An International Study on Psychological Coping During COVID-19: Towards a Meaning-Centered Coping Style

Background/Objective This study examined the role of different psychological coping mechanisms in mental and physical health during the initial phases of the COVID-19 crisis with an emphasis on meaning-centered coping. Method A total of 11,227 people from 30 countries across all continents participated in the study and completed measures of psychological distress (depression, stress, and anxiety), loneliness, well-being, and physical health, together with measures of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping, and a measure called the Meaning-centered Coping Scale (MCCS) that was developed in the present study. Validation analyses of the MCCS were performed in all countries, and data were assessed by multilevel modeling (MLM). Results The MCCS showed a robust one-factor structure in 30 countries with good test-retest, concurrent and divergent validity results. MLM analyses showed mixed results regarding emotion and problem-focused coping strategies. However, the MCCS was the strongest positive predictor of physical and mental health among all coping strategies, independently of demographic characteristics and country-level variables. Conclusions The findings suggest that the MCCS is a valid measure to assess meaning-centered coping. The results also call for policies promoting effective coping to mitigate collective suffering during the pandemic

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Comparative Study of Orotracheal Intubation through Air Q Laryngeal Mask Airway: Blind Versus Fiberoptic Guided During General Anesthesia

This study was designed to compare the hemodynamic and arousal responses to blind orotracheal intubation through Air Q laryngeal mask airway versus flexible fiberoptic guided. 100 adult patients ASA I and II undergoing elective surgeries under general anesthesia with orotracheal intubation were divided into two groups according to the technique of intubation through Air-Q ILA Group &#1030; (n= 50) patients intubated blindly through Air-Q ILA Group &#1030;&#1030; (n=50) patients intubated through Air-Q ILA guided by flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope. The following parameters were recorded: heart rate, systolic, diastolic and mean arterial blood pressure and Bispectral Index (BIS) values: preinduction, after induction of anesthesia, then at 1 and 5 minutes after intubation, arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2): before, during and after intubation, time of insertion(in seconds) and number of attempts of insertion of the endotracheal tube and airway complications; injury to the gums or teeth damage, hoarseness of the voice, bleeding, sore throat. Systolic and mean arterial blood pressures were statistically significant lower in the fiberoptic group than the blind group. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in the heart rate and diastolic blood pressure.There was statistically significant lower time of intubation and less number of attempts in fiberoptic group than in blind group, the success rate of intubation in the fiberoptic group was 100% compared to 76% in blind group. There was statistically significant lower BIS value in the fiberoptic group 1 minute after intubation than in the blind group. Endotracheal intubation through the Air-Q ILA guided by flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope is associated with less hemodynamic and arousal responses than blind endotracheal intubation through the Air-Q ILA, the number of attempt and time of successful intubation were statistically significantly lower in the fiberoptic group than the blind group. [Med-Science 2015; 4(3.000): 2388-400

The fractional complex transformation for nonlinear fractional partial differential equations in the mathematical physics

In this article, the modified extended tanh-function method is employed to solve fractional partial differential equations in the sense of the modified Riemann–Liouville derivative. Based on a nonlinear fractional complex transformation, certain fractional partial differential equations can be turned into nonlinear ordinary differential equations of integer orders. For illustrating the validity of this method, we apply it to four nonlinear equations namely, the space–time fractional generalized nonlinear Hirota–Satsuma coupled KdV equations, the space–time fractional nonlinear Whitham–Broer–Kaup equations, the space–time fractional nonlinear coupled Burgers equations and the space–time fractional nonlinear coupled mKdV equations

Exact Solutions for the Nonlinear PDE Describing the Model of DNA Double Helices using the Improved (G ′ /G)- Expansion Method

Abstract: The objective of this article is to apply the improved(G ′ /G)- expansion method for constructing many exact solutions with parameters of the nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) describing the model of DNA double helices. The stretch of the hydrogen bonds is considered as a nonlinear chain with cubic and quadratic potential. When the parameters take special values, many solitary wave solutions and periodic wave solutions can be found. Comparison between some of our new results and the well-known results are given

Green Synthesis of Highly Fluorescent Carbon Dots from Bovine Serum Albumin for Linezolid Drug Delivery as Potential Wound Healing Biomaterial: Bio-Synergistic Approach, Antibacterial Activity, and In Vitro and Ex Vivo Evaluation

A simple and green approach was developed to produce novel highly fluorescent bovine serum albumin carbon dots (BCDs) via facile one-step hydrothermal treatment, using bovine serum albumin as a precursor carbon source. Inherent blue photoluminescence of the synthesized BCDs provided a maximum photostability of 90.5 ± 1.2% and was characterized via TEM, FT-IR, XPS, XRD, UV-visible, and zeta potential analyses. By virtue of their extremely small size, intrinsic optical and photoluminescence properties, superior photostability, and useful non-covalent interactions with the synthetic oxazolidinone antibiotic linezolid (LNZ), BCDs were investigated as fluorescent nano-biocarriers for LNZ drug delivery. The release profile of LNZ from the drug delivery system (LNZ–BCDs) revealed a distinct biphasic release, which is beneficial for mollifying the lethal incidents associated with wound infection. The effective wound healing performance of the developed LNZ–BCDs were evaluated through various in vitro and ex vivo assays such as MTT, ex vivo hemolysis, in vitro antibacterial activity, in vitro skin-related enzyme inhibition, and scratch wound healing assays. The examination of LNZ–BCDs as an efficient wound healing biomaterial illustrated excellent biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity against normal human skin fibroblast (HSF) cell line, indicating distinct antibacterial activity against the most common wound infectious pathogens including Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC® 25922) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, robust anti-elastase, anti-collagenase, and anti-tyrosinase activities, and enhanced cell proliferation and migration effect. The obtained results confirmed the feasibility of using the newly designed fluorescent LNZ–BCDs nano-bioconjugate as a unique antibacterial biomaterial for effective wound healing and tissue regeneration. Besides, the greenly synthesized BCDs could be considered as a great potential substitute for toxic nanoparticles in biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility and intense fluorescence characteristics and in pharmaceutical industries as promising drug delivery nano-biocarriers for effective wound healing applications

( / ) G G �- Expansion Method to Traveling Wave Solutions of Two Nonlinear

The authors of the above article proposed the improved ( G� / G)- expansion method and found some traveling wave solutions for each of two nonlinear evolution equations in mathematical physics, namely the Regularized Long Wave (RLW) equation and the Symmetric Regularized Long Wave (SRLW) equation. In the present article, we have noted that if we use a suitable transformation, the improved (G’/G)expansion method can be reduced into the well-known generalized Riccati equation mapping method which provides us with much more traveling wave solutions, namely twenty seven solutions for each of these two nonlinear evaluation equations. Comparison between the results of these two methods is presented