Lateral Violence among New Graduate Nurses

Lateral violence is an act of aggression that is committed against one nurse by another. There are many names for lateral violence, some of these include: horizontal violence, bullying, aggression, horizontal hostility, verbal abuse, or nurses eating their young. Lateral violence occurs when nurses covertly or overtly direct the dissatisfaction they are feeling inward toward each other. The effects of lateral violence on new graduate nurses and the organizations in which they work can be detrimental. An extensive literature review was undertaken to understand the significance and prevalence of lateral violence against new graduate nurses. The purpose of this study is to determine if new graduate nurses continue to experience the negative acts of lateral violence. Registered nurses who have been in the profession for one year or less were invited to participate in the survey. The Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R) was used as the measurement tool. This study used descriptive analysis to summarize and show the relationship between the quantitative data. One hundred and sixty survey invitations were sent out electronically through the email of the research facility. Thirty five surveys were completed for a response rate of 22%. This research study showed that lateral violence has decreased for new graduate nurses in the facility in which it was conducted. There is however, lateral violence that continues to occur

On My Own Terms: Effectiveness of Death with Dignity Legislation in Oregon

Social Issue: Today the elderly represent a growing segment of the population. This has resulted in a number of different controversies, including rising medical costs and end-of-life issues. In recent years, multiple states have passed legislation to provide guidance to the terminally ill regarding end-of-life issues. Oregon has led the way in providing dignified options for terminally ill individuals wishing to end their lives through the use of legal prescription medication. This issue of a \u27death with dignity\u27 has been a controversial topic on which individuals have a variety of strongly held views, and we have only just begun to come to a new consensus

NONTRADITIONAL STUDENTS ACADEMIC SUCCESS EXPERIENCES AT A LARGE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION

NONTRADITIONAL STUDENTS ACADEMIC SUCCESS EXPERIENCES AT A LARGE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIO

On My Own Terms: Effectiveness of Death with Dignity Legislation in Oregon

As the elderly constitute a greater proportion of the population, end-of- life issues have taken on a greater sense of urgency. This paper will address the heart of the debate, which is a terminally ill patient\u27s right to dignity and self-determination. To further explore this social issue, a literature review will be conducted using a variety of relevant literature including, peer reviewed journals, and accredited online resources to assemble evidence of researchers. In some states, the discussion on this social issue has resulted in the enactment of policy. One of the first groundbreaking public laws was the Oregon Death with Dignity Act (1997). This law provides guidelines to the doctors, social workers and other professionals who work closely with those facing end-of- life decisions. A policy framework model was applied to Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act to gain further insights and make further recommendations. With these insights and recommendations, the practitioner will be better equipped to engage with clients who are facing end-of-life issues. Social work is an advocacy-based profession that strives to serve their clients in their quest for self-determination. End-of-life issues have been an evolving topic for the last hundred years, which only continue to become more central as discussions about the aging community sharpen

Investigating the effects of climate co-stressors on surf smelt energy demands

Surf smelt (Hypomesus pretiosus) are ecologically and economically important to the Pacific Northwest. They play a critical role in the food web and support numerous commercially important species and are an economically important baitfish. Surf smelt interact closely with the nearshore environment, utilizing approximately 10% of Puget Sound coastlines for spawning throughout the year. Surf smelt spawn at high tide and adhere fertilized eggs to beach sediment, causing their embryos to be exposed to air and seawater throughout embryonic development. Because of this unique life history, surf smelt may be susceptible to anthropogenic stressors including coastal development and climate change. However, very few studies have attempted to test the tolerance of surf smelt to climate change, including elevated temperature and ocean acidification. The purpose of this study was to examine the interactive effects of climate co-stressors ocean acidification and seawater warming on the energy demands of developing surf smelt. Surf smelt embryos and larvae were collected and placed into experimental basins under three temperature treatments (12°C, 15°C, and 18°C) and two total carbon treatments (ambient and elevated) for a period of 14 days for the embryos, and 4 days for the larvae. Increased temperature significantly decreased yolk size in developing surf smelt embryos and larvae. During this time, embryo yolk sacs in the high temperature treatment were on average 10.2% smaller than embryo yolk sacs in ambient temperature water. Larval yolk and oil globules mirrored this trend with larvae in the high temperature treatment having on average 32.5% smaller yolk sacs and 20.0% smaller oil globules compared to larvae in ambient temperature. While no effect of acidification as a singular stressor was observed, the interaction with temperature significantly increased surf smelt embryo heart rates by 5% above ambient conditions. These results indicate that near-future climate change scenarios are going to impact the energy demands of developing surf smelt, a result that may have a variety of potential impacts including altered hatch times, larval deformities, and increased mortality, all of which will increase interannual variability in adult recruitment. The results of this study highlight the need to increase focus on studying surf smelt in the context of ecological and climate change research

Towards speech recognition using palato-lingual contact patterns for voice restoration.

The loss of speech following a laryngectomy presents substantial challenges, and a number of devices have been developed to assist these patients. These devices range from the electrolarynx to tracheoesophageal speech. However, all of these devices and techniques have concentrated on producing sound from the patient’s vocal tract. Research into a new type of artificial larynx is presented. This new device utilizes the measurement of dynamic tongue-palate contact patterns to infer intended speech. The dynamic tongue measurement is achieved with the use of an existing palatome- ter and pseudopalate. These signals are then converted to 2-D Space-Time plots and feature extraction methods (such as Principal Component Analysis, Fourier Descrip- tors and Generic Fourier Descriptors) are used to extract suitable features for use as input to neural network systems. Two types of neural network (Multi-layer Percep- trons and Support Vector Machines) are investigated and a voting system is formed. The final system can correctly identify fifty common English words 94.14% of the time with a rejection rate of 17.74%. Voice morphing is investigated as a technique to match the artificially synthesized voice to the laryngectomy patient’s original voice. It is successfully implemented thus creating a transfer function that can change one person’s voice to sound like another’s. Once the voting system has correctly identified the word said by the patient the word is then synthesized in the patient’s pre-laryngectomy voice. The final artificial larynx system solves a number of the problems inherent in previ- ous artificial larynx designs (such as poor voice quality and invasiveness). This new artificial larynx uses current technology in a new way to produce a viable solution for alaryngeal patients