Associated with Apple and Pear Decline in the Saïss Plain of Morocco.

An extensive survey conducted in the Saïss plain of Morocco during the 2017-2018 growing season revealed that 35 out of 50 apple and pear orchards were infested with a pathogen that causes the decline disease. Morphological and phylogenetic tree analyses using the cox II gene allowed us to identify the pathogen as . Interestingly, no and species were isolated.

Canada's cannabis legalization and drivers' traffic-injury presentations to emergency departments in Ontario and Alberta, 2015-2019.

Background: Worldwide momentum toward legalization of recreational cannabis use has raised a common concern that such policies might increase cannabis-impaired driving and consequent traffic-related harms, especially among youth. The current study evaluated this issue in Canada.

Methods: Utilizing provincial emergency department (ED) records (April 1, 2015-December 31, 2019) from Alberta and Ontario, Canada, we employed Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) models to assess associations between Canada's cannabis legalization (via the Cannabis Act implemented on October 17, 2018) and weekly provincial counts of ICD-10-CA-defined traffic-injury ED presentations.

CORONA-Net: Diagnosing COVID-19 from X-ray Images Using Re-Initialization and Classification Networks.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been deemed a global health pandemic. The early detection of COVID-19 is key to combating its outbreak and could help bring this pandemic to an end. One of the biggest challenges in combating COVID-19 is accurate testing for the disease.

Durable Lithium/Selenium Batteries Enabled by the Integration of MOF-Derived Porous Carbon and Alucone Coating.

Lithium-selenium (Li-Se) batteries are a promising energy storage system in electric vehicles due to their high capacity and good kinetics. However, the shuttle effect issue, caused by polyselenide dissolution from the Se cathode, has hampered the development of Li-Se batteries. Herein, we developed a facile preparation of porous carbon from a metal-organic framework (MOF) to confine Se (Se/CZIF) and protect the Se/CZIF composite with an alucone coating by molecular layer deposition (MLD).

Quasi-solid-state lithium-tellurium batteries based on flexible gel polymer electrolytes.

A quasi-solid-state Li-Te battery is developed by using a flexible gel polymer electrolyte (GPE), porous carbon/tellurium cathode, and lithium metal anode. The ionic conductivity of GPE is controllable and reaches up to 8.0 × 10 S cm at 25 °C.

Comprehensive review of conventional and state-of-the-art detection methods of Cryptosporidium.

Cryptosporidium is a critical waterborne protozoan pathogen found in water resources that have been a major cause of death and serious illnesses worldwide, costing millions of dollars annually for its detection and treatment. Over the past several decades, substantial efforts have been made towards developing techniques for the detection of Cryptosporidium. Early diagnostic techniques were established based on the existing tools in laboratories, such as microscopes.

The impact of non-medical cannabis legalization and other exposures on retention in longitudinal cannabis research: a survival analysis of a prospective study of Canadian medical cannabis patients.

Background: Despite repeated calls by medical associations to gather evidence on the harms and benefits of cannabis, there are ongoing methodological challenges to conducting observational and clinical studies on cannabis, including a high rate of patients that are lost to follow-up (LTFU). This study explores factors potentially associated with retention in a large prospective study of Canadian medical cannabis patients, with the goal of reducing the probability that patients will be lost to follow-up in future cannabis research.

Methods: The Tilray Observational Patient Study (TOPS) was a multi-site, prospective study assessing the impact of medical cannabis over 6 months in a broad population of authorized Canadian cannabis patients.

Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland restoration efforts.

Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live in these areas. Bold global targets have been set for dryland restoration to restore millions of hectares of degraded land. These targets have been questioned as overly ambitious, but without a global evaluation of successes and failures it is impossible to gauge feasibility.

An integrated geospatial correlation analysis and human health risk assessment approach for investigating abandoned industrial sites.

An integrated geospatial correlation analysis (GCA)-human health risk assessment (HHRA) approach was developed to investigate abandoned industrial sites featured by heterogeneous contamination data. Critical areas of high health risk concerns can be prioritized for remediation using the integrated approach. An abandoned chemical complex site in Hubei, China was investigated as a case study.

Assessing how global health partnerships function: an equity-informed critical interpretive synthesis.

Background: Global health partnerships (GHPs) are situated in complex political and economic relationships and involve partners with different needs and interests (e.g., government agencies, non-governmental organizations, corporations, universities, professional associations, philanthropic organizations and communities).

Shrinkage Stress and Temperature Variation in Resin Composites Cured via Different Photoactivation Methods: Insights for Standardisation of the Photopolymerisation.

The literature has shown that there is no consensus regarding the best resin composite photoactivation protocol. This study evaluated the efficiency of the conventional, soft-start, pulse-delay and exponential protocols for photoactivation of resin composites in reducing the shrinkage stress and temperature variation during the photopolymerisation. The photoactivation processes were performed using a photocuring unit and a smartphone app developed to control the irradiance according each photoactivation protocol.

Dynamics induced by environmental stochasticity in a phytoplankton-zooplankton system with toxic phytoplankton.

Environmental stochasticity and toxin-producing phytoplankton (TPP) are the key factors that affect the aquatic ecosystems. To investigate the effects of environmental stochasticity and TPP on the dynamics of plankton populations, a stochastic phytoplankton-zooplankton system with two TPP is studied theoretically and numerically in this paper. Theoretically, we first prove that the system possesses a unique and global positive solution with positive initial values, and then derive some sufficient conditions guaranteeing the extinction and persistence in the mean of the system.

Intelligent computational techniques in marine oil spill management: A critical review.

Effective marine oil spill management (MOSM) is crucial to minimize the catastrophic impacts of oil spills. MOSM is a complex system affected by various factors, such as characteristics of spilled oil and environmental conditions. Oil spill detection, characterization, and monitoring; risk evaluation; response selection and process optimization; and waste management are the key components of MOSM demanding timely decision-making.

COVID-19: Are you satisfied with traveling during the pandemic?

The outbreak of COVID-19 and preventive measures to limit the spread of the virus has significantly impacted our daily activities. This study aims to investigate the effect of daily activity engagement including travel activity and sociodemographic characteristics on travel satisfaction during COVID-19. This study develops a latent segmentation-based ordered logit (LSOL) model using data from the 2020 COVID-19 Survey for Assessing Travel Impact (COST), for the Kelowna region of British Columbia, Canada.

Self-reported reductions in tobacco and nicotine use following medical cannabis initiation: Results from a cross-sectional survey of authorized medical cannabis patients in Canada.

Background: Despite decades of campaigns aimed at reducing tobacco/nicotine (T/N) use and the development of many different T/N reduction and cessation strategies, the impacts on international public health remain significant. Some studies have found an association between medical and non-medical cannabis use and T/N use, although the evidence on whether cannabis/cannabinoids increase or decrease the odds of reducing or ceasing T/N use remain contradictory. This paper explores the self-reported use of cannabis and associated changes in T/N use among a Canadian medical cannabis patient population.

Where is critical analysis of power and positionality in knowledge translation?

In Canada, the Eurocentric epistemological foundations of knowledge translation (KT) approaches and practices have been significantly influenced by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) KT definition. More recently, integrated knowledge translation (IKT) has emerged in part as epistemic resistance to Eurocentric discourse to critically analyse power relations between researcher and participants. Yet, despite the proliferation of IKT literature, issues of power in research relationships and strategies to equalize relationships remain largely unaddressed.

"There's nothing here": Perspectives from rural parents promoting safe active recreation for children living with autism spectrum disorders.

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families experience challenges and barriers at multiple levels that influence their activity participation. The purpose of this study was to develop understanding about factors influencing how families can promote safe, active recreation for their children 3-12 years living with ASD across rural settings and how supports for these families can be enhanced.

Methods: This qualitative study used an interpretive descriptive approach.

COVID-19 and Travel: How Our Out-of-home Travel Activity, In-home Activity, and Long-Distance Travel Have Changed.

COVID-19 has made unprecedented impacts on our daily life. This paper investigates individuals' immediate response to COVID-19, exploring out-of-home activities, in-home activities, and long-distance travel. Data for the Kelowna region of Canada comes from a web-based COVID-19 Survey for assessing Travel impact (COST).

Indigenizing our research: indigenous community leadership in HIV epidemiology research.

The use of data intensive health research has allowed for greater understandings of population health. When conducting data intensive health research, engaging and involving the community is essential for conducting meaningful research that is responsive to the public's needs. Particularly, when engaging Indigenous communities in research, there is a need to understand historical and ongoing impacts of colonialism and recognize the strengths in Indigenous Peoples' knowledges and experiences while supporting Indigenous leadership and self-determination in research.

Global COVID-19 lockdown highlights humans as both threats and custodians of the environment.

The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from 89 different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest that animals quickly responded to the reductions in human presence.

The association between overweight/obesity and psychological distress: A population based cross-sectional study in Saudi Arabia.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare the association between mental well-being between obese (classes 1 and 2), over-weight and non-obese population-based individuals.

Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia. A total of 1019 Saudi nationals aged ≥ 18 years participated in the survey.

Likelihood of meeting physical activity guidelines in rural and urban adults: cross-sectional analysis of the Canadian Community Health Survey.

Objectives: The goal of this study was to compare the odds of meeting physical activity (PA) guidelines among adults living in rural and urban areas of Canada.

Methods: Data from the 2017 cycle of the Canadian Community Health Survey were analyzed using binomial logistic regression with a sample of 47,266 adults representing a survey-weighted total of 25,669,018. The odds of meeting PA guidelines were determined based on self-reported moderate-to-vigorous PA (<150 min per week or ≥150 min per week).

Additively Manufactured Gradient Porous Ti-6Al-4V Hip Replacement Implants Embedded with Cell-Laden Gelatin Methacryloyl Hydrogels.

Laser additive manufacturing has led to a paradigm shift in the design of next-generation customized porous implants aiming to integrate better with the surrounding bone. However, conflicting design criteria have limited the development of fully functional porous implants; increasing porosity improves body fluid/cell-laden prepolymer permeability at the expense of compromising mechanical stability. Here, functionally gradient porosity implants and scaffolds designed based on interconnected triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) are demonstrated.