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Aim. This paper is a report of a study of the relationship between stress associated with intimate partner violence and smoking and cardiovascular risk. Background. Stress related to intimate partner violence persists after a woman leaves an abusive relationship. Persistent stress is associated with cardiovascular disease, the leading single cause of death among women. Smoking, an established risk factor for cardiovascular disease, is a coping mechanism commonly used to decrease the anxiety and stress of intimate partner violence. However, cardiovascular health is poorly understood in abused women. Method. Secondary analysis of data collected between 2004 and 2005 with a community sample of 309 women who had separated from an abusive partner 3 months to 3 years previously was conducted to create a descriptive profile of cardiovascular risk. Bivariate tests of association and logistic regression analysis were used to test relationships among variables. Results. Of the women, 44.1% were smokers; 53.2% had body mass indices classified as overweight or obese; 54.7% had blood pressures above normal range; and 50.8% reported cardiovascular symptoms. Neither severity of intimate partner violence nor smoking behaviours were statistically significant in explaining the presence of cardiovascular symptoms. Conclusion. The prevalence of hypertension, obesity and smoking suggests that survivors of intimate partner violence may be at heightened risk for cardiovascular disease and warrant clinical attention. Because cardiac symptoms develop as women get older, the mean age of 39 years in this sample may explain why intimate partner violence severity and smoking did not sufficiently explain the presence of cardiac symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a tomographic analysis of the distribution and orientation of fiber in composites that are reinforced by an ultra high-performance fiber. It indicates the development of an alternative method for the determination of the fiber-reinforced composite elements' mechanical properties. The data acquisition and image analysis methods for fiber orientation and distribution are investigated.

Although the negative health effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) are well documented, little is known about the mechanisms or determinants of health outcomes for women who had left their abusive partners. Using data collected from a community sample of 309 Canadian women who left an abusive partner, we examined whether women's personal, social and economic resources mediate the relationships between the severity of past IPV and current health using structural equation modelling. A good fit was found between the model and data for hypothesized models of mental and physical health. In the mental health model, both the direct and total indirect effects of IPV were significant. In the physical health model, the direct effect of IPV on physical health was about four times as large as the total indirect effects. In both models, more severe past IPV was associated with lower health and women's personal, social, and economic resources, when combined, mediated the relationship between IPV and health. These findings demonstrate that the health outcomes of IPV for women who have left an abusive partner must be understood in context of women's resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social expectation that women will care for family members persists despite evidence that many women have difficult or abusive past relationships with their parents and partners. Little is known about how past relationship influences the health of women caring for adult family members. On the basis of earlier grounded theory research, we tested the theory that past relationship and obligation predict health outcomes and health promotion in 236 women caregivers of adult family members. Structural equation modeling demonstrated support for the theory, with 56% of the variance in health outcomes and 11% of the variance in health promotion accounted for by the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the extensive use of grounded theory methods to develop middle-range nursing theory, there is little agreement regarding how these theories ought to be further developed. Some argue for theory testing using traditional scientific methods after developing instruments to measure theory concepts. Others assert that these context-specific theories should only be modified or confirmed through continuing constant comparison with new data. The purpose of this paper is to explore the philosophical and pragmatic challenges inherent in developing an instrument based on a grounded theory. A reflective process was used to consider a) the implications of the scientific and constructivist paradigms for theory development, and b) our experience of using traditional approaches to construct and pilot test an instrument derived from a substantive grounded theory. Conceptual definitions and item specificity were key quandaries in our attempt to develop an instrument from a grounded theory of women's caring. Developing an instrument to measure the concepts of a grounded theory requires respecting, but not being limited by, the tenets of the paradigms of traditional science and constructivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current health care reform is resulting in increasing demands on women to care for others. Little is known about the process of women's caring or the effects of caring on women. This feminist grounded theory study resulted in a substantive theory that explains how women manage the problematic aspects of caring and explicates the ways that environment influences women's responses to caring demands. Of particular concern is the evidence that the existing social structure creates and intensifies problems for women caring. The discussion considers the implications of the findings for health policy and nursing practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer-type dementia (AD) is an insidious pervasive debilitating disorder that destroys the affected person's capacity for self-care. In this grounded theory study, we explored the reciprocal process of becoming strangers in which eastern Canadian family caregivers and care recipients with AD interact on a continuum from intimacy to alienation through dimensions of dawning, holding on and letting go. The findings illuminate the experiences of family members who struggle on a daily basis with their commitment to the person they knew and their increasing detachment from the stranger that person has become. With the increasing emphasis on home care, these findings offer insights for individual care and health policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, qualitative research methods are being embraced by nurse researchers because these approaches allow exploration of human experience. Failure to explicate qualitative methodologies is resulting in a body of nursing research that is either mislabelled or is classified broadly as qualitative and subject to charges that qualitative research lacks rigour. In this paper, the authors discuss the importance of specificity in methodology and distinguish between phenomenology and grounded theory, two frequently misused terms in the description of qualitative methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of data from a grounded theory study of family interaction when a child has otitis media with effusion (OME) shows that these families are engaged in the process of learning to manage. Their relationship with the health care system, coupled with the effects of the disease on the child and the family lifestyle, has a powerful influence on how this process proceeds. In this paper, the authors discuss the impact of the family's relationship with the Canadian health care system on the development of management skills. Relationships with the health care system fluctuate forward and backward through entrusting, becoming disillusioned, learning the rules and negotiating, as families learn to manage the effects of the disease process on the child and the family. The family perspective of the quality and availability of health care at a time when health care systems throughout the world are under close scrutiny, adds to our understanding of consumer expectations. Some recommendations for improving current relationships between families and the health care system are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased demand for audio teleconferenced undergraduate nursing courses for registered nurses in New Brunswick, Canada, has resulted in nurse educators being challenged to meet the needs of adult learners within the constraints of this technology. In this paper the problem of limited interaction among adult nursing students in a teleconferenced course is examined in light of the theoretical frameworks of adult education and distance education. The effects of implementing debate as a learning strategy to increase participation are discussed. The debate process increased site to site interaction and encouraged nurses to consider pragmatic issues from new perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experience of families of children with persistent middle ear problems supports the notion that when families become empowered, they manage their own health more effectively. Findings from the present study indicate that families engage in predictable processes of acquiescing, helpless floundering, and becoming experts in their efforts at learning to manage the course of their child's disease symptoms within the context of an often cavalier health care system. Questions are raised about the nature of empowerment and the changing role of the nurse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of the ingestion of some phytoecdysteroids were studied in the soft tick Ornithodoros moubata. Supernumerary moulting and malformations of first leg pairs were obtained with 22-oxo-20-hydroxyecdysone, 20-hydroxyecdysone-22-acetate, and 20-hydroxyecdysone-22-benzoate. Egg-yield was reduced with 20-hydroxyecdysone-22-acetate and carthamosterone. Finally, drying-out of eggs was observed with carthamosterone and 22-deoxy-20,26-dihydroxyecdysone. In addition, we demonstrated that there is a correlation between the number of completed gonotrophic cycles and the impossibility of inducing supernumerary moulting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]