Obstacles to compassion-giving among nursing and midwifery managers: an international study

Aim: To explore nursing and midwifery managers’ views regarding obstacles to compassion-giving across country cultures. Background: The benefit of compassionate leadership is being advocated, but despite the fact that health care is invariably conducted within culturally diverse workplaces, the interconnection of culture, compassion and leadership is rarely addressed. Furthermore, evidence on how cultural factors hinder the expression of compassion among nursing and midwifery managers is lacking. Methods: Cross-sectional, exploratory, international online survey involving 1 217 participants from 17 countries. Managers’ responses on open-ended questions related to barriers for providing compassion were entered and thematically analysed through NVivo. Results: Three key themes related to compassion-giving obstacles emerged across countries: 1. related to the managers’ personal characteristics and experiences; 2. system-related; and 3. staff-related. Conclusions: Obstacles to compassion-giving among managers vary across countries. An understanding of the variations across countries and cultures of what impedes compassion to flourish in health care is important. Implications for nursing practice and policy: Nursing mangers should wisely use their power by adopting leadership styles that promote culturally competent and compassionate workplaces with respect for human rights. Policymakers should identify training and mentoring needs to enable the development of managers’ practical wisdom. Appropriate national and international policies should facilitate the establishment of standards and guidelines for compassionate leadership, in the face of distorted organizational cultures and system-related obstacles to compassion-giving

Knowledge-Rich Similarity-Based Classification

This paper proposes to enhance similarity-based classification with different types of imperfect domain knowledge. We introduce a hierarchy of knowledge types and show how the types can be incorporated into similarity measures. Furthermore, we analyze how properties of the domain theory, such as partialness and vagueness, influence classification accuracy. Experiments in a simple domain suggest that partial knowledge is more useful than vague knowledge. However, for data sets from the UCI Machine Learning Repository, we show that even vague domain knowledge that in isolation performs at chance level can substantially increase classification accuracy when being incorporated into similarity-based classification

Ethnobotany of rural people from the boundaries of Carlos Botelho State Park, São Paulo State, Brazil Etnobotânica de uma população rural próxima do Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho, SP, Brasil

In this article we describe and analyze the use of plant resources in a region nearby a conservation area. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, in which we asked the interviewees to free list the plants known. Species cited were identified through collection of botanical samples, and field observations. Fifty-eight inhabitants were interviewed; banana farming, cattle ranching, and extracting palm hearts are their main economic activities. A total of 248 ethnospecies were mentioned, including over 200 botanical species. Plants were grouped into four habitats (A = well-preserved forest; B = disturbed forest in old successional stages; C = recently disturbed environments; D = cultivated areas and home gardens). Highest diversity is known for plants from A habitats, followed by C+D, and finally by B areas; however, a higher number of species is expected in B areas when compared to C+D. There is a small number of common species, and comparable proportions of intermediate and rare species, for all habitats. Common species occur in all types of habitats. Local knowledge of plants from well-preserved habitats is more diverse than for plants from other areas, suggesting that the relationship between inhabitants and the conservation area is still intense.<br>Neste estudo, nós descrevemos e analisamos o uso de recursos vegetais em uma região próxima a uma área de conservação. Os dados foram coletados através de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, incluindo listagens livres dos recursos vegetais conhecidos. As espécies foram identificadas através de coletas botânicas e de observações de campo. Foram entrevistados 58 habitantes; cultivo de banana, trabalho em fazendas de gado e extração de palmito são suas atividades econômicas principais. Foram mencionadas 248 etnoespécies, correspondendo a mais de 200 espécies botânicas. As plantas foram agrupadas em quatro habitats (A = floresta bem preservada; B = floresta perturbada, em estágios successionais avançados; C = ambientes recentemente perturbados; D = áreas cultivadas e quintais). Uma maior diversidade foi encontrada para o habitat A, seguido por C+D, e finalmente por áreas B; entretanto, é esperada uma riqueza maior de espécies para a área B quando comparada a C+D. Há poucas espécies comuns, e proporções comparáveis de espécies intermediárias e raras, para todos os habitats. As espécies comuns ocorrem em todos os tipos de habitats. O conhecimento local das plantas dos habitats bem preservados é mais diverso do que para plantas de outras áreas, sugerindo que a relação entre habitantes e a área de conservação é ainda intensa

Role of Adaptor Complex AP-3 in Targeting Wild-Type and Mutated CD63 to Lysosomes

CD63 is a lysosomal membrane protein that belongs to the tetraspanin family. Its carboxyterminal cytoplasmic tail sequence contains the lysosomal targeting motif GYEVM. Strong, tyrosine-dependent interaction of the wild-type carboxyterminal tail of CD63 with the AP-3 adaptor subunit μ3 was observed using a yeast two-hybrid system. The strength of interaction of mutated tail sequences with μ3 correlated with the degree of lysosomal localization of similarly mutated human CD63 molecules in stably transfected normal rat kidney cells. Mutated CD63 containing the cytosolic tail sequence GYEVI, which interacted strongly with μ3 but not at all with μ2 in the yeast two-hybrid system, localized to lysosomes in transfected normal rat kidney and NIH-3T3 cells. In contrast, it localized to the cell surface in transfected cells of pearl and mocha mice, which have genetic defects in genes encoding subunits of AP-3, but to lysosomes in functionally rescued mocha cells expressing the δ subunit of AP-3. Thus, AP-3 is absolutely required for the delivery of this mutated CD63 to lysosomes. Using this AP-3–dependent mutant of CD63, we have shown that AP-3 functions in membrane traffic from the trans-Golgi network to lysosomes via an intracellular route that appears to bypass early endosomes