342 research outputs found
The impact of the Perinatal Education Programme on cognitive knowledge in midwives
Objective. To determine whether the Maternal Care and Newborn Care manuals from the Perinatal Education Programme significantly improves the cognitive knowledge of midwives.Design. Assessment of cognitive knowledge by means of multiple-choice testing. These tests were conducted before and after each of the 30 units of the Programme. In addition, a multiple-choice examination was arranged on completion of each of the two manuals.Setting. Level I, II and III hospitals and level I clinics in urban and rural areas of South Africa.Participants. One hundred and fourteen midwives from hospitals and clinics.Intervention. Maternal and Newborn Care manuals of the Perinatal Education Programme, studied at home and later discussed by the participants in groups every few weeks.Main outcomes measured. Number of participants who completed a manual, mean results of the pretests and post-tests, mean results of the final examination, and percentage of participants achieving 80% or more in the pretests, post-tests and final examination.Results. Mean pretest and post-test results for the Maternal Care manual were 65% and 85% respectively. Mean pretest and post-test results for the Newborn Care manual were 72% and 93% respectively. The mean result for the final examination for the Maternal Care manual was 90%, while the mean result for the Newborn Care manual was 95%. There was a significant improvement in cognitive knowledge when either manual was used.Conclusion. The cognitive knowledge of both maternal and newborn care can be significantly improved when midwives use the Perinatal Education Programme in an outreach, co-operative learning course
Yield-maturity relationships in spring-planted crops for the northern Canadian prairies
Non-Peer Reviewe
Evidence for a Binary Companion to the Central Compact Object 1E 1207.4-5209
Unique among neutron stars, 1E 1207.4-5209 is an X-ray pulsar with a spin
period of 424 ms that contains at least two strong absorption features in its
energy spectrum. This neutron star has been identified as a member of the
radio-quiet compact central objects in supernova remnants. It has been found
that 1E 1207.4-5209 is not spinning down monotonically suggesting that this
neutron star undergoes strong, frequent glitches, contains a fall-back disk, or
possess a binary companion. Here, we report on a sequence of seven XMM-Newton
observations of 1E 1207.4-5209 performed during a 40 day window in June/July
2005. Due to unanticipated variance in the phase measurements beyond the
statistical uncertainties, we could not identify a unique phase-coherent timing
solution. The three most probable timing solutions give frequency time
derivatives of +0.9, -2.6, and +1.6 X 10^(-12) Hz/s (listed in descending order
of significance). We conclude that the local frequency derivative during our
XMM-Newton observing campaign differs from the long-term spin-down rate by more
than an order of magnitude, effectively ruling out glitch models for 1E
1207.4-5209. If the long-term spin frequency variations are caused by timing
noise, the strength of the timing noise in 1E 1207.4-5209 is much stronger than
in other pulsars with similar period derivatives. Therefore, it is highly
unlikely that the spin variations are caused by the same physical process that
causes timing noise in other isolated pulsars. The most plausible scenario for
the observed spin irregularities is the presence of a binary companion to 1E
1207.4-5209. We identified a family of orbital solutions that are consistent
with our phase-connected timing solution, archival frequency measurements, and
constraints on the companions mass imposed by deep IR and optical observations.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. To be published in the proceedings of "Isolated
Neutron Stars: from the Interior to the Surface" (April 24-28, 2006) - eds.
D. Page, R. Turolla & S. Zan
Relationship of care staff attitudes with social well-being and challenging behavior of nursing home residents with dementia: a cross sectional study
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Cancer-associated fibroblasts—heroes or villains?
Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) were originally presumed to represent a homogeneous population uniformly driving tumorigenesis, united by their morphology and peritumoural location. Our understanding of CAFs has since been shaped by sophisticated in vitro and in vivo experiments, pathological association and, more recently, ablation, and it is now widely appreciated that CAFs form a group of highly heterogeneous cells with no single overarching marker. Studies have demonstrated that the CAF population contains different subtypes based on the expression of marker proteins with the capacity to promote or inhibit cancer, with their biological role as accomplices or adversaries dependent on many factors, including the cancer stage. So, while CAFs have been endlessly shown to promote the growth, survival and spread of tumours via improvements in functionality and an altered secretome, they are also capable of retarding tumorigenesis via largely unknown mechanisms. It is important to reconcile these disparate results so that the functions of, or factors produced by, tumour-promoting subtypes can be specifically targeted to improve cancer patient outcomes. This review will dissect out CAF complexity and CAF-directed cancer treatment strategies in order to provide a case for future, rational therapies.Krystyna A. Gieniec, Lisa M. Butler, Daniel L. Worthley and Susan L. Wood
Rings and bars: unmasking secular evolution of galaxies
Secular evolution gradually shapes galaxies by internal processes, in
contrast to early cosmological evolution which is more rapid. An important
driver of secular evolution is the flow of gas from the disk into the central
regions, often under the influence of a bar. In this paper, we review several
new observational results on bars and nuclear rings in galaxies. They show that
these components are intimately linked to each other, and to the properties of
their host galaxy. We briefly discuss how upcoming observations, e.g., imaging
from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G), will lead to
significant further advances in this area of research.Comment: Invited review at "Galaxies and their Masks", celebrating Ken
Freeman's 70-th birthday, Sossusvlei, Namibia, April 2010. To be published by
Springer, New York, editors D.L. Block, K.C. Freeman, & I. Puerari; minor
change
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