DETERMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEALTH TECHNICIAN STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND INTOLERANCE OF UNCERTAINTY WITH DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND STRESS LEVELS.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to identify the relationship between the attitudes of health technician students towards COVID-19 and their intolerance to uncertainty with depression, anxiety, and stress. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted with health technician students at two public universities in western Turkey. Data were collected from January 29 to April 5, 2021. In this study, The Descriptive Data Form; Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21; The Health Education Students' Attitude Scale towards the COVID-19 outbreak, and the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12 were used. The electronic versions of the questionnaires were shared with students in WhatsApp groups. RESULTS: A total of 1132 students participated in the study and 23.2% of the students had mild, 21.6% moderate, and 2.8% severe depression. Additionally, 9.4% of the students had mild, 16.3% moderate, and 5.1% severe anxiety. Furthermore, 12.5% of the participants had mild and 5.5% had moderate stress. Smoking, prospective and inhibitory anxiety, negative perception of the state's efforts to prevent the outbreak, anxiety about the virus, and belief of intentional spread significantly affected depression, anxiety, and stress levels (p<0.05). Furthermore, the place of residence and the presence of acquaintances infected with COVID-19 significantly affected anxiety levels (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: It may be beneficial to develop online psychoeducation and psychotherapy programs and to direct young people to these platforms during the social isolation process of COVID-19. Training in virus protection is also strongly recommended.

An evaluation of the effectiveness of dental health training administered at a health services school.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and behaviour of health technician students to determine their oral health (OH) status, and to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured education administered for increasing OH awareness. METHODS: Interventional research was performed between December 2018 and March 2019 on 445 Vocational School of Health Services students in … University. Questionnaires were conducted under observation. The first questionnaire (Q1) included socio-demographic characteristics, OH knowledge level, attitudes and behaviours. One month after the OH training was given to the students, the same questions in Q1 were asked again in the second questionnaire (Q2). Dental caries and Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S) status were determined by a dentist via a clinical oral examination. RESULTS: Of the 445 students, 416 (93.5%) participated in the study and completed the Q1 and Q2 questionnaires. A total of 277 (66.6%) students were female and 139 (33.4%) were male, with the age range being 17-33 years (average: 19.2 ± 1.86 years). Of the 416 students who answered the Q1 and Q2 questionnaires, 385 received oral examinations. While the Q1 knowledge score was 7.06 ± 2.08, the Q2 was found to be 12.36 ± 2.90 (P < .001). It was seen that 119 (30.9%) students who had poor OHI-S and 120 (31.2%), had a mean number of decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) value of 6 and above. It was found that the females had better OH values ​​than males (P < .001) and smokers had worse OH values overall (P < .016). CONCLUSION: It was observed that the health technician students had a low level of knowledge about OH before the training but after receiving the training, their knowledge, attitude and behaviour changed positively. SO WHAT?: It was concluded that the OH education given to students caused a positive change in their behaviour, attitude and knowledge.

The Transcription Factor Elf3 Is Essential for a Successful Mesenchymal to Epithelial Transition.

The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET) are two critical biological processes that are involved in both physiological events such as embryogenesis and development and also pathological events such as tumorigenesis. They present with dramatic changes in cellular morphology and gene expression exhibiting acute changes in E-cadherin expression. Despite the comprehensive understanding of EMT, the regulation of MET is far from being understood. To find novel regulators of MET, we hypothesized that such factors would correlate with Cdh1 expression. Bioinformatics examination of several expression profiles suggested Elf3 as a strong candidate. Depletion of Elf3 at the onset of MET severely impaired the progression to the epithelial state. This MET defect was explained, in part, by the absence of E-cadherin at the plasma membrane. Moreover, during MET, ELF3 interacts with the Grhl3 promoter and activates its expression. Our findings present novel insights into the regulation of MET and reveal ELF3 as an indispensable guardian of the epithelial state. A better understanding of MET will, eventually, lead to better management of metastatic cancers.

Selenium alters the lipid content and protein profile of rat heart: an FTIR microspectroscopic study.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in Western countries. In addition, it is well documented that selenium (Se) deficiency has been linked to cardiovascular diseases. This study was undertaken to present the effect of sodium selenite on left and right myocardia, and small veins of normal control rat heart at molecular level by using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy. The results mainly reveal that, Se treatment causes an increase in lipid content both in the saturated and unsaturated lipids, and an alteration in protein profile with a decrease in alpha-helix and an increase in beta-sheet structure of the rat heart which might be reflecting a slight subtoxic effect of selenium supplementation on normal rat heart at the dose used in this study.

Early alterations in myocardia and vessels of the diabetic rat heart: an FTIR microspectroscopic study.

Diabetes mellitus is associated with a high incidence and poor prognosis of cardiovascular disease. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of relatively short-term (5 weeks) Type I diabetes on the left ventricle, the right ventricle and the vessel (vein) on the left ventricle of the myocardium at molecular level by FTIR (Fourier-transform infrared) microspectroscopy. The rats were categorized into two groups: control group (for the left ventricle myocardium, n=8; for the right ventricle myocardium, n=9; for the vein, n=9) and streptozotocin-induced diabetic group (for the left ventricle myocardium, n=7; for the right ventricle myocardium, n=9; for the vein, n=8). Two adjacent cross-sections of 9 microm thickness were taken from the ventricles of the hearts in two groups of rats by using a cryotome. The first sections were used for FTIR microspectroscopy measurements. The second serial sections were stained by haematoxylin/eosin for comparative purposes. Diabetes caused an increase in the content of lipids, an alteration in protein profile with a decrease in alpha-helix and an increase in beta-sheet structure as well as an increase in glycogen and glycolipid contents in both ventricles and the vein. Additionally, the collagen content was found to be increased in the vein of the diabetic group. The present study demonstrated that diabetes-induced alterations in the rat heart can be detected by correlating the IR spectral changes with biochemical profiles in detail. The present study for the first time demonstrated the diabetes-induced alterations at molecular level in both ventricle myocardia and the veins in relatively short-term diabetes.

Effect of stereotactic radiosurgery on lipids and proteins of normal and hypoperfused rat brain homogenates: a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy study.

PURPOSE: The effect of stereotactic radiosurgery on lipids and proteins of normal and hypoperfused rat brain was investigated to see if hypoxic areas are really more resistant to radiation effects or not. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rat brain samples from control, stereotactically irradiated and chronically hypoperfused plus stereotactically irradiated groups were homogenized separately with saline phosphate buffer, and centrifuged at 125,000 g for 15 min. Membrane rich parts (pellet) of these homogenates were used for Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy studies. Mann-Whitney U tests were performed on the groups, two by two, to test the significance of the differences between the control group and stereotactically irradiated group as well as the control group and chronically hypoperfused plus stereotactically irradiated group. RESULTS: After a single high dose of X-rays to healthy rat brain, the lipid concentration increased slightly, protein content decreased significantly (p < 0.05) and protein-to-lipid ratio decreased slightly. The secondary structure of the proteins was altered in the irradiated brain samples such that the content of a-helical structure decreased significantly (p < 0.01) and random coil increased dramatically (p < 0.05). The effect of radiation on the content of a-helical structure was not found to be significant in the hypoperfused group, but the decrease in the content of random coil was significant (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Stereotactic radiosurgery of the brain increased the lipid concentration, decreased the protein concentration and consequently resulted in a decrease in the protein to lipid ratio compared to un-irradiated brain. Radiation also altered the secondary structure of protein. The variations in lipid and protein content and the resulting lipid to protein ratio imply that chronically hypoperfused brain is more vulnerable to radiation than non-hypoperfused brain and suggests chronic hypoperfusion does not prevent cerebral damage caused by irradiation. However, irradiation of hypoperfused brain resulted in less alteration in protein structure than in non-hyperfused brain, suggesting higher resistance to irradiation using this endpoint.

Chronic hypoperfusion alters the content and structure of proteins and lipids of rat brain homogenates: a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy study.

Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), masses of abnormal blood vessels which grow in the brain, produce high flow shunts that steal blood from surrounding brain tissue, which is chronically hypoperfused. Hypoperfusion is a condition of inadequate tissue perfusion and oxygenation, resulting in abnormal tissue metabolism. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is used in this study to investigate the effect of hypoperfusion on homogenized rat brain samples at the molecular level. The results suggest that the lipid content increases, the protein content decreases, the lipid-to-protein ratio increases, and the state of order of the lipids increases in the hypoperfused brain samples. FTIR results also revealed that, owing to hypoperfusion, not only the protein synthesis but also the protein secondary structure profile is altered in favor of beta-sheets and random coils. These findings clearly demonstrate that, FTIR spectroscopy can be used to extract valuable information at the molecular level so as to have a better understanding of the effect of hypoperfusion on rat brain.

Competitive effect of vitamin D2 and Ca2+ on phospholipid model membranes: an FTIR study.

The interaction of Ca(2+), with dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) model membranes was studied in the presence and absence of vitamin D(2) by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Addition of vitamin D(2) and/or Ca(2+) into pure DPPC liposomes shifts the phase transition to higher temperature, orders and decreases the dynamics of the acyl chains in both phases and does not induce hydrogen bond formation in the interfacial region. Moreover, the dynamics of the head group of the phospholipid decreases in both phases. The addition of vitamin D(2) into DPPC liposomes containing Ca(2+), decreases the effect of Ca(2+) at all the functional groups under investigation. Similarly, the effect of vitamin D(2) also decreases in the presence of Ca(2+). This behavior is dominant at high Ca(2+) concentrations. Our results show how simultaneous presence of vitamin D(2) and Ca(2+) alter the behavior of each other, which is reflected as a decrease in the interactions between the ions and vitamin D(2) within the membrane.