Lomholtmccann3088

Blastocystis is a prevalent protozoan parasite reported in humans, animals, and environmental samples. Over the past decade, numerous studies have investigated the prevalence and subtype distribution of Blastocystis sp. alongside with its genetic and biochemical features. However, studies on subtype distribution of this protozoan in humans, animals, and environmental samples represent the potential transmission routes. In this review, we evaluated studies performed in Asian countries and in Australia to provide an overview of environmental factors on the prevalence and subtype distribution of Blastocystis sp. among humans, animals, and the environment.In antral follicles, transition of proliferative granulosa cells to estradiol-producing is critical for proper oocyte maturation. MicroRNAs are noncoding RNAs that play important roles in ovarian follicular development, however this has yet to be fully characterized. MicroRNA-21 is significantly higher in granulosa cells isolated from large antral follicles compared to those from small antral follicles. To investigate the function of miR-21, porcine granulosa cells were transfected with miR-21 mimic or miR-21 targeted siRNA. Cells with the miR-21 mimic had higher aromatase expression and estradiol production but decreased WT1 expression. Conversely, cells with the miR-21 siRNA secreted less estradiol and had higher WT1 expression. We hypothesized miR-21 promotes estradiol production by inhibiting WT1 protein synthesis. We found a potential miR-21 binding site in the 3'UTR of the WT1 transcript and performed a dual luciferase reporter assay using the wild-type and mutated 3'UTR. Compared to the negative control, the miR-21 mimic induced a significant decrease in luciferase activity in the wild-type 3'UTR. This decrease was reversed when the 3'UTR was mutated, suggesting miR-21 targets this site to inhibit WT1 expression. We next transfected porcine granulosa cells with WT1 targeted siRNA and observed a significant increase in aromatase expression and estradiol secretion. We propose that miR-21 represses WT1 expression in granulosa cells to potentially promote aromatase expression and estradiol production. This study offers the first report of a microRNA regulating WT1 expression in granulosa cells and reveals the role of miR-21 in WT1's regulation of estradiol production.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a grim challenge to adolescents' daily life, including schooling and learning, which has great impacts on their mental and behavioral health. This study aimed to test the roles of stress related to schooling and online learning during COVID-19 (COVID-19 stress) in depression and Internet gaming disorder (IGD) among adolescents and the potential mediators of social support, academic stress, and maladaptive emotion regulation based on the framework of Conservation of Resources theory. Sex differences in these associations were further examined.

A school-based survey was conducted among Chinese adolescents in 13 secondary schools in Hong Kong (n = 3,136) from September to November 2020 (48.1% males; mean age = 13.6 years old) using stratified random sampling.

The prevalence of probable depression and IGD was 60% and 15%, respectively. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that the proposed model fit the data well (χ2/df = 7.77, CFI = 0.92, IFI = 0.92, RMSEA = 0.05). COVID-19 stress was positively and indirectly associated with both depression and IGD through social support, academic stress, and maladaptive emotion regulation. Multi-group analyses identified that the associations between COVID-19 stress and academic stress, between academic stress and depression, and between social support and depression were stronger among females compared to males.

Findings highlight the roles of academic stress, poor social support, maladaptive emotion regulation, and sex to understand how disruption and stress caused by COVID-19 increases adolescent depression and IGD. Psychosocial interventions based on these factors are highly warranted.

Findings highlight the roles of academic stress, poor social support, maladaptive emotion regulation, and sex to understand how disruption and stress caused by COVID-19 increases adolescent depression and IGD. Psychosocial interventions based on these factors are highly warranted.

COVID-19 vaccination is considered as a critical prevention measure to help end the pandemic. Social media such as Twitter has played an important role in public discussion about COVID-19 vaccines.

This study intended to investigate message-level drivers of the popularity and virality of tweets about COVID-19 vaccines using machine-based text mining techniques. It also examined the topic communities of the most liked and most retweeted tweets using network analysis and visualization.

We collected US-based English-language public tweets about COVID-19 vaccines from January 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021 (n=501,531). Topic modeling and sentiment analysis were used to identify latent topics and valence, which together with auto-extracted information about media presence, linguistic features, and account verification were used in regression models to predict likes and retweets. Among the 2,500 most liked tweets and most retweeted tweets respectively, network analysis and visualization were used to detect topic chese topics, along with the use of media and verified accounts, have enhanced the popularity and virality of tweets. These could be addressed in vaccine campaigns to help the diffusion of content on Twitter.

The onset of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the consequent "infodemic" increased concerns about Twitter's role in advancing anti-vaccination messages, even before a vaccine became available to the public. New computational methods allow for analysis of cross-platform use by tracking links to websites shared over Twitter, which in turn can uncover some of the content and dynamics of information sources and agenda setting processes. Such understanding can advance theory and efforts to reduce misinformation.

informed by agenda-setting theory, this study aimed to identify the content and temporal patterns of websites shared in vaccine-related tweets posted to COVID-19 conversations on Twitter between February to June 2020.

We utilized triangulation of data analysis methods. Data mining consisted of screening of around 5 million tweets posted to COVID-19 conversations to identify tweets that related to vaccination, and including links to websites shared within these tweets. We further content analyzed the 20 most shared external websites using mixed-methods approach.

Of 841,896 vaccination-related tweets identified, 128,408 (22.1%) contained links to specific websites. A wide range of websites were shared, with the 20 most tweeted websites constituting 10.9% of the shared websites and typically shared for only 2-3 days. Traditional media constituted the majority of these 20 websites, along with other social media and government sources. We identified markers of inauthentic propagation of some of these links.

The topic of vaccination was prevalent in tweets about COVID-19 early in the pandemic. Sharing websites was a common communication strategy, and its bursty pattern and inauthentic propagation strategies pose challenges for health promotion efforts. Future studies should consider cross-platform use in dissemination of health information and in counteracting misinformation.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic impacted multiple aspects of daily living, including behaviors associated with occupation, transportation, and health. It is unclear how these changes to daily living impacted physical activity and sedentary behavior.

In the present study, we add to the growing body of research on the health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by examining longitudinal changes in objectively measured daily physical activity and sedentary behavior in overweight or obese young adults participating in an ongoing weight loss trial in San Diego, California (CA).

Data were collected from 315 overweight or obesity (BMI between 25.0-39.9 kg/m2) participants between the ages of 18 to 35 years old between 11/01/2019 and 10/30/2020 using the Fitbit Charge 3. After strict filtering for valid consistent wear (more than 10 hours per day for 250+ days), data from 97 participants were analyzed to detect multiple structural changes in time series of physical activity and sedentary behavior. Aecreases were greater than the expected declines observed during winter holidays, and as of 10/30/2020, they had not returned to levels observed prior to shelter-in-place orders.

In overweight or obese young adults, physical activity decreased and sedentary behavior increased concurrent with COVID-19 mitigation strategies. Health conditions associated with sedentary lifestyle may be additional unintended costs of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unhealthy alcohol use (UAU) is known to disrupt pulmonary immune mechanisms and increase the risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome in patients with pneumonia; however, little is known about the effects of UAU on outcomes in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. To our knowledge, this is the first observational cross-sectional study that aims to understand the effect of UAU on the severity of COVID-19.

We aim to determine if UAU is associated with more severe clinical presentation and worse health outcomes related to COVID-19 and if socioeconomic status, smoking, age, BMI, race/ethnicity, and pattern of alcohol use modify the risk.

In this observational cross-sectional study that took place between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020, we ran a digital machine learning classifier on the electronic health record of patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 via nasopharyngeal swab or had two COVID-19 International Classification of Disease, 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes to identify patients with UAU. ssociated with an 89% increase in the odds of being in a higher severity category.

In patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, UAU is an independent risk factor associated with greater disease severity and/or death.

In patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, UAU is an independent risk factor associated with greater disease severity and/or death.This article studies the formation and trajectory tracking control of multiagent systems. We present a novel multilayer graph for the multiagent system to enable extensibility of the interaction network. ABT-199 molecular weight Based on the multilayer graph, a formation control law by using the potential function approach is developed for autonomous formation, formation maintenance, collision, and obstacle avoidance. When the desired formation is achieved, the barycentric of the formation shape is viewed as a virtual leader, and a model predictive control (MPC) scheme is applied to the virtual leader for tracking a reference trajectory; meanwhile, the agents will maintain the desired angles and distances via the formation control law. By applying the proposed schemes, the tasks of formation maintenance and trajectory tracking in a constrained space are fulfilled. Comprehensive simulation studies under different environmental constraints and trajectories confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approaches in addressing the formation and trajectory tracking problems.