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Rapid urbanization led to significant land-use changes and posed threats to surface water bodies worldwide, especially in the Global South. Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, has been facing chronic surface water pollution for more than a decade. Developing a methodology to better track and analyze pollutants using available technologies to manage the problem has been imperative. Advancement of machine learning and earth observation systems offers opportunities for tracking water quality indicators, especially the increasing pollutants in the surface water bodies. This study introduces machine learning with the cubist model (ML-CB), which combines optical and RADAR data, and a machine learning algorithm to estimate surface water pollutants including total suspended sediments (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and biological oxygen demand (BOD). The model was trained using optical (Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-1A) and RADAR satellite images. Results were compared with field survey data using regression models. Results show that the predictive estimates of pollutants based on ML-CB provide significant results. The study offers an alternative water quality monitoring method for managers and urban planners, which could be instrumental in protecting and sustaining the use of surface water resources in Hanoi and other cities of the Global South., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Women with multiple pregnancies are at risk for maternal complications such as preterm birth. Hazardous working conditions, such as physically demanding work and long and irregular working hours, might increase the risk of preterm birth., Objective: This study primarily aimed to determine whether certain working conditions up to 20 weeks of pregnancy increase the risk of preterm birth in multiple pregnancies. The secondary objective was to evaluate whether the working conditions of Dutch women with multiple pregnancy have been adjusted to the guidelines of the Netherlands Society of Occupational Medicine., Study Design: We performed a prospective cohort study alongside the ProTWIN trial, a multicenter randomized controlled trial that assessed whether cervical pessaries could effectively prevent preterm birth. Women with paid work of >8 hours per week completed questionnaires concerning general health and working conditions between 16 and 20 weeks of pregnancy. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify work-related factors associated with preterm birth (32-36 weeks' gestation) and very preterm birth (<32 weeks' gestation). We analyzed a subgroup of participants who worked for more than half of the week (>28 hours). We calculated the proportion of women who reported work-related factors not in accordance with guidelines., Results: We studied 383 women, of whom 168 (44%) had been randomized to pessary, 142 (37%) to care as usual, and 73 (19%) did not participate in the randomized part of the study. After adjusting for confounding variables, working >28 hours was associated with very preterm birth (n=33; 78%) (adjusted odds ratio, 3.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-8.1), and irregular working times were associated with preterm birth (n=26, 17%) (adjusted odds ratio, 2.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.0-4.1) and very preterm birth (n=10; 24%) (adjusted odds ratio, 2.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.0-7.3). Within a subgroup of 213 participants working >28 hours per week, multivariable analysis showed that irregular working times (n=16; 20%) (adjusted odds ratio, 3.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-10.1) and no/little freedom in performance of tasks (n=23; 28%) (adjusted odds ratio, 3.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-7.3) were associated with preterm birth. Irregular working times (n=9; 27%) (adjusted odds ratio, 3.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.0-11.1), requiring physical strength (n=9; 27%) (adjusted odds ratio, 5.3; 95% confidence interval, 1.6-17.8), high physical workload (n=7; 21%) (adjusted odds ratio, 3.9; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-13.9), and no/little freedom in performing tasks (n=10; 30%) (adjusted odds ratio, 3.2; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-9.6) were associated with very preterm birth. Before 20 weeks of pregnancy, 224 (58.5%) women with multiple pregnancy continued to work under circumstances that were not in accordance with the guidelines., Conclusion: In our cohort study, nearly 60% of women with multiple pregnancy continued to work under circumstances not in accordance with the guidelines to avoid physical and job strain and long and irregular working hours. Irregular hours were associated with preterm and very preterm birth, and long hours were associated with preterm birth., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

With millions of resources available on the Internet, it is still difficult to search for appropriate and relevant information, even with the use of advanced search engines. With no systematic quality control of online resources, it is difficult to determine how reliable information is. The consortium Intute, which administers a databank of high quality information available via the Internet, which is intended to support scientific teaching and research, ensures that all information provided has been evaluated and investigated by its own team of specialists in various disciplines. A part of the website of Intute which is accessible free of charge is the Virtual Training Suite, by means of which one can improve one's competence in Internet searching and where a number of reliable and qualitatively superior sources for daily practice are available.

Dental Health International Netherlands is a Dutch organization, founded in 1976. The main goal of the organization is improving oral health care in developing countries, focusing on prevention and supporting local oral health care organizations. Dental Health International Netherlands endeavours being a facilitary organization for oral health care providers in low income countries as well as serving as a center of knowledge for dentists and dental hygienists willing to volunteer in deprived communities.

Driven by advanced computer technology, it is now possible to show the human anatomy on a computer. On the internet, the Visible Body programme makes it possible to navigate in all directions through the anatomical structures of the human body, using mouse and keyboard. Visible Body is a wonderful tool to give insight in the human structures, body functions and organs.

Patients with one of the 6,000 rare diseases that are at the present time known to exist, together form a large group. Relevant information, a correct diagnosis and appropriate and adequate therapy are sometimes difficult to obtain for these vulnerable patients. Physicians and researchers are increasingly working in networks to record the findings of research and to make it available by means of databases. Patient organizations provide information and guidelines and are easily accessible for the public via their websites. In this contribution, the websites of, first, Orphanet, a database devoted to information on rare diseases,and, second, the Dutch Steering Committee Orphan Drugs, a portal site with information for patients with a rare disease, will be discussed.

Locating the desired evidenced-based literature via the internet is usually time-consuming and not particularly straight-forward. Websites offering evidence-based information should be accessible, efficient and user friendly. Many of these websites, however, only make their own content available, making it necessary to change websites in order to get a complete picture of the required information. The so-called website of ''Turning Research Into Practice'' is a positive exception. This website makes it possible to search the whole range of evidence-based publications on a certain subject with 1 search action, is straight-forward and practical to use, and the presentation is exceptionally good.

The National Institute for Public Health and Environment applies its research and expertise in advising the government and healthcare professionals. For this purpose it collects information, nationwide and internationally, in the field of public health in order to monitor the risks of infectious diseases and epidemics. It presents an extensive amount of information on health, disease, nutrition, disease prevention, and environmental issues on its website.

Scuba diving is accompanied by some risks. This article deals with some websites about the safety and health of scuba divers. Informative websites are those of the Divers Alert Network and the Dutch Society of Scuba Diving Medicine ('Nederlandse Vereniging voor Duikgeneeskunde').

By conducting an oral examination, during radiographic examination and in treatment planning procedures dentists make numerous decisions. A dentist will be required to make his decisions explicit. Decision trees and decision analyses may play an important role. In a decision analysis, the probability of correct and incorrect decisions are multiplied by the utility of the decision outcomes. The treatment outcome with the highest expected utility should be selected. Complex decision tasks such as the estimation of an individual's caries risk or the diagnosis of bone disorders are currently available as computer applications. Also, a preliminary version of a computer programme which detects caries lesions from bitewing radiographs independent from the dentist has become available. It is expected that the applicability of decision analyses will increase when implemented in the dental practice software packages.

With the use of Ag staining and conventional light microscopy, a difference is visualized in the frequency of nucleolar organizer regions between PHA-stimulated lymphocytes from normal females and females with various types of adenocarcinoma. This difference in NOR activity is more pronounced in G chromosome than D chromosomes. It is feasible that rDNA gene activity in PHA-stimulated lymphocytes is augmented in patients with adenocarcinoma due to the presence of plasma mediators arising from cellular malignancies. The NOR regions located on G chromosomes are considered to be more sensitive to these mediators than those on D chromosomes.

Using ammoniacal silver for differential staining of satellites, associations from 1,668 human metaphases were studied from lymphocyte cultures of 167 normal individuals and were correlated with age and sex. There is a peak in satellite association frequency up to age 20 years in males and to 25 in females. With older ages there is a decline in association frequencies. No associations with four or more chromosomes were found in newborns. Furthermore, association in newborns, as well as in individuals older than 50 years, are significantly low compared to in-between age groups. Females have a higher frequency of satellite associations than males between the ages of 3 and 50 years. Typically, females have greater multiple associations, while males have more single associations. Randomness or non-randomness of occurrence of associations fluctuates for different age groups within and between the two sexes.

Silver selectively stains nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) distributed on the D and G chromosomes of man. The number of NORs is fairly constant for a given individual but is highly variable within populations. When 2540 metaphases from lymphocytes were examined from 127 normal subjects, a mean NOR number of 7.3 was obtained with a mode of 7. No significant difference was found in mean NOR number between females and males. However, regression lines do show a decrease in NOR number with aging for both sexes but the rate of decline is more evident in females. Also, G chromosome NORs appear more stable than those in D chromosomes. Since silver--NOR staining is indicative of ribosomal gene activity, it is proposed that lymphocyte rDNA becomes less sensitive to phytohemagglutinin stimulation during aging. It is unique that this gene repression can be visualized with conventional staining and light microscopy.