RESUMEN

Moral distress is commonly experienced by nurses in all settings. This bears the risk of a reduced quality of care, burnout and withdrawal from the profession. One approach to the prevention and management of moral distress is ethical competence development in undergraduate nursing education. Profession-specific legal regulations function as a foundation for the decision on the educational content within these programmes. This theoretical article presents the extent to which legal regulations may open framework conditions that allow for the comprehensive preparation of prospective nurses to manage moral distress. The legal frameworks and the immediate responsibilities regarding their realisation in the context of undergraduate nursing education vary slightly for the three chosen examples of Switzerland, Austria and Germany. While an increased awareness of ethics' education is represented within the nursing laws, no definite presumption can be made regarding whether undergraduate nursing students will be taught the ethical competencies required to manage moral distress. It remains up to the curriculum design, the schools of nursing and instructors to create an environment that allows for the realisation of corresponding learning content. For the future, the establishment of professional nursing associations may help to emphasise acutely relevant topics, including moral distress, in undergraduate nursing education.

RESUMEN

Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) roots with rot caused by Aphanomyces cochlioides often are incorporated into storage piles even though effects of disease on processing properties are unknown. Roots with Aphanomyces root rot were harvested from six fields over 2 years. For each field, roots with similar disease symptoms were combined and assigned a root rot index (RRI) value (0 to 100; 0, no rot symptoms; 100, all roots severely rotted). After 20 or 120 days storage at 4°C and 95% relative humidity, concentrations of the major carbohydrate impurities that accumulate during storage and sucrose extractability were determined. Root rot affected carbohydrate impurity concentrations and sucrose extractability in direct relation to disease severity symptoms. Generally, roots with active and severe infection (RRI ≥ 85) exhibited elevated glucose and fructose concentrations 20 and 120 days after harvest (DAH), elevated raffinose concentration 120 DAH, and reduced sucrose extractability 20 and 120 DAH. Roots with minor or moderate disease symptoms (RRI 20 to 69), or damaged roots with no signs of active infection, had similar carbohydrate impurity concentrations and sucrose extractability after 20 and 120 days storage. Processing properties declined when RRIs exceeded 43, as determined by regression analysis, or when storage duration increased from 20 to 120 days. Results indicate that both disease severity and anticipated duration of storage be considered before Aphanomyces-infected roots are incorporated into storage piles.

RESUMEN

Control of respiration has largely been studied with growing and/or photosynthetic tissues or organs, but has rarely been examined in harvested and stored plant products. As nongrowing, heterotrophic organs that are reliant on respiration to provide all of their metabolic needs, harvested plant products differ dramatically in their metabolism and respiratory needs from growing and photosynthetically active plant organs, and it cannot be assumed that the same mechanism controls respiration in both actively growing and harvested plant organs. To elucidate mechanisms of respiratory control for a harvested and stored plant product, sugarbeet (Beta vulgaris L.) root respiration was characterized with respect to respiratory capacity, adenylate levels and cellular energy status in roots whose respiration was altered by wounding or cold treatment (1 degrees C) and in response to potential effectors of respiration. Respiration rate was induced by wounding in roots stored at 10 degrees C and by cold temperature in roots stored at 1 degrees C for 11-13d. Alterations in respiration rate due to wounding or storage temperature were unrelated to changes in total respiratory capacity, the capacities of the cytochrome c oxidase (COX) or alternative oxidase (AOX) pathways, adenylate concentrations or cellular energy status, measured by the ATP:ADP ratio. In root tissue, respiration was induced by exogenous NADH indicating that respiratory capacity was capable of oxidizing additional electrons fed into the electron transport chain via an external NADH dehydrogenase. Respiration was not induced by addition of ADP or a respiratory uncoupler. These results suggest that respiration rate in stored sugarbeet roots is not limited by respiratory capacity, ADP availability or cellular energy status. Since respiration in plants can be regulated by substrate availability, respiratory capacity or energy status, it is likely that a substrate, other than ADP, limits respiration in stored sugarbeet roots.

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RESUMEN

Wounding, anoxia, and cold are often encountered during crop production and postharvest storage of plant products. Although the effect of these stresses on the expression of sucrose synthase, a key enzyme in the carbon metabolism of many storage organs, has been investigated in several starch-accumulating plant organs, little information on their effect on sucrose synthase expression in sucrose-storing organs is available. To determine the effect of wounding, anoxia and cold on a sucrose-storing organ, sugarbeet (Beta vulgaris) roots were wounded, subjected to anoxic conditions, or exposed to cold temperatures, and transcript and protein levels for the organ's two sucrose synthase genes (SBSS1 and SBSS2) and sucrose synthase enzyme activity were determined during 24h and 7d time course experiments. Wounding, anoxia and cold were associated with several-fold changes in sucrose synthase transcript levels. SBSS1 transcript levels were elevated in wounded, anoxic and cold-treated roots; SBSS2 transcript levels were elevated in response to wounding, cold, and short exposures (3-12h) to anoxic conditions and reduced in roots exposed to anoxic conditions for more than 24h. SBSS1 and SBSS2 protein levels, however, exhibited little change in stressed roots, even after 7d. Enzyme activity was also relatively unchanged in stressed roots, except for small activity differences of 1-2d duration that were unrelated to transcriptional changes. The disparity between transcript levels, protein abundance and enzyme activity indicate that SBSS1 and SBSS2 expression in response to wounding, anoxia and cold may be regulated by post-transcriptional mechanisms. The unresponsiveness of sucrose synthase protein levels or enzyme activity to wounding, anoxia and cold questions the importance of this enzyme to stress responses in sugarbeet root.

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RESUMEN

A full-length sucrose synthase (SBSS2) cDNA clone was isolated from sugarbeet. Comparison of its composition and organ-specific and developmental expression with a previously isolated sugarbeet sucrose synthase gene (SBSS1) revealed distinct differences between the two genes. The two genes share 80% similarity in deduced amino acid sequence but belong to different sucrose synthase subclasses based on phylogenic analysis. Both sucrose synthases were highly expressed in roots, and had low levels of expression in leaf tissue. Transcript abundance of SBSS2, relative to SBSS1, was greater in young vegetative and floral tissues, and reduced in mature vegetative tissues. The organ-specific and developmental expression of SBSS1 and SBSS2 proteins was similar to SBSS1 and SBSS2 transcript levels, although developmental changes in protein abundance lagged transcriptional changes by many weeks. The similarities and differences in transcript and protein abundance suggest that both transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms are likely to contribute to sucrose synthase expression in sugarbeet.

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