[Pandemic and value change?].

Recent sociological diagnoses suggest that profound social crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic challenge our value orientations and could change them even in the relatively short term. Based on this observation, we investigate whether significant shifts in value priorities according to the Shalom Schwartz scale took place in Austria in the period May 2020 to March/April 2021. The first two waves of the Values in Crisis panel study serve as data material.

[Health services research project "action alliance pain-free city Münster" : Objectives and methods].

Inadequate pain care in health care facilities is still a major concern. Due to structural and organizational shortcomings the potential of modern analgesia is far from being exhausted. The project "Action Alliance Pain-free City Münster" is designed to analyze the multiprofessional pain management in health care facilities in the model City of Münster in an epidemiologic study and aims to optimize pain management in accordance with nursing standards and medical guidelines.

The erythrocyte receptor for the channel-forming toxin aerolysin is a novel glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein.

The plasma membrane of rat erythrocytes contains a 47-kDa glycoprotein that binds the channel-forming toxin aerolysin with high affinity and accounts for the sensitivity of these cells to the toxin. The receptor was purified so that its N-terminal sequence could be determined after Western blotting. The sequence did not match any sequences in the databases, indicating that the receptor is a novel erythrocyte surface protein.

Regression of heart muscle hypertrophy after nifedipine therapy: changes in cardiac gene expression.

Changes in cardiac gene expression were studied during development and regression of cardiac hypertrophy in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) in an attempt to determine some of the biochemical factors responsible for alterations in cardiac mass. Chronic nifedipine treatment of SHR (30 mg/kg per day for 20 weeks) led to a marked reduction in arterial blood pressure and to a subsequent regression of cardiac hypertrophy. Cardiac mRNA concentration decreased, whereas cardiac protein concentration remained unchanged.