Search Results (2,658)

In large-scale, multi-national research projects on agricultural cropping systems such as SoilCare (Horizon 2020), ensuring consistency, comparability, and timely reporting of the (meta)data of the agricultural experiments across diverse partners has been a persistent challenge. To address these concerns, the SoilCare project developed a comprehensive data management system centered around a standardized template for the collection, organization, and sharing of experimental data and metadata from cropping systems. This template, designed to support harmonized sharing, analysis, and documentation through a common structure and terminology, meets the interdisciplinary requirements of modern agricultural research. Experimental data and metadata were structured into five core pools: 1. basic information, 2. field information, 3. experimental setup, 4. agricultural management data and 5. measured data/results. The Excel-based template was carefully structured to support integration into a relational database, enabling robust monitoring, analysis, and traceability of experimental processes and outcomes. The database schema and template, together with the (meta)data collected using this system during the SoilCare projects, were made openly available via Zenodo. The standardized approach ultimately enabled unified analyses and harmonized reporting across all experimental sites, demonstrating the system’s effectiveness in facilitating collaborative agricultural research at scale. Full article

This research explores the resilience of highly educated individuals in Greece to mis- and disinformation, focusing on their news engagement and information verification practices. Despite high levels of awareness and concern about disinformation, the study found that participants exhibited varying levels of news consumption, with only about 57% visiting news websites daily, and a significant portion relying on social media for exposure to false information. The research highlights the gap between participants’ interest in news and their actual engagement with reliable news sources. The results suggest that individuals with higher education may not be immune to disinformation, often underestimating their vulnerability. Notably, the frequency of news consumption was negatively correlated with the use of rigorous fact-checking methods. Moreover, psychological and social factors, such as the desire for social validation and the importance of content, strongly influenced sharing behavior. The study recommends that media literacy campaigns (MLCs) and overall media literacy education (MLE) for this group should address these cognitive biases and social dynamics, emphasizing critical thinking, the use of multiple sources, and the importance of external fact-checking tools. Full article

Background/Objectives: Chronic ulcers represent a major public health concern, being associated with substantial morbidity, impaired quality of life, and significant costs to healthcare systems. Against the backdrop of an aging population and increasing prevalence of chronic comorbid conditions, this study aimed to profile hospitalized patients with chronic ulcers in Romania and to examine their differential patterns of healthcare resource utilization. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the national administrative hospitalization database between 2017 and 2022, including adult patients with at least two admissions coded with a primary diagnosis of chronic ulcer. Sociodemographic, clinical, and healthcare utilization indicators were extracted, standardized, and analyzed using the K-means clustering algorithm to derive utilization-based phenotypes. Results: Two distinct patient clusters were identified: the first comprised predominantly elderly patients with multiple comorbidities, prolonged hospitalizations, and frequent readmissions, representing a high-burden profile; the second included relatively younger patients with fewer comorbidities, shorter hospital stays, and lower readmission rates, reflecting a more stable clinical profile. The high-burden cluster accounted for a disproportionate share of inpatient resource consumption, underscoring its impact on the healthcare system. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of early identification of potential high-burden patients, enabling the implementation of personalized care strategies and more efficient allocation of hospital resources, with the potential to improve health outcomes and support healthcare system sustainability. Full article

Proteus mirabilis is a major uropathogen with growing concern over its presence in animal products and the associated zoonotic transmission risks. As a gut commensal in both humans and animals, it is increasingly detected in wild, farm, and companion animals, as well as in animal-derived foods and related environments. This review summarizes current evidence on its distribution across these sources and explores potential transmission routes to humans. Special attention is given to reported genomic similarities and shared antibiotic resistance patterns between animal and human isolates. The role of P. mirabilis in exacerbating intestinal inflammation further highlights its relevance beyond urinary infections. By revealing the epidemiology, pathogenic traits, and resistance profiles of animal-associated isolates, this review underscores the zoonotic potential of P. mirabilis and emphasizes the need for enhanced surveillance and research from a One Health perspective. Full article

Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange (1997) and Paul Beatty’s The White Boy Shuffle (1996) evoke the act of listening to music as a way to dismantle stereotypical representations of urban resistance and to paint a diverse picture of how communities throughout Los Angeles were impacted by unrest in 1992. From Yamashita’s Buzzworm, a character always tuned into the radio, to Beatty’s Nicholas Scoby, the protagonist’s best friend who is on a mission to listen to every jazz song ever made, these writers render secondary characters who are most concerned with the consumption of music and the act of listening as a form of culture sharing. In fact, these characters utilize portable devices, particularly the Walkman, to bring personal music and media consumption into public spaces. In this paper, I argue that characters like Buzzworm and Scoby facilitate the creation of specific sonic textures that allow authors to break down artificial barriers of racial representation in the aftermath of urban unrest. These writers highlight the act of listening in order to limn the cross-cultural impact that the 1992 unrest had throughout the Southern California region. Full article

Background/Objectives: Meningococcal disease (MD) remains a significant public health concern worldwide. In Serbia, mandatory immunization against MD with the meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine (MenAC) for high-risk groups and international travelers was introduced in 2006. Since 2017, the polysaccharide vaccine has been replaced with the quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACWY). The aim of this study was to analyze long-term trends in incidence, age-specific patterns, seasonality, and lethality of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (AP Vojvodina), Serbia, over a 28-year period. Methods: A descriptive study analyzed all reported cases of IMD in AP Vojvodina, from 1997 to 2024. Data were obtained from the regional communicable disease surveillance system, based on mandatory hospital reporting and case classification according to national and WHO guidelines. Temporal, demographic, and clinical characteristics, along with disease outcomes, were analyzed. Results: From 1997 to 2024, 175 IMD cases were reported in AP Vojvodina. The annual incidence peaked in 1997 (1.24/100,000), with smaller surges in 2003 and 2005. Since 2006, coinciding with the introduction of immunization against MD, a sustained decline has been observed, with incidence rarely exceeding 0.30/100,000. A slight resurgence occurred in 2023–2024, with 13 cases reported. From 1997 to 2024, IMD in AP Vojvodina exhibited a clear seasonal pattern, with most cases occurring in winter and early spring, peaking in January (17%), March (12%), and February (11%), and the fewest cases occuring in the summer months. Throughout the study period, the highest IMD incidence rates were consistently observed among infants <1 year of age and children aged 1–4 years, with peaks of up to 22.9/100,000 and 16.0/100,000, respectively. Incidence was much lower in older age groups, especially adults. After a 2006 peak, rates declined across all ages, with a slight resurgence in 2023–2024 among children and adolescents. Children aged 1–4 years made up the largest share of IMD cases, peaking in January–March (45.1%). Half of the infant cases were recorded in October–November, while cases in older children, adolescents, and adults were fewer and showed varied monthly patterns, with small peaks in winter and early spring. During the 28-year study period, the highest IMD mortality rate was observed among infants <1 year of age (0.59 per 100,000 population), followed by children aged 1–4 years (0.32 per 100,000). Mortality rates declined progressively with increasing age, with the lowest rate recorded among individuals aged ≥40 years (0.01 per 100,000). Of the 175 IMD cases reported in AP Vojvodina (1997–2024), 21 were fatal (case fatality rate [CFR] = 12.0%). The CFR of IMD varied across age groups. The highest CFR was observed among individuals aged ≥40 years (21.4%), followed by the 5–9 years (17.4%) and <1 year (16.7%) age groups. None of the patients had been vaccinated against MD. Fatal outcomes were more common in children aged 1–4 years and among rural residents, though differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Most deaths (57.1%) occurred in the first quarter of the year. A strong association was found between clinical form and outcome, with meningococcal sepsis being significantly more frequently associated with fatality than meningitis (p = 0.0002). Deaths were sporadic over time, with most occurring within 1–2 days of notification. All confirmed fatal cases were due to serogroup B. Conclusions: MD remains a rare yet serious public health threat in AP Vojvodina. Mortality rates indicate that the public health impact of this disease is greatest among the youngest age groups; however, the risk of death, i.e., disease severity, does not appear to be age dependent. The recent rise in cases, high fatality among sepsis patients, and absence of prior vaccination among all IMD cases highlight the need for enhanced surveillance, physician education, and consideration of introducing both MenACWY and MenB vaccines for high-risk groups. Full article

Sarcopenia, a progressive loss of muscle mass and strength, is a major health concern primarily affecting older adults worldwide. With no pharmaceutical cure for sarcopenia, dietary protein, probiotic supplementation, and physical exercise have gained increasing attention as lifestyle-based interventions. Dietary protein has shown promising effects in preventing the loss of skeletal muscle and physical strength by favorably influencing muscle protein synthesis in sarcopenic individuals. Probiotic supplementation has been associated with muscle regeneration, increased muscle protein synthesis among adults with sarcopenia, and improved exercise performance based on preliminary and emerging evidence. Multimodal or hybrid exercise programs have been shown to improve muscle strength, mobility, and overall physical function in individuals with sarcopenia. This paper reviews how combining protein, probiotics, and multimodal exercise may offer complementary strategies for sarcopenia management. Evidence from preclinical and mechanistic studies suggests that these interventions may support muscle health by activating shared intracellular pathways such as mTOR signaling, the suppression of FOXO3a, and the enhancement of mitochondrial biogenesis. Full article

The escalating frequency of natural disasters and political conflicts has heightened focus on industrial supply chain resilience and security, making corporate supply chain resilience enhancement a critical global concern. Data, as a novel production factor, presents an effective pathway to fortify supply chain resilience. This paper investigates data factor marketisation by constructing a theoretical framework linking it with manufacturing enterprise supply chain resilience. Using China’s Big Data Comprehensive Experimental Zone establishment as a quasi-natural experiment, we analyzed data from Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms spanning 2003–2023 to empirically validate our theoretical analysis. Our findings reveal that data factor marketisation significantly enhances manufacturing enterprise supply chain resilience, as confirmed using rigorous robustness checks. Mechanism analysis demonstrates that data factor marketisation improves resilience by reducing information asymmetries, boosting management efficiency, mitigating supply chain reliance, and enhancing supply chain financing. Heterogeneity analysis indicates stronger positive impacts in non-state-owned enterprises, smaller firms, companies with advanced data capabilities, non-digital-intensive businesses, enterprises with substantial supply chain funding needs, and those in regions with strong rule of law. Further analysis shows that improved employment, financing, innovation, and communication environments amplify the positive relationship between data factor marketisation and supply chain resilience. This study provides crucial insights for policy makers seeking to leverage data marketisation for industrial resilience enhancement and offers strategic guidance for enterprises navigating an increasingly uncertain global supply chain environment. Full article

This study considers consumers’ risk perceptions and safety preferences as external shock factors in food safety incidents. These factors are incorporated into a general equilibrium model defined by the food safety hierarchy, and the computational experiment method is employed to examine the direction of spillover effects. According to the findings, the spillover direction and intensity of food safety incidents are jointly influenced by the characteristics of consumers, food and the market. When an incident raises consumers’ safety concerns, a negative effect occurs throughout all food sectors. When an incident has a specific impact on consumers’ risk perception, the direction of the spillover is contingent upon the safety level of the product in question. In the event that the food involved in an incident is extremely secure, it may have a detrimental effect on unrelated food goods; conversely, it may have a beneficial effect on unrelated food goods. The incident’s impact has increased in proportion to the market share of the affected food. When the market share remains constant, the impact intensity increases as the degree of food safety improves. Higher market-wide risk levels are associated with more pronounced and quicker effects. This study improves understanding of spillover patterns in food safety situations, which aids in the formulation of focused policy responses and initiatives. Full article

This study explores the application of federated learning (FL) in security camera surveillance systems to overcome the structural limitations inherent in traditional centralized artificial intelligence (AI) training approaches, while simultaneously enhancing operational efficiency and data security. Conventional centralized AI models require the transmission of raw surveillance data from individual security camera units to a central server for model training, which poses significant challenges, including network congestion, a heightened risk of personal data leakage, and inadequate adaptation to localized environmental characteristics. These limitations are particularly critical in high-security environments such as military bases and government facilities, where reliability and real-time processing are paramount. In contrast, FL enables decentralized training by retaining data on local devices and sharing only model parameters with a central aggregator, thereby improving privacy preservation, reducing communication overhead, and facilitating adaptive, context-aware learning. This paper does not present a new federated learning algorithm or original experiment. Instead, it synthesizes existing research findings and applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to evaluate and prioritize critical factors for deploying FL in surveillance systems. By combining literature-based evidence with structured expert judgment, this study provides practical guidelines for real-world application. This paper identifies four key performance metrics—detection accuracy, false alarm rate, response time, and network load—and conducts a comparative analysis of FL and centralized AI-based approaches in the recent literature. In addition, the AHP is employed to evaluate expert survey data, quantitatively prioritizing eight critical factors for effective FL implementation. The results highlight detection accuracy and data security as the most significant concerns, indicating that FL presents a promising solution for future smart surveillance infrastructures. This research contributes to the advancement of AI-powered surveillance systems that are both high-performing and resilient under stringent privacy and operational constraints. Full article

Barriers to cancer care, including transportation and Internet insecurity, are of special concern in low-resource communities. A patient-centered, telehealth-based, barrier-focused lay navigator program may mitigate such barriers. We share insights from a quality improvement project wherein we developed and delivered a lay navigator program in a low-resource community in the Mojave Desert. We identified 68 patients scheduled for lung cancer detection/management at our institution, 55 of whom completed a barrier assessment, enrolled in the program, and could be evaluated. Participants were predominantly older (76%), White (84%), had a cancer diagnosis at enrollment (69%), and lived in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Thirty-three (60%) patients had ≥1 barrier, the most common being transportation (31%), Internet (24%), and financial (24%) concerns. These barriers were more frequent among patients with a lung cancer diagnosis at enrollment. Crisis-focused and after-hours encounters were more frequently initiated by older and advanced cancer patients. Transportation and Internet concerns were significantly associated with missed appointment rates. While the scope of our findings is limited, the delivery of a telehealth-based, barrier-focused lay lung navigator program in this low-resource setting was feasible. Neighborhood context and barrier resource planning are important for the implementation of similar programs within our institution’s clinical practice network. Full article

In recent years, blockchain has been increasingly used in shipping supply chains, enabling supply chain members to track the production process of shipping products, thereby increasing visibility for firms and boosting their competitiveness. When firms decide whether to invest in blockchain, they crucially consider the cost of development and fairness of profit distribution along the supply chain, with a particular focus on non-linear production cost and fairness concern. We build a Stackelberg game model for four scenarios utilizing a two-echelon supply chain made up of a single shipping company and a single freight forwarder, taking into account fairness concern and non-linear production cost. We analyze how participants in the shipping supply chain make decisions when the shipping company has non-linear production cost and the freight forwarder has fairness concern. The findings suggest that the interaction between the non-linear production cost of the shipping company and the level of fairness concern of the freight forwarder affects the managerial decisions of both the freight forwarder and the shipping company. In the presence of economies of scale or diseconomies of scale, fairness concern can effectively help the freight forwarder to increase its share of profits within the supply chain, while the shipping company changes in the opposite direction. Furthermore, when the freight forwarder takes fairness concern into account, its profit and utility do not always rise in direct proportion to the fairness concern degree. Interestingly, there is always an inverse relationship between the shipping company’s profit and the degree of fairness concern, regardless of whether there are economies of scale or diseconomies of scale. This paper provides management insights for companies considering blockchain in their plans, highlighting the importance of combining non-linear production cost and fairness concern to achieve profit goals. Full article

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses faced enormous emotional challenges and profound physical fatigue, as well as constant concerns about whether they would receive genuine support in the workplace. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of nurses and to identify key challenges, coping strategies and needs for institutional support. Methods: It was conducted in Albania and followed a mixed-methods design in two interconnected phases, using a mixed-methods approach. Phase I included a quantitative survey of 288 nurses from regional hospitals in Fier and Vlora using a structured questionnaire covering five domains: workplace challenges, stress and work–life balance, health effects and burnout, coping mechanisms, and suggestions for improvement. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Phase II consisted of a reflective seminar with 47 nurses selected from the initial sample. Participants shared their post-pandemic experiences, coping strategies, and proposals for improving mental well-being. SWOT analysis was used to structure the reflections and identify internal and external factors influencing nurses’ mental health. Results: The results showed that nurses continue to face high workload, insufficient psychological support, and that 37.5% reported their work–life balance had worsened since the pandemic (21.9% sometimes; 15.6% most of the time). Participation in the reflective seminar had a positive impact on increasing professional awareness. Conclusions: These findings highlight the need for structured and sustainable interventions within healthcare institutions to protect and promote nurses’ mental health in post-crisis contexts. Full article

Background/Objectives: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is one of the most commonly diagnosed anxiety disorders in primary care. The global lifetime prevalence of GAD is estimated at 3.7%, ranging from 1.6% in low-income countries to 5.0% in high-income countries, underscoring its widespread impact. Given the frequent co-occurrence of GAD with obesity, this association has important clinical implications, particularly for screening, prevention, and treatment strategies. The aim of this review is to identify potential biological mechanisms linking obesity and GAD, summarize the current state of knowledge in this area, and highlight existing research gaps, as well as directions for future research. Methods: This narrative review is based on the literature published between 2015 and 2025 concerning the co-occurrence of GAD and obesity, with a focus on potential shared mechanisms including HPA axis dysregulation, chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, insulin resistance, gut–brain axis and microbiota dysbiosis, sleep disturbance, and maladaptive eating behaviors. Results/Conclusions: A growing body of evidence suggests an important, albeit still ambiguously defined, relationship between obesity and GAD. GAD and obesity may reinforce each other, leading to a mutually reinforcing relationship. Despite growing interest, high-quality prospective and interventional studies focusing specifically on GAD are lacking. A potentially effective therapeutic approach should be integrated and multidisciplinary, combining psychological, pharmacological, and lifestyle interventions. It may also be beneficial for clinicians to consider routine assessment of anxiety in patients with obesity and, conversely, to monitor metabolic risk in individuals with GAD. Such an approach, targeting both mental and metabolic domains, holds promise for improving outcomes. Full article

Significant time, money, and energy are invested in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) across Further Education (FE) colleges in England, with the aim of enhancing teaching strategies, sharing “best” practices, and improving educational quality. Despite these intentions, practitioner perceptions of CPD’s value remain mixed, highlighting concerns about the effectiveness of current approaches. CPD managers often face competing financial and operational demands, alongside pressure to comply with external requirements, resulting in CPD that is frequently instrumental, mandatory, and delivered through one-off events. These practices reflect a data-driven, prescriptive management culture that prioritizes measurable outcomes over meaningful educational experiences. Consequently, teachers are compelled to demonstrate compliance within a system where accountability is unevenly distributed. This medium-scale, multi-method practitioner research study investigates how such compliance-driven CPD practices divert attention and resources from genuine educational improvement. This study explores an alternative model of CPD rooted in teacher agency and enriched through engagement with the arts and aesthetic experiences. Drawing on surveys, semi-structured interviews, critical incidents, and narrative accounts, the findings suggest that this approach fosters more democratic, creative, and impactful professional development. In promoting teacher agency and challenging dominant power structures, this study offers a vision of CPD that supports meaningful educational transformation, with practical examples and recommendations for broader implementation. Full article