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Aging is associated with functional and metabolic decline and is a risk factor for all noncommunicable diseases. Even though mice are routinely used for modeling human aging and aging-related conditions, no comprehensive assessment to date has been conducted on normative mouse aging. To address this gap, the Study of Longitudinal Aging in Mice (SLAM) was designed and implemented by the National Institute on Aging (NIA/NIH) as the mouse counterpart to the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA). In this manuscript, we describe the premise, study design, methodologies, and technologies currently employed in SLAM. We also discuss current and future study directions. In this large population mouse study, inbred C57BL/6J and outbred UM-HET3 mice of both sexes are longitudinally evaluated for functional, phenotypic, and biological health, and collection of biospecimens is conducted throughout their life span. Within the longitudinal cohorts, a cross-sectional arm of the study has also been implemented for the well-controlled collection of tissues to generate a biorepository. SLAM and studies stemming from SLAM seek to identify and characterize phenotypic and biological predictors of mouse aging and age-associated conditions, examine the degrees of functional and biomolecular variability that occur within inbred and genetically heterogeneous mouse populations with age, and assess whether these changes are consistent with alterations observed in human aging in BLSA. The findings from these studies will be critical for evaluating the utility of mouse models for studying different aspects of aging, both in terms of interpreting prior findings and designing and implementing future studies.

Introduction: Uncontrolled growth of a group of cells is called cancer. Most of the drugs and therapies used in the management of cancer are immune suppressive. Objective: The present study was undertaken to observe the functional aspects of neutrophils in patients with malignant solid tumors before treatment and after chemotherapy and G CSF Administration. Materials and Methods: A total of 30 adult male and female patients who were newly diagnosed with malignant tumors were included as cases. 30 normal age and gender matched individuals were included as cases. Collection of blood was performed as per standard guidelines. Results: There was a significant (P value Conclusion: Our results are in accordance with earlier studies as we have observed positive impact on neutrophil percentage followed by the intervention. We recommend further detailed studies in this area with involvement of more parameters and large population. Keywords: Malignant tumors, Chemotherapy, Neutrophil.

Health insurance market in India has become the fastest growing segment in non –life insurance sector in India. The health insurance business in India saw a 24% growth in FY 17 with a premium of INR 30,765 Cr and a market share of 24%. It has been the fastest growing market segment registering a CAGR of 23% for the past 10 years. Health insurance industry is in a nascent stage with 25% of population under its coverage. There exists a huge potential for growth and penetration of health insurance to a large population. Going forward there are both opportunities and obstacles in marketing and distribution of health insurance products in India. This paper attempts to uncover the prospects of successful marketing of such products from the standpoint of insurance marketers and look at issues of impeding the growth of health insurance market in India. Keywords: Challenges, Drivers, General insurance, Health insurance, Opportunities, India.

Dermal fibrosis and Parkinson's disease are two chronic syndromes affecting a large population leading to systematic morbidity. The mechanisms of these diseases are well debated, and many medicines...

Indonesia is a disaster-prone country and has a large population, as evidenced by the increasing number of disasters almost every year. In Aceh province, the second earthquake occurred on 7 December 2016 Wednesday, in the area of Pidie Jaya Regency. This earthquake has caused many deaths and injuries, and damage to buildings. The victims died and were injured mainly due to collapsed residential buildings and other damaged public buildings. The methodology used in this research is by observing and measuring both quantitative and qualitative in the field and then analyzed based on the components of government regulations. The first qualitative measurement uses a map digitization checklist prepared, then the field survey to take pictures and quantitative inspection based on the type of building, building level, and building construction elements. Finally, analyzing the data uses the building regulation component of the government. The results showed that the earthquake that occurred resulted in almost all buildings with modern structures suffered minor damage. The rest sustained small loss and severe damage (collapsing). All buildings with modern structures consist mostly of structural elements/materials that are not under government regulations. This study also found that there are still residential buildings with traditional structures not damaged by the earthquake. This finding is expected to provide public awareness that constructing settlements with modern structures must use structural elements and components under building regulations from the government.

Objective: Race is a significant prognostic factor in various cancers, including the breast. Its prognostic association with spinal meningioma has not been established, although the incidence of spinal meningioma varies by race. In this retrospective cohort study, we aimed to investigate the association of race with the incidence and survival of spinal meningioma among a large population sample. Materials and Methods: A comprehensive search was done in the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database between 2000 and 2016 to identify patients with spinal meningioma. Overall and race-specific incidence were calculated. The effect of race on overall survival among these patients was determined with Kaplan–Meier curve and Cox proportional hazard models. Results: Of 3502 spinal meningioma patients, 82.6% were Caucasian, 7.7% were African-American, 8.8% were Asian/Pacific Islander and 0.7% were American Indian/Alaska Native. The overall age-adjusted incidence was 0.239/100,000; it was highest among Caucasian (0.249) and lowest among American Indian/Alaska Native patients (0.137). There was a race effect in overall survival in the unadjusted analysis with the worst overall survival reported for Caucasian patients, and the best reported for American Indian/Alaska Native patients. However, this relationship was insignificant in the adjusted analysis. Conclusions: Race was not significantly associated with overall survival among these patients. Future studies should use spinal-meningioma-specific survival as outcome to see whether there is a racial difference in survival.

Environmental changes caused by urbanization and noise pollution can have profound effects on acoustic communication. Many organisms use higher sound frequencies in urban environments with low-frequency noise, but the developmental and evolutionary mechanisms underlying these shifts are less clear. We used a common garden experiment to ask whether changes in minimum song frequency observed 30 years after a songbird colonized an urban environment are a consequence of behavioral flexibility or canalized changes that occur early in development. We captured male juvenile dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis thurberi) from two recently diverged populations (urban and mountain) soon after they reached independence (aged 25-40 days), raised them in identical indoor aviaries, and studied their songs at an age of three years. We found that the large population difference in minimum frequency observed in the field persisted undiminished in the common garden despite the absence of noise. We also found some song sharing between the common garden and natal field populations, indicating that early song memorization before capture could contribute to the persistent song differences in adulthood. These results are the first to show that frequency shifts in urban birdsong are maintained in the absence of noise by genetic evolution and/or early life experiences.

Background Our understanding of chronic diseases, such as atopic dermatitis (AD), could benefit from the ability to rapidly collect patient-reported, longitudinal data from a large population. Objective This study aimed to determine whether a smartphone app can be used to collect demographic and longitudinal symptom data and recognize prescribing patterns and affordability of medications to study the burden of AD. Methods We collected data using the myEczema smartphone app between July 2017 and April 2018. The data were de-identified and analyzed. Results A total of 519 users (94.2%) completed the initial demographic survey. The majority of users were female (n = 387; 70.2%) and Caucasian (n = 358; 65.0%). A total of 335 users (60.8%) had at least a university degree and were employed (n = 348; 63.1%). A total of 189 users (29.2%) reported difficulty affording their medications, and 363 users (65.9%) took advantage of the itch score recording feature. Finally, 184 users (33.4%) logged their treatments, with the highest number of users (65.2%) listing topical steroids as one of their treatments. Limitations The operating platform was limited to iPhones, and the results were subject to reporting bias. Conclusion A smartphone-based research app can be used to rapidly collect patient-reported data to study the burden of AD and to highlight the prescribing patterns and affordability of medications.

Background Nearly 20 years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, multiple studies have documented the adverse mental consequences among World Trade Center (WTC) rescue, recovery, and clean-up workers. However, scarce research has examined mental health stigma and barriers to care in WTC-exposed individuals, and no known study has examined whether rates of endorsement may differ between police and "nontraditional" responders, the latter comprising a heterogeneous group of workers and volunteers. Objective To identify the prevalence and correlates of mental health stigma and barriers to care in WTC responders. Methods Mental health stigma and barriers to care and their correlates were examined in 6,777 police and 6,272 nontraditional WTC responders. Results Nontraditional responders endorsed more stigma or barriers to care concerns than police responders. Within a subsample who screened positive for a psychiatric disorder, police were more likely than nontraditional responders to endorse "concerns that negative job consequences might result" (17.9% vs. 9.1%), while nontraditional responders were more likely to endorse "I don't know where to go to find counseling services" (18.4% vs.6.6%). Within this subsample, mental health service need and more severe WTC-related posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms were associated with increased likelihood of endorsing stigma or barriers; pre-9/11 psychiatric history and non-Hispanic Black race/ethnicity were associated with lower likelihood of endorsing stigma or barriers. Conclusions Results of this study underscore the burden of mental health stigma and barriers to care in WTC responders, and highlight the need for targeted interventions to address these concerns and promote mental healthcare utilization in this population.

We study herein the initial boundary value problem for a two-species chemotaxis competition system with loop $$\begin{aligned} \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} \partial _{t} u_{1}=\Delta u_{1}-\chi _{11}\nabla \cdot (u_{1}\nabla v_{1}) -\chi _{12}\nabla \cdot (u_{1}\nabla v_{2}) +\mu _{1}u_{1}(1-u_{1}-a_{1}u_{2}),&{}\quad x\in \Omega ,\quad t>0,\\ \partial _{t} u_{2}=\Delta u_{2}-\chi _{21}\nabla \cdot (u_{2}\nabla v_{1}) -\chi _{22}\nabla \cdot (u_{2}\nabla v_{2}) +\mu _{2}u_{2}(1-u_{2}-a_{2}u_{1}), &{}\quad x\in \Omega ,\quad t>0,\\ \partial _t v_1=\Delta v_{1}- v_{1}+u_{1}+u_{2}, &{}\quad x\in \Omega ,\quad t>0,\\ \partial _t v_2=\Delta v_{2}- v_{2}+u_{1}+u_{2}, &{}\quad x\in \Omega ,\quad t>0,\\ \end{array}\right. \end{aligned}$$ under the homogeneous Neumann boundary condition, where $$\Omega \subset {\mathbb {R}}^{n} (n\ge 3)$$ is a smooth and bounded domain, $$\chi _{ij}>0$$ , $$\mu _{i}>0$$ , $$a_i>0$$ $$(i, j=1, 2)$$ . In the radial symmetric setting, for any $$T>0$$ and $$L>0$$ , it is proved that there exists positive initial data such that the corresponding solution $$(u_1, u_2, v_1, v_2)$$ satisfies $$\begin{aligned} u_1(x_{L}, t_{L})>L\quad \text {or}\quad u_2(x_{L}, t_{L})>L\quad \text {for some}\quad (x_{L}, t_{L})\in \Omega \times (0, T). \end{aligned}$$ Moreover, when $$\chi _{11}=\chi _{12}, \chi _{21}=\chi _{22}$$ , $$\mu =\max \{\mu _1, \mu _2\}\in (0, 1)$$ , one can find initial data $$ (u_{10}, u_{20}, v_{10}, v_{20})\in \left( C^0({\overline{\Omega }})\right) ^2\times \left( W^{1, \infty }(\Omega )\right) ^2$$ , which is irrelevant to $$\mu $$ , such that for all $$\mu \in (0, 1)$$ , the corresponding solution $$(u_{1, \mu }, u_{2, \mu }, v_{1, \mu }, v_{2, \mu })$$ fulfills $$\begin{aligned} u_{1, \mu }(x_{\mu }, t_{\mu })>\frac{L}{\mu }\quad \text {or}\quad u_{2, \mu }(x_{\mu }, t_{\mu })>\frac{L}{\mu }\quad \text {for some}\quad (x_{\mu }, t_{\mu })\in \Omega \times (0, T). \end{aligned}$$ In particular, it is proved that blowup for one of the chemotactic species implies also blowup for the other one at the same time.

In Hungary Leucojum vernum is considered a plant species of montane character, distribu­ted predominantly in Transdanubia. Apart from some isolated localities (Zalaszanto Basin Mts, Tapolca Basin), the occurrences of the species are mainly confined to the region “Magas Bakony” and its pe­riphery within the Hungarian Middle Mts. In the spring of 2020 a large population was discovered by the author in the region “Suri-Bakonyalja”, which significantly expands the known local distribution range of the species. The new population, together with other phytogeographically significant species (e.g. Anemone nemorosa, Corydalis intermedia, Veratrum album), was found in a poorly explored val­ley system (Kisber village: Baro-erdő). Based on all literature and herbarium records, the local distribu­tion range of L. vernum is surveyed.

AimsThe aims of this study were to investigate the mortality following a proximal humeral fracture. Data from a large population-based fracture register were used to quantify 30-day, 90-day, and one-year mortality rates after a proximal humeral fracture. Associations between the risk of mortality and the type of fracture and its treatment were assessed, and mortality rates were compared between patients who sustained a fracture and the general population.MethodsAll patients with a proximal humeral fracture recorded in the Swedish Fracture Register between 2011 and 2017 were included in the study. Those who died during follow-up were identified via linkage with the Swedish Tax Agency population register. Age- and sex-adjusted controls were retrieved from Statistics Sweden and standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated.ResultsA total of 18,452 patients who sustained a proximal humeral fracture were included. Their mean age was 68.8 years (16 to 107) and the majority (13,729; 74.4%) were women. A total of 310 (1.68%) died within 30 days, 615 (3.33%) within 90 days, and 1,445 (7.83%) within one year after the injury. The mortality in patients sustaining a fracture and the general population was 1,680/100,000 and 326/100,000 at 30 days, 3,333/100,000 and 979/100,000 at 90 days, and 7,831/100,000 and 3,970/100,000 at one year, respectively. Increasing age, male sex, low-energy trauma, type A fracture, concomitant fractures, and non-surgical treatment were all independent factors associated with an increased risk of mortality.ConclusionCompared with the general population, patients sustaining a proximal humeral fracture have a significantly higher risk of mortality up to one year after the injury. The risk of mortality is five times higher during the first 30 days, diminishing to two times higher at one year, suggesting that these patients constitute a strikingly frail group, in whom appropriate immediate management and medical optimization are required. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2020;102-B(11):1484–1490.

Background Invasive cutaneous melanoma is one of the most common malignant diseases among adolescents and young adults (aged 15–40 years) in the United States. We aimed to develop web-based nomograms to precisely predict overall survival and cancer-specific survival in this group of patients with cutaneous melanoma. Methods We analyzed the overall and caner-specific death events in 19,887 patients who underwent surgical resection of cutaneous melanoma from Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database and developed web-based clinic-pathologic prediction models for overall survival and cancer specific survival based on Cox regression. C-statistics of Harrell and time-dependent Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (ROC) were used to evaluate the prognostic accuracy of nomograms. Results Multivariate Cox regression model analysis suggested that age, sex, race, tumor location, Clark level, ulceration, thickness, and N stage were independently associated with both overall survival and cancer-specific survival in adolescent and young adult patients with cutaneous melanoma. The nomograms performed excellently in predicting overall survival and cancer-specific survival with C-index being 0.875 (95% CI: 0.847–0.903) and 0.901 (95% CI: 0.876–0.925), respectively. Time-dependent ROC verified that the prognostic accuracy of nomograms was better than that of American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system and other prognostic factors. Conclusions These user-friendly nomograms can precisely predict overall survival and cancer-specific survival in cutaneous melanoma patients treated with surgical resection, which may help to make individualized postoperative follow-up and therapeutic schemes.

Objectives To assess awareness and knowledge of Interventional Radiology (IR) in a large population of medical students in 2019. Methods An anonymous survey was distributed electronically to 9546 medical students from first to sixth year at three European medical schools. The survey contained 14 questions, including two general questions on diagnostic radiology (DR) and artificial intelligence (AI), and 11 on IR. Responses were analyzed for all students and compared between preclinical (PCs) (first to third year) and clinical phase (Cs) (fourth to sixth year) of medical school. Of 9546 students, 1459 students (15.3%) answered the survey. Results On DR questions, 34.8% answered that AI is a threat for radiologists (PCs: 246/725 (33.9%); Cs: 248/734 (36%)) and 91.1% thought that radiology has a future (PCs: 668/725 (92.1%); Cs: 657/734 (89.5%)). On IR questions, 80.8% (1179/1459) students had already heard of IR; 75.7% (1104/1459) stated that their knowledge of IR wasn’t as good as the other specialties and 80% would like more lectures on IR. Finally, 24.2% (353/1459) indicated an interest in a career in IR with a majority of women in preclinical phase, but this trend reverses in clinical phase. Conclusions Development of new technology supporting advances in artificial intelligence will likely continue to change the landscape of radiology; however, medical students remain confident in the need for specialty-trained human physicians in the future of radiology as a clinical practice. A large majority of medical students would like more information about IR in their medical curriculum; almost a quarter of students would be interested in a career in IR.

Seed weight is regulated by several genes which in turn could affect the metabolite contents, yield, and quality of soybean seeds. Due to these, seed weight is receiving much attention in soybean breeding. In this study, seeds of 24 black soybean varieties and a reference genotype were grown in Korea, and grouped as small ( 24 g) seeds based on their seed weight. The contents of six anthocyanins, twelve isoflavones, and total phenolic, and the antioxidant activities were determined, and the association of each with seed weight was analyzed. The total anthocyanin (TAC) and total isoflavone (TIC) contents were in the ranges of 189.461–2633.454 mg/100 g and 2.110–5.777 mg/g, respectively and were significantly different among the black soybean varieties. By comparison, the average TAC and TIC were the highest in large seeds than in small and medium seeds while the total phenolic content (TPC) was in the order of small seeds > large seeds > medium seeds. Besides, large seeds showed the maximum 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) scavenging activity, whereas small seeds showed the maximum ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radical (ABTS) scavenging activities. FRAP activity was positively associated with TIC and TAC, the former association being significant. On the other hand, ABTS and DPPH activities were positively correlated to TPC, the later association being significant. Overall, our findings demonstrated the influence of seed weight on anthocyanin, isoflavone, and phenolic contents and antioxidant activities in black soybeans. Besides, the dominant anthocyanins and isoflavones were the principal contributors to the variations observed in the black soybean varieties, and hence, these components could be selectively targeted to discriminate a large population of black soybean genetic resources.

Background Reference intervals are an important aid in medical practice as they provide clinicians a guide as to whether a patient is healthy or diseased. Outlier results in population studies are removed by any of a variety of statistical measures. We have compared several methods of outlier removal and applied them to a large body of analytes from a large population of healthy persons. Methods We used the outlier exclusion criteria of Reed-Dixon and Tukey and calculated reference intervals using nonparametric and Harrell-Davis statistical methods and applied them to a total of 36 different analytes. Results Nine of 36 analytes had a greater than 20% difference in the upper reference limit, and for some the difference was 100% or more. Conclusions For some analytes, great importance is attached to the reference interval. We have shown that different statistical methods for outlier removal can cause large changes to reported reference intervals. So that population studies can be readily compared, common statistical methods should be used for outlier removal.

To examine the evidence for Familial Barrett’s Esophagus and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma and putative causative genes. Recent large population studies continue to provide evidence for Familial Barrett’s Esophagus and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma. Also, based on sequencing of two multigenerational families with Barrett’s esophagus and/or esophageal adenocarcinoma, two new possible causative gene variants have been identified including VSIG10L and MSX1. Familial Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma is increasingly becoming more recognized. Current guidelines also now incorporate family history as a risk factor for Barrett’s esophagus. Recent studies include DNA sequencing of multigenerational families in addition to previously performed GWAS studies. Several new gene variants now have been identified; however, phenotypic and mechanistic studies need to be performed to demonstrate their association with Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

The valuation of pavements using sound aspects is crucial for a country with poor pavement conditions and a large population of visually impaired people. This study recruited sighted and visually i...

Jigsaw learning strategy is considered effective in enhancing students’ learning outcomes. Yet, it is problematic for a science classroom that contains educational challenges. The aim of this study was to investigate the implementation of the jigsaw learning in science classes in Indonesian classrooms. This included the feasibility of the jigsaw strategy, the challenges that interfered with the implementations, and the necessary approach to fit the strategy with the challenges. A qualitative case study was used. Three chemistry classes (each consisted of 35 grade 11 students) and a chemistry teacher were involved in this study. Data were collected from classroom observations and interviews. The findings showed that jigsaw learning was not fully feasible as it could not be completely implemented in the participating classes. Unsupportive educational settings such as time limitation, large population, the ill-sized classroom, teacher’s lack of participation and the complexity of the jigsaw structure had influenced the lack of success of the implementations. Rather than seeking help from educational supports that normally involves a financial-concern educational policy, this study recommends adjusting the jigsaw structure to increase its feasibility in such learning condition.

The use of statins in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) may reduce cardiovascular morbidity, although their effect on NAFLD itself is not well known. We aimed to investigate the role of statins on the development of de novo NAFLD and progression of significant liver fibrosis.This study included 11,593,409 subjects from the National Health Information Database of the Republic of Korea entered in 2010 and followed up until 2016. NAFLD was diagnosed by calculating fatty liver index (FLI), and significant liver fibrosis was evaluated using the BARD score. Controls were randomly selected at a ratio of 1:5 from individuals who were at risk of becoming the case subjects at the time of selection.Among 5,339,901 subjects that had a FLI30 and included in the non-NAFLD cohort, 164,856 subjects eventually had NAFLD developed. The use of statin was associated with a reduced risk of NAFLD development (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.66; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.65-0.67) and was independent of associated diabetes mellitus (DM) (with DM: AOR 0.44; 95% CI 0.41-0.46, without DM: AOR 0.71; 95% CI 0.69-0.72). From 712,262 subjects with a FLI60 and selected in the NAFLD cohort, 111,257 subjects showed a BARD score ≥ 2 and were defined as liver fibrosis cases. The use of statins reduced the risk of significant liver fibrosis (AOR 0.43; 95% CI 0.42-0.44), independent of DM (with DM: AOR 0.31; 95% CI 0.31-0.32, without DM: AOR 0.52; 95% CI 0.51-0.52).In this large population-based study, statin use decreased the risk of NAFLD occurrence and the risk of liver fibrosis once NAFLD developed.

PurposeThe aims of this study were (1) to determine the prevalence of radiographic cervical disc degeneration in a large population of patients aged from 18 to 97 years; (2) to investigate individually the prevalence and distribution of height loss, osteophyte formation, endplate sclerosis and spondylolisthesis; and (3) to describe the patterns of cervical disc degeneration.MethodsA retrospective study was performed. Standard lateral cervical spine radiographs in standing, neutral position of 1581 consecutive patients (723 males, 858 females) with an average age of 41.2 ± 18.2 years were evaluated. Cervical disc degeneration was graded from C2/C3 to C6/C7 based on a validated quantitative grading system. The prevalence and distribution of radiographic findings were evaluated and associations with age were investigated.Results53.9% of individuals had radiographic disc degeneration and the most affected level was C5/C6. The presence and severity of disc degeneration were found to be significantly associated with age both in male and female subjects. The most frequent and severe occurrences of height loss, osteophyte formation, and endplate sclerosis were at C5/C6, whereas spondylolisthesis was most observed at C4/C5. Age was significantly correlated with radiographic degenerative findings. Contiguous levels degeneration pattern was more likely found than skipped level degeneration. The number of degenerated levels was also associated with age.ConclusionsThe presence and severity of radiographic disc degeneration increased with aging in the cervical spine. Older age was associated with greater number of degenerated disc levels. Furthermore, the correlations between age and the degree of degenerative findings were stronger at C5/C6 and C6/C7 than at other cervical spinal levels.

A large population of India is living in villages, some of them are living in remote areas isolated from the grid. It is not feasible or economical to extend the grid connection to provide electric...

espanolLos problemas sociales son considerados, una condicion que afecta a un numero significativamente de personas, los cuales deben ser corregidos mediante acciones colectivas, teniendo en cuenta que el barrio seleccionado para este proyecto que alberga una gran poblacion desplazada por la violencia lo que hace que haya un incremento en el analfabetismo, pobreza, drogadiccion, desnutricion, hacinamiento, violencia intrafamiliar, problemas de salud en general, situacion que impide el desarrollo o el progreso de una comunidad o de uno de sus sectores. La Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia a traves del Programa de Enfermeria, realizo el diagnostico de salud con enfasis en salud familiar a partir de la aplicacion del censo poblacional, lo que nos sirvio como insumo para los indicadores de salud y posterior intervencion en la comunidad y de esta manera, asegurando la existencia y continuidad del proyecto e insercion de la comunidad. El proyecto involucro ademas de la Universidad otras organizaciones civicas, educativas y sociales del sector. Por tal razon se concibe como una experiencia participativa de la comunidad, en el cual se impartiran conocimientos eticos y morales para contribuir asi con el desarrollo integral del ser mismo y por ende de la comunidad de Santa Marta. EnglishGiven the conditions of the existing social problem in the city of Santa Marta, the neighborhood selected for the project, it houses a large population displaced by violence that increases the scourge of illiteracy, drug addiction, malnutrition, overcrowding, domestic violence, health problems in general, lacking opportunities for the improvement of their quality of life. The Cooperative University of Colombia, through the Nursing Program, will carry out the health diagnosis with emphasis on family and mental health, based on data collected by assessment instruments such as the SQR, RQC, child abuse and population census surveys, which are transformed in health indicators and that serve to intervene the health of the communities. To ensure the existence and continuity of the project, as well as its insertion in the community, the project also involves other civic, educational and social organizations in the sector. For this reason, the project is conceived as a participatory experience of the community, in which ethical and moral knowledge will be imparted to contribute in this way to the integral development of the being itself and therefore of the Santa Marta community.

Aim: Several host factors mediating immune response influence susceptibility to Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection, ability to clear the virus, and maintenance of a chronic state. Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 4 (STAT4) variations are correlated with the risk of developing autoimmune diseases. However, there have been few studies to assess the relationship between STAT4 variations and Hepatitis B surface Antigen (HBsAg) clearance in adults infected with HBV. Our aim was to evaluate the association between genetic variants in STAT4 and HBsAg clearance in a large sample size population. Methods: This case control study included Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) (n = 1.688), HBsAg Clearance after Treatment (TC) (n = 170), HBV Uninfected (HC) (n = 1.012), and HBsAg Spontaneous Clearance (SC) (n = 1,052) patients. In the CHB group, patients were categorized into four subgroups: the Immune Tolerant (IT), Immune Active (IA), Inactive (IC), and Immune Reactivation (IR) phases, with 97, 855, 198, and 538 patients in each subgroup, respectively. Results: We found that the G allele in STAT4 rs7574865 was more frequent in the CHB and TC groups, compared with the SC group, whereas the STAT4 rs7574865 GG genotype was more frequent in the CHB and TC group, compared with the SC group in the dominant model. However, there was no statistical significance in genotype between TC and CHB, nor between the IT, IA, IC, and IR groups. Conclusions: The prevalence of the minor allele rs7574865 T was higher in subjects with spontaneously cleared HBV infections than in CHB patients.

Model-based gait recognition is considered to be promising due to the robustness against some variations, such as clothing and baggage carried. Although model-based gait recognition has not been fully explored due to the difficulty of human body model fitting and the lack of a large-scale gait database, recent progress in deep learning-based approaches to human body model fitting and human pose estimation is mitigating the difficulty. In this paper, we, therefore, address the remaining issue by presenting a large-scale human pose-based gait database, OUMVLP-Pose, which is based on a publicly available multi-view large-scale gait database, OUMVLP. OUMVLP-Pose has many unique advantages compared with other public databases. First, OUMVLP-Pose is the first gait database that provides two datasets of human pose sequences extracted by two standard deep learning-based pose estimation algorithms, OpenPose and AlphaPose. Second, it contains multi-view large-scale data, i.e., over 10,000 subjects and 14 views for each subject. In addition, we also provide benchmarks in which different kinds of gait recognition methods, including model-based methods and appearance-based methods, have been evaluated comprehensively. The model-based gait recognition methods have shown promising performances. We believe this database, OUMVLP-Pose, will greatly promote model-based gait recognition in the next few years.

The movement of three large plates makes earthquakes frequent in Indonesia. The earthquake caused a lot of damage and casualties. One of the causes of the high risk of earthquake disasters is the large population. Java Island is the island that has the largest population in Indonesia. In addition, earthquakes often occur in Java and its surroundings, which cause a very high risk of earthquake. A further disaster that occurs after an earthquake is a tsunami if the earthquake originates from the ocean (earthquake originates from subduction). Therefore, this study examines the characteristics and parameters of earthquakes originating from subduction around Java Island which consists of 10 zones (5 of megathrust zone and 5 of benioff zone). The method used to determine these parameters is the Guternberg-Richter's law method and the maximum likely hood / characteristic method. The results of these two methods have differences due to earthquake uncertainty factors. In the application of earthquake hazard analysis, these two methods are used for calculations by increasing the percentage of use in the characteristic method. This is because geological evidence shows that characteristic earthquakes occur more frequently than earthquakes predicted from the gutenberg-richter model. In addition, it is also necessary to know the subduction zone dip angle for modeling 3D earthquake sources. Each subduction zone around the Java Island is divided into 5 areas. The megathrust zone is at a depth of up to 50 km and the benioff zone at a depth of more than 50 km. The result shows that the largest dip value is in the Java 3 megatrust zone with 14.667 and the Java 2 benioff zone with 53.667.

The presence of somatic or germline BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants impacts the effectiveness of PARP inhibitor therapy in high‐grade serous ovarian cancer. This study demonstrates that a large‐scale tumor testing program can effectively and accurately identify both germline and somatic variants. Nearly 60% of pathogenic variants are somatic, emphasizing the importance of tumor testing in care pathways of this patient population., The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of somatic and germline pathogenic variants (PVs) in high‐grade serous cancer (HGSC) and to demonstrate the technical feasibility and effectiveness of a large‐scale, population‐based tumor testing program. It involved a retrospective review of genetic test results in 600 consecutive HGSC tumor samples and a subsequent comparison of germline and tumor results in a subset of 200 individuals. Tumor testing was successful in 95% of samples (570/600) with at least one BRCA1/2 PV identified in 16% (93/570) of cases. Among the 200 paired cases, BRCA1/2 PVs were detected in 38 tumors (19%); 58% were somatic (22/38); and 42% were germline (16/38). There was 100% concordance between germline and tumor test results. This is the largest series of BRCA1/2 testing in HGSC (tumor‐only and paired cohorts), reported to date, and our data show that an effectively designed and validated population‐based tumor testing program can be used to determine both treatment eligibility and hereditary cancer risk.

Robust evidence of whether vitamin D deficiency is associated with COVID-19 infection and its severity is still lacking. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between vitamin D levels and the risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe disease in those infected. A retrospective study was carried out among members of Clalit Health Services (CHS), the largest healthcare organization in Israel, between March 1 and October 31, 2020. We created two matched case–control groups of individuals for which vitamin D levels and body mass index (BMI) were available before the pandemic: group (A), in which 41,757 individuals with positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests were matched with 417,570 control individuals without evidence of infection, and group (B), in which 2533 patients hospitalized in severe condition for COVID-19 were matched with 2533 patients who were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, but were not hospitalized. Conditional logistic models were fitted in each of the groups to assess the association between vitamin D levels and outcome. An inverse correlation was demonstrated between the level of vitamin D and the risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection and of severe disease in those infected. Patients with very low vitamin D levels (

PURPOSE: To determine the risk of patients with an early diagnosis of heritable retinoblastoma being diagnosed with TRb (or pineoblastoma) asynchronously in a later stage and its effect on screening.METHODS: We updated the search (PubMed and Embase) for published literature as performed by our research group in 2014 and 2019. Trilateral retinoblastoma (TRb) patients were eligible for inclusion if identifiable as unique and the age at which TRb was diagnosed was available. The search yielded 97 new studies. Three new studies and eight new patients were included. Combined with 189 patients from the previous meta-analysis, the database included 197 patients. The main outcome was the percentage of asynchronous TRb in patients diagnosed before and after preset age thresholds of 6 and 12 months of age at retinoblastoma diagnosis.RESULTS: Seventy-nine per cent of patients with pineoblastoma are diagnosed with retinoblastoma before the age of 12 months. However, baseline MRI screening at time of retinoblastoma diagnosis fails to detect the later diagnosed pineal TRb in 89% of patients. We modelled that an additional MRI performed at the age of 29 months picks up 53% of pineoblastomas in an asymptomatic phase. The detection rate increased to 72%, 87% and 92%, respectively, with 2, 3 and 4 additional MRIs.CONCLUSIONS: An MRI of the brain in heritable retinoblastoma before the age of 12 months misses most pineoblastomas, while retinoblastomas are diagnosed most often before the age of 12 months. Optimally timed additional MRI scans of the brain can increase the asymptomatic detection rate of pineoblastoma.

Background 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11DS) represents one of the most important genetic risk factors for schizophrenia (SCZ) and a reliable biological model to study endophenotypic characters of SCZ. The aim of the study was to investigate Social Cognition impairments in subjects with 22q11.2DS compared to a considerable sample of schizophrenic patients. Methods Forty-four individuals with 22q11.2DS (DEL) and 18 patients with 22q11.2DS and psychosis (DEL_SCZ) were enrolled; these groups were compared to 887 patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) and 780 healthy controls (HCs); the latter groups were recruited by the Italian Network for Research on Psychoses (NIRP) to which our Centre took part. Social cognition was evaluated through The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT). A resampling procedure was employed to balance differences in samples size. Results All clinical groups (DEL; DEL_SCZ; and SCZ) showed worse performance on TASIT than HCs, except in Sincere scale. No differences between-clinical groups were found, except for Simple Sarcasm, Paradoxical Sarcasm and Enriched Sarcasm scales. Conclusions SC was impaired in individuals with 22q11.2DS regardless of psychotic symptomatology, similarly to people with SCZ. Therefore, SC deficits may represent potential endophenotypes of SCZ contributing to the vulnerability to psychosis.

An important task of the nervous system is to transmit information faithfully and reliably across brain regions, a process that involves the coordinated activity of a relatively large population of neurons. In topographically organized networks, where the entering and exiting axons of neurons terminate in confined areas, successful propagation depends on the spatial patterns of activity: the firing neurons in a presynaptic or source layer must be located sufficiently close to each other to ensure that cells in the postsynaptic or target layer receive the requisite number of convergent inputs to fire. Here, we use principles of topology to define the conditions for transmitting information across layers. We show that simplicial complexes formed by source neurons can be used to: 1) determine whether target neurons receive suprathreshold inputs; 2) identify neurons within the active population that contribute to firing; and 3) discriminate between single and multiple active clusters of neurons.

Background There has been a paucity of literature revealing the discrepancy between self-recognition about hallux valgus (HV) and radiographically-evaluated foot configuration. Knowing this discrepancy will help to make a comparative review of the findings of previous literatures about epidemiological studies about the prevalence of HV. Questions/purposes (1) Is there a discrepancy between radiographically-assessed and self-recognized HV in the general population? (2) What factors affect the self-recognition of HV in the general population? Methods The fifth survey of the Research on Osteoarthritis/Osteoporosis against Disability study involved 1996 participants who had undergone anterior-posterior radiography of bilateral feet and answered a simple dichotomous questionnaire on self-recognition of HV. Measurements of the HV angle (HVA), interphalangeal angle of the hallux (IPA), and intermetatarsal angle between 1st and 2nd metatarsals (IMA) were performed using radiographs. Radiographic diagnosis of HV was done using the definition of hallux valgus angle of 20° or more. After univariate comparison of the participant backgrounds and radiographic measurements between participants with or without self-recognition of HV, multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted in order to reveal independent factors affecting self-recognition. Results Significant difference was found between the prevalence of radiographically-assessed and self-recognized HV (29.8% vs. 16.5%, p p p p Conclusions There was a significant discrepancy between radiographically-assessed and self-recognized HV which narrowed with the progressing severity of HV. HVA, IMA, and female sex were independent positive factors for self-recognition of HV. Attention needs to be paid to potentially lowered prevalence of HV in epidemiological studies using self-reporting based on self-recognition.

A simple, precise, accurate, rapid, economical and sensitive ultraviolet spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of warfarin sodium in pharmaceutical preparations and environmental wastewater samples, which shows maximum absorbance at 310 nm in distilled water. Beer’s law was obeyed in the range of 2-30μg/ ml ,with molar absorptivity of 1.1 ×104 L.mol-1.cm-1 , relative standard deviation of the method was less than 1.8%, and accuracy (average recovery %) was 100 ± 1.0 . The method was successfully applied to the determination of warfarin sodium in some pharmaceutical formulations (Tablets) and industrial wastewater samples. The proposed method was validated by sensitivity and precision which proves suitability for the routine analysis of warfarin sodium in true samples.

Introduction: Diabetes has become a global epidemic. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of loss of vision in diabetics. Since the global prevalence of diabetes is estimated to rise exponentially, the prevalence of DR is also bound to rise. Consequently, a large population will be at risk by DR in near future. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional observational study was conducted on eligible diabetic patients. Demographic data and history was noted. A complete ophthalmic examination in which fundus was examined by +90 D and +20D lenses. Statistical analysis was performed. Results: Out of 291 eligible patients, 159 (55%)were males. 76 (26.11%) had DR of which 43 (27.04%)were males. For duration of diabetes (years) 10, DR was found in 5 (6.57%), 30 (39.47%) and 41 (53.94%) respectively. DR in age groups (years) of 80,was 1(2%),32(25%), 44(30%) and 9(100%) respectively. Mild, moderate, severe NPDR and PDR were found in 39(51.31%), 17(22.36%), 13 (17.1%) and 7 (9.2%) patients respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of DR is very high in Indian population. Diabetic patients are unaware of development of DR in early stages. The severity of DR rises with increase in duration of diabetes. Keywords: Diabetic retinopathy, Prevalence, NPDR, PDR, Risk factors.

People with disabilities or special needs can benefit from AI-based conversational agents, which are used in competence training and well-being management. Assessment of the quality of interactions with these chatbots is key to being able to reduce dissatisfaction with them and to understand their potential long-term benefits. This will in turn help to increase adherence to their use, thereby improving the quality of life of the large population of end-users that they are able to serve. We systematically reviewed the literature on methods of assessing the perceived quality of interactions with chatbots, and identified only 15 of 192 papers on this topic that included people with disabilities or special needs in their assessments. The results also highlighted the lack of a shared theoretical framework for assessing the perceived quality of interactions with chatbots. Systematic procedures based on reliable and valid methodologies continue to be needed in this field. The current lack of reliable tools and systematic methods for assessing chatbots for people with disabilities and special needs is concerning, and may lead to unreliable systems entering the market with disruptive consequences for users. Three major conclusions can be drawn from this systematic analysis: (i) researchers should adopt consolidated and comparable methodologies to rule out risks in use; (ii) the constructs of satisfaction and acceptability are different, and should be measured separately; (iii) dedicated tools and methods for assessing the quality of interaction with chatbots should be developed and used to enable the generation of comparable evidence.

Objective To model and compare effect of digital contact tracing versus shelter-in-place on severe acute respiratory syndrome – coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spread. Methods Using a classical epidemiologic framework and parameters estimated from literature published between February 1, 2020, and May 25, 2020, we modeled two non-pharmacologic interventions — shelter-in-place and digital contact tracing — to curb spread of SARS-CoV-2. For contact tracing, we assumed an advanced automated contact tracing (AACT) application that sends alerts to individuals advising self-isolation based on individual exposure profile. Model parameters included percentage population ordered to shelter-in-place, adoption rate of AACT, and percentage individuals who appropriately follow recommendations. Under influence of these variables, the number of individuals infected, exposed, and isolated were estimated. Results Without any intervention, a high rate of infection (>10 million) with early peak is predicted. Shelter-in-place results in rapid decline in infection rate at the expense of impacting a large population segment. The AACT model achieves reduction in infected and exposed individuals similar to shelter-in-place without impacting a large number of individuals. For example, a 50% AACT adoption rate mimics a shelter-in-place order for 40% of the population and results in a greater than 90% decrease in peak number of infections. However, as compared to shelter-in-place, with AACT significantly fewer individuals would be isolated. Conclusion Wide adoption of digital contact tracing can mitigate infection spread similar to universal shelter-in-place, but with considerably fewer individuals isolated.

Extreme heat events (EHEs) have a significant impact on the social economy and human health. China is a country with a large population and diverse terrain, and it is necessary to project future extreme heat changes in the sub-regions. This study used a specially designed dataset, the Community Earth System Model (CESM) simulations, namely CESM low-warming, to investigate the EHEs in China under 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C global warming. The results indicate that the regional mean warming over China will exceed the global average, about 1.63 °C and 2.24 °C in 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C warmer futures. Compared to the present-day (1976–2005), the frequency and duration of the EHEs in South China are projected to increase the most among the sub-regions. For example, the frequency of EHEs in South China at 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C warming will exceed 3 and 3.5 times the present-day level. However, when global warming rises from 1.5 °C to 2.0 °C, the increased impacts relative to the 1.5 °C warming level will be the lowest in South China (less than 40%), and the highest increased impacts are projected to appear in Northeast China (53%–84%) and Northwest China (53%–107%). The main reason for this situation is that compared with the 1.5 °C scenario, the upper zonal westerly in northern China weakens and the continental high pressure enhances under the 2.0 °C scenario. Therefore, limiting global warming at 1.5 °C instead of 2.0 °C is beneficial for eliminating extreme heat events, especially for Northeast China and Northwest China.

A Zebra Chip (ZC) disease detection system was developed based on hyperspectral imaging (HSI) to minimise economic losses in the New Zealand potato chip industry. Current detection methods for other than heavily diseased tubers require peeling or cutting of potato tubers. A rapid and non-destructive grading method would be ideal to remove ZC diseased potatoes at line before processing. The spectral signatures from a large population (n = 3352) of commercially sourced potatoes were collected using HSI in the spectral range of 550 nm–1700 nm. Spectral signatures of each potato (i.e. 1767 ZC infected and 1585 healthy potatoes) were extracted by segmentation and morphological operations. A calibration dataset (80% of the total population was randomly selected), with and without pre-processing, was used for modelling using the partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The model performance shows 92% accuracy for ZC potato identification on validation data (20% of total population). Waveband optimisation by variable importance in projection (VIP) method revealed 34 wavebands sensitive to ZC diseased potatoes. This optimum set of wavebands allowed ZC identification with 89% accuracy. The experiments demonstrate the potential of HSI for identification of ZC infected potatoes in whole tuber before processing. Efficient removal of diseased tubers would reduce processing losses and provide a potential opportunity to access export markets for intact tubers.

Nutritive diet has grabbed the center stage in current times among common men as well as researchers &food has turned into a whole damn industry. Despite of everything, Malnutrition is the largest single contributor to diseases in the world & leads to 45% of all deaths in children under 5 in developing countries. Due to interrelated mother- child nutrition, if a breastfeeding mother gets required nutrition, her kid becomes healthy. The causes of improper nutrition are variable but lack of nutritious food combinations in all classes are most important throughout the world. Ayurveda is science of individualistic need based dietetics & nutrition and describes foods accordingly. There is recommendation of a super food named Shigru (Moringa) for Sutika (lactating mothers) in Bheshajyaratnawali,taking this as reference we have conceptualized a food combination of Moringa +wheat flour+ jaggery which is super nutritious and serves as a cheap, affordable, easy to collect and easy to make, palatable preparation. When 11% of the world’s population is under nourished, need for such right food combination increases manifolds. Owing to per 100g nutritive value of these contents and their cost effectiveness, this combination has a potential to be a perfect staple dietary option for nutrition deficit individuals. It needs to be further established at large scale through RCTs so that large population can be benefitted.

Major urologic oncology procedures such as radical cystectomy (RC), radical prostatectomy (RP), radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) and radical or partial nephrectomy are the gold standard operations for the treatment of urological malignancies not suitable to be dealt with using minimal invasive procedures such as transurethral resection or other conservative approaches. However, these surgical procedures carry significant risk of complications, especially in elderly and frail patients. The purpose of this review is to highlight the use of a wide variety of preoperative frailty and health status indexes and calculators. Recent data from large population based studies confirm that these calculators can assist physicians and urologists to predict the postoperative morbidity of patients undergoing major operations. Moreover, these frailty calculators can help urologists choose the most suitable and safe treatment for every individual patient. However, the absence of widely accepted specific urologic oncology calculators to predict the association between frailty and postoperative complications emphasizes the necessity for the use of a combination of calculators.

Proteomic analysis of cells, tissues and body fluids has generated valuable insights into the complex processes influencing human biology. Proteins represent intermediate phenotypes for disease and provide insight into how genetic and non-genetic risk factors are mechanistically linked to clinical outcomes. Associations between protein levels and DNA sequence variants that colocalize with risk alleles for common diseases can expose disease-associated pathways, revealing novel drug targets and translational biomarkers. However, genome-wide, population-scale analyses of proteomic data are only now emerging. Here, we review current findings from studies of the plasma proteome and discuss their potential for advancing biomedical translation through the interpretation of genome-wide association analyses. We highlight the challenges faced by currently available technologies and provide perspectives relevant to their future application in large-scale biobank studies.

Tensions between constructions of nature and culture are increasingly relevant in the twenty-first century as natural environments near large population centres come under increasing pressure from ...

The increasing demand for rapid methods to identify both inorganic and organic gunshot residues (IGSR and OGSR) makes electrochemical methods, an attractive screening tool to modernize current practice. Our research group has previously demonstrated that electrochemical screening of GSR samples delivers a simple, inexpensive, and sensitive analytical solution that is capable of detecting IGSR and OGSR in less than 10 min per sample. In this study, we expand our previous work by increasing the number of GSR markers and applying machine learning classifiers to the interpretation of a larger population data set. Utilizing bare screen-printed carbon electrodes, the detection and resolution of seven markers (IGSR; lead, antimony, and copper, and OGSR; nitroglycerin, 2,4-dinitrotoluene, diphenylamine, and ethyl centralite) was achieved with limits of detection (LODs) below 1 µg/mL. A large population data set was obtained from 395 authentic shooter samples and 350 background samples. Various statistical methods and machine learning algorithms, including critical thresholds (CT), naïve Bayes (NB), logistic regression (LR), and neural networks (NN), were utilized to calculate the performance and error rates. Neural networks proved to be the best predictor when assessing the dichotomous question of detection of GSR on the hands of shooter versus nonshooter groups. Accuracies for the studied population were 81.8 % (CT), 88.1% (NB), 94.7% (LR), and 95.4% (NN), respectively. The ability to detect both IGSR and OGSR simultaneously provides a selective testing platform for gunshot residues that can provide a powerful field-testing technique and assist with decisions in case management.

This paper lays out a model of diminished citizenship as a tool for understanding the experiences of the large population of people who, at least in part by virtue of their relations with criminal justice apparatuses, do not benefit from the full complement of responsibilities and rights associated with citizenship in a modern democracy. The frame of diminished citizenship places mass incarceration within a larger historical and social context, moving ideas about “criminals” away from the individual focus of mainstream criminology and providing a useful framework for considering how a variety of marginalized groups navigate the American landscape. At the same time, the frame of mass incarceration offers insights into a crucial mechanism for constructing, diminishing and enforcing citizenship in the United States. Our argument draws on our decade-long ethnographic research with a cohort of women who had been released from prison in Massachusetts in 2007–2008.

The ulcers are complications, and as a disease, it is called PUD (Peptic Ulcer Disease). In the current scenario, a large population around the world are suffering from the ulcers, which are ranging from 25-55 years the age. This is not so dangerous as such but can become most dreadful when untreated or unattended. PUD can become the causes for other diseases like malnutrition, stomach pain etc. there are a lot of factors that are responsible for causing an ulcer. Few of them are the prolonged use of pain medications, malnutrition, stress and free radicals. There are also medicinal plants that are used to treat ulcers and effectively cure them without causing significant side effects. Various research publications prove the antiulcer property of the herbs and plants. The ayurvedic tonic formulation was prepared using the herbs and sugar base. The formulation was investigated for the antiulcer activity in the Ethanol-induced ulcers method. The antiulcer activity was investigated using two doses and compared to the ayurvedic standard marketed formulation and the standard drug omeprazole.

Miscarriages are one of the most common problems of pregnancy abnormalities, however, in most cases the etiology of this pathology is unknown. Herein, we applied differential scanning calorimetry to study the aging process of red blood cells (RBCs) derived from women with miscarriages as compared to healthy non-pregnant and pregnant women of reproductive age, with the aim to identify specific calorimetric features associated with high-risk pregnancy. The calorimetric profiles of RBCs derived from healthy pregnant and non-pregnant women along the cells aging path are characterized with: (1) slow reduction in the hemoglobin heat capacity and (2) downshift of the thermal transitions of hemoglobin, Band 3 and Band 2.1, 4.1 and 4.2 proteins. A large population (71%) of the studied cases with miscarriage are associated with faster aging of RBCs, i.e., faster thermal destabilization of hemoglobin and Band 3 transitions compared to healthy non-pregnant and pregnant women. The results suggest that the accelerated temperature-induced destabilization of RBCs from the majority of women that underwent miscarriages along cells aging is an additional criterion for estimation of the risk of miscarriage.

The transition to a fossil fuel free society is expected to affect the way we live considerably. As part of Dutch Climate Agreement (Klimaatakkoord) which aims to reduce CO2 emissions, the Dutch government has expressed the ambition to gradually move towards a ‘natural-gas-free’ built environment in 2050. This decision will eventually affect all citizens in the Netherlands, both home owners and tenants. In this paper we study the extent of public support for this policy ambition. We aim to unravel differences between groups, and factors explaining those differences. Data were collected in the LISS-panel, with an online questionnaire, in May 2019 (Verkenning Energietransitie 2019; VET’19). We performed data analyses in this large population study of Dutch residents, using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results show significant differences by financial position, education, age, and gender, with higher support in those financially better off, with a higher level of education, younger adults (18-34 years), and women. These associations could be partly explained by psycho-social and contextual factors included in the model.

In Ethiopia, little is known about the extent of out-of-pocket health expenditures and the associated financial hardships at national and regional levels. We estimated the incidence of both catastrophic and impoverishing health expenditures using data from the 2015/16 Ethiopian household consumption and expenditure and welfare monitoring surveys. We computed incidence of catastrophic health expenditures (CHE) at 10% and 25% thresholds of total household consumption and 40% threshold of household capacity to pay, and impoverishing health expenditures (IHE) using Ethiopia's national poverty line (ETB 7184 per adult per year). Around 2.1% (SE: 0.2, P

The present study focused on the recent flood inundation (July 2020) that occurred in the lower Indo-Gangetic-Brahmaputra plains (IGBP) using concurrent C-band Sentinel-1A Synthetic Aperture Radar images in Google Earth Engine. The study exhibited that a substantial proportion of IGBP (40,929 km2) was inundated primarily in Bangladesh (9.09% of the total inundation), Assam (8.99%), and Bihar (6.29%) during June–July 2020. The severe impact of flood inundation was observed in croplands (4.41% of the total cropland), followed by settlements (20.98% of the total settlements) that affected a large population (~ 10,046,262) in IGBP. The prevailing COVID-19 pandemic has debilitated the efforts of mitigation and responses to flooding risks. The study necessitates adopting an integrated, multi-hazard, multi-stakeholder approach with an emphasis on self-reliance of the community for sustenance with local resources and practices.