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Rather than confining the categories health and sickness to a biomedical conception of the biological organism, there is growing recognition of epistemological and ontological multiplicity in the realm of diagnosis and, indeed, in the very realm of disease itself. In short, the empirical manifestations of health and illness as well as the processes thought to cause them are now understood to assume a much wider variety of both biological and other forms. This essay considers the underlying epistemological and ontological opportunities and challenges of taking what we are calling this diffusion of diagnosis seriously. By diffusion we mean the movement from a concentrated understanding of diagnostic authority as confined to scientific biomedicine to a less concentrated appreciation of the diverse approaches to diagnosis throughout the world. We consider the extent to which, and the manner in which, we as sociologists of diagnosis might not only critique these various processes but perhaps also take them seriously in an ethnographic sense as locally produced, evaluated and legitimated forms of health care., (© 2023 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.)

Climate change is impacting many aspects of human life in many ways. In Ghana, climate change knowledge remains low and discussions linking climate change and health are scarce. In this paper, authors contribute to the shaping of discussions about climate and health with a focus on how climate change increases certain ailments. First, the paper addresses the need for research in Ghanaian communities to link climate change and health. Second, the paper suggests the development of policies to address the link. Third, public health educators are advised in this paper to educate the public. Plain Language Summary: The paper addresses the link between climate change and health. Authors call for this link to be considered in Ghana and policies developed to meet worsening health problems. Key Points: Climate change is an important driver of negative health outcomesClimate change exacerbates the already precarious health inequality in GhanaResearchers, policymakers, and public health educators should focus on the impact of climate change on health in Ghana [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In complex environments, strawberry disease segmentation models face challenges, such as segmentation difficulties, excessive parameters, and high computational loads, making it difficult for these models to run effectively on devices with limited computational resources. To address the need for efficient running on low-power devices while ensuring effective disease segmentation in complex scenarios, this paper proposes BHI-YOLO, a lightweight instance segmentation model based on YOLOv8n-seg. First, the Universal Inverted Bottleneck (UIB) module is integrated into the backbone network and merged with the C2f module to create the C2f_UIB module; this approach reduces the parameter count while expanding the receptive field. Second, the HS-FPN is introduced to further reduce the parameter count and enhance the model's ability to fuse features across different levels. Finally, by integrating the Inverted Residual Mobile Block (iRMB) with EMA to design the iRMA, the model is capable of efficiently combining global information to enhance local information. The experimental results demonstrate that the enhanced instance segmentation model for strawberry diseases achieved a mean average precision (mAP@50) of 93%. Compared to YOLOv8, which saw a 2.3% increase in mask mAP, the improved model reduced parameters by 47%, GFLOPs by 20%, and model size by 44.1%, achieving a relatively excellent lightweight effect. This study combines lightweight architecture with enhanced feature fusion, making the model more suitable for deployment on mobile devices, and provides a reference guide for strawberry disease segmentation applications in agricultural environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) and ergonomic risk factors are very common in bakery workers. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to (1) assess the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among bakers because they use automated machines or traditional baking, and (2) to determine the strategies to prevent musculoskeletal disorders in bakers. METHODS: A systematic review of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science was conducted from the beginning to February 4, 2022, based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Mesh keywords and phrases were used to execute the search strategy. Information on MSDs and ergonomic risk factors in bakery workers was collected. Two reviewers worked independently on study selection, data extraction, and paper quality ranking. RESULTS: This study identified 14 papers from seven countries. Although the prevalence of MSDs in bakery workers has been studied, only a handful of them have been studied ergonomic risk factors, and the findings have been very limited. The association between different risk factors and MSDs seemed significant compared to many other occupational diseases. The traditional bread-baking system and lack of mechanization may increase the risk of MSDs in bakery workers. CONCLUSION: WRMSDs for bakery workers have been less studied than other occupational diseases. Our systematic review found several significant relations between the factors influencing the prevalence of MSDs. This study also showed the comparison of traditional and modern cooking systems with diseases of the upper limbs, shoulders, and back pain as possible fields for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Shenyang Agricultural University is the property of Journal of Shenyang Agricultural University Editorial Department and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines epidemics and disease prevention within the War Relocation Authority camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. Although scholars and activists have noted the limits and inadequacies of medical care within the camps, little attention has been given to the actions of camp administrators in curtailing outbreaks of deadly diseases such as polio and tuberculosis, including universal vaccination requirements and the use of quarantine orders. Disease in the camps resulted in cases of social isolation and ostracization and further exacerbated the stresses of life among the confined. Meanwhile, this article explores the use of the camps as sites of scientific study. Administrators and anthropologists documented cases of camp epidemics and published their results in journals on public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graham Greene is a critically acclaimed British novelist in twentieth-century literature. In his epidemic narrative A Burnt-Out Case (1977), Querry, a world-famous European architect, loses his faith in work and the Catholic religion and escapes to the leprosy-infected Congo. Querry's ennui makes him a de facto spiritual leper. Such an analogy often demonizes disease and normalizes people's perception of epidemics, simultaneously misrepresenting patients' various experiences. Nonetheless, the traditional stigmatization imposed on the Other, such as lepers in the Congo, does not merely necessitate the agony of the infected. Rather, epidemics often entail the victim's epiphany and turn the sufferers' pain into pleasure and their desperation into inspiration. Querry's retrieval of faith in life and humanity illustrates this empowerment. This paper argues that epidemics and people's responses to them alert us to a deconstructive power inherent in contagion. Epidemics are threatening and fearful, but they also enable humans to reexamine their lives and refresh their sympathetic understanding of human suffering. G. Greene's (1977) A Burnt-Out Case brings forth a timely version of people's regained humanity through suffering and disease, something urgently needed in the (post-)COVID-19 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacteria in the human body, particularly in the large intestine, are known to be associated with various diseases. To identify disease-associated bacteria (markers), a typical method is to statistically compare the relative abundance of bacteria between healthy subjects and diseased patients. However, since bacteria do not necessarily cause diseases in isolation, it is also important to focus on the interactions and relationships among bacteria when examining their association with diseases. In fact, although there are common approaches to represent and analyze bacterial interaction relationships as networks, there are limited methods to find bacteria associated with diseases through network-driven analysis. In this paper, we focus on rewiring of the bacterial network and propose a new method for quantifying the rewiring. We then apply the proposed method to a group of colorectal cancer patients. We show that it can identify and detect bacteria that cannot be detected by conventional methods such as abundance comparison. Furthermore, the proposed method is implemented as a general-purpose tool and made available to the general public., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Aging leads to progressive deterioration of the structure and function of arteries, which eventually contributes to the development of vascular aging-related diseases. N6 -methyladenosine (m6A) is the most prevalent modification in eukaryotic RNAs. This reversible m6A RNA modification is dynamically regulated by writers, erasers, and readers, playing a critical role in various physiological and pathological conditions by affecting almost all stages of the RNA life cycle. Recent studies have highlighted the involvement of m6A in vascular aging and related diseases, shedding light on its potential clinical significance. In this paper, we comprehensively discuss the current understanding of m6A in vascular aging and its clinical implications. We discuss the molecular insights into m6A and its association with clinical realities, emphasizing its significance in unraveling the mechanisms underlying vascular aging. Furthermore, we explore the possibility of m6A and its regulators as clinical indicators for early diagnosis and prognosis prediction and investigate the therapeutic potential of m6A-associated anti-aging approaches. We also examine the challenges and future directions in this field and highlight the necessity of integrating m6A knowledge into patient-centered care. Finally, we emphasize the need for multidisciplinary collaboration to advance the field of m6A research and its clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between the problem of dis/harmony in Jakob von Uexküll's Umwelt theory and the inclusion of experiences of disability, disease, or trauma, in said theory. It starts with discussions of dis/harmony and dis/ability in Uexküllian studies, from Uexüll's very own work on Umwelt theory to the contemporary commentaries and studies of said theory. It first articulates how Uexküll's focus on harmony provided poor conditions to account for dis/ability, while commenting on points where Uexküll offered direct engagement with or openness to situations of dis/harmony and dis/ability. It then forays into post-Uexküllian research on dis/ease and pathology and suggests that the work of Weizsäcker, Kurt Goldstein and Georges Canguilhem might constitute a useful step aside to allow Umwelt theory better to account for these situations. From then on, the article shows how contemporary investigations into the mutability of Umwelten in the context of the ecological crisis allows for the development of a phenomenology of Umwelt crises and trauma. Finally, the ethological dimension of Umwelt theory is taken up as a way to formulate a philosophy of intra-specific ethological diversity and ethological divergence, and the example of autism is read into the theoretical framework of Umwelt thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important model organism, Drosophila melanogaster has unique advantages in biological research because of its short life span, low culture cost, rich mutant resources and relatively simple gene operation. In recent years, with the vigorous development of food science, Drosophila melanogaster shows unique application value in screening new health food and pharmacological research. This paper reviews the methods and applications of establishing models of common human diseases and aging of Drosophila melanogaster, which lays a foundation for the study of the mechanism of diseases and aging, as well as the research and development of health food and drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA) is a freely available online resource for information on inherited traits/diseases (called phenes) in animals, including Equus caballus (horse) and eight other Equus subgroups. Maintaining up-to-date information in OMIA is a major challenge, especially in relation to variants (mutations), as reference genomes continue to evolve. The site is curated by faculty at the University of Sydney based on publications of peer-reviewed research. Curation has been aided by contributions from faculty and students at other institutions. Recently, OMIA has introduced computerized lists of standardized names and synonyms (called ontologies) for breeds of horses and other animal species and for phene categories. These ontologies facilitate increased connectivity between OMIA and other online resources. OMIA is and will continue to be a major reference resource for Mendelian phenes in the genus Equus. Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA is a freely available information resource, which includes information for Equus inherited traits/diseases (collectively called phenes). The database focuses on Mendelian traits and their likely causal variants (mutations). Some of these Mendelian traits are favored by humans, e.g., coat color, while others are diseases. Additions to OMIA are based on publications of peer-reviewed research. Maintaining up-to-date information in OMIA is a challenge, owing to the multiplicity of species, the increase in the number of relevant publications, and as reference genomes and methods of citation continue to evolve. This challenge has been successfully aided by contributions from scientists from around the world. In some cases, those scientists are faculty members who charge their students with curation as an educational activity. Recently, OMIA has introduced computerized lists of standardized names and synonyms (called ontologies) for breeds of Equus and other animals and for phene categories. These ontologies facilitate increased connectivity between OMIA and other online resources. OMIA is and will continue to be a major reference resource for Mendelian phenes in the genus Equus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capitalizing on the widespread adoption of smartphones among farmers and the application of artificial intelligence in computer vision, a variety of mobile applications have recently emerged in the agricultural domain. This paper introduces GranoScan, a freely available mobile app accessible on major online platforms, specifically designed for the real-time detection and identification of over 80 threats affecting wheat in the Mediterranean region. Developed through a co-design methodology involving direct collaboration with Italian farmers, this participatory approach resulted in an app featuring: (i) a graphical interface optimized for diverse in-field lighting conditions, (ii) a user-friendly interface allowing swift selection from a predefined menu, (iii) operability even in low or no connectivity, (iv) a straightforward operational guide, and (v) the ability to specify an area of interest in the photo for targeted threat identification. Underpinning GranoScan is a deep learning architecture named efficient minimal adaptive ensembling that was used to obtain accurate and robust artificial intelligence models. The method is based on an ensembling strategy that uses as core models two instances of the EfficientNet-b0 architecture, selected through the weighted F1-score. In this phase a very good precision is reached with peaks of 100% for pests, as well as in leaf damage and root disease tasks, and in some classes of spike and stem disease tasks. For weeds in the post-germination phase, the precision values range between 80% and 100%, while 100% is reached in all the classes for pre-flowering weeds, except one. Regarding recognition accuracy towards end-users in-field photos, GranoScan achieved good performances, with a mean accuracy of 77% and 95% for leaf diseases and for spike, stem and root diseases, respectively. Pests gained an accuracy of up to 94%, while for weeds the app shows a great ability (100% accuracy) in recognizing whether the target weed is a dicot or monocot and 60% accuracy for distinguishing species in both the post-germination and pre-flowering stage. Our precision and accuracy results conform to or outperform those of other studies deploying artificial intelligence models on mobile devices, confirming that GranoScan is a valuable tool also in challenging outdoor conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging field of genomic medicine offers an opportunity for biology and anatomy teachers to bring the topics of DNA, genetics, molecular processes, and evolution together into one experience. Through the genomic medicine paradigm, students see the unbroken connection between small biological topics such as mutations and their potential connection to disease phenotypes. In this paper, we present as a main example cystic fibrosis, which is an often-studied genetic disease in general biology class, for examination through the genomic medicine lens. Concepts such as genes, the plasma membrane, variation, mutations, the nucleus, and chromosomes can be used in a narrative and visual approach to genetics through the genomic medicine standpoint to engage and connect students with next-generation genomics and with the fundamental unit of life—the cell. It is through the genomic medicine lens that the cell's context and relationship to the evolving world takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disorders of the central nervous system (CNS) constitute a significant global health concern at the moment. Most CNS disorders are characterized by severe neuronal damage with excessive production of reactive oxygen species, which induces high levels of oxidative stress and intense inflammatory responses in the affected tissues, thus aggravating disease pathology. Notably, the blood-brain barrier makes it difficult to deliver many drugs and biologics to the CNS, which creates great difficulties in the diagnosis and treatment of CNS disorders. Recent research on polydopamine nanotechnology has led to the discovery of many promising properties; it shows strong scavenging ability for reactive oxygen species, prevents activation of pro-inflammatory microglia, and its repair function can reduce brain damage and protect neurons. Moreover, polydopamine nanotechnology can improve the blood-brain barrier permeability of biologics and reduce their neurotoxicity. It is therefore a promising candidate in the treatment of CNS disorders associated with oxidative stress. In the present paper, we review the functionality of polydopamine nanotechnology as well as the potential and recent advances of polydopaminebased nanosystems in the diagnosis and treatment of various CNS disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke, spinal cord injury, and glioma. Finally, we predict how polydopamine nanoparticles may guide future therapeutic strategies to address CNS disorders such as epilepsy, which currently have no cure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The alternative pathway of the complement system is implicated in the etiology of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Complement depletion with pegcetacoplan and avacincaptad pegol are FDA-approved treatments for geographic atrophy in AMD that, while effective, have clinically observed risks of choroidal neovascular (CNV) conversion, optic neuritis, and retinal vasculitis, leaving room for other equally efficacious but safer therapeutics, including Poly Sialic acid (PSA) nanoparticle (PolySia-NP)-actuated complement factor H (CFH) alternative pathway inhibition. Our previous paper demonstrated that PolySia-NP inhibits pro-inflammatory polarization and cytokine release. Here, we extend these findings by investigating the therapeutic potential of PolySia-NP to attenuate the alternative complement pathway. First, we show that PolySia-NP binds CFH and enhances affinity to C3b. Next, we demonstrate that PolySia-NP treatment of human serum suppresses alternative pathway hemolytic activity and C3b deposition. Further, we show that treating human macrophages with PolySia-NP is non-toxic and reduces markers of complement activity. Finally, we describe PolySia-NP-treatment-induced decreases in neovascularization and inflammatory response in a laser-induced CNV mouse model of neovascular AMD. In conclusion, PolySia-NP suppresses alternative pathway complement activity in human serum, human macrophage, and mouse CNV without increasing neovascularization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how medicine, which has developed instrumental and methodological treatment processes, has situated the body within the context of disease through the doctor’s diagnostic procedure, and how such a body can be “saved” through the intervention of doctors and medical knowledge. As an alternative to medical practice, we would like to consider how it is incorporated into objective and data-oriented bodies while placed in normal or desirable “becoming”. Medical practice, tailored to generalized and standardized health standards aimed at “correcting” the patient’s body, often overlooks the individual characteristics of the patient and the context of their life. The dazzling development of digital technology is changing countless biotechnology and the landscape of life. The body can no longer remain at its natural level, and there is no need for it to do so. As the focus is on “saving” and “correcting,” the gap between the patient’s viewpoints and the doctor’s perspective, which seeks to achieve a “cure,” may gradually increase. Furthermore, with the primary focus on improving treatment success rates, the patient's body is reduced to data as they transition from the treatment room, where personal interaction is possible, to the examination and operating rooms. This transformation reflects a medical field that combines invasive procedures with treatment, striving to adhere to heightened standards of objectivity. The fact that the patient is alienated and helpless can easily be overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of diseases in plants contributes an important role in captivating disease control methods for the improvement of quality and quantity of crop yield. Mango trees are affected by different diseases and the identification of diseases is a tedious task till now when those diseases are manually detected. This paper proposes the novel hybrid Coyote Grey Wolf optimization (CO-GWO) algorithm for the classification of mango leaves as normal or diseased. The classification process is done through the extraction of significant features from the segmented image. The Neural network (NN) classifier performs the classification task, with the weights being adjusted using the proposed algorithm that acts a major role in the enhancement of the classification accuracy. The effectiveness of the proposed model is evaluated concerning the evaluation metrics, namely accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 measure, and is attained to be 96.7111%, 97.5712%, 97.1504%, and 96.4792%, respectively. This shows the superiority of the proposed technique in the effective classification of mango leaf classification as compared with the existing techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: A growing body of research indicates that microorganisms play a crucial role in human health. Imbalances in microbial communities are closely linked to human diseases, and identifying potential relationships between microbes and diseases can help elucidate the pathogenesis of diseases. However, traditional methods based on biological or clinical experiments are costly, so the use of computational models to predict potential microbe-disease associations is of great importance. Methods: In this paper, we present a novel computational model called MLFLHMDA, which is based on a Multi-View Latent Feature Learning approach to predict Human potential Microbe-Disease Associations. Specifically, we compute Gaussian interaction profile kernel similarity between diseases and microbes based on the known microbe-disease associations from the Human Microbe-Disease Association Database and perform a preprocessing step on the resulting microbedisease association matrix, namely, weighting K nearest known neighbors (WKNKN) to reduce the sparsity of the microbe-disease association matrix. To obtain unobserved associations in the microbe and disease views, we extract different latent features based on the geometrical structure of microbes and diseases, and project multi-modal latent features into a common subspace. Next, we introduce graph regularization to preserve the local manifold structure of Gaussian interaction profile kernel similarity and add Lp,q-norms to the projection matrix to ensure the interpretability and sparsity of the model. Results: The AUC values for global leave-one-out cross-validation and 5-fold cross validation implemented by MLFLHMDA are 0.9165 and 0.8942+/-0.0041, respectively, which perform better than other existing methods. In addition, case studies of different diseases have demonstrated the superiority of the predictive power of MLFLHMDA. The source code of our model and the data are available on https://github.com/LiangzheZhang/MLFLHMDA_master. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macadamia decline poses a serious economic threat to the macadamia industry. It exhibits either a slow decline due to infection by Kretzschmaria clavus or Ganoderma lucidum, or a quick decline caused by pathogens like Phytophthora spp., Lasiodiplodia spp., Neofusiccocum spp., Nectria rugulosa, Xylaria arbuscula, Phellinus gilvus, Acremonium recifei, and Rosellinia spp. Chemical strategies, resistant cultivars, and agronomic measures have been widely adopted to control macadamia decline, but effective biological control measures have rarely been applied. This paper proposes two key steps for implementing biological control strategies, i.e., the isolation and selection of biological control agents from healthy plants, or from the disease-suppressive soil for the construction of synthetic microbial communities, and the integration of synthetic microbial communities with various strategies, including seed coating, root dipping, seedling substrate, soil drenching, foliar spraying, and application as a bio-organic fertilizer. By adopting these strategies, we aim to provide proactive and efficient approaches for combating macadamia decline and safeguarding the health of macadamia orchards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sports fanaticism seems to be a social and national concern in Saudi Arabia. This paper aims: 1) to identify the metaphorical manifestations and highlight the discursive construction of disease as associated with sports fanaticism in a corpus of Saudi newspapers articles; and 2) to seek plausible explanations for the emergence and use of disease metaphors in newspapers articles addressing sports fanaticism. King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Arabic Corpus (KACSTAC) served the data for the current study. The analytical procedures were informed by the discourse dynamics approach and metaphor-led discourse analysis. Findings show that sports fanaticism could be associated with the following systematic metaphors: 1) disease, in general; 2) disease causes; 3) disease symptoms; 4) disease evaluations; and 5) disease needs for medical solutions, interventions, treatments, and/or prescriptions. The discussion evokes a number of aspects: sports fanaticism emerges as a key topic; disease metaphors seem to be shaped and developed by the societal context and the nature of newspapers texts and discourse; they are enriched and influenced by the discourse situation and the needs to jointly construct and communicate intense experiences through specific evaluations and referential functions, which have a powerful resonance for the Saudi national and social levels; the use of disease metaphorical frames can structure our understanding and can simplify the concept of fanaticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kroatologija is the property of University of Zagreb, Centre for Croatian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present work aims to present aspects related to the main sources of environmental pollution that exist in the Western Region, as well as the impact of pollution on the health of the inhabitants, in order to ensure a healthy living environment for all the inhabitants of the region. Industrial activities located in this delimited area, sometimes very close or even in human settlements, lead to the appearance of intense sources of environmental pollution with effects on the health of the inhabitants. The short- and medium-term effects of air pollution are detrimental to human health and harm ecosystems and the economy. Long-term pollution affects the environment through: the effect of greenhouse gases, the destruction of the ozone layer, the presence of heavy metals, dust and suspended particles. The greenhouse gases specified in one of the annexes to the Kyoto Protocol are: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide. Heavy metals (mercury, cadmium, lead) are now well ahead of well-known pollutants such as carbon dioxide and sulfur and are predicted to be considered more dangerous than nuclear and solid waste. Heavy metal contamination is associated with their widespread use in industrial production, coupled with poor cleaning systems, as a result of which heavy metals enter the environment. Among all pollutants, suspended particles, nitrogen oxides, especially nitrogen dioxide, and ozone pose the highest risk to human health. Air pollution is potentially the most serious short- and medium-term health problem. Polluted air is the most difficult to avoid, and its effects penetrate everywhere and harm the health of the population. The Western Region has numerous sources of pollution such as the steel industry, the electricity and thermal energy production industry, the construction materials industry and the extractive industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As consumers increasingly prioritize health and wellness, the nutritional profile of blackcurrants, with its mix of vitamins, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory properties, positions them as a valuable addition to a balanced and nutrient-rich diet. Blackcurrants are valued for multiple reasons, with distinct attributes that contribute significantly to their prominence. They are recognized for early fruit-bearing, consistently high yields, and adaptability to diverse climatic and soil conditions. These attributes enhance the economic viability of cultivating blackcurrants, contributing to their widespread popularity among fruit growers. This review aims to provide a screening of the cultivation technologies for the blackcurrant crop, focusing on specific characteristics such as planting, soil management, fertilization, irrigation, pruning, disease and pest management. This paper can be a useful tool for anyone interested in blackcurrant crop technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force in various sectors, including medicine and healthcare. Large language models like ChatGPT showcase AI's potential by generating human-like text through prompts. ChatGPT's adaptability holds promise for reshaping medical practices, improving patient care, and enhancing interactions among healthcare professionals, patients, and data. In pandemic management, ChatGPT rapidly disseminates vital information. It serves as a virtual assistant in surgical consultations, aids dental practices, simplifies medical education, and aids in disease diagnosis. A total of 82 papers were categorised into eight major areas, which are G1: treatment and medicine, G2: buildings and equipment, G3: parts of the human body and areas of the disease, G4: patients, G5: citizens, G6: cellular imaging, radiology, pulse and medical images, G7: doctors and nurses, and G8: tools, devices and administration. Balancing AI's role with human judgment remains a challenge. A systematic literature review using the PRISMA approach explored AI's transformative potential in healthcare, highlighting ChatGPT's versatile applications, limitations, motivation, and challenges. In conclusion, ChatGPT's diverse medical applications demonstrate its potential for innovation, serving as a valuable resource for students, academics, and researchers in healthcare. Additionally, this study serves as a guide, assisting students, academics, and researchers in the field of medicine and healthcare alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to evaluate the antifungal activity of different drugs and preparations. The current findings demonstrated that the drugs and medicinal plant extracts that were examined for antifungal properties against various species. These species demonstrated antifungal activity almost on par with the commercial fungicide used as a positive control, even at low dosages. For further of the bioactive substances causing the noted antifungal activity, more research is required. Natural fungicides generated from plants could provide new active molecules, especially those with antifungal properties. The high percentage of active extracts in the species under investigation, which were chosen based on known ethnobotanical data, supports the applicability of this method for choosing plant species when looking for a certain activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study's objective was to assess the antifungal efficacy of various medications and formulations. Medicinal plant extracts and medications that were tested for antifungal qualities against different species were shown to have antifungal capabilities. Even at modest dosages, these species showed antifungal activity that was nearly identical to that of the commercial fungicide used as a positive control. More research is needed to determine which bioactive compounds are responsible for the observed antifungal action. Plant-based natural fungicides may yield novel active compounds, particularly those with antifungal qualities. The relevance of this strategy for selecting plant species when seeking a certain activity is supported by the high percentage of active extracts in the species under inquiry, which were selected based on established ethnobotanical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document summarizes a collection of 14 research papers focused on various threats to marine mammals in the Mediterranean Sea. The studies cover topics such as depredation and bycatch of dolphins in fisheries, social dynamics of bottlenose dolphins near the River Tiber estuary, ship strikes on fin whales in the Catalan coast, contamination from plastic debris, and bacterial infections in cetaceans. The research provides valuable information for implementing mitigation strategies and conservation efforts to protect marine mammals in the region. [Extracted from the article]

Elizabeth Barnes’ new book, Health Problems, seeks to show that health is philosophically distinctive and that no account of “health” can explain its biological, normative, political and phenomenological significance. Barnes argues that we should engage in the project of understanding this concept, but she is skeptical about its feasibility. Her skepticism is nevertheless ameliorative: it seeks to improve our understanding of this concept while accepting that, depending on the context and our purposes, its meaning will shift. In this paper, I examine and respond to two claims that Barnes defends in her book. The first concerns her skepticism toward the possibility of developing an explanatory and extensionally adequate account of health. To assess whether her skepticism is justified, I examine the objections that she raises against existing theories of health and disease. I argue that, while her objections are compelling, they do not justify her skeptical stance. The second concerns the relationship between health and well-being. Barnes argues against two views: that health is constitutive of well-being and that health contributes to well-being. In response to her concerns, I show that – on a richer understanding of “well-being” – these views can accommodate most of her concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop diseases pose significant threats to agriculture, impacting crop production. Biotic factors contribute to various diseases, including fungal, bacterial, and viral infections. Recent advancements in deep learning present a novel approach to the detection and recognition of these crop diseases. While considerable research has focused on identifying and recognizing crop diseases, fungal disease-affected crops have received relatively less attention and also detecting disease on different region datasets. This paper is about spotting fungal diseases in crops across different regions with diverse climates. It emphasizes the need for tailored detection methods, addressing the risk of mycotoxin production by fungi, which can harm both humans and animals. Detecting fungal diseases in apple, guava, and custard apple crops such as spot, scab, rust, rot, leaf spot, and insect ate. In the proposed work, the modified ResNeXt variant of the convolution neural network (CNN) technique was employed to predict 3 major crop classes of fungal disease. Initially, using Inception-v7 and ResNet for fungal disease in crops did not yield satisfactory results. A modified ResNeXt CNN model was proposed, showing improved fungal disease prediction. The novel model underwent a comparison with established methodologies. The suggested model draws upon a benchmark dataset consisting of 14,408 images capturing fungal diseases, categorized into three distinct classes: apple, custard apple, and guava. Experimental outcomes show that the proposed mutated ResNeXt model outperformed the state-of-the-art approaches. The model achieved 98.92% accuracy and high performance across recall, precision, and F1-score (above 99%) for the benchmark dataset, which gained encouragement and was comparable with the state-of-the-art approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this perspective is to promote the theory of salutogenesis as a novel approach to addressing ophthalmologic inflammatory conditions, illustrating several concepts in which it is based upon and how they can be applied to medical practice. This theory can better contextualize why patients with similar demographics and exposures are not uniform in their clinical presentations. Stressors in daily life can contribute to a state of ill-health and there are various factors that help alleviate their negative impact. These alleviating factors are significantly impaired in people with poor vision, one of the most common presentations of ophthalmologic conditions. Salutogenic principles can guide the treatment of eye conditions to be more respectful of patient autonomy amidst shifting expectations of the doctor-patient relationship. Being able to take ownership of their health and feeling that their cultural beliefs were considered improves compliance and subsequently gives more optimal outcomes. Population-level policy interventions could also utilize salutogenic principles to identify previously overlooked domains that can be addressed. We identified several papers about salutogenesis in an ophthalmological context and acknowledged the relatively few studies on this topic at present and offer directions in which we can explore further in subsequent studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately identifying diseases with similar symptoms, especially in resource-limited medical settings, is a key challenge to diagnostic accuracy. This paper presents a preliminary diagnostic system to address the challenge of diagnosing diseases with similar symptoms. The system has been implemented using the PyQt5 library and employs a unique symptom identification algorithm developed in Python. Furthermore, to carry out the diagnosis, it uses comma-separated values (CSV) and excel files as databases where the diseases and their respective symptoms are stored. The results show that the system has a precision of 95%, a sensitivity of 90%, and a specificity of 93% after evaluating 35 clinical cases covering seven diseases with similar initial symptoms, namely: dengue, zika, chikungunya, COVID-19, influenza, monkey-pox, and the common cold. Furthermore, the positive evaluation of the technical performance of the system by experts supports its practical feasibility and its potential as a valuable tool in medical practice. In conclusion, the system diagnoses diseases by analyzing the symptoms of the information file, highlighting its usefulness in improving the diagnostic accuracy of similar cases and optimizing medical care for the benefit of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do people understand the concepts of mental health and disorder? The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of several factors on people’s judgments about whether a condition constitutes a mental disorder or a healthy state. Specifically, this study examines the impact of the source of the condition, its outcome, individual valuation (i.e., the value the individual attaches to the condition), and group valuation (i.e., the value the relevant group attaches to the condition). While we find that people’s health and disorder judgments are driven by perceived dysfunction, we also find that health and disorder judgments are impacted differently by these factors. Health judgements are impacted by outcome and individual valuation, and disorder judgments are impacted by condition source. These results suggest that the folk concept of mental health is positive (i.e., mental health is more than the absence of mental disorder) and normativist (i.e., value judgments play a significant role in determining whether a condition counts as healthy), while the concept of mental disorder aligns with a naturalist perspective, at least to the extent that dysfunction plays an important role in categorizing a condition as a disorder. However, our finding that people’s dysfunction judgments are influenced by individual valuation and outcomes poses a strong challenge to naturalist accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is rapidly expanding across various fields, with chatbots emerging as conversational agents that provide virtual assistance. This paper presents a systematic review that examines the application of chatbots in the healthcare domain. The review aims to explore the evolution of this technology in terms of its demographic and temporal aspects trough out the past years, identify challenges faced, and investigate the factors contributing to successful chatbot implementation in the medical field. To achieve these objectives, a selection of 56 relevant articles from academic databases were analyzed. The findings from this review will provide a comprehensive insight into the utilization of chatbots in healthcare, shedding light on their potential benefits and limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This literature review aims to examine the complex relationship between engaging in shift work and its subsequent health sequelae, while also shedding light on fields of research that require further investigation. Indexing services (i.e., Scopus and PubMed) were used to identify pertinent studies, prioritizing original research, review articles, and meta-analyses from 2018 to 2023. Papers not published in English or where full-text translation was not available, research conducted solely on non-human populations, as well as proposal and opinion papers, were excluded. Papers published before 2018 and those with a sample size of 50 participants or fewer were also omitted. The author conducted a thorough evaluation of each study to ensure its relevance and significance. After deduplication of the search results and implementation of the exclusion criteria, 51 papers were shortlisted for this review. The keywords used for the literature search were “shift work”, “health”, “night shift”, “cardiovascular”, “circadian, cancer”, “disease”, “dose-response relationship”, and “long working hours”. The results showed that shift work significantly impacts various aspects of health, presenting risks in the areas of cardiovascular health, cancer susceptibility, circadian rhythm, immunity, metabolism, reproductive health, and mental well-being. Shift workers have increased risks for diabetes, hypertension, adverse cardiac events, circadian dysrhythmia, metabolic syndrome, mental health disorders, and even certain types of cancer. Shift work exhibits significant associations with sexual and reproductive dysfunction in both sexes, including elevated risks for miscarriages and preterm birth. In conclusion, the findings underscore the need for comprehensive health interventions and further research to understand the intricate relationships between shift work and long-term health consequences. Highlights: • Disruption of circadian rhythm due to shift work contributes to various health issues, including altered melatonin levels, immune dysfunction, and metabolic disturbances. • There is a critical need for longitudinal studies to explore interventions and workplace policies that can mitigate the adverse health effects of shift work. • Addressing the multifaceted impact of shift work on health requires a holistic approach that considers factors like circadian rhythm optimization, workplace support, and tailored interventions.

Abstract Climate change is impacting many aspects of human life in many ways. In Ghana, climate change knowledge remains low and discussions linking climate change and health are scarce. In this paper, authors contribute to the shaping of discussions about climate and health with a focus on how climate change increases certain ailments. First, the paper addresses the need for research in Ghanaian communities to link climate change and health. Second, the paper suggests the development of policies to address the link. Third, public health educators are advised in this paper to educate the public.

CRISPR has revolutionized illness detection by using precision gene editing to identify specific sequences in recent years. Using the Scopus database, this study performs a comprehensive bibliometric analysis, looking at academic papers on CRISPR that were published between 1992 and 2023. After screening a dataset of 1407 articles using Zotero, trends in annual publishing, citation patterns, author affiliations, and keyword co-occurrence are revealed using analysis tools such as VOSviewer, RStudio, and MS Excel. According to the report, there was only one CRISPR publication in 1992. By 2017, there were a meager 64 papers. Nonetheless, there is a notable upsurge between 2018 and 2023. Leading nations involved in CRISPR-based illness detection research include Germany, the United States, China, India, and the United Kingdom. Chongqing University Three Gorges Hospital, Chongqing University Medical University, and Chongqing University Bioengineering College are a few of the top institutions. With the greatest publication numbers (1688 and 1616) and strong total link strengths (TLS) of 42 and 77, respectively, authors Liu, C., and Li, Y., stand out. The field with the greatest citation counts as of 2023 is Broughton’s 2020 study on CRISPR-based SARS-CoV-2 detection in Nature Biotechnology, with 1598 citations. Biosensors and Bioelectronics comprise 14.99% of papers. Researchers, decision-makers, and interested parties can use this thorough summary to help them make well-informed decisions about future CRISPR-based disease detection studies.

Background: The paper seeks to provide evidence on the government policy’s moderating role in donor-funded procurement in the laboratory services of Zimbabwe. Procurement is a key component for any organizations to function optimally and the medical laboratory service is no exception considering that the donors are the major funders of the department hence the need for this study to examine the government policy as the moderating variable for this research. Medical laboratory services plays a very important role in the functioning of any health sector as every disease have to be tested to ascertain the actual disease a person suffering from before any treatment can be commenced. Aims: The aim of the paper was to examine the moderating role of government policy on donor-funded procurement in Zimbabwe’s laboratory services. Methods: The paper made use of a quantitative method research method. Data was collected from 260 respondents sampled from a total population of 795 using RaoSoftware but only 214 respondents successfully returned the questionnaire from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Zimbabwe and the analysis was done using STATA to run the structural equation modeling. Results: The study found out that government policy (GP) moderates the pre-donation preparation process (PDPP) (β=0.15, p-value = 0.038) donation requirement process (DRP) (β=0.24, p-value =0.000), donation recipient planning process (DRPP) (β=0.22, p-value = 0.001) and donation implementation process (DIP) (β=0.18, p-value = 0.004) and the effectiveness of donor-funded procurement. Conclusion: Based on the results, the study concluded that government policy has a role to play to support donor-funded procurement in the laboratory services in Zimbabwe and the world over and the study recommended that policy maker should take into consideration the important role as government policy plays as it support key health outcomes considering the crucial role the medical laboratory also plays. Received: 16 April 2024 | Reviewed: 22 April 2024 | Revised: 6 May 2024 | Accepted: 11 June 2024.

Neuroinflammation is an innate and adaptive immune response initiated by the release of inflammatory mediators from various immune cells in response to harmful stimuli. While initially beneficial and protective, prolonged or excessive neuroinflammation has been identified in clinical and experimental studies as a key pathological driver of numerous neurological diseases and an accelerant of the aging process. Glycolysis, the metabolic process that converts glucose to pyruvate or lactate to produce adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP), is often dysregulated in many neuroinflammatory disorders and in the affected nerve cells. Enhancing glucose availability and uptake, as well as increasing glycolytic flux through pharmacological or genetic manipulation of glycolytic enzymes, has shown potential protective effects in several animal models of neuroinflammatory diseases. Modulating the glycolytic pathway to improve glucose metabolism and ATP production may help alleviate energy deficiencies associated with these conditions. In this review, we examine six neuroinflammatory diseases—stroke, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and depression—and provide evidence supporting the role of glycolysis in their treatment. We also explore the potential link between inflammation-induced aging and glycolysis. Additionally, we briefly discuss the critical role of glycolysis in three types of neuronal cells—neurons, microglia, and astrocytes—within physiological processes. This review highlights the significance of glycolysis in the pathology of neuroinflammatory diseases and its relevance to the aging process. [Display omitted] • This article reviews current research on modulation of the glycolytic pathway for the treatment of neuroinflammatory diseases and suggests therapeutic agents that act through the glycolytic pathway. It also provides strong evidence on how to target glycolysis and regulate key proteins in different physiopathological states of the brain and for different diseases to effectively treat them. • This paper reviews the potential link between the glycolytic pathway and aging and clarifies that regulation of glycolytic intermediates and key rate-limiting enzymes can effectively control the aging process. • This paper provides a brief overview of glycolysis in neuronal cells, highlighting the physiological importance of the glycolytic pathway in neuronal cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body language refers to the unspoken communication conveyed through human body actions like body movements and postures, limb gestures, and facial and other bodily expressions. It acts as a transparent medium, exposing an individual’s emotions, attitudes, true thoughts, intentions, and physical and mental health states. A person may express pain using hand movements or other bodily cues, their facial expressions potentially offering insights into the intensity of the pain. Additionally, various diseases and pains can induce abnormalities in body movements, postures, and expressions, signaling distress or discomfort. Therefore, investigating the cause-effect relationships between diseases/pains and patients’ abnormal body language holds significant relevance, promising to enhance our understanding and management of these conditions. This importance has been reflected in numerous healthcare and artificial intelligence (AI) research articles. AI studies investigate this and related topics by detecting, recognizing, and analyzing patients’ abnormal activities and body actions using machine-learning techniques. However, most AI studies do not consider comprehensive domain knowledge that describes a complete and accurate list of patients’ abnormal actions caused by a disease or pain. Though these results appear consistent and stable from an AI outlook, they fall short when viewed through the prism of healthcare, primarily because the limited domain knowledge incorporated in the AI studies makes the findings partially incomplete. To overcome these drawbacks, this paper comprehensively reviews healthcare and medical studies centered on patients’ body language from an AI outlook. It presents a thorough descriptive and exploratory analysis of the findings, yielding a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of the causational connections between diseases and abnormal body actions and the strength of the evidence supporting these connections. The analysis enables us to define “disease-to-abnormality” and “abnormality-to-disease” mappings that result in building exhaustive and accurate lists of abnormal body actions induced by diseases and pains as well as lists of diseases and pains causing particular abnormal body actions. The generation of these lists is assisted by the concepts of “correlation strength index” and “strongly correlated selection” defined in this paper. The paper’s results have significant implications for developing machine learning systems that can more accurately analyze patients’ physical and mental health states, correctly identify external signs and symptoms of diseases, and effectively monitor health conditions.

Dictyoplwra rubravalvata is an edible fungus with rich nutritional value. It contains various nutrients and bioactive components, and has immunomodulation, anti-tumor, anti-oxidation, anti-fatigue, anti-aging, anti-inflammation and alcoholic hepatitis-protection effects. With the continuous expansion of planting area of Dictyophora, the disease problem has become a major problem affecting the development of Dictyophora industry. In this paper, the pathogens, harmful symptoms and causes of main diseases in Dictyoplwra were summarized, so as to provide reference for comprehensive control of Dictyoplwra diseases and promote the high-quality development of Dictyophora industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a review of global health literature, emphasizing the evolution in health terminology in recent decades and noteworthy research areas of global health. This review identifies global inequality and disease‐related stigma as key social determinants of health and central problems improving health outcomes. Within global health, there is a growing discourse surrounding health disparities, particularly among the world's most disadvantaged populations. Additionally, the field notes an increase in global health nonprofits, international governmental organizations (IGOs), and regulatory bodies. As such, this paper examines the scope of empirical global health research with consideration of inequality and stigma as well as the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in health outcomes for the developing world. The review also discusses the role of IGOs and global health regulatory bodies in shaping development and health outcomes. A broad review of literature finds that although chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are currently the largest cause of poor health in the world's most impoverished nations, these are largely untargeted by NGO efforts, which may exacerbate the state of global inequality. However, the impact that NGOs could have on ameliorating the effects of NCDs remains understudied and is a promising direction for future scholarly efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]