Stokholmburgess3514

V.BACKGROUND The Roma are Europe's largest ethnic minority. Their history has been shaped by marginalization, stigmatization, discrimination, slavery, persecution and murder, and to date, they continue to face prejudice and social exclusion. The Roma population is generally poor, living in crowded and low quality housing in segregated communities on the outskirts of cities, often lacking basic physical infrastructure, including adequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). To better understand the obstacles the Roma are facing, we aimed to review and synthesize available peer-reviewed literature, and identify obstacles to improvement. METHODS We conducted the first systematic review of peer-reviewed literature on water, sanitation and hygiene among Roma communities in Europe, published between 2000 and 2020. A total of 30 publications met the inclusion criteria. We extracted data relating to WASH conditions and services, associated risk factors, exposures and outcomes, examined the role of cultural norms in shnt of the Roma community in planning. Besides, Roma are not well represented in national statistics, with data collection being complicated not only by difficulties of access and underfunding, but also by distrust and culturally distinctive health beliefs. CONCLUSIONS The situation and cultural context of WASH among Roma is challenging and complex. Our review demonstrates not only the urgent need for action for Roma communities in particular, but may have broader applicability to ethnic and social minorities in other parts of the world. Future research to overcome obstacles to improvement needs to be inclusive, and involve community members as key informants, with their participation enhancing the reliability of data, contributing to social justice and solidarity, disseminating information, contributing to feasible recommendations and implementation of interventions. Firefighters are an understudied population that reports high rates of alcohol use and hazardous drinking. Pain, which is also commonly experienced by firefighters, may be associated with alcohol use and alcohol use motives, as research among the general population suggests that pain is associated with coping-oriented drinking. Pain-related anxiety, reflecting a tendency to respond to pain with anxiety or fear, may link pain to coping-oriented drinking among firefighters. Therefore, the current study examined the moderating role of pain-related anxiety on the association between pain intensity and alcohol use motives as well as alcohol use severity. The sample was comprised of 189 (Mage = 40.33, SD = 9.97, 89.9% male) firefighters. Results from the current study supported a significant moderation effect of pain-related anxiety on the association between pain intensity and alcohol use coping motives, whereby the association between pain intensity and coping motives was stronger for those with high compared to low pain-related anxiety. No significant moderation effects were documented for social, enhancement, or conformity motives; and no significant moderation effect was found for alcohol use severity. These results highlighted the potential importance of pain intensity and pain-related anxiety in coping-oriented alcohol use among firefighters. OBJECTIVES Neoadjuvant chemotherapy causes distressing symptoms, which have to be managed by patients at home. Assessing and acting upon relevant patient-reported symptoms regularly with the support of mHealth such as apps, has shown to decrease symptom burden and improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL). There is a lack of apps for patients with breast cancer which are tested in rigorous trials and only a few include interactive components for immediate clinical management. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the use of the interactive app Interaktor improves patients' levels of symptom burden and HRQoL during neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS This randomized controlled trial included patients in an intervention group (n = 74) and a control group (n = 75), recruited at two university hospitals in Stockholm, Sweden. TW-37 The intervention group used Interaktor for symptom reporting, self-care advice and support from health-care professionals during treatment, and the control group received standard care alone. Self-reported symptoms and HRQoL were assessed at two time points to determine differences between the groups. RESULTS The intervention group rated statistically significant less symptom prevalence in nausea, vomiting, feeling sad, appetite loss and constipation. Overall symptom distress and physical symptom distress were rated statistically significant lower in the intervention group. Further, emotional functioning was rated statistically significant higher in the intervention group. CONCLUSIONS By using the Interaktor app in clinical practice, patients get individual support when managing treatment-related symptoms during neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer, leading to decreased symptom burden and improved emotional functioning. Carbon nanomaterials have increasingly gained the attention of the nano-, photo- and biomedical communities owing to their unique photophysical properties. Here, we facilely synthesized carbon quantum dots (CQDs) in a one-pot solvothermal reaction, and demonstrated their utility as photosensitizers for in vitro antibacterial photodynamic inactivation (aPDI). The bottom-up synthesis employed inexpensive and sustainable starting materials (citric acid), used ethanol as an environmentally-friendly solvent, was relatively energy efficient, produced minimal waste, and purification was accomplished simply by filtration. The CQDs were characterized by both physical (TEM, X-ray diffraction) and spectroscopic (UV-visible, fluorescence, and ATR-FTIR) methods, which together confirmed their nanoscale dimensions and photophysical properties. aPDI studies demonstrated detection limit inactivation (99.9999 + %) of Gram-negative Escherichia coli 8099 and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus ATCC-6538 upon visible light illumination (λ ≥ 420 nm, 65 ± 5 mW/cm2; 60 min). Post-illumination SEM images of the bacteria incubated with the CQDs showed perforated and fragmented cell membranes consistent with damage from reactive oxygen species (ROS), and mechanistic studies revealed that the bacteria were inactivated by singlet oxygen, with no discernable roles for other ROS (e.g., superoxide or hydroxyl radicals). These findings demonstrated that CQDs can be facilely prepared, operate via a Type II mechanism, and are effective photosensitizers for in vitro aPDI.