Feelings expressed by student nurses in the care of the prostatectomy patient in a hospital setting

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

From patriliny to matriliny : structural change among the Redjang of southwest Sumatra

This thesis attempts to describe in its cultural setting the social structure of the Redjang people of Southwest Sumatra in the way that I observed and experienced it in the course of twenty months field work from May to October 1961 and from March 1962 to April 1963. The rich variety of Redjang social life can only partly be described with the written word. The structural forms of the remote past, the near past and the infinite gradations of the present, need more than written words to describe them«, Patterns of domestic organisation, for example, require graphic illustration to explain past and present arrangements adequately. Similarly the change of ideology from patriliny to matriliny is not merely a change in a sociological norm or an institutional adjustment but represents a major social and cultural shift that is expressed and reflected in myths, legends, anecdotes, ceremonial songs, lamentations, dances, gestures, rituals, sociodramas, apparel, ornamentation, cuisine, domestic architecture, household composition, kinship relations and terminology, village structure, the rules of marriage and the relative statuses of the spouses

Surveys to assess developer perceptions of code complexity

Although a codebase can be assessed objectively for computational complexity, e.g., time-to-execute, memory occupied, etc., there are currently no techniques to assess code complexity as perceived by a developer. Questions of relevance to software development, e.g., how easy or difficult it is to work with a codebase, which parts of the codebase are more complex than anticipated, etc. are not readily answerable. This disclosure describes techniques that automatically send surveys to developers at pertinent points during code development or maintenance. Developer responses are collated and analyzed to determine developer-perceived complexity, e.g., sections of code that are of excessive complexity, are difficult to work with, etc

Analyzing the Strength of Undergraduate Misconceptions About Software Engineering

ABSTRACT While many computer science students plan to pursue careers as software engineers, research shows that most traditional undergraduate CS programs fail to prepare students for the realities of programming in industry. Many misconceptions that are interfering with the transition to industry are belief-oriented, not skill-oriented, in nature, so traditional misconception assessments will not yield a deep understanding of them. In this paper we present a novel methodology that shows interactions among the misconceptions based on a forced choice paradigm and reveals the relative strength of the misconceptions. By analyzing students' repeated responses and response times, we construct a model of participants' misconceptions. We used this methodology to assess CS undergraduates at Carnegie Mellon University and compared their results to those from industry practitioners at several highly regarded companies. The results show that the students have misconceptions about process and teamwork. Surprisingly, we found that several misconceptions are correlated with elective courses that we expected to weaken misconceptions about software engineering but instead appeared to strengthen them

Effect of pancreatic and/or renal transplantation on diabetic autonomic neuropathy

Thirty-nine Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients were studied prospectively after simultaneous pancreas and kidney (n=26) and kidney grafting alone (n=13) by measuring heart rate variation during various manoeuvers and answering a standardized questionnaire every 6 to 12 months post-transplant. While age, duration of diabetes, and serum creatinine (168.1±35.4 vs 132.7±17.7 mgrmol/l) were comparable, haemoglobin A1 levels were significantly lower (6.6±0.2 vs 8.5±0.3%; p<0.01) and the mean observation time longer (35±2 vs 25±3 months; p<0.05) in the pancreas recipients when compared with kidney transplanted patients. Heart rate variation during deep breathing, lying/standing and Valsalva manoeuver were very similar in both groups initially and did not improve during follow-up. However, there was a significant reduction in heart rate in the pancreas recipient group. Autonomic symptoms of the gastrointestinal and thermoregulatory system improved more in the pancreas grafted subjects, while hypoglycaemia unawareness deteriorated in the kidney recipients. This study suggests that long-term normoglycaemia by successful pancreatic grafting is able to halt the progression of autonomic dysfunction

Scientific justification for the participation of children and adolescents in HIV-1 vaccine trials in South Africa

No Abstract

Myocardial mechanics in young adult patients with diabetes mellitus: Effects altered load, inotropic state and dynamic exercise

AbstractThe disease entity “diabetic cardiomyopathy” has been extensively described in young patients with diabetes in the absence of ischemic, hypertensive or valvular heart disease. The most convincing data have been a 30% to 40% incidence of decreased radionuclide angiographic left ventricular ejection fraction response to dynamic exercise. In the current study, the hypothesis was tested that this abnormal ejection fraction response was due to alterations in ventricular loading conditions or cardiac autonomic innervation (extrinsic factors), or both, rather than to abnormalities in intrinsic ventricular systolic fiber function (contractility).Twenty normotensive patients with diabetes (mean age 30 ± 5 years, mean duration 15 ± 6 years) and 20 age-matched normal subjects were studied. All patients with diabetes had a normal treadmill exercise tolerance test without evidence of myocardial ischemia. By radionuclide angiography, all normal subjects increased ejection fraction with exercise (62 ± 4% to 69 ± 6%; p < 0.001). In contrast, 11(55%) of 20 patients with diabetes maintained or increased ejection fraction with exercise (group 1; 62 ± 4% to 69 ± 6%; p < 0.001) and 9 (45%) of 20 showed an exercise-induced decrease (group 2; 73 ± 4% to 66 ± 6%; p < 0.001). No difference in the incidence of microangiopathy, as noted by funduscopic examination, was present between the diabetic groups. Despite the abnormal ejection fraction response to exercise in the group 2 patients with diabetes, all patients with diabetes had a nor response to afterload manipulation, normal baseline ventricular contractility as assessed by load- and heart rate-independent end-systolic indexes and normal contractile reserve as assessed with dobutamine challenge.Autonomic dysfunction did not explain the disparate results between the group 2 patients' radionuclide angiographic data and their load-independent tests of ventricular contractility and reserve. In addition, the high ejection fraction at rest in group 2 patients (73±4% versus 62 ± 4% for normal subjects; p < 0.001) was not related to the abnormal tests of autonomic function. Thus, when left ventricular systolic performance was assessed by load- and rate-independent indexes, there was no evidence for cardiomyopathy in young adult patients with diabetes who have normal blood nressure and no ischemie heart disease