Impact of COVID-19 on Blood Donation and Supply: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study from Saudi Arabia

Background. The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic caused a major impact on blood donation process and supply globally. A lockdown management procedure was launched nationally in Saudi Arabia to manage this global health crisis. The main aim of this study was to determine the effect of COVID-19 lockdown on blood donation services and supply in different regions of Saudi Arabia. Study Design and Methods. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the blood bank centers of 5 major cities including Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Hail, and Jizan in Saudi Arabia. Demographic and blood characteristics were retrieved from the first 6 months of 2019 (January–June) and compared to the same period of 2020. Results. Our findings showed variation in the characteristics of blood donation and supply among the centers surveyed, as some of these centers were adversely affected, while others showed an increase in the availability of blood products during the pandemic. For example, Jeddah’s center was significantly affected by COVID-19 lockdown whereas Hail’s center showed a significant increase in the analyzed characteristics of blood donation services in 2020 compared to 2019. Overall, there was no major difference among the surveyed centers between 2020 and 2019, and this might be due to the effective management of blood supply and transfusion. Discussion. Although blood supply and transfusion practice was slightly affected at various degree among the surveyed centers, the whole process did not show a significant effect on the overall outcome. This is in fact due to the proper preparedness, management of blood requirements and supplies, and efficient response of the surveyed centers in Saudi Arabia.

Wildlife managers ignore previous knowledge at great risk: the case of Rivaldo, the iconic wild Asian Elephant Elephas maximus L. of the Sigur Region, Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India

Management of wildlife depends mostly on scientific data; ignoring this can lead to unintended consequences. We take the case study of the wild male Asian Elephant Rivaldo of the Sigur Region, who was translocated out of his range. Rivaldo returned to his home range within a few days, which could have been expected if scientific publications had been consulted. We suggest that a simple checklist of relevant publications can help park managers to decide on a proper management procedure. We also used a simple Bayesian framework to visually show how the probability of predicting a management outcome is increased by prior knowledge. The expensive and risky effort to relocate the elephant could have been avoided altogether if prior knowledge had been taken into consideration.

Evaluating Strategies for Managing Anthropogenic Mortality on Marine Mammals: An R Implementation With the Package RLA

Bycatch, the undesirable and non-intentional catch of non-target species in marine fisheries, is one of the main causes of mortality of marine mammals worldwide. When quantitative conservation objectives and management goals are clearly defined, computer-based procedures can be used to explore likely population dynamics under different management scenarios and estimate the levels of anthropogenic removals, including bycatch, that marine mammal populations may withstand. Two control rules for setting removal limits are the Potential Biological Removal (PBR) established under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Removals Limit Algorithm (RLA) inspired from the Catch Limit Algorithm (CLA) developed under the Revised Management Procedure of the International Whaling Commission. The PBR and RLA control rules were tested in a Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) framework. A key feature of PBR and RLA is to ensure conservation objectives are met in the face of the multiple uncertainties or biases that plague real-world data on marine mammals. We built a package named RLA in the R software to carry out MSE of control rules to set removal limits in marine mammal conservation. The package functionalities are illustrated by two case studies carried out under the auspices of the Oslo and Paris convention (OSPAR) (the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic) Marine Mammal Expert Group (OMMEG) in the context of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The first case study sought to tune the PBR control rule to the conservation objective of restoring, with a probability of 0.8, a cetacean population to 80% of carrying capacity after 100 years. The second case study sought to further develop a RLA to set removals limit on harbor porpoises in the North Sea with the same conservation objective as in the first case study. Estimation of the removals limit under the RLA control rule was carried out within the Bayesian paradigm. Outputs from the functions implemented in the package RLA allows the assessment of user-defined performance metrics, such as time to reach a given fraction of carrying capacity under a given level of removals compared to the time needed given no removals.

Key issues in the regulation of microbial bioprotectants in the European Union: challenges and solutions to achieve more sustainable crop protection

Microbial bioprotectants, like chemical pesticides, are required to pass a risk assessment and risk management procedure prior to use in plant protection, which in many countries is an obstacle for market access, in particular, the European Union. Administrative issues and data requirements, adapted from those used for chemicals, cause issues for both applicants and evaluators. These issues are reviewed and improvements are proposed. Biology should be the basis of the evaluation and data requirements for microorganisms, with an emphasis in this chapter on microbial compounds and testing methods. Political actions involving the use of pesticides are reviewed and recommendations are made on how to improve the system for microbial bioprotectants, including new uses. New legislation is suggested for all microorganisms used in agriculture and related uses based on the assumption that well-known microorganisms are of low risk to human health and the environment.

Development of recommendations on the hierarchy of activities regarding the implementation of the BRC standard in relation to the safety of packaging using the AHP method

The British Retail Consortium Global Standard for Food Safety enjoys great popularity among food industry companies, the number of companies with the certified standard is rising every year. The packaging used for food packaging has a very large impact on the safety and quality of the packaged food. The purpose of the study was to indicate the requirements of the standard in relation to packaging, which should be implemented firstly by enterprises of the food industry. In the research part, the AHP analysis was conducted on the basis of the experts' recommendations. Decision matrixes for every criterion: hazard analysis concerning packaging, purchase procedure, packaging acceptance procedure were developed. A decision matrix for the main criterion as a result of criteria decision matrix was developed, global decision hierarchy was also developed. Research clearly showed that the most important activity (among the proposed) is hazard analysis, with a 0.517 weighted sum value. In many of the detailed requirements of the standard, hazard analysis and risk assessment (0.333 weighted sum value) are the basis for many activities, including establishing a purchasing procedure (0.163 weighted sum value), accepting packaging (0.297 weighted sum value), or many others. The relevance of this study is the identification of the hierarchy of importance of activities performed within the framework of ensuring the quality and safety of food packaging. A reasonable approach is presented. The AHP method allows indicating the sequence of activities during the implementation of the BRC standard, as evidenced by pilot studies carried out on the basis of procedures related to the safety of packaging. The standard sets up requirements for packaging in the form of packaging management procedure, in which it should be stated how the site operates with packaging. Moreover, there are requirements concerning hazard analysis in relation to packaging

Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Seas bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) abundance estimate from the 2019 ice-based survey

An ice-based visual survey of the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Seas stock of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) was conducted in spring 2019 near Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska. A Horvitz-Thompson-type estimator is used to estimate population abundance from the resulting data, correcting for detection probabilities, whale availability within visual range, and whale passage during periods of missed effort. Analytical methods mirror those used by Givens et al. (2016) for the 2011 survey as much as possible; however, unlike 2011, no simultaneous acoustic monitoring was conducted in 2019, so the availability correction factor had to be estimated from past years. The estimated abundance was 12,505 with 95% confidence interval of (7,994, 19,560) and a CV of 0.228. This estimated abundance is markedly lower than the 2011 estimate of 16,820, but the 2019 confidence interval wholly encompasses the 2011 interval. We do not interpret this finding as evidence of a decline for many reasons including: highly unusual ice conditions, an unusual migration route that was sometimes too distant from observers to detect whales, failure to conduct watch because of closed leads during the early weeks of the migration when numerous whales likely passed, an unusually short perch, and hunters’ heavy use of powered skiffs near the observation perch which likely disturbed the whales during the survey. Furthermore, bowhead health assessment information for 2019 suggests that harvested bowheads did not exhibit obvious reductions in health condition, and aerial surveys in summer 2019 indicated high calf production (Stimmelmayr et al. 2020). Despite the challenges of the 2019 survey, the estimate is adequate for use with the International Whaling Commission’s management procedure and complies with the survey requirements of the Aboriginal Whaling Scheme.

Comparison of H2S Gas Sensors: A Sensor Management Procedure for Sewer Monitoring

Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) emissions are one of the major problems associated with sewer networks. This gas, with its characteristic smell of rotten eggs is highly toxic and leads to the corrosion of sewer infrastructures. To protect cities and ensure the safety of sewer workers, sewers are commonly monitored using H2S gas sensors. In this work, three commercial H2S gas sensors for air quality monitoring were compared at two different sites in Berlin, Germany. Two of the sensors provide online access to data, while the other one is a data logger. Moreover, based on statistical measures (RMSE, MAE, MB, and a graphical analysis), we evaluated whether a rotation/exchange between data logger (reference) and online sensors is possible without significant differences in the gas measurements. Experimental evaluation revealed that measurement differences are dependent on the H2S concentration range. The deviation between sensors increases as the H2S concentration rises. Therefore, the interchange between reference and online sensors depends on the application site and the H2S levels. At lower ranges (0–10 ppm) there were no observed problems. Finally, to support practitioners on-site, a management procedure in the form of a decision-making tool is proposed for assessing whether gas sensors should be exchanged/rotated.

I gel versus endotracheal intubation for percutaneous tracheostomies: a randomised study to ascertain amicable approach

Background: Percutaneous tracheostomy or percutaneous dilation tracheostomy (PDT) is an airway management procedure routinely performed in critically ill patients, requiring prolonged ventilation. It is safely performed bedside by anaesthesiologist/intensivist in ICUs. Complications as endotracheal tube (ET) damage, loss of airway due to accidental extubation and piercing of guide wire through ET tube during procedure has led to exploration of safer/effective and viable airway alternatives while performing the procedures.Methods: In this study we randomised 60 patients to group E (ET) and group I (I gel) 30 each and studied ease of carrying out procedure and associated complication rates in both groups.Results: In ET group (group E), 9% of patients suffered with potentially catastrophic complications, e.g. loss of airway, inadequate ventilation of lungs, haemorrhage, airway leak due to ET tube cuff rupture and accidental extubation. In ETT group there was incidence of 18% cuff puncture by guide wire (p=0.025) and 3% accidental tracheal extubation. Group I witnessed lower incidence of haemorrhage (3%) and the incidence of guide wire piercing airway device was nil. Group I also demonstrated better hemodynamic stability attributed to lesser tissue trauma and airway manipulation.Conclusions: This study demonstrates enhanced safety with usage of I gel for PCDT, with less complication, better hemodynamic stability and shorter procedure duration.

Risk management methodology in the supply chain: a case study applied

This work provides a general risk management procedure applied to synchronized supply chains. After conducting a literature review and taking the international standard ISO 28000 and ISO 31000 as a reference. The most important steps that enable organizations to carry out supply chain risk management are described. Steps such as defining the context, identifying and analyzing risks or avoiding them, controlling them and mitigating them are some of the main points of this work. On the other hand, we carried out a practical case in which the execution of this procedure is carried out in a real supply chain located in the city of Jaén. In this specific case study, the most important risks and those that require early treatment will be discussed. In addition, a series of suggestions and ideas will be established, by way of conclusions, that allow said organization to improve the results that we have obtained in risk management.