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First two decades of the twenty-first century are characterised by epidemics of non-communicable diseases such as many hundreds of millions of patients diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases and the type 2 diabetes mellitus, breast, lung, liver and prostate malignancies, neurological, sleep, mood and eye disorders, amongst others. Consequent socio-economic burden is tremendous. Unprecedented decrease in age of maladaptive individuals has been reported. The absolute majority of expanding non-communicable disorders carry a chronic character, over a couple of years progressing from reversible suboptimal health conditions to irreversible severe pathologies and cascading collateral complications. The time-frame between onset of SHS and clinical manifestation of associated disorders is the operational area for an application of reliable risk assessment tools and predictive diagnostics followed by the cost-effective targeted prevention and treatments tailored to the person.This article demonstrates advanced strategies in bio/medical sciences and healthcare focused on suboptimal health conditions in the frame-work of Predictive, Preventive and Personalised Medicine (3PM/PPPM). Potential benefits in healthcare systems and for society at large include but are not restricted to an improved life-quality of major populations and socio-economical groups, advanced professionalism of healthcare-givers and sustainable healthcare economy. Amongst others, following medical areas are proposed to strongly benefit from PPPM strategies applied to the identification and treatment of suboptimal health conditions:Stress overload associated pathologiesMale and female healthPlanned pregnanciesPeriodontal healthEye disordersInflammatory disorders, wound healing and pain management with associated complicationsMetabolic disorders and suboptimal body weightCardiovascular pathologiesCancersStroke, particularly of unknown aetiology and in young individualsSleep medicineSports medicineImproved individual outcomes under pandemic conditions such as COVID-19.

European pharmaceutical companies have a legal requirement to provide non-promotional Medical Information (MI) services to support healthcare professionals (HCPs) who are using their medicinal products. While the industry has self-regulating bodies with established Codes of Practice, these mainly focus on promotional messaging and commercial activities. In the absence of similar frameworks for MI, such services struggle to understand how to meet HCP digital expectations, often in fear of breaching the promotional codes. This is limiting access to the wealth of non-promotional patient-focussed information held within the industry. Meanwhile, a large volume of unregulated, low-quality information can be readily found on the internet. To understand the current status, the Medical Information Leaders in Europe (MILE) industry association performed a benchmarking survey which explored the online MI service provision of 13 mid-large pharmaceutical companies across Europe. This highlighted a great diversity in approach in terms of geographical coverage and content. Visibility and access for HCPs is complex, compromising online engagement and website utilisation. This MILE position paper highlights the critical need to establish a clear governance model, which empowers pharmaceutical company MI functions to provide unbranded, non-promotional, medicinal product information sources to support HCP online information needs. It is essential to build confidence, transparency and trust by establishing a practical quality framework with principles and standards for online MI services for HCPs.

With the increasing decline in the environment and natural resources it is important to find new ways in which manufacturing can increase the sustainability of the world. This study seeks to compare LimeX, a state-of-the-art paper and plastic alternative primarily made of limestone, with conventional paper and plastic materials. For a better understanding of LimeX as a material, a brief investigation of the mechanical and chemical properties will be performed through experimentation and analysis. In addition, this paper aims to evaluate the sustainability of LimeX through the analysis of metrics relating to the triple bottom line (environmental impacts, economic impacts and societal impacts) to evaluate and compare the sustainability performance of LimeX products with conventional paper and plastic products. The previously developed Product Sustainability Index (ProdSI) will be adapted and used in this study to conduct the sustainability evaluation. Major findings will include results from an experimental analysis of LimeX via SEM and EDS, and LimeX material property measurements via tensile testing and density measurements. In addition, there will also be a comparison of the sustainability performance of conventional paper and LimeX using a simplified ProdSI. The study found that LimeX was marginally more sustainable than paper, but this evaluation could change with information from the development of a life-cycle analysis report on the material.

The 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) was a call from the UN that brought together key players with the objective to provide potential solutions for transforming current food systems and increasing their sustainability, resilience, equitability, nutritional value, and efficiency. Key actors from science, business, policy, healthcare, the private sector, civil society, farmers, Indigenous Peoples, youth organisations, consumer groups, environmental activists, and other key stakeholders came together before, during and after the Summit, to review how food is produced, processed, and consumed across the world in order to bring about tangible, positive changes to the world’s food systems.The White/Wiphala Paper on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems (FAO, 2021a) was a critical reference, an evidence-based contribution to the 2021 UNFSS that highlights the crucial role of Indigenous Peoples and their food systems as game-changers and shows us how we can respect, better understand, and protect said systems. The paper resulted from the collective work of Indigenous Peoples’ leaders, scientists, researchers, and UN staff. More than 60 Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributions from 39 organisations and ten experts in six socio-cultural regions were received by the Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems. The Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems is a knowledge platform that brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts, scientists, and researchers to co-create intercultural knowledge and provide evidence about the sustainability and resilience of Indigenous Peoples’ food systems (https://www.fao.org/indigenous-peoples/global-hub/en/), which coordinated the writing and editing of the paper through a Technical Editorial Committee.The White/Wiphala paper emphasised the centrality of a rights-based approach, ensuring Indigenous Peoples’ rights and access to land, natural resources, traditional territorial management practices, governance, and livelihoods, as well as addressing the resilience and sustainability of their foods systems. The paper demonstrates how the preservation of Indigenous Peoples’ food systems is necessary for the health of more than 476 million Indigenous Peoples globally while providing valid solutions for addressing some of the challenges humankind faces on sustainability, resilience, and spirituality.It is essential to note critical developments that have occurred since the White/Wiphala paper was published in mid-2021, the July Pre-Summit in Rome, and the September Summit in New York, followed by COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021.For example, at COP26, little attention was given to food systems, despite their contribution to the climate crisis, with responsibility for 30% of greenhouse gas emissions (FAO, 2021b). COP26 highlighted the need to focus on mitigation strategies and adaptation in the face of the current climate crisis. These strategies must include Indigenous Peoples’ food systems as game-changers for effective climate adaptation strategies that they have been testing and adjusting for hundreds of years.At the UNFSS Pre-Summit in Rome, the Indigenous Peoples’ delegation voiced their concerns and presented three key proposals: the recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ food systems as a game-changing solution; the launching of a coalition on Universal Food Access and Indigenous Peoples’ food systems; and the request to create an Indigenous Peoples’ fund. All their concerns and proposals were rejected at the Pre-Summit, including launching a Coalition on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems and Universal Food Access.In the aftermath of the UNFSS Pre-Summit, and thanks to the leadership of the Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), Indigenous leaders following the UNFSS, seven countries, and the FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit (PSUI), timely discussions and collective work led to the creation of a new Coalition on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems.Thanks to the leadership of Mexico and the support of Canada, the Dominican Republic, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, and Spain, along with the support of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), the Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems, and FAO, this Coalition was announced at the New York September UNFSS Summit.The Coalition on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems builds upon the White/Wiphala Paper, establishing the objective of ensuring the understanding, respect, recognition, inclusion, and protection of Indigenous Peoples’ food systems while providing evidence about their game-changing and systemic nature. To support this objective, the Coalition organises its work around two main goals: Goal 1: Respect, recognise, protect and strengthen Indigenous Peoples’ food systems across the world; and Goal 2: Disseminate and scale-up traditional knowledge and good practices from Indigenous Peoples’ food systems with potential to transform global food systems across the board.

Methodological mistakes, data errors, and scientific misconduct are considered prevalent problems in science that are often difficult to detect. In this study, we explore the potential of using data from Twitter for discovering problems with publications. In this case study, we analyzed tweet texts of three retracted publications about COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019)/SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) and their retraction notices. We did not find early warning signs in tweet texts regarding one publication, but we did find tweets that casted doubt on the validity of the two other publications shortly after their publication date. An extension of our current work might lead to an early warning system that makes the scientific community aware of problems with certain publications. Other sources, such as blogs or post-publication peer-review sites, could be included in such an early warning system. The methodology proposed in this case study should be validated using larger publication sets that also include a control group, i.e., publications that were not retracted.

To develop engineered systems with enhanced functionality, improving their design is essential. Robots and humans each have specialized competence advantageous to design. Robots excel in terms of fabrication reliability and observation of trends in data whereas humans have prior knowledge and experience to inform decision making. By enabling robots and humans to collaborate on design problems, we may be able to achieve the best of both worlds. We explore this concept for the design problem of paper airplanes with an objective to reach a target distance and present various collaboration mechanisms for iterative design, test, and evaluation processes. We demonstrate that with the optimal collaboration technique where the robot provides initial design exploration followed by human exploitation, a target-reaching design is found quicker than other collaborative or non-collaborative methods. This work presents an initial exploration of collaborative human-robot design methods which could inform future methodologies for increasingly complex design problems.

Background Prolonged waiting lists increase costs as medical problems may become more expensive to fix. There are also hidden financial costs. Irish Clinical Genetic services have long out-patient waiting times. We noticed duplicate referrals (patients on the waiting list) being re-referred because the patient still had not been seen. These re-referrals waste consultant and administrative time, pose a clinical risk by distracting clinician time, and are costly to our health service. Methods We prospectively collected duplicate referral data over a 3-month period (1 October 2020–31 January 2021) in order to estimate costs. We costed (1) referring consultant and administrative time; (2) stationary, postage, and storage cost; and (3) receiving consultant and administrative time processing these referrals. Results We noted 82/986 (8%) referrals to our service over the trial period were duplicate. The mean length of time between first and duplicate referral was 306 days. In 35/82 (42.68%), a duplicate referral had already been received (e.g. 3rd or more referral for same patient). In total, we received 132 re-referral letters for 82 patients. Duplicate referrals changed triage outcome in 7/82 (8.54%) cases. Conclusion National Treatment Purchase Fund data suggests that 271,560 patients are waiting > 12 months for both in- and out-patient public appointments on 1 January 2021. Assuming duplicate referrals are occurring across the Irish health system with equal frequency after 12 months of waiting (8% of total appointments), then we estimate a conservative cost of 757,392 € per quarter to the health service and an annual cost to the HSE of 3,029,568 €.

PURPOSE: Main insight of the study was to evaluate the potential of Perionyx excavatus, an indigenous earthworm of India towards bioconversion of toxic paper mill wastes. The study had considered a comprehensive study over succession of different enzymes and microbial biomasses alongside removal of heavy metals to reflect the qualitative enrichment of the toxic waste through valorisation procedure. METHODS: The process of vermicomposting was performed using ratio of paper mill sludge: cow dung: straw as 5:4:1 and Perionyx excavatus for a period of 60 days. Qualitative enrichment was considered through detailed evaluation of physicochemical parameters and succession of 19 enzymes using API ZYM technology. Heavy metal loads in terms of Zn, Cr, Cu, Pb along with bioaccumulation factor (BAF) were considered to establish functional role of earthworm in bioremediation. Microbial succession was measured in terms of PLFA biomarkers. RESULTS: Enzymatic enrichment of different isozymes of esterase, aminopeptidase and glycosyl hydrolase were found in the vermicompost. A significant reduction of heavy metals was noticed in vermicomposting of primary sludge as Zn > Pb > Cr > Cu and secondary sludge as Zn > Pb > Cu > Cr. An increase in density of Gram positive bacterial and fungal populations was found at the end phase of vermicomposting process which supports maturity of vermicompost. CONCLUSION: Presence of different enzyme activities, reduction of heavy metal loads along with rise of eukaryotic PLFA markers, had illustrated the efficiency of vermicomposting as a valorisation procedure in the qualitative enrichment of toxic organic paper mill sludge.

In a system audit and verification, it is important to securely collect and preserve evidence of execution environments, execution processes, and program execution results. Evidence-based verification of program processes ensures their authenticity; for example, the processes include no altered/infected program library. This paper proposes a solution for collection of evidence on program libraries based on Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM). The solution can solve semantic gap by obtaining library file path names. This paper also shows a way to obtain hash values of library files from a guest OS. Furthermore, this paper provides examples of evidence on program xecution and the overhead of the solution.