Objective: The rapid spread of COVID-19 has overwhelmed healthcare systems across the world. During the early stage of the pandemic, frontline healthcare workers (FHWs) caring for patients at intensive care units (ICUs) faced extreme pressure and challenges. This qualitative study aimed to describe the different phases of psychological distress of FHWs during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design: Qualitative study.
Setting: The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, a designated hospital for patients with COVID-19 in central China.
Participants: Eight physicians and six nurses working in the ICU who provided direct patient care for COVID-19 patients.
Methods: A descriptive phenomenological study using thematic analysis was applied. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews over telephone or Wechat (a social platform in China) rather than face-to-face interviews were conducted due to quarantine. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim and then were analysed thematically.
Findings: A total of 14 interviews were conducted, and each interview lasted 20-60 min. Five thematic categories were identified, and the participants' psychological experiences were classified into five stages (1) the mobilisation period: a sense of responsibility with worries; (2) the preparation period: worries, fears and doubts about the epidemic; (3) the transitional period: complex and diverse psychological feelings; (4) the adaptation period: self-adjustment and help from external support and (5) the reflection period: a reflection on life and nature.
Conclusion: The study showed that the COVID-19 pandemic had significant psychological impacts on FHWs. Self-regulation and external support help FHWs to overcome challenges to a certain extent. More attention should be paid to the psychological wellbeing of ICU FHWs in COVID-19-designated hospitals.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049627 | DOI Listing |
Langmuir
January 2025
Research Center for Water Resources and Interface Science, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China.
The mechanism of the emulsion polymerization of styrene to polystyrene nanoparticles (PSNPs) remains a subject of debate. Herein, a series of reaction parameters with different surfactant concentrations, monomer contents, temperatures, and equilibration times were investigated to understand the formation mechanism of PSNPs, which demonstrate a correlation between the properties of PSNPs and the mesostructure of the premix. Cooling the model systems with self-emulsifying nanodroplets (SENDs) in the early reaction stages resulted in the hollow polystyrene spheres (H-PSSs), ruptured PSNPs, and dandelion-like PSNPs, further indicating that the oil nanodroplets are the key sites for the formation of PSNPs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnal Chem
January 2025
Research Unit of Environmental Toxicology, School of Public Health, China Medical University, Shenyang 110122, China.
Although cathepsin S is transported from the spleen to the liver, where it cleaves collagen XVIII to produce endostatin and plays a critical role in the onset of early liver fibrosis, the relationship between liver fibrosis and spleen function remains underexplored. Given the roles of phosphorylation in disease, understanding its regulatory mechanism in early liver fibrosis is crucial. Despite advances in mass spectrometry enhancing phosphoproteomics, its application is limited by small clinical samples and subtle protein changes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS Pathog
January 2025
Integrative Cell Biology Graduate Program, Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, Illinois, United States of America.
The early stages of HIV-1 infection include the trafficking of the viral core into the nucleus of infected cells. However, much remains to be understood about how HIV-1 accomplishes nuclear import and the consequences of the import pathways utilized on nuclear events. The host factor cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor 6 (CPSF6) assists HIV-1 nuclear localization and post-entry integration targeting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Sci (Weinh)
January 2025
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Precision Medical Diagnostics, Guangdong Engineering and Technology Research Center for Rapid Diagnostic Biosensors, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Single Cell Technology and Application, School of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510515, P. R. China.
Circular RNAs in extracellular vesicles (EV-circRNAs) are gaining recognition as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of gastric cancer (GC). Most current research is focused on identifying new biomarkers and their functional significance in disease regulation. However, the practical application of EV-circRNAs in the early diagnosis of GC is yet to be thoroughly explored due to the low accuracy of EV-circRNAs analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
School of Optometry and Vision Science, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Purpose: In this study, we investigated the performance of deep learning (DL) models to differentiate between normal and glaucomatous visual fields (VFs) and classify glaucoma from early to the advanced stage to observe if the DL model can stage glaucoma as Mills criteria using only the pattern deviation (PD) plots. The DL model results were compared with a machine learning (ML) classifier trained on conventional VF parameters.
Methods: A total of 265 PD plots and 265 numerical datasets of Humphrey 24-2 VF images were collected from 119 normal and 146 glaucomatous eyes to train the DL models to classify the images into four groups: normal, early glaucoma, moderate glaucoma, and advanced glaucoma.
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