19 research outputs found
Implications of assisted dying for nursing practice
No full textAuthor note: This article is based on a presentation delivered at the 24th International Nursing Ethics Conference, Brunel University of London on the 30th August 2024.This conceptual paper considers the practice implications of assisted dying for contemporary nursing practice within the United Kingdom in response to the publication of a parliamentary report leading to a private members’ bill that will form the basis of a debate and possible change in legislation. A recurring theme within the nursing research is how nurses should respond to patients expressing an interest or making a request for assisted dying. This paper explores contemporary evidence and argues that the procedure of assisted dying is a complex (manifold) and puzzling (paradoxical) practice. The UK nursing profession may replicate recent healthcare catastrophes if the response to a proposal for assisted dying is based on a technical-rational stance, or if nurses merely coalesce around a single determinant such as patient autonomy. The paper presents two nursing communicative interventions that seek to address how to respond to a patient request for an assisted death that foregrounds the preferences and personhood of the patient whilst providing opportunities for enquiry-based approaches to enhance nursing responses to intractable suffering.The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article
Measuring the Success of Active Blended Learning
No full textActive blended learning (ABL) is a defining aspect of the University of Northampton and has generated national and global interest. Within a few months of the author taking up a senior leadership position with the university, ABL was a significant positive factor in the university's ability to lock down the campus in response to COVID-19 and deliver education remotely. However, there is a scarcity of evaluation of ABL to provide evidence of the scale of its adoption in the university, its forms in different academic disciplines, its impact on different groups of students, and how to improve its effectiveness. Ideally, evaluation is always integral to pedagogic initiatives. It is however a reality that evaluation comes with challenges. This chapter explores why evaluation is so important and also so difficult. It proposes a way forward in the context of ABL by combining nationally available metrics with small-scale case studies
Integrating emergency management into local government corporate culture
No full textThis project explores the integration of emergency management into local government corporate culture in British Columbia and identifies best practices for consideration. Research includes an extensive literature review and original research via an online survey of current emergency program coordinators in British Columbia. Research delves into what constitutes successful emergency management programs, the potential benefits and challenges of emergency management integration, and best practices for integration into local government corporate culture. Emergency program coordinators confirm that they considered emergency management integration important and share best practices for how they elicit participation and share emergency management information with other local government departments. Best practices include building relationships, collaboration and strategic leadership. Further research is required to identify how to take emergency management to the next level for strategic initiatives that will create sustainable and resilient local governments and communities. Emergency program coordinators are in a unique position to support their organizations in creating a new vision for sustainable and resilient communities by integrating emergency management into the local government corporate culture and together with local government senior management becoming the leaders their communities need and expect for a better futureemergency management; local government; organizational culture; integration; coordinatio
The Effectiveness of Different Revision Approaches in Science on Achievement and Retention of Learners Having Different Learning Styles
No full textNot availabl
Hearing and ossicular chain preservation in cholesteatoma surgery
No full textAbstractObjective:To assess the hearing changes associated with sacrificing an intact ossicular chain during cholesteatoma surgery.Methods:We reviewed the operation notes of surgical procedures performed by the senior author between October 2000 and April 2006. Thirty-three cases were identified in which cholesteatoma surgery had been performed in the presence of a mobile, intact ossicular chain. One set of case notes was missing; therefore, 32 cases were included in the analysis. The ossicular chain was preserved in 17 cases (14 males and three females) and sacrificed in 15 (eight males and seven females).Results:At the first post-operative assessment, a median air–bone gap deterioration of 3.3 dB was seen in patients in whom the ossicular chain had been sacrificed, while a median air–bone gap improvement of 3.3 dB was seen in those in whom the chain had been preserved. However, multivariable logistic regression analysis suggested that this difference in hearing outcomes was due to pre-operative hearing status, and that preservation of the ossicular chain did not lead to a better outcome.Conclusions:In cholesteatoma surgery, there is at most a marginal benefit in preserving the ossicular chain. In the current study, the better hearing outcomes associated with preservation of the ossicular chain were accounted for by patients' better pre-operative hearing status. This study did not demonstrate a difference in residual disease rate, but was underpowered to do so.</jats:sec
Extremely red stellar objects revealed by IPHAS
No full textWe present photometric analysis and follow-up spectroscopy for a population of extremely red stellar objects extracted from the point-source catalogue of the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) Photometric H alpha Survey (IPHAS) of the northern Galactic plane. The vast majority of these objects have no previous identification. Analysis of optical, near- and mid-infrared photometry reveals that they are mostly highly reddened asymptotic giant branch stars, with significant levels of circumstellar material. We show that the distribution of these objects traces galactic extinction, their highly reddened colours being a product of both interstellar and circumstellar reddening. This is the first time that such a large sample of evolved low-mass stars has been detected in the visual and allows optical counterparts to be associated with sources from recent infrared surveys.
Follow-up spectroscopy on some of the most interesting objects in the sample has found significant numbers of S-type stars which can be clearly separated from oxygen-rich objects in the IPHAS colour-colour diagram. We show that this is due to the positions of different molecular bands relative to the narrow-band H alpha filter used for IPHAS observations. The IPHAS (r' - H alpha) colour offers a valuable diagnostic for identifying S-type stars. A selection method for identifying S-type stars in the Galactic plane is briefly discussed and we estimate that over a thousand new objects of this type may be discovered, potentially doubling the number of known objects in this short but important evolutionary phase
In vitro assessment of mouse uterine and fetoplacental vascular function
No full textAdequate blood flow provision through alterations in maternal vascular function is essential during pregnancy for optimal fetal development. Abnormal uterine vasculature adaptation, resulting in aberrant blood flow to the placenta, has been implicated as a possible cause of fetal growth restriction (FGR). Our study aimed to develop strategies to evaluate murine vascular function in pregnancy using wire myography. Main uterine artery loop and branch vessels isolated from near-term pregnant mice showed significant contraction to phenylephrine (PE). Endothelial-dependent relaxation was noted with acetylcholine (ACH). U46619 elicited significant contraction of umbilical arteries and veins, but relaxation was only demonstrable with the nitric oxide (NO) donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP). In conclusion, our data suggest that murine uteroplacental and fetoplacental arteries show distinct responses to vasoactive agents. Furthermore, this study indicates that wire myography represents a robust technique for the assessment of murine uteroplacental and fetoplacental vascular function, which will aid evaluation of mouse genetic models of FGR. © 2009 The Author(s)
Genomic variations define divergence of water/wildlife-associated Campylobacter jejuni niche specialists from common clonal complexes
No full textAlthough the major food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni has been isolated from diverse animal, human and environmental sources, our knowledge of genomic diversity in C. jejuni is based exclusively on human or human food-chain-associated isolates. Studies employing multilocus sequence typing have indicated that some clonal complexes are more commonly associated with particular sources. Using comparative genomic hybridization on a collection of 80 isolates representing diverse sources and clonal complexes, we identified a separate clade comprising a group of water/wildlife isolates of C. jejuni with multilocus sequence types uncharacteristic of human food-chain-associated isolates. By genome sequencing one representative of this diverse group (C. jejuni 1336), and a representative of the bank-vole niche specialist ST-3704 (C. jejuni 414), we identified deletions of genomic regions normally carried by human food-chain-associated C. jejuni. Several of the deleted regions included genes implicated in chicken colonization or in virulence. Novel genomic insertions contributing to the accessory genomes of strains 1336 and 414 were identified. Comparative analysis using PCR assays indicated that novel regions were common but not ubiquitous among the water/wildlife group of isolates, indicating further genomic diversity among this group, whereas all ST-3704 isolates carried the same novel accessory regions. While strain 1336 was able to colonize chicks, strain 414 was not, suggesting that regions specifically absent from the genome of strain 414 may play an important role in this common route of Campylobacter infection of humans. We suggest that the genomic divergence observed constitutes evidence of adaptation leading to niche specialization
On the alignment of PNe and local magnetic field at the Galactic centre : magnetohydrodynamical numerical simulations
No full textDFG thanks the European Research Council (ADG-2011 ECOGAL), and Brazilian agencies CNPq (no. 300382/2008-1), CAPES (3400-13-1) and FAPESP (no.2011/12909-8) for financial support. HM thanks CNPq grant 573648/2008-5 and FAPEMIG grants APQ-02030-10 and CEX-PPM-00235-12.For the past decade, observations of the alignment of planetary nebulae (PNe) symmetries with respect to the Galactic disc have led to conflicting results. Recently, the first direct observational evidence for a real alignment between PNe and local interstellar magnetic fields in the central part of the Galaxy (b 100 μG are required in order to be dynamically dominant. This is found to occur only at later evolutionary stages, therefore, being unable to change the general morphology of the nebula. However, the symmetry axis of bipolar and elliptical nebulae end up aligned to the external field. This result can explain why different samples of PNe result in different conclusions regarding the alignment of PNe. Objects located at high Galactic latitudes, or at large radii, should present no preferential alignment with respect to the Galactic plane. PNe located at the Galactic centre and low latitudes would, on the other hand, be preferentially aligned to the disc. Finally, we present synthetic polarization maps of the nebulae to show that the polarization vectors, as well as the field lines at the expanding shell, are not uniform even in the strongly magnetized case, indicating that polarization maps of nebulae are not adequate in probing the orientation, or intensity, of the dominant external field.Peer reviewe
