Evaluation of a multi-component prevention concept for hazardous substance use among refugees in shared accommodations: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: Refugees are exposed to various risk factors in shared accommodations in Germany where they are housed after their arrival. Due to their often traumatic experiences before, during, and after their flight and socio-structural post-migration stressors, refugees are potentially vulnerable to hazardous substance use. They form a structurally disadvantaged group for substance use prevention and intervention.

Delayed Graft Function After Kidney Transplantation: The Role of Residual Diuresis and Waste Products, as Oxalic Acid and Its Precursors.

Delayed graft function (DGF) after kidney transplantation heralds a worse prognosis. In patients with hyperoxaluria, the incidence of DGF is high. Oxalic acid is a waste product that accumulates when kidney function decreases.

Professionals' Perspectives on Substance Use among Refugees in Shared Accommodations: A Qualitative Study.

Refugees are at a higher risk of hazardous substance use due to their traumatic experiences in their country of origin, their flight, and the difficult situation of arriving in the host country. The professionals interviewed in this study describe both the heightened vulnerability and the circumstances refugees live in after arriving in Germany. Evidence was collected by interviewing five professionals who work for and with refugees in the context of a qualitative study.

Assessment of campus community readiness for tailoring implementation of evidence-based online programs to prevent risky substance use among university students in Germany.

Research suggests that online interventions preventing risky substance use can improve student health. There is an increasing interest in transferring evidence-based online programs into university health promotion practice. However, little is known about how to best tailor the implementation process to capacities and context of individual universities.

Effects of a stand-alone web-based electronic screening and brief intervention targeting alcohol use in university students of legal drinking age: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Many intervention efforts targeting student drinking were developed to address US college students, which usually involves underage drinking. It remains unclear, if research evidence from these interventions is generalizable to university and college students of legal drinking age, e.g.

The impact of the donors' and recipients' medical complications on living kidney donors' mental health.

A minority of living kidney donors (between 5-25%) have poor psychological outcomes after donation. There is mixed evidence on the influence of medical complications on these outcomes. We examined whether medical complications among donors and recipients predicted changes in donors' mental health (psychological symptoms and well-being) between predonation and 1 year postdonation.

Predicting mental health after living kidney donation: The importance of psychological factors.

Objectives: Living donor kidney transplantation offers advantages to the patient, however involves risks to the donor. To optimize donors' mental health after donation, we studied the influence of psychological factors on this outcome. Potential predictors were based on models of Lazarus () and Ursin and Eriksen () that describe predictors of mental health mediated by stress.

A High Comorbidity Score Should Not be a Contraindication for Kidney Transplantation.

Background: Currently, potential kidney transplant patients more often suffer from comorbidities. The Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) was developed in 1987 and is the most used comorbidity score. We questioned to what extent number and severity of comorbidities interfere with graft and patient survival.

Alternative Living Kidney Donation Programs Boost Genetically Unrelated Donation.

Donor-recipient ABO and/or HLA incompatibility used to lead to donor decline. Development of alternative transplantation programs enabled transplantation of incompatible couples. How did that influence couple characteristics? Between 2000 and 2014, 1232 living donor transplantations have been performed.

Discrepancies between beliefs and behavior: a prospective study into immunosuppressive medication adherence after kidney transplantation.

Background: Nonadherence to immunosuppressive medication after kidney transplantation is a behavioral issue and as such it is important to understand the psychological factors that influence this behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which goal cognitions, illness perceptions, and treatment beliefs were related to changes in self-reported immunosuppressive medication adherence up to 18 months after transplantation.

Methods: Interviews were conducted with patients in the outpatient clinic 6 weeks (T1; n=113), 6 months (T2; n=106), and 18 months (T3; n=84) after transplantation.

Mental health among living kidney donors: a prospective comparison with matched controls from the general population.

The impact of living kidney donation on donors' mental health has not been sufficiently nor comprehensively studied. Earlier studies demonstrated that mental health did not change in the majority of donors, however they often lacked a suitable control group and/or had other methodological limitations. Consequently, it remains unclear whether changes in mental health found among a minority of donors reflect normal fluctuations.

Understanding the influence of ethnicity and socioeconomic factors on graft and patient survival after kidney transplantation.

Background: Studies on the influence of socioeconomic factors and ethnicity on the results of kidney transplantation have led to various outcomes. In this study, we analyzed the influence of a combination of these factors on graft and patient survival in a population of kidney transplant recipients.

Methods: This retrospective study included all 1,338 patients who received a kidney transplant between 2000 and 2011 (825 living, 513 deceased donor transplantations).

Attitudes to medication after kidney transplantation and their association with medication adherence and graft survival: a 2-year follow-up study.

Background. Nonadherence to medication is a common problem after kidney transplantation. The aim of this study was to explore attitudes towards medication, adherence, and the relationship with clinical outcomes.

Transplantation results of completely HLA-mismatched living and completely HLA-matched deceased-donor kidneys are comparable.

Background: Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatches are known to influence graft survival in deceased-donor kidney transplantation. We studied the effect of HLA mismatches in a population of recipients of deceased-donor or living-donor kidney transplantations.

Methods: All 1998 transplantations performed in our center between 1990 and 2011 were included in this retrospective cohort study.

The role of goal cognitions, illness perceptions and treatment beliefs in self-reported adherence after kidney transplantation: a cohort study.

Objective: Nonadherence to immunosuppressive medication (IM) after kidney transplantation is related to poorer patient and graft outcomes; therefore research into modifiable factors associated with nonadherence is a priority. In this prospective cohort study we investigated whether changes in goal cognitions, illness perceptions, and treatment beliefs were related to self-reported medication adherence six months after kidney transplantation.

Methods: Interviews were conducted with patients in the out-patient clinic six weeks (T1: n=113) and six months (T2: n=106) after transplantation.

The relative importance of donor age in deceased and living donor kidney transplantation.

In deceased donor kidney transplantation donor age is known to influence graft survival. The influence of living donor age on graft survival is questioned. We compared the influence of living and deceased donor age on the outcome of renal transplantation.

Accumulation of unfavorable clinical and socioeconomic factors precludes living donor kidney transplantation.

Background: In the past 30 years, the number of living donor kidney transplantations has increased considerably and nowadays outnumbers the deceased donor transplantations in our center. We investigated which socioeconomic and clinical factors influence who undergoes living or deceased donor kidney transplantation.

Methods: This retrospective study included all 1338 patients who received a kidney transplant between 2000 and 2011 in the Erasmus MC Rotterdam.

Repair of hydrolytic DNA deamination damage in thermophilic bacteria: cloning and characterization of a Vsr endonuclease homolog from Bacillus stearothermophilus.

Hydrolytic deamination of 5-methyl cytosine in double stranded DNA results in formation of a T/G mismatch that-if left unrepaired-leads to a C-->T transition mutation in half of the progeny. In addition to several mismatch-specific glycosylases that have been found in both pro- and eukaryotes to channel this lesion into base excision repair by removing the T from the mismatch, Vsr endonuclease from Escherichia coli has been described which initiates repair by an endonucleolytic strand incision 5' to the mismatched T. We have isolated a gene coding for a homolog of E.

Isolation of segments of homologous genes with only one conserved amino acid region via PCR.

We present a method which allows the isolation of fragments from genes coding for homologous proteins via PCR when only one block of conserved amino acids is available. Sets of degenerated primers are defined by reverse translation of the conserved amino acids such that each set contains not more than 128 different sequences. The second primer binding site is provided by a special cassette that is designed such that it does not allow binding of the second primer prior to being copied by DNA synthesis.