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Baseline data on plastic landing by fishers and monitoring of this is important in evaluating the success of plastic waste management efforts. This study investigated plastic and fish landed by beach seine fishers in Ghana together with the rate of plastic deposition on an adjoining beach. Plastic constituted 31.6% of the total catch and 41.7% of the fish landed by weight. There were significant differences between the average weight of fish (139.58 ± 53.6 kg) and plastic (65.73 ± 14.6 kg) landed per fishing session and the catch per unit effort of fish (183.4 ± 76.7 kg/day) and plastic (88.4 ± 35.2 kg/day). The mean weight of plastic landed per fishing session was higher than the mean weight of each of the 26 species of fisheries. The rate of plastic deposition on the beach was 8.1 ± 2.5 plastic items per m 2 per tidal cycle or 0.35 ± 0.11 kg plastic per m 2 per tidal cycle with food packs and tableware dominating the deposited plastic. The results suggested ongoing water sachets and plastic bottle recycling in Ghana are yielding results and calls for targeted efforts in plastic food packs and tableware management., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Parkinson's disease is a chronic, progressive neurodegenerative disease which affects more than ten million people worldwide. Living with Parkinson's disease has a high impact on everyday life, and may affect quality of life negatively. Individualized coping strategies are needed to deal with the disease on a daily basis and still enjoy a social life., Objective: The aim of this study was to identify and describe strategies for coping adopted by individuals living with Parkinson's disease in their daily lives., Design: The study is designed as a meta-ethnographic metasynthesis and follows Sandelowski and Barroso's guidelines for synthesizing qualitative research., Datasources: Based on an exhaustive literature search in the following databases: CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Scopus and Swemed, as well as Mednar, parkinson.org, Google Scholar and OpenGrey, with no limit on the search date, 14 articles were included., Review Methods: The data were analyzed through a taxonomic and inductive analysis focusing on coping with Parkinson's disease in daily life., Results: The findings revealed that the overarching motivation for patients to cope with Parkinson's disease was maintaining normality and preserving the self. The coping strategies used were: Staying independent, Focusing on the present and Avoiding challenging situations., Conclusions: Coping with Parkinson's disease is an ongoing and complex process of balancing the strategies used, while holding on to the 'self' that pre-dated Parkinson's disease, and at the same time adjusting one's identity to embrace living with a chronic condition. In this process, optimism and positive thinking would seem to be very fruitful. Further, the synthesis revealed that relatives often act as informal caregivers and hence as an important support in daily life. Healthcare professionals must know about coping strategies in order better to support the patients., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Nowadays, by means of the conventional and Doppler echocardiography it is possible to diagnose with high sensitivity and specificity a defect of the aortic valve. Apart from references to the etiology kind and size of the lesion of the aortic valve, the degree of an obstruction and/or regurgitation as well as degree of hypertrophy and function of the left ventricle are reliably recognizable. Thereby the one- and two-dimensional echocardiography on the one hand and the Doppler methods on the other a different value is ascribed to in the diagnostic statement. By means of Doppler echocardiography the essential functional parameters of a stenosis of the aortic stenosis such as pressure gradient and surface of the opening of the aortic valve are to be determined noninvasively. An insufficiency of the aortic valve only by Doppler methods can be determined non-invasively without doubt. Under certain prerequisites the complex echocardiography can be made dispensable the invasive diagnostics in patients with defects of the aortic valve under preoperative aspects--apart from a coronary angiography.