Parents' Participation in Care during Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Stay in COVID-19 Era: An Observational Study.

Background: Parents play a crucial role in the care of infants during their stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Recent studies have reported a decrease in parental participation due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which has led to restricted access policies in hospitals. The aim of this study was to describe the barriers to good parental participation during their stay in the neonatal intensive care unit in the COVID-19 era.

Impact of a Medication Reconciliation Pharmacist Program on Appropriateness of Community-Acquired Pneumonia Treatment Durations at Hospital Discharge.

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship programs have made large efforts to minimize the inappropriate use of antibiotics. Implementation of these programs can be challenging, since many institutions have limited resources. Utilizing resources that already exist may be beneficial, including medication reconciliation pharmacist (MRP) programs.

Quality of Life of Pediatric Nurses During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Study.

Background: In a public health emergency, the psychological stress of nursing staff should be assessed, and nurses who cared for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients were constantly under pressure. Currently, frontline health care workers are experiencing mental health issues. The personal quality of life is directly related to the working environment, especially at this moment, when nursing could be a highly stressful and emotionally draining job.

Regional Citrate Anticoagulation and Systemic Anticoagulation during Pediatric Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy: A Systematic Literature Review.

Background: Clotting is a major drawback of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) performed on critically ill pediatric patients. Although anticoagulation is recommended to prevent clotting, limited results are available on the effect of each pharmacological strategy in reducing filter clotting in pediatric CRRT. This study defines which anticoagulation strategy, between regional citrate anticoagulation (RCA) and systemic anticoagulation with heparin, is safer and more efficient in reducing clotting, patient mortality, and treatment complications during pediatric CRRT.

Presenteeism levels among Italian nurses. A multicentric survey.

Background: Presenteeism represents the need to "get to work although we feel sick"; thus, affecting the quality of work, leading to errors or omissions, reducing productivity and increasing costs. Nurses are among the job categories with the highest degree of Presenteeism, which may negatively affect work quality.

Aims And Objectives: To assess the prevalence of Presenteeism among Italian nurses.

Variants at the ASIP locus contribute to coat color darkening in Nellore cattle.

Background: Nellore cattle (Bos indicus) are well-known for their adaptation to warm and humid environments. Hair length and coat color may impact heat tolerance. The Nellore breed has been strongly selected for white coat, but bulls generally exhibit darker hair ranging from light grey to black on the head, neck, hump, and knees.

Self-Reported Cultural Competence of Nurses Providing Nursing Care in Slovakia.

Purpose: The goals of this study were to determine and evaluate the perception of cultural competence of nurses in the Slovak healthcare system, identify factors that influence their perception, and ascertain opportunities to improve nurses' cultural competence.

Design: Cross-sectional nonexperimental study.

Methods: Nurses from Slovakia were surveyed in this cross-sectional study using the standardized Cultural Competency Assessment (CCA) questionnaire.

Italian Nurses' Attitudes Towards Neonatal Palliative Care: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

Purpose: Neonatal palliative care becomes an option for critically ill neonates when death is inevitable. Assessing nurses' attitudes towards, barriers to, and facilitators of neonatal palliative care is essential to delivering effective nursing care.

Methods: This study was conducted from January to September 2015 and involved Italian nurses employed in Level III neonatal intensive care units in 14 hospitals in northern, central, and southern Italy.

ABC Transporters Required for Hexose Uptake by Clostridium phytofermentans.

The mechanisms by which bacteria uptake solutes across the cell membrane broadly impact their cellular energetics. Here, we use functional genomic, genetic, and biophysical approaches to reveal how () , a model bacterium that ferments lignocellulosic biomass, uptakes plant hexoses using highly specific, nonredundant ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters. We analyze the transcription patterns of its 173 annotated sugar transporter genes to find those upregulated on specific carbon sources.

Attitudes Towards and Knowledge About Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Patients Among Italian Nurses: An Observational Study.

Purpose: To assess Italian nurses' knowledge and attitudes towards gay and lesbian sexual orientation and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patients, as there is currently no literature exploring the attitudes of nurses in Italy.

Methods: A multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted between May 2015 to January 2016, using a data collection tool composed of three validated questionnaires and a sociodemographic form.

Findings: Eight hundred twenty-four nurses filled out the questionnaire.

Pathological Gambling among Italian Nursing Students.

Purpose: To investigate the role of psychiatric dimensions, behavioral or substance addictions and demographical variables as determinants of pathological gambling among nursing students.

Design: Multicenter cross-sectional study.

Methods: From June to October 2015 a survey was carried out among Italian Nursing students.

Health literacy among caregivers of patients with heart failure: A multicentre cross-sectional survey.

Aims And Objectives: To assess the levels of health literacy of Italian caregivers of patients with heart failure.

Background: Health literacy is related to patients' health outcomes. Low health literacy has been found in older people with heart failure, and less is known on the health literacy of caregivers whose patients are suffering from heart failure.

The Experience of Family Caregivers of Patients With a Left Ventricular Assist Device: An Integrative Review.

Objective: The purpose of this review is to understand the experience of caregivers of patients with left ventricular assist device (LVAD) and to evaluate how health professionals can support them properly.

Background: Left ventricular assist device can improve quality of life, enhance functional status, and prolong survival in patients with advanced heart failure. Nonetheless, LVAD can adversely influence quality of life for their family caregivers.

Validation of the Italian version of the Stanford Presenteeism Scale in nurses.

Aims: To ascertain the validity and reliability of the Italian version of the Stanford Presenteeism Scale (SPS-6).

Background: Presenteeism has been associated with a work productivity reduction, a lower quality of work and an increased risk of developing health disorders. It is particularly high among nurses and needs valid tools to be assessed.

Cultural Competence Among Italian Nurses: A Multicentric Survey.

Purpose: To assess Italian nurses' cultural competence, as they are increasingly called upon to care for people of foreign origins.

Design: A cross-sectional, multicentric study.

Methods: From September 2013 to May 2014, a survey was carried out among Italian nurses.

On-chip copper-dielectric interference filters for manufacturing of ambient light and proximity CMOS sensors.

Filter technologies implemented on CMOS image sensors for spectrally selective applications often use a combination of on-chip organic resists and an external substrate with multilayer dielectric coatings. The photopic-like and near-infrared bandpass filtering functions respectively required by ambient light sensing and user proximity detection through time-of-flight can be fully integrated on chip with multilayer metal-dielectric filters. Copper, silicon nitride, and silicon oxide are the materials selected for a technological proof-of-concept on functional wafers, due to their immediate availability in front-end semiconductor fabs.

Thin film characterization for modeling and optimization of silver-dielectric color filters.

We investigate the most appropriate way to optically characterize the materials and predict the spectral responses of metal-dielectric filters in the visible range. Special attention is given to thin silver layers that have a major impact on the filter's spectral transmittance and reflectance. Two characterization approaches are compared, based either on single layers, or on multilayer stacks, in approaching the filter design.

Revealing the hidden functional diversity of an enzyme family.

Millions of protein database entries are not assigned reliable functions, preventing the full understanding of chemical diversity in living organisms. Here, we describe an integrated strategy for the discovery of various enzymatic activities catalyzed within protein families of unknown or little known function. This approach relies on the definition of a generic reaction conserved within the family, high-throughput enzymatic screening on representatives, structural and modeling investigations and analysis of genomic and metabolic context.

A novel acyl-CoA beta-transaminase characterized from a metagenome.

Background: Bacteria are key components in all ecosystems. However, our knowledge of bacterial metabolism is based solely on the study of cultivated organisms which represent just a tiny fraction of microbial diversity. To access new enzymatic reactions and new or alternative pathways, we investigated bacterial metabolism through analyses of uncultivated bacterial consortia.

Color filters including infrared cut-off integrated on CMOS image sensor.

A color image was taken with a CMOS image sensor without any infrared cut-off filter, using red, green and blue metal/dielectric filters arranged in Bayer pattern with 1.75 µm pixel pitch. The three colors were obtained by a thickness variation of only two layers in the 7-layer stack, with a technological process including four photolithography levels.

Distribution of adipose tissue: quantification and relationship with hepatic steatosis and vascular profiles of type 2 diabetic patients with metabolic syndrome.

Aim: As the distribution of fat is increasingly related to cardiovascular events, we examined whether or not abdominal-fat quantification using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) software is reliable, and whether or not it is related to clinical markers of fat distribution as well as to metabolic and vascular status.

Methods: We recorded the anthropometric measurements of 34 obese type 2 diabetic patients with metabolic syndrome. The patients were enrolled to evaluate their abdominal (visceral and subcutaneous) adipose tissue by single-slice L3-L4 MRI.

The essential oil of bergamot enhances the levels of amino acid neurotransmitters in the hippocampus of rat: implication of monoterpene hydrocarbons.

The effects of bergamot essential oil (BEO) on the release of amino acid neurotransmitters in rat hippocampus have been studied by in vivo microdialysis and by in vitro superfusion of isolated nerve terminals. Intraperitoneal administration of BEO (100microl/kg) significantly elevated the extracellular concentration of aspartate, glycine and taurine in a Ca(2+)-dependent manner. A dose-relation study generated a bell-shaped curve.

[Use of tobacco cessation tools for pregnant women or couples attending pre-birth counseling sessions].

Several tools have been helped to patients cease smoking. Many are poorly known and thus used little. In the context of pregnancy, midwives conducting pre-birth counseling sessions can help pregnant women and their partners stop smoking.