A symposium on clinical problems of practice. The newborn at risk.
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Humans↗
Biomedical subjects
M Kerr
Publications and source records attributed to M Kerr.
Chromosome studies on spontaneous abortions.
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Abortion, Spontaneous↗
Interrater reliability of the Motivation Assessment Scale: failure to replicate with aggressive behavior.
The Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) was used to identify the variables maintaining aggressive behaviors exhibited by 18 adolescents and adults with severe to profound intellectual disability. Each client was rated by two staff members. A variety of measures were calculated to assess interrater reliability. Pearson coefficients across the 18 pairs of raters ranged from -.667 to .722 with an overall correlation of .034. Five of the 12 positive correlations were significant at the .05 level. Correlations across each of the 16 questions of the MAS ranged from -.337 to .425. None of these correlations were significant. Similarly low reliability was obtained when percentage of agreement measures were calculated, although 8 of the 18 pairs of raters (44.44%) did agree on the source of reinforcement maintaining the client's aggressive behavior. These results suggest that for some individuals the MAS may not represent a viable alternative to more formal functional analysis procedures.
Adolescent↗
Impairment of gas exchange due to alveolar oedema during xylazine sedation in sheep; absence of a free radical mediated inflammatory mechanism.
We studied the mechanism of impairment of gas exchange following sedation with the alpha2 adrenoreceptor agonist, xylazine, in Suffolk cross-bred sheep spontaneously breathing room air. Xylazine caused a significant fall in PaO2 from a mean (pre-xylazine) of 97.9 mm Hg (6.7 mm Hg SEM) to a mean of 38.1 mm Hg (3.2 mm Hg SEM) one minute after injection with a transient increase in PaCO2 from a mean (pre-xylazine) of 32.6 mm Hg (1.9 mm Hg SEM) to a mean of 40.2 mm Hg (3.0 mm Hg SEM). There was no significant fall in mean arterial pressure or in white cell count. There was no significant change in a number of indices of free radical release which included ascorbyl radical, plasma antioxidant potential and alpha-tert-butyl phenyl nitrone (PBN) spin adduct measured simultaneously in both arterial and venous blood. In all sheep given xylazine there was no histological evidence of platelet emboli but lung histopathology showed evidence of pulmonary oedema and intense microvascular congestion with red cells extravasated into alveoli. No such histological changes were seen in the lungs of normal sheep. The impaired gas exchange during sedation with xylazine in sheep is caused, not by an oxidant mediated inflammatory mechanism or by platelet emboli, but by intense alveolar oedema which is probably due to pulmonary venospasm.
Adrenergic alpha-Agonists↗
Parental monitoring: a reinterpretation.
Monitoring (tracking and surveillance) of children's behavior is considered an essential parenting skill. Numerous studies show that well-monitored youths are less involved in delinquency and other normbreaking behaviors, and scholars conclude that parents should track their children more carefully. This study questions that conclusion. We point out that monitoring measures typically assess parents' knowledge but not its source, and parents could get knowledge from their children's free disclosure of information as well as their own active surveillance efforts. In our study of 703 14-year-olds in central Sweden and their parents, parental knowledge came mainly from child disclosure, and child disclosure was the source of knowledge that was most closely linked to broad and narrow measures of delinquency (normbreaking and police contact). These results held for both children's and parents' reports, for both sexes, and were independent of whether the children were exhibiting problem behavior or not. We conclude that tracking and surveillance is not the best prescription for parental behavior and that a new prescription must rest on an understanding of the factors that determine child disclosure.
Adolescent↗
Taxonomic validation: an overview.
A valid taxonomy legitimizes the elements that make up the taxonomy and increases trust in its generalizability and predictability. There is a concern that the NANDA Taxonomy is not a valid taxonomic structure. Despite on-going work to validate individual nursing diagnoses, there is little research that focuses on validation of groups of diagnoses (taxons) within the NANDA taxonomy. This last article in a series of four will familiarize the readers with why, what, and how a taxonomy of nursing diagnoses can be validated. This article highlights assessment of the validity and reliability of a taxonomy, compares the process of taxonomic validation to the research process, and explores examples of validation design.
Cluster Analysis↗
Minimal trauma causing fractures in patients with spinal cord injury.
The osteoporosis that accompanies spinal cord injury renders bones more susceptible to fracture following minor degrees of trauma. Diagnosis is often delayed due to a subtle presentation with non-specific signs. Three cases are reported that illustrate characteristic features of long-bone fractures in spinal cord injury.
Accidental Falls↗
From taxonomy I to taxonomy II.
Taxonomic development in nursing, although still in its infancy, is progressing. Taxonomy development has moved beyond subjective placement of diagnoses into categories based on an "expert" opinion alone. The taxonomy of nursing diagnoses is entering a new era whereby the assumptions and classification rules for Taxonomy I--Revised are being investigated. Alternative taxonomic structures require careful scrutiny and comparison to establish whether one structure will meet the needs of the profession or whether multiple structures of nursing diagnoses relative to outcomes are required. As members within the discipline become more sophisticated in approaches to taxonomic development, methods of handling taxonomic problems, such as varying levels of abstraction and taxonomic affinity, will be discerned.
Humans↗