BACKGROUND Despite increased focus on health care-associated infections (HAI), between 1.6 and 3.8 million HAI occur annually among the vulnerable population residing in US nursing homes (NH). This study characterized state department of health (DOH) activities and policies intended to improve quality and reduce HAI in NH. METHODS We created a 17-item standardized data collection tool informe...

PURPOSE Given concerns about end-of-life care for many nursing home (NH) residents, this study sought to understand factors influencing hospice referral or nonreferral as well as timing of referral. DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted semistructured interviews with personnel from seven participating NHs and two hospices. We interviewed NH directors of nursing regarding facility referral practices...

An exploratory study of the synthesis of vanadium (oxy)fluorides (VOFs) using ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic mixtures (DESs) as a solvent yielded 10 different materials. The previously reported chain type: (NH(4))(2)VF(5) (1), (NH(4))(2)VOF(4) (2), NH(4)VO(3) (3) and (H(2)NH(2)(CH(2))(2)NH(2))VF(5) (9) have been successfully produced for the first time using ILs as the reaction media. Th...

Ratios of ammonium (NH 4 ‡) to nitrate (NO 3 ±) in soils are known to increase during forest succession. Using evidence from several previous studies, we hypothesize that a malfunction in NH 4 ‡ transport at the membrane level might limit the persistence of early successional tree species in later seral stages. In those studies, 13 N radiotracing was used to determine unidirectional fluxes and ...

The use of the enzyme alanine dehydrogenase (AlaDH) for the determination of ammonium ion (NH(4)(+)) usually requires the addition of pyruvate substrate and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) simultaneously to effect the reaction. This addition of reagents is inconvenient when an enzyme biosensor based on AlaDH is used. To resolve the problem, a novel reagentless amperometric bios...

Experimental rate coefficients for the removal of NH(a (1)Delta) and ND(a (1)Delta) in collisions with H and D atoms are presented; all four isotope combinations are considered: NH+H, NH+D, ND+H, and ND+D. The experiments were performed in a quasistatic laser-flash photolysis/laser-induced fluorescence system at low pressures. NH(a (1)Delta) and ND(a (1)Delta) were generated by photolysis of HN...

Cooperativity of ligand binding to allosteric receptors can be quantified using the Hill coefficient (nH) to measure the sigmoidal character of the binding curve. However, for measurements of the transition between conformational states, nH values can be misleading due to ambiguity of the reference state. For cooperative ligand binding, the reference state is a hyperbolic curve for a monomer wi...

Wet deposition and transport analysis has been performed for ammonium (NH` 4 ) in North Carolina, USA. Multiple regression analysis is employed to model the temporal trend and seasonality in monthly volume-weighted mean NH` 4 concentrations in precipitation from 1983 to 1996 at six National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network (NADP/NTN) sites. A signi"cant (p(0.01) increasing...

Experimental rate coefficients for the removal of NH a 1 and ND a 1 in collisions with H and D atoms are presented; all four isotope combinations are considered: NH+H, NH+D, ND+H, and ND+D. The experiments were performed in a quasistatic laser-flash photolysis/laser-induced fluorescence system at low pressures. NH a 1 and ND a 1 were generated by photolysis of HN3 and DN3, respectively. The tot...

Objectives: Racial/ethnic disparities in nursing homes (NHs) are associated with lower quality of care, and state Medicaid payment policies may influence NH quality. However, no studies analyzing disparities in NH quality of life (QoL) exist. Therefore, this study aims to estimate associations at the NH level between average number of QoL deficiencies and concentrations of racial/ethnic minorit...