Prevalence of smoking habits, attitudes and knowledge on counteractive strategies among a sample of healthcare employees: results of the smoking-free health environments project in the province of Palermo, Italy.

Introduction: Tobacco use is responsible for over 7 million deaths annually, making smoking the leading cause of preventable mortality globally. Over the last two decades in Italy, the prevalence of smoking among physicians has consistently decreased, while it remains higher and is gradually decreasing among non-physician healthcare workers. The aim of this study was to investigate the Prevalence of smoking habits, attitudes, and knowledge on counteractive strategies among employees in the Primary Healthcare Facilities in the Province of Palermo, Italy. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between June 2020 and December 2020 through a previously validated anonymous questionnaire structured in four sections including 34 items. Data were analyzed using Stata/MP 12.1 statistical software. Results: Overall, 2,645 participants answered the questionnaire. The prevalence of either current or former smokers was 18.6%. Based on the multivariable analysis conducted, a significantly higher frequency of current smokers was observed among male participants (AdjOR: 1.29; CI95%: 1.02-1.64) and those belonging to the Surgical Unit (AdjOR: 1.92; CI95%: 1.27-2.90). Conversely, the prevalence of current smokers was significantly lower among those with at least one child (AdjOR: 0.67; CI95%: 0.49-0.91), with an educational qualification equal to or greater than a graduation degree (AdjOR: 0.56; CI95%: 0.43-0.73), those who considered second-hand smoke harmful (AdjOR: 0.06; CI95%: 0.008-0.60), those who had observed smoking or detected the smell of smoke in their workplace (AdjOR: 0.64; CI95%: 0.45-0.91). Furthermore, the prevalence of current smokers was significantly lower among participants who believed that healthcare professionals could play a crucial role in influencing their patients' lifestyles (AdjOR: 0.67; CI95%: 0.50-0.90) and among those who recommend their patients to quit smoking (AdjOR: 0.35; CI95%: 0.24-0.51). Discussion: The results of the current research demonstrate that, despite the decline in smoking prevalence among physicians, the rate of smokers among healthcare facility employees remains unacceptably high. This underscores the need to re-evaluate current anti-tobacco strategies in the workplace.

Soil Moisture Sensor Information Enhanced by Statistical Methods in a Reclaimed Water Irrigation Framework.

Time series modeling and forecasting play important roles in many practical fields. A good understanding of soil water content and salinity variability and the proper prediction of variations in these variables in response to changes in climate conditions are essential to properly plan water resources and appropriately manage irrigation and fertilization tasks. This paper provides a 48-h forecast of soil water content and salinity in the peculiar context of irrigation with reclaimed water in semi-arid environments. The forecasting was performed based on (i) soil water content and salinity data from 50 cm beneath the soil surface with a time resolution of 15 min, (ii) hourly atmospheric data and (iii) daily irrigation amounts. Exploratory data analysis and data pre-processing phases were performed and then statistical models were constructed for time series forecasting based on the set of available data. The obtained prediction models showed good forecasting accuracy and good interpretability of the results.

Beach tennis injuries: a cross-sectional survey of 206 elite and recreational players.

Objectives: Although a million people regularly play beach tennis (BT) through the world there is no published information on BT injuries. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of BT injuries, and to identify differences between injured and non-injured players.Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional epidemiology study of 206 BT players from Réunion Island describing the injuries occurring in BT. A questionnaire was developed to capture the type and chronicity of the injuries they had suffered over the prior three years. Comparisons were made between elite, regional and recreational players.Results: There were 178 injuries in 92 players (44.7%), which was an incidence of 1.81 injuries per 1000 hours of play. There were 77 acute injuries (23.8% of players, incidence of 0.78 injuries/1000 hrs.) and 101 chronic injuries (30.6% of players, incidence of 1.03 injuries/1000 hrs.). The shoulder was the most frequently injured area. The main upper limb injuries were chronic tendinopathy while most acute injuries occurred in the lower limbs. The incidence of lateral epicondylitis at the elbow was 0.36 per 1000 hours of play, or a prevalence of 4.2%. The incidence of injuries in elite players was less than that in non-ranked players (1.71 vs 2.04 injuries/1000 hours play). Recreational players more often had chronic injuries (p < 0.001).Conclusion: Information about musculoskeletal injuries is invaluable for healthcare professionals involved in the care of athletes. Such knowledge can be used to guide the medical surveillance of athletes and to help develop injury prevention strategies.

Geophysical and hydrological data assimilation to monitor water content dynamics in the rocky unsaturated zone.

In recent years, geophysics is increasingly used to study the flow and transport processes in the vadose zone. Particularly, when the vadose zone is made up of rocks, it is difficult to install sensors in the subsurface to measure hydrological state variables directly. In these cases, the electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) represents a useful tool to monitor the hydrodynamics of the infiltration and to estimate hydraulic parameters and state variables, such as hydraulic conductivity and water content. We propose an integrated approach aimed at predicting water content dynamics in calcarenite, a sedimentary carbonatic porous rock. The uncoupled hydrogeophysical approach proposed consists in 4D ERT monitoring conducted during an infiltrometer test under falling head conditions. Capacitance probes were installed to measure water content at different depths to validate the estimations derived from ERT. A numerical procedure, based on a data assimilation technique, was accomplished by combining the model (i.e., Richards' equation) with the observations in order to provide reliable water content estimations. We have used a new data assimilation method that is easy to implement, based on the ensemble Kalman filter coupled with Brownian bridges. This approach is particularly suitable for strongly non-linear models, such as Richards' equation, in order to take into account both the model uncertainty and the observation errors. The proposed data assimilation approach was tested for the first time on field data. A reasonable agreement was found between observations and predictions confirming the ability of the integrated approach to predict water content dynamics in the rocky subsoil.

Dynamical modeling of liver Aquaporin-9 expression and glycerol permeability in hepatic glucose metabolism.

Liver is crucial in the homeostasis of glycerol, an important metabolic intermediate. Plasma glycerol is imported by hepatocytes mainly through Aquaporin-9 (AQP9), an aquaglyceroporin channel negatively regulated by insulin in rodents. AQP9 is of critical importance in glycerol metabolism since hepatic glycerol utilization is rate-limited at the hepatocyte membrane permeation step. Glycerol kinase catalyzes the initial step for the conversion of the imported glycerol into glycerol-3-phosphate, a major substrate for de novo synthesis of glucose (gluconeogenesis) and/or triacyglycerols (lipogenesis). A model addressing the glucose-insulin system to describe the hepatic glycerol import and metabolism and the correlation with the glucose homeostasis is lacking so far. Here we consider a system of first-order ordinary differential equations delineating the relevance of hepatocyte AQP9 in liver glycerol permeability. Assuming the hepatic glycerol permeability as depending on the protein levels of AQP9, a mathematical function is designed describing the time course of the involvement of AQP9 in mouse hepatic glycerol metabolism in different nutritional states. The resulting theoretical relationship is derived fitting experimental data obtained with murine models at the fed, fasted or re-fed condition. While providing useful insights into the dynamics of liver AQP9 involvement in male rodent glycerol homeostasis our model may be adapted to the human liver serving as an important module of a whole body-model of the glucose metabolism both in health and metabolic diseases.