Developing an implementation strategy for a World Health Organization public health report: The implementation of the International Perspectives on Spinal Cord Injury (IPSCI) in Romania

Aim: The World Health Organization (WHO) publishes a large number of health reports every year, containing recommendations to overcome societal and system barrier challenges toward targeting unmet health needs. One such report, the International Perspectives on Spi-nal Cord Injury (IPSCI), specifically describes the situation of persons with spinal cord in-jury. Against this backdrop, the question arises about how these recommendations can be incorporated into an implementation strategy. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to describe a phased process of developing an implementation strategy for a WHO public health report with IPSCI serving as a case example.Methods: The process to develop the implementation strategy consisted of specific phases each employing particular mechanisms. The preparatory phase was composed of a group dis-cussion to select development mechanisms. The implementation strategy development phase comprised focus-group interviews, as well as of a stakeholder dialogue. Thematic content analysis was applied to qualitative data.Results: The group discussion led to selection of specific development mechanisms. The focus group mechanism allowed key stakeholders to openly discuss implementation goals and processesand impacted the selection of the core implementation group members and the focus of the stakeholder dialogue (SD) discussion.The SD was instrumental in developing a specific implementation strategy based on the report‟s recommendations. The strategy con-sisted of a detailed implementation plan, provisions to coordinate an implementation group and expert guidance.Conclusion: The findings from the current study can inform the ongoing development of systematic, evidence-informed, participatory and stakeholder-driven processes for the devel-opment of implementation strategies for recommendations from WHO public health reports

The Mechanical Properties of Organic Modified Epoxy Resin

Epoxy resins have been presenting a lot of scientific and technical interests and organic modified epoxy resins have recently receiving a great deal of attention. For obtaining the composite materials with good mechanical proprieties, a large variety of organic modification agents were used. For this study gluten and gelatin had been used as modifying agents thinking that their dispersion inside the polymer could increase the polymer biocompatibility. Equal amounts of the proteins were milled together and the obtained compound was used to form 1 to 5% weight ratios organic agents modified epoxy materials. To highlight the effect of these proteins in epoxy matrix mechanical tests as three-point bending and compression were performed

A call for action to establish a research agenda for building a future health workforce in Europe

This Call for Action is closely linked to the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) and its new section ‘Health Workforce Research’. The idea was first developed during a pre-conference and two workshops at the EUPHA Conference in November 2016 in Vienna and further investigated at the EUPHA Conference in November 2017. We wish to thank all participants for inspiring discussions and for sharing ideas and knowledge.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Anesthetic challenges in patients with ankylosing spondylitis requiring lower limb surgery – A case report and literature review

Ankylosing spondylitis is one of the global top health burdens and patients affected by it frequently require surgery related to disease progression, such as orthopedic surgery. These patients may prove difficult to manage from an anesthetic standpoint, regardless of the anesthetic technique employed, mainly given the potential for difficult airway access and related comorbidities. We present the case of a 52-year-old male posted for urgent cemented total hip arthroplasty with associated bilateral pulmonary fibrosis and an anticipated difficult airway in whom regional anesthesia was performed with satisfactory results, with a favorable intraoperative and postoperative course. The literature review explores the anesthetic techniques employed when a tailored approach is required in managing patients with ankylosing spondylitis

The analyse of the antioxidant effect of natural peloidotherapy in aging process

Medical research has developed remarkably in recent years, including the involvement of the glutathione peroxidase (GPx) family of enzymes in the course of human aging, with numerous clinical studies published in the literature reporting this particular fact. Thus, mud therapy and its effect on biological aging have been represented in papers that have been published to date. Papers published in the literature analyzing GPx vari-ation during sapropelic mud therapy suggest the beneficial effect of this family of en-zymes in diseases with an important inflammatory component, mainly monitored in patients with osteoarthritis. This study investigated the effects of sapropelic mud treat-ment on GPx values in patients receiving treatment with sapropelic mud at the Balneal and Rehabilitation Sanatorium of Techirghiol, Romania. We included 52 patients, split into two groups, who received treatment with cold mud baths and warm mud baths. Values close to statistical significance were found in patients who received treatment with cold mud baths in terms of mean GPx values at the four-time points studied. Fur-ther studies evaluating GPx in patients receiving sapropelic mud treatment are needed

Screening of soil bacteria as potential agents for drugs biodegradation: a case study with clofibric acid

International audienceBACKGROUND Clofibric acid (CLF), the main pharmacologically active metabolite of blood lipid regulating pharmaceutical clofibrat, etofibrat, etofyllinclofibrat is one of the most widely reported drugs found in water. It is hardly or not degraded by the conventional technology used in wastewater treatment plants. RESULTS Sixteen new filamentous bacteria belonging to genus Streptomyces spp. isolated from different Romanian soil samples and three strains from a collection of microorganisms (MIUG) were morphologically characterized, tested based on their resistance against clofibric acid toxicity and then investigated as bioremediation agents. Only five Streptomyces spp. isolates coded MIUG 4.88, MIUG 4.89, LP1, LP2, SNA, showed high CLF tolerance at most of the concentrations tested (0.2, 0.5, 1, 5, 8 mg L−1). CONCLUSION The data obtained showed that only the strain Streptomyces MIUG 4.89 presents promising potential for clofibric acid biodegradation, with an elimination yield of 35%, which was not reported for this class of bacteria to date. However, further research is needed for optimization of the CLF biodegradation conditions to enhance its bioremediation yield especially in polluted aquatic systems. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industr

Optimization of Different Key Culture Conditions for Enhanced Biodegradation of a Refractory Emerging Pollutant by a Bacterial Isolate Through a Statistical Approach

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Improving Biodegradation of Clofibric Acid by Trametes pubescens through the Design of Experimental Tools

International audienceClofibric acid (CLF) is the main pharmacologically active metabolite in composition of the pharmaceutical products used for controlling blood lipid content. This xenobiotic compound is highly persistent in the aquatic environment and passes unchanged or poorly transformed in wastewater treatment plants. A white-rot fungal strain of Trametes pubescens was previously selected, for its ability for clofibric acid biodegradation (up to 30%) during cultivation in submerged system under aerobic conditions at an initial CLF concentration of 15 mg L−1. Plackett-Burman design (PBD) and response surface methodology (RSM) were used for experimental planning, mathematical modelling and statistical analysis of data of the biotechnological process of CLF biotransformation by Trametes pubescens fungal strain. After optimization, the capacity of the selected Trametes pubescens strain to degrade CLF was increased by cultivation in a liquid medium containing 3 g·L−1 yeast extract, 15 g·L−1 peptone, 5 g·L−1 glucose and mineral salts, inoculated at 2% (v/v) vegetative inoculum and cultivated at pH 5.5, during 14 days at 25 °C and 135 rpm. In these optimized biotechnological conditions, the CLF biotransformation yield was 60%

Specific heat of nano-ferrites modified composites

The specific heat of nano-ferrites modified composites was studied using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) method in the temperature range of 30 to 150°C. Initially, nano-ferrites were introduced in epoxy systems in order to improve the electromagnetic properties of formed materials. Together with the changes in electromagnetic properties some modifications occur regarding thermal and mechanical properties. The materials were formed by placing 5g or 10g of ferrite into 250g polymer matrix leading to a very low weight ratio of modifying agent. At so low ratios the effect of ferrite presence should be insignificant according to mixing rule. Anyway there is possible to appear some chelation reaction with effects on thermal properties of materials. Three types of epoxy resins had been used as matrix and barium ferrite and strontium ferrite as modifying agents. The thermal analysis was developed on two heatingcooling cycles and the specific heat was evaluated for each segment of the cycle analysis