Angelica Dahurica Regulated the Polarization of Macrophages and Accelerated Wound Healing in Diabetes: A Network Pharmacology Study and In Vivo Experimental Validation

Diabetic wounds exhibit retarded and partial healing processes. Therefore, patients are exposed to an elevated risk of infection. It has been verified that Angelica dahurica (Hoffm.) Benth. and Hook. f. ex Franch. and Sav (A. dahurica) is conducive for wound healing. However, the pharmacological mechanisms of A. dahurica are yet to be established. The present study uses network pharmacology and in vivo experimental validation to investigate the underlying process that makes A. dahurica conducive for faster wound healing in diabetes patients. 54 potential targets in A. dahurica that act on wound healing were identified through network pharmacology assays, such as signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), JUN, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and prostaglandin G/H synthase 2 (PTGS2). Furthermore, in vivo validation showed that A. dahurica accelerated wound healing through anti-inflammatory effects. More specifically, it regulates the polarization of M1 and M2 subtypes of macrophages. A. dahurica exerted a curative effect on diabetic wound healing by regulating the inflammation. Hence, pharmacologic network analysis combined with in vivo validation elucidated the probable effects and underlying mechanisms of A. dahurica’s therapeutic effect on diabetic wound healing

Synergistic Improvement of Production, Economic Return and Sustainability in the Tea Industry through Ecological Pest Management

The use of ecological principles to manage plant pests has attracted renewed attention, but our knowledge related to the contributions of ecological pest management to social and natural sustainability is fragmented. In this study, we compared the performance and resilience of tea production and the economic benefits of tea ecological management (TEM) and tea conventional management (TCM). We show that TEM significantly improved tea biomass and quality, nutritional efficiency, and beneficial insects, but reduced seasonal variation. As a result, economic return increased by $8045/ha in the TEM mode compared to$6064/ha in the TCM mode. These results confirm that TEM is a promising production mode that can reconcile the conflict between the immediate and long-term service of agriculture. However, environmental improvements associated with organic pest control benefit society, and the government should provide adequate financial support to promote the production system

Intelligent negotiation model for ubiquitous group decision scenarios

Supporting group decision-making in ubiquitous contexts is a complex task that must deal with a large amount of factors to succeed. Here we propose an approach for an intelligent negotiation model to support the group decision-making process specially designed for ubiquitous contexts. Our approach can be used by researchers that intend to include arguments, complex algorithms and agents' modelling in a negotiation model. It uses a social networking logic due to the type of communication employed by the agents and it intends to support the ubiquitous group decision-making process in a similar way to the real process, which simultaneously preserves the amount and quality of intelligence generated in face-to-face meetings. We propose a new look into this problematic by considering and defining strategies to deal with important points such as the type of attributes in the multicriteria problems, agents' reasoning and intelligent dialogues.This work has been supported by COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043, by National Funds through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within the Projects UID/CEC/00319/2013, UID/EEA/00760/2013, and the João Carneiro PhD grant with the reference SFRH/BD/89697/2012 and by Project MANTIS - Cyber Physical System Based Proactive Collaborative Maintenance (ECSEL JU Grant nr. 662189).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Role of Culture in Help-Seeking During Adolescence

The notable disparity between need for and use of mental health services among youth, particularly ethnic minority adolescents, has prompted research on the barriers and facilitators to help-seeking. Although a number of practical, institutional and family factors have been shown to influence treatment utilization, there is a dearth of research on adolescent attitudes and behaviors toward help-seeking. Given that adolescence is a period marked by increasing autonomy and rising mental health needs – many of which go undetected by adult caregivers – youth perspectives are particularly important to consider in order to reduce disparities in mental health care. This dissertation used data from a large prospective study to examine predictors of support seeking behavior and intervention preferences in two ethnocultural groups (i.e., Vietnamese Americans and European Americans). Specifically, we examined how traditional indicators (i.e., race/ethnicity and perceived mental health need) interacted with adolescents’ larger social and cultural environment (e.g., cultural values, social supports) to shape attitudes and behaviors related to help-seeking. Study 1 sought to identify factors that influenced the recruitment of formal and informal support for mental health need. Findings showed that the positive link between mental health need and formal help-seeking was attenuated among Vietnamese Americans relative to European Americans, and among youth who endorse high family obligation values. Study 2 built upon Study 1 by assessing youth evaluations of help-seeking experiences once support had been obtained. Adolescents rated multiple sources of support as helpful in addressing their emotional difficulties, though satisfaction with received adult support was significantly lower than peer support for Vietnamese Americans. We also found that adolescents’ helpfulness ratings varied depending on their cultural values and perceived social support from friends and family. While Study 2 explored youth attitudes toward support from formal and informal supports, Study 3 concentrated on adolescent preferences toward specific evidence-based interventions. Specifically, we examined factors that influenced preferences toward one of two preventive interventions for depression among a sample of adolescents with elevated internalizing symptoms. Findings showed that treatment preference was aligned with youth indicated risk factors and the cultural value of emotional restraint; adolescents who engaged in more avoidant coping and who valued the downregulation of emotional expression preferred a mindfulness-based intervention that teaches healthy engagement with thoughts and emotions. Conversely, adolescents who reported more family stressors preferred an intervention that targets interpersonal stress through the cultivation of communication and relationship skills. Taken together, the three studies in this dissertation underscored the importance of taking youth perspectives into consideration when examining barriers and facilitators in the help-seeking pathway. Adolescent help-seeking and treatment preferences were related to their cultural norms and values, source and availability of social support, and risk profiles. To effectively engage youths in needed treatment, greater attention must be paid to how sociocultural factors interact with more traditional indicators such as race/ethnicity and perceived mental health need

The cost of sickness presenteeism in organisations.

Sickness Presenteeism (SP) has become a prevalent phenomenon among employers and employees in today‟s business world [Saarvala, 2006]. This is so as it hurts output, quality of work-life and employee health [Lowe, 2002]. SP arises when employees still reports to work despite of their ill health which should prompt rest and absence from work[Aronsson et al., 2000]; [Demerouti et al., 2009]. Unlike absenteeism, SP among employees is not always noticeable as one can tell when an employee is absent from work, but cannot easily tell whether the productivity of the employee who turns up for work is affected by his/her health conditions [Hemp, 2004]. In recent decades, studies have revealed high prevalence of SP among employees [Aronsson et al., 2000]; [Roe, 2003]; [Elstad and Vabo, 2008]; [Hansen and Andersen, 2008]. However, most studies are based on the western contexts that may not accurately reflect the prevalence of SP in Asia. As such, this study aims to provide an insight into the prevalence of SP closer to home, in Singapore. This study also seeks to assess the predicting factors of SP which are posited in the hypotheses - job demand, job status, and employees‟ awareness respectively. In the second section of this study, a detailed breakdown of the costs of SP resulting from 12 common health conditions in Singapore, using the presenteeism metric developed by Gotzel et al. (2004) is presented to highlight the prevalent of SP at work place.BUSINES