The National Student Nurses Association: a professional clinical arena for learning the culture and values of the nursing profession

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how, or whether, student experiences within the National Student Nurses Association (NSNA) relate to internalizing the culture and values of the nursing profession. Six nursing students actively involved in two local NSNA chapters, at a large public midwestern university and a small liberal arts university, were individually interviewed. Eight nursing faculty from the same two universities were interviewed in two focus group sessions;The interview transcripts served as data. Inductive data analysis was completed through the constant comparative process, which consisted of unitizing and categorizing the data. From this process eight themes emerged, which served to exemplify and interpret the data. Trustworthiness was established according to Lincoln and Guba\u27s criteria;Results suggest that students actively involved in the NSNA are learning a wide array of the culture and values of the nursing profession. However, a very small number of students are actively involved in the NSNA, which suggests that only a few students in these two programs learn about nursing\u27s culture and values through the organization;Participation in the NSNA convention was the single most important NSNA activity for learning professionalism and about professional organizations. Findings also indicated three main routes through which students learn in NSNA: (1) experience, (2) involvement, and (3) connections to others. Students tended to use their NSNA learning in the nursing classroom and reciprocally, use their classroom knowledge in the NSNA; NSNA experiences were woven into other areas of the students\u27 lives;Student experiences within the two local chapters of NSNA were similar. It is concluded that viewing NSNA as a professional clinical arena is a useful way to understand its meaning for nursing students. Nursing faculty are urged to take steps to give more students the opportunity for active involvement in the NSNA. Further qualitative studies of the possible uses of the NSNA, especially as related to formal nursing curriculums, are urgently needed

General method to retrieve all effective acoustic properties of fully-anisotropic fluid materials in three dimensional space

Anisotropic fluid materials are of growing interest with the development of metamaterials and transformation acoustics. In the general three-dimensional case, such materials are characterized by a bulk modulus and a full symmetric matrix of density. Here, a method is presented to retrieve the bulk modulus and all six components of the density matrix from a selected set of six incident plane waves impinging on a layer of the material. From the six components of the density tensor, the three principal directions and the three principal densities of the material are recovered. The approach relies on the analytical expression of the reflection and transmission coefficients derived from a state vector analysis. It results in simple, closed-form, and easily-implementable inverse relations for the material parameters. As an illustration, the case of sound propagation through an orthorhombic lattice of overlapping air-filled ellipsoids is considered, the effective complex and frequency-dependent bulk modulus and density matrix of which are derived from homogenization cell problems and account for viscothermal losses. The retrieval method is then applied to the homogenized layer and results bear testament to its robustness to extract accurately all seven material parameters. This makes possible the characterization and design of anisotropic fluid materials in three dimensions

Mathematical Modeling of Transport and Degradation of Feedstuffs in the Small Intestine

We describe a mathematical modeling of the digestion in the small intestine. The main interest of our work is to consider, at the same time, different aspects of the digestion i.e. the transport of the bolus all along the intestine, feedstuffs degradation according to the enzymes and local physical conditions, and nutrients absorption. A system of coupled ordinary differential equations is used to model these phenomena. The major unknowns of this system are the position of the bolus and its composition. This system of equations is solved numerically. We present different numerical computations for the degradation, absorption and transport of the bolus with acceptable accuracy with experimental data. The main feature and interest of this model are its generality. Even if we are at an early stage of development, our approach can be adapted to treat any kind of feedstuffs in any non-ruminant animal to predict the composition and velocity of bolus in the small intestine

Profile of a Heterogeneous Grouping Plan for Reading

Grouping children by ability for reading instruction is common practice in many elementary schools today. By reducing heterogeneity, ability grouping presumably allows teachers to provide instruction at an appropriate level for students in a particular group. However, research has shown that grouping children by ability can have a negative impact on lower ability readers, especially when the grouping occurs over time

Acoustic wave propagation in effective graded fully anisotropic fluid layers

International audienc

Assessment of distress, unmet needs, and receipt of care plans among cancer survivors in Georgia

Background: Cancer survivors have distinctive healthcare needs. The Survivorship Working Group of the Georgia Cancer Control Consortium conducted an assessment to understand the physical, psychological, practical, and spiritual needs of adult cancer survivors; patient perceptions regarding patient-provider communications; and their perceived need for services. Methods: In 2014, a convenience sample of Georgia cancer survivors completed a paper or online survey about the presence of and distress associated with unmet physical, emotional, spiritual, and practical needs, and receipt of assistance in those areas. They were also asked about receipt of cancer treatment and survivorship care plans. Results: Survivors were primarily female, married, White, and within 5 years of treatment. High proportions reported moderate to extreme levels of distress with depression (32.7%), anxiety (32.1%), stress (30.2%), and fear of recurrence (28.2%). Many reported no receipt of assistance in emotional needs such as changing relationships and defining a new normal and physical needs such as intimacy and body image. Fewer than half (48%) reported having received a cancer treatment summary from their physician and only 37% received a survivorship care plan. Of those who received either, 98% reported that the information was helpful. Conclusions: Cancer survivors in Georgia who responded to the survey had unmet needs, especially related to physical and mental health. More widespread adoption of guidelines of the Commission on Cancer, including the use of distress screening tools, would assist providers in addressing identified needs directly or through referrals. A limitation is that the racial and ethnic minority participation of 20.1% is insufficient to generalize results to all cancer survivors in Georgia. Subsequent surveys would benefit from targeted approaches to reach diverse and underserved survivors

Nicotine Blocks Brain Estrogen Synthase (Aromatase): In Vivo Positron Emission Tomography Studies in Female Baboons

The front-line tuberculosis (TB) chemotherapeutics isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RIF), and pyrazinamide (PZA) have been labeled with carbon-11 and the biodistribution of each labeled drug has been determined in baboons using positron emission tomography (PET). Each radiosynthesis and formulation has been accomplished in 1 h, using [11C]CH3I to label RIF and [11C]HCN to label INH and PZA. Following iv administration, INH, PZA, RIF, and/or their radiolabeled metabolites clear rapidly from many tissues; however, INH, PZA, and/or their radiolabeled metabolites accumulate in the bladder while RIF and/or its radiolabeled metabolites accumulates in the liver and gall bladder, consistent with the known routes of excretion of the drugs. In addition, the biodistribution data demonstrate that the ability of the three drugs and their radiolabeled metabolites to cross the blood−brain barrier decreases in the order PZA > INH > RIF, although in all cases the estimated drug concentrations are greater than the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values for inhibiting bacterial growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). The pharmacokinetic (PK) and drug distribution data have important implications for treatment of disseminated TB in the brain and pave the way for imaging the distribution of the pathogen in vivo.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog