Diversity and education of the nursing workforce 2006–2016

Background

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, The Future of Nursing, included recommendations to increase nurse diversity, the percent of nurses obtaining a bachelor’s degree, and inter-professional education.

Predicting Vertical Jump Height from Bar Velocity

The objective of the study was to assess the use of maximum (V_max) and final propulsive phase (FPV) bar velocity to predict jump height in the weighted jump squat. FPV was defined as the velocity reached just before bar acceleration was lower than gravity (-9.81 m·s^-2). Vertical jump height was calculated from the take-off velocity (V_take-off) provided by a force platform. Thirty swimmers belonging to the National Slovenian swimming team performed a jump squat incremental loading test, lifting 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of body weight in a Smith machine. Jump performance was simultaneously monitored using an AMTI portable force platform and a linear velocity transducer attached to the barbell. Simple linear regression was used to estimate jump height from the V_max and FPV recorded by the linear velocity transducer. V_max (y = 16.577x - 16.384) was able to explain 93% of jump height variance with a standard error of the estimate of 1.47 cm. FPV (y = 12.828x - 6.504) was able to explain 91% of jump height variance with a standard error of the estimate of 1.66 cm. Despite that both variables resulted to be good predictors, heteroscedasticity in the differences between FPV and V_take-off was observed (r² = 0.307), while the differences between V_max and V_take-off were homogenously distributed (r² = 0.071). These results suggest that V_max is a valid tool for estimating vertical jump height in a loaded jump squat test performed in a Smith machine.

Key points

• Vertical jump height in the loaded jump squat can be estimated with acceptable precision from the maximum bar velocity recorded by a linear velocity transducer.
• The relationship between the point at which bar acceleration is less than -9.81 m·s^-2 and the real take-off is affected by the velocity of movement.
• Mean propulsive velocity recorded by a linear velocity transducer does not appear to be optimal to monitor ballistic exercise performance.

Key words: Linear velocity transducer, force platform, jump performance, swimming     

Rett syndrome: an eye‐tracking study of attention and recognition memory

Aim

The aim of this study was to examine attention and recognition memory for faces and patterns in Rett syndrome, a severely disabling neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the X‐linked MECP2 gene.

Method

Because Rett syndrome impairs speech and hand use, precluding most neuropsychological testing, the visual paired‐comparison paradigm (VPC) was used, together with eye tracking. In the VPC, two identical stimuli are presented for familiarization. On test, the familiar stimulus and a new one are paired, and recognition inferred from preferential looking to the novel target. Attention is measured by looking time, gaze dispersion, and number/length of fixations. Twenty‐seven female patients with Rett syndrome (mean age 10y 6mo; SD 6y 8mo, age range 2–22y) from the Rett clinic at a children's hospital were assessed in this study, along with 30 age‐ and sex‐matched typically developing participants (outpatients from the same hospital).

Results

Although patients with Rett syndrome showed recognition of both faces and patterns, with novelty scores greater than chance (50%), their performance was significantly poorer than that of the typically developing comparison group. Their attention to both was less mature and marked by a more narrowly focused gaze, with fewer and longer fixations. When inspecting faces, attention to the eyes was similar in both groups; however, patients with Rett syndrome tended to ignore the nose and mouth.

Interpretation

This is one of the first studies to characterize attention and memory in individuals with Rett syndrome. Visually based techniques, such as the VPC, open a new avenue for quantifying the cognitive phenotype associated with this syndrome.     

The predictive value of the presence of different antibodies and thymus pathology to the clinical outcome in patients with generalized myasthenia gravis

Objectives

To analyze the predictive value of anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies (anti-AChR Ab) and anti-muscle specific kinase antibodies (anti-MuSK Ab), as well as the thymus pathology to the clinical outcome in patients with generalized myasthenia gravis (MG).

Methods

We analyzed 138 patients with generalized MG, who were thymectomized and assayed for anti-AChR Ab and anti-MuSK Ab.

Results

Anti-AChR Ab were detected in 84% of patients, while anti-MuSK Ab were present in 36% of the AChR Ab negative patients. Severe forms of the disease were more frequent in MuSK Ab positive, compared to the AChR Ab positive and complete seronegative patients. Thymic lymphoid follicular hyperplasia (LFH) was present in 60%, thymoma in 23%, atrophic thymus in 9% and the normal thymus in 8% of patients. LFH was more frequent among women, while thymoma and atrophic thymus were more frequent in men. The younger patients mainly had LFH and normal thymus, while thymoma and atrophic thymus were more frequent in older patients. The mildest clinical presentation was present in patients with normal thymus, while severe forms of the disease were registered in the patients with thymoma. The AChR Ab positive patients had more often LFH and thymoma, while within MuSK Ab positive patients atrophic thymus was most common.

Conclusion

The best disease outcome was observed in patients with normal thymus or LFH with anti-AChR Ab or without both types of antibodies.     

Assessment of regularization techniques for electrocardiographic imaging

A widely used approach to solving the inverse problem in electrocardiography involves computing potentials on the epicardium from measured electrocardiograms (ECGs) on the torso surface. The main challenge of solving this electrocardiographic imaging (ECGI) problem lies in its intrinsic ill-posedness. While many regularization techniques have been developed to control wild oscillations of the solution, the choice of proper regularization methods for obtaining clinically acceptable solutions is still a subject of ongoing research. However there has been little rigorous comparison across methods proposed by different groups. This study systematically compared various regularization techniques for solving the ECGI problem under a unified simulation framework, consisting of both 1) progressively more complex idealized source models (from single dipole to triplet of dipoles), and 2) an electrolytic human torso tank containing a live canine heart, with the cardiac source being modeled by potentials measured on a cylindrical cage placed around the heart. We tested 13 different regularization techniques to solve the inverse problem of recovering epicardial potentials, and found that non-quadratic methods (total variation algorithms) and first-order and second-order Tikhonov regularizations outperformed other methodologies and resulted in similar average reconstruction errors.     

Comparison of the influence of thyroglobulin antibodies on serum thyroglobulin values from two different immunoassays in post surgical differentiated thyroid carcinoma patients

Measurement of serum thyroglobulin (Tg) is a highly specific test in the management of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) after surgical treatment. The aim of our study was to evaluate and compare Tg levels in these patients found by radioimmunoassay (RIA) and immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) and to assess the influence of Tg antibodies (TgAbs) on the values obtained for Tg concentration. Both Tg and TgAb were determined postoperatively in the serum of 71 DTC patients using RIA Tg‐PEG (INEP) and Tg IRMA (CIS) for Tg, together with TgAb (CIS) for circulating endogenous anti‐TgAbs. The obtained concentrations were evaluated statistically. We found a significant difference of Tg concentrations between paired samples from the IRMA and RIA, although the intermethod comparison yielded satisfactory concordance of the twoassays (Spearman correlation coefficient ?0.792). Positive TgAb was found in 28.2% of the serum samples analyzed. Spearman rank correlation analysis revealed a significant negative relationship between serum TgAb and Tg level measured by IRMA (P=0.02), but not by RIA (P=0.417). On the other hand, our clinical data revealed that 1/18 and 3/18 patients with proven lymph node metastasis had Tg values below the detection limit by RIA and IRMA assay, respectively. Their sera were TgAb positive. We concluded that RIA was less prone to influence of TgAb than IRMA. As the presence of TgAbs may interfere in Tg measurement irrespective of the method selected for determination, this should be considered during the clinical management of these patients. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 23:341–346, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.