The Effect of A Structured Training Program on Intensive Care Nurses Performance

Background: An intensive care unit is that area of a hospital where patients’ serious illnesses or injuries receive special medical and nursing care. ICU nurses are highly knowledgeable and skilled health care professionals that work in an ICU in association with other members of the hospital team to provide optimum patient care. The care of the mechanically ventilated patient is an essential component of a nurse's clinical practice in the intensive care units (ICUs), therefore it seems natural to devote a great deal of work in preparing and training staff before allowing them to work with patients. Aim: to evaluate the effect of a structured training program on intensive care nurses' performance. Design: A quasi-experimental pre and posttest research design was used. Setting: Two teaching hospitals, Al-Shabaab and Al- Khartoum in Khartoum, Sudan. Sample: Purposive sample of intensive care nurses’ working in the two hospitals, (50, 30nurses) from Al- Khartoum, and-Shabaab hospitals. Tools: Two tools were used; the first tool questionnaire developed by researchers and checklist, the second tool: McCloskey/Mueller Satisfaction Scale (MMSS) was used for data collection. The study result; there is a positive effect of educational program on enhancing nurses' knowledge, about  mechanical ventilation in general, and there were a highly statistically significant difference between nurses'  knowledge and their performance at pre and post intervention program, However there was no correlation between nurses' socio-demographic variables and their knowledge of pre and post intervention program. Conclusion and Recommendations ; the education program had a positive effect on the nurses' attitudes toward mechanically ventilated patient.; the educational programs for all nursing members should be applied as continuing education, and further studies should be carried out with bigger sample and longer time. Keywords: China insurance industry, Foreign fund, Challenge DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/60-07 Publication date:March 31st 201

Developing Nursing Care Standards for Postoperative Gastrointestinal Patients

Background: The postoperative arena is a unique environment that includes many challenging variables: complex clinical care performed by teams; high cost, sophisticated technologies that often do not interoperate; and a large array of supplies, instruments, and implants that are difficult to manage. Study aim: to develop a standard of nursing care for postoperative gastrointestinal patients. The study setting: was conducted at three postoperative gastrointestinal wards in the Gastro-Enterology Center at Mansoura University Hospitals. The subject: consisted of 90 juries, and 70 nurses working at the postoperative gastrointestinal care wards. The study tools:  were two juries’ opinionnaire and two observation checklists. The results: indicated that the observation checklist entailing nursing care for postoperative gastrointestinal patients was valid through full acceptance by juries. The checklist entailing structure items of postoperative gastrointestinal units was also validated by experts' consensus. Application of the checklist showed that the performance of bachelor nurses was higher than that diploma nurses. The reliability was tested through verifying internal consistency using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and showed high reliability of the tool. All items of the initial checklist of nursing care for postoperative gastroenterology patients and an initial checklist of structure items were used in developing the nursing care standard for postoperative gastroenterology patients, which was also validated by experts. Conclusion and Recommendations: The developed standard for postoperative gastrointestinal patients is recommended to be applied at postoperative gastrointestinal units. Nurses working at postoperative gastrointestinal units should have a copy of the developed standards in Arabic and English languages. Keywords: Nursing care standard, postoperative gastrointestinal DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/59-0

Photocatalytic degradation of an azo-dye on TiO2/ activated carbon composite material

A sequential adsorption/photocatalytic regeneration process to remove tartrazine, an azo-dye in aqueous solution, has been investigated. The aim of this work was to compare the effectiveness of an adsorbent/photocatalyst composite – TiO2 deposited onto activated carbon (AC) – and a simple mixture of powders of TiO2 and AC in same proportion. The composite was an innovative material as the photocatalyst, TiO2, was deposited on the porous surface of a microporous-AC using metal-organic chemical vapour deposition in fluidized bed. The sequential process was composed of two-batch step cycles: every cycle alternated a step of adsorption and a step of photocatalytic oxidation under ultra-violet (365 nm), at 25◦C and atmospheric pressure. Both steps, adsorption and photocatalytic oxidation, have been investigated during four cycles. For both materials, the cumulated amounts adsorbed during four cycles corresponded to nearly twice themaximumadsorption capacities qmax proving the photocatalytic oxidation to regenerate the adsorbent. Concerning photocatalytic oxidation, the degree of mineralization was higher with the TiO2/AC composite: for each cycle, the value of the total organic carbon removal was 25% higher than that obtained with the mixture powder. These better photocatalytic performances involved better regeneration than higher adsorbed amounts for cycles 2, 3 and 4. Better performances with this promising material – TiO2 deposited onto AC – compared with TiO2 powder could be explained by the vicinity of photocatalytic and AC adsorption sites

The Outcome of 428 Cases of Scorpion Sting Syndrome in Atbara Locality, North Sudan

Objectives: To determine the prevalence and outcome of scorpion sting in Atbara and to give a brief  pathophysiology, clinical aspects, and management options. Methods : This is a retrospective study conducted at Atbara Teaching Hospital, Sudan, to look into the records of 428 scorpion envenomation  cases  in five years period from (2005-2009).  Results: Males constituted 51.2%, children below 15 were 37.2%, the overall death rate was 4.7% (n=20) and all of them were children. Most cases (88.4%) presented during the hot season. Conclusion: Scorpion sting is a life-threatening condition in children in Atbara, a better understanding of the condition and a proper management protocol may save lives

Removal of organic compounds from water by adsorption and photocatalytic oxidation

Les effluents industriels sont constitués de molécules de natures très diverses, plus ou moins réfractaires aux classiques traitements biologiques. Les normes de rejets évoluant régulièrement vers des contraintes de plus en plus sévères, il semble aujourd'hui nécessaire de proposer des solutions complémentaires pour atteindre de hauts rendements d'épuration. Le premier procédé mis en oeuvre dans ce travail est l'adsorption sur charbon actif. Le caractère novateur de cette technique se situe dans l'utilisation de charbons actifs fabriqués à partir de boues de stations d'épuration d'eaux usées. La seconde méthode est un procédé hybride innovant combinant adsorption et photocatalyse avec TiO2. Les eaux industrielles ciblées sont les effluents colorés, représentés par la tartrazine, et les effluents phénolés représentés par le phénol, l'acide p-hydroxybenzoïque, le p-chlorophénol er le p-nitrophénol. Pour traiter par adsorption les eaux chargées en phénols, plusieurs charbons actifs commerciaux et six charbons de boues ont été utilisés. Il ressort de cette première étude que, malgré leurs faibles surfaces spécifiques, certains charbons de boues présentent des performances très satisfaisantes. Le procédé séquentiel combinant adsorption et photocatalyse a été réalisé avec plusieurs matériaux: un tissu Ahlstrom contenant du charbon et du TiO2, un charbon actif avec dépôt de TiO2 par MOCVD puis un mélange de charbon actif et TiO2 en poudre. Des résultats prometteurs ont été obtenus pour dégrader la tartrazine, en particulier avec le TiO2 déposé sur charbon actif montrant que la proximité de sites d'adsorption et photocatalytique améliore les performances de l'oxydation. ABSTRACT : In order to explore a new sequential process for water treatment its two steps, adsorption on activated carbon and in situ photocatalytic oxidative regeneration, were investigated successively. Several commercial activated carbons (AC) and sewage sludge based activated carbons (SBAC) were tested with several phenols and one dye as pollutants. Despite low BET surface SBAC exhibits convenient adsorption properties. Photocatalysis on TiO2 was carried out with several materials to achieve activated carbon adsorption- egeneration process: a multilayer tissue with fixed granular AC and TiO2 on a sheet, a composite with TiO2, CVD deposited on AC, and AC-TiO2 powder mixture for comparison. Promising results were obtained especially with TiO2 deposited on AC proving the vicinity of adsorption and photocatalytic sites to be beneficia

Stochastic Programming for Selection Variables in Cluster Analysis

Cluster analysis is one of the most important techniques in the exploratory data analysis; it is goal to discover a natural grouping in a set of observations without knowledge of any class labels.  Variable selection has been very important for a lot of research in several areas of application. The study suggested a stochastic programming approach which selects the most important variables in clustering a set of data. The study evaluates the performance of the stochastic programming suggested approach for selection variables in cluster analysis used numerical example. The suggested stochastic programming approach selects the most important variable in cluster analysis simultaneously and the results are satisfied

GENETIC RELATEDNESS AMONG MAIZE INBRED LINES BASED ON ISSR MARKERS AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH HETEROSIS AND HYBRID PERFORMANCE

The objectives of the present study were to measure the genetic diversity among eight inbred lines of maize using ISSR markers and the correlation coefficients between genetic diversity and each of heterosis and mean performance of hybrids for grain yield. Ten ISSR primers were used in the detection of polymorphism of the eight inbred lines in a laboratorial experiment. Heterosis and mean performance of grain yield/ha in their F1 diallel crosses were measured in a 2-year field experiment using a randomized complete blocks design with three replications. Based on ISSR markers, the genetic similarity coefficients among the eight maize inbred lines ranged from 0.798 (between L17 and IL53) to 0.943 (between IL80 and IL84) with an average of 0.869. Unique bands associated with maize inbred lines were identified. The results revealed that the genetic diversity among the inbred lines based on ISSR markers showed a significant, and negative relationship with mid-parent heterosis and mean performance of grain yield/ha. Further, intensive investigation of a large set of maize inbred lines from diverse populations using a large number of ISSR primers is required for proper understanding of genetic diversity of maize crop. Findings will be valuable for maize breeder, to practice effective selection of parental inbred lines for obtaining maximum heterosis and high mean grain yield/ha in their hybrids

Kinetic fluorimetric determination of Mesna (Sodium-2-mercaptoethane sulfonate) in drug products through oxidation with cerium(IV)

A simple and sensitive kinetic spectrofluorimetric method was developed for the determination of mesna in drug products. The method is based on oxidation of the studied drug with cerium(IV) ammonium sulphate in acidic medium. The fluorescence of the produced Ce(III) was measured at 359 nm after excitation at 259 nm. The method involves determination of mesna by kinetic study of its oxidation at 100 oC for a fixed time of 20 min. The different experimental parameters affecting development and stability of reaction product were carefully studied and optimized. The fluorescence-concentration plot was rectilinear over the concentration range of 0.50-4.00 ng/mL, with a minimum detectability of 0.17 ng/mL. The method was successfully applied for the determination of mesna in its drug product. The results obtained were found to be in good agreement with those obtained with an official method of the investigated drug. The validity of the method was assessed according to USP guidelines

La méthode kangourou dans la prévention et le traitement de la douleur chez le prématuré en néonatologie: une revue de littérature étoffée

Ce travail a pour but de faire un état des lieux des connaissances et pratiques actuelles sur l’efficacité de la méthode kangourou dans la prévention de la douleur chez le prématuré lors des gestes invasifs