On the relevance of regional collections

Biological collections are the basis of the Earth’s biodiversity knowledge and most of them are regional collections. Here we present two collections from the Federal University of Espírito Santo—Mammal Collection (UFES-MAM) and the associated Animal Tissue Collection (UFES-CTA)—which have been the main repository for mammal specimens collected in Espírito Santo, mostly georeferenced (~ 90%), and available in public databases. Thus, our objective with this essay was to point out the contributions of these collections to the knowledge of the diversity of mammals in the Atlantic Forest. At the same time, we present the contributions they return to society and the scientific community, highlighting the main obstacles and challenges those regional collections face. Despite being regional, UFES-MAM and UFES-CTA stand out nationally for having biological material from a wide variety of species—mainly rodents, marsupials, and bats—also counting on a series of primate tissues collected during the outbreak of wild yellow fever in Southeastern Brazil from 2017 to 2018. These collecting efforts contributed to 42 new mammal species records for Espírito Santo, and 25 species that had already been registered in the state but were listed only in out-of-state collections or reported in literature without voucher specimens. We hope that the information reported here are examples of good practices and increase knowledge and visibility of the rich collection that these regional collections house.

Identifying best modelling practices for tobacco control policy simulations: a systematic review and a novel quality assessment framework

BackgroundPolicy simulation models (PSMs) have been used extensively to shape health policies before real-world implementation and evaluate post-implementation impact. This systematic review aimed to examine best practices, identify common pitfalls in tobacco control PSMs and propose a modelling quality assessment framework.MethodsWe searched five databases to identify eligible publications from July 2013 to August 2019. We additionally included papers from Feirman et al for studies before July 2013. Tobacco control PSMs that project tobacco use and tobacco-related outcomes from smoking policies were included. We extracted model inputs, structure and outputs data for models used in two or more included papers. Using our proposed quality assessment framework, we scored these models on population representativeness, policy effectiveness evidence, simulated smoking histories, included smoking-related diseases, exposure-outcome lag time, transparency, sensitivity analysis, validation and equity.FindingsWe found 146 eligible papers and 25 distinct models. Most models used population data from public or administrative registries, and all performed sensitivity analysis. However, smoking behaviour was commonly modelled into crude categories of smoking status. Eight models only presented overall changes in mortality rather than explicitly considering smoking-related diseases. Only four models reported impacts on health inequalities, and none offered the source code. Overall, the higher scored models achieved higher citation rates.ConclusionsWhile fragments of good practices were widespread across the reviewed PSMs, only a few included a ‘critical mass’ of the good practices specified in our quality assessment framework. This framework might, therefore, potentially serve as a benchmark and support sharing of good modelling practices.

Drone Applications Fighting COVID-19 Pandemic—Towards Good Practices

Of the recent epidemics, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly severe, not only putting our health at risk, but also negatively affecting our daily lives. As there are no developed algorithms for the use of drones in epidemiological situations, it is ideal to analyze the experience gained on drones so far and outline the effective methods for future good practice. The author relies on a method of analyzing widely available open information, such as images and videos available on the Internet, reports from drone users, announcements by drone manufacturers and the contents of newspaper articles. Furthermore, the author has relied on the results of the relevant literature, as well as previous experience as a drone user and fire commander. The study reveals numerous possibilities associated with drone usage in epidemic related situations, but previous applications are based on previous experience gained during a non-epidemic situation, without developed algorithms. Applications can be divided into different types of groups: drones can collect data for management and provide information to the public, perform general or special logistical tasks to support health care and disinfect to reduce the risk of spreading the epidemic.

Engaging Girls with E-Learning: A curated list of good practices

An output of the EdTech Hub, https://edtechhub.org

TOURISM OF FAMILIES WITH THE DISABLED CHILDREN OR WITH SPECIAL NEEDS IN POLAND OF RECENT DECADES

The last decades in Polish society have been seen not only an increase in empathy and outlining needs for families and children with disabilities or deficits, but also economic improvement of families, which enables tourist or rehabilitation trips at least once a year. The growing needs and good practices for disabled children and adults also contributed to the greater awareness of the people managing of tourist centers in Poland, who are increasingly trying to propose within their offer to such groups, not traveling so far. This brief study tries to provide in a condensed way to propose good practices and experiences to meet the problems of families traveling with disabled children or adults in Poland.

Knowledge, Attitude, Practices, and Determinants of Them towards Tuberculosis in Bangladesh: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that causes thousands of deaths in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is one of the high-risk countries among 30 high TB burden countries. In this study, we aimed to assess the knowledge, practices, attitudes towards TB, and the factors associated with them in the general population of Bangladesh. Method: A web-based anonymous cross-sectional survey was conducted among the general population in Bangladesh. A comprehensive consent statement was included at the beginning of the survey by explaining the study's intent, types of questions, anonymous and voluntary nature. Analysis was carried out using the chi-square test and univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Results: Among 1,180 eligible respondents, 58.64% were males, and 62.37% were married. The majority of the participants (78.28%) were aged between 15 to 44 years. Overall adequate knowledge, favorable attitudes, and good practices about TB were found respectively in 47.8%, 44.75%, and 31.19% of the general population of Bangladesh. Almost the same sets of associated factors were found to influence adequate knowledge, favorable attitudes, and good practices towards TB among general people. Males, young, unmarried, respondents with higher education, and urban respondents were more likely to have adequate knowledge, favorable attitudes, and good practices towards TB. Conclusion: Policymakers need to design programs and interventions to improve knowledge, attitudes, and good practices towards TB among the general people by focusing on vulnerable groups such as females, young and older people, people who live in the rural areas, and illiterate/less educated people.

The interdependence of Fiscal and Monetary Policies in an Emerging economy

This article's main goal is to evaluate the degree of fiscal dominance in Uruguay in 1999-2019 to improve the understanding of economic policy for theoretical reasons and applied needs related to good practices and accountability. Two strategies are followed: one, to quantify the fraction of fiscal expenditures that are financed by monetary liabilities and, the other one, to analyze the effects of fiscal deficit on the price level and inflation because inflationary financing may prevent the central bank from reaching its inflation target. Both situations may subordinate the monetary policy to the fiscal policy, signaling fiscal dominance. In addition, through the analysis performed to assess the degree of fiscal dominance, it is possible to detect the main determining factors of the Uruguayan price level (inflation) formation during the last two decades. So far, preliminary results suggest that inflation is not exclusively a monetary phenomenon and point to some inflationary financing with a mild degree of fiscal dominance.

European Universities Initiative: How Universities May Contribute to a More Sustainable Society

The European Universities initiative, launched by the European Commission in 2018, has its origin in the concept of Civic Universities (CivUs) and consists of transnational higher education alliances throughout the European Union that share long-term strategies. They are expected to become universities of the future, to promote European ideals and character, and to revolutionize the competitiveness and excellence of European higher education. European universities add 41 alliances, involving 31 different countries. This article presents an early quantitative evaluation of this initiative. This paper addresses the coverage of the 41 alliances and selects five of the most advanced for a deeper evaluation of their best practices and their contribution to the realization of CivUs. This paper also outlines the criteria for evaluating the extent to which good practices implemented by these alliances are aligned and can contribute to the attributes of CivUs, based upon state-of-the-art educational standards. A quantitative framework, based on application of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), is also provided to rank the good practices developed by these alliances against the previous evaluation criteria. Furthermore, by applying a sensitivity analysis, this paper also addresses the robustness of this approach.

Eco-Innovation and IT Technologies for Sustainable Development of Health and Recreational Tourism of Serbia

The aim of the chapter is to point the importance of eco-innovation and IT technologies for the sustainable development of health and recreational tourism in Serbia. The subject of the research is the rehabilitation center in Eastern Serbia. The main idea of the chapter is to show how those hospital institutions use artificial intelligence-IT technologies for improving recovery services to patients in the post-COVID condition. The chapter will discuss the most common types of support and measures to facilitate the functioning of eco-tourism in Serbia with the aim to adopt good practices of developed countries (Hungary). Ecological tourism takes place in areas of pure and preserved nature. The contribution of the chapter is to point to new strategies in spa tourism, to shorten the time and reduce business costs. This would contribute to the sustainability of tourism.