examine whether these nurses are providing HF education in their daily practice. Methods: It’s a cross-sectional survey. A HF-self care knowledge survey tool was administered among nurses that are routinely providing care to HF patients. Five public urban hospitals of the territory were included in the study and sample was taken from intensive care units, medical and cardiology wards. T-test, ANOVA and linear regression were used. Results: A number of 123 registered nurses were included. The mean HF self-care knowledge score was 13.52/20 (SD 2.19) − 67.6%. Intensive care nurses scored significantly higher than floor nurses (14.19, SD 2.0) vs. (13.09, SD 2.13) respectively, t=2.89, p = 0.004]. Regression analysis yielded weak negative correlation between correct scoring and duration of nursing practice [r=-0.257, p = 0.005]. A percentage of 15.4 % participants reported that they are not educating their HF-patients claiming that education does not count as a routine practice of their working unit and that they lack time. Conclusions: The current study reveals that Cypriot cardiac nurses have weaknesses in the field of HF self care management; consequently they have limited ability to provide adequate education to their HF-patients. There is an absolute need for updating the current knowledge of nurses’ in order to offer HF oriented training and develop evidence-based education protocols.

The International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) is an online, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original articles in the field of integrated care on a continuous basis.IJIC has an Impact Factor of 5.120 (2020 JCR, received in June 2021)

Time-of-flight distributions of sputtered Au atoms have been measured under 4 ke V ${\mathrm{I}}^{+}$ and 8 keV ${\mathrm{I}}_{2}^{+}$ impact. The results show that a developing thermal spike contributes to the sputtering yield. It is higher under ${\mathrm{I}}_{2}^{+}$ bombardment but the measured temperature obtained from Maxwell-Boltzmann fits is lower, suggesting a lower effective surface binding energy ${U}_{0}$ for ${\mathrm{I}}_{2}^{+}$ bombardment. A correlation between spike temperatures and ${U}_{0}$ is discussed.

Si sputtering yields and Si to SiO2 etch rate ratios have been determined by measuring the depth of the etched craters after Ar+ ion bombardment. The experiments have been performed with energies down to 50 eV both with and without Cl2. Surprisingly high Si sputtering yields are obtained in a Cl2 environment by low-energy Ar+ ions. Hence, the influence of Cl2 on the Si sputtering mechanism is much larger for low ion energies than for high ion energies. Whereas the Si sputtering yield is enhanced by the presence of Cl2, the SiO2 sputtering yield is hardly affected. Therefore, large differences in the etch rate (high selectivities) between Si and SiO2 are obtained at low ion energies.

Recent experiments show that MeV ions passing through frozen gases cause an erosion that is at least one order of magnitude higher than predicted by classical theory. When frozen molecules of different atomic species are bombarded, mobile fragments and even new molecules as compared to the starting material have been observed within the target. Since a cascade of collisions resulting from single elastic collisions of the incident particles with target atoms account for only a very small fraction of the energy loss of MeV ions, the inelastic collisions are assumed to be exclusively responsible for the observed features [1,2].

It has been established that incident ionizing radiation on alkalihalides mainly activates the halogen sublattice. Potential energy, stored in localized excited states, formed by this radiation, can be converted into kinetic energy of F and H centers, leading to their separation along a closely packed direction of the crystal. This is known as the Pooley-Hersh mechanism of defect formation [1,2] with some further refinements [3]. It is believed that high mobility of the H-centre (in fact an interstitial halogen atom), which may easily migrate to the surface, is responsible for sputtering of alkali halides with photons or electrons.

TIBr is studied by photofragment spectroscopy in a wavelength range between 264 and 268 nm. The results are explained by a model with two curve crossings of intermediate coupling strength. The observed variation with wavelength of the branching fractions of product states permits the determination of the Landau-Zener parameter.

The emission of molecules during bombardment of several alkali halides with a 540 eV electron beam has been investigated. Using a time of flight method the energy distributions of the halogen molecules have been measured at various temperatures of the target. The relative halogen molecule to atom ratio has also been examined as a function of the target temperature. It has been found that the molecules were formed from the atoms at the alkali halide surface. This process and the subsequent desorption of the molecules account for the experimental results.

Accurate partial and integral cross sections for chemi-ionization have been calculated for a two-state model representing collisions between ground state K and I atoms from threshold to 6 eV relative energy using a coupled equations method. In addition, these quantities have been calculated in the Landau-Zener and Stueckelberg approximations. They furnish results for the charge transfer channel which agree with the accurate ones, down to the threshold energy, to within 7%. The integral cross sections for charge neutralization are obtained from the ionization cross sections by microscopic reversibility, and it diverges asE−1.

With a spectrophone vibrational relaxation times in CH 4 and in mixtures of CH 4 with rare gases were measured. Both the amplitude and the phase method were used. The two infrared active modes of CH 4 (ν 4 and ν 3 ) were investigated separately. The relaxation times, at one atmosphere, after exciting the lowest mode ν 4 , were found to be: τ (CH 4 -CH 4 ) = 1.65 μ s; τ (CH 4 -He) = 1.97 μ s; τ (CH 4 -Ne) = 8.6 μ s; τ (CH 4 -Ar) = 12 μ s and τ (CH 4 -Kr) ≈ 60 μ s. From these values one may in that vibrational-rotational (V-R) energy transfer is the dominant relaxation mechanics. By exciting the higher mode the first step in the deactivation of ν 3 was found to be a V-V transfer to the lowest modes ν 4 , ν 2 .