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Jelena Raudeniece,1– 3 Ilze Justamente,1– 3 Liga Ozolina-Moll,1 Artjoms Sobolevs,4 Maksims Zolovs,5,6 Flemming Dela,2,7 Dace Reihmane2,3 1Department of Human and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia; 2Department of Human Physiology and Biochemistry, Riga Stradiņš University, Riga, Latvia; 3Laboratory of Sports and Nutrition Research, Riga Stradiņš University, Riga, Latvia; 4Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Riga Stradiņš University, Riga, Latvia; 5Statistics Unit, Riga Stradiņš University, Riga, Latvia; 6Institute of Life Sciences and Technology, Department of Biosystematics, Daugavpils University, Daugavpils, Latvia; 7Xlab, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DenmarkCorrespondence: Jelena Raudeniece, Department of Human and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Latvia, Jelgavas Street 1, LV-1004, Riga, Latvia, Email jelena.raudeniece@olimpiade.lvPurpose: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) has become a condition not rarely diagnosed in children and adolescents, leading to changes in physical and mental health. Simple and cost-effective screening methods applied in schools are needed to take preventive measures and reduce the risk of the development of MetS in children.Methods: This prospective longitudinal study aims to investigate the prevalence of MetS and its risk factors in 8– 10-year-old schoolchildren (46 boys and 60 girls) over 3 consecutive years. General Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) was used to assess the effect of recommended daily levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and obesity level on a new set of orthogonal variables formed from various parameters of MetS (eg blood pressure (BP), lipid panel and glucose homeostasis) determined by Principal Component Analysis (PCA).Results: The prevalence of MetS was 2% in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019, while in 2020 prevalence reached 7.7%. The most prevalent combination of criteria defining MetS syndrome in children was increased WC, BP, and blood triglycerides (TG). PCA identified non-high-density lipoprotein (non-HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and total cholesterol (TCHOL) as important predictors of metabolic syndrome (MetS). Additionally, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and body mass index (BMI) were found to significantly influence the variance in MetS criteria. However, moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) did not have a notable effect on the variance of these criteria.Conclusion: The prevalence of MetS in children is increasing with age. Non-HDL turned out to be the most influential parameter across all principal components. The CRF, being accessible, simple to use, non-invasive and cost-effective, proved to be a superior predictor of variance of glucose homeostasis compared to BMI.Keywords: cardiorespiratory fitness level, cardiometabolic health, BMI, MVPA, pupils

Anna Gavrilova,1 Maksims Zolovs,2,3 Inga Urt&amacr;ne,1 Dins Šmits4 1Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, R&imacr;ga Stradi&ncedil;š University, Riga, LV-1007, Latvia; 2Statistical Unit, Faculty of Medicine, R&imacr;ga Stradi&ncedil;š University, Riga, LV-1048, Latvia; 3Institute of Life Sciences and Technology, Daugavpils University, Daugavpils, LV-5401, Latvia; 4Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Public Health and Social Welfare, R&imacr;ga Stradi&ncedil;š University, Riga, LV-1007, LatviaCorrespondence: Anna Gavrilova, Pharmaceutical Education and Research Centre, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, 21 Konsula street, Riga, LV-1007, Latvia, Email Anna.Gavrilova@rsu.lvIntroduction: The global prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains substantial, particularly in regions with limited resources, despite the progress in scientific knowledge and the accessibility of antiretroviral therapy (ART). ART is the cornerstone of HIV treatment. Ensuring proper adherence to medication therapy is essential for effective HIV infection control. Meanwhile, Latvia reported one of the highest rates of HIV infections among EU countries.Purpose: This study aimed to assess adherence levels to ART among long-term users by utilizing the National Health Service prescription electronic database records. It is essential to determine whether non-adherence is a problem at the state level.Patients and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted utilizing the Latvian National Health Service’s reimbursed prescription database, covering the period from January 2017 to December 2018. The analysis included ART prescriptions. Medication adherence was assessed using a Proportion of Days Covered (PDC) calculation. The adherence rates were categorized into three groups: (1) < 80% (non-adherence), (2) 80% to 90% (suboptimal adherence), and (3) > 90% (optimal adherence) groups.Results: A total of 25,892 ARV medicines prescription records for 1471 patients were analysed. The adherence level of long-term ART was 38.3%. Of all patients, only 37 (2.5%) had achieved an optimal and 25 (1.7%) suboptimal adherence level. Meanwhile, the remaining patients (95.8%) were identified as non-adherent to therapy. It has been determined that 96.1% (n=1414) of patients experienced a time gap of more than 90 days between their prescriptions at least once. On average, each patient had 3.5 of these gaps, with a maximum of 7 times.Conclusion: Medication adherence level to ART is low in Latvia. Less than 3% of patients achieved optimal adherence levels with a PDC higher than 90%. These results are concerning. Further studies and interventions must be conducted to enhance adherence levels.Keywords: HIV, AIDS, ART, PDC, National Health Service

Dytiscus latissimus (Coleoptera Dytiscidae) is an endangered diving beetle throughout its range. It is one of the two species of Dytiscidae listed in Annex II of the Habitats Directive, IUCN red list and in many national level legislations and therefore strictly protected. The conservation of endangered species first of all requires an assessment of their population size. Until now, a method has not been developed for estimating the size of D. latissimus populations. The article summarizes the results of two studies carried out independently in Germany and Latvia. Both studies were carried out in one water body used recapture method but with a different spatial placement of traps, which, according to our data, is an important factor in population estimation. We evaluated Jolly-Seber and Schnabel approaches of estimating aquatic beetle's populations and found that confidence intervals obtained by different methods in our research do not differ significantly, but combination of both models provide the most accurate estimates of population dynamics. As part of the study, we concluded that the populations of Dytiscus latissimus are relatively closed, so we accept that the Schnabel estimate shows more accurate data. By fixing the places of capture of each individual, it was found that females live mainly locally, and males actively move within the water body. This aspect indicates the advantage of the spatial placement of traps compared to the use of transects. The results of our study show a significantly higher number of both captured and recaptured males Such a sex ratio may indicate both a greater activity of males and differences in the sex ratio in the population. The study confirmed that environmental changes, such as the water level in a water body, can also significantly affect the result of a population assessment. In the frame of D. latissimus monitoring, to obtain an objective estimation of the species population size we recommend using four traps for each 100 m of water body shoreline with 4–8 censuses, dependently on the recapture rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a human viral infectious disease involving the central nervous system (CNS). It is caused by the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). At present, there is very limited information regarding the clinical importance and health burden of TBE infections without signs of CNS inflammation. Moreover, such cases are omitted from official TBE surveillances and there are no reports of population-based studies., Methods and Findings: A nationwide population-based study was conducted in Latvia by intensively searching for symptomatic TBEV infections recorded in outpatient and hospital settings between 2007 and 2022. In total, 4,124 symptomatic TBEV infections were identified, of which 823 (20.0%) had no CNS involvement. Despite the lack of neurological symptoms, non-CNS TBE patients still experienced severe health conditions that required management in a hospital setting for a median duration of 7 days. Furthermore, lumbar puncture information was available for 708 of these patients, with 100 (14.1%) undergoing the procedure, suggesting a high suspicion of CNS involvement., Conclusions: Clearly, non-CNS TBE has the potential to negatively impact the health of patients. The actual burden of non-CNS TBEV cases may be higher than we think as these cases are omitted from official TBE surveillances and are challenging to recognize., Competing Interests: Study received funding from a commercial source: Pfizer, grant number #56910489. Prof. Dace Zavadska has received funding as an expert in participation in Expert Forum from Company Sanofi Pasteur, unrelated to the current study. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The authors remain committed to the transparency and integrity of their research., (Copyright: © 2024 Freimane et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)