Can nurses govern in a government agency?

A shared governance model was implemented within the nursing service of the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 1997. In 1999, members of the Nursing Quality/Staff Education/Research Council examined facility nurses' perceptions of governance to determine the degree to which the model had been implemented. Results of the study indicate that although imperatives at the organizational level were incompatible with three aspects of shared governance, there were three shared governance dimensions pertaining to basic nursing practice that reached or surpassed governance thresholds. This study highlights the potential of nursing management innovation within highly bureaucratic organizations.

Two point mutations in the hormone-binding domain of the mouse glucocorticoid receptor that dramatically reduce its function.

Mouse lymphoma cell line W7M320b, a mutant WEH17 line, requires higher than normal concentrations of glucocorticoid to elicit the hormone responses that are characteristic of this lineage. Complementary DNA clones representing the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) mRNA were derived from the mutant cells, and the sequences coding for the hormone-binding domain were substituted for the analogous wild-type sequences in a GR cDNA expression vector. The function of the resulting GR proteins was tested by transient expression in COS-7 cells along with a glucocorticoid-inducible reporter gene in the presence of varying concentrations of glucocorticoid. From these assays and DNA sequence analyses, two independent functionally significant point mutations in the GR hormone-binding domain were identified. A mutant GR protein containing the single amino acid substitution, Pro547 to Ala, was still functional as a transcriptional activator, but only at hormone concentrations 100 times higher than those required by the wild-type receptor. A second mutant GR protein with a Cys742 to Gly substitution was unstable and almost completely nonfunctional.

Lithium, compression and high-pressure structure.

Lithium is found to transform from a body-centered cubic (bcc) to a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure at 6.9 gigapascals (69 kilobars) and 296 kelvin. The relative volume of the bcc structured lithium at 6.9 gigapascals is 0.718, and the fcc structure is 0.25 percent denser. The bulk modulus and its pressure derivative for the bcc structure are 11.57 gigapascals and 3.4, and for the fcc structure are 13.1 gigapascals and 2.8. Extrapolation of the bcc-fcc phase boundary and the melting curve indicate a triple point around 15 gigapascals and 500 kelvin.

High-pressure polymorphism of titanium dioxide.

X-ray diffraction studies made in situ under conditions of high pressure and high temperature revealed the direct transition of rutile to the alpha lead dioxide form in titanium dioxide. Compressibility studies of this alpha lead dioxide form at room temperature showed anomalous behavior in that its molar volume converges close to, but not equal to, that of the rutile form. Under this circumstance an unexpectedly large error appears in the calculations of the equilibrium pressure for the two forms at 298 degrees K.