Silent superbug killers in a river near you how factory farms contaminate public water courses on three continents

Water downstream from factory farms harbours an invisible threat to people's health which could eclipse the COVID-19 crisis. The threat? Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARGs) which are driving antimicrobial resistance the world's superbug crisis - projected to kill up to 10 million people annually by 2050. This publication reports the presence of ARGs in animal waste discharged from industrial farms into public waterways or onto soil (or crops) in four countries. Gauge community impact and sentiment regarding the issue was also highlighted. The water and sediment from public water courses connected to effluent discharges from 6-10 pig farms were tested in each of four countries (Canada, Spain, Thailand and the USA).

Comparison of work efficiency in factory workers: pre & post covid lockdown - a cross sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on economies worldwide has caused changes in work patterns, reduced productivity, and job losses, particularly affecting factory workers. Lockdown measures have also led to reduced physical activity levels, which is a significant risk factor for chronic diseases. This study aims to investigate efficiency of factory workers pre and post lockdown periods. The findings will contribute to identifying evidence-based strategies to minimize the negative impact of lockdown measures on factory workers' productivity and health. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the work performance of employees in a medicine manufacturing unit. Data was collected from factory workers online and study period was January 2021 to April 2022. Survey includes close ended questions regarding work performance of employees before lockdown period (Before 20/03/2020) and performance after lockdown period (After August 2020). The sample size of 196 employees selected through simple random sampling. A questionnaire consisting of demographic factors, work details, and work performance was prepared using pretested standard tools, including the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire (IWPQ), the World Health Organization Health and Work Performance Questionnaire (HPQ), and the Stanford Presenteeism Scale (SPS-6). The collected data was analysed using descriptive statistics and a paired t-test. RESULTS: The study found that prior to lockdown, 99% of employees consistently had higher performance, with 71.4% ranking in the top 10. However, after lockdown, the percentage of employees with high performance decreased to 91.8%, with only 63.3% ranking in the top 10. These differences were statistically significant, indicating a decrease in work efficiency of 8.1%. Before lockdown, employees worked longer hours, including on off days, while after lockdown, a small proportion missed work due to various reasons, resulting in better quality work. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the study highlights the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the work efficiency of factory workers. The findings indicate a decrease in work efficiency after the lockdown, coupled with an increase in employee stress. This suggests that the pandemic has brought about unique challenges for factory workers that need to be addressed to maintain their well-being and productivity. This study emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive work environment that prioritizes the mental and physical health of employees, especially during times of crisis.

Bangladesh's ready-made garments sector rebound: Revisiting gendered labor precarity and dependency

Thousands of ready-made garment (RMG) workers, frequently seen as Bangladesh's lifeline for economic growth and poverty alleviation, were sacked arbitrarily just weeks after the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. The widespread cancellation of existing orders, followed by factory closures and worker layoffs, triggered an unprecedented crisis for RMG workers, the vast majority of whom are women. As the industry is slowly recovering from the initial upheaval and on its way to rebound, this article revisits the impacts of the pandemic on the RMG workers in Bangladesh, who predominantly hails from impoverished rural regions of the country. Using first-hand data and secondary literature, this article offers a compelling account of the pandemic outbreak's disproportionate impact on female RMG workers. As we examine the effects on workers, we also look back at the structural hierarchies and power asymmetries embedded in this sector-a quintessential feature of the contemporary global economy. The article offers three distinct contributions to the emerging literature on the Covid-19 pandemic and its impacts on the changing labor spectrum in the global South. First, it explores the pandemic's broader gendered implications, revealing how it unevenly affected women. Second, it underlines how the pre-existing power dynamic within the global supply chain further exacerbated inequality, marginalization, and workers' precarity in Bangladesh's RMG industry. Lastly, it underscores the unequal interdependence between "core" and "peripheral" countries in the global production and labor landscape, highlighting the asymmetrical nature of their relationship.

Awareness and Practices Regarding 'Long COVID' among Employees of Selected Smart Phone Manufacturing Industries in South India

Introduction: Long COVID is a term coined for long term post COVID-19 disease complications. Touted as the 'pandemic after the pandemic' it has significant implications for employment especially on productivity and quality of worker output. Objective(s): 1. To assess the baseline knowledge among employees working in selected smart phone manufacturing companies regarding COVID-19 disease, COVID vaccination and long COVID complications. 2. To assess the prevalence of long COVID complications among the study subjects. Methodology: We followed a quantitative cross-sectional study design between May-Jun 2022 in 6 factories across South India. A semi-structured, face-validated interview schedule was administered to the employees via Google Forms. Data was analyzed using SPSS v.21. Result(s): A total of 118 employees were included in the study. Most employees were male (89.2%), between 25-30 years of age (46.3%) and had completed their Bachelor's degree (71.29%). Most had at least 1-5 years of current work experience (80.5%). Almost 55.1% of the employees had suffered from COVID-19 in the past of which 33.8% had been hospitalised. Only 42.8% of employees knew about long COVID complications and 33.1% knew of only one symptom. None of the employees had taken the booster dose of the vaccine despite 67.8% knowing that the vaccine protected against severe disease. Almost 75% of employees reported to suffer from one or more post COVID complications. Long standing fatigue (16.9%), cough and breathing difficulty (6.1%) were the most common complaints. Conclusion and recommendations: Low awareness regarding long COVID will impact health seeking behavior and increase presenteeism at the workplace. Increasing awareness regarding COVID-19 disease, vaccinations and the post COVID complications through training programmes and health education sessions will bridge the key knowledge gaps identified. Promotion of booster dose vaccination against COVID-19 for all employees will help in reducing the burden of long COVID at the workplace.

OCCUCON 2023 Abstracts

The proceedings contain 32 papers. The topics discussed include: assessment of workplace indoor fine particle exposure and pulmonary function parameters among ceramic tile industry workers of West India;respiratory morbidities in school children of critically polluted industrial area of Gujarat - a prospective observational study;morbidities among workers of an organochlorine pesticide industry;identifying interventions to reduce NCDs in workplaces in India: a stakeholder's assessment;examining toxic metals in biological samples and residential PM2.5 to evaluate their risk in adolescent children;ergonomics hazard assessment reduction in large scale petrochemical complex, Vadodara;factors associated with work related quality of life among garment factory employees in South India;factors associated with work related quality of life among garment factory employees in South India;and screening for COVID-19 among workers attending medical examinations under occupational health service of an open cast iron ore mine in Jharkhand: a cross-sectional study.

Ethical and mental health considerations for research into trade and trafficking of natural resources

Arguably, researching the trade and trafficking of natural resources, such as wildlife crime, environmental crime, trafficking of natural commodities, unregulated and unreported fishing, factory farming, human–wildlife conflict, to name a few examples, involves all four areas of threat. [...]research can be extremely emotionally taxing for both the researcher and research participants. [...]it offers the researcher an opportunity to think through potentially "risky”, dangerous, harmful, and ethically compromising fieldwork situations, while reflecting on their own positionality and protection of themselves, research participants, and data. [...]they are required to fill out risk assessments and complete specialized training for hostile environments. With increasing use of qualitative research methods within the wildlife trafficking research field, coupled with the growing importance of human–wildlife interactions exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this disparity in ethical regulations needs imminent addressing. [...]with the current emphasis on ‘decoloniality', an ethical review process could ensure that parachute social science is avoided, and equity and sustainable collaboration between stakeholders are foregrounded in the research.

Recombinant Proteins for Assembling as Nano- and Micro-Scale Materials for Drug Delivery: A Host Comparative Overview.

By following simple protein engineering steps, recombinant proteins with promising applications in the field of drug delivery can be assembled in the form of functional materials of increasing complexity, either as nanoparticles or nanoparticle-leaking secretory microparticles. Among the suitable strategies for protein assembly, the use of histidine-rich tags in combination with coordinating divalent cations allows the construction of both categories of material out of pure polypeptide samples. Such molecular crosslinking results in chemically homogeneous protein particles with a defined composition, a fact that offers soft regulatory routes towards clinical applications for nanostructured protein-only drugs or for protein-based drug vehicles. Successes in the fabrication and final performance of these materials are expected, irrespective of the protein source. However, this fact has not yet been fully explored and confirmed. By taking the antigenic RBD domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein as a model building block, we investigated the production of nanoparticles and secretory microparticles out of the versions of recombinant RBD produced by bacteria (Escherichia coli), insect cells (Sf9), and two different mammalian cell lines (namely HEK 293F and Expi293F). Although both functional nanoparticles and secretory microparticles were effectively generated in all cases, the technological and biological idiosyncrasy of each type of cell factory impacted the biophysical properties of the products. Therefore, the selection of a protein biofabrication platform is not irrelevant but instead is a significant factor in the upstream pipeline of protein assembly into supramolecular, complex, and functional materials.

The "Cruel Absurdity” of Human Violence and Its Consequences A Vegan Studies Analysis of a Pandemic Novel

This article teases out what a Vegan Studies theoretical framework can offer a literary analysis of a selected pandemic novel, "The Fell” (2021), by Sarah Moss. Pandemic fiction accommodates texts from a wide range of genres, and these types of literary texts have seen a resurgence in the wake of the spread of the corona virus. While literary engagements with pandemics have often been relegated to the realms of dystopian science fiction, our current realities have shifted to such an extent that they can now comfortably be read alongside more realistic fictional representations of contemporary societies. The causal relationships between anthropocentric abuse of the environment in general and of animals in particular, and pandemics have been energetically contested in the media and in scholarly disciplinary fields ranging from Virology to Critical Animal Studies. The argument that I will develop is that Vegan Studies is a theoretical rubric with unique and salient generative capacity and that it allows for the emergence of fresh and necessary insights when we start unpacking how to make sense of pandemics through fiction. I will use Moss's novel to anchor and illustrate my argument in favour of the value of Vegan Studies in these discussions © 2022 Jessica Murray

Dynamic Computer-Aided Process Control with Computer Vision for Industry 4.0

Because of health concerns and factory operational scale backs during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, we now need factory automation more than ever to maintain our productivity. However, most of our factories cannot operate remotely, and none can function without considerable human input and oversight. Trying to automate our factory highlights gaps in our technology, as it seems far behind our expectations, needs, and vision. Thus, this paper aims to fill this gap by showing how we have developed practical methodologies and applied technology to enhance legacy factories and their equipment. Specifically, we present the ORiON Production Interface (OPI) unit to run the factory as a smart networked edge device for virtually any machine or process. We have also implemented various computer vision algorithms in the OPI unit to detect errors autonomously, make decentralized decisions, and even control the quality. Although Industry 4.0 is a known concept to equip our factory to see, understand, and predict, we know that many machines today are closed source and cannot even communicate, let alone join a network. This research provides a workable solution to realize Industry 4.0 truly in existing factories with legacy equipment. Experimental results show that this system has a variety of applications, including process monitoring, part positioning, broken tool detection, etc. This novel intelligent networked system can enable our factories to be more innovative and responsive. It also allows for remote operations that can be unattended or lightly tended—a trend needed for the future. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Active medical recommendation is the best tool for increasing influenza vaccine coverage in healthy adult workers

Introduction: In Spain, influenza vaccination is available in companies free of charge for their workers. Despite this, vaccination coverage against influenza is very low in these groups. Objective(s): The aim of this work is to know the reasons for acceptance of influenza vaccination in a working population. Method(s): During the 2021-2022 influenza vaccination campaign, we conducted a survey of two groups of workers at the automobile factories of RENAULT ESPANA S.A. in the cities of Valladolid and Palencia (Spain). The first group (NV) was formed by 304 (33.5%) workers who did not receive the influenza vaccine in the previous season. The second (V) was formed by 604 workers (66.5%) who had been vaccinated against influenza at least the previous season. In the NV group, they were asked the reasons why they did not get vaccinated the previous season and if they did so in 2021-2022. In group V, only the reasons for continuing to be vaccinated were asked. Result(s): In NV, the main reason for avoiding vaccination in the previous season was the lack of perception of the severity of the influenza infection (74.7%), and 31.6% and 29.0% of them decided to get vaccinated during the 2021-2022 season due to the fear of co-infection of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza and medical recommendations respectively. The 83.5% of group V responded that the reason for getting vaccinated in 2021-2022 was their adherence to vaccination. Conclusion(s): The results show that medical recommendation is the best tool to vaccinate workers against influenza and make them adhere to it. Also, the fear to co-infection of COVID-19 and flu was a frequent reason for getting vaccinated, above all in NV.Copyright © 2023

The growth, adventitious bud formation, bioactive flavonoid production, antioxidant response, and cryptochrome-mediated light signal transduction in Isatis tinctoria L. hairy root cultures exposed to LED lights

The root of Isatis tinctoria L. is highly appreciated as a Traditional Chinese herbal medicine for the prevention and adjuvant treatment of respiratory diseases caused by coronaviruses viruses such as SARS and COVID-19. I. tinctoria hairy root cultures (ITHRCs) provide a better alternative to field cultivation for the production of antiviral flavonoids. For the first time, ITHRCs were exposed to different colors of LED lights i.e., red, green, blue, red/green/blue (1/1/1, RGB), and white, in an attempt to promote the root growth and enhance the production of bioactive flavonoids. Results revealed that the biomass productivity (7.15 ± 0.63 g/L) in ITHRCs with an initial inoculum size of 0.2% cultured for 50 days under blue light increased by 1.86-fold relative to that under dark (control), and yields of rutin (320.49 ± 27.56 μg/g DW), quercetin (388.75 ± 9.17 μg/g DW), kaempferol (787.90 ± 83.43 μg/g DW), and isorhamnetin (269.11 ± 20.08 μg/g DW) increased by 4.15-fold, 9.31-fold, 9.09-fold, and 2.88-fold as compared with control, respectively. Interestingly, the emergence of adventitious buds was noticed in ITHRCs under all light treatments. Additionally, the enhanced densities of chloroplasts and root hairs were found in blue-light grown ITHRCs as against control, which might account for the elevated biomass productivity. Moreover, blue light induced oxidative stress in ITHRCs in terms of the overproduction of oxidation products and the enhancement of antioxidant enzyme activity. Furthermore, blue light significantly activated photoreceptor (CRY1) and key regulator of light signaling (HY5), thus leading to the up-regulated expression of MYB4 and structural genes (such as CHS and FLS) responsible for flavonoid biosynthesis. And, the transcriptional activation of CUC1 was likely related to the formation of adventitious buds in ITHRCs. Overall, the simple supplementation of blue LED light makes ITHRCs more attractive as plant factories for obtaining higher productivity of biomass and medicinally important flavonoids. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

Blue LED light promoting the growth, accumulation of high-value isoflavonoids and astragalosides, antioxidant response, and biosynthesis gene expression in Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bunge hairy root cultures.

The root of Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bunge is one of the most frequently used herbs in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulae for fighting COVID-19 infections, due to the presence of isoflavonoids and astragalosides associated with antiviral and immune-enhancing activities. For the first time, the exposure of A. membranaceus hairy root cultures (AMHRCs) to different colors of LED lights i.e., red, green, blue, red/green/blue (1/1/1, RGB), and white, was conducted to promote the root growth and accumulation of isoflavonoids and astragalosides. LED light treatment regardless of colors was found beneficial for root growth, which might be a result of the formation of more root hairs upon light stimulation. Blue LED light was found most effective for enhancing phytochemical accumulation. Results showed that the productivity of root biomass in blue-light grown AMHRCs with an initial inoculum size of 0.6% for 55 days was 1.40-fold higher than that in dark (control), and yields of high-value isoflavonoids and astragalosides including calycosin, formononetin, astragaloside IV, and astragaloside I increased by 3.17-fold, 2.66-fold, 1.78-fold, and 1.52-fold relative to control, respectively. Moreover, the photooxidative stress together with transcriptional activation of biosynthesis genes might contribute to the enhanced accumulation of isoflavonoids and astragalosides in blue-light grown AMHRCs. Overall, this work offered a feasible approach for obtaining higher yields of root biomass and medicinally important compounds in AMHRCs via the simple supplementation of blue LED light, which made blue-light grown AMHRCs industrially attractive as plant factory in controlled growing systems. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11240-023-02486-7.

Measuring Internet banking service quality: an empirical evidence

Purpose>This study aims to empirically develop a reliable and valid instrument measuring the online service quality in the context of the banking sector in India.Design/methodology/approach>The methodological framework of this research comprises developing an instrument that is based on previous literature, qualitative and quantitative procedure. The study used the survey method and collected data via a well-structured questionnaire from a sample of active Internet banking users. The proposed instrument is identified by the data-reduction technique that is exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and validated through the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).Findings>The results confirmed that the digital banking service quality scale (DBSQual) contains 24 items in seven dimensions: (1) web architecture, (2) user friendliness, (3) efficiency of website, (4) reliability, (5) responsiveness, (6) security and (7) personalization. The relationship between digital banking service quality and e-customer satisfaction has also been found to be significant in this study.Research limitations/implications>The results of this study do not find general application for different banks operating in the same sector in India. More testing of DBSQual is required across various different contexts for validity augmentation. In addition, findings would be more reliable if the non-Indian context could be taken into consideration. Thus, such limitations open a window for future research.Practical implications>This study is quite fruitful for the banking organizations in measuring their online services, and enables them to implement their marketing and operational strategies more effectively and efficiently.Originality/value>The contribution of this study is the development and validation of a new instrument that is DBSQual that contains seven determinants of customers' e-service quality perception, emphasis on measuring online service quality in the Indian banking sector. These determinants will offer banks a promising starting idea for establishing an effective quality management for their online businesses. They will be able to increase the opportunities by tapping themselves at a competitive edge.

An Empirical Study On Impact Of Disaster Itigation Initiatives Among Coastal Communities With Special Reference To Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu

Disaster means any earthquake Tsunami flood drought snowfall snow rock fall landfall such natural things happen will affect the daily people life is called a disaster there is too kind of disasters of their natural and manmade or artificial Tsunami earthquake is called natural disaster the road accidents and accidents in the factories are examples for Artificial Disasters. Any disaster will affect the whole country people is called a national disaster for say some extent the covid-19 virus spread over is also an national disaster. The Government of India and Tamil nadu Government will created a separate Commission for the disaster management and rescue operations. To the better functions of the Indian disaster management the people has to give full Corporation then only their management and rescue and Rehabilitation system will function effectively, and the benefit will be fruitful, sometimes the government will give instructions such as announcements must be followed by the people properly without fear so to save the people government taking some initiatives the people as to give more responsive and cooperation. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.

Disaster Mitigation Practices Of Sea Shore People-A Special Reference To Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu

Disaster means any earthquake, Volcano Tsunami, flood, drought, snowfall, snow rock fall, landfall and other natural things happen, will affect the daily people life. There are two kind of disasters i.e natural and manmade or artificial. Tsunami, Volcano, earthquake, flood etc. are called natural disaster and the road accidents and accidents in the factories are examples for Artificial Disasters. Any disaster that will affect the whole people of a country, is called a national disaster Covid-19 Pandemic, which spread all over the world including our country is a national disaster. Disaster management is how we prepare for and respond to and learn from the effects of disaster whether manmade or natural. The Government of India and Tamil Nadu Government will create a separate Commission for the disaster management and rescue operations. To the better functions of the Indian disaster management, the people have to give full Corporation then only their management and rescue and Rehabilitation system will function effectively and the benefit will be fruitful, sometimes the government will give instructions such as announcements must be owed by the people properly without fear. Government take some initiatives and the people should be more responsive and cooperative. Copyright © 2022, Anka Publishers. All rights reserved.

Production of antiviral vaccine antigens using a silkworm-baculovirus expression system.

The outbreak of the SARS-2-CoV infection has become a global outbreak and continues to cause many deaths. In addition, the risk of pandemics continues to increase due to environmental changes and the globalization of human exchange and logistics. On the other hand, our preparedness for emerging infectious diseases caused by such unknown viruses is inadequate, and dealing with viral infections is one of the most important issues that need to be addressed immediately. Vaccine based disease control is considered an ideal countermeasure for infectious diseases, as it is expected to provide maximum efficacy at minimum cost. Although new nucleic acid-based vaccines are leading the way in the prevention of COVID-19, the mainstream of vaccines is still inactivated or live attenuated vaccines that use the pathogen virus itself. Subunit vaccines, in which specific virus-derived proteins are produced as recombinant proteins and used as vaccine antigens, have been developed, but production and development of many antigens that are difficult to mass-produce as recombinant proteins, such as the spike protein antigen of COVID-19 has not progressed. This paper describes the development of recombinant protein vaccines using the silkworm, which has an advantage in the production of such difficult-to-express vaccine antigens, especially virus-like particles.

Digital ergonomics and digital work planning in university education: experiences from Germany and Austria.

The publication presents an overview of the use of digital human models (DHM) in academic education at five exemplary universities in Germany and Austria. In addition to the presentation of different human models, the integration of them into the respective lectures is discussed. The teaching concepts of the individual courses of the universities, exercise examples and scenarios are presented. Experience shows that the active and independent use of digital ergonomics tools gives students pleasure and motivates them to deal intensively with complex tasks in terms of time and content. Feedback is consistently positive over all the involved lectures and universities. As a consequence of the recent Covid-19 pandemic, universities significantly increased online and blended learning. Based on the experience with the use of digital human models, the paper derives recommendations for future developments. Practical Relevance To sustain global value chains, companies are increasingly planning trans-regionally adapted products and production processes. Tools for digital ergonomics contribute to increasing competitiveness by using prospective working methods. Companies increasingly need experts with the corresponding know-how. Firmly anchoring the topic of digital ergonomics in relevant subjects of university teaching is therefore a prerequisite for this transfer of trained graduates.

Integrative Effects between a Bubble and Seal Program and Workers' Compliance to Health Advice on Successful COVID-19 Transmission Control in a Factory in Southern Thailand.

Applying health measures to prevent COVID-19 transmission caused disruption of businesses. A practical plan to balance public health and business sustainability during the pandemic was needed. Herein, we describe a "Bubble and Seal" (B&S) program implemented in a frozen seafood factory in southern Thailand. We enrolled 1539 workers who lived in the factory dormitories. First, the workers who had a high fatality risk were triaged by RT-PCR tests, quarantined and treated if they had COVID-19. Newly diagnosed or suspected COVID-19 workers underwent the same practices. The non-quarantined workers were regulated to work and live in their groups without contact across the groups. Workers' personal hygiene and preventive measures were strongly stressed. Between the 6th and 9th weeks of the program, the post-COVID-19 infection status (PCIS) of all participants was evaluated by mass COVID-19 antibody or RT-PCR tests. Finally, 91.8% of the workers showed positive PCIS, which was above the number required for program exit. Although no workers had received a vaccination, there was only one case of severe COVID-19 pneumonia, and no evidence of COVID-19 spreading to the surrounding communities. Implementation of the B&S program and workers' adherence to health advice was the key to this success.

Art and Rebellion: The Struggle for Freedom and Autonomy at the Ljubljana 2020/2021 Protests

The aim of this article is to document, contextualise, and theorise the rebellious actions carried out by artists in Slovenia in 2020–2021, and to present these actions as a continuation of the avant-garde movements of the twentieth century. We focus on the diverse actions and protests carried out by a strong alliance of artists, anti-capitalists, anti-fascists, ecological movements, and other civil structures that continue to challenge the oppressive autocratic powers. When art becomes confrontational, it fights for its autonomy and its production can achieve an aesthetic revolutionary potential. So when it demands the impossible, it fights for its space and position and becomes life itself, it becomes avant-garde. We could therefore say that the politics of aesthetics has a way of producing its own politics, proposing to re-arrange politics, re-configure art as a political issue or assert itself as true politics. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.