Associations between fear of COVID-19 and mental health in Ghana: A sequential mediation model.

Introduction: Although the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has ceased globally, individuals may still suffer from various psychological burdens in the post-COVID-19 era. The present observational cross-sectional study investigated how fear of COVID-19 can affect mental health through mediators including stress, perceived stigma, and preventive behaviors among young adults in Ghana.

Methods: A total of 635 participants aged between 18 and 29 years (mean age = 20.

Assessing the industry 4.0 strategies for a steel supply chain: SWOT, game theory, and gap analysis.

The recent adoption of modern technologies has led to the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 (I4.0).

Enhancing safety with an AI-empowered assessment and monitoring system for BSL-3 facilities.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has created an urgent demand for research, which has spurred the development of enhanced biosafety protocols in biosafety level (BSL)-3 laboratories to safeguard against the risks associated with handling highly contagious pathogens. Laboratory management failures can pose significant hazards.

Methods: An external system captured images of personnel entering a laboratory, which were then analyzed by an AI-based system to verify their compliance with personal protective equipment (PPE) regulations, thereby introducing an additional layer of protection.

Optimal design of variables switch-based sampling scheme for verifying Weibull distributed product lifetimes.

Ensuring products maintain their normal function during the warranty period is essential for companies to control warranty costs and sustain their brand reputation. A variables acceptance sampling (VAS) plan based on the lifetime performance index (LPI) is a practical technology for verifying product lifetimes because it can provide the number of failures required for life testing and the acceptance criterion for lot disposition. Recently, an LPI-based variables quick-switch sampling (VQSS) system has been developed to improve the sampling efficiency.

Multi-biofluid metabolomics analysis of allergic respiratory rhinitis and asthma in early childhood.

Background: Childhood rhinitis and asthma are allergic respiratory diseases triggered by common allergens, but they affect different parts of the respiratory system, leading to distinct symptoms. However, a comprehensive multi-biofluid metabolomics-based approach to uncover valuable insights into childhood allergies and allergen sensitization remains unaddressed.

Methods: Seventy-six children, comprising 26 with rhinitis, 26 with asthma, and 24 healthy controls, were enrolled.

Innovative applications of MXenes in dialysis: enhancing filtration efficiency.

MXenes, a family of two-dimensional transition metal carbides and nitrides, exhibit exceptional properties such as high electrical conductivity, large surface area, and chemical versatility, making them ideal candidates for various dialysis applications. One prominent application of MXenes lies in the efficient removal of toxic metals and harmful dyes from wastewater. Their unique structure allows for rapid adsorption and selective separation, significantly improving purification processes.

First Report of Anthracnoseon on L. Caused by in China.

L. is a tropical fruit, cultivated in various provinces of China, such as Guangxi, Taiwan, and Yunnan. This fruit has good edible and medicinal value.

Establishing a GRU-GCN coordination-based prediction model for miRNA-disease associations.

Background: miRNAs (microRNAs) are endogenous RNAs with lengths of 18 to 24 nucleotides and play critical roles in gene regulation and disease progression. Although traditional wet-lab experiments provide direct evidence for miRNA-disease associations, they are often time-consuming and complicated to analyze by current bioinformatics tools. In recent years, machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques are powerful tools to analyze large-scale biological data.

OsLOX1 positively regulates seed vigor and drought tolerance in rice.

The lipoxygenase (LOX) gene family is widely distributed in plants, and its activity is closely associated with seed viability and stress tolerance. In this study, we cloned the rice(Oryza sativa)lipoxygenase gene OsLOX1, a key participant in the 13-lipoxygenase metabolic pathway. Our primary focus was to investigate its role in mediating responses to drought stress and seed germination in rice.

Geochemical signatures and contamination levels of rare earth elements in soil profiles controlled by parent rock and soil properties.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are emerging contaminants rendering potential risks in soils to environmental quality and human health. The causation between their geochemical signatures and contamination levels with parent rocks and soil properties are critical for REEs risk assessments, which are urgently needed globally. Thus, this study aimed to elucidate cause-and-effect among hydrofluoric-acid-digested total and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid extracted bioavailable soil REEs and their contamination degree evaluated by pollution indices in 268 soil layer (horizon) samples from 50 soil profiles derived from felsic, intermediate, mafic, ultramafic, and sedimentary rocks in Taiwan.

Genomic landscape and comparative analysis of tissue and liquid-based NGS in Taiwanese anaplastic thyroid carcinoma.

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is an aggressive cancer that requirements rapid diagnosis and multimodal treatment. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) aids in personalized therapies and improved trial enrollment. The role of liquid-based NGS in ATC remains unclear.

Fig abscission as a defense mechanism of Ficus trees against parasitism by non-pollinating fig wasps.

How does the fig tree Ficus benguetensis protect its investment in the production of figs and pollinating fig wasps against parasitism from non-pollinating fig wasps? This study documents a previously overlooked defense mechanism: fig abscission-the natural shedding of the fig fruit as a defense mechanism. Our bagging experiments showed that both the absence of pollination and high parasitism levels lead to the abortion of F. benguetensis figs, with positive correlations between parasitism levels, increased abscission rates, and decreased pollinator production.

Gut microbiota modulation in cardiac cell therapy with immunosuppression in a nonhuman primate ischemia/reperfusion model.

Gut microbiota affect transplantation outcomes; however, the influence of immunosuppression and cell therapy on the gut microbiota in cardiovascular care remains unexplored. We investigated gut microbiota dynamics in a nonhuman primate (NHP) cardiac ischemia/reperfusion model while under immunosuppression and receiving cell therapy with human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived endothelial cells (EC) and cardiomyocytes (CM). Both immunosuppression and EC/CM co-treatment increased gut microbiota alpha diversity.

Ultrafast Coherence-Based Power Doppler Estimation Using Nonlinear Compounding With Complementary Subset Transmit.

Objective: Conventional coherent plane wave compounding (CPWC) and sum-of-square power Doppler (PD) estimation lead to low contrast and high noise level in ultrafast PD imaging when the number of plane-wave angle and the ensemble length is limited. The coherence-based PD estimation using temporal-multiply-and-sum (TMAS) of high-lag autocorrelation can effectively suppress the uncorrelated noises but at the cost of signal power due to the blood flow decorrelation.

Methods: In this study, the TMAS PD estimation is incorporated with complementary subset transmit in nonlinear compounding (DMAS-CST) to leverage the signal coherence in both angular and temporal dimensions for improvement of PD image quality.

Systemic Glucose Homeostasis Requires Pancreatic but Not Neuronal ATP-Sensitive Potassium Channels.

The ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels, composed of Kir6.2 and SUR1 subunits, are essential for glucose homeostasis. While the role of pancreatic KATP channels in regulating insulin secretion is well-documented, the specific contributions of neuronal KATP channels remain unclear due to challenges in precisely targeting neuronal subpopulations.

Primary spinal conus medullaris germinoma.

A woman in her early 20s presented with progressive low back pain, leg weakness and sphincter dysfunction. MRI revealed a 5 × 1.5 cm intramedullary tumour at the T12-L2 level.

Triplicate Dynamic Cell Culture Platform for Enhanced Reproducibility in Anti-Cancer Drug Testing.

The development of stable and standardized in vitro cytotoxicity testing models is essential for drug discovery and personalized medicine. Microfluidic technologies, recognized for their small size, reduced reagent consumption, and control over experimental variables, have gained considerable attention. However, challenges associated with external pumps, particularly inconsistencies between individual pumping systems, have limited the real-world application of cancer-on-a-chip technology.

Visual outcomes of central retinal artery occlusion: Exploring treatment strategies beyond the conventional time window.

Backgrounds/aims: Central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) is a vision-devastating emergency. However, widely-acknowledged treatment consensus is lacking and prehospital delays commonly occur. Hence, we aimed to investigate the visual outcomes of conservative treatments (CT), local intra-arterial fibrinolysis (LIF) and hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy for non-arteritic CRAO (NA-CRAO) patients beyond the conventional time window.

Enabling tumor-specific drug delivery by targeting the Warburg effect of cancer.

Metabolic reprogramming of tumor cells is an emerging hallmark of cancer. Among all the changes in cancer metabolism, increased glucose uptake and the accumulation of lactate under normoxic conditions (the "Warburg effect") is a common feature of cancer cells. In this study, we develop a lactate-responsive drug delivery platform by targeting the Warburg effect.

Firm ownerships matter in measuring carbon footprints and its driving forces in China's domestic value chains.

Some research has studied the carbon footprints of the multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the global value chains (GVCs). However, currently there are few studies have studied the carbon footprints of the foreign invested firms (FIFs) distributed in different provinces in China's domestic value chains (DVCs). This paper has used China's inter-provincial input-output table distinguishing domestically owned enterprises (DEs), Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan (HMTs) invested enterprises and other foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) to study the carbon footprints of the FIFs in China's DVCs and further analyzed the driving factors of the carbon footprints change.

"Suspended" Single Rhenium Atoms on Nickel Oxide for Efficient Electrochemical Oxidation of Glucose.

Well-defined single-atom catalysts (SACs) serve as ideal model systems for directly comparing experimental results with theoretical calculations, offering profound insights into heterogeneous catalytic processes. However, precisely designing and controllably synthesizing SACs remain challenging due to the unpredictable structure evolution of active sites and generation of embedded active sites, which may bring about steric hindrance during chemical reactions. Herein, we present the precious nonpyrolysis synthesis of Re SACs with a well-defined phenanthroline coordination supported by NiO (Re-phen/NiO).

Fatty Acid Esterification of Octacosanol Attenuates Triglyceride and Cholesterol Synthesis in Mice.

This study aimed to evaluate the cholesterol-regulatory effects of lauric-acid-esterified octacosanol (LEO) and oleic-acid-esterified octacosanol (OEO) compared to their unmodified counterparts and to investigate the underlying mechanisms by partially substituting the fat content in obese C57BL/6J mice induced with a high-fat diet (HFD). Rice bran oil and coconut oil were also investigated as they are rich in oleic acid and lauric acid, respectively. The results showed that all supplemented groups significantly inhibited weight gain induced by the HFD, but the groups treated with esterified octacosanol exhibited a more pronounced effect.