Youth and Parent Participation in Transition Planning in the U.S.A.: Findings from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 (NLTS 2012)

The purpose of this study was to use data from the United States' National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 (NLTS 2012) to present descriptive information on youth and parent participation and youth's role in required Individualized Education Program (IEP)/transition planning meetings by disability category and age groupings (14-22 year olds, 14-15 year olds, and 16-22 year olds). The study found that youth and parent attendance in IEP/transition planning meetings was high across disability categories, but the extent to which youth and parents met with teachers to discuss transition goals was much lower. Data from NLTS 2012 and a previous U.S. study, the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2 (NLTS2), were compared for youth's participation with school staff in discussing transition goals. A significant decline in participation was found over the past decade. Logistic regression analyses illustrated differences in youth and parent participation and youth's role by disability category.

Identification of RAGE and OSM as New Prognosis Biomarkers of Severe Pneumonia

Objective. To investigate efficiency of RAGE and OSM as new prognosis biomarkers of severe pneumonia. Methods. Eligible patients were classified into hypoxemia and nonhypoxemia groups. Meanwhile, the same cohort was divided into survival and nonsurvival groups after a post-hospital stay of 30 days. We analyzed risk factors for the hypoxia and death among these patients. Results. Compared with nonsurvival group, significant increase was noticed in PH, lymphocyte, albumin and platelet level in survival group, while significant decline was noticed in neutrophils, RBC, hemoglobin, hematocrit, creatinine, total bilirubin, CRP, PCT, OSM, RAGE and neutrophils/lymphocyte level. Oxygenation index level was related to APACHE II, LIS, SOFA, NUTRIC score, WBC, neutrophils, lymphocyte, RAGE, and albumin level ( p < 0.05 ). LIS, SOFA, NUTRIC score, lac, lymphocyte, platelet, BUN, total bilirubin, PCT, and OSM levels were associated with mortality rate ( p < 0.05 ). Conclusions. RAGE and OSM may serve as a new biomarker for poor prognosis in pneumonia patients.

Quality of life in head and neck cancer patients at 5 years after free flap reconstruction: a significant decline during the follow-up

Purpose Free flap reconstructions following head and neck tumor resection are known to involve more than 50% rate of complications and other adverse events and up to 50% mortality during a 5-year follow-up. We aimed to examine the difference in the long-term quality of life (QoL) between the 2-year and 5-year assessments after free flap surgery for cancer of the head and neck. Methods A total of 28 of the 39 eligible patients responded to the survey. QoL was assessed at 5 years after operation and compared with the assessment performed at 2 years after the operation using RAND-36, EORTC-C30 and H&N-35, and SWAL-QOL tools. Results The criteria for poor QoL using RAND-36 tool was met in 11 (39.3%) patients in contrast to 4 (14.3%, P = 0.003) patients in the 2-year assessment. EORTC-C30 global score was decreased from 83.9 (SD16.4) to 64.6 (SD 24.0, P < 0.001) during the follow-up. In both RAND-36 and EORTC-C30 surveys, decline was found in physical and role functioning together with energy and emotional well-being domains. SWAL-QOL showed poor swallowing-related QoL in both assessments. Conclusion We found a significant decline in QoL during a 5-year follow-up after free flap surgery for cancer of the head and neck.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence and mortality of zoonotic diseases in China

BackgroundIt has been reported that strict non-pharmaceutical measures can significantly reduce the incidence and mortality of respiratory and intestinal infectious diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are limited reports on the impact in terms of the rates of zoonotic diseases.MethodsWe extracted the incidence and mortality data of eight notifiable infectious zoonotic diseases from the website of the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China for the period of January 2015 to April 2021.ResultsFirst, the overall incidence of zoonotic diseases decreased from 0.3714 per 100 000 in 2015–2019 to 0.2756 in 2020 (25.79% reduction, p<0.001); however, a dramatic increase in activity was seen in 2021 compared with 2020 (0.4478 per 100 000 in 2021, 62.47% increase, p<0.001). Anthrax, brucellosis, leptospirosis and hydatid disease exhibited significant upward trends in 2021. Second, analysed further by stages, the monthly incidence in the routine stage (from May to December 2020) was much higher than that in the emergency stage of the COVID-19 (from January to April 2020) (55.33% increase, p<0.001). We also found that the monthly observed incidence was significantly lower than the predicted incidence of a 10.29% reduction in the emergency stage. Third, no differences were seen in mortality between 2021 and 2020, while a significant decline was found in 2020 compared with the previous 5 years (72.70%, p<0.001).ConclusionsStrict containment and feasible suppression strategies during the 2020 period of the COVID-19 pandemic had positive impacts on the overall incidence of zoonotic diseases in China. However, anthrax, brucellosis, leptospirosis and hydatid diseases might increase with the relaxation of non-pharmacological interventions in 2021.

Smart Monitoring IoT-Based System for Hydroponic Agriculture

In India, the land of farmers, where agriculture has always been the primary occupation of the people, more than 50% of the population is still engaged in agriculture and its allied sectors. However, over the years, a significant decline has been observed in the contribution by the agriculture sector towards India's GDP. This chapter aimed towards identifying the gap between the ratio of high inputs and low yields by portraying the various limitations in traditional Indian agriculture methods and how hydroponic agriculture is the need of the hour for the growth of Indian agriculture. Hydroponic agriculture or hydroponics, around the world, has proved to be an efficient and more productive method of agriculture than geoponics (i.e., the traditional agriculture practice carried out in the soil). Although bearing a large bouquet of advantages, there are some limitations associated with it as well. This chapter aimed at overcoming these limitations to enhance this novel approach of agriculture even further.

COVID-19 OUTBREAK AND ROLE OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN PAKISTAN

The current research aimed to find out the effect of tourism development on economic growth in Pakistan for the period (1995 to 2017) by using Canonical Regression Analysis (CCR) and Dynamic Least Square (DOLS) method. In addition, a unit root test is used to find out the static nature of the variables, and for the robust check, the authors utilize the Fully Modified Least Square (FMOLS) method. The results of the CCR and DOLS shows the key role of tourism development on growth, and FMOLS confirms these findings. In addition, the contribution of financial development is insignificant and positive. However, inflation harms economic growth, which depicts that the government of Pakistan will face severe challenges to achieve the targeted level of growth in future. In addition, an outbreak of Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) is another challenge that will cause a significant decline in tourism receipts.

A NOVEL PERMEABILITY MODEL IN DAMAGED TREE-LIKE BIFURCATING NETWORKS CONSIDERING THE INFLUENCE OF ROUGHNESS

The seepage in tree-like bifurcating networks is a very common phenomenon in nature. The research on the transport characteristics of tree-like bifurcating networks has always been a hot topic. In this paper, a novel permeability model for fluid flow in damaged tree-like bifurcating networks is proposed. In the proposed model, the influence of roughness on permeability is considered by means of the fractal method. It is found that the permeability is not only related to the structural parameters of the network but also related to the damaged position and the number of damaged tubes at the damaged position. The effects of these parameters and damaged structure on permeability are discussed separately. The results show that the permeability reduces along with an increase in the roughness level, the length ratio, the number of damaged tubes, and the number of total bifurcating levels. Another major finding is that the permeability increases with an increase in the diameter ratio. Besides, we found that the damaged position and the number of damaged tubes at the damaged position have an important effect on the permeability. Increasing the number of damaged tubes and bringing the damaged position close to the front end of the network will reduce the permeability. Compared with the undamaged network, the permeability of damaged network has a significant decline. The proposed model may provide potential applications for the analysis of fluid flow in damaged tree-like bifurcating network.

Construction of an airborne chemiluminescence ozone monitor for volcanic plumes

&lt;p&gt;Volcanic plumes contain traces of bromine monoxide, BrO, which catalyze destruction of ozone, O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;, mixed into the plume. Therefore, local depletion of O&lt;sub&gt;3 &lt;/sub&gt;in the plume could be possible. However, calculations comparing mixing with the rate of O&lt;sub&gt;3 &lt;/sub&gt;destruction suggest that no significant decline in the O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; concentration should be expected. On the other hand several studies at different volcanoes have found varying degrees of O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; depletion inside the plume. So far, ozone and its concentration distribution in volcanic plumes have only been insufficiently determined. Reliable ozone measurements would make a decisive contribution to the understanding of volcanic plume chemistry.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The standard technique for ambient O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; monitoring is the short-path ultraviolet (UV) absorption instrument. But in volcanic plumes this technique suffers from strong interference of the overlapping SO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; absorption features in the UV. SO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; is one of the major compounds in volcanic plumes.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;We want to overcome this problem by relying on the chemiluminescence (CL) reaction between ozone and ethene, a standard technique for O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; measurement in the 1970s and 1980s, which we found to have no interference from trace gases abundant in volcanic plumes. The key component of a CL O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-instrument is a reaction chamber, where ethene is mixed into the ambient air and a photomultiplier tube detects the resulting photons.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Field measurements with existing CL O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-monitors are complicated, because they are usually heavy and bulky. Therefore we designed a more compact and lightweight version (10 kg backpack size CL instrument), which was used in a field study at Mount Etna. However, the campaign was restricted to plumes that are pushed down to ground in areas accessible by foot.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Here we report on a further improved version of the instrument weighing around 1 kg, which we can mount onto a drone to carry it into the plume. In particular, we describe the design advances making the reduction in weight and size possible.&lt;/p&gt;

Has Clinical and Epidemiological Varicella Burden Changed over Time in Children? Overview on Hospitalizations, Comorbidities and Costs from 2010 to 2017 in Italy

According to WHO estimates, varicella disease is responsible of a worldwide significant burden in terms of hospitalizations, complications, and deaths, with more than 90% of cases under 12 years old. This study aims at evaluating the clinical, epidemiological, and economic burden of varicella in Ligurian children, about comorbidities, organizational variables, and vaccination coverages from 2010 to 2017, in terms of Emergency Department accesses and hospitalizations. The overall hospitalization rate was 179.76 (per 100,000 inhab.), with a gradual but significant decline since 2015, when universal varicella vaccination was introduced in Liguria (p < 0.0001). The risk of being hospitalized for complicated varicella in subjects with at least one comorbidity was significantly higher than in subjects without comorbidities (p = 0.0016). The economic analysis showed higher costs in subjects with complicated varicella who were 0–3 years old. This age group showed higher costs also considering extra-hospital costs for both outpatient procedures and pharmaceutical costs (p < 0.0001). The results confirm the relevant burden of varicella, especially in the 0–3 age group and in children with comorbidities. Thus, vaccination with the achievement of adequate vaccination coverages is confirmed to be a necessary control strategy to reduce hospitalizations and associated complications with important economic benefits.

Ecological value of different vegetated strip types in providing valuable insect-rich habitats for grey partridge chicks

The intensification and specialisation of agriculture has contributed to farmland wildlife decline, including farmland birds. Grey partridge is a farmland species which has experienced a significant decline across Europe in recent decades. Chick survival rate is a key determinant of grey partridge population change and depends essentially on the availability of insect food. In this study, ground-dwelling and canopy-dwelling insects were collected using pitfall trapping and sweep netting methodologies, respectively, on different strip types in an area established for the conservation of grey partridge. The aim was to further our understanding of the value of different vegetated strip types in providing insect-rich habitats for grey partridge chicks. Overall, wildflower strip (WS) provided the greatest insect abundance. Significantly more ground-dwelling insects were found on WS, natural regeneration (NS) and leguminous strips (LS) than on grass strip (GS). Canopy-dwelling insects were also significantly more abundant on WS compared to all other strip types. This study highlights that WSs may represent important habitats in providing insect-rich food for grey partridge chicks and sowing these strips may therefore play a key role in decreasing chick mortality and supporting grey partridge conservation. It also demonstrates that other different vegetated strip types may still provide strip-specific insect taxa, in addition to other valuable resources. This study recommends a complex mosaic of different strip types to provide key resources for grey partridge, such as insect and plant food, nesting habitats and overwinter cover.