Using a theory of planned behaviour framework to explore hand hygiene beliefs at the ‘5 critical moments’ among Australian hospital-based nurses

Background Improving hand hygiene among health care workers (HCWs) is the single most effective intervention to reduce health care associated infections in hospitals. Understanding the cognitive determinants of hand hygiene decisions for HCWs with the greatest patient contact (nurses) is essential to improve compliance. The aim of this study was to explore hospital-based nurses’ beliefs associated with performing hand hygiene guided by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 5 critical moments. Using the belief-base framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, we examined attitudinal, normative, and control beliefs underpinning nurses’ decisions to perform hand hygiene according to the recently implemented national guidelines. Methods Thematic content analysis of qualitative data from focus group discussions with hospital-based registered nurses from 5 wards across 3 hospitals in Queensland, Australia. Results Important advantages (protection of patient and self), disadvantages (time, hand damage), referents (supportive: patients, colleagues; unsupportive: some doctors), barriers (being too busy, emergency situations), and facilitators (accessibility of sinks/products, training, reminders) were identified. There was some equivocation regarding the relative importance of hand washing following contact with patient surroundings. Conclusions The belief base of the theory of planned behaviour provided a useful framework to explore systematically the underlying beliefs of nurses’ hand hygiene decisions according to the 5 critical moments, allowing comparisons with previous belief studies. A commitment to improve nurses’ hand hygiene practice across the 5 moments should focus on individual strategies to combat distraction from other duties, peer-based initiatives to foster a sense of shared responsibility, and management-driven solutions to tackle staffing and resource issues. Hand hygiene following touching a patient’s surroundings continues to be reported as the most neglected opportunity for compliance.

Folk theory of social change

People have a folk theory of social change (FTSC). A typical Western FTSC stipulates that as a society becomes more industrialized, it undergoes a natural course of social change, in which a communal society marked by communal relationships becomes a qualitatively different, agentic society where market-based exchange relationships prevail. People use this folk theory to predict a society’s future and estimate its past, to understand contemporary cross-cultural differences, and to make decisions about social policies. Nonetheless, the FTSC is not particularly consistent with the existing cross-cultural research on industrialization and cultural differences, and needs to be examined carefully.

Different correlation of Sphingosine-1-Phosphate receptor 1 with receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B ligand and regulatory T cells in rat periapical lesions

Introduction Sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 1 (S1P1) is crucial for regulation of immunity and bone metabolism. This study aimed to investigate the expression of S1P1 in rat periapical lesions and its relationship with receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B ligand (RANKL) and regulatory T (Treg) cells. Methods Periapical lesions were induced by pulp exposure in the first lower molars of 55 Wistar rats. Thirty rats were killed on days 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, and 35, and their mandibles were harvested for x-ray imaging, micro–computed tomography scanning, histologic observation, immunohistochemistry, enzyme histochemistry, and double immunofluorescence analysis. The remaining 25 rats were killed on days 0, 14, 21, 28, and 35, and mandibles were harvested for flow cytometry. Results The volume and area of the periapical lesions increased from day 0 to day 21 and then remained comparably stable after day 28. S1P1-positive cells were observed in the inflammatory periapical regions; the number of S1P1-positive cells peaked at day 14 and then decreased from day 21 to day 35. The distribution of S1P1-positive cells was positively correlated with the dynamics of RANKL-positive cells but was negatively correlated with that of Treg cells. Conclusions S1P1 expression was differentially correlated with RANKL and Treg cell infiltration in the periapical lesions and is therefore a contributing factor to the pathogenesis of such lesions.

Common psychotic symptoms can be explained by the theory of ecological perception

The symptoms of psychiatric illness are diverse, as are the causes of the illnesses that cause them. Yet, regardless of the heterogeneity of cause and presentation, a great deal of symptoms can be explained by the failure of a single perceptual function – the reprocessing of ecological perception. It is a central tenet of the ecological theory of perception that we perceive opportunities to act. It has also been found that perception automatically causes actions and thoughts to occur unless this primary action pathway is inhibited. Inhibition allows perceptions to be reprocessed into more appropriate alternative actions and thoughts. Reprocessing of this kind takes place over the entire frontal lobe and it renders action optional. Choice about what action to take (if any) is the basis for the feeling of autonomy and ultimately for the sense-of-self. When thoughts and actions occur automatically (without choice) they appear to originate outside of the self, thereby providing prima facie evidence for some of the bizarre delusions that define schizophrenia such as delusional misidentification, delusions of control and Cotard’s delusion. Automatic actions and thoughts are triggered by residual stimulation whenever reprocessing is insufficient to balance automatic excitatory cues (for whatever reason). These may not be noticed if they are neutral and therefore unimportant whereas actions and thoughts with a positive bias are desirable. Responses to negative stimulus, on the other hand, are always unwelcome, because the actions that are triggered will carry the negative bias. Automatic thoughts may include spontaneous positive feelings of love and joy, but automatic negative thoughts and visualisations are experienced as hallucinations. Not only do these feel like they emerge from elsewhere but they carry a negative bias (they are most commonly critical, rude and are irrationally paranoid). Automatic positive actions may include laughter and smiling and these are welcome. Automatic behaviours that carry a negative bias, however, are unwelcome and like hallucinations, occur without a sense of choice. These include crying, stereotypies, perseveration, ataxia, utilization and imitation behaviours and catatonia.

Using an extended theory of planned behavior to predict a change in the type of blood product donated

Background Demand for essential plasma-derived products is increasing. Purpose This prospective study aims to identify predictors of voluntary non-remunerated whole blood (WB) donors becoming plasmapheresis donors. Methods Surveys were sent to WB donors who had recently (recent n = 1,957) and not recently donated (distant n = 1,012). Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) constructs (attitude, subjective norm, self-efficacy) were extended with moral norm, anticipatory regret, and donor identity. Intentions and objective plasmapheresis donation for 527 recent and 166 distant participants were assessed. Results Multi-group analysis revealed that the model was a good fit. Moral norm and self-efficacy were positively associated while role identity (suppressed by moral norm) was negatively associated with plasmapheresis intentions. Conclusions The extended TPB was useful in identifying factors that facilitate conversion from WB to plasmapheresis donation. A superordinate donor identity may be synonymous with WB donation and, for donors with a strong moral norm for plasmapheresis, may inhibit conversion.

The multivariate A/C/E model and the genetics of fiber architecture

We present a new algorithm to compute the voxel-wise genetic contribution to brain fiber microstructure using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in a dataset of 25 monozygotic (MZ) twins and 25 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs (100 subjects total). First, the structural and DT scans were linearly co-registered. Structural MR scans were nonlinearly mapped via a 3D fluid transformation to a geometrically centered mean template, and the deformation fields were applied to the DTI volumes. After tensor re-orientation to realign them to the anatomy, we computed several scalar and multivariate DT-derived measures including the geodesic anisotropy (GA), the tensor eigenvalues and the full diffusion tensors. A covariance-weighted distance was measured between twins in the Log-Euclidean framework [2], and used as input to a maximum-likelihood based algorithm to compute the contributions from genetics (A), common environmental factors (C) and unique environmental ones (E) to fiber architecture. Quanititative genetic studies can take advantage of the full information in the diffusion tensor, using covariance weighted distances and statistics on the tensor manifold.

A grounded theory of living a life with a physical disability in Taiwan

This study explores the experiences of disability for a number of Taiwanese adults with a physical disability. Using a grounded theory approach, their experiences of living a life with a physical disability were gained through in-depth interviews. The resulting grounded theory ‘it is more than just the impaired body’ presents the dynamic interactions between the participants and the context in which they were living their lives and how they managed their lives within that context. With its inclusion of the cultural dimension, a holistic way of understanding the daily lives of those who experience physical disability in Taiwan is provided.

Researching Theories of Modernity & the Subject-Critique of contemporary architecture under ideological capitalism-and Fascism & Modern Architecture

In this symposium I will discuss my work on three parallel projects I have been working on since 2010: Theories of Modernity & the Subject-Critique of contemporary architecture under ideological capitalism-and Fascism & Modern Architecture

New Look at Kirchhoff's Theory of Plates

KIRCHHOFF’S theory [1] and the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) [2] of plates in bending are simple theories and continuously used to obtain design information. Within the classical small deformation theory of elasticity, the problem consists of determining three displacements, u, v, and w, that satisfy three equilibrium equations in the interior of the plate and three specified surface conditions. FSDT is a sixth-order theory with a provision to satisfy three edge conditions and maintains, unlike in Kirchhoff’s theory, independent linear thicknesswise distribution of tangential displacement even if the lateral deflection, w, is zero along a supported edge. However, each of the in-plane distributions of the transverse shear stresses that are of a lower order is expressed as a sum of higher-order displacement terms. Kirchhoff’s assumption of zero transverse shear strains is, however, not a limitation of the theory as a first approximation to the exact 3-D solution.

An algebraic theory of functional and multivalued dependencies in relational databases

Computation of the dependency basis is the fundamental step in solving the membership problem for functional dependencies (FDs) and multivalued dependencies (MVDs) in relational database theory. We examine this problem from an algebraic perspective. We introduce the notion of the inference basis of a set M of MVDs and show that it contains the maximum information about the logical consequences of M. We propose the notion of a dependency-lattice and develop an algebraic characterization of inference basis using simple notions from lattice theory. We also establish several interesting properties of dependency-lattices related to the implication problem. Founded on our characterization, we synthesize efficient algorithms for (a): computing the inference basis of a given set M of MVDs; (b): computing the dependency basis of a given attribute set w.r.t. M; and (c): solving the membership problem for MVDs. We also show that our results naturally extend to incorporate FDs also in a way that enables the solution of the membership problem for both FDs and MVDs put together. We finally show that our algorithms are more efficient than existing ones, when used to solve what we term the ‘generalized membership problem’.

Gauge theory of a group of diffeomorphisms. II. The conformal and de Sitter groups

The extension of Hehl's Poincaré gauge theory to more general groups that include space-time diffeomorphisms is worked out for two particular examples, one corresponding to the action of the conformal group on Minkowski space, and the other to the action of the de Sitter group on de Sitter space, and the effect of these groups on physical fields.

Contributions to the Theory of Finite-State Based Grammars

This dissertation is a theoretical study of finite-state based grammars used in natural language processing. The study is concerned with certain varieties of finite-state intersection grammars (FSIG) whose parsers define regular relations between surface strings and annotated surface strings. The study focuses on the following three aspects of FSIGs: (i) Computational complexity of grammars under limiting parameters In the study, the computational complexity in practical natural language processing is approached through performance-motivated parameters on structural complexity. Each parameter splits some grammars in the Chomsky hierarchy into an infinite set of subset approximations. When the approximations are regular, they seem to fall into the logarithmic-time hierarchyand the dot-depth hierarchy of star-free regular languages. This theoretical result is important and possibly relevant to grammar induction. (ii) Linguistically applicable structural representations Related to the linguistically applicable representations of syntactic entities, the study contains new bracketing schemes that cope with dependency links, left- and right branching, crossing dependencies and spurious ambiguity. New grammar representations that resemble the Chomsky-Schützenberger representation of context-free languages are presented in the study, and they include, in particular, representations for mildly context-sensitive non-projective dependency grammars whose performance-motivated approximations are linear time parseable. (iii) Compilation and simplification of linguistic constraints Efficient compilation methods for certain regular operations such as generalized restriction are presented. These include an elegant algorithm that has already been adopted as the approach in a proprietary finite-state tool. In addition to the compilation methods, an approach to on-the-fly simplifications of finite-state representations for parse forests is sketched. These findings are tightly coupled with each other under the theme of locality. I argue that the findings help us to develop better, linguistically oriented formalisms for finite-state parsing and to develop more efficient parsers for natural language processing. Avainsanat: syntactic parsing, finite-state automata, dependency grammar, first-order logic, linguistic performance, star-free regular approximations, mildly context-sensitive grammars

A H-1-NMR STUDY OF BILIRUBIN IX-ALPHA SOLUBILIZATION BY CHOLATE MICELLES - APPLICATION OF NUCLEAR OVERHAUSER EFFECTS

The solubilization of bilirubin IX-Alpha in aqueous solution by sodium cholate micelles has been examined by 270 MHz 1H-NMR spectroscopy. Incorporation of bilirubin into the micelles is accompanied by specific shifts of bilirubin vinyl and bridgehead protons and the C18 and C19 methyl groups of the steroid. The observed chemical shifts show a monotonic concentration dependence suggesting that changes in aggregation size are continuous. Nuclear Overhauser effects (NOE) have been shown to be a useful probe or micellization. A 4:1 cholate/bilirubin mixture has been investigated by difference NOE spectroscopy. The observation of intermolecular nuclear Overhauser effects between peripheral protons of bilirubin and cholate are diagnostic of spatially proximate groups. Inter-cholate nuclear Overhauser effects increase in magnitude upon bilirubin incorporation suggesting closer packing of steroid molecules on solubilization of the pigment. Intramolecular nuclear Overhauser effects observed for solubilized bilirubin are consistent with a compact intramolecularly hydrogen-bonded conformation resembling that determined for bilirubin in the solid state.