Improving network approaches to the study of complex social-ecological interdependencies.

Achieving effective, sustainable environmental governance requires a better understanding of the causes and consequences of the complex patterns of interdependencies connecting people and ecosystems within and across scales. Network approaches for conceptualizing and analyzing these interdependencies offer one promising solution. Here, we present two advances we argue are needed to further this area of research: (i) a typology of causal assumptions explicating the causal aims of any given network-centric study of social-ecological interdependencies; (ii) unifying research design considerations that facilitate conceptualizing exactly what is interdependent, through what types of relationships, and in relation to what kinds of environmental problems. The latter builds on the appreciation that many environmental problems draw from a set of core challenges that re-occur across contexts. We demonstrate how these advances combine into a comparative heuristic that facilitates leveraging case-specific findings of social-ecological interdependencies to generalizable, yet context-sensitive, theories based on explicit assumptions of causal relationships.

The heart-brain connection.

We have long known that patients with vascular disease in one system are at risk for vascular disease in other systems. Beyond this, we are recognizing the increased risk for cardiovascular patients to develop stroke not only as the result of arrhythmia, but also at the time of cardiovascular events or procedures. This presents clinical challenges to nurses with either neurological or cardiovascular expertise, requiring development of new awareness, clinical and critical thinking skills, and collaboration with their colleagues in other specialties. Three case studies illustrate patient presentations ranging from the subtle to the obvious. Pathophysiology of stroke is reviewed. Leading-edge management strategies and supporting literature highlight the benefits of prompt identification and management of the stroke patient. The Stroke Watch Action Team (SWAT) has proved to be an effective means of expediting patient identification and access to effective stroke treatment.

Primary sequence, copy number, and distribution of mariner transposons in the honey bee.

A single honey bee mariner transposon (TnM1a) was sequenced, revealing a transpositionally non-autonomous element of 937 bp delimited by 30 bp perfect inverted terminal repeats. The element is flanked by the TA duplication typical of mariner elements in general. There are approximately 435 copies of TnM1a homologous elements per haploid genome. These elements appear, by Southern blot analysis, to be dispersed throughout the genome. Thirteen individual genomic clones with an average size of 15 kb, were found to contain only a single element each, which also suggests that the elements are not tightly clustered. Finally, mariner elements are neither inactivated by methylation nor sequestered into a methylated fraction of the genome.

Identifying the needs of home caregivers of patients with cancer.

Increasing numbers of patients with cancer are being cared for by home caregivers. The primary purpose of this methodologic, correlational study was to identify, categorize, and assess the importance of needs expressed by 492 home caregivers and to determine how well these needs were satisfied. Caregivers surveyed were selected from the records of two nonprofit community cancer agencies and two hospital outpatient oncology clinics in the Midwest. These individuals were identified by at-home patients with cancer as unpaid people who helped with physical care or coping with the disease process. Caregiver characteristics and patient activity were examined to determine their relationships to caregiver needs, and needs were examined over time. The 90-item Home Caregiver Need Survey used in this study was developed by the author in 1989 and demonstrated internal consistency, reliability, and construct validity. Using factor analysis, six need categories were identified: psychological, informational, patient care, personal, spiritual, and household. Caregivers' greatest needs were informational and psychological. Significant correlations between certain caregiver characteristics and caregiver needs and between caregiver needs and patients' activity levels were found. Both the importance and satisfying of needs changed over time. Findings indicate the urgent need for nurses, who usually provide support for caregivers, to establish specific programs and services to meet the identified and unmet informational and psychological needs of caregivers of at-home patients with cancer. Frequent reassessment of caregiver needs seems to be indicated.

Self-identified needs of patients with cancer at home and their home caregivers: a descriptive study.

Increasing numbers of patients with cancer are being cared for at home by family caregivers because of the chronicity of cancer and the transition of health care from hospital to home. This study describes the needs of 15 patients with cancer at home and 15 home caregivers. Using the Objects Content Test (OCT), 505 need statements were collected from the subjects. Three hundred patient needs and 192 caregiver needs were identified. Nurse researchers and oncology experts computer Q-sorted the 505 need statements into need categories previously established by Wingate and Lackey. Patients' greatest needs were psychological, physical, and informational. Caregivers' greatest needs were psychological, informational, and those related to household duties. Qualitative data reflected that both patients and caregivers needed support from family or friends, hope, and a sense of the future. Patients indicated a need for purposeful activities.

Point mugu, california, earthquake of 21 february 1973 and its aftershocks.

Seismological investigations show that the Point Mugu earthquake involved north-south crustal shortening deep within the complex fault zone that marks the southern front of the Transverse Ranges province. This earthquake sequence results from the same stress system responsible for the deformation in this province in the Pliocene through Holocene and draws attention to the significant earthquake hazard that the southern frontal fault system poses to the Los Angeles metropolitan area.