Polyazamacrolides from ladybird beetles: ring-size selective oligomerization.

The pupal defensive secretion of the 24-pointed ladybird beetle, Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata, consists of a mixture of macrocyclic polyamines, dominated by the three dimeric, 30-membered macrocycles 11-13, derived from the two building blocks 11-(2-hydoxyethylamino)-5-tetradecenoic acid (9) and 11-(2-hydoxyethylamino)-5,8-tetradecadienoic acid (10). Smaller amounts of the four possible cyclic trimers of 9 and 10 were also detected, corresponding to 45-membered macrocycles. Structural assignments were based on NMR-spectroscopic investigations and HPLC-MS analyses. In addition, the all-S absolute configuration of the S. vigintiquatuorpunctata macrocycles was determined by comparison of derivatives of the natural material with enantiomerically pure synthetic samples. Comparing this alkaloid mixture with that of the pupal defensive secretion in related ladybird beetle species indicates that the degree of oligomerization of the 2-hydroxyethylamino carboxylic acid building blocks can be carefully controlled by the insects.

Information systems technology: barriers and challenges to implementation.

Nurses, like other professionals, manage massive amounts of information. Without adequate means to process that data, neither the profession, the industry, nor the public will achieve all the benefits of contemporary health care. The authors highlight barriers to and strategies for increasing the use and effectiveness of health care information systems.

[Women in health and development. III. Difficulties presented by their participation in health care]. / La mujer en la salud y el desarrollo. III. Algunas dificultades que plantea su actuación en la atención de salud.

PIP: The difficulties that women who provide health care must overcome are presented from the standpoint of the nurse, the traditional midwife, and the female doctor. Although nursing is currently undergoing changes, in many countries it would be pertinent to ask if such changes are occurring rapidly enough to allow nurses to participate in decisionmaking activities in community health. Nursing must be carried out in conjunction with the other activities involved in the development process, taking into account the importance in such a process, not only of the biological factors, but also of the economic, social, cultural, and political implications. Nurses, moreover, should pressure the health system to allow them to take on greater responsibility in the community, beyond the traditional subordinate and passive positions they already hold. 1 relevant problem is the position of the traditional African midwife. In a society that prefers her services to those of a professional midwife for cultural reasons, it is urgent to initiate programs with the following objectives: noninterference with normal childbirth, basic hygiene nursing care, and nutrition education. Such training would benefit women's health in rural areas and the social position of a group of economically active rural women. Finally, professional health workers, and particularly female doctors, should exert influence on the health care system in order to prevent that women continue to be considered mere reproduction machines or candidates for birth control and to consider them as historical and social beings with physical and emotional needs, especially in the areas of nutrition and birth control. (author's modified)^ieng

Nursing internships: a tri-state survey and model for evaluation.

Results of a survey of 14 nursing internship programs are presented, and discussed. The results indicate that objective and systematic evaluation of the derived costs and benefits of these programs is often not considered. A methodology is described and suggested as one model for evaluating program effectiveness.

[Research in nursing: an interdisciplinary field]. / La investigación en enfermería: un campo interdisciplinario.

This paper describes the growing importance of research in the nursing field and reviews its development since Florence Nightingale's day in the last century, and its revitalization with the help of the international organizations. Research, an empirical process by nature, is the application of the scientific method, in which reliable solutions to concrete problems are found by objective procedures. One of its characteristics is the framing of concepts, that is, the development of a logical, scientific chain of reasoning by which relationships between facts are established or inferred. Nursing embraces many activities that are traditionally referred to as the nursing process which, stated simply, is no more than an application of the scientific method. That it is applied with greater rigor in the sciences themselves does not detract from the scientific dimensions of nursing practice. It is perhaps going too far to regard all professional nurses as researchers. They may, however, be expected to have the intellectual curiosity to pursue lines of inquiry in their extensive field. They should continue to do so as participants in a joint effort with other disciplines to solve problems relating to health.

La investigación en enfermería: un campo interdisciplinario / Research in nursing: an interdisciplinary field

This paper describes the growing importance of research in the nursing field and reviews its development since Florence Nightingale's day in the last century, and its revitalization with the help of the international organizations. Research, an empirical process by nature, is the application of the scientific method, in which reliable solutions to concrete problems are found by objective procedures. One of its characteristics is the framing of concepts, that is, the development of a logical, scientific chain of reasoning by which relationships between facts are established or inferred. Nursing embraces many activities that are traditionally referred to as the nursing process which, stated simply, is no more than an application of the scientific method. That it is applied with greater rigor in the sciences themselves does not detract from the scientific dimensions of nursing practice. It is perhaps going too far to regard all professional nurses as researchers. They may, however, be expected to have the intellectual curiosity to pursue lines of inquiry in their extensive field. They should continue to do so as participants in a joint effort with other disciplines to solve problems relating to health (Au)