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BACKGROUND: Despite its impact on female health worldwide, no efforts have been made to depict the global architecture of ovarian cancer research and to understand the trends in the related literature. Hence, it was the objective of this study to assess the global scientific performance chronologically, geographically and in regards to economic benchmarks using bibliometric tools and density equalizing map projections.
METHODS: The NewQIS platform was employed to identify all ovarian cancer related articles published in the Web of Science since 1900. The items were analyzed regarding quantitative aspects (e.g. publication date, country of origin) and parameters describing the recognition of the work by the scientific community (e.g. citation rates).
RESULTS: 23,378 articles on ovarian cancer were analyzed. The USA had the highest activity of ovarian cancer research with a total of n = 9312 ovarian cancer-specific publications, followed by the UK (n = 1900), China (n = 1813), Germany (n = 1717) and Japan (n = 1673). Ovarian cancer-specific country h-index also showed a leading position of the USA with an h-index (HI) of 207, followed by the UK (HI = 122), Canada (HI = 99), Italy (HI = 97), Germany (HI = 84), and Japan (HI = 81). In the socio-economic analysis, the USA were ranked first with an average of 175.6 ovarian cancer-related publications per GDP per capita in 1000 US-$, followed by Italy with an index level of 46.85, the UK with 45.48, and Japan with 43.3. Overall, the USA and Western European nations, China and Japan constituted the scientific power players publishing the majority of highly cited ovarian cancer-related articles and dominated international collaborative efforts. African, Asian and South American countries played almost no visible role in the scientific community.
CONCLUSIONS: The quantity and scientific recognition of publications related to ovarian cancer are continuously increasing. The research endeavors in the field are concentrated in high-income countries with no involvement of lower-resource nations. Hence, worldwide collaborative efforts with the aim to exchange epidemiologic data, resources and knowledge have to be strengthened in the future to successfully alleviate the global burden related to ovarian cancer.
BACKGROUND: Toxoplasmosis endangers the unborn child if its infectious agent--toxoplasma gondii--is transmitted transplacentally during pregnancy. Although this condition occurs in all parts of the world and represents a major public health burden, no detailed knowledge on the global research architecture of congenital toxoplasmosis is available thus far. Hence, it was the aim of this study to assess the related global research activity over the past 110 years.
METHODS: We employed the NewQIS platform, which combines established scientometric and socioeconomic analysis tools with novel visualizing techniques such as density equalizing mapping projections.
RESULTS: In the Web of Science, 13,044 congenital toxoplasmosis-related items published between 1900 and 2012 were identified. These were issued by 26,483 authors originating from 125 countries. The US was the dominating nation (38.7 % of total scientific output), followed by France (10.9 %) and Great Britain (9.2 %). The US also led the ranking in regards to semi-qualitative parameters (total citations, country-specific h-indices and citation rates). When research activity was related to economic figures, the ratio of total toxoplasmosis publications to the total GDP listed Switzerland first with an average of 589.35 toxoplasmosis-related publications per GDP in 1000 Bio US-$, followed by France (545.16), the UK (486.13) and Brazil (431.84) and the US (311.11). The relation of toxoplasmosis-specific publications to the economic power indicator GDP per capita in 1000 US-$ revealed that the US was ranked first with 97.65 toxoplasmosis-related publications/GDP per capita in 1000 US-$, followed by Brazil (85.95). Subject area analysis indicated a relative shortage of studies that addressed pharmacological or public health aspects of congenital toxoplasmosis.
CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first in-depth approach to sketch a global picture of the congenital toxoplasmosis research architecture. In contrast to other fields of biomedical research, not only high-income countries play a major role regarding congenital toxoplasmosis research but also countries such as Brazil that have a high incidence of congenital toxoplasmosis.
Objectives: Patient safety is a crucial issue in medicine. Its main objective is to reduce the number of deaths and health damages that are caused by preventable medical errors. To achieve this, it needs better health systems that make mistakes less likely and their effects less detrimental without blaming health workers for failures. Until now, there is no in-depth scientometric analysis on this issue that encompasses the interval between 1963 and 2014. Therefore, the aim of this study is to sketch a landscape of the past global research output on patient safety including the gender distribution of the medical discipline of patient safety by interpreting scientometric parameters. Additionally, respective future trends are to be outlined.
Setting: The Core Collection of the scientific database Web of Science was searched for publications with the search term ‘Patient Safety’ as title word that was focused on the corresponding medical discipline. The resulting data set was analysed by using the methodology implemented by the platform NewQIS. To visualise the geographical landscape, state-of-the-art techniques including density-equalising map projections were applied.
Results: 4079 articles on patient safety were identified in the period from 1900 to 2014. Most articles were published in North America, the UK and Australia. In regard to the overall number of publications, the USA is the leading country, while the output ratio to the population of Switzerland was found to exhibit the best performance. With regard to the ratio of the number of publications to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per Capita, the USA remains the leading nation but countries like India and China with a low GDP and high population numbers are also profiting.
Conclusions: Though the topic is a global matter, the scientific output on patient safety is centred mainly in industrialised countries.
Objective: Worldwide, the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) represents the predominant viral agent causing bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children. To conduct research and tackle existing healthcare disparities, RSV-related research activities around the globe need to be described. Hence, we assessed the associated scientific output (represented by research articles) by geographical, chronological and socioeconomic criteria and analysed the authors publishing in the field by gender. Also, the 15 most cited articles and the most prolific journals were identified for RSV research.
Design: Retrospective, descriptive study.
Setting: The NewQIS (New Quality and Quantity Indices in Science) platform was employed to identify RSV-related articles published in the Web of Science until 2013. We performed a numerical analysis of all articles, and examined citation-based aspects (eg, citation rates); results were visualised by density equalising mapping tools.
Results: We identified 4600 RSV-related articles. The USA led the field; US-American authors published 2139 articles (46.5%% of all identified articles), which have been cited 83 000 times. When output was related to socioeconomic benchmarks such as gross domestic product or Research and Development expenditures, Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia and Chile were ranked in leading positions. A total of 614 articles on RSV (13.34% of all articles) were attributed to scientific collaborations. These were primarily established between high-income countries. The gender analysis indicated that male scientists dominated in all countries except Brazil.
Conclusions: The majority of RSV-related research articles originated from high-income countries whereas developing nations showed only minimal publication productivity and were barely part of any collaborative networks. Hence, research capacity in these nations should be increased in order to assist in addressing inequities in resource allocation and the clinical burden of RSV in these countries.
Introduction: Curare is one of the best-examined neurotoxins of the world, which has empirically been used for centuries by American Indigenes. Research on curare has been performed much later, a global scientometric analysis on curare research or its derivates does not yet exist. This bibliometric analysis is part of the global NewQis-project and should illuminate both toxic and historic issues of research on curare.
Methods: The ISI Web of Science was searched for data covering 1900 to 2013 using a term which included as many original articles on curare as possible. 3,867 articles were found and analyzed for common bibliometric items such as the number of citations, language of the articles or the (modified) Hirsch-Index (h-index). Results are illustrated utilizing modern density equalizing map projections (DEMP) or beam diagrams.
Results: Most publications were located in North America and Europe. The USA has the highest number of publications as well as the highest h-index. The number of publications overall rose until the late 1990s and later decreased. Furthermore, sudden increases of research activity are ascribable to historic events, like the first use of curare as muscle relaxant during surgery.
Discussion: This scientometric analysis of curare research reflects several tendencies as previously seen in other bibliometric investigations, i.e. the scientific quality standard of North America and Europe. Research on curare decreased however, due to the declining attention towards this muscle relaxant. This work exemplifies also how scientometric methods can be used to illuminate historic circumstances immediately stimulating scientific research.
OBJECTIVE: Traffic crashes and related injuries are important causes of morbidity and mortality and impose insofar an important burden on public health. However, research in this area is often under-funded. The aim of this study was to analyse quantity, evolution and geographic distribution of traffic medicine-related research. This multi-sectorial field covers both transport and health care sectors.
DESIGN: A scientometric approach in combination with visualizing density equalizing mapping was used to analyse published data related to the field of traffic medicine between 1900 and 2008 within the "Web of Science" (WoS) database.
RESULTS: In total, 5,193 traffic medicine-associated items were produced between 1900 and 2008. The United States was found to have the highest research activity with a production of n = 2,330 published items, followed by Germany (n = 298) and Canada (n = 219). Cooperation analyses resulted in a peak of published multilateral cooperations in the year of 2003. The country with the highest multilateral activity was the USA. The average number of cited references per publication varied heavily over the last 20 years with a maximum of 27.67 in 1995 and a minimum of 15.08 in 1998. Also, a further in-depth analysis was performed with a focus solely on public health aspects which revealed similar trends.
CONCLUSIONS: Summarizing the present data it can be stated traffic medicine-related research productivity grows annually. Also, an active networking between countries is present. The data of the present study may be used by scientific organisations in order to gain detailed information about research activities in this field which is extremely important for public health.
Estimates suggest that more than 25,000 to 125,000 people die annually from snakebite envenomation worldwide. In contrast to this major disease burden, thorough bibliometric studies do not exist so far that illustrate the overall research activity over a long time span. Therefore, the NewQIS-platform conducted an analysis on snakebite envenoming using the Thomson Reuters database Web of Science. To determine and assess changes regarding the scientific activities and to specifically address the more recent situation we analyzed two time intervals (t). During the first time interval from 1900 to 2007 (t1) 13,015 publications (p) were identified. In the following period (2008–2016 = t2) 4,982 publications were identified by the same search strategy. They originate from 114 (t1) respectively 121 countries (t2), with the USA (p = 3518), Brazil (p = 1100) and Japan (p = 961) being most productive in the first period, and the USA (p = 1087), Brazil (p = 991) and China (p = 378) in the second period, respectively. Setting the publication numbers in relation to GDP/capita, Brazil leads with 92 publications per 10,000 Int$GDP/capita, followed by India with 79 publications per 10000 Int$GDP/capita (t1). Comparing the country’s publication activity with the Human Development Index level indicates that the majority of the publications is published by highly developed countries. When calculating the average citation rates (citations per published item = CR) mainly European countries show the highest ranks: From 1900–2007 Sweden ranks first with a CR = 27, followed by the Netherlands (CR = 24.8), Switzerland (CR = 23), Spain, Austria and the USA (CR = 22). From 2008 to 2016 the highest rate achieves Switzerland with a value of 24.6, followed by Belgium (CR = 18.1), Spain (CR = 16.7), Costa Rica (CR = 14.9) and Netherlands (CR = 14). Compared with this, the USA was placed at rank 13 (CR = 9,5).
In summary, the present study represents the first density-equalizing map projection and in-depth scientometric analysis of the global research output on snakebites and its venoms. So it draws a sketch of the worldwide publication architecture and indicates that countries with a high incidence of snakebites and a low economical level still need to be empowered in carrying out research in this area.
Nanoparticles (particles sized between 1 and 100 nanometers) are more and more used in all fields of science and medicine for their physicochemical properties. As gold has traditionally been considered as chemically inert and biocompatible, in particular, gold nanoparticles have been established as valuable tools in several areas of biomedical research. But in contrast to the multitude of studies that addressed the clinical use of gold nanoparticles, only little is known about potential toxicological effects such as induction of inflammatory immune responses, possible apoptotic cell death or developmental growth inhibition in embryos. Therefore the present study performed a systematic review of toxicological data, especially experimentally acquired data concerning in-vivo-toxicity, published in the PubMed. It can be stated that the data in this area of research is still largely limited. Especially, knowledge about size-, charge- and surface-chemistry dependent in-vivo-toxicity is needed to predict the hazard potential of auric nanoparticles (AuNPs) for humans.
Silicosis : geographic changes in research ; an analysis employing density-equalizing mapping
(2014)
Background: A critical evaluation of scientific efforts is needed in times of modified evaluation criteria for academic personnel and institutions.
Methods: Using scientometric benchmark procedures and density-equalizing mapping, we analysed the global scientific efforts on "silicosis" of the last 92 years focusing on geographical changes within the last 30 years, specifying the most productive authors, institutions, countries and the most successful cooperations.
Results: The USA as the most productive supplier have established their position as center of international cooperation, followed in considerable distance by the United Kingdom, Germany and China. Asian countries, particularly China, catch up and are expected to excel the USA still in this decade.
Conclusion: The combination of scientometric procedures with density-equalizing mapping reveals a distinct global pattern of research productivity and citation activity. Modified h-index, citationrate and impact factor have to be discussed critically due to distortion by bias of self-citation, language and co-authorship.
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is characterized by the increase of the mean pulmonary arterial pressure in the lung circulation. Despite the large number of experimental and clinical studies conducted on pulmonary hypertension, there is no comprehensive work that analyzed the global research activity on PH so far. We retrieved the bibliometric data of the publications on pulmonary hypertension for two periods from the Web of science database. Here, we set the first investigation period from 1900 to 2007 (t1) due to the cited half life of articles and the relating difficulties to interpret the citation parameters. The second evaluation period (t2) covers the time interval from 2008 onwards including the year 2015. The data were analyzed and processed to density-equalizing maps using the NewQIS platform. A total number of 18,986 publications were identified in t1 that come from 85 countries. The US published the highest number of publications (n = 7,290), followed by the UK, Germany, Japan and France. In t2 19,676 items could be found worked out by 130 countries. The raking started just the same with the USA as most publishing nation with 7,127 publications on PH, followed by the UK and Germany. Japan fell back on 6th place, whereas China came into view on the 5th position. Analyzing the average citation rate as a parameter for research quality, Mexico reached the highest value in t1 and Ireland in t2. While, the country specific h-index underlined the leading position of the US research in both evaluation periods again. The average number of international collaboration items was expanding from none in 1978 to 530 items in 2015 with the USA as the country with the highest number of collaboration articles. The present study is the first large scale density-equalizing mapping and scientometric analysis of global PH research activity. Our data draw a sketch of the global research architecture in this field, indicating a need for specific research programs in countries with a lower human development index.
Systematic reviews represent the core and backbone of evidence-based medicine (EBM) strategies in all fields of medicine. In order to depict a first global sketch of the international efforts in the Cochrane database systematic reviews (CDSR), we analyzed the systematic reviews of the Cochrane database. Our global maps of systematic reviewing offer intriguing structural insights into the world of EBM strategies. They demonstrate that for the CDSR, the UK and Commonwealth countries take the lead position. Since patients, care providers and health systems all over the world benefit from systematic reviewing, institutions in other countries should increase their commitment.
Background: Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the deadliest cancers worldwide. The contemporary strong increase of the adenocarcinomas in Western countries and the high mortality rates require the intensification of prospective multinational studies.
Methods: Therefore, this global health issue has been chosen for the bibliometric review of the global publication output. As source for meta and citation data, the Web of Science has been used and Density Equalizing Maps were applied for visualization.
Results: 17,387 articles on EC could be identified. The years with publication and citation maxima correspond to the appearance of the most prolific articles. China is the most publishing country, followed by Japan and the USA. Germany and the UK ranked 4th and 5th. The analysis of the ratios articles and socio-economic parameters emphasizes the leading position of the Scandinavian countries and Japan. Here, the high-income countries come out on top. The high incidence regions are mainly represented by Chinese and Japanese research. The association of the publication output and the overall research funding could be shown.
Conclusions: A strengthened international network increasingly consisting of the scientifically best positioned countries as well as more of the high incidence countries worldwide is mandatory for future research. The findings deliver scientists, clinicians and decision makers backgrounds for future decisions all over the world.
Introduction: Potential health damage by environmental emission of tobacco smoke (environmental tobacco smoke, ETS) has been demonstrated convincingly in numerous studies. People, especially children, are still exposed to ETS in the small space of private cars. Although major amounts of toxic compounds from ETS are likely transported into the distal lung via particulate matter (PM), few studies have quantified the amount of PM in ETS. Study aim The aim of this study was to determine the ETS-dependent concentration of PM from both a 3R4F reference cigarette (RC) as well as a Marlboro Red brand cigarette (MRC) in a small enclosed space under different conditions of ventilation to model car exposure.
Method: In order to create ETS reproducibly, an emitter (ETSE) was constructed and mounted on to an outdoor telephone booth with an inner volume of 1.75 m3. Cigarettes were smoked under open- and closed-door condition to imitate different ventilation scenarios. PM2.5 concentration was quantified by a laser aerosol spectrometer (Grimm; Model 1.109), and data were adjusted for baseline values. Simultaneously indoor and outdoor climate parameters were recorded. The time of smoking was divided into the ETS generation phase (subset "emission") and a declining phase of PM concentration (subset "elimination"); measurement was terminated after 10 min. For all three time periods the average concentration of PM2.5 (Cmean-PM2.5) and the area under the PM2.5 concentration curve (AUC-PM2.5) was calculated. The maximum concentration (Cmax-PM2.5) was taken from the total interval.
Results: For both cigarette types open-door ventilation reduced the AUC-PM2.5 (RC: from 59 400 +/- 14 600 to 5 550 +/- 3 900 mug*sec/m3; MRC: from 86 500 +/- 32 000 to 7 300 +/- 2 400 mug*sec/m3; p < 0.001) and Cmean-PM2.5 (RC: from 600 +/- 150 to 56 +/- 40 mug/m3, MRC from 870 +/- 320 to 75 +/- 25 mug/m3; p < 0.001) by about 90%. Cmax-PM2.5 was reduced by about 80% (RC: from 1 050 +/- 230 to 185 +/- 125 mug/m3; MRC: from 1 560 +/-500 mug/m3 to 250 +/- 85 mug/m3; p < 0.001). In the subset "emission" we identified a 78% decrease in AUC-PM2.5 (RC: from 18 600 +/- 4 600 to 4 000 +/- 2 600 mug*sec/m3; MRC: from 26 600 +/- 7 200 to 5 800 +/- 1 700 mug*sec/m3; p < 0.001) and Cmean-PM2.5 (RC: from 430 +/- 108 to 93 +/- 60 mug/m3; MRC: from 620 +/- 170 to 134 +/- 40 mug/m3; p < 0.001). In the subset "elimination" we found a reduction of about 96-98% for AUC-PM2.5 (RC: from 40 800 +/- 11 100 to 1 500 +/- 1 700 mug*sec/m3; MRC: from 58 500 +/- 25 200 to 1 400 +/- 800 mug*sec/m3; p < 0.001) and Cmean-PM2.5 (RC: from 730 +/- 200 to 27 +/- 29 mug/m3; MRC: from 1 000 +/- 450 to 26 +/- 15 mug/m3; p < 0.001). Throughout the total interval Cmax-PM2.5 of MRC was about 50% higher (1 550 +/- 500 mug/m3) compared to RC (1 050 +/- 230 mug/m3; p < 0.05). For the subset "emission" - but not for the other periods - AUC-PM2.5 for MRC was 43% higher (MRC: 26 600 +/- 7 200 mug*sec/m3; RC: 18 600 +/- 4 600 mug*sec/m3; p < 0.05) and 44% higher for Cmean-PM2.5 (MRC: 620 +/- 170 mug/m3; RC: 430 +/- 108 mug/m3; p < 0.05).
Conclusion: This method allows reliable quantification of PM2.5-ETS exposure under various conditions, and may be useful for ETS risk assessment in realistic exposure situations. The findings demonstrate that open-door condition does not completely remove ETS from a defined indoor space of 1.75 m3. Because there is no safe level of ETS exposure ventilation is not adequate enough to prevent ETS exposure in confined spaces, e.g. private cars. Additionally, differences in the characteristics of cigarettes affect the amount of ETS particle emission and need to be clarified by ongoing investigations.
Although the global tobacco market of cigarillos is substantial, little is known about their particulate matter (PM) emissions. For exposure risk assessment of cigarillos, the PM fractions PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 of eight cigarillo brands (four with filters) and a reference cigarette were measured. For this purpose, second-hand smoke was generated by an automatic smoke pump in a measuring chamber with a volume of 2.88 m³. The mean particle concentrations of the cigarillos ranged from 2783 μg/m³ to 6686 μg/m³ for PM10, from 2767 μg/m³ to 6585 μg/m³ for PM2.5, and from 2441 to 4680 μg/m³ for PM1. Mean concentrations of the reference cigarette for PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 were 4400 μg/m³, 4335 μg/m³, and 3289 μg/m³, respectively. Filter-tipped cigarillos showed between 5% and 38% lower PM10 and PM2.5 levels, respectively, and between 4% and 30% lower PM1 levels. Our findings show generally high PM emissions for all investigated tobacco products. Therefore, the declaration of PM amounts to government authorities should be mandatory for all tobacco products. Policymakers should ensure that corresponding information will be provided in the future.
Background:Aedes aegypti is a potential vector for several arboviruses including dengue and Zika viruses. The species seems to be restricted to subtropical/tropical habitats and has difficulties in establishing permanent populations in southern Europe, probably due to constraints during the winter season. The aim of this study was to systematically analyze the cold tolerance (CT) of Ae. aegypti in its most cold-resistant life stage, the eggs.
Methods: The CT of Ae. aegypti eggs was compared with that of Ae. albopictus which is well established in large parts of Europe. By systematically studying the literature (meta-analysis), we recognized that CT has been rarely tested in Ae. aegypti eggs, but eggs can survive at zero and sub-zero temperatures for certain exposure periods. To overcome potential bias from experimental differences between studies, we then conducted species comparisons using a harmonized high-resolution CT measuring method. From subtropical populations of the same origin, the survival (hatching in %) and emergence of adults of both species were measured after zero and sub-zero temperature exposures for up to 9 days (3 °C, 0 °C and − 2 °C: ≤ 9 days; − 6 °C: ≤ 2 days).
Results: Our data show that Ae. aegypti eggs can survive low and sub-zero temperatures for a short time period similar to or even better than those of Ae. albopictus. Moreover, after short sub-zero exposures of eggs of both species, individuals still developed into viable adults (Ae. aegypti: 3 adults emerged after 6 days at − 2 °C, Ae. albopictus: 1 adult emerged after 1 day at − 6 °C).
Conclusions: Thus, both the literature and the present experimental data indicate that a cold winter may not be the preventing factor for the re-establishment of the dengue vector Ae. aegypti in southern Europe.
Purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses major challenges to health-care systems worldwide. This pandemic demonstrates the importance of timely access to intensive care and, therefore, this study aims to explore the accessibility of intensive care beds in 14 European countries and its impact on the COVID-19 case fatality ratio (CFR).
Methods: We examined access to intensive care beds by deriving (1) a regional ratio of intensive care beds to 100,000 population capita (accessibility index, AI) and (2) the distance to the closest intensive care unit. The cross-sectional analysis was performed at a 5-by-5 km spatial resolution and results were summarized nationally for 14 European countries. The relationship between AI and CFR was analyzed at the regional level.
Results: We found national-level differences in the levels of access to intensive care beds. The AI was highest in Germany (AI = 35.3), followed by Estonia (AI = 33.5) and Austria (AI = 26.4), and lowest in Sweden (AI = 5) and Denmark (AI = 6.4). The average travel distance to the closest hospital was highest in Croatia (25.3 min by car) and lowest in Luxembourg (9.1 min). Subnational results illustrate that capacity was associated with population density and national-level inventories. The correlation analysis revealed a negative correlation of ICU accessibility and COVID-19 CFR (r = − 0.57; p < 0.001).
Conclusion: Geographical access to intensive care beds varies significantly across European countries and low ICU accessibility was associated with a higher proportion of COVID-19 deaths to cases (CFR). Important differences in access are due to the sizes of national resource inventories and the distribution of health-care facilities relative to the human population. Our findings provide a resource for officials planning public health responses beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic, such as identifying potential locations suitable for temporary facilities or establishing logistical plans for moving severely ill patients to facilities with available beds.
The risk of increasing dengue (DEN) and chikungunya (CHIK) epidemics impacts 240 million people, health systems, and the economy in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. The aim of this systematic review is to monitor trends in the distribution and spread of DEN/CHIK over time and geographically for future reliable vector and disease control in the HKH region. We conducted a systematic review of the literature on the spatiotemporal distribution of DEN/CHIK in HKH published up to 23 January 2020, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. In total, we found 61 articles that focused on the spatial and temporal distribution of 72,715 DEN and 2334 CHIK cases in the HKH region from 1951 to 2020. DEN incidence occurs in seven HKH countries, i.e., India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Myanmar, and CHIK occurs in four HKH countries, i.e., India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar, out of eight HKH countries. DEN is highly seasonal and starts with the onset of the monsoon (July in India and June in Nepal) and with the onset of spring (May in Bhutan) and peaks in the postmonsoon season (September to November). This current trend of increasing numbers of both diseases in many countries of the HKH region requires coordination of response efforts to prevent and control the future expansion of those vector-borne diseases to nonendemic areas, across national borders.
Background: SARS-CoV-2 is one of the most threatening pandemics in human history. As of the date of this analysis, it had claimed about 2 million lives worldwide, and the number is rising sharply. Governments, societies, and scientists are equally challenged under this burden. Objective: This study aimed to map global coronavirus research in 2020 according to various influencing factors to highlight incentives or necessities for further research. Methods: The application of established and advanced bibliometric methods combined with the visualization technique of density-equalizing mapping provided a global picture of incentives and efforts on coronavirus research in 2020. Countries’ funding patterns and their epidemiological and socioeconomic characteristics as well as their publication performance data were included. Results: Research output exploded in 2020 with momentum, including citation and networking parameters. China and the United States were the countries with the highest publication performance. Globally, however, publication output correlated significantly with COVID-19 cases. Research funding has also increased immensely. Conclusions: Nonetheless, the abrupt decline in publication efforts following previous coronavirus epidemics should demonstrate to global researchers that they should not lose interest even after containment, as the next epidemiological challenge is certain to come. Validated reporting worldwide and the inclusion of low-income countries are additionally important for a successful future research strategy.
Nitrogen oxides (NOx), especially nitrogen dioxide (NO2), are among the most hazardous forms of air pollution. Tobacco smoke is a main indoor source of NOx, but little information is available about their concentrations in second-hand smoke (SHS), particularly in small indoors. This study presents data of NOx and its main components nitric oxide (NO) and NO2 in SHS emitted by ten different cigarette brands measured in a closed test chamber with a volume of 2.88 m3, similar to the volume of vehicle cabins. The results show substantial increases in NOx concentrations when smoking only one cigarette. The NO2 mean concentrations ranged between 105 and 293 µg/m3, the NO2 peak concentrations between 126 and 357 µg/m3. That means the one-hour mean guideline of 200 µg/m3 for NO2 of the World Health Organization was exceeded up to 47%, respectively 79%. The measured NO2 values show positive correlations with the values for tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide stated by the cigarette manufacturers. This study provides NO2 concentrations in SHS at health hazard levels. These data give rise to the necessity of health authorities’ measures to inform about and caution against NOx exposure by smoking in indoor rooms.
Improving spatial accessibility to hospitals is a major task for health care systems which can be facilitated using recent methodological improvements of spatial accessibility measures. We used the integrated floating catchment area (iFCA) method to analyze spatial accessibility of general inpatient care (internal medicine, surgery and neurology) on national level in Germany determining an accessibility index (AI) by integrating distances, hospital beds and morbidity data. The analysis of 358 million distances between hospitals and population locations revealed clusters of lower accessibility indices in areas in north east Germany. There was a correlation of urbanity and accessibility up to r = 0.31 (p < 0.001). Furthermore, 10% of the population lived in areas with significant clusters of low spatial accessibility for internal medicine and surgery (neurology: 20%). The analysis revealed the highest accessibility for heart failure (AI = 7.33) and the lowest accessibility for stroke (AI = 0.69). The method applied proofed to reveal important aspects of spatial accessibility i.e. geographic variations that need to be addressed. However, for the majority of the German population, accessibility of general inpatient care was either high or at least not significantly low, which suggests rather adequate allocation of hospital resources for most parts of Germany.