453 research outputs found
The importance of reflecting on practice: How personal professional development activities affect perceived teamwork and performance
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Aims and objectives: To examine the relationships between participation in personal professional development activities (e.g., coaching, mentoring), teamwork and performance; to investigate the mediating and moderating effects of reflective thinking and perceived usefulness of development activities. Background: Professional development is associated with better performance and attitudes towards one's work. This study adds to this research by focusing on understanding this effect and the conditions under which this occurs. Design: Cross-sectional survey study. Methods: Participants were 244 nurses working in a large, metropolitan acute public hospital. They completed a questionnaire consisting of validated measures and provided information on frequency of participation and perceived usefulness of personal professional development activities. We analysed data using regression-based moderated mediation analyses. Results: The relationship between frequency of participation in personal professional development activities and both perceived teamwork and performance was mediated by reflective thinking. Perceived usefulness of development activities moderated the relationship between frequency of participation in personal professional development activities and reflective thinking. Conclusion: Our results highlight the importance of professional development activities that go beyond knowledge- or skill-based training. Activities that cater to nurses’ personal professional development needs are also associated with more positively perceived teamwork and performance. Results provide insights into the mediating mechanisms: Participation in personal professional development activities encouraged reflective thinking, which was associated with better perceived teamwork and performance. This association between personal professional development activities and reflective thinking was even stronger where nurses perceived the activities as useful. Relevance to clinical practice: Personal professional development activities enhance reflection in and on practice as these activities were linked with higher perceived quality of care and teamworking. It is important to ensure that the positive effects of personal professional development activities should target nurses’ professional development needs and need to be perceived as useful by those who undertake them
Anisotropic magnetotransport of superconducting and normal state in an electron-doped Nd_{1.85}Ce_{0.15}CuO_{4-\delta} single crystal
The anisotropic properties of an optimally doped
Nd_{1.85}Ce_{0.15}CuO_{4-\delta} single crystal have been studied both below
and above the critical temperature Tc via the resistivity measurement in
magnetic field H up to 12 T. By scaling the conductivity fluctuation around the
superconducting transition, the upper critical field H_{c2}(T) has been
determined for field parallel to the c-axis or to the basal ab-plane. The
anisotropy factor \gamma={H_c2||ab}/{H_c2||c} is estimated to be about 8. In
the normal state (50=<T=<180 K), the magnetoresistance (MR) basically follows
an H^2 dependence and for H||c it is almost 10 times larger than that for
H||ab. Comparing with hole-doped cuprates it suggests that the optimally doped
Nd_{1.85}Ce_{0.15}CuO_{4-\delta} cuprate superconductor has a moderate
anisotropy.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
An increase in under hydrostatic pressure in the superconducting doped topological insulator NbBiSe
We report an unexpected positive hydrostatic pressure derivative of the
superconducting transition temperature in the doped topological insulator \NBS
via SQUID magnetometry in pressures up to 0.6 GPa. This result is contrary
to reports on the homologues \CBS and \SBS where smooth suppression of is
observed. Our results are consistent with recent Ginzburg-Landau theory
predictions of a pressure-induced enhancement of in the nematic
multicomponent state proposed to explain observations of rotational
symmetry breaking in doped BiSe superconductors.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Scaling of the Equilibrium Magnetization in the Mixed State of Type-II Superconductors
We discuss the analysis of mixed-state magnetization data of type-II
superconductors using a recently developed scaling procedure. It is based on
the fact that, if the Ginzburg-Landau parameter kappa does not depend on
temperature, the magnetic susceptibility is a universal function of H/H_c2(T),
leading to a simple relation between magnetizations at different temperatures.
Although this scaling procedure does not provide absolute values of the upper
critical fieldH_c2(T), its temperature variation can be established rather
accurately. This provides an opportunity to validate theoretical models that
are usually employed for the evaluation of H_c2(T) from equilibrium
magnetization data. In the second part of the paper we apply this scaling
procedure for a discussion of the notorious first order phase transition in the
mixed state of high temperature superconductors. Our analysis, based on
experimental magnetization data available in the literature, shows that the
shift of the magnetization accross the transition may adopt either sign,
depending on the particular chosen sample. We argue that this observation is
inconsistent with the interpretation that this transition always represents the
melting transition of the vortex lattice.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figure
First-Order Vortex Lattice Melting and Magnetization of YBaCuO$_{7-\delta}
We present the first non-mean-field calculation of the magnetization
of YBaCuO both above and below the flux-lattice melting
temperature . The results are in good agreement with experiment as a
function of transverse applied field . The effects of fluctuations in both
order parameter and magnetic induction are included in the
Ginzburg-Landau free energy functional: fluctuates within the
lowest Landau level in each layer, while fluctuates uniformly according to
the appropriate Boltzmann factor. The second derivative is predicted to be negative throughout the vortex liquid state and
positive in the solid state. The discontinuities in entropy and magnetization
at melting are calculated to be per flux line per layer and
~emu~cm at a field of 50 kOe.Comment: 11 pages, 4 PostScript figures in one uuencoded fil
Surface plasmons at single nanoholes in Au-films
The generation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP's) at isolated nanoholes in
100 nm thick Au films is studied using near-field scanning optical microscopy
(NSOM). Finite-difference time-domain calculations, some explicitly including a
model of the NSOM tip, are used to interpret the results. We find the holes act
as point-like sources of SPP's and demonstrate that interference between SPP's
and a directly transmitted wave allows for determination of the wavelength,
phase, and decay length of the SPP. The near-field intensity patterns can be
manipulated by varying the angle and polarization of the incident beam.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
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