Reasons For Rejection Research Articles

Acceptability, Preferred Medium, and Components of Nurse-Led Cardiac Telerehabilitation: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a comprehensive and multidisciplinary secondary prevention care in coronary heart disease (CHD). There are barriers at the patient and health system levels that prevent CR from being utilized. Cardiac telerehabilitation led by nurses (Ne-CTR) can alleviate the obstacles to participation in CR. A patient perspective can improve CR access. This study was the first pre-program investigation to clarify the status of knowledge and participation in CTR. We sought to clarify the acceptability, the reasons for rejection, the desired form, components, and associated factors with the components needed for (Ne-CTR) in patients with CHD. The study aimed to help develop a protocol for Ne-CTR for Chinese patients with CHD. A cross-sectional study was conducted between 2020 and 2021. Hospitals in four provinces in China were included. The participants were 671 patients with CHD in hospitals located in three regions of China. A self-administered questionnaire collected information about demographics, knowledge, and participation in CTR, acceptability, preferred medium, and components of Ne-CTR. Student's t-test, analysis of variance, and multiple linear regression analyzed the factors associated with component needs. All the analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS version 25.0. Most participants (n = 434, 66.77%) had a poor understanding and participation in CTR. In addition, 65.38% (n = 439) of participants were willing to accept the Ne-CTR program, and 43.56% (n = 98) identified safety as reasons for not accepting such a program. In the group accepting Ne-CTR, 35% chose hospital-designed professional applications as a medium for Ne-CTR when offered. Education (4.44 ± 1.056) and drug information (4.44 ± 1.040) had the highest average need score. Education, monthly income, marital status, previous CTR participation, and health insurance were associated with the demand level scores of Ne-CTR. This study demonstrated high levels of need for Ne-CTR among patients with CHD and identified the desired medium, components, and associated factors of Ne-CTR. These findings provide reference information for the construction of a Ne-CTR program.

An Explainable AI framework for credit evaluation and analysis

Loan Facility is a profitable venture for the banking industry and can render great financial support to the beneficiary. The Global banking systems with secured private cloud are making the service reachable around the world around the clock. Loan acceptance and disbursal are governed by the protocol of the banks with the highest degree of privacy and integrity. As per the report of Experian, the loan acceptance rate of the banks has been reduced to 61%–70%, and it is further reduced to 50% post-pandemic since there is a huge financial setback and a higher rate of defaulters. The banks are not in a position to explain the reasoning behind the rejection since the rejection further diminishes the customers’ credit scores. With the parallel improvements in Industry 5.0, futuristic banking could evolve around Non Fungible Tokens (NFT) integrated Explainable AI (XAI) framework which can interact with the customer through the human-machine interface in the meta-verse. For such a kind of system, the proposed work could be a driving application which provides explanations for the loan rejection, with the Random Forest integrated XAI framework that provides the reasons for acceptance and rejection of the loan. The proposed Random Forest-based approach rendered the highest accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 0.998, 0.998, and 0.997, respectively. The LIME and SHAPELY Explainers provide explanations with local and global surrogates of various parameters on the features.

UNNECESSARY PRETRANSFUSION BLOOD SAMPLING IN TRAUMA AND ORTHOPAEDICS IN WALES: A SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE AND FINANCIAL BURDEN

BACKGROUNDTheatre-listed trauma patients routinely require two ‘group and save’ blood-bank samples, in case they need perioperative transfusion. The Welsh Blood Service (WBS) need patients to have one recorded sample from any time in the last 10 years. A second sample, to permit cross-matching and blood issuing, must be within 7 days of transfusion (or within 48 hours if the patient is pregnant, or has been transfused within the last 3 months). The approximate cost of processing a sample is £15.00.AIMTo investigate whether routine pretransfusion blood sampling for trauma admissions exceeds requirements.METHODSElectronic records were used to collect pretransfusion sampling data for all adult non-elective trauma patients listed for theatre under a trauma and orthopaedics consultant between 1/1/2023-31/1/2023. Data were collected on unnecessary samples, rejected samples and total excess samples.RESULTS113 patients (mean age[±SD] 64.09[±19.96]) underwent 132 procedures. On average, unnecessary sampling occurred at a rate of 0.48 samples per operation, equating to a cost of £945.00/month. Samples were rejected by the laboratory at a rate of 0.25 samples per operation. Common reasons for rejection were ‘patient date of birth discrepancy’ (between sample and request form), ‘patient address discrepancy’ and ‘signature discrepancy’. Overall, total excessive sampling occurred at a rate of 0.60 samples per operation.CONCLUSIONNearly half of trauma patients undergo unnecessary blood testing in anticipation of potential perioperative transfusion. This has implications for sustainability, financial cost and patient welfare. This signals poor understanding of WBS requirements and is an area that requires improvement.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination willingness and humoral vaccination response in radiation oncology patients

BackgroundSARS-CoV-2 infection has been and, in some parts, still is a threat to oncologic patients, making it crucial to understand perception of vaccination and immunologic responses in this vulnerable patient segment. SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in relation to malignant disease characteristics and therapies have so far not been studied consecutively in larger oncologic patient populations. This study captures SARS-CoV-2 vaccination willingness and humoral immune response in a large consecutive oncologic patient collective at the beginning of 2021. Methods1142 patients were consecutively recruited over 5.5 months at a tertiary department for radiation oncology and were assessed for vaccination willingness via a standardized interview. In already vaccinated patients total SARS-CoV-2 S antibody titres against the spike protein (Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S) and were evaluated 35 days or later after the first dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. ResultsVaccination willingness was high with a rate of 90 %. The most frequent reasons for rejection were: undecided/potential vaccination after therapy, distrust in the vaccine and fear of interaction with comorbidities. Factors associated with lower vaccination willingness were: worse general condition, lower age and female sex. 80 % of the participants had been previously vaccinated, 8 % reported previous infection and 16 % received vaccination during antineoplastic therapy. In 97.5 % of the vaccinated patients Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S was detected. In a univariable analysis parameters associated with non-conversion were: lower performance status, spread to the local lymphatics (N + ), hematologic disease and diffuse metastases. All patients with oligometastatic disease achieved positive Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S titres. For patients with two vaccinations several risk factors were identified, that were associated with low antibody concentrations. ConclusionsSARS-CoV-2 vaccination willingness among oncologic patients was high in the first months after its availability, and most patients had already received one or two doses. Over 97 % of vaccinated patients had measurable anti-SARS-CoV-2 S titres. Our data supports early identification of low humoral responders after vaccination and could facilitate the design of future oncologic vaccine trials (clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT04918888).

Political Self-consciousness of Captured White General Staff Officers Based on the Materials of Soviet Questionnaires of the Early 1920s

Based on Soviet questionnaires of captured White General Staff officers of the early 1920s kept in the funds of the Russian State Military Archive, this article considers the problem of political self-identification of the “former” officers in Red captivity. The survey of former Whites was carried out to account for them. Sections of questionnaires about the prisoners’ attitude to the events of the February and October Revolutions, as well as about their current beliefs were of particular importance for assessing their views. The analysis of questionnaires as a mass historical source makes it possible to get an idea of the sociopolitical position of the group of captured White General Staff officers. On most issues, the prisoners’ views converged. As a rule, they accepted the February Revolution and did not accept the October Revolution. Also, they were highly critical of the old regime. Explanations of the reasons for the rejection of the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks are of considerable interest. For many, an acceptable answer was an indication of a lack of understanding of the tasks of the new revolution. At the same time, some pointed out the real reasons for such rejection, i.e. the Red Terror, the collapse of the old army, and the hard Brest peace treaty. The strategies used by the questionnaire compilers in answering acute and potentially dangerous questions draw the researchers’ attention. Often, the answers indicated that the revolution was of a popular nature, and the author of the questionnaire sought to serve the people or welcomed the rule of the people and was in solidarity with the policy of the RCP(b). Some authors, not wanting to express their true views, declared the need to work honestly for the benefit of society. The “former” tried to give answers that would appeal to the new superiors and regulatory authorities, which would allow them to integrate into the command structure of the Red Army more quickly and remove from themselves the discriminatory status of former White officers who were on special registry.

Rejection of Fecal Immunochemical Tests Within the Lower Gastrointestinal Diagnostic Pathway: A Cohort Study.

The fecal immunochemical test (FIT) helps triage primary care patients at risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). Improving FIT returns has received recent attention, however uncertainty exists regarding the accurate completion of samples provided for laboratory analysis. This study aims to identify the rejection rate of returned FIT samples and determine rejection causes. FIT samples from symptomatic patients within South Yorkshire, Bassetlaw, and North Derbyshire are processed at a central laboratory. Tests requests are made from 225 GP practices, which serve an estimated 2 million population. This study describes a retrospective review of FIT samples received in the central laboratory between 01/09/19 and 31/12/22. Locally held data was interrogated in March 2023 to determine the number of FIT samples received and rejected during the study period. Documented reasons for rejection were explored to identify common themes. Total FIT specimens received during the study period was 126 422. Of these, 5190 (4.1%) were rejected. Monthly rejection rates fell from 17.4% in September 2019 to 1.3% in December 2022 (P < .001). Sampling errors were the most frequent cause for FIT rejection (2151/5190), with other causes including: expired specimen; no sample collection date/ time, no request form, incomplete patient information and illegible handwriting. This is the first study exploring FIT rejection rates in symptomatic primary care patients, which shows improvements in rejection rates over time. Targeted interventions could improve rejection rates further, thereby reducing NHS resource use and costs and diagnostic delays.

주취살인에 대한 법원의 양형 동향 분석

The purpose of this study is to derive implications after analyzing trends related to the courts’ decision on mental disorder defense and the consideration of intoxication in sentencing in homicide under intoxication cases. In order to achieve this goal, the first trial judgments sentenced over the past two years in Korea were collected as subjects of analysis. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, in the case of homicide under intoxication, the attack on acquaintances, the manslaughter, and the use of weapons were found to be far more common than the attack on strangers, the murder, and the non-use of weapons. In addition, there were many cases of unmotivated murder while intoxicated. Second, except for one case, the rest of the mental disorder defenses were rejected, and one case in which a minor mental disorder was accepted was not commuted. The main reasons for rejection were prediction and preparation of crime in advance, a clear mental state at the time of the crime, an attempt to conceal evidences, and the memory of the circumstances of the crime. Third, in most cases that reflected the defendants’ intoxication as the sentencing factors, intoxication was considered in favor of sentencing. Furthermore, courts suspended prison sentence in more than half of these cases. This trial practice does not meet the purpose of the sentencing committee’s sentencing criteria, which recommends that alcoholic intoxication should not be reflected as a sentencing factor.

Vaccination Refusal During Pandemic Period

Identifying the causes of vaccination refusal is important in determining strategies to combat them. In a study examining the refusal of COVID-19 vaccines based on the 3C model of vaccine rejection, formed by the World Health Organization's vaccine rejection working group (SAGE) in Malaysia, the most common reason for vaccine rejection was found to be doubt on the efficacy and safety of the vaccine. In the model defined by SAGE as the 3C, three cs are defined as confidence (confidence in the vaccine), complacency (necessity of the vaccine), convenience (suitability for the vaccine, access to the vaccine). In the same study, misinformation was shown as an important reason for vaccination refusal

Inappropriate Use of Submission and Rejection Emails for Advertising Revision Services and Congresses

Finding a niche journal for the submission of an academic paper can sometimes be a challenge for authors, and finding the right choice may involve a series of submissions and rejections. Emails from editors and journals related to the submission or rejection of a paper should be strictly related to these purposes, i.e., to inform authors that their paper has been received, outline the subsequent editorial handling or peer reviewer steps in the former, or the reasons for rejection in the latter. This paper highlights four cases of - in the author’s opinion - the abuse of such emails by COPE member journals and publishers (Emerald Publishing Ltd., Springer Nature, Elsevier, Wiley) to advertise for-profit English revision and editing services and/or conferences, as a way to maximize these emails for a dual purpose, namely to inform authors of submission-related aspects (valid communication) while also trying to obtain clients and thus business for non-submission-related aspects (invalid communication). Since an abuse of email-based communication for non-academic purposes is an ethics-related matter, there is a need for systematic research of this potential abuse of emails from both COPE member and non-member journals.

Impact of potassium test sample rejections on routine laboratory service, South Africa.

Accurate potassium measurements are necessary for effective clinical management of hyperkalaemia. Pre-analytical factors may affect laboratory measurements, leading to erroneous results and inappropriate patient management and negatively impact the efficiency and finances of laboratories and hospitals. This study evaluated the impact of rejected potassium test requests on laboratory service. We conducted a retrospective descriptive study to assess potassium test data at a public laboratory in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa, using samples collected from an academic hospital, peripheral hospitals, and outpatient clinics between January 2018 to December 2018. We assessed the relationship between reasons for rejection and health facility type, as well as financial implications for the laboratory. The potassium result rejection rate was 15.1% (29 806 samples), out of the 197 405 requests received. The most common reasons for rejection were old sample (> 1 day old) (41.4%; 12 348 rejections) and haemolysis (38.2%; 11 398 rejections). The most frequent reason for rejections at the central, academic hospital was haemolysis (42.0%), while old sample was the most common reason for rejection at peripheral hospitals (43.4%; 4119/9493 requests) and outpatient health facilities (57.2%; 7208/12 605 requests) (p = 0.022). The total cost of potassium sample rejection over the study period was substantial, given the resource constraints in this setting. Peripheral hospitals and outpatient departments accounted for the majority of rejected potassium testing results, possibly resulting from delays in transportation; causing substantial financial impact on the laboratory. Improved sample collection, handling, and expedited transportation are recommended. This study highlights the importance of appropriate sample collection and handling and the undesirable consequences of non-adherence to these pre-analytical considerations.

Reject Analysis in Digital Radiography and Computed Tomography: A Belgian Imaging Department Case Study.

Reject analysis is usually performed in digital radiography (DR) for quality assurance. Data for computed tomography (CT) rejects remains sparse. The aim of this study is to help provide a straightforward benchmark for reject analysis of both DR and CT. This retrospective observational study included 107,277 DR and 20,659 CT during 18 months in a tertiary care center. Rejected acquisitions were retrieved by Dose Archiving and Communication System (DACS). The DR and CT reject analysis included reject rates, reasons for rejection and supplementary radiation dose associated with these rejects. 8,904 rejected DR and 514 rejected CT were retrieved. The DR reject rate was 8.3% whereas the CT reject rate was 2.5%. The cumulative effective dose (ED) of DR rejects was 377.3 mSv while the cumulative ED of CT rejects was 1267.4 mSv. The major reason for rejects was positioning for both DR (61%) and CT (44%). This study helps constitute a simple reproducible method to analyze both DR and CT rejects simultaneously. Although CT rejects are less often monitored than DR rejects, the radiation dose associated with CT rejects is much higher, which emphasizes the need to systematically monitor both DR and CT rejects. Investigating the reasons and the most frequently rejected examinations gives an opportunity for improvement of imaging techniques in cooperation with technologists.

Safety and Proven Risk Assessment on the Release of Wolbachia-Inserted Aedes Aegypti: Lesson Learned from the Partial Resistance of the Community

Aims: to describe the basis of partial rejection from the community regarding the government's plan to expand the range of releases of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes which have been inserted with the endosymbiont bacteria Wolbachia spp. to reduce the incidence of dengue hemorrhagic fever and offers a more rational approach based on community based medicine to educate massively first before expecting community participation.&#x0D; Discussion: Aedes aegypti which laboratorily inserted with Wolbachia, an endosymbiont bacterium, naturally occurring in insects is actually a great success story in several countries, e.g., Brazil. In Jogjakarta, Indonesia this success story also repeated even though unfortunately when the government tries to expand the programme, some part of the community reject it. Lack of sufficient community education perhaps become the main reason of rejection from those who do not understand yet regarding the benefit.&#x0D; Conclusion: Tackling social determinants of Health is necessary in order to make a national programme can be implemented and receive support from the community.

OP71 Road To Public Funding Of Cancer Codependent Technologies In Australia In The Last Ten Years

IntroductionIn Australia, cancer codependent technologies (cCDTs) mostly comprise a biomarker targeting medicine and a companion diagnostic test (CDx). Health technology assessment (HTA) of cCDTs is carried out to inform funding deliberations on CDxs by the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) and on personalized medicine by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC). To understand the strengths and weaknesses of this dual assessment mechanism, we studied the journey of cCDTs in getting funding support from the two committees since the introduction of the codependent technology evaluation framework.MethodsPublic summary documents summarizing deliberations by each committee were reviewed from 2012 to 2022. Information was retrieved on the patient indication, date, biomarkers related to the tests, and PBAC or MSAC funding outcomes. The alignment of HTA decisions, time taken until dual funding approval (if approved), and the reasons for discrepant and negative decision-making were determined.ResultsFrom 2012 to 2022, a total of 26 cCDT applications were submitted to PBAC and MSAC, corresponding with 43 paired PBAC/MSAC considerations and 11 single committee considerations. Non-small cell lung cancer and programmed cell death ligand 1 were the most frequently nominated cancer and biomarker test, respectively. When a cCDT was submitted in the same decision round to both committees, 60 percent of funding decisions were aligned, reaching 73 percent when the considerations were made separately (resubmissions). Only 9 percent of considerations received polarized, where one committee supported and the other committee rejected funding. After multiple resubmissions, 73 percent of cCDTs obtained dual funding support after an average of 34.8 weeks, with considerations by PBAC and MSAC occurring an average of 2.3 and 1.9 times, respectively.ConclusionsMost cCDTs obtain funding support, but only after multiple resubmissions to PBAC and MSAC. Polarized decisions are rare. Reasons for rejection primarily relate to uncertain clinical benefit and an unacceptably high incremental cost-effectiveness ratio.

Prevalence, profile, causes and prognostic factors of surgical rejection in patients with left-sided infective endocarditis

Abstract Background Despite the benefits of cardiac surgery in infective endocarditis, a high proportion of patients with surgical indication are not operated, which worsens their prognosis profoundly. Several attempts have been done to study this group of patients, but many aspects remain unclear so far. Purpose To analyze the prevalence, to describe in detail their characteristics, to determine the reasons for the denial and the prognostic factors of these patients in the widest series to date of patients with surgical indication but not operated. Patients and methods We included in an ongoing multipurpose database, all patients with definite left-sided infective endocarditis admitted in three Spanish tertiary hospitals from 2005 to 2022. We describe the clinical, epidemiological, microbiological, echocardiographic characteristics of patients with surgical indication according to the European guidelines who did not undergo surgery and compared with those patients operated on. We also analyzed the reasons of the denial and finally, through a univariate and multivariate analysis, determine the independent factors of in-hospital mortality of these patients. Results Of a total of 1105 patients with left-sided infective endocarditis of our series, 893 had surgical indication (81%) and 219 did not undergo surgery (19.8%). The main reason for surgical rejection was very high risk determined by an endocarditis team (56%), followed by stroke (25%), death before surgery (15%) and patient rejection (0.7%). The most frequent surgical indication of patients who were not operated was uncontrolled infection (50.4%). Patients not operated were older (73 vs 63; p&amp;lt;0.001), more frequently female (38.8% vs 29.5%; p=0.01), diabetic (34.7% vs 24.4%, p=0.003) and chronic renal failure (27.4% vs 11.3%; p&amp;lt;0.001). At admission they had more stroke (21.5% vs 12.1%; p=0.001) and septic shock (13.2% vs 6.9%; p=0.03). Staphylococcus aureus (34.7% vs 16.5%; p&amp;lt;0.001) and echocardiographic vegetations (92.7% vs 85.3%; p=0.005) were more frequent whereas Streptococcus viridans (8.2% vs 17.7%; p=0.001) and severe valvular regurgitation (64.8% vs 74.6%; p=0.005) were less frequent. In hospital mortality of patients not operated was 63.9%, significantly higher than operated patients (23%; p&amp;lt;0.001). The only independent risk factor of in-hospital mortality in patients with surgical indication who did not undergo surgery was persistent infection (HR 3.689; CI 95% 1.75-7.78). Conclusions A very high proportion of patients with definite left-sided infective endocarditis had surgical indication according to the European guidelines, but a quarter of them were not operated. Very high surgical risk was the main reason for the denial. They were older, had more comorbidities and a more aggressive microbiological profile. Mortality of these patients was three times higher than operated patients.

Opinions, Attitudes and Factors Related to SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Uptake in Eight South American Countries.

This article presents attitudes and practices regarding COVID-19 vaccination in the South American population. The study collected data from a self-administered survey distributed through social media platforms between February and April 2022 (N = 6555). The survey included questions related to participants' sociodemographic background, flu vaccination practices, sources of information about COVID-19, and opinions regarding pandemic management and vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. The respondents agreed with the statement that COVID-19 vaccines were necessary (86.4%), effective (79.8%), safe (79.1%), and should be mandatory (64%). Overall, 83.4% accepted vaccination and 12.3% refused it completely. Main rejection reasons were safety (65.8%) and efficacy (54.9%) issues, and rushed development and approvals (49.1%). Vaccine uptake was associated with being ≥60 years, being a healthcare worker, previous influenza vaccine uptake, adherence to preventive measures, the death of ≥1 close people from COVID-19, and being informed through mass media or health authorities' channels. Vaccine uptake inversely correlated with male gender, low educational level, and use of closed social networks for COVID-19 information purposes. This study provides valuable insights into COVID-19 vaccination attitudes and practices in South America that may be used to promote vaccine uptake in the region. Higher COVID-19 vaccination acceptance among people with previously acquired prevention habits reinforces the importance of routine health promotion strategies.

Preanalitik Hataların Altı Sigma Metodu ve Pareto Prensibi Analizi ile Değerlendirilmesi

Aim: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the preanalytical errors over a five year period using the Six Sigma methodology and Pareto Principle in the clinical biochemistry laboratory. Methods: Five-year sample rejection data between January 2015 and December 2019 in the clinical biochemistry laboratory were analyzed and classified according to the reasons for rejection. Six Sigma levels for the total and each preanalytical error were calculated with Westgard online formula. Preanalytical errors were evaluated according to their frequencies ranks and percentages with Pareto's principle. Results: The overall rate of five-year total critical preanalytical errors was 1.91% and the sigma level was 3.6. According to Pareto's chart, the three most common errors among the five-year preanalytical rejections were clotted sample (42.49%, sigma value:4), insufficient sample (23.53%, sigma value:4.2), and wrong container (8.01%, sigma value:4.5). Conclusion: Six Sigma is a quality management methodology used to evaluate laboratory performance processes according to universal quality criteria. Calculated sigma values of preanalytical errors in our laboratory were within the acceptable range. However, planned regulatory activities for frequently observed preanalytical errors should be a laboratory management strategy to reduce these error rates and improve our laboratory performance.

Bias in Science Arbitration: An Authorship Viewpoint

The objective of this article was to discuss the potential bias in arbitration of unknown researchers’ scientific work in reputable journals. Publishing an article in a quality international journal is a dream that global graduate students would have. Some institutions would oblige graduate students to publish at least one article in an impactful journal before they can graduate. However, students’ efforts might lead to failure and make them disappointed. The lack of inadequacy of experience in writing scientific papers despite conducting quality research may be a sound reason for failure in timely publication. In addition, however, a major bias in arbitrating unknown authors’ science may be another reason for rejection. The second reason or challenge requires profound contemplation to be overcome. The global science is integrated and thus should be adjudicated in a fair and unbiased global scale regardless of authors’ names and institutions. To conclude, the novel content of a scientific work and not the authors’ or institutions’ reputation, must be of original importance in accepting scientific articles. Education will play pivotal roles in minimizing bias in global science arbitration.

Lessons Learned from the Pandemic in the UAE: Children COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Its Impact on the Choice of Distance versus Face-to-Face Learning Modalities: An In-Depth Analysis of a National Study.

This study addresses the crucial aspect of childhood COVID-19 vaccination and its impact on parental decisions concerning learning modalities during the pandemic. This study aimed to gauge parental hesitancy towards vaccinating their children and its influence on choosing between distance and face-to-face learning options. Following STROBE guidelines for cross-sectional studies, this study surveyed 1973 parents in the United Arab Emirates using Google Forms during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results revealed that while more than half of the parents (51.6%) were willing to vaccinate their children if the COVID-19 vaccine was accessible and affordable, a significant majority (91.2%) expressed concerns about the rapid vaccine development process, which was the primary reason for vaccine rejection. Interestingly, a sizable portion (55.3%) had experienced online learning in the previous academic term, and, of those, 59.6% believed it negatively influenced their children's academic performance. Consequently, 66.4% expressed intent to shift their children back to face-to-face learning once feasible. Significantly, parents with medical backgrounds were more inclined (91.6%) to opt for face-to-face schooling compared to those without such backgrounds. Logistic regression analysis indicated associations between sociodemographic characteristics, educational level and background, and the decision to return children to face-to-face learning. Interestingly, when it comes to vaccine hesitancy, a noteworthy connection exists between the parents' reluctance to vaccinate their children and their preference for distance learning. In fact, parents who responded negatively to vaccinating their children against COVID-19, if the vaccine was available, showed a clear preference for the distance learning modality (p-value < 0.0001). This study underscores the complex interplay of factors and community perspectives shaping parental acceptance of childhood COVID-19 vaccination. The development pace of vaccines significantly influences parents' attitudes and beliefs about vaccination programs. Parents' medical backgrounds exhibit a clear correlation with their perceptions of sending children back to school safely. This highlights the potential impact of parental medical knowledge on decision making, emphasizing the need to consider parents' professional backgrounds when devising education- and vaccination-related policies.

Consumer acceptance of edible coatings on apples: The role of food technology neophobia and information about purpose

Edible coatings (wax) increase the shelf life of fresh apples by reducing water loss and slowing deterioration. Without edible coatings, over a third of apple production is wasted prior to reaching the retailer. However, due to consumer demand for ‘natural’ products major grocery retailers in Australia recently removed edible food coatings from apples. The reasons for rejection of coatings by Australian consumers are not well understood. Furthermore, it is unclear how much consumers understand about why edible coatings are applied to apples or if educating consumers on their benefits can influence their attitudes. In two online experiments (n = 156, n = 466) after collection of baseline data, participants were randomised into three conditions, in which each received a different education statement about the purpose of edible coatings. Analysis of variance and post hoc comparisons were used to test if the acceptance of coated apples was impacted by information and whether there was an interaction with food technology neophobia (FTN) (Experiment 2). Providing educational information about the purpose of apple coating significantly increased consumers’ acceptance of coatings in both experiments (F(2,153) = 6.316, P = 0.002, ŋ2 = 0.076; F(2,463) = 19.935, p ≤ 0.001, ŋ2 = 0.079). A significant inverse relationship was found between FTN and acceptance (R = −0.618, P < 0.001), however, no significant interaction was found between the intervention and FTN, demonstrating that all participants were impacted by information, regardless of their level of FTN. This knowledge may help in designing effective campaigns that inform consumers on the benefits of edible coatings, whilst at the same time meeting consumers’ desire for ‘naturalness’.

Assessment of X-ray films and image quality in diagnostic radiology departments of teaching hospitals in Iraq

Background: Patients undergo repeated X-ray examinations after their initial X-ray radiographs are rejected due to poor image quality. Reject analysis in digital radiography (CR) helps guide the education and training of staff, influences department workflow, reduces patient dose and improves department efficiency. The role of reject analysis in providing relevant information that would help achieve a sound reduction in radiation exposure. Aims:To assess the reasons for X-ray film rejection and to analyze reasons for deletions to improve the radiological services. Methods: The data were collected from about 200 rejected films from different hospitals in Iraq from January 2021 to August 2021. The reject rate, reasons for rejection for individual radiographers, examination types and projections used a structured format on which investigators recorded relevant data for rejection. The results were then collected and entered into a database for analysis. Results: Reject rate and cause of rejection were measured across all plane X-ray examinations for the hospitals in Kirkuk General Hospital at 8.1%, Mosul General Hospital at 13.9% and Al-Jumhory Hospital at 6.4%. Study cases and (appointment) 16.1%, Mass & Kv with positioning error 3.7%. The examinations with the highest percentage of deleted images were the chest, lumber spine & knee joints, 13.2%, 3.2% and 1.7%, respectively. Conclusions: Creating awareness among the student reduces the overall reject rate. The outcome of this study can be used to set up training programs to improve radiological services and reduce unnecessary radiation exposure to patients.