Physical activity and health promotion for nursing staff in elderly care: a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Introduction Nursing staff is burdened by high workload and stress. Furthermore, heavy lifting, as well as transferring nursing home residents, cause lumbar tissue damage and back pain. Exercise intervention studies to reduce work-related problems are rare and the evidence for efficacy of studies among nurses is limited. Studies including targeted analysis of requirements are necessary to generate effective recommendations and tailored interventions for health promotion programmes. The purpose of this multicentred intervention study is to identify work-related problems, to implement health promotion programmes and to evaluate their effectiveness. Methods and analysis A randomised controlled trial will be conducted, including a total of 48 nursing home facilities in eight regions of Germany with an estimated sample size of 700 nurses. Standardised ergonomics and posture training (10 weeks, once a week for 20–30 min) and subsequently, back-fitness training (12 weeks, once a week for 45–60 min) will be administered. Following the implementation of standardised health promotion programmes, further demand-oriented interventions can be implemented. The perceived exposure to work-related demands, work-related pain in different parts of the body, health-related quality of life, perceived stress, work-related patterns of behaviour and experience, presentism behaviour, work environment as well as general needs and barriers to health promotion, will be assessed at baseline (pre-test), at 10 weeks (post-test, after ergonomics training), at 22 weeks (post-test, after back-fitness training) and at 34 weeks of the programme (follow-up). Ethics and dissemination The study was reviewed and approved by the local ethics committee of the University of Hamburg (AZ: 2018_168). The results of the study will be published in open-access and international journals. Furthermore, the results will be presented in the participating nursing homes and at national and international conferences

Genotype–phenotype associations within the Li-Fraumeni spectrum: a report from the German Registry

Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is a cancer predisposition syndrome caused by pathogenic TP53 variants. The condition represents one of the most relevant genetic causes of cancer in children and adults due to its frequency and high cancer risk. The term Li-Fraumeni spectrum reflects the evolving phenotypic variability of the condition. Within this spectrum, patients who meet specific LFS criteria are diagnosed with LFS, while patients who do not meet these criteria are diagnosed with attenuated LFS. To explore genotype–phenotype correlations we analyzed 141 individuals from 94 families with pathogenic TP53 variants registered in the German Cancer Predisposition Syndrome Registry. Twenty-one (22%) families had attenuated LFS and 73 (78%) families met the criteria of LFS. NULL variants occurred in 32 (44%) families with LFS and in two (9.5%) families with attenuated LFS (P value < 0.01). Kato partially functional variants were present in 10 out of 53 (19%) families without childhood cancer except adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) versus 0 out of 41 families with childhood cancer other than ACC alone (P value < 0.01). Our study suggests genotype–phenotype correlations encouraging further analyses. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13045-022-01332-1

The force of the sign. Terrorism as a symbolic phenomenon

Seit der radikalen Änderung der weltpolitischen Lage durch das Selbstmordattentat islamistischer Terroristen auf die Supermacht U.S.A. am 11.9.01 versucht die Weltöffentlichkeit, dem Phänomen des Terrorismus durch die verschiedensten Erklärungsstrategien Herr zu werden. Man führt den Kampf der Kulturen oder Religionen an, verweist auf die Ausbeutung der Peripherie des kapitalistischen Weltsystems durch den Hegemon U.S.A. oder pathologisiert bzw. dämonisiert die Taten der Terroristen. Uns scheinen diese Erklärungsstrategien den Machtkonstellationen der postmodernen Gesellschaften nicht gerecht zu werden, da sie ein zentrales soziales Phänomen der vergangenen Jahrzehnte nicht beachten: das Unbehagen an der pluralistischen Gesellschaft und der konsensuell-repräsentativen Demokratie. Um dieses Unbehagen angemessen beschreiben zu können, wollen wir uns ihm aus einer zeichentheoretischen Perspektive nähern, die soziale Formationen nicht durch (kooperative) Arbeit determiniert sieht, sondern durch die Instanz des Codes. Für Jean Baudrillard ist die Wahl des Ziels der beiden Türme bedeutend, die sich wechselseitig reflektieren und das System nach allen Seiten hin abschließen. Mit ihnen wurde das neuralgische Zentrum des Systems getroffen, das sich auf einem binären Code gründet. Die Twintowers bedeuteten nicht nur das Ende jedweder originalen Referenz, sondern auch den Abschluss des Bezeichneten durch die Wiederholung des Zeichens. Der Code führt eine symbolische Verteilung der gesellschaftlichen Körper durch und zielt auf eine möglichst genaue Übereinstimmung der Gemeinschaft mit sich selbst gemäß eines arithmetischen und geometrischen Kalküls. Die integrative Kraft dieses auf dem Identitätsprinzip basierenden Systems scheint immer häufiger nicht mehr in der Lage zu sein, das negative Potential antagonistischer Strategien binden zu können, die in Form von zivilem Ungehorsam, Politik von Minoritäten oder terroristischen Akten die symbolische Ordnung der westlichen Gesellschaften unterhöhlen. In diesem Tagungsband diskutieren wir das Ausmaß der Krise der konsensuellen Demokratie und ihrer Institutionen. Die Aufsätze behandeln folgende Themen: • Die Krise der pluralistischen Gesellschaft: Wie verständlich ist das kulturelle, politische und religiöse Unbehagen am westlichen Wertekanon? • Die Funktion der Medien in der konsensuellen Demokratie; die gesellschaftliche Wirkung der medialen Reproduktion terroristischer Akte; das Bild des Terrorismus in der Populärkultur • Ästhetischer Terror: Die Vernichtung von Sinn und Bedeutung in der zeitgenössischen Kunst und Kunsttheorie • Die politische Logik des Terrorismus (Ziele, Bedingungen u. Legitimität des Terrorismus in Abgrenzung zu alternativen politischen Ausdrucksformen wie z.B. dem zivilen Ungehorsam; die Bedeutung des terroristischen Opfertodes) • Geschichte des Terrorismus (speziell der Terrorismus der RAF) • Terror als irrationale Gewalt (der ontologische Status des Terrorismus)Since the radical changes in international politics caused by the suicide attacks on the USA by Islamic terrorists on the 11th of September in 2001, the world public tries to grasp the phenomenon of „Terrorism“ through different explanatory strategies. These include referring to the clash of cultures and of religions, to the exploitation of the periphery by the capitalist system incarnated by the USA, or pathologizing as well as demonizing the deeds of the terrorists. All these explanatory attempts do not seem to do justice to the actual constellations of power in postmodern societies, because they do not take a widespread social phenomenon of the past decades in consideration: the discomfort with the pluralistic society and with the concurrent-representative democracy. In order to describe this discomfort adequately we would like to approach the phenomenon from a semiotic perspective which does not consider social formations as determined by cooperative work but rather by the authority of the code. For Jean Baudrillard the target was meaningful since the two towers not only reflect each other but also completely close the system. With them the neuralgic center which is based upon the binary code was severely hit. The twin towers not only meant the end of every original reference but also the completion of the signified by the reduplication of the sign. The code conducts a symbolic distribution of the social bodies and aims at an as accurate as possible identification of the community with itself corresponding to an arithmetic and geometric calculus. The system which is based upon the principle of identity does not seem to have the ability to integrate antagonist energies properly. So these antagonist powers undermine the symbolic order of western societies in terms of civil disobedience, politics of minorities or terroristic acts. In this conference transcript we discuss the degree of crisis of consensual democracy and ist institutions. The essays cover the following topics: • The crisis of the pluralistic society: How comprehensible and justified is the cultural, political, and religious discomfort with western values? • The function of mass media in democratic systems: What is the impact of the reproduction of terrorist acts on society? How does popular culture deal with terrorism? • Aesthetic terror: the destruction of sense and meaning in contemporary arts and art theory • The political logic of terrorism (aims, legitimacy of terrorism as opposed to other forms of opposition like civil disobedience; the meaning of the terrorist self-sacrifice death) • History of terrorism (e.g. The German terrorism of the RAF) • Terrorism as an irrational power (ontological status of terrorism

The small pelagic fishery of the Pemba Channel, Tanzania: what we know and what we need to know for management under climate change

Small pelagic fish, including anchovies, sardines and sardinellas, mackerels, capelin, hilsa, sprats and herrings, are distributed widely, from the tropics to the far north Atlantic Ocean and to the southern oceans off Chile and South Africa. They are most abundant in the highly productive major eastern boundary upwelling systems and are characterised by significant natural variations in biomass. Overall, small pelagic fisheries represent about one third of global fish landings although a large proportion of the catch is processed into animal feeds. Nonetheless, in some developing countries in addition to their economic value, small pelagic fisheries also make an important contribution to human diets and the food security of many low-income households. Such is the case for many communities in the Zanzibar Archipelago and on mainland Tanzania in the Western Indian Ocean. Of great concern in this region, as elsewhere, is the potential impact of climate change on marine and coastal ecosystems in general, and on small pelagic fisheries in particular. This paper describes data and information available on Tanzania's small pelagic fisheries, including catch and effort, management protocols and socio-economic significance

Membrane inlet—ion mobility spectrometry with automatic spectra evaluation as online monitoring tool for the process control of microalgae cultivation

Abstract The cultivation of algae either in open raceway ponds or in closed bioreactors could allow the renewable production of biomass for food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, or chemical industries. Optimal cultivation conditions are however required to ensure that the production of these compounds is both efficient and economical. Therefore, high‐frequency analytical measurements are required to allow timely process control and to detect possible disturbances during algae growth. Such analytical methods are only available to a limited extent. Therefore, we introduced a method for monitoring algae release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the headspace above a bioreactor in real time. This method is based on ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) in combination with a membrane inlet (MI). The unique feature of IMS is that complete spectra are detected in real time instead of sum signals. These spectral patterns produced in the ion mobility spectrum were evaluated automatically via principal component analysis (PCA). The detected peak patterns are characteristic for the respective algae culture; allow the assignment of the individual growth phases and reflect the influence of experimental parameters. These results allow for the first time a continuous monitoring of the algae cultivation and thus an early detection of possible disturbances in the biotechnological process

Health Behavior and Cancer Prevention among Adults with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome and Relatives in Germany&mdash;A Cohort Description

Li-Fraumeni-syndrome (LFS) is a rare, highly penetrant cancer predisposition syndrome (CPS) caused by pathogenic variants (PVs) in TP53. Physical activity (PA) and a Mediterranean diet lead to cancer reduction or survival benefits and increased quality of life (QoL), but this is yet unstudied among LFS. TP53 PV carriers (PVC) and their relatives were questioned on dietary patterns (Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener), PA (Freiburg Questionnaire), QoL (Short-form-Health-Survey-12), smoking, alcohol consumption and perception of cancer risk in a German bi-centric study from March 2020&ndash;June 2021. The study enrolled 70 PVC and 43 relatives. Women compared to men (6.49 vs. 5.38, p = 0.005) and PVC to relatives (6.59 vs. 5.51; p = 0.006) showed a healthier diet, associated with participation in surveillance (p = 0.04) and education (diet p = 0.02 smoking p = 0.0003). Women smoked less (2.91 vs. 5.91 packyears; p = 0.03), psychological well-being was higher among men (SF-12: males 48.06 vs. females 41.94; p = 0.004). PVC rated their own cancer risk statistically higher than relatives (72% vs. 38%, p &lt; 0.001) however, cancer risk of the general population was rated lower (38% vs. 70%, p &lt; 0.001). A relative&rsquo;s cancer-related death increased the estimated personal cancer risk (p = 0.01). The possibilities of reducing cancer through self-determined health behavior among PVC and relatives has not yet been exhausted. Educating families with a CPS on cancer-preventive behavior requires further investigation with regard to acceptance and real-life implementation

Phototrophic growth of Arthrospira platensis in a respiration activity monitoring system for shake flasks (RAMOS)

Optimising illumination is essential for optimising the growth of phototrophic cells and their production of desired metabolites and/or biomass. This requires appropriate modulation of light and other key inputs and continuous online monitoring of their metabolic activities. Powerful non-invasive systems for cultivating heterotrophic organisms include shake flasks in online monitoring units, but they are rarely used for phototrophs because they lack the appropriate illumination design and necessary illuminatory power. This study presents the design and characterisation of a photosynthetic shake flask unit, illuminated from below by warm white light-emitting diodes with variable light intensities up to 2300 μmol m-2 s-1. The photosynthetic unit was successfully used, in combination with online monitoring of oxygen production, to cultivate Arthrospira platensis. In phototrophic growth under continuous light and a 16 h light/8 h dark cycle (light intensity: 180 μmol m-2 s-1), the oxygen transfer rate and biomass-related oxygen production were - 1.5 mmol L-1 h-1 and 0.18 mmol O2 gx-1 h-1, respectively. The maximum specific growth rate was 0.058 h-1, during the exponential growth phase, after which the biomass concentration reached 0.75 g L-1

Efficient Genetic Safety Switches for Future Application of iPSC-Derived Cell Transplants

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cell products hold great promise as a potential cell source in personalized medicine. As concerns about the potential risk of graft-related severe adverse events, such as tumor formation from residual pluripotent cells, currently restrict their applicability, we established an optimized tool for therapeutic intervention that allows drug-controlled, specific and selective ablation of either iPSCs or the whole graft through genetic safety switches. To identify the best working system, different tools for genetic iPSC modification, promoters to express safety switches and different safety switches were combined. Suicide effects were slightly stronger when the suicide gene was delivered through lentiviral (LV) vectors compared to integration into the AAVS1 locus through TALEN technology. An optimized HSV-thymidine kinase and the inducible Caspase 9 both mediated drug-induced, efficient in vitro elimination of transgene-positive iPSCs. Choice of promoter allowed selective elimination of distinct populations within the graft: the hOct4 short response element restricted transgene expression to iPSCs, while the CAGs promoter ubiquitously drove expression in iPSCs and their progeny. Remarkably, both safety switches were able to prevent in vivo teratoma development and even effectively eliminated established teratomas formed by LV CAGs-transgenic iPSCs. These optimized tools to increase safety provide an important step towards clinical application of iPSC-derived transplants

Glycoprotein N of Human Cytomegalovirus Protects the Virus from Neutralizing Antibodies

<div><p>Herpes viruses persist in the infected host and are transmitted between hosts in the presence of a fully functional humoral immune response, suggesting that they can evade neutralization by antiviral antibodies. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) encodes a number of polymorphic highly glycosylated virion glycoproteins (g), including the essential envelope glycoprotein, gN. We have tested the hypothesis that glycosylation of gN contributes to resistance of the virus to neutralizing antibodies. Recombinant viruses carrying deletions in serine/threonine rich sequences within the glycosylated surface domain of gN were constructed in the genetic background of HCMV strain AD169. The deletions had no influence on the formation of the gM/gN complex and <em>in vitro</em> replication of the respective viruses compared to the parent virus. The gN-truncated viruses were significantly more susceptible to neutralization by a gN-specific monoclonal antibody and in addition by a number of gB- and gH-specific monoclonal antibodies. Sera from individuals previously infected with HCMV also more efficiently neutralized gN-truncated viruses. Immunization of mice with viruses that expressed the truncated forms of gN resulted in significantly higher serum neutralizing antibody titers against the homologous strain that was accompanied by increased antibody titers against known neutralizing epitopes on gB and gH. Importantly, neutralization activity of sera from animals immunized with gN-truncated virus did not exhibit enhanced neutralizing activity against the parental wild type virus carrying the fully glycosylated wild type gN. Our results indicate that the extensive glycosylation of gN could represent a potentially important mechanism by which HCMV neutralization by a number of different antibody reactivities can be inhibited.</p> </div

Acceptance of a new non-invasive fetal monitoring system and attitude for telemedicine approaches in obstetrics: a case–control study

Purpose: Reduction of maternal morbidity and mortality is a major worldwide objective anchored in the millennium goals of the United Nations. To improve fetal and maternal care, a constant attempt to discover groundbreaking technologies is ongoing. One approach is the enhancement of non-invasive fetal ECG devices. Most importantly, acceptance of new technologies by pregnant women is a prerequisite for successful implementation. Methods: This questionnaire-based study conducted at the University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany between May and June 2017 evaluates pregnant women’s attitudes towards a new device for fetal ECG monitoring and its potential home usage. The study population was questioned after exposure to the Parides/Atlantis prototype (Nemo Healthcare, Veldhoven, The Netherlands), whereas the maternal and gestational age-matched control group was left to envision telemedical topics. Results: The prototype and its potential usage in a clinical and telemedical setting was highly accepted, and its comfort and appearance satisfied participants. Its use caused significantly improved telemedical understanding as envision increased (p = 0.0015). Implementation and integration of telemedical devices into antenatal care was significantly preferred by the study group (p = 0.0011), though participants desire more specific features for their personal use. Optional home-based self-monitoring to reduce scheduled doctoral visits (p = 0.0004) as well as self-assessment prior to self-initiated, unscheduled consultation (p < 0.0001) could be affected positively by such a device. Furthermore, it could reduce face-to-face interaction with the care provider (p = 0.0163). Conclusions: The positive feedback on remote self-monitoring might open options for a more “patient as partners” oriented prenatal care in the future. Safety and reliability remain a major issue. More comprehensive studies with new technologies are needed to diligently ensure quality of care. Finally, results for new technologies must be communicated to pregnant women for their acceptance and usage of new devices