How do we determine oral readiness in infants?

Determining oral feeding readiness in preterm infants is difficult and involves many aspects, including observations of behavioural state, physiological responses to the environment, oral skills and motor skills. Premature infants are challenged when developing the skills needed for effective oral feeding due to an immature neurological system, underdeveloped motor skills and poor autonomic regulation. Because of an infant’s complex needs and immature development, recognizing oral readiness signs alongside other important indicators when planning the introduction of oral feeding can be hard to gauge accurately. This article focuses on nurse practitioner understanding of oral readiness during an informal study completed in an inner city level 1 neonatal unit

Biodiesel: A New Oildorado?

Guaranteeing tax reductions and exemptions, the European governments intend to increase the share of biofuels in total EU fuel consumption to 5.75% by 2010. The financial support of this EU objective is frequently justified by expected positive environmental impacts, most notably the mitigation of climate change, and by favorable employment effects in the agricultural sector. This paper investigates the environmental and economic implications of the support of rapeseed-based biodiesel as a substitute for fossil diesel.Based on a survey of recent empirical studies, we find that the energy and greenhouse gas balances of this environmental strategy are clearly positive.Yet, its overall environmental balance is currently far from being unequivocally positive. Most importantly, biodiesel is not a cost-efficient emission abatement strategy. Thus, for the abatement of greenhouse gases,we recommend more efficient alternatives based on both renewable and conventional technologies