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Four organic solid wastes (coffee grounds, ground nut shell, paper money sewage sludge and cork powder) have been investigated as bloating inducing agents in lightweight aggregate (LWA) manufacturing when mixed in small proportions (2.5 wt.%) with three types of clays. The pellets obtained were fired in a rotary kiln at the maximum feasible temperature for 4 min. A similar impact was observed both in the working conditions and in the properties of the LWAs, showing that the differences between said residues are not as decisive as those of the clays to which they are added. The organic wastes have played a crucial role in achieving reducing conditions inside the aggregate. Thus, their addition has led to substantial improvements both from an operational point of view, lowering the working temperature, and from a technological perspective, favoring bloating and the development of a highly porous and lightweight structure. Leachate studies have shown that the LWAs meet the regulatory limits. The outcomes of this investigation show that, in line with the precepts of the Circular Economy, the recovery of organic wastes of different nature can have a place in the production of environmentally friendly LWAs

This work was developed within the scope of project i3N (LA/P/0037/2020. I.P. N. F. Santos thanks i3N for the BPD Grant BPD/UI96/5177/2020. S. O. Pereira thanks i3N for the BPD Grant BPD/UI96/5808/2017. The authors also thank Jonas Deuermeier for the XPS measurements. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier Ltd Laser-induced graphene from paper (paper-LIG) was applied in non-enzymatic electrochemical sensing of uric acid (UA) in human urine. Paper-LIG was formed by CO2 laser modification of paper into a 3D graphene arrangement. Kinetic analysis of paper-LIG electrodes returned effective heterogeneous electron transfer standard rate constants of 1.4 × 10−3 cm s−1 and 7.8 × 10−4 cm s−1 for [Ru(NH3)6]2+/3+ and [Fe(CN)6]4−/3− redox probes, respectively. These electrodes were able to detect and quantify uric acid in PBS within the 10–300 μM range at pH between 5.6 and 7.4. At pH 7.4, a linear response (R2 = 0.999) from 10 to 250 μM was achieved, with a limit of detection of 3.97 μM and a sensitivity of 0.363 μA cm−2 μM−1. Paper-LIG electrodes denoted adequate selectivity in synthetic urine as well as in ascorbic acid (AA) and dopamine (DA)-containing electrolytes. Determination of urinary UA content in human samples returned a concentration of c.a. 1.8–1.9 mM, within the range for healthy individuals. Recoveries of samples spiked with 50 and 100 μM UA were 100.6% and 95.4%, respectively, with satisfactory reproducibility and stability. These cheap, lightweight, flexible, and eco-friendly paper-LIG biosensors for non-enzymatic quantification of UA in human urine pave the way to widespread application in the detection of other important biomarkers. publishersversion published

The current data on climate change and environmental degradation are dramatic. The consequences of these changes are already having a significant impact on people's health. Physicians - as advocates of the patients, but also as citizens - have an ethical obligation to be involved in efforts to stop these changes. The European Federation of Internal Medicine (EFIM) strongly encourages the Internal Medicine societies and internists across Europe to play an active role in matters related to climate change and environmental degradation. At a national level, this includes advocating the adoption of measures that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and environmental degradation and contributing to policy decisions related to these issues. At a hospital level and in clinical practice, supporting actions by the health sector to reduce its ecological footprint is vital. At the level of EFIM and its associated internal societies, promoting educational activities and developing a toolkit to prepare internists to better care for citizens who suffer from the consequences of climate change. In addition to advocating and implementing effective actions to reduce the ecological footprint of the health industry, recommending the introduction of these themes in scientific programs of Internal Medicine meetings and congresses and the pre- and postgraduate medical training. At a personal level, internists must be active agents in advocating sustainable practices for the environment, increasing the awareness of the community about the health risks of climate change and environmental degradation, and being role models in the adoption of environmentally friendly behaviour.

This updated report on image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) is part of a series of consensus-based white papers previously published by the American Society for Radiation Oncology addressing patient safety. Since the first white papers were published, IGRT technology and procedures have progressed significantly such that these procedures are now more commonly used. The use of IGRT has now extended beyond high-precision treatments, such as stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiation therapy, and into routine clinical practice for many treatment techniques and anatomic sites. Therefore, quality and patient safety considerations for these techniques remain an important area of focus.The American Society for Radiation Oncology convened an interdisciplinary task force to assess the original IGRT white paper and update content where appropriate. Recommendations were created using a consensus-building methodology, and task force members indicated their level of agreement based on a 5-point Likert scale from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." A prespecified threshold of ≥75% of raters who selected "strongly agree" or "agree" indicated consensus.This IGRT white paper builds on the previous version and uses other guidance documents to primarily focus on processes related to quality and safety. IGRT requires an interdisciplinary team-based approach, staffed by appropriately trained specialists, as well as significant personnel resources, specialized technology, and implementation time. A thorough feasibility analysis of resources is required to achieve the clinical and technical goals and should be discussed with all personnel before undertaking new imaging techniques. A comprehensive quality-assurance program must be developed, using established guidance, to ensure IGRT is performed in a safe and effective manner. As IGRT technologies continue to improve or emerge, existing practice guidelines should be reviewed or updated regularly according to the latest American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group reports or guidelines. Patient safety in the application of IGRT is everyone's responsibility, and professional organizations, regulators, vendors, and end-users must demonstrate a clear commitment to working together to ensure the highest levels of safety.

This article is part of a series on methods for living guidelines, consolidating practical experiences from developing living guidelines. It focuses on methods for identification, selection, and prioritisation of clinical questions for a living approach to guideline development.Members of the Australian Living Evidence Consortium (ALEC), the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the US Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) Network, convened a working group. All members have expertise and practical experience in the development of living guidelines. We collated methods documents on prioritisation from each organisation's living guidelines, conducted interviews and held working group discussions. We consolidated these to form best-practice principles, which were then edited and agreed on by the working group members.We developed best-practice principles for 1) identification, 2) selection, and 3) prioritisation, of questions for a living approach to guideline development. Several different strategies for undertaking prioritising questions are explored.The paper provides guidance for prioritising questions in living guidelines. Subsequent papers in this series explore consumer involvement, search decisions, and methods decisions, that are appropriate for questions with different priority levels.

Flexible inkjet-printed antenna is presented. The proposed antenna is designed on a synthetic paper substrate with an area of 35 × 40 mm2 to provide frequency bands for many popular wireless applications. Simulation and measurement are used to study the performances, including the frequency bands, radiation patterns, peak gains and efficiency, of the antenna in two severely bending conditions with a curvature radius of 20 mm in the forward and backward directions. The antenna printed in photo papers material could not be fully flexible due to cracks introduced to the coating material on the surface of the photo paper. Hence, the resin coated material was only suitable for curved devices. The synthetic paper material used in this paper does not have a resin coating, therefore, the antenna does not lose its flexibility and can be bent in both the forward and backward directions without any cracks. Results show that bending in these two conditions has insignificant effects on the performances of the antenna. With a curvature radius of 20 mm in the forward direction, the measured peak gain and efficiency of the antenna are in the ranges from −3 to +2 dBi and 40% to 60%, respectively. The results together with the low cost make the antenna most suitable for many flexible 5G communications devices.

In recent years, many projects have been developed to reduce the energy consumption of buildings, both from the point of view of energy efficiency and the integration of renewable energies. However, few projects are related to the problem of integrating DER in environments dominated by high-tech equipment, the so-called ”critical loads”: data centers, railroad stations, airports, and hospitals. The European Interreg Sudoe IMPROVEMENT project aim is to renovate existing public buildings where critical loads predominate, converting them into nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB), and for this purpose, it integrates combined cooling, heat, and power (CCHP) microgrid with renewable and other distributed energy resources (DER) like hybrid energy storage systems (ESS). With still one year to go before the end of the project, the consortium partners present in this position paper the latest progress of their respective work packages to date. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The use of administrative databases and clinical registries in lower extremity arthroplasty research is growing. Such observational studies are unable to fully control for confounders and cannot establish causality. However, many authors use causal language when describing their aims or findings, potentially misleading readers. We examined the prevalence of causal language and inferences in the lower extremity arthroplasty literature.We systematically identified administrative database and registry studies on hip and knee arthroplasty that were published in 4 orthopaedic journals in 2020. Papers were graded independently by two reviewers for the presence of causal language in both the title and abstract as well as the full text. Chi-squared analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between the causality grading and article characteristics including the journal of publication.Of 116 eligible articles, we classified 79.3% of titles and abstracts as either consistently causal or inconsistently causal, with only 20.7% as consistently non-causal. A total of 40.5% of full texts were consistently causal, 49.1% were inconsistent, and 10.3% were consistently non-causal. Chi-squared analyses revealed no statistically significant association between the title and abstract's grading and the journal (p = .720), nor with the use of a database or registry (p = .716).Causal language and inferences were present in 79.3% of titles and abstracts of lower extremity arthroplasty observational database studies published in 2020. The high prevalence of causal language and inferences in the arthroplasty literature may mislead readers.

Producing living guidelines requires making important decisions about methods for evidence identification, appraisal and integration to allow the living mode to function. Clarifying what these decisions are and the trade-offs between options is necessary. This paper provides Living Guideline developers with a framework to enable them to choose the most suitable model for their living guideline topic, question or context.We developed this guidance through an iterative process informed by interviews, feedback and a consensus process with an international group of Living Guideline developers.Several key decisions need to be made both before commencing and throughout the continual process of Living Guideline development and maintenance. These include deciding what approach is taken to the systematic review process; decisions about methods to be applied for the evidence appraisal process, including the use of unpublished data; and selection of "triggers" to incorporate new studies into Living Guideline recommendations. In each case, there are multiple options and trade-offs.We identify trade-offs and important decisions to be considered throughout the Living Guideline development process. The most appropriate, and most sustainable, mode of development and updating will be dependent on the choices made in each of these areas.

To describe and reflect on the consumer engagement approaches used in five living guidelines from the perspectives of consumers (i.e., patients, carers, the public and their representatives) and guideline developers.In a descriptive report, we used a template to capture engagement approaches and the experiences of consumers and guideline developers in living guidelines in Australia and the UK. Responses were summarised using descriptive synthesis.One guideline used a Consumer Panel, three included two to three consumers in the guideline development group and one did both. Much of our experience was common to all guidelines (e.g., consumers felt welcome but that their role initially lacked clarity). We identified six challenges and opportunities specific to living guidelines: managing the flow of work; managing engagement in online environments; managing membership of the panel; facilitating more flexibility, variety and depth in engagement; recruiting for specific skills - although these can be built over time; developing living processes to improve and adapt consumer engagement together.Consumer engagement in living guidelines should follow established principles of consumer engagement in guidelines. Conceiving the engagement as living, underpinned by a living process evaluation, allows the approach to be developed with consumers over time.

Background: Along with demographic changes, a larger number of older adults may encounter health risks related to overweight and obesity. According to the obesity paradox, it is still uncertain whether nutritional interventions aiming at weight loss in older adults has favorable or adverse effects on health.Aims: We aim to propose an approach that can be applied in community health care settings for identifying overnutrition among older adults with overweight or obesity in order to find those who may benefit from a nutritional intervention aimed at controlling body weight and maintaining or increasing physical function and quality of life. A second aim is to substantiate the proposed approach with results from the scientific literature on nutritional interventions.Methods: The approach was developed in a stepwise, followed by a narrative literature review.Results: The approach proposed for risk screening of older adults includes BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2, minimum one physical function criterion (muscle strength or physical performance) or one metabolic criterion (presence of non-communicable disease (NCDs)). Appropriate criteria, assessment tools and cut-off values adapted to older adults in community care settings are proposed for both. A total of 10 intervention studies (13 papers) identified in the narrative literature search supports that nutritional interventions including exercise are effective for older adults with overnutrition (BMI ≥ 25) and concurrently low physical function and/or NCDs.Conclusion: An approach was proposed including screening for BMI ≥ 25, functional and NCD criterion. The approach confirmed by a narrative literature review, revealed a high heterogeneity of nutritional intervention studies in overweight and obese adults in community health care settings.

Recently, cellulose paper based triboelectric nanogenerators (CPTENGs) has gained widely attention due to the development of wearable, green and miniaturized electronic products. Modification of cellulose fibers or paper is a feasible method to improve the output performance of CPTENGs, however, the simple and effective routes to improve the triboelectric property of cellulose paper still remain a challenge. Herein, we report a simple method to prepare PEO/cellulose composite paper (PEO/CCP) via mixing polyethylene oxide (PEO) with cationic cellulose fibers. Benefiting from amino groups and PEO, the composite paper exhibits higher triboelectric positive property and triboelectric charge density, thereby endowing PEO/CCP based TENG with outstanding output performance. The voltage, current and power density peak values of PEO/CCP based TENG exhibited linear relationship with amino groups content; in this instance, the performance of the TENGs can be readily adjusted by the amino groups. The voltage, current and power density of PEO/CCP based TENG can be up to 222.1 V, 4.3 μA, and 217.3 mW•m

Developing a feasible and low-cost approach to fabricate recyclable, UV-shielding, biodegradable as well as water- and oil-resistant coating for paper substance is still a challenge. Herein, novel full-biobased chitosan-derived cardanol glycidyl ether (CS-xCGE, x = 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and 1) coatings with different contents of cardanol glycidyl ether (CGE) were developed for paper substance via the ethoxylation of cardanol and sequent addition with chitosan in a one-pot process. Benefiting from the hydrophobicity and ultraviolet resistance of CGE, the resultant CS-CGE (x = 1) coated paper exhibited not only remarkable oil resistance (kit rating value of 11/12), but also water resistance (Cobb 60 value of 5.78 g/m

There are many suggestions offered within the literature to decide if a job type is a profession, some using tick box type trait and characteristics analyses to compare the actions and qualities of individuals to a predefined list. However, there is no specific way to resolve what makes or defines a profession. Writers in many disciplines, including radiography, have used these different models, sometimes with conflicting results. This paper explores the use of Bourdieu's replacement of the concept of profession with that of a 'field', meaning a network of occupants with common attributes, in this case radiographers, in an attempt to resolve this issue.In the UK, radiography practitioners and professional bodies generally use the term profession to describe radiography, and this paper explores a defence of the term for radiography. Using Bourdieu's field theory not only helps define a profession, but also explains the difficulties at the boundaries of professions, and the work needed to protect a profession as a credible entity.This paper supports the argument that radiography is a profession when using Bourdieu's field theory. Radiography continues to work to maintain its status by increasing its symbolic capital by increasing the research output and evidence base of the profession and through role extension.Radiographers can perhaps be assured that radiography is a profession when using Bourdieu's field theory. This paper shows how theoretical frameworks and concepts from outside radiography can be used to support new ways of thinking within the profession.

In today’s era the content based video retrieval are major challengesdue to large storage, transmission, and downloading of videos. Video is retrieve based on visual content. Most of the researchers worked on low-level pixel content like shape, color and texture. In this paper, we review the content based video retrieval by using high-level features such as the spatio-temporal domain and review on the latest methods adopted by the researcher for video retrieval. The state-of-the-art of this paper mainly focuses on a review of video retrieval, its challenges, parameters consideration, and techniques that are to be incorporated.

Statement of problem Quick response (QR) codes are a fast and efficient technology for linking and accessing identifying information, and their use has been proposed in forensics. The heat resistance and esthetics of denture marking methods (DMMs) have been recommended by the American Dental Association (ADA), but studies on these aspects of printed QR codes are lacking. Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the optimal printed material with QR codes for implementation as a DMM adjusted to the recommendations of the ADA. Material and methods The behavior of 4 types of paper, bond paper, fiberglass filter paper, ultralong hydroxyapatite nanowire paper, and polyolefin and silica paper with printed QR codes was analyzed. They were exposed to temperatures between 100 °C and 1000 °C in a heat muffle for 1 hour. Each specimen was subjected to both a morphological and a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanned by using 3 different smartphones. Results The scans were positive for bond paper (33.3%), fiberglass fiber paper (50%), ultralong hydroxyapatite nanowire paper (100%), and polyolefin and silica paper (70.4%). The TGA revealed continuous decomposition curves (average 16.5 minutes at 624 °C). Conclusions Printed QR codes on ultralong hydroxyapatite nanowire paper appear to be suitable as information reservoirs, even surviving incineration, and may be implemented as a DMM conforming to the ADA recommendations.

Chronic pancreatitis is associated with impaired quality of life, high incidence of comorbidities, serious complications and mortality. Healthcare costs are exorbitant. Some medical societies have developed guidelines for treatment based on scientific evidence, but the gathered level of evidence for any individual topic is usually low and, therefore, recommendations tend to be vague or weak. In the present position papers on chronic pancreatitis from the Societat Catalana de Digestologia and the Societat Catalana de Pàncrees we aimed at providing defined position statements for the clinician based on updated review of published literature and on multidisciplinary expert agreement. The final goal is to propose the use of common terminology and rational diagnostic/therapeutic circuits based on current knowledge. To this end 51 sections related to chronic pancreatitis were reviewed by 21 specialists from 6 different fields to generate 88 statements altogether. Statements were designed to harmonize concepts or delineate recommendations. Part 2 of these paper series discuss topics on treatment and follow-up. The therapeutic approach should include assessment of etiological factors, clinical manifestations and complications. The complexity of these patients advocates for detailed evaluation in multidisciplinary committees where conservative, endoscopic, interventional radiology or surgical options are weighed. Specialized multidisciplinary units of Pancreatology should be constituted. Indications for surgery are refractory pain, local complications, and suspicion of malignancy. Enzyme replacement therapy is indicated if evidence of exocrine insufficiency or after pancreatic surgery. Response should be evaluated by nutritional parameters and assessment of symptoms. A follow-up program should be planned for every patient with chronic pancreatitis. © 2021 Elsevier España, S.L.U.

Objective The purpose of this study was to develop a natural language processing (NLP) pipeline to identify incidental thyroid nodules (ITNs) meeting criteria for sonographic follow-up and to assess both adherence rates to white paper recommendations and downstream outcomes related to these incidental findings. Methods 21583 non-contrast chest CT reports from 2017 and 2018 were retrospectively evaluated to identify reports which included either an explicit recommendation for thyroid ultrasound, a description of a nodule ≥ 1.5 cm, or description of a nodule with suspicious features. Reports from 2018 were used to train an NLP algorithm called fastText for automated identification of such reports. Algorithm performance was then evaluated on the 2017 reports. Next, any patient from 2017 with a report meeting criteria for ultrasound follow-up was further evaluated with manual chart review to determine follow-up adherence rates and nodule-related outcomes. Results NLP identified reports with ITNs meeting criteria for sonographic follow-up with an accuracy of 96.5% (95% CI 96.2-96.7) and sensitivity of 92.1% (95% CI 89.8-94.3). In 10006 chest CTs from 2017, ITN follow-up ultrasound was indicated according to white paper criteria in 81 patients (0.8%), explicitly recommended in 46.9% (38/81) of patients, and obtained in less than half of patients in which it was appropriately recommended (17/35, 48.6%). Discussion NLP accurately identified chest CT reports meeting criteria for ITN ultrasound follow-up. Radiologist adherence to white paper guidelines and subsequent referrer adherence to radiologist recommendations showed room for improvement.