International Scholarly Research Notices最新文献

Aim: Job stress is a part of nurses' professional life that causes the decrease of the nurses' job satisfaction and quality of work life. This study aimed to determine the effect of positive thinking via social media applications on the nurses' quality of work life.

Methods: This was a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study design with a control group. The samples were selected among the nurses in two hospitals in Fasa University of Medical Sciences and divided randomly into two interventional (n = 50) and control (n = 50) groups. Positive thinking training through telegrams was sent to the intervention group during a period of 3 months. Data were collected by using Brooks and Anderson's questionnaire of work life quality and analyzed by SPSS 18.

Results: The mean total scores of pretest and posttest in the intervention group improved noticeably and there were significant differences between mean scores of quality of work life in pretest and posttest scores in interventional groups (p < 0.001) and in dimensions of work life quality, home life (p < 0.001), work design (p < 0.001), work context (p < 0.001), and work world (p = 0.003).

Conclusion: This study concluded that positive thinking training via social media application enhanced nurses' quality of work life. This study is necessary to carry out on a larger sample size for generalizing findings better.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2014/967091.].

A phase resetting curve (PRC) measures the transient change in the phase of a neural oscillator subject to an external perturbation. The PRC encapsulates the dynamical response of a neural oscillator and, as a result, it is often used for predicting phase-locked modes in neural networks. While phase is a fundamental concept, it has multiple definitions that may lead to contradictory results. We used the Hilbert Transform (HT) to define the phase of the membrane potential oscillations and HT amplitude to estimate the PRC of a single neural oscillator. We found that HT's amplitude and its corresponding instantaneous frequency are very sensitive to membrane potential perturbations. We also found that the phase shift of HT amplitude between the pre- and poststimulus cycles gives an accurate estimate of the PRC. Moreover, HT phase does not suffer from the shortcomings of voltage threshold or isochrone methods and, as a result, gives accurate and reliable estimations of phase resetting.

Electrical resistivity measurement of freshly prepared uncured and cured soil-cement materials is done and the correlations between the factors controlling the performance of soil-cement and electrical resistivity are discussed in this paper. Conventional quality control of soil-cement quite often involves wastage of a lot of material, if it does not meet the strength criteria. In this study, it is observed that, in soil-cement, resistivity follows a similar trend as unconfined compressive strength, with increase in cement content and time of curing. Quantitative relations developed for predicting 7-day strength of soil-cement mix, using resistivity of the soil-cement samples at freshly prepared state, after 1-hour curing help to decide whether the soil-cement mix meets the desired strength and performance criteria. This offers the option of the soil-cement mix to be upgraded (possibly with additional cement) in its fresh state itself, if it does not fulfil the performance criteria, rather than wasting the material after hardening.

Rainfall variability has a significant impact on crop production with manifestations in frequent crop failure in semiarid areas. This study used the parameterized APSIM crop model to investigate how rainfall variability may affect yields of improved sorghum varieties based on long-term historical rainfall and projected climate. Analyses of historical rainfall indicate a mix of nonsignificant and significant trends on the onset, cessation, and length of the growing season. The study confirmed that rainfall variability indeed affects yields of improved sorghum varieties. Further analyses of simulated sorghum yields based on seasonal rainfall distribution indicate the concurrence of lower grain yields with the 10-day dry spells during the cropping season. Simulation results for future sorghum response, however, show that impacts of rainfall variability on sorghum will be overridden by temperature increase. We conclude that, in the event where harms imposed by moisture stress in the study area are not abated, even improved sorghum varieties are likely to perform poorly.

Introduction. Several plant preparations like a mixture of aqueous extracts of Spilanthes africana; Portulaca oleracea; and Sida rhombifolia are currently utilized in Foumban (West Cameroon) to manage diabetes. The aim of this study is to investigate the antidiabetic property of the aqueous mixture of three plant extracts (1 : 1 : 1) on streptozotocin induced diabetes rats. Methods. Diabetes was induced to rats by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of streptozotocin (STZ) at a dose of 50 mg/kg b.w. The diabetic rats received different dosages of the mixture of extracts for 21 days and glibenclamide 6.5 mg/kg b.w. as positive control. Results. The results showed that the mixture of extracts significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the level of the glycaemia, the total cholesterol, triglyceride, and LDL-cholesterol as well as MDA, AST, ALT, and creatinine levels. It also increased significantly the concentration of HDL-cholesterol, glutathione, and TAOS. A great reduction of the atherogenic indexes CT/HDL and LDL/HDL of the treated groups was observed. Each extract and the mixture demonstrated significant scavenging property on DPPH and OH radicals and present a good antioxidant property. Conclusion. The mixture of plant extracts has hypoglycemic, antioxidant, and hypolipidemic properties and can be used for the management of diabetes mellitus.

Microbial xylanase and pectinase are two extremely valuable enzymes, which have captivated much attention. This can be seen from the increased demand for these enzymes by many industrial sectors. This study investigates the isolation and screening of extracellular xylanopectinolytic enzymes-producing bacteria in a submerged fermentation (SmF). Samples are collected from the compost of empty fruit bunch (EFB) at Biocompost Pilot Plant, located at Biorefinery Plant, Universiti Putra Malaysia. From the experiment, out of 20 isolates, 11 isolates show xylanase or/and pectinase activity, and only one isolate (EFB-11) shows the concurrent activities of xylanase and pectinase. These activities are selected for enzyme production under submerged fermentation (quantitative screening). At the 72nd hour of incubation, xylanase and pectinase show the highest production, which ranges about 42.33 U/mL and 62.17 U/mL (with low amount of cellulase present), supplemented with 2% (w/v) of rice bran as carbon source at incubation temperature level, which is 30°C. Meanwhile, the pH of media is shifted to 8.42, which indicates that EFB-11 isolate is alkalotolerant bacteria and identified as Bacillus subtilis ADI1. This strain proves to have potential in agroindustrial bioconversion and has a promising ability to scale up to an industrial scale.

Background. Preoperative fasting (POF) is physiologically and precautionary important during anesthesia and surgery. POF from midnight has been practiced despite the recommended shorter practice. Objective. Assessing preoperative fasting among adult patients scheduled for elective surgery at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH). Methods. A descriptive cross-sectional study involving 65 surgical patients. A questionnaire of mixed questions on demographics, reasons, source of instructions, opinion on instructions, time, premedication practices, outcome, and complains on NPO was used. Analysis was quantitatively done with SPSS v. 22. Ethical approval was obtained from KNH-UoN ERC. Results. Of the respondents 93.8% lacked knowledge on the correct reasons for POF and felt that the instructions were unclear and less important <50%. POF instructions were administered by nurses 80%, anesthetists 15%, and surgeons 5%. Most of respondents (73.8%) fasted > 15 hours. The POF outcomes were rated moderately challenging as follows: prolonged wait for surgery 44.6%, thirst 43.1%, hunger 36.9%, and anxiety 29.2%. Conclusion. Nurses are critical in providing POF instructions and care, and patient knowledge level is a mirror reflection of the quality of interventions. This underscores the need to build capacity for nurses and strengthen the health system to offer individualized preoperative interventions as well as monitoring and clinical auditing of fasting practices.

Adequate fertility combined with effective weed management is important in maximizing corn (Zea mays L.) grain yield. Corn uptake of nitrogen (N) is dependent upon many factors including weed species and density and the rate and formulation of applied N fertilizer. Understanding interactions among corn, applied N, and weeds is important in developing management strategies. Field studies were conducted in North Carolina to compare corn and weed responses to urea ammonium nitrate (UAN), sulfur-coated urea (SCU), and composted poultry litter (CPL) when a mixture of Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri S. Wats.) and large crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis L.) was removed with herbicides at heights of 8 or 16 cm. These respective removal timings corresponded with 22 and 28 days after corn planting or V2 and V3 stages of growth, respectively. Differences in N content in above-ground biomass of corn were noted early in the season due to weed interference but did not translate into differences in corn grain yield. Interactions of N source and N rate were noted for corn grain yield but these factors did not interact with timing of weed control. These results underscore that timely implementation of control tactics regardless of N fertility management is important to protect corn grain yield.

Introduction. PEF has never been characterized among healthy Moroccan adults. The objective of this study is to describe the values of PEF among healthy Moroccan adults, to study its relationship with anthropometric parameters (gender, age, height, and weight), to compare spirometric and flowmetric PEF, to establish the prediction equations for PEF, and to study the correlation between PEF and FEV1. Methods. Cross-sectional study conducted between May and June 2016. It involved healthy nonsmoking volunteers living in Tetouan, Morocco, gathered through a mobile stand realization of spirometry and peak flow measurements. Results. Our final sample concerned 313 adults (143 men and 170 women). For both men and women, age and height were the main determinants of PEF, and a positive correlation was found between PEF and FEV1. Conclusion. Our study has established the PEF predictive equations in the Moroccan adult population. Our results allow us to conclude that the PEF can be a reliable alternative of FEV1 in centers not equipped with spirometry.