For the first time, the effect of a significant change in the resistance of the aquatic environment of a population of protozoan microorganisms under the influence of radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation from cell phones has been experimentally studied. The results of the experiment demonstrate the biological nature of the changes occurring in the “water population of protozoa” system, which indicates that the impact of radiation directly affects the cell. This conclusion is confirmed by the same order of magnitude time of information exchange between individual individuals of the population in the calculation and in the experiment. An extremely low concentration of protozoa in the experiment was established, equal to 1000 pcs./liter, at which the indicated effect is observed.An unambiguous dependence of the biological effect in the “water – amoeba population” system on the average power of electromagnetic radiation of cell phones, both in standby mode and in talk mode, has been established. It is concluded that the presented method of changing the physical properties of the aquatic environment of a population of protozoa under the influence of electromagnetic fields can be a model experiment in identifying the mechanisms of interaction of biological systems with electromagnetic radiation, determining the response time of biological systems to external electromagnetic influence, and establishing the degree of influence of radiation in the 4G, 5G ranges.

We reviewed the current status of a Vulnerable seagrass, Halophila beccarii from the coast of India using the published data from 1977-2020. We found that the seagrass, H. beccarii has a pan India distribution on both east and west coast. It is abundant in the intertidal silty-muddy region on the west coast, while on the east coast it is found on sandy habitats, with few exceptions of muddy habitat. H. beccarii was found to be associated with mangroves or smaller seagrass species within a depth limit of 1.7m. Low salinity and high nitrate levels were observed for the H. beccarii meadows of the west coast due to its association with mangroves. The nutrient levels in H. beccarii meadows of India were comparatively lower than other seagrass meadows. Most of the research on H. beccarii has focoused on its morphometrics (41%), reproductive (33%) and distribution (29%) along the coast of India. Reproductive traits such as flowering and fruiting varying according to the seasons of each coast due to the influence of monsoon and its associated temperature, salinity and nutrient influx. H. beccarii has a great potential of various bioactive compounds, which needs further investigation. Habitat disturbance, anthropogenic pollution and coastal development are the major cause of declining H. beccarii ecosystems in India. Significant loss of the seagrass was observed from the west coast of India due to increased coastal development activities. There is a significant need in quantifying H. beccarii population trends, impact of climate and anthropogenic stressors, economic values of ecosystem services and the role of ecological connectivity for better conservation and management of H. beccarii seascapes across India. There is a need for integration of research outcomes in policy framing for preventing the decline and further loss of this vulnerable seagrass ecosystem.

The grooved carpet-shell clam is one of the most economically relevant shellfish species living in the Mediterranean and nearby Atlantic coasts. Previous studies using different types of genetic markers showed a remarkable genetic divergence of the Eastern Mediterranean, Western Mediterranean and Atlantic populations, but important details remained unclear. Here, data from six nuclear introns scored for restriction fragment size polymorphisms in eight populations that have not been studied before have been pooled for the analysis with data scattered through three previous studies, totaling 32 samples from 29 locations. The results show lower levels of heterozygosity, higher mean number of alleles, and alleles with restricted distribution in the Mediterranean populations, suggesting the existence of a large isolated population in the eastern Mediterranean at the middle Pleistocene. The data also confirm the similarity of populations from Tunisia to western Mediterranean populations. Finally, a genetic mosaic is apparent in the Atlantic coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, with a divergence of Rias Baixas populations from more northern populations and Central Portugal populations. The effects of oceanic fronts, seasonal upwellings, river plumes and/or fishery management operations could explain this and other features of the Atlantic populations.

Artemia franciscana, native to America, has recently colonized non-indigenous populations in Eurasia, Mediterranean regions and Australia. In present we sought to evaluate the potential effects of colonization of A. franciscana on genetic differentiation in the new environments in UAE. We used the COI marker to determine population genetic structure and identify the origins of exotic populations in UAE. Our findings have confirmed the colonization of both localities by A. franciscana. Genetic variation of invasive A. franciscana were exclusively lower than native population in Great Salt Lake and San Francisco Bay. Results have showed the studied population could not possibly have colonized directly from natural American localities, perhaps resulting from secondary introduction events from other non-indigenous populations. Genetic analysis have yielded different demographic patterns for invasive studied populations. Al Wathba Wetland Reserve (AWWR) population have represented demographic expansion. In contrast, Godolphin Lakes (GL) population was at demographic equilibrium. Neutrality tests have documented the excess of both recent and historical mutations in the COI gene pool of invasive AWWR Artemia throughout establishment in the new environment.

The IPAT equation provides a simple but powerful model for understanding sustainability, particularly from the challenge posed by the Anthropocene—how to reduce personal or societal impact. Impact is calculated by multiplying population, affluence and technology, and a ‘reduction coefficient’ e is used to explore targeted reductions in impact of different entities to cap total (summed) impact. The model offers two solutions. First, that all three factors are essential in determining total impact; a focus on just one or two is not justifiable without credibly addressing the other(s). Second, by presenting reduction of impact as a proportion of current activity, the solution becomes accessible to an individual actor (e.g., an individual, family, organization, or country). Application of the model is illustrated based on household weekly food consumption from cultures around the world. The model helps unify a) disparate perspectives on population, affluence and technology, which currently oppose one another from a basis of belief or dogma, and b) different sectors (e.g., food production, energy, climate impacts and others), as well as actors, so they can jointly identify strategies to resolve their contributions to approaching larger scale sustainability.

Objective: The long-term care insurance (LTCI) system was introduced in 2000 to provide financial support for long-term care services to older adults. What is known on this topic report focuses on a comparative analysis of how the LTCI system has affected older people in Japan. Methods: We obtained data from the literature about the LTCI system, compared and analysed the collected articles, and concluded. Results: The LTCI system has improved access to long-term care services, with more older adults receiving care than before the system’s implementation. This service has improved the quality of life for many elderly individuals who require assistance with daily activities. Furthermore, the LTCI system has alleviated the financial burden of long-term care services since the insurance covers a large portion of the costs. It has made older adults maintain their independence and dignity, as they can afford the necessary care without relying solely on their savings or burdening their families. Conclusions: Japan’s LTCI system has positively impacted older adults by improving access to long-term care services and alleviating financial burdens. However, challenges such as increasing demand and variations in service quality need to be addressed to ensure the system effectively supports older people in Japan.

Monarch butterflies are a species of conservation priority due to declining overwintering populations in both eastern and western North America. Declines in western overwintering monarchs—more than 99% since monitoring began—are especially acute. However, the degree to which the western monarch is a distinct biological entity is uncertain. In this review, we focus on phenotypic and genetic differentiation between eastern and western monarchs, with the goal of informing researchers and policy-makers who are interested in monarch conservation. Eastern and western monarchs occupy distinct environments and show some evidence for phenotypic differentiation—particularly for migration-associated traits—though population genetic and genomic studies suggest that they are genetically indistinguishable from one another. We suggest future studies that could improve our understanding of differences between eastern and western monarchs. We also discuss the concept of adaptive capacity in eastern and western monarchs as well as non-migratory populations outside of the monarch’s primary North American range.

A thermodynamic analysis of population dynamics and of sustainability provides rigor to many important issues. In this work, the “system Society” is analysed in connection with the “system Environment” using an exergy metric, and the method includes an internalization of the Externalities (Capital, Labour, Environmental effects) conducted on the basis of a “system+ environment” balance. In this perspective, this study investigates the Late Pleistocene extinction of the Homo Neandertalensis, which took place in a geologically short time and in the presence of a competing species, the Homo Sapiens. The case in study is not trivial, and its choice not casual: in those times, the only factor that could lead to an advantage of one group over the other was their respective resource use intensity. A specific indicator, the Exergy Footprint, is here applied to measure the total amount of primary resources required to produce a certain (material or immaterial) commodity, including the resources needed for the physical survival of the individuals. On the basis of the available data, the results show that the EF of the Neandertal was higher than that of the Sapiens, and that, both species sharing the same ecological niche in a time of dwindling resources, the less frugal was also more fragile in an evolutionary sense.

Genotype imputation is widely used to enrich genetic datasets. The operation relies of panels of known reference haplotypes with typically whole-genome sequencing data. How to choose a reference panel has been widely studied and it is essential to have a panel that is well matched to the individuals who require imputation of missing genotypes. However, it is broadly accepted that such an imputation panel will have an enhanced performance with the inclusion of diversity; haplotypes from many different populations. We investigate this observation in this work by examining in fine detail exactly which reference haplotypes are contributing at different regions of the genome. This is achieved using a novel method of inserting synthetic genetic variation into the reference panel in order to track the performance of leading imputation algorithms. We show that while diversity may globally improve imputation accuracy, there can be occasions where incorrect genotypes are imputed following the inclusion of more diverse haplotypes in the reference panel. We however demonstrate a technique for retaining and benefitting from the diversity in the reference panel whilst avoiding the occasional adverse effects on imputation accuracy. What is more, our results elucidate more clearly the role of the diversity in a reference panel than has been shown in previous studies.

Introduction. COVID-19 is a pathology caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus. The World Health Organization has reported more than 94 million cases and two million deaths worldwide. Objective: To describe the seroprevalence, spatial distribution, and clinical and sociodemographic variables of SARS-CoV2 in a community of the Colombian Amazon region. Methods. In December 2020, a cross-sectional observational study was carried out in a population located in the Colombian Amazon in the municipality of Mitú. Sociodemographic and clinical data were taken. Besides, 590 blood samples were taken, and an antibody detection was carried out with an ELISA and a recombinant protein N antigen of SARS-CoV2. Results. A seroprevalence of 57.6% was observed. The highest proportion of the infection is located in inter-municipal transport zones. The bivariate analysis did not show differences in the SARS-CoV2 infection rate concerning the variables sex, age-range, and the presence of comorbidities (P> 0.05). The bivariate and multivariate analysis showed that being symptomatic and presenting neurological manifestations of the upper respiratory tract are clinical variables associated with SARS-CoV2 infection (P <0.05). One of the causes of this virus's high spread in this community could be that 53.3% of the people were asymptomatic. Conclusions. Our data showed a high burden and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in this indigenous community. This could be linked to cultural behaviors and the high infection rate in asymptomatic patients.

The assessment of the number of people exposed to natural hazards, especially in countries with strong urban growth, is difficult to be updated at the same rate as land use develops. This paper presents a remote sensing based procedure for quick updating the assessment of the population exposed to natural hazards. A relationship between satellite nightlights intensity and urbanization density from global available cartography is first assessed when all data are available. This can be used to extrapolate urbanization data at different time steps, updating exposure each time new nightlights intensity maps are available. As reliability test for the proposed methodology, the number of people exposed to riverine flood in Italy is assessed, deriving a probabilistic relationship between DMSP nightlights intensity and urbanization density from GUF database for the year 2011. People exposed to riverine flood are assessed crossing the population distributed on the derived urbanization density with flood hazard zones provided by ISPRA. The validation on reliable exposures derived from ISTAT data shows good agreement. The possibility to update exposure maps with higher refresh rate makes this approach particularly suitable for applications in developing countries, where exposure may change at sub-yearly scale.

During the 1970s, Tunisian durum wheat landraces were replaced progressively by modern cultivars. These landraces are nowadays maintained by smallholder farmers in some ecological niches and are threatened gradually by extinction resulting on the narrowing of the genetic diversity. This study aims to investigate patterns of phenotypic variability using twelve quantitative traits in a panel of 189 durum wheat landraces and seven checks, based on farmer’s population name attribution and genetic structure. Our results showed high phenotypic variability among and within landraces and checks for the majority of the studied traits. The principal components analysis showed similar grouping using farmers name attribution and genetic structure using K = 6, which confirmed the identification of a new gene pool in the oases of Tunisia, represented by the sub-population Jenah Zarzoura and the robustness and high relationships between phenotypic and genome-wide genetic structure using DArTseq method. These findings will enhance the conservation efforts of these landraces and their use in breeding efforts at national and international levels to adapt to dry conditions.

Powdery mildew is a severe disease causing substantial yield losses in wheat production worldwide. The Chinese wheat landrace Changanhongmai (CAHM) exhibits high resistance to the physiological race E09 of powdery mildew. This study aims to characterize the powdery mildew resistance gene in CAHM, and develop molecular markers for marker-assisted selection of wheat. To investigate the genetic characteristics of this resistant gene, we developed F1 plants, F2 generation population, and F2:3 families from a cross between CAHM and SY225. Genetic analysis demonstrated that all F1 plants were resistant to the disease, while the ratio of resistant to susceptible plants was 3: 1 in both the F2 population and F2:3 families, indicating that CAHM is inherited in a manner of single dominant powdery mildew resistance gene, which was tentatively designated as PmCAHM. By using bulk segregation analysis, we constructed a genetic map encompassing Xgwm273, Xwmc626, Xgwm11, Xgwm18, Xgdm28, Xgpw7812, Xgpw5195, Xwmc694 and PmCAHM. Among these markers, Xgpw7812 and Xgpw5195 were flanking markers tightly linked to PmCAHM at a genetic distance of 2.5 cM and 8.4 cM, respectively. Furthermore, nullisomic-tetrasomic analysis revealed that PmCAHM is located on chromosome 1B. These results indicate that PmCAHM differs from the internationally recognized powdery mildew resistance genes in both location and source. In addition, a new germplasm/line NW1748 with large seeds and powdery mildew resistance was developed from the cross and back cross populations of Fengyou 1718 (FY1718)/CAHM//FY 1718. Therefore, PmCAHM can serve as a novel powdery mildew resistance source for breeding of wheat by using NW1748 as the donor in the future.

Strong numerical and functional response of owls to voles in cyclic environments is well known, but there is insufficient knowledge from boreonemoral region, in particular, with depleted populations of the small mammals. In this study we describe the dynamics of the small mammal population in Latvia from 1991 to 2016 and link them to owl population characteristics. We used food niche breadth, number of fledglings and population trends to describe the numerical response of six owl species to dampened small mammal population cycles. We found temporarily in-creasing food niche breadth in tawny and Ural owls. There were no other responses in tawny owl, whereas the breeding performance of three forest specialist species – pygmy, Tengmalm`s and Ural owls – were similar to vole crash years in Fennoscandia. Moreover, the populations of forest specialist owls are decreasing and the change in Ural owl can be attributed to the depletion of small mammal populations. We found evidence of carry-over effect in eagle owl arising from strong correlation of declining breeding performance with the small mammal abundance indices in previous autumn. We conclude that dampening of the small mammal population cycles is an important covariate to overwhelming impacts of habitat destruction with stronger response in more specialized (to prey or habitat) species.

The bean weevil (Acanthoscelides obtectus (Say.)) is one of the main pests of stored beans in the world. Heterogeneous Inbreed Families (HIF) Population of Near Isogenic Lines (NILs) could be an exceptional strategy to study the inheritance of the resistance against A. obtectus. We developed a HIF population of NILs of R-bufa-80-12 (Phaseolus vulgaris) to study the inheritance related to bean weevil resistance and to search NILs with high resistance to the pest within the HIF population. The objective of this research was to study the inheritance in a HIF population and to identify the best lines to provide weevil resistance in bean breeding for commercial genotypes that could reduce pesticide applications. To achieve this objective, we developed a set of 148 NILs which were near-homozygous in the genome, except in the region under study. The HIF were evaluated in two environments under natural infestation with A. obtectus in free choice bioassays in a warehouse highly infested. The population showed wide variability for the traits studied, from 17.2 to 29.2 g for 100 seed weight, 0.0-0.8 for consumption in grams, 2.0-30.0 for consumption in percent and 1.2-9.6 for preference (number of adults in the bottle to the end of the experiments. The heritabilities for resistance traits were from very low to low 0.0 to 0.19. The heritability for 100 seed weight was the highest, with a value of 0.90. All traits studied in this research have a normal distribution, so they are considered to be quantitatively inherited. However, a great variability was found for the traits studied, which allows selecting lines with a high level of resistance within the R-bufa-80-12 HIF population. All traits studied in present research are of quantitative inheritance. The best lines of the HIF population for resistance to A. obtectus were the Line-45, Line-129, Line-124, Line-108 and Line-47.

The second article in the series presents the application of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method to modelling of batch crystallisation in stirred tanks. A methodology to integrate the population balance equations (PBE) in parallel and independently from the Navier-Stokes equations is demonstrated. The benefits of the proposed methodology in terms of computational requirements, accuracy and availability of the crystal size distribution are discussed. The specific formulation of the SPH equations where the resulting system of ordinary differential equations is solved using the weighted contributions rather than numerically by solving a linear system of equations allows for massive parallelisation and a very loose coupling of the population balance and the fluid dynamics. It has been demonstrated, that the population balance equations can be solved on a Shared Memory Architecture (SMA) system using the OpenMP interface while the fluid dynamics equations being computed independently on a General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit (GPGPU) using the NVidia CUDA technology. This way, a significant portion of the computational overhead due to the large number of additional transport equations resulting from the discretisation of the population balance was removed: the SPH simulation coupled with 200 population balance equations was only 40% slower compared to SPH-only simulation. Two methods for the solution of population balance equations that preserve full crystal size distribution were implemented: discretised population balance (DPB) and method of characteristics (MOCH). The DPB equations are solved using the high-resolution finite-volume method with flux limiter and the effect of a large number of different flux limiters have been investigated. Both methods were validated using the case studies from the literature where an analytical solution can be derived. The developed models were applied to a numerical solution of coupled computational fluid dynamics and population balance equations to model a batch crystallization process. The effect of the hydrodynamics on the local temperature/supersaturation and the resulting crystal size distribution was captured and compared to the ideal mixing case. The simulation results from the DPB and MOCH methods were compared in terms of computational requirements and accuracy and MOCH selected as computationally more efficient and accurate.

Human pigmentation has been largely associated with different disease prevalence among populations, but most of these studies are observational and inconclusive. Known to be genetically determined, pigmentary traits have been largely studied by GWAS, mostly in Caucasian ancestry cohorts from North Europe, identifying robustly, several loci involved in many of the pigmentary traits. Here, we conduct a detailed analysis of 13 pigmentary-related traits in a South European cohort of Caucasian ancestry (n=20,000). We observed fair phototype strongly associated with non-melanoma skin cancer and other dermatoses and confirmed by PRS-approach the shared genetic basis with skin and eye diseases, such as melanoma (OR=0.95), non-melanoma skin cancer (OR=0.93), basal cell carcinoma (OR=0.97) and darker phototype with vitiligo (OR=1.02), and cataracts (OR=1.04). Detailed genetic analyses revealed 37 risk loci associated with 10 out of 13 analyzed traits, and 16 fine-mapped genes significantly associated with at least two pigmentary traits. Some of them widely reported, such as MC1R, HERC2, OCA2, TYR, TYRP1, SLC45A2, and unveiling three new candidates RP11-1084J3.4, C1QTNF3 and C17orf112, not reported in GWAS Catalog. These results highlight the importance of phototype assessment as a genetic proxy of skin functionality when evaluating disease screening in mixed populations.

Apis cerana and Apis mellifera, are very important honey species for agriculture in Asian countries. In recent decades, A. cerana populations have sharply declined in all Asian countries as a result of Sacbrood Virus infection and have now recovered to their original size. It can change the genetic structure of local populations of A. cerana. We used the nuclear gene Vitellogenin VG to assess the genetic structure of local populations of A. cerana and the signature of adaptive selection. We performed a population genetic analysis of the honey bees A. cerana from South Korea in comparison with A. cerana samples from Russia, Japan, Nepal, and China. The sequences of the gene VG of a closely related honey bee species, A. mellifera, from India and Poland were used as outgroup samples. A comparative analysis of northern and southern A. cerana populations was performed. The signatures of positive adaptive selection were found in the local population of A. cerana. We performed the Tajima's neutrality D test for A. cerana populations from different local populations based on the gene VG exon sequences. All A. cerana populations showed signs of population size expansion following the possible recent decline in population sizes. The local populations of A. c. koreana were subdivided according to their geographical distribution into southern, northern, and central Korean clusters. The gene VG exon sequences can be used as informative markers for monitoring the changes in genetic structure and adaptation to the environment processes in A. cerana populations.

Background: Understanding the factors that influence the market entry, exit, and stability of community pharmacies (i.e., market dynamics) is important for stakeholders ranging from patients to health policymakers and small business owners to large corporate institutions. The purpose of this article is to provide an update to a 15-year ecological comparison for the market dynamics of Minnesota community pharmacies from 2002 to 2017 [1]. Objectives: The first objective was to update the 15-year study [1] by describing the market dynamics of community pharmacies for each county in the state of Minnesota every five years over a 20-year period (i.e., 2002-2022). The second objective was to update the 15-year study by describing the number and proportion of community pharmacies for each county in the state of Minnesota every five years over a 20-year period (i.e., 2002-2022) by (1) ‘Business Organization Structure’ and (2) ‘Pharmacy Type.’ The third and fourth objectives were new for the 2022 study. In response to evolutionary trends in the pharmacy market, objective three described the number of Minnesota licensed pharmacies located in-state and out-of-state between 2002 and 2022. Objective four described the primary type of service provided by licensed pharmacies categorized as out-of-state in 2002 and in 2022. Methods: Data were obtained from the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, US Census Bureau, and Minnesota State Demographic Center for 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2022. Descriptive statistics were used to tabulate and summarize the findings and test associations between study variables. Results: Over the 20-year study period, the total number of community pharmacies in Minnesota remained steady. Findings for 2022 were similar to those for 2017 regarding the effects of population density and metropolitan designation on the market dynamics of community pharmacies and regarding the organizational structures and types of pharmacies. The findings revealed significant growth in the number of proportion of pharmacies licensed in Minnesota that were located out-of-state. In 2002, there were 283 of these pharmacies (19% of the total). By 2022, this grew to 960 (46% of the total). Over that 20-year period, the number of mail order and medical supply service pharmacies rose from 196 to 413. The number of specialty pharmacy distributors rose from 37 to 230 and the number of compounding pharmacies rose from 33 to 202. Discussion: The findings confirmed the shift over the past 20 years from traditional retail convenience models to healthcare access models based on population health metrics. National scalability was another detected shift in order to have profitable margins for some services and was feasible due to advances in technologies. Conclusion: The findings showed that community pharmacy distribution in Minnesota’s 87 counties shifted between 2002 and 2022 from traditional retail convenience models to healthcare access models based on population health metrics and to nationally scalable models based on economic pressures. This signals the need for not only new approaches for tracking community pharmacy market dynamics but also adjustments by community pharmacies to remain relevant in a new environment of patient care services.

The prevalence of hepatitis B and delta viruses (HBV/HDV) among people who use drugs (PWUD) remains largely unknown. In the context of one Philadelphia-based harm reduction organization (HRO), this study aimed to assess HBV/HDV prevalence and facilitate linkage to care. Participants completed a demographic HBV/HDV risk factor survey and were screened for HBV and reflexively for HDV if positive for HBV surface antigen or isolated core antibody. Fisher’s exact tests and regression were used to understand relationships between risks and HBV blood markers. Of the 498 participants, 126 (25.3%) were susceptible to HBV, 52.6% had been vaccinated against HBV, and 17.9% had recovered from a past infection. Eleven (2.2%) participants tested positive for isolated HBV core antibody, 10 (2.0%) for HBV surface antigen, and one (0.2%) for HDV antibody. History of incarceration was associated with current HBV infection, while transactional sex and experience of homelessness were predictive of previous exposure. This study found high rates of current and past HBV infection, and a 10% HBV/HDV co-infection rate. Despite availability of vaccine, one quarter of participants remained vulnerable to infection. Findings demonstrate the need to improve low-threshold HBV/HDV screening, vaccination, and linkage to care among PWUD. The study also identified gaps in the HBV/HDV care cascade, including lack of point-of-care diagnostics and lack of support for HROs to provide HBV services.

Mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs) are a group of illnesses transmitted by mosquitoes and can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites. These diseases represent a significant global burden of infectious diseases, including morbidity and mortality. This systematic review delves into the multifaceted factors contributing to the spread of mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Following PRISMA guidelines, a thorough analysis of peer-reviewed articles from May 1990 to Jan 2023 was conducted, highlighting the interplay of population, environmental, disease, and mosquito factors in disease transmission and prevalence. The review incorporated 31 studies that revealed a complex relationship between various risk factors and the presence of MBDs. Significant associations were observed with age, certain occupations, environmental conditions such as rainfall and temperature, sanitation practices, specific pathogen variants, clinical symptoms, and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Conversely, gender, socioeconomic status, educational status, and certain sanitation-related factors showed inconsistent association with the spread of MBDs. The review underscores the need for targeted interventions, including vector control, improved sanitation, and educational campaigns to mitigate the spread of MBDs in the MENA region. This review could guide research studies to address data gaps and assist in developing effective surveillance programs in the MENA region. This work emphasizes the need for region-specific public health strategies and further research to understand and curb the burden of these diseases effectively.

Astragalus bone is one of the most important fossil records as it can reconstruct the prehistoric life. Respectively, this study aims to model the body mass, habitat preference, and population density of prehistoric bovid Duboisia santeng (Dubois 1891) in eastern Java island in the early Pleistocene. The astragali from 9 specimens were used to estimate the body mass and population density. Likewise regression models are used to analyze the relationship between astragalus lateral length, width, and body mass compared to the astragalus of extant Bovid species. The result revealed the body mass average was 60.3 kg (95%CI: 58.9-61.7) and this indicates the D. santeng belongs to large herbivores. While the population density was estimated at about 5.39 individuals per km2 (95% CI: 3.18-7.6).

The effects of statin use for primary prevention in reducing mortality among older adults in Asian populations are unknown. This study aimed to determine whether use of statins for primary prevention was associated with a decreased risk of all-cause mortality in a Japanese older adult population. A regional, population-based, longitudinal cohort study was conducted using the Shizuoka Kokuho Database (SKDB). Data were compared between the statin-treated group and a non-statin-treated (control) group using the inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) method. In the SKDB cohort aged ≥65 years, new statin use was associated with a decreased risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio, 0.40; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.33–0.48) after IPTW adjustment. The risk difference for mortality at 5 years in the statin-treated group (7.9%) compared with that in the control group (92.1%) was 0.05 (95% CI, 0.04–0.06), and the number needed to treat was 21.20 (95% CI, 18.10–24.70). In conclusion, statin use for primary prevention in older adults may reduce the risk of all-cause mortality in the population without atherosclerotic disease. Furthermore, statin use for primary prevention is feasible in patients aged 75 to &lt;85 years and in patients with comorbidities such as diabetes, or dementia.

The ageing of the population is growing significantly and will challenge healthcare systems. Chronic diseases in the older population require a change in service delivery, and new technologies can be a key element in ensuring the viability and sustainability of these systems. However, the generation gap and the physical and cognitive decline commonly associated with the older generation are barriers to the transition to these models of care. Despite this, there has been a trend towards digital healthcare, which has many potential benefits for the older population. Numerous studies have assessed the acceptability of new technologies for older people in health care. These studies highlight the importance of perceived usefulness, compatibility, ease of use and personalisation of the technology. Personalisation is necessary to ensure that the system is useful for users, and different characteristics such as country of origin, gender, age or comfort with the technology should be taken into account. A person-centred approach in the development of new health technology systems is essential to ensure that applications can be better tailored to the needs of different ageing populations. Many organisations have dedicated time and resources to ensure a person-centred approach in the development of new health technology systems, and putting the individual first is the best way forward in digital health. This article presents the work carried out in this regard in the framework of the European TeNDER project together with an analysis of the results obtained in terms of satisfaction, usefulness and usability by end users.

The major aim of this study was to investigate and explores the linkage between economic growth, electricity access, energy use and population growth in Pakistan. To check the variables stationarity, Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron unit root test was applied and an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to co-integration was applied to investigate the dynamic causality link among the study variables. These tests shed light on the long-run connection among the variables; further, the results revealed that electricity access to population, electricity access to urban population, energy usage, population growth, and urban population growth had a significant impact on economic growth, while the electricity access to rural population and rural population growth has a negative impact on the economic growth in Pakistan. According to these findings, study commends that government of Pakistan pay further attention to increase its electricity production from different sources including, hydroelectric, solar, oil and gas and nuclear in order to fulfill the country’s demands. By using ARDL bounds testing approach, this study filled the literature gap regarding economic growth, electricity access, energy use and population growth in Pakistan.

Zika virus (ZIKV) is transmitted to humans by the infectious bite of mosquitoes like Aedes aegypti. After a viremic blood meal, the virus must infect the midgut, disseminate to tissues, and reach the salivary gland to be transmitted to a vertebrate host. Many factors influence the mosquito’s ability to become infected and transmit viruses, such as the mosquito’s genetic diversity, intrinsic antiviral barriers, and midgut microbiota. This study evaluated the patterns of ZIKV infection in Ae. aegypti field populations of a city. The infection rate, disseminated infection rate, viral transmission rate, and transmission efficiency were measured by quantitative PCR at 14 days post-infection. The results showed that all Ae. aegypti populations had individuals susceptible to ZIKV infection and able to transmit the virus. The infection parameters showed the city’s geographical area of origin of the Ae. aegypti influences their vector competence for ZIKV transmission.

Background: As part of the Heart Healthy Lenoir Project, we developed a practice level intervention to improve blood pressure control. The goal of this study was: i) determine if single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that associate with blood pressure variation, identified in large case-control studies, are applicable to blood pressure control in subjects from a rural population; ii) measure the association of these SNPs with subjects’ responsiveness to the hypertension intervention; and iii) identify other SNPs that may help understand patient-specific responses to an intervention. Methods and Results: We used a combination of candidate SNPs and genome-wide analyses to test associations with either baseline systolic blood pressure (SBP) or change in systolic blood pressure one year after the intervention in two genetically defined ancestral groups: African Americans (AA) or Caucasian Americans (CAU). Of the 48 candidate SNPs, 13 SNPs associated with baseline SBP in our study; however, one candidate SNP, rs592582, also associated with a change in SBP after one year. Using our study data, we identified 4 and 15 additional loci that associated with a change in SBP in the AA and CAU groups, respectively. Our analysis of gene-age interactions identified genotypes associated with SBP improvement within different age groups of our populations. Moreover, our integrative analysis identified AQP4-AS1 and PADI2 as genes whose expression levels may contribute to the pleiotropy of complex traits involved in cardiovascular health and blood pressure regulation in response to an intervention targeting hypertension. Conclusions: Identification of SNPs associated with the success of a hypertension treatment intervention suggests that genetic factors in combination with age may contribute to an individual’s success in lowering SBP. If these findings prove to be applicable to other populations, the use of this genetic variation in making patient-specific interventions may help providers with making decisions to improve patient outcomes. Further investigation is required to determine the role of this genetic variance with respect to the management of hypertension such that more precise treatment recommendations may be made in the future as part of personalized medicine.

Rationale - From the year 1 anno Domini until 1855 with the third Plague, major pandemics occurred on average every 348 years. Since then, they have occurred on average every 33 years, with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) now underway.Even though current technologies have greatly improved the way of life of human beings, COVID-19, with more than 700 000 000 cases and 6 950 000 deaths worldwide by the end of 2023, reminds us that much remains to be done. Objective - Given the frequency and duration of recent pandemics, it might be wise to start thinking about preventative methods to minimize the impact of future pandemics. This report looks back at 18 months of COVID-19, from March 2020 to August 2021, with the aim of highlighting potential solutions that could prove practical, or even essential, for the future. Material - COVID-19 data, including case and death reports, were extracted daily from the Worldometer platform to build a database for macroscopic analysis of the spread of the virus around the world. Demographic data were integrated into the COVID-19 database for a better understanding of the spatial spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in cities/municipalities. Method - Without loss of generality, we only analyzed data from the top 30 (out of 200 and above) countries ranked by total number of COVID-19 cases. Statistics (regression, t-test (p < 0.05), correlation, mean ± std, etc.) were carried out with Excel software. Spectral analysis, using Matlab software, was also used to try to better understand the temporal spread of COVID-19. Results - A good linear correlation was observed between the number of cases and the respective number of deaths depending on the country, i.e. y = 0.0121x + 19559 with R² = 0.8042. The analysis then focused mainly on the number of cases.This study showed that COVID-19 mainly affects G20 countries. The most interesting result is that cities/municipalities with high population density are a powerful activator of the spread of the virus. The current demographic context seems to be becoming a societal problem that must be addressed adequately.Spectral analysis highlighted that the very first months of spread of COVID-19 were the most notable with a strong expansion of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. On the other hand, the following six months showed a certain stability due mainly to multiple preventive measures such as confinement, closure of non-essential services, wearing of masks, distancing of 2 meters, etc. Discussion - Analysis of case and death data showed that COVID-19 mainly affects G20 countries. Nevertheless, the most interesting result of this study is that cities and municipal areas with population densities of several thousand inhabitants per square kilometer largely favored the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It is believed that such a demographic context is becoming a societal problem that developed countries around the world will sooner or later face and therefore needs to be adequately addressed. Conclusion - COVID-19 has made us understand that it is time to act both preventatively and curatively. Phenomenological insights suggest that the next pandemic could occur in less than 50 years. It may be time to launch new societal projects aimed at relieving congestion in densely populated regions.

During speciation-with-gene-flow, a transition from single-locus to multi-locus processes can occur, as strong coupling of multiple loci creates a barrier to gene flow. Testing predictions about such transitions with empirical data requires building upon past theoretical work and the continued development of quantitative approaches. We simulated genomes under different evolutionary scenarios of gene flow and divergent selection, extending previous work with the additions of neutral sites and coupling statistics, allowing us to investigate if and how selected and neutral sites differ in the conditions they require for transitions during speciation. As the per-locus strength of selection grew and/or migration decreased, it became easier for selected sites to show divergence – and thus to rise in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with each other as a statistical consequence – farther in advance of the conditions under which neutral sites could diverge. Indeed, even very low rates of gene flow were sufficient to prevent differentiation at neutral sites. However, once strong enough, coupling among selected sites eventually reduced gene flow at neutral sites as well. To explore whether similar transitions might be detectable in empirical data, we used published genome resequencing data from three taxa of Heliconius butterflies. We found that allele-frequency outliers and F ST outliers exhibited stronger patterns of LD than the genomic background, as expected. The statistical characteristics of LD – likely indicative of the strength of coupling of barrier loci – varied between chromosomes and taxonomic comparisons. Broad qualitative agreement between the patterns we observed in the empirical data and our simulations suggests that selection drives rapid genome-wide transitions to multi-locus coupling, illustrating how divergence and gene flow interact along the speciation continuum.

Demographic and socio-economic developments couple with other requirements to satisfy human needs result in rapid urban expansion sometimes with increasing rate of surface extent greater than the rate of growth of population, that result in continuous sealing of ground surface thereby affecting ecosystem services. This study applied remote sensing toward achieving the progress of SDGs and stage to determine the ratio of the rate of land consumption to the rate of population growth of Gombe metropolis. QGIS 2.18 was used for the image processing and classification analysis for the key Landsat ETM+ (Enhanced Thematic Mapper), Impervious Surface Indices and population data to inform on the urban trend and LCR/PGR for the periods 2000-2005, 2005-2010, and 2010-2015. The result appears that the LCR/PGR for the periods of study show split trends. During 2000-2005 the result shows that the study area expanded outward with LCR/PGR of 1.2. The result also indicate that during 2005-2010, the study area densified with little expansion with the LCR/PGR of 0.8. The result further reveals that during 2010-2015 the LCR/PGR reached 1.8. Pointing that the study area expanded outward with the rate of ground sealing getting high.

Mental health impacts of COVID-19 pandemic have received a great deal of attention by policymakers for the management of present and future cases of the pandemic, especially as new COVID-19 variant cases are on the rise. Thus, this study seeks to conduct a systematic review to address the following research questions: (1) What are the mental health impacts of COVID-19 in the empirical literature? (2) Which categories of people are at higher risk of the mental health impacts of the pandemic based on the extant literature? A sample of 35 studies out of 196 potential studies (from various databases, including Scopus, Google Scholar, , Research Gate, PubMed, , and libraries, from 2020 to 2022) were used after a comprehensive literature search and thorough assessment based on PRISMA-P guidelines. The study reveals that the pandemic has led to severe cases of mental health challenges such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychological disorders, mood disorders, and insomnia. The review identified groups such as health workers, patients with pre-existing psychiatric or mental health issues, COVID-19 survivors, patients with underlying health conditions, and the elderly as the most vulnerable groups to mental health challenges from the pandemic.

Given the concerns of waning immunity from the primary COVID-19 vaccines and the first booster dose, we conducted an on-line cross-sectional study in May 2022 to investigate willingness to receive a second COVID-19 booster dose or a new COVID-19 vaccine and its associated factors. Overall, 22.7% of participants were willing to be vaccinated, 39.3% were unsure, but tend to be willing, 25.8% were unsure, 4.9% were unsure, but tend to be unwilling, and 7.4% were unwilling to be vaccinated. The main reasons against accepting a second COVID‐19 booster dose or a new COVID-19 vaccine COVID-19 dose included concerns about the side effects, the opinion that further vaccination is unnecessary, and effectiveness uncertainties. Males, younger individuals, participants without a previous COVID-19 diagnosis, and those with good/very good self-perceived physical health were significantly more frequently willing to receive a second COVID‐19 booster dose or a new COVID-19 vaccine. Also, increased fear of the COVID-19, increased trust in COVID-19 vaccination and decreased fear of a second booster dose or a new COVID-19 vaccine were associated with increased willingness. Our results show some hesitancy and unwillingness toward further COVID-19 vaccination and indicate that fear of COVID-19 and trust in COVID-19 vaccination affect public opinion

The 2021/2022 influenza season was not characterised by a well-defined incidence peak. A high value of incidence was recorded in week 13, but it was still lower than in other influenza seasons. This abnormal circulation was probably due to relaxation of the COVID-19 pandemic restriction measures, which greatly reduced the circulation of respiratory-transmitted viruses, including human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV). The symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza are quite similar, sharing the human-to-human transmission route via respiratory droplets. The aim of this study was to estimate the rate of coinfection with influenza viruses and/or HRSV in SARS-CoV-2-positive subjects (N=940) in a population of central Italy during the 2021/2022 season. A total of 54 cases of coinfection were detected during the study period, 51 cases (5.4%) of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus and three cases (0.3%) of SARS-CoV-2 and HRSV coinfection. These results highlight the importance of continuous monitoring of the circulation of influenza virus and other respiratory viruses in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: While several drugs are in the pipeline for treatment of various grades of COVID-19 disease, none of them have shown promise until now. Medicinal plants are crucial in developing and developed countries for their primary and basic health needs owing to better tolerability, superior compatibility with human body and having lesser side effects. AEV01 , a speciality extract of kutki (Picrorhiza kurroa), is one potential medicinal herb which can be effective for mild COVID19 in elderly patients at risk of complications and aging immunity. Purpose: The efficacy and safety of AEV01 for mild COVID-19 in elderly patients at risk of complications was investigated in this study. Study design: A prospective, phase 3, randomized, multicentric, placebo controlled double blinded parallel group interventional trial. Methods: This study was conducted in elderly patients diagnosed as COVID-19 with mild symptoms. 70 patients were randomized into two groups to receive AEV01 capsule (100mg) and placebo respectively thrice daily for 30 days along with standard care of treatment as per national WHO/ICMR guidelines. Clinical improvement timelines and corresponding scores using 8-point ordinal scale and NEWS were assessed for efficacy and safety of AEV01 in COVID-19 patients. Results: AEV01 group showed a significant improvement (P=0.0001) in the normalization of the SpO₂ rate and relief from cough. There was also significant difference in time to recovery, with patients in the AEV01 drugtreated group recovering in 4.5 days as compared to Placebo in 9.1 days. ESR, LDH, serum ferritin, Neutrophil-Lymphocyte ratio (NLR), TNF- alpha, IL-6 and CD4 cell counts, which are considered as prognostic markers in COVID19 infected patients, showed a significant improvement in patients treated with AEV01. The AEV01 drug treated group showed significant clinical improvement in the 8-point ordinal scale severity rating and NEW Score from day 3 onwards which continued up to end of study. Conclusion: AEV01 has shown a significant improvement in clinical and laboratory parameters. There was also reduction in the progression of the COVID-19 disease in unvaccinated elderly patients from mild to moderate when treated at an earlier stage.

The past years saw the rise of genomic biobanks and mega-scale meta-analysis of genomic data that promise to reveal the genetic underpinnings of health and disease. However, the over-representation of Europeans in genomic studies not only limit the global understanding of disease risk and intervention efficacy, but also inhibit viable research into the genomic differences between carriers and patients. Whilst the community has agreed that more diverse samples are required, it is not enough to blindly increase diversity; the diversity must be quantified, compared, and annotated to lead to insight. Genetic annotations from separate biobanks need to be comparable, computable, operate without access to raw data due to privacy concerns. But they must be comparable, both for regular research and to allow international comparison in response to pandemics. Here, we evaluate the appropriateness of commonly used genomic tools used to depict population structure in a standardized and comparable manner. The end goal is to reduce the effects of confounding and learn from genuine variation in genetic effects on phenotypes across populations, which will improve the value of biobanks, locally and internationally, increase the accuracy of association analyses, and inform developmental efforts.

The urbanisation phenomenon and related cities expansion and transport networks entail preventing the increase of population exposed to environmental pollution. Regarding noise exposure, the Environmental Noise Directive demands on main metropolis to produce noise maps. While based on standard methods, these latter are usually generated by proprietary software and require numerous input data concerning, for example, the buildings, land use, transportation network and traffic. The present work describes an open source implementation of a noise mapping tool fully implemented in a Geographic Information System compliant with the Open Geospatial Consortium standards. This integration makes easier at once the formatting and harvesting of noise model input data, cartographic rendering and output data linkage with population data. An application is given for a French city, which consists in estimating the impact of road traffic-related scenarios in terms of population exposure to noise levels both in relation to a threshold value and level classes.

Genes that affect adaptive traits have been identified, but our knowledge of the genetic basis of adaptation in a more general sense (across multiple traits) remains limited. We combined population-genomic analyses of evolve and resequence experiments, genome-wide association mapping of performance traits, and analyses of gene expression to fill this knowledge gap, and shed light on the genomics of adaptation to a marginal host (lentil) by the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. Using population-genomic approaches, we detected modest parallelism in allele frequency change across replicate lines during adaptation to lentil. Mapping populations derived from each lentil-adapted line revealed a polygenic basis for two host-specific performance traits (weight and development time), which had low to modest heritabilities. We found less evidence of parallelism in genotype-phenotype associations across these lines than in allele frequency changes during the experiments. Differential gene expression caused by differences in recent evolutionary history exceeded that caused by immediate rearing host. Together, the three genomic data sets suggest that genes affecting traits other than weight and development time are likely to be the main causes of parallel evolution, and that detoxification genes (especially cytochrome P450s and beta-glucosidase) could be especially important for colonization of lentil by C. maculatus.

Dolichandrone spathacea is a rare and endangered semi-mangrove plant species with an extremely small population, naturally distributed only in Zhanjiang City and the east coast of Hainan Island, China. Regrettably, the present situation of the D. spathacea population in China has not yet been carefully investigated. In this study, we aim to evaluate the current resource status and population dynamic characteristics of D. spathacea on Hainan Island, China, in order to propose sustainable conservation and management strategies for future ecological restoration of its natural population. Our results show that D. spathacea on Hainan Island can be divided into four populations. All the D. spathacea populations present a state of overall dispersion, local concentration, and occasionally sporadic existence, and they exist in geographical isolation. The young, middle, and old D. spathacea plants account for 20.42%, 66.20%, and 13.38%, respectively, indicating that the overall age class of the D. spathacea population on Hainan Island belongs to a declining type. Furthermore, instead of temporal structure, we chose diameter at breast height (DBH) to establish a static life table, draw a population survival curve, and quantify the future development trend through population dynamic analysis and time-series prediction. These results directly point out that the D. spathacea population on Hainan Island is sensitive to external disturbances and possesses two main increases in mortality rate—namely, in its juvenile and mature stages—due to weak vitality, competition, and anthropogenic interferences, which are the most important reasons for its endangered status. Depending on the current conditions of the D. spathacea population, we should conserve and expand mature trees in situ, preserve their germplasm resources, rehabilitate their habitats to promote provenance restoration, and conduct artificial cultivation and spreading planting in order to realize the sustainable conservation and management of D. spathacea.

Plant sterols are compounds with multiple biological functions, mainly cholesterol-reducing. There are no comprehensive databases on plant sterols, which makes it difficult to estimate their intake in the Polish population. In this study we used international food databases, supplemented by scientific data from the literature, to create a database on plant sterols in the food consumed in Poland to assess the size and sources of dietary plant sterols in the adult population of Poland. The literature search was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar to identify possible sources of published food composition data for plant sterols. The study group consisted of 5690 participants of the WOBASZ II survey. We identified 361 dietary sources of plant sterols based on the consumption of foods and dishes reported by participants. Cereals and fats provided 61% of the total plant sterols, and together with vegetables and fruits, this totaled 80%. Total plant sterol intake for the Polish population was 282.97 mg/day, and divided by men and women was 320.77 and 252.19 mg/day, respectively. Canola oil provided the most plant sterols at 16.92%, followed by white bread at 16.65% and soft margarine at 8.33%. This study found that the database of plant sterols facilitates the calculation of plant sterols in the typical Polish diet, and the results are comparable to those of other studies, despite different methodologies of nutritional assessment and slightly different databases. The main sources of dietary plant sterols did not differ from the data for other populations. This study confirmed the observations of other research that women's diets may have a higher plant sterol density compared to men.

Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) support the harvesting, curating, storage, and sharing of data along with providing access to development, analytic, and visualization tools that enable the building of innovative applications to address broad or specific challenges. SDIs can be especially powerful in bringing together data and tools supporting a particular theme – and this paper discusses and demonstrates the value of an SDI focused on Health. Many potential benefits of a Health SDI are proposed, and the case of supporting emergency response efforts is developed in detail. Leveraging a Health SDI, a Health Risk Index was created that provides emergency response personnel (both Emergency Operations Managers and Emergency Medical Responders) key insights into the unique health risks the impacted population faces due to the disaster. In order to establish the Health Risk Index, datasets from multiple national and global sources representing health data and social data that influences health outcomes – typically called social determinants of health – are harvested, merged, and republished to support further efforts at advancing the Health Risk Index. Visualizations of the Health Risk Index at the global, national, and sub-national levels down to the address level are presented along with demonstrations of its use.

The aim of the study was to examine the prevalence of suicide thoughts and -attempts during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak and examine factors associated with suicide thoughts in the general Norwegian population. A sample of 4527 adults living in Norway were recruited via social media. Data related to suicide thoughts and attempts, mental health variables, pandemic-related concerns and sociodemographic variables were collected. Associations with suicide thoughts were analyzed with logistic regression analysis. In the sample, 3.6 % reported suicide thoughts during the last month, while 0.2 % had attempted to commit suicide during the same period. Lower age (OR: 0.66, p < 0.001), daily alcohol use (OR: 3.29, p < 0.001), being in the risk group for COVID-19 complications (OR: 2.38, p < 0.01), and having economic concerns related to the pandemic (OR: 2.51, p < 0.001) were associated with having suicide thoughts. In addition to known risk factors, the study suggests that aspects specific to COVID-19 may be important for suicidal behaviors during the pandemic.

Understanding the dynamics of humoral immune responses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial for optimizing vaccine strategies. This study aimed to investigate the impact of infection and vaccine-induced immunity on the Albanian population from August 2021 to August 2022. Two independent samples from the Albanian general population were analyzed using an ELISA method to assess IgG class anti-Spike (S1) and anti-Nucleocapsid (N) SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The results revealed a robust immune response among vaccinated individuals with prior COVID-19 infection who received only one vaccine dose. In the 2022 cohort, most individuals who received one vaccine dose achieved comparable seropositivity and antibody levels to those who received two doses. However, individuals aged 61 and over required two or three vaccine doses to reach the same level of immune response as the younger population. Notably, the time elapsed since infection or vaccination did not significantly impact the immune response. These findings highlight the importance of hybrid immunity and suggest that one vaccine dose may be sufficient for most individuals with prior COVID-19 infection. However, additional doses are necessary for optimal protection in older individuals. This study provides unique insights into humoral immune response dynamics that can be used to refine ongoing COVID-19 population vaccination strategies for middle-income countries with low vaccination coverage.

Water sustainability has become one of the most severe issues in the 21st Century due to dramatic urban population growth and climate change. This paper reviews some of the critical key water issues that need to be considered/incorporated in the quest for water sustainability for the upcoming decades. The purpose is to recognize the critical circumstances for maintaining water sustainability and recognize that many regions in the world have passed the ‘tipping point’ of balancing their water sustainability and failing to realize that restoring sustainability will be extremely difficult. From the water quantity perspective, several examples are used to demonstrate situations which, in hindsight, have been initially shown to be effective but highly problematic in the long term. The review considers, amongst others, the 1960s India example shows that an agricultural ‘success’ starting in the 1960s has subsequently become an environmental disaster. Additional issues, including the impacts of dietary adjustments, upstream diversions raising downstream shortfalls, and transfers of water from agriculture to urban areas, are examples that demonstrate that to achieve water sustainability, lessons must be learned from the past, and adaptive measures must be adopted to help humanity avoid adverse and irreversible environmental tragedies. Government authorities can learn from this critical review of some approaches and realize their responsibility to proactively promote better water resource management strategies (domestic and international collaborations) and strictly regulate water use practices to better manage water sustainability.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 poses a devastating threat to human society in terms of health, economy and lifestyle. Establishing accurate and real-time models to predict and assess the impact of the epidemic on the economy is instructive. We have designed a new model to quantitatively assess the impact of the COVID-19 on the economy of China’s mainland. The nominal GDP in the Q1 of 2020 that we predicted for China’s mainland with the Baidu Mi-gration Data is RMB 20,785.7 billion, which is less by 3.59% than that in 2019. The estimated val-ue is confirmed roughly by the official report released in April 17, 2020 (RMB 20,650 billion, 6.8% year-on-year declined). Strict control measures during the epidemic have greatly reduced Chi-na's economic activity and had a serious impact on the country's economy. Orderly promotion of population mobility plays a decisive role in economic recovery.

Background: The methods used in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) household surveys have not changed in four decades; however, LMIC societies have changed substantially and now face unprecedented rates of urbanisation and urbanisation of poverty. This mismatch may result in unintentional exclusion of vulnerable and mobile urban populations. We compare three survey method innovations with standard survey methods in Kathmandu, Dhaka, and Hanoi, and summarize feasibility of our innovative methods in terms of time, cost, skill requirements, and experiences. Methods: We used descriptive statistics and regression techniques to compare respondent characteristics in samples drawn with innovative versus standard survey designs and household definitions, adjusting for sample probability weights and clustering. Feasibility of innovative methods was evaluated using a thematic framework analysis of focus group discussions with survey field staff, and via survey planner budgets. Results: We found that a common household definition excluded single adult (46.9%) and migrant headed households (6.7%), as well as non-married (8.5%), unemployed (10.5%), disabled (9.3%), and studying adults (14.3%). Further, standard two-stage sampling resulted in fewer single adult and non-family households than an innovative area-microcensus design; however, two-stage sampling resulted in more tent and shack dwellers. Our survey innovations provided good value for money and field staff experiences were neutral or positive. Staff recommended streamlining field tools and pairing technical and survey content experts during fieldwork. Conclusions: This evidence of exclusion of vulnerable and mobile urban populations in LMIC household surveys is deeply concerning, and underscores the need to modernize survey methods and practices.

In every agricultural setting, weed seeds can be found in every cubic centimeter of soil. Weed seeds, as a valuable trait underlying the fate of weed populations, exhibit differing levels of seed dormancy, ensuring their survival under uncertain conditions. Seed dormancy is considered as an innate mechanism that constrains germination under suitable conditions that would otherwise stimulate germination of non-dormant seeds. This work provides new insight into changes in germination patterns along the dormant to nondormancy continuum in seeds with physiological dormancy. Notable findings are: (1) germination synchrony can act as a new parameter that quantitatively describes dormancy patterns and subsequently weed population dynamics, (2) germination synchrony is dynamic, suggesting that the more dormancy decreases, the more synchrony is obtainable, (3) after-ripening and stratification can function as a synchronizing agent that regulates germination behavior. Brassica napus showed the most synchronous germination with the value of 3.14, while lower level of germination asynchrony was for Sinapis arvensis, with the asynchrony value of 2.25. After-ripening and stratification can act as a synchronizing factor through decreasing asynchrony level and increasing synchrony. Weed establish a firm relationship between dormancy cycling and germination synchrony patterns, ensuring their survival and reproductive strategies. By germinating in synchrony, which is accompanied by cycling mechanisms, weeds have more opportunities to persist. The synchrony model used in the present study predicts germination behavior and synchrony along the dormant to nondormancy continuum in weed seeds with physiological dormancy, suggesting a useful method for quantification of germination strategies and weed population dynamics.

Background: To describe epidemiological characteristics and perform a SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance in the southeastern region of São Paulo state. Methods: During the first months of 2022, we compared weekly SARS-CoV-2 infection prevalence considering age, Ct value and variants lineages. Results: An increase in the number of SARS-CoV-2 positive cases until the fourth epidemiological week were observed. From the 4th epidemiological week onwards, the number of tests for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis began to decrease, but the number of positive samples for SARS-CoV-2 remained high, reaching its most expressive level with a rate of 60% of infected individual cases. In this period, we observed a growing increase in SARS-CoV-2 infection within the age group 0-10 throughout the epidemiological weeks, from 2.8% in the 1st epidemiological week to 9.2% in the 8th epidemiological week. We further observed significantly higher Ct values within younger patients samples compared to other older age groups. According to lineage assignment, SARS-CoV-2 (BA.1) was the most prevalent (74.5%) in the younger group, followed by BA.1.1 (23%), BA.2 (1.7%) and Delta (1%). Phylogenetic analysis showed that BA.2 sequences clustered together, indicating sustained transmission of this Omicron VOC sublineage by that time. Our results suggest the initial dissemination steps of the Omicron’s sublinage BA.2 into the younger group, due specific genomic features of the detected sequences. Conclusion: These data provide interesting results related to the spread, emerging and evolution of the Omicron variant in the Southeast Brazilian population.

The COVID-19 outbreak and the sudden lockdown of society in March 2020 had a large impact on people’s daily life and gave rise to concerns for the mental health in the general population. The aim of the study was to examine post-traumatic stress reactions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of symptom-defined post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and factors associated with post-traumatic stress in the Norwegian population during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. A survey was administered via social media channels, to which a sample of 4527 adults (≥18 years) responded. Symptom-defined PTSD was measured with the PTSD Checklist for the DSM-5. The items were specifically linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. We used the DSM-5 diagnostic guidelines to categorize participants as fulfilling the PTSD symptom criteria or not. Associations with PTSD were examined with single and multiple logistic regression analyses. The prevalence of symptom-defined PTSD was 12.5% for men and 19.5% for women. PTSD was associated with lower age, female gender, lack of social support, and a range of pandemic-related variables such as economic concerns, expecting economic loss, having been in quarantine or isolation, being at high-risk for complications from COVID-19 infection, and having concern for family and close friends. In conclusion, posttraumatic stress reactions were common in the Norwegian population in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. Concerns about finances, health, and family and friends seem to matter.

Although Shannon mutual information has been widely used, its effective calculation is often difficult for many practical problems, including those in neural population coding. Asymptotic formulas based on Fisher information sometimes provide accurate approximations to the mutual information but this approach is restricted to continuous variables because the calculation of Fisher information requires derivatives with respect to the encoded variables. In this paper, we consider information-theoretic bounds and approximations of the mutual information based on Kullback--Leibler divergence and Rényi divergence. We propose several information metrics to approximate Shannon mutual information in the context of neural population coding. While our asymptotic formulas all work for discrete variables, one of them has consistent performance and high accuracy regardless of whether the encoded variables are discrete or continuous. We performed numerical simulations and confirmed that our approximation formulas were highly accurate for approximating the mutual information between the stimuli and the responses of a large neural population. These approximation formulas may potentially bring convenience to the applications of information theory to many practical and theoretical problems.

An existing simplified simulation model of global climate, population, economy, and governance is extended, through statistical and other data analysis, to include several measures of human well-being and population displacement. The revised model is used to explore (in testing to the year 2060) vicious cycles and causal cascades that, some have warned, could lead to acceleration of climate change in the coming decades. Model scenario testing addresses two uncertainties, namely the strength of the effect of climate change on governance erosion, and the strength of the “heat trap” effect from physical tipping points such as ice loss and permafrost thaw. This testing indicates that a strong heat trap effect could very well accelerate climate change, but that even a strong governance erosion effect is unlikely to do so. Governance erosion would hurt human well-being but is probably not much of a climate threat per se. These results are tentative but point to the possibility of formally modeling causal cascades beyond what the larger climate models have done to date.

Blast, caused by Magnaporthe oryzae, is one of the most destructive diseases affecting rice production. Understanding population dynamics of the pathogen avirulence genes is pre-required for breeding and then deploying new cultivars carrying promising resistance genes. The divergence and population structure of AvrPii was dissected in the populations of southern (Guangdong, Hunan, and Guizhou) and northern (Jilin, Liaoning, and Heilongjiang) China, via population genetic and evolutionary approaches. The evolutionary divergence between a known haplotype AvrPii-J and a novel one AvrPii-C was demonstrated by haplotype-specific amplicon-based sequencing and genetic transformation. The different avirulent performances of a set of seven haplotype-chimeric mutants suggested that the integrity of the full-length gene structures is crucial to express functionality of individual haplotypes. The population structure of the AvrPii family was shaped by balancing, purifying, and positive selection pressures in the Chinese populations. The AvrPii-J was recognized as the wild type that emerged before rice domestication. Considering higher frequencies of avirulent isolates were detected in Hunan, Guizhou, and Liaoning, the cognate resistance gene Pii could be continuously served as a basic and critical resistance resource in such regions. The unique population structures of the AvrPii family found in China have significant implications for understanding how the AvrPii family has kept an artful balance and purify among its members (haplotypes) those keenly interact with the cognate resistance gene under gene-for-gene relationships.

The processes of an ageing population are becoming a challenge in the context of social, technological, and research policy. Also, according to the perspective 2080, Poland belongs to the group of counties with the prognosticated number of citizens over 65 to account for one-third of the population. Different strategies aimed at dealing with the mentioned demographic challenges include widespread use of humanoids in care for older people. As the research of such nature was the first in Poland, this article aimed to identify the factors and their interlinks that determine the attitude and the future use of humanoids by older people of the Polish society. Based on the specific attributes of humanoid technology, the model hypothesises that an attitude to technology can be directly predicted by four perceived technology attributes, namely an impact on the quality of life, technological impact, ethical and social problems, while user attitude towards humanoid technology is predicted to have an indirect influence on the future intention of use. A survey method was used to collect research data. An electronic questionnaire was used to conduct confidential interviews. Finally, 643 filled questionnaires were received. Results received via a regression analysis confirmed that the most important factor influencing human attitudes was a positive social impact achieved using humanoids in the care of lonely people and improving the safety of older people. Another important factor was a technological impact from the use of humanoids performing functions desired by respondents. The technology in question could be useful for reminding older people about taking medication, informing family members about the health condition of their older people and calling for help on their behalf.

The increasing demand for higher inclusion cleanliness levels motivates the control over the formation and evolution of inclusions in the steel production process. In this work, the evolution of the chemical composition and size distribution of inclusions throughout a slab production process of Al-killed steel, including ladle furnace (LF) treatment and continuous casting (CC), was followed. The initial solid Al2O3 and Al2O3-MgO inclusions were modified to liquid Al2O3-CaO-MgO inclusions during LF treatment. The evolution of the size distributions during LF treatment was associated with the growth and removal of inclusions, as new inclusions were not created after the deoxidation process, according to a population density function (PDF) analysis. Additionally, the size distributions tended to be similar as the LF treatment progressed regardless of their initial features, whereas they differed during CC. Analysis of the upper tails of the distributions through generalized extreme values theory showed that inclusion distributions shifted from larger to smaller sizes as the process progressed. There were great changes in the distributions of large inclusions throughout the LF treatment and between the end of the LF treatment and the start of the CC process. Additionally, distributions of large inclusions differed at the end of the LF treatment, whereas such differences decreased as CC progressed.

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the historical trajectory of deforestation in Ethiopia, spanning an extensive timeframe and exploring its major driving factors. Over the span of three millennia, Ethiopia has experienced persistent deforestation, resulting in a significant reduction of its once-large forest and woodland resources. Currently, small, degraded forests and woodlands exist in isolated patches, located in remote areas such as the southwest and southeast. Major deforestation in Ethiopia unfolded progressively, first along a north-south axis and more recently shifting from the highlands to the lowlands. The northern and central highlands lost most of their natural forests before the turn of the 20th century, while significant loss in the southern highlands occurred over the past 150 years, and in the lowlands over the past 50 years. This deforestation is primarily attributed to the expansion of ox-plow agriculture and population pressure resulting from natural birth and internal migration. Despite efforts to counter deforestation and promote restoration, mostly since the 1970s, successes remain limited. A noteworthy exception in this regard is the introduction of Eucalyptus during the turn of the 20th century and the subsequent expansion of it, mainly in the form of small-scale farmer-led farm forestry. Today, Eucalyptus become the most preferred, well-adapted, widely planted, and the major supplier of wood materials in Ethiopia. The limited success in restoration is attributed to the reliance on campaign-based strategy, lack of private sector involvement, the intertwining of restoration with political agenda, and poorly defined property rights on land, forests, and trees. The consequences of deforestation and resultant environmental degradation have profoundly influenced the socio-economic dynamics of Ethiopia, giving rise to issues such as food insecurity, poverty, migration, and political instability.

Background and Objectives: Vision impairments and related blindness are major public health problems. Prevalence of eye disease and barriers to optimal care markedly vary among different geographic areas. In the Abruzzo region (Central Italy), an epidemiological surveillance on the state of ocular health in the population aged over 50 years was performed in 2019. Materials and Methods: Participants were sampled to be representative of the region inhabitants. Data were collected through a telephone interview and an eye examination. Prevalence of cataract, glaucoma, retinopathy, maculopathy was assessed. The Cohen’s kappa (k) was used to measure the agreement between presence of eye disease and awareness of the disease by the participants. Results: Overall, 983 people with mean age of 66.0±9.5 years were included in the study. The prevalence of cataract, glaucoma, maculopathy, and retinopathy was 52.6%, 5.3%, 5.6%, and 29.1%, respectively. Among the total of affected people, those aware of their condition were 21.8% (k=0.12, slight agreement) for cataract, 65.4% (k=0.78, substantial agreement) for glaucoma, 7.1% (k=0.10, slight agreement) for maculopathy, and 0% for retinopathy (k=-0.004, agreement lower than that expected by chance). Refractive defects were corrected in the vast majority of participants. Conclusion: In the Abruzzo region, about two third of citizens aged 50 years or over suffer from cataract, glaucoma, retinopathy or maculopathy, which are recognized as leading causes of blindness. Many people with eye disease do not know they have it. These data can be used by clinicians and policymakers to undertake clinical, political, and social actions.

The emergence of Airbnb along with an increase in urban tourism has intensified the pressure on urban areas while adding a new dimension in the dynamics of the housing distribution especially in historic cities. These dynamics affect both local economies and alter significantly the characteristics of urban space arising the necessity to create not only policies that foster sustainable tourism development but also to advance urban models that explore the relation between Airbnb and the traditional rental and accommodation sector. Through the case of Venice, the present study sheds light on the potential evolution of Airbnb housing in comparison to the traditional rental and homeowner market. In particular, it seeks to understand whether a potential equilibrium between these uses exists and if so, at which point in regards to this equilibrium the historic center of Venice is now. To tackle this question, methods deriving from the field of game theory and specifically evolutionary game theory are used. With the agents (players) being the housing units, the designed theoretical model explores the population dynamics of the housing units in Venice given the three options of homeownership or long-term rental (residential), short term rental over Airbnb (airbnb) or no use (vacant). The findings of our theoretical population game model are validated and discussed against a dataset describing the use patterns in the city of Venice during the past 20 years. A verification of the outcome through further case studies could eventually provide insights on future behavior of tourism pressure in historic urban areas.

Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) is one of the most widespread and economically important virus infecting both crop and ornamental species of the family Brassicaceae. TuMV isolates can be classified to five phylogenetic lineages, basal-B, basal-BR, Asian-BR, world-B and Orchis. To understand the genetic structure of TuMV from radish in China, the 3′-terminal genome of 90 TuMV isolates were determined and analyzed with other Chinese isolates available. The results showed that the Chinese TuMV isolates from radish formed three groups: Asian-BR, basal-BR and world-B. More than half of these isolates (52.54%) were clustered to basal-BR group, and could be further divided into three sub-groups. The TuMV basal-BR isolates in the sub-groups I and II were genetically homologous with Japanese ones, while those in sub-group III formed a distinct lineage. Sub-populations of TuMV basal-BR II and III were new emergent and in a state of expansion. The Chinese TuMV radish populations were under negative selection. Gene flow between TuMV populations from Tai’an, Weifang and Changchun was frequent.

With the aging of China's population, the problem of pension security has become more and more prominent, and whether delayed retirement can effectively alleviate the pension fund gap and ensure the sustainability of the pension fund has become the focus of social concern. This study predicts the income and expenditure of urban workers' basic pension insurance fund from 2021 to 2050 by constructing an actuarial model of pension insurance fund income and expenditure, and simulates the effect of delayed retirement policy. The prediction results show that under the existing system, the basic pension insurance fund for urban workers will have a shortfall for the first time in 2027, and the shortfall will expand year by year. Compared with the non-implementation of delayed retirement policy, the simulation of the implementation of delayed retirementt program delayed the emergence of the fund gap until 2029, and the forecast period of the pension fund gap significantly narrowed, indicating that delayed retirement policy has a certain positive impact on alleviating the pressure of pension payments, but delayed retirementt can not completely eliminate the pension fund gap. In view of this, this paper suggests that a progressive and flexible delayed retirement policy should be introduced as soon as possible to better adapt to the needs of different groups. At the same time, differentiated policies should be formulated for different groups of people and a pension incentive mechanism for delayed retirement should be set up to improve public acceptance of delayed retirement policy. In addition, delayed retirement policy should be combined with other measures, such as lowering the corporate contribution rate and enhancing the value-added capacity of the pension fund, so as to ensure the sustainability of the pension fund.

Background: The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays a key role in the adaptive immune response to pathogens due to its extraordinary polymorphism. However, the spatial patterns of MHC variation in the striped hamster remain unclear, particularly regarding the relative contribution of balancing selection in shaping MHC population and diversity compared to neutral forces. Methods: In this study, we investigated the immunogenic variation of the striped hamster in four wild populations in Inner Mongolia, which experience heterogeneous parasitic stress. Our goal was to identify local adaptation by comparing the genetic structure at MHC with that at seven microsatellite loci, taking into account neutral processes. Results: We observed significant variation in parasite pressure among sites, with parasite burden showing a correlation with temperature and precipitation. Molecular analysis revealed a similar co-structure between MHC and microsatellite loci. We observed lower genetic differentiation at MHC loci compared to microsatellite loci, and no correlation was found between the two. Conclusions: Overall, these results suggest a complex interplay between neutral evolutionary forces and balancing selection in shaping the spatial patterns of MHC variation. Local adaptation was not detected at a small scale but may be applicable at a larger scale.

Drones equipped with thermal cameras have recently become readily available, broadening the possibilities for monitoring wildlife. The European hare (Lepus europaeus) is a nocturnal mammal that is closely monitored in Denmark due to populations declining since the mid-1900s. The limitations of current population assessment methods, such as spotlight counts and hunting game statistics, could be overcome by relying on drone surveys with thermal imaging for population counts. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of a DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced drone with thermal imaging as a tool for monitoring the Danish hare population. Multiple test flights were conducted over agricultural areas in Denmark in spring 2022, testing various flight altitudes, camera settings, and recording methods. The test flights were used to suggest a method for identifying and counting hare. The applied use of this methodology was then evaluated through a case survey that had the aim of identifying and counting hare over an agricultural area of 242 ha. Hare could be detected with thermal imaging at flight altitudes up to 80 m and it was possible to fly as low as 40 m without observing direct behavior changes. Thermal images taken at these altitudes also provided enough detail to differentiate between species and animal body size proved to be a good species indicator. The case study confirmed the use of thermal imaging based drone surveys to identify hare and conduct population counts, thus, indicating the suggested methodology as a viable alternative to traditional counting methods.

Binge drinking is a pattern of alcohol abuse. Its prevalence and associated risk factors are not well documented. Heavy drinking, on the other hand, has a well-studied association with bereavement . This report uses a cross-sectional, population-based survey to estimate prevalence of bingeing and its association with new bereavement. Bingeing is defined as 4 or more drinks (women) or 5 or more drinks (men) in a 2-to-4-hour setting. For the first time, the Georgia Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) included a bereavement item, ‘Have you experienced the death of a family member or close friend in the years 2018 or 2019?’. Methods: Georgia BRFSS is a complex sampling survey administered annually. It is designed to represent the 8.1 million persons in the U.S. state of Georgia aged 18 years and older. Alcohol consumption patterns are routinely measured in the common core. In the 2019 field survey, the state added a new item probing for bereavement in the prior 24 months predating the pandemic of COVID-19. Imputation and weighting techniques were applied to yield population prevalence rates of new bereavement, bingeing, and their co-occurrence with other high-risk health states. Models, adjusted for age, gender, and race were used to estimate the risk for other unhealthy behaviors posed by the co-occurrence of bereavement and bingeing. Results: In Georgia, bereavement is common (45.8 %), and alcohol consumption is common (48.8 %). Bereavement and alcohol use co-occurred among 1,796,817 persons (45 % of all drinkers). The subset of co-occurring bereavement and binging totaled 608,282 persons. Within this group, the highest rates of bereavement were associated with death of a friend / neighbor (30.7%) or 3 plus deaths (31.8%). Conclusions: While bingeing is a known risk to public health, its co-occurrence with recent bereavement is a new observation. Public health surveillance systems need to monitor this co-occurrence to protect both individual and societal health. In a time of global bereavement, documenting its influence on binge drinking can support the work towards Sustainable Goal #3 – Good health and Well-Being. Keywords: BRFSS, Binge Drinking, Population Survey, Bereavement, SDG#3. Mental Health

Many species of plants are found in regions to which they are alien. Their global distributions are characterised by a family of exponential functions of the kind that arise in elementary statistical mechanics (an example in ecology is MacArthur's broken stick). We show here that all these functions are quantitatively reproduced by a model containing a single parameter – some global resource partitioned at random on the two axes of species number and site number. A dynamical model generating this equilibrium is a two fold stochastic process and suggests a curious and interesting biological interpretation in terms of niche structures fluctuating with time and productivity; with sites and species highly idiosyncratic. Idiosyncrasy implies that attempts to identify a priori those species likely to become naturalized are unlikely to be successful. Although this paper is primarily concerned with a particular problem in population biology, the two fold stochastic process may be of more general interest.

This study focuses on the Cereja River, a Permanent Preservation Area located in Amazon coast. The hypothesis tested was that the water quality of the Cereja River has worsened over recent years due to unplanned urban growth. To assess changes in the water quality, seven campaigns were undertaken with data being collected at six fixed points, during two distinct periods (2013–2014 and 2018–2019). High-resolution satellite images from GoogleEarth (2012 and 2019) were used to register unplanned occupation. The DPSWR (Driver-Pressure-State-Welfare-Response) socioecological framework was used to identify potential measures for the management of environmental and anthropogenic problems. The increase in the number of households found on the Cereja margins between 2012-2019 has contributed to the river’s intense trophic condition, low concentrations of dissolved oxygen, high concentrations of pathogenic bacteria, and loss of vegetation cover. The water of the Cereja River is inadequate for any human use, and its contamination is one of the principal factors determining the reduction of the water quality of the Caeté estuary. According to the obtained results, the DPSWR model proved to be an excellent analytical tool for the evaluation of specific local scenarios, through the integrated analysis of socio-environmental issues. The scenario observed can be extrapolated to other rivers located within urban areas in the Amazon region that have relatively unplanned growth.

Genetic testing has expanded out of the research laboratory into medical practice and the direct-to-consumer market, and rapid analysis of the resulting genotype data can now have significant impact. We present a method for summarizing personal genotypes as ‘genotype fingerprints’ that meet these needs. Genotype fingerprints can be derived from any single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based assay, and remain comparable as chip designs evolve to higher marker densities. We demonstrate that they support distinguishing types of relationships among closely related individuals and closely related individuals from individuals from the same background population, as well as high-throughput identification of identical genotypes, individuals in known background populations, and de novo separation of subpopulations within a large cohort through extremely rapid comparisons. While fingerprints do not preserve anonymity, they provide a useful degree of privacy by summarizing a genotype in a way that prevents reconstruction of individual marker states. Genotype fingerprints are therefore well-suited as a format for public aggregation of genetic information to support ancestry and relatedness determination without revealing personal health risk status.

In the lowland forests of south-western Poland, the effect of the fencing of forest regeneration stages, aged up to 20 years, upon the level of damage inflicted by red deer (Cervus elaphus), fallow deer (Dama dama), and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in non-fenced patches of this age class of forest was studied. In the studied forest districts (n=4), there was the highest proportion of the mixed coniferous‑deciduous forest types, where the main forest‑forming tree species were pine (Pinus sylvertris), birch (Betula sp.), oak (Quercus sp.), beech (Fagus sylvatica), and spruce (Picea abies). At the forest district level, the percentage of fenced areas in young forest plantations (1‑10‑year old) ranged, on average, from 9.1-30.9%, and that in tickets (11-20‑year old) ranged from 0.0%-10.2%. The percentage of areas of severely damaged young plantations fluctuated between 5.7 and 14.2%, and that of tickets fluctuated between 0.3-12.9%. For young plantations, a statistically significant correlation (“r” ranged from 0.51-0.75) was obtained between percentage of area in fenced plots and the level of damage caused by deer. For thickets, this correlation was obtained solely in Pieńsk Forest District (r = 0.646). In the studied forest districts, the fencing of young plantations and thickets resulted in the reduction of average potential food base for cervids, from 2.9 to 10.0 %. An attempt was made to interpret the level of deer damage on the basis of an index, taking into account the standing crop of deciduous browse and forbs, and the population density of cervids.

(1) Background: The prevalence of comorbid psychiatric disorders among the patients with mental disorders is higher than general population. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of comorbid psychiatric disorders among a Mexican adolescent sample diagnosed with eating disorders; (2) Methods: Only Mexican adolescents diagnosed with eating disorders were included in the study. The diagnoses were using the DSM-5 criteria. Adolescents with ages between 12 to 17 years were included. The psychiatric comorbidities were evaluated using MINI-kid and QEWP-R. In addition, the z-score values calculated from BMI; (3) Results: The mean age was 14.08±1.7 years old. In our Mexican sample the diagnoses more frequently were bulimia nervosa (55.61%). We found that 89% of the Mexican adolescents with eating disorders had another psychiatric comorbidity. Major depressive disorder (52.40%) and suicide risk (40%) were the most prevalent comorbidity; (4) Conclusions: Our results showed that bulimia nervosa is the most frequently diagnoses in Mexican adolescent and the suicide and major depressive disorder are the principal comorbidities. This emphasizes the importance that clinicians take in-to consideration the presence of psychiatric comorbidities to achieve an integrative treatment for patients with ED.

Desert ecosystem occupies an important position in the composition of global biodiversity. The Tarim Basin locates in south Xinjiang of China and has the world 's second largest mobile desert, the Taklamakan Desert. As an endemic species in this region, Phrynocephalus forsythii has been demonstrated with potential high extinction risk to climate change. In order to understand the overall genetic status and provide accordant conservation strategies of the species, we investi-gated the genetic diversity and population structure of P. forsythii from 15 sites in the Tarim Basin using 21 highly polymorphic microsatellite markers. We found significant genetic structure across the study region. We also revealed generally low levels of gene flow between the 25 sites, sug-gesting individual dispersal and migration may be restricted within populations. In addition, geographical distance and ambient temperature might be important factors in explaining the observed genetic structure. Our results will provide scientific basis for the future protection of P. forsythii in this area, as well as an important reference for the conservation and management of biodiversity in desert ecosystems.

Emotional intelligence and educational level are commonly associated with success in life and well-being. While multiple studies have explored these concepts independently, few studies have examined the impact of educational level on emotional intelligence and associated variables, such as well-being. A total of N = 202 participants were recruited online. Participants completed measures of emotional intelligence, well-being (i.e., happiness, self-esteem, personal growth). Overall, participants who previously obtained a bachelor’s degree displayed higher levels of emotional intelligence, happiness, self-esteem, and personal growth compared to those without an undergraduate degree. However, no differences were observed on any variable between individuals currently enrolled in a university and non-students. The results suggest that, while completing a university degree increases emotional intelligence and well-being, the stress of being a student may negatively impact the benefits obtained from attending university. Limitations and possible directions for future research are discussed.

Pedigree data of the Border Collie dog breed was constructed in Hungary, to examine genetic diversity within the breed and between its different lines. The database based on available herd books from the development of the breed (the late 1800s) until now. The constructed pedigree file consisted of 13 339 individuals from which 1567 dogs (born between 2010 and 2016) composed the reference population that are still alive and active from breeding aspect. Since the breed is subdivided by phenotype, the reference population was dissected according to the existing lines. The number of founders was 894 but only 8 individuals were responsible for contributing 50% of the genetic variability. The reference population had a pedigree completeness 99.6% until 15 generations and inbreeding coefficient of 9.86%, respectively. Due to the changing breed standards and the requirements of the potential buyers the effective population size substantially decreased between 2010 and 2016. Generation intervals varied between 4.09 and 4.71 years where the sire paths were longer due to the later ages when males begin their breeding carrier compared to females. Genetic differences among the existing lines calculated by fixation indices are not significant, nonetheless ancestral inbreeding coefficients are able to show the contrasts.

This paper is a review of the current state of IoT-based technologies in the healthcare field for the elderly population. The increasing population of elderly people has led to a greater demand for healthcare services to meet their unique needs. IoT-based technologies have emerged as a promising solution to address this demand. The paper analyses the current trends, challenges, and future opportunities for research in this area. It highlights how IoT-based technologies can be utilized to improve healthcare for older adults, from remote monitoring and telemedicine to fall detection and medication management. The paper also acknowledges that there are still challenges to be addressed, such as data privacy and security, but the potential benefits for older adults outweigh the challenges. The paper also examines the impact of the industrial revolution on the aging population and the corresponding increase in demand for geriatric healthcare. In summary, this paper delves into the current status of IoT-based technologies in geriatric healthcare and its future prospects, with a focus on addressing the needs of the aging population and improving their quality of life.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns about potential environmental factors that could influence the spread and severity of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Atmospheric pollution, particularly particulate matter (PM), has been suggested as a contributing factor to viral infections and respiratory complications. This two-year observational study aimed to investigate the relation between air pollution and the spread of COVID-19, focusing on PM2.5. Unlike previous studies limited to specific cities or countries, inevitable to use temporal data. Our research analyzed data from various states across the United States, considering both spatial and temporal correlation. The analysis considered the number and geographic distribution of COVID-19 cases along with daily PM2.5 exposure levels, accounting for monthly average PM2.5 exposure, from March 2020 to December 2021. The observed conflicting results of the temporal and spatial correlation present challenges for researchers in understanding the true nature of the relationship between PM2.5 air pollution and COVID-19 cases. The correlation between various factors, such as population density, PM2.5, temperature, and wind speed, and COVID-19 refers to an association or statistical relationship, not causation. Moreover, the intricate interplay of these variables makes it difficult to establish a clear cause-and-effect relationship.

Central Asian countries are the core area of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, as part of the former Soviet Union, we know very little about the urbanization processes in these countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Here, were used land-cover type data, vegetation index data, and grided population data to quantify the urban expansion, urban population changes, and urban environment changes across cities in Central Asia from 2000 to 2020, and took Xinjiang, China as a reference. We found that the urbanization in the study area was uneven. Specifically, the urban expansion in Xinjiang, China and Kazakhstan was faster than in the other countries in the study area. Due to rapid urban expansion, the urban population density in Xinjiang, China decreased from 2000 to 2020, but rapid urban population growth was maintained. Consequently, the pressure of the urban population growth in Xinjiang, China was less than that in the other countries of Central Asia. On average, more than 35% of the urban built-up areas underwent significant greening in Xinjiang, China and more than 3.63 million residents directly benefited from the increase in urban greenness. Although the urban greenness in Xinjiang increased significantly, the overall greenness was still lower than in most cities in Central Asia. In the future, the cities in Xinjiang, China should continue to promote the construction of urban ecological civilization and strengthen their role as a link in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Organizational skills are a set of cognitive abilities responsible for goal-directed behaviors. While they are moderately studied in clinical settings, the assessment of organizational skills in the general population remains under-studied. This paper presents the new Durand Organizational Skills Questionnaire (DOSQ), which was developed to examine the factors associated with organizational abilities in the general population. Exploratory factor analysis, validated by a confirmatory factor analysis, suggests eight factors: Work Organization, Communication Clarity, Punctuality, Goal-Oriented Behavior, Assiduity, Workspace Organization, Strategies, and Attentiveness. Three studies using samples from the general population provided evidence for the reliability and validity of the DOSQ’s scores. Overall, the results suggest that the DOSQ offers a valid approach to measuring organizational skills in the general population.

The study presents a mathematical modeling for supporting the premise that our body is composed of blockchain systems. A cell population is considered a space with peer-to-peer communication networks for applying blockchain protocol. Transaction is defined as gene expression that constantly occurs for protein synthesis in each cell. The transaction process proceeds according to the blockchain protocol with sharing and recording the data on the blockchain ledger. The premise comes from the clues of the previous research such that the cell population is a complex structured network system having cell-to-cell connections. Although individual cells exhibit stochastic nonlinear dynamic behavior, cell population shows consensus behavior that reaches to ensemble through interaction among cells. It is inferred that gene expression is not regulated by the corresponding cell only nor determined by external intelligence such as the brain. This is achieved through a consensus through stochastic interactions between cells over the whole cell population. These findings imply that mathematical blockchain modeling is a suitable for gene expression process. The original contribution of the study is a methodology for applying mathematically the blockchain protocol to the real biological gene expression process. In other words, the DNA sequence is converted into a numeral bit sequence that makes it possible to implement the blockchain protocol. A new DNA sequence scheme is proposed with adding methylated cytosine and adenine as the 5th and 6th bases for including epigenetic information which has profound effect on gene expression and regulation. The methodology was applied to the real biological synthesis process of protein samples. The protein is composed of amino acids that are encoded by triplet codons of 216 kinds with 6 base RNA sequence. The gene expression information is traced backward from a synthesized protein sample, amino acids of codons, RNA transcript up to DNA sequence. One of the results is a numeric value in the form of a bit sequence with which mathematical blockchain modeling is applicable. The cryptographic authentication and the consensus process are mathematically proven to work properly by the blockchain protocol. It implies that the same protein is synthesized, but with different epigenetic data, then protein's latent material properties will certainly be different. Although the result has not been justified by the biologic experiment yet, it is sure that the biological hidden algorithm inside DNA sequence will be revealed by the binary bit-logic with physical on/off states which is mathematically proven. The research will greatly contribute to disease treatment and medicine development as well as epigenetics in the future.

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes are the most polymorphic genes in vertebrates, and their proteins play a critical role in adaptive immunity for defense against a variety of pathogens. MHC diversity was lost in many species after experiencing a decline in size. To understand the variation and evolution of MHC genes in the Siberian ibex, Capra sibirica, which has undergone a population decline, we analyzed the variation of the second exon of MHC class II DRB genes in samples collected from five geographic localities in Xinjiang, China, that belong to three diverged mitochondrial clades. Consequently, we identified a total of 26 putative functional alleles (PFAs) with 260 bp in length from 43 individuals, and found one (for 27 individuals) to three (for 5 individuals) PFAs per individual, indicating the presence of one or two DRB loci per haploid genome. The Casi-DRB1*16 was the most frequently occurring PFA, Casi-DRB1*22 came after found in only seven individuals, 14 PFAs occurred once (7 PFAs twice), implying high frequency of rare PFAs. Interestingly, more than half of the (15) PFAs were specific to clade I, only one and three PFAs were specific to clades II and III, respectively. So, we assume that the polygamy and sextual segregation nature of this species likely contributed to the allelic diversity of DRB genes. Genetic diversity indices showed that PFAs of clade II were lower in nucleotide, amino acid, and supertype diversity compared to those of the other two clades. The way of allele sharing and FST values between three clades were to some extent in agreement with pattern observed in mitochondrial DNA divergence. In addition, recombination analyses revealed no evidence for significant signatures of recombination events. Alleles shared by clades III and the other two clades diverged 6 million years ago, and systematic neighbor grids showed cross-species polymorphisms. Together with the PAML and MEME analyses, the results indicated that the DRB gene in C. sibirica evolved under balancing and positive selection. However, by comparison, it can be clearly seen that different populations were under different selective pressures. Our results are valuable in understanding the diversity and evolution of the DRB gene in a mountain living C. sibirica and in making decisions on future long-term protection strategies.

Given several nonnegative matrices with a single pattern of allocation among their zero/nonzero elements, the average matrix should have the same pattern, too. This is the first tenet of the pattern-multiplicative average (PMA) concept, while the second one suggests the multiplicative (or geometric) nature of averaging. The original concept of PMA was motivated by the practice of matrix population models as a tool to assess the population viability from long-term monitoring data. The task has reduced to searching for an approximate solution to an overdetermined system of polynomial equations for unknown elements of the average matrix (G), hence to a nonlinear constrained minimization problem for the matrix norm. Former practical solutions faced certain technical problems, which required sophisticated algorithms but returned acceptable estimates. Fresh idea to use the eigenvalue approximation ensues also from the basic equation of averaging, which determines the exact value of λ1(G), the dominant eigenvalue of matrix G, too, and the corre-sponding eigenvector. These are bound by the well-known linear equations, which reduce the task to a standard problem of linear programing (LP). The LP approach is realized for 13 fixed-pattern matrices gained in a case study of Androsace albana, an alpine short-lived perennial, monitored on permanent plots during 14 years. A standard software routine reveals the unique exact solution, rather than an approximate one, to the PMA problem, which turns the LP approach into ‘’the best of versatile optimization tools”. The exact solution turns out to be peculiar in reaching zero bounds for certain nonnegative entries of G, which deserves a modified problem formulation separating the lower bounds from zero.

Paleogenomics focuses on the recovery, manipulation, and analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) from historical or long-dead organisms to reconstruct and analyze their genomes. The aDNA is commonly obtained from remains found in paleontological and archaeological sites, conserved in museums and in other archival collections. Herbarium collections represent a great source of phenotypic and genotypic information, and their exploitation allowed to infer and to clarify previously unsolved taxonomic and systematic relationships. Moreover, Herbarium specimens offered a new source to study phenological traits in plants and to disentangle biogeography and evolutionary scenarios of species. More recently, advances in the molecular technologies went in parallel with the decreasing costs of the next-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches, that paved the way to the utilization of aDNA for whole-genome studies. Although many studies have been carried out combining modern analytic techniques and Herbarium specimens, this research field is still relatively unexplored, due to the need of improving strategies for aDNA manipulation and exploitation. The higher susceptibility of aDNA to degradation and contamination during the Herbarium conservation and manipulation, and the occurrence of biochemical post-mortem damages, can result in the more challenging reconstruction of the original DNA sequence. Here, we review the methodological approaches that have been developed for the exploitation of historical Herbarium plant materials, such as the best practices for aDNA extraction, amplification and genotyping. We also focus on some strategies to overcome the main problems related to the utilization of Herbarium specimens for their exploitation in plant evolutionary studies.

Crop genetic diversity is most for the long-term sustainable production system. The breeding and production strategies of developing and growing uniform and homogenous varieties have created many different problems. Such populations are static and very sensitive to unpredictable stresses. In Nepal, more than 80% of seed system is informal s which has contributed greatly to creating and maintaining genetic diversity within the field particularly contributing to landrace diversity. This paper aims to assess and present the approaches and advantages of increased crop genetic diversity in the fields. The paper is developed based on experiences of implementing on-farm conservation activities carried out in Nepal since last two decades. Some of the evidences have been derived from on-going evolutionary plant breeding project being implemented in Nepal. The information is supplemented with field assessment, focus group discussion, and literature review. The major approaches to increase crop genetic diversity are evolutionary plant breeding, cultivar mixture, landrace enhancement, informal seed system, bulk method, diversifying the sources, participatory plant breeding, open pollination, etc. EPB and cultivar mixture are very simple and effective approaches to increase crop genetic diversity at field level. The involvement of farmers in these approaches helps to accelerate the population improvement particularly for landraces. The major advantages of increased crop genetic diversity are: seed maintenance by farmers themselves, minimal risk of crop failure, resilience to unpredictable stresses, increased amount of diversified nutrition, production increment each year, ease to produce organically, etc. However, there are some issues and problems associated with mixtures and diverse varieties, for example, not being able to harvest by machine, mature at a different date, difficulty in maintaining seeds and registration, etc. Crop genetic diversity should be considered for a climate-resilient and self-dependent production system. The higher the genetic diversity in farming land, the more chance of getting the multiple benefits in the agriculture system (Vernooy 2022).

In this four-month-long study (from April 1, 2020 to August 1, 2020), we have collected, modeled, and analyzed COVID-19 data from the top five most infected counties per top six most infected states in the United States (30 counties total). More specifically, we collected data on each state’s total COVID-19 cases, deaths, tests conducted, and their counties’ population, density, percentage of seniors, number of hospitals, total COVID-19 cases, and total COVID-19 related deaths. In this study, we have models illustrating the growth of COVID-19 cases and deaths per county, growth of COVID-19 cases and deaths per state (which is really the sum of our chosen five counties), and growth of COVID-19 tests conducted per state. In addition, our study also contains models illustrating the statistics of several variables that might have affected a county’s COVID-19 data, which has been mentioned above: population, density, percentage of seniors, and number of hospitals. An interesting finding we have noticed upon modeling the 30 counties’ density and total COVID-19 cases as an xy scatter plot is that there is a considerably strong relationship between the two variables. Los Angeles County (which was an extreme outlier), in particular, supports the idea that a county’s most populous city can greatly affect its entire county’s COVID-19 cases; if the largest city is extremely dense, it appears that the entire county has a greater total COVID-19 case count.

The population parameters of the ecologically important mud shrimp Upogebia major were analyzed from 2012 to 2015 in tidal flats in Seonjaedo and Jugyo on the West coast of Korea. The shrimp density averaged 265/m2 in Seonjaedo and 118/m2 in Jugyo. The sex ratio varied monthly, often male-biased, but by size, males were significantly dominant, with a carapace length (CL) over 30 mm. Although the shrimp settled almost annually, only a single size-group was observed from 2012 to 2014. The recruitment in Jugyo in 2014 was notably successful, resulting in two cohorts persisting until 2015. Many shrimp were parasitized at varying local rates: 6.0% in Seonjaedo and 37.1% in Jugyo. The growth curves revealed that the shrimp grew annually after settlement, reaching CLs of 11.90, 18.24, and 23.02 mm in Seonjaedo and 13.73, 20.86, and 25.82 mm in Jugyo. Annual mortality was 77.2% in Seonjaedo and 67.4% in Jugyo. The estimated lifespan (tmax) was 10 years in Seonjaedo and 8 years in Jugyo, whereas the 2010 cohort in Jugyo largely disappeared in 5 years. Ovigerous females appeared from November to June and benthic juveniles between June and September. The shrimp’s growth was slower relative to other East Asian populations, likely due to colder sea water temperatures and altered food conditions from a higher shrimp density.

Cooking is a very decentralized and private way of energy consumption in human activities. The existing investigation and statistical analysis can’t effectively calculate the proportion of population relying on clean cooking fuel and utilization technology in the region. Therefore, based on the big data of the earth, this paper adopts the combination of spatial analysis and statistical analysis to determine the survey sample area, and according to the economic conditions, topographic characteristics, national policies for new energy construction and living habits of the provinces and cities under investigation, the questionnaire survey is conducted for the research area to calculate the proportion of the regional population relying on clean cooking fuels and utilization technologies. Taking the south of the Yangtze River in China as an example, the paper effectively calculates that 88.25% of the population depends on clean cooking fuel and technology in this region, of which 89.81% are in urban areas and 79.87% are in rural areas. Analysis of the survey data shows that the proportion of the population using clean cooking fuels and technologies is related to factors such as economic development, income and resource endowment. There is a large urban–rural gap in terms of energy consumption tendency and structure in the south of the Yangtze River in China and cooking energy consumption in rural households also varies from region to region. The technical ideas and conclusions of the paper have high reference application value, which can help promote the upgrading of clean energy utilization and provide data basis for relevant decision and policy making.

In the Republic of Moldova, nearly 90% of all deaths are due to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), tha majority of which (58%) are caused by cardiovascular disease (CVD). Excess salt (sodium) and inadequate potassium intakes are associated with high CVD. Moreover, salt iodisation is the preferred policy to prevent iodine deficiency and associated disorders. However, there is no survey that has directly measured sodium, potassium and iodine consumption in adults in the Republic of Moldova. The aim is to estimate population sodium, potassium and iodine intakes and explore knowledge, attitudes and behaviour (KAB) towards the use of salt, amongst the adult population in the Republic of Moldova. Proportional random samples of adults were obtained from 28 of the 37 Districts and Municipalities and one Administrative Territorial Unit of Moldova. Participants attended a screening including demographic, anthropometric and physical measurements. Dietary sodium, potassium and iodine intakes were assessed by 24h urinary sodium (UNa), potassium (UK) and iodine (UI) excretions. Creatinine was measured. KAB was collected by questionnaire. Eight hundred and fifty-eight participants (326 men and 532 women, 18–69 years) were included in the analysis (response rate 66%). Mean age was 48.5 yrs (SD 13.8). Mean UNa was 172.7 (79.3) mmoL/day, equivalent to 10.8 g of salt/day and potassium excretion 72.7 (31.5) mmoL/day, equivalent to 3.26 g/day. Men ate more sodium and potassium than women. Only 11.3% of the sample had a salt intake below the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended target of 5 g/day and approximately 39% met WHO targets for potassium excretion (>90 mmoL/day). Whilst 81.7% declared limiting their consumption of processed food and over 70% declared not adding salt at the table, only 8.8% looked at sodium content of food, 31% still added salt when cooking and less than 1% took other measures to control salt consumption. Measures of awareness were significantly more common in urban compared to rural areas. Mean urinary iodine was 225 (SD: 152; median 196) mcg/24h, with no difference between sexes. According to WHO criteria, 41.0% had adequate iodine intake, 28.6% had intake below requirements and 17.8% and 12.6% had above requirement or excessive levels, respectively. Iodine content of salt table was 21.0 (SD: 18.6) mg/kg, with no difference between men and women. However, the content was lower in rural than urban areas (16.7 [SD: 18.6] vs 28.1 [SD: 16.5] mg/kg, p<0.001). There were weak or no correlations between urinary sodium and iodine excretions, and between urinary iodine excretion and iodine concentration in the table salt used in the participants’ households, indicating that in most cases participants were not using iodised salt as their main source of salt, more so in rural areas. In the Republic of Moldova, salt consumption is unequivocally high, potassium consumption is lower than recommended, both in men and in women, whilst iodine intake is still inadequate in 1 in 3 people, although severe iodine deficiency is rare. Salt consumed is often not iodised, with less iodised salt being used in rural areas.

Background Although aminoglycosides are often used as treatment for Gram-Negative infections, optimal dosing regimens remains unclear, especially in ICU patients. This is due to a large between- and within-subject variability in the aminoglycosides’ pharmacokinetics in this population. Objective The review provides comprehensive data on the pharmacokinetics of aminoglycosides in patients hospitalized in ICU by summarizing all published PopPK models in ICU patients for amikacin, gentamicin, and tobramycin. The objective was to determine the presence of a consensus on the structural model used, significant covariates included, and therapeutic targets considered during dosing regimen simulations. Methods A literature search was conducted from the Medline/PubMed database, using the terms: ‘amikacin’, ’gentamicin’, ’tobramycin’, ‘pharmacokinetic(s)’, nonlinear mixed effect’, population’, ‘intensive care’ and ‘critically ill’. Results Nineteen articles were retained where amikacin, gentamicin and tobramycin pharmacokinetics were described in six, eleven and five models, respectively. Two-compartment model best described amikacin and tobramycin pharmacokinetics, whereas one-compartment model majorly described gentamicin pharmacokinetics. The most recurrent significant covariates were renal clearance and bodyweight. Across all aminoglycosides, mean interindividual variability in clearance and volume of distribution were 41.6% and 22.0%, respectively. A common consensus for an optimal dosing regimen for each aminoglycoside was not reached. Conclusion This review showed models developed for amikacin, from 2015 until now and for gentamicin and tobramycin from the past decades. Despite growing challenges of external evaluation, the latter should be more considered during model development. Further research including new covariates, additional simulated dosing regimens and external validation should be considered to better understand aminoglycosides pharmacokinetics in ICU patients.

Abstract: (1) Background: We hypothesized measuring the extent of brain overwork can extrapolate the burden of mental distress. This study aimed to develop a scale that measures mental distress and validate it in the general population. (2) Methods: In this population-based cross-sectional study, we recruited a total of 739 adults aged 16-65 years from 64 sampling centers of a clinical cohort across Mongolia to validate a 10-item self-report questionnaire. Internal consistency was measured using the McDonald’s ω. Test-retest reliability was analyzed using intraclass correlation coefficients. Construct and convergent validities were examined using the principal component analysis (PCA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the abbreviated version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) were used to evaluate the criterion validity. (3) Results: Among the participants, 70.9% were women, 22% held a bachelor's degree or higher, 38.8% were employed, and 66% were married. The overall McDonald’s ω coefficient was 0.861 demonstrating evidence of excellent internal consistency. The total intraclass correlation coefficient of the test-retest analysis was 0.75, indicating moderate external reliability. PCA and CFA established a three-domain structure that provided an excellent fit to the data (RMSEA=0.033, TLI=0.984, CFI=0.989, χ2=58, p=0.003). This 10-item scale, the Brain Overwork Scale (BOS-10), determines mental distress in three dimensions: Excessive Thinking, Hypersensitivity, and Restless Behavior. All items had higher item-total correlations with their corresponding domain than the other domains, and correlations between the domain scores ranged from 0.547–0.615. The BOS-10 correlated with the HADS, whereas it was inversely correlated with the WHOQOL-BREF. (4) Conclusions: The results suggest that the BOS-10 is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing mental distress in the general population. The current findings also demonstrate that the BOS-10 is quantitative, simple, and applicable for large-group testing.

Thoracotomy is one of the most painful types of incision a patient can experience. Pain is a very complex pathophysiological entity. Neuronal pathophysiological mechanisms are integrated with the immunological response, which amplify inflammation and pain. Prolonged inflammation induces a pathological response of the immune-system and constantly stimulate the nociceptive pathways generating chronic pain. The mechanisms are particularly altered in lymphomas, where pain following chest surgery often becomes chronic and reduces the quality of life. In this study 51 elderly patients who had undergone a transthoracic biopsy to verify the suspect of mediastinal lymphoma were examined for pain reduction with oral opioids, effect of epidural analgesia and paravertebral block. Subsequently, patients underwent tensed torsion exercises, progressively intensified. After the first few days, patients walked progressively for 20 minutes a day. Once discharged a program of patients started aerobic exercises to increase muscle endurance and to strengthen the extensor muscles of the legs and of the upper limbs. The systemic administration of opioids is the simplest and most common method of providing analgesia for postoperative pain, but early mobilization, respiratory rehabilitation, and muscle toning exercises are excellent support devices both for physical and psychological recovery.

When we discuss migration and compare national trends, the topic most commonly centers on undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers. However, there is also considerable variation in internal migration patterns, with differences found between and within nations. Many factors shape whether, why, and where people relocate. Over the last few decades, the world's two largest economies - the United States and China - have seen domestic migration changes happening in opposite directions. China has become increasingly mobile and experienced urbanization. In contrast, the U.S. has seen a steady decline in the rate at which its population relocates, with cities experiencing net migration losses as citizens leave for suburbs. This paper examines these trends using data from the last decade to compare the two nations in areas of internal migration, urbanization, housing, social mobility, and economic growth.

This review paper is intended to exhibit the interplays between environmental change and rapid population growth in developing countries. In the course of discussion, the impacts of rapidly population growing on the environment have been discussed, and evidence, from various parts of the world have been traced. Studies on the impacts of population pressure on environment have been critically reviewed. It is revealed that all across the developing countries, farm size is shrinking as farmers continue to subdivide holdings among their children. In countries such as Malawi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Haiti, Nepal and Bangladesh, population growth rates are high, and the non-farm sector is still in its early stages of development. Demographic pressure, land scarcity, and land fragmentation drive greater rural vulnerability and poverty, marked by decreased food security, inadequate response to such natural disasters such as drought or pest infestations, weakened resilience to shocks, and poor health. It is not just the supply of food, fodder, and fuel wood but the resource base itself and the lives that depend upon it are being affected. The evidences pinpoints that man through his non-sustainable production and consumption patterns, is placed at the heart of environmental changes. However, contradictory view, and practices are also in place that the population growth has positive impacts environmental restoration and improvements, while other evidences show insignificant effect of population on the environment. This contradicting scenario puts scholars in argument, and still need further research. Hence, it would be a blind generalization to draw conclusion from this relationship alone, rather, another factor that acts beyond population pressure must also be considered to justify the impact of population on environmental changes.

Inland capture fisheries play a critical role in supporting food security and livelihoods in West Africa. Therefore, it is important to evaluate genetic health of exploited fish populations. The African bonytongue, Heterotis niloticus, supports important commercial and subsistence fisheries in West Africa. Sharp declines of stocks have been reported, however. Herein, we estimate contemporary effective population sizes (Ne) of four Heterotis populations in Nigeria, three in Benin, and five in Cameroon using the Linkage Disequilibrium method with correction for age structure. Ne estimates were used to assess genetic short-term (i.e., inbreeding depression) and long-term (i.e., loss of evolutionary potential) risks. Analyses failed to obtain Ne point estimates for two populations. For the remaining ten populations, corrected Ne point estimates fell well below 500, the minimum recommended for populations to retain evolutionary potential; with eight populations below 100 (range 2.8–83.5), the minimum recommended to avoid inbreeding depression, one borderline (100–125), and one above this threshold (312–392). The lower 95% confidence interval bound of Ne for eleven populations was very small (0.7–14.6), and for the remaining population it was 44.2. Accordingly, all populations examined can be considered potentially at risk of inbreeding depression.

We used population reconstruction techniques to assess for the first time the population dynamics of a seagrass, Cymodocea nodosa, exposed to long-term elevated CO₂ near three volcanic seeps and compare them with reference sites away from the seeps. Under high CO₂, the density of shoots and of individuals (apical shoots), and the vertical and horizontal elongation and production rates, were higher. Nitrogen effects on rhizome elongation and production rates and on biomass, were stronger than CO₂ as these were highest at the location where the availability of nitrogen was highest. At the seep where the availability of CO₂ was highest and nitrogen lowest, density of shoots and individuals were highest, probably due to CO₂ effects on shoot differentiation and induced reproductive output, respectively. In all three seeps there was higher short- and long-term recruitment and growth rates around zero, indicating that elevated CO₂ increases the turnover of C. nodosa shoots.

Population is the main driver of land systems and environmental change. However, the population is usually treated as a variable that only considers the population number, and the multidimensional population structure is largely ignored. There has been a systematic transition of population structure in the past several decades, such as the changing household structure, the increasing aging population and divorce rate, and human migration. All these have direct or indirect impacts on land use and environmental issues. Here, we will take China as an example to examine the relationship between household dynamics and land use change in China by exam-ining changes in household structure and land use change in China between 1980 and 2020. The results show:1) the number of households increased by 130.95% from 1980 to 2020, while the population only increased by 42.83%. The size of households decreased from 4.41 to 2.92 in China from 1982 to 2020. The household dynamics vary from province to province, which is affected by urbanization rate and economic development. 2) Birth rates, divorce rates, population aging, and migration all affect household structure, which directly or indirectly affects changes in land use systems. 3) The changes in China's land use are interlinked and interact with changes in household structure, evident in the increase in residential land use and the abandonment of arable land. The rising household number increased the area of urban and rural settlement, leading to the fragmentation of cultivated land and the reduction of ecological land. To regulate land use change for sustainable development, future land use planning should take into effect of household dynamics, and reduce the negative effects of household dynamics on land systems and environmental change.

The Ponto-Caspian region is the main donor of invasive amphipods to freshwater ecosystems, with at least 13 species successfully established in European inland waters. Dikerogammarus spp. and Pontogammarus robustoides are among the most successful, due to their strong invasive impact on local biota. However, genomic knowledge on these invaders is scarce, while phylogeography and population genetics have been based on short fragments of mitochondrial markers or nuclear mi-crosatellites. In this study, we provide: (i) reconstruction of four mitogenomes for four invasive gammarids; (ii) comparison between the structure of the newly obtained mitogenomes and to those from literature; (iii) SNP calling rates for individual D. villosus and D. haemobaphes from different invasion sites across Europe; and (iv) the first time-calibrated full mitogenome reconstruction of several Ponto-Caspian taxa. We have sequenced, assembled and annotated four mitogenomes, each from D. villosus, D. hae-mobaphes, D. bispinosus and Pontogammarus robustoides. We found that, in comparison to other gammarids, the mitogenomes of Ponto-Caspian species show a translocation between the tRNA-E and tRNA-R positions. Phylogenetic reconstruction using the mitogenomes identified that Ponto-Caspian gammarids form a well-supported group that originated in the Miocene. Our study supports paraphyly in the family Gammaridae. These mitogenomes serve as vital genetic resources for the development of new markers for PCR-based identification methods and demographic studies.

Mosquitoes carrying endosymbiotic bacteria called Wolbachia are being released in mosquito and arbovirus control programs around the world. Open field releases of Wolbachia-infected male mosquitoes have achieved over 95% population suppression, while the replacement of populations with Wolbachia-infected females is self-sustaining and can greatly reduce local dengue transmission. Despite many successful interventions, significant questions and challenges lie ahead. Wolbachia, viruses and their mosquito hosts can evolve, leading to uncertainty around the long-term effectiveness of a given Wolbachia strain, while few ecological impacts of Wolbachia releases have been explored. Wolbachia strains are diverse and the choice of strain to release should be made carefully, taking environmental conditions and the release objective into account. Mosquito quality control, thoughtful community awareness programs and long-term monitoring of populations are essential for all types of Wolbachia intervention. Releases of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes show great promise, but existing control measures remain an important way to reduce the burden of mosquito-borne disease.

Background and Objectives: Treatment for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis (AAV) must deal with immunosuppression as well as infections associated with compromised immune system, such as tuberculosis (TB). Our aim was to overcome the gap in the literature concerning the risk of incidental TB after diagnosis of AAV. Materials and Methods: This retrospective population-based cohort study was based on the data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. We used a novel algorithm to identify patients with newly diagnosed granulomatous polyangiitis (GPA) or microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2012. The primary outcome was risk of incidental TB. Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the association between AAV and incidental TB. Results: A total of 2,257 patients with AAV and a propensity-score matched cohort of 9,028 patients were studied. Overall, patients with AAV were at a 1.48x higher risk of contracting incidental TB than were patients in the matched cohort (adjusted HR 1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-2.15). Note that the highest risk of contracting incidental TB was in the first two years following a diagnosis of AAV, with a nearly 1-fold increase in risk (adjusted HR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.01-3.60). Female AAV patients were 3.24x more likely than females without AAV to develop TB (adjusted HR 3.24; 95%CI, 1.85-5.67). Conclusion: Patients with AAV face an elevated risk of contracting incidental TB, particularly within the first two years after AAV diagnosis. The risk of contracting TB is higher among female AAV patients than among females without AAV.

Capirona (Calycophyllum spruceanum Benth) is a tree species of commercial importance widely distributed in South American forests and is traditionally used for its medicinal properties and wood quality. Studies on this tree species have been focused mainly on wood properties, propagation and growth. Genetic studies on capirona are very limited to date. Today it is possible to explore genetic diversity and population structure in a fast and reliable manner by using molecular markers. We here used 10 Random Amplified Polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs) markers to analyze genetic diversity and population structure of 59 samples of capirona that were sampled from four provinces located in the eastern region of the Peruvian amazon. A total of 186 bands were manually scored, generating a 59 x 186 presence/absence matrix. We used R software to calculate genetic distances based on provesti coefficient. A dendrogram was generated using the UPGMA clustering algorithm and showed four groups that correspond to the geographic origin of the capirona samples. Similarly, a discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) confirmed that capirona is grouped into four clusters. However, we also noticed few accessions are intermingled. Genetic diversity estimation was conducted considering the four groups (populations) identified by adegenet package in R. Nei's genetic diversity estimate varied from 0.26 to 0.39 and Shannon index ranged from 2.48 to 2.83. AMOVA analysis revealed the greatest variation exist within populations (69.7%) and indicated that variability among populations is 31.5%. To our best knowledge, this is the first investigation employing molecular markers in capirona in Peru considering their natural distribution, and sheds light towards its modern genetic improvement and for the sustainable management of forests in Peru.

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.

Maintaining an adequate micronutrient status can be achieved by following a complete, diverse diet. Yet, food trends in Western countries show suboptimal consumption of healthy nutrients. In this study we explored the prevalence of vitamin and mineral imbalances in a general population cohort of Dutch adults, and evaluated the effect of a digital lifestyle program on the nutritional status and nutrition health behaviors of these individuals. A micronutrient panel was measured in 348 participants, alongside a dietary assessment. One-hundred users subsequently underwent a remeasurement. We identified at least one nutritional imbalance in 301 individuals (86.5%). 80% improved and normalized B6, 67% improved folate, 70% improved B12, and 86% improved vitamin D. Iron abnormalities were corrected in 75% of participants. In conclusion, this study found micronutrient deficiencies of easily obtainable vitamins through diet or supplementation such as B vitamins and vitamin D were more prevalent than expected in a Dutch population. This can partly be explained by an insufficient consumption of food groups rich in B vita-mins. Our preliminary results in those remeasured after a digitally-enabled lifestyle intervention show these imbalances can be corrected with adequate behavioral support in a “food as medicine” approach complemented with supplementation where needed.

In the present study we introduce a deterministic mathematical model in order to study the interaction between the human immune system and a virus, like COVID 19. The mathematical analysis is based on the tools of dynamical systems theory, by modeling the interactions between the immune system and the virus, using a predator-prey method and following the ideas of G. Moza, from \cite{TGV}. It will be obtained some conclusions with medical relevance and the main three of them are the followings: 1) A deficiency of a single type of immunity in the early stages of virus proliferation, may lead to a large virus multiplication and the human body can loses the fight against this virus; 2) If the level of all components of the immunity system are at the normal threshold from the first moment of the infection and the immune system kill the virus at higher rate than the rate of virus reproduction, then the human body has the ability to stop the multiplication of the virus and liquidate it, that means the virus will be destroyed; 3) If the level of at least one type of immunity can be increased beyond the normal threshold, by medical interventions (like vaccination) in the early stages of virus infection, then the immune system has a better chance to win the fight with the virus.

The Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) produces new global spatial information, evidence-based analytics and knowledge describing the human presence on the planet based mainly on two quantitative factors: i) the spatial distribution (density) of built-up structures and ii) the spatial distribution (density) of resident people. Both factors are observed in the long-term temporal domain and per uniform surface units in order to support trends and indicators for monitoring the implementation of international framework agreements. The GHSL uses various input data including global, multi-temporal archives of fine-scale satellite imagery, census data, and volunteered geographic information. In this paper, we present the characteristics of GHSL information to demonstrate how original frameworks of data and tools rooted on Earth Observation could support Sustainable Development Goals monitoring. In particular, we demonstrate the reach of gridded, open and free, local yet globally consistent, multi-temporal data in filling the data gap for the Sustainable Development Goal 11. Our experiments produce a global estimate for the Land Use Efficiency indicator (SDG 11.3.1) for 10,000 urban centers, calculating the ratio of land consumption to population growth rate that took place between 1990 and 2015. The results of our research demonstrate that there is a potential to lift SDG 11.3.1 from a tier 2 as GHSL provides a global baseline for the essential variables called by the SDG 11.3.1 metadata.

(1) Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, eating and physical activity behaviours, in a University population. A healthy diet such as the Mediterranean Diet (MD) pattern, rich in fruit and vegetables can prevent degenerative diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, etc. (2) Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study, data were collected by an anonymous online questionnaire. Participants completed a survey consisting of 3 sections: sociodemographic data; dietary and physical activity behaviour; questionnaire of the Mediterranean Diet (MEDAS-14) and the emotional eater questionnaire Garaulet (EEQ). (3) Results: A total of 168 participants completed the questionnaire 66.7% women, from Spain 79.2%, 76.8% students, living in family home 76.2% and in normal weight 66.1% . Our population did the grocery 1 or less per week (76.8%); decreased or stay the same the consumption of fruits (57.1%), vegetables (58.9%), dairy products (74.4%), pulses (73.2%), fish/seafood (76.8%), white meat (83.3%), red and processed meat (91.1%), snacks (78.6%), rice/pasta/potatoes (78.6%), nuts (83.9%), low alcohol drinks (89.3%), spirits (98.8%) and sugary drinks (91.7%) . Increased cooking time (73.2%) and decreased or stay the same their physical activity (63.7%). University Employees increased more weight (1.01±0.02) than students (0.99±0.03) (p<0.05). 79.8% of the participant obtained a Medium/High Adherence to the MD. Emotional and very emotional eaters were higher in women group (p<0.01). (4) Conclusions: In the event of further confinement, strategies should be implemented to promote a balanced and healthy diet together with the practice of physical activity, taking special care of the group of women and University Employees.

Until 2021, in the Kyrgyz Republic, tuberculosis(TB) was diagnosed and treated only in the public sector. With funding support of the STOP-TB partnership, the private providers in four regions of the country and Bishkek city were mapped, trained and incentivized to screen for, identify presumptive TB patients, and refer them to the public facilities for diagnosis and treatment. In this study, we describe the cascade of care of such patients. This was a cohort study involving secondary analysis of routine data. Of 79,352 patients screened during February 2021-March 2022, 2,511(3%) had presumptive TB, of whom, 903(36%) were not tested for TB [pre-diagnostic loss-to-follow-up]. A total of 323(13%) patients were diagnosed as TB, of whom, 42(13%) were not started on treatment [pre-treatment loss-to-follow-up]. Among 257 patients eligible for outcome assessment, 197(77%) had treatment success, 29(11%) were lost-to-follow-up, 13(5%) died, 4(2%) had treatment failure and 14(5%) were not evaluated. While this donor-funded, pioneering initiative was successful in engaging the private sector, we recommend the national TB programme to scale-up the initiative nationally with dedicated budgets, activities and plans to monitor the progress. Qualitative research is urgently needed to understand the reasons for the gaps in the care cascade.