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D Berry

Publications and source records attributed to D Berry.

120 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

A new technique for assessing the microscopic distribution of cellular calcium exit sites.

This paper contains a description of a new method designed to monitor the distribution of Ca2+ efflux from cells or small cellular aggregates. The idea behind this method is to use a fluorescent Ca2+ indicator bound to dextrans of high molecular weight to slow down Ca2+ diffusion. Due to the decrease in diffusion rate, Ca2+ ions should be held close to the site of their release from the cells for a relatively long time, enough for the confocal microscope to detect such a local increase in Ca2+ concentration. This paper gives a detailed description of the method, illustrated with results of measurements of agonist-dependent and agonist-independent Ca2+ extrusion from pancreatic acinar cells. An appendix provides the mathematical background that should allow selection of the concentration of buffer which is necessary to achieve a particular Ca2+ diffusion coefficient.

Acetylcholine↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assisted suicide: implications for nurses and nursing.

Assisted suicide is an issue of great importance to nurses. This issue reflects our values and beliefs as a society, calls for a clear and precise response as a profession, and challenges individual nurses to think about their own moral views. The history of the debate and the compelling moral arguments on both sides attest to the complexity of the issue and also suggest that it will not soon be resolved. The current position of the profession, as expressed in the ANA Code for Nurses and a specific position statement, were reviewed. The dilemma faced by the individual nurse who perceives an obligation to adhere to the guidelines specified by his or her profession's code and yet whose conscience dictates an act in violation of this code has been discussed as an instance of conscientious objection. While this analysis has been necessarily brief, it was intended to illustrate the importance of being clear about one's personal moral views and equally clear about one's duty to fulfil the obligations stemming from the profession's public statements. It is essential that the profession continue to explore the moral issues involved in requests for assistance in dying and provide additional guidelines for practicing nurses, with sound rationale for the profession's position.

American Nurses' Association↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Federated healthcare record server--the Synapses paradigm.

The delivery of healthcare relies on the sharing of patient information between those who are providing for the care of the patient and this information is increasingly being expressed in terms of a 'record'. Further, it is desirable that these records are available in electronic form as Electronic HealthCare Records. As it is likely that patient records or parts of records will be stored in many different information systems and in the form of disparate record architectures, uniform access to patient records would be problematic. This paper presents an overview of the Synapses computing environment in which a Federated Healthcare Record Server provides uniform access to patient information stored in connected heterogeneous autonomous information systems and other Synapses servers. The Synapses record architecture is based on the architecture proposed by the Technical Committee 251 of the European Committee for Standardisation and the interfaces to the Synapses server are specified in the ISO standard Interface Definition Language. Synapses is a pan-European project involving a number of hospitals, software companies, universities and research institutes and is partly funded by the EU Health Telematics Programme. The overview is described in terms of the Open Distributed Processing Reference Model.

Computer Communication Networks↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Longitudinal studies as intervention.

The results of this descriptive study support the premise that through the research process researchers actively influenced the experiences of many of the family caregivers in the study. Caregivers seem to have been stimulated to evaluate and change their appraisals of their care-giving situation and, at times, their use of external resources and patient management strategies. We speculate that the predominant way subjects were influenced was through the opportunity to examine their experience relative to that of other caregivers as they completed the study instruments. Although it is possible that the effect was related to the specific behavior of the data collectors, we are reasonably confident that the structured interviewer training methods minimized this effect. Direct comments about interviewers were rare in responses to open-ended questions, and requests for information or help from interviewers were relatively infrequent, lending further support to the idea that interviewer effects were not a major influence on subjects. Although Rubin and Mitchell (1978) aptly described the unintended effect of study participation on their respondents, which was akin to counseling, little attention has been paid to this phenomenon in recent years. What family caregivers experienced as participants in our study, but failed to experience in their social network or formal contacts with the health care system, was an opportunity to: (a) examine their experience as a caregiver in depth, (b) anticipate what the future might hold for them, and (c) compare their personal experience to the experience of other families providing care to elderly members.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Sexual abuse: giving support to nurses.

Nurses dealing with people who have been sexually abused as children need strong support and supervision systems to enable them to cope with the feelings of helplessness and sadness that can arise. Such a system has been set up at a psychiatric day hospital in London to help nurses provide consistent, long-term and non-judgemental care.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Administering a healthy dose of security.

The article describes how a hospital located in a poor, crime-ridden section of a large city has made the most of in-house resources and public-private liaisons to improve security at its 113-acre campus. Details on the facility's double-pronged approach--tight internal security and strong external liaisons with businesses, law enforcement, and community groups--are provided.

Commerce↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Specialist unit improves outcome after acute stroke.

Stroke rehabilitation units are associated with reduced mortality, morbidity and length of stay, in much the same way that coronary care units are known to improve the acute care of patients who have had a heart attack. Such units have facilitated the development of drugs that may improve the outcomes following a heart attack. The acute stroke unit at King's Healthcare, London, was set up to improve the early management of stroke and facilitate the development of new treatments. The unit has just celebrated its first anniversary and this paper evaluates its work one year on, plus the implications for nursing practice.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Race and survival from breast cancer: based on Cancer and Leukemia Group B trial 8541.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to evaluate the prognostic significance of race and survival in stage II breast cancer among women treated with adjuvant chemotherapy in the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) trial 8541. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 1572 patients with node-positive breast cancer were entered in CALGB trial 8541. This study opened in January 1985 and randomized patients to receive "high-dose," "standard-dose," or "low-dose" adjuvant CAF (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and fluorouracil) chemotherapy. Patients were stratified according to treatment of the primary lesion (mastectomy or breast conservation), menopausal status, number of positive lymph nodes, and estrogen-receptor status. Twelve percent of the patients entered in this study were African-American, 84% were white, and 4% were of other racial backgrounds. RESULTS: African-Americans and whites were evenly distributed on all three arms. In a univariate analysis, African-Americans were more likely to have a reduced survival and shorter time to relapse than other patients. Race was moderately associated with tumor size, receptor status, and type of surgery. In a multivariate analysis, after adjusting for the dose of chemotherapy, number of lymph nodes, estrogen-receptor status, and age, race was no longer of prognostic significance. DISCUSSION: After adjustment for other well-recognized prognostic factors, race appears to have no independent prognostic significance for survival from stage II breast cancer among women receiving adjuvant CAF chemotherapy.

Black People↗