A global response to Covid\19 pandemic has triggered issues related to stress and social restrictions;thus, mental health is seen as a particular area of concern for social well\being for both policymakers and corporate regulators/companies Given that mental health intersects with most, if not all, of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), this research brought to light issues surrounding employment of people with mental disabilities (PWMDs) and the financial merits of employing them An online survey was administered to PWMDs to elicit what possible flexible opportunities could enable them to gain or stay at work Interviews were also conducted with human resource managers and financial managers Our results show that there are currently no flexible working opportunities available for PWMDs, which could enable them work effectively to improve both self and general economic growth The findings of this study will enable employers to explore the financial benefits of employing PWMDs and also aid the government to create better policies to boost employers' commitment to employing PWMDs and achieve some of the UN SDGs

To infect cells, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) binds to angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) via its spike glycoprotein (S), delivering its genome upon S-mediated membrane fusion. SARS-CoV-2 uses two distinct entry pathways: 1) a surface, serine protease-dependent or 2) an endosomal, cysteine protease-dependent pathway. In investigating serine protease-independent cell-cell fusion, we found that the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), MMP2/9, can activate SARS-CoV-2 S fusion activity, but not that of SARS-CoV-1. Importantly, metalloproteinase activation of SARS-CoV-2 S represents a third entry pathway in cells expressing high MMP levels. This route of entry required cleavage at the S1/S2 junction in viral producer cells and differential processing of variants of concern S dictated its usage. In addition, metalloproteinase inhibitors reduced replicative Alpha infection and abrogated syncytia formation. Finally, we found that the Omicron S exhibit reduced metalloproteinase-dependent fusion and viral entry. Taken together, we identified a MMP2/9-dependent mode of activation of SARS-CoV-2 S. As MMP2/9 are released during inflammation and severe COVID-19, they may play important roles in SARS-CoV-2 S-mediated cytopathic effects, tropism, and disease outcome.

This study investigates the relationship between economic, social, and political globalization and consumption risk sharing in East Asia by utilizing the 2019 version of the KOF globalization indices To this end, this study uses the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Eurozone as comparison regions Findings show that economic and social globalization contributed to the improvements in consumption risk sharing among East Asian countries in 1970-2017, but political globalization did not This result implies that the collapse of economic and social networks resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic might have a negative effect on consumption risk sharing in East Asia Differences in the effects between de facto and de jure globalization on risk sharing and changes in the effect of globalization on risk sharing before and after the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis are also discussed

GOAL The aim of this review was to analyze and review the state of the art devices for the endovascular treatment of chronic and acute total occlusions in the different vascular beds (coronary, peripheral, carotid, and intracranial arteries) based on the forces exerted on the occlusion during treatment. METHODS The literature search was executed in the databases of Scopus and Espacenet. Overall, 120 patents and 49 articles have been reviewed and categorized. RESULTS The identified treatment tools were divided into three treatment modalities: compression, resection, and conversion. A further subdivision was made based on the force direction, i.e., axial, radial, tangential, or energy conversion process (dissolving or state change). CONCLUSION The working principles of the identified treatment tools relate strongly to the (biomechanical) properties of the occlusion and environment. In order to increase procedural success, especially in chronic occlusions, the applied force should be increased by applying buckling prevention methods, the penetration force decreased by smart tip design or dynamic loading, and the energy dissipation to the environment minimized. SIGNIFICANCE Insight in the working principles of the treatment tools and their effect on the environment can in future aid designers to overcome current challenges and develop new, innovative treatment tools.

BACKGROUND: The prognostic impact of high concentration of interleukin-6 (IL-6) or C-reactive protein (CRP), two routinely available markers of systemic inflammation in the general population of critically ill patients, remains unclear. In a large cohort of critically ill patients including septic and non-septic patients, we assessed the relationship between baseline IL-6 or CRP and mortality, organ dysfunction, and the need for organ support. METHODS: This was an ancillary analysis of the prospective French and euRopean Outcome reGistry in Intensive Care Units (FROG-ICU) study including patients with a requirement for invasive mechanical ventilation and/or vasoactive drug support for more than 24 h following intensive care unit (ICU) admission. The primary objective was to determine the association between baseline IL-6 or CRP concentration and survival until day 90. Secondary outcomes included organ dysfunction as evaluated by the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, and the need for organ support, including vasopressors/inotropes and/or renal replacement therapy (RRT). RESULTS: Median IL-6 and CRP concentrations (n = 2,076) at baseline were 100.9 pg/ml (IQR 43.5C261.7) and 143.7 mg/L (IQR 78.6C219.8), respectively. Day-90 mortality was 30%. High IL-6 or CRP was associated with worse 90-day survival (hazard ratios 1.92 [1.63C2.26] and 1.21 [1.03C1.41], respectively), after adjustment on the Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS-II). High IL-6 was also associated with the need for organ-support therapies, such as vasopressors/inotropes (OR 2.67 [2.15C3.31]) and RRT (OR 1.55 [1.26C1.91]), including when considering only patients independent from those supports at the time of IL-6 measurement. Associations between high CRP and organ support were inconsistent. CONCLUSION: IL-6 appears to be preferred over CRP to evaluate critically ill patients prognoses.

Objectives: Strict quarantine measures were placed throughout China to prevent the spread of COVID-19 We anticipated that the ongoing restrictions in mobility and daily activities would lead to interpersonal conflicts in families, especially between children and those parents who worked away from home year-round By using telephonic follow-up, we aimed to assess the impact of the outbreak on the patients daily functioning and to reduce relapse rates Methods: The Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA) and the Childrens Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) were administered to families of adolescents with recent mental health admissions at a participating hospital in Henan province, China Interviews were conducted telephonically at 3 time points during the 3-month lockdown Paired and unpaired t tests were employed to compare the functionality of children whose parents worked locally and lived with their children (G1) vs those whose parents worked outside the province and do not live in the home (G2) Results: The study cohort consists of 48 adolescent patients in G1 and 93 patients in G2 The re-hospitalization rate was 2 2% compared to 4 5% in 2019 during the same period CGAS total scores did not show group differences at each of the time points There were significant changes in emotional difficulty subscores of HoNOSCA between the 2 time points, T1-T3 (p = 0 006) and T2-T3 (p < 0 0001), in group G2 The parent-child conflict scores in G2 between T1-T2 (p < 0 001) and T2-T3 (p = 0 007) were different significantly On the other hand, group G1 did not experience significant emotional difficulty, but their online learning behavior deteriorated over time, at T1-T2 (p < 0 0001) and T2-T3 (p < 0 0001) Intergroup differences were seen in learning difficulties at T1 between the G1 and G2 groups (p = 0 016) Conclusions: In China, this is the first study providing telephonic intervention to a population of discharged adolescent patients who have no access to follow-up clinic visits We found a significant change in adolescent emotional control, parent-child conflict, and online learning compliance in those adolescents whose parents left for work outside the province during the extended quarantine This study can provide reference for future studies on COVID-19Crelated adolescent mental health DS, FAM, TVM

Purpose: The study aimed to investigate the effects of 2% hyaluronic acid (HA) on corneal epithelial defect after pterygium surgery in comparison with the control group, measured in terms of the healing rate of corneal epithelial defect and pain score after surgery. Methods: In this double-blind randomized clinical trial, fifty patients with primary pterygium were randomized into 2 groups: a control group or the group treated with a single topical application of 2% HA. Comprehensive ophthalmological examinations included measuring the area of corneal epithelium defect using ImageJ freeware and the pain score assessment after the operation. Results: The mean and SD of the area of epithelial defect measured on postoperative Day 0, 1, and 2 were 10.89 1.33 mm2, 5.04 0.87mm2, and 2.44 0.74 mm2 for the HA group, and 11.14 1.11 mm2, 7.74 1.17 mm2, and 5.31 1.15 mm2 for the control group, respectively. While the initial area of the defect on Day 0 was essentially the same for both groups (p = 0.478), the area of the defect in the HA group was significantly smaller on both Day 1 and Day 2 (p < 0.001, p < 0.001), respectively. Similarly, the HA group exhibited a statistically significant higher rate of healing for the cornea epithelial defect over Day 0 and 1 compared to the control group (5.85 0.89 mm2/day vs 3.14 1.28 mm2/day, p < 0.001), respectively. The median (range) pain scores were evaluated at Day 0 was 7 (4-10) in the HA group and 7 (3-10) in the control group (p = 0.953). There was no statistically significant difference between two groups (p > 0.05) for Days 1, 2, and 3. Conclusion: A single topical application of 2% HA tended to accelerate the healing process of corneal epithelium defect after pterygium surgery without any observable adverse effects during short-term follow-up.

In this paper we propose a macro-dynamic age-structured set-up for the analysis of epidemics/economic dynamics in continuous time. The resulting optimal control problem is reformulated in an infinite dimensional Hilbert space framework where we perform the basic steps of dynamic programming approach. Our main result is a verification theorem which allows to guess the feedback form of optimal strategies. This will be a departure point to discuss the behavior of the models of the family we introduce and their policy implications.

OBJECTIVE. To evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy of skill mix of nurses and other health care professionals in primary health care. METHODS. Systematic review of the literature aligned with the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), including observational and intervention studies. No restrictions were established for period or country of publication; studies published in Spanish, English and Portuguese were included. The search was carried out in MEDLINE, CINAHL, LILACS, EMBASE and Web of Science electronic databases. RESULTS. Eighteen studies were analyzed, including 6 from the United States; 3 from the Netherlands; 2 from the United Kingdom; 1 each from Australia, South Africa, South Korea, Scotland, Haiti and Japan; and 1 study with a prospective observational design from 8 countries. The studies reported that the skill mix among health professionals enables a better use of material resources; optimizes time spent on care; improves adhesion to treatment, quality of care and commitment and satisfaction with the work; and reduces the level of psychological distress in nursing professionals. CONCLUSIONS. The expansion of tasks of nurses and other health care professionals, and the skill mix as well as the development of interprofessional teams, are strategies that help to face a scarcity and poor distribution of human resources in urban and non-urban areas with improvement of the health care of the population and satisfaction of professionals and clients.

BACKGROUND: School closures have been enacted as a measure of mitigation during the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It has been shown that school closures could cause absenteeism among healthcare workers with dependent children, but there remains a need for spatially granular analyses of the relationship between school closures and healthcare worker absenteeism to inform local community preparedness. METHODS: We provide national- and county-level simulations of school closures and unmet child care needs across the USA. We develop individual simulations using county-level demographic and occupational data, and model school closure effectiveness with age-structured compartmental models. We perform multivariate quasi-Poisson ecological regressions to find associations between unmet child care needs and COVID-19 vulnerability factors. RESULTS: At the national level, we estimate the projected rate of unmet child care needs for healthcare worker households to range from 7.4 to 8.7%, and the effectiveness of school closures as a 7.6% and 8.4% reduction in fewer hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) beds, respectively, at peak demand when varying across initial reproduction number estimates by state. At the county level, we find substantial variations of projected unmet child care needs and school closure effects, 9.5% (interquartile range (IQR) 8.2-10.9%) of healthcare worker households and 5.2% (IQR 4.1-6.5%) and 6.8% (IQR 4.8-8.8%) reduction in fewer hospital and ICU beds, respectively, at peak demand. We find significant positive associations between estimated levels of unmet child care needs and diabetes prevalence, county rurality, and race (p<0.05). We estimate costs of absenteeism and child care and observe from our models that an estimated 76.3 to 96.8% of counties would find it less expensive to provide child care to all healthcare workers with children than to bear the costs of healthcare worker absenteeism during school closures. CONCLUSIONS: School closures are projected to reduce peak ICU and hospital demand, but could disrupt healthcare systems through absenteeism, especially in counties that are already particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Child care subsidies could help circumvent the ostensible trade-off between school closures and healthcare worker absenteeism.

Pregnant women have reported using cannabis to relieve stress and anxiety, and during the COVID\19 pandemic, the stress and prenatal cannabis use increased, according to a recent research letter published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Exosomes are 40C100 nm nanovesicles participating in intercellular communication and transferring various bioactive proteins, mRNAs, miRNAs, and lipids. During pregnancy, the placenta releases exosomes into the maternal circulation. Placental exosomes are detected in the maternal blood even in the first trimester of pregnancy and their numbers increase significantly by the end of pregnancy. Exosomes are necessary for the normal functioning of the placenta and fetal development. Effects of exosomes on target cells depend not only on their concentration but also on their intrinsic components. The biochemical composition of the placental exosomes may cause various complications of pregnancy. Some studies relate the changes in the composition of nanovesicles to placental dysfunction. Isolation of placental exosomes from the blood of pregnant women and the study of protein, lipid, and nucleic composition can lead to the development of methods for early diagnosis of pregnancy pathologies. This review describes the biogenesis of exosomes, methods of their isolation, analyzes their biochemical composition, and considers the prospects for using exosomes to diagnose pregnancy pathologies.

Despite the fact that more than a year has passed since the WHO declared the pandemic, there is still no effectivetreatment of COVID-19. According to current knowledge, the only method to stop the virus from spreading is prophylactic vaccination of the population. However, to achieve herd immunity, 60C72% of the population needs to be vaccinated, which is a significant challenge for current healthcare systems. As it has already been proven, having an effective vaccine is not the same as using it. Public acceptance is essential here. The study aimed to assess the changes in the attitudes of online respondents toward vaccination against COVID-19 over time. In the research, a questionnaire designed by the author of the study was used and it was distributed via the Internet in two stages. The questionnaire included a section assessing a sociodemographic status as well as the questions, designed by the author, evaluating the willingness of the respondents to get vaccinated and their main concerns associated with it. The first stage covered the period before the commencement of the population vaccination programme in Poland, i.e., 14C27 December 2020. Then, the survey was redistributed 2 months after the vaccination programme was started, i.e., 1C19 March 2021. Participation in the study was fully anonymous, voluntary and there was a possibility to opt out at any stage of the research. A total of 2048 respondents were surveyed and 26 persons refused to be involved in the research. A total number of 2022 responses were analysed. Stage I of the research involved 22.9% of the respondents (463 persons). The questions were answered by 1559 persons (72.9%) after the survey was redistributed. Among the participants of stage II of the study, 422 (27.1%) persons have already been vaccinated against COVID-19. A comparison of the responses that were collected from both stages of the study showed a slight increase in the willingness to get vaccinated against COVID-19 over time. It turned out that women, residents of large cities, people with a higher level of education and healthcare workers showed a more favourable attitude toward vaccination. According to the results of the survey, chronic diseases do not have a significant impact on the attitude toward vaccinations (p = 0.155). As the social vaccination promotion campaign continued, a slight increase in the willingness to get vaccinated was observed. According to the survey, women, residents of large cities and those with higher education demonstrated more favourable attitudes toward getting vaccinated against COVID-19. It should be stressed that despite the passage of time and the increasing experience with the new types of vaccines against COVID-19, the percentage of people who are afraid of the complications after the vaccination has not decreased significantly and the concern related to the ineffectiveness of vaccination has dramatically increased. This demonstrates the limited effectiveness of the current information system regarding passing the knowledge on of the safety and efficiency of vaccination and it indicates a necessity to modernise it as soon as possible.

Shrimp aquaculture is an essential economic venture globally, but the industry faces numerous challenges, especially pathogenic infections. As invertebrates, shrimp rely mainly on their innate immune system for protection. An increasing number of studies have shown that ubiquitination plays a vital role in the innate immune response to microbial pathogens. As an important form of posttranslational modification (PTM), both hosts and pathogens have exploited ubiquitination and the ubiquitin system as an immune response strategy to outwit the other. This short review brings together recent findings on ubiquitination and how this PTM plays a critical role in immune modulation in penaeid shrimps. Key findings inferred from other species would help guide further studies on ubiquitination as an immune response strategy in shrimp-pathogen interactions.

The application of mRNA as a novel kind of vaccine has been proved recently, due to the emergence use authorization (EUA) by FDA for the two COVID-19 mRNA vaccines developed by Moderna and BioNTech. Both of the two vaccines are based on canonical linear mRNA, and encapsulated by lipid nanoparticle (LNP). Circular mRNA, which is found to mediate potent and durable protein expression, is an emerging technology recently. Owing to its simplicity of manufacturing and superior performance of protein expression, circular mRNA is believed to be a disruptor for mRNA area. However, the application of circular mRNA is still at an initiation stage, proof of concept for its usage as future medicine or vaccine is necessary. In the current study, we established a novel kind of circular mRNA, termed C-RNA, based on Echovirus 29 (E29)-derived internal ribosome entry sites (IRES) and newly designed homology arms and RNA spacers. Our results demonstrated that this kind of circular mRNA is able to mediate strong and durable protein expression, compared to typical linear mRNA. Moreover, for the first time, our study demonstrated that direct intratumoral administration of C-RNA encoding a mixture of cytokines achieved successful modulation of intratumoral and systematic anti-tumor immune responses and finally leading to an enhancement of anti-PD-1 antibody-induced tumor repression in syngeneic mouse model. Additionally, after an optimization of the circular mRNA formulation, a significant improvement of C-RNA mediated protein expression was observed. With this optimized formulation, C-RNA induced enhanced anti-tumor effect via intratumoral administration and elicited significant activation of tumor-infiltrated total T cells and CD8+ T cells. Collectively, we established C-RNA, a novel circular mRNA platform, and demonstrated that it can be applied for direct intratumoral administration for cancer therapy.

Millimeter-wave and terahertz technologies have been attracting attention from the wireless research community since they can offer large underutilized bandwidths which can enable the support of ultra-high-speed connections in future wireless communication systems. While the high signal attenuation occurring at these frequencies requires the adoption of very large (or the so-called ultra-massive) antenna arrays, in order to accomplish low complexity and low power consumption, hybrid analog/digital designs must be adopted. In this paper we present a hybrid design algorithm suitable for both mmWave and THz multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, which comprises separate computation steps for the digital precoder, analog precoder and multiuser interference mitigation. The design can also incorporate different analog architectures such as phase shifters, switches and inverters, antenna selection and so on. Furthermore, it is also applicable for different structures, namely fully-connected structures, arrays of subarrays (AoSA) and dynamic arrays of subarrays (DAoSA), making it suitable for the support of ultra-massive MIMO (UM-MIMO) in severely hardware constrained THz systems. We will show that, by using the proposed approach, it is possible to achieve good trade-offs between spectral efficiency and simplified implementation, even as the number of users and data streams increases.

Alopecia is a common problem that affects almost every age group and is considered to be an issue for cosmetic or psychiatric reasons. The loss of hair follicles (HFs) and hair caused by alopecia impairs self-esteem, thermoregulation, tactile sensation and protection from ultraviolet light. One strategy to solve this problem is HF regeneration. Many signalling pathways and molecules participate in the morphology and regeneration of HF, such as Wnt/-catenin, Sonic hedgehog, bone morphogenetic protein and Notch. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), especially microRNAs and long ncRNAs, have significant modulatory roles in HF development and regeneration via regulation of these signalling pathways. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the status and future prospects of ncRNAs in HF regeneration and could prompt novel ncRNA-based therapeutic strategies.

Various important transcription factors in the pancreas are involved in the process of pancreas development, the differentiation of endocrine progenitor cells into mature insulin-producing pancreatic -cells and the preservation of mature -cell function. However, when -cells are continuously exposed to a high glucose concentration for a long period of time, the expression levels of several insulin gene transcription factors are substantially suppressed, which finally leads to pancreatic -cell failure found in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Here we show the possible underlying pathway for -cell failure. It is likely that reduced expression levels of MafA and PDX-1 and/or incretin receptor in -cells are closely associated with -cell failure in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Additionally, since incretin receptor expression is reduced in the advanced stage of diabetes mellitus, incretin-based medicines show more favorable effects against -cell failure, especially in the early stage of diabetes mellitus compared to the advanced stage. On the other hand, many subjects have recently suffered from life-threatening coronavirus infection, and coronavirus infection has brought about a new and persistent pandemic. Additionally, the spread of coronavirus infection has led to various limitations on the activities of daily life and has restricted economic development worldwide. It has been reported recently that SARS-CoV-2 directly infects -cells through neuropilin-1, leading to apoptotic -cell death and a reduction in insulin secretion. In this review article, we feature a possible molecular mechanism for pancreatic -cell failure, which is often observed in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Finally, we are hopeful that coronavirus infection will decline and normal daily life will soon resume all over the world.

We show that it is decidable whether or not a relation on the reals definable in the structure [Formula: see text] can be defined in the structure [Formula: see text]. This result is achieved by obtaining a topological characterization of [Formula: see text]-definable relations in the family of [Formula: see text]-definable relations and then by following Muchniks approach of showing that this characterization can be expressed in the logic of [Formula: see text].

Owing to COVID-19 pandemic, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) and N95 mask inside an operation theatre has become a common practice. Subjective symptoms of suffocation, headache, dizziness, and lack of concentration while on PPE may at times become significant enough requiring oxygen therapy, removal of mask, or even doffing of PPE, which may increase the risk of being infected and at the same time compromising patient care. The reason behind such subjective symptoms may be multifactorial. We report here a 52-years-old anesthetist with a high body mass index, wearing PPE for a prolonged duration inside an operation theatre during a high-risk surgery encountered a similar episode. Being the lone anesthetist, he decided to oxygenate himself in an innovative way, thus, avoiding doffing and any undesirable event. With pandemic expanding rapidly such scenarios may be encountered often, identifying factors predicting such events and finding methods of oxygenation while wearing PPE may be extremely beneficial.