Publications by authors named "Henry Ng"

Previous research on the link between temperature and prosociality has produced mixed findings. A recent meta-analysis focusing on laboratory-based research concluded that the effect was null, a conclusion that was subject to low ecological validity. This paper complements the discussion by investigating the link between ambient temperature and three indicators of real-life prosociality in 164 regions over 14 years.

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  • Reproductive-aged women are at a higher risk of iron deficiency (ID), prompting the development of a non-invasive screening tool to identify this condition and assess its acceptability among women.
  • A study in Western Australia screened 640 women aged 18-49, revealing important statistics such as 28% had heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) and 12% were anaemic, with significant correlations found between hand grip strength and hemoglobin levels.
  • The screening was well received, showing high recruitment rates, and suggests future tools could benefit from factors like hand grip strength and the prevalence of HMB in the assessment process.
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Cancer detection is challenging, especially in patients with unspecific cancer symptoms. Biomarkers could identify patients at high risk of cancer. Prior studies indicate that neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are associated with cancer, but also with autoimmune and infectious diseases.

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Cell cycle progression is governed by complexes of the cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) and their regulatory subunits cyclin and Cks1. CDKs phosphorylate hundreds of substrates, often at multiple sites. Multisite phosphorylation depends on Cks1, which binds initial priming phosphorylation sites to promote secondary phosphorylation at other sites.

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Importance: Older adults with multiple conditions receive health care that may be burdensome, of uncertain benefit, and not focused on what matters to them. Identifying and aligning care with patients' health priorities may improve outcomes.

Objective: To assess the association of receiving patient priorities care (PPC) vs usual care (UC) with relevant clinical outcomes.

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Background: Gender-affirming care (GAC) for gender diverse individuals (includes transgender and nonbinary persons) requires a comprehensive approach to medication surveillance, including monitoring and follow-up. Limited access to these health services can present a barrier to follow-up for routine care. Integration of a pharmacist into therapeutic management has shown positive clinical outcomes; however, their involvement with gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), including routine laboratory monitoring, is not well established.

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Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE), particularly unprovoked VTE, is associated with occult cancer. The optimal screening regimen remains controversial. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are implicated in cancer-associated thrombosis, and elevated biomarkers of NET formation are associated with poor prognosis.

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Much research has been devoted to the positive effect of green space on prosociality, but little is known about its impact on civic engagement. It is also unclear how the effect takes place. This research fills the voids by regressing 2440 US citizen's civic engagement on the vegetation density and park area in their neighborhoods.

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We investigated the relationship between ambient temperature and prosocial behaviour in real-life settings. It was guided by two mechanisms of opposite predictions, namely (1) higher temperatures decrease prosociality by harming well-being, and (2) higher temperatures increase prosociality by promoting the embodied cognition of social warmth. In Study 1, U.

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  • - Vaccination provides significant protection against severe COVID-19 variants like omicron but is less effective at preventing initial infections; a study of 368 triple vaccinated healthcare workers observed a 22% infection rate among participants.
  • - High serum antibody levels were linked to better protection against infection, as indicated by a lower viral load and quicker viral clearance in qPCR positive cases.
  • - Previous infection with non-omicron variants improves protection against omicron, mainly through mucosal spike-specific IgA responses, while only 10% of those infected remained asymptomatic.
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Hierarchical self-assembly is an effective means of preparing useful materials. However, control over assembly across length scales is a difficult challenge, often confounded by the perceived need to redesign the molecular building blocks when new material properties are needed. Here, we show that we can treat a simple dipeptide building block as a polyelectrolyte and use polymer physics approaches to explain the self-assembly over a wide concentration range.

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A functionalised dipeptide that self-assembles to form wormlike micelles at high pH can be treated as a surfactant. By varying salt concentration, the self-assembled structures and interactions between them change, resulting in solutions with very different shear and extensional viscosity. From these, gel noodles with different mechanical properties can be prepared.

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The number of mental disorders has been increasing but has yet to receive sufficient attention. In particular, healthcare students and professionals tend to have high stress burden. Finding the root cause of psychological distress is important to formulate a method for early detection and prevention.

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Heterochromatin spreading, the expansion of repressive chromatin structure from sequence-specific nucleation sites, is critical for stable gene silencing. Spreading re-establishes gene-poor constitutive heterochromatin across cell cycles but can also invade gene-rich euchromatin de novo to steer cell fate decisions. How chromatin context (i.

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  • The study aimed to examine how previous SARS-CoV-2 infections affect immune responses after COVID-19 vaccination, using blood samples from healthcare workers.
  • Results showed that individuals with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection had stronger and longer-lasting immune responses after vaccination compared to those without previous infection.
  • The findings suggest that prior infections should be considered in booster dose strategies and the design of future COVID-19 vaccination programs.
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  • - This study investigates cellular immune memory responses to COVID-19, highlighting challenges due to past exposure to other coronaviruses and focuses on T cell responses four to five months after infection.
  • - Researchers utilized a unique set of peptides specific to SARS-CoV-2 to assess memory T cell responses alongside long-term antibody levels, emphasizing the role of dual IFNγ and IL-2 responses.
  • - Findings indicate that the severity of COVID-19 symptoms and initial disease severity are linked to the strength of the SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell memory response, providing insights into immune memory post-infection.
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Heterologous primary immunization against SARS-CoV-2 is part of applied recommendations. However, little is known about duration of immune responses after heterologous vaccine regimens. To evaluate duration of immune responses after primary vaccination with homologous adeno-vectored ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (ChAd) or heterologous ChAd/BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine (BNT), anti-spike-IgG and SARS-CoV-2 VOC-neutralizing antibody responses were measured in 354 healthcare workers (HCW) at 2 weeks, 3 months, 5 months and 6 months after the second vaccine dose.

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Candida albicans cell wall glycoproteins, and in particular their mannose-rich glycans, are important for maintaining cellular integrity as well as host recognition, adhesion, and immunomodulation. The asparagine (N)-linked mannose outer chain of these glycoproteins is produced by Golgi mannosyltransferases (MTases). The outer chain is composed of a linear backbone of ∼50 α1,6-linked mannoses, which acts as a scaffold for addition of ∼150 or more mannoses in other linkages.

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Current SARS-CoV-2 serological assays generate discrepant results, and the longitudinal characteristics of antibodies targeting various antigens after asymptomatic to mild COVID-19 are yet to be established. This longitudinal cohort study including 1965 healthcare workers, of which 381 participants exhibited antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen at study inclusion, reveal that these antibodies remain detectable in most participants, 96%, at least four months post infection, despite having had no or mild symptoms. Virus neutralization capacity was confirmed by microneutralization assay in 91% of study participants at least four months post infection.

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Heterochromatin formation requires three distinct steps: nucleation, self-propagation (spreading) along the chromosome, and faithful maintenance after each replication cycle. Impeding any of those steps induces heterochromatin defects and improper gene expression. The essential histone chaperone FACT (facilitates chromatin transcription) has been implicated in heterochromatin silencing, but the mechanisms by which FACT engages in this process remain opaque.

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Background: Emerging data support detectable immune responses for months after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and vaccination, but it is not yet established to what degree and for how long protection against reinfection lasts.

Methods: We investigated SARS-CoV-2-specific humoral and cellular immune responses more than 8 months post-asymptomatic, mild and severe infection in a cohort of 1884 healthcare workers (HCW) and 51 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Possible protection against SARS-CoV-2 reinfection was analyzed by a weekly 3-month polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening of 252 HCW that had seroconverted 7 months prior to start of screening and 48 HCW that had remained seronegative at multiple time points.

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Background: Recent reports demonstrate robust serological responses to a single dose of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines in individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2. Data on immune responses following a single-dose adenovirus-vectored vaccine expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) in individuals with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection are however limited, and current guidelines recommend a two-dose regimen regardless of preexisting immunity.

Methods: We compared RBD-specific IgG and RBD-ACE2 blocking antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 wild type and variants of concern following two doses of the mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 in SARS-CoV-2 naïve healthcare workers (n=65) and a single dose of the adenovector vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 in 82 healthcare workers more than (n=45) and less than (n=37) 11 months post mild SARS-CoV-2 infection at time of vaccination.

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This review describes the authors' experiences in offering gender-affirming primary care and hormonal care using an evidence-based, interprofessional, and multidisciplinary approach. The authors offer references for best practices set forth by organizations and thought leaders in transgender health and describe the key processes they developed to respectfully deliver affirming care to transgender and nonbinary patients.

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The goal of the study was to understand the mechanisms of how social networking sites (SNS) usage is related to depression symptoms, as measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CESD). Three studies were conducted to examine the mediation roles of self-esteem and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO). In Study 1, among 347 Chinese college students, time spent on SNS was negatively associated with self-esteem; while self-esteem then negatively associated with depression symptoms.

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