Global Challenge: From Intra-Company Staff Management to Working With the Talent

: With the development of industrialization, the global environmental pollution and energy crisis are becoming increasingly serious. Organic pollutants pose a serious health threat to human beings and other organisms. The removal of organic pollutants in environment has become a global challenge. The photocatalytic technology has been widely used in the degradation of organic pollutants with its characteristics of simple process, high efficiency, thorough degradation and no secondary pollution. However, the single photocatalyst represented by TiO2 has disadvantages of low light utilization rate and high recombination rate of photocarriers. Building heterojunction is considered one of the most effective methods to enhance the photocatalytic performance of single photocatalyst, which can improve the separation efficiency of photocarriers and utilization of visible light. The classical heterojunction can be divided into four different cases: type I, typeⅡ, p–n heterojunctions and Z-scheme junction. In this paper, the recent progress in the treatment of organic pollution by heterostructure photocatalysts is summarized and the mechanism of heterostructure photocatalysts for the treatment of organic pollutants is reviewed. It is expected that this paper can deepen the understanding of heterostructure photocatalysts and provide guidance for high efficient photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in the future.

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Disposal Practices of Unused Medications Among Patients in Public Health Centers of Dessie Town, Northeast Ethiopia: A Cross-sectional Study

Current Drug Safety ◽

10.2174/1574886315666200331140400 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 105-110

Author(s):

Haile Kassahun ◽

Dugessa Tesfaye

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Health Centers ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Global Challenge ◽

Northeast Ethiopia ◽

Unused Medications ◽

At Home

Background: Disposal of pharmaceutical waste among patients is a global challenge especially in developing countries like Ethiopia. Improper medication disposal can lead to health problems and environmental contaminations. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess disposal practices of unused medications among patients in public health centers of Dessie town, Northeast Ethiopia. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 263 patients in four public health centers of Dessie town, Ethiopia from March to June, 2019. Face-to-face interviews using structured questionnaires were used to collect data from each study subject. Results: The majority of the respondents, 224 (85.17%) had unused medications at their home during the study period. The most commonly reported disposal method in the present study was flushing down into a toilet 66 (25.09%). None of the respondents practiced returning unused medications to Pharmacy. Moreover, 85 (32.31%) of the respondents reported never disposing their medications and believed that it is acceptable to store medications at home for future use. Conclusion: In the present study, there was a high practice of keeping medications at home and most of the disposal practices were not recommended methods. In addition, most of the respondents did not get advice from pharmacists and other health care professionals on how to dispose off unused medications. Hence, there is a need for proper education and guidance of patients regarding disposal practices of unused medications.

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One size does not fit all: Constructing complementary digital reskilling strategies using online labour market data

Big Data & Society ◽

10.1177/20539517211003120 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 205395172110031

Author(s):

Fabian Stephany

Keyword(s):

Social Transformation ◽

Grand Challenge ◽

Policy Makers ◽

National Education ◽

Global Challenge ◽

Cognitive Work ◽

National Education Systems ◽

Skill Requirements ◽

The Individual ◽

Value Of Learning

Digital technologies are radically transforming our work environments and demand for skills, with certain jobs being automated away and others demanding mastery of new digital techniques. This global challenge of rapidly changing skill requirements due to task automation overwhelms workers. The digital skill gap widens further as technological and social transformation outpaces national education systems and precise skill requirements for mastering emerging technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, remain opaque. Online labour platforms could help us to understand this grand challenge of reskilling en masse. Online labour platforms build a globally integrated market that mediates between millions of buyers and sellers of remotely deliverable cognitive work. This commentary argues that, over the last decade, online labour platforms have become the ‘laboratories’ of skill rebundling; the combination of skills from different occupational domains. Online labour platform data allows us to establish a new taxonomy on the individual complementarity of skills. For policy makers, education providers and recruiters, a continuous analysis of complementary reskilling trajectories enables automated, individual and far-sighted suggestions on the value of learning a new skill in a future of technological disruption.

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Prolonged SARS-CoV-2-RNA Detection from Nasopharyngeal Swabs in an Oncologic Patient: What Impact on Cancer Treatment?

Current Oncology ◽

10.3390/curroncol28010083 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 847-852

Author(s):

Anna Ferrari ◽

Marco Trevenzoli ◽

Lolita Sasset ◽

Elisabetta Di Liso ◽

Toni Tavian ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Lung Cancer ◽

Cancer Treatment ◽

Cancer Patients ◽

Clinical Symptoms ◽

Palliative Radiotherapy ◽

Rt Pcr ◽

Cancer Treatments ◽

Global Challenge ◽

Viral Culture ◽

Pcr Assays

The pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 is a serious global challenge affecting millions of people worldwide. Cancer patients are at risk for infection exposure and serious complications. A prompt diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection is crucial for the timely adoption of isolation measures and the appropriate management of cancer treatments. In lung cancer patients the symptoms of infection 19 may resemble those exhibited by the underlying oncologic condition, possibly leading to diagnostic overlap and delays. Moreover, cancer patients might display a prolonged positivity of nasopharyngeal RT-PCR assays for SARS-CoV-2, causing long interruptions or delay of cancer treatments. However, the association between the positivity of RT-PCR assays and the patient’s infectivity remains uncertain. We describe the case of a patient with non-small cell lung cancer, and a severe ab extrinseco compression of the trachea, whose palliative radiotherapy was delayed because of the prolonged positivity of nasopharyngeal swabs for SARS-CoV-2. The patient did not show clinical symptoms suggestive of active infection, but the persistent positivity of RT-PCR assays imposed the continuation of isolation measures and the delay of radiotherapy for over two months. Finally, the negative result of SARS-CoV-2 viral culture allowed us to verify the absence of viral activity and to rule out the infectivity of the patient, who could finally continue her cancer treatment.

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The contribution of telco data to fight the COVID-19 pandemic: Experience of Telefonica throughout its footprint

Data & Policy ◽

10.1017/dap.2021.6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Pedro A. de Alarcon ◽

Alejandro Salevsky ◽

Daniel Gheti-Kao ◽

Willian Rosalen ◽

Marby C. Duarte ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Economic Activity ◽

Public Institutions ◽

Security And Privacy ◽

Strong Impact ◽

Global Challenge

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic is a global challenge for humanity, in which a large number of resources are invested to develop effective vaccines and treatments. At the same time, governments try to manage the spread of the disease while alleviating the strong impact derived from the slowdown in economic activity. Governments were forced to impose strict lockdown measures to tackle the pandemic. This significantly changed people’s mobility and habits, subsequently impacting the economy. In this context, the availability of tools to effectively monitor and quantify mobility was key for public institutions to decide which policies to implement and for how long. Telefonica has promoted different initiatives to offer governments mobility insights throughout many of the countries where it operates in Europe and Latin America. Mobility indicators with high spatial granularity and frequency of updates were successfully deployed in different formats. However, Telefonica faced many challenges (not only technical) to put these tools into service in a short timing: from reducing latency in insights to ensuring the security and privacy of information. In this article, we provide details on how Telefonica engaged with governments and other stakeholders in different countries as a response to the pandemic. We also cover the challenges faced and the shared learnings from Telefonica’s experience in those countries.

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