Socio-demographic and lifestyle factors associated with nutrition label use among Malaysian adults

Purpose – Nutrition labels bridge communication between food manufacturers and consumers and are instrumental in shaping food choices and dietary habits.Gaining insight into the factors associated with nutrition label use precedes evaluating the effectiveness of these labels. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the socio-demographic and lifestyle factors associated with nutrition label use among multi-ethnic Malaysian adults. Design/methodology/approach – Data from the Third National Health and Morbidity Survey (n ¼ 39,506) on nutrition label use was analysed. Logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the factors associated with reading nutrition labels, adjusted for con founders. Findings – The findings show that females, young adults aged between 18 and 30 years, Malays, tertiary educated, singles, employed individuals, physically active adults and non-smokers were significantly associated with increased odds of nutrition label use.Research limitations/implications – Causality could not be established due to the cross-sectional study design.The scope of the data collected limited investigations to the socio-demographic and lifestyle factors associated with nutrition label use.Future research measuring consumers’ attention, motivation and comprehension of nutrition label use and subsequent food selection should be conducted.Practical implications –Health promotion efforts targeted towards promoting the use of nutrition label among males, older adults aged between 31 and 40 years, ethnic minorities, primary educated, widowed/divorced individuals, unemployed, physically inactive and smokers are recommended.Originality/value – This nationwide study provides valuable insights into the socio-demographic and lifestyle factors significantly associated with nutrition label use among Malaysian adults

Integrated Circuit Packaging Recognition with Tilt Auto Adjustment using Deep Learning Approach

A deep-learning-based approach for recognizing integrated circuit (IC) packaging type is presented in this paper. The objective of this work is to design a deep-learning method that can recognize multiple types of packaging per detection, performing counting operations, and calculating the centre location of an IC with its tilting angle. The transfer learning from model You-Only-Look-Once (YOLO) v5 was chosen because it has been trained with the coco dataset and has a more reliable feature extraction system than the other models. In order to extract data from images, OpenCV was used, which allows the deep learning model to perform more efficient analysis of the input data. Apart from that, the principal component analysis (PCA) was used to estimate the angle of the IC in order to determine the rotation of each IC for the purpose of tilting adjustment. The developed model has an average confidence score of 85% and is capable of operating in a variety of conditions, as demonstrated by ANOVA analysis

DNA methylation subgroups and the CpG island methylator phenotype in gastric cancer: A comprehensive profiling approach

10.1186/1471-230X-14-55BMC Gastroenterology141-BGMA

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Recent advances in upconversion nanocrystals: Expanding the kaleidoscopic toolbox for emerging applications

Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles enable anti-Stokes emission via nonlinear processes, where low-energy excitation photons in the near-infrared window can be upconverted into high-energy emission ones in the visible or ultraviolet regions. The past decade has seen great success in the high-quality synthesis of upconversion nanoparticles with controlled structure, crystalline phase, size, and shape. The unique capacity of upconversion nanocrystals to undertake near-infrared excitation, amalgamated with their excellent luminescent characteristics, such as massive anti-Stokes spectral shift, sharp emission band, multicolor emission, and long luminescence lifetime, makes these nanomaterials prime candidates for a plethora of applications. Herein, we review the field of upconversion nanoparticles from the perspectives of fundamental luminescence mechanisms, new synthetic routes, and current practical approaches to tuning emission color and enhancing upconversion efficiency. In particular, we highlight the recent advances in utilizing upconversion nanocrystals for bioimaging, therapy, biosensing, neuroscience, super-resolution imaging, photoswitching, and lasing applications. We also discuss the key challenges and issues that are critical for the further implementation of upconversion nanoparticles in diverse settings

A Broadly Applicable Assay for Rapidly and Accurately Quantifying DNA Surface Coverage on Diverse Particles

DNA-modified particles are used extensively for applications in sensing, material science, and molecular biology. The performance of such DNA-modified particles is greatly dependent on the degree of surface coverage, but existing methods for quantitation can only be employed for certain particle compositions and/or conjugation chemistries. We have developed a simple and broadly applicable exonuclease III (Exo III) digestion assay based on the cleavage of phosphodiester bondsa universal feature of DNA-modified particlesto accurately quantify DNA probe surface coverage on diverse, commonly used particles of different compositions, conjugation chemistries, and sizes. Our assay utilizes particle-conjugated, fluorophore-labeled probes that incorporate two abasic sites; these probes are hybridized to a complementary DNA (cDNA) strand, and quantitation is achieved via cleavage and digestion of surface-bound probe DNA via Exo III’s apurinic endonucleolytic and exonucleolytic activities. The presence of the two abasic sites in the probe greatly speeds up the enzymatic reaction without altering the packing density of the probes on the particles. Probe digestion releases a signal-generating fluorophore and liberates the intact cDNA strand to start a new cycle of hybridization and digestion, until all fluorophore tags have been released. Since the molar ratio of fluorophore to immobilized DNA is 1:1, DNA surface coverage can be determined accurately based on the complete release of fluorophores. Our method delivers accurate, rapid, and reproducible quantitation of thiolated DNA on the surface of gold nanoparticles, and also performs equally well with other conjugation chemistries, substrates, and particle sizes, and thus offers a broadly useful assay for quantitation of DNA surface coverage