Holocene winter climate variability in Central and Eastern Europe.

Among abundant reconstructions of Holocene climate in Europe, only a handful has addressed winter conditions, and most of these are restricted in length and/or resolution. Here we present a record of late autumn through early winter air temperature and moisture source changes in East-Central Europe for the Holocene, based on stable isotopic analysis of an ice core recovered from a cave in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains. During the past 10,000 years, reconstructed temperature changes followed insolation, with a minimum in the early Holocene, followed by gradual and continuous increase towards the mid-to-late-Holocene peak (between 4-2 kcal BP), and finally by a decrease after 0.8 kcal BP towards a minimum during the Little Ice Age (AD 1300-1850). Reconstructed early Holocene atmospheric circulation patterns were similar to those characteristics of the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), while in the late Holocene they resembled those prevailing in the positive NAO phase. The transition between the two regimes occurred abruptly at around 4.7 kcal BP. Remarkably, the widespread cooling at 8.2 kcal BP is not seen very well as a temperature change, but as a shift in moisture source, suggesting weaker westerlies and increased Mediterranean cyclones penetrating northward at this time.

To lead and to be led in municipal elderly care in Sweden as perceived by registered nurses.

AIM: To describe registered nurses' (RNs) perceptions of their own leadership and of their immediate line management, as well as leadership's organizational prerequisites in municipal elderly care. BACKGROUND: Nursing leadership is a main factor influencing care quality. In spite of this, there is a leadership crisis in municipal elderly care. METHOD: A descriptive design utilizing a questionnaire. The setting was 60 residential care homes in Sweden with 213 participating nurses. The response rate was 62%. RESULTS: Most nurses (59%) viewed themselves as leaders of a smaller group, whereas 28% did not consider themselves as leaders at all. Few nurses had the will to develop their leadership competence. In all, 25% of the nurses had unresolved serious conflicts with their immediate line management. Half perceived receiving no or little feedback from their immediate line management. A majority had no organized supervision. They perceived, on average, organizational prerequisites as unclear, with few possibilities for leadership competence development. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses need to be more willing to develop their leadership skills. Nurses need managers to support them in their leadership roles. They need distinct and supportive organizational prerequisites for leadership. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: It is crucial to provide distinct and supportive organizational prerequisites for nursing leadership.

Sulfate spikes in the deep layers of EPICA-Dome C ice core: evidence of glaciological artifacts.

A detailed ionic component record was performed on EPICA Dome C ice core (East Antarctica) to a depth of 3190 m using Ion Chromatography and Fast Ion Chromatography (FIC). At depths greater than 2800 m, the sulfate profile shows intense, sharp spikes which are not expected due to the smoothing of sulfate peaks by diffusion processes. Moreover, these spikes show an "anomalous" chemical composition (e.g., unusually low acidity, high Mg(2+) concentration and high Mg(2+)/Ca(2+) ratio). These peaks and the surrounding layers also exhibit good Mg(2+) vs SO(4)(2-) and Cl(-) vs Na(+) correlations through both glacial and interglacial periods. Furthermore, the high-resolution analysis of two horizontally contiguous ice sections showed that some fraction of the impurities are characterized by a heterogeneous distribution. Altogether, these results suggest the occurrence of long-term postdepositional processes involving a rearrangement of impurities via migration in the vein network, characterized by sulfuric acidity and leading to the formation of soluble particles of magnesium sulfate salts, along with ionic association of ions in the liquid films along boundaries. This evidence should be taken into consideration when inferring information on for rapid climatic and environmental changes from ice core chemical records at great depths. At Dome C, the depth threshold was found to be 2800 m.

High-resolution Greenland ice core data show abrupt climate change happens in few years.

The last two abrupt warmings at the onset of our present warm interglacial period, interrupted by the Younger Dryas cooling event, were investigated at high temporal resolution from the North Greenland Ice Core Project ice core. The deuterium excess, a proxy of Greenland precipitation moisture source, switched mode within 1 to 3 years over these transitions and initiated a more gradual change (over 50 years) of the Greenland air temperature, as recorded by stable water isotopes. The onsets of both abrupt Greenland warmings were slightly preceded by decreasing Greenland dust deposition, reflecting the wetting of Asian deserts. A northern shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone could be the trigger of these abrupt shifts of Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation, resulting in changes of 2 to 4 kelvin in Greenland moisture source temperature from one year to the next.

Sickness absence and sickness attendance--what people with neck or back pain think.

This study explores the decision of 33 men and women to be sick-listed from work for neck pain or low-back pain. Qualitative interviews with the subjects, who lived in a city or a sparsely populated area of Sweden, were tape-recorded, transcribed and analysed in the interpretive tradition by the three authors. New, intense and threatening pain quickly made persons report sick. For other pain, sickness absence, its timing and duration, were negotiated on the basis of the subjects' self-image, work-duty norms, organisational and extra-organisational work factors. Thirty-one people aimed to return to work, but spine-related pain was a hindrance. Five strategies to avoid, delay or shorten sickness absence were identified. Concepts of the illness flexibility model well described how the workers balanced the factors driving them from work and those forcing them or attracting them to remain. The conclusion is that reporting sick is neither undertaken lightly nor for short-term reasons only. Instead, personal history and anticipated future, spine-related pain, workplace and labour market factors are also important considerations.

Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core.

The Antarctic Vostok ice core provided compelling evidence of the nature of climate, and of climate feedbacks, over the past 420,000 years. Marine records suggest that the amplitude of climate variability was smaller before that time, but such records are often poorly resolved. Moreover, it is not possible to infer the abundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from marine records. Here we report the recovery of a deep ice core from Dome C, Antarctica, that provides a climate record for the past 740,000 years. For the four most recent glacial cycles, the data agree well with the record from Vostok. The earlier period, between 740,000 and 430,000 years ago, was characterized by less pronounced warmth in interglacial periods in Antarctica, but a higher proportion of each cycle was spent in the warm mode. The transition from glacial to interglacial conditions about 430,000 years ago (Termination V) resembles the transition into the present interglacial period in terms of the magnitude of change in temperatures and greenhouse gases, but there are significant differences in the patterns of change. The interglacial stage following Termination V was exceptionally long--28,000 years compared to, for example, the 12,000 years recorded so far in the present interglacial period. Given the similarities between this earlier warm period and today, our results may imply that without human intervention, a climate similar to the present one would extend well into the future.