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Policies relevant to many key sociological processes are often subnational, enacted at the regional, state/provincial, and/or local levels. This applies notably in the politics of the environmental state, where public and private subnational environmental policies (SNEPs) have major consequences for managing climate change, addressing environmental injustices, regulating land uses, greening energy markets, limiting pollution, and much more. While sociologists focus more on national policies, diverse sociological contributions emphasize the importance of SNEPs and their origins, diffusion, implementation, and sources of backlash. We begin by providing a typology of SNEPs. Next, we highlight not only environmental sociology (with its particular attention to climate change and energy) but also the sociologies of social movements, politics, the economy, science, risk, and organizations, which have each offered unique perspectives. Finally, we outline an agenda for how sociologists can further elaborate a distinctive perspective that highlights inequality, valuation, diffusion, scale shifts, and venue-shopping up to national and global policy systems.

Background: In addition to newborn screening, dried blood spots (DBSs) are used for a wide variety of analytes for clinical, epidemiological, and research purposes. Guidelines on DBS collection, storage, and transport are available, but it is suggested that each laboratory should establish its own acceptance criteria. Methods: An optical scanning device was developed to assess the quality of DBSs received in the newborn screening laboratory from 11 maternity wards between 2013 and 2018. The algorithm was adjusted to agree with the visual examination consensus of experienced laboratory personnel. Once validated, the algorithm was used to categorize DBS specimens as either proper or improper. Improper DBS specimens were further divided based on 4 types of specimen defects. Results: In total, 27 301 DBSs were analyzed. Compared with an annual DBS rejection rate of about 1%, automated scanning rejected 26.96% of the specimens as having at least one defect. The most common specimen defect was multi-spotting (ragged DBS, 19.13%). Among maternity wards, improper specimen rates varied greatly between 5.70% and 49.92%. Conclusions: Improper specimen rates, as well as the dominant type of defect(s), are mainly institution-dependent, with various maternity wards consistently showing specific patterns of both parameters over time. Although validated in agreement with experienced laboratory personnel consensus, automated analysis rejects significantly more specimens. While continuous staff training, specimen quality monitoring, and problem-reporting to maternities is recommended, a thorough quality assessment strategy should also be implemented by every newborn screening laboratory. An important role in this regard may be played by automation in the form of optical scanning devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copper, a cofactor for many enzymes, is a bioelement that is involved in many main biochemical processes; although high levels of copper promote the proliferation of cancer cells. Further development of radiopharmaceuticals based on copper radioisotopes depend on understanding and taking advantage of its biochemical pathways in oncogenesis. As with other radiometals used in molecular imaging and/or targeted therapy, biological vectors are employed to transport copper radioisotopes to a target, aiming for high specific uptake at tumor sites and precise delivery of ionizing radiation. Evidence of the clinical utility of copper radioisotopes in the ionic form CuCl2 were also proven in an in vivo study of the copper metabolism, guiding personalized copper-chelating treatment in cancer patients and in imaging pathological sites associated with copper imbalance. Five of the copper radioisotopes have gained interest for nuclear medicine applications, based on their emissions, energies, and half-lives, as they can be produced with pharmaceutical-grade quality. The uptake mechanism, kinetics, and metabolic parameters are important findings in molecular imaging, which are decisive when designing individualized targeted radiotherapy for dose calculations of high linear energy transfer Auger electrons and β− emissions of 64Cu and 67Cu. As radiation deposits a high amount of energy within the intra-cellular space, the biochemical involvement of copper determines targets in drug design and validation. The biochemical pathways depict copper metabolism in normal cells and highlight its increased activity in tumor progression and angiogenesis. The avid uptake of copper into inter- and intra-mitochondrial spaces, as constituents of cytochrome C oxidase, substantiate the selection of 64/67CuCl2 as theranostic agents.

Floods are one of the most significant natural hazards in Romania, causing losses of human lives and important damages to buildings and infrastructure. Romania is recognized among the most flood prone European countries. This work was conducted in the framework of the VULMIN project, aiming to extract the available key indicators of major and historical flood events in Romania, as a basis for better understanding the patterns of socio-economic vulnerability to floods at regional and national scales and of the adaptive capacity of living areas along the main rivers of this country. The existing databases on flood records at global (e.g. EM-DAT International Disaster Database, Dartmouth Flood Observatory, GLIDE database) and national level (the preliminary flood risk assessment conducted within the framework of the EU Flood Directive), research projects (e.g. Hydrate, Danube Flood Risk) and the available literature have been explored to collect indicators of intensity, magnitude, extent and impacts associated to past major flood events recorded in Romania. Starting from the scientific and reporting needs, taking into account the reliable information found in the documented databases, the main attributes of floods and flash-floods events has been embedded into a proposed database to be developed in the project, which may be useful for further analyses related to hydrological changes associated to climate change.

This synthesis review is about description of the JOINTISZA, an ongoing project regarding strengthening cooperation between river basin management planning and flood risk prevention in order to enhance the status of waters of the Tisza river basin, the biggest tributary of the Danube river. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floods are one of the most significant natural hazards in Romania, causing losses of human lives and important damages to buildings and infrastructure. Romania is recognized among the most flood prone European countries. This work was conducted in the framework of the VULMIN project, aiming to extract the available key indicators of major and historical flood events in Romania, as a basis for better understanding the patterns of socio-economic vulnerability to floods at regional and national scales and of the adaptive capacity of living areas along the main rivers of this country. The existing databases on flood records at global (e.g. EM-DAT International Disaster Database, Dartmouth Flood Observatory, GLIDE database) and national level (the preliminary flood risk assessment conducted within the framework of the EU Flood Directive), research projects (e.g. Hydrate, Danube Flood Risk) and the available literature have been explored to collect indicators of intensity, magnitude, extent and impacts associated to past major flood events recorded in Romania. Starting from the scientific and reporting needs, taking into account the reliable information found in the documented databases, the main attributes of floods and flash-floods events has been embedded into a proposed database to be developed in the project, which may be useful for further analyses related to hydrological changes associated to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acute myocardial infarction is often accompanied by malnutrition, which is associated with an imbalance between catabolic and anabolic processes. This ultimately leads to cardiac cachexia, which worsens the patient's prognosis. We aimed to assess the correlation between nutritional status, assessed using the controlling nutritional status (CONUT) score, and the rate of major cardiovascular adverse events (MACE)., Methods: The present investigation was a non-randomized, prospective, observational study in which 108 patients with acute myocardial infarction were included. Nutritional status was assessed using the CONUT score. Based on the CONUT score, the patients were divided as follows: Group 1-normal or mild nutritional status (CONUT < 3 points, n = 76), and Group 2-moderate to severe nutritional deficiency (CONUT ≥ 3 points, n = 32). Demographic, echocardiographic, and laboratory parameters were obtained for all patients, as well as the MACE rate at 1 and 3 months of follow-up., Results: The MACE occurred more frequently in patients with impaired nutritional status at both 1-month follow-up (46.9% versus 9.2%; p < 0.0001) and 3-month follow-up (68.8% versus 10.5%; p < 0.0001). In terms of cardiovascular events, patients with poor nutritional status, with a CONUT score ≥ 3, presented more frequent non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, revascularization procedure, and ventricular arrhythmia. Also, the number of cardiovascular deaths was higher in the undernourished group., Conclusions: This study found that patients with poor nutritional status experienced inflammatory status, frailty, and cardiovascular events more often than those with normal nutritional status at 1-month and 3-month follow-up after an acute myocardial infarction.

It was recently discovered that water and PMMA emit a weak luminescence signal when irradiated with protons within the clinically used energy range. This could offer a fast approach for range measurements in water. However, a complete explanation or investigation on the origin of the signal has not been published. In this work, a setup for the high-resolution spectral measurement of the weak luminescence signal in water and PMMA was designed. The measurement environment in the vicinity of a proton accelerator represented a major challenge for the sensitive optical measurements due to the presence of ionizing scattered radiation. A high-sensitive spectrometer in combination with a custom-made fiber was used to build a foundation for further analysis of the luminescence signal by providing accurate spectral information. For water, a broad distribution in the range from 240 to 900 nm with a maximum at 480 nm was obtained. A comparison of the spectra with previously published work indicates that the signal originates from excited states produced during the radiolysis of water. In comparison, differences between the water and the PMMA spectrum were observed. When examining the signal in PMMA, spectral differences were found compared to the measurements in water. The signal in PMMA was approximately 10 times stronger, had a narrower distribution and was shifted to lower wavelengths. Nevertheless, for the investigated proton energies, no spectral energy dependence was detected. In addition to the results for water and PMMA, a further luminescence signal was measured when the silica fiber used was directly irradiated with primary protons. All spectra, obtained in this work, describe the signal of proton-induced luminescence in water and PMMA with a high resolution of 3.4 nm and thus form a basis for further research, which could be a powerful tool in proton range verification., (Creative Commons Attribution license.)

The aim of this case report is to discuss the rare postoperative complication of abdominal compartment syndrome in a 19-year-old Caucasian Greek male that was electively operated on for a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. The hernia was completely asymptomatic and was found in chest radiography for employment reasons. Abdominal compartment syndrome is related in most reports with trauma and abdominal operations. Timely diagnosis is key to the prevention of further organ damage and multisystem organ dysfunction because the syndrome once instituted is highly fatal.