One in six children worldwide lives in a region exposed to armed conflict. In conflicts, children are among the most vulnerable, and at risk of adverse health outcomes. We sought to describe trends ...in child and adolescent morbidity in northwest Syria (NWS) and understand how forced displacement affects clinical utilisation during the Syrian conflict.
Retrospective data between January 2018 and December 2022 were obtained from the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), a non-governmental organisation that operates health facilities in NWS. After initial descriptive analyses were completed, we performed a seasonal-trend decomposition to estimate the seasonality of clinical presentations. We subsequently employed a multivariate regression model incorporating age, gender, residency status, season, and a random district-level intercept to measure the association between the odds of clinical consultation and forced displacement.
Across 51 reporting SAMS facilities, 2,687,807 clinical consultations were studied over a five-year period. Seasonality was demonstrated for every clinical consultation category. Higher levels of forced displacement were associated with increased odds of consultations for nutrition, trauma, NCDs and mental health and decreased odds of consultation for communicable diseases. Aside from traumatic injury, internally displaced persons (IDPs) had higher AORs of clinical consultations compared to host populations.
Forced displacement differentially impacts clinical utilisation among children in northwest Syria, and the effects of displacement persist for at least six months. Clinical needs vary by host/IDP status, sex, age, and season. This study can assist policymakers in forecasting the health needs of children in northwest Syria.
One new homologous series of mesogenic compounds containing imine (-CH = N-) and ester (-COO-) linkages as well as lateral thiol (−SH) group and terminal alkoxy chain was synthezised. Molecules in ...the present work was convinced with respective right structure confirmed with FT-IR,
1
H-NMR and
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C-NMR spectroscopy. Thermotropic properties of the compounds were investigated on a hot-stage plate of a polarising optical microscope and further by differential scanning calorimetry. All the compounds of the series exhibited excellent liquid crystalline nature. Structure-property relationships, the influence of different flexible spacers and the mesophase ranges were studied. Computational studies and the electron density method was performed with B3LYP method for all molecular structures in present work. The mesophase ranges were found to be dependent on the length and flexibility of the alkoxy chain, as well as the presence of the lateral thiol group. The comparative study of the present series with the geometrically related series provided valuable insights into the effect of molecular shape on the mesomorphic properties.
Objectives BackgroundThe protracted armed conflict in Syria has profoundly impacted the health of children.1 2 However, research on paediatric healthcare utilisation in this region is sparse. This ...study examined paediatric (<18 years) healthcare consultations in northwest Syria between January 2018 and December 2022 (5 years) and explored associations with conflict-related forced displacement.ObjectivesTo analyse paediatric clinical consultation data from Syrian American Medical Society facilities in Northwest Syria between January 2018 and December 2022.To explore any potential associations of paediatric clinical consultations with forced displacement.MethodsA retrospective quantitative analysis was conducted using paediatric consultation data from the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) facilities in Idlib and Aleppo governorates. To explore associations between forced displacement and consultations, data were utilised from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Regional monthly displacement was divided into quartiles: Low (≤26,330 monthly IDP (internally displaced people) movements), Medium (26,331–41,936), High (41,937–82,051), and Severe (≥82,052).Preliminary descriptive analyses were completed. Seasonal-trend decompositions using locally estimated scatterplot smoothing were then performed to estimate the seasonality of clinical presentations. Following this, multivariate regressions were conducted. They incorporated age, gender, residency status, season, and a random district-level intercept to measure the association between the odds of clinical consultation and forced displacement.ResultsAcross 51 reporting SAMS facilities in Idlib and Aleppo governorates, 2,687,807 clinical consultations were studied over a five-year period.Seasonal trends were observed within all clinical consultation categories; communicable disease consultations peaked in the winter, while consultations for injuries, nutritional, and non-communicable diseases increased in the summer.Higher levels of forced displacement were associated with increased odds of nutrition (AOR=1.55, 95%CI:1.46–1.66), trauma (AOR=1.21, 95%CI:1.19–1.23), non- communicable and mental health (AOR=1.19, 95%CI:1.18–1.20) disease consultations, but decreased odds of communicable diseases consultations (AOR=0.81, 95%CI:0.80–0.82). Aside from traumatic injury, IDPs had higher adjusted odds of clinical consultations compared to host populations. Many of these changes persisted in the months following displacement.ConclusionDifferent levels of forced displacement affected paediatric consultation categories differently. Further exploration of these patterns and the seasonal influence can inform health service provision for child health needs in this humanitarian setting, allowing better preparedness and resourcing.ReferencesSyria Network for Human Rights, Statista Inc, 2023.Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, ReliefWeb, 2022.
Clinician-scientists are critical to medical innovation and research. However, the number of clinician scientists in the UK has been declining steadily over the last decade. One of the cited reasons ...is poor student recruitment to academic training pathways. The SMART study aims to assess current student perceptions on research and identify key factors influencing whether a student is interested in research.
We conducted a cross-sectional survey study between January and May 2022.
This was a multi-centre national study with data collected across 40 universities offering medical courses in the UK.
Participants were UK medical students enrolled in medicine for 21/22 academic year.
The main outcomes were related to participant perceptions on research and whether they were interested in engaging with research in their future career. These measures were correlated with demographic and non-demographic details using regression analyses.
One thousand seven hundred seventy-four individuals participated in the SMART survey from 40 medical schools. Nearly half the participants felt there were barriers preventing them from doing research (46.67%) and almost three-quarters felt it was at least somewhat difficult to combine research with medical school (73.49%). Of the options available, most commonly students did not want to pursue an academic career (43.11%) or training pathway (42.49%). However, most participants felt it was useful to do research at medical school (59.54%) and were also interested in doing more research in the future (69.16%). Regression analysis identified many factors influencing student's perceptions of research including year of study, gender, socioeconomic status, family background, research exposure at medical school, ethnicity, and country of pre-university education.
The SMART study is the first of its kind in the UK, shedding light on medical student perceptions. While some express strong interest in academic careers, a larger proportion show a broader interest in research. Demographic factors like gender, parental occupation, and socioeconomic status play a role. Further exploration is needed for specific groups to address barriers, promote research, and boost academic pathway recruitment.
Enzymes are proteins that help in the catalysis of various metabolic processes in the human body. In the absence of these proteins, most metabolic activities in living organisms operate slowly at low ...temperatures and pressures. Because it is directly tied to the particular target it targets, the family of a newly found enzyme molecule must be established as soon as possible. Separating enzyme classes continues to be a challenge in experiments. Oxidoreductases, transferases, hydrolase, lyases, isomerase, ligase, and translocase are the seven kinds of enzymes present in the human body. This review article will look at a variety of machine learning algorithms for detecting the enzyme family of proteins, including K-Nearest Neighbor, Navier's Buyers, Random Forest, and Extra Tree. In the first part, acquiring data from multiple websites is discussed, then data cleaning, and finally techniques for minimizing noisy data in the second half. Various Algorithms are used to choose the best characteristic. Finally, the future research objectives for enzyme family categorization as well as other machine learners are illustrated.
