Comparison of Dental Anxiety While Visiting Dental Clinics before and after Getting Vaccinated in Midst of COVID-19 Pandemic

Vaccination is critical to control the rate of coronavirus transmission and infectivity. Dental practices are a high-risk area for contracting coronavirus; this fact generates psychological disturbances amongst patients. In this study, we aimed to assess the levels of anxiety of patients while visiting dental practices before and after getting vaccinated. This cross-sectional study was carried out between March and December 2021. An electronic survey was distributed among the vaccinated individuals who visited dental clinics before and after getting vaccinated. The survey consisted of the following four parts: demographic characteristics, questions related to coronavirus, and anxiety scores before and after getting vaccinated. SPSS-25 was used to perform the statistical analysis, where paired t-test was used to compare the anxiety scores, and Mann–Whitney U test to assess the association of gender with anxiety scores. A p-value of ≤0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. A total of 400 vaccinated individuals participated in this study, with a response rate of 88.23%. The majority of the respondents (71.0%) did not test positive for coronavirus. More than half of the participants (54.0%) reported to not be suffering from any coronavirus-related symptoms. About 100 (25.0%) of the individuals stated that dental clinics are an environment in which there is a high risk of contracting coronavirus. In regards to the comparison of the mean MDAS scores of the participants before and after getting vaccinated, a significant difference (p = 0.001) was found. Vaccination has been recommended for all eligible individuals to control the transmission and infectivity of coronavirus. Vaccinations have decreased the dental anxiety of patients while visiting dental clinics. However, the protective measures are still valid and should be followed, regardless of the vaccination status.

Risk Area Identification Model of Bus Bay Stops Based on Distribution of Conflicts

Effective identification of the risk area of the bus bay stop is a prerequisite for the enhancement of traffic safety. This study proposes a method of identifying the risk area based on the distribution of traffic conflicts. Firstly, the traffic flow data of the bus stop is collected by drones and video recognition software, and the traffic flow characteristics of the bus stop are analyzed by the mathematical and statistical methods. Secondly, using the gray clustering evaluation theory, on the basis of the rasterization of the functional area of the bus bay stop, a risk level model based on the index system of conflict rate, conflict severity, and potential conflict risk is proposed. Finally, take a bus stop in Guangzhou as an example to verify the solution. The results show that the constructed model can effectively identify the risk areas of bus bay stops. The risk areas of the bus bay stops are concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the bus stop, which proves that the impact of bus exiting the stop on the surrounding traffic is greater than the process of bus entering the stop; the traffic risk areas of lanes near the bus stop are concentrated, and the severity of conflicts is low. The traffic risk zone of the lane far away from the bus stop is widely distributed, and the severity of conflict is higher. The research results can provide a basis for the micro safety performance evaluation and safety optimization of bus bay stops, which has strong theoretical and practical significance.

Diagnosis of fasciolosis in cattle slaughtered at the slaughterhouse of the urban commune of Dédougou in Burkina Faso

Fasciolosis is a major zoonosis of ruminants which causes great economic losses to breeders. Given the economic and public health importance of this pathology, it is necessary to establish the current situation in a perspective of animal and ruminant meat consumer health protection. Therefore, the present study was conducted at the slaughterhouse of Dédougou in order to identify the species of fluke that caused this pathology in the Boucle du Mouhoun region and to estimate the prevalence, the risk factors and the economic losses associated with this pathology. For this purpose, 820 cattle and 6360 small ruminants were diagnosed through post-mortem examination over a five-month period from March to August 2018. Out of the 6360 small ruminant livers examined, no cases of infestation were observed unlike cattle in which the prevalence of infestation was 2.07%. These infestations were all due to Fasciola gigantica. Regarding the risk factors, a slight effect of the month and a high influence of animals' origin were observed. March, with a prevalence of 0.25%, was the most favorable infestation month (P-value=0.05) and Sourou (19.51%), was the highest infestation risk area (P-value<0.0001). The estimated financial loss associated with the infestations was XOF 22,200.29 per infested animal. The situation is particularly worrying insofar as some populations, especially rural populations, consume meat from uncontrolled slaughter areas. Appropriate precautions should therefore be taken to ensure both consumer and animal health, given the zoonotic nature of the disease.

Sustainable Ship Management Post COVID-19 with In-Ship Positioning Services

COVID-19 is spreading out in the world now. Passenger ships such as cruise ships are very critical in this situation. Boats’ hazardous areas need to be identified in advance and managed carefully to prevent the virus. Therefore, this paper proposes for the first time that three technologies are required to support the sustainable management of ships in the post-COVID-19 era. They are ship indoor positioning, close contact identification, and risk area calculation. Ship environment-aware indoor positioning algorithms are proposed for the first time for the moving ship environment, followed by a clustering algorithm for close contact identification. Then, the risk area is calculated using the convex hull algorithm. Finally, a sustainable management approach for ships post COVID-19 is proposed.

Beneficial effects of endoscopic screening on gastric cancer and its optimal screening interval: a population-based study

Background and study aims: The effectiveness of endoscopic screening on gastric cancer (GC) is less investigated and screening interval of repeated screening is yet to be optimized in China. Patients and methods: In a population-based prospective study, we included 375,800 subjects based on the Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Early Detection Program in Linqu, a GC high-risk area in China, 14,670 of which underwent endoscopic screening(2012-2018). We assessed the associations of the risk of incident GC and GC-specific deaths with endoscopic screening and examined the changes in overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) of GCs by endoscopic screening. The optimal screening interval of repeated endoscopy for early detection of GC was explored. Results: Ever receiving endoscopic screening significantly decreased the risk of invasive GC(age and sex-adjusted RR=0.69, 95%CI:0.52-0.92) and GC-specific deaths(RR=0.33, 95%CI: 0.20-0.56), particularly for non-cardia GC. Repeated screening strengthened the beneficial effect on invasive GC-specific deaths by one-time screening. Among invasive GCs, screening-detected cases had significantly better OS(RR=0.18, 95%CI: 0.13-0.25) and DSS(RR=0.18, 95%CI: 0.13-0.25) than cases in the unscreened group, particularly for those receiving repeated endoscopy. For individuals with intestinal metaplasia or low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia, repeated endoscopy at an interval of less than two years, particularly within one year, significantly enhanced the detection of early GC, compared with repeated screening after two years(P-trend=0.02). Conclusion: Endoscopic screening prevented GC occurrence and death and improved its prognosis in a population-based study. Repeated endoscopy enhanced the effectiveness, for which screening interval needs to be defined in conformity with the severity of gastric lesions.

A Rapid Prediction Model of Urban Flood Inundation in a High-Risk Area Coupling Machine Learning and Numerical Simulation Approaches

Climate change has led to increasing frequency of sudden extreme heavy rainfall events in cities, resulting in great disaster losses. Therefore, in emergency management, we need to be timely in predicting urban floods. Although the existing machine learning models can quickly predict the depth of stagnant water, these models only target single points and require large amounts of measured data, which are currently lacking. Although numerical models can accurately simulate and predict such events, it takes a long time to perform the associated calculations, especially two-dimensional large-scale calculations, which cannot meet the needs of emergency management. Therefore, this article proposes a method of coupling neural networks and numerical models that can simulate and identify areas at high risk from urban floods and quickly predict the depth of water accumulation in these areas. Taking a drainage area in Tianjin Municipality, China, as an example, the results show that the simulation accuracy of this method is high, the Nash coefficient is 0.876, and the calculation time is 20 seconds. This method can quickly and accurately simulate the depth of water accumulation in high-risk areas in cities and provide technical support for urban flood emergency management.

PENILAIAN RISIKO KESEHATAN LINGKUNGAN KECAMATAN ABIANSEMAL, KABUPATEN BADUNG

Environment, a variable that often gets special attention in assessing public health and environmental health, is an effort to prevent disease. Environmental Health Risk Assessment (EHRA) is a comprehensive study about sanitation facilities' conditions and risky behaviors on public health. Abiansemal District is one of the tourist destinations that has a very complex impact, especially on environmental health aspects. Behavior is a highly potential factor for health status, clean and healthy behavior is strongly influenced by the availability of sanitation facilities in order to control physical environmental factors that can harm health. This study determines the Health Risk Index and obtains an overview of the sanitation facilities condition and community behavior that has a risk for environmental health in Abiansemal District, Badung Regency. This study used stratified random sampling using a sample in the Abiansemal sub-district which has been determined as the target study area. Households to be visited in each village were selected randomly by stratified random sampling. After finding the first household visited, an interview was conducted according to the available questionnaire and after it was completed it was forwarded to neighbors until it found 40 houses per village. SPSS 20.0 is used for the data analysis. The description of sanitation facilities and community behavior that poses a risk to health in strata 1 has the main problem in domestic waste with the highest score of 36, while strata 2 has the main problem in solid waste with a score of 43 and strata 3 has the main problem in domestic wastewater with a score of 45. Analysis results of the sanitation risk index for the category of low risk/less risky area for strata 1 (1 village), the category of high-risk area for Strata 2 (11 villages), and the category of moderate risk area is in Strata 3 (6 villages). The high-risk area is found in Strata 2 (11 villages). Keywords: EHRA; Environmental health; Abiansemal; Badung.

RISK MANAGEMENT OF TERMINAL ON-SITE OPERATIONS FOR SPECIAL BULK CARGOS IN TAIWAN

The main purpose of this article was to study the risk management of terminal on-site operations for special bulk cargos in Taiwan. This study applied the concept of Formal Safety Assessment approach as the foundation of risk management assessment. At first, a total of four risk aspects with eighteen preliminary risk factors were generated from literature and experts interviews. Three methods – namely analytical hierarchy process (AHP), risk matrix model (RMM), and costs and benefit analysis (CBA) methods – were employed to perform an empirical study in Taiwan. The empirical results showed: (1) The most severe risk factor found using the AHP method was ‘failure to perform periodic machinery maintenance and examination.’ (2) Ten risk factors placed in the highest-risk area via the RMM method. (3) All risk control strategies were evaluated for applicability by using the CBA method. This study recommended that improvement and reinforcement of the staff aspect and the related risk factors for the on-site operation of special bulk cargos. Through implementation of risk control strategies, the risks of accidents can be controlled.

Casing While Drilling Successfully Implemented for the First Time in High Risk Area of the Bahrain Field

One known risk of the Awali field is hole collapsing in the surface section due to the presence of floating bloulders and cavities in areas of the field; resulting in wells being abandoned as conventional drilling was not enough to solve this issue. In 2019, Schlumberger and Tatweer Petroleum combined forces to improve production of Ostracod/Magwa shallow reservoirs by drilling wells in new areas of the field which included drilling in locations with offset wells that were abandoned due to hole collapse issues in the first 500’ interval. Drilling campaign started in june 2019 and drilled succesfully two wells, but two others were abandonned due to hole collapse issues. These abandonned wells were in very promising production areas as per the reservoir model and due to the shallowenest of the reservoir, it was not possible to move the surface location. Therefore, the issues in the surface section needed to be solved in order to maximize profits in the country. Following a rigerous study for determining which is the optimal solution for drilling the surface section in this area of the field, Casing While Drilling (CwD) technology was selected and implemented in August 2019 in well A-1530D, next to the previous abandoned wells. CwD operation was performed with excellent results by drilling from 101ft to 520ft with no issues. CwD successfully isolated the higly problematic zones in the surface section and more importantly, allowed to reach areas of the reservoir that had high potential for production.