Tactile massage and hypnosis as a health promotion for nurses in emergency care-a qualitative study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study explores nursing personnel's experiences and perceptions of receiving tactile massage and hypnosis during a personnel health promotion project. Nursing in a short term emergency ward environment can be emotionally and physically exhausting due to the stressful work environment and the high dependency patient care. A health promotion project integrating tactile massage and hypnosis with conventional physical activities was therefore introduced for nursing personnel working in this setting at a large university hospital in Sweden.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Four semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted with volunteer nursing personnel participants after the health promotion project had been completed. There were 16 participants in the focus groups and there were 57 in the health promotion intervention. The discussions were transcribed verbatim and analysed with qualitative content analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The findings indicated that tactile massage and hypnosis may contribute to reduced levels of stress and pain and increase work ability for some nursing personnel. The sense of well-being obtained in relation to health promotion intervention with tactile massage and hypnosis seemed to have positive implications for both work and leisure. Self-awareness, contentment and self-control may be contributing factors related to engaging in tactile massage and hypnosis that might help nursing personnel understand their patients and colleagues and helped them deal with difficult situations that occurred during their working hours.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The findings indicate that the integration of tactile massage and hypnosis in personnel health promotion may be valuable stress management options in addition to conventional physical activities.</p

National and transboundary perspectives of large carnivore conservation and management in Norway

Norway shares its populations of lynx (Lynx lynx), wolverine (Gulo gulo), brown bear (Ursus arctos), grey wolf (Canis lupus) and Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) with mainly Sweden, but also Finland and Russia. Norway and Sweden have a long history of dialogue and collaboration in questions relating to large carnivores (LC) in population monitoring and financing of long-term research. Monitoring collaboration has intensified in recent years with shared methodology and database, shared reporting of monitoring results and regular meetings to ensure that methods do not diverge between the two countries. That Norway and Sweden share LC populations is nothing new, but using the same monitoring methodology and registering the data in a common database has provided an improved platform for studying transboundary issues [1,2,3]. It is clear that Norwegian and Swedish management strategies do not operate independently of each other, and may affect the other country&#039;s ability to achieve its LC management objectives. It is equally clear that population management would benefit from greater collaboration between the two countries also in the practical management of these species. Norway and Sweden, as signatories to the Bern Convention, share the basic premises of LC protection and what is permitted as derogations from that protection. However, the Norwegian management policy is based on a principal of geographically differentiated management. This is a form of zonation to allow for viable large carnivore population while still enabling cultural and agricultural use of natural resources, of which free-range grazing of livestock is a significant part. Management in both countries is decentralised, but the manner in which this is organised differs between the countries. Norwegian population targets are precise and populations should be neither below nor above the set targets, whereas Sweden (as an EU member) identifies reference values for Favourable Conservation Status that act as de facto minimum population levels. These are all part of national frameworks that sometimes result in conflicting management objectives between the two countries. These differences make it a challenge to achieve the same level of cooperation in the practical LC management as in monitoring. There is extensive dialogue between the Norwegian Environment Agency and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency as central management authorities, and both central and regional management authorities are actively working to identify possible areas of cooperation. This includes, for example, a common handling of reports of wolves in close proximity to humans, and development of population level viability studies and harvest models. REFERENCES: 1. Gervasi, V. et al. (2016). Wildlife Biology 22 (3): 95-106. 2. Gervasi, V. et al. (2015). Biological Conservation 191: 632-639 3. Bischof, R. et al. (2016). Conservation Letters 9: 122–130.peerReviewe

THE INTERRELATIONSHIP OF BIODIVERSITY AND RURAL VIABILITY: SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT, LAND USE SCENARIOS AND NORWEGIAN MOUNTAINS IN A EUROPEAN CONTEXT

The decline and restructuring of agriculture is particularly evident in mountain areas, leading to forest recolonisation on former mountain pastures threatening biodiversity and landscape qualities, and the appeal of the mountain landscape for recreation and tourism. Land use change scenarios based on different agri-environmental incentives were developed for the Jotunheimen mountains, Norway, in collaboration with local stakeholders. Sustainability assessments of the scenarios underscored the connections between landscape, biodiversity and local cultural heritage as the fundament for the development of local enterprises for tourism and niche production. Biodiversity values solely, were not considered to be of major importance by the stakeholders.Agri-environmental policies, landscape-ecological models, livestock grazing, local participation, semi-natural habitats, BioScene

oxLDL uptake by dendritic cells induces upregulation of scavenger-receptors, maturation and differentiation

Several studies have proposed a pathogenic role for oxidized LDL (oxLDL) in atherosclerosis. We tested the hypothesis whether oxLDL modulates dendritic cells (DCs), since these important antigen-presenting cells have been implicated in atherogenesis. We investigated the uptake of oxLDL by DCs, the scavenger-receptors involved and the resulting changes in phenotype and cytokine-spectra. In addition, we analyzed the impact of oxLDL on the nuclear transcription factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB)-pathway.; oxLDL (10microg/ml) increased the expression of the scavenger-receptors CD205 and CD36 and decreased the mannose-receptor expression. The lectin-like oxLDL-receptor (LOX-1)-expression was not affected. The endocytotic capacity of dextran and lucifer-yellow was moderately decreased by oxLDL. Blockage of the scavenger-receptors CD36, LOX-1 and CD205 reduced oxLDL uptake. Furthermore, oxLDL induced DC-maturation and triggered differentiation of DCs in myeloid and plasmacytoid DCs. oxLDL decreased IL-10 secretion and increased IL-6 release. Finally, oxLDL induced an activation of the NF-kappaB-pathway. Inhibition of IkappaBalpha-phosphorylation diminished the oxLDL-induced DC-maturation and -differentiation.; oxLDL uptake by DCs is mediated by the scavenger-receptors LOX-1, CD36, and CD205. oxLDL induces a proinflammatory cytokine profile in human DCs leading to DC-maturation and -differentiation which can, in part, be explained by an activation of the NF-kappaB-pathway. These results support the hypothesis that vascular inflammation may be aggravated by oxLDL induced DC-activation