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Ergonomics in healthcare industry is still in its early stages. The role of healthcare personnel is to take care of population's health. This is why it is very important to care about healthcare personnel. First, this article is a presentation of a survey conducted in Slovakia. The survey focused on nurses working in inpatient departments. Therefore, the main objective was to verify the physical nursing workload and determine the most frequent musculoskeletal disorders of nurses. The survey was conducted by using the Nordic Questionnaire. The results of the survey confirm the most serious difficulties for nurses with a musculoskeletal apparatus. Moreover, the results also show pain-related dependence in one body part of a nursing professional depending on his or her profile. The second part of the article shows model situations that may occur in nursing work and the physical loading they impose on health of nursing professionals.

Higher education institutions are continually striving to make education relevant to the working environment students will encounter upon graduation. One of the tools for enhancing an institution’s quality and sufficiently informing students about their outcomes and learning opportunities is a quality assessment. Quality assessment is a long process which establishes measurable student learning outcomes, then analyses and interprets them. This enables students to receive feedback on their learning and helps them to improve their performance. The authors’ objective was to gather empirical data on students´ learning in order to improve the process of learning and to refine study programmes. A longitudinal study was used to observe students’ performance and outcomes from entrance exams to state exams. Statistical analysis revealed that there is a correlation between the results of the admission tests and the study results, especially the connection between the results of the entrance test and the chance of successful completion of studies. No statistically significant correlation was found between the overall results of military students’ studies. An interesting issue is a comparison between military and civilian students, as well as civilian students´ results. As a continuous process, assessment of students’ performance was observed up until the Final State Examination.

Musculoskeletal complaints represent a common occupational problem for health care workers throughout the world. This study provides shortened results of review by Nordic Questionnaire, which was modified for review reasons. The aim of the study is verification of work-related load Slovak and Polish nurses in their work and mutual comparison of the results. Comparison of statistical sample of Slovak nurses (468) and Polish nurses (48 for this moment) points to certain common features in the field of pain and the determination of their causes. Verification of the knowledge base of nurses in the field of ergonomics, principles of manipulation of load and kinestetika shows slightly better results for Polish nurses. The study will continue to compare larger statistical samples, identify the most common pains and their causes to the reason prevent them.

The article provides information about the dangerous logistic activities in a company, where a worker is exposed to an excessive load to the musculoskeletal system. It describes the dependence between the operator's load parameter during his control of a forklift and his subjective reaction to this load parameter in the form of strain. Evaluation of the operator's strain is based on the force that is exerted on the intervertebral segment L4 / L5 and the muscles in the spine. It also provides information about values of the operator's awkward postures, differing from the neutral working posture during a specific work activity that's hazardous. Subsequently, the article defines the optimal range of parameters for an operator, during his control of a forklift, within which he doesn’t get into non-physiological work postures associated with discomfort.

An extracellular alpha-d-galactosidase from Talaromyces flavus CCF 2686 with extremely broad and unusual acceptor specificity is produced exclusively in the presence of the specific inducer--6-deoxy-D-glucose (quinovose). The procedure for the preparation of this very expensive substance has been modified and optimized. Surprisingly, any of other common alpha-D-galactosidase inducers or substrates, e.g., D-galactose, melibiose and raffinose, did not stimulate its production. The crude alpha-D-galactosidase preparation was purified by anion-exchange chromatography and three isoenzymes with different substrate specificities were identified. The main isoenzyme (alphaGal1) was further purified by cation-exchange chromatography and fully characterized. When compared with other alpha-galactosidases and also with other isoenzymes produced by T. flavus, it showed a markedly different regioselectivity and also negligible hydrolytic activity towards melibiose. Moreover, it was active on polymeric substrates (locust bean gum, guar gum) and significantly inhibited by alpha-D-galactopyranosyl azide, D-galactose, D-xylose, melibiose, methyl alpha- and beta-D-galactopyranoside and lactose.