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PubMed2006

Incremental validity of the typical intellectual engagement scale as predictor of different academic performance measures.

The incremental validity of the Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE) scale (Goff & Ackerman, 1992) as a predictor of academic performance (AP) was tested over and above other established determinants of AP, namely, psychometric g (as extracted from 5 cognitive ability tests) and the Big Five personality traits, assessed by the Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Five Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992). One hundred four British students were tested on arrival to university, and AP measures were collected longitudinally throughout a 3-year period. TIE, g, and Conscientiousness were the highest correlates of AP. A series of multiple-hierarchical regressions showed that TIE had significant incremental validity (over and above g and the Big Five) in the prediction of AP. Implications are discussed in light of the investment theory of intellectual competence and the utility of self-report inventories as predictors of academic achievement.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

PEDA: a microcomputer program for parameter estimation and dosage adjustment in clinical practice.

PEDA, an integrated program in BASIC for implementation on microcomputers, has been developed for use in clinical practice to assist dosage adjustment for individual patients. A parameter optimization for individual patients is based on the principle of Bayes' theory and Maximum Likelihood Estimation, and utilizes a prior information on the distribution of population pharmacokinetic parameters, means and variances, as well as serum drug concentrations. The program can accommodate a one-compartment open linear model and a non-linear model at steady state (Michaelis-Menten model) and handle both uniform and non-uniform multiple dosage regimens mostly arising from clinical settings. Clinical examples which demonstrate the ability and the flexibility of the program are provided. The program may also be used as an aid for instruction in clinical pharmacokinetics.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Changes in athlete burnout and motivation over a 12-week league tournament.

INTRODUCTION: To date, empirical reports of an association between motivation and athlete burnout have been exclusively based on cross-sectional research. Conclusions regarding the nature of the relationship between motivation and burnout are limited because they do not provide longitudinal information. PURPOSE: To examine the relationship between burnout and motivation across a 12-wk league tournament (pretournament, midtournament, and end of tournament). METHOD: Data were collected on using the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire and Sport Motivation Scale from 102 adult professional male rugby players at three different times during a 12-wk league tournament. RESULTS: Linear mixed modeling was used to explore hypothesized relationships between individual key characteristics of burnout and factors/covariates across time. Within the models, amotivation, the least self-determined type of motivation, had a large positive association with key characteristics of burnout. Self-determined forms of motivation (i.e., intrinsic motivation) exhibited significant negative associations with burnout. Extrinsic motivation, proposed to exist between intrinsic and amotivation on the self-determination continuum, was negatively associated with sport devaluation and reduced accomplishment as well as positively associated with physical and emotional exhaustion. Other factors related to burnout within the analysis included time (pretournament, in tournament, and end of tournament), team membership, number of injuries, years of national domestic league experience, and win/loss history. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the results reflect the burnout experience may vary over time and support the potential utility of a self-determination theory explanation of burnout.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

An economic evaluation of the market for physicians' services: shortage versus surplus.

The paper examines the existence of a shortage or surplus in the market for physicians' services over time. The assessment is carried out within a framework provided by economic theory, and three basic indicators are utilized: earnings, rates of return to education, and quantity of work. The third indicator is examined in various forms including vacancies, weeks of work, and hours of work. The outcomes of this assessment do not support the existence of a surplus of physicians; rather, they are consistent with a shortage which appears to be growing.

Data Collection↗
PubMed2006

Doing it from your heart: the role of older women as informal volunteers.

This paper explores the contributions made by older women to the community as informal volunteers. It argues that ageing policy is not gender neutral and tends to ignore the contributions made by women outside paid work. As well as being ignored in policy, women's unpaid roles have been denigrated by some feminist commentators, who suggest that these roles subordinate the position of women. The aim of the present paper is to explore the lived experiences of older women in relation to their informal volunteer roles, using role identity theory as a framework. The study utilizes data from a qualitative study using focus group methodology. Findings demonstrate that informal volunteering contributes to the women's identity and gives their lives meaning. These findings suggest that a more positive policy framework around ageing is needed to ensure that the worth of these contributions is recognised.

Aged↗
PubMed2000

Spectral model of a fluorescent ink halftone.

A model is presented of a fluorescent ink halftone. Unlike a nonfluorescent ink, which only absorbs, a fluorescent ink absorbs higher-energy photons and emits lower-energy photons. The amount of fluorescent light produced depends on the percent absorption of the incident light. For fluorescent ink printed on paper, both photon scattering within the paper substrate and multiple internal reflections between the ink layer and the paper substrate significantly increase the percent absorption, so a realistic model must include these effects. The model presented here utilizes the generalized Clapper-Yule theory, which accounts for photon diffusion that is due to both scatter and internal reflection. It is shown that while multiple internal reflections alone only marginally increase the percent absorption, when there are both scattering and internal reflection, the percent absorption is increased significantly. The current study is a theoretical model and does not present experimental results.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1996

[Expectations of hospital administrators about administrative functions of nurses].

The objective of the present study was to investigate hospital administrator's expectations about the administrative role played by nurses, utilizing functions proposed by the Neoclassical Theory of Administration: planning, organization, direction, and control as theoretical references. An instrument established in TREVIZAN (1989) was applied to 11 hospital administrators. The results showed they expect the four functions to be done by nurses. Therefore, the interaction between nurses and hospital administrators is critical to improve the patient's assistance.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1986

Flight-skill decay and recurrent training.

This article addresses the problem of flight-skill decay. The complexity of the problem is outlined with regard to identifying the nature and extent of decayed skills. It is suggested that cognitive/procedural skills are more prone than control-oriented skills to decay over periods of disuse. Effective recurrent training methods offer the most promise in forestalling loss of proficiency. Several such methods are described, and the importance of cognitive training is emphasized. Finally, criteria are noted for evaluating the utility of recurrent training media. The theories and practical measures discussed apply to many skills other than those of flying.

Aerospace Medicine↗
PubMedDate not supplied

How many hospital beds?

For many years, average bed occupancy level has been the primary measure that has guided hospital bed capacity decisions at both policy and managerial levels. Even now, the common wisdom that there is an excess of beds nationally has been based on a federal target of 85% occupancy that was developed about 25 years ago. This paper examines data from New York state and uses queueing analysis to estimate bed unavailability in intensive care units (ICUs) and obstetrics units. Using various patient delay standards, units that appear to have insufficient capacity are identified. The results indicate that as many as 40% of all obstetrics units and 90% of ICUs have insufficient capacity to provide an appropriate bed when needed. This contrasts sharply with what would be deduced using standard average occupancy targets. Furthermore, given the model's assumptions, these estimates are likely to be conservative. These findings illustrate that if service quality is deemed important, hospitals need to plan capacity based on standards that reflect the ability to place patients in appropriate beds in a timely fashion rather than on target occupancy levels. Doing so will require the collection and analysis of operational data-such as demands for and use of beds, and patient delays--which generally are not available.

Bed Occupancy↗
PubMed2005

[Nurse experiencing care of patient under parenteral nutrition].

It is about a research with the objective of understanding the experience of the nurse in the process of taking care being the caregiver of the patient under parenteral nutrition. We have utilized the Symbolic Interactionism and the Theory Grounded in Data for the theoretical-methodological referral. Ten nurses who have experienced this praxis in a public hospital in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará, have taken part of the study. The data collection was performed through participant observation and semi-structured interview. We have identified the phenomenon that expresses the nurse experiencing the care by showing attitudes, feelings and meanings regarding care.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

[The development of a questionnaire for identification of women who are victims of violence in the conjugal milieu].

The purpose of this article is to present a questionnaire that permits the identification of women victims of their male partner's violence. Four indicators inspired by Orem's theory (1985) of nursing care were utilized to elaborate the different items in this research instrument: self-esteem, autonomy, social interaction and prevention of life hazards. The content validation process involved presenting 178 items for validation to 20 expert female judges. Then, the predictive value of 106 out of these items was tested with two comparable groups of women: one group of 81 women victims of family violence and another of 203 women identified as having never been victims. T-tests (p less than .05) were calculated on each of these 106 items, but finally it was the difference between the averages obtained by the t-tests that was used as the criterion of selection. Correlations item-total and correlations inter-item were run on the 49 items remaining, and this procedure brought to 30 the number of items retained for the questionnaire. Finally, factorial analysis showed that the degree of variance explained by the four indicators is about 18%, and that these indicators constituted many different facets of the same construct.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMed1987

[The course of pyuria after transurethral resection of the prostate and factor analysis of its duration].

The course of pyuria and bacteriuria was reviewed in 54 patients undergoing transurethral resection of prostate. Pyuria, which was seen in all cases, lasted for 70.1 +/- 24.7 days and bacteriuria defined as more than 10(4)/ml occurred in 16 patients (30%) postoperatively. To analyze the factors affecting the duration of pyuria, we utilized Hayashi's multidimensional quantification I theory. The factors included age, serum protein, preoperative indwelling catheter, preoperative urinary tract infection, resected weight, postoperative infection, the duration of postoperative indwelling catheter, and the way of antibacterial prophylaxis. The most important factor was resected weight (range 42.8 days), the second was postoperative infection (range 23.9 days) and the third preoperative infection (range 20.9 days). The other factors had no significance. Our analysis showed good correlation between the observed and predicted duration of pyuria (r = 0.82, p less than 0.005).

Aged↗
PubMed1989

[A peculiar abnormality of the fallopian tube: induced by embryonic kidney tumor?].

A 17-year-old female with severe pain of the midabdomen was found to have a retroperitoneal cystic tumor, an ectopic ovary and a fallopian tube without fimbriated end. An attempt is made to determine whether these early embryonic malformations could be traced to a common origin. This is possible provided that the tumor is regarded as a mesonephroma. A histological study of the normal development of the Mullerian duct was performed utilizing human embryonic series. Previous development theories and more recent investigations are discussed. Malformations of the tube described in the literature and possible etiologies are summarized.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Preparation and management of full coverage restorations for combination fixed removable prostheses.

The understanding of the theories and applications of fixed prosthodontics utilized in conjunction with intracoronally attached removable partial dentures is vital to full-mouth combined reconstructions. Required objectives of fixed full coverage retainers include elimination of pathology, restoration of form and function, as well as enhancement of aesthetics. These topics are discussed in terms of design of full-coverage preparations and tissue management.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Family functioning and the adolescent mother: a systems approach.

This study examines unwanted adolescent pregnancy and early childbearing within the context of the family system. Fifty pregnant adolescents and their families were interviewed prenatally and again during the postpartum period. Utilizing the concepts of structural family theory and therapy as described by Minuchin, certain characteristics of family style and structure of organization were rated. These family variables were then related to aspects of the adolescent mother's adaptation postpartum. Boundaries, in terms of degree of intrusiveness and differentiation, were related to such variables as whether the adolescent is maintained in the household and to her continuing relationship with the baby's father. Similarly, the family's style of dealing with conflict was related to the relationship between the adolescent parents, among other outcome variables. Implications of the findings both for working with these families and for further research are discussed, and issues are raised about hypothesized relationships between independent and dependent variables which were not borne out.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Anticonvulsant and antidepressant properties of electroconvulsive therapy: a proposed mechanism of action.

The efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in the treatment of affective disorders is well established. Despite its clinical utility, there is no generally accepted theory regarding its mode of action. Several lines of evidence indicate that ECT has significant anticonvulsant properties and results in decreased neural metabolic activity. We suggest that these effects are due to enhanced gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transmission and that localized suppression of neural metabolic activity is associated with therapeutic response to ECT. An implication of this view is that ECT may be a useful adjunctive treatment in intractable epilepsy.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Stress, social support, and the transition to fatherhood.

Over the past ten years, nurses have shown increasing interest in understanding and assisting men in their transition to fatherhood. Inadequate data and lack of a framework for interpreting diverse studies have hindered the development of appropriate intervention strategies. In this article, a paradigm from the field of stress research is adapted to the transition to fatherhood. The new paradigm organizes and integrates the factors that impact on a man's experience of becoming a father. The utility of this paradigm in generating theory and hypotheses for future research is illustrated by fully exploring one of the potential variables impacting on fatherhood, i.e., social support. Through this process a better theoretical understanding of social support as well as a guide to future inquiry concerning fatherhood is acquired.

Adult↗