Adopting an abductive approach, in this paper we use two studies to examine the relationships between financial worries and well-being amongst the self-employed during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic In Study 1 of 4806 participants from the Understanding Society's COVID-19 survey of the UK population, we find that financial worries were associated with higher mental distress for self-employed when facing reduced work hours In Study 2, in a sample of 1794 participants from the six-country COVID study, we find that higher than expected fall in income mediates the association between self-employment and happiness The findings have implications for research regarding financial worries, distress, and well-being of the self-employed ? 2021

The demand for skin-whitening creams (SWCs) has increased rapidly worldwide due to sharp rise in product advertisements in the media and the growing awareness. Metals are present either as impurities or added intentionally in creams and may have toxic effects on users. The present study was carried out to determine the content of metals such as mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and iron (Fe) in fifteen skin-whitening creams marketed at local shops in Islamabad, Pakistan. The concentrations of metals were analyzed by inductive coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) after digestion with a mixture of HNO3, HCl, and H2O2. The skin-whitening creams were found to have metal concentrations in parts per million (ppm) in the following range: Hg (1.0-18,210 ppm), Co (0.1992-1.9931 ppm), Cr (1.0453-2.7455 ppm), Cu (0.6987-0.1997 ppm), Fe (8.8868-28.6213 ppm), Ni (0.7487-1.5958 ppm), Pb (0.2997-4.7287 ppm), and Zn (7819.2-39,696.7 ppm). As and Cd were not detected in any of the fifteen skin-whitening creams. Only one cream (L'Oral Paris White Perfect) was found in safe limits defined by the Food and Drug Administration for cosmetics. In order to elucidate the mechanism of lower production of melanin in presence of heavy metals, a molecular docking study was carried out by using Molecular Operating Environment (MOE) software. A good correlation was observed between experimental findings and molecular docking studies.

Discrepancies in population structures, decision making, health systems and numerous other factors result in various COVID-19-mortality dynamics at country scale, and make the forecast of deaths in a country under focus challenging. However, mortality dynamics of countries that are ahead of time implicitly include these factors and can be used as real-life competing predicting models. We precisely propose such a data-driven approach implemented in a publicly available web app timely providing mortality curves comparisons and real-time short-term forecasts for about 100 countries. Here, the approach is applied to compare the mortality trajectories of second-line and front-line European countries facing the COVID-19 epidemic wave. Using data up to mid-April, we show that the second-line countries generally followed relatively mild mortality curves rather than fast and severe ones. Thus, the continuation, after mid-April, of the COVID-19 wave across Europe was likely to be mitigated and not as strong as it was in most of the front-line countries first impacted by the wave (this prediction is corroborated by posterior data).

Individuals with diabetes are at increased risk for bacterial, mycotic, parasitic, and viral infections. The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 (also referred to as COVID-19) coronavirus pandemic highlights the importance of understanding shared disease pathophysiology potentially informing therapeutic choices in individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Two coronavirus receptor proteins, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) are also established transducers of metabolic signals and pathways regulating inflammation, renal and cardiovascular physiology, and glucose homeostasis. Moreover, glucose-lowering agents such as the DPP4 inhibitors, widely used in subjects with T2D, are known to modify the biological activities of multiple immunomodulatory substrates. Here, we review the basic and clinical science spanning the intersections of diabetes, coronavirus infections, ACE2, and DPP4 biology, highlighting clinical relevance and evolving areas of uncertainty underlying the pathophysiology and treatment of T2D in the context of coronavirus infection.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 also known as COVID-19 has been recognized by WHO as a global pandemic and has spread to most of the world. The disease has a multitude of clinical presentations, and especially the development of acute kidney injury has been associated with increased mortality. Case Presentation : A 71-year old Caucasian male was admitted with fever and dyspnea to the emergency department. His medical history included type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Blood tests showed a normal kidney function before admission with a creatinine of 0,8 mg/dL. Clinical examination, blood tests and Chest X-ray suggested COVID-19. At admission the diagnose COVID-19 was confirmed, fluid therapy was commenced and Angiotensin-converting enzyme therapy discontinued. The patients was intubated due to respiratory failures and transferred to the intensive care ward where he developed acute anuric kidney failure and was started in continuous renal replacement therapy. After 6 days of dialysis treatment his kidney function slowly started to improve, and he was discharged after 26 days of admission. 42 days after admission his creatinine was measured to 1.3 mg/dL Conclusion: We present the rare case of a Caucasian male, who not only survived COVID-19 induced kidney failure that required continuous renal replacement therapy, but returned to almost baseline creatinine. We discuss the role of Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor treatment in COVID-19 and the potential pathophysiological mechanism surrounding AKI in COVID-19 patients in literature, and connect it to our case report.

Increased migration and im/migrant (i e migrant and immigrant) inequities, particularly during COVID-19, call for experiential global public health teaching to adequately prepare future leaders We evaluated student perspectives on the benefits, drawbacks, and lessons learned from a migrant health field course in the U S CMexico border region We analyzed qualitative data from reflexive diary-writing assignments and post-course evaluations from graduate and undergraduate students (N = 12) Students highlighted personal growth and reflexivity, professional development opportunities, and benefits and drawbacks of the immersive course design as key themes Tri-national learning across Canada, Mexico and the U S , and an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural learning model allowed for deeper understandings of globally relevant and politically and socially complex issues through community engagement and real-world approaches Students described benefits of reflexive learning, bridging classroom-based learning with field experiences, and learning about community-engaged research in advancing im/migrant justice, though acknowledged challenges of intensive course design Narratives highlighted unique needs in navigating challenges inherent in reflexive learning on sensitive topics, such as structural inequities faced by asylum seekers This evaluation provides unique empirical evidence to inform future experiential learning opportunities rooted in equity-oriented approaches, which are crucial for advancing hands-on learning regarding global issues Appropriate approaches must ensure ethical, respectful community engagement and ongoing support for students ? 2021 Institute of Health Promotion and Education

Background and Objectives: COVID-19, a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, is a public health emergency. Data on the effect of the virus on pregnancy are limited. Materials and Methods: We carried out a retrospective descriptive study, in order to evaluate the obstetric results on pregnant women in which SARS-CoV-2 was detected through RT-PCR of the nasopharyngeal swab, at admission to the maternity hospital. Results: From 16 March to 31 July 2020, 12 SARS-CoV-2 positive pregnant women have been hospitalized. Eleven were hospitalized for initiation or induction of labor, corresponding to 0.64% of deliveries in the maternity hospital. One pregnant woman was hospitalized for threatened abortion, culminating in a stillbirth at 20 weeks of gestation. Regarding the severity of the disease, nine women were asymptomatic and three had mild illness (two had associated cough and one headache). Three had relevant environmental exposure and a history of contact with infected persons. None had severe or critical illness due to SARS-CoV-2. There were no maternal deaths. The following gestational complications were observed: one stillbirth, one preterm labor, one preterm prelabor rupture of membranes, and one fetal growth restriction. Four deliveries were eutocic, two vacuum-assisted deliveries and five were cesarean sections. The indications for cesarean section were obstetric. Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 infection was found in a minority of hospitalized pregnant women in this sample. Most are asymptomatic or have mild illness, from gestational complications to highlight stillbirth and preterm birth. There were no cases of vertical transmission by coronavirus.

In the past decades, hundreds of antibiotics have been isolated from microbial metabolites or have been artificially synthesized for protecting humans, animals and crops from microbial infections. Their everlasting usage results in impacts on the microbial community composition and causes well-known collateral damage to the functioning of microbial communities. Nevertheless, the impact of different antibiotic properties on aquatic microbial communities have so far only poorly been disentangled. Here we characterized the environmental risk of 50 main kinds of antibiotics from 9 classes at a concentration of 10 g/L for aquatic bacterial communities via metadata analysis combined with machine learning. Metadata analysis showed that the alpha diversity of the bacterial community increased only after treatment with aminoglycoside and -lactam antibiotics, while its structure was changed by almost all tested antibiotics. The antibiotic treatment also disturbed the functions of the bacterial community, especially with regard to metabolic pathways, including amino acids, cofactors, vitamins, xenobiotics and carbohydrate metabolism. The critical characteristics (atom stereocenter count, number of hydrogen atoms in the antibiotic, and the adipose water coefficient) of antibiotics affecting the composition of the bacterial community in aquatic habitats were screened by machine learning. The key characteristics of antibiotics affecting the function bacterial communities were the number of hydrogen atoms, molecular weight and complexity. In summary, by developing machine learning models and by performing metadata analysis, this study provides the relationship between the properties of antibiotics and their adverse impacts on aquatic microbial communities from a macro perspective. The study also provides guidance for the rational design of antibiotics.

Many studies have reported negative outcomes of the COVID\19 pandemic on people's mental health. Notably, high prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms have been described in healthcare workers (26.9% [20.3%\33.,6%]), individuals with COVID\19 (23.8% [16.6%\31.0%]) and in the general population (19.3% [15.3%\23.2%]) (1).

Work-life imbalance might lead to detrimental outcomes, including family dissatisfaction, poor performance in the workplace, and poor mental and physical health. This population-based study aims to explore the situation and trends in regard to work-life balance among working men and women in 2017, with a special focus on the stress experienced in work and personal lives. Descriptive analysis and multiphase regression are used to explore the associations of work-life imbalance with individual and family factors. Males satisfaction with the amount of time spent at work was most significantly related to the level of work-life stress. Both males and females satisfaction with work life, family life, and the amount of time spent at work and with family were all negatively related to the level of work-life stress. Participants who were not in marital or cohabiting status reported significantly higher levels of work-life stress. Participants who had childcare support reported higher levels of work-life stress than those who looked after their children by themselves or their partners. A similar pattern was found among participants involved in elderly care. This study provides insight into family policy that could promote balance in professional and personal life and relationships.

The resumption of activity in hospital practices after COVID19 (SARS-CoV-2 infection) pandemic should be performed with the highest level of safety for both patients and healthcare professionals

Contamination by microplastics (MP) represents a critical environmental challenge with potential consequences at ecosystem, economic and societal levels. As the marine system is the final sink for MP, there is an urgent need to develop methods for the monitoring of synthetic particles in different marine compartments and sample matrices. Extensive evaluations are hindered by time and costs associated with to conventional MP spectroscopic analyses. The potential of near infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI) has been recently evaluated. However, NIR-HSI has been poorly studied so far, limitedly to the detection of large particles (>300 m), and its capability for direct characterization of MP in real marine matrices has not been considered yet. In the present study, a rapid near infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI) method, coupled with a customised normalised difference image (NDI) strategy for data processing, is presented and used to detect MP down to 50 m in environmental matrices. The proposed method is largely automated, without the need for extensive data processing, and enabled a successful identification of different polymers, both in surface water and mussel soft tissue samples, as well as on real field samples with environmentally occurring MP. NIR-HSI is applied directly on filters, without the need for particles pre-sorting or multiple sample purifications, avoiding time consuming procedures, airborne contaminations, particle degradation and loss. Thanks to the time and cost effectiveness, a large-scale implementation of this method would enable to extensively monitor the MP presence in natural environments for assessing the ecological risk related to MP contamination.

BACKGROUND Chronic depression is a common disorder in secondary care. Treatment results for this group of depressed patients are often disappointing and the existing treatment protocols are insufficiently tailored to chronic MDD. For this reason, an effective psychotherapeutic treatment will constitute a welcome addition to the range of treatments currently available for chronically depressed patients. AIM To describe 'cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy' (CBASP), the first form of psychotherapy specifically designed for the treatment of chronic depression. METHOD This article describes the evidence, rational and the most important techniques of CBASP. RESULTS In the United States CBASP has proven to be effective in one trial. As a result of these findings, CBASP is recommended in the Dutch treatment guidelines as an evidence-based treatment option for chronic depression. However, the findings have not yet been replicated and little is known about possible ways of implementing CBASP in the Netherlands. For this reason a randomised controlled trial on the effectiveness of CBASP has started in three psychiatric hospitals in the Netherlands. CONCLUSION CBASP is recommended as a treatment option for chronic depression in the Dutch treatment guidelines, but evidence should be further supported by additional research.

Exosomes have been shown to effectively regulate the biological functions of target cells. Here, we investigated the protective effect and mechanism of hypoxia-induced renal tubular epithelial cells (TECs)-derived exosomes on acute tubular injury. We found that in vitro hypoxia-induced tubular exosomes (Hy-EXOs) were protective in acute tubular injury by promoting TECs proliferation and improving mitochondrial functions. By using exosome miRNA sequencing, we identified miR-20a-5p was abundant and was a key mechanism for the protective effect of Hy-EXOs on tubular injury as up-regulation of miR-20a-5p enhanced but down-regulation of miR-20a-5p inhibited the protective effect of Hy-EXOs on tubular injury under hypoxia conditions. Further study in a mouse model of ischemia-reperfusion-induced acute kidney injury (IRI-AKI) also confirmed this notion as pre-treating mice with the miR-20a-5p agomir 48 h prior to AKI induction was capable of inhibiting IRI-AKI by lowering serum levels of creatinine and urea nitrogen, and attenuating the severity of tubular necrosis, F4/80(+) macrophages infiltration and vascular rarefaction. Mechanistically, the protective effect of miR-20a-5p on acute kidney injury (AKI) was associated with inhibition of TECs mitochondrial injury and apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, miR-20a-5p is enriched in hypoxia-derived tubular exosomes and protects against acute tubular injury. Results from the present study also reveal that miR-20a-5p may represent as a novel therapy for AKI.

Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMVs) derived from different Gram-negative bacteria have been proposed as an attractive vaccine platform because of their own immunogenic adjuvant properties. Pertussis or whooping cough is a highly contagious vaccine-preventable respiratory disease that resurged during the last decades in many countries. In response to the epidemiological situation, new boosters have been incorporated into vaccination schedules worldwide and new vaccine candidates have started to be designed. Particularly, our group designed a new pertussis vaccine candidate based on OMVs derived from Bordetella pertussis (BpOMVs). To continue with the characterization of the immune response induced by our OMV based vaccine candidate, this work aimed to investigate the ability of OMVs to activate the inflammasome pathway in macrophages. We observed that NLRP3, caspase-1/11, and gasdermin-D (GSDMD) are involved in inflammasome activation by BpOMVs. Moreover, we demonstrated that BpOMVs as well as transfected B. pertussis lipooligosaccharide (BpLOS) induce caspase-11 (Casp11) and guanylate-binding proteins (GBPs) dependent non-canonical inflammasome activation. Our results elucidate the mechanism by which BpOMVs trigger one central pathway of the innate response activation that is expected to skew the adaptive immune response elicited by BpOMVs vaccination.

Individuals with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome show a female genita phenotype despite 46,XY gonosomes and the presence of androgen producing testes. This clinical observation indicates the resistance of the body and its cells to androgens like testosterone. At the molecular level, this hormone resistance is caused by hemizygous loss of function mutations in the X-chromosomal androgen receptor (AR) gene. Partial forms of androgen insensitivity syndrome (PAIS) show different degrees of virilisation largely depending on the remaining activity of the AR. Nevertheless, the phenotypic outcome can be variable even in presence of the same mutation and in the same kindred indicating the presence of further influencing factors. Importantly, the majority of clinically diagnosed PAIS individuals do not bear a mutation in their AR gene. A recent assay using the androgen regulated gene apolipoprotein D as biomarker is able to detect androgen insensitivity on the cellular level even in absence of an AR gene mutation. Using this assay a class of AIS without an AR-gene mutation was defined as AIS type II and suggests that unidentified cofactors of the AR are responsible for the PAIS phenotype. Here we outline the scientific progress made from the first clinical definition of AIS over biochemical and molecular characterizations to the concept of AIS type II. This review is based on publications in the PubMed database of the National Institutes of Health using the search terms androgen insensitivity syndrome and androgen receptor mutation.

Advancements in soft tissue minimally invasive surgery have been rapid and comprehensive since its inception in human medicine approximately 25 years ago. From its origins in traditional laparoscopy, followed rapidly by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, minimally invasive surgery in human medicine has evolved through a number of different platforms that now include single-port approach devices, robotic surgery as well as natural orifice transluminal endosurgery. Whilst some of these remain beyond the reach of veterinary medicine for now, largely because of technical challenges and the prohibitive costs of some single-use disposable components, veterinary minimally invasive surgery is advancing rapidly allowing our small animal patients to benefit from some of the many documented advantages that a minimally invasive approach affords the patient.

COVID-19 management guidelines have largely attributed critically ill patients who develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, to a systemic overproduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Cardiovascular dysfunction may also represent a primary phenomenon, with increasing data suggesting that severe COVID-19 reflects a confluence of vascular dysfunction, thrombosis and dysregulated inflammation. Here, we first consolidate the information on localized microvascular inflammation and disordered cytokine release, triggering vessel permeability and prothrombotic conditions that play a central role in perpetuating the pathogenic COVID-19 cascade. Secondly, we seek to clarify the gateways which SARS-CoV-2, the causative COVID-19 virus, uses to enter host vascular cells. Post-mortem examinations of patients' tissues have confirmed direct viral endothelial infection within several organs. While there have been advances in single-cell RNA sequencing, endothelial cells across various vascular beds express low or undetectable levels of those touted SARS-CoV-2 entry factors. Emerging studies postulate alternative pathways and the apicobasal distribution of host cell surface factors could influence endothelial SARS-CoV-2 entry and replication. Finally, we provide experimental considerations such as endothelial polarity, cellular heterogeneity in organoids and shear stress dynamics in designing cellular models to facilitate research on viral-induced endothelial dysfunctions. Understanding the vascular underpinning of COVID-19 pathogenesis is crucial to managing outcomes and mortality.

An outbreak of novel betacoronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (formerly named 2019-nCoV), began in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and the COVID-19 disease associated with infection has since spread rapidly to multiple countries. Here we report the development of SARS-CoV-2 DETECTR, a rapid (~30 min), low-cost, and accurate CRISPR-Cas12 based lateral flow assay for detection of SARS-CoV-2 from respiratory swab RNA extracts. We validated this method using contrived reference samples and clinical samples from infected US patients and demonstrated comparable performance to the US CDC SARS-CoV-2 real-time RT-PCR assay.

Die Gastroenterologie umfasst neben den klassischen Erkrankungen des Magen-Darm-Trakts (wie z .B. ?sophagitis, Hiatushernien, Gastritis, gastroduodenale Ulkuskrankheit, Malassimilationssyndrome, M. Crohn, Colitis ulcerosa, kolorektales Karzinom etc.) auch die pathologischen Ver?nderungen an Pankreas (Bauchspeicheldrsenentzndung und Pankreaskarzinom), Leber (Hepatitis, Zirrhose, Leberversagen etc.) und Gallenblase bzw. -wege (PSC, PBC, Cholelithiasis, maligne Entartungen). Darber hinaus werden in diesem Kapitel auch die neuroendokrinen Tumoren (NET) behandelt.