Anti-violence measures developed by ILO and WHO: Analysis of the prevalence of workplace violence and the effects of implementation in a general hospital in China

ObjectiveWorkplace violence (WPV) not only affects workers' physical and mental health but also increases turnover rates and social costs. There are no studies that have consistently followed the prevalence of WPV and the effectiveness of anti-violence measures in cross-sectional studies of the same hospital. The main aim of this study was to understand the prevalence of WPV among medical staff in a hospital in China and the effectiveness of implemented anti-violence measures.MethodsA cross-sectional survey, which was conducted by using a questionnaire developed by the International Labor Organization and the World Health Organization, was administered in a tertiary hospital in China in 2022 to investigate the occurrence of violence in the past year. Valid data were collected from 1,195 respondents via cell phone. WPV was compared between this survey and a baseline survey conducted at the same hospital in 2017 using the same questionnaire. The relationship between years and gender and occupation was explored using the Cochran–Armitage trend test. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were used to respond to the effects of the anti-violence interventions.ResultsAfter the implementation of anti-violence measures, the prevalence of WPV decreased from 48.47 in 2017 to 33.95% in 2021. The recognition of safety measures increased from 80.16 in 2017 to 87.70% in 2021(P < 0.001), improvement of the work environment increased from 56.57 in 2017 to 65.10% in 2021(P < 0.001), restricted of public access increased from 34.36 in 2017 to 55.60% in 2021(P < 0.001), the patient protocols increased from 37.42 in 2017 to 38.40% in 2021, patient screening increased from 32.11 in 2017 to 41.90% in 2021(P < 0.001), and strict restrictions on workplace cash activities from 29.65% in 2017 to 36.00% in 2021(P < 0.05). The percentage of health workers who felt that anti-violence measures were not at all helpful to their current work decreased from 2017 to 2021.ConclusionsThe prevalence of workplace violence has decreased, recognition of interventions has increased, and the proportion of interventions that are perceived by HWs as not helpful at all has decreased. This study demonstrates that the 12 anti-violence measures recommended by the International Labor Organization are applicable in China. Based on this, hospitals should focus on the improvement of the intervention effect of the following measures to further prevent violence

Feasibility of challenging treadmill speed-dependent gait and perturbation-induced balance training in chronic stroke patients with low ambulation ability: a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundTreadmill training shows advantages in the specificity, amount, and intensity of gait and balance practice for the rehabilitation of stroke patients.ObjectiveTo investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of challenging treadmill speed-dependent gait and perturbation-induced balance training in chronic stroke patients with low ambulation ability.MethodsFor this randomized controlled trial (Chinese Clinical Trials.gov registration number ChiCTR-IOR-16009536) with blinded testers, we recruited 33 ambulatory stroke participants with restricted community ambulation capacity and randomly assigned them into two groups: the experimental group with 2 week treadmill speed-dependent gait training combined with 2 week treadmill perturbation-induced balance training (EXP) or the control group with traditional gait and balance training (CON). Various variables were recorded during EXP training, including the rating of perceived exertion, heart rate, causes of pauses, treadmill speed, and perturbation intensity. Outcome measures were examined before training and at 2 and 4 weeks after training. They included gait velocity during five-meter walk test at comfortable and fast speed and reactive balance ability in the compensatory stepping test as primary outcome measures, as well as dynamic balance ability (timed up-and-go test and 5 times sit-to-stand test) and balance confidence as secondary outcome measures.ResultsAll participants completed the study. The treadmill speed and perturbation intensity significantly increased across training sessions in the EXP group, and no adverse effects occurred. The normal and fast gait velocities showed significant time and group interaction effects. They significantly increased after 2 and 4 weeks of training in the EXP group (p < 0.05) but not in the CON group (p > 0.05). Likewise, dynamic balance ability measured using the timed up-and-go test at a fast speed significantly improved after 2 and 4 weeks of training in the EXP group (p < 0.05) but not in the CON group (p > 0.05), although without a significant time and group interaction effect. Surprisingly, the reactive balance ability did not show improvement after treatment in the EXP group (p > 0.05).ConclusionChallenging treadmill speed-dependent gait and treadmill perturbation-induced balance training is feasible and effective to improve ambulation function in chronic stroke patients with low ambulation ability

A prediction strategy based on decision variable analysis for dynamic multi-objective optimization

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Many multi-objective optimization problems in reality are dynamic, requiring the optimization algorithm to quickly track the moving optima after the environment changes. Therefore, response strategies are often used in dynamic multi-objective algorithms to find Pareto optimal. In this paper, we propose a hybrid prediction strategy based on the classification of decision variables, which consists of three steps. After detecting the environment change, the first step is to analyze the influence of each decision variable on individual convergence and distribution in the new environment. The second step is to adopt different prediction methods for different decision variables. Finally, adaptive selection is applied to the solution set generated in the first and second steps, and solutions with good convergence and diversity are selected to make the initial population more adaptable to the new environment. The prediction strategy can help the solution set converge while maintaining its diversity. The experimental results and performance show that the proposed algorithm is capable of significantly improving the dynamic optimization performance compared with five state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms

A paper-based dual functional biosensor for safe and user-friendly point-of-care urine analysis †

Safe, accurate, and reliable analysis of urinary biomarkers is clinically important for early detection and monitoring of the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD), as it has become one of the world's most prevalent non-communicable diseases. However, current technologies for measuring urinary biomarkers are either time-consuming and limited to well-equipped hospitals or lack the necessary sensitivity for quantitative analysis and post a health risk to frontline practitioners. Here we report a robust paper-based dual functional biosensor, which is integrated with the clinical urine sampling vial, for the simultaneous and quantitative analysis of pH and glucose in urine. The pH sensor was fabricated by electrochemically depositing IrOx onto a paper substrate using optimised parameters, which enabled an ultrahigh sensitivity of 71.58 mV pH−1. Glucose oxidase (GOx) was used in combination with an electrochemically deposited Prussian blue layer for the detection of glucose, and its performance was enhanced by gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), chitosan, and graphite composites, achieving a sensitivity of 1.5 μA mM−1. This dual function biosensor was validated using clinical urine samples, where a correlation coefficient of 0.96 for pH and 0.98 for glucose detection was achieved with commercial methods as references. More importantly, the urine sampling vial was kept sealed throughout the sample-to-result process, which minimised the health risk to frontline practitioners and simplified the diagnostic procedures. This diagnostic platform, therefore, holds high promise as a rapid, accurate, safe, and user-friendly point-of-care (POC) technology for the analysis of urinary biomarkers in frontline clinical settings

Roles for IFT172 and primary cilia in cell migration, cell division and neocortex development

This work is supported by the grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (31528011, B.L.; 81571332, 91232724, Y.D.), Key Research and Development Program from Hunan Province (2018DK2011), Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project (2018SHZDZX01) and ZJLab. We are grateful to Prof. Tamara Caspary for providing the WIM and WT cells. M.P. was funded by a Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) studentship to C.M. and a Scholarship from Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). L. H. is also a Scholarship awardee of CSC.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Wirelessly Actuated Thermo- and Magneto-Responsive Soft Bimorph Materials with Programmable Shape-Morphing

Soft materials that respond to wireless external stimuli are referred to as "smart" materials due to their promising potential in real-world actuation and sensing applications in robotics, microfluidics, and bioengineering. Recent years have witnessed a burst of these stimuli-responsive materials and their preliminary applications. However, their further advancement demands more versatility, configurability, and adaptability to deliver their promised benefits. Here, a dual-stimuli-responsive soft bimorph material with three configurations that enable complex programmable 3D shape-morphing is presented. The material consists of liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) and magnetic-responsive elastomers (MREs) via facile fabrication that orthogonally integrates their respective stimuli-responsiveness without detrimentally altering their properties. The material offers an unprecedented wide design space and abundant degree-of-freedoms (DoFs) due to the LCE's programmable director field, the MRE's programmable magnetization profile, and diverse geometric configurations. It responds to wireless stimuli of the controlled magnetic field and environmental temperature. Its dual-responsiveness allows the independent control of different DoFs for complex shape-morphing behaviors with anisotropic material properties. A diverse set of in situ reconfigurable shape-morphing and an environment-aware untethered miniature 12-legged robot capable of locomotion and self-gripping are demonstrated. Such material can provide solutions for the development of future soft robotic and other functional devices.ISSN:0935-9648ISSN:1521-409