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.

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.

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.

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.

Prevalence of Anisakis Larvae in Different Fish Species in Southern Albania: Five-Year Monitoring (2016–2020)

Anisakidae are nematodes that commonly parasitize in the coelomic cavity and viscera of several fish species. They can be found in flesh, which is why they have an important economic and public health impact. The aim of the current work was to assess the presence and prevalence of Anisakis larvae in fish species caught in the coastal area of the Karaburun Peninsula in Vlora Bay (Albania). A total of 856 of wild teleosts and 219 specimens of farmed fish were collected over a 5-year period (from 2016 to 2020). The results showed that out of a total of 1075 analyzed samples, 361 (33.58%) were parasitized with L3 larvae. In particular, only Solea vulgaris returned negative results, while Sparus aurata, Dicentrarchus labrax, and Sardinella aurita showed the lowest prevalence (4.55%, 9.17%, and 10.53%, respectively) and mean abundance (0.84, 1.19, and 0.92, respectively). Conversely, Scomber japonicus and Scomber scombrus showed the highest prevalence (74.07% and 68.00%, respectively) and mean abundance (188.24 and 249.82, respectively). The data suggest that the coastal area of the Karaburun Peninsula (southern Albania) may be a high-risk area for zoonotic diseases, and the consumption of raw or undercooked fish caught in the Vlora district could result in the acquisition of human anisakiasis. For these reasons, it is necessary to improve the surveillance plan.

NEXUS BETWEEN ENERGY EFFICIENCY, ENERGY SECURITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM BRICS ECONOMIES

The objective of this study is to measure the energy efficiency and energy security by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and an econometric estimation such as ordinary least square method (OLS) to measure the relationship between energy efficiency, energy security and economic development with macro-economic indicators such as energy consumption, economic growth, and environmental degradation factors by using the data from 1976 to 2016 while the energy efficiency has been measured during the period of 2010 to 2018. Results show that Brazil and Russia are countries with less energy for these consecutive years. This work contributes to the existing literature on eco-friendly and sustainable policy design in BRICS countries based on multiple indicators. The analysis also indicates that the quality of a country’s laws and regulations are essential for expanding research on renewable energy because the right policy tools serve as the basis for the transition. It is also found that Brazil, Russia, and South Africa have the best score in terms of energy and economic development while China and India are among the lowest performing countries in clean energy. Energy efficiency results show that china has the highest score of 1 while India and South Africa energy score is about 0.623 and 0.64 respectively. This serves as a panacea to study the country’s energy insecurity and bridge the gap in the literature. As the renewable energy industry is considered a high-risk area, it is necessary to develop essential aversion tools for financial policy risks to attract private capital.

The Resilience of Banjarmasin City in disaster management

Banjarmasin City is regarded as the capital of South Kalimantan Province, acknowledged as the high-risk area of 2 major issues, such as flood due to sea-level rise, and settlement fire. Banjarmasin is located in tidal marsh zone with elevation of 0.16m below the sea level which relatively leads to annual urban flooding. Floods occur in Banjarmasin in 2021 become one of threats to city resilience. Thus, building city resilience against the unexpected climate change is of importance to create a suistanable and livable city. This study focuses on resilient city of Banjarmasin by utilizing the two different methods of analysis, including: public and SWOT analysis. Public analysis is utilized to assess Banjarmasin City policy of manifestation of city resilience. SWOT analysis is applied to identify various factors systematically in formulating the planning strategy. The results indicated that innovation in handling disaster by the local government towards resilient city has been apparent through several programs of disaster mitigation by collaborating with private sectors or institutions, with aims: to provide maximum public services, to promote climate change awareness to all levels of society, and to handle river issues such as river normalization.

Risk Assessment and Enhanced Oil Recovery Effect of Gravity Assisted Oxygen-Reduced Air Flooding

The technology of air injection has been widely used in the second and tertiary recovery in oilfields. However, due to the injected air and natural gas will explode, the safety of the gas injection technology has attracted much attention. Gravity assisted oxygen-reduced air flooding is a new method that eliminates explosion risks and improves oil recovery in large-dip oil reservoirs or thick oil layers. The explosion limit data of different components of natural gas under high pressure were obtained through explosion experiments, which verified the suppression effect of oxygen-reduced air on explosions. The influence of natural gas composition and concentration on explosion limits was also investigated. In addition, a rotatable displacement device was used to study the feasibility of gravity assisted oxygen-reduced air injection for improving the heavy oil reservoirs recovery. Under pressure and temperature conditions of 20MPa and 371K, the sand-filled gravity flooding experiments with different dip angles were carried out using oxygen-reduced air with an oxygen content of 8%. The results show that with the increase of the reservoir dip, the pore volume of the injected fluid at the gas channeling point, the efficient development time of gas injection, and the final displacement efficiency of gas injection development all increase through gravity stabilization caused by gravity differentiation. In the presence of a dip angle, the cumulative oil production before the gas breakthrough point exceeded 80% of the oil production during the entire production process, indicating that gravity assisted oxygen-reduced air flooding is an effective and safe improving oil recovery method. Finally, the explosion risk of each link of the air injection process is analyzed, and the high-risk area and the low-risk area are determined.

Intestinal helminth infections in the golden jackal (Canis aureus L.) from Vojvodina: Hotspot area of multilocular echinococcosis in Serbia

In the present study, 64 golden jackals were examined for intestinal helminths in three regions of Vojvodina, Serbia. Among the examined jackals 57.8% were infected with at least one parasite species. Using the intestinal scraping technique (SCT), eight species of intestinal helminths were found: Alaria alata (7.8%), Toxascaris leonina (9.4%), Toxocara canis (4.7%), Uncinaria stenocephala (20.3%), Echinococcus multilocularis (14.1%), Mesocestoides sp. (42.2%), Taenia pisiformis, and Taenia hydatigena (the overall prevalence of Taenia infection was 6.3%). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of T. leonina in jackals from Serbia. In comparison with the SCT results, coprological tests were less sensitive and specific for parasite identification, as only two nematode species (T. leonina and T. canis) as well as ancylostomatid and taeniid eggs were identified. The total prevalence of intestinal helminths was higher in males (71.9% males, 45% females), but the difference was not statistically significant (χ 2 = 3.76; P = 0.052). Co-infection with two species of intestinal helminths was found in 35% of the examined golden jackal individuals, three-species co-infection was demonstrated in 21.6%, whereas four-species co-infection was detected in 2.7% of the golden jackals examined. Echinococcus multilocularis has previously been recorded in jackals and foxes in Serbia, but only in Vojvodina. Our results corroborate the findings of previous studies, and indicate that the Vojvodina Province, more specifically the Srem region, is probably a high-risk area for E. multilocularis transmission to humans.

Data-Driven Mathematical Modeling and Dynamical Analysis for SARS-CoV-2 Coinfection with Bacteria

The ongoing coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has serious influences on human health and economy. The available clinical data suggest that patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 have the possibility of simultaneous infection of bacteria. In this study, we present a data-driven mathematical model for coinfection of SARS-CoV-2 and bacteria to investigate the dynamics of COVID-19 progress. Specifically, based on the statistical analysis of different clinical data from China and some other countries, a system model with ordinary differential equations (ODEs) in four variables, i.e. SARS-CoV-2, bacteria, neutrophils and lymphocytes, is established. We further validate our model through theoretical analysis and fitting of different clinical data. Moreover, through numerical simulations and bifurcation analysis, we find that bacterial infection and immune-related parameters in certain ranges lead to the system transitions among three steady states, i.e. mild, severe and death. We also analyzed the influence of the time it takes for patients to switch from a high-risk area to a low-risk area on the recovery time. These results reveal that the coinfection of viruses and bacteria can explain the changes in neutrophils and lymphocytes, and that initial bacterial infection and immune-related parameters have great influences on the severity degree and mortality in COVID-19 patients. Together, our model and quantitative analysis suggest that preventing bacterial infection and enhancing immune ability during the early phase of infections could be a potential treatment option for high-risk COVID-19 patients.