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Most nurses and midwives are not prepared to provide bereavement care. The conflict between the need for high-quality care of bereaved parents and the lack of confidence in providing perinatal bereavement care among nursing staff is becoming increasingly prominent in China. To describe the current situation and identify influencing factors of perinatal bereavement care confidence (PBCC) among nurses and midwives in China. This descriptive and cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2021. A convenience sample was created by recruiting 571 nurses and midwives in 11 hospitals in Zhejiang Province. Collected the data of PBCC, secondary traumatic stress (STS) and emotional exhaustion (EE) in this study. The average score of the PBCC was 67.83 ± 10.78. Average levels of STS were (23.32 ± 7.39) and EE (17.87 ± 8.62). PBCC was found to be most often associated with self-awareness, organisational support and training in perinatal bereavement care. Managers should take measures to improve PBCC and optimise perinatal bereavement care practice from the perspective of enhancing self-awareness of nursing staff, strengthening organisational support and providing training in perinatal bereavement care. The mental health of nursing professionals in the context of perinatal bereavement care needs to be emphasised. Nursing managers should make clear policies and establish a communication platform for nursing staff. Professional training should be conducted in the future. • Nurses and midwives had inadequate perinatal bereavement care confidence (PBCC). • Self-awareness, organisational support and training in perinatal bereavement care were influencing factors of PBCC. • Nurses and midwives' trauma emotion may impede high-quality perinatal bereavement care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We propose an improved SIS (Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible) model with mobile agents to explore the effect of agents’ motion on the epidemic spreading. Under the random jumping situation, the analytic formula of critical threshold is derived by the mean field theory. Then a large number of numerical simulations are performed to verify the theoretic prediction, and the simulation results at the condition of different population density and infection radius agree well with the mean field analysis. In addition, we also find that the long range jump will also remarkably influence the dissemination behavior of epidemic spreading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the efficacy of an expressive writing intervention on promoting psychological well-being of women who have had a diagnosis of fetal abnormality. An open, randomized controlled trial with parallel group design was conducted at a tertiary hospital in China. 100 women were randomly assigned into either the expressive writing (EW) intervention group or the control group, and 80 women eventually took part in all the phases of the study. Psychological variables including post-traumatic growth (PTG), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and resilience were assessed at baseline, immediately after the intervention and 1-month follow-up. Women who have had a diagnosis of fetal abnormalities and decided to terminate pregnancies. Women in the intervention group were asked to write three 15 min essays in regard to their experiences with the fetal abnormalities. The intervention group had significantly higher level of PTG (p = 0.003) and lower level of PTSD symptoms (p = 0.023) immediately after the intervention, as compared with the control group. In 1-month follow-up, intervention participants demonstrated significant improvement in PTG (p = 0.014) but insignificant reduction for PTSD symptoms. No significant effects were observed in both groups in terms of changes over time in resilience. : EW is efficacious for improving women's PTG and easing their symptoms of PTSD to some extent. Medical staff should pay more attention to this population's psychological status. In the future, EW interventions need to be conducted in larger samples with more severe symptoms of PTSD to validate its effectiveness. The efficacy of longer and more frequent writing interventions should also be investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resin tapping might affect tree-ring growth, but details on the physiological responses of trees to resin tapping are still lacking, particularly for long-term responses. This study aimed to explore the physiological processes underlying resin-tapping of Chinese pine (Pinus tabuliformis) by using tree-ring stable isotopes. We compared tree-ring earlywood and latewood stable carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotopes in the pre-resin tapping and post-resin tapping period for tapped trees and compared their values between tapped and untapped trees and their responses to climate variables in a forest stand from 1984 to 2017. Furthermore, we used a dual isotope model to distinguish between the effects of the photosynthetic assimilation rate and stomatal conductance. Results indicated that tapped and untapped trees showed similar inter-annual variation for two isotopes, while the absolute values of tapped trees were slightly (P > 0.05) lower than tapped trees in the two years following resin tapping. Climate response analysis indicated that resin tapping had no significant effect on climatic sensitivity for either stable isotope. Earlywood stable isotopes were mainly influenced by temperature, relative humidity, and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) from May to July, while latewood isotopes were mainly influence by relative humidity form July to August and PDSI from July to September. The conceptual model results indicated that resin tapping lead to a slight, but not significant, decrease in the intrinsic water-use efficiency caused by increased stomatal conductance for the first two to three years following resin tapping. We conclude that tree-ring physiological responses could be less affected by short-term resin tapping activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To provide a comprehensive cross-sectional overview of published studies on perinatal bereavement care education programmes developed and tested with nurses and midwives. A scoping review following the Arksey and Malley's framework. Eight electronic databases were searched in December 2020 without restriction on language and publication date: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus and ProQuest. All identified studies were reviewed by two reviewers based on the article title and abstract screening. Full-text articles were assessed according to the inclusion criteria. Original studies that reported on perinatal bereavement care education for nursing and midwifery students or clinical nurses and midwives were included. Eighteen studies out of 817 articles were included. Perinatal bereavement care knowledge and skills, improvement in clinical skills in abortion care and psychological support for nurses and midwives are three core elements of the education content. Workshops and debriefing are the most frequently used formats. The duration mostly ranges from a half day to 3 days. Knowledge, confidence, satisfaction and relevant psychological variables such as posttraumatic stress symptoms are frequently used to evaluate the education programme's effectiveness. Most studies chose to use self-designed questionnaires as measurement tools. Nurses and midwives reported both positive experiences and improvement suggestions for perinatal bereavement care education programmes. This scoping review highlights the benefits of implementing education programmes for preparing nurses and midwives for perinatal bereavement care in the context of universities and hospitals. Longitudinal randomized controlled trials or quasi-experiments could further investigate the effectiveness of a more enhanced perinatal bereavement care education programme with a longer intervention time using valid and reliable evaluation tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Resin tapping may affect the water and nutrient element transport processes in trees. • Tapped Chinese pine trees show asymmetrical growth patterns after resin tapping. • Tapped trees show lower growth than untapped trees for two years following tapping. • Tree-ring growth of tapped trees are more vulnerable to drought. Resin tapping could affect water and nutrient transport processes in Chinese pine trees, rendering them more vulnerable to extreme climatic events, such as drought, and affecting the ecological function of forests in semi-arid regions. This study evaluated how resin tapping affects the tree-ring growth and climate sensitivity of Chinese pine in the Loess Plateau. We compared tree-ring growth patterns between the tapped and untapped faces of tapped trees, and investigated tree-ring growth and its response to climate between tapped and untapped trees in a forest stand during the 1967–2017 period. Tapped trees showed asymmetrical growth patterns after resin tapping, with narrower rings near the tapped face and wider ones near the untapped face. Furthermore, tapped trees had inter-annual variations consistent with those of untapped trees except for the years 2000 and 2001, with significantly lower values following resin tapping, and tree-ring growth then returning to normal. The climate response analysis indicated that the tree-ring growth of both tapped and untapped trees was negatively affected by monthly mean temperatures during the early growing season (May to July) in the post-resin-tapping period. Furthermore, tree-ring growth in tapped trees also revealed significant correlation with water vapour deficit and the Palmer drought index, which indicates that tapped trees are more vulnerable to drought. Further studies based on stable isotopes (i.e. δ13C, δ18O, and δ15N) could improve our understanding of the physiological mechanisms that regulate the effects of resin tapping on tree-ring growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the effectiveness and applicability of expressive writing and women's experiences during the process. A descriptive qualitative study using a phenomenological approach was employed, and telephone interviews were conducted from February to April 2019 at a tertiary hospital in China. The present study included 14 women with foetal abnormalities purposively sampled based on women's scores on the Impact of Event Scale-Revised one month after the completion of the expressive writing intervention. The participants were asked to write three 15-min essays (i.e. before, during, and after pregnancy termination) related to their experiences with the foetal abnormalities. The transcripts were coded to generate themes and sub-themes to flow from the data. Four themes were revealed from the descriptions of practices of expressive writing during women's hospitalization: 1) benefits of expressive writing, 2) challenges in clinical practice, 3) suggestions for improvement and 4) future directions for development. Expressive writing practices may contribute to the psychological health of women with foetal abnormalities undergoing pregnancy termination. Based on the research, the intervention of expressive writing was optimized to provide a basis for the formulation of psychological intervention strategies and the promotion of psychological rehabilitation for vulnerable women. Expressive writing is an acceptable and feasible form of intervention for women with foetal abnormalities undergoing pregnancy termination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]