Background: In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Solidarity Program, probably the largest global initiative to encourage and support research in four promising drugs, named Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, β Interferon and the combination Lopinavir / Ritonavir, to reduce the mortality of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Objectives: Considering the potential impact of Solidarity Program to restrain the current pandemic, the present study aims to investigate whether it was designed upon indicators of scientific productivity, defined as the level of the production of new scientific knowledge and of the institutional capabilities, estimated in terms of scientific publications and technological agreements.
Methods: The scientific documents on Alphacoronavirus, Betacoronavirus, Gammacoronavirus and Coronavirus were retrieved from Scopus database while the technological agreements on coronavirus were obtained through Cortellis. As for the institutions and countries, we have considered the data on author's affiliations in both set of data. For comparison, we included the analysis of documents related with other drugs or therapies, such as vaccines and antibodies, which were listed in a Clarivate's report on coronaviruses research.
Findings: Most of the analysis refers to documents on Coronavirus, the largest group. The number of documents related to WHO's drugs are almost five times higher than in the other groups. This subset of documents involves the largest and most diverse number of institutions and countries. As for agreements, we observed a smaller number of institutions involved in it, suggesting differences between countries in terms of technical and human capabilities to develop basic and/or clinical research on coronavirus and to develop new forms or products to treat or to prevent the disease.
Main Conclusions: Hence, the results shown in this study illustrate that decisions taken by an international scientific body, as WHO, were mainly based in scientific knowledge and institutional competencies.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0074-02760200603 | DOI Listing |
J Med Syst
January 2025
Department of Computing, University of North Florida, 1 UNF Dr., Jacksonville, 32246, FL, USA.
The "no-show" problem in healthcare refers to the prevalent phenomenon where patients schedule appointments with healthcare providers but fail to attend them without prior cancellation or rescheduling. In addressing this issue, our study delves into a multivariate analysis over a five-year period involving 21,969 patients. Our study introduces a predictive model framework that offers a holistic approach to managing the no-show problem in healthcare, incorporating elements into the objective function that address not only the accurate prediction of no-shows but also the management of service capacity, overbooking, and idle resource allocation resulting from mispredictions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Hypertens Rep
January 2025
Department of Pharmacy, The Second Clinical Medical College, The First Affiliated Hospital, Shenzhen People's Hospital, Jinan University, Southern University of Science and Technology), Shenzhen, China.
Purpose Of Review: To review currently existing knowledge on a new type of antihypertensive treatment, small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting hepatic angiotensinogen.
Recent Findings: Targeting angiotensinogen synthesis in the liver with siRNA allows reaching a suppression of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) activity for up to 6 months after 1 injection. This might revolutionize antihypertensive treatment, as it could overcome non-adherence, the major reason for inadequate blood pressure control.
Curr Obes Rep
January 2025
Maine Medical Center Research Institute, Maine Medical Center, 81 Research Drive, Scarborough, ME, 04074, USA.
Purpose Of Review: Bone marrow adipose tissue is a distinctive fat depot located within the skeleton, with the potential to influence both local and systemic metabolic processes. Although significant strides have been made in understanding bone marrow adipose tissue over the past decade, many questions remain regarding their precise lineage and functional roles.
Recent Findings: Recent studies have highlighted bone marrow adipose tissue's involvement in continuous cross-talk with other organs and systems, exerting both endocrine and paracrine functions that play a crucial role in metabolic homeostasis, skeletal remodeling, hematopoiesis, and the progression of bone metastases.
J Relig Health
January 2025
School of Psychology & Public Health, College of Science, Health & Engineering, La Trobe University, Victoria, 3086, Australia.
There has been concern raised in religion/spirituality (R/S) research about the use of measures of spirituality that are contaminated by indicators of mental and/or social health. Many of these scales are used widely in published studies examining associations with health, and yet many researchers and reviewers are not aware of contamination issues. We have previously cautioned researchers to be careful in their choice of religious/spirituality (R/S) measures (Koenig and Carey in J Relig Health, 63(5):3729-3743.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci China Life Sci
January 2025
State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Epigenetic mechanisms are integral to plant growth, development, and adaptation to environmental stimuli. Over the past two decades, our comprehension of these complex regulatory processes has expanded remarkably, producing a substantial body of knowledge on both locus-specific mechanisms and genome-wide regulatory patterns. Studies initially grounded in the model plant Arabidopsis have been broadened to encompass a diverse array of crop species, revealing the multifaceted roles of epigenetics in physiological and agronomic traits.
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