A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, and Insomnia in Spain in the COVID-19 Crisis.

BACKGROUND: General population, frontline healthcare workers (HCWs), and adult students in Spain are at risk of anxiety, depression, and insomnia symptoms during the COVID-19 crisis. A meta-analysis of the individual studies on these symptoms would provide systematic evidence to aid policymakers and researchers in focusing on prevalence, risk, and best interventions. OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to be the first meta-analysis and systematic review to calculate the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and insomnia symptoms in Spain's adult population (general population, frontline healthcare workers (HCWs), and adult students) during the Covid-19 epidemic. METHOD: Random-effect meta-analysis was used to estimate the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and insomnia. RESULTS: The meta-analysis includes 28 studies with 38 individual samples in Spain. The pooled prevalence of anxiety symptoms in 22 studies comprising a sample population of 82,024 was 20% (95% CI: 15-25%), that of depression symptoms in 22 articles with a total sample comprising 82,890 individuals was 22% (95% CI: 18-28%), and that of insomnia symptoms in three articles with a sample population of 745 was 57% (95% CI: 48-66%. CONCLUSIONS: The accumulative evidence reveals that adults in Spain suffered higher prevalence rates of mental symptoms during the COVID-19 crisis, with a significantly higher rate relative to other countries such as China. Our synthesis also reveals a relative lack of studies on frontline and general HCWs in Spain

Studying complex interventions : reflections from the FEMHealth project on evaluating fee exemption policies in West Africa and Morocco

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Optoelectronics with electrically tunable PN diodes in a monolayer dichalcogenide

One of the most fundamental devices for electronics and optoelectronics is the PN junction, which provides the functional element of diodes, bipolar transistors, photodetectors, LEDs, and solar cells, among many other devices. In conventional PN junctions, the adjacent p- and n-type regions of a semiconductor are formed by chemical doping. Materials with ambipolar conductance, however, allow for PN junctions to be configured and modified by electrostatic gating. This electrical control enables a single device to have multiple functionalities. Here we report ambipolar monolayer WSe2 devices in which two local gates are used to define a PN junction exclusively within the sheet of WSe2. With these electrically tunable PN junctions, we demonstrate both PN and NP diodes with ideality factors better than 2. Under excitation with light, the diodes show photodetection responsivity of 210 mA/W and photovoltaic power generation with a peak external quantum efficiency of 0.2%, promising numbers for a nearly transparent monolayer sheet in a lateral device geometry. Finally, we demonstrate a light-emitting diode based on monolayer WSe2. These devices provide a fundamental building block for ubiquitous, ultra-thin, flexible, and nearly transparent optoelectronic and electronic applications based on ambipolar dichalcogenide materials.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Electrically Tunable Excitonic Light Emitting Diodes based on Monolayer WSe2 p-n Junctions

Light-emitting diodes are of importance for lighting, displays, optical interconnects, logic and sensors. Hence the development of new systems that allow improvements in their efficiency, spectral properties, compactness and integrability could have significant ramifications. Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides have recently emerged as interesting candidates for optoelectronic applications due to their unique optical properties. Electroluminescence has already been observed from monolayer MoS2 devices. However, the electroluminescence efficiency was low and the linewidth broad due both to the poor optical quality of MoS2 and to ineffective contacts. Here, we report electroluminescence from lateral p-n junctions in monolayer WSe2 induced electrostatically using a thin boron nitride support as a dielectric layer with multiple metal gates beneath. This structure allows effective injection of electrons and holes, and combined with the high optical quality of WSe2 it yields bright electroluminescence with 1000 times smaller injection current and 10 times smaller linewidth than in MoS2. Furthermore, by increasing the injection bias we can tune the electroluminescence between regimes of impurity-bound, charged, and neutral excitons. This system has the required ingredients for new kinds of optoelectronic devices such as spin- and valley-polarized light-emitting diodes, on-chip lasers, and two-dimensional electro-optic modulators.Comment: 13 pages main text with 4 figures + 4 pages upplemental material

BLM and RMI1 alleviate RPA inhibition of topoIIIα decatenase activity

RPA is a single-stranded DNA binding protein that physically associates with the BLM complex. RPA stimulates BLM helicase activity as well as the double Holliday junction dissolution activity of the BLM-topoisomerase IIIα complex. We investigated the effect of RPA on the ssDNA decatenase activity of topoisomerase IIIα. We found that RPA and other ssDNA binding proteins inhibit decatenation by topoisomerase IIIα. Complex formation between BLM, TopoIIIα, and RMI1 ablates inhibition of decatenation by ssDNA binding proteins. Together, these data indicate that inhibition by RPA does not involve species-specific interactions between RPA and BLM-TopoIIIα-RMI1, which contrasts with RPA modulation of double Holliday junction dissolution. We propose that topoisomerase IIIα and RPA compete to bind to single-stranded regions of catenanes. Interactions with BLM and RMI1 enhance toposiomerase IIIα activity, promoting decatenation in the presence of RPA

A pivotal role for starch in the reconfiguration of 14C-partitioning and allocation in Arabidopsis thaliana under short-term abiotic stress.

Plant carbon status is optimized for normal growth but is affected by abiotic stress. Here, we used 14C-labeling to provide the first holistic picture of carbon use changes during short-term osmotic, salinity, and cold stress in Arabidopsis thaliana. This could inform on the early mechanisms plants use to survive adverse environment, which is important for efficient agricultural production. We found that carbon allocation from source to sinks, and partitioning into major metabolite pools in the source leaf, sink leaves and roots showed both conserved and divergent responses to the stresses examined. Carbohydrates changed under all abiotic stresses applied; plants re-partitioned 14C to maintain sugar levels under stress, primarily by reducing 14C into the storage compounds in the source leaf, and decreasing 14C into the pools used for growth processes in the roots. Salinity and cold increased 14C-flux into protein, but as the stress progressed, protein degradation increased to produce amino acids, presumably for osmoprotection. Our work also emphasized that stress regulated the carbon channeled into starch, and its metabolic turnover. These stress-induced changes in starch metabolism and sugar export in the source were partly accompanied by transcriptional alteration in the T6P/SnRK1 regulatory pathway that are normally activated by carbon starvation

Selective Processing and Metabolism of Disease-Causing Mutant Prion Proteins

Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders caused by aberrant metabolism of the cellular prion protein (PrPC). In genetic forms of these diseases, mutations in the globular C-terminal domain are hypothesized to favor the spontaneous generation of misfolded PrP conformers (including the transmissible PrPSc form) that trigger downstream pathways leading to neuronal death. A mechanistic understanding of these diseases therefore requires knowledge of the quality control pathways that recognize and degrade aberrant PrPs. Here, we present comparative analyses of the biosynthesis, trafficking, and metabolism of a panel of genetic disease-causing prion protein mutants in the C-terminal domain. Using quantitative imaging and biochemistry, we identify a misfolded subpopulation of each mutant PrP characterized by relative detergent insolubility, inaccessibility to the cell surface, and incomplete glycan modifications. The misfolded populations of mutant PrPs were neither recognized by ER quality control pathways nor routed to ER-associated degradation despite demonstrable misfolding in the ER. Instead, mutant PrPs trafficked to the Golgi, from where the misfolded subpopulation was selectively trafficked for degradation in acidic compartments. Surprisingly, selective re-routing was dependent not only on a mutant globular domain, but on an additional lysine-based motif in the highly conserved unstructured N-terminus. These results define a specific trafficking and degradation pathway shared by many disease-causing PrP mutants. As the acidic lysosomal environment has been implicated in facilitating the conversion of PrPC to PrPSc, our identification of a mutant-selective trafficking pathway to this compartment may provide a cell biological basis for spontaneous generation of PrPSc in familial prion disease

A quaternary solid-form of ritonavir: an oxalate salt oxalic acid co-crystal acetone solvate

Ritonavir has been reported in seven crystal forms notably form I, II, IIIb and IV, as well as a hydrate, an L-tyrosine co-crystal and a formamide solvate. A new form is reported here with a novel quaternary structure with ritonavir as an oxalate salt, oxalic acid co-crystal and acetone solvate in a 1 : 1 : 0.5 : 0.5 stoichiometry. The new oxalate salt form (CCDC deposition number 2009282), was co-crystallised with oxalic acid from a supersaturated acetone solution, and exhibits a polar monoclinic crystal structure with a blocky needle-like crystal habit. The molecular conformation of ritonavir for the new form shows significant differences with respect to the well-characterised form I, II and IIIb polymorphs. Its crystallography is characterised by a 2-fold screw axis along the b axis, in a structure that exhibits multiple hydrogen bonds formed between amide–ureido, oxalate–oxalic acid and amide–amide groups in a layered intermolecular packing structure. Intermolecular stacking of the benzene and thiazole rings takes place along the crystallographic a axis with the needle axis growth of the crystals being likely to be governed by these interactions. The oxalate salt form co-crystal is found to have the characteristic conformations of the N-methyl urea and carbamate groups being in a trans and trans conformation respectively, as is the case for the recently discovered form IIIb, but in distinct contrast to cis and trans for form I, and trans and cis for form II. This may suggest that a cis and cis conformation for another new form may be feasible. The recovery of the form IV crystals at the lower concentrations of oxalic acid is perhaps indicative of its close similarity with the new oxalate salt co-crystal solvate form presented here

Effects of Triazole Derivatives on Strigolactone Levels and Growth Retardation in Rice

We previously discovered a lead compound for strigolactone (SL) biosynthesis inhibitors, TIS13 (2,2-dimethyl-7-phenoxy-4-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)heptan-3-ol). Here, we carried out a structure-activity relationship study of TIS13 to discover more potent and specific SL biosynthesis inhibitor because TIS13 has a severe side effect at high concentrations, including retardation of the growth of rice seedlings. TIS108, a new TIS13 derivative, was found to be a more specific SL biosynthesis inhibitor than TIS13. Treatment of rice seedlings with TIS108 reduced SL levels in both roots and root exudates in a concentration-dependent manner and did not reduce plant height. In addition, root exudates of TIS108-treated rice seedlings stimulated Striga germination less than those of control plants. These results suggest that TIS108 has a potential to be applied in the control of root parasitic weeds germination