The sustainable development of humanity imposes precise norms regarding the management of natural resources, their extraction, use, and the introduction in a complex, innovative circuit of the waste resulting from exploitation. The paper deals with some aspects related to the sustainable management of general medical waste on the one hand and the medical waste specific to the COVID-19 pandemic, on the other hand. Medical waste requires special treatment given its impact on the environment and on humanity. The management of activities related to its storage, transport, destruction is an important point in the sustainable development of mankind, especially in the current context of the pandemic. Medical waste is in a continuous increase in quantity and involves many effects in various activity fields. Through a scientometric study in the Web of Science—WOS database, the authors identify clusters of keywords, analyze the articles identified in the WOS and identify the main research directions and existing concepts. Corroborating and interpreting the results obtained, three significant trends of approach to medical waste are identified: M—management (1); E—exposure (2); and D—distribution (3). An extensive map of the concepts is made, a narrow map of the concepts used, and a theoretical map of the concepts. The link between medical waste and the development of a sustainable society is demonstrated, and it is possible to open new research directions. The scientometric research undertaken on 1192 WOS articles that were published in 2020 led to the selection of 32, focused on issues related to hazardous medical waste, especially of COVID-19 patients. Following this approach, the authors were able to see, by comparison, the different forms of management of this waste in different countries, thus being able to contribute to the creation of procedures for the collection, storage, and destruction of this hazardous waste, with direct influence on the environment.

Background The objectives of the study were to investigate the organizational characteristics of acute care facilities worldwide in preventing and managing infections in surgery; assess participants’ perception regarding infection prevention and control (IPC) measures, antibiotic prescribing practices, and source control; describe awareness about the global burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and IPC measures; and determine the role of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic on said awareness. Methods A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted contacting 1432 health care workers (HCWs) belonging to a mailing list provided by the Global Alliance for Infections in Surgery. The self-administered questionnaire was developed by a multidisciplinary team. The survey was open from May 22, 2021, and June 22, 2021. Three reminders were sent, after 7, 14, and 21 days. Results Three hundred four respondents from 72 countries returned a questionnaire, with an overall response rate of 21.2%. Respectively, 90.4% and 68.8% of participants stated their hospital had a multidisciplinary IPC team or a multidisciplinary antimicrobial stewardship team. Local protocols for antimicrobial therapy of surgical infections and protocols for surgical antibiotic prophylaxis were present in 76.6% and 90.8% of hospitals, respectively. In 23.4% and 24.0% of hospitals no surveillance systems for surgical site infections and no monitoring systems of used antimicrobials were implemented. Patient and family involvement in IPC management was considered to be slightly or not important in their hospital by the majority of respondents (65.1%). Awareness of the global burden of AMR among HCWs was considered very important or important by 54.6% of participants. The COVID-19 pandemic was considered by 80.3% of respondents as a very important or important factor in raising HCWs awareness of the IPC programs in their hospital. Based on the survey results, the authors developed 15 statements for several questions regarding the prevention and management of infections in surgery. The statements may be the starting point for designing future evidence-based recommendations. Conclusion Adequacy of prevention and management of infections in acute care facilities depends on HCWs behaviours and on the organizational characteristics of acute health care facilities to support best practices and promote behavioural change. Patient involvement in the implementation of IPC is still little considered. A debate on how operationalising a fundamental change to IPC, from being solely the HCWs responsibility to one that involves a collaborative relationship between HCWs and patients, should be opened.

Background and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has globally affected health systems and services. Non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) are the most common malignancies around the world. This study aimed to analyze the differences in the benign and malignant histopathological diagnoses performed on radical excision skin tumors and skin biopsies in the dermatopathology ward in Mures Clinical County Hospital, Targu Mures, Romania, 1 year prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic, to emphasize the changes in the diagnostic process as per the new regulations. Materials and Methods: A total of 1168 histopathological diagnoses were included in the study—302 from the COVID-19 period and 866 from the non-COVID-19 period—considering the number, type, and frequency of the histopathological diagnoses as variables to be analyzed. Results: In the COVID-19 period, out of the 55 NMSC and melanoma histopathological diagnoses, 50.9% (n = 28) were BCCs, 20% (n = 11) were SCCs, 10.9% (n = 6) were basosquamous cell carcinomas, and 18.18% (n = 10) were melanoma cases. Regarding the non-COVID-19 period, out of the 173 NMSC and melanoma histopathological diagnoses, 46.82% (n = 81) were BCCs, 22.54% (n = 39) were SCCs, 7.51% (n = 13) were basosquamous cell carcinomas, and 23.12% (n = 40) were melanoma cases. Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, a decrease in histopathological diagnoses at the dermatopathology ward in our hospital was observed, for both benign and malignant pathologies, especially for NMSCs and melanomas, compared to the same period 1 year prior to the pandemic.

The multidisciplinary approach to the rehabilitation of patients with stroke and diabetes has been followed in this article by a review of the literature published in the Web of Science in the last ten years. A review of the literature was performed using scientometric methods. VOS Viewer software was used to determine the research directions in this area. Scientometric analysis has extracted relevant published scientific output that treats diabetes and stroke. Studies based on qualitative research and the conclusions of these studies were analyzed. The clusters with the keywords used in the title and abstract by the authors who published in the Web of Science were reviewed and research directions in the field were formulated. The proper care of diabetes and its numerous consequences, including stroke and its neurologic complications, necessitates the fast identification of research findings in various types of medicines and their efficacy when applied to various patient groups, such as diabetic patients, whose recovery after a stroke is similar to that of a nondiabetic patient following hemodynamic stabilization, although it takes longer and has poorer outcomes. The limitations of the study refer to the fact that the data reviewed are from the Web of Science only.

Dengue fever is among the most common vector-borne diseases. Dengue virus (DENV), responsible for dengue fever as well as dengue hemorrhagic fever, belongs to the genus flavivirus and family Flaviviridae. Flaviviruses infect various vertebrate species and arthropods and are also responsible for diseases in birds, wild animals, and primates. DENV consists of a single-stranded, positive-sense RNA genome ~11 kb in size. Complete genome and partial gene sequences of geographically distinct DENV-3 strains were retrieved from the GenBank database. The evolutionary divergence of the 33 whole-genome and individual gene sequences of the nucleotides and amino acids of DENV-3 strains were generated with the maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian phylogenetic study (BEAST) methods using the MEGA 7 software. The genome size varied from 10,484 to 10,724 nucleotides among the strains with distinct geographical backgrounds belonging to Central America, South-Central Asia, and Eastern Asia. A phylogenetic analysis of the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of these DENV-3 isolates revealed extensive differences in the topologies due to PrM/M, NS1, NS2B, and NS3 genes. These results suggest substantial variation in the evolutionary pathways of the studied genes and genomes.

Many western societies are confronted with issues in planning and adapting their health policies due to an ageing population living alone. The “NOt Alone at Home—NOAH” project aimed to involve older people in the Agile co-creation of services for a collaborative monitoring and awareness notification for remote caregivers. Our research aim was to create a scalable and modern information system that permitted a non-invasive monitorization of the users for keeping their caregivers up to date. This was done via a cloud IoT (Internet of Things), which collects and processes data from its domotic sensors. The notifications generated by the system, via the three applications we developed (NOAH/NOAH Care/Admin Centre), offer caregivers an easy way of detecting changes in the day-to-day behaviour and activities of their patients, giving them time to intervene in case of abnormal activity. Such an approach would lead to a longer and more independent life for the older people. We evaluated our system by conducting a year-long pilot-study, offering caregivers constant information from the end-users while still living independently. For creating our pilot groups, we used the ABAS (Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System) II, which we then matched with the pre-profiled Behavioral Analysis Models of older people familiar with modern communication devices. Our results showed a low association between daily skills and the sensors we used, in contrast with the results from previous studies done in this field. Another result was efficiently capturing the behaviour changes that took place due to the COVID-19 Lockdown measures.

Toxicity studies were conducted to provide safety data of potential drug candidates by determining lethal and toxic doses. This study was designed for pre-clinical evaluation of novel cyclohexenone derivative with respect to the acute and sub-acute toxicity along with the diabetogenic potential. Acute and sub-acute toxicity were assessed after intraperitoneal (i.p) injection of the investigational compound through selected doses for 21 days. This was followed by assessment of isolated body organs (liver, kidney, heart and pancreas) via biochemical indicators and histopathological techniques. No signs of toxicity were revealed in the study of acute toxicity. Similarly, a sub-acute toxicity study showed no significant difference in biochemical indicators on 11th and 21st days between treated and control groups. However, in blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and random blood glucose/sugar (RBS) values, significant differences were recorded. Histopathological evaluation of liver, kidney, pancreas and heart tissues revealed mild to severe changes in the form of steatosis, inflammation, fibrosis, necrosis and myofibrillary damages on 11th and 21st days of treatment. In conclusion, the median lethal dose of the tested compound was expected to be greater than 500 mg/kg. No significant change occurred in selected biomarkers, except BUN and RBS levels, but a histopathological study showed moderate toxic effect on liver, kidney, pancreas and heart tissues by the cyclohexenone derivative.

Introduction: Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is one of the most frequently occurring types of cancer in humans. Scientometric research is an innovative method for analyzing the research trends in various domains, with great implications in the field of medicine. Materials and Methods: We searched the Web of Science database with the following established query terms: “Squamous cell carcinoma”, “skin”, and “immunohistochemistry”. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 76 articles were selected. The present study aims to analyze, based on the frequency of use of keywords with scientometric algorithms and map-based distributions, the trends of the research concerning cSCCs in 2017–2022. Results: A graphical representation based on 11 scientometric maps presented the division of the keywords into seven clusters, from which seven categories of research interest were defined. The clusters represent a multidisciplinary approach to the diagnosis and treatment of cSCCs, cancer diagnostics, patient outcomes, histopathological importance, management of cSCCs, role of progression, and adequate treatment of and importance of immunohistochemistry for cSCCs. The distribution of the citations shows the importance of the available research on cSCCs by analyzing the first five most-cited articles included in our study in direct concordance with the seven defined clusters. Conclusion: The scientometric research method reveals the interest of research in the multidisciplinary approach used to obtain the best outcomes for the patient, including a targeted investigation, as well as diagnostic and treatment options. The trends in the research reveal that histopathological diagnostics and immunohistochemistry, combined with molecular techniques, are the most important tools used to establish a personalized diagnosis, thus increasing the quality of life and life expectancy for patients with cSCCs.