Difficulties and challenges experienced by nurses in eldercare institutions in Albania: A qualitative content analysis.

Introduction: The global and Albanian populations of elderly people are steadily increasing. It is estimated that the number of elderly adults requiring care in Albania will rise from 90.9 thousand to 130.

Regulation of Surfactant Protein Gene Expression by in NCl-H441 Cells.

is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that causes serious lung diseases in immunocompromised patients. The lung surfactant produced by alveolar type II and Clara cells in the lungs is an important line of defense against . The surfactant consists of phospholipids and surfactant proteins (SP-A, SP-B, SP-C and SP-D).

End of life care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study on the perspectives of nurses and nurse assistants.

Aim: To explore nurses' and nurse assistants' experiences of providing end-of-life care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria, Germany and Northern Italy.

Design: A qualitative explorative interview study.

Method: Data were collected between August and December 2020 and analysed using content analysis.

Facing the unknown COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study with nurses and nursing assistants in three European countries.

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is now a worldwide public health emergency. As essential and central parts of the COVID-19 patient care team, nurses and nurse assistants are facing all kinds of challenges caused by the disease and the pandemic. Understanding these challenges and the way nurses and nurse assistants handle and cope with them provides important knowledge on how to improve management of future pandemics and endemic situations.

Surfactant protein D inhibits growth, alters cell surface polysaccharide exposure and immune activation potential of .

Humoral immunity plays a defensive role against invading microbes. However, it has been largely overlooked with respect to , an airborne fungal pathogen. Previously, we have demonstrated that surfactant protein D (SP-D), a major humoral component in human lung-alveoli, recognizes conidial surface exposed melanin pigment.

Links between Virginity Beliefs, Negative Feelings after Virginity Loss and Sexual Performance Anxiety in a Sample of German-Speaking Heterosexual-Identified Women and Men.

Gender norms can influence women and men adopting different beliefs toward their own virginity. The current online cross-sectional questionnaire study was applied in a sample of German-speaking heterosexual-identified women ( = 536) and men ( = 181; = 23.6,  = 3.

Response of salivary biomarkers to an empathy triggering film sequence-a pilot study.

Empathy is a multifaceted phenomenon that is difficult to measure. Self-report questionnaires are the most common and well-validated measures while currently no validated protein biomarkers associated with the empathic reaction have been established. Trigger films have been previously used in psychological research to evoke emotions.

A Vignette Study Analyzing Contextual Factors that Influence Emerging Adults' Definitions of Virginity Loss in German-Speaking Countries.

Past research on virginity loss definitions revealed that emerging adults' definitions of virginity loss are associated with emerging adults' own sociodemographic characteristics. However, previous research has not systematically studied whether emerging adults applied different criteria for virginity loss depending on the context of the judged behavior. The current study used vignettes to explore which contextual factors of an intimate partnered behavior influence emerging adults' definition of virginity loss.

Evaluation of Stable LifeAct-mRuby2- and LAMP1-NeonGreen Expressing A549 Cell Lines for Investigation of Interaction with Pulmonary Cells.

Inhaled spores can be internalized by alveolar type II cells. Cell lines stably expressing fluorescently labeled components of endocytic pathway enable investigations of intracellular organization during conidia internalization and measurement of the process kinetics. The goal of this report was to evaluate the methodological appliance of cell lines for studying fungal conidia internalization.

Migrating Lung Monocytes Internalize and Inhibit Growth of Conidia.

Monocytes are important players to combat the ubiquitously present fungus Recruitment of monocytes to sites of fungal infection has been shown in vivo. Upon exposure to in vitro, purified murine and human blood monocytes secrete inflammatory cytokines and fungicidal mediators. Mononuclear tissue phagocytes are phenotypically and functionally different from those circulating in the blood and their role in antifungal defenses is much less understood.

Midwives Perceiving and Dealing With Violence Against Women: Is It Mostly About Midwives Actively Protecting Women? A Modified Grounded Theory Study.

Violence against women (VAW) affects pregnancy, birthing, and puerperium. In this sense, domestic violence (DV) or intimate partner violence (IPV) may increase during pregnancy, sexual child abuse may affect the birthing process, and obstetric violence may occur during birthing. Thus, consideration of violence during pregnancy and puerperium is essential to providing optimal care for women.

Stimulation of surfactant exocytosis in primary alveolar type II cells by A. fumigatus.

Aspergillus fumigatus is an opportunistic fungal pathogen with small airborne spores (conidia) that may escape clearance by upper airways and directly impact the alveolar epithelium. Consequently, innate alveolar defense mechanisms are being activated, including professional phagocytosis by alveolar macrophages, recruitment of circulating neutrophils and probably enhanced secretion of pulmonary surfactant by the alveolar type II (AT II) cells. However, no data are available in support of the latter hypothesis.

Distraction-focused interventions on examination stress in nursing students: Effects on psychological stress and biomarker levels. A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Nursing students all over the world experience high levels of stress with negative impacts on their health, emotional state and performance.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effects of distraction-focused interventions on examination stress and anxiety in nursing students.

Methods: A randomized controlled, parallel trial design was conducted from January to June 2016.

In vitro coagulation triggers anti-Aspergillus fumigatus neutrophil response.

Aim: To explore Aspergillus interactions with platelets in the blood, especially during clot formation.

Materials & Methods: Aspergillus fumigatus resting or swollen conidia, germlings or hyphae were inoculated into blood sampled into tubes with or without anticoagulant. Interactions were explored using microscopy, and chemokine levels were determined.

Promoting gender in medical and allied health professions education: Influence on students' gender awareness.

In this study, we explored whether attendance at lectures on Gender Medicine, students' gender or university affiliation influenced students' gender awareness in medicine. We recruited 483 students (352 women/131 men) of medicine, allied health profession with focus on patient contact and allied health profession students with focus on laboratory work. Students with focus on laboratory work profited the most from Gender Medicine lectures as their gender sensitivity was positively associated with lecture attendance.

Comparison of different blood compartments for the detection of circulating DNA using a rat model of Pneumocystis pneumonia.

Pneumocystis is mostly found in the alveolar spaces, but circulation of viable organisms also occurs and suggests that the detection of DNA in blood could be used as a noninvasive procedure to improve the diagnosis of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PcP). In order to determine the optimal compartment for Pneumocystis DNA detection, we used a rat model of PcP and tested the presence of Pneumocystis with a quantitative mtLSU targeting real-time PCR in four blood compartments: whole blood, clot, serum and Platelet-Rich-Plasma (PRP). All samples from 4 Pneumocystis-free control rats were negative.

Differential gene expression in Aspergillus fumigatus induced by human platelets in vitro.

Invasive aspergillosis is characterized by vascular invasion and thrombosis. In order to determine the antifungal activity of human platelets, hyphal elongation and metabolic activity of a clinical A. fumigatus isolate were measured.

Interference of mobile phones and digitally enhanced cordless telecommunications mobile phones in renal scintigraphy.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess the potential negative impact of cellular phones and digitally enhanced cordless telecommunication (DECT) devices on the quality of static and dynamic scintigraphy to avoid repeated testing in infant and teenage patients to protect them from unnecessary radiation exposure.

Methods: The assessment was conducted by performing phantom measurements under real conditions. A functional renal-phantom acting as a pair of kidneys in dynamic scans was created.

Rhizopus oryzae hyphae are damaged by human natural killer (NK) cells, but suppress NK cell mediated immunity.

Mucormycosis has a high mortality and is increasingly diagnosed in hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients. In this setting, there is a growing interest to restore host defense to combat infections by adoptively transferring donor-derived immunocompetent cells. Natural killer (NK) cells exhibit antitumor and antiinfective activity, but the interaction with Mucormycetes is unknown.

Interaction of platelets and anidulafungin against Aspergillus fumigatus.

The combination of platelets and anidulafungin at 0.03 μg/ml significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the germination rate and hyphal elongation in Aspergillus fumigatus compared to those with either anidulafungin only or an untreated control.

Microbial challenge tests on nonradioactive TiO2-based 68Ge/68Ga generator columns.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to test the survival of microorganisms in eluents used for (68)Ge/(68)Ga generators and for regeneration of nonradioactive (68)Ge/(68)Ga generator columns after high microbial load. Nonradioactive generator columns were loaded with various microorganisms and tested to determine whether the microorganisms were proliferating or surviving in eluates of the columns.

Materials And Methods: TiO(2) columns used in a commercially available (68)Ge/(68)Ga generators for absorption of (68)Ge were loaded with greater than 10(7) colony-forming units (CFU) of Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium sporogenes, Candida albicans, Helicobacter pylori, Aspergillus niger and Deinococcus radiodurans.

Characterization of the cellular immune responses to Rhizopus oryzae with potential impact on immunotherapeutic strategies in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Infections due to mucormycetes have a poor outcome, in particular in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). In order to evaluate the cellular host response against mucormycetes, we enriched and cultivated anti-Rhizopus oryzae T cells from healthy individuals. These cells were characterized as memory/effector T(H)1 cells, they proliferated upon restimulation, they exhibited cross-reactivity to some but not all Mucorales species tested, and they increased the activity of phagocytes.

Austrian clinical practice with anidulafungin in 2008: a multicenter survey.

Anidulafungin had demonstrated favorable efficacy versus fluconazole in a randomized trial on invasive Candida infections. Since patient characteristics in the post-approval use of antifungals likely deviate from clinical trials, we surveyed the use of anidulafungin in clinical routine. We performed a retrospective survey of the post-approval use of anidulafungin in 9 Austrian clinical centers.