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Radon is a known carcinogen, and the accurate assessment of indoor levels is essential for effective mitigation strategies. While long-term testing provides the most reliable data, short-term testing (STT) offers a quicker and more cost-effective alternative. This review evaluated the accuracy of STT in predicting annual radon averages and compared testing strategies in Europe (where long-term measurements are common) and the United States (where STT is prevalent). Twenty (20) studies were systematically identified through searches in scientific databases and the grey literature, focusing on STT accuracy and radon management. This review revealed several factors that influence the accuracy of STT. Most studies recommended a minimum four-day test for initial screening, but accuracy varied with radon levels. For low levels (<75 Bq/m3), a one-week STT achieved high confidence (>95%) in predicting annual averages. However, accuracy decreased for moderate levels (approximately 50% success rate), necessitating confirmation with longer testing periods (3 months). High radon levels made STT unsuitable due to significant fluctuations. Seasonality also played a role, with winter months providing a more representative picture of annual radon averages. STT was found to be a useful method for screening low-risk areas with low radon concentrations. However, its limitations were evident in moderate- and high-level scenarios. While a minimum of four days was recommended, longer testing periods (3 months or more) were crucial for achieving reliable results, particularly in areas with potential for elevated radon exposure. This review suggests the need for further research to explore the possibility of harmonizing radon testing protocols between Europe and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This scoping review explores the potential of electronic health records (EHR)-based studies to characterize long COVID. We screened all peer-reviewed publications in the English language from PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science databases until 14 September 2023, to identify the studies that defined or characterized long COVID based on data sources that utilized EHR in the United States, regardless of study design. We identified only 17 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. Respiratory conditions were consistently significant in all studies, followed by poor well-being features (n = 14, 82%) and cardiovascular conditions (n = 12, 71%). Some articles (n = 7, 41%) used a long COVID-specific marker to define the study population, relying mainly on ICD-10 codes and clinical visits for post-COVID-19 conditions. Among studies exploring plausible long COVID (n = 10, 59%), the most common methods were RT-PCR and antigen tests. The time delay for EHR data extraction post-test varied, ranging from four weeks to more than three months; however, most studies considering plausible long COVID used a waiting period of 28 to 31 days. Our findings suggest a limited utilization of EHR-derived data sources in defining long COVID, with only 59% of these studies incorporating a validation step. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glaucoma is similar to a neurodegenerative disorder and leads to global irreversible loss of vision. Despite extensive research, the pathophysiological mechanisms of glaucoma remain unclear, and no complete cure has yet been identified for glaucoma. Recent studies have shown that microRNAs can serve as diagnostic biomarkers or therapeutic targets for glaucoma; however, there are few bibliometric studies that focus on using microRNAs in glaucoma research. Here, we have adopted a bibliometric analysis in the field of microRNAs in glaucoma research to manifest the current tendencies and research hotspots and to present a visual map of the past and emerging tendencies in this field. In this study, we retrieved publications in the Web of Science database that centered on this field between 2007 and 2022. Next, we used VOSviewer, CiteSpace, Scimago Graphica, and Microsoft Excel to present visual representations of a co-occurrence analysis, co-citation analysis, tendencies, hotspots, and the contributions of authors, institutions, journals, and countries/regions. The United States was the main contributor. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science has published the most articles in this field. Over the past 15 years, there has been exponential growth in the number of publications and citations in this field across various countries, organizations, and authors. Thus, this study illustrates the current trends, hotspots, and emerging frontiers and provides new insight and guidance for searching for new diagnostic biomarkers and clinical trials for glaucoma in the future. Furthermore, international collaborations can also be used to broaden and deepen the field of microRNAs in glaucoma research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many species of plants and animals thrive in urban habitats and stand to gain from the global trend in increased urbanization. One such species, the Red-crowned Parrot (Amazona viridigenalis), is endangered within its native range but seems to thrive in urban landscapes. While populations of endangered synanthropic species may be uncommon, they can act as genetic reservoirs and present us with unique conservation and research opportunities. We sought to determine the red-crowned parrot's level of dependency on urban areas, as well as the climatic and anthropogenic drivers of their distribution throughout the United States. We built national level species distribution models for the USA using Maxent and correlated presence points derived from field work and citizen science databases to environmental variables for three Red-crowned Parrot populations: two naturalized (California and Florida) and one native (Texas). We found current occupancy to be 18,965 km2 throughout the three states. These three states also contained 39,429 km2 of high- and medium-quality habitats, which, if occupied, would represent a substantial increase in the species range. Suitable habitat showed a strong positive correlation with urbanization in areas where average monthly temperatures were at least 5 °C. The current and predicted distributions of Red-crowned Parrots were closely aligned with urban boundaries. We expected populations of Red-crowned Parrots and other synanthropic species to grow due to a combination of factors, namely, continued urbanization and the effects of climate change, which increase the size and connectivity of a suitable habitat. For some imperiled species, urban habitats could prove to be important bastions for their conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community gardens offer broad research opportunities and analytical resources encompassing urban planning to environmental sustainability, food systems, and social capital. However, little is known about the knowledge structure and research development related to community gardens. This study presents an in-depth bibliometric performance analysis and visual scientific mapping analysis of the literature on community gardens by examining 487 published papers selected from the Web of Science database. The results indicated a considerable rise in research papers in this subject area from 2012 onwards, with most contributions from the United States. Studies from high-income countries accounted for 93.22%, and 38 countries have cooperated 167 times in this field. "Health" is the most frequent keyword, and the terms "ecosystem services" has been gaining popularity over the last five years. A combination of co-citation clustering and keyword co-occurrence clustering analysis identified three major research themes in the field of community gardens: "ecosystem services and disservices", "multidimensional association", and "sustainable garden systems". The development of ecosystem value assessment frameworks, the establishment of region-wide soil monitoring databases, accounting for the cost-effectiveness of nature-based solutions, the integration of garden systems into smart cities, and the integration of water management into regulation will be important future research directions regarding community gardens. Overall, this study provides scholars with a systematic and quantitative understanding of community gardens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stroke is a significant disability and death cause worldwide and is conventionally defined as a neurological impairment relating to the intense focal harm of the central nervous system (CNS) by vascular causative components. Although the applicability of robotic rehabilitation is a topic with considerable practical significance because it has produced noticeably higher improvements in motor function than regular (physical and occupational) therapy and exempted the therapists, most of the existing bibliometric papers were not focused on stroke survivors. Additionally, a modular system is designed by joining several medical end-effector devices to a single limb segment, which addresses the issue of potentially dangerous pathological compensatory motions. Searching the Web of Science database, 31,930 papers were identified, and using the VOSviewer software and science mapping technology, data were extracted on the most prolific countries, the connections between them, the most valuable journals according to certain factors, their average year of publication, the most influential papers, and the most relevant topical issues (bubble map of term occurrence). The most prolific country in the analyzed field and over the entire period evaluated (1975–2022) is the United States, and the most prolific journal is Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, observing a marked increase in the three periods of scientific interest for this field. The present paper assesses numerous scientific publications to provide, through statistical interpretation of the data, a detailed description of the use of robotic rehabilitation in stroke survivors. The findings may aid scientists, academics, and clinicians in establishing precise goals in the optimization of the management of stroke survivors via robotic rehabilitation, but also through easier access to scientifically validated literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nursing professionals are constantly exposed to several risk factors and high levels of stress that can affect their mental, emotional, and physical health, which can trigger burnout syndrome. This article aims to use bibliometric analysis to investigate burnout research trends among nursing professionals worldwide and to compare the contributions of different countries/institutions, scientific journals, authors, keywords, and citations. A bibliometric study was performed using the Scopus and Web of Science databases, in the period up to November 2021, aiming to search original and review articles in the English language regarding burnout in nursing professionals. The analysis was performed with a sample of 1406 articles. The most cited article indicated that 43% of nurses had high burnout scores, and a similar percentage were dissatisfied with their work. The most productive and most cited country in the world was the United States of America. Regarding the 10 most cited documents, there were no studies that could provide interventions to reduce burnout in nursing professionals, which can result in a need to develop studies on prevention capable of mitigating the problem, in view of the impacts generated on their mental, emotional, and physical health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, supercritical fluids for the synthesis of nanomaterials have been paid more and more attention by researchers and have gradually become one of the most important ways to prepare nanomaterials. In this study, literature data on "supercritical fluids for the synthesis of nanomaterials" from 1998 to 2020 were obtained from the Web of Science database, and the data were processed and analyzed by the bibliometric method combined with Microsoft office 2019, Origin 2018, VOSviewer, and other software, so as to obtain the research status and development trend of "supercritical fluids for the synthesis of nanomaterials". The results show that since literature on "supercritical fluids for the synthesis of nanomaterials" appeared for the first time in 1998, the number of articles published every year has risen. In terms of this field, China has become the second-largest publishing country after the United States, and China and the United States display a lot of cooperation and exchanges in this field. "Supercritical CO2", "supercritical water", "supercritical antisolvent", "surface modification", and so on have become the research hotspots of "supercritical fluids for the synthesis of nanomaterials". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]