Post-traumatic Growth Level and Its Influencing Factors Among Frontline Nurses During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective: To assess post-traumatic growth (PTG) level and explore its influence factors among frontline nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: From April 11th to 12th, 2020, a cross sectional study was conducted on 116 frontline nurses who had participated in fight against the COVID-19 in Wuhan city, China. General information and psychological discomfort were collected. Chinese version post-traumatic growth inventory with 20 items was applied to assess PTG level. Univariable analyses and multiple linear regression were performed to explore potential influencing factors of PTGI score.Results: The average score of PTGI in frontline nurses was 65.65 ± 11.50. In univariable analyses, gender, age, education level, marital status, living with parents, professional title, working years and professional psychological support was not statistically associated with the PTGI score. In both univariable and multivariable analyses, having support from family members and friends, being psychological comfort and having children and increased the PTGI score significantly. The three factors only explained 3.8% variance.Conclusion: Moderate PGT was observed in the frontline nurses who had battled against COVID-19. Social support and professional psychological intervention should be applied to further improve PTG level. Further studies with large sample size are required to explore more potential influencing factors

Amelioration of the neuroinhibitory local environment after ischemic injury through in situ astrocyte-to-neuron conversion

Ischemic injury in central nervous system (CNS) often causes severe neuronal loss and activates glial cells. We showed earlier that NeuroD1-mediated astrocyte-to-neuron (AtN) conversion can regenerate a substantial proportion of neurons (~40% of the total) and reconstruct the ischemic injured neural circuits. In this study, we focus on glial changes and blood vessel recovery following AtN conversion. Specifically, we found that ectopic expression of NeuroD1 in the reactive astrocytes after ischemic injury significantly reduced glial reactivity, as shown by less hypertrophic morphology, along with reduced secretion of neuroinhibitory factors such as CSPG and LCN2. As for microglia, we found less amoeboid shape of reactive microglia with reduced inflammatory factors such as IL-1β, TNFα. Moreover, blood vessels in the injured areas were repaired after AtN conversion and the blood-brain-barrier structure was restored. Whole tissue transcriptome sequencing identified significantly reduced reactive astrocyte genes and proinflammatory genes, as well as an upregulation of neurogenesis pathway and angiogenesis genes. Together, we demonstrate that NeuroD1-mediated astrocyte-to-neuron (AtN) conversion can alleviate glial scarring and inflammation to create a more neuropermissive micro-environment for functional recovery

Role of canonical Wnt signaling in endometrial carcinogenesis

While the role of Wnt signaling is well established in colorectal carcinogenesis, its function in gynecologic cancers has not been elucidated. Here, we describe the current state of knowledge of canonical Wnt signaling in endometrial cancer (EC), and its implications for future therapeutic targets. Deregulation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in EC occurs by inactivating β-catenin mutations in approximately 10-45% of ECs, and via downregulation of Wnt antagonists by epigenetic silencing. The Wnt pathway is intimately involved with estrogen and progesterone, and emerging data implicate it in other important signaling pathways, such as mTOR and Hedgehog. While no therapeutic agents targeting the Wnt signaling pathway are currently in clinical trials, the preclinical data presented suggest a role for Wnt signaling in uterine carcinogenesis, with further research warranted to elucidate the mechanism of action and to proceed towards targeted cancer drug development

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Electrooxidation of Ethanol on Platinum Nanocubes Supported on Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes

Platinum nanocubes deposited on glassy carbon ( Pt-cube/GC) or multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) (Pt-cube/MWCNTs) were prepared with electrochemical deposition using linear sweep voltammetry. SEM and TEM results show that the average particle size of Pt-cube/GC is 38 nm, which is composed of small particles surrounded by the Pt (111) preferred orientation. Electrochemical investigations including cyclic voltammetry and current-time curves, show that these two kinds of Pt cubes exhibit a higher catalytic activity and better stability for the oxidation of ethanol than commercial Pt/C. It is worth to note that Pt nanocubes show an onset potential shifted negatively by 168 mV than commercial Pt/C sample. Electrochemical in-situ FTIR spectroscopy was also used to study the adsorption and oxidation behavior of ethanol oxidation in acidic media on Pt-cube/MWCNTs and commercial Pt/C. The results show that negative shift of oxidation potential and increase of catalytic activity on Pt-cube/MWCNTs are mainly due to direct oxidation of ethanol to acetic acid at low potentials. In addition, the nanocubes also exhibit stronger CO adsorption