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Objective: To investigate differences in infection control awareness, and related implementation of measures between anti-epidemic medical staff and workers during the outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, and to propose corresponding countermeasures. Methods: A self-designed questionnaire on the practice of infection control and implement were conducted, and 250 medical staff and workers participating in the anti-epidemic work in our hospital from March to April 2022 were investigated online. Results: A total of 208 valid questionnaires were recovered, of which 192 were valid questionnaires, including 158 medical staff (82.3%) and 34 (17.7%) workers. Before entering the isolation point, the proportion of workers vs medical staff who knew the knowledge about COVID-19, hospital infection control procedures, standardized use of masks, awareness of occupational post-exposure disposal procedures, awareness of sensory control and implementation of sensory control in living areas were 58.8% vs 89.2%, 67.6% vs 91.1%, 82.4% vs 98.7%, (58.8% vs 98.7%), (47.1% vs 98.7%), (47.1% vs 94.3%) (P

Lipopeptides, a class of compounds consisting of a peptide ring and a fatty acid chain, are secondary metabolites produced by Bacillus spp. As their hydrophilic and oleophilic properties, lipopeptides are widely used in food, medicine, environment and other industrial or agricultural fields. Compared with artificial synthetic surfactants, microbial lipopeptides have the advantages of low toxicity, high efficiency and versatility, resulting in urgent market demand and broad development prospect of lipopeptides. However, due to the complex metabolic network and precursor requirements of synthesis, the specific and strict synthesis pathway, and the coexistence of multiple homologous substances, the production of lipopeptides by microorganisms has the problems of high cost and low production efficiency, limiting the mass production of lipopeptides and large-scale application in industry. This review summarizes the types of Bacillus-produced lipopeptides and their biosynthetic pathways, introduces the versatility of lipopeptides, and describes the methods to improve the production of lipopeptides, including genetic engineering and optimization of fermentation conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Pelvic girdle pain (PGP) is a multifactorial condition with a partly unknown etiology. This condition can be mentally and physically compromising both during and after pregnancy. To provide all-around preventive measures to improve the recovery from PGP, it is a necessity for obstetricians and orthopaedists to develop predictive studies about the worse prognosis for this condition. Therefore, this study aims to determine whether personality traits can predict the consequences of long-term pregnancy-related PGP. Methods This was a prospective study conducted from January 2015 to August 2018. A total of 387 pregnant women were enrolled in this study. According to whether they had experienced PGP during the past 4 weeks, the subjects were classified into no PGP and PGP groups. Persistent PGP after the pregnancy was defined as a recurrent or continuous visual analog score (VAS) pain rating of ≥3 for more than 1 week. The Quick Big Five Personality Test (QBFPT) was used to assess personality traits. Data were obtained by mail or in the clinic. The authors collected data including age, BMI, educational level, annual household income, cesarean delivery, breastfeeding, unexpected sex of the baby, parity, sick leave, no or rare ability to take rest breaks at work, and PGP in the previous pregnancy. Results Of 387 included women, 264 subjects experienced PGP during the pregnancy with a mean age of 26.3 ± 4.5 years. A total of 80 of 264 (30.3%) women experienced persistent PGP after the pregnancy. Persistent PGP after the pregnancy was associated with higher levels of neuroticism (OR = 2.12, P = 0.001). Comparing women with persistent PGP, those who reported higher levels of extraversion and conscientiousness were more likely to recover from this condition (OR = 0.65, P = 0.001; OR = 0.78, P = 0.010, respectively). Besides, neuroticism was positively associated with higher pain scores (r = 0.52, P = 0.005). However, extraversion and conscientiousness domains showed negative correlations with pain score (r = − 0.48, P = 0.003; r = − 0.36, P = 0.001). Conclusions Personality traits were significantly associated with the outcomes of PGP.

The AMEOS (Assimilating Multi-source Earth Observation Satellite data for crop pests and diseases monitoring and forecasting) project aims to bring together cutting edge research to provide pest and disease monitoring and forecast information, integrating multi-source information (Earth Observation, meteorological, entomological and plant pathological, etc.) to support decision making in the sustainable management of insect pests and diseases in agriculture. The main objective of the project, that is, improving crop diseases and pests monitoring and forecasting, will be achieved by utilizing EO data, developing new algorithms, and combining new and existing data from multi-source EO sensors to produce high spatial and temporal land surface information. The project foresees the assessment of the possibility of using available satellite images datasets to assess the evolution of diseases on permanent (olive groves, vineyards), or row crops (wheat) in Italy and China. The paper describes the results of the research activity which focused on: ① improving the classification of the agricultural areas devoted to winter wheat and olive trees, starting from what has been made available from the Corine Land Cover initiative; ② developing an approach suitable to be automated for estimating trees by using Sentinel 2 images; ③ developing a new index, REDSI (consisting of Red, Re1, and Re3 bands), for detecting and monitoring yellow rust infection of winter wheat at the canopy and regional scale. The research activity covers the: Province of Lecce, that is the Italian area strongly affected, since 2015, by the Xylella fastidiosa disease which causes a rapid decline in olive plantations. Province of Anyang, Neihuang county, which was affected by the yellow rust disease in the spring 2017.