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Background: A voluntary and free initial health assessment is offered to all asylum seekers upon arrival in Finland. The central aim of this initial health assessment is early identification of service needs. There is, however, limited information on how effective the initial assessment is in fulfilling its aims. This study explores the viewpoints of asylum seekers, reception centre nurses, and health authorities regarding the objectives of the initial health assessment. It serves as a starting point for effectiveness research, where effectiveness is defined as the achievement of intended aims. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study is based on 31 semi-structured individual interviews (13 asylum seekers, 14 nurses, and four asylum health authorities) conducted in January and February 2019. Reflective thematic analysis was employed for data analysis, involving initial separate analyses for each group, followed by an assessment of differences and similarities between the groups. Results: The importance of a comprehensive initial health assessment and preventing infections was emphasized by all groups. The main differences were views on service needs assessment in relation to persons in vulnerable situation and information provision. All groups described both individual and public health perspectives. Conclusions: This study provides valuable insights for developing a more effective assessment. Asylum seekers require comprehensive health assessment and details about their rights. To address these needs, it is crucial to update reception centre nurses' practices. Additionally, authorities responsible for planning and guiding services should refine their instructions concerning the information provided to asylum seekers and persons in vulnerable situations. The findings of this study can be used to enhance information provision and develop targeted training programs for nurses, as well as to evaluate the achievement of established aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Swine flu might serve as a model for challenges that primary care faces during pandemics. This study examined changes in the numbers and diagnoses of general practitioner (GP) visits during and after the Swine flu pandemic in Vantaa, a Finnish city, and how GP activities recovered after the pandemic. Putative sex and age group differences were also evaluated., Methods: The study was an observational retrospective study. The monthly number of patient visits to primary care GPs by women and men in age groups 0-19, 20-64 and 65 + years was recorded before, during and two years after the Swine flu pandemic. The recorded diagnoses were also examined. The investigation period was from 2008 to 2012., Results: The numbers of monthly visits to primary care decreased from 12 324 (mean) to 10 817 in women and from 8563 to 7612 in men during the first six months of the Swine flu, returning to the original level afterwards. This decrease was thus slightly more prominent in women. However, as the size of the population increased during the follow-up period, the actual number of GP visits adjusted for the size of population remained at a decreased level for two years after the Swine flu. This decrease was observed especially in office-hours visits of men (from 3692 to 3260) and women (from 6301 to 5428) of 20-64 years. Swine flu did not alter the number of visits to the primary care Emergency Department. The proportion of visits with diagnostic recordings of common infectious diseases mostly decreased during the Swine flu. Only a minor impact on the distribution of recordings of chronic diagnoses was found., Conclusion: A pandemic, such as Swine flu, may decrease office-hours visits to primary care GPs. This in turn may lead to activities of primary care being adjusted downward for a long time following the pandemic. Especially the age group 20-64 years may be affected. This risk should be considered when recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic begins. Swine flu did not affect the proportion of consultations of chronic diseases, but the number of diagnoses of common infectious diseases had diminished., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Fabricating dispersed single atoms and size-controlled metal nanoclusters remains a difficult challenge due to sintering. Here, we demonstrate that atoms and clusters can be immobilized using atomically clean defect-engineered graphene as the matrix. The graphene is first cleaned of surface contamination with laser heating, after which low-energy Ar irradiation is used to create spatially well-separated vacancies into it. Metal atoms are then evaporated either via thermal or ebeam evaporation onto graphene, where they diffuse until being trapped into a vacancy. The density of embedded structures can be controlled through irradiation dose, and the size of the structures through evaporation time. The resulting structures are confirmed through atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy. We demonstrate here incorporation of Al, Ti, Fe, Ag and Au single atoms or nanoclusters, but the method should work equally well for other elements., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Jani Kotakoski reports financial support was provided by Austrian Science Fund. Harriet Ahlgren reports financial support was provided by Austrian Science Fund. Kimmo Mustonen reports financial support was provided by Austrian Science Fund. Toma Susi reports financial support was provided by European Research Council. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The van der Waals atomic solids of noble gases on metals at cryogenic temperatures were the first experimental examples of two-dimensional systems. Recently, such structures have also been created on surfaces under encapsulation by graphene, allowing studies at elevated temperatures through scanning tunnelling microscopy. However, for this technique, the encapsulation layer often obscures the arrangement of the noble gas atoms. Here we create Kr and Xe clusters in between two suspended graphene layers, and uncover their atomic structure through transmission electron microscopy. We show that small crystals (N < 9) arrange on the basis of the simple non-directional van der Waals interaction. Larger crystals show some deviations, possibly enabled by deformations in the encapsulating graphene lattice. We further discuss the dynamics of the clusters within the graphene sandwich, and show that although all the Xe clusters with up to N ≈ 100 remain solid, Kr clusters with already N ≈ 16 turn occasionally fluid under our experimental conditions (under a pressure of ~0.3 GPa). This study opens a way for the so-far unexplored frontier of encapsulated two-dimensional van der Waals solids with exciting possibilities for fundamental condensed-matter physics research and possible applications in quantum information technology., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Background: Previous electroencephalography (EEG) studies have indicated altered brain oscillatory α-band activity in schizophrenia, and treatment with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) using individualized α-frequency has shown therapeutic effects. Magnetic resonance imaging-based neuronavigation methods allow stimulation of a specific cortical region and improve targeting of rTMS; therefore, we sought to study the efficacy of navigated, individual α-peak-frequency-guided rTMS (αTMS) on treatment-refractory schizophrenia., Methods: We recruited medication-refractory male patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder in this doubleblind, sham-controlled study. We randomized patients to a 3-week course of either active αTMS or sham stimulation applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). We assessed participants with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI) at baseline and after treatment. We conducted a follow-up assessment with the PANSS 3 months after intervention., Results: We included 44 patients. After treatment, we observed a significantly higher PANSS total score ( p = 0.029), PANSS general psychopathology score ( p = 0.027) and PANSS 5-factor model cognitive-disorganized factor score ( p = 0.011) in the αTMS group than the sham group. In addition, the CGI-Improvement score was significantly higher among those who received αTMS compared with sham stimulation ( p = 0.048)., Limitations: The limited number of study participants included only male patients. Depression was not formally evaluated., Conclusion: Navigated αTMS to the left DLPFC reduced total, general psychopathological, and cognitive-disorganized symptoms of schizophrenia. These results provide evidence for the therapeutic efficacy of individual α-peak-frequency-guided rTMS in treatment-refractory schizophrenia., Clinical Trial Registration: NCT01941251; ClinicalTrials.gov., Competing Interests: Competing interests:: Sara Määttä is vice president of the Finnish Society of Clinical Neurophysiology. Petro Julkunen reports unrelated consulting fees and a patent with Nexstim Plc. No other competing interests were declared., (© 2024 CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors.)