background increasing demand for limited healthcare resources raises questions about appropriate use of inpatient beds. in the first paediatric bed utilisation study at a regional university centre in ireland, we conducted a cross-sectional study to audit the utilisation of inpatient beds at the regional paediatric unit (rpu) in university hospital limerick (uhl), limerick, ireland and also exa...

The number of hospital beds per head of population has fallen by more than 2% a year since 1980. Levels of bed occupancy have risen during this period. Appropriate bed occupancy is crucial to the NHS, as occupancy rates exceeding 85% in acute hospitals are associated with problems in dealing with emergency and elective admissions. We aimed to develop a valid instrument for the objective assessm...

Although the complications of immobility are well-described in the literature, critically ill patients are often subjected to prolonged periods of bed rest. Nurses, by virtue of their expertise in preventing iatrogenic complications, are in an ideal position to prevent the adverse outcomes associated with immobility. This article describes how nurses can use a mobility protocol to increase the ...

Artificially roughened gold surfaces with controlled nanostructure produced by pulsed laser deposition have been investigated as sensors for apomorphine detection aiming at clinical application. The use of such gold surfaces has been optimized using aqueous solutions of apomorphine in the concentration range between 3.3 × 10(-4) M and 3.3 × 10(-7) M. The experimental parameters have been invest...

The optical properties of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) were investigated theoretically. We focused on the photoinduced charge transfer and electron-hole coherence of single-layer graphene in the electronic transitions in the visible regions. Surface functionalization with donor or acceptor groups produced a red shift in the absorption spectrum, and electrons and holes were highly delocalized. T...

The external appearance of brood fish has long been used to assess the stage of sexual development. In some species, males change in appearance during the spawning season (e.g., vivid breeding colors in cichlids, hooked jaw in salmon, and roughened texture of the pectoral fins or head of cyprinids). These physical changes make it relatively easy to identify sexually mature males. However, secon...