Stronger association of perceived health with socio-economic inequality during COVID-19 pandemic than pre-pandemic era

Abstract Objective The COVID-19 pandemic has changed peoples routine of daily living and posed major risks to global health and economy. Few studies have examined differential impacts of economic factors on health during pandemic compared to pre-pandemic. We aimed to compare the strength of associations between perceived health and socioeconomic position (household income, educational attainment, and employment) estimated before and during the pandemic. Methods Two waves of nationwide survey [on 2018(T1;n= 1200) and 2021(T2;n= 1000)] were done for 2200 community adults. A balanced distribution of confounders (demographics and socioeconomic position) were achieved across the T2 and T1 by use of the inverse probability of treatment weighting. Distributions of perceived health [= (excellent or very good)/(bad, fair, or good)] for physical-mental-social-spiritual subdomains were compared between T1 and T2. Odds of bad/fair/good health for demographics and socioeconomic position were obtained by univariate logistic regression. Adjusted odds (aOR) of bad/fair/good health in lower household income(< 3000 U.S. dollars/month) were retrieved using the multiple hierarchical logistic regression models of T1 and T2. Results Perceived health of excellent/very good at T2 was higher than T1 for physical(T1 = 36.05%, T2 = 39.13%; P= 0.04), but were lower for mental(T1 = 38.71%, T2 = 35.17%; P= 0.01) and social(T1 = 42.48%, T2 = 35.17%; P 0.05). AORs of bad/fair/good health in lower household income were stronger in T2 than T1, for mental [aOR (95% CI) = 2.15(1.68–2.77) in T2, 1.33(1.06–1.68) in T1; aOR difference = 0.82(P< 0.001)], physical [aOR (95% CI) = 2.64(2.05–3.41) in T2, 1.50(1.18–1.90) in T1; aOR difference = 1.14(P< 0.001)] and social [aOR (95% CI) = 2.15(1.68–2.77) in T2, 1.33(1.06–1.68) in T1; aOR difference = 0.35(P= 0.049)] subdomains. Conclusions Risks of perceived health worsening for mental and social subdomains in people with lower monthly household income or lower educational attainment became stronger during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic era. In consideration of the prolonged pandemic as of mid-2022, policies aiming not only to sustain the monthly household income and compulsory education but also to actively enhance the perceived mental-social health status have to be executed and maintained

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Learning representative exemplars using one-class Gaussian process regression

An exemplar is an observation that represents a group of similar observations. Exemplars from data are examined to divide entire heterogeneous data into several homogeneous subgroups, wherein each subgroup is represented by an exemplar. With its inherent sparsity, an exemplar-based learning model provides a parsimonious model to represent or cluster large-scale data. A novel exemplar learning method using one-class Gaussian process (GP) regression is proposed in this study. The proposed method constructs data distribution support from one-class GP regression using automatic relevance determination prior and heterogeneous GP noise. Exemplars that correspond to the basis vectors of the constructed support function are then automatically located during the training process. The proposed method is applied to various data sets to examine its operability, characteristics of data representation, and cluster analysis. The exemplars of some real data generated by the proposed method are also reported. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Investigation for a Wway of Iimproving Thermoelectric Properties on Moly Disulfide Forming Carbon Nanocomposites Thin Films; First Principle Approach

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Differing Nutrient Intake and Dietary Patterns According to the Presence of Hyper-Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterolemia or Hypertriglyceridemia

Dietary choices may have differing effects on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol or triglyceride levels. The aim of this study was to investigate daily nutrient intake and dietary patterns of individuals with hyper-low-density lipoprotein cholesterolemia (hLDL) and hypertriglyceridemia (hTG) in a large Korean population-based study using propensity score (PS) matching. This study used data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Propensity score values for the predicted probability of patients with hLDL or hTG were estimated using logistic regression analysis, with age, sex, body mass index, alcohol consumption, smoking status, physical activity status, hypertension, and diabetes. After PS matching, intake of carbohydrates (%) was significantly lower (p = 0.021), and intake of fats (%) and saturated fatty acids (%) was significantly higher in the hLDL group than in the non-hLDL group (p = 0.025 and p = 0.013, respectively). The percentage of individuals with a high score for the Korean Healthy Eating Index (KHEI) “whole grains” or “saturated fatty acids” components was higher in the non-hLDL group than in the hLDL group (p &lt; 0.05 for both). Dietary sodium/potassium ratio was significantly higher in the hTG than in the non-hTG (p = 0.049). Our results suggest that individualized dietary information and counseling require consideration of a person’s specific lipid levels

RNF213 R4810K Variant in Suspected Unilateral Moyamoya Disease Predicts Contralateral Progression

Background Early‐stage unilateral moyamoya disease (MMD) is difficult to discriminate from isolated intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis, and identification of contralateral progression may aid in the diagnosis of MMD. The RNF213 (ring finger protein 213) R4810K variant is a strong genetic susceptibility factor for MMD; however, the role of contralateral progression in unilateral MMD is unknown. Methods and Results Patients who had undergone RNF213 R4810K genotyping with suspected unilateral MMD between January 2017 and August 2021 from 2 tertiary university hospitals were retrospectively reviewed. We compared the clinical features and radiographic outcomes of patients with and without this variant. The risk factors of contralateral progression in patients with suspected unilateral MMD were evaluated. The RNF213 R4810K variant was observed in 72 of 123 patients with suspected unilateral MMD, all of which were heterozygous. The allele frequency of the R4810K variant was significantly higher in the suspected unilateral MMD group compared with the historical control group (29.3% versus 1.2%; P<0.0001). Family history of MMD was significantly more common in patients with the variant than in those without (17% versus 4%; P=0.003). Eleven of 72 patients with the variant developed contralateral progression, whereas only 1 of 51 patients without the variant developed contralateral progression during a median follow‐up period of 28 months (log‐rank test; P=0.03). The presence of the RNF213 R4810K variant significantly correlated with contralateral progression (adjusted odds ratio, 6.39 [95% CI, 1.11–36.63]; P=0.04). Conclusions Contralateral progression is more likely to occur in patients with suspected unilateral MMD with the RNF213 R4810K variant than in those without the variant. However, because our study used a small sample size, this finding should be carefully interpreted and requires further studies with more patients and longer follow‐up periods

Interface-Sensitized Chemiresistor: Integrated Conductive and Porous Metal-Organic Frameworks

Research to develop ideal sensing devices for toxic gases is on the rise, and amongst various materials, metal--organic frameworks (MOFs) have opened up promising vistas as chemiresistive sensors due to their high structural and functional tunability. Here, we report the composites of dimensionally (2D and 3D) and func-tionally (conductive and porous) different two MOFs in the form of a well-integrated core-shell structure. The hierarchically assembled 2D-MOF@3D-MOF exhibits new interfacial properties that are responsible for syn-ergetically enhanced sensing performances toward toxic H2S gas with the lowest recorded limit of detection (1.4 ppb), superior sensitivity (&amp; UDelta;R/R0 = 3.37), and outstanding selectivity at room temperature in air. The sensing mechanisms are proposed by combinational studies of experiments and calculation, which indicates that multiple changes (e.g., local structural change of the shell MOF, secondary binding sites generation from the core MOF, and free radicals formation) play a critical role in achieving synergetic chemiresistive sensing