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Aim To investigate the impacts of leader-member exchange and team-member exchange on job satisfaction and turnover intention of nurses. Background Leader-member exchange refers to the quality of relationships between leaders and members of a team and studies on this have generally focused on the aspect of member-leader-member exchanges. In nursing, the latter can refer to a situation where nurses (members) evaluate their relationship with their head nurse (leader). Member-leader-member exchange affects job satisfaction and turnover intention of nurses. However, even though all of these types of exchanges are important, few studies have examined their effects on job satisfaction and the turnover intention of nurses. Methods Participants in this descriptive study were 40 head nurses and 284 clinical nurses working at three hospitals in Korea. Data were collected from a questionnaire and analysed using hierarchical multiple regression. Results Leader-leader-member exchange, member-leader-member exchange, and team-member exchange had a positive effect on job satisfaction. However, only leader-leader-member exchange and member-leader-member exchange affected turnover intention. Conclusions The impacts of leader-leader-member exchange, team-member exchange, and member-leader-member exchange on job satisfaction were confirmed. To reduce turnover intention, our study found it is more important to improve leader-member exchange than team-member exchange. Implications for nursing practice In health organizations, there is an important need to focus on the communication and exchange relationships between leaders and their staff, well as among the members, to increase job satisfaction. This will assist leaders to play an important role in lowering nurses' turnover intention and create an organizational culture in which nurses can communicate well with them. Implications for nursing policy Policy changes are needed so that the components of job performance evaluation for nurse leaders also include attendance at regular programmes, such as training to improve their leadership and communication skills, and consultations with their staff members.

This study aimed to assess the association between caudal block and postoperative complications after tubularised incised plate urethroplasty. The medical records of 388 paediatric patients who underwent urethroplasty at a tertiary medical centre were analysed retrospectively. Among the 342 patients included, 216 patients received a caudal block and 72 (21.1%) patients suffered surgical complications. The number of patients having surgical complications was significantly greater among patients who received a caudal block than among patients who did not receive a caudal block (53 (24.5%) versus 19 (15.1%), respectively, p = 0.04). Based on multivariate logistic regression analysis, duration of surgery, caudal block and hypospadias types were independent risk factors for the surgical complications. Patients with caudal block had an odds ratio of 2.1 (95% CI, 1.14-3.81, p = 0.018) for the development of postoperative complications compared with patients without caudal block. This analysis demonstrates that caudal block is associated with surgical complications after tubularised incised plate urethroplasty.

Summary We investigated whether magnesium sulphate combined with rocuronium priming shortens the onset of neuromuscular blockade, compared with these methods used alone. Ninety-two patients scheduled for general anaesthesia were randomly allocated to one of four groups: controls were given 0.6 mg.kg−1 rocuronium; patients in the prime group were given 0.06 mg.kg−1 rocuronium three minutes before a further dose of 0.54 mg.kg−1 rocuronium; patients in the magnesium group were given an infusion of 50 mg.kg−1 magnesium sulphate before rocuronium and patients in the magnesium and prime group were given both the magnesium sulphate and the priming dose of rocuronium. Tracheal intubation was attempted 40 s after the rocuronium injection. The time to onset of neuromuscular blockade was the primary outcome; duration of blockade and tracheal intubating conditions were also measured. The group allocation and study drugs were coded and concealed until statistical analyses were completed. The magnesium and prime group had the shortest mean (SD) onset time (55 (16) s; p

This 8-week, randomized, double-blind, controlled study compared efficacy and tolerability of telmisartan/amlodipine (T/A) single-pill combination (SPC) vs the respective monotherapies in 858 patients with severe hypertension (systolic/diastolic blood pressure [SBP/DBP] ≥180/95 mm Hg). At 8 weeks, T/A provided significantly greater reductions from baseline in seated trough cuff SBP/DBP (-47.5 mm Hg/-18.7 mm Hg) vs T (P

Summary. The nonstructural 5B (NS5B) protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) with a key role in HCV replication. To characterize the functional roles of NS5B in HCV replication, we produced a panel of 10 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directed against NS5B protein from mice immunized with functionally active RdRp. The epitopes of eight mAbs are localized in the middle region (amino acid 240–263) of NS5B protein. On the other hand, the epitopes of two mAbs are mapped to amino acids 67–88 at the N-terminus of NS5B protein. To examine the effects of mAbs on HCV-RNA replication, we performed in vitro RdRp assay using either the 3′-untranslated region (UTR) or the full-length of HCV-RNA as a template in the presence of each mAb. mAbs specific for the middle region of NS5B had no effect on RdRp activity. Surprisingly, mAb recognizing the N-terminal region of NS5B inhibited RdRp activity in a dose-dependent manner. We have confirmed the same result using the other subclass of mAb, whose epitope is also localized to the same N-terminal region of NS5B. These data show that NS5B contains a B-cell epitope located between amino acid residues 67 and 88. Binding of this epitope with an antibody interferes with the enzymatic function of NS5B.

Gas transport and thermodynamic properties for the blends of polycarbonate (PC) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) were studied. To explore glass transition temperatures of blends and their phase separation temperatures due to a lower critical solution temperature, LCST, a type of phase boundary, transparent blend films that are miscible and do not contain solvent-induced PC crystals were prepared by controlling molecular weights of each component. The average value of interaction energy densities between PC and PMMA obtained from the phase boundaries and the equation of a state theory based on the lattice fluid model was 0.04 cal/cm3. This result confirmed that miscibility of PC and PMMA blends at equilibrium depends upon the molecular weights of components. Gas transport properties of miscible blends and immiscible blends having the same chemical components and composition but a difference in morphology were examined at 35°C and 1 atm for the gases N2 and O2. Permeability and apparent diffusion coefficients were ranked in the order of the immiscible blend having a domain–matrix structure > the immiscible blend having an interconnected structure > the miscible blend. These results might be related to the differences in the local chain motions that depend on the intermolecular mixing level. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 37: 2950–2959, 1999

The novel allele DRB1*12:16:02 allele showed two single nucleotide differences with HLA-DRB1*12:16:01 at nucleotides 303 G>C and 321 C>T in exon 2.

The novel allele B*54:25 allele showed a single nucleotide difference with B*54:01:01 at nt 208 C > G in exon 2.

The novel allele B*35:188 allele showed a single nucleotide difference with B*35:96 at nt 347 T>C in exon 3.

We have developed a low temperature carbon nanotube (LT-CNT) growing process that can be used for electron emitter of field emission display (FED). Using this process technology, we successfully demonstrated a 5.4 inch LT-CNT FED using conventional 0.7 mm glass substrate without any distortion due to the thermal shrinkage of the glass substrate.

A 40-inch wide screen format TFT-LCD with a resolution of 1280×768 has been developed for HDTV application. We have overcome the size limitation of 40-inch panel with optimum panel design and succeeded with current fabricating process. In this paper, we present the panel design and parameter simulation result of 40-inch TFT-LCD to obtain uniform picture quality.