Staff Nurse Leadership: Leading at the Point of Care

As health care undergoes pervasive transformation, the need has become acute to develop leadership at all levels of nursing. Decision-making by staff nurses at the point of care has significant impact on patient care outcomes and quality of health care in today\u27s decentralized institutions. Little empirical research has been undertaken to understand the process of leadership at the staff nurse level. This study used the framework of symbolic interactionism and grounded theory research methodology to explore the process of staff nurse leadership. Descriptions of the process used to practice leadership at the staff nurse level were collected from staff nurse leaders and nurse managers in tertiary care and critical access hospitals in a largely rural state. This process of leadership is illustrated in the theory of Leading at the Point of Care, Making a Choice emerged as the category central to the process of staff nurse leadership. Antecedents, intervening factors, consequences, and contextual factors are described. Staff nurse leadership is defined and reveals the vital role this leadership has in the delivery of quality patient care. Changes in existing systems of nursing education, healthcare institutions, and the profession are recommended to remove roadblocks to leadership by staff nurses

Phonon dispersion and electron-phonon coupling in MgB_2 and AlB_2

We present a first principles investigation of the lattice dynamics and electron-phonon coupling of the superconductor MgB_2 and the isostructural AlB_2 within the framework of density functional perturbation theory using a mixed-basis pseudopotential method. Complete phonon dispersion curves and Eliashberg functions \alpha^2F are calculated for both systems. We also report on Raman measurements, which support the theoretical findings. The calculated generalized density-of-states for MgB_2 is in excellent agreement with recent neutron-scattering experiments. The main differences in the calculated phonon spectra and \alpha^2F are related to high frequency in-plane boron vibrations. As compared to AlB_2, they are strongly softened in MgB_2 and exhibit an exceptionally strong coupling to electronic states at the Fermi energy. The total coupling constants are \lambda_{MgB_2}=0.73 and \lambda_{AlB_2}=0.43. Implications for the superconducting transition temperature are briefly discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Staggered Pairing Phenomenology for UPd_2Al_3 and UNi_2Al_3

We apply the staggered-pairing Ginzburg-Landau phenomenology to describe superconductivity in UPd_2Al_3 and UNi_2Al_3. The phenomenology was applied successfully to UPt_3 so it explains why these materials have qualitatively different superconducting phase diagrams although they have the same point-group symmetry. UPd_2Al_3 and UNi_2Al_3 have a two-component superconducting order parameter transforming as an H-point irreducible representation of the space group. Staggered superconductivity can induce charge-density waves characterized by new Bragg peaks suggesting experimental tests of the phenomenology.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX, 2 Postscript figure

Witnessing effective entanglement in a continuous variable prepare&measure setup and application to a QKD scheme using postselection

We report an experimental demonstration of effective entanglement in a prepare&measure type of quantum key distribution protocol. Coherent polarization states and heterodyne measurement to characterize the transmitted quantum states are used, thus enabling us to reconstruct directly their Q-function. By evaluating the excess noise of the states, we experimentally demonstrate that they fulfill a non-separability criterion previously presented by Rigas et al. [J. Rigas, O. G\"uhne, N. L\"utkenhaus, Phys. Rev. A 73, 012341 (2006)]. For a restricted eavesdropping scenario we predict key rates using postselection of the heterodyne measurement results.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, 2 table

Photoemission kinks and phonons in cuprates

One of the possible mechanisms of high Tc superconductivity is Cooper pairing with the help of bosons, which change the slope of the electronic dispersion as observed by photoemission. Giustino et al. calculated that in the high temperature superconductor La1.85Sr0.15CuO4 crystal lattice vibrations (phonons) should have a negligible effect on photoemission spectra and concluded that phonons do not play an important role. We show that the calculations employed by Giustino et al. fail to reproduce huge influence of electron-phonon coupling on important phonons observed in experiments. Thus one would expect these calculations to similarly fail in explaining the role of electron-phonon coupling for the electronic dispersion.Comment: To appear in Nature as a Brief Communiction Arisin

Electron-phonon coupling in the conventional superconductor YNi2_2B2_2C at high phonon energies studied by time-of-flight neutron spectroscopy

We report an inelastic neutron scattering investigation of phonons with energies up to 159 meV in the conventional superconductor YNi$_2$B$_2$C. Using the SWEEP mode, a newly developed time-of-flight technique involving the continuous rotation of a single crystal specimen, allowed us to measure a four dimensional volume in (Q,E) space and, thus, determine the dispersion surface and linewidths of the $A_{1g}$ (~ 102 meV) and $A_u$ (~ 159 meV) type phonon modes for the whole Brillouin zone. Despite of having linewidths of $\Gamma = 10 meV$, $A_{1g}$ modes do not strongly contribute to the total electron-phonon coupling constant $\lambda$. However, experimental linewidths show a remarkable agreement with ab-initio calculations over the complete phonon energy range demonstrating the accuracy of such calculations in a rare comparison to a comprehensive experimental data set.Comment: accepted for publication in PR

Point-contact investigations of challenging superconductors: two-band MgB2, antiferromagnetic HoNi2B2C, heavy fermion UPd2Al3, paramagnetic MgCNi3

An overview on recent efforts in point-contact (PC) spectroscopy of title superconductors is given. Distinct phonon features and crystalline-electric-field effects are observed in PC spectra of HoNi2B2C. Results of study of superconducting (SC) gap and excess current versus temperature and magnetic field reflecting specific multi-band electronic structure in MgB2 are presented. The nature of the extremely nonlinear I(V) curves in the antiferromagnetic (AF) and SC state are elucidated for UPd2Al3 break-junctions and MgCNi3 point contacts.Comment: 2 pages, 4 figs., presented on SCES`04 (26-30 July, Karlsruhe, Germany), accepted for publicatio