Health policy makers and advocates increasingly utilize online resources for policy-relevant knowledge. Knowledge brokering is one potential mechanism to encourage the use of research evidence in policy making, but the mechanisms of knowledge brokerage in online spaces are understudied. This work looks at knowledge brokerage through the launch of Project ASPEN, an online knowledge portal developed in response to a New Jersey legislative act that established a pilot program for adolescent depression screening for young adults in grades 7-12.This study compares the ability to drive policy brief downloads by policy makers and advocates from the Project ASPEN knowledge portal using a variety of online methods to promote the knowledge portal.The knowledge portal was launched on February 1, 2022, and a Google Ad campaign was run between February 27, 2022, and March 26, 2022. Subsequently, a targeted social media campaign, an email campaign, and tailored research presentations were used to promote the website. Promotional activities ended on May 31, 2022. Website analytics were used to track a variety of actions including new users coming to the website, page views, and policy brief downloads. Statistical analysis was used to assess the efficacy of different approaches.P<.001) and tailored research presentations . The download conversion rate for Google Ads was significantly higher compared with social media  and knowledge brokering activities . By contrast, the download conversion rate for the email campaign was significantly higher than that for social media  and tailored research presentations . While Google Ads for this campaign cost an average of US $2.09 per click, the cost per conversion was US $11 per conversion to drive targeted policy web page views and US $147 per conversion to drive policy brief downloads. While other approaches drove less traffic, those approaches were more targeted and cost-effective.The campaign generated 2837 unique user visits to the knowledge portal and 4713 page views. In addition, the campaign generated 6.5 policy web page views/day and 0.7 policy brief downloads/day compared with 1.8 views/day and 0.5 downloads/day in the month following the campaign. The rate of policy brief page view conversions was significantly higher for Google Ads compared with other channels such as email (16.0 vs 5.4; Four tactics were tested to drive user engagement with policy briefs on the Project ASPEN knowledge portal. Google Ads was shown to be effective in driving a high volume of policy web page views but was ineffective in terms of relative costs. More targeted approaches such as email campaigns and tailored research presentations given to policy makers and advocates to promote the use of research evidence on the knowledge portal website are likely to be more effective when balancing goals and cost-effectiveness. In late 2021, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed NJ A970 into law, launching the Mental Health Screening in Schools Grant Program, a US $1 million grant program designed to allow districts to implement depression screening programs to identify students in grades 7 through 12 who are at risk for depression. This passage was followed by a period of implementation beginning in 2021. Project ASPEN (Active Surveillance of Policy Ecosystems and Networks) was a research project funded to assess state policy makers’ and mental health policy advocates’ use of research evidence in depression-related policy making and implementation. Based on consultation with parent advocates and nonprofit organizations, and an extensive review of available research, it was clear that there is a lack of original research that explores potential barriers to implementation from the perspective of multiple stakeholders, including parents and school personnel.The Project ASPEN knowledge portal was launched as a website to broker and connect potential users with policy implementation–relevant research regarding school-based adolescent depression screening. A quasi-experimental design was implemented to compare the relative utility of different research dissemination strategies based on the evidence included in the knowledge portal.Knowledge brokers are individuals or organizations that act as intermediaries facilitating the spread of knowledge through formal and informal networks ,2. PriorKnowledge brokers can be effective agents of knowledge transfer because they are able to leverage their existing relationships with policy makers to improve the likelihood that research evidence, as well as other inputs, is considered in policy-making processes. The actual knowledge transfer functions that knowledge brokers perform depend on their capacity and opportunities to acquire, interpret, and disseminate research evidence. This may be easier to accomplish in practice settings  , but is Digital knowledge platforms can support knowledge brokerage in the policy domain by providing timely, reliable, and unrestricted access to policy-relevant research evidence to policy makers, intermediaries and stakeholders, journalists, and other potential users of research . In pracThis study assessed the use of a newly created knowledge portal intended to support knowledge brokerage activities as a mechanism for improving access to policy-relevant research evidence and other resources. A knowledge portal is broadly defined as an intentionally designed resource that organizes information to provide others with access; most knowledge portals are websites, although a knowledge portal could also be a document repository on a site such as Box  or Dropbox . The common components of knowledge portals are content management systems, knowledge repositories, search engine, applications and services, collaboration and communication tools, personalization and user accounts, and an integrated and aesthetically pleasing interface . HoweverThis study assessed the use of a newly created knowledge portal that curates research evidence and other resources regarding the topic of screening adolescents for depression and suicide by tracking users’ engagement. The study, in addition, used a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design to compare the relative utility of different strategies for driving web traffic to the portal in general and to specific content (policy briefs) that was hypothesized to be of most interest to legislators and advocates involved in policy making regarding the implementation of school-based depression screening.Policy makers and policy advocates often struggle to identify relevant policy information, or identify ineffective evidence . An exteTo drive engagement with policy makers and other key stakeholders such as policy advocates, knowledge portals must intentionally synthesize and translate relevant knowledge. Extant research demonstrates that knowledge portals such as Patient-centric Research Engagement Portals can be effective for communicating research to public audiences when it is clear there is a need on the part of the audience, and intentional design to help communicate critical information . Thus, tA central component of knowledge portals is intentionally designing to support brokerage of research evidence. The most common components of knowledge portals are content management databases, knowledge repositories, search functions, embedded applications and services, collaboration and communication tools, personalization and user accounts, and an integrated and aesthetically pleasing interface ,25, whicGenerally, website use is measured based on visits, pages per visit, length of visit, bounce rate, and return rate . These mWhile these types of metrics do not indicate what users will do with the information once it has been accessed, they do provide a measure of the general utility of a website, including the number of users present and the degree to which users navigate across the breadth of a given website. Although ultimately many websites have sought to increase knowledge or to impact health outcomes, this type of activity has proven difficult to measure with existing metrics . In partDigital awareness campaigns that make use of social media sites’ pay-per-click advertising are influential in generating site visits , althougSocial media is increasingly important for research producers and knowledge brokers as a means of knowledge sharing and for the facilitation of evidence-informed practice . Social The study assessed the use of a web-based knowledge portal by a general as well as a specifically targeted group of users. A quasi-experimental evaluation is used to study the use of websites as knowledge portals. Quasi-experimental evaluations are utilized in medical research to study contexts where it is not possible for the researchers to control for the circumstances of the study. Such an evaluation was appropriate here given the public nature of the website and the subsequent inability to assign users to treatment. Policy implementation contexts represent one such circumstance, as it is difficult to control for the circumstances leading to the introduction of a policy solution, and it is similarly difficult to control for the implementation of the policy itself. For example, recent research in this domain used quasi-experimental evaluations to study the implementation of a web-based information system to support family caregivers .Rutgers Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was obtained. The plan for data collection and analysis was approved as protocol #2021001939 and the broader project protocols were approved as #2019000782. Summary data are presented to protect individual identities, and the researchers did not retain any individual identifying information.The focus of this study was on the design and implementation of a knowledge portal to support knowledge brokering regarding the implementation of school-based adolescent depression screening policy in New Jersey in 2021 and 2022.Rates of depression increase notably during adolescence, and there is a strong association between adolescent depression and adverse outcomes including suicide, educational underachievement, and psychopathology . ScreeniIn late 2021, New Jersey passed NJ A970 (S2259), launching a pilot program to assess the feasibility of implementing school-based adolescent depression screening program according to current screening guidelines. The legislation empowers the New Jersey Department of Education and the Department of Human Services to develop a standard screening protocol, staffing requirements, and reporting standards that applicant schools must implement to receive funding. In consultation with local youth mental health advocates, school administrators, school psychologists and social workers, and parents of adolescents in public schools, the research team conducted a series of studies to identify major barriers and facilitators to implementation, and findings were shared in a form of policy briefs made available on the knowledge portal created to promote use of research evidence for the purpose of informing planning for implementation.The knowledge portal was designed as a component of Project ASPEN in collaboration with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, New Jersey, a major broker of research on youth mental health to state government. The collaboration focused on identifying research evidence that is most relevant to implementation  that can be included, additional useful online resources that can be curated on the website, and user-centered design considerations that will make the portal useful for diverse audiences.In organizing the resources for the online knowledge portal, different stages of user interaction with the site were considered, from preliminary research on adolescent depression screening to seeking information that is relevant to policy implementation. Given that the policy-making process progressed to the policy implementation planning phase, the primary users were identified as implementation stakeholders , including state government officials. Additional users include policy makers, specifically the legislative staffers, state assembly members, and state senators who are involved in the overarching legislative process.Knowledge brokering activities enabled by the website needed to focus on the implementation of the proposed depression screening protocol. With the user needs identified within the implementation stage of the legislation, we focused on organizing the categories of resources to emphasize and aid information-seeking needs related to the different aspects of screening implementation. Resources were organized into categories including treatments, toolkits, guidelines, and assessment. An information librarian joined the project team to conduct an extensive review of available national and state resources relevant to the issue of adolescent depression screening. In addition to resource collection, the research team produced original research findings that were summarized in 4 research briefs that address core implementation challenges related to statewide adolescent depression screening in schools. The briefs ranged in length from 3 to 7 pages. The titles of those policy briefs are as follows:New Jersey Parents’ Views of Adolescent Depression ScreeningCall for Action on Adolescent Depression: What Do Schools In New Jersey Need to Identify and Support Students at Risk for Depression?Adolescent Depression Screening: Exploring Barriers and Facilitators of Implementation in School SettingsAdolescent Depression Screening Instruments: A Review of Existing Instruments to Screen for Adolescent DepressionA graphic web designer joined the project team to support development of the website. Both resource collection and website design were iterative processes that began in September 2021 and concluded in January 2022. The front page of the Project ASPEN website is shown in The Project ASPEN website was launched on February 1, 2022, after an extensive design process that began in September 2021. After the initial website launch, a quasi-experimental evaluation testing the efficacy of the Project ASPEN web portal was launched in March 2022 and concluded at the end of May 2022. The quasi-experimental evaluation using a single-site pre-post design without a control group was conducted focusing on the dissemination of the knowledge portal in stages; each stage represented a distinct phase in the launch, and phases were designed to avoid time overlap with one another to isolate measurement of each phase. Building off prior approaches established from our review of recent literature, 4 different strategies were piloted for promoting access to policy briefs , followeThe first phase was a Google Ads  campaign that ran from February 27, 2022, to March 26, 2022, and focused on driving traffic to the project website via a Google Ads purchase. Keywords are priced based on a system of supply and demand, paired with the specificity of the keywords and other factors such as geographic targeting. A sample of the type of Google Ad used in this promotion is shown in The campaign used the search network with display functionality from Google Ads; this shows the advertisement when a user searches for selected Google key terms that were selected by the research team. Google Ad functions on a cost-per-click model; advertising was geographically restricted to New Jersey. Keywords were selected based on a review of keyword terms that appear in Google searches paired with a review of key terms on the website portal and in the policy briefs being promoted.The second phase was targeted dissemination via social media and email. Dissemination via social media ran from April 3 to April 16, 2022, and focused on distribution via Twitter  and Facebook . The email campaign was disseminated via the Constant Contact platform and ran from April 24 to April 30. The third and final stage of dissemination was via targeted dissemination activities. The postlaunch comparison period ran from June 1 to July 2. Project leaders gave presentations to key partner organizations and tracked activity on the project website that resulted from these intentional dissemination activities; engagement was tracked by measurement website activity via a customized URL.Following the aforementioned planned activities, the website was tracked for an additional month to provide a comparison period during which no intentional promotional activity took place. The timeline of the project launch and the associated phases of the quasi-experimental evaluation are illustrated in Visits to the Project ASPEN website were compared across the different periods of marketing activity. Further, Google Analytics  was used to track user behavior on the website, with the key outcome variable being downloads of research briefs from the website. Key terms related to the promotional activity, Google Ad, and key measures are defined in The second phase of the quasi-experimental evaluation was dissemination via social media and email. Rather than using a broad dissemination pattern, the research team used a targeted dissemination approach on Facebook and Twitter.For Facebook, the research team utilized CrowdTangle, Facebook’s research intelligence platform, to identify Facebook groups in New Jersey that topically focused on adolescent depression, mental health policy, or issues related to schools and mental health. CrowdTangle allows users to search by region and keyword. This approach identified 115 Facebook groups (43 were public and 72 were private). All group rules were followed, and research was conducted in accordance with IRB guidelines. Messages about the portal were posted in 73 Facebook groups (43 public and 30 private groups).To identify Twitter accounts, the research team leveraged the search feature enabled in the Twitter application programming interface. The team focused on searching for Twitter accounts that geoidentified as being from New Jersey and that used keywords represented in In addition, direct messages were sent to the top 100 identified Twitter accounts promoting the portal . The use of Twitter data builds on similar scholarship, for instance, following prior work examining Twitter and discussions pertaining to Medicaid .Email accounts were identified based on a review of legislative activity, news media coverage, and social media content. News media and policy content relevant to the issue were tracked for the duration of 2021, and relevant individuals and organizations were identified on an ongoing basis. News media content was tracked by monitoring news stories on the topic of adolescent depression and suicide appearing in 12 local print and online news outlets, as well as television broadcast transcripts from New Jersey across the broad period of 2012-2020. Specific outlets tracked were Home News Tribune, Asbury Park Press, Courier-Post, Star-Ledger, Record, Trentonian, Press of Atlantic City, South Jersey Times, the Times, PR Newswire, NJ.Com, NJ Spotlight Press Releases, and NJ TV. A broader time range was used for the news media to aggregate enough articles (n=213).Key policy makers were identified using Quorum . Quorum is a legislative tracking application that allows users to track policy at the state level. Using Quorum, the research team searched New Jersey legislative activity to identify state senators, assemblypersons, and staffers working on issues related to adolescent depression, following an approach established in similar studies tracking evidence use in policy making ,43.This cumulative analysis resulted in a list of 745 individuals (201 legislators and 544 policy advocates) who were involved in policy making and advocacy activities related to adolescent depression screening. Quorum was further used to retrieve email contact information. A web search was conducted for policy advocates. Of the initial list of 745 individuals, the research team was able to identify email addresses for 595 individuals (152 legislators and staffers and 443 policy advocates). Emails were sent using Constant Contact , an email tracking service, to track the open rate and click-throughs for the emails that were sent. We shared information with policy makers in their capacity as public officials and followed IRB guidelines for engagement.The final stage of dissemination consisted of targeted dissemination activities. During this stage of the dissemination activity, the research team actively worked with community partners to spread the word about the knowledge portal and to share summaries of the research briefs in a PowerPoint (Microsoft Corporation) presentation format. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, these presentations were run as webinars via Zoom ; all users were driven to the Project ASPEN website so that the project team could isolate traffic driven by these events. NAMI NJ worked with the research team to facilitate introductions to key groups and to facilitate presentations. Research presentations were made to the NAMI NJ Policy Advisory Board, NJ County Mental Health Board, NJ Behavioral Health Planning Council, NJ School Boards Association, Department of Education, and Department of Health.t test was used to test difference for continuous variables. Variances are expressed as SDs.Descriptive statistics were used to characterize user behavior and engagement with the website. A Poisson mean test was used to compare rates of use of the website across periods following prior related research. An unpaired 2-tailed The cumulative campaign ran for 161 days following the initial launch of the Project ASPEN knowledge portal. The knowledge portal was live for 21 days before promotional activity to establish a baseline with no promotional activity or outreach. The campaign resulted in 2837 unique user visits to the portal and 4713 page views. Daily counts of visits to the website from February 1, 2022, to July 31, 2022, are shown in Controlling for the number of days, the cumulative rate of visits increased significantly during the Google Ad campaign, with smaller bursts during the social media campaign, the email campaign, and the targeted dissemination activities period. The activity during each promotional period was substantially higher than the pre- and postcampaign periods when no promotional activity took place .The core objective of utilizing a website platform to support knowledge brokerage activity was to drive user engagement with policy briefs that were supplied via the portal. The website was designed to allow users to engage with policy briefs in 2 different ways: users could view the policy briefs directly on the web page or download a PDF version of the policy brief from the same web page.There were no policy brief page views or downloads prior to the start of the promotional activity. Between the start of the Google Ads campaign on February 27, 2022, and the end of the intentional and targeted knowledge brokering activity on May 31, 2022, there were 588 page views within the policy brief section of the knowledge portal, and 59 downloads of PDF versions of the policy briefs. Overall, this translates to a 19.82% (449/2265) conversion rate for users to policy brief page views, and a 1.50% (34/2265) conversion rate for users to policy brief downloads.P<.001), social media , knowledge brokering activities , and the postlaunch period . The number of policy brief page view conversions for the email campaign was significantly higher compared with social media , knowledge brokering activities , and the postlaunch period . Similarly, the download conversion rate for Google Ads was significantly higher compared with social media , knowledge brokering activity , and the postlaunch period . There was no significant difference in the download conversion rate between the Google Ads campaign and the email campaign . The download conversion rate for the email campaign was significantly higher than the rate for social media , knowledge brokering activity , and the postlaunch period .The rate (views/day) of policy brief page view conversions was significantly higher for Google Ads compared with email . The number of pages viewed, however, was lower per session than during other periods . The session length during the Google Ads campaign was significantly lower than that during other periods .Looking specifically at the results from the Google Ads campaign, there are some differences in user behavior in this period that are important to note. During the Google Ads campaign, 98% of traffic to the portal was driven by paid search results (2219 user visits), with the remaining 2% coming from organic search. The average daily user count was higher during the campaign than during other periods .Bounce rate gives an indication of the percent of users that leave the website after viewing the landing page. For instance, the search term “policy” had the lowest bounce rate (79.8%), indicating that users who clicked on that keyword were more likely to stay on the website compared with users clicking on other search terms. Overall, the results from the Google Ads campaign had a higher bounce rate than for the other promotional periods . The number of pages viewed similarly was not significant .There was no significant difference in the daily user count during the social media campaign compared with other periods, excluding the Google Ads campaign , which is notably high and likely due to the targeted nature of the emails. The email campaign resulted in 38 policy brief page views and 7 policy brief downloads.P<.001). There was no significant difference in terms of the number of page views .During the email campaign there was a significantly higher number of daily users compared with other periods, excluding the Google Ads campaign . There was also a significant difference in terms of the number of page views .The targeted dissemination activities focused on research presentations to key stakeholders to drive awareness of the knowledge portal and to encourage use of the information on the portal. This knowledge brokering campaign drove 204 users to the portal, resulting in 50 policy brief page views and 14 policy brief downloads over a 63-day period. There was a significantly lower number of daily users compared with other periods, excluding the Google Ads campaign , 68% of users came from mobile devices and 32% of users came from desktop computers. Looking specifically at traffic driven by the Google Ads campaign, 78% of users came from mobile devices and 22% of users came from desktop computers.Results from this research compare the use of various dissemination strategies for creating engagement and brokering research evidence in the process of policy implementation.This is one of the first studies to explicitly design, implement, and test the efficacy of a knowledge portal as a means of supporting knowledge brokerage, and to compare a variety of approaches for facilitating use of the knowledge portal. Our findings show that Google Ads can be utilized to drive a substantial increase in the number of visitors to a website. While Google Ads was effective in driving both traffic and conversions through policy web page views and policy brief downloads, the amount of time users spent on the site and the number of pages viewed on average was lower than traffic driven by other sources.Moreover, driving traffic with Google Ads is a relatively inefficient way to drive traffic; the average cost per click of US $2.09 means that significant expense is needed to drive large volumes of users. As noted previously , a commoIn part, the ineffectiveness of Google Ads is likely because paid search targets a broad audience based on keywords. Therefore, the users who are clicking on the selected keywords are likely searching for broader information about depression and anxiety. Prior work echoes this, showing that policy makers are likely to turn to trusted peers and other known sources of knowledge when seeking policy-relevant information .Other targeted approaches proved effective in driving conversions and generating policy views and downloads without significant expense. Specifically, the use of targeted emails was effective in terms of the rate of policy views and the rate of downloads. The findings for targeted emails are somewhat inflated because the emails were sent over a concentrated period (1 week) resulting in an artificially high rate; in terms of raw volume of policy views and downloads, the process of targeted dissemination activities was more effective but more time-consuming. Open rates for the targeted dissemination via email exceed rates from a prior study that examined policy making and the adolescent mental health context  . A similOur higher open rate is likely due to the targeted nature of the campaign. The targeted emails were sent with a specific message encouraging legislators and policy advocates to access information that was tailored to their needs and were also sent using university branding. This echoes prior work suggesting email can be effective for engaging policy makers ; that woThe targeted dissemination activities that took place were customized for each audience; the small group settings and the time taken during the sessions to highlight policy-relevant information likely translated directly to policy web page views and policy brief downloads. Indeed, multiple participants in the targeted dissemination sessions remarked that they would share the knowledge portal with their colleagues.Social media was not effective for a multitude of reasons. The social media environment is cluttered with a multitude of advertisements. As a result, the messages that were sent during the campaign to support the knowledge portal were likely received with myriad other communications.In summary, Google Ads, targeted email communication, and targeted dissemination sessions were successful in driving conversion as policy web page views and policy brief downloads. More broadly, the Project ASPEN knowledge portal served as a useful site for driving knowledge brokerage in the form of web page views of the policy briefs. As noted, it was harder to drive actual downloads of the PDF, but extant research supports the notion that the success rate of a desired online activity will go down as the number of steps required to accomplish the activity go up. Based on the degree of activity on the website, the effectiveness in reaching geographically relevant users, and engagement with policy brief views and downloads, we are optimistic about the utility of this approach as a means of driving awareness of policy-relevant research.The findings from this study are limited to this specific application and case study involving pending implementation of the school-based adolescent depression screening program in the state of New Jersey. The political context of each state is likely to vary, as is the policy implementation process. Thus, what works in one setting may not work in another. Besides, we did not manipulate message design; there is evidence that intentional design such as the use of emotion in messaging can improve response rates to policy communication . NeverthOur study is the first to empirically test the concept of a website as a resource that supports activity related to knowledge brokerage in the context of health policy implementation. The findings highlight many of the challenges associated with such research in practice, but also point toward key pathways for success in implementation, including the use of targeted email lists and keywords paired with website design for successful implementation. As researchers and policy makers continue to turn to online sources to both locate and disseminate information, it is increasingly critical to understand how websites can function as platforms for knowledge brokering activity.


This short article is centred on how trust can be a valuable resource for developing cognate responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the medical and social sciences. Politics and medicine can learn from each other. Governments need to persuade individuals to adapt their behaviours, and such persuasion will be all the more convincing in that it is nested in social networks. Trust in government requires consistent  explanations. The distinction between hard medical and soft social science blurs when patients/citizens are required to be active participants in combatting a pandemic virus. Scientists and politicians seem sometimes to inhabit very different worlds. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided numerous examples of this. There is, at the least, a politics–science temporal misfit: the true value of science, requiring rigorous testing, predictably makes the search for a vaccine a slow process, one not in the same time frame as that required by the political management of the crisis, which requires ‘fast’ solutions. This special issue is more generally concerned with the social implications of the pandemic and the environmental changes connected to it. Continuing the analysis, the environmental temporality might be interpreted as a long-term tragedy, in the Shakespearean sense of a visible, impending and relentless movement. Or, alternatively, as a more heroic enterprise of apprising the collective consciousness of the necessity to act in time to avoid catastrophe and preserve the global commons. The evidence provided by the COVID pandemic is ambivalent, however, being open to dual readings, so much so that it is unwise to edict clear causal relationships.There are overwhelming common interests in agreeing on the terms of reference. From a comparative politics perspective, COVID-19 provides a vast living dataset to engage in multi-level comparisons and real-time experiments. In the medical research field, the pandemic has provided advances in medical science that would not have been possible without access to a living laboratory. Science has occupied centre stage and forms part of the struggle of the narratives between countries and regions. From liberal democratic countries such as the UK and France to semi-authoritarian regimes such as Singapore, governments have justified decisions based on the ‘scientific evidence’. Politicians in many countries involve medical experts in the announcement of infections, deaths and policy measures to combat the pandemic. Medical experts appear more trustworthy than politicians and their pronunciations are taken more seriously by the general public. Trust in health professionals is the core finding across these very different types of political systems. One interesting angle relates to the role of these professionals. Are they co-constructors of public policy? In countries such as the UK and France, the governments have created scientific advisory committees and justified their decisions based on the ‘scientific evidence’. Or are the health professionals there mainly to provide scientific caution? In the mentioned examples, and more generally, governments have sought to avoid blame by co-opting scientists. On occasion, medical practitioners emerge as the gatekeepers of public health, as in the case of the doctors’ strike in Hong Kong forcing the government there to close the border with China. These are key questions. Although they have been harshly criticised, democratic governments, such as that of the UK, are bound by a degree of public transparency, hence they are more likely to admit mistakes than their authoritarian counterparts.The COVID-19 pandemic also demonstrates the contested nature of medical knowledge: as testified by the controversies over hydroxychloroquine or contrasting containment strategies (herd immunity vs. lockdown). Let us not forget that, in the case of the UK, the herd immunity approach was the one advocated by leading government scientific advisors. In the absence of an effective global commons, moreover, the crisis has revealed the barriers to the functioning of a global medical epistemic community, free to exchange ideas/information in the interests of scientific discovery. Health professionals have been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, but as the case of China in particular suggests, they are not always free to tell the truth [2 emissions were down in all the major urban centres as a result of industrial shutdowns and the lack of travel mobility  [Referring to the global commons provides the best entry point for linking the analysis of COVID-19 with the environment. Of course, deep concern about the future of the planet precedes COVID-19. The Paris climate treaty COP 21) of 2015 represented a highlight of international collective action to fight global warming. But the decision by the United States (US) administration to withdraw from the Paris agreement  was a harbinger of future trends in the troubled Trump presidency. The COVID-19 crisis – or the Wuhan epidemic as described by Trump – demonstrates the deep mistrust between the key global actors whose cooperation is needed to fight the battle to preserve the planet. Hence, the difficulty of imputing clear causal effects to COVID-19 and its impact on the environment. Rather, paradoxically, the short-term impact of COVID-19 would appear to be beneficial to the environment: CO1 of 2015lective) . But theResponding to existential dilemmas, the COVID-19 pandemic calls for a major transdisciplinary research effort that necessarily combines several levels of empirical analysis and bridges distinct academic and scientific traditions. This short article is centred around the question of whether COVID-19 represents, inter alia, a crisis of trust, one theme that successfully links the social and medical sciences. Health scandals, such as mad cow disease  in the UK or the tainted blood scandal in France, have a particular place in the interface between citizens and their trust in politics and the health and related professions . PoliticLiterature from political science, especially relating to the three levels of trust of Zmerli and Newton , allows Inter-personal trust provides the first level of analysis. In their Trust, Confidence and Cooperation model, Earle and Siegrist [Siegrist  distinguSiegrist .In another close formulation ‘particular social trust’ involves those known to us personally, such as family, friends or work colleagues. A breakdown of trust shatters this psychological equilibrium. Cross-national evidence from lockdowns and confinements illuminates the challenged state of psychological wellbeing of individuals, especially in terms of their primary networks  and practices . Even within these tight personal networks, evidence from scholars working on psychological indicators points to an increase in indicators of social tension, such as divorce, gender violence and isolation, as a result of the COVID-19 crisis [There is an environmental dimension to this. Social capital is literally excluded as a result of lockdown and travel restrictions . But society has not collapsed. Even where confinement was harsh, as in Italy, Spain and France, the strength of civil ties allowed the crisis to be weathered. The short-term impact of COVID-19 is one of lessening consumption, the counterpart of restraints on freedom and mobility, and a calling into question of the legitimacy of individual-level preferences in terms of mobility. How long such mechanisms can last in market economies remains to be seen. The trust dimensions intervene at two main levels: trust in government and governmental advice and trust in scientific expertise. Effectively confronting a pandemic requires the active collaboration of individuals and civil society.Social or collective trust is the second level of analysis. ‘General social trust’ is that placed in ‘unknown others’. This form of trust performs a key function in modern societies, as Newton [s Newton : 349 notand confidence in experts. During pandemics, most people are not in a position to evaluate the information about the risks and benefits associated with vaccination. Therefore, they rely on experts, especially on those experts they trust, who are once removed from government. This finding was backed by van der Weerd et al. [Such an analysis depends on how citizens place their trust in government, our third dimension; this has performed a major role during the pandemic by affecting the public’s judgements about risks and related benefits . From a d et al.  in theird et al. . ‘nudge’. Governments have certainly attempted to persuade (nudge) their populations to exercise social control, sometimes using the threat of fines for transgression. But they have also fudged the issue, sending mixed messages, for instance, in the case of air transport in the UK, where the border was open until June 2020 against most interpretations of sound logic, only to be closed when other countries began to open their own borders. Contrasting responses do not simply relate to types of government. This issue is not a simple one of distinction between types of polity, for example, federal versus unitary systems: while the US and Brazilian federations descended into partisan-based rivalries between states, federal Germany demonstrated one of the most joined-up responses to the pandemic.Governmental policy towards individual and collective mobility (transport) has included at least as much ‘fudge’ asinternational level, mistrust is one dimension of the ongoing great power rivalry between the US and China, with Europe, in the main, a perplexed and wounded bystander. Controversy over the provenance of the pandemic – and the appropriate description of it – is an intervening variable of the increasingly bitter global contest between China and the US – and Xi Jinping and Trump in particular. Mistrust is inherent in realist framings of the international system, but COVID-19 has acted as a step change in the deterioration of Sino-American relations. The environment might well be one victim of the growing mistrust within global institutions. There is a real danger of ‘decoupling’, of Asia and America inhabiting different spheres of existence. The difficult governance of international organisations – such as the World Health Organization, which the US gave notice of its intention to quit in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic – stems in part from a suspicion of Chinese influence. There is, in this sense, a direct link between the pandemic and the weakening of multilateral institutions. However, there are also difficulties of interpretation: does COVID-19 symbolically represent a brutal stop to globalisation? Or is it too early to tell?At the The level only describes one part of the dynamic. Adapted to medical ethics, for example, practitioner and client relationships span elements of inter-personal and intermediate trust. The appropriate relationship is prescribed and described in medical ethics  and regulated by strict professional and ethical standards. Here, the medical relationship is stronger than even the tightest form of inter-personal political relationship. Nonetheless, COVID-19 challenges interpersonal trust in a novel manner; traditional consultative practices are changing (e.g. e-Medicine), while the competition for scarce resources has ensured that COVID-19 eclipses more traditional treatments (e.g. the postponing of cancer operations).The key analytical point is that, in the medical sphere as in the political one, discussion centres on the linkages between individual, intermediary and organisational levels of analysis. The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on the need to strengthen the links between patients, health care teams and organisations. From the relevant literature, we learn that the most effective responses in a pandemic are joined-up ones, where individuals (responsible for following guidelines) trust intermediaries  and are receptive to messages (nudges) from the relevant governmental authorities. Hence, the distinction between hard medical and soft social science blurs when patients/citizens are required to be active participants in combatting the virus.Politics and medicine can learn from each other. Levels of trust are most effective when combined. In terms of trust, individual responses and reactions, social mediation and governmental responses need to complement each other. In a pandemic, governments need to persuade individuals to adapt their behaviours, and such persuasion will be all the more convincing in that it is nested in social networks. Here, reverting to the advice of psychologists and medical scientists assumes its own coherence. Clear and consistent legitimising discourses are, almost by definition, most difficult to sustain in a crisis, the political equivalent of Schumpeter’s creative destruction. However, trust in government requires consistent  explanations. The evidence drawn from the medical and social science perspectives goes in the same direction.The three-level analysis is equally appropriate in the field of the environment. Individual level behaviour lies at the very heart of environmental challenge, but this takes place within the bounds of social acceptability – at least in pluralistic, liberal democratic societies. Governments need to provide accessible information, not in terms of information overload, but clear consistent guidelines. Evidence – from Trump, Macron and Johnson, for example – suggests that contradictory information is associated with reduced public trust. Global governance is more than ever necessary to rise to the environmental challenge – but possibly is the main victim of the geo-political consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.


Due to the growing global population and subsequent environment degradation, as well as changes in the climate, changing consumers’ dietary habits is necessary to create strategies for the most efficient use of natural resources to eliminate waste in the food supply chain. The packaging of food is essential to preserve the food’s properties, extend its shelf life and offer nutritional information. Food products are packaged in various materials of which the most used are plastics, but they have a negative impact on the environment. Various efforts have been made to address this situation, but unfortunately, this includes recycling rather than replacing them with sustainable solutions. There is a trend toward edible packaging materials with more additional functions . Edible packaging is also a sustainable solution to avoid food waste and environment pollution. Oilcakes are the principal by-products obtained from the oil extraction process. These by-products are currently underused as animal feed, landfilling or compost. Because they contain large amounts of valuable compounds and are low-cost ingredients, they can be used to produce materials suitable for food packaging. This review covers the recent developments in oilcake-based packaging materials. Special emphasis is placed on the study of materials and technologies that can be used to make edible film in order to research the most suitable ways of developing oilcake-based film that can be consumed simultaneously with the product. These types of materials do not exist on the market. Food packaging plays an important role in the food supply chain. An adequate packaging can reduce wastes and guarantee food quality during storage. The most frequently used materials are plastics due to their reduced cost, easiness of shape and weightless character, but unfortunately, they are affecting the environment . To addrThe difference with the conventional packaging is that this is integrated with the food product so they can be consumed together without having to throw away the packaging.Every year, about 1/3 of the food produced is wasted or lost . A possiOilseeds are grains used primarily as a source of vegetable oil. After oil extraction, valuable by-products called cake or meal remain. Due to their composition, which is rich in protein and polysaccharides, they are promising ingredients for eco-friendly, edible biopolymers that could be used as packaging materials.This review aims to collect the information available about the edible packaging system and the incorporation of the by-products resulting from cold oil extraction in these systems. The studies found in the specialized literature highlight the possibility of using the proteins extracted from oil seed flour in the production of biodegradable films. From the literature study, the packaging obtained with proteins extracted from the oil industry by-products have good gas barriers. Their mechanical, physicochemical, thermal, water vapor barrier, and water sensitivity properties can be improved with different optimization processes.The novelty of this review is to study if they can be incorporated entirely in films that can be consumed simultaneously with food products. In addition, it gives them a higher nutritional and organoleptic value. Oilseed crops are grown mainly for oil production. Oilseeds have an important role in providing balanced diets rich in fibers, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fatty acids. Globally, the most cultivated oilseeds are soybean, rapeseed, cotton, sunflower and groundnut. Other seeds with relevance in the food sector due to their pharmaceutical properties are sesame and hemp . The extraction of oil from oilseeds produces valuable by-products . The process of extraction is completed either by using solvents, hot 100 °C)/cold (50–60 °C) pressing or modern/green technologies  [0 °C/coldThere are two types of oilcakes, namely edible and non-edible. The edible oilcakes have high nutritional value due to their significant amount of residual oil, proteins, minerals and vitamins. Due to their content in toxic compounds, the non-edible oilcakes are used as manure . The composition of oilcakes is presented in Unfortunately, the cakes can contain undesirable antinutritional ingredients . The essential functions of packaging are covering, preserving, maintaining safety and quality, increasing the shelf life of food products during transport, storage and marketing. Packaging also provides information on the nutritional value and end use of food products .The use of non-biodegradable and non-renewable materials in packaging has led to numerous environmental concerns regarding their decomposition and the overexploitation of natural resources. As a result, suitable alternatives are sought to minimize the use of traditional materials .As a definition, edible packaging consists of materials used for encapsulating different foods to preserve the properties; in addition, they can be consumed with food. There are two forms of edible packaging: namely, films and wrappers/coatings. They fulfill the same role, but they are different concepts . Coatings are applied directly to the surface of products ; instead of films, they can be used as a solid layer to cover food products  . Consumable films can be made by two methods—wet and dry processing. Wet processing is the most common method, and it is also called solvent casting. The film-forming macromolecules were dissolved/dispersed in a suitable medium , and by its evaporation, the film is formed. In contrast, the dry method involves thermo-mechanical processing such as compression molding (extrusion) .The casting is widely used in research and can be completed through equipment that exists in the laboratory. Unfortunately, in the wet process, solvent removal is a time-consuming and energy-expensive step (due to the price associated with drying oven maintenance). On the other hand, extrusion is a mass scale, faster, and more energy-efficient process that lowers the production cost of biopolymers to compete with synthetic polymers .Edible and biodegradable nature;The amount of solid waste is considerably reduced;The organoleptic properties of food are improved;The nutritional properties are improved by adding adjuvants;Brings the possibility of packing items individually;Antimicrobial properties;The possibility of using a range of by-products  from different activities.There are several undeniable advantages of these materials ,88: EdibThe ingredients included in the composition of the films must be safe ). The main goal is to avoid toxic and/or allergenic components;Adequate mechanical properties to prevent food surface damage during handling;Adheres to food surface;The film has a pleasant taste or is tasteless;Stability over time and above all avoiding the development of molds;Reducing the dehydration of the wrapped product;Maintaining adequate gas transfer, especially for oxygen and carbon dioxide;Avoid losing the components that are responsible for flavor and nutritional value;Improvement of structural properties;The overall presentation of the final product, the realization of some classic performances of the package from the point of view of design. Otherwise, the product may be rejected by consumers;Low costs—to justify a major shift in the food industry ideology, costs must be lower;Manufacturing processes must be easy and economically viable. Maintenance and cleaning of the devices used must be easy.Coatings and edibles are used in film in the same way as any other packaging to preserve the properties of the original food and must present some specific characteristics :The ingrThe mechanical properties are important because the packaging must greatly ensure the integrity  of the packaged food products from harvest, processing, and storage to consumption. These include tensile strength (TS), elongation at break (EB), deformability and elastic modulus (E). TS is expressed as the maximum stress/load that a material can withstand, and EB is the material’s elongation to break ,87.The mechanical properties of edible packaging depend on the nature and composition of the film-forming solution , the way the film is produced and the presence of plasticizers (they can improve elasticity). In addition, films based on biopolymers are significantly influenced by the water content of food as well as the humidity and temperature of the environment; therefore, if their variations occur, their physical properties can be modified, which limits their use. For example, hydrophilic films at higher moisture levels absorb water more easily, increasing its plasticizing effect, thus reducing tensile strength and increasing extensibility ,90.Mass transfer between packaged food, packaging material and atmosphere is important in evaluating future packaging applications. The edible films exhibited barrier properties. The packaging provides safety against chemical changes, ensuring the quality and the shelf life .The most important barrier properties are permeability to gases, water vapor, light, oil and aroma. The migration of oil, flavor or smell, the permeability of oxygen, carbon dioxide and other gases as well as the release of constituent materials of the packaging to the food could affect their quality . The effectiveness of the barrier properties of the packaging materials is achieved by permeability measurements. Permeability describes the rate at which gases (or vapors) are transferred through the packaging material. This process is influenced by the pressure variation between the two surfaces of the material at humidity and temperature stability conditions . The barWater sensitivity can be evaluated by the film’s moisture content under specific environmental conditions, water absorption capacity, and water solubility .Water solubility is of major importance because it conditions the use of films in technological applications. A high solubility is desired in the case of foils/coverings that are consumed simultaneously with food .w [Edible packaging can be used to inhibit the exchange of moisture between finished food products and atmospheres. Water activity (aw) is an important factor affecting the sensory quality and shelf life of foods. The parameter is determined based on moisture levels and interactions between water molecules and the other ingredients. Some chemical and enzymatic degradation processes, microorganism development and textural properties depend on aw .Water vapor permeability (WVP) is a parameter that directly affects the freshness of the packaged product. Although biopolymer films are a good barrier to gases, they are a poor barrier to water vapor. Their hydrophilic nature is one of the limiting factors of their widespread use. WVP can be reduced by adding lipid components , which increase hydrophobicity, or mixing with other biopolymers .Oxygen can cause food spoilage reactions  and the growth of microorganisms. Other gases that play a relevant role in food packaging include carbon dioxide, which can be added to packaging for various purposes. It is used to suppress or limit products such as microbial growth on fresh meat, cheese or bakery products or to reduce the rate of food respiration .The packaging of fresh fruit and fresh vegetables requires films/coatings with low OP (too low to produce anaerobic conditions favorable for the formation of flavor substances and ethanol production) and high CP because it is necessary for respiration .Gas permeability can be influenced by relative humidity (RH), temperature, thickness and WVP. Maintaining RH is crucial for maximizing the effectiveness of gas barrier properties, as a higher RH can substantially increase OP. In addition, thicker shells limit gas exchange .The aesthetic aspect of a food package contributes to the consumer’s decision to purchase the products. Therefore, the optical properties  of the material are essential features for films.Sensory and nutritional qualities of food products can be modified by exposure to light. The UV and visible barrier properties can be assessed using a spectrophotometer (exposure of films to wavelengths between 200 and 800 nm). Packaging materials must have low transmission for UV radiation (which increases the shelf life of packaged food) and high transparency in the visible region  .Polymers from natural resources generally include colored organic molecules. Colors can be quantified using three distinct values in a three-dimensional space. Preferably, the materials should be transparent, odorless and tasteless. Hydrocolloid materials are substantially more neutral than lipid and wax-based materials .Edible coatings and films improve the appearance , sensory attributes and texture . At the same time, there are psychological limitations on the part of consumers regarding the consumption of the food product simultaneously with the films or coatings .There are laws that regulate the quality control of packaging in terms of the interaction with food products (packaging–product relationship). These regulations are complex due to the diversity of materials used , their presentation (boxes or bags) and the characteristics of the food products . Packaging must meet five basic requirements to be commercially available: (i) it should not present any risk to human health, (ii) it should not change the physico-chemical composition of the food, (iii) it should not change the organoleptic characteristics of the food, (iv) it should be manufactured and treated in accordance with good manufacturing practices and (v) it must not present misleading information about the product contained .Legislation established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) also deals with regulations involving the production, distribution and use of packaging materials (ISO 18604:2013 ). There In Europe, edible packaging materials are included in Regulations EC 1331/2008 and EU 234/2011 for food additives, enzymes and flavorings. Raw materials used for packaging development must be part of this list and comply with legislation/authorizations. To achieve GRAS status, the manufacturer must apply for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval . Edible films and coatings are materials containing the main biopolymers recognized as safe (GRAS test). Proteins , polysaccharides, lipids and combinations thereof are used to develop edible films and coatings. Films based on polysaccharides and proteins provide hydrophilic character, while those based on lipids offer exceptional barrier properties. Out of them all, the most attractive options are proteins because they also offer nutritional value .Proteins most commonly of plant origin include those from corn, wheat gluten, soy proteins, oilseeds or cereals, and those of animal origin include collagen, gelatin, casein, keratin, proteins from egg white and whey . Protein-based films have optimal barrier , mechanical and optical properties due to their structured, ordered, and compact hydrogen network . UnfortuMoreover, due to the fact that the packaging based on proteins has the ability to inhibit the penetration of oxygen, it can be used for high-fat products to inhibit the lipid oxidation, which is the major cause of deterioration in quality and shelf life . Films mCollagen-based films are obtained by extrusion and have good mechanical properties (TS) . The devSoy protein films are fine, transparent and flexible. They showed good oxygen barrier properties at low humidity conditions, but the major disadvantages are the low mechanical strength and lack of thermal stability   and low water absorption capacity. Unlike proteins and polysaccharides, lipids alone cannot form an edible film. The main disadvantage of the lipid film is its fragile nature. It also imparts a waxy, greasy texture and taste that is not desirable for packaging material. The improvement of vapor barrier and functional properties  can be achieved by incorporating essential oils . At the Plasticizers are low molecular weight compounds that combine with base biopolymers to increase their thermoplasticity. The main role of these compounds is to decrease the polymer–polymer interactions, which increases the free volume and movement between the polymer chains. These properties lead to the lowering of the glass transition temperature. Most plasticizers are highly hydrophilic and hygroscopic to attract water molecules and form a hydrodynamic complex .There are two types of plasticizers: internal and external. Internal plasticizers enter the composition of polymer molecules. They increase the free volume (provides more space for the polymers to move) and flexibility by lowering the glass transition temperature (Tg), thus lowering the elastic modulus. External plasticizers are substances with low volatility; they interact with polymer chains but are not chemically attached to them by chemical bonds .The most important characteristics of plasticizers are their compatibility, efficiency and permanence. The plasticizer must be compatible with the polymer system in both the processing and use temperature range; they must be harmless and odorless. Efficiency is achieved if the plasticizer fulfills the role at lower concentration and has a high diffusion capacity in the polymer matrix. The permanence of plasticizers refers to their tendency to remain in the material. This depends on the size of the molecule , the diffusion rate , volatility, stability to water and resistance to solvents and oils. Therefore, the plasticizer should have a low vapor resistance and a low diffusion rate in the polymer .The addition of plasticizers in edible packaging gives flexibility, decreases brittleness, increases their hardness and prevents the appearance of cracks and pores . PlasticPlasticizers are required in proportions from 10% to 65% depending on the stiffness of the polymer. They improve the polymer formation process and can be used at higher temperatures. The main plasticizers applied in films and coatings are water, glycerol, propylene glycol, sorbitol, polyethylene glycol, xylitol, mannitol and corn syrup .Edible films and coatings can serve as carriers for numerous active compounds such as antioxidants and antimicrobials, flavors and colors that maintain the quality, safety and shelf life of the packaged product. Their incorporation is only possible up to a certain level where they start to influence the physical and mechanical as well as visual properties of the films .Edible films and coatings can serve as carriers for numerous active compounds such as antioxidants and antimicrobials, flavors and colors that maintain the quality, safety and shelf life of the packaged product.Surfactants are ionic, non-ionic and amphoteric macromolecular stabilizers that can lower the surface tension between two immiscible phases. The major function is to prevent phase separation by maintaining the balance between the hydrophilic and lipophilic phases .The hydrophilic–lipophilic balance (HLB) shows the attraction of surfactants to water or oil. This can be calculated with the Davies Equation (1):The higher the HLB values, the higher the attraction for water, and the lower the values, the higher the attraction for oil .Emulsifiers commonly used in edible films/coatings include the following: glycerol monostearate, sucrose stearate, soy lecithin, sodium dodecyl sulfate, silvered ethyl lauroyl hydrochloride, sorbitan laurate 20 and 80 and polysorbate 20 and 80. Surfactants produce films’ properties, lower the WVP and improve the barrier properties. In addition to allowing adhesion between the coating and the final product, it prevents the formation of rough surfaces and leads to the formation of uniform edible films and coatings .Lecithins are the most important emulsifiers; they are mixtures or fractions of phospholipids of vegetable origin. Their introduction into edible packaging affects the color (they become more opaque), solubility, barrier properties (decreased WVP), mechanical properties  and their microstructure .The packaging industry is still evolving depending on consumer lifestyle changes, market changes and the need to limit the impact of food waste. The schematic presentation of food packaging development is shown in The use of residues and by-products from the food industry has aroused great interest in the production of edible packaging. The recovery of by-products promotes the notion of sustainability and their recycling/reuse, thus adding more value to food and reducing also the costs and risks of their disposal in the environment .An interesting approach is the usage of whole oilcakes, which are naturally complex combinations of protein, polysaccharides and lipids. Unfortunately, the application of oilcakes as raw materials for film production is limited due to the presence of antinutritional factors. Thus, the incorporation can be achieved by extracting the proteins or by cooking the residues. Sunil et al.  investigCommercially, the most popular packaging material is low-density polyethylene (LDPE) due to its mechanical (good tensile and impact resistance) and barrier (moisture and WVP) properties, but it has a low barrier to oxygen . SimilarCompared to conventional polymeric films, the protein oilcake-based films presented weak mechanical properties that can be improved by the addition of essential oil  or crossAnother characteristic of these films is their stiff and brittle structure than can be improved with the addition of a plasticizer. The addition, however, affects the barrier properties . It is necessary to optimize the experimental conditions  in order to obtain films with best properties.The incorporation of oilcakes in films affects also the optical properties (films are opaque), which is beneficial to protect food against chemical degradation. The difference in color also differs on the type of oilcakes used.The films achieved so far were primarily developed using the solvent casting method at laboratory scale where the film-forming macromolecules are dissolved in an appropriate medium and plasticizer, and the evaporation of these leads to the film. Their production at industry scale is delayed due to their barrier and mechanical properties limitation as well as their high processing cost.For our research, a systematic search on international databases  was conducted. The research was based on specific keywords such as edible packaging, oilcakes, oilseeds, film properties, agroindustrial waste, circular economy, environment pollution, and edible packaging materials. No timeline for the literature research was applied so as to present all the results obtained in the field up to the present moment. The research includes review articles, short communications, conference materials and book chapters.The consumers accept the edible packaging if they consider it safe. Although the idea is that these packaging materials can be eaten along with the food, limited studies have been conducted to verify their biodegradibility and edibility. The acceptance of edible films can be limited by lack of awareness and fear. Marketing strategies  might be helpful to attract consumers. Another reason for their lack of acceptance is the fear for the presence of allergens that can be resolved by a proper labeling. The last factor includes the cost; therefore, the edible films have a price 10–50 times higher than the petroleum-derived plastic films. In order to attract consumers, the cost should be lower or equal to the petroleum derived ,135.The research area of edible packaging is continuously evolving  in an effort to develop films with properties similar to conventional synthetic polymers. The research carried out so far highlights two different directions for the valorization of oilcakes. The first includes the possibility of adding appropriate amounts as functional ingredients in food products (bakery and dairy) without negatively influencing the quality of the final products. The second consists of the extraction of protein for the development of edible films and coatings. Additionally, there are limited studies on the total incorporation of these by-products into edible packaging.The food packaging sector is in constant development and changing, the natural and sustainable materials being the most researched field. Edible packaging is a sustainable and biodegradable alternative in the food packaging field because it provides quality optimization and waste reduction.The edible packaging materials are promising due to their potential to be made from a variety of materials or to be carriers to active substances . The materials used derivate from edible ingredients and can be consumed by humans without health risks.The agro-industrial residues are a valuable source of bioactive compounds that can be valorized and used in edible films and coatings because the bioactive compounds improve the functions and nutritional properties of the packaging.The incorporation of oilcakes in edible packaging is a promising strategy to achieve sustainability, circular economy and the minimization of food waste and losses.


Resilience is an essential trait in the academic and non-academic lives of students that has been associated with positive psychological and non-psychological outcomes. Given the importance and role of resilience, the main goal of this study was to create a structural model of resilience based on parental support and emphasizing the mediating role of hope and coping. The research design was correlational in nature and used structural equation modeling (SEM). The population of this study included high school students in Tehran city in 2019–2020 school year, and the sample consisted of 560 students selected by cluster sampling method. By applying Spearman correlation analysis and structural equation modeling, a significant relationship between hope, coping, resilience, and parental support was found. Both the SEM measurement and structural models provided a good fit. The significant findings of the present study include the direct and significant effect of parental support on resilience. The indirect and significant effect of parental support on resilience through the mediating role of hope and coping was also confirmed. Overall, the results of this study show that the effect of parental support on resilience can be improved by promoting hope and coping styles. The need to be close to parents when necessary and the need of parents to respond to their children's need is biologically based on the survival of the species. Adolescents continue to use parents as a safe base for exploration and temporarily return to the parents' safe haven to help them, especially in times of distress, illness, anxiety, or stress . ParentsThus, parents play a key role in raising and supporting their children through all stages of development. They pave the way for adaptations to emerge so that children can successfully overcome many challenges . In addiMasten  discusseHigher levels of resilience were related to more effective coping strategies, including better problem solving and less avoidant coping . BelieveCoping refers to cognitive and behavioral strategies for coping with stressful events or negative psychological and physical outcomes . HoweverHope in difficult situations, but also for uncertainty and scarcity, is an important factor for individual adaptation . The conOverall adolescent build their resilience, hope, optimism, emotional regulation, and wisdom on their successful experiences in coping with difficult life events . These cOur proposed framework suggests that resilience-promoting factors may operate in an interactive and accumulative manner and Resilience refers to characteristics or mental processes by which people can recover from stressors and refrain from physical or emotional disturbances. In general, concerns about disruption due to technological advances, economic and educational problems, individual and social impairments, and family problems have led researchers to pay particular attention to resilience as an attachment structure . The greThe one Hypothesis: Parental support has a direct influence on resilience.The Second hypothesis: active coping and hope mediate the relationship between parental support and resilience.The target population was high school students in the city of Tehran, Iran, in the academic year 2019–2020. Participants were selected using the cluster sampling method. First, we coordinated with the Ministry of Education in the city of Tehran and then generated a list of high schools. Public, private, and special schools (with entrance examination) were classified in each period of high schools. Based on the number of students in each category, the number of schools was determined proportionally to their size. Cluster sampling was used to recruit participants from all four regions of Tehran: North, South, East, and West. The number of students recruited from each region was determined according to their proportion in the total number of students in the regions. Stratified random sampling was used to select the classes in each school to complete the questionnaire. Criteria for participation in the study included belonging to a student group, being between 14 and 17 years of age, and willingness to cooperate. The only criterion for exclusion from the study was failure to answer 25% of the questions in the questionnaire.According to Kline , it was The present study is correlational in the form of structural equation models (SEM). The SEM analysis is a combination of confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regression techniques. We introduced two mediator variables, hope and active coping to the model, and analyzed the indirect and direct relations between the variables. We calculated the correlation of the variables. The strategy of the present study is a quantitative and descriptive analysis that describes the distribution of the data of each of the independent and dependent variables through appropriate statistical indicators.The items of the questionnaire were combined based on different studies, and testing their validity and reliability. In structural models, the complexity of the model increases when the number of items is very large and all of them are considered as observed variables, therefore, a researcher-made questionnaire was used. This leads to problems such as the inappropriate adjustment of indicators, the challenge of sample size and the significance of parameter estimation. In this situation, questionnaires with a smaller number of items are preferred . In thisFrom the Cronbach's alpha presented in Table Root mean square error (RMSEA) of less than 0.08 indicates the optimal fit of the model. Thus, as shown in Fig. As Table Ethical approval was received from the institutional review boards of Lorestan University. All participants gave informed consent before participating in the study. This study was conducted in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.Participants were provided with an informed consent form assuring them of anonymity, confidentiality, and the exclusively scientific purpose of the study. Participants were assured that their responses would be kept confidential and that their participation would in no way interfere with their studies. Those who agreed to participate in the study completed the questionnaire and returned it to the authors upon completion. Data in this study were also collected in person.A questionnaire and an invitation letter that included parental consent and explained the purpose of the study were sent by the researchers to all schools in the last days before data collection and the schools sent the invitation letter to parents by email. A questionnaire with demographic items, parental support, active coping, hope, and resilience was collected by the researchers from the pre-selected classes in October 2019. Participants took part in the study voluntarily and anonymously, and students agreed to participate by completing an informed consent form attached to the questionnaire. Their data were also kept strictly confidential and used only for this study.All statistical data analyses were performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 software. Spearman correlation analysis was performed to examine the linear relationships between each variable. The hypotheses were tested by structural equation modelling using LISREL 20 software. To test the fit of the model to the collected data, model fit indices were examined, including the chi-square test Fit Index (CFI), Normed Fit Index (NFI) and Non Normed Fit Index (NNFI), Goodness of Fit Index (GFI), and Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI). In all analyses, a two-sided p-value of < 0.05 was statistically significant.Demographic variables in this study included gender, field of study, Academic year, Father's job, Number of children, mother's job, mother's education, Father's education and age.Overall, 358 (63.92%) participants were girl and 202 (36.07%) were boy. Besides, 161 (28.75%) participants were in the first year of high school, 148 (26.42%) students were in second year, 131 (23.39%) students were in third year. The highest percentage of participants was aged 17–16 years (71%).Table Before testing the structural model of the research, it is necessary to examine the correlation of the variables in the model. Table As Table The structural equation model was used to answer the two basic research questions about the effects of parental support on resilience and the mediating role of coping and hope. In the model, the structural equations of two models are tested. The first model includes the measurement model, whose indicators were presented, and the structural model, which expresses the relationship between the underlying variables. In the present study, LISREL software and the maximum likelihood method were used to fit the model. The results related to the implementation of the structural model, which shows the relationship between latent variables and some of the most important indicators for fitting the path analysis of the proposed model, are shown in Fig. As can be seen from Fig. As Table As Table As Table The purpose of this study was to examine the structural model of resilience based on parental support: the mediating role of hope and active coping. The results show that the conceptual model of the study is consistent with the data. It can be concluded that there is a significant relationship between these variables. Individuals with high resilience have optimistic attitudes, positive emotions, and are open to new experiences. These emotions and positive attitudes lead to constructive behaviors and attitudes. Resilience helps individuals cope with uncertainty, conflict, and failure, and they are receptive to significant changes in life . ResiliThe first hypothesis of the present study suggests that parental support has an impact on resilience. based on self-determination theory (SDT), parents help meet adolescent's basic psychological needs, including autonomy, or the free choice of actions and desires; competence, or a sense of mastery over actions and events; and connectedness, or building a relationship with and supporting important people in their lives, which provides the foundation for them to achieve high levels of well-being and health .Similarly, a child who is supported by peers or has had a similar loss experience may be motivated to express his or her feelings, which facilitates the normal grieving process . Given yParents facilitate their children's positive adjustment to stressful and threatening conditions through behavioral and emotional support. Parent who positively responded to their children by being kind, controlling, accepting, and supportive exhibited higher levels of resilience compared to children who did not have these experiences . ResearcThe present study confirmed the mediating role of coping and hope in the relationship between parental support and resilience. These findings are consistent with Shorey, Snyder, Yang & Lewin  and SatiAccording to the control-oriented model of coping, active coping may involve various skills  that can lead to behavioral and emotional adjustment in adolescents . This adHope can influence resilience in ways that change how people evaluate stress, so that people with more hope face stressors and challenges in life positively. They also use more problem-solving strategies and are significantly less passive . The resParental support generally plays an important role in helping adolescents cope with challenges or problems they face. It can be concluded that parental support can influence hope because adolescents have institutionalized knowledge that they can cope in many cases regardless of the nature of the problem . This fiConsistent with Snyder's  view, a Grolnick et al.  assume tThe present study has several limitations regarding the generalizability of the results and the representativeness of the sample. The most important limitation was that this study contained a small sample, which could result in low power, greater risk of II type errors, and limited ability to detect and examine existing relationships and small effect sizes among other limitations, there were also limitations regarding the age of the participants. The majority of participants were older than 16 years, so this study was not able to examine a large sample of children in early to middle childhood. This study also did not examine the role of adolescents who live with one parent and are influenced by the support of a parent. Therefore, data on separated parents were not included in this study. Another limitation was the lack of research background, which theoretically limited the current study. Also only children self-report were used to assess parenting; parent’s perspective on their parenting may be different. Future research should explicitly take a multiple informant in the field of parents and children.Examining parental support in a clinical sample could complement this research, as more variation in parental support may lead to more or different outcomes related to hope, resilience, and coping. Research has shown promising approaches to using the parental and family environment as a tool to prevent or treat depression in adolescents . It is sLongitudinal studies covering the entire period of childhood and adolescence could also improve our understanding of differences in parental support and effects on hope, resilience, and coping. But, this study did not consider different ethnicities and regions. Future research is needed to examine this model in other regions.Almost all of the studies examined were based on correlational data, so the results do not allow causal conclusions to be drawn. In the absence of further experimental data, it is not possible to determine whether parental support preceded children's resilience or occurred in response to it. Experimental studies should be aimed at improving coping strategies and resilience skills. Therefore, this study highlights prevention and intervention programs for the effects of parental support on hope, resilience, and coping.Despite these limitations, this study contributes to the literature by further empirically validating known parental support and improving our understanding of the role of parental support in hope, resilience and coping, this conceptual framework has taken important steps in shifting from a pathological perspective to resilience. The present sample closely matched the population distribution in terms of educational level and father's occupation. Therefore, the present results may be generalizable to minority groups or families.


Diabetes in humans is a rapidly expanding chronic disease and a major crisis in modern societies. The classification of diabetics is a challenging and important procedure that allows the interpretation of diabetic data and diagnosis. Missing values in datasets can impact the prediction accuracy of the methods for the diagnosis. Due to this, a variety of machine learning techniques has been studied in the past. This research has developed a new method using machine learning techniques for diabetes risk prediction. The method was developed through the use of clustering and prediction learning techniques. The method uses Singular Value Decomposition for missing value predictions, a Self-Organizing Map for clustering the data, STEPDISC for feature selection, and an ensemble of Deep Belief Network classifiers for diabetes mellitus prediction. The performance of the proposed method is compared with the previous prediction methods developed by machine learning techniques. The results reveal that the deployed method can accurately predict diabetes mellitus for a set of real-world datasets. Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, in humans is a rapidly expanding chronic disease ,2 and haThe use of machine learning in disease diagnosis has been effective ,18,19,20This research is organized as follows. In In medical diagnosis research, disease classification has played a significant part in the medication development of various diseases . SeveralEarly diagnosis of retinal abnormalities has the chance to avoid diabetes, in addition to being vital for avoiding the development of diabetic retinopathy and/or diabetic macular edema (DME), as well as other abnormalities that could result in visual impairment. Existing DR screening techniques rely on retinal fundus imaging and conventional evaluation. Even so, such strategies are exceedingly laborious and expensive, as highly qualified experts are required for evaluation purposes .In the study presented by Polat et al. , the autA study by Aslam et al.  used GP A new method was presented by Erkaymaz and Ozer  for DD dFuzzy methods have become one of the prominent solutions for classification issues, as they can enhance the interpretability of the outcomes and present more insight into the classifier scheme and decision-making procedure. A study by Ganji and Abadeh  used a sSVM was used by many DD diagnosis researchers ,41. In aAnother study by Nilashi et al.  developeAnother study that adopted the NN approach was presented by Edla and Cheruku . The stuPK-SVM was used by Longato et al.  to diffeIn summary, assessing the efficacy of DD classification is a complicated issue that should be tested on newer and more comprehensive diabetes datasets in future research, so that the most highly accurate rules can be extracted for diagnosis .The method of this study is developed for the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. The general framework of the proposed method is presented in Algorithm 1: Missing value prediction by SVD.→Converting data to the dense matrix .→Normalization using  ,whereis the average value andindicate the SD for.→SVD technique on Z is applied.→is computed for approximation of Z.→Missing value is calculated using.In this study, SVD as a dimensionality reduction technique was used for the missing value prediction. The procedure for missing value prediction by SVD is presented in Algorithm 1. This method can predict the missing value in the datasets through five main steps. To do so, we first convert the data in each cluster to the dense matrix Kohonen Self-Organizing Maps (SOM)  have beech other ,56. The ch other ,59,60,61ch other ,63 from DBN was designed by Hinton et al.  to overcAs presented in Considering the model variables of DBN, lth layer (H nodes) is utilized as the input of the The joint probability is optimized by training RBMs. Several RBMs are stacked to construct the DBN, whereby the output of the Based upon several quantitative variables and classification variables, a step-by-step discriminant analysis is carried out by the STEPDISC procedure to select a subset of the quantitative variables to be used in class discrimination . The groThe diabetic dataset includes 768 female patients. It has 500 controls and 268 diabetic patients. This dataset was taken from the UCI  in November 2019. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases provided the original data for this dataset. The dataset’s goal is to diagnose whether or not a patient has diabetes based on certain diagnostic measurements included in the dataset. The patients are at least 21 years old of Pima Indian heritage. In this dataset, 374 of these patients have zero serum insulin levels, 27 of them have zero body mass indexes, 35 patients have zero diastolic blood pressure, the skinfold thickness is zero for 227 patients, and 5 patients have zero glucose levels. We consider these zero values as missing values. According to the WHO standards, these details can be used to detect the critical symptoms that can be used to predict diabetes in patients. The target variable is a binary variable indicating whether or not a patient has diabetes, with 1 indicating that the patient has diabetes and 0 indicating that the patient does not have diabetes. Demographics of the diabetic patient cohort are shown in In the first step of the data analysis, we use SOM for data clustering. The results for SOM clustering are presented in In this paper, the classification models are constructed based on the DBN. In each cluster, the bottom of the model is stacked by RBM layers. In addition, the expected output variables are at the top of the model, which is the classification layer. To overcome the data processing complexity problem, one-class–one-network is adopted to improve the ability of the neural network. This approach was suggested by several researchers in different contexts, such as automatic handwriting recognition , speech The results of our method are evaluated through the accuracy metric. In The proposed method is compared with the other classifiers combined with the SOM clustering. The training errors of all the classifiers, DBN, SVM, NN, and LDA, in six clusters are presented in In addition, it can be seen from the results in In addition, our method is compared with the General Regression Neural Network , GDA-LSSDiabetes is a significant disease, because it affects a large number of people and, if not properly managed, can lead to serious health complications . DiabeteUsing state-of-the-art computational approaches to aid in complicated medical care choices has been indicated since the 1970s . Still, Designing new disease diagnosis approaches is a comprehensive process that entails the integration of theory, data gathering, and appropriate data analysis . In the ML addresses the advancement of techniques that enable machines to learn. The obstacle that faces researchers in this regard is to design algorithms that can gather a set of patterns and present new presumptions from the primary data without the need for human intervention. For ML, classification concerns dividing a group of data into multiple classes, referring to the training outcomes of a subgroup of data that have a predefined classification. Clustering is a procedure that entails dividing a group of observations into multiple reasonable segments based on specific metrics of resemblance among each segment. The clustering approach has been utilized in several disease diagnosis systems ,78,79,80As a particular fold of ML, DL techniques have been used for exploring various medical datasets to classify diseases and predict their effects ,82. DL cML has been effectively deployed in the diagnosis of diabetes. This study presented a novel integrated approach using machine learning techniques for early-stage diabetes risk prediction. SVD, SOM, STEPDISC, and DBN ensemble techniques were integrated to develop this method. SVD was used for dimensionality reduction and missing value prediction. SOM was used to cluster the data. STEPDISC was used for feature selection. DBN ensemble was used for diabetes mellitus prediction. To assess the proposed approach, multiple experimental analyses were performed on a real-world dataset taken from UCI. The deployed approach was assessed compared to other approaches in the literature and the methods combined with the SOM clustering. For 200 epochs, the proposed approach, SOM+DBN, presented better training errors, with rapid convergence in all clusters. In addition, the outcomes of the evaluation of the approaches were compared in terms of the accuracy metric and presented an overall accuracy of 98.32% when using the SOM and DBN ensamples.The encouraging outcomes of this study can be utilized practically by physicians to help them reach the right diagnosis. The research outcomes can be also deployed by scholars to explore the deployed methods on other datasets and in other medical contexts. In the context of medical disease diagnosis, there will always be room for enhancing the performance of classification models. This is particularly important in medical contexts, as the outcomes will impact human lives.There are still plenty of future directions for researchers on dimensionality reduction, clustering, and DBN approaches for diabetes risk prediction to utilize all their advantages. Future research can deploy the same method in other contexts in the health field. The research can be also extended to assess the performance of the applied techniques on other datasets, particularly large datasets. More studies should explore this point in the design of new approaches to face the difficulties of data computation time and to benefit from big data effectively. The research on DD classification can be carried out by focusing on different stages of clustering, noise removal, and classification. Future research can deploy different methods that adopt incremental learning that adjusts the model based on the new cases. Research can follow other routes that address some issues in the datasets, such as data sparsity.