External evaluation of treated historical wooden samples

This study aims to identify suitable adhesives for the conservation and restoration of hlstorical Zelkova Carpinifolia wood located in wet conditions. The Superficial properties and hardness of 14 compounds treated with several consolidants were compared. The consolidants have been applied alone, with synthetic resin or with protein glues and natural resins by the brushing method. Colorimetric measurements, observation methods and hardness tests were conducted before and after aging to verify the possible changes of the treated wood and the consolidating resistance. The compound 1:2 of Butvar B98 and sandarac in 5% ethanol was found to be more effective, providing a suitable compound compared to the other consolidants teste

Visual Thinking Process and Emotions Through Expressive Art

Background: Drawing has a therapeutic function in the lives of people with special needs.These people need additional support for communication and learning.Researchers believed that drawing is an effective way for these people to show their self-esteem, emotions, social competence, and other hidden personalities. Art therapy teaches knowledge of visual art (drawing and painting). It is also known as expressive art because it assists in dealing with some emotions that are difficult for verbal communication. Furthermore, art therapy is beneficial for fine motor skill development. The aim of this study was to explore the use of expressive art in a group of autistic people. Subjects and Method: This was a qualitative study. A series of art therapy workshop were conducted in University of Malaya in collaboration with Malaysian Rehabilitation Council, and Maybank Foundation. A number of 18 people aged 8-17 years old with autism from Malaysian Rehabilitation Council were invited to University of Malaya for the art therapy workshop. They consisted of Malays, Chinese, and Indians. These peoplehad some level of communication problems. Art therapy workshop was conducted twice a month for 6 month with each session lasted for 4 hours. Art template, art materials, and a list of activities were given to each participant. Before the session, the participants informed the researchers verbally the scope of art that they would be drawing. The researchers observed the thinking process and emotions of the participants through the art activities. Results: Some of the art work was not related to what they have mentioned earlier. We found that art demonstrated their thought process. Drawing was more accurate in visualizing their thinking process rather than verbal communication. Besides, we detected a range of emotions illustrated from their final art work. Some of the emotions were psychological distress, happiness, and sadness. Conclusion: Expressive artis useful for visualizing thinking process of autistic people. Keywords: art therapy, autistic, visual thinking, emotions, expressive ar

ART THERAPY FOR PEOPLE WITH AUTISM

Background: Art therapy is a technique used in mental health profession in which patients with special needs use creative process facilitated by the art therapist to explore patients‘ interpersonal and art skills. Art therapy teaches knowledge of visual art (drawing and painting) and the creative process involved is not only beneficial for fine motor skills development but also assists in dealing with emotions. The objectives were to identify interpersonal skills, to develop art skills and to increase self-esteem through art therapy activities. Subjects and Method: This was a qualitative study. A series of art therapy workshop were conducted in University of Malaya in collaboration with Malaysian Rehabilitation Council, Maybank Foundation, and University of Malaya. A number of 38 participants from Malaysian Rehabilitation Council who were autistic were invited to University of Malaya for the art therapy workshop. Their age range was from 8 – 17 years old and consisted of Malays, Chinese and Indians. It was a participant observer study in which the researcher studied the life of a group by sharing in its activities. Art therapy workshop was conducted for 6 months duration twice a month and each session was for 4 hours. Art template, art materials and a list of activities were given to each participant. Throughout the sessions, the way participants communicate and interact with researcher were documented to identify interpersonal skills. The development of art skills was through the teaching of art using the different art template for each session. Results: From the outcome of the artwork, participants showed increased self-esteem as their art skills improved throughout the art sessions. Conclusion: Art therapy is able to develop interpersonal skills, art skills and increase self-esteem of people with autism. Keywords: Art therapy, autism, interpersonal skills, art skills, self-estee

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Sequence-Fenton Reaction for Decreasing Phenol Formation during Benzene Chemical Conversion in Aqueous Solutions

Advanced oxidation processes such as Fenton reagent generates highly reactive hydroxyl free radicals to oxidize various compounds in the water and wastewater. The efficiency of different Fenton-related oxidative processes such as Fenton, solar-Fenton, UV-Fenton and Fenton reactions in different batch reactors was examined using benzene as pollutant in aqueous solutions. A batch study was conducted to optimize parameters like pH, hydrogen peroxide concentration, temperature, reaction time and ferrous ion concentration governing the Fenton process. The concentrations of produced phenol were measured at the end of the reactions. The role of sequence reaction was tested for decreasing phenol formation during benzene conversion. At optimum conditions, different Fenton-related processes were compared for the degradation of benzene. Increased degradation efficiency was observed in photo-Fenton processes as compared to conventional Fenton process. The formation of phenol in Fenton reaction depended on reaction time, sequence in reaction, purity of hydrogen peroxide and other compounds such as alcohols that contributed into the reaction. In the Fenton process, carboxylic acids like acetic acid and oxalic acid were formed as the end products during the complete degradation of benzene. With the increase in mono-valence, two-valence ions and hardness, Fenton's efficiency decreased, respectively. Sequence Fenton reaction produced less phenol and its end products had smaller COD as compared to conventional Fenton process

Actin cytoskeleton dynamics promotes leptin-induced vascular smooth muscle hypertrophy via RhoA/ROCK- and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B-dependent pathways

ABSTRACT Obesity is associated with increased leptin production which may contribute to cardiovascular pathology through a multiplicity of effects. Leptin has been shown to contribute to vascular remodelling through various mechanisms including production of vascular smooth muscle (VSMC) hypertrophy, however the mechanisms underlying the vascular hypertrophic effect of leptin remain unknown. In the present study we investigated the contributions of the RhoA/ROCK and PI3K/Akt pathways, actin dynamics, and the expression of serum response factor (SRF) in the hypertrophic effects of leptin vascular tissue. Strips of rat portal vein (RPV) were cultured with or without leptin (3.1 nmol/L) for 1-3 days. Leptin significantly increased RhoA activity by 163±20%, whereas phosphorylation of downstream factors including LIMK1 and cofilin-2 was increased by 160±25% and 290"25% respectively. Leptin also significantly phosphorylated Akt by 130"30% which was inhibited by the PI3K inhibitor LY294002. RhoA/ROCK and PI3K/Akt activation was associated with a significant increase in RPV wet weight (11±1%), protein synthesis (45±7%), SRF expression (136±11%) and polymerization of actin, as reflected by an increase in the F/G actin ratio, effects which were significantly attenuated by a leptin receptor (OBR) antibody, the ROCK inhibitor Y-27632 as well as the PI3K inhibitor LY294002. Our results indicate that the activation of RhoA/ROCK and PI3K/Akt plays a pivotal role in leptin signaling leading to the development of VSMC hypertrophy through a mechanism involving altered actin dynamics. JPET #122440