Selected aspects of infectious bursal disease – the current state of knowledge

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is a highly infectious and contagious immunosuppressive viral disease of chickens with a worldwide economic significance to the poultry industry. Over fifty years have passed since the first confirmed occurrence of the disease, and the virus has spread all over world and evolved into multiple genetic, antigenic and pathotypic variants, becoming a serious threat to the poultry industry. The primary tool in IBD eradication is the maintenance of strict biosecurity in poultry farms and implementation of vaccination programmes which should take into account the current epidemiological knowledge about the IBDV strains circulating in the field. This review article presents the current state of knowledge about the infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) with special regard to the molecular biology of the virus, immunological aspects, as well as current and future prevention strategies.

Risk of Gestational Diabetes Due to Maternal and Partner Smoking

Pregnant women are among the most vulnerable to environmental exposure to tobacco smoke (EET); which has been linked to problems in the mothers’ health; one of the most frequent is gestational diabetes (GD). For this reason, there are specific interventions and prevention strategies designed to reduce this exposure risk. However, currently, they are mostly aimed only at aiding the pregnant women with smoking cessation during pregnancy and do not assess or address the risk from passive exposure due to partner smoking. The aim of this work is to study the exposure to EET of pregnant women considering active and passive smoking and to evaluate its effect on the development of GD. This is an observational case-control study within a retrospective cohort of pregnant women. Information on smoking habits was obtained from both personal interviews and recorded medical history. In total, 16.2% of mothers and 28.3% of partners declared having been active smokers during pregnancy; 36.5% of the women presented EET during pregnancy when both active and passive smoking were considered. After adjustments, the association with the EET and GD of the mother was (aOR 1.10 95% CI: 0.64–1.92); for the EET of the partner, it was (aOR 1.66 95% CI: 1.01–2.77); for both partners, it was (aOR 1.82 95% CI: 1.15–2.89), adjusted by the mother’s age and body mass index. There is a lack of education regarding the effects of passive exposure to tobacco smoke. It is essential that pregnant women and their partners are educated on the risks of active and passive smoking; this could improve the effectiveness of other GD prevention strategies.

A Descriptive Cohort of Suicidal Cancer Patients: Analysis of the Autopsy Case Series from 1993 to 2019 in Milan (Italy)

Suicide in cancer patients has always been a subject of clinical studies, but the contribution of forensic pathology to this phenomenon is poorly reported. With the aim of at least partially filling this gap in information, at the Institute of Forensic Medicine of Milan, Italy, we assessed all suicides that occurred in cancer patients. A descriptive and retrospective analysis was carried out by examining the database of the Institute and autopsy reports. We included 288 suicide cases with proven cancer diseases. For each suicide, sex, age, country of origin, body area affected by cancer, further pathological history, medications, previous suicide attempts and suicidal communications, as well as the place where the suicide occurred, were assessed. Furthermore, from a forensic point of view, we considered the chosen suicide method and any involved means. The majority of cases were male older adults affected by lung, colon and prostate cancer. Violent suicide methods were prevalent, and the most represented suicide method was falling from height regardless of the body area affected by cancer. Such data may be of clinical use for clinicians engaged in the front lines in order to address suicide risk prevention strategies among cancer patients.

Diabetes Ameliorating Effect of Mushrooms and ameliorating diabetes

The growing impact of type 2 diabetes in the majority of the population requires the introduction of better and more secure treatments, but also requires the development of new prevention strategies to reduce the incidence and prevalence of the disease. Significantly, type 2 diabetes is an important preventable disease and can be prevented or delayed by lifestyle intervention. Edible and medicinal macrofungi, mushrooms have been reported having diabetes ameliorating effects. Current study reviews the potentiality of both edible and medicinal mushrooms in preventing and ameliorating the diabetic complications as well as the future aspects of mushrooms against this metabolic disorder.

To What Extent Does Frailty Influence the Risk of Developing Urolithiasis?

Urolithiasis has become more prevalent in recent years, given the rapid rise of the global geriatric population. Although factors such as ethnicity, dietary and fluid intake, co-morbidity status and age have been associated with increased incidence of urolithiasis, the links between frailty status and risks of developing urolithiasis are not yet known. In this commentary, we will explore the scale and significance of this relationship based on emerging evidence. We will review the plausible factors on how a more severe frailty status may be significantly associated with greater risks of developing urolithiasis. We will also discuss the strategies that may help to lower the incidence of urolithiasis in older and frail individuals. We hope our article will bring greater awareness on this issue and motivate further research initiatives evaluating the relationship between frailty and urolithiasis, as well as holistic prevention strategies to lower the risks of developing urolithiasis within this vulnerable population.

Factors associated with injury and re-injury occurrence in female pole dancers

The aim of the study was to recognise what participant-, training- and post-injury-related factors are associated with an injury and re-injury occurrence in female pole dancers (PDs). 320 female PDs fulfilled a custom survey. 1050 injuries were reported by 276 PDs, 59% of injuries were related to lower extremity, 39% to upper extremity and 10% to spine and trunk. 156 PDs reported sustaining a re-injury, and overall, 628 re-injuries were reported. The median weekly pole-specific training session volume was 90 min and 240 min in the low and high qualified group, respectively. The total training volume was 180 min in the low qualified PDs and 240 min in the high qualified group. PDs with higher height and spending more time on pole-specific training in studio and on other forms of training have higher odds of sustaining an injury. PDs with lower level of experience in training, who sustained an injury, and who had a shorter pause between the moment of injury and the return to performance, and thus who did not fully recover, have higher odds of sustaining a re-injury. Sport-specific injury prevention strategies should be developed and implemented in this cohort, since over 85% of pole dancers reported sustaining some kind of injury.

Co-Occurrence of Online and Offline Victimization: A Latent Class Analysis in University Students

Most people are exposed to risks both in the online and offline world. Several studies have provided definitions and measures of cybervictimization based on different theoretical approaches and most of them have focused on specific forms of cybercrime, depicting a limited portrayal of victimization. The current study explored victimization configurations in a sample of 749 university undergraduates from Spain (61.6% women; M age = 26.9), utilizing latent class analyses to account for the nature and frequency of various types of online and offline victimization along their life span. Among them, 35.9% were victims of a cyberattack, 24.4% reported being victims of cyberfraud and 49% of property crime. The analysis uncovered two classes of cybervictims—consisting of economic cybervictimization (victims of economic cybercrimes only) and cyber-polyvictimization (victims of various types of cybercrimes)—and allowed us to compare them with a group of non-victims. Younger respondents (15 to 25 years old), conventional university students, women, people with lower incomes and LGBTQI+ individuals have a higher representation in the cyber-polyvictimization class. In addition, members of this class have suffered more offline victimization in all the areas analyzed. The present study has found co-occurrence between online and offline victimization, thus reinforcing the relevance of simultaneously studying both areas and the interaction between them. From this empirical ground, prevention strategies should not be focused merely on opportunity factors related to the online interactions and behavior of potential victims, without facing the deep human and social roots of victimization.

Intracranial atherosclerosis: Review of imaging features and advances in diagnostics

Intracranial atherosclerotic disease is one of the leading causes of ischemic strokes and poses a moderate risk of recurrence. Diagnosis is currently limited to stenosis on luminal imaging, which likely underestimates the true prevalence of the disease. Detection of non-stenosing intracranial atherosclerosis is important in order to optimize secondary stroke prevention strategies. This review collates findings from the early seminal trials and the latest studies in advanced radiological techniques that characterize symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease across various imaging modalities. While computed tomography angiography (CTA) and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) comprise diagnostic mainstays in identifying stenotic changes secondary to atherosclerosis, emerging techniques such as high-resolution MRA, quantitative MRA, and computational fluid dynamics may reveal a myriad of other underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.

Corruption Prevention in Legislative Drafting in Indonesia

Corruption not only happens in the implementation of legislation or policy (administrative corruption) but also in the process of legislative drafting (state capture). Since the establishment of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), many members of the House of Representatives (DPR), the Regional Legislative Council (DPRD), or government officials have been arrested and convicted of criminal acts due to legislative corruption. In legislative corruption, the actors involved consist of the interest parties and lawmakers. The interest parties attempt to obtain political, economic, and social benefits (supernormal profits) from the formulated legislation. To the same extent, the lawmakers expect the money or other personal benefits from the interest parties in return for the assistance given. Legislative corruption will lead to disorganized policy implementation, loss on the national economy, public distrust of the law-maker institutions, and long-term effect of distrust of law and democracy. Several prevention strategies of legislative corruption can be employed by improving four principles of legislative drafting: management, professionalism, justification, and public participation.