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Background: Nurses are frequently involved in different types of patient handling activities in different departments of the hospitals. Mishandling the patients causes accumulative stress on their spine that results in occupational back pain (OBP), substantial morbidity, and incurred cost., Objectives: This study aimed to observe the influence of work-related safety and health guidelines on knowledge and prevalence of occupational back pain among rehabilitation nurses in Saudi Arabia., Methodology: This cohort study was conducted with the inclusion of a total of 116-registered rehabilitation nurses (97-female, 19-male, mean age = 39.6-years) from different regions of Saudi Arabia. After the invitation, these nurses attended an ergonomic workshop focusing on work-related safety and patient handling guidelines, risk assessment, and control of OBP. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge, risk, and prevalence of OBP at baseline and 6-months follow-up., Results: The perceived knowledge score significantly improved (95% CI; t = 4.691; p < 0.001; Cohen's d = 0.72) at 6-month follow-up (mean ± SD = 81.6 ± 18.2) from its baseline score (mean ± SD = 68.2 ± 19.2). Likewise, the prevalence score of OBP markedly reduced from 71.5% (baseline) to 65.0% (6-month follow-up)., Conclusion: The level of knowledge highly improved and the prevalence of OBP markedly reduced within a span of 6-month among rehabilitation nurses in Saudi Arabia after attending an ergonomic workshop. Importantly, the nurses learned and geared up themselves for practicing the safe patient handling guidelines to avoid occupational back pain in the future. Therefore, rehabilitation nurses should update their knowledge and awareness about occupational safety and health guidelines, risk assessments, and control of OBP at a regular interval for increasing the knowledge and reducing the prevalence of OBP among them.

Few data have been published on occupational disorders among sports instructors, especially regarding those who are expected to continuously practice while teaching. As the number of sports instructors increases, new specific information about their possible injuries, daily workload, and fitness levels is needed. The aim of this study was to assess occupational disorders, cardiorespiratory fitness, and daily workload of fitness (FI) and swimming instructors (SI). An online survey addressing occupational disorders was conducted among 435 instructors (256 FI and 179 SI). In one subgroup (57 FI and 42 SI), cardiorespiratory fitness levels were evaluated using maximal oxygen consumption ( V ∙ O 2max ) as an indicator. Daily workload was assessed by monitoring the heart rate and perception of exertion (using the Borg scale). Of the two groups, FI exhibited a higher 2-year prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries and SI experienced more upper respiratory tract infections. V ∙ O 2max ranged from 47.0 to 51.9 ml·kg -1 ·min -1 and was similar for both FI and SI. Regarding the daily workload, female SI had significantly higher mean heart rate and mean heart rate to maximal heart rate ratio compared to female FI, but no significant differences between male FI and SI were found. No significant differences were observed between the perceived exertion of FI and SI. Preventive strategies for the reduction of occupational disorders in FI and SI are needed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Merati, Bonato, Agnello, Grevers, Gunga, Mendt and Maggioni.)

The title alkali propano-ates poly[(μ 5 -propano-ato)alkali(I)], M + (C 2 H 5 COO) - , with alkali/ M + = Na + , K + , Rb + and Cs + , show close structural similarity, which is manifested by the coordination of the cations by six oxygen atoms in a chessboard motif, forming a bilayer. This bilayer is situated between hydro-phobic layers composed of dangling ethyl chains from the carboxyl-ate groups. Stacking of these two-dimensional sandwiches, which are parallel to (001), forms the title structures. Each metal cation is coordinated by six O atoms in the form of a distorted trigonal prism. One pair of these oxygen atoms belongs to a bridging, bidentately coordinating carboxyl-ate anion, while each of the other four oxygen atoms belongs to different carboxyl-ate groups, which are in a bridging monodentate mode. Despite the close similarity, each of the studied alkali propano-ates crystallizes in a different space group. The atoms are in general positions, except for the cation in K + (C 2 H 5 COO) - , which is situated on a mirror plane. Positional disorder of the methyl groups that are disordered over two positions is present in the Na + and K + propano-ates, in contrast to the Rb + and Cs + propano-ates. In the Na + compound, the occupational parameters of the disordered methyl groups are different compared to the K + compound where they are equal. This difference results in doubling of the a unit-cell parameter of the Na + compound with respect to that of the K + compound, otherwise the structures are homeotypic. In Cs + propano-ate, a disorder of the methyl H atoms is observed., (© Fábry and Samolová 2020.)

Caesium propano-ate monohydrate, Cs + ·C 3 H 5 O 2 - ·H 2 O, is composed of two symmetry-independent Cs + cations, which are situated on the special position 4 e of space group P 2 1 m , one symmetry-independent propano-ate mol-ecule in a general position and a pair of water mol-ecules also situated on special position 4 e . Two pairs of these symmetry-independent cations, four propano-ate mol-ecules and two pairs of symmetry-independent water mol-ecules form a repeat unit. These units form columns that are directed along the c axis and possess symmetry mm 2. There are four such columns passing through each unit cell. Each column is inter-connected to its neighbours by four bifurcated three-centred O w -H⋯O p (w = water, p = propano-ate) hydrogen bonds of moderate strength. There are also four intra-molecular O w -H⋯O p hydrogen bonds of moderate strength within each column. One Cs + cation is coordinated by six oxygen atoms (two water and four carboxyl-ate) in a trigonal-prismatic geometry, while the other Cs + cation is coordinated by four water and four carboxyl-ate O atoms in a tetra-gonal-prismatic arrangement., (© Samolová and Fábry 2020.)

The title compound, {[Ba 7 (C 3 H 5 O 2 ) 14 ]·0.946C 3 H 6 O 2 ·4H 2 O} n , is represented by a metal-organic framework structure that is held together by Ba-O-Ba bonds, as well as by O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds of moderate strength. The structure comprises of four independent Ba 2+ cations (one of which is situated on a twofold rotation axis), seven independent propionate and two independent water mol-ecules. The bond-valence sums of all the cations indicate a slight overbonding. There is also an occupationally, as well as a positionally disordered propionic acid mol-ecule present in the structure. Its occupation is slightly lower than the full occupation while the disordered mol-ecules occupy two positions related by a rotation about a twofold rotation axis. In addition, the methyl group in the symmetry-independent propionic acid mol-ecule is also disordered, and occupies two positions. Each propionic acid mol-ecule coordinates to just one cation from a pair of symmetry-equivalent Ba 2+ sites and is simultaneously bonded by an O-H⋯O propionate hydrogen bond. This means that on a microscopic scale, the coordination number of the corresponding Ba 2+ site is either 9 or 10. The methyl as well as hy-droxy hydrogen atoms of the disordered propionic acid mol-ecule were not determined., (© Samolová and Fábry 2020.)

Two-dimensional diffuse X-ray scattering from an organic salt [N-(3-(2,6-dimethylanilino)-1-methylbut-2-enylidene)-2,6-dimethylanilinium chloride, C21H27N2(+)Cl(-)] was interpreted with the help of an analytical model of diffuse scattering. An analysis of the relationship between symmetry and diffuse scattering for the studied system has been undertaken. The symmetry of the system explains the extinction pattern, taking the form of curves, on the diffuse scattering planes. We have also tested the relationship between the average structure model and scattering intensities. Two models, differing in their representation of overlapping atoms, were used. In the case of diffuse scattering the difference between resulting intensities is immense, while for the Bragg intensities it is much smaller. This sensitivity of diffuse scattering could potentially be used to improve the description of the average structure.