Although the financial incentive policy implemented in Korea has had an overall positive result on nurse staffing, the effect was not assure in small-sized hospitals in rural area. A more refined method for calculating nurse staffing and increasing financial incentives relative to staffing grade is needed to improve hospital nurse staffing.

Background: In patients with heart failure (HF), higher body mass index (BMI) has been associated with lower rates of hospitalization and mortality (obesity paradox). Symptoms are antecedents of hospitalizations, but little is known about the relationship between BMI and symptoms and gender differences. Purpose: To examine the association of BMI with symptoms in male and female patients with HF, controlling for covariates (sample characteristics, depressive symptoms, and sodium intake). Methods: In this cross-sectional correlational study, patients (N = 247) provided data on BMI, symptoms, and covariates. BMI was categorized into four groups: normal/underweight (< 25 kg/m2), overweight (25 – 29.9 kg/m2), obese I (30–34.9 kg/m2), and obese II/III (≥ 35 kg/m2). General linear regression was used to analyze the data. Results: The Obese II/III group had more severe HF symptoms than other groups only in male patients. In male patients, older age, Caucasian race, more comorbidities, and more severe depressive symptoms were also associated with more severe symptoms. In female patients, more severe depressive symptoms, more comorbidities, and higher sodium intake were associated with more severe symptoms. Conclusions: The obesity paradox does not fully extend to symptoms, and gender has a role in the relationship between obesity and symptoms.

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A low-noise, wide-bandwidth DNA readout instrument for nanopore applications is presented. Owing to hardware simplicity and reliability, a resistive-feedback transimpedance amplifier (rf-TIA) is adopted as the headstage for the readout instrument. However, to achieve a high gain and low input noise, its high feedback resistance induces a high parasitic capacitance, thus significantly limiting the 3 dB bandwidth. To drastically reduce the parasitic capacitance and widen the bandwidth, a novel rf-TIA architecture is fabricated that utilises a splitresistor technique for the high feedback resistor. This is demonstrated in a benchtop test employing an α-haemolysin nanopore.

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