Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Food And Nutrient Intakes And Compliance With Recommendations In School-Aged Children In Ireland: Findings From The National Children’S Food Survey Ii (2017–2018) And Changes Since 2003–2004., Laura Kehoe, Maria Breffini, Breige A. Mcnulty, John Kearney, Albert Flynn, Janet Walton

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The childhood years represent a period of increased nutrient requirements during which a balanced diet is important to ensure optimal growth and development. The aim of this study was to examine food and nutrient intakes and compliance with recommendations in school-aged children in Ireland and to examine changes over time. Analyses were based on two National Children's Food Surveys; NCFS (2003-2004) (n 594) and NCFS II (2017-2018) (n 600) which estimated food and nutrient intakes in nationally representative samples of children (5-12 years) using weighed food records (NCFS: 7-d; NCFS II: 4-d). This study found that nutrient intakes among school-aged …

Abortion Pills, David S. Cohen, Greer Donley, Rachel Rebouché

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Abortion is now illegal in roughly a third of the country, but abortion pills are more widely available than ever before. Though antiabortion advocates and legislators are attacking pills with all manner of strategies, clinics, websites, and informal networks are openly facilitating the distribution of abortion pills, legally and illegally, across the United States. This Article is the first to explain this defining aspect of the post-Roe environment and the novel issues it raises at the level of state law, federal policy, and on-the-ground advocacy.

This Article first details antiabortion strategies to stop pills by any means necessary. These tactics …

Affirmatively Furthering Health Equity, Mary Crossley

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Pervasive health disparities in the United States undermine both public health and social cohesion. Because of the enormity of the health care sector, government action, standing alone, is limited in its power to remedy health disparities. This Article proposes a novel approach to distributing responsibility for promoting health equity broadly among public and private actors in the health care sector. Specifically, it recommends that the Department of Health and Human Services issue guidance articulating an obligation on the part of all recipients of federal health care funding to act affirmatively to advance health equity. The Fair Housing Act’s requirement that …

Public Ownership And The Wto In A Post Covid-19 Era: From Trade Disputes To A 'Social' Function, Paolo Davide Farah, Davide Zoppolato

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Public ownership is closely bound to the need of the government to protect and guarantee the well-being of its citizens. Where the market cannot, or does not want to, provide goods and services, the State uses different tools to intervene, influence, and control some aspects of the private sphere of expression of its citizens in the name and interest of the collectivity. Although, in the past century, this behavior was accepted as one of the expressions of the public authority and part of the social contract, this perception has shifted partially in accordance with the wave of privatization programs initiated …

A Review Of Risk Concepts And Models For Predicting The Risk Of Primary Stroke, Elizabeth Hunter, John D. Kelleher

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Predicting an individual's risk of primary stroke is an important tool that can help to lower the burden of stroke for both the individual and society. There are a number of risk models and risk scores in existence but no review or classification designed to help the reader better understand how models differ and the reasoning behind these differences. In this paper we review the existing literature on primary stroke risk prediction models. From our literature review we identify key similarities and differences in the existing models. We find that models can differ in a number of ways, including the …

Visual Factors Associated With Physical Activity In Schoolchildren, Síofra Harrington, John Kearney Prof, Veronica O'Dwyer Dr

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Clinical relevance Physical activity is an essential part of childhood physical and mental development. Recent research identified visual problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle in children in Ireland.

Background This study explored the association between visual function in children and their engagement with physical activities outside school.

Methods Participants were 1,626 schoolchildren (728 aged 6–7 years, 898 old 12–13 years) in randomly selected schools in Ireland. Before data collection, parents/legal guardians of participants completed a standardised questionnaire reporting physical activity as no activity (mostly on screens), light activity (occasional walking/cycling), moderate activity (/week engaged in sports), or regular activity ( …

From Zero To Thrive: A Model Of Cross-System And Cross-Sector Relational Health To Promote Early Childhood Development Across The Child-Serving Ecosystem, Alison L. Miller, Sara F. Stein, Rebeccah Sokol, Rachel Varisco, Phoebe Trout, Megan M. Julian, Julie Ribaudo, Joshua B. Kay, Natasha V. Pilkauskas, Nicole Gardner-Neblett, Todd I. Herrenkohl, Kara Zivin, Maria Muzik, Katherine L. Rosenblum

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Early relational health between caregivers and children is foundational for child health and well-being. Children and caregivers are also embedded within multiple systems and sectors, or a “child-serving ecosystem”, that shapes child development. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has made this embeddedness abundantly clear, systems remain siloed and lack coordination. Fostering relational health amongst layers of this ecosystem may be a way to systematically support young children and families who are facing adversity. We integrate theory, examples, and empirical findings to develop a conceptual model informed by infant mental health and public health frameworks that illustrates how relational health across the …

Sociodemographic, Personal, Peer, And Familial Predictors Of E-Cigarette Ever Use In Espad Ireland: A Forward Stepwise Logistic Regression Model, Joan Hanafin, Salome Sunday, Luke Clancy

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Introduction:
E-cigarette ever use has risen significantly in recent years in Ireland, similar to trends elsewhere in Europe, the United States, and Asia-Pacific region. Results from ESPAD Ireland (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs) show teenage e-cigarette ever use increased from 18% (2015) to 37% (2019). Given this increase, our aim is to profile e-cigarette ever users and never users in this age group; to examine sociodemographic, personal, peer, and familial factors associated with e-cigarette ever use; and to suggest appropriate measures to reduce use.

Methods:
A nationally representative stratified random sample of 50 ESPAD schools was …

Os-Walk-Eu: An Open-Source Tool To Assess Health-Promoting Residential Walkability Of European City Structures, Stefan Fina, Christian Gerten, Brian Pondi, Lorraine D'Arcy, Niamh O' Reilly, David Sousa Vale, Mauro Pereira, Samuele Zilio

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Introduction This paper introduces OS-WALK-EU, a new open-source walkability assessment tool developed specifically for urban neighbourhoods and using open-source spatial data. A free and open-source tool, OS-WALK-EU is accessible to the general public. It uses open data available worldwide and free online services to compute accessibility, while at the same time allowing users to integrate local datasets if available. Based on a review of existing measurement concepts, the paper adopts dimensions of walkability that were tested in European city environments and explains their conceptualization for software development. We invite the research community to collaboratively test, adopt and use the tool …

At War With A Silent Killer: An Ipa Study Of The Lived Experiences Of Community Pharmacists In Ireland During Covid-19, Regina Brady, Niamh Imbusch

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Objectives: The purpose of this research was to give voice to the unique lived experiences of community pharmacists who continued to work in patient-facing roles throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Research objectives sought to understand how they felt about working during this time including any risks felt, why they choose to continue working, and what the post-COVID future might hold for them and their profession. Method: The study was guided by the principles of traditional interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Primary research was collated using semi-structured interviews of a small, purposively selected homogenous group of pharmacists. The research context was a …

Emerging Technologies For The Production Of Nanocellulose From Lignocellulosic Biomass, Dileswar Pradhan, Amit Jaiswal, Swarna Jaiswal

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Nanocellulose is a unique and promising natural nanomaterial and has gained significant attention due to its applications in several important areas. Thus, researchers are continuously looking for the most efficient, sustainable, economically viable, and environmentally friendly production technologies to fulfil its growing demand. Conventional production technologies, which include various physical, chemical, and physicochemical methods, are currently inadequate for this purpose and have several limitations such as long processing time, high energy consumption, low recovery of nanocellulose, and many others. To overcome these shortcomings, scientists have investigated the prospect of utilizing emerging processing technologies such as microwave irradiation, deep eutectic solvent, …

Ecological Factors And Childhood Eating Behaviours At 5 Years Of Age: Findings From The Rolo Longitudinal Birth Cohort Study, Anna Delahunt, Marie C. Conway, Eileen C. O’Brien, Aisling A. Geraghty, Linda M. O’Keeffe, Sharleen L. O’Reilly, Ciara M. Mcdonnell, Patricia M. Kearney, John Mehegan, Fionnuala M. Mcauliffe

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Individual differences in children eating behaviours have been linked with childhood overweight and obesity. The determinants of childhood eating behaviours are influenced by a complex combination of hereditary and ecological factors. This study examines if key ecological predictors of childhood overweight; maternal socio-economic status (SES), children’s screen time, and childcare arrangements, are associated with eating behaviours in children aged 5-years-old.

The New Abortion Battleground, David S. Cohen, Greer Donley, Rachel Rebouché

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This Article examines the paradigm shift that is occurring now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. Returning abortion law to the states has spawned perplexing legal conflicts across state borders and between states and the federal government. This article emphasizes how these issues intersect with innovations in the delivery of abortion, which can now occur entirely online and transcend state boundaries. The interjurisdictional abortion wars are coming, and this Article is the first to provide the roadmap for the immediate aftermath of Roe’s reversal and what lies ahead.

Judges and scholars, and most recently the Supreme …

Re-Thinking Strategy After Roe, David S. Cohen, Greer Donley, Rachel Rebouché

Articles

The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturns nearly fifty years of precedent and radically changes abortion law, throwing both sides of the debate into uncharted territory. This essay, published in the immediate aftermath of Dobbs, offers some initial thoughts about what the changed legal landscape means for abortion rights legal advocacy. Our focus in recent writings has been to identify concrete measures federal and state actors can take to secure abortion access after Dobbs. Here, we investigate a more overarching concern: what fundamental values and strategies should govern the abortion rights movement going …

Review Of Analytical Techniques For Arsenic Detection And Determination In Drinking Water, Abhijnan Bhat, Tony O'Hara, Furong Tian, Baljit Singh Dr.

Articles

Arsenic occurs in the natural environment in four oxidation states: As(V), As(III), As(0) and As(−III). The behavior of arsenic species changes depending on the biotic or abiotic conditions in water. In groundwater, arsenic is predominantly present as As(III) and As(V), with a minor amount of methyl and dimethyl arsenic compounds being reported. Global intake of As(III) and As(V) via drinking water and food has dramatically increased in recent years. The commonly used term inorganic arsenic includes both As(III) and As(V) species and constitutes the highest toxicological risk associated with arsenic in water compared to the organic arsenic species. Inorganic arsenic …

Cook Like A Boss Online: An Adapted Intervention During The Covid-19 Pandemic That Effectively Improved Children’S Perceived Cooking Competence, Movement Competence And Wellbeing, Lynsey Hollywood, Johann Issartel, David Gaul, Amanda Mccloat, Elaine Mooney, Clare Elizabeth Collins, Fiona Lavelle

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The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated physical inactivity, poor dietary intake and reduced mental wellbeing, contributing factors to non-communicable diseases in children. Cooking interventions are proposed as having a positive influence on children’s diet quality. Motor skills have been highlighted as essential for performance of cooking skills, and this movement may contribute to wellbeing. Additionally, perceived competence is a motivator for behaviour performance and thus important for understanding intervention effectiveness. Therefore, this research aimed to assess the effectiveness of an adapted virtual theory-based cooking intervention on perceived cooking competence, perceived movement competence and wellbeing.

Medication Abortion Exceptionalism, Greer Donley

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Restrictive state abortion laws garner a large amount of attention in the national conversation and legal scholarship, but less known is a federal abortion policy that significantly curtails access to early abortion in all fifty states. The policy limits the distribution of mifepristone, the only drug approved to terminate a pregnancy so long as it is within the first ten weeks. Unlike most drugs, which can be prescribed by licensed healthcare providers and picked up at most pharmacies, the Food and Drug Administration only allows certified providers to prescribe mifepristone, and only allows those providers to distribute the drug to …

Hospital Effluents And Wastewaters Treatment Plants: A Source Of Oxytetracycline And Antimicrobial-Resistant Bacteria In Seafood, Bozena Mccarthy, Samuel Obeng Apori, Michelle Giltrap, Abhijnan Bhat, James Curtin, Furong Tian

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The present study employs a data review on the presence and aggregation of oxytetracycline (OTC) and resistance (AMR) bacteria in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), and distribution of the contaminated effluent with the aid of shallow and deep ocean currents. The study aims to determine the fate of OTC, AMR bacteria in seafood, and demonstrate a relationship between AMR levels and human health. This review includes (1) OTC, (2) AMR bacteria, (3) heavy metals in aquatic environments, and their relationship. Few publications describe OCT in surface waters. Although, OTC and other tetracyclines were found in 10 countries in relatively low concentrations, …

Adapting An Agent-Based Model Of Infectious Disease Spread In An Irish County To Covid-19, Elizabeth Hunter, John D. Kelleher

Articles

The dynamics that lead to the spread of an infectious disease through a population can be characterized as a complex system. One way to model such a system, in order to improve preparedness, and learn more about how an infectious disease, such as COVID-19, might spread through a population, is agent-based epidemiological modelling. When a pandemic is caused by an emerging disease, it takes time to develop a completely new model that captures the complexity of the system. In this paper, we discuss adapting an existing agent-based model for the spread of measles in Ireland to simulate the spread of …

Using A Hybrid Agent-Based And Equation Based Model To Test School Closure Policies During A Measles Outbreak, Elizabeth Hunter, John D. Kelleher

Articles

Background

In order to be prepared for an infectious disease outbreak it is important to know what interventions will or will not have an impact on reducing the outbreak. While some interventions might have a greater effect in mitigating an outbreak, others might only have a minor effect but all interventions will have a cost in implementation. Estimating the effectiveness of an intervention can be done using computational modelling. In particular, comparing the results of model runs with an intervention in place to control runs where no interventions were used can help to determine what interventions will have the greatest …

Food Industries Wastewater Recycling For Biodiesel Production Through Microalgal Remediation, Divakar Dahiya, Uttam K. Ghosh, Poonam S. Nigam, Amit Jaiswal

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This article is an overview of a biosystem of food-industry wastewater (WW) treatment using microalgae towards circular bioeconomy through biosynthesis of compounds of added-value. Focusing on circular bioeconomy with concern to environmental pollution, the management of water-resource and energy-crisis could be combined; by upgrading conventional WW treatment and simultaneously producing a renewable and sustainable source of energy algal-lipids for biodiesel production. Phyco-remediation of food WW using microalgae has revealed many advantages that can fulfill new demands for the WW treatment. WWs can be valuable resources of micronutrients and organic content (carbon source) for algal cultivation. In this review, prospective routes …

Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of Sporadic Shiga Toxin–Producing Escherichia Coli Enteritis, Ireland, 2013–2017, Eiimear Cleary, Patricia Garvey, Paul Mckeown, Jean O'Dwyer, Coilin Oh Aiseadha, Paul Mckeown, Paul Hynds

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The Republic of Ireland regularly reports the highest annual crude incidence rates of Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) enteritis in the European Union, ≈10 times the average. We investigated spatiotemporal patterns of STEC enteritis in Ireland using multiple statistical tools. Overall, we georeferenced 2,755 cases of infection during January 2013–December 2017; we found >1 case notified in 2,340 (12.6%) of 18,641 Census Small Areas. We encountered the highest case numbers in children 0–5 years of age (n = 1,101, 39.6%) and associated with serogroups O26 (n = 800, 29%) and O157 (n = 638, 23.2%). Overall, we identified 17 space-time …

The Role Of Demographic And Clinical Characteristics On Risk Of Covid-19 Related Infection And Mortality, A. O'Shea, M. Youssef, M. Connolly, A. Al Lawati, S.I. Shah, S. Walsh, D. Mccartney, J. Faul

Articles

Since the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) which causes Covid-19, global health systems have struggled to cope with the rising number of related infections, acute admissions and mortalities. Poorer clinical outcomes have been observed amongst older patients with Covid-19 and males, and in those who are obese or who have darker skin(1) . Additionally, poorer outcomes including increased mortality have been associated with low vitamin D status(2,3) . The current observational study aimed to elucidate the association between patient demographic, anthropometric, clinical and biometric characteristics and Covid-19 disease severity and mortality.

Food Contact Surfaces: Challenges, Legislation And Solutions, Shubham Sharma, Amit Jaiswal, Brendan Duffy, Swarna Jaiswal

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Food contact surfaces (FCSs) include all surfaces that may come in contact with the food during production, processing, and packaging. Food processing industries encounter several challenges due to its microbial interaction with the FCSs, such as cross-contamination of pathogenic microorganisms or allergens in food, formation of biofilm, biodeterioration of food contact surface leads to food with reduced shelf-life and quality. A legal EU framework provides the fundamental postulates for the safety and inertness of all Food Contact Materials (FCMs). Legislations have an important role in providing regulatory guidance on the quality assurance systems and verifying their implementation as a means …

Spatiotemporal Epidemiology Of Cryptosporidiosis In The Republic Of Ireland, 2008–2017: Development Of A Space–Time “Cluster Recurrence” Index, Martin Boudou

Articles

Approximately 1.5 million individuals in Ontario are supplied by private water wells (private groundwater supplies). Unlike municipal supplies, private well water quality remains unregulated, with owners responsible for testing, treating, and maintaining their own water supplies. The COVID-19 global pandemic and associated non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) have impacted many environmental (e.g., surface water and air quality) and human (e.g., healthcare, transportation) systems over the past 15-months (January 2020 to March 2021). To date, the impact of these interventions on private groundwater systems remains largely unknown. Accordingly, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of a province-wide COVID-19 lockdown (late-March 2020) …

Genetic Background Of Antimicrobial Resistance In Multiantimicrobial-Resistant Escherichia Coli Isolates From Feces Of Healthy Broiler Chickens In Tunisia, Mohamed Salah Abbassi, Hajer Kilani, Islem Abid, Yolanda Sáenz, Paul Hynds, Sana Lengliz, Noureddine Ben Chehida, Ilhem Boutiba-Ben Boubaker

Articles

Multiantimicrobial-resistant Escherichia coli isolates are a global human health problem causing increasing morbidity and mortality. Genes encoding antimicrobial resistance are mainly harbored on mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as transposons and plasmids as well as integrons, which enhance their rapid spread. The aim of this study was to characterize 83 multiantimicrobial-resistant E. coli isolates recovered from healthy broiler chickens. Among 78 tetracycline-resistant isolates, the tetA, tetB, and tetC genes were detected in 59 (75.6%), 14 (17.9%), and one (1.2%) isolates, respectively. The sul1, sul2, and sul3 genes were detected 31 (46.2%), 16 (23.8%), and 6 (8.9%) isolates, respectively, among 67 …

Mortality Risk Attributable To Wildfire-Related Pm2·5 Pollution: A Global Time Series Study In 749 Locations, Gongbo Chen, Yuming Guo, Xu Yue, Shilu Tong, Antonio Gasparrini Antonio Gasparrini, Michelle L. Bell, Joel Schwartz, Jouni J K Jaakkola, Antonella Zanobetti, Eric Lavigne, Paulo Hilario Nascimento Saldiva, Haidong Kan, Dominic Royé, Ai Milojevic, Ala Overcenco, Aleš Urban, Alexandra Schneider, Alireza Entezari, Ana Maria Vicedo-Cabrera, Ariana Zeka, Aurelio Tobias, Baltazar Nunes, Barrak Alahmad, Bertil Forsberg, Shih-Chun Pan, Carmen Íñiguez, Caroline Ameling, César De La Cruz Valencia, Christofer Åström, Danny Houthuijs, Do Van Dung, Evangelia Samoli, Fatemeh Mayvaneh, Francesco Sera, Gabriel Carrasco-Escobar, Yadong Lei, Hans Orru, Ho Kim, Iulian-Horia Holobaca, Jan Kyselý, João Paulo Teixeira, Joana Madureira, Klea Katsouyanni, Magali Hurtado-Díaz, Marek Maasikmets, Martina S Ragettli, Masahiro Hashizume, Massimo Stafoggia, Mathilde Pascal, Matteo Scortichini, Micheline De Sousa Zanotti Stagliorio Coêlho, Nicolás Valdés Ortega, Niilo R I Ryti, Noah Scovronick, Patricia Matus, Patrick J. Goodman, Rebecca M Garland, Rosana Abrutzky, Samuel Osorio Garcia, Shilpa Rao, Simona Fratianni, Tran Ngoc Dang, Valentina Colistro, Veronika Huber, Whanhee Lee, Xerxes Seposo, Yasushi Honda, Yue Leon Guo, Tingting Ye, Wenhua Yu, Michael J. Abramson, Jonathan M. Samet, Shanshan Li

Articles

Many regions of the world are now facing more frequent and unprecedentedly large wildfires. However, the association between wildfire-related PM2·5 and mortality has not been well characterised. We aimed to comprehensively assess the association between short-term exposure to wildfire-related PM2·5 and mortality across various regions of the world.

Visualizing The Impact Of Europe’S Slow Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout, Mathias Beck, Gail Sheppard

Articles

On 31 March 2021, the WHO Regional Office for Europe issued a formal statement of concern regarding the slow vaccine rollout across Europe [1]. The WHO noted that the “Region remains the second most affected by SARS-CoV-2 of all the world’s regions” which was worrying, especially because the more transmissible B.1.1.7 was now dominant in the region [1]. It further contrasted this with the experiences of the UK, by noting that according to data from Public Health England, “COVID-19 vaccines have saved, at the very least, over 6,000 lives among people over 70 since vaccination started in December 2020”. Beyond …

An Assessment Of Contamination Fingerprinting Techniques For Determining The Impact Of Domestic Wastewater Treatment Systems On Private Well Supplies, Chris Fennell, Bruce Misstear, David O'Connell, Donata Dubber, Patrice Behan, Martin Danaher, Mary Moloney, Laurence Gill

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Private wells in Ireland and elsewhere have been shown to be prone to microbial contamination with the main suspected sources being practices associated with agriculture and domestic wastewater treatment systems (DWWTS). While the microbial quality of private well water is commonly assessed using faecal indicator bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, such organisms are not usually source-specific, and hence cannot definitively conclude the exact origin of the contamination. This research assessed a range of different chemical contamination fingerprinting techniques (ionic ratios, artificial sweeteners, caffeine, fluorescent whitening compounds, faecal sterol profiles and pharmaceuticals) as to their use to apportion contamination of private …

Seaweeds Polysaccharides In Active Food Packaging: A Review Of Recent Progress, Carina Dietz, Shubham Sharma, Amit Jaiswal, Swarna Jaiswal

Articles

Background

Due to its short lifetime, food packaging leads to a rapid accumulation of plastic in our surroundings and thereby also has a huge impact on environmental pollution. To reduce these effects and create a more sustainable approach towards food packaging, biodegradable and biobased polymers have been developed and are emerging on the market.

Scope and approach

This review provides the current state of research regarding active packaging and the incorporation of seaweed into food packaging. Further, it summarises the resulting consequences of the seaweed incorporation on mechanical, physical, thermal, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and chemical properties, as well as the release …