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Introduction: Leadership is the ability to guide subordinates in a direction or decision so that they can perform a task or achieve a goal that leaves them feeling empowered and accomplished. Leaders are capable of producing changes and at the same time, they inspire others to do the same. This research analysed gender-based differences and dimensions of nursing leadership styles in 18 hospitals in Andalusia, a region of southern Spain. Methods: The sample population of the study comprised 335 subjects, who were middle managers in 18 public regional hospitals in Andalusia. The instrument used to measure different leadership styles was the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X-Short form), which is composed of 45 items. Results: The study showed that the most predominant leadership style was transactional leadership with a mean value of M = 4.22 (standard deviation [SD] = 0.42) followed by transformational leadership with a mean value of M = 3.97 (SD 0.45). Of the three styles analysed, transactional leadership had the highest statistical median for both male and female subjects. From a gender-based perspective, transformational leadership showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.01) between men and women. This was true for leadership styles as well as for the dimensions that define each style. Conclusion: The most frequent leadership style in middle nursing management in Andalusian hospitals was transactional leadership. In regard to the three leadership styles as well as their dimensions, the female subjects obtained the highest scores. This means that from a genderbased perspective, female nursing managers had better performance levels than their male counterparts in the regional hospital system in Andalusia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Vascular calcification contributes to cardiovascular disease on dialysis patients. Arterial mineral content is modified but not well defined. We aim to define what is the concentration of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus in the epigastric artery of adult dialysis patients undergoing renal transplantation. Methods: All renal allograft recipients who underwent surgery at our centre between May 2003 and December 2005 and consented to be taken small samples of epigastric artery were included in our cross-sectional study. Histological, radiological and spectrometric methods were used to measure vascular calcification, deposits and concentrations of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium in epigastric artery, which were correlated with clinical and biochemical characteristics. Mineral vascular content was compared with corresponding samples from cadaveric renal donors free from renal disease (control group). Results: Calcium and magnesium concentrations in epigastric artery were much higher in recipients (n = 100) than in donors (n = 30). Histologically confirmed calcifications were more frequent in recipients. Calcium and magnesium content in epigastric artery were correlated directly with recipient age, pre-transplant serum P and Ca × P product. A high content of calcium and magnesium in this artery was observed in recipients with media and intimal calcification. Multivariate logistic regression showed that dialysis vintage > 3.5 years and calcium concentration in epigastric artery ≥ 4500 mg/kg wet weight were independent predictors of histological calcification. Conclusion: Excess mineral deposition is observed in the epigastric artery of dialysis patients, where the recipient's age, serum P, Ca × P product and time on dialysis play a decisive role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of West Indian Medical Journal is the property of West Indian Medical Journal (WIMJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of West Indian Medical Journal is the property of West Indian Medical Journal (WIMJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of West Indian Medical Journal is the property of West Indian Medical Journal (WIMJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of West Indian Medical Journal is the property of West Indian Medical Journal (WIMJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• Inbreeding depression is common among plants and may distort mating system estimates. Mating system studies traditionally ignore this effect, nonetheless an assessment of inbreeding depression that may have occurred before progeny evaluation could be necessary. • In the neotropical Pinus chiapensis inbreeding depression was evaluated using regression analysis relating progeny F-values with seed germinability, the mating system was analysed in three populations with contrasting size, using isozymes, obtained a corrected outcrossing rate. • Selfing decreased seed viability by 19%, relative to an outcrossed plant. Multilocus outcrossing rates, tm, varied widely among populations. In the two smallest populations tm ≅ 1. Therefore, inbreeding depression did not affect the estimates, but overestimated tm by 10% in the third population, which has a true mixed mating system (selfing was the major source of inbreeding), and an unusually low tm for pines ( tm = 0.54, uncorrected, tm = 0.49, corrected). • Inbreeding depression may be an uneven source of bias for outcrossing estimates even at the infraspecific level. Precision but not accuracy may be gained by including inbreeding depression in outcrossing estimates. Therefore, caution should be taken when comparing tm among species or even populations within the same species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The ageing process causes changes in the bone structure, in bone mineral density, and musculoskeletal disorders., Aims: The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare involutive changes in bone structure that occur in relation to age in men and women through the study of bone mineral density at the Ward's triangle and trabecular volume., Subjects and Methods: In this study, we analysed bone mineral density at Ward's triangle in 70 people (38 men and 32 women) and did a histomorphometric study of trabecular volume at the right iliac crest in 66 samples (42 males and 24 females) obtained from autopsies of court cases, aged between 13 and 83 years., Results: The results show significant correlations between measurements of bone mineral density, trabecular volume values and anthropometric measures of age, gender and body mass index., Conclusions: This study shows involutional changes that occur in the bone mineral density and Ward's triangle in the bone structure during the process of ageing. In addition, both weight and height have a great influence on bone mineral density and changes in bone that occur; and body mass index is a very important determinant of bone mineral density.

We formulate two single-locus Mendelian models, one for androdioecy and the other one for gynodioecy, each with 3 parameters: t the male (female) fertility rate of males (females) to hermaphrodites, s the fraction of the progeny derived from selfing; and g the fitness of inbreeders. Each model is expressed as a transformation of a 3 dimensional zygotic algebra, which we interpret as a rational map of the projective plane. We then study the dynamics for the evolution of each reproductive system; and compare our results with similar published models. In this process, we introduce a general concept of fitness and list some of its properties, obtaining a relative measure of population growth, computable as an eigenvalue of a mixed mating transformation for a population in equilibrium. Our results concur with previous models of the evolution of androdioecy and gynodioecy regarding the threshold values above which the sexual polymophism is stable, although the previous models assume constant the fraction of ovules from hermaphrodites that are self pollinated, while we assume constant the fraction of the progeny derived from selfing. A stable androdioecy requires more stringent conditions than a stable gynodioecy if the amount of pollen used for selfing is negligible in comparison with the total amount of pollen produced by hermaphrodites. Otherwise, both models are identical. We show explicitly that the genotype fitnesses depend linearly on their frequencies. Simulations show that any population not at equilibrium always converges to the equilibrium point of higher fitness. However, at intermediate steps, the fitness function occasionally decreases.

Using elementary algebraic geometry and computational commutative algebra, supported by the program Macaulay2, we studied and developed operators that define the zygotic and gametic evolution under a mixed-mating system with parameters s selfing rate, r recombination rate, and g relative fitness of inbreeders, for any possible combination of initial zygotic or gametic frequencies with two alleles at each of two loci. We found that (i) the allelic frequencies are preserved in every generation; (ii) the gametic frequencies converge to values that depend exclusively on the allelic frequencies; (iii) every zygotic population converges to a population in equilibrium with double heterozygotes equally frequent; (iv) the rate of convergence decreases to arbitrary small values with sufficiently small values of r or with sufficiently large values of s and (v) as g decreases, the maximal 'association between the two loci' occurs with higher values of selfing. We also found generalizations for the case of several alleles at each locus.