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BACKGROUND: Compared to workers of larger companies it is less clear what health promoting interventions might be beneficial for employees of small businesses and self-employed individuals. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to critically appraise trials investigating health promotion programs among small business workers and self-employed individuals, by means of a systematic review. METHODS: We conducted a search of primary studies using MEDLINE, Web of Science, LIVIVO and the Cochrane library. Our assessment followed the recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and PRISMA. RESULTS: We identified six trials including 5,854 participants from Asia, North America and Australia. Most were of moderate methodological quality, only one was of low quality. Some of the supervised psycho-educational lifestyle programs focusing on individual behavior changes showed benefits in terms of stress reduction and increased physical activity levels among small enterprise employees. CONCLUSIONS: There is a huge knowledge gap on evidence-based health promotion interventions for self-employed and for small business workers, especially in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the present article an extension of the doing gender concept by another important dimension, the body, is proposed. Butler showed that sex results from the materialization and we argue that not only gender emerges from interactive doing, but also does sex. This process is called Doing GenderBody and interestingly we showed that it is not done by doing the gender. After the inactive production of a gender/sex, it follows an evaluation process of this produced gender/sex, called the probation. Moreover, this gender/sex must be a valuable contribution to the community. The valency of the probation figure does not only depend on the collective view, but also on a produced sex/gender which contradict the shared gender/sex knowledge. Further, because of this contradiction the single person sees this as a valuable contribution to the community. The analysis of the art works we have done allowed us to show the fundamental modes of the possibility for probation figures to be constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe feather pecking (SFP) is a behavioral disorder, for which there are multifactorial reasons. Various aspects of pullet and laying-hen husbandry—including housing conditions, management, feeding, and genetics—must be considered, to prevent negative outcomes, such as severe plumage damage, skin injuries, and high mortality rates due to SFP. The aim of this study was to identify housing and management factors in the occurrence of feather pecking, so as to reduce the risk of this behavioral disorder in non-beak-trimmed laying hens on commercial farms with aviaries. Beak trimming may reduce the extent of plumage damage, but it does not prevent feather pecking and cannibalism. Thirty non-beak-trimmed flocks (16 in the first, and 14 in the second laying period) were investigated on 16 commercial farms in Germany. Each flock was visited twice during rearing, and three times during the laying period. During each visit, individual plumage and integument scoring were performed, and data were collected, regarding the housing and management conditions of the flocks. To analyze the influence of management and housing on the plumage condition of the rearing and laying flocks, models were calculated, using univariate multifactorial analysis. In the rearing period, high stocking density and poor litter quality were significant risk factors in plumage damage due to SFP. In the laying period, a lack of free range, poor litter quality, insufficient enrichment, and plumage damage during rearing were significant risk factors for the development of SFP. An individual risk analysis of pullet and layer farms is therefore strongly recommended, to prevent outbreaks of SFP and cannibalism, especially in non-beak-trimmed birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Dementia is one of the most relevant widespread diseases, with a prevalence of currently 50 million people with dementia worldwide. The care of people with dementia will be one of the major challenges for healthcare systems worldwide. Digitalisation offers new possibilities to improve both dementia healthcare and health outcomes research as a fundament for national healthcare planning. The 'Digital Dementia Registry Bavaria-digiDEM Bayern' aims to improve the understanding of the complexity and long-term progression of dementia and the current care situation in Bavaria. Moreover, by offering digital services, digiDEM will actively contribute to improving the care situation in Bavaria. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: digiDEM will recruit people with dementia and their family caregivers in all administrative regions of Bavaria. All participants will undergo dementia screening prior to study inclusion in order to identify people with mild cognitive impairment and mild-to-moderate dementia. Participants will be followed up over a period of three years. Sociodemographic data, type of dementia, symptoms, diagnosis, cognitive trajectories, activities of daily living, behavioural and psychological symptoms, falls, resource utilisation, caregiver burden, quality of life, needs of people with dementia and their caregivers, mobility, use of media and sources of information will be assessed. The project will implement a digital web-based platform for data collection. Data will be collected by means of standardised online or face-to-face interviews., Ethics and Dissemination: The study obtained ethical approval from the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty of Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) (application number: 253_20 B). Findings will be used for evidence-based decision-making for health decision-makers in order to optimise dementia healthcare in the state of Bavaria. Specific analyses will be conducted for the participating research partners. Results of the study will be published in peer-reviewed journals., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Purpose: Rapidly evolving genomics technologies, in particular comprehensive next-generation sequencing (NGS), have led to exponential growth in the understanding of cancer biology, shifting oncology toward personalized treatment strategies. However, comprehensive NGS approaches, such as whole-exome sequencing, have limitations that are related to the technology itself as well as to the input source. Hence, clinical implementation of comprehensive NGS in a quality-controlled diagnostic workflow requires both the standardization of sequencing procedures and continuous validation of sequencing results by orthogonal methods in an ongoing program to enable the determination of key test parameters and continuous improvement of NGS and bioinformatics pipelines., Patients and Methods: We present validation data on 220 patients who were enrolled between 2013 and 2016 in a multi-institutional, genomics-guided precision oncology program (Molecularly Aided Stratification for Tumor Eradication Research) of the National Center for Tumor Diseases Heidelberg and the German Cancer Consortium., Results: More than 90% of clinically actionable genomic alterations identified by combined whole-exome sequencing and transcriptome sequencing were successfully validated, with varying frequencies of discordant results across different types of alterations (fusions, 3.7%; single-nucleotide variants, 2.6%; amplifications, 1.1%; overexpression, 0.9%; deletions, 0.6%). The implementation of new computational methods for NGS data analysis led to a substantial improvement of gene fusion calling over time., Conclusion: Collectively, these data demonstrate the value of a rigorous validation program that partners with comprehensive NGS to successfully implement and continuously improve cancer precision medicine in a clinical setting.