The aim of this study was to develop, implement, and evaluate a new auxiliary enterprise risk management framework and process to serve as an enabler to the global ISO 31000 risk framework and ISO 31010 processes. This framework has been designed particularly for use within high-risk environments and those characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). This paper proposes a methodology for optimization of structured sharing and grass-roots management of all available risk-sentience information with the assessed potential to develop into an identifiable risk in the future. The author introduces new risk terminology including risk-sentience, risk-sentience information, and risk-sentience management. The process involved the development of the Theory of Risk-Sentience (ToRS), Risk-Sentience Auxiliary Framework (RSAF) and a risk-sentience management process referred to as LUOMEAR (Learning from Uncertainties, Others Mistakes, Experiences and Anecdotal Reporting). Manchester Patient Safety Framework (MaPSaF), SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, and a newly developed Risk-Sentience Fertility Checklist were used to conduct pre and post-trial evaluations. The findings include positive adjustments in safety culture, components of commitment to quality, communication and team-working around safety issues, access to evolving risk-information, and efficient sharing and management of recorded risk-information. Recommendations are made for more extensive application of both the proposed auxiliary risk framework and process within high-risk sectors to further explore its effectiveness and scope.

At 12:28 UTC (8:28 PM, local time) on 15 January 2023, a shallow, moderate earthquake with a magnitude (Mw) of 4.7 and a depth of one (1) kilometer shook the northern part of Leyte Island in the central part of the Philippines. The ground shaking was felt at PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS) VI, (very strong) equivalent to Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) VI in areas along the strike of the Leyte segment of the Philippine Fault. Even though this earthquake is classified as moderate in size, significant geologic, structural, and socio-economic impacts were documented. Most of the earthquake impacts that include surface rupture, liquefaction, and mass movements are limited near the epicentral area. The earthquake produced an 8-km-long surface rupture, the first documented rupture generated by a magnitude <6 along the Philippine Fault, and is unusual in other surface rupturing earthquakes worldwide. It injured 18 persons and damaged 434 residential buildings and 26 public infrastructures which amounts to about 500 thousand US dollars. Structural damages were caused by surface rupture and/or poor engineering construction practices. Analysis of the seismic waveform and recorded peak ground acceleration (PGA) suggests that the subsurface geology influenced the ground motion amplification in an area near the epicenter. Based on the hypocenter, focal mechanism solution, aftershock distribution, and actual field observation, the causative fault for this event is the northern end of the Philippine Fault – Leyte segment. Moderate in size, this earthquake emphasizes the need and importance of documenting moderate-sized earthquakes as a tool and guide for medium and long-term earthquake risk assessment and resiliency.

Hyperlipidemia is an identified risk factor for metabolic syndrome, obesity and cardiovascular complications characterized by elevated levels of lipids in blood. The present study aimed to inhibit HMG-CoA reductase with 15-oxoursolic acid through in-vivo and in-silico assessments. HFD-induced hyperlipidemia in rats was developed with a marked increase in total cholesterol (58.34 ± 0.21 mg/dl), triglycerides (45.45 ± 0.39 mg/dl), LDL-c (66.12 ± 0.10 mg/dl), VLDL-c (19.34 ± 0.16 mg/dl), and a decrease in HDL-c (10.34 ± 0.18 mg/dl). The oral administration of 15-oxoursolic acid at a concentration of 30 mg/Kg b.w significantly reduced the serum concentration of total cholesterol (42.65 ± 0.54 mg/dl), triglycerides (32.33 ± 0.16 mg/dl), LDL-c (50.34 ± 0.15 mg/dl) and VLDL-c (13.15 ± 0.45 mg/dl) respectively and an increased in the serum HDL-c (18.56 ± 0.34 mg/dl). 15-oxo ursolic acid also caused a decrease in the coronary risk index and atherogenic risk index. In-silico studies of 15-oxoursolic acid with HMG-CoA reductase showed significant interaction capability with binding energy (-9.26805 Kcal/mol). It is concluded that 15-oxoursolic acid could significantly reduce the total cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL levels in HFD-induced hyperlipidemia rats which might lead to new medication with significant hypolipidemic potential.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and their risk factors are a major cause of illness and death worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries like Cameroon. Physiotherapist-led health promotion (PLHP) has proven effective in improving health and reducing CVD risks. Understanding patient perspectives is crucial for designing effective, context-specific PLHP interventions. This study explored patients' views, experiences, perceived usefulness, acceptability, and preferred methods of PLHP through a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach. The quantitative data highlights a significant burden of CVD conditions and risk factors among patients seen in physiotherapy services. Qualitatively, three themes were identified and included: 1) perspectives and experiences of people at risk or with CVDs (pwCVDs) on PLHP; 2) Perceived usefulness and acceptability of PLHP; 3) Preferred delivery methods of PLHP. Participants reported positive feedback on PLHP and physiotherapy services. Barriers to effective PLHP included high workloads for physiotherapists, limited service access in rural areas, and prohibitive costs. Despite these challenges, participants expressed strong confidence in physiotherapists' competence, though they also called for improved regulation and ongoing professional development. PLHP components, especially physical treatment and dietary advice, were deemed highly useful and acceptable. Patients suggested various delivery methods, including peer support groups, home visits, and mass media interventions. This study highlights the need to improve the scope of practice, competence of physiotherapists and accessibility of physiotherapy services in Cameroon for pwCVDs. It is necessary to adopt multidisciplinary approaches to achieve better outcomes for risk factors like diabetes and hypertension in context.

This paper explores the effectiveness of the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm III (NSGA-III) and traditional Mean-Variance optimization in financial portfolio management. Using a dataset comprising global financial assets, we applied both methodologies to optimize portfolios based on multiple objectives, including risk, return, skewness, and kurtosis. The findings reveal that NSGA-III outperforms the Mean-Variance method in achieving a more diverse set of Pareto-optimal portfolios. NSGA-III portfolios exhibited superior performance in balancing risk and return, demonstrated by higher Sharpe ratios, more favorable skewness, and lower kurtosis. Additionally, NSGA-III's ability to simultaneously optimize across multiple conflicting objectives highlights its robustness in navigating complex financial landscapes, offering enhanced portfolio resilience. In contrast, the Mean-Variance approach, while effective in achieving balanced risk and return, was limited in addressing higher-order moments of the return distribution. These results underscore NSGA-III's potential as a powerful tool for portfolio optimization, providing a comprehensive alternative to traditional methods in modern financial markets where multiple objectives must be considered.

Cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality are markedly increased in non-dialysis patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Thus, the precise management of CV risk factors involved in CKD is crucial to improving outcomes. Serum phosphate (Pi) and FGF-23 levels have been linked with a higher risk of CV events in CKD. However, the exact thresholds of Pi and FGF-23, at which the risk of adverse events increases, remain unknown. We evaluated the expression of intact FGF-23 (iFGF-23) and Pi in a non-dialysis CKD patient population (n=82; 42M:40F; median age 61 years) and investigated their association with CV and renal outcomes, in a 5-year follow-up period. At baseline, the median estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), iFGF-23, and Pi were 45 ml/min/1.73m² (IQ 26.6-73.1), 69.9 µg/ml (IQ 33-117) and 3.4 mg/dL (IQ 3.3-3.9), respectively. Univariate analysis showed a strong association of both iFGF-23 and Pi with age, Charlson Comorbidity Index, hypertension, and diabetes. In addition, iFGF-23 and Pi were both associated with the composite outcome (major CV and cerebrovascular events – MACCEs, hospitalizations, and all-cause mortality) during follow-up. Moreover, Pi was independently associated with all-cause mortality during follow-up. The segmentation of the population in terciles, according to Pi (<3mg/dL; 3-3.6 mg/dL; ≥3.7 mg/dL) within reference serum levels, showed a distribution of the fatality of 0%, 20% and 80% (p =0.034), respectively. Our results reinforce the association of both iFGF-23 and Pi with composite CV outcomes in non-dialysis CKD patients and further suggest that Pi, within current reference levels, may behave as an independent risk factor for mortality in this population. It is suggested that a reassessment of Pi reference levels for early therapeutic intervention in this population may be justified.

Extreme climates such as droughts and hot extremes, may result in marked damage to crop yields and threaten regional and global food security. Maize is a major grain crop in Liaoning Province, severely affected by drought and hot events. The objective of this study is to advance an approach to estimate the risk of crop yield reduction under the compound dry-hot events (CDHE) in Liaoning Province. Results show that the ratio of stations experiencing compound dry-hot events during the twelfth leaf and maturity stage tended to increase on the time scale. On a spatial scale, the frequency of compound dry-hot events in central Liaoning Province was relatively low during the whole and various reproductive periods of maize. In addition to the twelfth leaf, western Liaoning Province is prone to compound dry-hot events. The high-risk area for the occurrence of the compound dry-hot events in maize is Chaoyang City, located in the western part of Liaoning Province, and the cities in the low-risk area account for about 64.3% of the total number of cities in Liaoning Province, mainly in the central and northern parts of Liaoning Province. Generally, this study emphasizes focusing on the impacts of compound dry-hot events on agricultural production and provides an index to assess the risk of compound dry-hot events on maize production.

Accurate measurement of systemic financial risk is critical to maintaining the stability of financial markets. Taking China as the subject of investigation, the Chinese Financial Stress Index (CFSI) indicator system was con-structed by integrating six dimensions and employing Gray Relation Analysis (GRA) for dimensionality reduction of the indicators. The CFSI was derived using the Attribute Hierarchy Model (AHM) method with the Criteria Importance Through the Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method, and an Improved Gravitational Search Algorithm (IGSA) optimized Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) was proposed for out-of-sample prediction of CFSI trends from 2024 to 2026. By analyzing the trend of financial pressure indicators, the relationship between financial pressure and economic activity can be effectively identified. The research findings indicate that: (1) The CFSI is capable of accurately reflecting the current financial stress situation in China; (2) The IGSA-RBFNN demonstrates good robustness and generalization capabilities, predicting that the CFSI index will reach a peak value of 0.543 by the end of 2024, and there exists a regular pattern of stress rebound towards the end of each year. The novel methodology benefits policymakers and regulatory authorities to formulate preventive measures and risk management by identifying potential risks and vulnerabilities in advance.

Background/Objectives: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Carotid intima-media thickness (C-IMT) is a non-invasive marker of atherosclerosis. Low omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) intake and vitamin D deficiency are potential cardiometabolic risk factors in patients with CKD. The aim of this study was to evaluate dietary intake and status of omega-3 PUFA and vitamin D in pre-dialysis and hemodialysis patients and to examine the link of dietary α-linolenic acid (ALA) and fish consumption with blood pressure and C-IMT in CKD patients. Methods: All 77 selected patients (36 pre-dialysis, 41 on hemodialysis) underwent standardized clinical, nutritional, and laboratory assessments. Repeated 24-hour recalls were performed to assess dietary intake. The fatty acid profile was determined by gas-liquid chromatography. Results: Inadequate vitamin D intake and vitamin D status were found in 95% of patients. PUFAs profiles did not differ between hemodialysis and pre-dialysis participants. Dietary intake of ALA was negatively correlated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) (p=0.007), C-IMT (p=0.002), serum CRP (p=0.044), iPTH (p=0.01) and 25(OH)D3 (p=0.006). ALA intake of more than 0.23 g/daily was associated with lower SBP (p=0.001), serum 25(OH)D3 (p=0.004), and C-IMT (p=0.002). Conclusions: This study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between dietary ALA intake and C-IMT in CKD. The results of this study could emphasize the significant role of the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and inadequate omega-3 PUFA intake and status considering CVD health in CKD patients.

As the number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) rises in the world, the amount of sensitive data used also increases, making them targets for cyberattacks. SMEs face a host of issues such as lack of resources, and poor cybersecurity talent, resulting in multiple vulnerabilities that increase overall risk. Cybersecurity risk assessment frameworks have been developed by multiple organizations such as the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), but they are complicated to understand, and challenging to implement. This research aimed to create an effective cybersecurity risk assessment framework specifically for SMEs while considering their limitations. This was achieved by first identifying common threats and vulnerabilities and categorizing them according to their importance, and risk. Secondly, popular frameworks like the NIST CSF and ISO 27001/2 were analyzed for their proficiencies and deficiencies while identifying relevant areas for SMEs. Finally, novel techniques catered to SMEs were explored and incorporated to create an effective framework for SMEs. This framework was also developed in the form of a tool, providing an interactive and dynamic environment. The tool was effective and the framework is a promising start but requires more quantitative analysis.

Background: Molecular genetic events are among the numerous factors affecting the clinical course of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Recent studies have demonstrated that aberrant expression of miRNA, as well as different thyroid-related genes, correlate with the aggressive clinical course of PTC and unfavorable treatment outcome, which opens up new avenues for using them in personalization of the treatment strategy for patients with PTC. In the present work, our goal was to assess the applicability of molecular markers in preoperative diagnosis of aggressive variants of papillary thyroid cancer. Methods: The molecular genetic profile (expression levels of 34 different markers and BRAF mutation) was studied for 108 cytology specimens collected by fine-needle aspiration biopsy in patients with PTC having different clinical manifestations. Results: Statistically significant differences with adjustment for multiple comparisons (p &lt; 0.0015) for clinically aggressive variants of PTC were obtained for four markers: miRNA-146b, miRNA-221, FN1, and CDKN2A. Weak statistical correlation (0.0015&lt; р&lt;0.05) was observed for miRNA-31, -375, -551b, -148b, -125b, mtDNA, CITED1, TPO, HMGA2, CLU, NIS, SERPINA1, TFF3, and TMPRSS4. Conclusions: The recurrence risk of papillary thyroid carcinoma can be preoperatively predicted using miRNA-221, the fibronectin and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A genes.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is shaking the foundations of public health governance all over the world. Researchers are challenged by informing and supporting authorities on acquired knowledge and practical implications. This commentary applies established theories of risk perception research to COVID-19 and reflects on the role of risk perceptions in these unprecedented times. Moreover, it calls for utilizing the knowledge on risk perception to improve health risk communication, build trust and contribute to a collaborating governance.

The research explores the impact of financial indicators on the credit ratings of companies listed on the S&amp;P 500, employing a Sys-GMM Model to address endogeneity concerns. The study investigated three independent variables categorized as market and survival factors alongside with seven control variables sourced from leverage, liquidity, interest coverage, profitability, market, survival, and macroeconomic domains. The sample comprised 2398 observations from Capital IQ Pro, spanning nine years (2013 to 2021) and encompassing 240 public companies. The findings suggest that neither Tobin's Q (TQ) and Total Shareholder Return (TSR) lack significant correlations with credit ratings, implying that stock market performance and total shareholder return do not directly impact credit ratings. In contrast, the Altman Z-score (AZS) emerged as a significant predictor, indicating its importance in assessing credit risk. These insights enhance understanding of financial indicators' impact on credit ratings, aiding financial institutions and companies in prudent lending and financing decisions.

Background: Despite their generally favorable prognosis, hepatic fibrosis remains a possible complication for hepatitis B virus (HBV) inactive carriers. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of significant fibrosis and associated risk factors among Omani HBV inactive carriers. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted of 200 Omani HBV inactive carriers visiting a tertiary hospital in Muscat, Oman, between January 2017 and December 2018. Significant fibrosis (stage F2 or higher) was identified using two-dimensional shear-wave elastography. Baseline clinical, laboratory, and radiological data were analyzed to determine associations. Results: Of the total sample, 106 patients (53%) were male, and the mean age was 44.6 ± 9.3 years. The prevalence of significant fibrosis was 20% (n = 40). Male gender (p = 0.007), age ≥60 years (p = 0.024), and fatty changes in liver ultrasound (p = 0.044) were found to be independent factors for significant fibrosis. Conclusion: the prevalence of significant fibrosis was relatively high among a sample of Omani HBV inactive carriers, with several sociodemographic and clinical risk factors identified. Periodic assessment of liver function is needed for patients with these risk factors; moreover, routine biochemical parameters could be useful predictors of disease prognosis. Further research is recommended to substantiate these findings.

Osteoarthritis and chronic pancreatitis comorbidity are insufficiently studied, and the reciprocal impact of these conditions remains poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate potential predictors for the development of osteoarthritis and chronic pancreatitis comorbidity, as well as complications associated with this comorbidity. A cohort of 150 patients was categorized into three groups: a control group (n=30), patients with osteoarthritis (n=68), and patients with comorbid osteoarthritis and chronic pancreatitis (n=52). Potential predictors for comorbidity development and associated complications were explored. The study revealed that concurrent osteoarthritis and chronic pancreatitis exacerbate each other's progression and contribute to malnutrition. Body Mass Index (BMI) emerged as a potential predictor for chronic pancreatitis development in osteoarthritis patients. In osteoarthritis patients, fecal elastase-1 levels were identified as potential predictors for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Factors such as WOMAC total score, fecal elastase-1, C-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin, retinol, tocopherol, 25-hydroxy vitamin D3, and BMI were found to influence comorbidity development between osteoarthritis and chronic pancreatitis. Additionally, Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale-Diarrhea Syndrome (GSRS-DS), Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale-Constipation syndrome (GSRS-CS), Qualitative Assessment of the Symptoms and Impact of Pancreatic Exocrine Insufficiency domain A (PEI-Q-A), retinol, tocopherol, and iron were identified as potential predictors for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in osteoarthritis patients. In conclusion, the comorbidity of osteoarthritis and chronic pancreatitis exacerbates disease progression and complications, necessitating further investigation.

The assessment of seismic risk in urban areas with high seismicity is certainly one of the most important problems that territorial managers have to face. A reliable evaluation of this risk is the basis for the design of both specific seismic improvement interventions and emergency management plans. Unappropriate seismic risk assessments may provide misleading results and induce bad decisions with relevant economic and social impact.The seismic risk in urban areas is mainly linked to three factors, namely, “hazard”, “exposure” and “vulnerability”. Hazard measures the potential of an earthquake to produce harm; exposure evaluates the amount of population exposed to harm; vulnerability represents the proneness of considered buildings to suffer damages in case of an earthquake. Estimates of such factors may not always coincide with the perceived risk of the resident population. The propensity to implement structural seismic improvement interventions aimed at reducing the vulnerability of buildings depends significantly on the perceived risk.This paper investigates on the difference between objective and perceived risk and highlights some critical issues. The aim of this study is to calibrate opportune policies, which allow addressing the most appropriate seismic risk mitigation options with reference to current levels of perceived risk. We propose the introduction of a Seismic Policy Prevention index (SPPi). This methodology is applied to a case-study focused on a densely populated district of the city of Catania (Italy).

This study investigates the evolving corporate governance mechanisms within the context of an emerging economy. Addressing a literature gap, we analyse the influence of corporate governance and earnings quality on idiosyncratic risk in an emerging economy. In particular, this research explores the impact of corporate governance practices and earnings quality on idiosyncratic risk. For this purpose, we utilise a sample of 75 non-financial firms listed on the Pakistani equity market over nine years from 2010 to 2018. Employing the generalised method of moments, the findings of our empirical analysis reveal that firms with robust governance mechanisms and higher earnings quality experience minimal idiosyncratic risk. These outcomes provide valuable insights for standard setters, regulatory authorities, policymakers, and other stakeholders, emphasising the importance of governance mechanisms and earnings management in mitigating idiosyncratic return volatility.

Limited accessibility in some parts of Indonesia causes difficulties in logistic distribution, especially for emergency and medical supplies. Emerging drone cargo technology is a potential solution to improve logistic distribution in those areas. However, implementing drone cargo technology involves unknown risks, both in technical and non-technical aspects. Since data on drone operations in Indonesia is limited, a new method is explored to build a Bayesian Network (BN) model for risk analysis of drone crashes in Indonesia’s outermost and underdeveloped areas. The method optimizes the modelling process, in which significant risk factors are selected based on three drone operator companies’ experiences, which include wind speed, rain intensity, and system component failure or malfunction. Real wind speed and rain probability data are then implemented in the model. The operator’s data shows that wind speed contributes to drone crashes, which can be appropriately modelled in the BN model. The model produced a probability of safe operation of 94.1%, comparable to the annual operator’s data. The result shows that most operations are safe, with a minimum case of crashing and no case of harming human life.

Cervical cancer is one of the ailments that endangers the health of women all over the world and causes infertility. Fortunately, this disease can be avoided. Both the results and participation rates of the current preventative strategy remain poor. Hence, preventative or early detection methods remain challenging and open. In gynecology and computer science fields, few studies on identifying cervical cancer are based on behavior risk factor and machine learning. Moreover, various social and behavioral aspects might often make it more difficult to detect cervical cancer especially in low‑ and middle‑income countries (LMICs). Accordingly, focus on predicting the presence of cervical cancer through behavioral risk factors is the basic structure of this research. We proposed an approach to classify cervical cancer from a social-behavioral perspective using logistic regression to predict cervical cancer. We got significantly improved outcomes than the existing methods. Moreover, we used feature engineering to formulate less dimensionality as a pre-processing step and optimized parameters to be prepared for classification phase. The results proved that using the logistic regression with regularization type L1 had a promising performance. The accuracy of Logistic Regression (LR) L1 was 97.2%. Such results support the proposed work as a reliable classification predictive tool.

Background: we aim to investigate attitudes toward vaccination, by analyzing empirical factors associated with vaccine acceptance in the Lazio region mpox vaccination (MpoxVax) campaign in Italy. Methods: all subjects who accessed to MpoxVax and signed the informed consent were prospectively enrolled in the MPOX-VAC Study and were asked to fill out an anonymous survey. Two endpoints were selected: ‘delayed acceptance’ and ‘early acceptance’, defined as access for vaccination &gt;60 and ≤30 days from the vaccination campaign starting (VCS), respectively. Results: over the study period 1717 individuals underwent vaccination: 129 (7%) &gt;60 [1588 (92.5%) ≤60] and 676 (60%) ≤30 days from VCS. A bisexual orientation, a lower education level and a worse perceived physical and mental health were associated with delayed access to vaccination. Being Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) users and, marginally, HIV positive, having a high perceived risk for mpox infection and reporting high-risk behaviors like the use of recreational drugs/chems, sex under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol and higher number of principal sexual partners, were associated with early access to vaccination. Conclusions: according to our data, risk awareness was a major determinant of early mpox vaccination acceptance. Conversely, worse perceived health status and a low educational level were critical factors associated with delayed vaccination.

Several cities are experiencing an increase in flood hazard and exposure, and consequentially in flood risk, attributable to the coupled effect of climate change and urbanization. Non-structural protection strategies demonstrate significant potential in the short term for mitigating hydraulic risk in urban areas, particularly where the implementation of structural measures is impeded by a complex urban environment. This work proposes an Early Warning System (EWS) for fluvial floods developed for the city of Palermo (Italy). It is based on the preliminary definition of po-tential Flood Event Scenarios (FESs) as a function of typical potential precursors. Each FES pre-dicts first points of flooding, flood areas and water depths, also providing specific hazard maps for people, vehicles, and buildings. The EWS uses rainfall depth-duration thresholds to assess the expected hydrograph as a function of rainfall forecasts and the water stage observed in real time at an upstream section of the river crossing the city. This last also allows for estimating the ante-cedent wetness conditions. Based on this information, the EWS retrieves an expected FES from a pre-built library with a preannouncement time up to 36 h. The EWS is here successfully tested on a historical flood event.

This study examines the DCMA concerning the future risk of the water security status. We considered three risk factors: population growth, economic growth, and natural water supply demand differences. In the risk analysis part, we consulted with experts from several sectors including academia, Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs), and industry, to predict that the probability of future water stresses in high, medium, and low scenarios are 0.73, 0.24, and 0.03, respectively. In the decision analysis part, we adopted two Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) approaches that include Multiple Attribute Value Theory (MAVT) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methods to evaluate the best alternative decision to alleviate future water stresses in the DCMA. The sensitivity analysis demonstrates the best option closely connects to the weighting scheme of the criteria considered in the framework. This study provides a valuable risk and decision analysis framework to analyze the water security status associated with the future water supply and demand gap decrease caused by three risk factors: population growth, climate change, and natural water supply.

.Bacground: Sepsis remains a major health challenge worldwide, characterized by a dysre-gulated host response to infection, leading to high mortality and morbidity in intensive care units (ICUs). The Fibrosis 4 (FIB-4) index, originally developed to assess liver fibrosis in hepatitis C patients, has recently been explored for its potential prognostic value in sepsis patients. Method: This study retrospectively analyzed 309 sepsis patients admitted to the Internal Me-dicine and Anaesthesia ICUs between December 12, 2021, and December 15, 2023, to inves-tigate the relationship between FIB-4 levels, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE), and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) and clinical outcomes. Results: The study found that higher FIB-4 measurements were statistically significantly asso-ciated with increased 28-day mortality, with a cut-off value of 4.9 providing a sensitivity of 54.92% and specificity of 74.25%. Logistic regression analysis indicated that elevated Conclusion:FIB-4 levels were a significant predictor of early mortality, suggesting that the FIB-4 index could serve as a valuable prognostic tool in assessing the severity and prognosis of sepsis patients.

Background/Objectives: Vitamin D’s effect on risk health outcomes is often evaluated using prospective cohort studies. Risk ratios (RRs; e.g., hazard ratios or odds ratios) are determined for incidence for participants with baseline serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations below or above specified values. Serum 25(OH)D concentrations vary over time, thereby diluting the effect of 25(OH)D for long follow-up periods. Inverse relationships between RR and follow-up period have been reported for all-cause mortality rate and cancer incidence rates. Here I evaluate the effect for neurological outcomes. Methods: I analyzed how follow-up period affected results from 10 cohort studies of all-cause dementia, 6 studies of Alzheimer’s disease, and 9 for cognitive impairment with respect to vitamin D deficiency. Results: For all-cause dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and cognitive impairment, respectively, the linear regression fits are RR = 2.9 – 0.14 × years, r = 0.73, p = 0.02; RR = 2.9 – 0.14 × years, r = 0.69, p = 0.13; and RR = 1.8 – 0.066 × years, r = 0.72, p = 0.03. The regression fit to RR for the shortest follow-up period for each outcome is considered the best estimate of vitamin D deficiency’s effect on risk. Those values are approximately twice that found by averaging all RRs without considering the effect of follow-up period. Conclusions: Vitamin D’s effect on risk of neurological conditions should be determined with relatively short follow-up periods after repeated 25(OH)D measurements as warranted during follow-up.

Climate change is increasing the occurrence of disastrous events in the world, but several disparities in population vulnerability are being registered. One of the causes of these variances is different public risk perception also due to the degree of education and knowledge of the population. In this study, some of the results obtained in a risk perception survey are presented. The survey was carried out in an area of Calabria (Southern Italy) hit by geo-hydrological events that have occurred in recent years with damage to roads, tourism facilities and private houses. A statistical interpretation of the results highlights the importance of education and knowledge to risk perception on the part of the population investigated.

Contamination of soil and crops with heavy metals (HMs) poses a significant environmental challenge in the United States. Hence, this study aimed to assess HM contamination levels from sampled Ohio and West Virginia soils using various pollution indicators analyses, including Enrichment Factor (EF), Geo-accumulation index (lgeo), Contamination Factor (CF), and Pollution Load Index (PLI) and identify the Translocation Factor (TF) of HMs in the edible part of the vegetables and further evaluate health risks associated with dietary exposure through estimations of Estimated Daily Intake (EDI), Hazard Index (HI), Target Hazard Quotient (THQ), Cancer Risk (CR) and Target Cancer Risk (TCR) on adults and children. In this study, Fe was the most predominant contaminant, ranging from 28.41 to 67.36 g/kg in the soil. Cancer risk assessment revealed that Ni poses significant risks. Therefore, regular monitoring of metal concentrations in soil and vegetables grown in these regions might mitigate potential health hazards in the future.

Globally, 77\% of the elderly aged 65 and above suffer from multiple chronic ailments, according to recent research. However, several barriers within the healthcare system in the developing world hinder the adoption of home-based patient management. IoMT is beneficial for healthcare personnel, but its application raises security concerns, particularly in authentication. Several authentication techniques have been proposed which, however, lack a balance of security and usability. By analyzing the shortcomings of the existing authentication methods and the available sensors on smartphones, this paper proposes to explore the possibility of using a smartphone’s embedded sensors for elderly user identification process in IoMT. We proposed an adaptive authentication technique for the elderly patients using the MAPE-K$_{\text{HMT}}$ framework by developing an android application that takes as input, the user’s contextual information including device fingerprint, location, network, and user data to monitor the user and estimate the risk associated with a user using the Naïve Bayes algorithm. The risk score was then used as input to the rule-based module that assigned authenticators according to user age, health condition and available authenticators. The model demonstrated high accuracy in distinguishing between authorized and unauthorized access attempts and supported the usable security goal for the elderly users.

Violence against healthcare workers (HCWs) is a widespread, underreported and inadequately prevented problem. Only a few companies have efficient systems for assessing the extent of the phenomenon. In 2005, the health surveillance service of a public health company introduced a system that monitored violence experienced by HCWs by means of three items from the Violent Incident Form (VIF), integrated with departmental in-depth analyses using the participatory ergonomics group technique. In 2005, the annual rate of physical assaults was 8.2%, that of threats 12.0%, while the harassment rate was 19.6%. Over the past twenty years of observation (2005-2024), the percentage of workers who reported experiencing a physical attack in the previous year at their periodic medical examination, has fluctuated between 5.8% and 11.1%, except for the years 2020 and 2021 when, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate was 3.9% and 3.2%, respectively. During the same pandemic period, the annual threat rate that ranged from 9.4% to 20.1%, dropped to 7.7%, while the prevalence of harassment, that was between 13.5 and 19.6, fell to 7.2%. HCWs believe that (i) limiting visitor access (ii) a better balance of the demand for services and (iii) a better attitude towards HCWs were the causes of the reduced rate of violence during the pandemic. Recording the violence experienced during health surveillance is an economical, reliable and sustainable risk assessment method.

Oilseed plants of the Brassicaceae plant family are cultivated for food, feed and industrial purposes on large-scale in Europe. This review gives an overview of current market-oriented applications of new genomic techniques (NGTs) in relevant Brassicaceae oilseed crops based on a literature survey. In this respect, changes in oil quality, yield, growth and resistance to biotic and abiotic stress are goals in oilseed rape (B. napus) and camelina (C. sativa). Environmental risk assessment scenarios are developed for specific NGT applications in Brassicaceae oilseed crops with either a changed oil composition or with fitness related traits. In case of a changed oil composition an increase or decrease of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) demonstrates risks for health and survival of pollinators. In case of fitness related traits other risks were identified, i. e. an increased risk of spread and persistence of NGT plants. Furthermore, there are indications for potential disturbance of interactions with the environment, involving signalling pathways and reaction to stress conditions. It is shown that for a comprehensive risk assessment the technological potential of NGTs, the plants’ biology and the scale of releases have to be considered in combination. Therefore, the release of NGT plants into the environment for agricultural purposes will require risk assessment and monitoring of single traits as well as of combinatorial and long-term cumulative effects. In addition, risk management should develop concepts and measures to control and potentially restrict the scale of releases. This is especially relevant for NGT Brassicaceae in Europe which is a centre of diversity of this plant family.

The hazard and the carcinogenic risks due to the exposure to some potentially toxic elements by the Santiago Island (Cape Verde) population where calculated, considering soil ingestion, inhalation and dermal contact as exposure pathways. The topsoil of Santiago Island is enriched in Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, V, Zn, Mn and Cd to upper crust values. Hazard indices (HI) were calculated for these metals and As exposures, of Santiago Island population and the calculations were performed for children and adults. For children HI are higher than 1 for Co, Cr and Mn. So there is indication of potential non-carcinogenic risk for children, due to the high Co (HI=2.995), Cr (HI=1.329) and Mn (HI=1.126), values in soils. For the other elements and for adults there is no potential non-carcinogenic risk. Cancer risk was calculated for As, Cd, Cr and Ni exposures, for adults and children and the results are always lower than the carcinogenic target risk of 1x10-6, for As, Cd, and Ni. However, cancer risk are higher than the carcinogenic target risk for Cr, for adults. Regarding As, for children the fraction due to Riskingestion represents 51.6%, while Riskinhalation represents 48.0% and Riskdermalcontact represents only 0.4% of total risk. For adults Riskinhalation represents 81.3%, Riskingestion represents 16.6% and Riskdermal contact represents 2.1%. These results reflect the higher daily ingestion dose for children and the higher inhalation rate and higher dermal contact surface for adults. For the other elements and for adults the cancer risk due to Cr, Ni and Cd inhalation is always higher than for children, reflecting the higher inhalation rate for adults.

The abandonment of inland areas has become a major demographical challenge, establishing a condition of local fragility in terms of spatial marginalization. To deal with this issue, a number of policy actions have been released over the time, namely the National Strategy for Inland Areas, established in Italy a decade ago, and more recently the Next Generation EU (NGEU) to foster local economic recovery and employment. In this context, RI.P.R.O.VA.RE., a project funded by the former Italian Ministry of the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea (MATTM), aimed at strengthening the resilience characteristics of communities and territories, focusing on areas falling in the Matese and Ufita in Campania Region and the Medio Agri in Basilicata Region (Southern Italy). Besides the ability to respond to different pressure factors (demographics, economic, geophysical, etc.), the project dealt with seismic, hydraulic and landslide risk conditions in the Matese area, proposing mitigation measures. After presenting the developed methodology, the results obtained for the study area are presented and discussed. The procedure can be applied as supporting tool to enhance the regeneration of inland areas.

The study aimed to evaluate for the first time the degree of contamination of soil and crops with major and trace elements (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, F, Na, Mg, Si, P, Cl, Fe, Al) in agricultural lands situated in the Lower Danube Basin, Galati and Braila counties (SE Romania), impacted by the steel industry. Soil samples from two depths (0–5 cm and 5–30 cm), as well as leaves and seeds of wheat, corn, and sunflower, were collected from 11 different sites. Along with elemental and mineralogical analysis, performed by HR-CS AAS, PIGE, SEM-EDX and ATR-FTIR, the soil pH, texture, organic matter, electric conductivity and CaCO3 content were investigated. The results showed that the levels of Cr (83.270–383.100 mg kg-1), Cu (17.110–68.151 mg kg-1), Ni (30.157–55.656 mg kg-1), and F (319–544 mg kg-1) in soil exceeded the Romanian regulations for sensitive use of the land. The pollution indices (Igeo, EF, PI, PERI) indicate that the soil is moderate to highly contaminated with Cr, Ni and Cu, while CSI and mERMQ indices suggested a relatively low risk for metal contamination. The concentrations of elements in plant tissues and bioaccumulation factors (BFs) show the soil-plant relation and health risk, but also the elemental selectivity of vegetal compartments. Thus, the results showed that wheat plants tend to exclude the bioaccumulation of certain elements in their tissues, while for Zn and Cu, the bioaccumulation pattern is different. In the case of corn, most BFs were below 1, indicating limited phytoaccumulation capacity. However, exceptions were observed for Cd, Zn, and Cu. Sunflower BFs indicate higher bioconcentration of Cu, Cd, and Zn in both the leaves and seeds compared to other elements. Chromium (Cr) contributes to non-carcinogenic dermal contact and ingestion hazards, with children being more susceptible to the adverse effects of this contaminant.

The assessment of soil contamination in the vicinity of integrated siderurgical plants is of outmost importance for agroecosystems and human health, and sensitive techniques should be employed for accurate assessment of chemical elements (metals, potential toxic elements, rare earths, radioelements) in soil and further evaluation of potential ecological and safety risk. In this paper a total of 45 major, minor and trace elements (Al, As, Au, Ba, Br, Ca, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Dy, Eu, Fe, Hf, Hg, I, K, La, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nd, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sb, Sc, Sm, Sn, Sr, Ta, Tb, Th, Ti, Tm, U, V, W, Y, Yb, Zn and Zr) were quantified in soils located around a large siderurgical works (Galati, SE Romania) using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) in combination with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The statistical analysis results and vertical distribution patterns for three depths (0-5 cm, 5-20 cm, 20-30 cm) indicate inputs of toxic elements in the sites close to the ironmaking and steelmaking facilities and industrial wastes dumping site. For selected elements, a comparison with historical, legislated and world reported concentration values in soil was performed and depth migration, contamination and toxic risk indices were assessed. The distribution of major, rock forming elements was closer to the Upper Continental Crust (UCC), and to the Dobrogea loess, finding confirmed by the ternary diagram of the incompatible trace elements Sc, La and Th, as well as by the La to Th rate. At the same time, the La/Th vs. Sc and Th/Sc vs. Zr/Sc bi-plots suggested a felsic origin and a weak recycling of soils mineral components.

Floods are a common natural disaster whose severity in terms of duration, water resource volume, peak and accumulated rainfall-based damage are likely to differ significantly for different geographical regions. In this paper, we first propose a novel hourly flood index (SWRI24−hr−S), derived from normalising the existing 24-hourly water resources index (WRI24−hr−S) in literature, to monitor flash flood risks on an hourly scale. The proposed SWRI24−hr−S is adopted to identify a flood situation and derive its characteristics, such as the duration (D), volume (V) and peak (Q). The comprehensive result analysis establishes the practical utility of SWRI24−hr−S in identifying flood situations at seven study sites in Fiji between 2014 and 2018 and deriving their characteristics (i.e., D, V, and Q). Secondly, this study develops a vine copula-probabilistic risk analysis system that models the joint distribution of flood characteristics (i.e., D, V, and Q) to extract their joint exceedance probability for the seven study sites in Fiji, enabling probabilistic flood risk assessment. The vine copula approach, particularly suited to Fiji’s study sites, introduces a novel probabilistic framework for flood risk assessment. The results show moderate differences in the spatial patterns of joint exceedance probability of flood characteristics in different combination scenarios generated by the proposed vine copula approach. In the worst-case scenario, the probability of any flood event occurring where the flood volume, peak and duration are likely to exceed the 95th-quantile value (representing an extreme flood event) is found to be less than 5% for all study sites. The proposed hourly flood index and the vine copula approach can be feasible and cost-effective tools for flood risk monitoring and assessment. The methodologies proposed in this study can be applied to other data-scarce regions where only rainfall data is available, offering crucial information for flood risk monitoring, assessment, and the development of effective mitigation strategies.

There are potentially promising mitigation activities for epidemic and pandemic scenarios that are not currently the subject of significant research effort. Large epidemics and pandemics pose risks that are important to mitigate, even if the likelihood of the events is low and uncertain. While some efforts are the subject of extensive funding and consideration, other approaches are neglected. Here, we consider such neglected interventions which could significantly reduce the impact of such an epidemic or large-scale pandemic. These are identified via a narrative literature review of extant literature reviews and overviews of mitigations in epidemic and pandemic situations, followed by consideration of the economic value of information of further study of heretofore neglected interventions and approaches.Based on that analysis, we considered several classes of mitigations, and conducted more exploratory reviews of each. Those discussed include mitigations for (1) reducing transmission, such as personal protective equipment and encouraging improved hygiene, (2) reducing exposure by changing norms and targeted changes for high-risk or critical professions and activities, (3) reducing impact for those infected, and (4) increasing large scale resilience using disaster and infrastructure continuity planning.Some proposed mitigations are found to be of low marginal value. Other mitigations are likely to be valuable, but the concepts or applications are underdeveloped. In those cases, further research, resources, or preparation are valuable for mitigating both routine and extreme disease outbreak events. Still more areas of research are identified as having uncertain value based on specific but resolvable uncertainties. In both of the latter cases, there is no guarantee that mitigations identified as worthy of further consideration will be valuable, but the argument for further research is clear.

The population’s mobility in urban areas is a necessary variable in the modeling of risk scenarios caused by atmospheric contamination. The inclusion of this concept makes static models more dynamic while considering people within a city to be an entity with complex mobility processes. We propose a conceptual and methodological tool to make the representation of the social, economic and territorial components, as well as the patterns in the population´s mobility to delimitate risk areas for human health by exposure of contaminants. In the volatile organic compounds (VOC), benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and xylene (BTEX) are amongst the most dominant substances in fugitive vapor emissions in gas stations (GS). In urban areas, the exposure to BTEX by residential proximity and proximity to other facilities, which cause intra-urban agglomeration, can impact and affect human health. This model seeks to facilitate the focalization, identification and prioritization of risk areas by BTEX environmental contamination. This article goes beyond de conceptual framework. It suggests methodological and instrumental aspects to be applied in other cities. The government agencies must consider these results when establishing rules, permissions and procedures to reduce environmental pollution for managing the risk in a complex urban environment.

Preterm birth accounts for about 10% of births worldwide. Studying risk factors for perinatal brain damage is essential, as findings suggest that almost 20% of disabilities are linked to risks in the early stages of development. This research aimed to study longitudinal changes in intelligence from 6 to 8 years of age in a sample of 39 preterm children with a history of risk of brain damage and a control group of 35 children born at term. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale (WISC-IV) was used for cognitive measurement. The results showed that the preterm group obtained significantly lower scores than the control group. The working memory indicator significantly affected the interaction between age and prematurity. We consider that it is crucial to expand the knowledge we have about the neurocognitive development of premature infants both in specific cognitive domains and in age ranges so that the information obtained helps to predict the probability of presenting cognitive alterations from early stages and, therefore, to implement intervention strategies and programs based on scientific evidence and complemented in their design by clinical experience, empirical and theoretical knowledge of the different professionals involved in infant cognitive intervention.

The term “risk” is connoted with divergent meanings in natural hazard risk research and the practice of risk management. Whilst the technical definition is accurately defined, in practice, the term “risk” is often synonymously used with “danger”. Considering this divergence as a deficiency, risk communication often aims to correct laypersons’ understanding. We suggest in reference to Breakwell (2001) to treat the variety of meanings as a resource for risk communication strategies instead. However, there is no investigation so far, of what laypersons’ meanings of risk actually comprise. To address this gap, we examine the meanings of risk applying a social representations approach (Moscovici, 2001) in a qualitative case study design. Results of the study among inhabitants of Swiss mountain villages show that differences in meanings were found according to hazard experience and community size. We found commonly shared core representations, and single peripheral ones. We conclude with suggestions on how to make usage of the knowledge on SR in risk communication.

Sustainability is a characteristic manifested in the ability to maintain the necessary level of performance for construction companies when risk factors arise during the implementation of investment and construction projects. The risk factors that arise during the implementation of in-vestment and construction projects differ in nature, degree of influence, and other characteristics. Ignoring these factors and measures to manage them often leads to critical consequences in the form of disruptions in the timing of work. Risk is a combination of the probability and consequences of the occurrence of adverse events. The article considers the concept of risk as a potential possibility of occurrence of adverse situations and related consequences when exposed to these factors. Risk factors are characterized by surprise, discreteness of changes, the presence of threshold values, upon reaching which a transition to a different mode of operation is required. The article discusses the risk factors arising at the construction stage, their classification. A methodology has been developed that includes conducting a survey in the form of a questionnaire in order to collect information about risk factors that affect the implementation of investment and construction projects. Experts with experience in the construction sector were involved in the survey. The processing of the survey results made it possible to assess the significance of various risk factors in investment and construction projects. Thus, statistical and expert methods were used in the study. The results showed that financial, technical, legal, economic, managerial and natural factors have the greatest impact on investment and construction projects. It is recommended to pay special attention to the listed factors when developing measures aimed at preventing risks and their consequences. The methodology described in the study can be used by construction companies in strategic planning. The analysis of the stability of construction companies, depending on their use of various ways to counteract risk factors, allowed us to develop a number of practical recommendations to reduce the impact of the studied factors on achieving the goals of investment and construction projects.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for approximately 90-95% of all kidney cancers in adults, with the clear cell RCC (ccRCC) the most frequently identified subtype. RCC is known for its responsiveness to immunotherapy, making it an area of significant research interest. Immune checkpoint (IC) molecules, which regulate immune surveillance, are established therapeutic targets in RCC. The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of polymorphisms in genes HVEM and CD160 on susceptibility to ccRCC and patient overall survival (OS) with over a ten-year period of observation. We genotyped three HVEM single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): rs1886730, rs2234167, and rs8725, and two CD160 SNPs: rs744877 and rs2231375, in 238 ccRCC patients and 521 controls. Our findings indicated that heterozygosity within rs2231375 and/or rs2234167 increases ccRCC risk. Furthermore, in women, heterozygosity within additional HVEM SNPs, rs8725 and rs1886730, is associated with an increased ccRCC risk. The presence of a minor allele for rs1886730, rs2234167, rs8725, and rs2231375 was also correlated with certain clinical features of the disease. Moreover, the rs1886730 SNP was found to be associated with patients' OS. In conclusion, our study highlights an association between HVEM and CD160 polymorphisms and the risk of developing ccRCC as well as patient’s OS.

The number of green buildings has increased to address the global environmental crisis. However, green buildings face risks resulting from new materials and methods. In addition, these buildings are expected to perform at higher levels than traditional ones. The objectives of this study are to identify the possible risk factors for architects developing green building projects in South Korea and to assess risk mitigation measures. To attain this goal, fourteen risk factors and twelve mitigation measures were identified from a comprehensive literature review. A questionnaire survey was administered to architects practicing green building design. Findings revealed the ‘adoption of new technology and processes’ was the largest difference between green and traditional building projects. This study identified ‘financial risk,’ ‘design changes,’ and ‘client’s goal uncertainty’ as the top three risk factors in green building design. Additionally, the survey proposed the four most effective risk mitigation measures for green building projects: (1) ‘contract indicating each party’s roles, liabilities and limitations clearly’; (2) ‘utilizing integrated design process’; (3) ‘understanding client’s goal in green building projects’; and (4) ‘improving communication and coordination among stakeholders.’ There are a few studies focusing on the architects’ perceived risk concerning green building projects; however, this study expands the knowledge and fills the literature gap. Additionally, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of critical risks and mitigation measures that can benefit South Korea’s green building design practice through better risk management.

Reducing under-five mortality is a key indicator of a country's overall development, yet in Angola, understanding the factors contributing to hospital deaths in this vulnerable demographic remains incomplete despite improvements in healthcare infrastructure and public health policies. With one of the highest under-five mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, Angola grapples with significant challenges, including malaria, malnutrition, pneumonia, neonatal conditions, and intestinal infectious diseases, as leading causes of death among children. This study aimed to identify factors associated with these hospital deaths in children aged 28 days to five years admitted to DBPH in Luanda between May 2022 and June 2023. Utilizing a hospital-based case-control design, a total of 1020 children were studied, with 340 cases of hospital deaths. Notably, distal and intermediate determinants emerged as primary predictors of hospital mortality, revealing significant associations with maternal education status, maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy, short hospital stays (≤24h), poor nutritional status, short interbirth intervals, maternal age ≤19 years, and maternal age ≥35 years. These findings underscore the preventable nature of most under-five hospital deaths and emphasize the urgent need to address social inequities and enhance the quality of primary healthcare services to effectively mitigate child mortality.

Simple summary This reassessment of the findings from our Phase I/II study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of SBRT for treating local intermediate-high risk prostate cancer in the absence of androgen-deprivation therapy due to patient’s refusal, with a median follow-up of 6.5 years. Our primary focus is on analysing the treated areas compared to recurrence patterns in the seven patients who experienced local relapse. Additionally, we provide updated data on late toxicities of grade 2 or higher, both genitourinary and gastrointestinal. Abstract Objectives: We investigated spatial patterns between primary and recurrent tumor sites and assessed long-term toxicity after dose escalation stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to the dominant intraprostatic nodule (DIN). Materials and methods: In 33 patients with intermediate-high risk prostate cancer (PCa), doses up to 50 Gy were administered to the DIN. Recurrence sites were determined and compared to the original tumor development sites through multiparametric MRI and 68Ga-labelled prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (68Ga-PSMA-PET/CT) images. Overlap rates, categorized as 75% or higher for full overlap, and 25-74% for partial overlap, were assessed. Long-term toxicity is reported. Results: All patients completed treatment, with only one receiving concomitant androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Recurrences were diagnosed after a median of 33 months (range: 17-76 months), affecting 13 out of 33 patients (39.4%). Intraprostatic recurrences occurred in 7 patients (21%), with ≥ 75% overlap in two, a partial overlap in another two, and no overlap in the remaining three patient. Notably, 5 patients with intra-prostatic recurrences had synchronous bone and/or lymph node metastases, while six patients had isolated bone or lymph node metastasis without intraprostatic recurrences. Extended follow-up revealed grade 2 or higher late GU and GI toxicity in 18% (n=6) and 6% (n=2) of the patients. Conclusions: Among patients with intermediate-high risk PCa undergoing focal dose-escalated SBRT without ADT, DIN recurrences were infrequent. When present, these recurrences were typically located at the original site or adjacent to the initial tumor. Conversely, relapses beyond the DIN and in extra-prostatic (metastatic) sites were prevalent, underscoring the significance of systemic ADT in managing this patient population. Advances in knowledge: focal dose escalated prostate SBRT prevented recurrences in the dominant nodule, however extra-prostatic recurrence sites were frequent.

Jamaica has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rate and therefore identifying the context of adolescent sexual and reproductive health is important, especially since there is paucity of research on preadolescents in the Jamaican context. The study was a nationally representative cross-sectional, interviewer administered, school-based survey of 10 -15 year olds. Summary statistics of the demographics and bivariate analyses were performed to assess the association of sexual initiation and given risk and resiliency factors. 1,422(47.4%) males, 1,581 (52.6%) females, mean age (SD) 12.5 (1.6) years were surveyed. Mean age of first sex was 11.0 (±2.5) years. Factors significantly with sexual initiation were, female sex (OR 0.17; 95% CI 0.12-0.23), caring relationships inside the home (OR 0.85; 95%CI 0.83-0.97) rare church attendance (OR1.36; 95%CI1.0-1.8), age (OR 1.75; 95%CI1.6-1.9) and community disorganization (OR 1.02 95% CI 1.01-1.07). Sexual initiation of early adolescents is positively influenced by environmental factors such as family connectedness and religious involvement. The negative correlates are societal risk factors such as community disorganization. Empowerment through learned sexual negotiation skills, should be incorporated into the education programme of pre-adolescents to facilitate adolescents embracing their intrinsic power to delay sexual debut and if sexually active to insist on condom use.

(1) Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) has emerged as a potential prognostic tool in cardiovascular diseases, offering individualized insights into autonomic nervous system activity. However, real-time HRV data during the acute phase of STEMI, particularly during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), was not previously explored. (2) Methods: This single-center, observational cohort study included 104 STEMI patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). HRV parameters were measured using a wearable device (CE marked) during PCI, capturing dynamic responses. The association between HRV parameters and adverse outcomes, including in-hospital mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), were assessed. (3) Results: HRV parameters significantly decreased after myocardial revascularization, particularly SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50, HF, SD1, and SD2/SD1 ratio. Significant associations were found between reduced SD2/SD1 ratio, approximate entropy, and adverse outcomes, including increased in-hospital mortality and MACE. The SD2/SD1 ratio was significantly lower in patients who died during the hospital stay (p = 0.008) compared to survivors. Approximate entropy was also significantly lower in deceased patients (p = 0.019). (4) Conclusions: Real-time HRV monitoring using wearable technology offers valuable data regarding dynamic physiological changes during primary PCI. The integration of HRV into routine clinical practice, facilitated by wearable devices, could improve the risk stratification and event prediction in STEMI patients.

In this paper we present an understanding of cyber risks in the Internet of Things (IoT), we explain why it is important to understand what IoT cyber risks are and how we can use risk assessment and risk management approaches to deal with these challenges. We introduce the most effective ways of doing Risk assessment and Risk Management of IoT risk. As part of our research, we also developed methodologies to assess and manage risk in this emerging environment. This paper will take you through our research and we will explain: what we mean by the IoT; what we mean by risk and risk in the IoT; why risk assessment and risk management are important; the IoT risk management for incident response and recovery; what open questions on IoT risk assessment and risk management remain.

Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) is the integration of computation and physical process that makes a complete system such as the physical components, networked systems, embedded computers and software and linking together of devices and sensors for information sharing. Cyber Physical Systems are Smart Systems that comprises of the merging and integration of Industry Control Systems, Critical Infrastructures, Internet of Things (IoT) and Embedded Systems. Major industries such as the Chemical and Industrial Plants, Aviation Systems, National Grid, the Stock Exchange, Military Systems, and others depends heavily on these Cyber Physical Systems for financial and economic growth. The benefits of CPS nationally and globally are in the areas of Manufacturing, Energy, Transport, Healthcare and Communication. Cyber Physical Systems incorporates Physical systems, Digital systems and Human elements on network infrastructures to provide interactive systems. However, these three key components the Physical systems, Digital systems and Human elements may have inherent threats and vulnerabilities on them that may run the risk of being compromise, exploited, attacked or hacked. Cybercriminals in their quest to bring down these systems and may cause disruption of services either for fame, revenge, political motive, economic war, cyber terrorism and cyber war. The study seeks to review the risks that are associated with these three key components Physical systems, Digital systems and Human elements. The study considered four main risk mitigation goals for this purpose, and these are Business Value, Organizational Requirements, Threat Agent and Impact based on the review results. We used Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) to determine the relative importance of these goals that contributes to developing cybercrime and rich in CPS. For the results, the prioritized goals are then used to assess the risks using a semi-quantitative approach to determine the net threat level.

Asbestos, also known by its commercial name of amianthus, has been a widely used material in various industries due to its unique properties. However, its extensive use has led to serious consequences for human health, most notably asbestosis, an irreversible chronic lung disease. Asbestosis increases the risk of lung cancer and malignant meso-thelioma both fatal diseases. To understand the role of asbestos in human health, applied sciences such as microscopy (optical and scanning electron microscopy) and geochemistry are fundamental to characterize the mineral fibers. In previous work we used these technics to characterize the fibers and, in this paper, we explore their issues associated with asbestos and asbestosis, as well as the challenges of science communication strategies to effectively inform society and workers about these risks. The lack of scientific culture, in general, leads to the lack of public awareness of risks, and to address these challenges, it is essential to implement effective communication and outreach plans and strategies, including the visualization of the fibers to understand why there may be a problem if inhaled. Educational campaigns, guidelines and plans that are informative and action-able, targeting workers, communities and the public about asbestos risks are very im-portant. General knowledge of mineralogy and geochemistry is needed and providing proper scientific communication and dissemination may help to cover the knowledge gap. We use examples and experience in Spain and Italy to illustrate this subject.

The stress testing methodology should be implemented and applied to the entity's overall financial system at least annually, and if the organization operates in a volatile economy, it should be performed at least twice a year. Finally, managers should include regular training and development sessions for relevant employees of their organization to be fully informed and more informed and informed, considering the evolving science, theory and practicality of a discrete range of stress testing mechanisms that can be appropriately applied to overall financial framework and system of multiple financial institutions and banks. In addition, stress testing is essentially a methodology that collects and analyzes certain future macro-prudential and micro-prudential economic drivers and indicators, the primary purpose of which is to assess the future financial and economic well-being, level of growth and status quo of a financial institution, bank, organization, credit institution or economy or the nation as a whole. In addition, several of these reviews were specifically focused and incorporated into the paper, which substantially and broadly discussed and summarized the importance, feasibility and implementation and conclusions of different stress testing approaches for financial institutions and banks, especially in European and Chinese countries. region. with the primary intention of assessing the future financial and economic well-being, level of growth and status quo of a group of financial institutions, banks, organizations, credit institutions or the economy or the nation as a whole. In addition, several of these reviews were specifically targeted and incorporated into a paper that substantially and broadly discussed and summarized the importance of the feasibility and implementation and conclusions of different stress testing approaches for financial institutions and banks, especially in European and Chinese countries. region. with the primary intention of assessing the future financial and economic well-being, level of growth and status quo of a group of financial institutions, banks, organizations, credit institutions or the economy or the nation as a whole. In addition, several of these reviews were specifically focused and incorporated into the paper, which substantially and broadly discussed and summarized the importance, feasibility and implementation and conclusions of different stress testing approaches for financial institutions and banks, especially in European and Chinese countries. region. the level of growth and status quo of the financial institutions, banks, organizations, credit institutions or the economy or the nation as a whole. In addition, several of these reviews were specifically focused and incorporated into the paper, which substantially and broadly discussed and summarized the importance, feasibility and implementation and conclusions of different stress testing approaches for financial institutions and banks, especially in European and Chinese countries. region. the level of growth and status quo of the financial institutions, banks, organizations, credit institutions or the economy or the nation as a whole. In addition, several of these reviews were specifically focused and incorporated into the paper, which substantially and broadly discussed and summarized the importance, feasibility and implementation and conclusions of different stress testing approaches for financial institutions and banks, especially in European and Chinese countries.

The aim of the article is to present a snapshot in time, of the current state in cryptocurrencies, the values and risks associated to blockchains. With emergence of over 20,000 crypto projects, the first objective of this article is to present the stage as it is in 2023, with historical overview since Satoshi presented the first paper on decentralised blockchains, until today. Second objective of the article is to review the values and risks associated to cryptocurrencies, and to clarify the differences between cryptocurrencies from blockchain technologies. The research questions that drive this article are related determining if the blockchain technology an innovation or its already obsolete technology? Are there any significant risks from cryptocurrencies? And are the potential values to society and economy worth pursuing? Would developed or developing countries benefit more from these technologies? And which blockchain projects will survive in the long run? In other words, where is the money and is there money or just hype. The review discusses the high probability that some crypto projects will fail, and given the vast number of cryptos, the article acknowledges that many of these projects are nothing more than ponzies. These are discussed and acknowledged, then the focus is shifted to the real-world use cases of blockchain projects.

Mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs) are a group of illnesses transmitted by mosquitoes and can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites. These diseases represent a significant global burden of infectious diseases, including morbidity and mortality. This systematic review delves into the multifaceted factors contributing to the spread of mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Following PRISMA guidelines, a thorough analysis of peer-reviewed articles from May 1990 to Jan 2023 was conducted, highlighting the interplay of population, environmental, disease, and mosquito factors in disease transmission and prevalence. The review incorporated 31 studies that revealed a complex relationship between various risk factors and the presence of MBDs. Significant associations were observed with age, certain occupations, environmental conditions such as rainfall and temperature, sanitation practices, specific pathogen variants, clinical symptoms, and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Conversely, gender, socioeconomic status, educational status, and certain sanitation-related factors showed inconsistent association with the spread of MBDs. The review underscores the need for targeted interventions, including vector control, improved sanitation, and educational campaigns to mitigate the spread of MBDs in the MENA region. This review could guide research studies to address data gaps and assist in developing effective surveillance programs in the MENA region. This work emphasizes the need for region-specific public health strategies and further research to understand and curb the burden of these diseases effectively.

The issue of climate change represents a significant global risk that demands immediate attention. However, higher education frequently fails to incorporate global perspectives and intricate transdisciplinary matters. In order to integrate global and transdisciplinary aspects into the curriculum of a technical university with a focus on computer science, a Master's programme has been developed. The programme's objective is to situate global risk at the core of the curriculum, thereby encouraging scientists to work beyond the boundaries of their respective disciplines. The paper considers the challenges that science and higher education must address to facilitate pathways towards a peaceful and sustainable future. It argues for a shift in focus from short-term and localised issues to a more holistic approach, emphasising the importance of considering universal problems. The curriculum, as developed, may be regarded as a guide for future university efforts in the fields of global risk and climate change.

This study examined the tail dependency structure of sovereign credit risk and three global risk factors in BRICS countries using copulas approach, which is known for its ability to provide the “true” tail correlation based on the correct marginal distribution. The empirical results show that global market risk sentiment comoves with sovereign CDS spreads across BRICS countries under extreme market events, with Brazil having the highest co-dependency followed by China, Russia, and South Africa. Furthermore, oil price volatility is the second biggest risk factor correlated with sovereign CDS spreads for Brazil and South Africa while exchange rate risk exhibits very small co-dependence with sovereign CDS spreads under extreme market conditions dominated by tail events. On the contrary, exchange rate risk is the second largest risk factor co-moving with China and Russia’s sovereign CDS spreads while oil price volatility exhibits the lowest co-dependence to CDS in these countries. Between oil price and currency risk, evidence of single risk factor dominance is found for Russia where exchange rate risk is largely dominant. These results suggest that BRICS policymakers might consider financial sector regulations that mitigate risks spill-over such as targeted capital controls when markets are distressed.

Background and Objectives: Renal cell carcinomas and upper tract urothelial carcinomas are types of malignancies that originate in the kidneys. Each of these examples shows an increasing trend in the frequency and the mortality rate. This study aims to comprehensively define carcinomas by analysing clinical, paraclinical, and histological aspects to predict aggressiveness and mortality. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective investigation on a group of patients suspected with kidney cancers. Results: We identified 188 cases. We observed a higher mortality rate and older age in individuals with urothelial carcinomas. Anemia, acute kidney injury, hematuria and perineural invasion were the main risk factors that predicted their mortality. Tumour size in renal cell carcinomas correlates with the presence of necrosis and sarcomatoid areas. Factors that indicate a higher rate of death are older age, exceeding of the renal capsule, the lesion that includes the entire kidney, lymphovascular invasion, acute kidney injury, and anemia. Conclusions: Even if they originate at the renal level, and the clinical-paraclinical picture is similar, the histopathological characteristics make the difference. In addition, to these are added the previously mentioned common parameters that can represent important prognostic factors. In conclusion, the characteristics commonly identified in one type of cancer may act as risk factors for the other tumor. The detected data include threshold values and risk factors, making a significant contribution to the existing literature.

Background/Aim: Performing emergency surgery for bowel obstruction continues to place a significant strain on the healthcare system. Conventional assessment methods for outcomes in bowel obstruction cases often concentrate on isolated factors, and the evaluation of results for individuals with bowel obstruction remains poorly studied. This study aimed to examine the risk factors associated with major postoperative complications. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 99 patients undergoing surgery from 2015 to 2022. We divided the patients into two groups: 1) benign related obstruction (n=68), 2) cancer related obstruction (n=31). We used logistic regression, KNN and XGBOOST. We calculated the receiver operating characteristic curve, and accuracy of the model. Results: Colon obstructions were more frequent in the cancer group (p=0.005). Operative time, intestinal resection and stoma were significantly more frequent in the cancer group. Major complications were 41% for the cancer group vs. 20 in the benign group (p=0.03). Uni-and multivariate analysis shows that significant risk factors for major complication were cancer related obstruction and CRP. The best model was KNN with an accuracy of 0.82. Conclusion. Colonic obstruction is associated with a tumor-related blockage. Malignant cancer and an increase in C-reactive protein (CRP) are significant risk factors for patients who have undergone emergency surgery due to major complications. KNN could improve the process of counseling and the perioperative management of patients with intestinal obstruction in emergency settings.

Background. National surveys reported on variable prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) due to differences in characteristics of population, design, equations used to estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and definitions. The EH-UH 2 survey is the first study evaluating CKD prevalence, characteristics and awareness in Croatia. Methods. This was a cross-sectional nationwide observational study designed to assess the prevalence and cardio-kidney-metabolic risk factors in Croatia which included 1765 randomly selected subjects. We estimated the prevalence of CKD by means of albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) and eGFR (CKD EPI equation). Comorbidities, anthropometric and social factors related to the prevalence of CKD were analyzed, and CV risk profile was evaluated. Results. The weighted prevalence of CKD (any stage), CKD stage ≥ G3A A2, and CKD defined only as eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 were estimated at 17.1%, 9.8% and 7.9%, respectively. The prevalence was higher in men than in women (11.8% vs. 7.9%; p 30 mg/g was 15.1%. Older age, male gender, diabetes, ePWV, and uric acid were independently associated with CKD prevalence. The awareness of CKD of 9.5%. Unaware were older with lower income, less educated, having more frequently diabetes, hypertension (less frequently controlled) and milder renal impairment. Conclusion. In Croatia, the estimated prevalence of CKD is high, being more frequently presented in men than in women. CKD patients have unfavorable CV risk profile. The awareness of CKD is very low reflecting poor health literacy in general population but also in health care workers.

Despite decades of conflict and political instability, drought has also severely affected Afghanistan’s rural population and agriculture sector. Agriculture is a primary livelihood source in the country, and recurring droughts have put cascading pressures on the agricultural economy and food security. Therefore, understanding the key drivers of all risk components through a comprehensive risk assessment is critical for proactive drought risk management. This study assesses agricultural drought risk from an integrated perspective, emphasizing the combined effects of drought hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. Multi-methods research was conducted, employing remote-sensing-based analysis covering a period from 2001 to 2023. We used the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) to analyze the drought hazard for the agricultural system during the winter growing season. The vulnerability indicators and exposure levels of the agricultural system were determined through spatial analysis combined with a literature review and expert consultation. An adapted conceptual framework of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was utilized, which incorporates hazard, exposure, and vulnerability to define risk. The results revealed that droughts occur frequently and in changing patterns throughout the country. All provinces have experienced drought over the past two decades, albeit with varying severities and frequencies. Severe droughts were observed in 2001-2002, 2008, 2011, 2018, and consecutively in 2021-2022-2023. Drought vulnerability and exposure vary widely across the country, particularly in the northern, western, and southern provinces. The final calculated risk shows that most provinces in southern and southwestern zones face a high risk of recurrent droughts, further exacerbating agricultural challenges in these regions. Such analyses under a multimethod approach provide information on spatial patterns of drought risk and drivers of agricultural systems that can support decision-makers and policymakers in formulating strategies to reduce drought risk and adapt to the agricultural sector.

Keywords: Marine Coasts; Protected Areas; Defense and Conservation; Asbestos Cement Materials; Wastes; Contamination; Human Health Risk; Medical Geology.

We analyze the upside and downside risk connectedness among international stock markets. We characterize the connectedness among international stock returns using the Diebold and Yilmaz spillover index approach and compute the upside and downside value-at-risk. We document that the connectedness level of the downside risk is higher than that of the upside risk and that stock markets are more sensitive when the stock market declines. We also find that specific periods (e.g., the global financial crisis, the European debt crisis, and the COVID-19 turmoil) intensify the spillover effects across international stock markets. Our results demonstrate that the EU, Ger-many, and the US acted as net transmitters of dynamic connectedness; however, Japan (JP), China (CH), and India (IN) acted as net receivers of dynamic connectedness during the sample period. These findings provide significant new information to policymakers and market participants.

Atmospheric pollution arising from diesel-powered engines can result in acute and chronic diseases of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. The annual carnival festival that takes place in the city of Salvador, Bahia-Brazil, is a large-scale event that gathers approximately 2 m revelers and 170,000 workers who accompany dozens of sound-trucks, or trios elétricos, for a period of seven days. These slow-moving sound-trucks run on diesel fuel, constantly exposing those around them to exhaust fumes. The present study aimed to evaluate air quality along the approximately 10km-long carnival parade circuit and determine possible impacts on human health. We applied a three-phase risk analysis strategy from 2007–2009: 1) hazard identification, 2) risk characterization and 3) risk management. Our quantification of atmospheric particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations revealed variable levels of PM2.5 ranging from 19 µg/m³ to 580 µg/m³, with peaks of up to 800 μg/m³ at sound-truck concentration areas. We then assessed the effects of air pollution on human health using ophthalmologic parameters obtained from 28 carnival volunteers, who often presented symptoms of eye irritation. Finally, we established strategies to communicate the study’s objectives and obtained results to the population through media outlets and open discussions with government agencies. According to our risk analysis, carnival sound-trucks represent the main source of atmospheric PM2.5 and NO₂ pollution during the annual 7-day carnival festival. As a consequence of our research, the municipal government of Salvador issued an addendum to its carnival legislation mandating organizers to monitor atmospheric pollution, and, subsequently, all large-scale public events. Municipal government authorities have also promoted a shift from petroleum-based diesel fuel to biodiesel, a less-polluting fuel, for all adapted carnival sound-trucks. Our approach, which employed easily accessible and inexpensive methodology, provided substantial scientific evidence to support improvements in the regulation of air quality during large-scale public events held in the city of Salvador.Keywords: environmental

Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychotropic main component of the Cannabis plant, is approved as a drug in the European Union (EU) under the name “Epidyolex”. However, the approval process as a food ingredient under the Novel Food Regulation was paused by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) due to a lack of safety data. Nevertheless, there is a growing, unregulated market in which CBD is advertised with various health claims and different dosage instructions. Of particular concern is its toxic effect on the liver and possible reproductive toxicity in humans. Studies suitable for calculating a benchmark dose were identified from the available data. Animal studies yielded a Benchmark Dose Lower Confidence Limit (BMDL) of 43 mg/kg bw/day, which translates into a safe human dose of approximately 15 mg/day. Only a Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level (LOAEL) of 4.3 mg/kg bw/day could be identified from the human data. This updated risk assessment confirmed the Health-based Guidance Value (HBGV) of 10 mg/day based on human LOAEL. Despite existing data gaps, preliminary regulation appears advisable as the current form of the gray CBD market is unacceptable from the standpoint of consumer safety and protection.

This article presents a comprehensive framework for valuing financial instruments subject to credit risk. In particular, we focus on the impact of default dependence on asset pricing, as correlated default risk is one of the most pervasive threats in financial markets. We analyze how swap rates are affected by bilateral counterparty credit risk, and how CDS spreads depend on the trilateral credit risk of the buyer, seller, and reference entity in a contract. Moreover, we study the effect of collateralization on valuation, since the majority of OTC derivatives are collateralized. The model shows that a fully collateralized swap is risk-free, whereas a fully collateralized CDS is not equivalent to a risk-free one.

Lynch syndrome (LS) is an inherited cancer predisposition disorder associated with an elevated risk of various epithelial cancers. Despite sharing the same pathogenic variant (PV), Lynch syn-drome variant heterozygotes (LSVH) exhibit considerable phenotypic variability in cancer risk. The role of Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) in modifying cancer risk prompted our investiga-tion into whether HLA variations act as genetic modifiers influencing age at cancer diagnosis in a unique cohort of LSVH carrying a PV in the hMLH1 gene in South Africa. Within our extensive LS cohort, 426 individuals carried the same hMLH1 PV (MLH1:c.1528C>T). We selected 100 indi-viduals with the greatest diversity in age at cancer diagnosis and the oldest unaffected individu-als for high-throughput HLA genotyping of 12 HLA class I and II loci using next-generation se-quencing. Statistical analyses employed Kaplan-Meier survival analyses with Logrank tests and Cox proportional hazards. Following the robust application of statistical correction methods, six HLA alleles (3.2%) were significantly associated with a young age at cancer diagnosis. Notably, HLA-B*15:17 and HLA-DPB1*55:01 correlated significantly with very young colorectal cancer (CRC) diagnosis (Mean age: 21y [17-25]; HR = 71.59; q

The purpose of this review is to elucidate the actual threat of the most prevalent mycotoxins in agricultural commodities and human/animal food/feed for appearance of foodborne ailments and diseases. The underestimated hazard of joint mycotoxin uptake of animals or humans is critically discussed with regards to synergistic or additive interaction between some target mycotoxins. The real toxicity of target mycotoxin combinations as it happens in practice is evaluated and possible lower limit values or control measures are suggested in such cases. Some critical points in adequate risk assessment, hygiene control and regulation of mycotoxns are discussed. The efficiency of current mycotoxin regulations and control measures is evaluated in regards to human/animal health hazard. The risk assessment in the case of multiple mycotoxin exposure of humans/animals via the food/feed or agricultural commodities is evaluated and some suggestions are proposed in such cases. Appropriate control measures and food safety issues throughout the food supply chain are proposed in order to prevent target foodborne diseases. Some preventive measures and possible veterinary hygiene control or risk assessment are proposed in some practical cases of foodborne diseases for preventing mycotoxin contamination of animal products designed for human consumption and to avoid possible public health issues.

in our increasingly interconnected world, sensor networks are critical in gathering and sending data for various applications, from environmental monitoring and industrial automation to healthcare and smart cities. However, as sensor networks expand in importance, so does the need to solve the multidimensional concerns of security, privacy, and forensics. This article explores the complex world of sensor network security, the delicate balance between data privacy and utility, and the emerging area of sensor network forensics. This article focuses on risk assessment of a network.

Flooding is one major environmental problem facing urban cities causing varying degree of damages to properties and disruptions to socio-economic activities. Nigeria is the most populated African country and Kano metropolis is the second largest urban center in Nigeria and the most populated in Northern Nigeria. The aim of the paper is to conduct flood risk assessment of Kano metropolis. The city is divided into two hydrological basins; Challawa and Jakara Basins. Flood frequency analysis for 2 to 100-year return periods were carried out for both the basins using Log-Pearson Type III distribution and flood inundation and hazard mappings were carried out. Social vulnerability to flood of both basins were carried out using MOVE framework. Assessment of flood risk were carried out using map algebra spatial analyst tool in ArcGIS 10.7. The result shows that an area of 50.91 and 40.56 km2 were vulnerable to a 100-year flood. The flood risk map for the two basins show that 10.50 km2 and 14.23 km2 of land in Challawa and Jakara basins respectively are affected by the risk of a 100-year flood out of which 11.48 km2 are built-up area. As the city is densely populated, with a population density of well over 20,000 persons per square kilometer in the highly built-up locations, this means that much more than 230,000 persons will be affected by the flood risk in the two basins

The Impact Chain framework for risk assessment has proven to be a robust and effective It is very useful to set up the conceptual framework associated to a given risk and allows accommodating naturally the different components that shape that However, the operationalization of the impact chain may not be straightforward, in particular due to the inherent uncertainties associated to the selected indicators and the assigned In this paper, we introduce an extension to the Impact Chain framework that allows to consider uncertainties in the different components of the risk In the framework of the UNCHAIN project, a web-based tool has been developed to ease the task of implementing that The tool has been applied to a case study on the loss of tourist attractiveness due to heat stress conditions on the Balearic island, Spain, to illustrate how uncertainties in different components of the impact chain can affect the robustness of the final risk Also, the tool provides an estimate of the sensitivity of the final risk to each component, which can be used to guide risk mitigation Finally, a proposal for the validation of the risk assessment is presented.

Background: In recent years, whole blood parameters and derivatives have been used as prognostic criteria in the course of the disease in various diseases. The prognostic nutritional index (PNI), the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) have been adapted as an indicator of inflammation and have been widely studied to define the severity of inflammation in some diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between parameters such as NLR, SII, PNI, controlling nutritional status (CONUT) score, nutritional risk index (NRI) and with immunonutrition status and disease activity in patients with ischemic stroke of small vessel, large vessel and other etiologies. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the records of 1454 consecutive ischemic stroke patients hospitalized in the emergency department of Gaziosmanpasa Education and Research Hospital from 2019 to 2023. Results: Of the 1350 SVO patients included in the study, 58.8% had small vessel, 29.3% had large vessel and 11.9% had other etiologies. There was a significant difference between the 3 etiology groups for PNI and CONUT. The median PNI was 47.03 (41.33-52.85) in the other etiology group, 35.29 (33.69-37.25) in the small vessel group, and 34.11 (30.23-36.87) in the large vessel group. The CONUT median was 5(5-6) in the small vessel group, 5(4-6) in the large vessel group and 4(4-4) in the other etiology group. In addition, CONUT and PNI were also found to be independent risk factors for death. A negative significant correlation was observed between PNI and NLR (r:-0.692), SII (r:-0.591), CONUT (r:-0.685). Significant correlations were observed between CONUT and NLR (r:0.402), SII (r:0.312). Conclusion: PNI and SII were significantly associated with disease activity. PNI, CONUT and NRI as a more accurate prognostic indicator of nutritional status in patients with ischemic stroke of small vessel, large vessel and other etiologies. NLR and SII may be important predictive markers in the course and prognosis of stroke.

Understanding how the public perceives various risks and hazards associated with our well-being and health is crucial for government and policymakers. The present research aimed to assess the public's perception of various risks and hazards associated with their well-being and health. The study combined two well-known approaches to risk assessment, namely, the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) and the psychometric paradigm. Seven risk attributes were chosen from the risk perception literature to evaluate 27 risks and hazard activities using a survey questionnaire developed based on the psychometric paradigm literature. The collected data was then analyzed using AHP to determine the priority weight for each risk attribute. The results showed that the most important risk attribute was voluntariness of risk, followed by chronic-catastrophic and newness of risk. Furthermore, the study found that natural hazards were ranked the highest, followed by refugee influx and fire hazards. In contrast, the mobile phone was perceived as the lowest type of risk. The findings can be used by policymakers to develop effective and sustainable risk communication strategies. Policymakers can use the research findings to create effective and sustainable risk communication strategies that help the government to inform and educate the public about potential risks, improve coordination among agencies and stakeholders, and enhance public trust in government decision-making.

Ménière's disease (MD) has an unclear cause. The microvascular dysregulation of the inner ear has been increasingly pointed as a potential contributor. This study investigates the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) in MD patients compared to those with posterior circulation cerebral infarction (POCI). CVRFs like hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, obesity, coronary heart disease, and smoking were assessed in both MD and POCI patients. Brain MRI identified POCI etiology as "small vessel occlusion" (SVO) or "other etiology" (OE). The study included 64 MD and 84 POCI patients. Compared to MD, POCI OE showed a higher prevalence of CVRFs across various age groups, including hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and smoking. Notably, the odds of having POCI OE were significantly higher for individuals with hypertension and smoking. On the other hand, POCI SVO showed similar prevalence of CVRFs compared to MD. This study reveals no significant difference in CVRF prevalence between MD and smaller vessel POCI. However, a clear distinction emerges when comparing MD to POCI with involvement of larger blood vessels. Further research is needed to confirm these findings and explore potential shared risk factors between POCI (SVO) and MD.

It is critical to keep abreast of emerging dangers in the constantly changing field of cyber security. As 2024 approaches, numerous technological developments and trends are changing how businesses handle cyber security. This article explores the cutting edge of cyber security developments that are expected to rule in 2024. The field of cyber security is undergoing a revolution, from the adoption of Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) as the new paradigm to the integration of AI and ML for real-time threat detection. Solutions for Extended Detection and Response (XDR) are becoming the mainstay for thorough threat detection and response in a variety of contexts, including networks, endpoints, and cloud environments. The use of biometric authentication techniques is growing in popularity because they provide better access control and identity verification. Concurrently, Deception Technologies are altering defensive tactics by using fictitious assets to trick and identify attackers at an early stage. Quantum-resistant cryptography, which aims to protect sensitive data from future quantum attacks, is on the horizon given the threat posed by quantum computing. Furthermore, the growing number of linked devices emphasizes how critical it is to strengthen IoT security protocols. Moreover, as long as companies are using cloud computing, they must make sure that strong cloud security protocols are in place. Simultaneously, the emergence of containerization technologies demands a targeted strategy for containerized environment security. Organizations must adopt these practices and strengthen their defenses against new threats as the cyber security landscape changes. Businesses may confidently and resiliently traverse the complex cybersecurity landscape of 2024 by remaining aware and implementing proactive security measures.

Missense mutations in the LRRK2 gene were first identified as a pathogenic cause of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in 2004. Soon thereafter, a founder mutation in LRRK2, p.Gly2019Ser (rs34637584), was described, and it is now estimated that there are approximately 100,000 people worldwide that carry this risk variant. While the clinical presentation of LRRK2 parkinsonism has been largely indistinguishable from sporadic PD, disease penetrance and age at onset can be quite variable. In addition, its neuropathological features span a wide range from nigrostriatal loss with Lewy body pathology, lack thereof, or atypical neuropathology including a large proportion of cases with concomitant Alzheimer’s pathology, hailing LRRK2 parkinsonism as the "Rosetta stone" of parkinsonian disorders. These differences may result from interactions between LRRK2 mutant protein and other proteins or environmental factors that modify LRRK2 function, and thereby influence pathobiology. This review explores how potential genetic and biochemical modifiers of LRRK2 function may contribute to the onset and clinical presentation of LRRK2 parkinsonism. We review, which genetic modifiers of LRRK2 influence clinical symptoms, age at onset, and penetrance, what LRRK2 mutations are associated with pleomorphic LRRK2 neuropathology, and which environmental modifiers can augment LRRK2 mutant pathophysiology. Understanding how LRRK2 function is influenced and modulated by other interactors and environmental factors –either increasing toxicity or providing resilience- will inform targeted therapeutic development in the years to come. This will allow developing disease-modifying therapies for PD and LRRK2-related neurodegeneration.

A micro decision-making utility model under uncertainty is presented as a complementary foundation for macro coronavirus models. The micro model consists of two functions, a risk averse utility function depending on wellness and a wellness random output which is a function of the input variable called “treatment” consisting of such elements as social distance, washing hands, wearing a face mask, and others. The decision maker selects a level of treatment that maximizes her/his expected utility, given the probabilities of the respective outputs. The focus is on how changes in a person’s psychological attitude towards the macro determined (announced) probabilities affects the optimum results of the model. Such changes create a micro-macro dynamic interaction which is briefly outlined. A short discussion of the model’s behavioral implications for health policy is also given.

The effects of buckwheat intake on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have not been systematically investigated. The aim of the present study was to comprehensively summarise studies in humans and animals evaluating the impact of buckwheat consumption on CVD risk markers and to conduct a meta-analysis of relevant data. Thirteen randomised, controlled human studies, two cross-sectional human studies and twenty-one animal studies were identified. Using random effects models, the weighted mean difference of post-intervention concentrations of blood glucose, total cholesterol and triglycerides were significantly decreased following buckwheat intervention compared with controls [differences in blood glucose: -0.85 mmol/L (95% CI: -1.31, -0.39), total cholesterol: 0.50 mmol/L (95% CI: -0.80, -0.20) and triglycerides: 0.25 mmol/L (95% CI: -0.49, -0.02)]. Responses of a similar magnitude were seen in two cross-sectional studies. For animal studies, nineteen of twenty-one studies showed a significant reduction in total cholesterol of between 12 and 54%, and fourteen of twenty studies showed a significant reduction in triglycerides of between 2 and 74%. All exhibited high unexplained heterogeneity. There was inconsistency in HDL cholesterol outcomes in both human and animal studies. It remains unclear whether increased buckwheat intake significantly benefits other markers of CVD risk, such as weight, blood pressure, insulin, and LDL-cholesterol, and underlying mechanisms responsible for any effects are unclear.

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive decline and memory loss, predominantly affecting older adults. Understanding the multifaceted factors contributing to AD is crucial for developing effective prevention and intervention strategies. This narrative review synthesizes current literature on the various factors influencing the development and progression of AD in older adult populations.Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted across electronic databases including PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO using relevant keywords such as "Alzheimer's disease," "risk factors," "genetics," "environmental factors," and "lifestyle." Studies published between 2000 and 2023 were included, focusing on factors associated with AD in individuals aged 65 years and older.Results: The review identified several key factors contributing to AD in older adults. Genetic predisposition, particularly the presence of apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele, emerged as a significant risk factor. Environmental factors such as air pollution, pesticides, and heavy metals were also implicated. Furthermore, lifestyle factors including physical inactivity, poor diet, and smoking were associated with increased AD risk. Chronic conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases were found to exacerbate cognitive decline in older adults.Conclusion: This narrative review highlights the complex interplay of genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors in the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease among older adults. Understanding these factors is crucial for targeted interventions aimed at reducing AD risk and improving cognitive health outcomes in aging populations. Future research should focus on longitudinal studies and personalized medicine approaches to elucidate specific mechanisms underlying AD pathogenesis and to develop effective preventive strategies.

It is vital to analyze ship collision risk for preventing collisions and improving safety at sea. This paper takes Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, a typical complex navigable water, as the research object, propose a probabilistic conflict detection method to estimate the potential collision risk by using a dynamic domain model driven by AIS data. Combined with the algorithm of fast modularity optimization and spectral clustering, a ship group extraction method from the perspective of water navigation management was proposed. Aiming at ship traffic characteristics in complex navigable waters, conduct dynamic calculation of ship collision risk from individual, regional and local multi-scale perspectives. The results show that the proposed method can detect the collision risk in a timely, reliable and effective manner under complex dynamic conditions. As such, they provide valuable insights for ship collision risk prediction and the development of risk mitigation measures.

We assessed the association between cirrhosis and severe COVID-19-related outcomes among people with laboratory-diagnosed COVID-19 infection in British Columbia, Canada. We used data from the British Columbia (BC) COVID-19 Cohort, a population-based cohort that integrates data on all individuals tested for COVID-19 with data on hospitalizations, medical visits, emergency room visits, prescription drugs, chronic conditions, and deaths in the Canadian province of BC. We included all individuals, aged ≥ 18 who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, from January 01, 2021, to December 31, 2021. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between cirrhosis status and COVID-19-related hospitalization and ICU admission. Of the 162,509 individuals who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and were included in the analysis, 768 (0.5%) had cirrhosis. In the multivariable models, cirrhosis was associated with increased odds of hospitalization (aOR=1.97, 95% CI: 1.58 – 2.47) and ICU admission (aOR=3.33, 95% CI: 2.56 – 4.35). In the analyses stratified by age, we found that the increased odds of ICU admission among people with cirrhosis were present in all the assessed age-groups. Cirrhosis is associated with increased odds of hospitalization and ICU admission among COVID-19 patients.

Social sustainability is the major concern of planners and local officials when urban renewal projects are being conducted. Extreme individualism can potentially cause conflicts of interest, making urban renewal in Western cities fraught with various types of social risks. As a country with deep-rooted socialist tradition, urban renewal projects in China are influenced by collectivist culture and show different features from those of the West. The objective of this research is to investigate how different stakeholders in urban redevelopment projects, including local residents, social organizations, the local state, and developers, interact with each other and how the associated social risks are hedged against. Using a recent well-known project in the city of Guangzhou, the authors attempt to present the latest progress in social risk management in China. With the support from a government-sponsored project, the authors have conducted a questionnaire-based survey and year-long follow-up fieldwork. Using ATLAS.ti software, we found that that “residents’ demand”, “status of collaboration”, and “degree of trust” are the keys to risk management. The results of an ordered probit model show that residents are worried about the overall planning, the relocation timetable, and whether their personal needs are taken into account. It is also indicated that the timely disclosure of project information, high-quality public participation, and a reasonable compensation plan can possibly boost the support rate. The authors suggest that utilizing China’s collectivist culture could be an effective way to mitigate social risks, and residents’ personal interests should also be respected.

Since financial institutions faced to fatal scenario like subprime mortgage crisis and COVID-19, the factor-based asset allocation methodology is noticed. Asset-only approach which make to consider restrictive risk volatility as individual assets had limitation of macro factor risk. For instance, an institution which allocated assets by asset-only approach cannot deal with the inflation crisis. We review the problem of the traditional modern portfolio approach that is used by Korean financial institutions. For reasonable investment of institution, we notice improved factor-based allocation approach. The first result of this paper is that Mean-variance approach as considered only return of asset recorded lower performance than multi factor-based portfolio in macro factor crisis. Second, we notice allocation model which can minimize probability passing the liability risk exposed macro factors to investment risk exposed macro factors. There are three steps in multi-macro factor-based asset allocation approach: discovering macro factors and mapping asset classes to individual macro factor. Second, define liability account and mapping as considering income and pay out of institution. Third, minimize correlation of fac-tor-based asset risk with liability volatility. Furthermore, using covariance return of assets to allocate makes Pareto improvement and supports to break Home-bias problems.

This cross-sectional, analytical, and observational study aimed to investigate the relationship between Visceral Adiposity Index (VAI) and anthropometric, biochemical, and insulin resistance (IR) parameters in Brazilians at risk of CVD. Biochemical parameters and anthropometric measurements were evaluated. The Pearson test was used to assess the correlation between VAI and anthropometric, biochemical, and IR parameters, with a predefined significance level of 5%. The analyzed sample consisted of 88 men and 72 women, with an average age of 58.78±13.48. VAI revealed noteworthy and positive correlations with all anthropometric parameters assessed (p&lt;0.0001). Furthermore, significant positive associations were noted between VAI and total cholesterol in women (p=0.0064), glycemia in men (p=0.0105), and LDL-c (p&lt;0.01) and triglycerides in both genders (p˂0.0001). A significant negative association was observed between VAI and HDL-c in both genders (p&lt;0.0001). Notably, the correlation between VAI and total cholesterol in men, glycemia in women, and CRP in both genders was not found to be significant. However, a significant relationship between VAI and IR parameters was observed in both sexes (p&lt;0.05). The results obtained from our study suggest that VAI functions as a simple and non-intrusive instrument, demonstrating significant effectiveness in identifying metabolic changes primarily associated with adipose tissue dysfunction, particularly dyslipidemia.

We present an updated design process for adapting and integrating existing cyber risk assessment approaches for impact assessment for the risk from IoT to the digital economy. The new design process includes a set of changes to the original standards (e.g. NIST) that are adapted for the IoT cyber risk in this paper. This paper also presents a new framework for impact assessment of IoT cyber risk, specific for the digital economy.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are rising rapidly among the postmenopausal woman but they are less likely to identify their risk by an appropriate risk assessment tool. This review evaluates available literature on cardiovascular risk assessment among postmenopausal women to provide a concise view of risk factors and disease burden among them, present risk assessment systems including their drawbacks, emergence of new risk factors and their role in risk prediction, and finally use of hormone replacement therapy during menopause. Results demonstrate that menopause is a transition point for developing CVD not due to physiological changes only but psychosocial factors like depression and marital stress are also responsible. Both conventional and emerging risk factors burden are high among postmenopausal women. Though data regarding CVD risk assessment among postmenopausal population is lacking but existing evidences claimed underestimation or overestimation of risk among women. Moreover application of different tools on same population has revealed significant variation in result. In this regard, recalibration of conventional tools with local data and new risk factors has showed improvement of risk prediction. Hormone replacement therapy during early menopause has reported beneficial to prevent CVD but in secondary prevention it has no role. All of these findings demand further studies on cardiovascular risk assessment, especially in developing countries where women after menopause are not in consideration of health strategy makers.

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) created a list of Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs) with the intention of determining which financial institutions were important enough to the global market that their failure would result in systemic collapse. In this work we create a model that modifies the BCBS's five indicators of size, interconnectedness, cross-jurisdictional activities, complexity, and substitutability and applies these measures of systemic stress to governments. The original application of the model is to track the systemic interdependence of the Eurozone, with particular emphasis on the case of Greece. We anticipate this model can be used in regional fiscal situations beyond the Eurozone.

Throughout its history Western science has tended to treat complexity as a problem to be avoided or solved. A philosophy of simplification achieved significant improvements in human life and prevails as a model for achieving societal good. However, misplaced efforts to control complexity worsen our sustainability challenges. Effective responses to modern day dilemmas such as floods and climate change require ways of thinking that are more congruent with the complexity of the world. Further, governmental programs to reduce flood risk depend on the support of an informed and engaged public. It has proven difficult to communicate risk in ways that align scientific and technical expertise based on an objective worldview, with communal and individual under-standings of risk based on subjective experiences and perspectives. I introduce Paul Cilliers’ philosophy of critical complexity as the basis of a new conceptual framework that values and balances complexity and simplicity. This paper shows how objective strategies that rely on analytic and probabilistic thinking can be integrated with subjective approaches that draw on the experiential and possibilistic. An example depicts how the problematic framing of the “100-year flood” can be replaced by a model of the data that covers a range of possibilities within an experiential time frame. Cilliers’ work opens an ethical dimension in which we make more intentional choices and acknowledge our limitations. Complexability – understanding how to live with complexity rather than aiming to simplify it – is a vital component of sustainability communication and education.

Objective: This study aimed to explore potential interventions or preventive measures to reduce the incidence of falls among the elderly in the Madinah region, and to provide recommendations for healthcare professionals, policymakers, and community stakeholders to enhance fall prevention strategies and improve the overall well-being of the elderly population in this area. Methods: The study adopted a cross-sectional study design, and was carried out in the Madinah region using convenient physical assignment among of Saudi and non-Saudi local residents aged 65 years and over. Questionnaire surveys were circulated and demographic characteristics were collected, including participants’ fall experience and health status data over the past year, in order to assess the incidence of falls among the elderly population. This design allows for the collection of data at a single point in time, aiming to evaluate the prevalence, risk factors, and consequences of falls among the target population. Results: A total of 189 participants were recruited to the study, and the data indicated that the prevalence of falls among those aged 65 years and older in the past year was 41.5%. We found that 73% of the participants had experienced falls and post-fall injuries within the past 12 months. There were minimal differences in terms of physical handicapped cases found between those with and without a fall history. Logistic regression analysis revealed a significant link between fall experience and maximum bite force. Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of falls in the elderly population in the Madinah region. Our study reveals that 50.79% of our elderly participants had experienced more than one fall during the preceding year. Some preventable risk factors were identified in an analysis of their daily routines. The impacts of these risk factors have potential consequences for their healthy lives.

Let us assume that defence mechanisms are so strong that the average outcome of a hacking attack is unsuccessful. How to calculate the costs arising from false positives and false negatives in intruder detection? Is it better for the hacker to make fewer but more effective attacks rather than several but less effective attacks? How to calculate the difference between these alternative strategies?

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) can significantly impact mental health, increasing suicide risk. Variables such as pain and threat perception may be crucial. This study aims to identify predictors of suicide risk in individuals with CRC. Methods: A total of 71 participants (76.06% men) aged 27 to 88 years (M = 65.18, SD = 12.02) were assessed using the SF-36 for pain, the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ) for threat perception, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) for emotional distress, and the Plutchik suicide risk scale for suicide risk. Descriptive, comparative, and correlational analyses were performed, followed by a linear regression analysis. Results: Nearly 20% of participants exhibited high suicide risk. There was a moderate to high association between suicide risk and the perception of threat, pain, and emotional distress. The linear regression model explained 39% of the variance in suicide risk, with threat perception, pain, and emotional distress as significant predictors. Conclusions: These results indicate the need for multidisciplinary care for individuals with CRC, including emotional support from health psychologists, and holistic, human-centered care from nursing and medical professionals. Future research is necessary to further explore these relationships and improve patient care strategies.

Grasping the spatial and temporal patterns of forest fires, along with the key factors that drive them and the ability to forecast such events accurately, is essential for the successful management of forests. In China's southern region, forest fires significantly endanger the ecological system, public safety, and economic well-being. Through the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and LightGBM (Light Gradient Boosting Machine) model, this study investigates the determinants of fire incidents and formulates a predictive model for forest fire occurrences, alongside a zoning strategy, within the Central-South area. The results indicate: (i) Spatially, fire points exhibit significant clustering and autocorrelation characteristics; (ii) The Central-South Forest Fire Prediction Model shows exceptional accuracy, reliability, and predictive power, with high performance metrics across training and validation sets, including over 85% accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 scores, along with AUC values above 89%, underscoring its efficacy in forecasting forest fires and distinguishing between fire events; (iii) Throughout the year, forest fire risks in the Central-South region of China vary by region and season, with risk spikes from March to May in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, and Hainan. From June to August, localized risks are observed in Heyuan and Huangshi, while from September to November, an increase in risk is noted in Guangdong (Meizhou, Heyuan, Shaoguan), Guangxi (Nanning, Hezhou, Yulin), and Hunan (Binzhou, Yongzhou, Hengyang) due to cooler, drier conditions and leaf litter accumulation. From December to February, the risk continues in specific areas across Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, and Hubei.

Introduction: Arterial hypertension and obesity are two major risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality closely linked. The objective of this study was to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of hypertensive patients according to their level of obesity as proposed by the classification of the World Health Organization (WHO). Patients and Methods: Retrospective study (January 2022-April 2023) involving 230 hypertensive and obese adult patients whose mean age was 52.5 ± 12.05 years [Extremes: 24-85 years] followed on an outpatient basis and classified into 3 Classes according to their body mass index (BMI). Epidemiological, clinical parameters and cardiovascular risk stratification were analyzed. The relevance of the risk stratification method was analyzed by area under the curve (AUC). Statistical analysis was performed using SPPS version 26 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results: Classes 1 (n=170; 73.9%), 2 (n=43; 18.7%) and 3 (n=17; 7.4%) were identified. There were significantly more women than men in Class 3 (9.7% versus 2.7%; p=0.001). The risk of being diabetic (OR=0.135;95%CI=0.034–0.541;p=0.005), of having angina pain (OR=0.084;95%CI=0.009–0.790;p=0.030) or developing chronic renal failure (OR=2.416;95%CI=1.471–85.268;p=0.020) was significantly higher in Class 3 than in Class 1. According to cardiovascular risk stratification, 152 patients (66.1%) were at high and very high risk. The level of cardiovascular risk of our patients was not related to the degree of obesity based on body mass index (p=0.32). The risk stratification method was relevant (AUC˃0.70;p˂0.001). Conclusion: Morbid obesity exposes hypertensives more to cardiovascular, renal and metabolic complications.

WHO estimates that around 600 million people suffer from high blood pressure which causes high costs for health systems and influences the economy of these countries. In this study, we investigate the sociodemographic characteristics and risk factors related to hypertension among individuals from Huambo, Angola. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 158 participants consulted in the Cardiology services at Hospital Geral do Huambo, between January and July 2023. A total of 67.1% of the studied patients were hypertensive. The mean age of the hypertensive (55.8±11.3) patients was higher than non-hypertensive (53.1±13.4) patients, although no significance was observed (p=0.199). Patients aged between 30 and 40 (OR=1.19, P=0493), male (OR=1.17, P=660), employees (OR=9.94, P=0935), patients consuming alcohol (OR=1.11, P=0.864), and practising physical activity (OR=1.12, P=0.742) presented a high chance of developing hypertension, while those living in urbanized areas (OR=0.78, P=0.59) and with a low educational level (OR=0.43, P=0.194), had a low chance to develop hypertension. There was no statistical significance between demographic or behavioural characteristics with hypertension (P>0.05). Regarding clinical characteristics, body mass index was statistically related to hypertension (p=0.011). Our findings show that hypertension is a major health problem for the young population of Huambo. There is an urgent need to create strategies to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of hypertension, not only in Huambo but throughout the country. Further studies to understand determinants related to hypertension should be carried out among the young population in Angola.

With the growing of university chemistry experiment projects, scientific research personnel, specialized equipment, laboratory accident is increasing yearly. And accident data lacks a safety platform to store related information and cannot be guaranteed for efficient conditional sharing. To solve these problems, we designed a laboratory accident system to store, share related data and predict risk level. In this paper, we manually collected chemistry laboratory accidents by python software and class assignments, then analyses risk factor variables using Spsspro, finally established a prediction model using Stata. We intended to register laboratory related data into proposed chemistry accident system based on data ownership safety architecture. The chemistry accident system can break data barriers using confirmation and authorization key technology to trace non-tampered data source in real time when emergency accident happens. Meanwhile, our proposed system can use our designed accident risk model to predict risk level of any experiment project. It can also recommend appropriate safety education models.

Background: Many risk-modifying factors affect cancer incidence and mortality rates. Solar UVB reduces cancer risk by producing vitamin D, which has many mechanisms to reduce risk of cancer incidence, progression, and metastasis. Obesity increases cancer risk through several mechanisms, including increased inflammation. Method and Materials. We present an ecological study (a type of observational study) of incidence and/or mortality rates for cancers during 2007–2016 of 17 anatomical sites with respect to solar ultraviolet-B (UVB) doses and obesity prevalence. Data were averaged for 12 geographical regions. Results: Solar UVB doses were significantly inversely correlated with incidence rates for three types of cancer for males. They were inversely correlated with mortality rates for five cancers for males and four for females. Obesity prevalence was directly correlated with mortality rates for three cancers for males and seven for females. Discussion: The ecological approach has certain limitations, such as its sensitivity only to regional variations in relation to specific risk-modifying factors. In this study, these limitations include numerous factors influencing cancer risk and the fact that the data are averaged across entire regional populations, which may not reflect individual risks. Despite this, the study reveals important correlations. Specifically, it found that solar UVB exposure is linked to a lower risk of certain cancers, while obesity is associated with an increased risk of some cancers in France. These findings are consistent with results from a similar study in the United States on cancer rates between 2016 and 2020. The association between obesity and cancer risk aligns with other observational studies. However, it is uncertain to what extent higher solar UVB exposure or elevated serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels might mitigate the impact of obesity on cancer risk. Reducing cancer mortality in France may be achievable through vitamin D supplementation and efforts to lower obesity prevalence.

This review focuses on the emerging evidence for the association between estimated cardiorespiratory fitness (eCRF) and metabolic risk factors. Given the challenges associated with directly measuring cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in large populations, eCRF presents a practical alternative for predicting metabolic health risks. A literature search identified six relevant cohort studies from 2021 to 2024 that investigated the association of eCRF with hypertension, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, and obesity. The review findings highlight a consistent inverse relationship between higher eCRF and lower incidence of metabolic risks in line with CRF cohort studies. This review highlights the importance of low eCRF as a primordial indicator for metabolic risks and underscores the need for broader application. Future research directions should include exploring eCRF's predictive accuracy across diverse populations and health outcomes and testing its real-world applicability in healthcare and public health settings.

This paper is focused on mapping the current evolution of Internet of Things (IoT) and its associated cyber risks for the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) sector. We report the results of a qualitative empirical study that correlates academic literature with 14 - I4.0 frameworks and initiatives. We apply the grounded theory approach to synthesise the findings from our literature review, to compare the cyber security frameworks and cyber security quantitative impact assessment models, with the world leading I4.0 technological trends. From the findings, we build a new impact assessment model of IoT cyber risk in Industry 4.0. We therefore advance the efforts of integrating standards and governance into Industry 4.0 and offer a better understanding of economics impact assessment models for I4.0.

This study explores individual and contextual risk factors for the onset of work interfering with private life (WIL) and private life interfering with work (LIW) among self-employed men and women across European countries. It also studies the relationship between interference (LIW and WIL) and wellbeing among self-employed men and women and the effect of macro level risk factors. Data from the fifth round of European Working Conditions Survey was utilized and a sample of self-employed men and women with active businesses was extracted. Applying multilevel regressions, results show that though business characteristics are important for level of WIL, time demand is the most evident risk factor for WIL and LIW. There is a relationship between wellbeing and WIL and LIW respectively, and time demands is the most important factor in this relationship. Gender equality on the labor market did not relate to level of interference, nor did it mediate the relationship between interference and wellbeing. However, the main and most important risk factor for experiencing WIL and LIW and for how interference relate to wellbeing is gender relation processes in work and life, both on individual and contextual level.

Every year around 800 000 people commit suicide, this represents one death every 40 seconds. In the search for possible biological biomarkers associated with suicide and/or psychiatric disorders, serum cholesterol levels have been extensively explored. Several studies have indicated that cholesterol and associated proteins, especially apolipoproteins (Apos), may play an important role in the diagnosis, prognosis, and susceptibility of suicide. Here, we describe the current knowledge and findings in the relationship between apolipoproteins and suicide.

Pneumonic plague outbreaks are relatively infrequent in modern times but in the early part of the 20th century, they were commonplace including several well-documented epidemics responsible for the deaths of thousands. The transmissibility of this disease seems to be discontinuous since in some outbreaks few transmissions occur, while in others, the progression of the epidemic is explosive. Modern epidemiological studies explain that transmissibility within populations is heterogenous with relatively few subjects likely to be responsible for most transmissions and that ‘super spreading events’, particularly at the start of an outbreak, can lead to a rapid expansion of cases. These findings concur with outbreaks observed in real-world situations. It is often reported that pneumonic plague is rare and not easily transmitted but this view could lead to unnecessary complacency since future risks such as the spontaneous incidence of anti-microbial strains, climate change leading to a disruption of natural cycles within plague foci and use of plague as a bioweapon cannot be discounted. Carers and first responders are vulnerable, particularly in poorer countries where access to medicines may be limited, out-breaks occur in inaccessible areas or where there is a lack of surveillance due to a paucity of funds.

One of the most burning topics in cybersecurity in 2023 will undoubtedly be the compliance with the Software Bill of Materials. Since the US president issued the Executive Order 14028 on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, software developers have prepared and bills are transmitted to vendors, customers, and users, but they don’t know what to do with the reports they are getting. In addition, since software developers have identified the values of the Software Bill of Materials, they have been using the reports extensively. This article presents an estimate of 270 million requests per month, just from form one popular tool to one vulnerability index. This number is expected to double every year and a half. This simple estimate explains the urgency for automating the process. We propose solutions based on artificial intelligence and machine learning, and we base our tools on the existing FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). This methodology is supported with a case study research and Grounded theory, for categorising data into axis, and for verifying the values of the tools with experts in the field. We showcase how to create, and share Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange data, and automate the Software Bill of Materials compliance process with AI models and a unified computational framework combining solutions for the following problems: (1) the data utilisation problem, (2) the automation and scaling problem, (3) the naming problem, (4) the alignment problem, (5) the pedigree, and provenance problem, and many other problems that are on the top of mind for many security engineers at present. The uptake of these findings will depend on collaborations with government and industry, and on the availability and the ease of use of automated tools.

For a long-only active equity manager (or investor), the ability to hedge the downside risk before a significant price correction is a valuable skill. The authors proposed constructing a signal that provides timing information for a manager to hedge the downside risk. This systematic signal can help a manager put on a hedge before the price corrections of the dot com bubble in 2000 and the global financial crisis in 2008. The signal is constructed for each GICS sector index in the S&P 500. When a sector’s PE indicates a high valuation and, at the same time, if the high valuation sector’s correlations with some other sectors are out of their historical norm, then these two conditions contribute a timing signal for the significant price swing of the index during the following six months. After observing the timing signal, managers can benefit significantly by hedging the downside risk. The signal can also be interpreted as the beginning of a high volatility regime for a sector.

1. Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are India’s leading cause of mortality. This study aimed to recalibrate the original Framingham Risk Score (FRS) equations among adults in Kerala state. 2. Methods: Baseline survey data from the Kerala Diabetes Prevention Program were analyzed: 921 males and 567 females for lipid-based FRS scores and 1042 males and 646 females for BMI-based FRS scores. Recalibration of the original FRS scores was performed using local data on CVD risk factors and CVD mortality. 3. Results: Among males, the median 10-year CVD risk with the recalibrated lipid-based FRS score was 7.34 (IQR 4.33-12.42), compared with the original score of 8.88 (5.23-14.87) (p<0.001). For BMI-based FRS scores, the median 10-year CVD risk was 7.40 (4.27-11.83) with the recalibrated score, compared to 9.32 (5.40-14.80) for the original score (p<0.001). In females, the median 10-year CVD risk was 4.83 (2.90-8.36) with the recalibrated score, compared to 2.85 (IQR 1.71-4.98) with the original score (p<0.001). Similarly, the median 10-year CVD risk was 4.66 (2.74-8.81) with the recalibrated BMI-based FRS score, compared to 2.95 (1.72-5.61) with the original score (p<0.001). 4. Conclusions: Recalibrated FRS scores estimated a significantly lower 10-year CVD risk in males and a higher risk in females than the original FRS scores.