/26. VHL gene deletion was present in 3 MTCs. These 3 MTCs also had an allelic imbalance between mutant and wild-type RET. Mutation analysis of the VHL gene showed a somatic frameshift mutation in 1 MTC that also demonstrated LOH at 3p25/26. In the 2 other MTCs with allelic imbalance of RET and somatic VHL gene deletion, no somatic VHL mutation could be detected. The CCH specimen did neither reveal RET imbalance nor somatic VHL gene alterations. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that a RET germline mutation is necessary for development of CCH, that allelic imbalance between mutant and wild-type RET may set off tumorigenesis, and that somatic VHL gene alterations may not play a major role in tumorigenesis of MEN2A-associated MTC
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