Search results for: psychological risks

Authors: A. Llopis Alvarez, D. Muller-Eie

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Participatory GIS (geographic information systems) are designed for community mapping exercises in order to produce spatial representations of local knowledge. Ideally, participatory GIS caters to public participation through the use of spatial data in order to increase community-led policy-and decision-making. Having defined a spatial object, such as a neighborhood, subjective mapping involves attaining a description of the spatial, physical, social and psychological characteristics of that spatial object. This paper highlights an emerging appreciation of the subjective component, particularly in spatial analyses. The beliefs, feelings, and behaviors associated with an urban area reflect its sense of place for an individual or a group. It is important therefore to understand what types of beliefs, emotions, and behavioral patterns are relevant to particular resident, groups and urban scales. In this sense, resident’s emotional attachment to their urban areas motivates civic engagement and facilitates awareness of its strengths and its problems. Similarly, subjective perceptions act in complex ways to influence the formation and maintenance of social identity and quality of life. This paper reports on findings from a case study of immigrant population in Norwegian cities, their residential conditions and their relationship to quality of urban life. Cognitive mapping methodologies are used in this study to understand local perceptions of urban qualities. Thus, measures to alleviate disadvantages and improve quality of urban life are more likely to be effective when they are informed by an understanding of a place as constructed by those who live in it, meaning their subjective perceptions about it.

Keywords: mapping methodologies, participatory GIS, perceptual maps, public participation, spatial analysis, subjective perceptions

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Authors: Hadas Sopher, Davide Schaumann, Yehuda E. Kalay

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This paper addresses the shortcomings of architectural computation tools in representing human behavior in built environments, prior to construction and occupancy of those environments. Evaluating whether a design fits the needs of its future users is currently done solely post construction, or is based on the knowledge and intuition of the designer. This issue is of high importance when designing complex buildings such as hospitals, where the quality of treatment as well as patient and staff satisfaction are of major concern. Existing computational pre-occupancy human behavior evaluation methods are geared mainly to test ergonomic issues, such as wheelchair accessibility, emergency egress, etc. As such, they rely on Agent Based Modeling (ABM) techniques, which emphasize the individual user. Yet we know that most human activities are social, and involve a number of actors working together, which ABM methods cannot handle. Therefore, we present an event-based model that manages the interaction between multiple Actors, Spaces, and Activities, to describe dynamically how people use spaces. This approach requires expanding the computational representation of Actors beyond their physical description, to include psychological, social, cultural, and other parameters. The model presented in this paper includes cognitive abilities and rules that describe the response of actors to their physical and social surroundings, based on the actors’ internal status. The model has been applied in a simulation of hospital wards, and showed adaptability to a wide variety of situated behaviors and interactions.

Keywords: agent based modeling, architectural design evaluation, event modeling, human behavior simulation, spatial cognition

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Authors: Katalin Gocze, Gabriella Kiss, Zsuzsanna Gurdan, Krisztian Kvell, Attila Trabert

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Introduction: On a worldwide scale running has become an increasingly popular leisure time activity during the past decade. Since the participation rate of women has risen significantly the aim of our study was to analyze the mental status, sleeping habits and the prevalence of depression among female runners. Methods: Cross-sectional analysis included the use of validated and globally used surveys for the comprehensive evaluation of insomnia (AIS), depression (BDI), exercise dependence (EDS) and exercise addiction (EAI). Recreational and amateur female runners participating at half-marathon events in Hungary were asked to take part in our pilot study. Results: Participants mean age was 42.03±9.03 years. The prevalence of imsomnia was 18.87%. 60.34% has worries regarding their weight and 43.1% think that they have an actual weight problem. 77.6% stated that their body weight has an influence on their mood. 2.7% displayed borderline clinical depression, the prevalence of mild mood disorders was 10.81%. 17.2% had previously problems with disordered eating. Participants had a mean total EDS score of 46.94±15.55 and a mean total of 13.49±3.80 on EAI. Component scores were the highest for tolerance (a need for increased amounts of exercise to achieve the desired effect or a diminished effect occurs with continued use of the same amount of exercise). Conclusion: Even tough running can help improve mental health, tackle depression and overcome adversity, athletes are at risk of experiencing psychological difficulties which have an impact on their physical perfomance as well. Further research can help initiate targeted educational and screening programs to ensure that female athletes find a path to emotional well-being.

Keywords: depression, eating disorder, exercise addiction, exercise dependence, insomnia, running

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Authors: U. V. Okpala

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Flood is an overflow of water that submerges or ‘drowns’ land. In developing countries it occurs as a result of blocking of natural and man-made drainages and poor maintenance of water dams/reservoirs which seldom give way after persistent heavy down pours. In coastal lowlands and swamp lands, flooding is aided mainly by blocked channels and indiscriminate sand fling of coastal swamp areas and natural drainage channel for urban development/constructions. In this paper, the causes of flood and possible scientific, technological, political, economic and social impacts of flood disaster on the environment a case study of Anambra State have been studied. Often times flooding is caused by climate change, especially in the developed economy where scientific mitigating options are highly employed. Researchers have identified Green Houses Gases (GHG) as the cause of global climate change. The recent flood disaster in Anambra State which caused physical damage to structures, social dislocation, contamination of clean drinking water, spread of water-borne diseases, shortage of crops and food supplies, death of non-tolerant tree species, disruption in transportation system, serious economic loss and psychological trauma is a function of climate change. There is need to encourage generation of renewable energy sources, use of less carbon intensive fuels and other energy efficient sources. Carbon capture/sequestration, proper management of our drainage systems and good maintenance of our dams are good option towards saving the environment.

Keywords: flooding, climate change, carbon capture, energy systems

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Authors: Bouthayna Hayou, Mohamed Mouloud Haddak

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In road accidents in French overseas territories have been understudied, with relevant data often collected late and incompletely. Although these territories account for only 3% to 4% of road traffic injuries in France, their unique characteristics merit closer attention. Despite lower mobility and, consequently, lower exposure to road risks, the actual road risk in Overseas France is as high or even higher than in Metropolitan France. Significant disparities exist not only between Metropolitan France and Overseas territories but also among the overseas territories themselves. The varying population densities in these regions do not fully explain these differences, as each territory has its own distinct vulnerabilities and road safety challenges. This analysis, based on BAAC data files from 2005 to 2018 for both Metropolitan France and the overseas departments and regions, examines key variables such as gender, age, type of road user, type of obstacle hit, type of trip, road category, traffic conditions, weather, and location of accidents. Logistic regression models were built for each region to investigate the risk factors associated with fatal road accidents, focusing on the probability of being killed versus injured. Due to insufficient data, Mayotte and the Overseas Communities (French Polynesia and New Caledonia) were not included in the models. The findings reveal that road safety is worse in the overseas territories compared to Metropolitan France, particularly for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and motorized two-wheelers. These territories present an accident profile that sits between that of Metropolitan France and middle-income countries. A pressing need exists to standardize accident data collection between Metropolitan and Overseas France to allow for more detailed comparative analyses. Further epidemiological studies could help identify the specific road safety issues unique to each territory, particularly with regard to socio-economic factors such as social cohesion, which may influence road safety outcomes. Moreover, the lack of data on new modes of travel, such as electric scooters, and the absence of socio-economic details of accident victims complicate the evaluation of emerging risk factors. Additional research, including sociological and psychosocial studies, is essential for understanding road users' behavior and perceptions of road risk, which could also provide valuable insights into accident trends in peri-urban areas in France.

Keywords: multivariate logistic regression, overseas France, road safety, road traffic accident, territorial inequalities

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Authors: Asim Abbasi, Muhammad Sufyan, Iqra, Muhammad Ibrahim Shahid, Muhammad Ashfaq

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The foundation of human life on earth relies on many ecosystem services provided by insects of which pollination owes a vital role. The pollination service offered by insects has annual worth of approximately €153 billion. The majority of the flowering plants depends on entomophiles pollination for their reproduction and formation of seeds and fruits. The quantity and quality of insect pollination have multiple implications for stable ecosystem, diverse species level, food security and climate change resilience. The rapidly mounting human population, depletion of natural resources and the global climate change forced us to enter an era of pollination crisis. Climate change not only alters the phenology, population abundance and geographic ranges of different pollinators but also hinders their pollination activities. The successful pollination process relies heavily on the synchronization of biological events of pollinators with the phenological stages of the flowering plants. However, there are possibilities that impending climatic changes may result in asynchrony between plant-pollinators interactions and also mitigate the extent of pollination. The trophic mismatch mostly occurs when pollinators and plants inhabiting the same environment use different environmental cues to regulate their biological events, as these cues are not equally affected by climate change. Synchrony has also been disrupted when one of the interacting species has migratory nature and depend on cues for migration. Moreover, irregular rainfalls and up-surging temperature also disrupts the foraging behaviour of pollinators resulting in reduced flowers visits by insect. Climate change has a direct impact on the behavior and physiology of honey bees, the best known pollinators owing to their extreme floral fidelity. Rising temperature not only alleviates the quantity and quality of floral environment but also alters the bee’s colony harvesting and development ability. Furthermore, a possible earlier decline of flowers is expected in a growing season due to this rising temperature. This may also lead to disrupt the efficiency bumblebee queen that require a constant and adequate nectar and pollen supply throughout the entire growing season for healthy colony production. Considering the role of insect pollination in our ecosystem, their associated risks regarding climate change should be addressed properly for devising a well-focused research needed for their conservation.

Keywords: climate change, phenological, pollination, synchronization

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Authors: Linnan Zhang

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Linguists, as well as psychologists, have shown great interests in implicit causality in reference processing. However, most frequently-used approaches to this issue are psychological experiments (such as eye tracking or self-paced reading, etc.). This research is a corpus-based one and is assisted with statistical tool – software R. The main focus of the present study is about the competition between verb-based implicit causality and theme structure’s influence on anaphora bias in Mandarin Chinese sentences. In Accessibility Theory, it is believed that salience, which is also known as accessibility, and relevance are two important factors in reference processing. Theme structure, which is a special syntactic structure in Chinese, determines the salience of an antecedent on the syntactic level while verb-based implicit causality is a key factor to the relevance between antecedent and anaphora. Therefore, it is a study about anaphora, combining psychology with linguistics. With analysis of the sentences from corpus as well as the statistical analysis of Multinomial Logistic Regression, major findings of the present study are as follows: 1. When the sentence is stated in a ‘cause-effect’ structure, the theme structure will always be the antecedent no matter forward biased verbs or backward biased verbs co-occur; in non-theme structure, the anaphora bias will tend to be the opposite of the verb bias; 2. When the sentence is stated in a ‘effect-cause’ structure, theme structure will not always be the antecedent and the influence of verb-based implicit causality will outweigh that of theme structure; moreover, the anaphora bias will be the same with the bias of verbs. All the results indicate that implicit causality functions conditionally and the noun in theme structure will not be the high-salience antecedent under any circumstances.

Keywords: accessibility theory, anaphora, theme strcture, verb-based implicit causality

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Authors: Ahlem Dhahri, Waleed Omri, Audrey Becuwe, Abdelwahed Omri

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In industrial processes, decision-making ranges across different scales, from process control to supply chain management. The purchasing decision-making process in the supply chain is presently gaining more attention as a critical contributor to the company's strategic success. Given the scarcity of thorough summaries in the prior studies, this bibliometric analysis aims to adopt a meticulous approach to achieve quantitative knowledge on the constantly evolving subject of purchasing decision-making in supply chain management. Through bibliometric analysis, we examine a sample of 358 peer-reviewed articles from the Scopus database. VOSviewer and Gephi software were employed to analyze, combine, and visualize the data. Data analytic techniques, including citation network, page-rank analysis, co-citation, and publication trends, have been used to identify influential works and outline the discipline's intellectual structure. The outcomes of this descriptive analysis highlight the most prominent articles, authors, journals, and countries based on their citations and publications. The findings from the research illustrate an increase in the number of publications, exhibiting a slightly growing trend in this field. Co-citation analysis coupled with content analysis of the most cited articles identified five research themes mentioned as follows integrating sustainability into the supplier selection process, supplier selection under disruption risks assessment and mitigation strategies, Fuzzy MCDM approaches for supplier evaluation and selection, purchasing decision in vendor problems, decision-making techniques in supplier selection and order lot sizing problems. With the help of a graphic timeline, this exhaustive map of the field illustrates a visual representation of the evolution of publications that demonstrate a gradual shift from research interest in vendor selection problems to integrating sustainability in the supplier selection process. These clusters offer insights into a wide variety of purchasing methods and conceptual frameworks that have emerged; however, they have not been validated empirically. The findings suggest that future research would emerge with a greater depth of practical and empirical analysis to enrich the theories. These outcomes provide a powerful road map for further study in this area.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis, citation analysis, co-citation, Gephi, network analysis, purchasing, SCM, VOSviewer

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Authors: B. Petrović, M. Petrović, L. Rutonjski, I. Djan, V. Ivanović

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Objective: Cardiac pacemakers are very sensitive to radiotherapy treatment from two sources: electromagnetic influence from the medical linear accelerator producing ionizing radiation- influencing electronics within the pacemaker, and the absorption of dose to the device. On the other hand, patients with cardiac pacemakers at the place of a tumor are rather rare, and single clinic hardly has experience with the management of such patients. The widely accepted international guidelines for management of radiation oncology patients recommend that these patients should be closely monitored and examined before, during and after radiotherapy treatment by cardiologist, and their device and condition followed up. The number of patients having both cancer and pacemaker, is growing every year, as both cancer incidence, as well as cardiac diseases incidence, are inevitably growing figures. Materials and methods: Female patient, age 69, was diagnozed with valvular cardiomyopathy and got implanted a pacemaker in 2005 and prosthetic mitral valve in 1993 (cancer was diagnosed in 2012). She was stable cardiologically and came to radiation therapy department with the diagnosis of right breast cancer, with the tumor in upper lateral quadrant of the right breast. Since she had all lymph nodes positive (28 in total), she had to have irradiated the supraclavicular region, as well as the breast with the tumor bed. She previously received chemotherapy, approved by the cardiologist. The patient was estimated to be with the high risk as device was within the field of irradiation, and the patient had high dependence on her pacemaker. The radiation therapy plan was conducted as 3D conformal therapy. The delineated target was breast with supraclavicular region, where the pacemaker was actually placed, with the addition of a pacemaker as organ at risk, to estimate the dose to the device and its components as recommended, and the breast. The targets received both 50 Gy in 25 fractions (where 20% of a pacemaker received 50 Gy, and 60% of a device received 40 Gy). The electrode to the heart received between 1 Gy and 50 Gy. Verification of dose planned and delivered was performed. Results: Evaluation of the patient status according to the guidelines and especially evaluation of all associated risks to the patient during treatment was done. Patient was irradiated by prescribed dose and followed up for the whole year, with no symptoms of failure of the pacemaker device during, or after treatment in follow up period. The functionality of a device was estimated to be unchanged, according to the parameters (electrode impedance and battery energy). Conclusion: Patient was closely monitored according to published guidelines during irradiation and afterwards. Pacemaker irradiated with the full dose did not show any signs of failure despite recommendations data, but in correlation with other published data.

Keywords: cardiac pacemaker, breast cancer, radiotherapy treatment planning, complications of treatment

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Authors: Natalia Bustos Sierra, Katrien Tersago

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It is currently proven that both extremes of temperature are associated with increased mortality and that air pollution is associated with temperature. This relationship is complex, and in countries with important seasonal variations in weather such as Belgium, some effects can appear as non-significant when the analysis is done over the entire year. We, therefore, analyzed the effect of short-term outdoor air pollution exposure on cardiovascular mortality during the warmer and colder months separately. We used daily cardiovascular deaths from acute cardiovascular diagnostics according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10: I20-I24, I44-I49, I50, I60-I66) during the period 2008-2013. The environmental data were population-weighted concentrations of particulates with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 µm (PM₁₀) and less than 2.5 µm (PM₂.₅) (daily average), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) (daily maximum of the hourly average) and ozone (O₃) (daily maximum of the 8-hour running mean). A Generalized linear model was applied adjusting for the confounding effect of season, temperature, dew point temperature, the day of the week, public holidays and the incidence of influenza-like illness (ILI) per 100,000 inhabitants. The relative risks (RR) were calculated for an increase of one interquartile range (IQR) of the air pollutant (μg/m³). These were presented for the four hottest months (June, July, August, September) and coldest months (November, December, January, February) in Belgium. We applied both individual lag model and unconstrained distributed lag model methods. The cumulative effect of a four-day exposure (day of exposure and three consecutive days) was calculated from the unconstrained distributed lag model. The IQR for PM₁₀, PM₂.₅, NO₂, and O₃ were respectively 8.2, 6.9, 12.9 and 25.5 µg/m³ during warm months and 18.8, 17.6, 18.4 and 27.8 µg/m³ during cold months. The association with CV mortality was statistically significant for the four pollutants during warm months and only for NO₂ during cold months. During the warm months, the cumulative effect of an IQR increase of ozone for the age groups 25-64, 65-84 and 85+ was 1.066 (95%CI: 1.002-1.135), 1.041 (1.008-1.075) and 1.036 (1.013-1.058) respectively. The cumulative effect of an IQR increase of NO₂ for the age group 65-84 was 1.066 (1.020-1.114) during warm months and 1.096 (1.030-1.166) during cold months. The cumulative effect of an IQR increase of PM₁₀ during warm months reached 1.046 (1.011-1.082) and 1.038 (1.015-1.063) for the age groups 65-84 and 85+ respectively. Similar results were observed for PM₂.₅. The short-term effect of air pollution on cardiovascular mortality is greater during warm months for lower pollutant concentrations compared to cold months. Spending more time outside during warm months increases population exposure to air pollution and can, therefore, be a confounding factor for this association. Age can also affect the length of time spent outdoors and the type of physical activity exercised. This study supports the deleterious effect of air pollution on cardiovascular mortality (CV) which varies according to season and age groups in Belgium. Public health measures should, therefore, be adapted to seasonality.

Keywords: air pollution, cardiovascular, mortality, season

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Authors: Eva Šmelová, Alena Berčíková

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The issue of school maturity and readiness of a child for a successful start of compulsory education is one of the long-term monitored areas, especially in the context of education and psychology. In the context of the curricular reform in the Czech Republic, the issue has recently gained importance. Analyses of research in this area suggest a lack of a broader overview of indicators informing about the current level of children’s school maturity and school readiness. Instead, various studies address partial issues. Between 2009 and 2013 a research study was performed at the Faculty of Education, Palacký University Olomouc (Czech Republic) focusing on children’s maturity and readiness for compulsory education. In this study, social skills were of marginal interest; the main focus was on the mental area. This previous research is smoothly linked with the present study, the objective of which is to identify the level of school maturity and school readiness in selected characteristics of social skills as part of the adaptation process after enrolment in compulsory education. In this context, the following research question has been formulated: During the process of adaptation to the school environment, which social skills are weakened? The method applied was observation, for the purposes of which the authors developed a research tool – record sheet with 11 items – social skills that a child should have by the end of preschool education. The items were assessed by first-grade teachers at the beginning of the school year. The degree of achievement and intensity of the skills were assessed for each child using an assessment scale. In the research, the authors monitored a total of three independent variables (gender, postponement of school attendance, participation in inclusive education). The effect of these independent variables was monitored using 11 dependent variables. These variables are represented by the results achieved in selected social skills. Statistical data processing was assisted by the Computer Centre of Palacký University Olomouc. Statistical calculations were performed using SPSS v. 12.0 for Windows and STATISTICA: StatSoft STATISTICA CR, Cz (software system for data analysis). The research sample comprised 115 children. In their paper, the authors present the results of the research and at the same time point to possible areas of further investigation. They also highlight possible risks associated with weakened social skills.

Keywords: compulsory education, curricular reform, educational diagnostics, pupil, school curriculum, school maturity, school readiness, social skills

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Authors: Bassant M. M. Ibrahim, Doha H. Abou Baker, Ahmed Abd Elghafour

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Excessive exposure to heavy metals contributes to the occurrence of deleterious health problems that affect vital organs like the brain, liver, kidneys, and heart. The use of natural products that have antioxidant capabilities may contribute to the protection of these organs. In the present study, the essential oil of summer savory (Satureja hortensis) was used to evaluate its protective effects against lead acetate induced damaging effect on rats’ vital organs, due to its high contents of carvacrol, y-terpinene, and p-cymene. Forty female Wister Albino rats were classified into five equal groups, the 1st served as normal group, the 2nd served as positive control group was given lead acetate (60 mg/kg) intra-peritoneal (IP), the third to fifth groups were treated with calcium disodium (EDTA) as chelating agent and summer savory essential oil in doses of (50 and 100mg/kg) respectively. All treatments were given IP concomitant with lead acetate for ten successive days. At the end of the experiment duration electrocardiogram (ECG), an open field test for the evaluation of psychological state, rotarod test as for the evaluation of locomotor coordination ability as well as anti-inflammatory and oxidative stress biomarkers in serum and histopathology of vital organs were performed. The investigations in this study show that the protective effect of high dose of summer savory essential oil is more than the low dose and that the essential oil of summer savory is a promising agent that can contribute to the protection of vital organs against the hazardous damaging effects of lead acetate.

Keywords: brain, heart, kidneys, lead acetate, liver, protective, summer savory

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Authors: Gholamzadeh Sakineh, Jedi Maryam, Fereshteh Dehghanrad

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Background: Mental and psychological issues are common among older adults. Positive psychology theorists and researchers recommend focusing on constructs such as happiness, life satisfaction and hope rather than dwelling on negative experiences and perceptions. Objective: The research aim was to evaluate the impact of hope therapy interventions on the life satisfaction, happiness, and hopefulness of older adults in Iran. Methodology: This study used a quasi-experimental design. A convenience sample of 32 older adults was recruited from a retirement center in Shiraz, Iran. Participants were randomly assigned to either a control group (n = 16) or an experimental group (n = 16). The experimental group received eight sessions of hope therapy, each lasting 1.5 hours. The data for this study were collected using Snyder's Adult Hope Scale (AHS), Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, and Life Satisfaction Index-Z. The questionnaires were administered before, immediately after the intervention, and two months later. Descriptive and analytical statistical tests were used to analyze the data using SPSS version 19. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample characteristics and the distribution of the data. Analytical statistics were used to test the research hypotheses. Findings: The results showed that the hope therapy intervention significantly increased the life satisfaction and hopefulness of older adults (p < 0.05). In addition, the influence of time was also significant (p < 0.05). However, the intervention did not affect happiness in statistically significant ways. Conclusions: The findings of this study support the theoretical importance of hope therapy in improving the life satisfaction and hopefulness of older adults. Hope therapy interventions can be considered as an effective way to improve the emotional well-being and quality of life of older adults.

Keywords: older adults, life satisfaction, happiness, hopefulness, hope therapy

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Authors: Hrishikesh Purandare, Ashwini Pethe

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Research from developed countries has demonstrated that the built environment can have a significant effect on children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development. A majority of the studies on the relationship between the built environment and the well-being of children have been conducted in North America and Western Europe, though most of the world’s children live in the global South. Millions of children living in urban slums in India confront issues associated with poor living conditions and lack of access to basic services. It is a well-known fact that slums are places of extreme poverty, substandard housing, overcrowding, and poor sanitation. These challenges faced by children living in slums can have a significant impact on their physical, psychological, and social development. Despite the magnitude of the problem, the area of research, particularly on the impact of the built environment of slums on children and adolescent well-being, has been understudied in India. Only a few studies in the global South have investigated the impact of the built environment on children’s well-being. Apart from issues of the limited access to health and education of these children, the perception of children regarding the built environment which they inhabit is rarely addressed. A sample of 120 children living in the slums of Pune city between the ages 7 and 16 participated in this study, which employed a concurrent embedded approach of mixed method research. Questionnaires were administered to obtain quantitative data that included attributes of crowding, noise, privacy, territoriality and housing quality in the built environment. The qualitative analysis of children’s sketches highlighted aspects of the built environment with which they associated themselves the most. The study sought to examine the perception of the deprived children living in the urban slums in the city of Pune (India) towards their built environment.

Keywords: physical environment, poverty, underprivileged children, urban Indian slums

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Authors: Tanima Chatterjee, Maitree Bhattacharyya

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The global challenge of type 2 diabetes mellitus is a major health concern in this millennium, and researchers are continuously exploring new targets to develop a novel therapeutic strategy. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is often coupled with dyslipidemia increasing the risks for cardiovascular (CVD) complications. Enhanced oxidative and nitrosative stresses appear to be the major risk factors underlying insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, β-cell dysfunction, and T2DM pathogenesis. Autophagy emerges to be a promising defense mechanism against stress-mediated cell damage regulating tissue homeostasis, cellular quality control, and energy production, promoting cell survival. In this study, we have attempted to explore the pivotal role of autophagy in T2DM subjects with or without dyslipidemia in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and insulin-resistant HepG2 cells utilizing flow cytometric platform, confocal microscopy, and molecular biology techniques like western blotting, immunofluorescence, and real-time polymerase chain reaction. In the case of T2DM with dyslipidemia higher population of autophagy, positive cells were detected compared to patients with the only T2DM, which might have resulted due to higher stress. Autophagy was observed to be triggered both by oxidative and nitrosative stress revealing a novel finding of our research. LC3 puncta was observed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and periphery of HepG2 cells in the case of the diabetic and diabetic-dyslipidemic conditions. Increased expression of ATG5, LC3B, and Beclin supports the autophagic pathway in both PBMC and insulin-resistant Hep G2 cells. Upon blocking autophagy by 3-methyl adenine (3MA), the apoptotic cell population increased significantly, as observed by caspase‐3 cleavage and reduced expression of Bcl2. Autophagy has also been evidenced to control oxidative stress-mediated up-regulation of inflammatory markers like IL-6 and TNF-α. To conclude, this study elucidates autophagy to play a protective role in the case of diabetes mellitus with dyslipidemia. In the present scenario, this study demands to have a significant impact on developing a new therapeutic strategy for diabetic dyslipidemic subjects by enhancing autophagic activity.

Keywords: autophagy, apoptosis, dyslipidemia, reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen species, Type 2 diabetes

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Authors: Natalia Ortega

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Safety Culture (SCU) involves various perceptual, psychological, behavioral, and managerial factors. It has been shown that creating and maintaining an SCU is one way to reduce and prevent accidents and fatalities. In the construction sector, safety attitude, knowledge, and a supportive environment are predictors of safety behavior. The highest possible proportion of safety behavior among employees can be achieved by improving their safety attitude and knowledge. Accordingly, top management's commitment to safety is vital in shaping employees' safety attitude; therefore, the first step to improving employees' safety attitude is the genuine commitment of top management to safety. One of the factors affecting the successful implementation of health and safety promotion programs is the construction industry's subcontracting model. The contractual model's complexity, combined with the need for coordination among diverse stakeholders, makes it challenging to implement, manage, and follow up on health and well-being initiatives. The Systems theoretic accident model and process (STAMP) concept has expanded global consideration in recent years, increasing research attention. STAMP focuses attention on the role of constraints in safety management. The findings discover a growth of the research field from the definition in 2004 by Leveson and is being used across multiple domains. A systematic literature review of this novel model aims to meet the safety goals for human space exploration with a powerful and different approach to safety management, safety-driven design, and decision-making. Around two hundred studies have been published about applying the model. However, every single model for safety requires time to transform into research and practice, be tested and debated, and grow further and mature.

Keywords: stamp, risk management, accident prevention, safety culture, systems thinking, construction industry, safety

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Authors: Sarah A. Alotaibi, Mohammed A. Almutairi, Abdullah A. Alsayari, Adibah M. Almutairi, Somaiah K. Almubayedh

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Concerns over the presence of acrylamide in food date back to 2002, when Swedish scientists stated that, in carbohydrate-rich foods, amounts of acrylamide were formed when cooked at high temperatures. Similar findings were reported by other researchers which, consequently, caused major international efforts to investigate dietary exposure and the subsequent health complications in order to properly manage this issue. Due to this issue, in this work, we aim to determine the acrylamide level in different foods (coffee, potato chips, biscuits, and baby food) commonly consumed by the Saudi population. In a total of forty-three samples, acrylamide was detected in twenty-three samples at levels of 12.3 to 2850 µg/kg. In reference to the food groups, the highest concentration of acrylamide was found in coffee samples (<12.3-2850 μg/kg), followed by potato chips (655-1310 μg/kg), then biscuits (23.5-449 μg/kg), whereas the lowest acrylamide level was observed in baby food (<14.75 – 126 μg/kg). Most coffee, biscuits and potato chips products contain high amount of acrylamide content and also the most commonly consumed product. Saudi adults had a mean exposure of acrylamide for coffee, potato, biscuit, and cereal (0.07439, 0.04794, 0.01125, 0.003371 µg/kg-b.w/day), respectively. On the other hand, exposure to acrylamide in Saudi infants and children to the same types of food was (0.1701, 0.1096, 0.02572, 0.00771 µg/kg-b.w/day), respectively. Most groups have a percentile that exceeds the tolerable daily intake (TDI) cancer value (2.6 µg/kg-b.w/day). Overall, the MOE results show that the Saudi population is at high risk of acrylamide-related disease in all food types, and there is a chance of cancer risk in all age groups (all values ˂10,000). Furthermore, it was found that in non-cancer risks, the acrylamide in all tested foods was within the safe limit (˃125), except for potato chips, in which there is a risk for diseases in the population. With potato and coffee as raw materials, additional studies were conducted to assess different factors, including temperature, cocking time, and additives affecting the acrylamide formation in fried potato and roasted coffee, by systematically varying processing temperatures and time values, a mitigation of acrylamide content was achieved when lowering the temperature and decreasing the cooking time. Furthermore, it was shown that the combination of the addition of chitosan and NaCl had a large impact on the formation.

Keywords: risk assessment, dietary exposure, MOA, acrylamide, hazard

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Authors: Karolina Porada

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Over the last 40 years, there has been a trend in landscape architecture which supporters do not perceive the role of pro-ecological or postmodern solutions in the design of public green spaces as an essential goal, shifting their attention to the 'sculptural' shaping of areas with the use of slopes, hills, embankments, and other forms of terrain. This group of designers can be considered avant-garde, which in its activities refers to land art. Initial research shows that such applications are particularly frequent in places of former post-industrial sites and landfills, utilizing materials such as debris and post-mining waste in their construction. Due to the high degradation of the environment surrounding modern man, the brownfields are a challenge and a field of interest for the representatives of landscape architecture avant-garde, who through their projects try to recover lost lands by means of transformations supported by engineering and ecological knowledge to create places where nature can develop again. The analysis of a dozen or so facilities made it possible to come up with an important conclusion: apart from the cultural aspects (including artistic activities), the green areas formally referring to the land are important in the process of remediation of post-industrial sites and waste recycling (e. g. from construction sites). In these processes, there is also a potential for applying the concept of Natural Based Solutions, i.e. solutions allowing for the natural development of the site in such a way as to use it to cope with environmental problems, such as e.g.  air pollution, soil phytoremediation and climate change. The paper presents examples of modern parks, whose compositions are based on shaping the surface of the terrain in a way referring to the land art, at the same time providing an example of brownfields reuse and application of waste recycling.  For the purposes of object analysis, research methods such as historical-interpretation studies, case studies, qualitative research or the method of logical argumentation were used. The obtained results provide information about the role that landscape architecture can have in the process of remediation of degraded areas, at the same time guaranteeing the benefits, such as the shaping of landscapes attractive in terms of visual appearance, low costs of implementation, and improvement of the natural environment quality.

Keywords: brownfields, contemporary parks, landscape architecture, remediation

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Authors: Haykal. Kay-Anne

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The health and well-being of students is a priority for the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. The demands of medical studies are extreme, and many studies confirm that the prevalence of psychological distress is very high among medical students and that it is higher than that of the general population of the same age. The main goal is to identify risk factors for mental health among medical students at the University of Ottawa. The secondary objectives are to determine the variation of these risk factors according to demographic variables, as well as to determine if there is a change in the mental health of students during the 1st and 3rd years of their study. Medical students have a mandatory first and third-year wellness check meeting. This assessment includes a questionnaire on demographic information, mental health, and risk factors such as physical health, sleep, social support, financial stress, education and career, stress and drug use and/or alcohol. Student responses were converted to numerical values and analyzed statistically. The results show that 61% of the variation in the mean of the mental health score is explained by the following risk factors (R2 = 0.61, F (9.396) = 67.197, p < 0.01): lack of sleep and fatigue (β = 0.281, p < 0.001), lack of social support (β = 0.217, p <0.001), poor study or career development (β = 0.195, p < 0.001) and an increase stress and drug and alcohol use (β = -0.239, p < 0.001). No demographic variable has a significant effect on the presence of risk factors. In addition, fixed-effects regression demonstrated significantly lower mental health (p < 0.1) among first-year students (M = 0.587, SD = 0.072) than among third-year students (M = 0.719, SD = 0.071). This preliminary study indicates the need to continue data collection and analysis to increase the significance of the study results. As risk factors are present at the beginning of medical studies, it is important to offer resources to students very early in their medical studies and to have close monitoring and supervision.

Keywords: assessment of mental health, medical students, risk factors for mental health, wellness assessment

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Authors: Chia-Chen Hsieh, Fei-Hsiu Hsiao

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Objective: To examine the effects of supportive care interventions on depressive symptoms in patients with lung cancer. Methods: The databases of Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Ovid EMBASE, PubMed, and Chinese Electronic Periodical Services (CEPS) were searched from their inception until September 2015. We included the studies with randomized controlled trial design that compared standard care with supportive care interventions using psychotherapeutic or exercises approach. The standardized mean differences (SMD) (Cohen’s d) were calculated to estimate the treatment effects. The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool was used for quality assessment and subgroup analysis was conducted to identify possible sources of heterogeneity. Results: A total of 1472 patients with lung cancer were identified. Compared with standard care, the overall effects of all supportive care interventions significantly reduced depressive symptoms (SMD = -0.74 with 95% CI = -1.07 to -0.41), and the effect was maintained at the 4th, 8th, and 12th weeks of follow-up. Either psychotherapy combined with psychoeducation or exercise alone produced significant improvements in depressive symptoms, while psychoeducation alone did not. The greater improvements in depressive symptoms occurred in lung cancer patients with severe depressive symptoms at baseline, total duration of interventions of less than ten weeks, and intervention provided through face-to-face delivery. Conclusions: Psychotherapy combined with psychoeducation can help patients manage the causes of depressive symptoms, including both symptom distress and psychological trauma due to lung cancer. Exercise can target the impaired respiratory function that is a cause of depressive symptoms in lung cancer patients.

Keywords: supportive care intervention, depressive symptoms, lung cancer, meta-analysis

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Authors: Almutazballlah Qablan, Jihan M. Muhaidat, Bana Abu Rajab

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Background: Acne vulgaris is the most common skin condition that general practitioners and dermatologists encounter. It represents a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the pilosebaceous unit. Although acne vulgaris is not a life-threatening condition, it has a considerable psychological impact on the affected person. Acne patients have poor body image, low self-esteem, social isolation, and restricted activities. As part of the emotional impact, increased levels of anxiety, anger, depression, and frustration have also been observed in acne patients. (1) In this study, we want to assess the association between two modifiable risk factors; BMI and smoking, regarding acne vulgaris. Methods: A case-control study was conducted at King Abdullah University Hospital in Irbid, north Jordan in 2019/2020. A total number of 163 Acne cases were collected and interviewed by the author; on the other hand, there were 162 control cases. Anthropometric measures for Acne patients and control individuals were taken, and BMI was calculated. Both groups were asked about smoking habits. Data on subjects between 14 and 33 years of age were extracted. The characteristics of people who reported acne were compared with those with no acne using univariate and multivariate analysis. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was relied on to analyze the collected data. The crosstabs methods (chi-square) and odd ratios were relied on to test the study hypothesis. Results: Cigarette smoking was highly associated with no-acne, with an odds ratio of 0.4 (95% CI: 0.2–0.9), P-value = 0.018. BMI and waterpipe smoking were not significantly associated with acne in the multivariate analysis. Conclusion: Cigarette smoking was found to be protective from Acne. No significant relation between BMI nor waterpipe smoking and the development of Acne Vulgaris.

Keywords: acne, BMI, smoking, case-control

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Authors: Dorcas I. Adeoye

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Disclosure experience of people living with HIV/AIDS has been a public health concern, it has also been attributed to effective way of limiting the spread of the disease. However, among working people living with HIV, it is a great issue that attracts several consequences, it is also a way of managing HIV and balancing their emotional, physical and social aspect of life. The economic, social and political aspect has been affected since the emergent of HIV. It is also not a medical problem that only needs a medical approach; it is a psychological problem that needs not to be ignored. Work attitude model and consequential theory were used to understanding the experience of disclosure or non-disclosure in the workplace. Work attitude model explains the job satisfaction and the organisational commitment of an employee that have effect on the decision and well-being in the workplace; it can also influence a decision to disclosure one’s health condition, however, consequential theory comes to play when a decision is being made, either to disclose or not, and that will attract consequences (either negative or positive) in which ever decision made. A phenomenological study was conducted among employed people that are infected with HIV/AIDS in a south-eastern region of Nigeria where unemployment rate is high. A one-to-one semi-structured interview was used to gather in-depth information about the experience of 20 working people living with HIV. Participants were recruited in a hospital and for some, hospital serves as their workplace. The outcome of the research shows that participants’ experiences vary. One thing that stood out and was found similar among all participants including participants that have disclosed, planning to disclose, or never intended to disclose, is that workplace is a place not to be trusted despite the positive outcomes disclosure could give in the workplace, and disclosure decision needs to be carefully taken. The study was concluded with recommendations that cover various aspects; however, clearer policies should be followed by all organisations to protect people living with HIV in the workplace.

Keywords: disclosure, employment, HIV/AIDS, Nigeria, workplace

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Authors: Liu Yang

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Calligraphy has a unique aesthetic value in Chinese traditional culture. Calligraphy reflects the physical beauty and the dynamic beauty of things through the structure of writing and the order of strokes to standardize the style of writing. In recent years, Chinese researchers have carried out research on the appreciation of calligraphy works from the perspective of psychology, such as how Chinese people appreciate the beauty of stippled lines, the beauty of virtual and real, and the beauty of the composition. However, there is currently no domestic research on how foreigners appreciate Chinese calligraphy. People's appreciation of calligraphy is mainly in the form of visual perception, and psychologists have been working on the use of eye trackers to record eye tracking data to explore the relationship between eye tracking and psychological activities. The purpose of this experimental study is to use eye tracking recorders to analyze the eye gaze trajectories of college students with different cultural backgrounds when they appreciate the same calligraphy work to reveal the differences in cognitive processing with different cultural backgrounds. It was found that Chinese students perceived calligraphy as words when viewing calligraphy works, so they first noticed fonts with easily recognizable glyphs, and the overall viewed time was short. Foreign students perceived calligraphy works as graphics, and they first noticed novel and abstract fonts, and the overall viewing time is longer. The understanding of calligraphy content has a certain influence on the appreciation of calligraphy works by foreign students. It is shown that when foreign students who understand the content of calligraphy works. The eye tracking path is more consistent with the calligraphy writing path, and it helps to develop associations with calligraphy works to better understand the connotation of calligraphy works. This result helps us understand the impact of cultural background differences on calligraphy appreciation and helps us to take more effective strategies to help foreign audiences understand Chinese calligraphy art.

Keywords: Chinese calligraphy, eye-tracking, cross-cultural, cultural communication

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Authors: Inje Cho

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The leading health risks threatening the world today are associated with a modern lifestyle characterized by sedentary behavior, stress, anxiety, and an obesogenic food environment. To counter this alarming trend, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have proffered Physical Activity guidelines to bolster physical engagement. Concurrently, the burgeon of smartphones and mobile applications has witnessed a proliferation of fitness applications aimed at invigorating exercise adherence and real-time activity monitoring. Grounded in the Uses and gratification theory, this study delves into the technological affordances of mobile fitness applications, discerning the mediating influences of escapism and social outcome expectations on attitudes and exercise intention. The theory explains how individuals employ distinct communication mediums to satiate their exigencies and desires. Technological affordances manifest as attributes of emerging technologies that galvanize personal engagement in physical activities. Several features of mobile fitness applications include affordances for goal setting, virtual rewards, peer support, and exercise information. Escapism, denoting the inclination to disengage from normal routines, has emerged as a salient motivator for the consumption of new media. This study postulates that individual’s perceptions technological affordances within mobile fitness applications, can affect escapism and social outcome expectations, potentially influencing attitude, and behavior formation. Thus, the integrated model has been developed to empirically examine the interrelationships between technological affordances, escapism, social outcome expectations, and exercise intention. Structural Equation Modelling serves as the methodological tool, and a cohort of 400 Fitbit users shall be enlisted from the Prolific, data collection platform. A sequence of multivariate data analyses will scrutinize both the measurement and hypothesized structural models. By delving into the effects of mobile fitness applications, this study contributes to the growing of new media studies in sport management. Moreover, the novel integration of the uses and gratification theory, technological affordances, via the prism of escapism, illustrates the dynamics that underlies mobile fitness user’s attitudes and behavioral intentions. Therefore, the findings from this study contribute to theoretical understanding and provide pragmatic insights to developers and practitioners in optimizing the impact of mobile fitness applications.

Keywords: technological affordances, uses and gratification, mobile fitness apps, escapism, physical activity

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Authors: B. Orser, A. Riding, Y. Li

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To inform government about how gender gaps in SME ( small and medium-sized enterprise) contracting might be redressed, the research question was: What are the key obstacles to, and response strategies for, increasing the engagement of women business owners among SME suppliers to the government of Canada? Thirty-five interviews with senior policymakers, supplier diversity organization executives, and expert witnesses to the Canadian House of Commons, Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. Qualitative data were conducted and analysed using N’Vivo 11 software. High order response categories included: (a) SME risk mitigation strategies, (b) SME procurement program design, and (c) performance measures. Primary obstacles cited were government red tape and long and complicated requests for proposals (RFPs). The majority of 'common' complaints occur when SMEs have questions about the federal procurement process. Witness responses included use of outcome-based rather than prescriptive procurement practices, more agile procurement, simplified RFPs, making payment within 30 days a procurement priority. Risk mitigation strategies included provision of procurement officers to assess risks and opportunities for businesses and development of more agile procurement procedures and processes. Recommendations to enhance program design included: improved definitional consistency of qualifiers and selection criteria, better co-ordination across agencies; clarification about how SME suppliers benefit from federal contracting; goal setting; specification of categories that are most suitable for women-owned businesses; and, increasing primary contractor awareness about the importance of subcontract relationships. Recommendations also included third-party certification of eligible firms and the need to enhance SMEs’ financial literacy to reduce financial errors. Finally, there remains the need for clear and consistent pre-program statistics to establish baselines (by sector, issuing department) performance measures, targets based on percentage of contracts granted, value of contract, percentage of target employee (women, indigenous), and community benefits including hiring local employees. The study advances strategies to enhance federal procurement programs to facilitate socio-economic policy objectives.

Keywords: procurement, small business, policy, women

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Authors: Kin Yan Ho

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Negative brand news (such as Volkswagen’s faulty carbon emission reports, China’s Luckin Coffee scandal, and bribery in reputable US universities) influence how people perceive a company. Germany’s citizens claimed Volkswagen’s scandal as a national embarrassment and cannot recover their psychological damages through monetary and non-monetary compensation. The main research question is to examine how consumers evaluate and respond to embarrassing brand publicity. The cognitive appraisal theory is used as a theoretical foundation. This study describes the use of scenario-based experiment. The findings suggest that consumers with different levels of embarrassment evaluate brand remedial offers from emotion-focused and task-focused restorative justice perspectives (newly derived from the well-established scales of perceived justice). When consumers face both negative and positive brand information (i.e., negative publicity news and a remedial offer), they change their appraisal criterion. The social situation in the cognitive reappraisal process influences the quality of the customer-brand relationship and the customer’s recovery from brand embarrassment. The results also depict that the components of recovery compensation cause differences in emotion recovery, relationship quality, and repurchase intentions. This study extends embarrassment literature in an embarrassing brand publicity context. The emotional components of brand remedial tactics provide insights to brand managers on how to handle different consumers’ emotions, consumer satisfaction, and foster positive future behavior.

Keywords: brand relationship quality, cognitive appraisal, crisis communications, emotion, justice, social presence

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Authors: Maryam Borjali

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Introduction. Mortality due to noncommunicable diseases has increased in the world today with the advent of demographic shifts, growing age, and lifestyle patterns in the world, which have been affected by economic and social crises. Congenital heart defects are one of the forms of diseases that have raised infant mortality worldwide. e objective of present study was to identify nonmedical determinants related to this abnormality from the mother’s perspectives. Methods. is research was a qualitative study and the data collection method was a semistructured interview with mothers who had children with congenital heart diseases referring to the Shahid Rajaei Heart Hospital in Tehran, Iran. A thematic analysis approach was employed to analyze transcribed documents assisted by MAXQDA Plus version 12. Results. Four general themes and ten subthemes including social contexts (social harms, social interactions, and social necessities), psychological contexts (mood disorders and mental well-being), cultural contexts (unhealthy lifestyle, family culture, and poor parental health behaviors), and environmental contexts (living area and polluted air) were extracted from interviews with mothers of children with congenital heart diseases. Conclusions. Results suggest that factors such as childhood poverty, lack of parental awareness of congenital diseases, lack of proper nutrition and health facilities, education, and lack of medical supervision during pregnancy were most related with the birth of children with congenital heart disease from mothers’ prospective. In this regard, targeted and intersectorial collaborations are proposed to address nonmedical determinants related to the incidence of congenital heart diseases.

Keywords: congenital_cou, cultural, social, platform

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Authors: Puneet Goyal, Aarti Agarwal

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Background and Objective: Nutritional support is an integral part of palliative care of advanced non-resectable abdominal malignancy patients, though is frequently neglected aspect. Non-Healing high output Entero-cutaneous fistulas sometimes require long term parenteral nutrition, to take care of catabolism and replacement of nutrients. We present a case of inoperable pancreatic malignancy with high output entero-cutaneous fistula, which was provided parenteral nutritional support with the use of Totally Implantable Venous Access Device (TIVAD). Method and Results: 55 year old man diagnosed with carcinoma pancreas had developed high entero-cutaneous fistula. His tumor was found to be inoperable and was on total parenteral nutrition through routine central line. This line was difficult to maintain as he required it for a long term TPN. He was planned to undergo Totally Implantable Venous Access Device (TIVAD) implantation. 8Fr single lumen catheter with Groshong non-return Valve (Bard Access Systems, Inc. USA) was inserted through right internal jugular vein, under fluoroscopic guidance. The catheter was tunneled subcutaneously and brought towards infraclavicular pocket, cut at appropriate length and connected to port and locked. Port was sutured in floor of pocket. Free flow of blood aspirated, flushed with heparinized saline. There was no kink observed in entire length of catheter under fluoroscopy. Skin over infraclavicular pocket was sutured. Long term catheter care and associated risks were explained to patient and relatives. Patient continued to receive total parenteral nutrition as well as other supportive therapy though TIVAD for next 6 weeks, till his demise. Conclusion: TIVADs are standard of care for long term venous access solutions in cancer patients requiring chemotherapy. In this case, we extended its use for providing parenteral nutrition and other supportive therapy. TIVADs can be implanted in advanced cancer patients for providing venous access solution required for various palliative treatments and medications. This will help in improving quality of life and satisfaction amongst terminally ill cancer patients.

Keywords: parenteral nutrition, totally implantable venous access device, long term venous access, interventions in anesthesiology

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Authors: Amanda Maitland

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This preliminary study has examined ways in which social media may help cause stalker murder by individuals with personality disorders and a strong sense of sexual propriety. A public display on social media by the intended victim was felt to be a trigger that instigated interpersonal violence. To identify behavioural paradigms, case studies of intimate partner murders were explored using news media sources and documentaries. In all of the case studies, social media interaction and social media postings occurred shortly before the murder. The evidence suggested a preponderance of correlations between the social media postings, stalking behaviours, personality disorders, and the murder of an intimate partner. In addition to this, a profile for of Facebook/social media murder was gleaned from the paradigms of behavior found in the case studies. The evidence showed a complex relationship between severe violence, stalking, borderline personality, and intimate partner violence was identified through the study. The struggle clients have in dealing with the: public, ambiguous and unrelenting nature of social media postings was also observed. The murderers anguish and rage appeared to be further intensified by attitudes of sexual propriety and entitlement. These attitudes were evident in all the case studies. The study concluded with further research on how the public can protect themselves from entering situations where social media postings might trigger a violent response. Further to this, psychological approaches were identified that might support client’s with personality disorders to cope with perceived provocative and distressing data on the internet. Thus, the findings of this study will be of interest to: therapists, psychologists, nurses, criminologists and social workers.

Keywords: social media, borderline personality, murder, cyberstalking, intimate partner violence, sexual propriety, Facebook

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Authors: Omid Allan

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The advent of ultra-narrow diameter implants initially offered an alternative to wider conventional implants. However, their design limitations have restricted their applicability primarily to overdentures and cement-retained fixed prostheses, often with unpredictable long-term outcomes. The introduction of the new Miniature Implants has revolutionized the field of implant dentistry, leading to a more streamlined approach. The utilization of Miniature Implants has emerged as a promising alternative to the traditional approach that entails the traumatic sequential bone drilling procedures and the use of conventional implants for full and partial arch restorations. The innovative "BioMiniatures Implant System serves as a groundbreaking bridge connecting mini implants with standard implant systems. This system allows practitioners to harness the advantages of ultra-small implants, enabling minimally invasive insertion and facilitating the application of fixed screw-retained prostheses, which were only available to conventional wider implant systems. This approach streamlines full and partial arch rehabilitation with minimal or even no bone drilling, significantly reducing surgical risks and complications for clinicians while minimizing patient morbidity. The ultra-narrow diameter and self-advancing features of these implants eliminate the need for invasive and technically complex procedures such as bone augmentation and guided bone regeneration (GBR), particularly in cases involving thin alveolar ridges. Furthermore, the absence of a microcap between the implant and abutment eliminates the potential for micro-leakage and micro-pumping effects, effectively mitigating the risk of marginal bone loss and future peri-implantitis. The cumulative experience of restoring over 50 full and partial arch edentulous cases with this system has yielded an outstanding success rate exceeding 97%. The long-term success with a stable marginal bone level in the study firmly establishes these implants as a dependable alternative to conventional implants, especially for full arch rehabilitation cases. Full arch rehabilitation with these implants holds the promise of providing a simplified solution for edentulous patients who typically present with atrophic narrow alveolar ridges, eliminating the need for extensive GBR and bone augmentation to restore their dentition with fixed prostheses.

Keywords: mini-implant, biominiatures, miniature implants, minimally invasive dentistry, full arch rehabilitation

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