Cypriot and Greek nurses' perceptions of the professional practice environment.

BACKGROUND: Research evidence supports that the role of the professional practice environment is crucial for the delivery of quality care as it is significantly correlated with patient and nurse outcomes. However, in countries sharing similar cultural and ethnic backgrounds, like Cyprus and Greece, as well as the increased mobility of patients and healthcare workers, there is a lack of information regarding this issue. The aim of this study is to explore and compare Cypriot and Greek nurses' perceptions of their professional practice environment. METHODS: A descriptive comparative survey was employed using a sample of nurses in Cyprus (N = 150) and Greece (N = 147). Information was collected with the Revised Professional Practice Environment Scale (RPPE). RESULTS: The results revealed significant differences between the two countries in three out of eight factors of the RPPE, with Greece's mean value being higher than Cyprus's: Handling Disagreements and Conflicts, Leadership and Autonomy in Clinical Practice, and Teamwork. CONCLUSIONS: The findings generate additional knowledge about the organizational context of care delivery that might help nursing leaders to understand how nurses perceive their work environment and how this influences their work, and consequently the care provided. The results can be utilized by nurse ward managers to improve the quality of nursing care provided. Further research is needed using different approaches to explore nurses' experience in more depth. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING OR HEALTH POLICY: Measuring nurses' perceptions of their professional practice environment may assist managers and policymakers in introducing interventions that contribute to a better practice environment and consequently to improved nursing, as well as patient, outcomes.

[The responsibility schema in obsessive compulsive checking and washing].

According to the theory of cognitive therapy, mental disorders are related to specific dysfunctional schemata, assumptions and automatic thoughts. Various pathogenic schemata have been identified in the context of the cognitive explanation of obsessive compulsive disorder, among which is the responsibily schema, proposed by Salkovskis in 1985. The responsibility schema has been defined as the belief that one possesses pivotal power to provoke or prevent subjective crucial negative outcomes. In order to investigate the relationship between the major obsessive compulsive themes and the cognitive schema of responsibility, the Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory and the Responsibility Questionnaire were administered to a non-clinical sample of 366 college students. Two groups, consisting of 15 participants each, were identified having obsessive compulsive manifestations (complaints). The first group manifested obsessive compulsive checking and the second group manifested obsessive compulsive washing. No significant sex differences were found between the groups (x²=0.186, df=1, p>0.005), but significant age differences were observed (t=-2.41, df=19.68, p<0.05). In view of this finding, data were subjected to Analysis of Covariance. The age of the participants was treated as a covariate and the main effects of the obsessive compulsive checking and washing on responsibility were analyzed. The findings seem to verify this relationship for obsessive compulsive checking (F=5.63, df=1.307, p<0.05). The subjects who manifested obsessive-compulsive checking reported an increased sense of responsibility as compared to those who experienced obsessive-compulsive washing or were free of obsessive-compulsive manifestations. The available questionnaires did not allow the investigation of the relationship between other types of obsessive compulsive manifestations and responsibility. The use of a non-clinical sample should also be noted.

Coping with acne: beliefs and perceptions in a sample of secondary school Greek pupils.

BACKGROUND: Information on the understanding of acne in adolescents has only occasionally been reported in the medical literature. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the perceptions of Greek high school students regarding acne causation, exacerbating factors, sources of information, and effect on their daily life and school performance. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Three-hundred and forty-seven students (aged 13-18) of four Athenian high schools completed a self-reported questionnaire. RESULTS: Self-reported acne was present in 59.2% (187/316). Popular sources of information were parents (31.6%), dermatologists (26.7%), magazines and television (17.5%), pharmacists (16.2%), friends (5.3%), beauticians (1.6%) and other doctors (1.1%). Fifty-two per cent considered the information received as inadequate. Reported causal or exacerbating acne factors included: diet (62.3%), hormones (55.1%), poor hygiene (42.4%), stress (31.9%), infection (14.9%) and genetics (5.7%). Reported ameliorating factors included frequent washing (80.7%), sunbathing (38.6%) and adequate hours of sleep (32%). These notions did not differ among pupils with and without acne or among pupils receiving information from different sources (P < 0.05 in all comparisons). Smoking habits, school performance, hours of sleep, sleep disturbances and self-assessment of stress status were not statistically significantly different between pupils with and without acne. Among pupils with acne 48.6% believed that acne was compromising interpersonal relations while 64.4% believed that acne was compromising their self-image. Fifteen per cent of adolescents reported pruritus associated with their acne lesions. CONCLUSION: Beliefs of Greek adolescents about acne were shown to be similar to those of pupils in other developed countries.

New upper limit on the total neutrino mass from the 2 degree field galaxy redshift survey.

We constrain f(nu) identical with Omega(nu)/Omega(m), the fractional contribution of neutrinos to the total mass density in the Universe, by comparing the power spectrum of fluctuations derived from the 2 Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey with power spectra for models with four components: baryons, cold dark matter, massive neutrinos, and a cosmological constant. Adding constraints from independent cosmological probes we find f(nu)<0.13 (at 95% confidence) for a prior of 0.1

A measurement of the cosmological mass density from clustering in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey.

The large-scale structure in the distribution of galaxies is thought to arise from the gravitational instability of small fluctuations in the initial density field of the Universe. A key test of this hypothesis is that forming superclusters of galaxies should generate a systematic infall of other galaxies. This would be evident in the pattern of recessional velocities, causing an anisotropy in the inferred spatial clustering of galaxies. Here we report a precise measurement of this clustering, using the redshifts of more than 141,000 galaxies from the two-degree-field (2dF) galaxy redshift survey. We determine the parameter beta = Omega0.6/b = 0.43 +/- 0.07, where Omega is the total mass-density parameter of the Universe and b is a measure of the 'bias' of the luminous galaxies in the survey. (Bias is the difference between the clustering of visible galaxies and of the total mass, most of which is dark.) Combined with the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background, our results favour a low-density Universe with Omega approximately 0.3.

Galaxy clustering on large scales.

I describe some recent observations of large-scale structure in the galaxy distribution. The best constraints come from two-dimensional galaxy surveys and studies of angular correlation functions. Results from galaxy redshift surveys are much less precise but are consistent with the angular correlations, provided the distortions in mapping between real-space and redshift-space are relatively weak. The galaxy two-point correlation function, rich-cluster two-point correlation function, and galaxy-cluster cross-correlation function are all well described on large scales ( greater, similar 20h-1 Mpc, where the Hubble constant, H0 = 100h km.s-1.Mpc; 1 pc = 3.09 x 10(16) m) by the power spectrum of an initially scale-invariant, adiabatic, cold-dark-matter Universe with Gamma = Omegah approximately 0.2. I discuss how this fits in with the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite detection of large-scale anisotropies in the microwave background radiation and other measures of large-scale structure in the Universe.