The hopes of nurses who care for people diagnosed with chronic mental illness in closed wards.

PURPOSE: To identify factors influencing the hopes of mental health nurses and to explore their experiences with a sense of hope. DESIGN AND METHODS: A descriptive research survey was conducted with 113 nurses at three closed psychiatric wards in South Korea. FINDINGS: Nurses' hope, interpersonal skill competence, and professional self-concept were all found to have statistically significant correlations (r = 0.60-0.73, p < 0.01). These factors explained 62% of the variance in nurses' hope. In ten themes influencing hope, 71.1% were positive, 28.9% negative. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The findings suggest that the promotion of nurses' interpersonal skill competence and professional self-concept is helpful for increasing hope levels. Both positive and negative experiences with hope are important in developing strategies of nursing roles.

Observation of anisotropy in thermal conductivity of individual single-crystalline bismuth nanowires.

The thermal conductivity of individual single-crystalline Bi nanowires grown by the on-film formation of nanowires (ON-OFF) has been investigated. We observed that the thermal conductivity of single-crystalline Bi nanowires is highly anisotropic. Thermal conductivity of nanowires (diameter ∼100 nm) in the off-axis [102] and [110] directions exhibits a difference of ∼7.0 W/m·K. The thermal conductivity in both growth directions is diameter-dependent, which indicates that thermal transport through the individual Bi nanowires is limited by boundary scattering of both electrons and phonons. This huge anisotropy in thermal conductivities of Bi nanowires suggests the importance of direction-dependent characterization of charge, thermal transport, and thermoelectric properties of Bi nanowires.