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The paper refers to security requirements for new threats international airports, taking specifically into consideration current challenges within processing of passengers, in light of types of current major threats, in a way ensuring positive passenger experience within their journey. In addition, within the scope of this paper, presented initial outcome of study research among professional aviation stakeholder's environment, on current threats in the area of security and protection of airport infrastructure. The airports are a very demanding environment: seasonal traffic, fluctuating passenger volumes and last minute changes mean there is a lot of flexibility required in order to meet specific needs of airport authorities and their clients or the passengers (Dolnik, 2009). Therefore, security in aviation sector has been a big issue for civil aviation authorities, as airports are susceptible targets for terrorist attacks. The list of incidents is extensive and gets longer every year despite strict security measures. Within decades, aviation has become the backbone of our global economy bringing people to business, tourists to vacation destinations and products to markets. Statistically flying remains the safest mode of travelling compared to other modes of transportation. However, simultaneously terrorists and criminals continue in their quest to explore new ways of disrupting air transportation and the challenge to secure airports and airline assets remain real. This calls for greater awareness of security concerns in the aviation sector. The key element, how to protects against terrorist modus operandi, is to stay ahead of recent threats, incidents and breaches occurring worldwide. It requires implementation of effective data sharing systems, in order to proactively monitor potential risks and vulnerabilities within different type of aviation ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper refers to threat assessment of dangerous goods (DG) in transportation of the European Union and the Republic of Poland. Dangerous goods in the European Union are carried by inland waterways, rail and road. In Poland 87.5% of DG have been carried by road and 12.5% by rail in 2014. DG can cause an accident and lead to fires, explosions and chemical poisoning or burning with considerable harm to people and the environment. There is not monitoring system in Poland to control in real time road transportation of dangerous goods. Proposition of National System of Monitoring Dangerous Goods in Poland was presented. Realization of mentioned kind of system may significantly contribute to improving safety of people and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents threat assessment of potential terrorist attacks to the transport infrastructure. The range of transportation infrastructure has spread and includes railway, inland waterways, road, maritime, air, intermodal transport infrastructure and intelligent transport systems (ITS). ITS service is the provision of an ITS application through a well-defined organisational and operational framework with the aim of contributing to the user safety, efficiency, comfort and/or to facilitate or support transport and travel operations. Terrorism means acts of violence committed by groups that view themselves as victimized by some notable historical wrong. Although these groups have no formal connection with governments, they usually have the financial and moral backing of sympathetic governments. Typically, they stage unexpected attacks on civilian targets, including transport infrastructure, with the aim of sowing fear and confusion. Based on the analyses, transportation infrastructure is potentially threatened with terrorism attacks, especially road and rail infrastructure (about 23 %), and to a smaller degree the maritime and air transport infrastructure (about 2 %). There were 90,3% of incidents involve land transport (74,5% - vehicles, 9,5% - buses, 6,3% - rail) covered the 41-year period 1967-2007 in the USA. Legal steps to fight terrorism have been taken on the international level, furthermore, some institutions have been established for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In Japan, patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can be escalated to treatment with inhaled triple therapy. Two single-inhaler triple therapies combining an inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting muscarinic antagonist/long-acting β 2 -agonist (ICS/LAMA/LABA) are approved maintenance therapies for patients with COPD, and multiple-inhaler triple therapies (MITTs) are also available. There is limited evidence regarding real-life treatment patterns and characteristics of patients with COPD initiating triple therapies., Methods: This observational, retrospective cohort study identified patients with COPD in Japan from an administrative claims database (May 2018-December 2021). Demographics, clinical characteristics, and healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) were assessed in four cohorts initiating a triple therapy: budesonide/glycopyrronium/formoterol fumarate dihydrate (BGF) early adopters (initiated ≤ 12 months after market approval [September 1, 2019]), contemporary BGF users (initiated > 12 months after market approval), fluticasone furoate/umeclidinium/vilanterol (FF/UMEC/VI) users, and any MITT users., Results: A total of 636 patients were BGF early adopters, 2558 were contemporary BGF users, 11,187 used FF/UMEC/VI, and 5931 used MITT. The percentage of patients with concomitant asthma in each cohort was 73.0%, BGF early adopter; 74.2%, contemporary BGF; 75.7%, FF/UMEC/VI; and 84.5%, MITT. During the 12-month baseline period, the frequency of patients with ≥ 1 moderate/severe exacerbation was 18.2%, BGF early adopter; 14.3%, contemporary BGF; 13.1%, FF/UMEC/VI; and 14.0%, MITT. ICS/LABA treatment during baseline was the most frequent pathway to triple therapy, ranging from 38.2% to 51.7% across cohorts. HCRU was relatively high across cohorts (range of hospital outpatient visits/patient during the 12-month baseline period, 11.0-14.1). Multimorbidity was observed in > 80% of patients in all cohorts; cardiovascular diseases were among the most common., Conclusion: Many patients initiating triple therapy for COPD had concomitant asthma and had previously received ICS/LABA maintenance therapy. Patients prescribed BGF in the initial post-launch period were more likely to have a previous exacerbation history versus other cohorts, indicating more severe disease., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Aim: To describe patient and treatment characteristics associated with bevacizumab BS-Pfizer, rituximab BS-Pfizer and trastuzumab BS-Pfizer and their reference products in Japan. Methods: This retrospective observational study used an administrative claims database to identify patients with ≥1 biosimilar or reference product prescription from 2019 to 2022 for approved indications. Descriptive statistics were calculated. Results: Overall, 14-39% of biosimilar-prescribed patients initiated therapy with reference products. Biosimilar utilization significantly increased from 2019 to 2022. The most-commonly prescribed concomitant class of therapy with biosimilars was antineoplastic therapy. Conclusion: Reference products were most frequently prescribed among the Japanese cohorts, but substantial and increasing proportions received biosimilars over time. Future studies should extend our initial insights to assess biosimilar clinical outcomes in Japanese settings.

Introduction: Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is one of the world's major healthcare problems, especially in the Western Pacific regions. This study describes the prevalence, incidence, treatment profiles and clinical and economic burden of chronic hepatitis B patients in Japan using the Japan Medical Data Center (JMDC) Claims Database., Methods: This is a retrospective observational study. Prevalence cases were identified as patients with ≥ 1 inpatient or ≥ 2 outpatient CHB diagnoses and ≥ 2 records for hepatitis B tests or ≥ 1 prescription for CHB treatment between January 2010 and December 2019. Newly diagnosed CHB patients were defined as patients diagnosed from 2010 to 2018 with no history of the disease up to 2 years prior to the diagnosis. The index date is defined as the first CHB diagnosis day. We only used patients' data with ≥ 1-year post-index date., Results: We identified 13,061 CHB prevalent cases (2010-2019), yielding a crude period prevalence of 0.32%. Newly diagnosed CHB patients (n = 1973; median age 52 years) were followed for a median period of 3.1 years, during which 15% received a CHB treatment. Entecavir was the most common first treatment (66%). During this period, 3.4% of the patients developed compensated cirrhosis (CC), 1.5% decompensated cirrhosis (DC) and 3.0% hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Around 43.3% of CHB patients were hospitalized at least once. Hospitalizations, treatment rates, serologic testing and screening for liver diseases increased as the severity of the disease progressed. The average total healthcare cost was 870,568 JPY (7779 USD) per person per year. DC and HCC resulted in the highest management costs., Conclusions: Chronic hepatitis B represents a high clinical and economic burden for patients and caregivers, given its morbidity and associated costs., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Hernia repairs are the most common abdominal wall elective procedures performed by general surgeons. Hernia-related postoperative infective complications occur with 10% frequency. To counteract the risk of infection emergence, the development of effective, biocompatible and antimicrobial mesh adjuvants is required. Therefore, the aim of our in vitro investigation was to evaluate the suitability of bacterial cellulose (BC) polymer coupled with gentamicin (GM) antibiotic as an absorbent layer of surgical mesh. Our research included the assessment of GM-BC-modified meshes' cytotoxicity against fibroblasts ATCC CCL-1 and a 60-day duration cell colonisation measurement. The obtained results showed no cytotoxic effect of modified meshes. The quantified fibroblast cells levels resembled a bimodal distribution depending on the time of culturing and the type of mesh applied. The measured GM minimal inhibitory concentration was 0.47 µg/mL. Results obtained in the modified disc-diffusion method showed that GM-BC-modified meshes inhibited bacterial growth more effectively than non-coated meshes. The results of our study indicate that BC-modified hernia meshes, fortified with appropriate antimicrobial, may be applied as effective implants in hernia surgery, preventing risk of infection occurrence and providing a high level of biocompatibility with regard to fibroblast cells.