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The disruptive force of the COVID-19 pandemic is lessening in power and plans are being made for the postcrisis period, among which increasing the sustainability of higher education is of significant importance. The study aims at establishing students’ existing environment-related routines during their home confinement, as a basis for applying green measures to campus living once academic life is resumed with the physical presence of students. The collected data rely on self-reported information provided by 816 students from Politehnica University of Timisoara (Romania), collected via an online, anonymous survey. The novelty of the approach is that household environment-related routines are investigated during a crisis period, with the possibility to build upon the results to implement tailored measures to encourage or diminish environmentally relevant consumption by young, highly skilled individuals. The students display a moderate awareness of environmental issues and indicate consumption routines that may be steered towards an increased sustainability-conscious campus life, through the combined intervention of the university, city administration, and stakeholder involvement. The findings are used to explore the possible directions for action towards increasing or contributing to the territorial sustainability in the socio-ecological context of Timisoara, the largest university city in the western part of Romania via educational, managerial and policy interventions.

Heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is among the most common genetic metabolic lipid disorders characterised by elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels from birth and a significantly higher risk of developing premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The majority of the current pediatric guidelines for clinical management of children and adolescents with FH does not consider the impact of genetic variations as well as characteristics of vascular phenotype as assessed by recently developed non-invasive imaging techniques. We propose a combined integrated approach of cardiovascular (CV) risk assessment and clinical management of children with FH incorporating current risk assessment profile (LDL-C levels, traditional CV risk factors and familial history) with genetic and non-invasive vascular phenotyping. Based on the existing data on vascular phenotype status, this panel recommends that all children with FH and cIMT ≥0.5 mm should receive lipid lowering therapy irrespective of the presence of CV risk factors, family history and/or LDL-C levels Those children with FH and cIMT ≥0.4 mm should be carefully monitored to initiate lipid lowering management in the most suitable time. Likewise, all genetically confirmed children with FH and LDL-C levels ≥4.1 mmol/L (160 mg/dL), should be treated with lifestyle changes and LLT irrespective of the cIMT, presence of additional RF or family history of CHD.

This is a memorial paper for Prof [...]

Attention to the environment and its problems has undergone unprecedented growth in recent years [...]

The use of the direct oral anticoagulants dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban and edoxaban (DOACs) offers some major advantages over warfarin and other vitamin K antagonists (VKAs). One advantage is the possibility to use a fixed dose in normal-weight patients, overweight patients and patients with obesity. However, the “one size fits all” strategy raised a concern regarding the possibility to undertreat patients with a high body mass index. No randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have ever compared VKAs and DOACs in this population. We analyzed data from the literature on DOAC pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, results from the four pivotal phase III trials on non-valvular atrial fibrillation, retrospective observational studies and metanalyses. While we are aware of the limitation imposed by the absence of specific RCTs, we propose the position of the Italian Association of Hospital Cardiologists (ANMCO) on the use of DOACs in patients with obesity based on the existing evidence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the management of non-communicable diseases in health systems around the world. This study aimed to understand the impact of COVID-19 on diabetes medicines dispensed in Australia. Publicly available data from Australia’s government subsidised medicines program (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme), detailing prescriptions by month dispensed to patients, drug item code and patient category, was obtained from January 2016 to November 2020. This study focused on medicines used in diabetes care (Anatomical Therapeutical Chemical code level 2 = A10). Number of prescriptions dispensed were plotted by month at a total level, by insulins and non-insulins, and by patient category (general, concessional). Total number of prescriptions dispensed between January and November of each year were compared. A peak in prescriptions dispensed in March 2020 was identified, an increase of 35% on March 2019, compared to average growth of 7.2% in previous years. Prescriptions dispensed subsequently fell in April and May 2020 to levels below the corresponding months in 2019. These trends were observed across insulins, non-insulins, general and concessional patient categories. The peak and subsequent dip in demand have resulted in a small unexpected overall increase for the period January to November 2020, compared to declining growth for the same months in prior years. The observed change in consumer behaviour prompted by COVID-19 and the resulting public health measures is important to understand in order to improve management of medicines supply during potential future waves of COVID-19 and other pandemics.

Large animal studies of long-term ischemia reperfusion are hampered by the use of immunosuppressive drugs to inhibit the influence of the allogeneic response. In small animals, this can be controlled by using inbred strains of the animal. For obvious reasons, this is not possible in large animals such as pigs. Since studies in pigs usually are the last step before first-in-man studies, this remains a problem trying to resemble a clinical situation. In the following short paper, we describe a novel auto kidney transplantation model that can be used for long term ischemia reperfusion studies. We also suggest a control setting to balance out the possible influence of an increased surgical trauma.

Our aim was to compere diabetes-related distress (DD) in young patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and in their parents before and during the national COVID-19-related lockdown when schools operated on-line. Problems Areas in Diabetes-Child (PAID-Ch), Teen (PAID-T) and Parent (P-PAID-Ch, P-PAID-T) questionnaires in paper version were used to evaluate DD before COVID-19 pandemic (November 2019–February 2020) and during the lockdown (April 2020) the same surveys were performed by phone. We enrolled 76 patients (median age (Q1–Q3): 13.6 (11.8–15.2) years, 21 children, 55 adolescents, T1DM duration 3.7 (1.7–6.8) years). Initial PAID score was lower in teenage boys than in girls (34.0 (24.0–42.0) vs. 44.5 (40.0–50.5), p = 0.003). In teens PAID score decreased significantly during the lockdown (−3.0 (−11.0–3.0), p = 0.018), more in girls than boys (p = 0.028). In children (−3.0 (−14.0–7.0), p = 0.131) and parents PAID did not change (teens’ parents: 3.0 (−9.0–10.0), p = 0.376, children’s parents: −5.0 [−9.0–1.0], p = 0.227). In the studied group COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdown was associated with decrease in DD in teens with T1DM, particularly in girls, while no significant change in DD was observed in children or parents. DD decrease in teens during the pandemic should attract attention to the potential “rebound” of DD related to return to regular on-site school routine.

The first published description of intraovarian platelet-rich plasma (PRP) appeared in mid-2016, when a new experimental technique was successfully used in adult human ovaries to correct the reduced fertility potential accompanying advanced maternal age. Considering the potential therapeutic scope of intraovarian activated PRP and/or condensed platelet cytokines would likely cover both menopause treatment and infertility, the mainstream response has ranged from skeptical disbelief to welcome astonishment. Indeed, reports of restored menses in menopause (as an alternative to conventional hormone replacement therapy) and healthy term livebirths for infertility patients (either with IVF or as unassisted conceptions) after intraovarian PRP injection continue to draw notice. Yet any proper criticism of ovarian PRP applications will be difficult to rebut given the heterogenous patient screening, varied sample preparations, wide differences in platelet incubation and activation protocols, surgical/anesthesia techniques, and delivery methods. Notwithstanding these features, no adverse events have been reported thus far and ovarian PRP appears well tolerated by patients. Here, early research guiding the transition of ‘ovarian rejuvenation’ from experimental to clinical is outlined. Likely mechanisms are presented to explain results observed in both veterinary and human ovarian PRP research. Current and future challenges for intraovarian cytokine treatment are also discussed.

In competitive athletes, the differential diagnosis between nonpathological changes in cardiac morphology associated with training (commonly referred to as “athlete’s heart”) and certain cardiac diseases with the potential for sudden death is an important and not uncommon clinical problem. The use of noninvasive, fast, and cheap analytical techniques can help in making diagnostic differentiation and planning subsequent clinical strategies. Recent studies have demonstrated the role of gut microbiota and their metabolites in the onset and the development of cardiovascular diseases. Trimethylamine (TMA), a gut bacteria metabolite consisting of carnitine and choline, has recently emerged as a potentially toxic molecule to the circulatory system. The present work aims to develop a simple and cost-effective capillary electrophoresis-based method for the determination of TMA in biological samples. Analytical characteristics of the proposed method were evaluated through the study of its linearity (R2 > 0.9950) and the limit of detection and quantification (LOD = 1.2 µg/mL; LOQ = 3.6 µg/mL). The method shows great potential in high-throughput screening applications for TMA analysis in biological samples as a novel potential biomarker of cardiovascular diseases. The proposed electrophoretic method for the determination of TMA in biological samples from patients with cardiac disease is now in progress.

Fluctuating crude oil price and global environmental problems such as global warming and climate change lead to growing demand for the production of renewable chemicals as petrochemical substitutes. Butanol is a nonpolar alcohol that is used in a large variety of consumer products and as an important industrial intermediate. Thus, the production of butanol from renewable resources (e.g., biomass and organic waste) has gained a great deal of attention from researchers. Although typical renewable butanol is produced via a fermentative route (i.e., acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation of biomass-derived sugars), the fermentative butanol production has disadvantages such as a low yield of butanol and the formation of byproducts, such as acetone and ethanol. To avoid the drawbacks, the production of renewable butanol via non-fermentative catalytic routes has been recently proposed. This review is aimed at providing an overview on three different emerging and promising catalytic routes from biomass/organic waste-derived chemicals to butanol. The first route involves the conversion of ethanol into butanol over metal and oxide catalysts. Volatile fatty acid can be a raw chemical for the production of butanol using porous materials and metal catalysts. In addition, biomass-derived syngas can be transformed to butanol on non-noble metal catalysts promoted by alkali metals. The prospect of catalytic renewable butanol production is also discussed.

Corona electrostatic separation can remove inorganic materials from coal, reduce coal ash content and sulfur content and improve coal quality, reduce air pollution caused by smoke dust, SOX, and COX. The performance of corona electrostatic separation technology in cleaning a middle ash medium-ash, high-sulfur coal was experimentally investigated. The electrode voltage, drum rotational speed, and feeding speed were tested, whereas other parameters were maintained constant during the experiment. The results indicate that the performance of this technology in cleaning medium-ash, high-sulfur coal can be improved by optimizing the process parameters. The results demonstrate that corona electrostatic separation is effective for the beneficiation of this grade coal. In addition, the efficiency of coal cleaning is significantly improved by adding the second stage beneficiation to clean the middlings out from the first stage beneficiation. In this study, the first stage of beneficiation recovered 38.00% (by weight) of clean coal (ash content below 20%), and the second stage recovered 48.58% (by weight) of clean coal, improving the overall separation efficiency from 0.69 to 1.74. Furthermore, the sulfur content was reduced from 4.71% (raw coal) to 3.53% (clean coal). Our result show that corona electrostatic separation can effectively reject inorganic sulfur from raw coal, and the two-stage separate is also very helpful for coal purification.

Health services quality and sustainability rely mainly on a qualified workforce. Adequately trained public health personnel protect and promote health, avert health disparities, and allow rapid response to health emergencies. Evaluations of the healthcare workforce typically focus on physicians and nurses in curative medical venues. Few have evaluated public health workforce capacity building or sought to identify gaps between the academic training of public health employees and the needs of the healthcare organizations in which they are employed. This project report describes the conceptual framework of “Sharing European Educational Experience in Public Health for Israel (SEEEPHI): harmonization, employability, leadership, and outreach”—a multinational Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education funded project. By sharing European educational experience and knowledge, the project aims to enhance professionalism and strengthen leadership aspects of the public health workforce in Israel to meet the needs of employers and the country. The project’s work packages, each jointly led by an Israeli and European institution, include field qualification analysis, mapping public health academic training programs, workforce adaptation, and building leadership capacity. In the era of global health changes, it is crucial to assess the capacity building of a well-qualified and competent workforce that enables providing good health services, reaching out to minorities, preventing health inequalities, and confronting emerging health challenges. We anticipate that the methods developed and the lessons learned within the Israeli context will be adaptable and adoptable by other countries through local and cultural adjustments.

A pilot-scale airlift bioreactor (ALBR) system was built and operated continuously for refinery excess sludge (RES) reduction. Combined ALBR and function-enhanced microbes (composed of photosynthetic bacteria and yeast) were integrated into the system. The pilot-scale ALBR was operated for 62 days, and the start-up time was 7 d. Continuous operation showed that the sludge reduction efficiency was more than 56.22%, and the water quality of the effluent was satisfactory. This study focused on investigating the effects of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on the stability of the system and the effect of sludge reduction. Under different HRT conditions of 40, 26.7, 20, and 16 h, the sludge reduction rates reached 56.22%, 73.24%, 74.09%, and 69.64%, respectively. The removal rates of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total nitrogen (TN) decreased with decreasing HRT, whereas the removal rate of NH4+-N increased. The removal rate of total phosphorus (TP) was approximately 30%. Results indicate that the ALBR and function-enhanced microbe system can reduce sludge and treat sewage simultaneously, and the effluent is up to the national emission standard. Addition of function-enhanced microbes can promote the degradation of petroleum hydrocarbon substances in the sludge, especially alkanes with low carbon numbers. This study suggests that the optimal HRT for the system is 16 h. The total operation cost of the ALBR combined with the function-enhanced microbe system can be reduced by 50% compared with the cost of direct treatment of the RES system.

Theoretical models of suicide are based on risk factors associated with suicide, such as psychiatric pathology, genetics, epigenetics, functional brain disorders, and impaired decision making. In current clinical practice, the predominant risk model is the medical model, which posits that treating suicide risk is primarily a matter of treating psychiatric disorders. However, even comprehensive risk factor models cannot overcome the basic problem that, by their nature, they cannot accommodate the suicidal person’s psychological experience of suicidality. Risk factor models do not translate into effective treatment models. Suicide risk is highly personal and fluid, and is related to individual vulnerabilities and to person-specific events triggering suicidal thoughts and actions. Clinicians need treatment models that are meaningful to suicidal patients. Understanding the single person’s suicidality requires a patient-centered approach. Therapeutic interventions that effectively reduce the risk of suicidal behavior have been developed from general principles of psychotherapy. Therapy process factors associated with effective therapies are working alliance, validation of the individual patient’s thoughts and feelings, active treatment engagement. Psychological therapies need patients who are active participants in a collaborative working relationship between therapist and patient. The goal must be to jointly develop a meaningful understanding of the suicidal crisis. In view of the limited personal resources in health care systems it is important that effective therapies are brief and effective. Future research must aim to improve our understanding of the factors involved in effective therapies in order to optimize treatments for individuals at risk. This may also include the integration of biological risk factors in psychological treatment models.

Today, a person’s health literacy (HL) is perceived as a critical determinant for their health. It is well known that limited health literacy is associated with harmful health behaviours, the lower use of preventive services, problems in making use of healthcare resources and poor skills for the self-management of chronic disorders. This study analysed the level and factors associated with HL in high school students in southern Poland. The study is based on the data from a paper-and-pencil survey of high schools students in the Malopolska Voivodshop. The students were selected using a two-stage cluster random sampling procedure. The level of HL was assessed with the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire, consisting of 47 items. Univariate logistic and linear regression models were applied to analyse the association between general HL score and the main domain-specific indices. The respondents whose parents had attended University and came from more affluent families were less likely to demonstrate limited HL. There was a significant positive relationship between the self-assessment of the economic situation, size of accommodation, the level of expenditure on a mobile phone and receiving external support, the size of the book collection at home, and domain-specific HL sub-indices. In conclusion, among socio-demographic factors, the parents’ education is the only consistent predictor of the level of HL in high school students. Furthermore, most variables reflecting the economic status of the respondent’s family are significantly associated with the general HL score and its sub-indices.

This concept paper reviews issues pertaining to parasitic and vector-borne infections, of humans, animals, or both, of topical relevance to the African continent as well as to neighbouring and interconnected geographies. This analysis is carried out through the “One Health” lens, being mindful of the central role of agriculture and livestock keeping in Africa’s sustainable development. The possible agricultural transformation that the continent may undergo to fulfil the rising demand for animal protein of its growing population, coupled with the ongoing climate changes, may lead to potentially enhanced interactions among humans, domesticated and wild animals, in a fast-changing environment. In this view, tackling parasitic conditions of livestock can prove being multidimensionally beneficial by improving animal health as well as communities’ food security, livelihood and public health. Accordingly, the value of applying the One Health approach to drug discovery and development in the fight against parasitic neglected tropical diseases and zoonoses, is also underscored. Overall, this article upholds the adoption of a holistic, global, interdisciplinary, multisectoral, harmonised and forward-looking outlook, encompassing both life and social sciences, when dealing with parasitic conditions of humans and animals, in Africa and beyond, in COVID-19 times and further.

Nasal polyps (NPs) are benign inflammatory masses causing chronic nasal obstruction, usually associated with underlying chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), which are rarely reported in childhood. The interest in NPs has recently increased due to new therapeutic options, namely biological agents, such as dupilumab, and an update of the European position paper on this topic was released in 2020, providing a detailed classification for these lesions and also discussing diagnostic and therapeutic approaches also in children. In childhood, NPs usually represent red flags for systemic diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and immunodeficiencies. This review outlines the recent data on NPs in childhood, focusing on predisposing factors for CRS as well as on the potential endotypes in this particular age group, for which further studies are required in order to better clarify their pathogenesis and to identify molecular biomarkers that could help achieve more personalized treatments.

As the most important paper packaging materials, corrugated cartons with a tremendous amount of production demonstrate several advantages and have been widely used in daily life. However, waste corrugated cartons (WCCs) are usually recycled and reused to produce new corrugated cartons, and their properties are decreased dramatically after several cycles. Therefore, recycling and converting WCCs into cellulose-based film with high value is attractive and significant. Herein, without any pretreatment, the waste old corrugated cartons were directly dissolved in ionic liquid 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, and semitransparent cellulose-based films were successfully fabricated. It was indicated that cellulose-based films displayed better UV-shielding property and hydrophobicity than traditional cellulose films. Interestingly, the cellulose-based films regenerated from deionized water displayed higher tensile strength, elongation at break, and toughness. Their tensile strength could reach 23.16 MPa, exhibiting enormous superiority as wrapping and packaging materials to replace the petrochemical polyethylene membrane (8.95 MPa). Consequently, these renewable, biodegradable, and high-valued cellulose-based films were successfully fabricated to simultaneously realize the valorization of old corrugated cartons and supplement the petrochemical plastics.

Thermal treatment is the most popular decontamination technique used in the dairy industry to ensure food protection and prolong shelf life. But it also causes nutrient and aroma degradation, non-enzymatic browning, and organoleptic changes of dairy products. Non-thermal solutions, on the other hand, have been extensively explored in a response to rising market demand for more sustainable and safe goods. For a long time, the use of ultraviolet (UV) light in the food industry has held great promise. Irradiation with shortwave UV light has excellent germicidal properties, which can destroy a variety of microbial pathogens (for example bacteria, fungi, molds, yeasts, and viruses), at low maintenance and installation costs with minimal use of energy to preserve food without undesirable effects of heat treatment. The purpose of this review is to update the studies made on the possibilities of UV-C radiation while also addressing the essential processing factors involved in the disinfection. It also sheds light on the promise of UV light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) as a microbial inactivation alternative to conventional UV lamps.

With the vigorous development of the 5G industry, the characteristic hazardous waste, spent coppery etchant, was also produced in large quantities. In recent years, there are many companies that have begun to collect spent coppery etchant for the purpose of producing recycled products, such as copper sulfate, copper oxide, basic copper chloride, and copper powder, which often contain large amounts of heavy metals. However, due to the lack of relevant standards and applicable regulatory measures, some of the recycled products flow to the feed processing industry and even to the food processing industry. This study investigated the pollution status of heavy metals in recycled products of spent coppery etchant and evaluated the impact of recycled products exposure on human health. The results showed that the content of Zn was the highest, which was 21 times higher than the corresponding standard limit. Human health risk assessment indicated that the hazard quotients of As account for 87.5% of the entire HI value, while the average carcinogenic risk values of As for copper sulfate, copper oxide, basic copper chloride, and copper powder are 1.09 × 10−5, 3.19 × 10−5, 1.29 × 10−5, 7.94 × 10−6, respectively. Meanwhile, suggestions on the supervision of recycled products and the concentration limits of heavy metals in recycled products were put forward.

Countries globally are focusing on alternative fuels to reduce the environmental pollution. An example is biodiesel fuel, which is leading the way to other technologies. In this research, the methyl esters of castor oil were prepared using a two-step transesterification process. The respective properties of the castor oil (Ricinus Communis) biodiesel were estimated using ASTM standards. The effect of performance and emission on diesel engines was noted for four various engine loads (25, 50, 75, and 100%), with two different blends (B5 and B20) and at two different engine speeds (1500 and 2000 rpm). The study determined that B5 and B20 samples at 1500 rpm engine speed obtained the same power, but diesel fuel generated greater control. The power increased at 2000 rpm for B5 samples, but B20 samples, as well as diesel, were almost the same values. In the 40–80% range, load and load values were entirely parallel for each load observed from the engine performance of the brake power in all samples.

The purpose of this study was to examine how gold kiwifruit pericarp (pericarp is defined as the skin of the fruit) consumption and the timing thereof affect the postprandial blood glucose profile. The study was conducted on twelve healthy volunteers (six men and six women). According to our results, the simultaneous intake of gold kiwifruit with bread and the prior intake of gold kiwifruit evidently suppressed the postprandial blood glucose elevation compared with exclusive bread intake. There was no significant difference in postprandial blood glucose changes between the ingestion of gold kiwifruit pericarp and pulp and that of gold kiwifruit pulp only. The highest postprandial blood glucose elevation was suppressed by 27.6% and the area under the blood glucose elevation curve by 29.3%, even with the exclusive ingestion of gold kiwifruit pulp. We predicted that the ingestion of both the pericarp and pulp of gold kiwifruit would reduce the postprandial blood glucose elevation to a greater extent than that of gold kiwifruit pulp only; however, there was no significant difference between the two. These results indicate that gold kiwifruit consumption significantly suppresses the postprandial blood glucose elevation regardless of pericarp presence or absence and the timing of ingestion., Article number: 2103 This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is among the most common conditions leading to intellectual disability, which can be prevented by early detection through newborn screening (NBS). In Mongolia, a regional screening program for CH was launched in 2000, which was supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the Asia Pacific Region. In our present study, a total of 23,002 newborns from nine districts in Ulaanbaatar were screened between 2012 and 2020, by the measurement of the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) from dried blood spots, sampled 24 to 72 h after birth. The level of TSH was measured by the DELFIA assay. The overall CH prevalence confirmed at birth was 1/2091. The female-to-male ratio for CH cases was 1.8:1. The majority of patients were asymptomatic (72.7% of CH cases), umbilical hernia and cold or mottled skin were reported symptoms in patients with CH (27.3%). Thyroid dysgenesis (hypoplasia and agenesis) was the most common etiology, with a total of nine cases (81.8%) out of the eleven patients. The lapse between the birth date and the initiation of L-thyroxine treatment in CH-positive children was lower than 15 days in 63.64% of cases or 15 to 30 days in 36.36% of children. Further research is required to expand the screening coverage for CH in Mongolia.

The art of tattooing is a popular decorative approach for body decoration and has a corrective value for the face. The tattooing procedure is characterized by placing exogenous pigments into the dermis with a number of needles. The process of creating traditional and cosmetic tattoos is the same. Colorants are deposited in the dermis by piercing the skin with needles of specific shape and thickness, which are moistened with the colorant. Colorants (pigments or dyes) most of the time include impurities which may cause adverse reactions. It is commonly known that tattoo inks remain in the skin for lifetime. It is also a fact that the chemicals that are used in permanent makeup (PMU) colorants may stay in the body for a long time so there is a significant long-term risk for harmful ingredients being placed in the body. Tattoo and PMU colorants contain various substances and their main ingredients and decomposition components may cause health risks and unwanted side effects to skin.

The article examines Israel’s experience in managing the COVID-19 vaccination program beginning in December 2020. Utilizing principles of mass casualty event management, such as triaging, flow of casualty care, and flexibility (among others), we analyze Israel’s vaccination program. The successful Israeli experience was found to be based on timely coordinated and adaptive health system logistics and operations, as well as cooperative population behaviors.

Precise environmental modelling of pollutants distributions represents a key factor for addresing the issue of urban air pollution. Nowadays, urban air pollution monitoring is primarily carried out by employing sparse networks of spatially distributed fixed stations. The work in this paper aims at improving the situation by utilizing machine learning models to process the outputs of multi-sensor devices that are small, cheap, albeit less reliable, thus a massive urban deployment of those devices is possible. The main contribution of the paper is the design of a mathematical model providing sensor fusion to extract the information and transform it into the desired pollutant concentrations. Multi-sensor outputs are used as input information for a particular machine learning model trained to produce the CO, NO2, and NOx concentration estimates. Several state-of-the-art machine learning methods, including original algorithms proposed by the authors, are utilized in this study: kernel methods, regularization networks, regularization networks with composite kernels, and deep neural networks. All methods are augmented with a proper hyper-parameter search to achieve the optimal performance for each model. All the methods considered achieved vital results, deep neural networks exhibited the best generalization ability, and regularization networks with product kernels achieved the best fitting of the training set.

Background: Pedicle screws provide excellent fixation for a wide range of indications. However, their adoption in the cervical spine has been slower than in the thoracic and lumbar spine, which is largely due to the smaller pedicle sizes and the proximity to the neurovascular structures in the neck. In recent years, technology has been developed to improve the accuracy and thereby the safety of cervical pedicle screw placement over traditional fluoroscopic techniques, including intraoperative 3D navigation, computer-assisted Systems and 3D template moulds. We have performed a systematic review into the accuracy rates of the various systems. Methods: The PubMed and Cochrane Library databases were searched for eligible papers; 9 valid papers involving 1427 screws were found. Results: fluoroscopic methods achieved an 80.6% accuracy and navigation methods produced 91.4% and 96.7% accuracy for templates. Conclusion: Navigation methods are significantly more accurate than fluoroscopy, they reduce radiation exposure to the surgical team, and improvements in technology are speeding up operating times. Significantly superior results for templates over fluoroscopy and navigation are complemented by reduced radiation exposure to patient and surgeon; however, the technology requires a more invasive approach, prolonged pre-operative planning and the development of an infrastructure to allow for their rapid production and delivery. We affirm the superiority of navigation over other methods for providing the most accurate and the safest cervical pedicle screw instrumentation, as it is more accurate than fluoroscopy and lacks the limitations of templates.

This paper will give a comprehensive view of the most frequent panniculitides seen in childhood, with emphasis on the types exclusively found in infancy, and for all other types of panniculitides also found in adults. Aim of this paper is also to analyze the clinical differences between panniculitis in childhood and in adulthood, and to give reliable histopathologic criteria for a specific diagnosis. A review of the literature is here integrated by authors' personal contribution. Panniculitides in children is a heterogeneous group of diseases, as well as in adult life, characterized by inflammation of the subcutaneous fat. Only very few types of panniculitis are exclusively found in childhood, such as Sclerema neonatorum and subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn, while the vast majority of the other types may be found both in paediatric age and in adults. Furthermore, this paper will consider in detail panniculitis according to their frequency, such as Erythema nodosum, Lupus panniculitis, Cold panniculitis, panniculitis in Behcet disease, and poststeroid panniculitis. It will also describe rare forms of panniculitis, such as Eosinophilic panniculitis (a pathological entity debated by many authors), Subcutaneous panniculitis T-cell lymphoma, and the different forms of the so call "Lipophagic panniculitis", encompassing respectively the febrile relapsing panniculitis of Weber-Christian disease and the non-relapsing form of Rothmann-Makai disease. For each type of panniculitis considered concise information will be given about epidemiology, etiology, clinical findings, laboratory data, prognosis and therapy, while histopathologic findings will be described in detail.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) has a strong evidence base for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD), however, there is minimal research investigating the treatment of depression within the postpartum period. This systematic review aims to systematically examine the efficacy and safety of TMS when treating postpartum depression (PPD). Databases Ovid Medline, PsycINFO, EMBASE and PubMed were searched from inception to May 2021, to identify peer-reviewed papers assessing the administration of TMS for PPD treatment. Data were systematically extracted and evaluated regarding clinical psychiatric outcomes, social-relational outcomes, neuropsychological testing, and side effects. This systematic review included one randomised controlled trial, two open-label studies, two conference papers, and two case studies, providing data on 60 participants. TMS appears well tolerated, with no reported major adverse side effects. While the studies reported a general reduction in PPD symptoms, the poor quality of the evidence available indicates that TMS for PPD is unable to be currently recommended. However, the substantial evidence for TMS in the treatment of MDD and the differential response to antidepressant medication in PPD indicates that further research into TMS for PPD is warranted.

When the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic started to manifest itself across the globe at an unprecedented pace and magnitude, the various emergency response strategies pursued by highly affected countries in Europe raised many questions about their supposed effectiveness. To contain the outbreak, a rapid and adequate emergency response was vital to control emergent public health risks, but emergency management was challenged by large uncertainty due to many unknowns about crucial determinants of the outbreak, determining the effectiveness of the response, which was often derived from uncertain information. This paper aims to draw lessons from the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and it presents a review of strategies for emergency response pursued in eight European countries, including tipping points that triggered strategy shifts in emergency response. The paper shows that: (i) these countries have a culturally determined preference for policy response style (Mediterranean, continental and liberal style) depending on their relative scores on power distance and uncertainty avoidance, which (ii) is reflected in the initially adopted control paradigm and the associated strategy, (iii) Mediterranean countries (Italy, France, Spain) with high levels of power distance and uncertainty avoidance have a tendency to respond to new unknown situations by deploying strong rule-based regulatory systems which offer mental security and social order, whereas continental (Germany and Austria) and liberal countries (the Netherlands, the UK and Sweden) do this to medium and much lower extents.

Air pollution is a common problem for many countries around the world in the process of industrialization as well as a challenge to sustainable development. This paper has selected Chengdu-Chongqing region of China as the research object, which suffers from severe air pollution and has been actively involved in air pollution control in recent years to achieve sustainable development. Based on the historical data of 16 cities in this region from January 2015 to November 2019 on six major air pollutants, this paper has first conducted evaluation on the monthly air quality of these cities within the research period by using Principal Component Analysis and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution. Based on that, this paper has adopted the Long Short-Term Memory neural network model in deep learning to forecast the monthly air quality of various cities from December 2019 to November 2020. The aims of this paper are to enrich existing literature on air pollution control, and provide a novel scientific tool for design and formulation of air pollution control policies by innovatively integrating commonly used evaluation models and deep learning forecast methods. According to the research results, in terms of historical evaluation, the air quality of cities in the Chengdu-Chongqing region was generally moving in the same trend in the research period, with distinct characteristics of cyclicity and convergence. Year- on-year speaking, the effectiveness of air pollution control in various cities has shown a visible improvement trend. For example, Ya&rsquo, an&rsquo, s lowest air quality evaluation score has improved from 0.3494 in 2015 to 0.4504 in 2019, Zigong&rsquo, s lowest air quality score has also risen from 0.4160 in 2015 to 0.6429 in 2019. Based on the above historical evaluation and deep learning forecast results, this paper has proposed relevant policy recommendations for air pollution control in the Chengdu-Chongqing region.

The use of renewable energy sources increases the energy self-sustainability of cities, enabling citizens to reduce energy costs, which results in an increase in their standard of living. However, solar energy penetration in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its capital Sarajevo, is not in line with the possibilities. Furthermore, the Sarajevo Canton is extremely polluted during the winter months because of the use of unacceptable heating fuel. The aim of this paper is to introduce photovoltaic power systems use in heating electrification system. In this paper AQI is calculated based on historical data and the hybrid model EMD-SARIMA for air pollution and a solar production forecast is presented. The methodology was tested in the Sarajevo Canton, taking into account 35,000 households. In order to ensure clean air, renewable electric energy use for household heating should be implemented. The widespread use of inefficient individual heating systems characterized by inefficient and expensive use of firewood and the use of coal in individual furnaces in populated areas are the main problems of internal and urban air pollution in Sarajevo Canton. In order to reduce energy poverty in Sarajevo Canton, the use of a floating photovoltaic power plant located on Lake Jablanica with a capacity of 30 MW and the solar prosumers with capacity of 115 MW to provide the 196 GWh necessary for heating electrification of 35,000 households is implemented in this paper. Finally, based on correlation between AQI forecast and solar production it was calculated that the values of the AQI, considering the application of solar energy during 150 days (five months) in one heating season, have significantly decreased. Also renewable energy sources have a very important role in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere and reducing urban pollution. With this approach, households would be heated by renewable electricity, which would make Sarajevo a cleaner, smarter city.

There is still much controversy regarding the epidemiology of endometriosis. The objective of this work is to conduct a systematic review, and if possible, proceed with a meta-analysis of studies that have analyzed the incidence and prevalence of this condition among women in the general population. The inclusion criteria were papers published after 1997 that had reported data of the incidence or prevalence of endometriosis. The PubMed search engine was used to identify papers meeting the inclusion criteria from 1997 to 2019, with an additional manual search for the identification of potentially eligible studies. The search was limited to papers published in English. The risk of bias was assessed according to the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist. As a result, 27 papers, which included a total of 28,660,652 women, were classified according to the type of design and sources of information in five subgroups. Pooled estimates of prevalence for studies with self-reported data were 0.05 (95% CI: 0.03; 0.06), 0.01 for population-based integrated information systems (95% CI: 0.01; 0.02), and 0.04 (95% CI 0.04; 0.05) in studies using other designs. The pooled incidence rate of endometriosis was: 1.36 per 1000 person-years (PY) (95% CI: 1.09; 1.63) for studies based on hospital discharges, 3.53 per 1000 PY (95% CI: 2.06; 4.99) for cohort studies, and 1.89 per 1000 PY (95% CI: 1.42; 2.37) for population-based integrated information systems. Meta-analysis indicated high heterogeneity based on I-squared statistics. This significant variability may not only be due to methodological issues and the specific limitations of the different designs and data analyzed, including case definitions and subject selection strategies, but also to the inherent heterogeneity of endometriosis. Epidemiological studies with appropriate study designs remain necessary to provide a valid estimation of the population burden of endometriosis.

Simple Summary Ovarian cancer has remained the leading cause of death among gynecologic malignancies. The current standard of treatment, in most cases, is a combination of surgery and chemotherapy, based on platinum agents and taxanes. Despite the increasing usage of newer drug groups, such as bevacizumab and PARP inhibitors, and the expansion of patient groups for these drugs, ovarian cancer is characterized by recurrences, particularly in the form of peritoneal implants. This review focuses on immunotherapy for ovarian cancer. It considers the current state of knowledge in areas such as cancer vaccines, adoptive cell therapy, CAR-T therapy, and anti-CTLA-4 monotherapy. The paper specifically considers PD-1/PDL-1 as drug targets. Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 monotherapy, and anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy in combination with other agents, are analyzed. Abstract Ovarian cancer is one of the most fatal cancers in women worldwide. Cytoreductive surgery combined with platinum-based chemotherapy has been the current first-line treatment standard. Nevertheless, ovarian cancer appears to have a high recurrence rate and mortality. Immunological processes play a significant role in tumorigenesis. The production of ligands for checkpoint receptors can be a very effective, and undesirable, immunosuppressive mechanism for cancers. The CTLA-4 protein, as well as the PD-1 receptor and its PD-L1 ligand, are among the better-known components of the control points. The aim of this paper was to review current research on immunotherapy in the treatment of ovarian cancer. The authors specifically considered immune checkpoints molecules such as PD-1/PDL-1 as targets for immunotherapy. We found that immune checkpoint-inhibitor therapy does not have an improved prognosis in ovarian cancer; although early trials showed that a combination of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy with targeted therapy might have the potential to improve responses and outcomes in selected patients. However, we must wait for the final results of the trials. It seems important to identify a group of patients who could benefit significantly from treatment with immune checkpoints inhibitors. However, despite numerous trials, ICIs have not become part of routine clinical practice for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

The field of human activity recognition (HAR) often utilizes wearable sensors and machine learning techniques in order to identify the actions of the subject. This paper considers the activity recognition of walking and running while using a support vector machine (SVM) that was trained on principal components derived from wearable sensor data. An ablation analysis is performed in order to select the subset of sensors that yield the highest classification accuracy. The paper also compares principal components across trials to inform the similarity of the trials. Five subjects were instructed to perform standing, walking, running, and sprinting on a self-paced treadmill, and the data were recorded while using surface electromyography sensors (sEMGs), inertial measurement units (IMUs), and force plates. When all of the sensors were included, the SVM had over 90% classification accuracy using only the first three principal components of the data with the classes of stand, walk, and run/sprint (combined run and sprint class). It was found that sensors that were placed only on the lower leg produce higher accuracies than sensors placed on the upper leg. There was a small decrease in accuracy when the force plates are ablated, but the difference may not be operationally relevant. Using only accelerometers without sEMGs was shown to decrease the accuracy of the SVM.

Wolfram Syndrome (WS) is a rare neurodegenerative disease with autosomal recessive inheritance and characterized by juvenile onset, non-autoimmune diabetes mellitus and later followed by optic atrophy leading to blindness, diabetes insipidus, hearing loss, and other neurological and endocrine dysfunctions. A wide spectrum of neurodegenerative abnormalities affecting the central nervous system has been described. Among these complications, neurogenic bladder and urodynamic abnormalities also deserve attention. Urinary tract dysfunctions (UTD) up to end stage renal disease are a life-threatening complication of WS patients. Notably, end stage renal disease is reported as one of the most common causes of death among WS patients. UTD have been also reported in affected adolescents. Involvement of the urinary tract occurs in about 90% of affected patients, at a median age of 20 years and with peaks at 13, 21 and 33 years. The aim of our narrative review was to provide an overview of the most important papers regarding urological impairment in Wolfram Syndrome. A comprehensive search on PubMed including Wolfram Syndrome and one or more of the following terms: chronic renal failure, bladder dysfunction, urological aspects, and urinary tract dysfunction, was done. The exclusion criteria were studies not written in English and not including urinary tract dysfunction deep evaluation and description. Studies mentioning general urologic abnormalities without deep description and/or follow-up were not considered. Due to the rarity of the condition, we considered not only papers including pediatric patients, but also papers with pediatric and adult case reports

Periodontal disease and diabetes mellitus are two pathologies that are extremely widespread worldwide and share the feature of chronic inflammation. Carvacrol is a phenolic monoterpenoid, produced by a variety of herbs, the most well-known of which is Origanum vulgare. Magnolol is a traditional polyphenolic compound isolated from the stem bark of Magnolia officinalis, mainly used in Chinese medicine. The purpose of this paper is to review the therapeutic properties of these bioactive compounds, in the treatment of periodontitis and diabetes. Based on our search strategy we conducted a literature search in the PubMed and Google Scholar databases to identify studies. A total of one hundred eighty-four papers were included in the current review. The results show that carvacrol and magnolol have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-osteoclastic, and anti-diabetic properties that benefit both pathologies. Knowledge of the multiple activities of carvacrol and magnolol can assist with the development of new treatment strategies, and the design of clinical animal and human trials will maximize the potential benefits of these extracts in subjects suffering from periodontitis or diabetes.

The chloride ion (Cl−) is a type of anion which is commonly found in the environment and has important physiological functions and industrial uses. However, a high content of Cl− in water will do harm to the ecological environment, human health and industrial production. It is of great significance to strictly monitor the Cl− content in water. Following the recent development of society and industry, large amounts of domestic sewage and industrial sewage are discharged into the environment, which results in the water becoming seriously polluted by Cl−. The detection of Cl− has gradually become a research focus. This paper introduces the harm of Cl− pollution in the environment and summarizes various Cl− detection methods, including the volumetric method, spectrophotometry method, electrochemical method, ion chromatography, paper-based microfluidic technology, fluorescent molecular probe, and flow injection. The principle and application of each technology are described; their advantages, disadvantages, and applicability are discussed. To goal of this research is to find a more simple, rapid, environmental protection and strong anti-interference detection technology of Cl−.

Pneumoconiosis has become one of the biggest threats to the occupational health and life safety of mining workers in China. The number of pneumoconiosis cases has continued to rise in recent years. The main task of occupational health development is to study the pathogenesis of pneumoconiosis and to develop mine dust prevention and control technology. Therefore, this paper summarizes the research progress of coal worker pneumoconiosis and dust prevention and control in mines. Firstly, the research progress of coal worker pneumoconiosis is analyzed from the aspects of pathogenesis, animal model and pathological changes of coal worker pneumoconiosis. Then, the existing basic theory and technology of dust prevention are described, including ventilation and dust removal, spray and dust suppression, and chemical dust suppression methods. Finally, based on the dust removal theory of wet shotcrete, the progress of shotcrete dust control technology and equipment used for shotcrete is summarized from the aspects of shotcrete technology process and shotcrete materials. At the same time, in view of the shortcomings of the existing research, the next research prospect is given in the pathogenesis of pneumoconiosis, intelligent dust prevention, jet spraying dust removal and so on. This paper provides theoretical support for realizing the separate source and efficient treatment of mine dust control and helps to improve the clean production level of mine, control and prevent pneumoconiosis.

Increasing land utilization, population aggregation and strong land–sea interaction make coastal areas an ecologically fragile environment. The construction of an ecological security pattern is important for maintaining the function of the coastal ecosystem. This paper takes Jiaodong Peninsula in China, a hilly coastal area, as an example for evaluating landscape ecological risk within a comprehensive framework of “nature–neighborhood–landscape”, based on spatial principal component analysis, and it constructs the ecological security pattern based on the minimum cumulative resistance model (MCR). The results showed that the overall level of ecological risk in the study area was medium. The connectivity between the areas of low landscape ecological risk was relatively low, and the high risk areas were concentrated in the north of the Peninsula. A total of 11 key ecological corridors of three types (water, green space and road corridors) and 105 potential corridors were constructed. According to the ecological network pattern, landscape ecological optimization suggestions were proposed: key corridors in the north and south of Jiaodong Peninsula should be connected; urban development should consider current ecological sources and corridors to prevent landscape fragmentation; and the ecological roles of potential corridors should be strengthened. This paper can provide a theoretical and practical basis for ecological planning and urban master planning in coastal areas in the future.

Environmental factors in time and space play a critical role in advancing the sustainable development of the fresh agricultural product supply chain. This paper, availing the panel data of 31 Chinese provinces from 2008 to 2019, constructs a system of indicators assessing the development of the fresh agricultural product supply chain, and obtains the comprehensive development level in the Entropy Weight Method (EWM). Furthermore, it establishes a comparison between optimal solutions generated by the Instrumental Variables Method (IVM) and the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) over the endogeneity issue of variables, creates the comparison between the weighted regression methods of Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) and Multi-scale Geographic Weighted Regression (MGWR), and obtains the relationship among the 14 environmental factors in their spatio-temporal impacts on the development of the fresh agricultural product supply chain. The results indicate that: (1) the environmental influencing factors in this paper have significant endogenous problems and various environmental factors impact on the fresh agricultural product supply chain in different trends and to different degrees. (2) With different bandwidths, the environmental factors could impact the fresh agricultural product supply chain to greatly varied degrees, demonstrating a strong attribute of regional correlation.

Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are involved in 4.5% of police-reported road crashes in Europe and 14.2% of fatal road crashes. Active and passive safety systems can help to prevent crashes or mitigate the consequences but need detailed scenarios based on analysis of region-specific data to be designed effectively; however, a sufficiently detailed overview focusing on long-haul trucks is not available for Europe. The aim of this paper is to give a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of crashes in the European Union that involve HGVs weighing 16 tons or more (16 t+). The identification of the most critical scenarios and their characteristics is based on a three-level analysis, as follows. Crash statistics based on data from the Community Database on Accidents on the Roads in Europe (CARE) provide a general overview of crashes involving HGVs. These results are complemented by a more detailed characterization of crashes involving 16 t+ trucks based on national road crash data from Italy, Spain, and Sweden. This analysis is further refined by a detailed study of crashes involving 16 t+ trucks in the German In-Depth Accident Study (GIDAS), including a crash causation analysis. The results show that most European HGV crashes occur in clear weather, during daylight, on dry roads, outside city limits, and on nonhighway roads. Three main scenarios for 16 t+ trucks are characterized in-depth: rear-end crashes in which the truck is the striking partner, conflicts during right turn maneuvers of the truck with a cyclist riding alongside, and pedestrians crossing the road in front of the truck. Among truck-related crash causes, information admission failures (e.g., distraction) were the main crash causation factor in 72% of cases in the rear-end striking scenario while information access problems (e.g., blind spots) were present for 72% of cases in the cyclist scenario and 75% of cases in the pedestrian scenario. The three levels of data analysis used in this paper give a deeper understanding of European HGV crashes, in terms of the most common crash characteristics on EU level and very detailed descriptions of both kinematic parameters and crash causation factors for the above scenarios. The results thereby provide both a global overview and sufficient depth of analysis of the most relevant cases and aid safety system development.

Recently, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have more and more often been used in experimental studies on cancer treatments, which have become one of the biggest challenges in medical research. The main goal of this research is to treat and to cure advanced or metastatic cancer with minimal side effects through nanotechnology. Drug delivery approaches take into account the fact that MNPs can be bonded to chemotherapeutical drugs, nucleic acids, synthetized antibodies or radionuclide substances. MNPs can be guided, and different treatment therapies can be applied, under the influence of an external magnetic field. This paper reviews the main MNPs’ synthesis methods, functionalization with different materials and highlight the applications in cancer therapy. In this review, we describe cancer cell monitorization based on different types of magnetic nanoparticles, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, magnetic hyperthermia, gene therapy and ferroptosis. Examples of applied treatments on murine models or humans are analyzed, and glioblastoma cancer therapy is detailed in the review. MNPs have an important contribution to diagnostics, investigation, and therapy in the so called theranostics domain. The main conclusion of this paper is that MNPs are very useful in different cancer therapies, with limited side effects, and they can increase the life expectancy of patients with cancer drug resistance.

The present paper aims to summarize the results regarding serum albumin-based nanoparticles (NPs) for drug delivery purposes. In particular, it focuses on the relationship between their preparation techniques and synthesis parameters, as well as their successful clinical application. In spite of the huge amount of consumed material and immaterial sources and promising possibilities, products made from different types of albumin NPs, with the exception of a few, still have not been invented. In the present paper, promising applications of serum albumin nanoparticles (SANPs) for different biomedical purposes, such as carriers, delivery systems and contrast agents, are also discussed. The most frequent utilization of the NPs for certain diseases, i.e., cancer therapy, and future prospects are also detailed in this study.

Dysplasia epiphysealis hemimelica (DEH), also known as Trevor’s disease, is a rare nonhereditary skeletal disorder affecting one side of the epiphyses or the epiphyses-equivalents. It is often misdiagnosed for traumatic injuries, infections, or other tumors because of the nonspecific clinical features. The diagnosis is mostly based on radiographic involvement of one half of the epiphysis displaying an overgrowth; it is hard to distinguish between DEH and osteochondroma on the gross hystopathological exam. There are few immunohistochemical markers, as well as genetic tests, for EXT1 and EXT2 gene expression that can reveal a more accurate diagnosis. No evidence of malignant changes has been reported and no hereditary transmission or environmental factor has been incriminated as an etiological factor. The natural history of the disease is continuous growth of the lesions until skeletal maturity. Without treatment, the joint might suffer degenerative modification, and the patient can develop early onset osteoarthritis. In the present paper, we report two new cases of DEH of the ankle. The aim of this paper is to consider Trevor’s disease when encountering tumoral masses in the epiphyses of pediatric patients and to present our treatment approach and results.

Aging refers to progressive physiological changes in a cell, an organ, or the whole body of an individual, over time. Aging-related diseases are highly prevalent and could impact an individual’s physical health. Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) methods have been used to predict aging-related diseases and issues, aiding clinical providers in decision-making based on patient’s medical records. Deep learning (DL), as one of the most recent generations of AI technologies, has embraced rapid progress in the early prediction and classification of aging-related issues. In this paper, a scoping review of publications using DL approaches to predict common aging-related diseases (such as age-related macular degeneration, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, arthritis, Alzheimer’s and lifestyle patterns related to disease progression), was performed. Google Scholar, IEEE and PubMed are used to search DL papers on common aging-related issues published between January 2017 and August 2021. These papers were reviewed, evaluated, and the findings were summarized. Overall, 34 studies met the inclusion criteria. These studies indicate that DL could help clinicians in diagnosing disease at its early stages by mapping diagnostic predictions into observable clinical presentations; and achieving high predictive performance (e.g., more than 90% accurate predictions of diseases in aging).

By considering the recently proposed definitions and metrics, oral healthcare quality management (OHQM) emerges as a distinct field in the wider healthcare area. The goal of this paper is to systematically review quality management initiatives (QMIs) implementation by dental clinics. The research methodology approach is a review of 72 sources that have been analyzed using the Context–Intervention–Mechanism–Outcome Framework (CIMO). The analysis identifies five mechanisms that explain how quality management initiatives are implemented by dental clinics. The simplest QMIs implementations are related to (1) overall quality. The next ones, in terms of complexity, are related to (2) patient satisfaction, (3) service quality, (4) internal processes improvement, and (5) business outcomes. This paper is the first attempt to provide a critical review of this topic and represents an important advancement by providing a theoretical framework that explains how quality management is implemented by practitioners in this field. The results can be used by scholars for advancing their studies related to this emerging research area and by healthcare managers in order to better implement their quality management initiatives.

Objective: To report an overview and update on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and COVID-19 using chest Computed Tomography (CT) scan and chest X-ray images (CXR). Machine Learning and Deep Learning Approaches for Diagnosis and Treatment were identified. Methods: Several electronic datasets were analyzed. The search covered the years from January 2019 to June 2021. The inclusion criteria were studied evaluating the use of AI methods in COVID-19 disease reporting performance results in terms of accuracy or precision or area under Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC). Results: Twenty-two studies met the inclusion criteria: 13 papers were based on AI in CXR and 10 based on AI in CT. The summarized mean value of the accuracy and precision of CXR in COVID-19 disease were 93.7% ± 10.0% of standard deviation (range 68.4–99.9%) and 95.7% ± 7.1% of standard deviation (range 83.0–100.0%), respectively. The summarized mean value of the accuracy and specificity of CT in COVID-19 disease were 89.1% ± 7.3% of standard deviation (range 78.0–99.9%) and 94.5 ± 6.4% of standard deviation (range 86.0–100.0%), respectively. No statistically significant difference in summarized accuracy mean value between CXR and CT was observed using the Chi square test (p value > 0.05). Conclusions: Summarized accuracy of the selected papers is high but there was an important variability; however, less in CT studies compared to CXR studies. Nonetheless, AI approaches could be used in the identification of disease clusters, monitoring of cases, prediction of the future outbreaks, mortality risk, COVID-19 diagnosis, and disease management.

Total Worker Health® (TWH) interventions that utilize integrated approaches to advance worker safety, health, and well-being can be challenging to design and implement in practice. This may be especially true for the food service industry, characterized by high levels of injury and turnover. This paper illustrates how we used TWH Implementation Guidelines to develop and implement an organizational intervention to improve pain, injury, and well-being among low-wage food service workers. We used the Guidelines to develop the intervention in two main ways: first, we used the six key characteristics of an integrated approach (leadership commitment, participation, positive working conditions, collaborative strategies, adherence, data-driven change) to create the foundation of the intervention, second, we used the four stages to guide integrated intervention planning. For each stage (engaging collaborators, planning, implementing, evaluating for improvement), the Guidelines provided a flexible and iterative process to plan the intervention to improve safety and ergonomics, work intensity, and job enrichment. This paper provides a real-world example of how the Guidelines can be used to develop a complex TWH intervention for food service workers that is responsive to organizational context and addresses targeted working conditions. Application of the Guidelines is likely transferable to other industries.