Healthcare access and consequences of COVID-19 were assessed based on comparisons with months before its onset or an identical season in previous years. A general reduction of healthcare delivery, associated with the decline of care quality, and closure of many specialty services were reported. The impact was heterogeneous in space and time, with an increase in urban areas at the beginning of the pandemic (March-June 2020). The return to normalcy was gradual from the 3rd quarter of 2020 until the end of 2021. The impact of COVID-19 on the health system and its use was attributed to (a) conjunctural factors resulting from government actions to mitigate the spread of the epidemic ; (b) structural factors related to the disruption of public and private facilities and institutions, in particular, the health system; and (c) individual factors linked to the increase in costs, impoverishment of the population, and fear of contamination or stigmatization, which discouraged patients from going to health centers. They have caused considerable socio-economic damage. Several studies emphasized some adaptability of the healthcare offer and resilience of the healthcare system, despite its unpreparedness, which explained a return to normal activities as early as 2022 while the COVID-19 epidemic persisted. There appears to be a strong disproportion between the moderate incidence and severity of COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa, and the dramatic impact on healthcare access. Several articles make recommendations for lowering the socioeconomic consequences of future epidemics to ensure better management of health issues.This overview aimed to describe the situation of healthcare access in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa, during the COVID-19 pandemic. A PubMed The numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), excluding South Africa which accounts for nearly half of the reported COVID-19 cases in SSA, have been lower than in other continents for reasons that remain unclear . HoweverAccording to the COVID-19 dashboard edited and updated daily by the WHO Africa Regional Office, the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in Nigeria on February 28, 2020, and in Senegal on March 2, 2020, in travelers .Access to healthcare requires that five specific dimensions be met: (a) availability, which reflects the adequacy between supply and demand, (b) accessibility, which implies geographical and logistical proximity between the patient and the health center, (c) accommodation, i.e. good quality services adapted to the needs of the public, (d) affordability for the population concerned, and (e) acceptability of the healthcare offered by people and health personnel .A review of the literature during the COVID-19 pandemic period provided an overview of the situation of healthcare access and use of the healthcare system by the population in SSA countries excluding South Africa. This study aimed to identify the main impacts of reduced access to care by mentioning the causes identified by practitioners and researchers involved in the pandemic.® was searched using the keywords "COVID, Africa, Public health, Impact" targeting publications published from March 31, 2020, to August 15, 2022. Articles were selected in two steps, without language restriction  , 101-103Across the SSA, there has been a decline in access to sexual and reproductive health services, institutional delivery, antenatal care, family planning, and HIV care. An increase in teenage pregnancies has been reported . In MozaChildhood vaccinations  have fallen sharply, leading to a worrying reduction in immunization coverage, raising fears of a resurgence of these diseases , 89, 108In specialty services, including cardiology, urology, rheumatology, radiology, oncology, ophthalmology, and dentistry, visits have declined by more than 50% or even stopped in some places , 117.People with chronic diseases had great difficulty accessing essential medicines during the COVID-19 lockdown, leading to deteriorating health conditions for most of them , 94, 113The decline in blood donation began as soon as COVID-19 was announced, leading first to an interruption in mobile blood drive campaigns and then to the closure of blood donation centers in most countries . In NigeThe impact of COVID-19 on health services was very heterogeneous across localities - generally higher in urban than in rural areas - and over time, with a strong increase in the first months of the pandemic, and then according to the epidemic waves, which were not synchronous in different countries , 112. A Vulnerable populations, including transgender people, sex workers, and drug users, were turned away from medical services, especially sexual and reproductive health services , 93.However, several studies noted a gradual improvement between epidemic waves and a certain capacity to adapt the healthcare supply , 112, anAccess to healthcare was directly affected by the governmental measures taken to contain COVID-19 , 108. ThInadequate health system preparedness was reported. It was due to (A) low availability of the health service, (B) inadequate resources and equipment, and (C) lack of appropriate testing, and therapeutic response for COVID-19 . The redA large proportion of the population refused to visit health centers for fear of contamination and stigma , 119.Many healthcare workers refused to care for patients for fear of contracting the virus themselves , 94, 99.The exacerbation of pre-existing barriers  has been highlighted by vulnerable populations to explain their reluctance to visit health centers , 118.Finally, all the specific dimensions necessary to maintain healthcare access - as described by Penchansky and Thomas  were hamNearly all studies showed a sharp decline in healthcare activity and access during the early months of the pandemic, followed by a gradual return to normal starting in the third quarter of 2020 and continuing through the end of 2021 . The hetIn any case, the authors are unanimous in describing the socioeconomic disorganization caused by the government measures, making them unacceptable to the population to the point that they were quickly relaxed. Three types of factors explained the decline in healthcare access: conjunctural, linked to government measures for the mitigation of transmission; structural, resulting from the dysfunction of the health system; and individual, involving the reactions of health personnel and the population.The Public Health and Social Measures Severity (PHSM) index can be applied to the governmental response to the epidemic  to assess its impact on the epidemic . A high Government restrictions have been responsible for the loss of huge numbers of jobs, especially in the informal sector, and resources that have led to a dramatic decline in purchasing power and prevented patients from accessing basic healthcare, which is their sole responsibility in most SSA countries , 57, 61.Finally, rumors (infodemia) from all sources, and misconceptions or misinformation about diseases and healthcare, contributed to discouraging people from attending health centers, but also to school dropout and a range of psychosocial consequences such as mental health disorders, domestic violence, and prostitution , 120.The overall unpreparedness of the health system  was obvious and greatly accentuated the disorganization of the health system caused by conjunctural factors , 118. AdThe health information system and mandatory reporting were severely disrupted, preventing surveillance and the implementation of targeted interventions . This maThe delay or reduction of many healthcares, interruption of services, mitigation of transmission risk strategies or recommendations, difficulties in the supply of drugs and health products, high cost of the latter, and the shortage of essential medicines discouraged people who suspended their seek for healthcare , 84, 94.Many factors have been put forward to explain the population's reluctance to travel, including visiting a health center. In addition to personal reasons, primarily the fear of contamination and resulting stigmatization, as well as the drop in income that limits many activities, conjunctural factors  and structural factors  explain the refusal to consult and the lack of access to healthcare. Fear of contamination, for themselves or their relatives, also concerned most health workers, especially those who had never experienced a major epidemic , 83, 118Several studies have successfully tested strategies to address the observed deficiencies. Improved service delivery relies on technological innovations and adaptations, such as the use of self-tests, telemedicine through telephone or videoconferencing for diagnosis or prescription of drugs, and the use of drones for the distribution of health products 37, 71. Patient flows and supply of health products, including personal protective equipment, need to be regulated , 46, 84.Training of health workers in patient intake and management, and improvement of alternative diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, such as appropriate drug dispensing  would help to anticipate difficulties that are bound to arise in accessing healthcare, in the supply of drugs, or health facility access , 119.The role of community health workers in the management of patients with conditions other than COVID-19, particularly in the most vulnerable slums and rural areas, requires stronger support and recognition , 85, 119Misinformation and rumors should be controlled by appropriate information strategies with clear and simple messages, targeting community and opinion leaders, including religious ones, artists, and trusted individuals , 38, 63.Finally, legislation on domestic violence and the maintenance of constant surveillance, including in times of restricted movement and social disorganization, should be adjusted , 76.This study was not intended to be exhaustive or to detail changes in healthcare access, but to identify the main impacts of COVID-19 on the organization and use of the health system in SSA. The outcomes of a literature review, such as this one, depend largely on the quality of the studies, i.e., their representativeness, the validity of the samples selected, and the relevance of the analyses performed. The procedures used to select the samples, the decision criteria, the presentation of the results and their discussion were not of the same quality according to the study, even if all the articles came from indexed peer-reviewed journals. In addition, health centers were not randomly selected, and some sample sizes were small. However, despite these limitations, the convergence of the raw data supported the validity of the results. The decline in healthcare access appeared in all studies with similar levels and kinetics over time, giving them credibility.The causes of the impact of COVID-19 on access to healthcare are multifactorial. However, restrictive government measures limiting travel, transport, supply, and the opening of public places, including shops and places of entertainment or worship, have blocked all social and economic activities with considerable deleterious consequences. The disorganization affected the whole of society, including the health system which was not prepared for it. In addition, at the individual level, the fear of contamination, reduction in income, economic and social disorder, in particular the loss of confidence in the health system, and stress increased by the infodemia explained the population's reluctance to healthcare access , 120. ThFortunately, although healthcare access was severely hampered , the retThis epidemic, coming after many others, such as the one due to the Ebola virus , will be


Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been widely used for their potential applications, mainly for the diagnosis and/or therapy (theranostic) of several diseases in the field of nanomedicine, as passive contrast agents, through the opsonization process, or active contrast agents, after their functionalization and the subsequent capture of the signal using various techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), optical imaging, nuclear imaging, and ultrasound. MNPs are also used as carriers for the delivery of drugs, which can be guided or accumulated through the action of a magnetic field, as well as magnetic biosensors in molecular imaging, magnetic separation, or therapeutic applications, such as the technique magnetic hyperthermia (MHT). These nanoparticles, when functionalized using different therapeutic agents, such as radionuclides, nucleic acids, and antibodies, can be used in combined therapies.The various configurations of MNPs in the design of structures, chemical compositions, and surfaces enhance their properties, giving the character of multifunctional nanoparticles and thus permitting their simultaneous use in several molecular imaging techniques in a non-invasive way, providing morphofunctional information in different moments, characterization and quantification of biological processes at the cellular and molecular levels, and accurate and timely diagnosis and individualized treatment of diseases . Technological innovations and the development of new tracers and intelligent probes have further promoted these multimodal imaging techniques, providing better contrast and functional, structural, and morphological information.This Special Issue of Pharmaceutics highlights advances in the development of MNPs and their applications in the field of diagnosis and therapy in various diseases in in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo studies.Of the papers presented in this Special Issue, five papers studied therapies ,2,3,4,5,One of the therapeutic applications of MNPs is their use in the MHT technique, where, due to the MNP heating process, apoptosis of tumor cells is produced when an alternating magnetic field is applied. Therefore, in the publication by Andrade et al. , calciumThe publication by Abbas et al.  developeReferring to studies using MNPs for diagnosis, the work by Nucci et al.  determinIn the work of Li et al.  and HuanThe reviews by Gomez et al.  and AhmaIn general, in this Special Issue, original articles and literature reviews are published that allow for understanding the importance of MNPs and potentiate their functionalization aiming at theranostic processes, giving future perspectives to this type of nanomaterial.


The National School for Training in Mental Health Rehabilitation and Recovery at the Ono academic college operates under the auspices of, and is funded by, the Division for Mental Health Rehabilitation of the Israeli Ministry of Health. Intended to hone the quality of services provided, it offers numerous training courses, that target various populations associated with and working in the field of mental health recovery, among them clients and their family members, as well rehabilitation professionals and support personnel. The novel course of trauma and posttraumatic growth (PTG) was developed and aimed at supporting recovery, coping strategies and ultimately PTG through the lenses of both recovery and trauma informed care for psychiatric and support personnel, professionals with lived experience, and family members. It is built of eleven six hours long sessions with lectures, in-vivo assignments, and group supervision.Portray the development, implementation, and outcomes of the course from psycho-educational, clinical, social, and personal perspectives of students as well as the course’s developers.A case study of the course that will be portrayed through qualitative anonymous testimonials from students’ surveys and assignments, as well as the analyses of processes that the course underwent through the years.The course has several dimensions that allow the integration between trauma, recovery, and PTG in psychiatric rehabilitation: the integration between academia and research-based knowledge with experiential knowledge; integration between the perspectives of PTG and recovery; and, integration between social and cultural perspectives and person-centred care. In addition, the course promotes trauma-informed models in psychiatric rehabilitation; offers new perspective and implantation to psychiatric recovery-oriented tools so as to promote PTG; and enhances social support and cohesion within mental health services and personnel.The current case study portrays the unique processes of knowledge development, implementation, and training in psychiatric rehabilitation personnel, supported staff and people with lived experience. The course brings a focus on PTG as a promising addition to the trauma-informed approach in psychiatric rehabilitation, which is only scarcely linked to recovery.None Declared


The occurrence of African swine fever has restricted the sustainable and healthy development of the hog industry and its ability to enhance the supply of pork, thus negatively impacting China’s economic and social development. During 2018–2021, the resilience of China’s hog industry improved due to the adjustments to the prevention and control mechanisms in African swine fever policy and the subsequent recovery of hog breeding and pork production. There are differences among the key factors influencing the resilience of the hog industry across different provinces and periods. These factors include the slaughter rate, carcass weight, mortality rate, culling rate, economic level, industrial structure, per capita consumption, scale level, resource carrying, etc. The aim of this study is to provide guidance for better prevention and mitigation of epidemic risks, thus promoting the high-quality development of the hog industry and meeting the nutritional needs of residents.African swine fever has damaged the foundation of China’s hog industry, caused a serious decline in hog production, highlighted the contradiction between supply and demand in the pork market, and led to major economic and social impacts. The industrial resilience of 31 Chinese provinces to African swine fever shock and its spatial and temporal differentiation characteristics from 2018 to 2021 were measured in this study from the two dimensions of resistance and recoverability. Using Geodetector, the key factors influencing the resilience of China’s hog industry were explored. The results showed that 2018–2019 and 2020–2021 represented the resistance and recovery periods of the hog industry under African swine fever shock, respectively, with poor resilience characterizing the resistance period and improved resilience characterizing the recovery period. At the early stages of the African swine fever outbreak, the hog industries in Tianjin, Shanxi, Guangxi, and Yunnan had robust resistance due to the slaughter rate, economic level, mortality rate, carcass weight, and culling rate in those areas. At the most severe stage of the outbreak, resistance was generally poor in all provinces due to the slaughter rate, per capita consumption, and scale level at the time. During the period of rapid recovery in hog production, the recoverability of each province was very strong due to the industrial structure, culling rate, economic level, and resource carrying capacity at that time. During the reasonable adjustment period of hog production capacity, the recoverability based on the breeding sow inventory in 13 provinces, including Henan, Shandong, and other large hog-breeding provinces, was negative due to the scale level, slaughter rate, per capita consumption, and resource carrying at that time. Taking measures to enhance the resilience of the hog industry, strengthen the prevention and control of hog epidemics, improve the monitoring and early warning mechanisms, and enhance the ability of the hog industry to cope with major animal epidemics is recommended. According to a traditional Chinese saying, “hogs and grain can stabilize the nation”. The hog industry occupies a key strategic position in China’s national economic and social development. Since the reform and opening up, the development of China’s hog industry has achieved remarkable results, but it still faces many outstanding problems and practical challenges. In particular, the outbreak of African swine fever in 2018 had a significant negative impact on both the hog industry and the pork market, severely challenging the foundation of the industry, leading to a severe decline in hog production, exacerbating the contradiction between supply and demand in the pork market, and pushing up the prices of livestock products across the board. In 2019, the number of hogs slaughtered began to fall, declining by 21.6% year on year, and pork production fell by 21.3%. In addition to the impact of cyclical factors, the effect of the African swine fever shock on hog price fluctuations that began in the second half of 2019 was exceptionally obvious, with prices surging and becoming an important factor driving up China’s consumer price index (CPI). At the same time, African swine fever caused major problems, such as a shortage of breeding sows, the retention of ternary sows, and the low productivity of sows in general, which severely impaired the sustainable development of the hog industry. Compared to the hog epidemic and avian influenza of previous years, the impact of African swine fever was much greater and deeper and had more obvious and negative effects on China’s national economic development, as well as on the production and lives of the Chinese people.To cope with the negative impact of African swine fever and accelerate the recovery of hog production, the Chinese government has intensively launched a series of policy initiatives, including infrastructure, agricultural machinery purchase, manure resource utilization, standardization demonstration, resumption of production support, epidemic prevention and control, finance and insurance, etc., which have entailed breakthroughs in terms of land use, prohibition, and breeding restriction policies. In 2022, China’s hog inventory reached 452.56 million heads, which was up 0.7% from the previous year, when the breeding sow inventory reached 43.90 million heads, representing an equivalent increase of 1.4%; hog slaughter reached 699.95 million heads, increasing by 4.3%; pork production reached 55.41 million tons, increasing by 4.6%; and hog production capacity was set within a reasonable range. According to another traditional Chinese saying, “Family money with animals does not count”, referring to the major risk of animal disease incurred in livestock breeding. At present, China still faces challenges, including a wide range of diseases, considerable capacity issues with respect to total hog breeding capacity, weak epidemic prevention and control, and a large risk of the introduction of foreign animal epidemics into the country. The future prevention and control of major animal epidemics cannot be ignored. In this context, to accelerate the improvement of hog industry resilience, building a safe and effective pork market “defense system” is of great practical importance.There are currently no domestic or foreign studies on the resilience of China’s hog industry and its influencing factors, and the related literature has placed a greater focus on exploring the relevant impact mechanisms. Studies have concluded that epidemics exert a high negative impact, can cause severe economic losses, and pose a major threat to the livelihoods of farming households in developing countries ,2,3. EpiEpidemics have a major impact on price fluctuations in the hog market, and “behind every round of large swings in hog prices, there is a lingering shadow of epidemic disease” ,16,17. UThus far, the literature on resilience has focused on the agricultural and macroeconomic fields, and its research paradigm and research methods have important reference value for this study. From the perspective of agricultural resilience, factor analysis, coupling coordination degree, and other methods have been used in the literature to study the characteristics, laws, and synergistic strength of agricultural economic resilience and high-quality agricultural development ; the entConsidering that the resilience of China’s hog industry has not been systematically measured in the literature, and that the relevant influencing factors have yet to be explored, examining resilience is of great practical importance for promoting the stable and orderly development of the hog industry and ensuring the safe and effective supply of the pork market. Therefore, two core variables, namely, the inventories of hogs and breeding sows, were selected for this study, and the industrial resilience and spatial and temporal characteristics of 31 provinces that faced the impact of African swine fever in 2018–2021 were systematically measured. In the study, the two dimensions of resistance and recoverability are used, the influencing mechanism of the resilience of China’s hog industry is investigated through Geodetector, and relevant countermeasures and recommendations for policy and production decisions are finally proposed.Based on the theory of regional economic resilience, two indicators were selected—namely, the inventory of hogs, and that of breeding sows—as the core variables of this study, used to measure the resilience of the hog industry to the impact of African swine fever by measuring its resistance and recoverability. Resistance focuses on the ability of the hog industry to avoid the decline caused by the impact of African swine fever, while recoverability focuses on the ability of the hog industry to adapt and recover through its own vitality, external thrust, and other factors. Under the impact of African swine fever, this study focuses on the resistance of the hog industry to falling from its normal level and the recoverability of the hog industry from such a fall back to its normal level.rResistance denotes the resistance of the hog industry, iresV denotes the inventory of hogs or breeding sows in province r in year i during the resistance period, and i−V1res denotes the inventory of hogs or breeding sows in province r in year i − 1 during the resistance period.The formula for calculating resistance is as follows:rRecoverability denotes the recoverability of the hog industry, irecV denotes the inventory of hogs or breeding sows in province r in year i during the recovery period, and i−V1rec denotes the inventory of hogs or breeding sows in province r in year i − 1 during the recovery period.The formula for calculating recoverability is as follows:q denotes the driving force explanatory factor, which has a value range of 0–1. A larger value indicates that the influencing factor has a higher degree of explanation regarding the resilience of the regional hog industry; h = 1,2 …; L is the number of classifications; hN and N denote the number of sample units in stratum h and in the whole region, respectively; and hσ2 and σ2 denote the variance in stratum h and in the whole region, respectively.In this study, Geodetector was used to detect the relationships between various factors and the resilience of the hog industry in each province of China, and to search for the factors with the most explanatory power. Geodetector is a statistical method used to detect spatial heterogeneity and reveal the driving force(s) behind it, including factor detection, interaction detection, risk area detection, and ecological detection . The speTo explore the key factors that affect the resilience of the hog industry, regional economic theory, the actual development of the hog industry, and the existing research foundation were combined for this study, and the four dimensions of the development foundation, scientific and technological support, basic security, and epidemic shock were analyzed. Regarding the development foundation, four main indicators were considered: economic level, industrial structure, market share, and per capita pork consumption. Regarding scientific and technological support, four main indicators were considered: hog slaughter rate, carcass weight, scale breeding degree, and labor productivity. Regarding basic security, three main indicators were considered: the comparative efficiency of hog breeding, resource carrying capacity, and technical service level. Finally, regarding the epidemic shock, three main indicators were considered: the number of cases, mortality, and the culling rate of African swine fever. In general, the better the development foundation of the hog industry, the higher the level of scientific and technological support and basic security, and the more robust the resilience of the hog industry. Furthermore, the more intense the impact of African swine fever, the weaker the resilience of the hog industry. The relevant influencing factors and the methods for calculating the resilience of China’s hog industry are shown in China Statistical Yearbook, the China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Yearbook, the National Compilation of Cost and Benefit Information of Agricultural Products, and the Official Veterinary Bulletin of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China. Some of the data were specifically treated in the following ways: (1) Tibet lacks market prices for hogs and corn, so they were replaced in this study with the corresponding average prices across the country. (2) Labor productivity in hog breeding is measured by the ratio of total output value per head to the average number of laborers on large, medium, and small farms; however, there is a lack of data for the small farms in Beijing, Shanghai, and Tibet. For medium farms, there is a lack of data for Shanghai and Tibet. Finally, for large farms, there are data gaps for Tibet and Ningxia. Therefore, national average data were utilized to fill these gaps in this study.The period of 2018–2021 was chosen as the research period because the African swine fever outbreak began in 2018, while by 2021 the epidemic was better controlled and hog production had recovered to its previous normal levels. The study unit consisted of 31 provinces in China, excluding Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. The basic data for this study were obtained from the Before examining the resilience of the hog industry and its influencing factors, it was necessary to identify the resistance and recovery periods for the hog industry. After the African swine fever outbreak was first diagnosed in China’s Liaoning Province in August 2018, it spread rapidly across the country in just eight months. The inventories of hogs and breeding sows decreased by 3.04% and 4.71% in 2018 compared to the previous year, respectively, and by 27.50% and 27.70% in 2019 compared to the previous year, respectively. At the end of 2019, the Chinese government formulated and implemented the Three-Year Action Program for Accelerating the Resumption of the Development of Hog Production to promote the accelerated recovery of hog production to its normal levels in previous years. In 2020, the inventories of hogs and breeding sows increased by 30.96% and 35.09%, respectively, compared to the previous year, and the production capacity of hogs effectively recovered to a normal level in 2021, increasing by 10.51% and 4.02%, respectively, compared to the previous year . TherefoBased on this, and considering the hog industry resilience measurement method and basic data, the resilience of the hog industry and its spatial and temporal characteristics were calculated. In terms of resistance, in the early stages of the African swine fever outbreak, i.e., 2018, Tianjin, Shanxi, Guangxi, and Yunnan all had positive resistance, and the positive resistance of Shanxi and Xinjiang was based on the inventory of breeding sows, indicating that the hog industry in these provinces was not negatively affected by African swine fever and maintained a relatively normal development trend. The five provinces with the worst resistance were Beijing, Shanghai, Fujian, Ningxia, and Tibet, which are all areas with relatively weak hog breeding bases; Liaoning Province, where African swine fever was first diagnosed, was also hit relatively hard. The main reason for this was the outbreak of African swine fever that occurred in the second half of 2018, which spread quickly and widely in a relatively short period. During that period, however, the epidemic had not yet spread to all parts of the country, and there were still some areas that had not been affected or were less affected by the epidemic.In 2019, when African swine fever was at its most severe state, aside from the positive resistance level of the hog industry in Ningxia based on the inventory of breeding sows, the resistance of other provinces as based on hog or breeding sow inventories was negative, indicating that the resistance of the hog industry was generally poor during the most severe period of the epidemic. The main reason for this was that African swine fever had appeared in China for the first time, and neither government departments nor hog farmers had mature knowledge or experience in epidemic prevention and control. This fact, coupled with irrational epidemic prevention and control policies and a poor level of epidemic awareness, caused a more serious market panic and artificially deepened the impact of African swine fever. The five provinces with the worst resistance based on hog inventories were Beijing, Jiangsu, Hainan, Qinghai, and Shanghai, and the five provinces with the worst resistance based on breeding sow inventories were Beijing, Hainan, Qinghai, Jiangsu, and Guangdong. From the point of view of large hog-farming provinces, Hunan, Sichuan, and Yunnan Provinces were affected by the impact of African swine fever to varying degrees, but the resistance was high, and the impact was contained to a relatively moderate level.In terms of recoverability, when the recovery of hog production accelerated, in 2020, the recoverability of the hog industry in 31 provinces was positive based on the inventories of hogs or breeding sows, indicating that the hog industry nationwide had been showing continuous accelerated recovery and had strong recoverability. The top five provinces in terms of recoverability based on their hog inventories were Beijing, Jiangsu, Qinghai, Shanghai, and Tibet, and the provinces at the bottom of this ranking were Shaanxi, Jilin, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Heilongjiang; the top five provinces in terms of recoverability based on the breeding sow inventory were Qinghai, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hainan, and the provinces at the bottom of this ranking were Tibet, Shaanxi, Guangxi, Jilin, and Yunnan. The reason for the generally strong resilience of the hog industry in 2020 was mainly that the government had implemented a series of policies to prevent and control African swine fever and had vigorously promoted and supported hog farming, which included the issuance and implementation of policy documents such as the Three-Year Action Program for Accelerating the Resumption of the Development of Hog Production, which resulted in a very high level of activism among local governments and large-scale farms, aimed at resuming and expanding hog farming. During the piglet shortage period, for the rearing and expansion of the purchase of hogs, ternary sows or backcross sows bred as binary sows, crossbred sows bred as purebred hogs, and other phenomena became more frequent among many farm households; moreover, the birth of foreign piglets was pursued by domestic hog farms.In 2021, two provinces showed negative recoverability based on their inventory of hogs, namely, Ningxia and Shanghai, while the recoverability based on the inventory of breeding sows was relatively more negative, spanning 13 provinces, including Henan, Shandong, and other large hog-breeding provinces. The main reason for this is that, in 2020, the year of accelerated recovery of hog production, many farm households blindly and disorderedly expanded the healthy development of the hog industry, which caused potentially severe problems. It has also been factually demonstrated that due to the unregulated expansion of hog farming, hog market prices in 2021 appeared to fall off a cliff and experienced the strongest “hard landing”, which resulted in many farms experiencing the “epidemic impact loss–high price profits–price plunge loss” “roller coaster” of the “second blow”. To ensure the orderly development of the hog industry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China issued and implemented the Hog Production Capacity Control Implementation Plan  in 2021, which clearly proposed stabilizing the hog production capacity within a reasonable range. The 14th Five-Year Plan period had the effect of stabilizing the normal retention of breeding sows at approximately 41 million, with a minimum retention of no less than 37 million, causing many provinces to reduce the numbers of breeding sows.In this study, the resistance and recoverability of the hog industry in each province was taken as the dependent variable, and 14 indicators in four dimensions, i.e., development foundation, scientific and technological support, basic security, and epidemic shock, were taken as independent variables. After the data of the independent variables were discretized by using the natural breakpoint method of ArcGIS, we applied the factor detection and interaction detection of Geodetector to analyze the resistance and recoverability of the hog industry in China. The spatial differentiation of the factors affecting the resistance and recoverability of China’s hog industry was also analyzed. Regarding the factors that influence resistance in the hog industry, in the early stages of the African swine fever outbreak in 2018, the five indicators with the highest explanatory power regarding resistance based on the inventory of hogs were the slaughter rate, economic level, mortality rate, carcass weight, and culling rate, while the five indicators with the highest explanatory power regarding resistance based on the inventory of breeding sows were the slaughter rate, economic level, carcass weight, mortality rate, and culling rate. Contrasting these two sets of factors, one can see that they appear to be the same indicators, revealing that the scientific and technological support capacity, the economic development level, and the epidemic shock had a large impact on the resistance of the hog industry in the early stages of the African swine fever outbreak. The higher the level of economic development, the more fundamental advantages the development of the hog industry has, and the stronger its resistance. The more severe the African swine fever shock, the greater the impact on the hog industry and the weaker its resistance. In general, the slaughter rate and carcass weight reflect the level of scientific and technological development, and these factors show a positive relationship with the resilience of the hog industry, i.e., the higher the slaughter rate and the carcass weight, the stronger the resilience of the hog industry. However, the extent of the impacts in the early stages of the African swine fever outbreak cannot be solely based on the general situation, as this extent is affected by information asymmetry and many other factors. Many farmers who were experiencing market panic and other influences accelerated their slaughter activities, which resulted in a substantial increase in the hog slaughter rate and a sharp decrease in carcass weight. The slaughter rate and the carcass weight at that time both demonstrated that simply increasing the level of industry resilience is not sufficient.In 2019, when the African swine fever outbreak was at its worst, the five indicators with the highest explanatory power for resistance based on the hog inventory were the slaughter rate, per capita consumption, scale level, economic level, and the number of cases, while the five indicators with the highest explanatory power for resistance based on the breeding sow inventory were the per capita consumption, slaughter rate, technical service, labor productivity, and scale level. When contrasting these two sets of indicators, it can be seen that the indicators for both resistance bases were the slaughter rate, per capita consumption, and scale level. As mentioned above, when an outbreak of African swine fever occurs, many hog farmers accelerate their slaughter efforts, resulting in a different slaughter rate from that of normal years, and the abnormal slaughter level of hog farming is directly related to a lack of resilience. During the period of African swine fever’s most serious impact, large-scale farms had a better foundation and stronger advantages than small-scale farms and free-range farmers, and their resistance to the impact of African swine fever was greater. This is because the higher the scale level, the greater the resistance and resilience of the hog industry. The epidemic impact also caused a decline in hog production capacity that led to pork supply shortages, and residents’ consumption and other demand-side factors became important factors affecting the resistance of the hog industry.Regarding the factors influencing the recoverability of the hog industry, in 2020, which was the year of rapid recovery in hog production, the five indicators with the highest explanatory power for recoverability based on the inventory of hogs were industrial structure, slaughter rate, culling rate, economic level, and resource carrying capacity, while the five indicators with the highest explanatory power for recoverability based on the inventory of breeding sows were resource carrying capacity, labor productivity, culling rate, economic level, and industrial structure. The shared indicators were the industrial structure, culling rate, economic level, and resource carrying capacity. The industrial structure reflects the advantages of the hog industry. The higher the industrial structure, i.e., the higher the proportion of the output value of the hog industry in the total agricultural output value is, the more dominant the hog industry is in the region, the better the foundation for its development, and the more robust its recovery and resilience. The culling rate reflects the severity of the impact of African swine fever; hence, the higher the culling rate, the more severe the epidemic and the greater the threat to the resilience of the hog industry. In addition, hogs are grain-fed livestock. Thus, the better the resource base is, the stronger the carrying capacity, the more secure the feed grain for the development of the hog industry, and the stronger its recoverability and resilience. The mechanism of influence of the economic level on the resilience of the hog industry is the same as that noted above.In 2021, when hog production capacity was reasonably adjusted, the five indicators with the highest explanatory power for recoverability based on the hog inventory were the scale level, slaughter rate, resource carrying, per capita consumption, and economic level, while the five indicators with the highest explanatory power for recoverability based on the breeding sow inventory were the scale level, slaughter rate, per capita consumption, labor productivity, and resource carrying. Contrasting these two sets of indicators, the indicators that apply to both are the scale level, slaughter rate, per capita consumption, and resource carrying capacity. The degree of scale and the slaughter rate reveal the level of scientific and technological support during the reasonable adjustment period of hog production capacity. Scale is the inevitable requirement for the high-quality development of the hog industry, and the slaughter rate reflects the scientific and technological level under normal circumstances. Both had a positive impact on the recoverability and resilience of the hog industry in the adjustment period of hog production capacity. The influence mechanism of per capita consumption and resource carrying capacity is consistent with the above.Regarding the results of the interaction detection for resistance and recoverability in the hog industry, it can be seen that the effect of any two factors interacting on the resistance and recoverability divergence pattern of the hog industry is greater than the effect of any one factor alone on the spatial divergence pattern of resistance and recoverability, indicating that the relevant effects of the resilience of the hog industry are all integrated effects. In addition, the resistance based on the inventory of hogs underwent a two-factor enhancement of 27 in 2018, and the corresponding number of two-factor enhancements for resistance and recoverability in the period 2019–2021 was 16–17; resistance based on the inventory of breeding sows was a two-factor enhancement of 26 in 2018 and of only 3 in 2019, and the corresponding two-factor enhancements for recoverability in 2020–2021 were all 11; all remaining factor interactions were nonlinear enhancements. For example, the scientific and technological support factor and the epidemic shock factor together affected the resilience of the hog industry. Epidemic shock will inevitably affect the scientific and technological support factor, and when African swine fever occurs, indicators such as the hog slaughter rate will be affected to varying degrees. In 2018–2019, China’s hog slaughter rate was significantly higher than the normal annual level, at 162.04% and 175.32%, respectively.In this study, we applied two core variables, namely, the inventory of hogs and that of breeding sows. We measured the industrial resilience and its spatial and temporal characteristics in 31 provinces of China that were faced with the impact of African swine fever, from the perspectives of both resistance and recoverability. We then explored the influence mechanism of the resilience of China’s hog industry using Geodetector, and we obtained the following research conclusions:First, the periods of 2018–2019 and 2020–2021 represent the resistance and recovery periods of the hog industry under the impact of African swine fever, respectively, with the industry showing poor resilience in the resistance period and good resilience in the recovery period. The increase in the resilience of China’s pork industry was mainly due to the adjustment of the policy for the prevention and control of African swine fever, as well as the implementation of the policy for the recovery of hog breeding and pork production.Second, there were differences in the resistance and recoverability of the hog industry across different provinces and periods under the impact of African swine fever. In the early stages of the African swine fever outbreak, Tianjin, Shanxi, Guangxi, and Yunnan had strong levels of resistance. In the most severe stage of the African swine fever outbreak, the resistance of the hog industry in all provinces was generally poor. In the period of rapid recovery in hog production, the recoverability of all provinces was very strong. In the reasonable adjustment period of hog production capacity, the recoverability of the 13 provinces, including Henan, Shandong, and other large hog-breeding provinces, was negative based on their inventories of breeding sows, which resulted from active policy regulation.Third, there were differences in the key factors that influenced the resilience of the hog industry across different provinces and different periods. In the early stages of the African swine fever outbreak, the slaughter rate, economic level, mortality rate, carcass weight, and culling rate had the highest explanatory power for the resistance of the hog industry; in the most severe period of the African swine fever outbreak, the slaughter rate, per capita consumption, and scale level had the highest explanatory power for the resistance of the hog industry. In the period of rapid recovery in hog production, the industrial structure, culling rate, economic level, and resource carrying had the highest explanatory power for the recoverability of the hog industry. Finally, in the reasonable adjustment period of hog production capacity, the scale level, culling rate, per capita consumption, and resource carrying had the highest explanatory power regarding the recoverability of the hog industry.Based on the above research conclusions, the following countermeasures are suggested: First, the level of resilience of the hog industry should be improved. It is necessary to accelerate the construction of the modern hog industry system, production system, and business system, to promote the modernization of breeding, processing, circulation, sales, and other high-quality development factors of the entire industry chain, and to further enhance the resilience of the industry chain, supply chain, and security level. We need to continuously cultivate new industries, new forms, and new modes, focus on improving the levels of industrial integration and development, further extend the industrial chain, improve the value chain, stabilize the supply chain, and enhance the resilience of the hog industry by internalizing risks. We should strengthen disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief capacity building, support the hog breeding insurance system (particularly regarding the prevention and control of major epidemics), and further consolidate the risk prevention foundation of the hog industry, as well as its risk transfer capacity.Second, the prevention and control of hog epidemics should be strengthened. The initiative, foresight, and precision of epidemic prevention and control policies should be enhanced, and short-term emergency response, long-term effective response, and market shock regulation and control should be improved. The construction of a hog disease prevention and control system should be promoted by comprehensively covering both the industrial chain and the supply chain, including breeding, slaughtering, processing, circulation, and sales. We need to strengthen the establishment of grassroots animal disease prevention and control teams and enhance the level of technical training. We should optimize biosecurity, culling, vaccination, and other means of prevention and control, and improve epidemic reporting, culling subsidies, and other systems. We should strengthen the integration and demonstration of technologies for the prevention and control of major animal diseases, including African swine fever, and widely promote effective models for epidemic prevention and control. We must accelerate the promotion of innovation in key core technologies for the prevention and control of major animal diseases, and promote scientific research on African swine fever vaccines.Third, the monitoring and early warning mechanisms should be improved, as should the mechanisms underlying hog epidemic risk identification, market monitoring and early warning, and the regular release of information, reports, and plans. We should concentrate professional talents in the fields of agricultural economics and information technology, rely on big data, cloud computing, and other intelligent technologies, scientifically collect international and domestic information, conduct real-time simulations, and make response plans. Based on one national standard and one set of data, the uniformity and authority of information should be improved. We need to abandon the “internal reference” and other old concepts and old ways, so that the data and information are open and transparent to the whole society, and every producer, consumer, researcher, and policymaker can access the relevant information to avoid market panic and confusion.


Colomesus, we conducted a survey the parasite fauna of Colomesus tocantinensis collected from the Tocantins River, Brazil. We first recorded the presence of the ectoparasites Ergasilus colomesus and Lernaea sp. where 96.77% of the fish were parasitized.Considering the lack of studies on freshwater fishes of the genus  The Tocantins River is composed of the Tocantins-Araguaia basin and is located in the Legal Amazon. It originates in the state of Goiás and runs northward for 2500 km, passing through the states of Tocantins, Maranhão, and Pará . The TocColomesus comprises only three fish species, two of which are freshwater: Colomesus asellus  and C. tocantinensis Amaral et al., 2013, both endemic to South America and distributed throughout the Amazon and Tocantins-Araguaia basins, respectively  in 2018. The procedures for necropsy of the hosts and collection, preservation, and preparation of parasites were performed according to the methods reported by Thirty-one individuals of Lernaea sp.  are freeborn, and after actively infecting the host, they undergo metamorphosis until they reach the adult stage and reproduce , and aposematism  , which cividuals , it is uC. tocantinensis, analyzing for the first time the record of two species of ectoparasites (Lernaea sp. and E. colomesus) for this host. We emphasize the need for further study, as existing studies on the biology and ecology of this species are limited.Our study provides new insights on the parasitic fauna of


The authors would like to clarify the affiliation list of the published article to correctly show where the work was conducted. In the original article, the affiliation at the time of publication of one author (Ramzi Dhahri) was listed as Laboratory of Physics of Materials and Nanomaterials Applied to the Environment, Faculty of Sciences of Gabes, University of Gabes, Erriadh, 6079, Gabes, Tunisia. However, this author also had a second affiliation which was regretfully omitted: Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Najran University, P.O. Box 1988, Najran, 11001, Saudi Arabia. The corrected list of affiliations at the time of publication of the original article is presented here.The Royal Society of Chemistry apologises for these errors and any consequent inconvenience to authors and readers.


It is with deep sorrow that we mourn the passing of the virologist Professor Jianguo Wu. He devoted his life to the research of viruses, and was still working until the end of his life. His death is a great loss to the international virology community. Here, we summarize his significant contributions to the development of virology, the construction of scientific research platforms, and social services in epidemic prevention and control. Through commemorating our beloved virologist, we are inspired to continue to work hard in his spirit of persistent struggle against viruses.Professor Jianguo Wu was born in Jishui County, Ji’an, Jiangxi Province, China. From 1978 to 1985, he studied at Wuhan University and engaged in virology research. He went to the United States in 1989 and obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Idaho in 1992. From 1993 to 1996, he engaged in postdoctoral research in molecular biology at Princeton University, and he worked here as a research fellow for another 3 years. In 1999, he resolutely gave up the preferential treatment in the United States and went back to his motherland, China. He worked diligently at Wuhan University for more than 20 years. After retiring, he continued to engage in teaching and research at Jinan University, and also made remarkable achievements there. As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, he devoted himself to work on SARS-CoV-2 testing and research until the end of his life.Professor Wu conducted virology research with an emphasis on elucidating the molecular mechanisms of infection, immunity, and the pathogenesis of important human viruses, and the molecular epidemiology of newly emerging viruses. He was devoted to the study of the pathogenesis of human hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). He revealed several important functions of hepatitis B virus x protein (HBx), like its roles in cell apoptosis, transformation, and tumorigenesis ,2,3. TheThe influenza virus has been endangering the life and health of human beings for a long time. Professor Wu was also committed to investigating the epidemiological characteristics of influenza viruses , exploriEnteroviruses, particularly Enterovirus 71 viruses, always attracted Prof. Wu’s research interest. He made great achievements in studies about the epidemiological characteristics ,38 and mAfter retiring from Wuhan University, Professor Wu’s focus shifted to the Pearl River Delta area in China, where Zika and Dengue, of flavivirus, are the more prevalent viruses in the region. He reported the molecular epidemiology and molecular mechanisms of the pathogenesis of Dengue virus , and revThe outbreak of SARS and COVID-19 brought great harm to society, and Prof. Wu conducted in-depth and systematic research on SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 ,55. TheiIn addition to the studies on the viruses mentioned above, Wu’s team also explored the molecular pathogenesis of viruses including Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) , HIV-1 , mumps vAs a national high-level talent introduction, Professor Wu’s scientific research career was supported by governments at all levels. He presided over more than 30 scientific research projects, including major national science and technology projects, 973 national program projects, and key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. When returning to China and taking up his post at Wuhan University, he devoted himself to the establishment of the State Key Laboratory of Virology (SKLV), played an extremely important role in the establishment of the SKLV, and worked as its director from 2006 to 2016. After retiring, Prof. Wu continued to shine in the virology field. He worked as the president of the Institute of Medical Microbiology at Jinan University . He and Under the leadership of Prof. Wu, these research platforms have produced good scientific output, served local education and scientific research, and contributed to local economic development.Throughout his career, Prof. Wu made outstanding achievements. He published over 230 papers in scientific journals, and he was selected as one of the most cited Chinese Researchers in 2021 by Elsevier. He was also granted 32 authorized national invention patents. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Wu’s company  donated free disinfection and sterilization products to the community, which solved the problem of supply shortage. This selfless dedication received praise from the local government . In recognition of his outstanding contribution, he received 30 awards in the last 25 years. They included the first prize for Natural Science in Hubei Province, the second prize for Natural Science in Yunnan Province, the second prize for life chemistry research in Yaoming Kant, the first prize for outstanding team in the implementation of national science and technology plan, and the first prize for excellent academic papers in Natural Science in Hubei Province. His honors also include a special allowance provided by the government of the State Council, Excellent Foreign Experts of the People’s Government of Hubei Province, Top Ten Young and Middle-Aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions in Hubei Province, Advanced Individuals of New Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurship in Hubei Province, etc. In short, Prof. Wu made indelible contributions to education, virology research, and the welfare of society. He achieved many great things in his short life. We pay tribute to our beloved teacher with this article to express our deep thoughts for him.


The German immigration to the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil, began in the 1920s. Between 1824 and 1922, 142 German colonies were created in Rio Grande do Sul, and it is estimated that, in this period, about 50 thousand Germans arrived in the state..In this group of immigrants, Augusto Heinrich Rohde, Luiz Rohde's great-grandfather, arrived in 1857. On January 14, 1936, Luiz Rohde was born, the youngest son of Augusto Emílio and Erna Rohde, fruit of a union that generated eight children, in the locality of Paraíso do Sul, in the municipality of Cachoeira do Sul, 200 km from Porto Alegre (RS), in the central region of the stateAfter an initial school education in his region, in Cachoeira do Sul, Luiz completed the high school and soon the inclination to study medicine arose. Since then, it could be noted in the young Luiz Rohde marks that would be perennial in his character and in the example he would set for all those who were his students in the future: discipline, rectitude, education, and concern for the well-being of all with whom he had the opportunity to know and relate to.He studied medicine at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, where he joined in 1955 and concluded in 1961, having been chosen valedictorian of the class. At the same institution, another characteristic of Rohde was already evident: in the graduation speech, he drew attention to the need for creating a local university hospital to improve the training of doctors. Therefore, very early on he had the vision of what would be most important for the education of medical students. After completing the medical course, he was accepted, by a public tender at the University of São Paulo (USP), in the state of São Paulo (SP), in the residency in General Surgery, from 1962 to 1964.It was also in 1964 that Luiz Rohde married Vera Guedes Paim, newly graduated from the dermatology residency at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). They had two children: Luis Augusto and Luis Eduardo. They also chose to study medicine and pursue teaching like their father, and are currently full professors at UFRGS, respectively, in psychiatry and cardiology. The example of the medical parents stimulated the development of their careers, being nowadays two of the most outstanding professors at the university with worldwide relevance in their fields. In addition, they gave Luiz Rohde some of his greatest joys: his grandchildren Catarina and Pedro, and the latter is also studying medicine to take forward the third family generation in the profession chosen by Luiz Rohde.Fundação Faculdade Católica de Medicina de Porto Alegre – FFCMPA) , working at this institution for 22 years.In 1965, after returning to Porto Alegre, Rohde took over as an assistant professor at the Catholic College of Medicine of Porto Alegre , in 1975.There were hundreds of students and over a hundred residents in General and Digestive Surgery who had the privilege of being trained by Professor Luiz Rohde over the years. He was chosen as an honoree or class sponsor of the medical classes of 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1980, 1981, 1983, and 1984. At FFCMPA, he developed his full potential as a teacher, surgeon, and researcher. He defended his Titular Professor thesis entitled While working at the Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Porto Alegre, a teaching hospital of that institution, he was head of the surgical wards number 30, 40 and 36, the latter known throughout the state since then as the “Infirmary of Professor Rohde,” where most of the graduates who opted for surgery longed to intern.Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre – HCPA) was just beginning its activities, he worked in the infirmary of Santa Casa, under the coordination of UFRGS, thus being able to develop activities in both schools at the same hospital.Rohde also dedicated himself to the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Hired as a professor in 1978, by public tender, at a time when the General Hospital of Porto Alegre , and Bariatric Surgery Group. He has repeatedly advocated the importance of sub-specialization as a source of improvement in specialized medical care for patients and teaching and research in the Department of Surgery and in HCPA in the area of digestive surgery. Subsequently, he was elected head of the General Surgery Service of HCPA in 2005/2006.During the period in which he was head of the Department of Surgery, he strongly acted on the teaching of General Surgery to students and residents, creating the subareas and groups of surgical activity in the digestive tract: Esophageal and Stomach Surgery Group, Liver Group, Pancreas and Bile Duct GroupFaculdade de Medicina – FAMED) of UFRGS. Driven by the occasion of the centenary of UFRGS, in 1998, Rohde led a bold project to build the new FAMED building, bringing it to the HCPA, forming the current Health campus with other related schools. Thus, the visionary and pioneering side of Luiz Rohde appeared in a way that left an enduring legacy, gathering FAMED students in his teaching hospital in a definitive way.In 1993, he was elected director of the School of Medicine , alongside his friend Henrique W. Pinotti and other colleagues, gathering prominent specialists in the field of Digestive Surgery from all over Brazil.st Brazilian Week of Digestive System, held in Porto Alegre, which was the seed that allowed us to be, in 2023, in the XXII Brazilian Week of Digestive System.In 1994, he was elected president of the 1He was elected president of the Brazilian College of Digestive Surgery, term of office 1995 and 1996, and, following his predecessors, he greatly contributed to disseminating and valuing digestive surgery throughout the country.Furthermore, he was a member of other national and international medical societies and an emeritus member of the Brazilian College of Surgeons, the Brazilian Medical Association, the Brazilian Society for the Development and Research in Surgery, the American College of Surgeons, the World Association of Hepato-Pancreato Biliary Surgery, and president of the Academy of Medicine of Rio Grande do Sul (2009-2010). He made numerous study trips inside and outside the country. In Brazil, he participated in congresses, courses, and medical journeys in most states, with about 350 lectures given, visiting its main medical and university centers, where he learned about issues related to medical care, scientific research, and medical education, and contributed to their solution.Rotina em Cirurgia Digestiva (“Routine in Digestive Surgery”), which is already in its 5th edition, being a reference for many students and residents in the field of Digestive Surgery.He had almost a hundred scientific articles published in national and international journals. In 2005, he published the book In 2006, he founded the Digestive Surgery Service at HCPA, unanimously approved by the institution's specialties. Henceforth, over 50 residents have been trained in digestive tract surgery. During all these years, he was responsible for the surgical and academic training of numerous masters and doctors, some of them who are currently physicians and professors at FAMED and other educational institutions. In 2008, the renowned Council of UFRGS granted him the title of Professor Emeritus of the University.In 2018, he was honored with the nomination of the Service, which, from then on, was called the Prof. Luiz Rohde Digestive Surgery Service.We and so many others who know and relate to Professor Luiz Rohde have in him the example of leadership marked by education, rectitude of his conduct, and complete devotion to the art of operating and teaching. His time in the academy, in two Schools of Medicine, was enormously fruitful and continues to be up to now.. Perhaps, with it, we can capture some of the essence of this master in the art of operating and teaching:Better than talking more about Professor Luiz Rohde is to transcribe an excerpt from one of his many speeches“I understand medical education as an integrated whole and not as a simple sum of contents of medical disciplines and specialties. In teaching, in graduate programs and in residency, practice is the great motivator of learning. Problem-based learning. The end result should be the surgeon with deep knowledge, technical competence, ethical humanitarian training, and socially responsible performance. Physicians, especially surgeons, when making their decisions based on evidence, use science; and when they apply these decisions, they put art into practice. Science and art applied with competence, dedication, respect, and compassion are the characteristics that the best surgeons should have.”Teaching is done by words and example. Dear Master Rohde, your example lives on in all of us.


This year, 2023, the Brazilian National Immunization Program  is 50 years old. Established on September 18, 1973 by the Ministry of Health, the PNI became officially recognized in 1975, the year in which Law No. 6,259, dated October 30, 1975 came into force. The law),. Currently, there are more than 20 vaccines, capable of safely preventing various diseases, available for each stage of life according to the National Vaccination Schedules - children, adolescents, pregnant women, adults, the elderly and special populations .During this period, the commitment of SUS workers, such as the valuable collaboration of experts, researchers, health professionals, managers, partner institutions and the entire Brazilian society, has helped Brazil to achieve high vaccination coverage. Over the years, Brazil achieved control and elimination of several vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles, poliomyelitis, rubella, congenital rubella syndrome and neonatal tetanus, and the PNI became recognized, nationally and internationally, as a public health success story.A set of factors has contributed significantly to the progress and relevance of the PNI over these 50 years: vaccination campaigns, such as National Vaccination Day, D-Day against Polio, with a strong communication plan led by the Zé Gotinha character and the support of celebrity immunization ambassadors; strengthening surveillance and diagnosis actions for vaccine-preventable diseases; implementation of pharmacovigilance to monitor vaccine safety; the valuing and expansion of Primary Health Care, as a fundamental SUS strategy for health promotion, disease prevention and control; SUS management decentralization to municipal level; and tripartite administrative management, between the federal administration and the state and municipal health departments.However, the success of the PNI has been threatened by the recent decline in vaccination coverage, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing the risk of reintroduction and spread of vaccine-preventable diseases eliminated in Brazil, such as measles and poliomyelitis.The PNI offers conditions for Brazil to commit to meeting IA 2030, particularly in an integrated manner with Primary Health Care, through the country’s universal health system, the SUS, and through the national capacity for vaccine production, research and technological innovation. However, the success of IA 2030 in Brazil will depend on political commitment and effective measures, aiming to recover the high vaccination rates achieved over half a century of PNI activities.At the beginning of 2023 when the current government took office, important changes were implemented in the regulatory structure of the Ministry of Health, including the reformulation and expansion of the Program, whereby its status changed from General Coordination to Department and four new General Coordinations were set up in its current organization chart.Microplanning enables the planning and implementation of high-quality immunization activities.In its new configuration, the PNI has strengthened ties with various institutions, governmental and non-governmental bodies, and society in general, with the aim of promoting the National Vaccination Movement. This movement, one of the federal government’s priorities in conjunction with state and municipal governments, has the main objective of strengthening the SUS and the country’s vaccination culture.The PNI’s structure and tradition allow it to commit to IA 2030. Its relevance as an exemplary public health policy worldwide enables the Program to reaffirm its original commitment to reducing the transmission of vaccine-preventable diseases through integrated health surveillance and vaccine pharmacovigilance actions, and health innovation, promotion, prevention and protection actions.th anniversary of the PNI, which continues to be, and will be even more so, a source of pride for Brazil, hope for the future of our health and expression of the desire of Brazilian men and women to live in a country free from vaccine-preventable diseases.Everyone is invited to celebrate, with just pride, the 50


In recent years, China’s sub-healthy and aging populations have increased dramatically, giving rise to a series of health and wellness needs. People prefer health and wellness tourism activities instead of sightseeing tourism activities because of the increasing emphasis on safety and experience. Health and wellness tourism resources are a prerequisite for the development of health and wellness tourism. To critically reflect on China’s official tourism resource evaluation criteria, expert consultation was carried out by applying the Delphi method, and index weights were determined using the analytic hierarchy process. Through three rounds of expert consultation, a value evaluation system for health and wellness tourism resources was established and improved in three aspects: construction of an index system, selection of evaluation subjects, and grade discourse description, thus enhancing the feasibility and application value of the evaluation system. The system developed in this study not only enables a reflection on China’s official tourism resource evaluation criteria, but also presents a new approach in the value evaluation research of health and wellness tourism resources. Accordingly, the China National Tourism Administration encouraged all regions to develop their health industry and actively develop health and wellness tourism resources. After the promulgation of China’s national standard named National Health and Wellness Tourism Demonstration Base, the construction of health and wellness tourism destinations was launched nationwide, promoting the overall development of health and wellness tourism in China.China is the most populous country in the world and is also home to the world’s largest elderly population. In the 19th century, population aging began to increase in China, raising the demand for health, medical care, and elderly care. However, there is a shortage of elderly care professionals, and the quantity and high-quality supply of medical facilities and elderly care service institutions are extremely mismatched with existing social demands [Huang Di Nei Jing, the earliest Chinese medical book, recorded ancient people’s understanding and experience of health and wellness. Over time, the understanding of ‘health and wellness’ (Kang Yang in Chinese) has become multi-faceted. First, from the Chinese literal understanding, with ‘Kang’ for health and ‘Yang’ for nourishing of life, ‘Kang Yang’ means health and wellness. Secondly, from the perspective of industrial development, the word ‘Yang’ means pension, and ‘Kang Yang’ is defined as health and elderly care. In addition, China’s Office for Aging and The Blue Book of Health and Wellness are more inclined to define ‘Kang Yang’ as health, regimen, and elderly care. In The Blue Book of Health and Wellness published in 2017, health and wellness (Kang Yang in Chinese) is defined as activities that combine with the external environment to improve people’s body and mind, so that they can attain an optimal health condition. The concept of health and wellness tourism is clarified in the National Health and Wellness Tourism Demonstration Base (LB/T051-2016), which states that health and wellness tourism should include forms and functions such as longevity, healthy diet, and self-cultivation, with the aim of optimizing the physical and mental state of tourists [The Blue Book of Health and Wellness (2016) subdivides health and wellness tourism resources into five types: forest, climate, ocean, hot spring, and Chinese medicine. According to the business patterns, Li Weijie divides health and wellness tourism resources into four categories: migratory bird type, healing type, rural type, and comprehensive type [tourists . The Bluive type . Thus, tth century, China began to explore how to scientifically survey existing tourism resources and prepared a trial draft of relevant census specifications. In 1997, the Revised Plan of Tourism Resources Grading and Classification Program was formulated, and a simple fuzzy quantitative evaluation method of expert scoring was designed. On this basis, the national standard of Tourism Resources Classification, Survey and Evaluation was first promulgated in 2003 [Classification, Investigation and Evaluation of Tourism Resources (GB/T 18972–2017) was proposed in 2017 [At the end of the 19 in 2003 . The dev in 2017 . Tourismes GB/T 1972–2017 The sharp increase in the demand for health and old-age care ushered in health dividends, and the health and wellness tourism industry also ushered in a good development opportunity . Health Existing research on health and wellness tourism on the Web of Science and CNKI databases is largely foreign and focuses on medical health and wellness tourism, hot spring health and wellness tourism, and rural health and wellness tourism. However, Chinese research focuses more on forest health tourism, the health and wellness industry, rural health and wellness tourism, and the construction of health and wellness tourism destinations. As an example of the latter, in the 19th century, forest bathing tours started to emerge in Germany. By the 20th century, the forest bathing base in Bad Wörishofen in Germany was regarded to be the earliest forest health and wellness tourism destination. As a natural oxygen bar, the forest is a tourism resource integrating rest, exercise, and wellness. It provides hiking, sunbathing, aerobic walking, and other special tourism projects . ScholarFrom the perspective of demand and supply, Kaung Hwa proposed eight customer service elements of health and wellness tourism, including personnel service, environment, healthy diet, leisure, rehabilitation, unique travel experience, social activities, and physical and mental cultivation, and analyzed the health and wellness tourism preferences of elderly tourists . NikipelThe industrial revolution has promoted the rapid development of the healthcare industry, and modern medical technology has made the globalization of medical care possible. The problems of ethics and service quality supervision in the medical care system have hindered the rapid development of medical health and wellness tourism, which has thus attracted scholars’ attention and discussion. Karadayi-Usta and Serdar Asan propose a medical tourism service supply chain (MTSSC) model, which supplements the theoretical basis of medical health and wellness tourism service management . The COVThe relationship between supply and demand of health and wellness tourism, especially the demand side of tourists, such as psychological needs, physical needs, and the relationship between their motivations and behaviors, needs to be further discussed . For exaThe value evaluation research of tourism resources began in the middle of the 20th century, and the evaluation method was mainly qualitative. China’s tourism resource value evaluation started relatively late as compared to foreign research whereby tourism resource value evaluation research started in the 1970s. At the end of the 20th century, with the development of qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods, more subdivided research on the value evaluation of tourism resources appeared, and value evaluation of tourism resources showed a trend of refinement and diversification. Earlier qualitative evaluation can be traced back to the end of the 20th century, when Huang Minsheng assessed tourism resources in terms of resource value, development conditions, and benefits . Most scBased on tourism planning and the tourism value theory, Murtini et al. evaluated the tourism value of Ria Kenjeran beach from four aspects: attraction, infrastructure, suitability, and development strategy . VelascoThe Delphi method was created by RAND Corporation in 1946 and is widely used in comprehensive evaluation and scientific prediction studies in various disciplines . This meIn the late 20th century, American scholar T. L. Satty proposed the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) . AHP comRosenberg and Fishbein put forward the model of behavior and attitude measurement and evaluation in the same basic form . This evi is the weight of the ith factor, and Pi is the evaluation score of the ith factor. This study tries to improve the evaluation model by introducing the evaluation opinions of experts, administrators, and tourists, and assigning different weights to make it more suitable for the value evaluation of health and wellness tourism resources.Where E is the comprehensive evaluation value, n is the total number of factors, QClassification, Investigation and Evaluation of Tourism Resources (GB/T 18972–2017), that is, resource elements’ value, environmental value, and development and construction value are selected as the three first-level indicators. When selecting the second-level index, on the basis of China’s relevant evaluation criteria and domestic and foreign studies, the index is modified and added according to the characteristics of health and wellness tourism resources. Nine second-level indexes are selected, including tourism health value, cultural value, resource dependency, resource added value, environment quality, diversity, stability, location characteristics, and construction conditions. In the selection of the three-level index, starting from the three main characteristics of health, regimen, and elderly care, and referring to the index system constructed by domestic and foreign scholars, a total of 36 indicators are determined.The traditional three-level system is adopted to construct the evaluation index system of health and wellness tourism resources. The selection of the first-level index is mainly based on the first-level categories in the Biomedical Research Ethics Committee. Participant experts provided consent via email and telephone communication, thus the experts involved throughout the consultation process voluntarily agreed to participate in the study.Adhering to the principle of objectivity and comprehensive evaluation, the information of experts studying health and wellness tourism was randomly searched on the literature platform. Scholars were invited to participate in the expert consultation by e-mail and telephone, and 35 interviewed experts who voluntarily participated in the whole consultation were identified. The interviewed expert group was composed of experts in tourism geography, ecology, Chinese Traditional Medicine and other research fields, among which 28 were engaged in tourism research, accounting for 80%. This study was approved by The expert consultation questionnaire included three parts: the judgment of the importance of primary indexes, rationality of index system, and suggestions of index correction. Based on the increasing order of importance of indexes, they were divided into five dimensions, and assigned as 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 points in turn. The first round of expert consultation was conducted from August 17, 2021, to August 29, 2021. A total of 35 expert consultation forms were sent out by email and all of them were collected. After analyzing the first round of expert consultation, the index system was modified, and a second round of questionnaires was formed. The second round of expert consultation took place from December 1, 2021, to December 8, 2021, with no change in the list of experts. A total of 35 expert consultation forms were distributed and all of them were collected. All the consultation questionnaires were completed and valid, and the effective recovery rates of the first and second rounds were 100%.The final index system was determined through the first two rounds of expert consultation, and the pairwise importance comparison matrix of three levels was constructed respectively to form the relative importance assignment matrix table. The relative importance of the pairwise index was compared by using the 1−9 fractional scale method, and the third round of expert consultation was continued. Experts participating in the first two rounds were invited to fill in the relative importance assignment matrix table between January 5, 2022, and January 12, 2022. A total of 35 consultation questionnaires were sent out and all of them were collected. All the consultation questionnaires were completed and valid. The effective recovery rate of the third round of expert consultation questionnaires was 100%.Concentration degree (M) can reflect the importance of indicators. The larger the concentration degree, the more important the indicators that need to be retained. Usually, if M is between 7 and 9, the corresponding indicators can be retained. If M is between 5 and 7, the two indexes of dispersion and coordination should be combined, or the choice should be made according to experts’ opinions and characteristics of health and wellness tourism resources. If M is less than 5, it is recommended to delete the indicator directly. Dispersion degree (S) is used to describe the dispersion of the evaluation of various indicators by experts. Generally, the second round of expert consultation can only be entered when S is higher than 0.63. Coordination degree (V) is used to measure the coordination of experts’ opinions. When V is between 0 and 0.33, the coordination degree is high, and the opinions among experts are more unified, so relevant indicators can be retained. The calculation formulas of the concentration, dispersion, and coordination degrees are as follows.k is the value of the kth expert on the indicator.Where n is the total number of experts interviewed, k is the expert serial number, and QIn the results of the first round of expert consultation, the mean concentration degree of evaluation indicators was 6.82, the maximum was 8.26, and the minimum was 5.23. The mean dispersion degree was 1.57, the maximum was 2.08, and the minimum was 0.99. The mean coordination degree was 0.24, the maximum was 0.35, and the minimum was 0.12 . In the In the results of second round of expert consultation , the meaCoordination degrees of ‘combination degree of resources’ and ‘distance from main source of visitors’ were greater than 0.33, and the importance and coordination of these two indicators were lacking, therefore these were deleted. The data analysis results of the other indicators were good and retained. After the second round of expert consultation, a revised and confirmed value evaluation system of health and wellness tourism resources was constructed .After a consistency test, the consistency ratio (CR) of levels 1−3 was less than 0.1, therefore the model passed the consistency test. Then, index weights of each level were calculated . In the Because health and wellness tourism activities involved related research experts, administrators, and tourists, it is segmentary to evaluate a place’s health and wellness tourism resources only from one perspective. Based on the above reasons, the Fishbein-Rosenberg evaluation model is innovatively improved when the evaluation opinions of experts, administrators, and tourists are given different weights. Thus, the value evaluation model of health and wellness tourism resources is established. The improved model is as follows.i is the evaluation score of respondents; Qi is the weight value of evaluation factors; and m, n, and s represent the total number of surveyed experts, administrators, and tourists respectively.Where E is the total evaluation score; PIn tourism activities, administrators represent the supply side and tourists represent the demand side. Both supply and demand are equal, so administrators and tourists are given the same weight. However, experts who study health and wellness tourism are often able to evaluate from a more scientific and comprehensive perspective, so the evaluation weight of experts is slightly higher than that of administrators and tourists in this model. Finally, the weights of this model are determined: the weights of experts, administrators, and tourists are 40%, 30%, and 30%, respectively.In China’s official tourism resource evaluation criteria, the scoring and classification of individual tourism resource evaluation is explained in detail , but theThe value score of health and wellness tourism resources is greater than or equal to 90 points, rated as fifth grade, and classified as super level.The value score of health and wellness tourism resources is between 75 to 89 points, rated as fourth grade, and classified as excellent level.The value score of health and wellness tourism resources is between 60 to 74 points, rated as third grade, and classified as good level.The value score of health and wellness tourism resources is between 45 to 59 points, rated as second grade, and classified as ordinary level.The value score of health and wellness tourism resources is between 30 to 44 points, rated as first grade, and classified as poor level.Classification, Survey and Evaluation of Tourism Resources (2017). Although some problems that appeared in previous tourism evaluation have been amended, China’s official tourism resource evaluation criteria is still characterized by the traditional understanding of tourism resources. First, the value evaluation index system is rough and blunt, which is not conducive to the in-depth value exploration of tourism resources. Second, in the evaluation of tourism resources, China’s official criteria adopts the direct scoring method of survey team to calculate evaluation level, which appears to be subjective and fails to take into account different opinions of stakeholders. Third, there is redundancy in its classification. For example, fifth-grade tourism resources are classified as special grade and excellent grade together with fourth grade and third grade ones.Between 1997 and 2017, China continuously explored and improved the evaluation standards of tourism resources, forming the latest official criteria of Therefore, on the basis of critical reflection on China’s official tourism resource evaluation criteria, a value evaluation model of health and wellness tourism resources that is different from the official criteria is constructed, which is specifically reflected in the following three aspects. First, the characteristic elements of health and wellness tourism resources and public health incident plan are added in the evaluation system. Second, the opinions’ weight of administrators and tourists is included in score calculation. Third, the grade description discourse is improved.In the evaluation process of health and wellness tourism resources, objective and subjective indicators should not be confused. The evaluation of objective indicators should be based on the real and objective analysis of ecological and environmental data and socio-economic data. As for the evaluation of subjective indicators, this study advocates for the design of a special questionnaire or interview outline to comprehensively consider the real experience of experts, administrators, and tourists for investigation, so that evaluation can be more objective.Health and wellness tourism has been in dynamic development. With the evolution and upgrading of tourism and major public events, the value evaluation index will also change. Differing from existing studies, the index system constructed in this study adds the elements of health, wellness, and public health incident plan. The value evaluation research of health and wellness tourism resources should focus on long-term and dynamic analysis and make timely adjustments to the selection and modification of evaluation indicators based on national, social, and people’s conditions, so as to improve the scientific accuracy of the value evaluation on health and wellness tourism resources. In follow-up research, several different types of health and wellness tourism destinations can be selected for empirical and comparative study. It can also subdivide the types of tourists, further adjust the evaluation model through in-depth research, and enhance the universality and applicability of the evaluation system.Based on critical reflections of China’s official tourism resource evaluation criteria, this study establishes and improves the value evaluation system of health and wellness tourism resources from three aspects: construction of index system, selection of evaluation subjects, and grade discourse description.In the aspect of index system construction, through two rounds of expert consultation, the health and wellness tourism resource evaluation system—including three first levels, seven second levels, and twenty-eight third levels—was finally established. The first layer covers three main value evaluation categories of health and wellness tourism resources. In the second layer, it not only absorbs standard elements of general tourism resources, but also adds the characteristic elements of health and wellness tourism resources. In the third layer, a number of indicators such as health value, culture, environment, location, and public health incident plans are taken into account. Stability of ecological environment, rehabilitation and convalescence value, and health preservation value are three key indicators to measure the values of health and wellness tourism resources. Tourism health value, environment quality, and construction conditions are the three key conditions to evaluate the values of health and wellness tourism resources.In terms of evaluation subject selection, this study attaches importance to the different evaluation basis of multiple stakeholders and improves the Fishbein-Rosenberg evaluation model through the comprehensive perspective of experts, administrators, and tourists. It is applied to the value evaluation of health and wellness tourism resources to improve accuracy.In terms of grade discourse description, the classification discourse of grade is modified into the following levels: super, excellent, good, ordinary, and poor. This description eliminates the redundancy of China’s official tourism resource evaluation criteria in the description of grade types, which is not only a rethinking of existing national criteria, but also a new attempt to research the value evaluation theory of health and wellness tourism resources.In addition to the above contributions, this paper had some limitations in case application, because the evaluation index system has not been utilised in the field. Thus, future research should focus on the constant updating and application of the value evaluation index system of health and wellness tourism resources. Reasonable evaluation of health and wellness tourism resources can help correctly understand the characteristics of health and wellness tourism resources and promote related industries to carry out utilization work on this basis. The ultimate goal is to better meet the tourism needs of the elderly and sub-healthy people and respond to the national strategy. At the same time, it is the obligation of every scholar to reflect on the existing evaluation criteria used in China. Based on the inheritance and reflection, it is expected to promote the exchange of different views on tourism resources evaluation, stimulate the innovation of theories, and further improve the national criteria.


Mycotoxin Research may have already recognized, there was a recent change in the position of the editor in chief (EiC). Prof. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Humpf from the University of Münster has taken over this position, effective January 1, 2023, from Prof. Dr. Ewald Usleber, who served as EiC for the last 15 years. Mycotoxin Research, the official journal of the Society for Mycotoxin Research (https://www.mycotoxin.de), has continuously developed very well over the years and is now one of the leading journals in the field of research in all aspects of mycotoxins. This is reflected by a current impact factor  of 4.082. Mycotoxin Research is covered by all major scientific databases worldwide, and online access is guaranteed by our publisher, Springer/Nature. The change in the position of the EiC was already announced by the Society for Mycotoxin Research during the 43rd Mycotoxin Workshop 2022 in Toulouse, France , the journal covers all aspects of mycotoxin research: ecology and genetics of mycotoxin formation; mode of action of mycotoxins; metabolism and toxicology; agricultural production and mycotoxins; human and animal health aspects, including exposure studies and risk assessment; food and feed safety, including occurrence, prevention, regulatory aspects, and control; environmental safety and technology-related aspects of mycotoxins; and chemistry, synthesis, and analysis of mycotoxins.Saying this, the incoming EiC Hans-Ulrich Humpf follows in big footsteps left by Ewald Usleber. Hans-Ulrich Humpf will take up the challenge to continue the success story of Mycotoxin Research will introduce associate editors in the near future, to cover specific topics with their expertise. Furthermore, as authors more and more demand short notification and publication time, we will significantly shorten the time from submission to first decision.In order to cover all mentioned aspects, Mycotoxin Research. We also thank the publisher Springer/Nature with all involved coworkers for their support in all administrative questions and the fruitful and helpful collaboration.We would like to thank the authors, members of the editorial board, and the reviewers for their substantial contribution to ensure the high scientific quality and the great success of Society for Mycotoxin Research. Further information will be available on the workshop website (https://www.mycotoxin-workshop.eu/).Mark the date: we are looking forward to meeting you at the 44th Mycotoxin-Workshop, which will be held in Celle (near Hanover), Germany, from 5 to 7th of June, 2023. This year’s Workshop will be organized by the group of Madeleine Plötz from the University of Veterinary Medicine, Hanover, in cooperation with the