Mystery and Miracle in Nursing: A Preliminary Unitary Appreciative Inquiry.

This study of mystery and miracles in nursing offers a unique perspective in examning and understanding these phenomena grounded in a unitary science framework and guided by unitary appreciative inquiry. It examined 6 years of postings from an online course that gave nurses globally the opportunity to describe and elaborate upon experiences of mystery and miracles in their professional and personal lives. The analysis and synopsis processes used revealed the diversity and uniqueness of mystery and miracle phenomena and acceptance by nurses of their reality without need for scientific explanation despite the tendency to dismiss them by colleagues.

Meta-analysis using a novel database, miRStress, reveals miRNAs that are frequently associated with the radiation and hypoxia stress-responses.

Organisms are often exposed to environmental pressures that affect homeostasis, so it is important to understand the biological basis of stress-response. Various biological mechanisms have evolved to help cells cope with potentially cytotoxic changes in their environment. miRNAs are small non-coding RNAs which are able to regulate mRNA stability. It has been suggested that miRNAs may tip the balance between continued cytorepair and induction of apoptosis in response to stress. There is a wealth of data in the literature showing the effect of environmental stress on miRNAs, but it is scattered in a large number of disparate publications. Meta-analyses of this data would produce added insight into the molecular mechanisms of stress-response. To facilitate this we created and manually curated the miRStress database, which describes the changes in miRNA levels following an array of stress types in eukaryotic cells. Here we describe this database and validate the miRStress tool for analysing miRNAs that are regulated by stress. To validate the database we performed a cross-species analysis to identify miRNAs that respond to radiation. The analysis tool confirms miR-21 and miR-34a as frequently deregulated in response to radiation, but also identifies novel candidates as potentially important players in this stress response, including miR-15b, miR-19b, and miR-106a. Similarly, we used the miRStress tool to analyse hypoxia-responsive miRNAs. The most frequently deregulated miRNAs were miR-210 and miR-21, as expected. Several other miRNAs were also found to be associated with hypoxia, including miR-181b, miR-26a/b, miR-106a, miR-213 and miR-192. Therefore the miRStress tool has identified miRNAs with hitherto unknown or under-appreciated roles in the response to specific stress types. The miRStress tool, which can be used to uncover new insight into the biological roles of miRNAs, and also has the potential to unearth potential biomarkers for therapeutic response, is freely available at http://mudshark.brookes.ac.uk/MirStress.

"An existential place of pain": the essence of despair in women.

While there is a substantive body of knowledge on depression, little is known about the experience of despair. Though the terms depression and despair are often used interchangeably, studies of despair suggest that it is distinguishable from depression as experienced by women. This study explored women's experience of despair through qualitative interviews with 14 women ages 28 to 55 (M = 45) who self-identified as experiencing despair. Three themes emerged: "Crippling and Debilitating," "There's Nothing You Can Do," and ''It'll Never End." The findings lend support to the notion that despair is distinguishable from depression, but this warrants further study. The findings also suggest that while there are common elements of despair among women, there are also unique experiences of despair. While there is a substantive body of knowledge on depression, little is known about the experience of despair. This phenomenological study explored women's experience of despair through qualitative interviews with 14 women ages 28 to 55 (M = 45) who self-identified as experiencing despair. Three themes emerged: "Crippling and Debilitating," "There's Nothing You Can Do," and "It'll Never End." The findings suggest that women desire to have their experiences recognized and validated while simultaneously receiving acknowledgment of their ability to overcome the past and to shape their own destinies.