Search Results (4)

Background: Spirituality and religious diversity are increasingly recognized as essential components of holistic nursing care in global healthcare systems. However, their integration into undergraduate nursing education remains heterogeneous and often insufficiently structured, creating a gap between professional values and students’ preparedness to address spiritual needs in culturally diverse clinical environments. This study aimed to explore nursing students’ perceptions, attitudes, and perceived competencies regarding spirituality, religion, and spiritual care. Methods: A descriptive exploratory survey was conducted on a sample of 69 third-year nursing students (69.6% female; majority aged ≤24 years) enrolled in two universities in Rome, Italy. Data were collected between May and July 2025 using the Nursing Care and Religious Diversity Scale (NCRDS), consisting of 31 items. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, internal reliability analyses, group comparisons, and multivariate regression models. Results: Students showed moderate levels of attention to patients’ spiritual needs (mean = 3.11, SD = 0.88) and integration of spirituality into care practice, while high importance was attributed to spiritual care skills. University education was perceived as only partially adequate. Multivariate analyses showed that students’ personal spirituality is positively associated with the assessment of spiritual needs and the perception of competence, while exposure to contexts characterized by greater religious diversity is associated with a lower perception of preparedness. Conclusions: The results highlight a discrepancy between professional values and perceived operational skills, suggesting the need to systematically integrate spirituality and religious diversity into nursing curricula. These findings highlight the need for a structured integration of spirituality and religious diversity into nursing curricula through targeted educational strategies in order to strengthen students’ competencies and promote truly holistic and person-centered care. Full article

Background/Objectives: Cervical facet joint syndrome (CFJS) is a frequent cause of neck pain and motor disability. Among the available therapies for CFJS, ultrasound (US)-guided injections are becoming more and more widespread, but the evidence about their accuracy and effectiveness is still debated in the scientific literature. The aim of this systematic review is to assess efficacy, accuracy and feasibility of US-guided cervical facet injections for the related chronic neck pain treatment. Methods: This review was conducted following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis 2020 (PRISMA) statement guidelines. The scientific articles were identified through the PubMed, Google Scholar and Cochrane Library databases. Qualitative assessment of the selected studies was carried out using the modified Oxford quality scoring system. Nine studies with a total of 958 patients were included in this review. The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration tool. The protocol was registered at PROSPERO 2024 (n°CRD42024512214). Results: The results of this review suggest that the US-guided cervical facet injection for CFJS treatment is an effective technique in terms of accuracy (using the lateral technique it ranges from 92% to 98%), and efficiency (it grants pain relief with a decrease in the procedure time and fewer needle passes in comparison with the X-ray-guided technique, which also involves radiation exposure). Conclusions: US-guided injections are a safe and effective method to treat this musculoskeletal disease, granting a high functional recovery and long-lasting pain relief, net of the used drugs. However, these procedures are strictly operator-dependent and require important training to acquire good expertise. Full article

Pollution in the Port of Gdynia can encompass various types of substances and contaminants that affect the quality of water and sediment in this region. Ships entering and leaving the port can release pollutants such as oil, fuel, waste, and chemicals into the water. Controlling and monitoring these pollutants is a crucial part of environmental stewardship. In recent years, uncrewed units have been increasingly in use for in situ water and sediment sampling. Boat-based water sampling crews face significant safety risks at sea. Eliminating the need for a boat-based sampling crew, uncrewed units allow sampling from locations that are difficult to access by traditional sampling methods. To validate the HydroDron-1 method, water samples and bottom sediments were collected from five basins in the Port of Gdynia using the HydroDron-1 method and accredited sampling methods. The values of measured parameters were similar for both methods. Using the HydroDron-1 method at the Port of Gdynia has the potential to improve safety while reducing sampling costs and increasing data collection. The project was implemented as part of the POLNOR 2019 Call program, announced by the National Center for Research and Development (NCRD): “Marine port surveillance and observation system using mobile unmanned research units” NOR/POLNOR/MPSS/0037/2019. Full article

Nonlinear coupled reaction–diffusion (NCRD) systems have played a crucial role in the emergence of spatiotemporal patterns across various scientific and engineering domains. The NCRD systems considered in this study encompass various models, such as linear, Gray–Scott, Brusselator, isothermal chemical, and Schnakenberg, with the aim of capturing the spatiotemporal patterns they generate. These models cover a diverse range of intricate spatiotemporal patterns found in nature, including spots, spot replication, stripes, hexagons, and more. A mixed-type modal discontinuous Galerkin approach is employed for solving one- and two-dimensional NCRD systems. This approach introduces a mathematical formulation to handle the occurrence of second-order derivatives in diffusion terms. For spatial discretization, hierarchical modal basis functions premised on orthogonal scaled Legendre polynomials are used. Moreover, a novel reaction term treatment is proposed for the NCRD systems, demonstrating an intrinsic feature of the new DG scheme and preventing erroneous solutions due to extremely nonlinear reaction terms. The proposed approach reduces the NCRD systems into a framework of ordinary differential equations in time, which are addressed by an explicit third-order TVD Runge–Kutta algorithm. The spatiotemporal patterns generated with the present approach are comparable to those found in the literature. This approach can readily be expanded to handle large multi-dimensional problems that appear as model equations in developed biological and chemical applications. Full article