For reasons of human health and sustainability, there is a growing interest in the potential of integrated nature-based interventions in healthcare. However, it is not clear which quality criteria underlie these interventions. Here, we develop a study protocol for a scoping review to explore potential quality criteria relating to the design, implementation and evaluation of nature-based interventions in healthcare institutions. The literature search will be conducted in PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science and Scopus, focusing on studies published in English between January 2005 and April 2023. The Joanna Briggs Institute Scoping Review methodology and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews with extension for scoping reviews will be used. Search terms were developed stepwise and in consultation with the interdisciplinary research team and the project steering group. Two researchers will perform the screening of the papers independently. Using descriptive content analysis, identified quality criteria will be classified according to the applied theoretical frameworks, outcomes, levels (institutional, professional and patient) and the domains of biodiversity, human health or intervention processes. Ultimately, this descriptive work will result in a set of quality indicators and a prototype nature-based intervention quality assessment framework, which will be presented to the project steering group and multi-stakeholder assembly for further refinement.

Several scientific communities and international health organizations promoting an interdependent human-nature health perspective are calling upon healthcare professionals (HCP) to integrate this vision into their practice and become role models. However, rising cases of stress, burnout, and depression, among this group jeopardize this potential and their self-care. Therefore, we conducted an exploratory qualitative study focusing on how HCP relate to their self-care, their relationship with nature and its implementation into their professional practice. Semi-structured interviews with 16 HCP were executed, transcribed and imported into NVivo. Using the six-step framework, we conducted a thematic analysis, followed by two-step member-checking. Three main findings arose. First, participants employ various self-care strategies outside of work whenever possible. Second, their nature experiences can be drawn along a continuum ranging in level of intensity, attitude and reciprocity, which does not seem to be disclosed during consultation. Third, the reflexive interviews may have led to increased awareness and agency on the former topics, which we have termed ‘nature-connected care awareness’. A preliminary framework to stimulate nature-connected care awareness could support HCP in becoming a role model.

The healthcare sector has proven to be supportive in stimulating health through contact with nature (Robinson and Breed, 2019; Kondo et al., 2020). Despite the positive practice examples, we see several challenges. There is no clear consensus or common understanding on quality assurance and health impact assessment of green care: there still is a wide range of approaches within different health expert communities and contexts, either with or without some form of qualified support such as coaching. As there is no ‘one size’ prescription fit for all, green care needs to be tailored to individual characteristics and circumstances, both of which are dynamic, e.g., in an environmental sense due to climate change, or related to socio-cultural dynamics (Beute et al., 2020a,b; Superior Health Council Belgium 2021). Sustainable health-related nature contact is not always easy to achieve especially when there is no follow-up with either healthcare professionals or other supporting organizations through social prescription. Accessibility of natural areas is often quite unequally distributed, with the more vulnerable often benefitting least, especially in urbanized areas. Another challenge is to achieve a reciprocal health relationship with nature: a stronger connection with nature and caring for nature helps to sustain a positive healthy relationship (O’Brien et al., 2010; Kurt et al., 2018), which may also contribute to nature conservation in a One Health perspective. As such, the healthcare sector can act as ambassadors for ‘One Healthy’ natural environments.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health threat to humanity, animals, plants and the wider environment. The intrinsic complexity and interconnectivity of human, animal and environmental factors has now been globally acknowledged and warrants a One Health approach. International communities launched guidelines to support the development and implementation of comprehensive national One Health (OH) AMR strategies with a particular concern for threatened antibiotics. Yet, AMR National Action Plans have proven difficult to implement because of social and structural obstacles/barriers, which are well-known as OH challenges (Keune, Payyappallimana, Morand and Rüegg 2022) such as overcoming inter-sectorial and interdisciplinary barriers, taking into account structural societal dynamics, implementing transdisciplinary system’s approaches. To enhance necessary transformative system changes, it is vital to operationalize and contextualize One Health AMR approaches for the design, implementation and evaluation of community-based AMR interventions, tailored to the local circumstances.

Blackberry is a fruiting berry species with very high nutrient contents. With the recent increasing consumer demand for blackberries, new sources of germplasm and breeding techniques are required to improve blackberry production. This study was carried out to evaluate the genetic diversity (GD) and relationship among 55 blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) mutants derived from γ-ray treatment (52 lines) and N-methyl-N′-nitrosourea (MNU) treatment (three lines) using an inter-simple sequence repeat marker. A total of 18 bands were amplified with an average of 3.6 bands per primer. Among them, eight bands were identified to be polymorphic with a rate of 44.4%. In addition, the GD information content values were highest in the 60 Gy treatment population and the GD values were higher in the γ-ray treatment populations than in the MNU treatment population. According to a cluster analysis, all the mutant lines can be classified into five categories, and the genetic distance was greatest between the 80 Gy-irradiated population and other populations. These results indicate that mutant lines have high GD and can be effectively utilized for improving blackberry breeding.

How can we assess the quality of an analytical deliberative decision support procedure in environmental health practice? Objectifying quality criteria is difficult for several reasons. Opening up evaluation to a diversity of critics is one approach to take into account different actor perspectives and complexity. We describe how social scientists organized extended peer evaluation of a participatory multi-criteria procedure that was applied in Flemish environmental health practice. International peer review was combined with local extended peer evaluation. Social scientists collaborated closely with natural scientists and policy representatives in designing several evaluative activities and in interpreting the results.We discuss how these different perspectives came to reach conclusions, with a special focus on methodological decision-making. A process of learning by doing and negotiating, finding a methodological path amidst practicalities, complexity and ambition.

In this investigation, 22 cloned male piglets were obtained by male fetal fibroblast-cell-derived nuclear transfer. Eighteen of the cloned animals died. The two cell lines did not differ significantly with regard to efficiency of live piglet production. The gross anatomy of the testes of male piglets that died was normal. However, one piglet displayed Leydig cell hypoplasia (LCH). No anatomical defects were detected in the testes of other cloned male piglets. TUNEL analysis of the testis with LCH revealed significant apoptosis in the Leydig cells, while apoptosis was rarely detected in Sertoli cells and spermatogonia. In contrast, testes from the remaining 17 piglets that died appeared normal in size, and their Sertoli and Leydig cell numbers were comparable to those in control piglet testes. Although cloned piglets were derived from fibroblasts obtained from the same fetus, phenotypic instability between cells used for the production of somatic cell cloned piglets suggests that abnormalities in male cloned piglets are caused not by technical problems and/or reprogramming effects, but rather by epigenetically and/or genetically damaged cell-specific effects.

The stability of organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) has become one of the most vital issues in this area of research. In this report, we investigated the stability of rubber stamp printed OTFTs. The electrical properties such as saturation field effect mobility, threshold voltage and on/off current ratio change significantly in ambient air condition. In order to analyze the degradation of the device, transistors were measured in vacuum, dry N2 and air environment as a function of time. In vacuum and dry N2 atmosphere, saturation field effect mobility and threshold voltage variations are relatively small compared to those measured in ambient condition.

To realize an air stable device, we applied a passivation layer which protects the device from oxygen or water molecules which is believed to be the source of the degradation. With the passivation layer, the threshold voltage shift was reduced suggesting that a proper passivation layer is a prerequisite in organic-based electronics.

In this report, excimer laser annealed polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) films on flexible polymer substrates are investigated. The amorphous silicon (a-Si) films were first deposited on polycarbonate (PC) and polyethersulfone (PES) substrates by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputter and sequentially annealed by XeCl excimer laser annealing system (λ = 308 nm). The argon concentration of a-Si films which was estimated by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) was found to be dependent on the dynamic pressure during the deposition process and the sputtering gas. Typically, the argon concentration of a-Si film was 1 ∼ 2% when the film was deposited using argon gas at 6 mTorr. After the annealing process, the average grain size of the poly-Si film annealed with laser energy density of 289 mJ/cm2 was 400 nm estimated from transmission electron microscope (TEM) investigations.

In this study, a novel thick film nanocrystalline phosphor is synthesized by using postdispersion treatment at low temperature. The post-dispersion treatment is to prevent the agglomeration between the precursors by mixing the organic dispersing agent with them before heat-treatment. The mean size of the particle heat-treated at 500°C is 4nm. Also, europium is uniformly distributed in the yttrium oxide with deviation below 0.5%. The nanocrystalline phosphor is principally composed of cubic structure having preferred orientation of <222>, <440>, and <400>. The photoluminescence properties of the nanocrystalline phosphor characterized with monochrometric systems reveals that the main PL peak is detected at 611 nm, and thick film nanocrystalline phosphor with 15wt% europium exhibits better properties.

High performance poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) thin film transistors (TFTs) array was fabricated on a polycarbonate substrate by micro-contact printing method. A thin polyimide layer (40 nm) was applied before silicon oxide deposition to improve the electrical properties of the TFT device. Also, the effects of O2 plasma treatment on the field effect mobility and output current behaviors of the devices were investigated. By plasma treatment, the surface roughness of gate dielectric was improved which accounts for the increased field effect mobility and the hole Schottky barrier height in electrode/semiconductor interface was lowered resulting in large drain current in the device. Based on the experiments, we fabricated P3HT TFTs array with 0.025 cm2/V·s in saturation field effect mobility and on/off current ratio of 103 ∼ 104 on a polycarbonate substrate.

Electrical and structural properties of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) films on flexible polymer substrates were investigated. Room temperature sputtered ITO films on polymer substrates are initially amorphous but become partially crystalline as oxygen partial pressure decreases under 1.5%. The crystallinity shows more (400) and (222) preferentially oriented textures as decreasing of oxygen pressure resulting in lower resistivity. Moreover, an interesting growth property similar to 3D growth mechanism including larger grain size and columnar-like grain structure was also observed. It is considered that the columnar-like grain structure is probably attributed to the poor surface morphology of polymer substrates Based on the experiments, we obtained high performance ITO films on a polycarbonate substrate including 3.8 × 10 –4 Ω-cm in resistivity and transmittance above 80% in the visible ranges at 0.2% oxygen partial pressure.

The electrical and mechanical properties in indium-tin-oxide films deposited on polymer substrate were examined. The materials of substrates are polyethersulfone(PES), polycarbonate(PC), polyethylene terephthalate(PET) which have gas barrier layer and anti-glare coating for plastic-based devices. The experiments were performed by rf-magnetron sputtering using a special instrument and buffer layers. Therefore, we obtained a very flat polymer substrate deposited ITO film and investigated the effects of buffer layers, in addition to the instrument. Moreover, the influences of an oxygen partial pressure and post-deposition annealing in ITO films deposited on polymer substrates were clarified. X-ray diffraction observation, measurement of electrical property, and optical microscope observation were performed for the investigation of micro-structure and electro-mechanical properties. They indicated that as-deposited ITO thin films are amorphous and become quasi-crystalline after adjustment of oxygen partial pressure and thermal annealing above 180 °C. As the results, we obtained 20-25 Ω/ of ITO films with a good transmittance (above 80%) under 0.2 % oxygen contents and vacuum annealing. Furthermore, using organic buffer layer, we obtained ITO films which have rather high electrical resistance (40-45 Ω/ ) but have improved optical (more than 85%) and mechanical characteristics compared to the counterparts.

This study was undertaken to derive the understandings of the electro- mechanical properties of ITO films on highly elongated polymer substrates which were subjected to thermally and mechanically stresses. The substrates are polycarbonate foils with 100, 180 and 200-mm thicknesses with gas barrier layer on their bottom surface. The metallic films used in the experiments are indium- tin-oxide (ITO) and tantalum (Ta) films. Strain- gauge measurements and numerical analyses using modified Stoney formula were carried out to determine the electro-mechanics in ITO films. The numerical analyses and empirical results show the thermally and externally induced mechanical stresses in ITO films on polymer substrates are responsible for the difference in thermal expansion between the ITO films and the substrate and for substrate material and thickness, respectively. Therefore, a ramped heating processing and a buffer layer were employed to improve the electro- mechanics, and then, the effects of the buffer layer were also quantified in terms of conductivity-strain variations.