Helping Nurses Cope with COVID-19 Pandemic: Evaluating Support Programs

During the height of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic, nurses all over the world, including members of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses in North America (NANNNA) experienced a heightened and unprecedented level of stress, anxiety, fear, uncertainty, concern for their safety and that of their loved ones. This prompted NANNNA leadership to initiate and conduct support programs for nurses especially those on the frontline of care. This project evaluates the effectiveness of the support programs conducted by NANNNA during the early surge of COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) Framework for Evaluation in Public Health guided this evaluation. Focus group discussion and online survey was utilized to gather data. While 19% of respondents reported being diagnosed with COVID-19, the majority (81%) were not. About 44% of respondents had family members who were diagnosed with COVID-19, while 18% reported loss of a close family member due to COVID-19 complications. Most respondents reported that the program was impactful in information sharing as well as significant in helping them feel connected with other nurses. Hence, this subsequently enhanced their support networks, provided emotional and spiritual support. Survey results revealed that NANNNA support programs had positive effects in helping members mitigate the fear, anxiety and uncertainty experienced during the surge of the COVID-19.

Consideration of the Self-Care Supporting Program Including Simple Exercise for Patients with Early Stages of Secondary Lower-Limb Lymphedema

Aim: We devised a self-care supporting program targeting patients with early stages of secondary lower-limb lymphedema. The program incorporates “Simple exercises to replace lymphatic drainage” based on lymphatic flow. The purpose of this study was to consider the feasibility of continuing this program. Methods: The participants were patients in the early stages of secondary lower-limb lymphedema after gynecological cancer surgery and lymphedema therapists with more than five years of experience. Patients continued self-care at home after being briefed on the program, and they were analyzed on their self-care continuity status one month later based on a self-administered questionnaire survey and self-care notes. We interviewed the lymphedema therapists about this program to discuss the feasibility of continuing it and obtain feedback. Results: The patients who participated in the study were six women who underwent surgery with lymph node dissection for gynecological cancer. The therapists were five nurses and one occupational therapist. The patient understood the importance of all items in the self-care. “Observation,” “Touching,” and “Skin care” were relatively easy to continue. “Lymph drainage” and “Exercise” were continued with “Simple exercises to replace lymphatic drainage”. “Other exercises” were able to continue by adding distance and time to daily activities. Furthermore, “Measurement” and “Recording” became a burden and were difficult to continue. Nonetheless, this program was generally approved by the lymphedema therapists. They also pointed out the content and format of the self-care notes as improvements. Conclusions: We found that the self-care supporting program that incorporated “Simple exercises to replace lymphatic drainage” might be feasible to continue self-care for patients with early stages of secondary lower-limb lymphedema. Furthermore, we found that we needed to improve the “Measurement” and “Recording” sections of this program.

Effect of dexamethasone on intelligence and hearing in preterm infants: a meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE： A meta-analysis of published randomized controlled trials investigating the long- term effect of dexamethasone on the nervous system of preterm infants. DATA SOURCES： Online literature retrieval was conducted using The Cochrane Library （from January 1993 to June 2013）, EMBASE （from January 1980 to June 2013）, MEDLINE （from Janu- ary 1963 to June 2013）, OVID （from January 1993 to June 2013）, Springer （from January 1994 to June 2013） and Chinese Academic Journal Full-text Database （from January 1994 to June 2013）. Key words were preterm infants and dexamethasone in English and Chinese. STUDY SELECTION： Selected studies were randomized controlled trials assessing the effect of intravenous dexamethasone in preterm infants. The quality of the included papers was evaluated and those without the development of the nervous system and animal experiments were exclud- ed. Quality assessment was performed through bias risk evaluation in accordance with Cochrane Handbook 5.1.0 software in the Cochrane Collaboration. The homogeneous studies were analyzed and compared using Revman 5.2.6 software, and then effect model was selected and analyzed. Those papers failed to be included in the meta-analysis were subjected to descriptive analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： Nervous system injury in preterm infants. RESULTS： Ten randomized controlled trials were screened, involving 1,038 subjects. Among them 512 cases received dexamethasone treatment while 526 cases served as placebo control group and blank control group. Meta-analysis results showed that the incidence of cerebral palsy, visual im- pairment and hearing loss in preterm infants after dexamethasone treatment within 7 days after birth was similar to that in the control group （RR = 1.47, 95%CI： 0.97-2.21; RR = 1.46, 95%CI： 0.97-2.20; RR = 0.80, 95%CI： 0.54-1.18; P 〉 0.05）, but intelligence quotient was significantly de- creased compared with the control group （MD = -3.55, 95%CI： -6.59 to -0.51; P = 0.02）. Prete rm infants treated with dexamethasone 7 days after birth demonstrated an incidence of cerebral palsy and visual impairment, and changes in intelligence quotient similar to those in the control group （RR = 1.26, 95%CI： 0.89-1.79; RR = 1.37, 95%CI： 0.73-2.59; RR = 0.53, 95%CI： 0.32-0.89; RR = 1.66, 95%CI： -4.7 to 8.01; P 〉 0.05）. However, the incidence of hearing loss was significantly increased compared with that in the control group （RR = 0.53, 95%CI： 0.32-0.89; P = 0.02）. CONCLUSION： Dexamethasone may affect the intelligence of preterm infants in the early stages after birth, but may lead to hearing impairment at later stages after birth. More reliable conclusions should be made through large-size, multi-center, well-designed randomized controlled trials.

International Practice of Fast-Growing Innovative Companies

The purpose of the article is to compare the conditions of development and support of fast-growing companies in European countries, Asian countries, and Russia. The comparative analysis performed is of interest as certain countries, including Russia, face the problem of economic slowdown. However, the fast-growing companies are powerful catalysts for the growth of the gross domestic product and the employment of the population. The conclusion of the study is that there are common patterns in ongoing support programs for fast-growing companies： long term, state support, innovative company orientation, and concessional financing. At the same time, there are fundamental differences in approaches to the state support for innovative companies. The first approach relates to the natural development of the fast-growing innovation companies and their support programs （Germany, Denmark）; the second approach is aimed at artificially stimulating the growth of such companies （South Korea）. In Russia there are institutional features of supporting fast-growing companies： small businesses are the most vulnerable part of the economic system and they require state support in crisis situations. Therefore, the experience of European and Asian countries in terms of supporting innovative and fast-growing companies can have a positive impact on the development of innovative companies in Russia. And definitely it is important to try to understand the nature of Russian innovative fast-growing companies： do we see them as entrepreneurial business as we do in the Western companies？

Implementation and Evaluation of Infertility Reflection in Early Pregnancy after the Use of Assisted Reproductive Technology: A Feasibility Study

Background: This study aims to evaluate the infertility reflection in early pregnancy after assistive reproductive therapy (ART), including 1) process evaluation (the use and evaluation of infertility reflection) and 2) outcome evaluation (satisfaction of care needs, anticipatory anxiety towards the loss of a pregnancy or fetus, cognition of infertility experience, and depression and anxiety). Methods: This program evaluation study used a one-group pre-post-test design. The participants were 50 primiparas who had undergone ART at two fertility treatment facilities in a metropolitan area in Japan. For the infertility reflection, they conducted an online reflection. Data were collected three times: at the 5th week of pregnancy (Time 1), the 8th week of pregnancy as the final consultation at the clinic (Time 2), and the 16th week of pregnancy as the final point of early pregnancy (Time 3). Results: The data from 40 participants were analyzed. More than 80% of the users of the online reflection positively evaluated the appropriateness and usefulness of the methods and contents. Organized thoughts and feelings by reflection were shown as the reasons for the usefulness. The evaluation of the online reflection showed a relatively strong correlation with the Care Need Satisfaction Scale (CNSS) for both Time 2 and Time 3, but the online reflection did not show a significant correlation with the other outcome variables. There were no significant differences in outcome variables between users and non-users of online reflection between Time 2 and Time 3. Conclusions: Attempts at the reflection in early pregnancy require modified methods that do not have a negative impact and lead to the fulfillment of needs.

A study of subject-focused liaison services to its academic constituents under an IC^2 conceptualized program at Shanghai Jiao Tong University Library

This paper stipulates that the subject-based library liaison service to a university's teaching and research programs with certain embedded distinctive features should become the mainstream modus operandi of its library service. It takes the innovative service program based on an IC2 conceptualized program at Shanghai Jiao Tong University Library(thereafter abbreviated as SJTUL) as a concrete example to elucidate the merit of such an endeavor. Specifically, this paper discusses the particular development background, overall objectives and service contents of the IC2 motivated program at SJTUL. By presenting a detailed account of some of the key measures, major achievements and also possible future directions of library service development under the guiding principles of SJTUL's IC2 program, these authors hope that its innovative library practice may serve as a reference for other academic librarians to gain some inspirations for their own parallel service innovations or refinement focused on subject-oriented library liaison service to their constituents and parent institution's curricula and research projects.

SCIENTISTS WON THE SUPPORT FROM HUNDREDS OF TALENTS PROGRAM IN 1996

Since the Hundreds, of Talents Program was put into operation at the CAS in 1994, nearly 400 young scholars at home and abroad have participated in the public bidding. Among them, 59 applicants have won the support from the Program as a result of competition based on publicity, equality, fairness and the enrollment of the most outstanding. The followings are profiles of the winners in the program in 1996.

Remarkable achievements in orogenic belt research——An introduction to a fulfilled program supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)

THE continental dynamics has become a goaI since the beginning of the 1990s and it will still bethe key subject in the 21st century. Orogenic belts, having experienced the most intensechanges of geotherm and mechanics in the lithosphere, are the important research object in thestudy of continental dynamics. For this reason, the study of orogenic belts forms a hot and dif-ficult point in the geological society and the concentration of efforts is needed for overcomingthis difficult point. China has the most orogenic belts of various types in the world, so the De-partment of Earth Sciences caught this scientific chance in the early 1990s, took the

Making our contributions to past global change——An introduction to a recently fulfilled program supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China

IN recent years, a series of environmental problems have attracted wide attention in the world.As environmental changes can result from both the operations of natural factors and human ac-tivities, the international science community has the common opinion that environmental prob-lems should be studied in a broader perspect. In other words, the earth environment should beregarded as an entity that consists of many interactive and interrelated parts. Highlighted