Cultural Competence of Taiwanese Nurses

Research on the cultural competence in nursing care in Taiwan is scarce. Little information has been documented regarding the level of cultural competence among its health care professionals. The aim of this study was to investigate the level of cultural competence among Taiwanese nurses. This study employed a quantitative design using a self-report online survey. Research findings indicated that Taiwanese nurses had low to moderate level of cultural competence. They perceived themselves as being not culturally competent when caring for clients from culturally and ethnically diverse backgrounds. While Taiwanese nurses scored high on cultural sensitivity and awareness, they scored low on cultural knowledge and skills. Cultural competence correlated with continuing education and years of nursing work experience. Based on these findings, recommendations were provided to improve nurses\u27 cultural competence by implementing curricular change and by advocating for culturally appropriate policies and guidelines in nursing practice

PENGARUH MODEL ADVANCE ORGANIZER TERHADAP KESADARAN SEJARAH PESERTA DIDIK DALAM PEMBELAJARAN SEJARAH KELAS X SMA NEGERI 1 DRIYOREJO

 The low awareness of students in appreciating and valuing the meaning and noble values, culture, and heritage of historical sites, as well as the limited skills of teachers in implementing varied learning approaches that apply conventional teaching models, have resulted in less comprehensive and holistic learning activities, which are the main focus of this research issue. Based on observations in class X of SMA Negeri 1 Driyorejo, it was found that the lack of attention from teachers in developing students' initial abilities and their failure to connect previously acquired knowledge with new knowledge that students learn, have led to history lessons being taught incompletely and incomprehensively. Furthermore, the students' low awareness in appreciating and valuing the meaning and noble values, culture, and heritage of historical sites is evident as students perceive history as mere memorization. To address these problems, it is necessary to apply an appropriate and well-organized teaching model, in line with the characteristics of a comprehensive and holistic history teaching model, namely the advance organizer model. This study aims to determine the influence of the advance organizer model on students' historical awareness in the history learning of class X at SMA Negeri 1 Driyorejo. This research is a quantitative study using the Quasi Experimental Design research method. The research design used is the Non-equivalent pretest post-test Control Group. The sample was selected using purposive cluster sampling. The data analysis technique used in this study is the Independent Sample T-test, with the hypothesis testing resulting in a significance value (2-tailed) of 0.002 < 0.05 and a calculated t-value of 3.203. Therefore, it can be concluded that the calculated t-value of 3.203 > the tabulated t-value of 1.939, which means that the null hypothesis (H₀) is rejected and thealternative hypothesis (Hₐ) is accepted. This indicates that there is a significant difference in the average historical awareness of students between the advance organizer model in the experimental class and the conventional cooperative learning-based model in the control class, suggesting that the advance organizer model (X) has an effect on students' historical awareness (Y) in class X at SMA Negeri 1 Driyorejo.Keywords: Advance Organizer Model, Historical Awarenes

Effects of mycophenolate mofetil on cutaneous lupus erythematosus in (NZB × NZW) F1 mice

AbstractBackgroundFew studies have evaluated the effects and precise molecular mechanism of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) in the treatment of human cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE). Our findings shed light on the therapeutic effects of MMF in a UVB-induced NZB × NZW (NZBW) F1 CLE mouse model.MethodsContinuous MMF treatment (60 mg/kg/day) was administered up to Day 50 from the beginning of UVB induction (Day 0; 20 weeks old), as the pathologic features of CLE are present after 50 days. The therapeutic effects of MMF treatment in NZBW lupus mice were examined by comparing histopathological changes, lupus band test (deposition of immune complexes at the dermal–epidermal junction) and colocalization of autoantibodies with a dermal autoantigen Dsg3, and by evaluating the associations of local matrix metalloprotease activities.ResultsMMF improved survival in the NZBW lupus mice from 35.7% to 81.8%. The proteinuria, blood urea nitrogen, and interleukin 6 levels were significantly reduced after MMF treatment. The dermal lymphocytic infiltration, deposition of immune complexes at the dermal–epidermal junction, colocalized autoantibodies with Dsg3, and epidermal matrix metalloprotease activity were also attenuated in MMF-treated NZBW F1 mice.ConclusionThe results confirmed that MMF could substantially attenuate skin damage due to CLE in the NZBW F1 mouse model

Energy Dependence Study of Directed Flow in Au + Au Collisions Using an Improved Coalescence in a Multiphase Transport Model

The rapidity-odd component of directed flow ($v_{1}$) of identified hardons ($\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, $K^{0}_{S}$, $p$, $\bar{p}$, $\phi$, $\Xi$, $\bar{\Xi}$, $\Lambda$, $\bar{\Lambda}$) and partons ($u$, $\bar{u}$, $d$, $\bar{d}$, $s$, $\bar{s}$) in Au+Au collisions at various beam energies ($\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 54.4, 62.4, 200 GeV) using a multi-phase transport model is analyzed. A data driven approach (inspired from the experimental analysis) is performed here to distinguish the transported and produced quarks which are found to have different directed flow values at various collision beam energies. The coalescence sum rule (Number of Constituent Quark scaling) violation is observed at lower energies where hadronic matters dominate. The strange quark ($s$) and $\phi$ meson slope (d$v_{1}$/d$y$) show a double sign change around 14.5 GeV, unlike other partons and hadrons. It suggests that strange quark is more sensitive to the softening of Equation of State (EoS).Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Evaluation of molecular makers for species phylogeny of genus Acropora (Cnidaria; Scleractinia; Acroporidae)

Acropora is the most speciose genus in coral reef with 113 species currently described. Diversified morphology and potential of cross-species hybridization have drawn our attention in defining the species boundary, constructing species-level phylogeny, and inferring mechanism of speciation for this genus. Although endeavours have been taking in developing molecular markers in the last decade, several unique features such as slow evolution of mitochondrial genome and abundant ribosomal pseudogenes of Acropora neither provide little resolution for phylogenetic inference, nor equivocal conclusions in contrast to phylogenies based on fossil records and morphological characters. In this study, we evaluated 4 molecular markers, including mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (Cytb), mitochondrial intergenic spacer spanning between Cytb and ND gene (mtigs), mini-collagen intron 2 (mci2), and nuclear histone 2a and 2b gene (H2ab), for constructing species phylogeny of genus Acropora. All the 4 loci supported the two subgenera, lsopora and Acropora, as two distinct evolutionary lineages, and relocated Acropora togianensis as the fifth species in the• subgenus lsopora. However, Cytb, mtigs, and mci2 suffering from either low variability or sharing unsorted polymorphisms between the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific species provided no further resolution in resolving phylogeny in subgenus Acropora. In contrast, phylogeny constructed based on h2ab gene using Bayesian approach supported, in part, to Wallace (1999), that A. humilis group and A. austera form the basal clades of morphological phylogeny. The utility of nuclear coding genes in. resolving. species phylogeny of Acropora is highlighted

Bronchiolitis Obliterans Organizing Pneumonia in Swine Associated with Porcine Circovirus Type 2 Infection

Bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP) is a chronic respiratory disease. Although the pathogenesis of BOOP is still incompletely understood, BOOP is responsive to steroids and has a good prognosis. In our five pigs with chronic postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS), typical BOOP lesions were revealed. All five porcine lungs showed typical intraluminal plugs, and porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) was identified. They also exhibited similar pathologic findings such as proliferation of type II pneumocytes and myofibroblasts (MFBs), extracellular collagen matrix (ECM) deposition, and fragmentation of elastic fibers. MFBs migration correlative molecules, for instance, gelatinase A, B and osteopontin, appeared strongly in the progressing marginal area of polypoid intraluminal plugs of fibrotic lesion. These molecules colocalized with the active MFBs. Both gelatinase activity and intercellular level of active MFBs were significantly increased (P < .05). Porcine chronic bronchopneumonia leads to BOOP and it is associated with PCV2 persistent infection. Swine BOOP demonstrates similar cellular constituents with human BOOP. Perhaps their molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis operate in a similar way. Thus we infer that the swine BOOP can be considered as a potential animal model for human BOOP associated with natural viral infection. Moreover, it is more convenient to obtain samples

Search for the QCD Critical Point: Higher Moments of Net-proton Multiplicity Distributions

Higher moments of event-by-event net-proton multiplicity distributions have been applied to search for the QCD critical point. Model results are used to provide a baseline for this search. The measured moment products, $\kappa\sigma^2$ and $S\sigma$ of net-proton distributions, which are directly connected to the thermodynamical baryon number susceptibility ratio in Lattice QCD and Hadron Resonance Gas (HRG) model, are compared to the transport and thermal model results. We argue that a non-monotonic dependence of $\kappa \sigma^2$ and $S \sigma$ as a function of beam energy can be used to search for the QCD critical point.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. CPOD 2010 Proceeding