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CONTEXT: The school food environment is a critical interface for child and adolescent nutrition, and there is a need to understand existing literature on Canadian school food environments to identify equity gaps and opportunities, and empower decision-makers to plan for future action. OBJECTIVE: Literature on Canadian school food and nutrition interventions, policies, programs, and their effects on diets and nutritional status are synthesized and appraised in this systematic review...

BACKGROUND: Pelvic organ prolapse is common, causes unpleasant symptoms and negatively affects women's quality of life. In the UK, most women with pelvic organ prolapse attend clinics for pessary care. OBJECTIVES: To determine the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of vaginal pessary self-management on prolapse-specific quality of life for women with prolapse compared with clinic-based care; and to assess intervention acceptability and contextual influences on effectiveness, adherence and fidelity...

BACKGROUND: Compromised well-being and mental health problems pose a significant threat to individuals and societies worldwide. Resource-intensive psychological treatments alone cannot alleviate this burden. There is a need for low-cost, evidence-based interventions aimed at preventing illness and promoting well-being. Five activity domains appear to be linked with well-being promotion across populations: connecting with others, being active, taking notice, learning, and being generous/giving...

This viewpoint paper considers the authors' perspectives on the potential role of smartphones, wearables, and other technologies in the diagnosis of cancer. We believe that these technologies could be valuable additions in the pursuit of early cancer diagnosis, as they offer solutions to the timely detection of signals or symptoms and monitoring of subtle changes in behavior that may otherwise be missed. In addition to signal detection, technologies could assist symptom interpretation and guide and facilitate access to health care...

IMPORTANCE: Matched placebo interventions are complex and resource intensive. Recent evidence suggests matched placebos may not always be necessary. Previous studies have predominantly evaluated potential bias of nonmatched placebos (ie, differing on dose, frequency of administration, or formulation) in pain and mental health, but to date no systematic examination has been conducted in infectious disease. OBJECTIVE: To test for differences between nonmatched and matched placebo arms with respect to clinical outcome measures across multiple therapeutics for COVID-19...

IMPORTANCE: Many health care systems are investing resources in identifying social determinants of health (SDoH) needs and facilitating interventions among the populations they serve. Because self-reported SDoH information is lacking, area-level measures are often used to estimate needs and direct resources. OBJECTIVE: To describe the large-scale deployment of SDoH assessments by a health system and determine the extent to which self-reported SDoH needs identified therein are associated with census tract-level social vulnerability measured using the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)...

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to carry out a cross-cultural analysis by comparing Five-Point test scores for two different countries. The Five-Point test measures design fluency, an executive function, and is an inexpensive test that makes it more accessible to assessment settings, including under-resourced settings. METHODS: Adults in Argentina ( n  = 90) and South Africa ( n  = 90) with tertiary levels of education were tested on the Five-Point Test...

The eminence of transitioning from traditional fossil fuel-based energy resources to renewable and sustainable energy sources is most evidently crucial. The potential of hydrogen as an alternative energy source has specifically focuses the electrocatalytic water splitting (EWS) as a promising technique for generating hydrogen. Development of efficient electrocatalysts to facilitate the EWS process while rationalizing the limitations of noble metal catalysts like platinum has become one of the daunting tasks...

The transformation of biomasses from agro-industrial waste can significantly impact the production of green chemicals from sustainable resources. Pectin is a biopolymer present in lignocellulosic biomass as Orange Peel Waste (OPW) and has possibilities for making platform compounds such as furfural for sustainable chemistry. In this work, we studied the transformation to furfural of OPW, pectins, and D-galacturonic acid (D-GalA), which is the main component (65 wt%) of pectin. We analyzed pectins with different degrees of esterification (45, 60 and 95 DE) in a one-pot hydrolysis reaction system and studied the differences in depolymerization and dehydration of the carbohydrates...

BACKGROUND: Current management options for PTMC include lobo-isthmectomy and active surveillance (AS). Recently, ultrasound-guided minimally invasive procedures (MITs) are offered as a nonsurgical therapy for PTMC because they do not require hospitalization and general anaesthesia, and do not result in loss of thyroid function or cosmetic damage. MITs are reported to consistently provide, mostly in large retrospective series of patients, a rapid, safe, and cost-effective way to eradicate low-risk thyroid malignancies...

We have a poor understanding of how urban drainage and other engineered components interact with more natural hydrological processes in green and blue spaces to generate stream flow. This limits the scientific evidence base for predicting and mitigating the effects of future development of the built environment and climate change on urban water resources and their ecosystem services. Here, we synthesize > 20 years of environmental monitoring data to better understand the hydrological function of the 109-km2 Wuhle catchment, an important tributary of the river Spree in Berlin, Germany...

Objective In this document, 9 Indian experts have evaluated the factors specific to LMICs when it came to Severe Asthma (SA) diagnosis, evaluation, biologic selection, non-biologic treatment options and follow-up. Data Sources A search was performed using 50 keywords., focusing on the Indian/LMICs perspective, in PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar. The key areas of the search were focused on diagnosis, phenoendotyping, non-biological therapies, selecting a biologic, assessment of treatment response and management of exacerbation...

Phacoemulsification in hard cataracts is a challenge. The use of dispersive ophthalmic viscosurgical devices (OVDs) to protect the endothelium is a routine step in such scenarios. However, as OVD is transparent, it is difficult to spot within the anterior chamber. Therefore, surgeons may not be aware when the OVD coating of the endothelium disappears during surgery. Consequently, there may be too frequent OVD injections, resulting in a waste of resources. On the contrary, the surgeon may fail to inject OVD at an appropriate time, leading to greater endothelial damage...

Low vision and blindness are increasing public health issues impacting individuals' quality of life. During clinical low-vision services, vision rehabilitation is crucial for enhancing daily living skills and improving life quality. Low-vision and rehabilitation (LVR) services encompass comprehensive measures that aid visually disabled individuals in restoring function, autonomy, and social participation. Such holistic management requires a multidisciplinary approach, facilitating adaptation to environmental and sociocultural changes...

BACKGROUND: Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) in healthcare research is crucial for effectively addressing patients' needs and setting appropriate research priorities. However, there is a lack of awareness and adequate methods for practicing PPIE, especially for vulnerable groups like childhood cancer survivors. AIMS: This project aimed to develop and evaluate engagement methods to actively involve pediatric oncological patients, survivors, and their caregivers in developing relevant research questions and practical study designs...

Rare neurological diseases, while individually are rare, collectively impact millions globally, leading to diverse and often severe neurological symptoms. Often attributed to genetic mutations that disrupt protein function or structure, understanding their genetic basis is crucial for accurate diagnosis and targeted therapies. To investigate the underlying pathogenesis of these conditions, researchers often use non-mammalian model organisms, such as Drosophila (fruit flies), which is valued for their genetic manipulability, cost-efficiency, and preservation of genes and biological functions across evolutionary time...

We present the complete genome of a potential plant growth-promoting bacteria Bacillus altitudinis AIMST-CREST03 isolated from a high-yielding paddy plot. The genome is 3,669,202 bp in size with a GC content of 41%. Annotation predicted 3,327 coding sequences, including several genes required for plant growth promotion.

An influenza virus strain was obtained during a bird surveillance study in 2023 near Lake Chebarkul in the Chelyabinsk region, Russia. This complete coding genome sequence of the virus sampled from the Ural region significantly expands the knowledge about the spread of the H7N4 subtype of the influenza A virus.

In this study, we report the draft genome sequence data of Methylobacterium sp. 37f, isolated from soil beneath Quercus semiserrata Roxb. in Thailand. The genome consists of 5,305,449 base pairs, with a GC content of 67.5%.

We report the complete genome sequence of the phosphate-solubilizing bacterium Bacillus subtilis NA05 (=NBRC 116153), consisting of a circular chromosome of ~3.8 M bp and two circular plasmids. The data presented here provide further insight into the genetic and functional potential of B. subtilis and the mechanism of phosphate solubilization.