Fourth-generation glucose sensors composed of copper nanostructures for diabetes management: A critical review.

More than five decades have been invested in understanding glucose biosensors. Yet, this immensely versatile field has continued to gain attention from the scientific world to better understand and diagnose diabetes. However, such extensive work done to improve glucose sensing devices has still not yielded desirable results.

Assessing medical mistrust in organ donation across countries using item response theory.

Although medical mistrust (MM) may be an impediment to public health interventions, no MM scale has been validated across countries and the assessment of MM has not been explored using item response theory, which allows generalisation beyond the sampled data. We aimed to determine the dimensionality of a brief MM measure across four countries through Mokken analysis and Graded Response Modelling. Analysis of 1468 participants from UK ( = 1179), Ireland ( = 191), India ( = 49) and Malaysia (n = 49) demonstrated that MM items formed a hierarchical, unidimensional measure, which is very informative about high levels of MM.

The COVID-19 pandemic: Narratives of informal women workers in Indian Punjab.

The COVID-19 crisis has translated into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis for the poor and marginalized groups in society. The countrywide lockdowns, quarantine measures, and mobility restrictions across 200 countries of the world have resulted in a host of negative manifestations for women. There have been unprecedented losses in the informal economy, which is dominated by women.

Understanding the Barriers and Facilitators to Sharing Patient-Generated Health Data Using Digital Technology for People Living With Long-Term Health Conditions: A Narrative Review.

Using digital technology to share patient-generated health data has the potential to improve the self-management of multiple long-term health conditions. Sharing these data can allow patients to receive additional support from healthcare professionals and peer communities, as well as enhance their understanding of their own health. A deeper understanding of the concerns raised by those living with long-term health conditions when considering whether to share health data digital technology may help to facilitate effective data sharing practices in the future.

Technical validation of real-world monitoring of gait: a multicentric observational study.

Introduction: Existing mobility endpoints based on functional performance, physical assessments and patient self-reporting are often affected by lack of sensitivity, limiting their utility in clinical practice. Wearable devices including inertial measurement units (IMUs) can overcome these limitations by quantifying digital mobility outcomes (DMOs) both during supervised structured assessments and in real-world conditions. The validity of IMU-based methods in the real-world, however, is still limited in patient populations.

Walking on common ground: a cross-disciplinary scoping review on the clinical utility of digital mobility outcomes.

Physical mobility is essential to health, and patients often rate it as a high-priority clinical outcome. Digital mobility outcomes (DMOs), such as real-world gait speed or step count, show promise as clinical measures in many medical conditions. However, current research is nascent and fragmented by discipline.

Modelling of environmental impacts of printed self-healing products.

Products utilising self-healing materials have the potential to restore some of their function following damage, thereby extending the product lifespan and contributing to waste prevention and increased product safety. Despite the growing interest in these products, there a lack of comprehensive studies on the environmental implications of self-healing products and the parameters that influence impacts. The study presented in this paper combined life cycle assessment combined with a Taguchi experimental design and analysis of variance to investigate the effect of various parameters across the life stages of a self-healing composite product manufactured by 3D printing using poly-lactic acid (PLA) and self-healing polyurethane (PU).

Pre-Columbian fire management and control of climate-driven floodwaters over 3,500 years in southwestern Amazonia.

In landscapes that support economic and cultural activities, human communities actively manage environments and environmental change at a variety of spatial scales that complicate the effects of continental-scale climate. Here, we demonstrate how hydrological conditions were modified by humans against the backdrop of Holocene climate change in southwestern Amazonia. Paleoecological investigations (phytoliths, charcoal, pollen, diatoms) of two sediment cores extracted from within the same permanent wetland, ∼22 km apart, show a 1,500-y difference in when the intensification of land use and management occurred, including raised field agriculture, fire regime, and agroforestry.

Exploring customers' responses to online service failure and recovery strategies during Covid-19 pandemic: An actor-network theory perspective.

While the debate on online service failure and recovery strategies has been given considerable attention in the marketing and information systems literature, the evolving Covid-19 pandemic has brought about new challenges both theoretically and empirically in the consumption landscape. To fully understand customers' responses to service failure during a crisis we asked 70 millennials from three European Countries-Italy, France, and the UK-to describe their responses to service failure during the Covid-19 pandemic (30 completed a 4-week diary and 40 completed a 4-week qualitative survey). Drawing on phenomenological, constructivist, and hermeneutical approaches, and utilizing an actor-network theory perspective, the current study proposes a new framework for understanding customers' responses to online service failure and recovery strategies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Creation of a universal experimental protocol for the investigation of transfer and persistence of trace evidence: Part 2 - Implementation and preliminary data.

This is the second paper on the development and implementation of a universal experimental protocol for transfer and persistence of trace evidence. Here, we present the results of five individual researchers who implemented the universal experimental protocol for the first time. Over 2500 images were collected, computationally analysed and statistically compared.

Unique chemical parameters and microbial activity lead to increased archaeological preservation at the Roman frontier site of Vindolanda, UK.

Waterlogged burial conditions impact upon artefact preservation. One major determinant of preservation is presence and behaviour of microorganisms, however, unravelling the mechanisms, especially in waterlogged conditions is challenging. In this study, we analysed elemental composition, bacterial diversity and community structure from excavation trenches at the Roman Site of Vindolanda, Northumberland, UK, using pXRF and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.

Objectively Measured Physical Activity as a COPD Clinical Trial Outcome.

Background: Reduced physical activity is common in COPD and is associated with poor outcomes. Physical activity is therefore a worthy target for intervention in clinical trials; however, trials evaluating physical activity have used heterogeneous methods.

Research Question: What is the available evidence on the efficacy and/or effectiveness of various interventions to enhance objectively measured physical activity in patients with COPD, taking into account the minimal preferred methodologic quality of physical activity assessment?

Study Design And Methods: In this narrative review, the COPD Biomarker Qualification Consortium (CBQC) task force searched three scientific databases for articles that reported the effect of an intervention on objectively measured physical activity in COPD.

Constraining Suprathermal Electron Evolution in a Parker Spiral Field With Cassini Observations.

Suprathermal electrons in the solar wind consist of the "halo," present at all pitch angles, and the "strahl" which is a field-aligned, beam-like population. Examining the heliospheric evolution of strahl beams is key to understanding the in-transit processing of solar wind suprathermal electrons, in particular, to identify electron scattering mechanisms and to establish the origin of the halo population. Not only does this have significant implications with regard to the kinetic processes occurring within the solar wind but also its thermodynamic evolution, as the suprathermal electrons carry the majority of the solar wind heat flux.

Benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation in COPD patients with mild cognitive impairment - A pilot study.

Background: Cognitive impairment might interfere with the efficacy of Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). We aimed to identify differential responses to PR between cognitively impaired (CI) and cognitively normal (CN) COPD patients by assessing health status and exercise capacity.

Methods: Sixty patients (FEV: 47 ± 15%) were classified as CI or CN according to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA ≤25points) and completed a 3-week inpatient PR program.

Exercise Training-Induced Extracellular Matrix Protein Adaptation in Locomotor Muscles: A Systematic Review.

Exercise training promotes muscle adaptation and remodelling by balancing the processes of anabolism and catabolism; however, the mechanisms by which exercise delays accelerated muscle wasting are not fully understood. Intramuscular extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins are essential to tissue structure and function, as they create a responsive environment for the survival and repair of the muscle fibres. However, their role in muscle adaptation is underappreciated and underinvestigated.

Drinking Carling Out of Stella Glasses: People and Place in the Missing Middle.

As trends of social and economic change allow precarity to inch into the lives of those who may have been more accustomed to security (Standing, 2011, 2014), this paper addresses the response of some young people who are caught "betwixt and between" in potentially liminal states (Turner, 1967). Those whose families have undertaken intra- or intergenerational social mobility and who have made a home in a place, Ingleby Barwick in Teesside, that seems to be of them and for them-an in-between place that is seen as "not quite" middle or working class. This paper draws data from a research project that adopted a qualitative phenomenological approach to uncover the meaning of experiences for participants.

The impact of COVID-19 restrictions in the United Kingdom on the positive behavioural support of people with an intellectual disability.

Unlabelled: The way that people with an intellectual disability are supported is very important.The COVID-19 virus has changed the way that staff help people with an intellectual disability.We wanted to know about those changes and whether learning about positive behavioural support (PBS) helped staff to cope with them.

The Impact of Perceived Sleep, Mood and Alcohol Use on Verbal, Physical and Sexual Assault Experiences among Student Athletes and Student Non-Athletes.

Previous research has shown that student athletes are more likely to be involved in a physical altercation or be a victim of verbal, physical and/or sexual abuse than student non-athletes, which can have long-lasting negative effects on mood, behavior and quality of life. In addition, among college students, sleep difficulties are ubiquitous and may deteriorate the unique life experience that university represents. The influences of poor sleep quality, mood and alcohol consumption related to these events are examined here between student athletes and student non-athletes.

Autonomous delivery vehicles to fight the spread of Covid-19 - How do men and women differ in their acceptance?

Covid-19 seriously impacts and endangers lives of millions worldwide. To fight the spread of the virus, governments have taken various restricting measures including stay at home orders. Ultimately, the home delivery volume increased significantly, which still bears the risk of human-human infection during the final delivery.

Human Bone Proteomes before and after Decomposition: Investigating the Effects of Biological Variation and Taphonomic Alteration on Bone Protein Profiles and the Implications for Forensic Proteomics.

Bone proteomic studies using animal proxies and skeletonized human remains have delivered encouraging results in the search for potential biomarkers for precise and accurate post-mortem interval (PMI) and the age-at-death (AAD) estimation in medico-legal investigations. The development of forensic proteomics for PMI and AAD estimation is in critical need of research on human remains throughout decomposition, as currently the effects of both inter-individual biological differences and taphonomic alteration on the survival of human bone protein profiles are unclear. This study investigated the human bone proteome in four human body donors studied throughout decomposition outdoors.