Skin diseases and the care of patients with skin diseases as perceived by nurses

Dermatological patients are a distinctive group of patients who experience social stigmatisation, exclusion, and a significant decrease in the quality of life. In the healthcare delivery setting, medical staff (especially nurses) are expected to ensure patients with skin diseases' comfort and bio-psycho-social well-being. Undoubtedly, the realisation of this goal is facilitated by the staff's dermatological knowledge of the causes of the disease and its impact on the patient and their quality of life. The study was based on the opinions of nurses not working in dermatology departments, focusing on their perception of patients with skin problems and selected issues related to their quality of life.

Testing for Audience Design: a short report

In this short report, we present the results from a novel test set-up, aiming to track the practice of Audience Design (AD) in the reference production of Swedish speaking 7 year olds. AD is the conduct of altering one's communicative signal with the receiver of the signal in mind, so that they can easily infer its intended meaning. The results show a distinctive group that does not adapt production in the same manner as in a practice trial prompt for a third party without shared frame of mind. While we controlled for the participant’s knowledge of the referential objects of the test, we did not control for the participants assumptions about the world knowledge of the different addresses, which might have altered the result.

Similar but Different. Inter-Branch Diversification of Volunteers' Motivations

The article aims to verify whether volunteers working in the same branch of the nonprofit sector (e.g., culture, emergency services, and charity) share any similarities with respect to their motivation profiles. Moreover, the study tries to identify the mechanisms responsible for such inter–branch “motivation sorting.” In particular, three mechanisms are considered: functional matching, motivations to affordances matching, and motivation alignment. The data used in the analysis come from an original survey conducted among volunteers in Poland with the use of the Volunteer Functions Inventory (Clary, Snyder & Stukas, 1996). This questionnaire allows the identifying of six types of volunteer motivations: career, social, protective, understanding, enhancement, and values. The motivation profile of volunteers working in seven branches of the nonprofit sector is compared. The results indicate that the most distinctive group with respect to the motivation profile was made up of volunteers working in tourism and sports as well as emergency service volunteers. It was in the latter group that some traces of the motivation alignment and/or motivation to affordances matching were identified. The identification of some homogeneity of motivations within particular branches of the nonprofit sector is a valuable finding from the point of view of volunteer recruitment and retention.

Prevalence and characteristics of childfree adults in Michigan (USA)

Childfree individuals choose not to have children, which makes them a distinctive group from parents who have had children, not-yet-parents who plan to have children, and childless indivduals who would have liked to have children. Most research on parental status and psychosocial characteristics has not effectively distinguished childfree individuals from other non-parents or has relied on non-representative samples. In this study, we use a representative sample of 981 Michigan adults to estimate the prevalence of childfree individuals, to examine how childfree individuals differ from parents and other types of non-parents in life satisfaction, political ideology, and personality, and to examine whether childfree individuals are viewed as an outgroup. We find that over a quarter of Michigan adults identified as childfree. After controlling for demographic characteristics, we find no differences in life satisfaction and limited differences in personality traits between childfree individuals and parents, not-yet-parents, or childless individuals. However, childfree individuals were more liberal than parents, and those who have or want(ed) children felt substantially less warm toward childfree individuals than childfree individuals felt toward each other. Given the prevalence of childfree individuals, the risks of their outgroup status, and their potential role in politics as a uniquely liberal group, it is important for demographic research to distinguish the childfree from others and to better understand these individuals.

International students: potential clients for Mekong Delta Tourism

International students are becoming a significant part of global mobility. Studies from different parts of the world have shown they not only have impacts on education but also contribute to tourism. They make up a distinctive group of international tourists characterized by travelling frequency, types of tourist activities, accommodation preferences, levels of expenditure and potentials of attracting visits of friends and relatives. In other words, international tourists not only directly contribute to but could also have long term impact on the destination country's tourism. As Vietnam has proactively engage in international integration in higher education, which would result in an increase in the influx of international students, an exploratory study on this group of potential tourists is needed. Based on researches from different countries this article identifies features of international students in conducting tourist activities before proposing recommendations for more effective engagement in this group of clients with the highlights of the role of Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) and linkages among higher education institutions in Ho Chi Minh City Metropolitan Area and the Mekong Delta.

The Special Case of Retirees

Retirees are a distinctive group within the set of southern movers. Significantly, they tend to be older and more conservative than other movers. Mobile retirees tend to congregate in certain areas, and so they may dampen the progressive effects normally associated with population growth. Data presented in Chapter 7 demonstrates that movers of retirement age are distinctive; they are more likely identify as Democrats, and they are more liberal than retirees who age in place. Given the partisan and political leanings of mobile retirees, it is unlikely that they have a significant dampening effect on the liberalizing impact of population growth more generally.

Taxonomic Revision and Classification of Extant Holococcolithophores Previously Placed in the Genus Anthosphaera Kamptner emend. Kleijne 1991

The genus Anthosphaera Kamptner emend. Kleijne is one of the most taxonomically confusing modern coccolithophores and its species level taxonomy has long been in a state of flux. Based on the review of imaged specimens from our collections, we attempt to rectify the nomenclatural problems and elucidate the obfuscated taxonomy of the genus. Review of included formally and informally described species shows that they are a distinctive group with shared characters, including ten different morphotypes of probable species level. Two of these, including the type species A. fragaria, have been shown to form life-cycle associations with heterococcoliths of the Syracosphaera molischii type. Hence, all species are transferred to Syracosphaera and the new combinations S. periperforata, S. lafourcadii, and S. origami are proposed. In addition, various informally described morphotypes are now formally described as Syracosphaera molischii var. pertusa, S. periperforata var. cylindrata, S. periperforata var. tridentata, S. rotaconica, and S. elevata. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0E5D4BD7-BC3B-4D30-B319-964AC887DDDE

Umbellula pomona sp. nov., a new sea pen from Mar del Plata Submarine Canyon (Cnidaria: Octocorallia: Pennatulacea)

Sea pens (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Pennatulacea) constitute a distinctive group of colonial marine invertebrates. They inhabit the world`s oceans, from shallow to deep waters. Studies about this group in Argentina are scarce, and no species have been described in the area in over a decade. Based on samples collected in Mar del Plata Submarine Canyon at about 3000 m deep we describe a new species of sea pen, Umbellula pomona Risaro, Williams & Lauretta sp. nov. This is a spiculate Umbellula that differs from other species of Umbellula with sclerites, by the number, development and distribution of the autozooids in its terminal cluster, as well as the shape of its axis. Molecular data also distinguishes it from other known species. Of the forty-three described species approximately ten are considered valid for the genus Umbellula, four of them are registered for the South Atlantic Ocean and only three are described for the Antarctic region. Since sampling efforts in this area have been scarce, the number of species of sea pens from the region is likely to increase substantially in the coming years.

A new approach to recognize term and preterm infants with impaired kidney function (IKF) during the first week of life

BackgroundCurrent definitions of neonatal acute kidney injury (nAKI) are not sensitive enough to identify all newborns with impaired kidney function (IKF) during the first week of life. Previous studies in term newborns with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy showed that the rate of serum creatinine (SCr) decline during the first week of life could be used to assess their renal status.MethodsWe reviewed the medical records of 329 critically ill newborns ≥ 27 weeks of gestational age (GA), to determine whether the rate of SCr decline combined with SCr thresholds provides a sensitive approach to identify newborns with IKF during the first week of life.ResultsExcluding neonates with nAKI, identified based on standard definitions, a SCr decline < 31 % by the 7th day of life, combined with a SCr threshold ≥ 0.7 mg/dl, recognized newborns of 40-31 weeks of GA with IKF. A SCr decline < 21% combined with a SCr threshold ≥ 0.8 mg/dl identified newborns of 30-27 weeks of GA with IKF. These neonates (~ 17%) showed a more prolonged hospital stay and required more days of mechanical ventilation, vasoactive drugs, and diuretics, when compared to critically ill controls. Changes in urine output did not distinguish newborns with IKF.ConclusionThe rate of SCr decline combined with SCr thresholds identifies newborns with IKF during the first week of life. This distinctive group of newborns that is missed by standard definitions of nAKI, warrants close monitoring in the NICU to prevent acute and chronic renal complications.

Writing History

Chapter 4 focuses on history textbooks authored during the Mandate period, and it traces the history of their writing and their use in schools. Textbooks represented the ‘correct’ and distilled formal knowledge required by the system. The chapter examines the central themes in these books and their dialogue with Ottoman, Egyptian, Lebanese, and Western sources, as well as the translation mechanisms employed as part of this dialogue. The chapter then applies a different lens to answer such questions as who wrote history? and why focus of the life stories of both Palestinian and Jewish authors? The sociological and intellectual affinities between these authors suggest that they were a distinctive group with specific characteristics. Finally, this chapter scrutinizes the loud echoes of the conflict in these texts.