The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide pandemic in 2020. In response, most countries in the world implemented lockdowns, restricting their population’s movements, work, education, gatherings, and general activities in attempt to ‘flatten the curve’ of COVID-19 cases. The public health goal of lockdowns was to save the population from COVID-19 cases and deaths, and to prevent overwhelming health care systems with COVID-19 patients. In this narrative review I explain why I changed my mind about supporting lockdowns. First, I explain how the initial modeling predictions induced fear and crowd-effects [i.e., groupthink]. Second, I summarize important information that has emerged relevant to the modeling, including about infection fatality rate, high-risk groups, herd immunity thresholds, and exit strategies. Third, I describe how reality started sinking in, with information on significant collateral damage due to the response to the pandemic, and information placing the number of deaths in context and perspective. Fourth, I present a cost-benefit analysis of the response to COVID-19 that finds lockdowns are far more harmful to public health than COVID-19 can be. Controversies and objections about the main points made are considered and addressed. I close with some suggestions for moving forward.

Time is a component quantity of various measurements and is also used on its own to sequence events, to compare the duration of events or the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change of quantities in material reality or in the conscious experience [1]. The measuring equipment well might happen to be a clock. By making a presupposition that clock is Time, it is perceived experimentally that “Time exhibits wave-like properties”

There is a long trail of research studies testing the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of chloroquine and its derivatives in treating and preventing infection by various coronavirus species. More recent findings have highlighted the possibility of treating patients infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. This review describes the mechanism of coronavirus infection, the mechanism of action of chloroquine, and summarizes the available literature highlighting the efficacy of chloroquine as an anti-coronavirus agent. These findings should encourage the wider scientific community to conduct thorough research on the possible efficacy of chloroquine and its derivatives in treating and preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The emergence of COVID -19 pandemic has severely impacted individuals from all walks of life. The rapid spread of the disease to nearly all parts of the country has posed enormous health, economic, environmental and social challenges to the entire human population. In the absence of any effective drugs and vaccines for treatment, social distancing and other preventive measures are the only alternatives. Lockdown is among one of the options suggested by WHO to reduce spread of the virus. India was quick to close its international borders and enforce the world’s largest COVID lockdown on March 22, 2020. The present study attempts to highlight the impact of imposed nationwide lockdown on society and environment alike along with analysis of lifestyle changes. The study was based on an online survey using a structured questionnaire with over 1000 responders across the country. The pandemic situation demands a certain way of shaping the society to reduce virus spread and safeguard oneself. In this study, we analysed the changes that the society has undergone during lockdown to mitigate the spreading of the infection. We also addressed the changes that have become part of our lives during lockdown – hygiene and health consciousness, work from home (WFM), online teaching, digital shopping, changing internet habits and societal changes.

In the past decades, several new diseases have emerged in new geographical areas, with pathogens including Ebola, Zika, Nipah, and coronaviruses (CoVs). Recently, a new type of viral infection has emerged in Wuhan City, China, and initial genomic sequencing data of this virus does not match with previously sequenced CoVs, suggesting a novel CoV strain (2019-nCoV), which has now been termed as severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Although Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is suspected to originate from an animal host (zoonotic origin) followed by human-to-human transmission, the possibility of other routes such as food-borne transmission should not be ruled out. Compared to diseases caused by previously known human CoVs, COVID-19 shows less severe pathogenesis but higher transmission competence, as is evident from the continuously increasing number of confirmed cases globally. Compared to other emerging viruses such as Ebola virus, avian H7N9, SARS-CoV, or MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 has shown relatively low pathogenicity and moderate transmissibility. Codon usage studies suggest that this novel virus may have been transferred from an animal source such as bats. Early diagnosis by real-time PCR and next-generation sequencing has facilitated the identification of the pathogen at an early stage. Since, no antiviral drug or vaccine exists to treat or prevent SARS-CoV-2, potential therapeutic strategies that are currently being evaluated predominantly stem from previous experience with treating SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and other emerging viral diseases. In this review, we address epidemiological, diagnostic, clinical, and therapeutic aspects, including perspectives of vaccines and preventive measures that have already been globally recommended.

Objective: To recommend how physicians can best respond to families whose hopes for a miracle via divine intervention influence their medical decisions, like, for example, making them not want to withdraw ventilatory support in cases of poor neurologic prognosis because they are still hoping for God to intervene. Methods: Auto-ethnographic analysis of chaplaincy experience in this clinical context yields a nuanced 90-second, point-of-care spiritual intervention physicians can use to address the religious aspect of families who base medical decisions on their hopes for a miracle via divine intervention. Explanation of how spiritual intervention dovetails with existing physician communication protocol for responding to families hoping for a miracle. Results: Spiritual intervention for religious aspect of miracle-hoping families is integrated into existing physician communication protocol for responding to families hoping for a miracle with recommendations for utilization of existing communication technology when necessary. Conclusion: Properly addressing the religious dimension of families hoping for a miracle may be helpful for physicians interested in decreasing their own stress levels, improving outcomes for this clinical context, and ensuring that unintentional discrimination does not perpetuate racial disparities in end-of-life care.

School closures (SC) were adopted globally as a COVID-19 disease pandemic containment strategy. This extreme measure provoked a disruption of the educational system involving hundreds of million children worldwide. The return of children to school has been variable and is still an unresolved and contentious issue. Importantly the process has not been directly correlated to the severity of the pandemic s impact and has fueled the widening of disparities, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable populations. Available evidence shows SC added little benefit to COVID-19 control whereas the harms related to SC severely affected children and adolescents. This unresolved issue has put children and young people at high risk of social, economic and health-related harm for years to come, triggering severe consequences during their lifespan. In this article we describe the process of SC and the reopening timetable across the globe. We highlight the data regarding the international state of educational systems around the world, putting emphasis on the rights of children to come back to school.

Epidemiological data indicate that 5.8% of cancer deaths world-wide are attributable to alcohol consumption. The risk of cancer is higher in tissues in closest contact on ingestion of alcohol, such as the oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus. The risk of these cancers is increased even in people who have only one alcoholic drink per day. However, since ethanol is not mutagenic and the carcinogenic metabolite of ethanol (acetaldehyde) is mostly produced in the liver, it is not clear why alcohol use preferentially exerts a local carcinogenic effect. It is well known that ethanol causes cell death at the concentrations present in alcoholic beverages; however, this effect has been overlooked probably because dead cells cannot give rise to cancer. Here I discuss that the cytotoxic effect of ethanol on the cells lining the oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus activates the division of the stem cells located in deeper layers of the mucosa to replace the dead cells. Every time stem cells divide, they become exposed to unavoidable errors associated with cell division (e.g., mutations arising during DNA replication and chromosomal alterations occurring during mitosis) and also become highly vulnerable to the genotoxic activity of endogenous and exogenous DNA-damaging agents (e.g., reactive oxygen species, acetaldehyde and tobacco carcinogens). Alcohol consumption probably increases the risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus by promoting the accumulation of cell divisions in the stem cells that maintain these tissues in homeostasis. Because the cytotoxic activity of ethanol is concentration-dependent, the risk of these cancers will not only increase with increasing amounts of ethanol, but also with increasing concentrations; an ounce of whisky is probably more carcinogenic when taken undiluted than when taken mixed with non-alcoholic beverages. The local cytotoxic effect of ethanol can also explain the known synergistic effect of alcohol and tobacco use on the risk of these cancers. Understanding the mechanisms of carcinogenicity of alcohol is important to reinforce the epidemiological evidence and to raise public awareness of the strong link between alcohol consumption and cancer.

Objectives to assess COVID-19 mortality rates per country population. To determine what if any independent country-specific variables from 9 different databases were correlated. Design population based retrospective cohort study. Setting analysis of global COVID-19 treatment and containment strategies using data from 9 worldwide websites. Participants 108 countries worldwide. Interventions none. Main Outcome Measures were COVID-19 death rates per country population analyzed by univariate and multivariate analysis. The main outcome parameters were to determine if there are any correlations between the percentage of countrywide COVID-19 deaths/population by the countries’ percent vaccinated. Secondary outcome measures include the effect of other independent variables on COVID-19 death rates per country population including: health expenditures per capita, annual income per capita, COVID-19 tests per 1000 people, stringency index (a measure of each countries containment strategies), hydroxychloroquine score (a measure of each countries use), ivermectin score (a measure of each countries use), hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and specific countries and geographic locations. Results COVID-19 vaccination rates ranged from 0-99% in 108 countries. Univariate analysis demonstrates the following independent variables to correlate with COVID-19 deaths/population (correlation coefficient, p value): countrywide COVID-19 vaccination rates (+0.2936, p=0.002); healthcare costs per capita (+0.3212, p=0.0007), income per capita (+0.3051, p=0.0013), COVID-19 tests per 1000 population (+0.6981 p=0.0307); stringency index (+0.3098, p=0.0011); hydroxychloroquine index (-0.1337, p=0.0678); and ivermectin index (-0.1383, p=0.1535). Conclusions Increasing rates of COVID-19 vaccination are associated with increase COVID-19 death rates per country population (p=0.002). Other variables associated include healthcare costs per capita (+0.3212, p=0.0007), income per capita (+0.3051, p=0.0013), COVID-19 tests per 1000 population (+0.6981 p=0.0307); and stringency index (+0.3098, p=0.0011).

Almost 6% of cancers worldwide are attributable to alcohol consumption. Approximately half of them occur in tissues highly exposed to ethanol, such as the oral cavity, pharynx, upper larynx and esophagus. However, since ethanol is not mutagenic and the carcinogenic metabolite of ethanol (acetaldehyde) is mainly produced in the liver, it is unclear why alcohol consumption preferentially causes a local carcinogenic effect. We recently hypothesized that the cytotoxic activity of ethanol could explain the high risk of these cancers in alcohol users. Here we report that short-term exposures (2-3 seconds) to ethanol concentrations between 10% and 15% start to cause a marked cytotoxic effect on human epithelial keratinocytes in a concentration-dependent manner. After discussing new evidence that cancer is the end-result of the accumulation of cell divisions in stem cells, we explain why regular alcohol consumption imposes a high risk of cancer on these tissues. Briefly, the cytotoxicity of ethanol reduces the lifespan of the cells lining these tissues. The stem cells located in deeper layers need to divide more often than usual to renew the damaged epithelia. The accumulation of cell divisions in stem cells leads to the accumulation of cancer-promoting errors (e.g., mutations arising during DNA replication) that increase their risk of malignant transformation. Cell division also exposes the DNA of the stem cells to the genotoxic activity of acetaldehyde and tobacco carcinogens. We propose that choosing alcoholic beverages containing non-cytotoxic concentrations of ethanol, or diluting ethanol to non-cytotoxic concentrations, is a simple way to reduce the risk of cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx and esophagus in alcohol users. This preventive strategy may also abolish the known synergistic effect of alcohol drinking and tobacco smoking on the risk of these cancers.

The paper presents the most comprehensive and large-scale study to date on how students perceive the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on various aspects of their lives on a global level. With a sample of 30,383 students from 62 countries, the study reveals that amid the worldwide lockdown and transition to online learning students were most satisfied with the support provided by teaching staff and their universities’ public relations. Still, deficient computer skills and the perception of a higher workload prevented them from perceiving their own improved performance in the new teaching environment. Students were mainly concerned about issues to do with their future professional career and studies, and experienced boredom, anxiety and frustration. The pandemic has led to the adoption of particular hygienic behaviours (e.g. wearing masks, washing hands) and discouraged certain daily practices (e.g. leaving home, shaking hands). Students were also more satisfied with the role played by hospitals and universities during the epidemic compared to the government and banks. The findings also show that students with selected socio-demographic characteristics (male, part-time, first level, applied sciences, lower living standard, from Africa or Asia) were generally more strongly affected by the pandemic since they were significantly less satisfied with their academic work/life. Key factors influencing students' satisfaction with the role of their university are also identified. Policymakers and higher education institutions around the world may benefit from these findings while formulating policy recommendations and strategies to support students during this and any future pandemics.

Culture, gender and religion are closely linked each other’s, profoundly affect the role of each person within the Society, and also affect the ability to access to the health resources. We are now living a worldwide crisis due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In order to appropriately tackle it, an alliance between science, politics and citizens is needed. In this article, we summarize current evidences of how religions can represent, on one hand, a risk moment for spreading the virus (in relation with overcrowded events), on the other, a precious opportunity to engage people, and in particular minorities, in fighting the pandemic. To win this fight, we need a multicultural approach that takes into account every aspect of human life, and among these religion, which influences so much culture, everyday life and well-being.

Philip Morris International (PMI) has developed the Population Health Impact Model (PHIM) to quantify, in the absence of epidemiological data, the effects of marketing a candidate modified risk tobacco product (cMRTP) on the public health of a whole population. Various simulations were performed to understand the harm reduction impact on the U.S. population over a 20-year period under various scenarios. The overall reduction in smoking attributable deaths (SAD) over the 20-year period was estimated as 934,947 if smoking completely went away and between 516,944 and 780,433 if cMRTP use completely replaces smoking. The reduction in SADs was estimated as 172,458 for the World Health Organization (WHO) 2025 Target and between 70,274 and 90,155 for the gradual cMRTP uptake. Combining the scenarios (WHO 2025 Target and cMRTP uptake), the reductions were between 256,453 and 268,796, depending on the cMRTP effective dose. These results show how a cMRTP can reduce overall population harm additionally to existing tobacco control efforts.

The popularity of electronic cigarettes in the United States and around the world has led to a startling rise in youth nicotine use. The Juul e-cigarette was introduced in the U.S. market in 2015 and had captured approximately 13% of the U.S. market by 2017. Unlike many other contemporary electronic cigarette companies, the founders behind the Juul® e-cigarette approached their product launch like a traditional high-tech start-up company, not like a tobacco company. This article presents a case study of Juul’s corporate and product development history in the context of US regulatory actions. The objective of this article is to demonstrate the value of government-curated archives as leading indicators which can (a) provide insight into emergent technologies and (b) inform emergent regulatory science research questions. A variety of sources were used to gather data about the Juul e-cigarette and the corporations that surround it. Sources included government agencies, published academic literature, non-profit organizations, corporate and retail websites, and the popular press. Data was disambiguated, authenticated, and categorized prior to being placed on a timeline of events. A timeline of four significant milestones, nineteen corporate filings and events, twelve US regulatory actions, sixty four patent applications, eighty seven trademark applications, twenty three design patents and thirty two utility patents related to Juul Labs and its associates is presented spanning the years 2004 thought 2020. This work demonstrates the probative value of findings from patent, trademark, and SEC filing literature in establishing a premise for emergent regulatory science research questions which may not yet be supported by traditional archival research literature. The methods presented here can be used to identify key aspects of emerging technologies before products actually enter the market, this shifting policy formulation and problem identification from a paradigm of being reactive in favor of becoming proactive. Such a proactive approach may permit anticipatory regulatory science research and ultimately shorten the elapsed time between market technology innovation and regulatory response.

ETS exposure has been shown as an important environmental risk factor in vulnerable population groups. The aim of the project is to analyze the relationships among the ETS and behavior and health in 6−15-year-old children in Slovakia. The status of physical and mental health of children in relation to exposure to tobacco smoke was examined in the representative group of 1478 school children. The methods used, included anonymous questionnaires filled in by parents, Columbia Impairment Scale (CIS), Behavior Problem Index (BPI) and anthropometry. The prevalence of passive smoking is the highest in the capital (27%) and southern cities. Significant relationships have been confirmed between ETS and the age, socio-economic status, the incompleteness of the family, the level of mother's education and the significantly higher prevalence of respiratory diseases (26.7%).The relationships of ETS with emotional (CIS scores ≥16) and behavioral functions (BPI score ≥14) were significant in children exposed to mother‘s and father‘s smoking at home. In the multivariate analysis this association was not significant; the factors such as income and completeness of the family were dominant. The results confirmed the impact of ETS and social factors on health state and health behavior and could be the argumentation for legislative changes.

The bacterial wilt pathogen, first known as Bacillus solanacearum, has undergone numerous taxonomic changes since its first description in 1896. The history and significance of this pathogen is covered in this review with an emphasis on the advances in technology that were used to support each reclassification that finally led to the current separation of Ralstonia solanacearum into three genomic species. Frequent name changes occurred as methodology transitioned from phenotypic, biochemical, and molecular studies, to genomics and functional genomics. The diversity, wide host range and geographical distribution of R. solanacearum has resulted in its inclusion in a “species complex” as genomic analyses of elucidated phylogenetic relationships among strains. Current advances in phylogenetics and functional genomics now open new avenues for research into the epidemiology and control of the devastating bacterial wilt disease.

Few data are available on the health impact of tobacco heating products (THPs) at the population level. We used systems dynamics modelling to estimate effects in the established THP market in Japan. We projected effects of THP use in overall mortality up to 2100 and compare those projections against a baseline scenario based on smoking rates pre-THP launch, i.e., smoking only. The model was informed using data from publicly available sources and the literature, including population size, yearly deaths and smoking prevalence with initialisation year (2004) and, births and migration from 2004 to 2065. Transitions between products were estimated from cross-sectional population surveys in Japan. Potential life-years saved with the introduction of THPs was 13 million by 2100 compared with smoking only. In worst-case scenario, population health gains would be seen with THPs risk 10–50% lower risk than smoking. Assuming equal risk for dual use and smoking, THP risk would need to be at least 10% lower than smoking to achieve a population health benefit by 2100. In credible scenarios, substantial population health gains will follow the introduction of THPs in Japan in a relatively short time frame.

Smoking is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases and remains a significant public health challenge in many lower- and middle-income countries (LMIC) including Namibia. The purpose of the study was to estimate the prevalence of smoking and its associated risk factors among HCWs and non-HCWs in Zambezi region. An exploratory cross-sectional survey was conducted between March and October 2020 among residents of the eight (8) constituencies of Zambezi region. Four hundred and sixty-one (461) respondents who had been residents of the selected constituencies for over five years and aged between 17-60 years were selected for the study. The main outcome measure was current cigarette smoking status. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. We stratified data analysis by individual being health workers or non-health workers. A bivariate Pearson Chi-square test was used to determine the association between socio-demographic characteristics and the smoking status. Statistically significant variables in the bivariate analysis were used as predictors in the univariate and multivariate models. The response rate of potential participants was 95% (n=434). The mean (±SD) age of participant’s was 32.5 (± 11.34 years). Significant relationships were observed between smoking status and area of residency (constituency), gender, age category, level of education, age of onset of smoking and the daily smoking frequency. The majority of smokers (n=108) were none-HCWs with males being the majority (n=62). Age (p=0.001), education levels (p=0.001) and area of residency (p=0.022) were highly associated with smoking among none-HCW while marital status was associated with smoking among HCWs (p=0.013). In the final multivariate model, the odds of smoking among female non-HCWs were significantly lower (OR: 0.386; 95% CI: 0.228 – 0.655). Furthermore, the odds of smoking among this same group were lower among those who had secondary level education (OR: 0.178; 95% CI: 0.0659 – 0.483), post-secondary (OR: 0.117, 95% CI: 0.0412 – 0.330) and first stage tertiary (OR: 0.306: 95% CI: 0.106 – 0.881) compared to those who had primary school education. In conclusion, smoking prevalence among none HCWs and HCWs working in Zambezi included in the study was similar to that of the general Namibian population but higher than other neighboring countries within SADC. The results showed a need for the establishment of specific smoking related strategies that target HCWs to address smoking use parallel to the running of none HCWs which would ultimately decrease the smoking prevalence and improve health.

Background: Exercise is increasingly understood as an important resource for people with harmful substance use, including those in prison. Little is known about how inmates adopt various health behaviors during incarceration, without interventions. Methods: This study analyzed self-reports from 1468 inmates in Norwegian prisons, compared them according to harmful substance use pre-incarceration, and explored changes in exercise and nicotine use during incarceration. Results were presented in accordance with the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines. Results: Inmates with harmful substance use reported higher rates of smoking, smokeless tobacco, and physical inactivity pre-incarceration than inmates without harmful use. However, inmates with harmful use also exhibited more behavioral changes: they adopted exercise, ceased smoking, and adopted smokeless tobacco at higher rates during incarceration than the non-harmful group. Conclusions: Exercise is being taken up by a significant proportion of inmates, and may in particular be a replacement behavior for substance use. However, unhealthy behaviors are also begun or maintained. If prisons were used as an arena to facilitate healthy behaviors, the public health benefits to a marginalized group such as substance-using inmates could be substantial.

Background: Drinking and smoking have economic consequences and are the main risk factors of mortality and morbidity. Disease-specific deaths attributable to using substances present the primary health indicator in this study. This analysis focuses on mortality in productive age, 15 to 64 years since those deaths are considered the highest economic burden. Method: In the analytical part, data from the Registry of deaths of the Czech Republic for 1994 to 2017 were used. The number of deaths attributable to smoking and drinking was calculated using attributable fractions, based on literature review. This research aimed to reveal the gender differences in deaths attributable to drinking and smoking, according to age, and the differences in deaths regarding smoking or drinking. Results: The mortality attributable to smoking and drinking differs across age groups and genders. The highest median share of tobacco-related deaths is in the age group, 60—64 years. The highest median share of alcoholic deaths is in the age group of 50—54 years. Conclusions: There are significant differences between genders in both, smoking and drinking. A prevention program should be targeted to different age groups.

Designed by a group of ME/CFS researchers and health professionals, the European Network on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (EUROMENE) has received funding from the European Cooperation is Science and Technology (COST) (https://www.cost.eu/cost-actions/what-are-cost-actions/ ) - COST action 15111 - from 2016 to 2020. The main goal of the Cost Action was to assess the existing fragmented knowledge and experience on health care delivery for people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) in European countries, and to enhance coordinated research and health care provision in this field. We report on the recommendations for clinical diagnosis, heath services and care for people with ME/CFS in Europe, as prepared by the group of clinicians and researchers from 22 countries and 55 European health professionals and researchers, who have been informed by people with ME/CFS (https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA15111/#tabs|Name:overview).

Background: Smoking is disproportionately prevalent among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian peoples, with 39% of Indigenous Australians aged over 15 years smoking daily. Efforts to reduce this high prevalence include culturally focused media campaigns, designed using community consultation, highlighting the need to determine how such health messaging is received by smokers. This study aimed to examine Indigenous Australian smokers’ reactions to a culturally focused anti-smoking mass media campaign—'Give up Smokes’. Methods: Intercept surveying across health services and events used recorded demographics, smoking status, quit attempts, smoking health effects, anti-smoking campaign recall, social support, and campaign reactions. Participants rated campaign images in five domains: 1) whether it made them stop and think; 2) personal relevance; 3) believability of design and message; 4) prompting concern about smoking; and 5) motivation towards quitting. Cluster analysis was used to segment smoker types. Results: Smoking health effects knowledge was high, and did not differ by quit readiness, attempts, or social support. Cessation support access was higher among those with greater readiness to quit. Social smoking behaviour and confidence to support others quitting did not significantly differ between participants, however importance of others quitting did. Quit readiness, attempts, and social support were associated with reaction to campaign design, but not message recall. Four types of smokers were described, using smoking characteristics, who differed in campaign message reactions. Conclusions: Strategies using campaign-exposed smoker characteristics to inform culturally focused health promotion are discussed in relation to four identified types of smokers.

This study introduces and demonstrates a comprehensive, accurate, unbiased approach to robust quantitative comparison of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) appropriate for establishing substantial equivalence (or lack thereof) between tobacco products. The approach is demonstrated across a family of thirteen pen- and pod-style ENDS products. Methods employed consist of formulating a robust emissions surface regression model, quantifying the empirical accuracy of the model as applied to each product, evaluating relationships between product design characteristics and maximum emissions characteristics, and presenting results in formats useful to researchers, regulators, and consumers. Results provide a response surface to characterize emissions (total particulate matter and constituents thereof) from each ENDS appropriate for use in a computer model and for conducting quantitative exposure comparisons between products. Results demonstrate that emissions vary as a function of puff duration, flow rate, E-Liquid composition, and device operating power. Further, results indicate that regulating design characteristics of ENDS devices and consumables may not achieve desired public health outcomes; it is more effective to regulate maximum permissible emissions directly. Three emissions outcome measures (yield per puff, mass concentration and constituent mass ratio) are recommended for adoption as standard quantities for reporting by manufacturers and research laboratories. The approach provides a means of (a) quantifying and comparing maximal emissions from ENDS products spanning their entire operating envelope, (b) comparative evaluation of ENDS devices and consumable design characteristics, and (c) establishing comparative equivalence of maximal emissions from ENDS. A consumer-oriented product emissions dashboard is proposed for comparative evaluation of ENDS exposure potential. Maximum achievable power dissipated in the coil of ENDS is identified as a potentially effective regulatory parameter.

Introduction: Despite more than one year passed since the first cases of SARS-CoV-2 were reported, there is still no consensus on the definition and clinical management of post-acute-COVID-19. The condition has heterogeneously been named as Chronic COVID syndrome, Post COVID-19 Syndrome, post-acute sequela of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC), and the more familiar long COVID. Method: In order to capture all relevant published studies, we undertook a multi-step search with no language restriction. The following four-step search strategy was utilized: First, a preliminary (limited) search was conducted on January 20, 2021, in Google Scholar and PubMed to identify the appropriate keywords. Then, on January 30, 2021, we adopted a search strategy of electronic databases from Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of sciences, using those keywords. Then, after duplicate removal, we screened all titles, abstracts, and full texts. This resulted in 66 eligible studies. Subsequently, after a forward and backward search of their references and citations an additional 54 publications were found, resulting in a total of 120 publications that formed the basis of the present analysis. The titles, abstracts, and full-texts of non-English articles were translated using Google Translate for further evaluation. We conducted our scoping review based on the PRISMA-ScR Checklist.Results: We found only one randomized clinical trial in our search. Of the 67 original studies, 22 were cohort and 28 were cross-sectional studies totaling 74.6% of the original studies. Of the total of 120 publications, 59 (49.1%) focused on signs and symptoms, 28 (23.3%) were focused on management, and 13 (10.8%) focused on pathophysiology. Ten (9%) publications focused on imaging studies. Ninety-one percent of the original investigations came from high and upper-middle-income countries, highlighting the scarcity of reports originating from low-income and lower-middle-income countries.Conclusion: The predominant symptoms among those with the so-called “Long COVID” were: fatigue, breathlessness, arthralgia, sleep difficulties, and chest pain. Recent reports also point to the risk of long-term sequela with cutaneous, respiratory, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, mental health, neurologic, and renal involvement in those who survive the acute phase of the illness. The ambiguity and controversies in its definition have impaired proper recognition and management of those requiring additional support following the resolution of the acute phase of this infection. This has resulted in long-standing distress for the patients and their families. Our findings highlight the need for a multidisciplinary approach, support, and rehabilitation for these patients in terms of long-term mental and physical health.

Work-life after COVID-19 might never be the same again. After an economic crisis due to the pandemic, the Indonesian government is applying large-scale social restriction relaxation to allow companies to reopen. However, just after a few weeks of social relaxation, new clusters from offices are occurring. With many employees infected with COVID 19, concerns arise among employers; when is the best time for employees to get back to work after COVID-19 infection? This paper provides a general guideline to discontinue isolation in people with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection in non-healthcare establishments. According to the newest available evidence, commencing back to work should refer to a symptom-based strategy rather than a test-based strategy. In all circumstances, universal health protocol should be practiced at all times to minimize widespread transmission.

The existence of a common ancestor to all living organisms in Earth is a necessary corollary of Darwin idea of common ancestry. The Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) has been normally considered as the ancestor of cellular organisms that originated the three domains of life: Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya. Recent studies about the nature of LUCA indicate that this first organism should present hundreds of genes and a complex metabolism. Trying to bring another of Darwin ideas into the origins of life discussion, we went back into the prebiotic chemistry trying to understand how LUCA could be originated under gradualist assumptions. Along this line of reasoning, it became clear to us that the definition of another ancestral should be of particular relevance to the understanding about the emergence of biological systems. Together with the view of biology as a language for chemical translation, on which proteins are encoded into nucleic acids polymers, we glimpse a point in the deep past on which this Translation mechanism could have taken place. Thus, we propose the emergence of this process shared by all biological systems as a point of interest and propose the existence of this pre-cellular entity named FUCA, as the First Universal Common Ancestor. FUCA was born in the very instant on which RNA-world replicators started to be capable to catalyze the bonding of amino acids into oligopeptides. FUCA has been considered mature when the translation system apparatus has been assembled together with the establishment of a primeval, possibly error-prone genetic code. This is FUCA, the earliest ancestor of LUCA’s lineage.

Introduction: Pharmaceutical products are inevitable for human health. Owing to the growing need for pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical companies introduce drugs annually into the market in addition to the extensive collection of existing pharmaceutical products. Households, farms, health facilities, and pharmaceutical industries release pharmaceutical waste into the environment at low concentrations through routine pharmaceutical use, damage, and expiry. The effects of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) on non-target species in the environment are not known. Over the years, pharmaceuticals such as diclofenac and ibuprofen in trace amounts have been detected in public water systems, ground and surface water. Unwanted medicines should be safely disposed of at a reduced financial cost to mitigate the public and environmental health risks. Lack of general knowledge of how to dispose of unused pharmaceuticals leads to improper disposal resulting in accidental toxicity, rising healthcare costs, landfills pilfering/scavenging, water supply pollution, anti-microbial resistance, and death. To mitigate such effects, pharmacists should raise public awareness about safe disposal practices. Objective: This review aims to examine the sources of pharmaceutical waste, disposal costs, secure disposal methods, the effects of inappropriate disposal, and the role of pharmacists in the disposal. Method: The information on the stated objectives was gathered from available sources through a comprehensive literature review. Conclusion: Many countries contain tons of pharmaceutical waste that are expensive to destroy. Because of improper disposal, pharmaceutical waste has been found at trace amounts in drinking and surface water. A practical, environmentally sustainable approach to pharmaceutical waste management, with policies and guidelines, and public awareness campaigns, are necessary to address the problem of safe waste disposal. The national drug regulatory bodies should conduct environmental risk assessment resulting from the disposal of unwanted pharmaceuticals. Pharmacists should facilitate extensive training on sustainable drug use and proper pharmaceutical waste disposal at all levels to reduce the risks associated with improper disposal. Reduction of pharmaceutical waste generation at each step of a drug’s lifecycle, implementing takeback options, collection at approved sites, and modern technology to treat wastewater are highly recommended to reduce the effects of unwanted pharmaceuticals on human health and the environment.

Background: COVID-19 pandemic has pulled us all a few steps back, were we never shake hands or hug each other when we meet our friends and family after a gap, but instead we greet them by saying Namaste and joining our hands together. As we all know, COVID-19 spreads through air and the only way to shield ourselves is by maintaining a safe distance from one another. Methodology: In order to conduct a meta-analysis on the number of COVID-19 cases in Kerala and India, the data was retrieved from various sites hosted by the government bodies. The data for analysis was collected from May 2020 to July 2020. The average number of days required to reach every 5000 fresh cases were also calculated using this data. COVID-19 has affected all the economy holistically regardless of financial, behavioral, or societal aspects. Conclusion: Lifting of the lockdown in a step by step process keeping in mind the necessities for the nation was a thoughtful act, but the people who mistook this opportunity and did not remain in quarantine after coming from abroad was recognized as the reasons behind the sudden and uncontrolled rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in Kerala, India. The government authorities had no other option but to lift the restrictions to reduce the economic burdens that had already affected the daily wage worker and farmers prompting them to give up their lives.

In this paper we present an understanding of cyber risks in the Internet of Things (IoT), we explain why it is important to understand what IoT cyber risks are and how we can use risk assessment and risk management approaches to deal with these challenges. We introduce the most effective ways of doing Risk assessment and Risk Management of IoT risk. As part of our research, we also developed methodologies to assess and manage risk in this emerging environment. This paper will take you through our research and we will explain: what we mean by the IoT; what we mean by risk and risk in the IoT; why risk assessment and risk management are important; the IoT risk management for incident response and recovery; what open questions on IoT risk assessment and risk management remain.

Very well into the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution (industry 4.0), we hardly distinguish between what is artificial and what is natural (e.g. man-made virus and natural virus). Thus, the level of discombobulation among people, companies or countries is indeed unprecedented. The fact that industry 4.0 is explosively disrupting or retrofitting each and every industrial sector, makes industry 4.0 the famous buzzword amongst researchers today. However, the insight of industry 4.0 disruption in the industrial sectors remains ill-defined in both academic and non-academic literature. The present study aimed at identifying industry 4.0 neologisms, understanding the industry 4.0 disruption and illustrating the disruptive technologies convergence in the major industrial sectors. A total of 99 neologisms of industry 4.0 were identified. Industry 4.0 disruption in Education industry (Education 4.0), Energy industry (Energy 4.0), Agriculture industry (Agriculture 4.0), Healthcare industry (Healthcare 4.0), and Logistics industry (Logistics 4.0) are described. The convergence of 12 disruptive technologies including 3D printing, Artificial intelligence, Augmented reality, Big Data, Blockchain, Cloud computing, Drones, Internet of things, Nanotechnology, Robotics, Simulation and Synthetic biology in agriculture, healthcare and logistics industries are illustrated.

The food system, the most important driver of planetary transformation, is in a deep crisis. Therefore, seeking a sustainable and socially-fair transition pathway becomes an issue of utmost priority for our own survival. The consideration of food as a commodity, a social construct that played a central role in driving this crisis, remains the uncontested narrative to lead the different transition pathways what seems rather contradictory. By exploring the normative values in the transition landscape, this paper seeks to understand how relevant is the hegemonic narrative of “food as commodity” and its alternative of “food as commons” to determine transition trajectories and food policy beliefs. Applying the Multi-level Perspective framework and developing the ill-studied “agency in transition”, this research enquired food-related professionals that belong to an online community of practice (N=95) on valuation of food dimensions and agency in food transitions to check whether the valuation of food is relevant to explain personal stances in transition. Results suggest the socially-constructed view of food as commodity is positively correlated to the gradual reforming attitude, whereas food as commons is positively correlated to the counter-hegemonic transformers regardless the self-defined position in the transition landscape (regime or niches). At personal level, there are multiple loci of resistance with counter-hegemonic attitudes in varied institutions of the regime and the innovative niches, many of them holding this discourse of food as commons. Conversely, alter-hegemonic attitudes are not positively correlated to this alternative discourse and they may inadvertently or purportedly reinforce the ‘‘neoliberal narrative’’. Food as commons, a different narrative whose rationale is explained in the paper, seems to be a relevant framework that could enrich the multiple transformative constituencies that challenge the industrial food system and therefore facilitate the convergence of movements that reject the commodification of food.

SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus behind COVID-19 pandemic is acquiring new mutations in its genome. Although some mutations provide benefits to the virus against human immune response, a number of them may result in their reduced pathogenicity and virulence. By analyzing more than 3000 high-coverage, complete genome sequences deposited in the GISAID database, here I report a unique 28881-28883:GGG>AAC trinucleotide-bloc mutation in the SARS-CoV-2 genome that results in two sub-strains, described here as SARS-CoV-2g (28881-28883:GGG genotype) and SARS-CoV-2a (28881-28883:AAC genotype). Computational analysis and literature review suggest that this bloc mutation would bring 203-204:RG(arginine-glycine)>KR(lysine-arginine) amino acid changes in the nucleocapsid (N) protein affecting the SR (serine-arginine)-rich motif of the protein, a critical region for the transcription of viral RNA and replication of the virus. Thus, 28881-28883:GGG>AAC bloc-mutation is expected to modulate the pathogenicity of the SARS-CoV-2. Remarkably, SARS-CoV-2g and SARS-CoV-2a strains can be linked with the heterogeneity of COVID-19 cases across different regions within and between countries by analyzing existing data. Sequence analysis suggests that severely affected cities, such as Milan, Lombardy, New York, Paris have the predominant presence of SARS-CoV-2g strains, whereas less affected places like Abruzzo, Lyon, Valencia have a relatively higher presence of SARS-CoV-2a, an indication that the latter strain may contribute to the reduced cases of COVID-19. A similar relationship is observed when Netherlands, Portugal are compared with Spain, France and Germany. These analyses suggest that the SARS-CoV-2 has already evolved into a less infective SARS-CoV-2a affecting COVID-19 cases in different regions. The time a country or region needs to acquire SARS-CoV-2a strains may be indicative to the time it would need to overcome the peak of the COVID-19 cases. To confirm these assumptions, prompt retrospective and prospective epidemiological studies should be conducted in different countries to understand the course of pathogenicity of the SARS-CoV-2a and SARS-CoV-2g. Potential drugs can be designed targeting 28881-28883 region of the N protein to modulate virus pathogenicity.

The aim of the article is to determine the predictors of mental health among Polish society. Research was conducted after the first wave of the pandemic. Due to such an approach, it was possible to determine whether secondary effects of the pandemic have impact on mental health, apart from socio-demographic and psychological factors. In order to gather the research material, the CAWI on-line survey method was applied and carried out within the framework of the Ariadna Research Panel on the sample of 1079 Poles aged 15 and over. The FCV-19S scale, which is used to measure the fear of COVID-19 was applied in the measurement. It is a verified diagnostic instrument used to measure mental health in a lot of countries. The results of a hierarchical regression analysis have shown that the factors which increase the level of fear of COVID-19 are demographic, social and psychological features as well as attitudes towards the pandemic. The results of research indicate the significance of social context in the analysis and explanation of the effects of disasters and cataclysms.

Introduction: The majority of epidemiological reports focus on confirmed cases of COVID-19. In this study, we aim to assess the health and well-being of adults not infected with Covid-19 after two months of quarantine in Morocco. Materials and methods: Two months after the declaration of quarantine in Morocco following the Covid-19 epidemic, we carried out a descriptive cross-sectional study of 279 Moroccan citizens. We used the Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) as a determinant of quality of life, which is based on eight dimensions of health. The data were collected using an electronic questionnaire distributed online. The participants also indicated their socio-demographic data, their knowledge and practices regarding the Covid-19 pandemic and whether they had chronic health problems. Results: The quality of life of all participants was moderately disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic with a mental health score (MCS) of 34.49 (± 6.44) and a physical health score (PCS) of 36.10 (± 5.82). Participants with chronic diseases scored lower with 29.28 (± 1.23) in mental health (MCS) and 32.51 (± 7.14) in physical health (PCS). The seriousness of COVID-19 has an impact on the quality of life and health well-being of people and this impact is more marked in people with chronic health problems. Conclusion: Our results confirm the need to pay attention to the health of people who have not been infected with the virus. Our results also point out that uninfected people with chronic illnesses may be more likely to have well-being problems due to quarantine restrictions.

This paper gives an overview of the large-scale tectonic styles encountered in orogens worldwide. Thin-skinned and thick-skinned tectonics represent two end member styles recognized in mountain ranges. Both styles are encountered in former passive margins of continental plates. Thick-skinned style including the entire crust and possibly the lithospheric mantle are associated with intracontinental contraction. Delamination of subducting continental crust and horizontal protrusion of upper plate crust into the opening gap occurs in the terminal stage of continent-continent collision. Continental crust thinned prior to contraction is likely to develop relatively thin thrust sheets of crystalline basement. A true thin-skinned type requires a detachment layer of sufficient thickness. Thickness of the décollement layer as well as the mechanical contrast between décollement layer and detached cover control the style of folding and thrusting within the detached cover units. In subduction-related orogens, thin- and thick-skinned deformation may occur several hundreds of kilometers from the plate contact zone. Basin inversion resulting from horizontal contraction may lead to the formation of basement uplifts by the combined reactivation of pre-existing normal faults and initiation of new reverse faults. In most orogens thick-skinned and thin-skinned structures both occur and evolve with a pattern where nappe stacking propagates outward and downward

The global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has created a whole new set of risks in construction industries generating unprecedented delays, disruptions, and uncertainty on construction projects, and has forced the industries in adopting more sophisticated technologies while combating the reduced workforce on job sites. Further, the post-pandemic era of construction is expected to be a lot different as the industries will embrace the technology as the augmentation and collaboration strategy. Thus, it will be extremely hard to sustain for construction industries in the absence of effective risk management. The existing risk plans need to be inspected for their capability of handling new risks arising from COVID-19 and the project managers will need to make the necessary revisions as needed. This paper discusses on past (NORM), present (NEW NORM), and future (Post COVID-19 NORM) of the construction industry and highlights key strategies for managing projects and construction risks during and post COVID-19 pandemic.

Italian, Spanish, French vs German, Austrian or Norwegian COVID-19 tracks? Antibiotics might have a partial impact on COVID-19 death rates in various countries. Our working hypotheses based on recent publications is that that antibiotics may be a major factor that negatively affects patients’ immune system during viral infections. We are all aware that there is no specific and effective medical treatment for COVID-19 so far. However, we know that our immune system is the only efficient weapon that fights against this syndrome right now. In fact, antibiotics are very often prescribed to prevent secondary infections following an antiviral immune response. Various antibiotic therapies have also been commonly applied to support COVID-19 treatments in China and Italy. Unfortunately, the frequent antibiotic off-site targets include mitochondria that are genetically and evolutionary closely linked to bacteria. Mitochondria are multifunctional organelles responsible for bioenergetics in nearly all our cells, acting as signaling hubs in antiviral and antibacterial immune responses. Several studies have demonstrated that mitochondria are vulnerable to antibacterial treatments, interrupting their physiology. Inhibition of these processes by antibiotics might render the immune system less capable of fighting acute COVID-19 viral infections. Some antibiotics, including those prescribed for COVID-19 in Wuhan, have been shown to inhibit the synthesis of mitochondrial DNA. The question is whether antibiotics support such a treatment or weaken patient immune responses in this case. This hypothesis should be evaluated based on comparative clinical data that seem to be unavailable at the moment. Possibly the COVID-19 risk group should be extended to all patients being treated with antibiotics, including those who finished antibiotic therapies days up to several months before SARS-CoV-2 infection. We therefore urge health service response groups to evaluate the impact of antibiotics on COVID-19 recovery vs death retrospective data. We would like to motivate international, national and local health authorities to share available clinical treatment data, discuss and optimize treatment strategies.

Draconian defensive measures have been implemented to combat the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. These important measures constitute a vital current priority but do little to increase communal immunity and avoid future outbreaks. A longer-term exit strategy for a sustainable return to normalcy has yet to be identified. The development of vaccines or effective therapeutics could largely solve the problem, but their timely development cannot be guaranteed. In this setting, and under the expected societal isolation fatigue from extended social distancing, we here propose the idea that at some point after the outbreak’s peak, hospitals, in addition to providing care for infected people who need it, could also be involved in the development of a controlled exit strategy designed to avoid future outbreaks. We postulate that controlled voluntary deliberate infection in a hospital setting and under continuous and close medical observation may offer a safer alternative compared to random en-masse exposure. We discuss potential risks and benefits, highlighting the need for careful consideration of the associated critical ethical issues.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) is being used in most healthcare institutions to preserve and share health records instead of a paper-based method. Data records must be exchanged amongst various parties and users' privileges to manage access to their records should also be provided. In addition to the basic standards of secrecy, confidentiality and integrity of information, these facts further demonstrate the need for interoperability and consumer control to access their personal data. Electronic Health Record (EHR) system faces issues of protection of data, trust and management issues. In recent Covid-19 pandemic, various applications, tools and websites were launched that stores records. Also, many personal records related to health need to be shared among different parties for early detection, contact tracing, monitoring and the future prediction that requires accurate and reliable data. Simultaneously, the citizens will be hesitant in providing their personal details due to privacy concerns and social stigma. Blockchain technology has arisen as a powerful technology that can offer the immutability, confidentiality and user access properties of stored information and provided distributed storage. This paper analyses the blockchain suitability in EHR and its further applications in efficient Covid-19 pandemic management.

Space-time evolution is briefly explained by using the 3-dimensional quantized space model (TQSM) based on the 4-dimensional (4-D) Euclidean space. The energy (mass), charges and absolute time are newly defined based on the 4-D Euclidean space. The photons and gravitons are understood as the 2-D space fluctuations along the space axes and 1-D time fluctuations along the time axis, respectively. This indicates that the electromagnetic (EM) and gravitational (G) waves can be unified into the so called gravityelectromagnetic (GEM) wave which has both space and time fluctuations. The photon with zero force fields is the 2EM wave because an EM wave corresponds to a charged fermion. The dark matter bosons, weak force bosons, strong force bosons are the 1-D time fluctuations which can be expressed by the G waves. This indicates that all five forces are unified by the GEM wave. It is called as the super unification theory in the present work. And the force carrying bosons and mesons are, for the first time, proposed as the possible candidates of the magnetic monopoles like the fermions and baryons are the electric monopoles. The signs of the magnetic charges quantized as q_m=cq are newly defined. The big bang is understood by the space-time evolution of the 4-D Euclidean space but not by the sudden 4-D Minkowski space-time creation. The big bang process created the matter universe with the positive energy and the partner anti-matter universe with the negative energy from the CPT symmetry.

Background: The COVID 19 pandemic and associated public health measures have disrupted the lives of people around the world. It is already evident that the direct and indirect psychological and social effects of the COVID 19 pandemic are insidious and affect the mental health of young children and adolescents now and will in the future. The aim and objectives of this knowledge-synthesis study were to identify the impact of the pandemic on children’s and adolescent’s mental health and to evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions employed during previous and the current pandemic to promote children’s and adolescent’s mental health. Methodology: We conducted the systematic review according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and included experimental randomized, nonrandomized controlled trials; observational studies; and qualitative studies. Results: Of the 5,828 articles that we retrieved, 18 articles met the inclusion criteria. We thematically analyzed and put up the major findings under the thematic areas of impact of pandemic on children and adolescent’s mental health. These studies reported that pandemics cause stress, worry, helplessness, and social and risky behavioral problems among children and adolescents (e.g., substance abuse, suicide, relationship problems, academic issues, absenteeism from work). Interventions such as art-based programs, support services, and clinician-led mental health and psychosocial services effectively decrease mental health issues among children and adolescents. Conclusion: Children and adolescents are more likely to experience high rates of depression and anxiety during and after a pandemic. It is critical that future researchers explore effective mental health strategies that are tailored to the needs of children and adolescents. Explorations of effective channels regarding the development and delivery of evidence-based, age-appropriate services are vital to lessen the effects and improve long-term capacities for mental health services for children and adolescents.

COVID-19 has affected 210 countries around the world, killed more than 240,000 and infected more than 3.4 million. Bangladesh, a South Asian low-middle-income economy, has experienced a demographic and epidemiological transition with rapid urbanization and a gradual increase in life expectancy. It is the seventh most populous country in the world and population of the country is expected to be nearly double by 2050. The increasing burden of noncommunicable diseases in Bangladesh can be attributable to rapid urbanization and nearly 50% of all slum dwellers of the country live in Dhaka division. In 2017, National Rapid Response Team of IEDCR investigated 26 incidents of disease outbreak. The joint survey of the Power and Participation Research Centre and BRAC Institute of Governance and Development reveals that per capita daily income of urban slum and rural poor drops by 80% due to present countrywide shutdown enforced by the government to halt the spread of Covid-19. 40%-50% of these population took loans to meet the daily expenses.

This research article reports the results of a qualitative case study that correlates academic literature with five Industry 4.0 cyber trends, seven cyber risk frameworks and two cyber risk models. While there is a strong interest in industry and academia to standardise existing cyber risk frameworks, models and methodologies, an attempt to combine these approaches has not been done until present. We apply the grounded theory approach to derive with integration criteria for the reviewed frameworks, models and methodologies. Then, we propose a new architecture for the integration of the reviewed frameworks, models and methodologies. We therefore advance the efforts of integrating standards and governance into Industry 4.0 and offer a better understanding of a holistic economic impact assessment model for IoT cyber risk.

The process of senescence (aging) is largely determined by the action of wild-type genes. For most organisms, this does not reflect any adaptive function of senescence, but rather evolutionary effects of declining selection against genes with deleterious effects later in life. To understand aging requires an account of how evolutionary mechanisms give rise to pathogenic gene action and late-life disease, that integrates evolutionary (ultimate) and mechanistic (proximate) causes into a single explanation. A well-supported evolutionary explanation by G.C. Williams argues that senescence can evolve due to pleiotropic effects of alleles with antagonistic effects on fitness and late-life health (antagonistic pleiotropy, AP). What has remained unclear is how gene action gives rise to late-life disease pathophysiology. One ultimate-proximate account is T.B.L. Kirkwood’s disposable soma theory. Based on the hypothesis that stochastic molecular damage causes senescence, this reasons that aging is coupled to reproductive fitness due to preferential investment of resources into reproduction, rather than somatic maintenance. An alternative and more recent ultimate-proximate theory argues that aging is largely caused by programmatic, developmental-type mechanisms. Here ideas about AP and programmatic aging are reviewed, particularly those of M.V. Blagosklonny (the hyperfunction theory) and J.P. de Magalhães (the developmental theory), and their capacity to make sense of diverse experimental findings is described.

Recent clinical SARS-CoV-2 studies link diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension to increased disease severity. In the US, racial and ethnic minorities and low socioeconomic status (SES) individuals are more likely to have increased rates of these comorbidities, lower baseline health, limited access to care, increased perceived discrimination, and limited resources, all of which increase their vulnerability to severe disease and poor health outcomes from SARS-CoV-2. Previous studies demonstrated the disproportionate impact of pandemic and seasonal influenza on these populations, due to these risk factors. This paper reviews increased health risks and documented health disparities of racial and ethnic minorities and low SES individuals in the US. Pandemic response must prioritize these marginalized communities to minimize the negative, disproportionate impacts of SARS-CoV-2 on them and manage spread throughout the entire population. This paper concludes with recommendations applicable to healthcare facilities and public officials at various government levels.

Origins of the time, mass, electric charges and magnetic monopoles are explained. The energies, electric charges and magnetic charges of the particles are defined as E = cDtDV and |q| = cDt = E/DV, and |q_m| = c²Dt, respectively, for the 3-D quantized spaces warped along the time axis direction of ct in the 4-D Euclidean space. The energy (or mass) and charges (or electric charges and magnetic charges) are the vectors along the time axis of ct in the 4-D Euclidean space. This new concept is closely connected to the wave function of the quantum mechanics. The electric charges, magnetic charges and energies have the property of the space direction independence. Magnetic monopoles (charges) are the force carrying bosons with the inside electric field time loop. Electric monopoles are the elementary fermions. Photon space fluctuations are explained with the quantized magnetic charges.

Three-dimensional quantized space model is newly introduced. Quantum mechanics and relativity theory are explained in terms of the warped three-dimensional quantized spaces with the quantum time width (Dt=t_q). The energy is newly defined as the 4-dimensional space-time volume of E = cDtDV in the present work. It is shown that the wave function of the quantum mechanics is closely related to the warped quantized space shape with the space time-volume. The quantum entanglement and quantum wave function collapse are explained additionally. The special relativity theory is separated into the energy transition associated with the space-time shape transition of the matter and the momentum transition associated with the space-time location transition. Then, the quantum mechanics and the general relativity theory are about the 4-dimensional space-time volume and the 4-dimensional space-time distance, respectively.

Along with the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, the development of false news or misinformation about Covid-19 -19 is getting bigger. This article aims to analyze public opinion about the various hoaxes that were widely spread in Indonesia during the pandemic. The method used is a mixture, namely literature review, in the form of searching for related journals regarding the distribution of hoaxes during the pandemic and conducting online surveys via a google form. The research conducted indicates that during the pandemic there were rapid spreads of fake news, it is proven with more than 45% of the participants who were often heard hoax news about Covid-19 on online media. From this evidence, it also can be discovered that hoax news can affect a person's belief in the Covid-19 virus.

Covid-19 has become a non-natural national disaster that affects the national resilience of the Indonesian state. In maintaining national resilience, the implementation of state defense is needed. This research aims to describe the awareness of defending the state of millennials during the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia by using a quantitative approach with descriptive analysis methods with survey techniques. The results of this study indicate that most millennials are aware of the obligation to defend the state amid the current Covid-19 pandemic, namely by implementing health protocols such as preparing cleaning equipment, conducting social distancing, and working from home. However, there are still millennials who cannot run it for some reason. Based on the results of this study, it concluded that most millennials are aware of the obligation to defend the state during a pandemic by complying with health protocols as a form of state defense character.

There is much discussion among clinicians, epidemiologists, and public health experts about why case fatality rate from COVID-19 in Italy (at 13.3% as of April 20, 2020, versus a global case fatality rate of 6.9%) is considerably higher than estimates from other countries (especially China, South Korea, and Germany). In this article, we propose several potential explanations for these differences. We suggest that Italy’s overall and relative case fatality rate, as reported by public health authorities, is likely to be inflated by such factors as heterogeneous reporting of coronavirus-related fatalities across countries and the iceberg effect of under-testing, yielding a distorted view of the global severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also acknowledge that deaths from COVID-19 in Italy are still likely to be higher than in other equally affected nations due to its unique demographic and socio-economic profile. Lastly, we discuss the important role of the stress imparted by the epidemic on the Italian healthcare system, which weakened its capacity to adequately respond to the sudden influx of COVID-19 patients in the most affected areas of the country, especially in the Lombardy region.

Alena Tensor is a recently discovered class of energy-momentum tensors that provides a mathematical framework in which the description of a physical system in curved spacetime and its description in a flat spacetime with fields are equivalent. As demonstrated in previous publications, in curved spacetime this tensor reproduces Einstein Field Equations and in flat Minkowski spacetime, it describes physical system with fields that can be widely configured. Thanks to the obtained compliance with QM and QED, the use of the discussed tensor may significantly simplify Quantum Field Theory equations and a new interpretation of the Schrödinger equation is possible. In the article it has also been shown that the use of Alena Tensor for the electromagnetic field takes into account effects related to the particle's spin, Abraham–Lorentz effect and, in the curvilinear description, this excludes non-physical phenomena such as the black hole singularity. The article contains a method for verifying Alena Tensor within QM, proposing an explanation for the discrepancy between the Dirac and Klein-Gordon solutions. It also discusses prospects for the application of Alena Tensor in unification theories against the background of existing research directions.

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing and the resulting economic burden increasingly apparent, the Indonesian government began to prepare a "new normal" phase and make peace with COVID-19. From this new decision arises the question of the readiness of businesses and the industrial sector to resume operations amid COVID-19. This article aims to provide concise and precise information about the preparations that can be made by businesses to operate safely amid COVID-19 based on existing scientific studies and literatures. From the literature visits it can be concluded that transmission and danger of a COVID-19 pandemic can be prevented through: creation of infectious disease prevention and response plan, implementing basic infection prevention measures, policies and procedures for proper identification and isolation of sick people, applying flexibilities in policies, and protections in the workplace.

Several clusters and individual cases of acute —often severe— hepatitis have been reported in Europe —mainly in the United Kingdom (U.K.)—, the United States (U.S.) and recently in Asia since October 2021. Laboratory investigation of the common viral hepatitis agents (HAV, HBV, HCV, HDV and HEV) yielded negative results prompting the use of the term “acute non hepA–E hepatitis” to describe this condition. The cases were characterized by the manifestations of acute hepatitis (abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice and very high levels of liver enzymes) affecting children with a median age of 3–4 years. The exact underlying etiology has not been revealed yet; however, a leading hypothesis is that an infectious agent is the culprit underlying cause or at least a risk factor for acute non hepA–E hepatitis occurrence. So far, laboratory testing has shown the presence of adenovirus serotype 41 (Ad–41) which is classified in group F of adenoviruses in about three-fourths of the reported cases. However, the definitive link between adenoviruses and acute non hepA–E hepatitis has not been fully elucidated, which necessitates further investigation of this possible correlation. As of the end of April 2022, more than 200 cases were reported worldwide, the majority of which were in Europe: the U.K. (n=114), Italy (n=17), Spain (n=13), Israel (n=12), the U.S. (n=9), Denmark (n=6), Netherlands and Ireland (n=4), Japan (n=3), Austria, Belgium, France, and Norway (n=2), Germany, Poland, and Romania (n=1). Possible cases are being evaluated in Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, Wisconsin states of the U.S., Canada, Singapore and Slovenia. Vigilant surveillance and epidemiologic investigation to identify further cases are warranted at the global level to delineate the features of this emergent public health issue. The possible role of environmental and toxic agents including foodborne toxins should not be overlooked as well. Specific guidelines for identification of further cases is necessary particularly in low-income settings where testing for adenoviruses is not considered routinely. Genetic analysis of Ad–41 isolates is recommended to assess the potential changes in virus genome with subsequent possible altered virus behavior. Immunopathogenesis is another possibility that should be examined as well considering the absence of virus detection in liver biopsies of the affected children in the U.S.

Commons and food are experiencing a revival in recent years and yet the links between both are almost absent in academic and political discourses. Commons are often portrayed as historical and yet innovative governing mechanisms that can challenge the State-Market hegemony. On the other side, food is both a relevant agent of change and a major driver of planetary destruction, being thus cause and solution to multiple crises that affect humankind. Departing from the commodification of food as one root cause of the broken global food system, this text firstly situates and discusses the different schools of thought (or epistemologies) that have addressed the private/public, commodity/commons nature of goods in general, and then explores how those schools have considered food in particular. To do so, the author has defined five epistemologies, four academic (economic, legal, historical and political) and one non-academic (grassroots activists). The analysis highlights how those epistemologies have yielded incommensurable understandings and conflicting vocabularies, hence creating confusion in the socio-political realm and even rejection around the idea of food being considered as a commons. The economic epistemic regard has reigned over the others by applying an approach to commons, public and private goods that is theoretical, reductionist and ontological instead of phenomenological, therefore preventing or obscuring other scholarly or practical understanding of commons. When applied to food, the iron law of economics dictated that food, a private good based on rivalry and excludability, shall be better allocated through market mechanisms with absolute proprietary rights and valued as a pure commodity. This reductionist view collides with the plurality of meanings of food in different societies, civilisations and historical periods, as other schools of thought indicate. The author uses diverse epistemic tools to re-construct food as a commons, based on its essentiality to human beings and societies and the customary and contemporary praxis to produce, consume and govern food collectively through non-market mechanisms for more than 2000 centuries. As commoning has instituting power to create different political and legal frameworks, if food is valued differently the entire architecture of the global food system would change, as the grassroots activist school claims. Re-commoning food defies the legal and political scaffoldings that sustain the hegemony of market and state decision-makers over eaters and food producers and informs sustainable forms of food production (agro-ecology), new collective practices of governance (food democracies) and alternative policies to regain control over the food system (food sovereignty). Food as a commons is an agent of change with transformative power, no matter what economists say.

Mobile devices have become tools we spend our free time where we carry them with us every moment, they allow us to interact with the environment, we immortalize the moment when necessary. These devices which we spend most of our daily life become very common in recent years and even there are unique business areas emerged. It was announced that the number of people using smartphones is over than 2.5 billion in the first quarter of 2016. As people become more addicted to mobile technology, they become the target of malevolent people. A huge increase in the number of mobile malware is observed as the number of the users increase. Billions of users at risk day by day due to the development of the methods. We have addressed the recent methods used and the types of malware that target mobile devices in our study. We have mentioned the proxy server and reverse proxy server operation logic. We discuss the method of turning mobile devices into reverse proxy servers, risks involved and protection methods.

The relationship between child psychology and the widespread usage of mobile devices in the modern day is examined in "The Mobile Dilemma: Child Psychology and the Era of Technological Dependence." The abstract serves as a brief synopsis of the work, highlighting its important ideas and arguments. Concerns concerning the effects of excessive time spent on mobile devices on children's mental health and development have arisen in this age of technology dependency. The essay opens by pointing out the importance of investigating the psychological effects of kids' exposure to mobile gadgets. The effects of mobile phone addiction on learning, memory, and social and emotional health are investigated. The neurodevelopmental implications are explored further in the abstract, with a focus on the impact of mobile technology on brain plasticity and the formation of the developing brain. It offers advice on how to establish appropriate limits for children's screen time, encourages the development of digital literacy, and promotes responsible behavior.The pros and cons of using mobile devices in the classroom are also examined, along with their effects on students' ability to study and the risks and difficulties that could arise from implementing such a strategy. The emotional and social impacts of mobile device addiction are discussed in the abstract. This includes the impact on one's social life, empathy, ability to communicate, and sense of self-worth. The abstract also stresses the importance of interdisciplinary efforts involving parents, teachers, psychologists, and legislators to combat mobile device addiction through intervention and preventative techniques. Future directions are highlighted, with a focus on topics such as mobile technology development, digital well-being, privacy protection, mental health implications, screen time limits, digital literacy, and the impact of cultural and socioeconomic variables.

Background: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital medical staff (HMS) have faced significant personal, workplace, and financial disruption. Many have experienced psychosocial burden, exceeding already concerning baseline levels. This study examines the types and predictors of coping strategies and help-seeking behaviours utilised by Australian junior and senior HMS during the first year of the pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of Australian frontline healthcare workers was conducted between 27th August and 23rd October 2020. Data collected included demographics, personal and workplace disruptions, self-reported and validated mental health symptoms, coping strategies, and help-seeking. Results: The 9518 participants included 1966 hospital medical staff (62.1% senior, 37.9% junior). Both groups experienced a high burden of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and burnout. Coping strategies varied by seniority, with maintaining exercise the most common strategy for both groups. Adverse mental health was associated with increased alcohol consumption. Engagement with professional support, although more frequent among junior staff, was uncommon in both groups. Conclusions: Junior and senior staff utilised different coping and help-seeking behaviours. Despite recognition of symptoms, very few HMS engaged formal support. The varied predictors of coping and help-seeking identified may inform targeted interventions to support these cohorts in current and future crises.

During the period of health emergency linked to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the management of children's oral health presents specific problems related to the infectious spread of the disease. These problems must be faced on the one hand by acting on the oral health prevention methods, and on the other by implementing specific protocols relating both to the conditions of oral pathologies that normally do not represent an emergency, and to those clinical situations that fall into the category of pediatric dental emergencies. In this perspective, in addition to defining rigorous and highly effective infection control protocols in the dental settings, it is of fundamental importance to work on remote communication and education aimed at maintaining the oral health of the children. This article, after an analysis of the risk factors from COVID-19 associated with pediatric dental treatment, presents a series of considerations on potential oral prevention strategies and on the management of emergency and non-emergency dental procedures in a context of disease transmission control, proposing new approaches and models of treatment based also on remote interaction techniques which will then retain their usefulness even at the end of the current emergency period.

This is a report on a dynamic autonomous magnetic interaction which does not depend on polarities resulting in short ranged repulsion involving one or more inertial bodies and a new class of bound state based on this interaction. Both effects are new to the literature, found so far. Experimental results are generalized and reported qualitatively. Working principles of these effects are provided within classical mechanics and found consistent with observations and simulations. The effects are based on the interaction of a rigid and finite inertial body (an object having mass and moment of inertia) endowed with a magnetic moment with a cyclic inhomogeneous magnetic field which does not require to have a local minimum. Such a body having some DoF involved in driven harmonic motion by this interaction can experience a net force in the direction of the weak field regardless of its position and orientation or can find stable equilibrium with the field itself autonomously. The former is called polarity free magnetic repulsion and the latter magnetic bound state. Experiments show that a bound state can be obtained between two free bodies having magnetic dipole moment. Various schemes of trapping bodies having magnetic moments by rotating fields are realized as well as rotating bodies trapped by a static dipole field in presence of gravity. Also, a special case of bound state called bipolar bound state between free dipole bodies is investigated.

Introduction: Since its discovery in late 2019, the novel coronavirus (SARSCOVID-2) that causes COVID-19 has spread fast, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to designate the disease a worldwide pandemic on March 11, 2020.The epidemic has profoundly altered the preexisting global sexual and reproductive health landscape .The virus’s load has put ordinary services in jeopardy and harmed other health priorities. This encompasses both the provision and the supply of contraceptives, sexual health, new born and maternal health services. This Scoping review therefore mapped the availability evidence on the impact and effects of the COVID-19 disease outbreak on sexual and reproductive health. Methods: The methodological framework by Arksey and O’Malley guided this scoping review. A literature search was conducted from the following databases: Embase, PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, WOS, and AJOL. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram and the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist were used to document the review process. The Strobe critical review checklist was used to determine the quality of the included studies. Results:19 studies were reviewed, out of which 4 were cross sectional studies, 1 was an observational study, 1 was a descriptive analytical study and the rest were qualitative studies .Majority of the studies showed evidence on the impact of COVID-19 and family planning service, maternal and child services, and three studies reported on COVID-19 and sexual behaviour. Five of the nineteen included studies reported on the impact of COVID-19 and family planning service. Conclusion: This scoping review has granted the assessment of the impact of novel SARS-CoV-2 on Sexual and reproductive health services with regards to sexual behaviour, family planning and maternal, neonatal and child health. From the 18 articles identified and reviewed, the overall responses stipulated a significant reduction in client’s utilization of services due to challenges experiences in service implementation such as stock outs. In addition, low demand for reproductive health services by clients due to restrictions imposed on the movements of people to curb the spread of the virus. It is therefore important that Governments and relevant stakeholders in Maternal and Sexual Reproductive Health prioritize development of policies and practices that protect women from the impacts of the pandemic. Furthermore, regular audits to detect trends in MSRH are necessary to inform on going mitigation efforts.

This paper presents an approach to the Kirchhoff-Love plate theory (KLPT) using the finite difference method (FDM). The KLPT covers the case of small deflections, and shear deformations are not considered. The FDM is an approximate method for solving problems described with differential equations. The FDM does not involve solving differential equations; equations are formulated with values at selected points of the structure. Generally in the case of KLPT, the finite difference approximations are derived based on the fourth-order polynomial hypothesis (FOPH) and second-order polynomial hypothesis (SOPH) for the deflection surface. The FOPH is made for the fourth and third derivative of the deflection surface while the SOPH is made for its second and first derivative; this leads to a 13-point stencil for the governing equation. In addition, the boundary conditions and not the governing equations are applied at the plate edges. In this paper, the FOPH was made for all of the derivatives of the deflection surface; this led to a 25-point stencil for the governing equation. Furthermore, additional nodes were introduced at plate edges and at positions of discontinuity (continuous supports/hinges, incorporated beams, stiffeners, brutal change of stiffness, etc.), the number of additional nodes corresponding to the number of boundary conditions at the node of interest. The introduction of additional nodes allowed us to apply the governing equations at the plate edges and to satisfy the boundary and continuity conditions. First-order analysis, second-order analysis, buckling analysis, and vibration analysis of plates were conducted with this model. Moreover, plates of varying thickness and plates with stiffeners were analyzed. Finally, a direct time integration method (DTIM) was presented. The FDM-based DTIM enabled the analysis of forced vibration of structures, with damping taken into account. In first-order, second-order, buckling, and vibration analyses of rectangular plates, the results obtained in this paper were in good agreement with those of well-established methods, and the accuracy was increased through a grid refinement.

Background: Prior to the federal law passed in late 2019, many states passed an increased age of sale law prohibiting youth under age 21 (or Tobacco 21) from purchasing tobacco products and e-cigarettes. Although previous research has documented tobacco retail sales violations, fewer studies have examined age verification and illegal tobacco sales in the context of Tobacco 21 or in repeated purchase attempts in various settings. Methods: In this study conducted between 2019 and 2022, buyers aged 18 to 20 years made repeated unsupervised purchase attempts of cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes, tobacco-free nicotine pouches and/or smokeless tobacco in store visits to over 180 tobacco or vape retailers in New Jersey, New York City, and Pitt County, North Carolina. Buyers documented whether they were asked for identification and whether they were able to successfully purchase a tobacco or nicotine product at each visit. Results: The primary outcome will be the percent of retailers that checked buyers’ identification at store visits and the precent of visits that resulted in a successful underage tobacco product purchase. We will aim to compare the results across time periods and study sites while controlling for other factors (including repeated visits). Conclusion: These results will be beneficial to designing compliance check inspections and/or interventions that reduce youth access to tobacco.

The purpose of this article is to review a two year long implementation of an electronic health record (EHR) system at the outpatient department of a private hospital in Kathmandu, possibly a first implementation of its kind in Nepal. Procedures: The strategy designed for EHR implementation was based on Professor John P. Kotter's work on successful change management. Main findings: We found that keeping a close watch on the social dynamics affecting adoption decisions among users of the system was crucial for implementing the EHR; this was partly because the project received limited support from an erratically changing hospital leadership and lacked an EHR system suited to the needs of the users. Conclusions: The implementation described in this article is a good lesson on moving from control to drift in information systems implementation, and we hope this work will be useful to health IT professionals working in the space of digital transformation in resource-constrained environments.

Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) is a trait describing inter-individual differences in sensitivity to environments, both positive and negative ones. SPS has attracted growing societal interest. However, (neuro)scientific evidence is lagging behind. We critically discuss how to measure SPS, how it relates to other theories of Environmental Sensitivity and other temperament and personality traits, how SPS interacts with environments to influence (a)typical development, what the underlying aetiologies and mechanisms are, and its relation to mental disorders involving sensory sensitivities. Drawing on the diverse expertise of the authors, we set an agenda for future research to stimulate the field. We conclude that SPS is a heritable, evolutionarily conserved trait, linked to increased risk for psychopathology and stress-related problems in response to negative environments, as well as to greater benefits (e.g., intervention responsivity, positive mood) in positive environments. We need advances in objective assessment of SPS, understanding mechanisms, differentiating it from (seemingly) related mental disorders, to exploit the potential of SPS to improve mental health, preserve human capital, and prevent adverse effects.

The storage of biochemical information, which is a prerequisite for the development of the first cell, is an unsolved problem affecting all concepts of the origin of life. However, if the protected environment in the continental crust is taken into account, completely new possibilities emerge for identifying processes that may have been crucial for the formation of the first cell. Under this background, we can hypothesize that cellular life began, with a self-sustaining cycle of molecular reaction steps and information storage of peptide sequences in RNA in a crustal depth of approximately 1000 m. This cycle was made possible in an open system bound to gas-permeable tectonic fracture zones with a high proportion of CO₂ and/or N₂. It can be assumed that a large number of RNA-like molecular strands formed in the crustal environment, from which a special RNA was selected by flotation processes, which formed the basis of a proto-tRNA. The formation of peptides and vesicles in supercritical CO₂ and the chemical evolution of peptides have already been proven at conditions of the upper continental crust. The behavior of individual amino acids in connection with vesicle formation deserves special interest. Hydrophobic amino acids accumulate in the vesicle membrane, with their position in the membrane depending on the degree of hydrophobicity. Selection of a proto-tRNA with an acceptor arm ending with the bases CCA resulted in a distinctive property. The position of adenine at the tip of the acceptor arm permitted it to penetrate the membrane, allowing it to be linked to an amino acid at the 3'-OH position of the terminal ribose. The penetration depth was controlled by the hydrophobicity of the opposite anti-codon, with adenine always occupying the middle position for the hydrothermally formed hydrophobic amino acids. When the vesicle membrane was closely occupied by proto-tRNAs, the anti-codons acted as templates and stored the sequence of the peptides that form. In the cases of hydrophilic anti-codons, the acceptor arm does not reach far enough into the membrane. This allowed hydrophilic amino acids to be linked to 2´-OH.

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the worst catastrophes that we have faced globally in recent years. It has not only taken its toll on the economic sector but also on the education sector. The social distancing norms that are in place as a direct response to the pandemic have turned conventional classroom teaching into a problematic minefield; as such, students all over the world have been forced into unprecedented situations that have served only to worsen the situation. The current pandemic has given rise to one of the worst crises the 21^st Century has ever seen, resulting in a surge of unemployment. Many companies have taken the route of firing employees or making redundancies, as they cannot afford the monthly reimbursement for staff. While this issue primarily concerns full-time workers, it also carries significant consequences for students – a considerable number of students are required to earn their daily living costs, and, without a job, they cannot pay their educational fees, accommodation costs, or living expenses. This comprehensive study briefly discusses the multitude of problems faced by students in the UK regarding higher education, as a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic. It contains six individual sections: a detailed introduction; the methodological procedures employed; educational disruptions, covering issues from hindrances in field research to examinations and student evaluations; personal problems experienced by students, such as accommodation and loss of income; concerns arising from the global pandemic; and finally, a conclusion and summary of the study’s findings.

Biobanks linked to electronic health records provide a rich data resource for health-related research. With the establishment of large-scale infrastructure, the availability and utility of data from biobanks has dramatically increased over time. As more researchers become interested in using biobank data to explore a diverse spectrum of scientific questions, resources guiding the data access, design, and analysis of biobank-based studies will be crucial. The first aim of this review is to characterize the types of biobanks that are discussed in the recent literature and provide detailed descriptions of specific biobanks including their location, size, data access, data linkages and more. The development and accessibility of large-scale biorepositories provide the opportunity to accelerate agnostic searches, new discoveries, and hypothesis-generating studies of disease-treatment, disease-exposure and disease-gene associations. Rather than spending time and money designing and implementing a single study with pre-defined objectives, researchers can use biobanks’ existing data-rich resources to answer scientific questions as quickly as they can analyze them. While the data are becoming increasingly available, additional thought is needed to address issues related to the design of such studies and analysis of these data. In the second aim of this review, we discuss statistical issues related to biobank research in general including study design, sampling strategy, phenotype identification, and missing data. These issues are illustrated using data from the Michigan Genomics Initiative, UK Biobank, and Genes for Good. We summarize the current body of statistical literature aimed at addressing some of these challenges and discuss some of the standing open problems in this area. This work serves to complement and extend recent reviews about biobank-based research and aims to provide a resource catalog with statistical and practical guidance to researchers pursuing biobank-based research.

The present paper reviews evidence for ecological evolution of Montiaceae. Montiaceae (Portulacineae) comprise a family of ca. 275 species and ca. 25 subspecific taxa of flowering plants distributed mainly in extreme western America, with additional endemism elsewhere, including other continents and islands. They have diversified repeatedly across steep ecological gradients. Based on narrative analysis, I argue that phylogenetic transitions from annual to perennial life history have been more frequent than suggested by computational phylogenetic reconstructions. I suggest that a reported phylogenetic correlation between the evolution of life history and temperature niche is coincidental and not causal. I demonstrate how statistical phylogenetic comparative analysis (PhCA) missed evidence for marked moisture niche diversification among Montiaceae. I discount PhCA evidence for the relation between Montiaceae genome duplication and ecological diversification. Based on the present analysis of Montiaceae evolution, I criticize the premise of the prevalent statistical approach to PhCA, which tests Darwinian deterministic hypotheses against stochastic evolutionary null models. I discuss theoretical/empirical evidence that evolution is neither stochastic, nor Darwinistically-determined, but idiosyncratic. Idiosyncraticity describes the outcome of a stochastically perturbed nonlinear chaos-like process. The Principle of Evolutionary Idiosyncraticity (PEI) is based on the evolutionary theory of Natural Drift, which maintains that determinism in evolution is a property of the organism and not, as maintained by the theory of Natural Selection, its traits or its milieu. This determinism is characteristic of chaotic functions, which are absolutely determinate, generate self-similarity, but remain absolutely unpredictable. PEI explains precisely observations that evolution proceeds not linearly, but chaotically, producing both quasi-linear fractal-like patterns and non-linear jumps. PEI has ramifications for all areas of macroevolutionary research. In particular, it demonstrates both the fallacy and futility of the statistical PhCA approach that interprets evolutionary causes in terms of evolutionary correlations. However, statistical methods of PhCA can be applied heuristically and fruitfully to reveal idiosyncraticity and discover evolutionary novelty. This, in turn, is demonstrated by the emergence of statistical anomalies in evolutionary analyses of Montiaceae.

A decade ago, non-radiative wireless power transmission reemerged a promising alternative to deliver electrical power to devices where a physical wiring proved to be unfeasible. However, conventional coupling-based approaches are neither scalable nor efficient when multiple devices are involved, as they are restricted by factors like coupling and external environments. Zenneck waves are excited at interfaces, like surface plasmons and have the potential to deliver electrical power to devices placed on a conducting surface. Here, we demonstrate, efficient and long range delivery of electrical power by exciting non-radiative waves over metal surfaces to multiple loads.Our modeling and simulation using Maxwells equation with proper boundary conditions shows Zenneck type behavior for the excited waves and are in excellent agreement with experimental results. In conclusion, we physically realize a radically different power transfer system, based on a wave, whose existence has been fiercely debated for over a century.

Thermoelectrics, in particular solid-state conversion of heat to electricity and vice versa, is expected to be a key energy harvesting and temperature management solution in coming years. There has been a resurgence in the search for new materials for advanced thermoelectric energy conversion applications and to enhance the properties of existing materials. In this paper, we review recent efforts on improving figure-of-merit (ZT) through alloying and nano structuring. As heatsink characteristics dictate the performance of thermoelectric modules, various types of heatsink designs has been investigated. Several reported strategies for improving ZT are critically assessed. A notable increase in figure-of-merit of thermoelectric materials (TE) has opened up new areas of applications especially in the medical field. Peltier cooling devices are widely employed for patient core temperature control, skin cooling, medical device and laboratory equipment cooling. Application of these devices in the medical field both in temperature control and power generation has been studied in detail. It is envisioned that this study will provide profound knowledge on the thermoelectric based materials and its role in medical applications.

The use of machine learning (ML) approaches to target clinical problems is called to revolutionize clinical decision-making. The success of these tools is subjected to the understanding of the intrinsic processes being used during the classical pathway by which clinicians make decisions. In a parallelism with this pathway, ML can have an impact at four levels: for data acquisition, predominantly by extracting standardized, high-quality information with the smallest possible learning curve; for feature extraction, by discharging healthcare practitioners from performing tedious measurements on raw data; for interpretation, by digesting complex, heterogeneous data in order to augment the understanding of the patient status; and for decision support, by leveraging the previous step to predict clinical outcomes, response to treatment or to recommend a specific intervention. This paper discusses the state-of-the-art, as well as the current clinical status and challenges associated with each of these tasks, together with the challenges related to the learning process, the auditability/traceability, the system infrastructure and the integration within clinical processes.

Terms related to gradients of scalar fields are introduced as scalar products into the formulation of entropy. A Lagrange density is then formulated by adding constraints based on known conservation laws. Applying the Lagrange formalism to the resulting Lagrange density leads to the Poisson equation of gravitation and also includes terms being related to curvature of space. The formalism further leads to terms possibly explaining nonlinear extensions known from modified Newtonian dynamics approaches. The article concludes with a short discussion of the presented methodology and provides an outlook on other phenomena, which might be tackled using this new approach.

This research paper aims to explicate the complex issue of the Riemann's Hypothesis and ultimately presents its elementary proof. The method implements one of the binomial coefficients, to demonstrate the maximal prime gaps bound. Maximal prime gaps bound constitutes a comprehensive improvement over the Bertrand's result, and becomes one of the key elements of the theory. Subsequently, implementing the theory of the primorial function and its error bounds, an improved version of the Gauss' offset logarithmic integral is developed. This integral serves as a Supremum bound of the prime counting function Pi(n). Due to its very high precision, it permits to verify the relationship between the prime counting function Pi(n) and the offset logarithmic integral of Carl Gauss. The collective mathematical theory, via the Niels F. Helge von Koch equation, enables to prove the RIemann's Hypothesis conclusively.

Online food delivery service (OFDS) has been widely utilized during the new normal of COVID-19 pandemic especially in a developing country such as Indonesia. The purpose of this study was to determine factors influencing customer satisfaction & loyalty in OFDS during the new normal of COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia by utilizing an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) approach. 253 respondents voluntarily participated and answered 65 questions. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that Hedonic Motivation (HM) was found to have the highest effect on customer satisfaction, followed by Price (P), Information Quality (IQ), and Promotion (PRO). Interestingly, this study found out that usability factors such as Navigational Design (ND) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) were not significant to customer satisfaction and loyalty in OFDS during the new normal of COVID-19. This study can be the theoretical foundation that could be very beneficial for OFDS investors, IT engineers, and even academicians. Finally, this study can be applied and extended to determine factors influencing customer satisfaction and loyalty in OFDS during the new normal of COVID-19 in other countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created huge damage to society and brought panics around the world. Such panics can be ascribed to the seemingly deceptive features of the COVID-19: compared to other deadly viral outspreads, it has medium transmission and mortality rates. As a result, the severity of the causative coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was deeply underestimated by the society at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. Based on this, in this review, we define the viruses with features similar to those of SARS-CoV-2 as the Panic Zone viruses. To contain those viruses, accurate and fast diagnosis followed by effective isolation and treatment of patients are pivotal at the early stage of virus breakouts. This is especially true when there is no cure or vaccine available for a transmissible disease, which is the case for current COVID-19 pandemic. As of January 2021, more than two hundred kits for the COVID-19 diagnosis on the market are surveyed in this review, while emerging sensing techniques for SARS-CoV-2 are also discussed. It is of critical importance to rationally use these kits for the efficient management and control of the Panic Zone viruses. Therefore, we discuss guidelines to select diagnostic kits at different outbreak stages of the Panic Zone viruses, SARS-CoV-2 in particular. While it is of utmost importance to use nucleic acid-based detection kits with low false negativity (high sensitivity) at the early stage of an outbreak, the low false positivity (high specificity) gains its importance at later stages of the outbreak. When a society is set to reopen from the lock-down stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes critical to have antibody based immunoassay kits with high specificity to identify people who can safely return to the society after their recovery of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Given that the emergence of mutant viruses at the beginning of 2021 has complicated current battle against the COVID-19, we also discussed approaches and guidelines to detect viral mutants in the middle of the second wave of the pandemic that started at the end of 2020. Finally, since a massive attack from a viral pandemic requires a massive defense from the whole society, we urge both government and private sectors to research and develop more affordable and reliable point-of-care testing (POCT) kits, which can be used massively by the general public (and therefore called as massive POCT) to contain Panic Zone viruses in future.

Animals, with their complex and obligate multicellularity, evolved from microbial eukaryotes that were likely obligately or facultatively unicellular. The nature of the unicellular progenitors of animals has intrigued biologists since the late 19^th century, coinciding with the parallel spread of the cell theory and the theory of evolution. However, views on the ancestry of animals have been extremely varied. The huge diversity of single-celled organisms, the tremendous plasticity of animal cellular phenotypes, and the difficulties of organizing both into clear phylogenies in the pre-molecular era allowed a wide range of hypotheses to flourish, with nearly every major single-celled lineage, at one time or another, having been proposed as the precursor of animals. Most of these hypotheses never gained followers beyond their originator (such as the ideas that animals evolved directly from either bacteria, Volvox or fungi) and will not be discussed here. Three concepts, however, have been enduring and influential: (1) the amoeboid theory; (2) the flagellate theory; and the (3) the ciliate theory – to which a fourth category can now be added: (4) a mixed model, in which the ancestor was phenotypically plastic. We will discuss their origin, history, and current relevance.

Purpose: A novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 was identified as the cause of COVID-19 eventually led to the declaration of Public health emergency of international concern and a pandemic by WHO due to its exponential global spread. Present study was conducted to investigate the impact of second wave of pandemic on mental wellbeing and social behaviors among university students of Pakistan during this crucial period of COVID-19 infection. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was designed to evaluate the psychosocial impact during the current COVID-19 outbreak among the students of The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Snowball sampling or chain referral sampling procedure was adopted to recruit the participants in the study. Verbal informed consent was taken from all participants before recruitment in the study irrespective of their gender, age and socioeconomic status. Results: Mental health of university students during COVID-19 epidemic was affected to a varying degree revealing that 26.66% were recorded to have mild, 27.15% moderate and 17.04% suffering from severe anxiety out of total 1029 students. Students who were residing in urban areas with parents and having a steady family income were negatively associated and found protective factors against anxiety. However, having a relative or an acquaintance infected with COVID-19 was an independent risk factor for experienced anxiety. Positively associated factors with the level of anxiety symptoms included economic stressors, effects on daily-life, and academic delays whereas social support was negatively correlated with anxiety in COVID-19 related stressors. Conclusion: Public health emergencies and such pandemic are exerting serious psychological impacts on university students. It is recommended that the higher authorities should plan better policies to reduce this impact for the provision of high quality and timely crisis-oriented psychological services to university students.

Amyloids are fibrillar protein aggregates that are associated with diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, type II diabetes and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. The process of amyloid aggregation involves three pathological protein transformations; from natively-folded conformation to the cross-β conformation, from biophysically soluble to insoluble, and from biologically functional to non-functional. While amyloids share a similar cross-β conformation, the biophysical transformation can either take place spontaneously via a homogeneous nucleation mechanism (HON) or catalytically on an exogenous surface via a heterogeneous nucleation mechanism (HEN). Here, we postulate that the different nucleation pathways can serve as a mechanistic basis for an etiological classification of amyloidopathies, where hereditary forms generally follow the HON pathway, while sporadic forms follow surface-induced (including microbially-induced) HEN pathways. Furthermore, the conformational and biophysical amyloid transformation results in loss-of-function (LOF) of the original natively-folded and soluble protein. This LOF can, at least initially, be the mechanism of amyloid toxicity even before amyloid accumulation reaches toxic levels. By highlighting the important role of non-protein species in amyloid formation and LOF mechanisms of toxicity, we propose a generalized mechanistic framework that could help better understand the diverse etiology of amyloid diseases and offer new opportunities for therapeutic interventions including replacement therapies.

Surgical smoke is produced by energy-based surgical instruments. The airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from surgical smoke may have potential health risk. This study aimed to evaluate the evidence for the harmful effects on the operating theater staff. An internationally recognized evaluation model of health risk assessment (HRA) was adapted to preliminarily assess the health risks caused by VOCs in surgical smoke. Results of HRA indicated that non-carcinogenic risk indexes of VOCs did not exceed one, indicating that these pollutants didn't cause significant non-carcinogenic harm to the health of the operating theater staff. But the cancer risk indexes exposed to formaldehyde and benzene all exceed 10-5, which was higher than the suggested value of USEPA (10-6) and might cause potential harm to the health of the operating theater staff. Long-term exposure of such surgical smoke will be harmful to the health of the operating theater staff and have a great risk of cancer.

Background: The COVID-19 among humans is spreading heavily and is largely impacting the mental health of the general population, students, and health care workers worldwide. Hence, this review aims to summarize the literatures addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the general population, students, and health care workers. Methods: Published articles concerning mental health of the general population, students, and health care workers related to the COVID-19 outbreak have been considered and reviewed. Results and Discussion: Mental health symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression are common psychological reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic in the general population, students, and health care workers. This collectively influences daily behavior, economy, prevention strategies and decision making from policy makers and health organizations, weakening the strategies of COVID-19 control leading to more morbidity and mental health needs at the global level. Conclusion: There is a need for more evidence-based research from other affected countries, particularly in vulnerable populations such as children and adolescents, people of lower socioeconomic status, and those residing in rural areas, so that valid strategies can be developed and COVID-19 and outbreaks of similar types in the near future can be prevented.

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) enables enterprises to obtain profits from data but triggers data protection questions and new types of cyber risk. Cyber risk regulations for the IoT however do not exist. The IoT risk is not included in the cyber security assessment standards, hence, often not visible to cyber security experts. This is concerning, because companies integrating IoT devices and services need to perform a self-assessment of its IoT cyber security posture. The outcome of such self-assessment needs to define a current and target state, prior to creating a transformation roadmap outlining tasks to achieve the stated target state. In this article, a comparative empirical analysis is performed of multiple cyber risk assessment approaches, to define a high-level potential target state for company integrating IoT devices and/or services. Defining a high-level potential target state represent is followed by a high-level transformation roadmap, describing how company can achieve their target state, based on their current state. The transformation roadmap is used to adapt IoT risk impact assessment with a Goal-Oriented Approach and the Internet of Things Micro Mart model.

The present grievous situation of the tuberculosis disease can be improved by efficient case management and timely follow-up evaluations. With the advent of digital technology this can be achieved by quick summarization of the patient-centric data. The aim of our study was to assess the effectiveness of the ODK Scan paper-to-digital system during testing period of three months. A sequential, explanatory mixed-method research approach was employed to elucidate technology use. Training, smartphones, application and 3G enabled SIMs were provided to the four field workers. At the beginning, baseline measures of the data management aspects were recorded and compared with endline measures to see the impact of ODK Scan. Additionally, at the end, users’ feedback was collected regarding app usability, user interface design and workflow changes. 122 patients’ records were retrieved from the server and analysed for quality. It was found that ODK Scan recognized 99.2% of multiple choice bubble responses and 79.4% of numerical digit responses correctly. However, the overall quality of the digital data was decreased in comparison to manually entered data. Using ODK Scan, a significant time reduction is observed in data aggregation and data transfer activities, however, data verification and form filling activities took more time. Interviews revealed that field workers saw value in using ODK Scan, however, they were more concerned about the time consuming aspects of the use of ODK Scan. Therefore, it is concluded that minimal disturbance in the existing workflow, continuous feedback and value additions are the important considerations for the implementing organization to ensure technology adoption and workflow improvements.

Testing and isolation have been crucial for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. Venezuela has one of the weakest testing infrastructures in Latin America and the low number of reported cases in the country has been attributed to substantial underreporting. However, the Venezuelan epidemic seems to have lagged behind other countries in the region, with most cases occurring within the capital region and four border states. Here, we describe the spatial epidemiology of COVID-19 in Venezuela and its relation to population mobility, migration patterns, non-pharmaceutical interventions and fuel availability. Using an SEI metapopulation model, we explore how movement patterns could have driven the observed distribution of cases. Low within-country connectivity most likely delayed the epidemic in most states, except for those bordering Colombia and Brazil where high immigration seeded outbreaks. NPIs slowed early epidemic growth and subsequent fuel shortages appeared to be responsible for limiting the spread of COVID-19 across the country.

Precision medicine seeks to use genomic data to help provide the right treatment to the right patient at the right time. Next-generation sequencing technology allows for the rapid and accurate sequencing of many genes at once. This technology is becoming more common in oncology, though the clinical benefit of incorporating it into precision medicine strategies remains under significant debate. In this manuscript, we discuss the early findings of the impact of next-generation sequencing on cancer patient outcomes. We investigate why not all patients with genomic variants linked to a specific therapy receive that therapy and describe current barriers. Finally, we explore the current state of health insurance coverage for individual genome sequencing and targeted therapies for cancer. Based on our analysis, we recommend increased transparency around the determination of “actionable mutations” and a heightened focus on investigating the variations in health insurance coverage across patients receiving sequencing-matched therapies.

The world is currently experiencing the fourth industrial revolution driven by the newest wave of digitisation in the manufacturing sector. The term Industry 4.0 (I4.0) represents at the same time: a paradigm shift in industrial production, a generic designation for sets of strategic initiatives to boost national industries, a technical term to relate to new emerging business assets, processes and services, and a brand to mark a very particular historical and social period. I4.0 is also referred to as Industrie 4.0 the New Industrial France, the Industrial Internet, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the digital economy. These terms are used interchangeably in this text. The aim of this article is to discuss major developments in this space in relation to the integration of new developments of IoT and cyber physical systems in the digital economy, to better understand cyber risks and economic value and risk impact. The objective of the paper is to map the current evolution and its associated cyber risks for the digital economy sector and to discuss the future developments in the Industrial Internet of Things and Industry 4.0.

Imaging lidars are one of the hottest topics in the optronics industry. The need to sense the surroundings of every autonomous vehicle has pushed forward a career to decide the final solution to be implemented. The diversity of state-of-the art approaches to the solution brings, however, a large uncertainty towards such decision. This results often in contradictory claims from different manufacturers and developers. Within this paper we intend to provide an introductory overview of the technology linked to imaging lidars for autonomous vehicles. We start with the main single-point measurement principles, and then present the different imaging strategies implemented 8 in the different solutions. An overview of the main components most frequently used in practice is also presented. Finally, a brief section on pending issues for lidar development has been included, 10 in order to discuss some of the problems which still need to be solved before an efficient final implementation.Beyond this introduction, the reader is provided with a detailed bibliography containing both relevant books and state of the art papers.

In 2015, the Self-Action Leadership Theory—a qualitative, nomological expansion of self-leadership theory rooted in atmospheric and astronomical metaphor aimed at expanding the personal freedom of individuals, organizations, and nations by bolstering the existential growth of individuals through a series of Maslow-esque stages of holistic, personal development. This article introduces an accompanying, practitioner-based Model of Self-Action Leadership (SAL) aimed at the implicit enhancement of a holistic range of administrative processes through explicit training, mentoring, and coaching in the model’s general and universally-applicable principles and practices. The SAL model produces an original construct of personal leadership practice that builds upon the extant self-leadership academic canon, which dates back to 1983 (Manz, 1983). It also provides an analogue to four of the five core processes of Project Management by positioning a self-action leader (an individual) as the ongoing “project” at hand. The SAL Model is rooted in action research and was developed through a variety of self-oriented, action research projects in conjunction with a comprehensive, qualitative, analytical autoethnographic study of a scholar’s life experiences.

Objective: To investigate the association between deprivation and COVID-19 outcomes in Italy during pre-lockdown, lockdown and post-lockdown periods.Design: Retrospective cohort study.Setting: All municipalities in Italy with less than 50,000 population.Participants: 38,534,169 citizens and 222,875 COVID-19 cases reported to the Italian epidemiological surveillance were assigned to quintiles based on the deprivation index of their municipality of residence.Interventions: The COVID-19 pandemic during pre-lockdown, lockdown and post-lockdown from the 20th of February to the 15th of October of 2020.Main outcome measures: Multilevel negative binomial regression models, adjusting for age, sex, population-density and region of residence were conducted to evaluate the association between deprivation and COVID-19 incidence, case-hospitalisation rate and case-fatality. The association measure was the rate ratio.Results: During pre-lockdown, lockdown and post-lockdown, the incidence rate ratios (IRR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) in the most deprived quintile with respect to the least deprived quintile were 1.17 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.41), 1.14 (1.03 to 1.27) and 1.47 (1.32 to 1.63), respectively. In those three periods, the case-hospitalization IRR were 0.68 (0.51 to 0.92), 0.89 (0.72 to 1.11) and 0.99 (0.81 to 1.22) and the case-fatality IRR were 0.92 (0.75 to 1.13), 0.95 (0.85 to 1.07) and 1.02 (0.73 to 1.41), respectively.Conclusions: During lockdown and post-lockdown, but not during pre-lockdown, a higher incidence of cases was observed in the most deprived municipalities compared with the least deprived ones. No differences in case-hospitalisation and case-fatality according to deprivation were observed in any period under study.

Montiaceae comprise a clade of at least 270 species plus about 20 accepted subspecific taxa, primarily of western America and Australia. The present paper is the first of a two-part work that seeks to evaluate evolutionary theory via metadata analysis of Montiaceae. In particular, it uses metadata analysis to evaluate the theory in theory-laden methods that have been applied in evolutionary analyses of Montiaceae. This part focuses on phylogeny and phylogeography. The second part focuses on phenotypic and ecological diversification. An emergent theme in this paper is the degree to which historical idiosyncrasy during Montiaceae evolution misleads quantitative methods of evolutionary reconstruction and phylogeographic interpretation. This suggests that idiosyncraticity itself is a fundamental property of evolution. The second part of this work elaborates this notion as the Principle of Evolutionary Idiosyncraticity. The present part describes idiosyncraticity in molecular phylogenetic and phylogeographic data and uses this notion to refine ideas on Montiaceae evolution. Phylogenetic metadata conflicts and conflicting phylogeographic interpretations are discussed. I conclude that, owing to PEI, quantitative methods of evolutionary analysis cannot be globally accurate, though they are useful heuristically. In contrast, classical narrative analysis is robust in the face of PEI.

Global emerge of zoonotic novel corona virus (COVID-19) became a pandemic and its effect to mankind is talk of the town now a days. This tiny, invisible enemy has affected every country in the world and almost every living directly or indirectly and nationwide complete lockdown has triggered a short-term environmental impact. Since 2003, corona virus came into existence in the form of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and more evolved Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012. This time, at the end of December 2019, outbreak of novel corona virus COVID-19 (also known as SARS-CoV₂, nCoV-2019) draw attention as global health emergency. World Health Organization (WHO) report says that the outbreak of this virus is so immense, it has already affected 35,57,235 people and caused death to 2,45,150 people worldwide and 46,433 Indians got affected with 1568 death as on 5^th May 2020 (2:00 am) and these numbers are increasing exponentially day by day. Virologist, micro-biologist and science community are hammering their head very hard to find out cure and vaccine against this powerful virus and to prevent mass demise of mankind. In order to curb the spread of COVID-19, Janta curfew on 22.03.2020 and nationwide complete lockdown was implemented in India for 21 days (phase-I, from 25.03.2020 to 14.04.2020) to stop community transmission of third stage, for 19 days (phase-II, 15.04.2020 to 03.05.2020) and 14 days (phase-III, 04.05.2020 to 17.05.2020) complete lockdown to minimize the community transmission effect. During complete lockdown and quarantine period a drastic change in Earth’s atmosphere, including reduction in emission of greenhouse gases, air pollution (~50% fall in air quality index), noise pollution, water pollution and solid waste pollution, have been recorded by government agencies as well as private agencies. In this paper we considered data of Janta curfew, phase-I and phase-II lockdown to link between geological and environmental aspect related to environmental impact due to emerge of COVID-19 and massive reduction in pollution level during complete lockdown in India. We propose future lockdown strategies to minimize the emission of greenhouse gas by ~100 Mt to ~200Mt (3.33% to 6.66%) of GHG_total per year by 2-4 days per month nationwide lockdown or ~70 Mt to ~140 Mt (2.33% to 4.66%) of GHG_total per year by 2-4 days per month complete lockdown of energy sectors only.

The Indonesia’s Tobacco Excise Sharing Fund (DBHCHT) policy mandates that part of the fund should be allocated for tobacco crop diversification – reducing the farmers’ reliance on tobacco industry as well as implementing Article 17 of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). However, very little is known on practical implication of this fund on tobacco farmers livelihood. We collected primary data from key stakeholders in four main tobacco producing municipalities. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis with NVivo 12. Numbers of challenges on DBHCHT utilization remained at sub-national levels. The sub-optimal use of DBHCHT could partly be explained by: (i) constantly changing central government regulation; (ii) farmers’ unawareness of DBHCHT regulation; (iii) the delay in DBHCHT allocation; and (iv) supply and demand mismatch. Although Indonesia has not been a part of the FCTC ratification, the DBHCHT mandate is in line with the FCTC article 17, i.e., promoting economically viable alternatives for tobacco farmers. This study concluded that DBHCHT utilization needs to go a long way to void this mandate given the challenges at sub-national level. Therefore, this study recommends more technical and practical regulations involving multisectoral stakeholders and the use of DBHCHT to facilitate financial needs of crop diversification.

Laws and regulations make powerful contribution in addressing multitudes of public health concerns. We examined the Public Health Act (PHA) in Malawi to understand its relevance to the ever-growing and changing threats posed by infectious and non-infectious diseases. The current Public Health Act of Malawi came into effect in 1948 to protect and preserve public health. The Act has undergone several amendments, the last one being in 1975. It draws much of its inspiration and standards from the 19th century British laws on insanitary housing, poor ventilation, and drainage. Such laws are silent on emerging major public health concerns including non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes as well as road traffic injuries. This makes the Act outdated and ill equipped to address the 21st century public health concerns. Although supplementary legislation such as the HIV/AIDS Act and Mental Treatment Act have recently been enacted, they are yet to be consolidated into the Public Health Act. Consequently, existing policies and strategic plans that are meant to address gaps in public health and ensure coordinated effort lack support of laws and regulations. The Act also places great emphasis on mandatory vaccinations, quarantine and isolation against smallpox, a disease that has long been eradicated. Furthermore, although the Public Health Act outlines powers, duties and penalties, it fails to reinforce acceptable behaviour due to the insignificant penalties for noncompliance. There is a need for immediate and prompt revision and restructuring of the Public Health Act based on scientific evidence. Such laws require adequate consultation and interaction with key experts and stakeholders from a wide range of disciplines.

Particulate matter (PM) is one of the problems faced in environmental science. It has health effects on man and animals in both developed and developing countries. Research and efforts have been on it several years back. Policy statements and efforts have been published. This review paper is an added information on air pollution. In it, efforts were made in discussing these: classification, effects, methodology, case studies and source apportionment. It is hoped that this paper would contribute to existing knowledge on PM.

Green manure could improve soil nutrients and crop production, playing a significant role in sustainable agriculture. However, the impacts of green manure on crop health and the roles soil microbial communities play in the process haven’t been clarified clearly yet. In this study, we investigated soil microbial community composition and structure in four tobacco farmlands, which were treated with different green manure (control, ryegrass, pea and rape), using 16S rRNA gene amplicons sequencing. Results showed that green manure had significant impacts on soil properties, microbial communities and tobacco health. First, soil total C, N and Ca content increased significantly in groups treated with green manure than control. Second, soil community diversity was significantly higher in groups treated with green manure. Third, green manure especially ryegrass, decreased tobacco disease (bacterial wilt) rate dramatically, and the process might be mediated by soil microbial communities. On the one hand, several microbial populations were found to be potentially disease inducible or suppressive. For example, the abundances of Dokdonella and Rhodanobacter were positively correlated to tobacco disease rate, while Acidobacteira_Gp4 and Gp6 had negative correlations with tobacco disease. On the other hand, soil microbial communities were shaped by soil properties (e.g., pH, C and N content). In conclusion, our research showed that green manure could increase soil nutrients directly, and further improve tobacco health mediated by soil microorganisms, which may shed light on revealing interactions among soil properties, microorganisms and plants.

There are potentially promising mitigation activities for epidemic and pandemic scenarios that are not currently the subject of significant research effort. Large epidemics and pandemics pose risks that are important to mitigate, even if the likelihood of the events is low and uncertain. While some efforts are the subject of extensive funding and consideration, other approaches are neglected. Here, we consider such neglected interventions which could significantly reduce the impact of such an epidemic or large-scale pandemic. These are identified via a narrative literature review of extant literature reviews and overviews of mitigations in epidemic and pandemic situations, followed by consideration of the economic value of information of further study of heretofore neglected interventions and approaches.Based on that analysis, we considered several classes of mitigations, and conducted more exploratory reviews of each. Those discussed include mitigations for (1) reducing transmission, such as personal protective equipment and encouraging improved hygiene, (2) reducing exposure by changing norms and targeted changes for high-risk or critical professions and activities, (3) reducing impact for those infected, and (4) increasing large scale resilience using disaster and infrastructure continuity planning.Some proposed mitigations are found to be of low marginal value. Other mitigations are likely to be valuable, but the concepts or applications are underdeveloped. In those cases, further research, resources, or preparation are valuable for mitigating both routine and extreme disease outbreak events. Still more areas of research are identified as having uncertain value based on specific but resolvable uncertainties. In both of the latter cases, there is no guarantee that mitigations identified as worthy of further consideration will be valuable, but the argument for further research is clear.

Background: Access to rehabilitation is crucial for the realization of the right to health and a proper concern of global health. Yet, reliable information to guide rehabilitation service planning is unavailable in many countries in part due to the lack of appropriate indicators. To ensure universal health coverage and meet the central imperative of “leaving no one behind” countries must be able to assess key aspects of rehabilitation policy and provision and monitor how they have discharged their human rights responsibilities towards those most disadvantaged, including people with disability. This article describes the process of developing an expert guided indicator framework to assess governments’ efforts and progress in strengthening rehabilitation in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Methods: A systems methodology - concept mapping - was used to capture, aggregate and confirm the knowledge of diverse stakeholders on measures thought to be useful for monitoring the implementation of the Convention with respect to health related rehabilitation. 56 individuals generated a list of 107 indicators through online brainstorming which were subsequently sorted by 37 experts from the original panel into non overlapping categories. 41 participants rated the indicators for importance and feasibility. Multivariate statistical techniques where used to explore patterns and themes in the data and create the indicators’ organizing framework which was verified and interpreted by participants. Results: A concept map of 11 clusters of indicators emerged from the analysis grouped into three broader themes: Governance and Leadership (3 clusters); Service Delivery, Financing and Oversight (6 clusters); and Human Resources (2 clusters). The RESYST was comprehensive and well aligned with the Convention. On average, there was a moderately positive correlation between importance and feasibility of the indicators (r=.58) with experts prioritizing the indicators contained in the clusters of the Governance and Leadership domain. Two of the most important indicators arose from the Service Delivery, Financing and Oversight domain and reflect the need to monitor unmet needs and barriers in access to rehabilitation. In total, 59 indicators achieved above average score for importance and comprised the two–tiered priority set of indicators. Conclusion: Concept mapping was successful in generating a shared model that enables a system’s view of the most critical legal, policy and programmatic factors that must be addressed when assessing country efforts to reform, upscale and improve rehabilitation services. The RESYST provides a data driven basis for the development of standardized data collection tools to facilitate comparative analysis of rehabilitation systems.

COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictive measures have present serious unprecedented challenges to human eating behavior. Given that Google Search has become a valuable information resource to examine, predict, and estimate human online interests and behavior, that somehow linked to real people concerns. This study aimed to investigate the features and evaluate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and its lockdown on consumer worldwide interest in eating behavior and its related factors. Google Trends-Relative Search Volumes (RSV) of distinct keywords related to eating behavior, were obtained from a timeframe before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, from January 1, 2018, to December 13, 2020. During the global lockdown from March 11, 2020, to June 30, 2020, RSV curves exhibited a short-term fluctuation of interest in multiple keywords related to eating behavior and its related factors such as food purchasing, food security, food poisoning, panic buying, stocking up, health awareness and mental illness. Spearman’s correlation analysis showed a strong correlation between daily confirmed cases and examined keywords. Univariate repeated measures ANOVA following with Bonferroni Post-hoc test revealed that during the year with the presence of COVID-19 pandemic, people worldwide pay more concerns in each keyword (1) environmental and economic factors (unemployment: +269%, food shortage: +180%, food bank: +50%); (2) health- and food-safety concerns (immunity: +138%, vitamin C: +90%, vitamin D: +55%, zinc: +47%, food storage containers: +40%, food packaging: +31%); (3) food choices and interest (local meat: +84%, frozen food: +67%, CSA: +65%, flour: +66%, bread: +53%, soybean oil: +45%, local fruit: +43%, canned tomato: +42%, refrigerated food: +41%, canned meat: +39%, pancake: +37%, cookie: +29%, butter: +29%, canned fish: +29%, liquior: +20%); (4) social and individual factors (take-out: +128%, deliver: +53%), (6) lifestyle factors (stationary bicycle: +110%, dumbbell: +89%, yoga mat: +84%, treadmill: +65%, grocery store: +51%); (6) psychological factors (isolation: +113%). COVID-19 pandemic and its lockdown have had far-reaching effects on global concerns in many factors related to human eating behavior. Swift action is necessarily performed to strengthen the resilience of the food supply chain system, support and adapt to the new normal behavior, and mitigation the profound negative changes, especially targeting those in high-risks and vulnerable groups and food-insecure regions.

Based on the demographic shift and the related challenges resulting from the growing number of elderly and persons with chronic diseases, the idea of smart home that supports its inhabitants in the daily life, gains importance. The purpose of this paper was to examine in a prototypic Ambient Assisted Living environment if users after interaction with different health-supporting applications intend to use such in the future. Two experimental studies exemplary show possible applications of home-integrated technology that can support, assist and accompany the target group in different contexts, and examine to what extent participants are willing to future use such sophisticated technology at home. The results show that people in general, but especially the old and chronically ill ones are quite fascinated of health-supporting ambient technology and the majority intends to use such ambient assistance in the future (study I). Moreover, serious games for healthcare are shown as a hedonic use of technology in smart homes that have a great potential to retain or improve the physical health, mobility and the overall well-being of the inhabitants (study II). The article provides two examples of ambient technology to leverage the demographic change and presents important user factors for facilitating high user acceptance.

Publicly-funded scientists have a responsibility to engage with the public on scientific information, but are lacking a standardized framework and assessment strategy to do it well. The PEPS (Public Engagement Practices for Scientists) Method is an outcomes-centered framework employing standardized pedagogical methods with quantifiable outcomes. This approach reveals that scientists often have unrealistic expectations for achieving affective learning outcomes (i.e. changing views from anti- to pro-vaccine) by solely cognitive learning strategies (i.e. supplying data). The PEPS Method can serve as a roadmap for standardized science communication assessments, complementing existing science communication training programs for the next generation of scientists.

Deep learning (DL) algorithms have recently emerged from machine learning and soft computing techniques. Since then, several deep learning (DL) algorithms have been recently introduced to scientific communities and are applied in various application domains. Today the usage of DL has become essential due to their intelligence, efficient learning, accuracy and robustness in model building. However, in the scientific literature, a comprehensive list of DL algorithms has not been introduced yet. This paper provides a list of the most popular DL algorithms, along with their applications domains.