Parental explanatory style and its relationship to the classroom performance of disabled and nondisabled children

This study examined the relationship between the explanatory style of parents for events involving their school-aged children and the children's classroom performance. Parents and teachers of 52 disabled and 40 nondisabled elementary school students completed questionnaires. Those children whose parents attributed bad events to internal, stable, and global causes tended not to fulfill their potential in the classroom, according to ratings by their teachers. The same patterns held for both disabled and nondisabled children. Findings suggest that the attributional beliefs of parents can affect the behavior of their children.This paper is based on an honors thesis in psychology at the University of Michigan, completed by the first author under the supervision of the second author. We wish to thank Jane Somers for making this research possible. Lisa M. Bossio gave helpful editorial advice. Anne Vanden Belt is now at the School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.     

Density-dependent Energy Loss of Protons in Pb and Be Targets and Percent Mass-Stopping Power from Bethe-Bloch Formula and Bichsel-Sternheimer Data Within 1–12 MeV Energy Range: A Comparative Study Based on Bland-Altman Analysis

Background

This comparative study calculated Bethe-Bloch results with Bichsel-Sternheimer values, employing the Bland-Altman analysis within 95% limit of agreement for the first time. The Bethe-Bloch formula was employed for the physical realization of the density-dependent energy loss of protons in lead (²⁰⁸Pb) and beryllium (⁹Be) targets in the energy range 1–12 MeV.

Evaluation of joint effusion in rabbits by color Doppler, power Doppler, and contrast-enhanced power Doppler ultrasonography

PURPOSE: The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of power Doppler ultrasonography (PDUS) and contrast-enhanced PDUS (CEPDUS) in the depiction and characterization of experimentally induced arthritis in the rabbit. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty rabbits were divided into three groups consisting of one control group (saline injection group) and two experimental groups: a suppurative arthritis group and a chemically induced synovitis group. The same amount (1 ml) of each agent was directly injected into the right hip joint. Serial color Doppler ultrasound (CDUS), PDUS, and CEPDUS images were obtained before and after injection. RESULTS: We observed that all of the infected knees in the suppurative arthritis group with Staphylococcus aureus demonstrated an increased signal on PDUS after inoculation. A minimal power Doppler signal was presented in the chemically induced synovitis group with talc injection, but none of the control knees demonstrated any increased signals. CEPDUS was the most sensitive imaging modality for evaluating the increase of blood flows in suppurative arthritis and was subsequently followed by PDUS and CDUS. CONCLUSION: The increased signals obtained with PDUS represent increased local blood flows; therefore, this technique can be used for evaluating the degree of inflammation. Furthermore, using the contrast agent enhances the sensitivity of PDUS, and it can even be useful for differentiating borderline cases.     

Bullying in the nursing profession

BACKGROUND: Self-esteem is a major predictor of behaviour. Nurses with healthy self-esteem are likely to deliver therapeutic patient care, while those with low self-esteem are less likely to do so. AIM: The aim of the 3-year study discussed here was to explore students' self-esteem and how their experiences of preregistration education influenced its development over the period of the programme. RESEARCH METHODS: Students participated in unstructured qualitative interviews at the beginning and end of their 3-year preregistration course and a grounded theory approach was used for data collection and analysis. FINDINGS: Bullying was found to be commonplace in the transition to becoming a nurse. Students were bullied and also witnessed patients being bullied by qualified nurses. The internalization of nursing norms meant that students then bullied others. Students' self-esteem was low. CONCLUSION: Bullying, and its effects on self-esteem, are perpetuated by practices within nursing. This situation will only be changed if nurses and educators transform their practice and the context in which bullying occurs. Otherwise, each new generation of nurses will continue to be socialized into negative practices which undermine both their own feelings of self-worth and standards of nursing care.     

高功率微波辐射对小鼠心肌氧化应激及ATPase的影响

目的观察高功率微波辐射(high power microwave radiation,HPM)对小鼠心肌氧化应激及ATPase活性的影响。方法雄性ICR小鼠32只,随机分为4组(n=8):假照组、微波辐射10 min组、微波辐射20 min组、微波辐射30 min组。采用S波段,平均表面功率为10 mW/cm2微波;照射时间分别为0,10,20,30 min/次,每周2次,共2周。末次辐射完毕,立即处死小鼠,取心脏、冰冷生理盐水冲洗后,加入匀浆液制作匀浆。采用试剂盒测定超氧化物歧化酶(SOD)活性、谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶(GSH-px)活性、总抗氧化能力(T-AOC)、谷胱甘肽(GSH)及丙二醛(MDA)的含量以及Na+K+-ATPase和Ca2+Mg2+-AT-Pase活性。结果微波辐射后,与假照组比,微波辐射20 min组和微波辐射30 min组SOD活性降低(P<0.05)、GSH-px活性增加(P<0.05);而微波辐射20 min组GSH含量明显增加(P<0.01);微波辐射30 min组Ca2+Mg2+-ATPase活性明显降低(P<0.01),其他指标变化无明显统计学差异。结论微波辐射可能引起小鼠心脏氧化应激平衡状态以及Ca2+转运的改变。     

A discursive exploration of nursing work in the hospital emergency setting

Emergency nurses apply specialist knowledge to the practice of emergency care. This paper discusses the ways in which three emergency nurses understand the nature of their care from their own frames of reference and experiences and presents some of the data collected in a larger study. Various discourses, which compete to inform emergency nurses' understandings of practice, are linked with the notion of nurses as subjects; that is, each discourse may inform, shape and constitute the practice of the nurse and, in turn, the ways in which the patient comes to be known and understood. I will examine the ways in which emergency nurses come to experience or position themselves vis-à-vis extant forms of knowledge of emergency care and the extent to which they articulate new or distinctive formulations of emergency care. This paper illuminates the commonalities that constitute the discourses of emergency nursing care, and also analyse nurses' language which demonstrates that within each discourse variations, contradictions and resistances exist. Emergency nursing care occurs in a context of a biomedical discourse that dominates, or tends to dominate, the work of the emergency setting and so to determine acceptable or possible practices. Nevertheless, nurses contest in various ways the 'truths' that they understand to underpin their practice. Challenges to biomedical discourses are revealed, to some extent, by drawing attention to specific situations and particular struggles encountered in emergency nurses' everyday practice.     

Value of contrast-enhanced power Doppler sonography using a microbubble echo-enhancing agent in evaluation of small breast lesions

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to prospectively evaluate the usefulness of contrast-enhanced power Doppler sonography (PDUS) using a microbubble echo-enhancing agent in differentiating between malignant and benign small breast lesions. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between July 1, 2000, and September 30, 2001, we performed gray-scale sonographic examination of patients in whom diagnostic sonography or screening mammography had revealed solid breast lesions measuring less than 2 cm in the largest dimension. The patients were then examined on PDUS before and after injection of a microbubble contrast agent. The sonographic findings for all 3 techniques, as well as the morphologic features of the Doppler signals for each patient before and after injection of the contrast agent on PDUS, were independently assessed. Each lesion was classified as "benign" or "malignant" on the basis of specific criteria for sonographic interpretation. A hemodynamic study was performed in which time-transit profiles of the Doppler signals on contrast-enhanced PDUS were generated using a computer-assisted program, and the results for each patient were compared with the findings of a histopathologic examination of surgical specimens. RESULTS: Thirty-six patients (35 women and 1 man) with a mean age of 43.5 years (range, 18-69 years) were evaluated. The tumors ranged from 4 to 19 mm in the largest dimension. Histopathologic examination revealed that 19 tumors were benign and 17 were malignant. For morphologic diagnosis of the malignant lesions, the sensitivity of gray-scale sonography was 100%, compared with 29% for PDUS without contrast enhancement. The specificity of gray-scale sonography was 47%, compared with 74% for PDUS without contrast enhancement. Contrast-enhanced PDUS had a sensitivity of 71% and a specificity of 58%. The diagnostic accuracy was 72% for gray-scale sonography, 53% for PDUS without contrast enhancement, and 64% for contrast-enhanced PDUS. The time-transit profiles of the hemodynamic study did not reveal a statistically significant difference in the accuracy rates of contrast-enhanced PDUS between benign and malignant breast lesions. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with PDUS without contrast enhancement, contrast-enhanced PDUS provides better visualization of the morphology of vascular Doppler signals that is characteristic of malignancy and therefore has a higher sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy, albeit a lower specificity. In differentiating between benign and malignant small breast lesions, contrast-enhanced PDUS can be helpful when used with gray-scale sonography and PDUS without contrast enhancement.     

护理硕士研究生学习适应性现状及其影响因素调查

目的探讨护理硕士研究生学习适应性情况和影响因素,为护理教育者提高护理硕士研究生教育质量提供参考。方法采用问卷调查法,方便取样选取10所院校的护理学专业全日制科学学位硕士研究生290人进行调查。结果调查对象的学习适应性总体得分为(3.67±1.15)分,处于中等偏上水平;不同年级、年龄、工作年限、入学方式,以及结婚、担任学生干部方面,适应性总体及各维度得分差异有统计学意义(P<0.05,P<0.01)。结论护理学专业硕士研究生的学习适应性较好,学习态度端正,但压力应对能力较差;学校和护理教育者应加强学生的心理卫生干预,促进导师和学生及学生之间的沟通,提供社会支持,并为学生提供各种锻炼的机会,以提高其学习适应性。     

The last post? Defending nursing against the postmodernist maze

Is postmodernism in many ways the empiricist-liberal tradition at the inevitable end of its intellectual and political tether? Or is postmodernism the ‘laughter of genius’ that art and argument in their traditional forms are dead? Can postmodernism be applied to social and economic issues whilst carrying a denial of the manner by which Western thought has shaped these issues? Can postmodernism provide moral pathways to help us with contemporary ethical issues? How can postmodernist thought encompass the activities of nurses, particularly in the area of psychiatric care? Can nurses afford postmodernist suppositions in the face of suffering and pain? If postmodernism exists, does it exist everywhere (as does nursing) or is it a more localized event?