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Introduction: Proper management of hospital waste is crucial due to its impact on health and the environment. Assessing the effectiveness of the management system using models can lead to improvements. Objectives: This study aims to evaluating the health-environmental and management performance of hospital wastes using the EFQM excellence model in three selected hospitals. (two military hospitals and one civilian hospital). Material and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, a detailed questionnaire was developed to investigate waste management strategies by reviewing literature and conducting unstructured interviews with employees and managers of selected hospitals. The questionnaire was validated through expert reviews, and its reliability was measured using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. A performance evaluation model was designed based on the EFQM organizational excellence model, using nine criteria in the form of "enablers" and "results". Cochran's formula was utilized to determine the sample size, and the results were analyzed using SPSS23 software. ANCOVA was employed to compare the selected hospitals, and Bonferroni's post hoc test was used for pairwise comparison. Results: Results showed that the criteria (leadership, policy and strategy) and (healthenvironmental risk assessment and management) in hospital(A) and the criteria (partnerships and resources) and (Key performance results) in hospital(B) as well as the criteria (risk assessment and management) and criteria (community results) in hospital(C) are considered as their most important waste management strength. The comparison of these hospitals using the statistical method of univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) reveals a significant difference in the average of the criterion (partnerships and resources) in hospitals(C) & (B), and the criteria (community results) in hospitals(A) & (B) are significant. Conclusion: The senior hospital managers are confident that they have established an effective organizational structure and process management system. They believe this system will lead to sustainable improvement. They also recognize the need for shortterm and long-term plans to address areas needing further improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To find a parking space, valet parking drivers have to travel a lot, which leads to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In order to reduce these emissions, it is essential to understand a user's needs and criteria when searching for a parking space. Several selection criteria are considered when allocating a parking space. Recent research on parking space management mentions several parameters that have an impact on the choice of a parking space: namely, the traffic situation, the availability of each parking lot in question, and the cost of parking, etc. In this article, we discuss a new criterion: the physical condition of the driver in the management of parking spaces; the identification of the driver's bodily fragility. We also propose MCDM as a parking space allocation model that best meets the cost–benefit convention. This reflection leads us to evaluate MCDM methods in the field of intelligent parking management. Therefore, we conducted a comparison between the most recent multi-criteria decision making methods used by researchers, namely, CODA, EDAS, TOPSIS, and WASPAS. The CRITIC method was used in this paper to objectively determine the weight of each criterion. A new approach is proposed to evaluate and select the best MCDM method. Indeed, we propose a method that computes the "average inter-item correlation SW", a combination of the "average inter-item correlation" and the SW coefficient. This approach allows us to efficiently compute the correlation between a method and the set of methods while favoring the cells with the best ranking. A case study is presented to illustrate the MCDM approach to parking space allocation and evaluation. The proposed system provides drivers with services such as intelligent parking decisions, taking into account the human aspect while reducing energy consumption, driving time, and traffic congestion caused by searching for available parking spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The systematicity of health training (HT) for a participant with back pain still remains a challenge, while the regularity of exercises is an important objective of HT. Aim of the study: Getting to know the health determinants of active women with chronic back pain (ChBP), assessing the degree of variation in the hierarchy of health criteria, and their areas according to the length of HT. Material and methods: Women (n=159; 19-76 years old) were divided into three groups according to their length of training: A - less than 2 years and/or unsystematic, B - systematic 2-4 years; C - systematic for more than 4 years. List of Health Criteria Questionnaire by Zygfryd Juczyński. Results: Women from group A place health in the area related to the maintenance of the condition. The ladies from group B are focused on a specific health outcome. The women from group C understand that health is the need to follow a specific process and to work towards a defined goal. Conclusions: Attendance during the entire training cycle can be used to assess a participant's understanding of HT goals. The motives for HT depend on the length of training. In the beginners' group, other educational arguments should be used to build awareness of the long-term goals of HT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Berry consumption is linked to diverse health benefits, but numerous questions remain regarding mechanism of action, dose efficacy, and optimal duration and frequency of intake. Addressing these outstanding questions requires an organized assessment of current research, to inform future study designs and fill critical knowledge gaps. Tools that organize such information will also facilitate consumer messaging, targeted nutritional health initiatives, and dietary intake guidelines. This review aimed to describe the development and utility of the "Berry Health Tool Chest," an evidence map summarizing trial design features of studies characterizing the impact of berry consumption upon human health biomarkers. A systematic search strategy identified relevant high-quality human feeding studies, whose study design parameters were collected and compiled into an evidence map that is freely available as an interactive online interface enabling tabulated data to be interrogated, filtered, and exported. Of the 231 included studies, approximately 70% were of less than 3 months' duration and/or fewer than 50 participants, illustrating research gaps that could potentially inform the design of future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workers’ medical prophylactic examinations referred to in the Labor Code are one of the tasks of the occupational medicine services. They are regulated by law which has been in force for more than 20 years in unchanged form. During this period, new harmful, burdensome or dangerous to health factors appeared in the workplaces, for which no preventive health check-up standard was defined. In the meantime, the health criteria for drivers and persons applying for driving licenses have also been significantly liberalized. The above changes, the authors' own experience, comments and problems reported by physicians who provide workers’ prophylactic health care and employers as well as analysis of literature related to workers’ health care in other countries have created the need to harmonize and update guidelines on health requirements for selected types of work. In addition the scope and frequency of prophylactic examinations for exposures, which are not included in applicable legal acts, has been developed. Med Pr. 2019;70(1):125–37

Abstract: The Chinese Association of Geriatric Medicine proposed a set of criteria, The Health Criteria for the Elderly, to measure senior health. These criteria have their origins in the efforts in the past several decades to define successful aging. Successful aging theories, including the disengagement theory, the activity theory, and the continuity theory, represent sets of constructs on what elements constitute satisfactory aging and how it can be achieved. Rowe and Kahn's framework for successful aging emphasizes the impact of lifestyle choices on aging outcomes. The proposed health criteria for Chinese seniors may be too restrictive to be used as clinical guidelines. Instead, they can be promoted as goals of healthy aging in public education programs or serve as parameters to evaluate the effect of health policies and healthcare delivery models on the elderly population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prevalence of low back pain in adolescents is close to that found in the adult population. In view of the relationship between low back pain and the resistance of the spine stabilizing muscles, studies have sought to identify the ability of specific motor tests to predict this condition. Objectives: Our objective was to verify the predictive ability of three motor tests related to musculoskeletal fitness to identify adolescents with low back pain. Methods: The sample consisted of 150 adolescents, of both sexes, aged between 15 and 19 years. The Nordic questionnaire validated for Brazilian adolescents was applied to identify those with low back pain. Subsequently, three motor tests (one-minute sit-up test, Sorensen test and lateral plank test) were applied. Statistical analysis involved the ROC curve, to identify the Area Under the Curve (AUC), assuming a 95% confidence interval. Results: It was observed in males that all the tests had a low AUC (between 0.56 and 0.57), without statistical significance (p > 0.05). For females, AUC ranged from 0.62 to 0.66, with statistical significance (p < 0.05) for the cut-off points identified in the one-minute sit-up test ( 24 repetitions) and Sorensen test (≤ 28 seconds), however, without significance (p > 0.05) for the lateral plank test. Conclusion: Motor tests of abdominal and paravertebral muscle resistance were not predictors of low back pain in male adolescents. Despite the low accuracy, the cut-off points identified in the one-minute sit-up test and Sorensen test, can be used with some caution to predict low back pain in female adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: It is often assumed that water consumption is the major route of exposure for fluoride and analysis of water fluoride content is the most common approach for ensuring that the daily intake is not too high. In the present study, the risk of excess intake was characterized for children in households with private wells in Kalmar County, Sweden, where the natural geology shows local enrichments in fluorine. By comparing water concentrations with the WHO drinking water guideline (1.5mg/L), it was found that 24% of the ca. 4800 sampled wells had a concentration above this limit, hence providing a figure for the number of children in the households concerned assessed to be at risk using this straightforward approach. The risk of an excess intake could, alternatively, also be characterized based on a tolerable daily intake (in this case the US EPA RfD of 0.06mg/kg-day). The exposure to be evaluated was calculated using a probabilistic approach, where the variability in all exposure factors was considered, again for the same study population. The proportion of children assessed to be at risk after exposure from drinking water now increased to 48%, and when the probabilistic model was adjusted to also include other possible exposure pathways; beverages and food, ingestion of toothpaste, oral soil intake and dust inhalation, the number increased to 77%. Firstly, these results show how the risk characterization is affected by the basis of comparison. In this example, both of the reference values used are widely acknowledged. Secondly, it illustrates how much of the total exposure may be overlooked when only focusing on one exposure pathway, and thirdly, it shows the importance of considering the variability in all relevant pathways. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of this study was to obtain preliminary exhaled breath condensate (EBC) pH values fur healthy adult Croatian subjects, and to evaluate criteria for defining respiratory health of population providing normal EBC pH values in epidemiologic studies. In 109 adults without a history of lower airway symptoms (AS), four groups were described by narrowing the definition of "health" down to 1) without lower AS: 2) without lower and upper AS: 3) without AS, with normal FEV1 and bronchial normoreactivity; 4) without AS. with normal FEV1, bronchial normoreactivity, normal total IgE, and with negative skin prick test. Median EBC pH values did not differ between the groups (7.72, 7.73, 7.73, 7.73), but as health criteria got stricter, we observed a slight, nonsignificant increase in minimal pH values (6.95, 7.10.7.20, 7.37). Median EBC pH values with interquartile range in the total sample (7.72:7.63 to 7.76) were within the range previously reported by other authors. They did not differ regarding sex, smoking habit and atopic status, and were not associated with age, FEV~ or total IgE. The non-significant trend in EBC pH observed with stricter criteria of respiratory health and atopic status indicates the need for further research on criteria for defining healthy population in a larger sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]