Hesitancy towards COVID-19 Vaccines: An Analytical Cross-Sectional Study.

Vaccination is the most promising strategy to counter the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Vaccine hesitancy is a serious global phenomenon, and therefore the aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore the effect of educational background, work field, and social media on attitudes towards vaccination in Jordan. We compared between medical personnel who were in direct contact with patients and non-medical individuals at Jordan University Hospital in terms of demographics, knowledge about COVID-19 vaccines, rumors received via social media, their trust in these vaccines, and the encouraging factors for vaccination. 646 individuals were enrolled in this study, of which 287 (44.4%) were from medical field, and 359 (55.6%) from non-medical field. 226 (35%) were planning to take the vaccine once available, with a positive response from 131 (45.6%) medical field workers, compared to 94 (26.2%) non-medical individuals (p < 0.001). The social media rumor that was believed the most was the unsafety of these vaccines (n = 283; 43.8%). Only 163 (56.8%) of medical persons did not believe any of the circulated rumors, compared to 126 (35.1%) of non-medical persons (p < 0.001). The effect of medical personnel advice (OR = 0.83; 95% CI = 0.70 to 0.98; p = 0.026) and social media (OR = 1.21; 95% CI = 1.04 to 1.41; p = 0.012) were significantly associated with the willingness to take COVID-19 vaccine once available. In conclusion, medical personnel and social media play a crucial role in increasing the society's inclination towards vaccination by providing the community with updated evidence-based information about COVID-19 vaccines as an efficient medical countermeasure and by correcting the previously spread misinformation.

Cancer Pain Management at Oncology Units: Comparing Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceived Barriers Between Physicians and Nurses.

Pain is a major symptom that causes suffering among patients diagnosed with cancer. Identifying physicians' and nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and their perceived barriers of cancer pain management is considered an essential step in improving cancer pain relief. The purposes of this study are to compare physicians' and nurses' knowledge and attitudes toward cancer pain management (CPM) and describe their perceived barriers to CPM at oncology units. A descriptive cross-sectional design was utilized to obtain data through self-report questionnaire. The total number of sample size was 207 participants (72 physicians and 135 nurses). Findings revealed that both physicians and nurses had fair knowledge and attitudes toward CPM. Physicians had significantly higher knowledge and better attitudes than nurses (62.3 vs. 51.5%, respectively). Physicians were knowledgeable about pharmacological pain management and opioid addiction but had negative attitudes toward pain assessment. Nurses' knowledge was better in regard of CPM guidelines, while they had poor knowledge about pharmacological pain management and opioid addiction. Physicians and nurses perceived knowledge deficit, lack of pain assessment, opioid unavailability, and lack of psychological interventions as the most common barriers to CPM. It is recommended to integrate recent evidence-based guidelines about CPM in oncology units that aim to improve practice. Offering continuing education courses in hospitals guided by pain teams is another essential recommendation for effective CPM.

Serum organochlorines and non-Hodgkin lymphoma: A case-control study in Israeli Jews and Palestinians.

Associations of organochlorine (OC) pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) with non-Hodgkin lymphoma are controversial. We compared serum levels of 6 OC pesticides and 38 PCBs in Israeli Jews (IJ) and Palestinian Arabs (PA) and assessed possible associations with B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL). Ninety B-NHL cases (50 IJ and 40 PA) and 120 controls (65 IJ and 55 PA) were included. Median concentrations of analytes in controls were compared across ethnic groups using quantile regression, adjusting for age and sex. We used logistic regression to derive odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for detectable analytes and B-NHL, adjusting for age, ethnic group, faming and body mass index. Median values of PCBs and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) were higher in IJ vs PA controls (P = 0.0007), as were several PCBs (74, 99, 118, 138, 146, 153, 156, 163, 170, and 180). Overall, OC pesticide and PCB exposures were comparable with reports from high-income countries. B-NHL was associated with PCB 146 (OR 1.70, 95% CI: 1.02, 2.83), PCB 156 (OR 1.75, 95% CI: 1.06, 2.89), and high-chlorinated PCBs (OR 1.55, 95% CI: 1.00, 2.40) in all study subjects. These associations were robust in quantile as well as sensitivity analyses. An association of DDE with B-NHL was noted in PA (OR 1.72, 95% CI: 1.07, 2.77), but not in IJ (OR 0.87, 95% CI: 0.59, 1.27). Although high-chlorinated PCB concentrations did not indicate high exposure levels, our findings indicate that B-NHL may be associated with this exposure.

Review of visual odometry: types, approaches, challenges, and applications.

Accurate localization of a vehicle is a fundamental challenge and one of the most important tasks of mobile robots. For autonomous navigation, motion tracking, and obstacle detection and avoidance, a robot must maintain knowledge of its position over time. Vision-based odometry is a robust technique utilized for this purpose. It allows a vehicle to localize itself robustly by using only a stream of images captured by a camera attached to the vehicle. This paper presents a review of state-of-the-art visual odometry (VO) and its types, approaches, applications, and challenges. VO is compared with the most common localization sensors and techniques, such as inertial navigation systems, global positioning systems, and laser sensors. Several areas for future research are also highlighted.