Gambleroach2209

COVID-19 has reinforced the need to revisit the integration of health within disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies for biological hazards in a system-wide approach. In November 2020, DRR experts attended the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction (APP-DRR) Forum to share progress and learnings in the areas of health system resilience, data management, residual risk management, risk communication, digital literacy, and knowledge product marketing. Advancements for health in DRR included the importance of multi-sectoral, multi-hazard action plans; adaptation to technological advancements in data collection, dissemination and protection; promoting the health and wellbeing of essential and nonprofessional workers; and improving inclusivity in digital literacy. COVID-19 has affected progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and created a unique opportunity within DRR to re-evaluate the adequacy of response mechanisms against concurrent, cascading or interacting risks of future biological hazards. Health emergency disaster risk management (Health-EDRM) is a new World Health Organization paradigm that includes DRR at intra-, inter- and multidisciplinary levels. Scientific advancement under Health-EDRM is necessary for health and non-health actors in DRR education and research. Continuous education on the multifaceted risk governance is a key to building awareness, capacity and accelerating towards achieving the international DRR and the SDG targets.This paper details analytical research results into a novel geopolymer concrete embedded with glass bubble as its thermal insulating material, fly ash as its precursor material, and a combination of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) as its alkaline activator to form a geopolymer system. The workability, density, compressive strength (per curing days), and water absorption of the sample loaded at 10% glass bubble (loading level determined to satisfy the minimum strength requirement of a load-bearing structure) were 70 mm, 2165 kg/m3, 52.58 MPa (28 days), 54.92 MPa (60 days), and 65.25 MPa (90 days), and 3.73 %, respectively. The thermal conductivity for geopolymer concrete decreased from 1.47 to 1.19 W/mK, while the thermal diffusivity decreased from 1.88 to 1.02 mm2/s due to increased specific heat from 0.96 to 1.73 MJ/m3K. The improved physicomechanical and thermal (insulating) properties resulting from embedding a glass bubble as an insulating material into geopolymer concrete resulted in a viable composite for use in the construction industry.In the context of climate change, ecosystem in Yangtze River Source Region (YRSR) is under threat from severe droughts. This study introduced a new natural vegetation drought index, standardized supply-demand water index (SSDI), and identified natural vegetation drought events and parameters (e.g., duration, severity, peak, and coverage area) based on run theory. Then the drought-prone regions were investigated via 2-dimensional joint copula. The results indicate that (1) compared with traditional meteorological drought index, the SSDI is reliable and can reflect the comprehensive characteristics of the ecological drought information more easily and effectively; (2) the YRSR had witnessed the most severe drought episodes in the periods of late-1970s, mid-1980s, and mid-1990s, but the SSDI showed a wetting trend since the mid-2000s. Additionally, droughts in the Southern YRSR were relatively more severe with longer drought duration; (3) in most areas of Togton River Basin and Dam River Basin, the severe ecological drought events occurred more frequently; (4) drought duration and severity in the YRSR were more susceptible to temperature when the temperature rise was above 1.0 °C. The average drought duration and severity increased by 20.7% and 32.6% with a temperature rise of 1 °C. Investigating and evaluating drought characteristics, causes, and drought index effectiveness provide essential information for balanced water resource allocation, utilization, and drought prevention. Understanding these spatial-temporal characteristics of drought and return period was useful for drought risk assessment and sustainable development of water resources.Congenital diarrheal disorders (CDDs) are early-onset enteropathies generally inherited as autosomal recessive traits. Most patients with CDDs require rapid diagnosis as they need immediate and specific therapy to avoid a poor prognosis, but their clinical picture is often overlapping with a myriad of nongenetic diarrheal diseases. We developed a next-generation sequencing (NGS) panel for the analysis of 92 CDD-related genes, by which we analyzed patients suspect for CDD, among which were (i) three patients with sucrose-isomaltase deficiency; (ii) four patients with microvillous inclusion disease; (iii) five patients with congenital tufting enteropathy; (iv) eight patients with glucose-galactose malabsorption; (v) five patients with congenital chloride diarrhea. In all cases, we identified the mutations in the disease-gene, among which were several novel mutations for which we defined pathogenicity using a combination of bioinformatic tools. Although CDDs are rare, all together, they have an incidence of about 1%. Considering that the clinical picture of these disorders is often confusing, a CDD-related multigene NGS panel contributes to unequivocal and rapid diagnosis, which also reduces the need for invasive procedures.While a higher incidence of lung cancer in subjects with previous tuberculous infection has been reported in epidemiologic data, the mechanism by which previous tuberculosis affects lung cancer remains unclear. We investigated the role of NOX4 in tuberculous pleurisy-assisted tumorigenicity both in vitro and in vivo.Heat-killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis-stimulated mesothelial cells augmented the migrationand invasive potential of lung cancer cells in a NOX4-dependent manner. Mice with Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) pleural infection exhibited increased expression of NOX4 and enhanced malignant potential of lung cancer compared to mice with intrathoracic injection of phosphate-buffered saline. The BCG+ KLN205 (KLN205 cancer cell injection after BCG treatment) NOX4 KO mice group showed reduced tuberculous fibrosis-promoted metastatic potential of lung cancer, increased autophagy, and decreased expression of TGF-β, IL-6, and TNF-α compared to the BCG+KLN205 WT mice group. Finally, NOX4 silencing mitigated the malignant potential of A549 cells that was enhanced by tuberculous pleural effusion and restored autophagy signaling. Our results suggest that the NOX4-autophagy axis regulated by tuberculous fibrosis could result in enhanced tumorigenic potential and that NOX4-P62 might serve as a target for tuberculous fibrosis-induced lung cancer.Side effects of the drugs' oral administration led us to examine the possibility of using diclofenac sodium (DLF) in a polymeric drug delivery system based on electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers, which can be produced cost-effectively and with good applicability for transdermal treatments. The inclusion of DLF in PAN nanofibers increased the nanofiber diameter from ~200 nm to ~500 nm. This increase can be attributed to the increase in the spinning solution viscosity. FTIR spectra confirm the entrapment of the DLF into the PAN nanofibers. X-ray diffraction pattern showed that the inclusion of the DLF in the PAN nanofibers had caused the misalignment in the polymeric chains of the PAN, thus resulting in a decrease of the peak intensity at 2θ = 17o. The DLF loaded PAN nanofibers were efficient against the gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli), with maximum inhibition zone of 16 ± 0.46 mm for E. coli and 15.5 ± 0.28 mm for S. TGF-beta inhibitor aureus. Good cell viability ~95% for L929 cells in more extended incubation periods was reported. A gradual release of DLF from the PAN nanofiber was observed and can be attributed to the stability of Pan in PBS medium. Cell adhesion micrographs show that cell-cell interaction is stronger than the cell-material interaction. This type of weak cell interaction with the wound dressing is particularly advantageous, as this will not disturb the wound surface during the nursing of the wound.Steroid 5-α reductase (5AR) is responsible for the reduction of steroids to 5-α reduced metabolites, such as the reduction of testosterone to 5-α dihydrotestosterone (DHT). A new adverse outcome pathway (AOP) for 5AR inhibition to reduce female reproduction in fish (AOP 289) is under development to clarify the antiestrogenic effects of 5AR inhibitors in female fish. A sensitive method for the DHT analysis using chemical derivatization and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was developed. A cell-based 5AR inhibition assay that utilizes human cell lines, a transient overexpression system, and fish cell lines was developed. The measured IC50 values of two well-known 5AR inhibitors, finasteride and dutasteride, were comparable in the different systems. However, the IC50 of dutasteride in the fish cell lines was lower than that in the human cell lines. Finasteride showed a higher IC50 against the RTG-2 cell line. These results demonstrated that 5ARs inhibition could differ in terms of structural characteristics among species. The assay has high sensitivity and reproducibility and is suitable for the application in 5AR inhibition screening for various endocrine disruption chemicals (EDCs). Future studies will continue to evaluate the quantitative inhibition of 5AR by EDCs to compare the endocrine-disrupting pathway in different species.The significance of glutamine in cancer metabolism has been extensively studied. Cancer cells consume an excessive amount of glutamine to facilitate rapid proliferation. Thus, glutamine depletion occurs in various cancer types, especially in poorly vascularized cancers. This makes glutamine synthetase (GS), the only enzyme responsible for de novo synthesizing glutamine, essential in cancer metabolism. In cancer, GS exhibits pro-tumoral features by synthesizing glutamine, supporting nucleotide synthesis. Furthermore, GS is highly expressed in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and provides glutamine to cancer cells, allowing cancer cells to maintain sufficient glutamine level for glutamine catabolism. Glutamine catabolism, the opposite reaction of glutamine synthesis by GS, is well known for supporting cancer cell proliferation via contributing biosynthesis of various essential molecules and energy production. Either glutamine anabolism or catabolism has a critical function in cancer metabolism depending on the complex nature and microenvironment of cancers. In this review, we focus on the role of GS in a variety of cancer types and microenvironments and highlight the mechanism of GS at the transcriptional and post-translational levels. Lastly, we discuss the therapeutic implications of targeting GS in cancer.Antibacterial packaging materials can reduce the microbial contamination of food surfaces. In this study, magnesium oxide (MgO) nanoparticles were synthesized and then coated with cetrimonium bromide (CTAB). CTAB-modified MgO (MgO@CTAB) was characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis. Then, different loadings of MgO@CTAB were mixed with poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) by melt compounding. The results showed that the addition of MgO@CTAB deteriorated the thermal stability of PBAT due to MgO serving as a catalyst to promote the thermal degradation of PBAT. In addition, MgO@CTAB could serve as a nucleating agent to improve the crystallinity of PBAT. With the optimal 3 wt% of MgO@CTAB, the tensile strength of PBAT/MgO@CTAB increased from 26.66 to 29.90 MPa, with a slight enhancement in elongation at break. SEM observations and dynamical rheological measurements revealed that aggregation occurred when the content of MgO@CTAB exceeded 5 wt%.