Potential cultivating plant-based raw materials in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern for the pharmaceutical industry: an online survey from the perspective of the pharmaceutical industry

The goal of this study is to assess the potential of cultivating plant-based raw materials in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern from the perspective of the pharmaceutical industry and to discuss the factors that could hinder the realization of high-quality cultivation. Procuring high-quality plant-based materials is crucial for the production of plant-based medicines, and the pharmaceutical industry has faced increasing challenges in sourcing these materials in recent years. The methodology involved surveying pharmaceutical companies that are members of the German Pharmaceutical Industry Association and are involved in the fields of homeopathic/anthroposophic medicines and plant-based pharmaceuticals. An online questionnaire was used to collect data. According to the pharmaceutical industry's perspective, there is growing demand for plant-based raw materials from domestic cultivation. Stable supply chains, quality, and reliability are seen as primary advantages over foreign cultivation. Geopolitical conflicts, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic have negatively affected the stability of supply chains for imported goods. 73% of companies reported encountering import difficulties multiple times. The majority of pharmaceutical companies can envision increased cooperation with agricultural enterprises in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Sustainability in sourcing was already deemed significant by more than two-thirds of the respondents. The study concludes that the importance of sustainable pharmaceutical production, stable supply chains, and high-quality plant-based raw materials will continue to grow. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern provides favorable conditions to meet a portion of the demand. To fully utilize the theoretical potential, close collaboration between the industry, academia, and policymakers is needed, along with minimizing regulatory and bureaucratic barriers for agricultural enterprises.

In celebration of providing the South and southern African sugar industry with more than 20 years of accredited quality analysis of mixed juice, molasses and sugar

The Sugar Milling Research Institute NPC (SMRI) has provided the South and southern African sugar industry with analytical services for more than 50 years. The need for an internationally-recognised quality assurance system to provide SMRI members and their customers with the necessary confidence in the results that they were receiving was recognised more than 25 years ago, and it culminated in the SMRI Analytical Services Division achieving ISO/IEC Guide 25:1990 accreditation in 1998. The SMRI analytical laboratory has since successfully progressed through the ISO/IEC 17025:1999 and ISO/IEC 17025:2005 iterations to the current ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard. The SMRI has therefore had to continually expand the scope of its systems over the past 25 years, in order to match the updated requirements. The system is used for the analysis of weekly composite mixed juice and final molasses samples from all the SMRI South African member mills and some southern African member mills. Similarly, raw and white sugar analyses are conducted, with the reporting of results to the members' specifications. Critical to the accuracy of these results is the continual auditing and monitoring of the methods, equipment and chemical solutions that are used in the analysis methods. This is achieved by using Certified Reference Materials and control samples, as well as participating in internationally-recognised analytical proficiency schemes. Critical to the success of the laboratory in maintaining its accreditation is the competence of the laboratory staff who undergo continual training and assessments. This was demonstrated in 2020 and 2021, when they were able to continue providing the necessary services, despite the challenges faced during the Covid pandemic.

Research advances on processing and quality safety control technology of aquatic pre-made products

Due to the growing demand for instant food and lifestyle change after the COVID-19, aquatic pre-made products become popular. The unique nutritional and functional characteristics and processing suitability of aquatic products make them suitable for the development of ready-to-eat, instant heat, instant cooked and ready-to-use pre-made products. However, due to their unique fishy taste, texture and perishable characteristics, appropriate pretreatment technology, flavor and quality improvement and maintenance technology as well as storage technology in the processing and storage process need to be adopted so as to improve the quality of pre-made products. The main factors affecting the quality and safety of aquatic product pre-made products include biological hazards, chemical hazards and physical hazards. Therefore, quality control technologies of aquatic pre-made products including the raw material collection, processing process and the cold chain transportation process are necessary. In the future, aquatic pre-made products should be more nutritious, high-quality and diversified because of the improvement of nutrition and quality control technology.

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and its determinants among health-care workers and non-health-care workers: an online survey in India

Background: India has already witnessed two COVID-19 waves, and in midst of it, India was not far behind in rolling out COVID-19 vaccination. However, considering the novelty of the disease and very short duration invested in developing the vaccine, hesitancy to take the vaccine was expected.

Containing the spread of COVID-19 through food safety and quality standards

This paper contends that the adoption of food safety and quality standards by small businesses and informal traders can assist in containing the spread of COVID-19. This is based on the hypothesis that small business owners and informal traders are aware of the benefits of food safety and quality standards and are thus willing to integrate them in their business operations. This hypothesis was tested via data collection in South Africa and Mozambique. The key research question was whether the adoption of food and safety standards by small businesses and informal traders can assist the containment of the spread of COVID-19. The paper has answered this question in the affirmative. It first highlights the benefits of standards and shows levels of awareness of food and safety standards by the small business owners and informal traders of South Africa and Mozambique. It concludes by discussing how the awareness of standards by small business owners can be used to integrate food safety and quality standards into the operations of small businesses and how this can promote the containment of the spread of COVID-19 while increasing the profitability and quality assurance among the small businesses and informal traders.

Special Issue: Covid-19 molecular testing and clinical correlates. (Special Issue: Covid-19 molecular testing and clinical correlates.)

This special issue contains 17 articles that discuss clinical pathology on the latest trends in clinical laboratory management, providing a sound basis for creating and working in a highly effective clinical laboratory, focusing on pathology, including quality control in lab testing, coagulation, clinical microbiology, toxicology testing, clinical cytogenetics, mass spectrometry, and blood transfusion.

Strengthening health systems from the bottom up: example from Lesotho

In Africa, there is frequently an extreme need for nurses and other healthcare professionals. Overcrowding, a lack of administrative oversight, and a lack of resources are all problems in health settings. Health professionals may develop psychological damage referred to as "insufficient resource trauma" as a result of these difficulties, which can lower morale and motivation. Such trauma reduces the standard of treatment provided and causes professional "burn-out," a problem that has become more significant in the wake of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. One of the nurses who received training in PSBH-N in 2006 was promoted to the position of MoH Nursing Director by 2019. This nurse reflected on her personal experience and said, "The nurses trained in PSBH are among the top nurses in the country today," when she learned of the new PSBH training for MoH QAU employees. In order to train all 877 registered nurses and 373 licensed practical nurses (LPNs) in the nation during the following three to five years, the director requested that LeBoHA host PSBH-N workshops. The countrywide rollout's training and evaluation are now under progress. Priority setting may result from centralized, "top-down," problem-solving techniques that are not always appropriate for the district. A poll of healthcare professionals in South African hospitals revealed that administrators of hospitals were regarded as effective leaders if their leadership style encouraged engagement and problem-solving. An emphasis on a decentralised and egalitarian (equity-fostering) approach, where problem-solving is the duty of all health workers, is emphasized in a national quality assurance plan that includes PSBH.

Application of quality control circle in comfortable nursing of throat swab collection in the detection of new coronavirus nucleic acid in elderly patients

Objective: To explore the effect of quality control circle on comfortable nursing of pharyngeal swabs collected in the elderly patients for novel coronavirus nucleic acid detection.

Bibliometrics and visual analysis of international food safety research

Since the 1990s, food safety has caused widespread concern from all walks of life. According to the theory of bibliometrics and scientific knowledge map and knowledge mining method, this paper quantitatively analyzed and visualized 3024 food safety papers and 31032 references in the core collection of Web of Science (WoS) to explore their research status, topic evolution and development trend. The number of academic papers in the field of international food safety increased by 11 times during the past 31 years;the knowledge structure of this field consists of foodborne pathogenic bacteria, food safety cognition, public health and food safety management;its research topics showed an evolution from consumer behavior and food-borne diseases to food safety risk management, food safety governance, food traceability system, food testing, to food global value chain, heavy metal excess, pesticide residues, food safety culture, to blockchain technology, Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, food fraud;food safety knowledge and willingness to pay premium, food contamination, aquatic seafood safety, vegetable safety, blockchain, COVID-19 represent the frontier trends, so as to provide references for academic research and government supervision in this field.

Modes of construction of nosocomial infection control professional staff team in prefecture-level medical institutions of Jiangsu Province under COVID-19 pandemic

OBJECTIVE: To explore the construction mode of full-time staff for infection control in prefecture-level cities under the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to lay a foundation for infection control of epidemic prevention and control and medical safety. METHODS: A three-level collaborative promotion system which was led by the health administrative department, undertaken by the hospital association, and cooperated by the quality control center was established. Refinement of the promotion measures was taken from six aspects, including the number of full-time staff, team management, ability improvement, echelon construction, development space and discipline construction and so on. Specifically, the construction and assessment of full-time personnel was strengthened, training courses on nosocomial infection management in primary-level medical institutions was carried out, a youth backbone echelon was established, the treatment of full-time staff was guaranteed and the department of infection management was incorporated into the management of medical technology departments in an exploratory way, the evaluation standard of municipal key clinical specialties was formulated and the evaluation was organized, and the department of nosocomial infection with strong comprehensive strength would be built and supported as a "municipal clinial key specialty project". RESULTS: The total number of full-time staff for infection control in the secondary and tertiary medical institutions in the city had increased to 102, and the ratio of person to bed had increased to 1:76 and 1:173, respectively, both higher than the provincial average level. The self-assessment of the cultural atmosphere of infection control in hospitals and the leaders' emphasis on infection control of 60.34% and 63.79% full-time staff increased significantly. The infection control management department of the two third-grade first-class hospitals ware selected as the first batch of municipal key clinical specialties and received construction funds. The full-time staff had achieved zero breakthroughs in the provincial projects and municipal talent projects. CONCLUSION: By establishing a three-level collaborative promotion system of "Health and Health Commission-Hospital Association-Quality Control Center", the ability of full-time staff and their sense of belonging could be improved significantly with a policy support from the aspects of discipline development, treatment and promotion channels, et al., providing ideas and models for ordinary prefecture-level cities to build professional infection control management team.

Qualitative suitability test of medical protective masks and influencing factors

OBJECTIVE: To test the suitability of medical protective masks worn by medical staff and explore the factors that affect the results of qualitative suitability tests. METHODS: A total of 221 medical and administrative staff who participated in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic in a designated hospital were recruited as the study objects, and the qualitative suitability testing was carried out by using bittering agent aerosol method (3 MTMFT-30) approved by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). RESULTS: Totally 201 were qualified for the sensitivity test, including 169 (84.1%) objects with level 1 sensitivity, 30 (14.9%) objects with level 2 sensitivity, 2 (1.0%) objects with level 3 sensitivity. Among the 201 objects, 188 passed the first test, 5 objects passed the second test, and 8 objects did not pass the test, with the pass rate 96.02%. The analysis of influencing factors showed that the BMI index affected the result of the suitability test (P<0.05), however, the genders, ages, wearing glasses, double chin, size of face, wearing goggles, shape of face length, width of nose and submandibular arc length of the two tragus points were not the influencing factors for the result of qualitative suitability test. CONCLUSION: This foldable medical protective mask has a high pass rate in the qualitative suitability test, and the BMI is one of the influencing factors;first-line medical staff can verify the airtightness of the medical protective mask through the qualitative suitability test so as to choose the appropriate medical protective masks.

Strategies for the development of participatory organic agriculture network (PGS), Pad Riew, Chachoengsao province

The objective of this qualitative research was to determine a network development strategy through a focus group discussion, in-depth interviews, participant observation, and non-participant observation from 18 key informants. The major findings indicated that the strengths were the farming-facilitating areas, the network's PGS quality assurance system, the management strength and member participation, the knowledge of the PGS, bargaining power, and selfless leaders. However, weaknesses were insufficient inspectors, unsystematic network document storage, members' lack of note taking, lack of packaging model, inability to keep up with modern agricultural technology, labor shortages, and high wages. Opportunities were local agencies support, government policies focusing on organic agriculture, and growing organic consumption trends. The threats were climate change, aging agricultural workers, high production costs, and the COVID-19 epidemic situation. Network development strategy using TOWS Matrix method could be defined in 4 aspects as follows: For the management aspect, strategies include (1) Encouraging members to form a community enterprise. (2) Developing a course for field inspectors and training the new generation of farmers. For the development of network members, strategies include (1) Promoting the Young Smart Farmer. (2) Educating and the importance of note taking. For the development of production, the strategies include (1) Promoting knowledge in applying for higher organic farming standards. (2) Promoting the establishment of underground water banks. For the development of marketing and packaging, the recommended strategies include (1) Developing a model of packaging for organic products, and (2) Creating understanding of organic products with consumers.

Health care capacity surge strategies: Florida's health care regulation during the novel coronavirus pandemic

While streamlining emergency powers might offer some advantages, recent events demonstrate how Florida's Department of Health worked collaboratively to address the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As Florida began experiencing a need for increased health care capacity, Division of Medical Quality Assurance (MQA) officials reviewed health care practitioners' licensing and regulatory framework to identify mitigation strategies to boost staffing of front-line responders where needed. Florida officials responded quickly to the spread of COVID-19 and adopted health care workforce strategies that were grouped into three categories: (1) those involving licensed practitioners, (2) those involving soon-to-be licensed practitioners, and (3) those involving an expansion of practitioners' authority. While Florida's "two declaration" process for addressing emergencies may appear complex, in reality the Florida Department of Health, including the regulatory boards, was able to respond promptly and employ a number of health care workforce strategies to address health care capacity needs.

Personal protective equipments (PPE) - prerequisites, rationale and challenges during COVID 19 pandemic. (Special Issue: The epidemiologist and the pandemic.)

Personal protective equipment (PPE) usage is pivotal in prevention of COVID19. Access to PPE for health workers has become a key concern. Electronic databases were searched for studies, guidelines, reports and policies on PPE, COVID19 and respiratory infections. In total 20 research articles were included, 10 guidelines and 06 reports from various health organization and National governments were included. There are different types of masks available, it is essential to understand the role of each kind of mask in preventing the spread. Minimizing the need for PPE in health care settings, ensuring rational and appropriate use of PPE and Coordinating PPE supply chain management mechanisms are key strategies in addressing global PPE shortage. Ensuring consistent PPE standards and guidance on quality control of the PPE will help in better infection control. We need to apply a risk-based approach based on purpose of use, risk of exposure, vulnerability, setting, feasibility and type of PPE. Government of India is taking several steps and have deliberated on the adequacy and quality of PPEs. Prevention and mitigation measures are the key for prevention of transmission in the Community which include Hand hygiene, Respiratory hygiene, maintaining social distance of two metre and wearing an appropriate PPE. Adequate provision of good quality PPE is just the first step in promoting the safety of health care workers and containing the spread of COVID 19.

Use of RapidPro for remote collection of nutrition data during the drought emergency and COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe. What we know: The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting movement restrictions have challenged the collection of routine nutrition monitoring data, limiting the ability of countries to identify changes in the nutrition situation. What this article adds: The RapidPro data management system enabled the continuation of routine nutrition data collection in Zimbabwe in the COVID-19 context. A number of indicators were selected for weekly (instead of monthly) reporting in nutritionally vulnerable, drought prone districts. Village health workers (VHWs) and health facility staff were prompted weekly to submit data via the mobile phone short messaging service (SMS) which were automatically collated via RapidPro software and analysed regularly at national level. A national level monitoring and evaluation officer responsible for quality control followed up with districts and health staff if data discrepancies were noted. To date, over 9,146 VHWs provide reports using the RapidPro system;on average, 70% of responses were complete and correct. This system enabled near real-time screening data (Family mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC)) and information on ready-to-use therapeutic feeding (RUTF) supplies that were used by the Nutrition Cluster for decision making and response planning to support continued wasting treatment services. Successful scale-up of RapidPro was as a result of strong government leadership, the inclusion of RapidPro activities in Ministry of Health activity plans and integration with national nutrition reporting systems. In due course, this data will be automated to feed directly into the Demographic Health and Information Survey verion two (DHIS2) data management platform.

Special Issue: COVID-19 mid-2021. (Special Issue: COVID-19 mid-2021.)

This special issue contains 41 articles that discuss infection control, epidemiology, infectious diseases, quality management, occupational health, and disease prevention of COVID-19 since mid-2021.

A review of contamination control in pharmaceutical industry in the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic context

The objective of this paper is to assess whether the contamination control measures already being applied in the pharmaceutical industrial production are efficient enough in the context of a viral pandemic, such as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic of 2020-2021. The questions that must be asked are linked to the efficacy of already existing virucides against the newly discovered viral strand and whether there is a need for supplementary precautions in regards with the workers that have direct contact with the finished product or operate the machines that package the finished goods. The discussion will revolve around the efficacy of current protocols of disinfection, the need for workers' continuous and rigorous training, and the transparency in which quality control must be implemented, as to ensure the public's trust in the industrial process.

Quality assessment of honey in three different geographical areas from Republic of Moldova

One of the empirical and image products of the Republic of Moldova is bee honey. Its assortment is due to the variety of landforms, as well as the diversity of flora specific to geographical regions. During the Covid-19 pandemic, domestic consumers had limited access to bee honey. This was caused by the restrictions imposed in order to organize fairs and agricultural markets which are one of the main sources for the purchase of bee products in the Republic of Moldova. At the same time, the analysis of trademarks in supermarkets highlighted the preferences of honey consumption as follows: polyfloral honey-28.57%, lime honey-20.40% and acacia honey-14.28%. In order to evaluate the quality of honey from small producers and highlight the specific characteristics of geographical areas, 60 samples were analyzed that included 3 types of honey: polyflora, sunflower and linden collected from 3 different geographic areas: Soroca area (North), area Ungheni (Center), Stefan Voda area (South). Honey samples were declared harvest of 2020. They were analyzed physico-chemically using methods provided by national and EU standards. The results obtained from the analysis of pollen in honey confirm the botanical origin declared by beekeepers and allowed to highlight the types of pollen specific to each area. Following the determination of qualitative indices: reaction with ethyl alcohol, with resorcinol;insoluble matter, cereal flour, gelatin and starch, it was found that the most inconsistencies were found in linden honey. Some indicators were close to the maximum permissible values specified in regulatory documents. The water content found in the honey samples was quite varied, and ranged from 16.05% +or- 0.11% to 19.89% +or- 0.13%, but these samples were within the limits of the standards. Total acidity ranged from 6.19 +or- 0.13 to 27.20 +or- 0.03 which falls within the established norms (up to 50.00 cm3 NaOH solution in (milliequivalents) per 100 g of honey). According to the SIE Lab space, all samples have a yellowish tint, this is indicated by positive values on the b* axis. However, honey samples from the southern region of Moldova showed the presence of greenish pollen, as evidenced by the reduced values on the a* axis. Our research reveals the quality level of honey from three different areas of the Republic of Moldova and the variation of quality parameters due to factors such as geographical region, climatic conditions, botanical origin and handling or storage conditions.