Educational activities for students and citizens supporting the One-Health approach on antimicrobial resistance

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development. Urgent action is needed at all levels of society to reduce the impact and spread of antibiotic resistance. For a more sustaining approach, education in children, college students, citizens and caregivers are essential. The One-Heath approach is a collaborative, multisectoral and transdisciplinary strategy in which, no single organizations or sector can address the issue of antimicrobial resistance at the human–environment interface alone. Within this strategy, education plays a central role. In this scoping review, we highlighted a range of learning activities on antibiotic resistance as part of the One-Health approach. In particular, those applications that can be introduced to a wide audience to help arrest the current crisis for the next generation. The review identifies a high number of teaching opportunities: board and role-play games, round tables, musicals, e-learning and environmental experiments to couple with more curricula and formal education to inform a diverse group of audiences

Educational activities for students and citizens supporting the one-health approach on antimicrobial resistance

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development. Urgent action is needed at all levels of society to reduce the impact and spread of antibiotic resistance. For a more sustaining approach, education in children, college students, citizens and caregivers are essential. The One-Heath approach is a collaborative, multisectoral and transdisciplinary strategy in which, no single organizations or sector can address the issue of antimicrobial resistance at the human–environment interface alone. Within this strategy, education plays a central role. In this scoping review, we highlighted a range of learning activities on antibiotic resistance as part of the One-Health approach. In particular, those applications that can be introduced to a wide audience to help arrest the current crisis for the next generation. The review identifies a high number of teaching opportunities: board and role-play games, round tables, musicals, e-learning and environmental experiments to couple with more curricula and formal education to inform a diverse group of audiences

A prospective observational study of outcomes from rehabilitation of elderly patients with moderate to severe cognitive impairment

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate rehabilitation outcomes in patients with moderate to severe cognitive impairment. DESIGN: Prospective observational cohort study. SETTING: Rehabilitation unit for older people. SUBJECTS: A total of 116 patients (70F) mean age (SD) 86.3 (6.4). Group 1: 89 patients with moderate cognitive impairment (Mini-Mental State Examination 11-20); and Group 2: 27 patients with severe cognitive impairment (Mini-Mental State Examination 0-10). INTERVENTION: A personalised rehabilitation plan. MAIN MEASURES: Barthel Activity of Daily Living score on admission and discharge, length of stay and discharge destination. RESULTS: Of 116 patients, 64 (55.2%) showed an improvement in Barthel score. Mini-Mental State Examination was significantly higher in those who improved, 15.4 (SD 3.7) vs.13.2 (SD 5.1): p = 0.01. The mean Barthel score improved in both groups; Group 1 - 14.7 (SD 19.1) vs. Group 2 - 9.3 (SD 16.3): p = 0.17. Of 84 home admissions in Group 1, more patients returning home showed improvements of at least 5 points in the Barthel score compared with nursing/residential home discharges (32/37 - 86.5% vs. 10/28 - 35.7%: p = 0.0001). In Group 2 of 17 home admissions, 6/6 (100%) home discharges showed improvement compared with 3/7 (42.8%) discharges to nursing/residential home (p = 0.07). In Group 1, a discharge home was associated with significantly greater improvement in number of Barthel items than a nursing/residential home discharge (3.27 (SD 2.07) vs. 1.86 (SD 2.32): p = 0.007). A similar non-significant pattern was noted for severe cognitive impairment patients (3.5 (3.06) vs. 1.14 (1.06); p = 0.1). CONCLUSION: Patients with moderate to severe cognitive impairment demonstrated significant improvements in Barthel score and Barthel items showing that such patients can and do improve with rehabilitation.published_or_final_versio

Clinical and Pathological Implications of Concurrent Autoimmune Thyroid Disorders and Papillary Thyroid Cancer

Cooccurrences of chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis (CLT) and thyroid cancer (DTC) have been repeatedly reported. Both CLT and DTC, mainly papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), share some epidemiological and molecular features. In fact, thyroid lymphocytic inflammatory reaction has been observed in association with PTC at variable frequency, although the precise relationship between the two diseases is still debated. It also remains a matter of debate whether the association with a CLT or even an autoimmune disorder could influence the prognosis of PTC. A better understanding about clinical implications of autoimmunity in concurrent thyroid cancer could raise new insights of thyroid cancer immunotherapy. In addition, elucidating the molecular mechanisms involved in autoimmune disease and concurrent cancer allowed us to identify new therapeutic strategies against thyroid cancer. The objective of this article was to review recent literature on the association of these disorders and its potential significance

Does Journal Content in the Field of Women's Health Represent Women's Burden of Disease? A Review of Publications in 2010 and 2020

Background: Historically, women's health has focused on reproductive health. However, noncommunicable and communicable diseases comprise much of the burden of disease in women. Methods: A quantitative analysis of the main health content of articles published in six women's health journals (WHJ) and five general medical journals (GMJ) in 2010 and 2020 was conducted to categorize the main medical area topics of published articles and the life stage under study. Findings were compared with the leading causes of disease in women according to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. Results: There were 1483 articles eligible for analysis. In total, in WHJ, 44% of topics were reproductive health, increasing from 36% in 2010 to 49% in 2020, which was similar to GMJ. Noncommunicable disease was the next most addressed topic, with cancer being the major disease area covered. When compared with the GBD study, major disease areas such as infectious disease, cardiovascular disease, and musculoskeletal disorders were underrepresented as topics in women's health publications. Most articles that focused on a particular life stage were on pregnancy or the reproductive years, with very few articles on menopause. Conclusion: Women's health publishing remains largely focused on reproductive health topics, with few articles on many of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in women. Journals, researchers, funders, and research priority setters should embrace a broader view of women's health to effectively cover content that reflects the broad range of health issues impacting women across the life span

Temporal and spatial change of exergy and ascendency in different benthic marine ecosystems

Holistic indicators such as exergy and ascendency have been widely employed to assess the health of ecosystems given by their structure, function and organization. In this study we calculate the exergy, specific exergy and ascendency for the microbenthic loop that represents a major sub-system within the marine food chain. The analysis of the microbenthic loop investigated in terms of organic matter, bacteria, microphytobenthos and meiofauna reflected changes occurring in the trophic state of benthic ecosystems and provided a tool for comparison between different environments. Temporal and spatial variability of the holistic indicators were evaluated using benthic measures collected at different times for different environments in the Mediterranean Sea. Exergy was strongly correlated with the organic contents of the sediments, and did not provide a useful description of the investigated system. In contrast, specific exergy resulted related to the microbenthic loop structure and complexity while Ascendency mostly reflected its activity and organization. Temporal analysis showed that in natural ecosystems specific exergy and ascendency showed convergence and follow similar seasonal trends. On the contrary in strongly eutrophicated systems an uncoupling between the two indicators occurred indicating a malfunctioning of the microbenthic loop that become strongly dissipative.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V2S-4CC7RP3-D/1/49cf1c6b40bddddc9a3bb98c5072e51

The role of gene elongation in the evolution of histidine biosynthetic genes

Gene elongation is a molecular mechanism consisting of an in-tandem duplication of a gene and divergence and fusion of the two copies, resulting in a gene constituted by two divergent paralogous modules. The aim of this work was to evaluate the importance of gene elongation in the evolution of histidine biosynthetic genes and to propose a possible evolutionary model for some of them. Concerning the genes hisA and hisF, which code for two homologous (β/α)8-barrels, it has been proposed that the two extant genes could be the result of a cascade of gene elongation/domain shuffling events starting from an ancestor gene coding for just one (β/α) module. A gene elongation event has also been proposed for the evolution of hisB and hisD; structural analyses revealed the possibility of an early elongation event, resulting in the repetition of modules. Furthermore, it is quite possible that the gene elongations responsible for the evolution of the four proteins occurred before the earliest phylogenetic divergence. In conclusion, gene elongation events seem to have played a crucial role in the evolution of the histidine biosynthetic pathway, and they may have shaped the structures of many genes during the first steps of their evolution

CUMAS: a seafloor multi-sensor module for volcanic hazard monitoring - First long-term experiment and performance assessment

A seafloor multi-sensor module with real-time data transmission, named CUMAS (Cabled Underwater Module for Acquisition of Seismological data), has been deployed in January 2008 in the Gulf of Pozzuoli, in the Campi Flegrei caldera (southern Italy), which is one of the most active volcanic areas in the world. The sensors installed in CUMAS were selected to monitor a set of signals related to the local seismicity as well as the ground uplift and subsidence of the seafloor that are related to the bradyseismic phenomenon. In particular, together with a broad-band three-component seismometer and a low-frequency hydrophone, a seafloor water-pressure sensor is used to assess the feasibility of measurements of the slow vertical movement of the seafloor (bradyseism). Further sensors are acquired by two embedded Linux computers, namely tilt and heading sensors for the measure of the actual module orientation on the seafloor, and status sensors that monitor the state of health of the vessel (e.g., internal temperature, power absorption, water intrusion). The underwater acquisition systems are linked to a support infrastructure, a floating buoy (elastic beacon), through an electro-mechanical cable with an Ethernet line. The buoy provides the needed power supply thanks to batteries charged by solar panels and a wind- generator. A Wi-Fi antenna on the buoy is used to transmit the seafloor data from the sea surface to the land acquisition centre in the city of Naples. A meteorological station is also mounted on the buoy, to allow the correlation of the air and seafloor data. CUMAS, although based on commercial sensors, relies on an original system for the centralized management of a wide set of geophysical and physical oceanographic sensors, that handles the continuous data acquisition and real-time data transmission. After the installation in the Gulf of Pozzuoli at about 100 m w.d., and after a test period, CUMAS uninterruptedly operated from May 2008 to June 2009, thus providing continuous geophysical data to the Monitoring Center of the Campi Flegrei volcanic areas, managed by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. The long-term operational performance of CUMAS is presented here, together with the first results from the analysis of the geophysical long time-series acquired. Examples of the acquired signals, especially geophysical data, will be presented to point out the high quality in term of signal-to-noise ratio. In particular, earthquake recordings obtained from the hydrophone resulted of comparable quality to the seismic data acquired on land by the permanent network, thus demonstrating the suitability of hydrophones to monitor the seismic activity of the caldera