The underreported cases of suspected COVID-19 deaths are owed to the lack of molecular tests done on autopsies. In South Africa, there was a backlog in reporting the cause of death data which resulted in a high number of excess deaths. The study was done on individuals who died unexpectedly as “sudden deaths” and “found deaths”, death occurred within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms in an individual with a history of possible exposure to SARS-CoV-2. The objective was to define the prevalence and epidemiological characteristics of cases admitted to a government mortuary through 3 COVID-19 waves of infections between 2021-2022. The highest number, 21.74% (10/46) of positive SARS-CoV-2 cases, were detected in December 2021 when the Omicron variant first circulated in South Africa. The odds (OR) of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 were higher [OR=1.27;95% CI (0.36-4.48), p= (0.96)] in children in 2021 and significantly greater [OR=7.23;95% CI (1.37-38.22), p= (0.038)] in children in 2022. There was an 8.69% (4/46) positivity rate in children (11-15 years) which increased the risk of infection. This study suggests an increase in SARS-CoV-2 positive cases of unexpected deaths during the Omicron wave, suggesting an underreporting in children and adults in Africa.

Ferroptosis represents a distinct form of cell death that differentiates it from conventional apoptosis. Numerous studies have demonstrated that ferroptosis holds significant potential for elucidating neuronal damage in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In addition, liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) has emerged as a significant biological process in recent years. It plays a crucial role in the regulation of various proteins in vivo and is closely associated with ferroptosis. Meanwhile, Nrf2 serves as a crucial signaling pathway in ferroptosis and plays a significant role in regulating many key components of the ferroptosis pathway. In addition, an increasing volume of research is being conducted on natural medicines aimed at enhancing the treatment of AD. Cyclovirobuxine (Cyc) is an alkaloid compound extracted from the traditional Chinese medicinal plant, boxwood. It has demonstrated therapeutic potential in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, in this study, we established an AD cell model using glutamate-induced SH-SY5Y. In glutamate-induced SH-SY5Y cells, Cyc treatment significantly improved mitochondrial function and effectively inhibited lipid peroxidation and restored the downregulation of FTH1 levels induced. Furthermore, Cyc treatment activated the Nrf2 signaling pathway, significantly elevated the nuclear levels of Nrf2, and inhibited both iron deposition and lipid peroxidation. Cyc treatment conferred resistance to ferroptosis in erastin-stimulated SH-SY5Y cells, wherein the Nrf2 signaling pathway and FTH1 protein play crucial roles. The collective findings presented here underscore the protective mechanism of action of Cyc in AD and emphasize its potential as a therapeutic agent for AD treatment.

The development of safe and efficient drugs is urgently needed for clinical melanoma treatment. The repurposing of existing drugs for new clinical indications is an impressive strategy for the development of antitumor drugs. In this study, we embarred on an exploration of mebendazole, a well-established antiparasitic drug, to uncover its potential antimelanoma effect and underlying mechanisms. Our findings revealed that mebendazole possessed alluring antimelanoma activity with good safety profiles both in vitro and in vivo. Specifically, the antimelanoma function of mebendazole is derived from the inhibition of cell proliferation, migration and invasion, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), as well as the induction of endogenous apoptosis through reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. Further studies have demonstrated that mebendazole can induce the accumulation of intracellular ROS driven by activating oxidative stress injury and causing a series of manifestations of mitochondrial functional failure. Successively, mitochondrial stress activated Ca2+-mediated and LKB1-mediated AMPK/mTOR/ULK1 pathway, which could trigger PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy. Notably, the ability of mebendazole to induce apoptosis and inhibit proliferation in melanoma cells was related to the induction of PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy. In summary, the present study revealed that mebendazole exerts attractive antimelanoma effects by acting on mitochondria to regulate ROS-mediated multiple signaling pathways.

Successful Outcome in Pregnancy Complicated with Three Previous Uterine Rupture at Muhimbili National Hospital: A Case Report.

Yang Wang1, Zihan Jiang1, Hao Xiao2,1, Xuemei Jiang1, Huijun Yuan1, Feng Xu2,1, Qiaoru Jia2,1, Li Zhang2,1, Chuqi Shi2,1, Juan Meng2,11 Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.2 Allergy Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Symbiotic association between leguminous trees and nodulating N 2-fixing bacteria plays an important role in the process of recovery of degraded areas by mining activities. However, a fundamental condition for success in symbiosis is the use of efficient strains adapted to edaphic and climatic conditions. Besides, there is a need for studies that focus on genes that explain this adaptive capacity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency and adaptive capacity of Bradyrhizobium strains, originating from iron (Fe) mining areas, in symbiosis with Enterolobium contortisiliquum . Symbiotic efficiency of 39 strains was evaluated in a greenhouse under axenic conditions in comparison with controls without inoculation or inoculation with the strain efficient for the species. After that, 12 strains selected from among the 39 were tested in soil coming from an iron-mining area and compared with the same controls used previously. Four strains were selected based on the trials with soil for the study of genomic DNA. Plants inoculated with the strains selected for genomic DNA sequencing showed high symbiotic efficiency with Enterolobium contortisiliquum and adaptation to the soil both under axenic and soil conditions. Genomic DNA analysis showed the presence of pin5, acdS, sodA, bfr, gshB, and gor, reported in the literature as genes related to tolerance to high Fe and Mn contents, as well as the genes nodC and nifH, related to the symbiosis and N 2- fixation.

Introduction: Adriamycin and cyclophosphamide (AC) combination chemotherapy is one of the common regimens used for breast cancer and in metastatic breast cancer with oligo-metastasis. (1) AC combination chemotherapy regimen is associated with adverse drug reactions like myelosuppression, gastrointestinal toxicity, cardiotoxicity, peripheral neuropathy, and hand-foot syndrome. (2),(3),(4) It has been noticed from previous studies that the metabolism-related gene GSTP rs 1695 homozygous mutant allele has been associated with higher incidences of myelotoxicity and gastrointestinal toxicity post-combination chemotherapy regimens. (5) Case report: A 55-year-old female patient presented with the incidence of grade 3 febrile neutropenia and myelosuppression, 8 days following AC infusion. The patient also has symptoms of grade 2 peripheral neuropathy and diarrhea. She was treated as an inpatient from the local hospital with pegfilgrastim, packed RBC transfusion, and intravenous antibiotics for febrile neutropenia. She recovered completely with this treatment and was discharged without any sequelae or complications. She was then tested for the GSTP rs 1695 gene which revealed the homozygous mutant variant (GG allele). When reporting the causal association of the adverse drug reaction, it comes under the “possible” category of WHO causality assessment. Conclusion: Myelosuppression, Diarrhea, and other adverse events following AC combination chemotherapy can be related to the Genetic polymorphism in GSTP rs 1695 double mutant homozygous allele (GG ) and its altered drug metabolism effects. The Adverse drug reaction comes under the “Possible” Category of WHO causality assessment. Key Words: Adriamycin, Myelosuppression, Cyclophosphamide, Hand-foot syndrome, GSTP rs1695

Background and Aim: Alkaptonuria (AKU) is a rare metabolic disorder characterised by the accumulation of homogentisic acid (HGA). Deposition of HGA in the aortic valve leading to progressive aortic stenosis is a serious complication. Nitisinone has been shown to improve morbidity and slow disease progression in AKU but the effects of this treatment on aortic stenosis progression have not yet been described. This review extrapolated from the data set of SONIA 2, a 4-year multi-centre randomised controlled trial investigating the effect of nitisinone on AKU disease activity, but specifically examined measures of aortic stenosis disease progression. Methods: Data were obtained from echocardiograms performed on 138 patients over 48 months of follow-up. A linear mixed effects regression model was used to ascertain the difference in the maximal trans-aortic valve pressure gradient (Pmax) at baseline and 48 months between the treatment and control groups. Results: At baseline, 18/138 patients (13.0%) had aortic stenosis of varying degrees of severity and 25/138 (18.1%) had aortic sclerosis. The difference in Pmax between the control (N=69) and treatment (N=69) groups at baseline was 0.063mmHg [95% CI: -0.054mmHg to 0.18mmHg) and did not reach statistical significance (p=0.23). At the end of the 4-year treatment period, the difference in Pmax was 0.10mmHg [95% CI: -0.0007mmHg to 0.20mmHg] and was statistically significant (p=0.05). Conclusion: Nitisinone slowed progression of aortic stenosis in patients with AKU. This supports the argument for timely initiation of nitisinone to reduce the incidence and severity of aortic valvular disease in AKU patients.

Background The integration of specialized palliative care (SPC) in pediatric oncology aims to minimize the significant suffering experienced by children and families. While early integration of SPC is recommended, barriers to integration of SPC exist and the ways to overcome those barriers are not entirely clear. Procedure We conducted semi-structured interviews of Candian healthcare providers (HCPs) in the fields of pediatric oncology and pediatric palliative care. We performed thematic analysis on the transcripts of those interviews to identify barriers to early SPC integration and solutions to overcome those barriers. Results Eight HCPs were interviewed (4 pediatric oncology and 4 palliative care providers). While the views of HCPs varied about the integration framework (universal, criteria-based, or unguided provider-initiated referrals), the importance of early SPC integration in patients with a high risk of mortality or high symptom burden was consistently described. We identified categories of barriers to early SPC integration including family perception, healthcare team-related, and process/systemic barriers. Common reported barriers include the association of palliative care with death or giving up and the perception that the family is “not ready” to meet SPC. Categories of solutions include improving communication with families, enhancing the collaboration between SPC and oncology teams, and optimizing the referral processes. Participants described strategies that often addressed several categories of barriers. Such strategies include skillful introduction of SPC to families and regular discussions amongst the pediatric oncology and SPC teams. Conclusion Barriers to early integration of SPC can be overcome through thoughtful discussions amongst HCPs. Those strategies should be considered when optimizing SPC integration with the goal of reducing the suffering of children and adolescents with cancer and their families.

The paper addresses the challenge of achieving practical multi-cluster consensus among agents interacting through a matrix-weighted graph. The objective is to coordinate the agents to effectively capture or escort a moving target. Each agent satisfies Euler-Lagrange (EL) dynamics, whose parameters may be unknown, and is subject to external disturbances. We propose a multi-cluster control framework that ensures all agents within a cluster converge to a common trajectory, while individual clusters maintain a specific formation around the moving target. A prescribed performance control scheme is developed to guarantee that relative state trajectories remain within user-defined performance bounds throughout the task. The closed loop system under the proposed control scheme is analytically proven to achieve practical multi-cluster consensus and satisfaction of user-defined performance bounds without requiring knowledge of system parameters. The proposed framework supports various consensus scenarios, including consensus, bipartite consensus, and multi-cluster consensus, offering flexibility in adjusting both the number of clusters and the number of agents in each cluster. We provide numerical simulations to validate the theoretical results.

While consensus on the importance of deliberate practice (DP) in psychotherapy increases, clarification of key elements in DP supervision is yet to be seen. An international collaboration between researchers, authors, supervisors, and therapists has proposed a method for DP supervision and created a training program for DP supervisors. This has led to a six-step overview model for DP and the DP Supervisor Competency Rating Scale (Vaz, Rousmaniere and Husby, 2023). DP in the context of supervision has concrete steps and requires specific supervisor skills. This article illustrates these with a case study consisting of twelve sessions with a supervisee that is a seasoned clinical psychologist and a trained DP supervisor. Annotated session transcripts provide a step-by-step qualitative representation of the collaborative process in identifying client challenge, therapist deficit and actionable learning goals as well as the in-session behavioral rehearsal. The article presents the DP-supervision overall trajectory, as well as both supervisee´s and supervisor´s input on the process. It discusses the importance of integrating conceptual, conditional, and procedural knowledge in therapist development, and claims that the same is true for DP-supervisor development. Finally, the need for empirical investigation of the proposed key elements in DP supervision is emphasized.

Treating people who have experienced deep and prolonged developmental trauma, i.e., Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (cPTSD), can be challenging given the complexity and severity of their presentations. The main features of Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, i.e., affective and behavioral dysregulation, altered self-experience and identity disturbances, relational difficulties, negative self-concepts, and negative pathogenic beliefs, are, at the same time, therapeutic goals and obstacles to treatment. Therefore, clinicians must be aware of these difficulties in order to identify them and be ready to treat them when they arise during therapy with the same client. For this reason, the clinical cases presented in this issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session provide a very useful overview of how to deal with these manifestations from the perspective of different models of psychotherapy. This commentary, after briefly reviewing the clinical features and therapeutic difficulties of these clients, offers a critical summary of the commonalities and differences between the various approaches presented by the clinical cases in this special issue. The purpose is to help the reader navigate the key aspects of treating the pathogenetic processes involved in cPTSD and to identify the different therapeutic tools that may be applicable to the different clinical presentations.

Whereas the development of pain research has promoted the application of novel analgesic medications and methods used in clinics, unrelieved chronic pain still exists at an epidemic level. Resveratrol, a naturally occurring phenolic compound found in a variety of foods and plants, has aroused great expectations as a promising alternative to pain relief. Although resveratrol exerts an analgesic effect by complicated mechanisms, this article reviews the specific processes through which it alleviates pain and discusses its potential molecular targets. We highlight eight important features of resveratrol: analgesic action due to the inhibition of neuroinflammation, antioxidant effects, induction of autophagy, reduction of endoplasmic reticulum stress, modulation of the serotonin system, restoration of the gut microbiota, regulation of the neuroendocrine system, and promotion of mitochondrial biogenesis. In conclusion, resveratrol, a natural medicine, offers a promising way to develop innovative analgesics.

Background: Mental system adverse drug events (ADEs) linked to triazole antifungal drugs are critical for patient safety due to their widespread use and potential impact on psychiatric health. These ADEs, including hallucinations and psychosis, are underreported and poorly understood, necessitating robust pharmacovigilance. Purpose: This study aimed to identify and analyze signals of psychiatric ADEs associated with five triazole antifungal drugs (Fluconazole, itraconazole, voriconazole, posaconazole, and isavuconazole) using real-world data. Methods: Data from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) between January 2004 and December 2022 were mined using the reporting odds ratio (ROR) method. Signals were assessed at standardized MedDRA queries (SMQ) and preferred term (PT) levels, with ROR values and 95% confidence intervals used to detect statistical associations. Key Findings: A total of 880 psychiatric ADE reports were identified, predominantly for fluconazole (249), voriconazole (535), and itraconazole (62). Significant positive signals for mental system ADEs were detected for fluconazole (ROR: 1.39, 95% CI: 1.22–1.57), voriconazole (ROR: 5.38, 95% CI: 4.93–5.87), and itraconazole (ROR: 1.37, 95% CI: 1.07–1.76). Voriconazole showed the strongest association, with hallucinations and paranoia most frequently reported. Posaconazole and isavuconazole exhibited weaker or no statistical associations. Conclusions: Fluconazole, voriconazole, and itraconazole present measurable risks for psychiatric ADEs, underscoring the importance of clinical vigilance and therapeutic drug monitoring during their use. These findings highlight the need for enhanced pharmacovigilance to optimize patient safety in antifungal therapy.

Pesticides are known to induce genome instability. Report on eukaryotes, including humans, mostly covers chromosomal aberrations and DNA strand breaks. Studies on the scoring of the rates of loci-specific somatic mutations such as point mutations (PM), somatic homologous recombination (SHR), frameshift mutation (FSM), and transpositions due to pesticides are mostly confined to prokaryotes using Ames test. Analogous eukaryotic model systems though are available for Drosophila, mouse and certain cell lines, reports using these are meagre possibly due to the lethality of commercially-used pesticide doses and/or difficulty in assessing large population. DNA replication/repair being highly conserved among the higher eukaryotes, we used the plant-based system of Arabidopsis thaliana to score various loci-specific mutations. This study revealed that the pesticides malathion, flubendiamide, chlorantraniliprole, and carbendazim + mancozeb combination not only increased the rates of loci-specific PM, SHR and FSM, and caused epimutations on selected DNA repair gene promoters, but also induced heritable transgenerational memory of certain alterations. While SHR rates were significantly high in the untreated progeny, FSM rates were high even in the grand progeny. Expression of 15 DNA repair genes analysed showed an increase under at least one of the pesticidal treatments. Out of 21 DNA repair gene promoters analysed, eight showed altered methylation. Of these, only MRE11A (homologous recombination pathway) promoter showed demethylation in the untreated progeny, due to all four pesticides. Malathion-induced demethylation was retained in the grand progeny also. Thus this work gauges the severity of various pesticides on inducing heritable mutations/epimutations in a non-target system.

Title: The 5-10-15 Plan: An Approach to Managing Atopic Dermatitis Flares in Pediatric PatientsAuthors: Nicole Edmonds MD1, Patricia Zhao BS2, Aaron D. Smith BS2, Monica Lawrence3, Barrett J. Zlotoff MD1

Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery and subsequent adjuvant chemotherapy, has been a mainstay of many osteosarcoma treatment protocols. However, the overall survival benefit over surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy is unclear. This study directly compares the outcomes among these treatment groups using a large population in the National Cancer Database. Methods: Patients with osteosarcoma in the National Cancer Database (2004-2019) were stratified based on chemotherapy and surgery timing (neoadjuvant and adjuvant vs adjuvant-only chemotherapy). We used Kaplan-Meier curves to compare OS in the unmatched population and in a propensity score matched cohort that controlled for demographics, treatment, and tumor characteristic differences. Univariate and multivariate analyses were also used to predict the likelihood of positive margins among the population. Chi-square tests were used to compare 30- and 90-day mortality among treatment groups. Results: The study population included 4,659 patients: 3,733 neoadjuvant and 926 adjuvant-only chemotherapy regimens. Patients who underwent neoadjuvant therapy had significantly longer survival in the unmatched analysis (p<0.001), but this difference narrowed when controlling for covariates in the matched cohort (p=0.64). Mortality at 30 and 90 days was insignificant between treatment groups in both the full and matched cohorts (p=0.3 and p=0.9 respectively). Neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimens predominated with over 75% utilization, but this rate remained constant during the 15-year study period. Three- and five-year survival were relatively unchanged during this period at 75% and 62.5% respectively. Factors significantly associated with positive margins in the multivariate analysis included adjuvant-only chemotherapy (OR=1.6, p<0.001), older age (OR=1.01, p<0.001), female sex (OR=1.27, p=0.04), adjuvant radiation (OR=4.96, p<0.001), and stage IVB tumors (OR=2.11, p<0.001). Conclusions: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy did not increase overall or short-term survival compared to adjuvant chemotherapy alone in our study. However, neoadjuvant therapy was associated with fewer positive margins at the time of surgery in this analysis.

This study reviews the latest advancements in optimization approach for hybrid solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy systems, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence (AI)-based and hybrid methods. Addressing the growing need for renewable energy, the study critically examines both traditional and modern approaches, evaluating their effectiveness in enhancing system efficiency and reliability. Furthermore, this study categorizes the optimization techniques with their sizing methodologies, and discusses their economic, technical, and environmental impacts. Finally, the study highlights the superior performance of hybrid algorithms in managing the complexities of integrating renewable energy systems and provides insights into future research directions in this rapidly evolving field.

Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) is known as a promising technology for next-generation wireless communication networks. In this paper, three low-complexity antenna selection schemes are proposed which aim to enhance the physical layer security (PLS) of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) NOMA system. The system is composed of a single transmitter, multiple legitimate users, and one eavesdropper, all equipped with multiple antennas. The first scheme maximizes the secrecy sum-rate (SSR) of the system when the eavesdropper’s channel state information (CSI) is known, whereas the second scheme maximizes SSR in the absence of CSI. In the third scheme, the emphasis shifts towards fairness, aiming to maximize the minimum secrecy rate across all users. Numerical results demonstrate that the performance of the first two proposed schemes is very close to that of the optimal case, albeit with much lower computational complexity. It is also observed that the third scheme enhances fairness by balancing users’ secrecy rates, though with a moderate decrease in the overall secrecy sum-rate.

Soybean ( Glycine max [L.] Merr.) has been grown in diverse environments in a wide range of latitudes in the world. However, the adaptation of soybean to low-latitude, high-altitude environments characterized by short day and low temperature is still in its early stages. To understand the genetic basis of adaptation in this region, we conducted cultivar screening in low-latitude, high-altitude mountainous regions and carried out genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using 200 diverse soybean cultivars spanning maturity groups 000 to VIII. Evaluation of flowering time (DTF), maturity time (DTM), and other agronomic traits including node number on main stem (NNM), plant height (PH), effective number of pods per plant (EPN) and 100-seed weight (HGW) were performed in Bamei with the altitude of 3460 m (30°29’4”N and 101°28’50”E) and Xianshui with the altitude of 2946 m (30°57’48”N and 101°9’26”E), in Daofu county, Sichuan province, southwest China, in 2019 and 2023, respectively. We screened 5 MG I-II adapted cultivars for Bamei and 17 MG II-V cultivars, for Xianshui, exhibiting late flowering and maturity, along with tall plant height, and high number of nodes and pods per plant. The allelic combinations E1/e2-ns/e3-tr/E4 and E1/e2-ns/E3/E4, and only E1/e2-ns/E3/E4 predominated in the adaptive cultivars in Bamei and Xianshui, respectively. Thus, the cultivars adaptive to low-latitude and high-altitude regions are featured with relatively late flowering and maturing in MG I-V mostly from mid- and low-latitude region with allelic combination mostly of E1/e2-ns/E3/E4. Additionally, our results revealed 9, 6, and 2 genomic regions significantly associated with DTF, NNM and PH, respectively, with two of these genomic regions having QTNs significantly associated with both DTF and PH. Most significant QTNs of the genomic regions associated with DTF were located near previously identified quantitative trait loci, and their alternative loci caused significant differences in flowering time. Furthermore, 7 genomic regions were located near homologs of Arabidopsis flowering time genes FD-1, bZIP29, SEC, PA2, PIE1, FY, IAA31, AS1 and MBD9. Non-synonymous mutations within the candidate genes Glyma.09g112200 ( GmPIE1) , Glyma.13g198200 ( GmFY) and Glyma.17g042800 ( GmIAA31) were found to cause later flowering and taller plant height in both environments. Collection of adaptive cultivars, molecular markers, and candidate genes identified in this study holds substantial promise within the realm of soybean adaptation in low-latitude and high-altitude regions.

For a connected graph G, the RW index is defined as the sum of the expected walks lengths between all pairs of vertices in the graph G. This article is devoted to establish the explicit analytical expressions for the expected value of the RW index of a random polyphenylene chain. Furthermore, the average value and the sample variance of the RW index with respect to the set of all polyphenylene chains with n hexagons are obtained. The correlation between RW index and Wiener index of the random polyphenylene chain is also characterized. Finally, we prove the RW index of the random polyphenylene chain is asymptotic to normal distributions.

AbstractAs a popular leisure activity, recreational fishing plays a key socio-economic role in Australia, especially in regional areas where it also provides economic benefit to local businesses. Angler satisfaction is considered as the end outcome of the recreational fishing experience, and it is an important element in recreational fishing management given its potential contribution to subsequent fishing events and regulations. Port Phillip Bay (PPB) hosts the largest marine recreational fishery in the state of Victoria and thousands of anglers visit PPB multiple times annually yet the satisfaction of recreational fishers in PPB has not been previously explored in detail. To this end, using long-term satisfaction information collected from creel surveys at 20 boat ramps in PPB during a 6-year period from 2016/17 to 2021/22, we evaluated spatiotemporal patterns in satisfaction from regional and annual perspectives as well as the influence of demography (age groups), key target species, and catch rate. Our results indicated positive relationships between catch per unit of effort (CPUE) and angler avidity with angler satisfaction. Annual and regional variation in satisfaction were observed, with higher satisfaction evident among younger anglers, especially in the Bellarine region along the western coastline of PPB. Angler satisfaction also varied across species with those anglers targeting calamari being generally more satisfied, however, satisfaction increased for snapper when interacted with CPUE. Overall, this research pursued insights into the behaviour of anglers and factors that influenced their fishing trip satisfaction, with the ultimate goal being the formulation of performance indicators that can be used to both understand and monitor angler satisfaction into the future. More broadly, the study also provides insight into how management interventions will impact angler satisfaction, therefore making it more likely that the needs and concerns of recreational fishers are considered in decision-making processes.Keywords: angler satisfaction, recreational fishing, target species, spatiotemporal patterns, fisheries management

AbstractRecreational fishing holds substantial socio-economic importance in Australia as a popular leisure activity, particularly in regional areas. Heightened attention has been drawn towards angler satisfaction and the significance of motivational factors among recreational anglers in recent years. This study investigates aspects of satisfaction and motivation associated with recreational fishing in Port Phillip Bay (PPB), Australia. As one of the largest and most diverse bays in the country, PPB offers a diverse marine ecosystem attracting numerous anglers and boating enthusiasts. We examined long-term satisfaction data collected through creel surveys at 20 boat ramps in PPB over the decade spanning 2013-2022. Our analysis delved into satisfaction patterns on both annual and regional scales, considering factors such as avidity, demography (age groups), key species, policy changes and regulatory intervention. The importance of motivational factors in shaping angler satisfaction was also assessed. The findings underscored spatiotemporal trends in satisfaction levels, with lower ratings observed during the initial survey years especially in the western areas of PPB, Bellarine region, likely due to conflict over commercial net fishing which was subsequently phased out as policy shifted in favour of the recreational fishing sector. Higher satisfaction was evident among younger and avid anglers, and those targeting calamari, whilst King George whiting (KGW) was the species receiving the lowest satisfaction ratings, which some representative groups from the recreational sector attributed to commercial netting. The study highlighted the importance of intrinsic motivators such as relaxation and outdoor enjoyment which were significantly correlated with satisfaction, whereas extrinsic factors like competitive elements of fishing played a minimal role, although catching fresh fish for food was highly important. This study not only enhances our understanding about why anglers go fishing and which factors affect the quality of their experience, but also provides insights for policymakers and resource managers aiming to improve the sustainable use of PPB's fish stocks and to promote responsible angling practices in this important marine embayment.Keywords: angler satisfaction, motivational factors, recreational fishing, fisheries regulation

Aim: Aire ouverte, an integrated services initiative for youth aged 12–25, is under development in the province of Quebec, Canada. This study’s aim is to explore youth’s perspective regarding their experience within an Aire ouverte located in a remote and rural region of the province, their understanding of health, and how they engaged in a Photovoice process. Methods: We conducted interviews combined with a Photovoice approach. Participants (n=6) were instructed to document their experience within the Aire ouverte services, their understanding of health and how they engaged in a Photovoice process by taking pictures over a 2-month period and selecting a maximum of five for a final individual interview. Transcripts were analyzed to identify recurring themes using an inductive approach. Results: Youth considered Aire ouverte as an effective means to rapidly access healthcare. They highlighted the welcoming facilities and staff attitudes as a key component of their experience. Youth were satisfied with their experience. For them, health requires maintaining a balance, as it is fragile, requires maintaining balance within psychological, physical, social and environmental aspects of their lives. Finally, youth described the Photovoice process as a fun and creative way to express themselves and share their story. Participants also noted the empowering nature of the Photovoice process and experienced positive emotions. Conclusions: This study highlights that the services provided at Aire ouverte are consistent with the principles of youth-friendliness within integrated care. Further studies should be able to capture holistic views of health and youth’s experience.