TY - JOUR A1 - Pit, Sabrina A1 - Fisk, Malcolm A1 - Freihaut, Winona A1 - Akintunde, Fashola A1 - Aloko, Bamidele A1 - Berge, Britta A1 - Burmeister, Anne A1 - Ciacâru, Adriana A1 - Deller, Jürgen A1 - Dulmage, Rae A1 - Han, Tae Hwa A1 - Hao, Qiang A1 - Honeyman, Peter A1 - Huber, Peter C. A1 - Linner, Thomas A1 - Lundberg, Stefan A1 - Nwamara, Mofoluwaso A1 - Punpuing, Kamolpun A1 - Schramm, Jennifer A1 - Yamada, Hajime A1 - Yap, Jason C. H. T1 - COVID-19 and the ageing workforce: global perspectives on needs and solutions across 15 countries JF - International Journal for Equity in Health volume N2 - BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has a direct impact on the employment of older people. This adds to the challenge of ageism. The World Health Organization has started a worldwide campaign to combat ageism and has called for more research and evidence-based strategies that have the potential to be scaled up. This study specifically aims to identify solutions to combat the adverse effects of COVID-19 on the global ageing workforce. METHODS: We present 15 case studies from different countries and report on what those countries are doing or not doing to address the impact of COVID-19 on ageing workers. RESULTS: We provide examples of how COVID-19 influences older people's ability to work and stay healthy, and offer case studies of what governments, organizations or individuals can do to help ensure older people can obtain, maintain and, potentially, expand their current work. Case studies come from Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Germany, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, Romania, Singapore, Sweden, South Korea, Thailand, United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US). Across the countries, the impact of COVID-19 on older workers is shown as widening inequalities. A particular challenge has arisen because of a large proportion of older people, often with limited education and working in the informal sector within rural areas, e.g. in Nigeria, Thailand and China. Remedies to the particular disadvantage experienced by older workers in the context of COVID are presented. These range from funding support to encouraging business continuity, innovative product and service developments, community action, new business models and localized, national and international actions. The case studies can be seen as frequently fitting within strategies that have been proven to work in reducing ageism within the workplace. They include policy and laws that have increased benefits to workers during lockdowns (most countries); educational activities such as coaching seniorpreneurship (e,g, Australia); intergenerational contact interventions such as younger Thai people who moved back to rural areas and sharing their digital knowledge with older people and where older people reciprocate by teaching the younger people farming knowledge. CONCLUSION: Global sharing of this knowledge among international, national and local governments and organizations, businesses, policy makers and health and human resources experts will further understanding of the issues that are faced by older workers. This will facilitate the replication or scalability of solutions as called for in the WHO call to combat ageism in 2021. We suggest that policy makers, business owners, researchers and international organisations build on the case studies by investing in evidence-based strategies to create inclusive workplaces. Such action will thus help to challenge ageism, reduce inequity, improve business continuity and add to the quality of life of older workers. KW - Aged KW - Aging KW - Communicable Disease Control KW - COVID-19 KW - Humans KW - Quality of Life KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - United States KW - Workforce Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-021-01552-w VL - 20 SP - 1 EP - 22 PB - Springer Nature ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bender, Guzide A1 - Fahrioglu Yamaci, Rezan A1 - Taneri, Bahar T1 - CRISPR and KRAS: a match yet to be made JF - Journal of biomedical science N2 - CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) systems are one of the most fascinating tools of the current era in molecular biotechnology. With the ease that they provide in genome editing, CRISPR systems generate broad opportunities for targeting mutations. Specifically in recent years, disease-causing mutations targeted by the CRISPR systems have been of main research interest; particularly for those diseases where there is no current cure, including cancer. KRAS mutations remain untargetable in cancer. Mutations in this oncogene are main drivers in common cancers, including lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancers, which are severe causes of public health burden and mortality worldwide, with no cure at hand. CRISPR systems provide an opportunity for targeting cancer causing mutations. In this review, we highlight the work published on CRISPR applications targeting KRAS mutations directly, as well as CRISPR applications targeting mutations in KRAS-related molecules. In specific, we focus on lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancers. To date, the limited literature on CRISPR applications targeting KRAS, reflect promising results. Namely, direct targeting of mutant KRAS variants using various CRISPR systems resulted in significant decrease in cell viability and proliferation in vitro, as well as tumor growth inhibition in vivo. In addition, the effect of mutant KRAS knockdown, via CRISPR, has been observed to exert regulatory effects on the downstream molecules including PI3K, ERK, Akt, Stat3, and c-myc. Molecules in the KRAS pathway have been subjected to CRISPR applications more often than KRAS itself. The aim of using CRISPR systems in these studies was mainly to analyze the therapeutic potential of possible downstream and upstream effectors of KRAS, as well as to discover further potential molecules. Although there have been molecules identified to have such potential in treatment of KRAS-driven cancers, a substantial amount of effort is still needed to establish treatment strategies based on these discoveries. We conclude that, at this point in time, despite being such a powerful directed genome editing tool, CRISPR remains to be underutilized for targeting KRAS mutations in cancer. Efforts channelled in this direction, might pave the way in solving the long-standing challenge of targeting the KRAS mutations in cancers. KW - Animals KW - Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats KW - Humans KW - Mice KW - Mutation KW - Proto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras)/therapeutic use Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12929-021-00772-0 VL - 28 SP - 1 EP - 25 PB - Springer Nature ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Treutwein, Marius A1 - Steger, Felix A1 - Löschel, Rainer A1 - Kölbl, Oliver A1 - Dobler, Barbara T1 - The influence of radiotherapy techniques on the plan quality and on the risk of secondary tumors in patients with pituitary adenoma JF - BMC cancer N2 - BACKGROUND: This planning study compares different radiotherapy techniques for patients with pituitary adenoma, including flatness filter free mode (FFF), concerning plan quality and secondary malignancies for potentially young patients. The flatness filter has been described as main source of photon scatter. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Eleven patients with pituitary adenoma were included. An Elekta Synergy™ linac was used in the treatment planning system Oncentra® and for the measurements. 3D plans, IMRT, and VMAT plans and non-coplanar varieties were considered. The plan quality was evaluated regarding homogeneity, conformity, delivery time and dose to the organs at risk. The secondary malignancy risk was calculated from dose volume data and from measured dose to the periphery using different models for carcinoma and sarcoma risk. RESULTS: The homogeneity and conformity were nearly unchanged with and without flattening filter, neither was the delivery time found substantively different. VMAT plans were more homogenous, conformal and faster in delivery than IMRT plans. The secondary cancer risk was reduced with FFF both in the treated region and in the periphery. VMAT plans resulted in a higher secondary brain cancer risk than IMRT plans, but the risk for secondary peripheral cancer was reduced. Secondary sarcoma risk plays a minor role. No advantage was found for non-coplanar techniques. The FFF delivery times were not shortened due to additional monitor units needed and technical limitations. The risk for secondary brain cancer seems to depend on the irradiated volume. Secondary sarcoma risk is much smaller than carcinoma risk in accordance to the results of the atomic bomb survivors. The reduction of the peripheral dose and resulting secondary malignancy risk for FFF is statistically significant. However, it is negligible in comparison to the risk in the treated region. CONCLUSION: Treatments with FFF can reduce secondary malignancy risk while retaining similar quality as with flattening filter and should be preferred. VMAT plans show the best plan quality combined with lowest peripheral secondary malignancy risk, but highest level of second brain cancer risk. Taking this into account VMAT FFF seems the most advantageous technique for the treatment of pituitary adenomas with the given equipment. KW - Adenoma/radiotherapy KW - Age Factors KW - Female KW - Humans KW - Male KW - Pituitary Neoplasms/radiotherapy KW - Radiotherapy Dosage KW - risk factors Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-020-6535-y VL - 20 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Springer ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grabitz, Peter A1 - Friedmann, Zoe A1 - Gepp, Sophie A1 - Hess, Leonard U. A1 - Specht, Lisa A1 - Struck, Maja A1 - Tragert, Sophie Kira A1 - Walther, Tobias A1 - Klemperer, David T1 - Quantity and quality of conflict of interest policies at German medical schools BT - a cross-sectional study and survey JF - BMJ open N2 - OBJECTIVES: To assess the quantity and evaluate the quality of policies and curricula focusing on conflicts of interests (COI) at medical schools across Germany. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study, survey of medical schools, standardised web search. SETTING: Medical schools, Germany. PARTICIPANTS: 38 German medical schools. - INTERVENTIONS: We collected relevant COI policies, including teaching activities, by conducting a search of the websites of all 38 German medical schools using standardised keywords for COI policies and teaching. Further, we surveyed all medical schools' dean's offices. Finally, we adapted a scoring system for results we obtained with 13 categories based on prior similar studies. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Presence or absence of COI-related policies, including teaching activities at medical school. The secondary outcome was the achieved score on a scale from 0 to 26, with high scores representing restrictive policies and sufficient teaching activities. RESULTS: We identified relevant policies for one medical school via the web search. The response rate of the deans' survey was 16 of 38 (42.1%). In total, we identified COI-related policies for 2 of 38 (5.3%) German medical schools, yet no policy was sufficient to address all COI-related categories that were assessed in this study. The maximum score achieved was 12 of 26. 36 (94.7%) schools scored 0. No medical school reported curricular teaching on COI. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate a low level of action by medical schools to protect students from undue commercial influence. No participating dean was aware of any curriculum or instruction on COI at the respective school and only two schools had policies in place. The German Medical Students Association and international counterparts have called for a stronger focus on COI in the classroom. We conclude that for German medical schools, there is still a long way to go. KW - Conflict of Interest KW - Cross-Sectional Studies KW - Curriculum KW - Germany KW - Humans KW - Policy KW - Schools, Medical Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039782 VL - 10 IS - 9 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - BMJ Publishing Group ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cichy, Ireneusz A1 - Kruszwicka, Agnieszka A1 - Palus, Patrycja A1 - Przybyla, Tomasz A1 - Schliermann, Rainer A1 - Wawrzyniak, Sara A1 - Klichowski, Michal A1 - Rokita, Andrzej T1 - Physical Education with Eduball Stimulates Non-Native Language Learning in Primary School Students JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health) N2 - Although the neuronal mechanisms of action and cognition are related, the division of intellectual and physical lessons is standard in schools. This is surprising, because numerous studies show that integrating physical education (PE) with teaching content stimulates critical skills. For example, several experiments indicate that Eduball-based PE (i.e., lessons in a sports hall during which students play team mini-games with educational balls with printed letters, numbers, and other signs) develops mathematical and language competencies. At the same time, the Eduball method does not slow down learners' physical development. However, we have little knowledge about the effects of such techniques on non-native language learning. Consequently, the absence of incorporating core academic subjects into PE in dual-language schools or during foreign language education is exceptionally high. Here, we replicated the Eduball experiment, but with the goal of testing this method for non-native language learning. Thus, the intervention occurred in a dual-language primary school and we evaluated second language (L2) learning. As before, we used the technique of parallel groups (experimental and control); in both groups, there were three 45-min PE classes per week. In the experimental class, two of them were held using Eduball. After a half-year experiment, children from the experimental group (one second-grade, N = 14) improved their non-native language skills significantly more than their peers from the control group (one second-grade, N = 12). These findings demonstrate that Eduball-type intervention stimulates non-native language learning in children. Hence, our report suggests that specific body training forms can support L2 learning. KW - Child KW - Humans KW - Language KW - Learning KW - Physical Education and Training KW - Schools KW - Students Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19138192 VL - 19 IS - 13 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER -