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Background: Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) are the most common healthcare-associated complications, particularly in elderly patients. The aim of this study is to describe the prevalence of HAIs and associated risk factors in the IRCCS INRCA of Ancona.Methods: A cross-sectional study has been carried out. Data has been collected in accordance with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Point Prevalence Survey 2022-2023 (PPS3) protocol in the IRCCS INRCA of Ancona in November 2022.Results: Out of the 128 patients included in our study, 75.0% were over 78 years old and 9.1% presented an active HAI on the day of the survey. The prevalence of HAIs varied based on the length of the hospital stay (OR 1.1, CI 95% 1.05 - 1.17, p < 0.001) and hospitalization > 7 days (OR 5.9, CI 95% 1.2 - 28.7, p = 0.02).Conclusion: It is clear from our findings that HAIs are associated with advanced patient age, prolonged hospital stay, and use of medical devices, especially in those patients that, due to their clinical situation, are more vulnerable. Although some of these infections can easily be treated, it is important to develop effective infection control strategies thanks to antimicrobial stewardship programs.

Neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs) pose a significant global health challenge, impacting millions with a gradual decline in neurons and cognitive abilities. Presently, available NDD therapies focus on symptom management rather than altering the disease trajectory. This underscores the critical necessity for groundbreaking treatments capable of addressing the root causes of neurodegeneration, offering both neuroprotection and neuro-restoration. This in-depth review delves into the forefront of emerging NDD therapies, encompassing gene therapy, stem cell therapy, immunotherapy, and neurotrophic factors. It sheds light on their potential advantages, hurdles, and recent advancements gleaned from both preclinical and clinical studies. Additionally, the document outlines existing NDD treatments, spanning pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, along with their inherent limitations. The overarching conclusion emphasizes the immense potential of emerging therapies in NDD treatment, yet underscores the imperative for continued research and optimization to ensure their safety, efficacy, and specificity.

Each individual has a unique way of learning which is based on personal background [1]. Neuro Linguistic Programming is an ideology of communicating with an individual. It can be applied in social relations like teaching fields [2]. Each medical student deals with a set of new information in his unique way. For example with regard to the following text on vacuum extraction, one learner focuses on definition, while the other focuses on spelling, and the third one just on shapes [3] (Figures 1-3).

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have uncovered thousands of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci that are associated with complex traits. However, the majority of GWAS discoveries are located in non-coding regions and the biological mechanisms behind these associations are not well understood. Transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) have gained popularity in recent years by generating biological interpretable discoveries and facilitating the identification of novel associations that have been missed by GWAS. TWAS has identified more than hundreds of susceptibility genes for many complex diseases and traits, including cancers. Here, in this review, we first summarize TWAS methods, then discuss the opportunities for cancer studies and finally review current challenges and future directions for this method.

Despite the fact, that lung cancer is more common among older smoking men, however it may also develop among young women without a smoking anamnesis. We report here a history of a non-smoking woman, 40 years old, with a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma at IV stage. Despite the fact, the woman received three lines of palliative chemotherapy, the disease progressed. After the sample of the tumor was tested by genetic approach, ROS1 mutation was detected, and the patient was treated with a ROS1 inhibitor, Crizotinib. Sharp improvement was observed already after the first week of treatment. After one-month adenocarcinoma shrink, and specific supraclavicular lymph nodes disappeared. Unfortunately, due to problems with financing the treatment was stopped, after what the disease began to progress rapidly, and the patient died after a month due to brain metastasis. This case is noteworthy also because the patient was first diagnosed a thrombophilia with thrombi present in deep calf veins, left heart ventricle and lungs Adenocarcinoma was discovered occasionally when during video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery biopsy specimen was taken from suspicious mass in the lower lobe of the right lung. This story reminds us that lung carcinoma may start with a paraneoplastic syndrome, like thrombophilia as in this case and finding of adenocarcinoma of the lung in young, non-smoking persons is indicative for possible ROS1 gene mutation. In such cases early treatment with ROS1 protein-tyrosine kinase inhibitors should be started as soon as possible.

Introduction: The incidence of STI-HIV/AIDS is on the rise, making adolescents a vulnerable group at risk. Objective: To increase the knowledge and perception of risk about STI-HIV/AIDS, through Educational Intervention in students of the Polytechnic Institute ¨Hermanos Gómez¨ of the Municipality San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque Province. Method: Quasi-experimental study, intervention at the ¨Hermanos Gómez Polytechnic Institute, of the Municipality of San José de la Lajas, through affective, participatory, animation and reflection techniques, the universe being made up of 17 students aged 16-17 years of specialty in Industrial Chemistry, during the period from December 2014 to November 2015. The variables used were: knowledge about STI-HIV/AIDS and perception of risk towards said diseases. Results: after the intervention, an increase in the level of knowledge of the main STIs in the study was evident: Syphilis, Condylomas, HIV/AIDS, Gonorrhea, Trichomonas, Candida Albicans and Herpes simplex, which were adequately identified by 60%; 71% recognized the routes of sexual transmission, 60% the typical clinical manifestations, an increase in the levels of knowledge about the use of condoms to prevent STIs, and in the same way the perception of risk in an 83% after the intervention. Conclusion: After the intervention, there was an increase in knowledge of STIs, transmission routes, clinical manifestations, condom use, and risk perception.

Background: Worldwide, studies show negative attitudes among medical students toward psychiatry and mental illness. The knowledge of the attitude and awareness of the undergraduate medical students toward mental health and psychiatric disorders are most important as they are going to be involved in the care of these patients either directly or indirectly during the years of their careers.Aim: To explore, the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of undergraduate medical students towards mentally ill Patients before their planned psychiatry rotation in the fourth year of undergraduate medical study, faculty of medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.Objectives: To assess mental health-related knowledge, attitudes and intended behavior of undergraduate medical students towards mentally ill patients.Subjects and methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study, conducted on 120 fourth-year undergraduate medical students affiliated with the faculty of medicine-Suez Canal University. A comprehensive sample was used to include all of the students in the fourth year of undergraduate medical study, and the study group participants completed a semi-structured questionnaire including four parts to assess their knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral responses towards individuals with mental illnesses. The data of the study was collected in September-October 2019.Results: Based on the participants’ scores, the cut-off points estimated to dichotomize the responses as poor or good, for mental health-related knowledge, belief towards mental illness and intended behavior were, 17, 55 and 8.5 respectively. This study showed that the study participants had marginally poor mental health-related knowledge with a median score of 17, poor beliefs about mental illness with a median score of 49.5 and poor intended behavior towards the mentally ill with a median score of 7. Conclusion: In this study, undergraduate medical students showed marginally poor mental health-related knowledge, poor stigmatizing beliefs, and behavior towards mentally ill patients. More controlled studies are needed to eliminate the inherent response biases in survey studies and to measure the outcomes of anti-stigma educational and curricular interventions. 

Earlier in our laboratory, the role of various individual sperm impairing microorganisms on sperm parameters and female infertility has been elucidated at higher doses. As, multiple bacterial species tend to exert more pathogenic effect in comparison to single organism hence, present study was carried out to evaluate that if consortia of these sperm impairing organisms can lead to infertility in female mice at sub fertility dose. For this, impact of individual bacterial strains of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and consortia of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae was examined on the motility, viability of mouse spermatozoa and fertility outcome. The results showed that the individual bacterial strains of E. coli, S. marcescens and K. pneumoniae could led to immobilization of spermatozoa by agglutination and P. aeruginosa led to immobilization of spermatozoa without agglutination. Also, all of them led to 100% sperm death in 45 min of incubation. In case of consortia of bacterial strains, the results showed sperm agglutination in all the cases and they were able to induce 100% sperm death at 30 min of incubation time. Further, in vivo studies were carried out to evaluate the impact of individual bacterial strains and consortia of bacterial strains on the fertility outcome in female Balb/c mice. For this, female mice were administered intravaginally with 101 cfu/20µl of individual bacterial strains or consortia of strains for 10 consecutive days or PBS. The results showed that both individual bacterial strains and consortia of bacterial strains were able to efficiently colonize the mouse vagina. Further, control group receiving phosphate buffer saline and groups receiving individual bacterial strains showed all the pregnancy related changes viz. abdominal distension, string of pearls on palpation as well as delivery of pups on completion of gestation period and delivery of pups. The histological examination of reproductive organs viz. uterus and ovary, of the female mice receiving PBS or individual bacterial strains showed the formation of corpus luteum in the ovary and the formation of decidua’s in the uterus, indicative of pregnancy. However, mice receiving consortia of bacterial strains did not show any pregnancy related changes throughout the experiment. Thus, these results indicate that the presence of consortia of sperm impairing microorganisms in vaginal milieu is efficient in provoking infertility even at subfertility doses.

Pre eclampsia and IUGR are important causes of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Pre eclampsia is a multisystem disorder, in normal pregnancies trophoblastic invasion transforms high resistance spiral arteries into low impedance uteroplacental circulation. This uteroplacental circulation remains incomplete in pre eclampsia and IUGR. This study is to correlate the Doppler Findings with the Fetal Outcome in pre eclampsia patiens, and helps decide appropriate time for delivery with least perinatal morbidity.

Introduction: Adolescents and young adults often engage in oral sex. However, the factors affecting the development of agreeing with oral sex are not clear enough.Objective: We aimed to assess the degree of agreement with oral sex among high school students and to search for background factors affecting this.Material and method: We conducted a quantitative cross-sectional study among 157 females and 38 male high school students over the age of eighteen by using an anonymous, paper-based, multiple-choice, self-administered questionnaire. For statistical analysis, we used descriptive statistics, two-sample t-tests, and Spearman rank correlation. Results: Of the respondents 67.9% were sexually active and 31.6% of them had more than one sexual partner. Of males 97.1% and of females 84.9% agreed with accepting oral sex. Degree of agreement with oral sex was higher in those who had had partnered sexual experience, and in those females who more frequently met close friends outside of school. Most participants were not in a current relationship with a partner, and for those who were, its duration did not affect the degree of accepting oral sex. The degree of agreement with the proficiency in male sexuality, and the degree of agreement with those dimensions of sexuality that most expressed the sexual drive and the desire to gratify it with the partner showed the strongest positive correlation with the degree of agreement with oral sex. In addition, the degree of agreement with the items of expressing sexual openness showed correlations with the degree of accepting oral sex. Conclusion: The degree of agreement with oral sex is high among high school students. Among the factors influencing this, the intensity of meeting friends seems to be important. We therefore recommend that the schools improve sex education in groups, highlighting the risks of oral sex, to reach the target individuals and their friends as well as their potential partners.