Cross-disciplinarity in the advance of Antarctic ecosystem research.

The biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate variability of the Antarctic continent and the Southern Ocean are major components of the whole Earth system. Antarctic ecosystems are driven more strongly by the physical environment than many other marine and terrestrial ecosystems. As a consequence, to understand ecological functioning, cross-disciplinary studies are especially important in Antarctic research. The conceptual study presented here is based on a workshop initiated by the Research Programme Antarctic Thresholds - Ecosystem Resilience and Adaptation of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, which focussed on challenges in identifying and applying cross-disciplinary approaches in the Antarctic. Novel ideas and first steps in their implementation were clustered into eight themes. These ranged from scale problems, through risk maps, and organism/ecosystem responses to multiple environmental changes and evolutionary processes. Scaling models and data across different spatial and temporal scales were identified as an overarching challenge. Approaches to bridge gaps in Antarctic research programmes included multi-disciplinary monitoring, linking biomolecular findings and simulated physical environments, as well as integrative ecological modelling. The results of advanced cross-disciplinary approaches can contribute significantly to our knowledge of Antarctic and global ecosystem functioning, the consequences of climate change, and to global assessments that ultimately benefit humankind.

Controls of primary production in two phytoplankton blooms in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current has a high potential for primary production and carbon sequestration through the biological pump. In the current study, two large-scale blooms observed in 2012 during a cruise with R.V. Polarstern were investigated with respect to phytoplankton standing stocks, primary productivity and nutrient budgets. While net primary productivity was similar in both blooms, chlorophyll a -specific photosynthesis was more efficient in the bloom closer to the island of South Georgia (39 °W, 50 °S) compared to the open ocean bloom further east (12 °W, 51 °S). We did not find evidence for light being the driver of bloom dynamics as chlorophyll standing stocks up to 165 mg m-2 developed despite mixed layers as deep as 90 m. Since the two bloom regions differ in their distance to shelf areas, potential sources of iron vary. Nutrient (nitrate, phosphate, silicate) deficits were similar in both areas despite different bloom ages, but their ratios indicated more pronounced iron limitation at 12 °W compared to 39 °W. While primarily the supply of iron and not the availability of light seemed to control onset and duration of the blooms, higher grazing pressure could have exerted a stronger control toward the declining phase of the blooms.

Meeting the JCAHO standards for patient and family education.

Although preparing for your next JCAHO review may be an arduous task, it ultimately yields a foundation for patient and family education that is a lasting resource. In this article, practical suggestions for meeting the patient and family education standards are discussed. These suggestions not only help to assure a successful review, they promote effective delivery of patient and family education. Such teaching contributes to good health outcomes and provides clinicians with unique opportunities to involve patients and family members in care and related decisions.

Increasing self-efficacy through empowerment: preoperative education for orthopaedic patients.

PURPOSE: To examine whether patients who received an empowerment model of education for preoperative orthopaedic teaching had improved outcomes compared to patients who received the traditional education. DESIGN: An experimental (empowerment teaching method) group vs. comparison (traditional teaching method) group posttest design. SAMPLE: Seventy-four patients undergoing elective orthopaedic surgery. METHODS: Following the preoperative teaching session, patients in both groups completed a questionnaire designed to measure their perceptions of the teaching (empowerment) and self-efficacy (belief in their ability to carry out perioperative tasks). A chart audit and phone interview was done after discharge to assess length of stay, pain management, complications, and patient perceptions of the ability to complete perioperative tasks. FINDINGS: Patients in the empowerment group felt the educational approach was more empowering and had significantly higher self-efficacy scores than those in the traditional teaching group. There was much less variation in empowerment and self-efficacy scores in the empowerment group. The empowerment group reported feeling greater confidence in performing perioperative tasks. There were no differences in length of stay, complications or pain control. CONCLUSION: Use of an empowerment teaching approach enabled patients to become more confident in their ability to carry out perioperative tasks and become a more integral part of the preoperative teaching process. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING RESEARCH: The theoretical model will be used to structure other educational programs and guide research. More sensitive measures of complications and pain control should be considered for future studies.

Detection of antineutrophil cytoplasmatic antibodies (ANCA) and their association with other autoantibodies in patients with hepatobiliary disorders.

Sera from 35 out of 655 patients with suspected or confirmed hepatobiliary diseases were positive for anti-neutrophil antibodies with a perinuclear staining pattern (p-ANCA). Nineteen of these sera did not react with myeloperoxidase (MPO), Cathepsin G or Elastase, the three proposed antigens of p-ANCAs. No distinct antigen for these sera could be characterized by western blot techniques with fractionated granulocyte proteins.