Outbreak of African swine fever in South Korea, 2019 Kim, Hyun‐Joo; Cho, Ki‐Hyun; Lee, Soo‐Kyoung ...
Transboundary and emerging diseases,
March 2020, 2020-Mar, 2020-03-00, 20200301, Letnik:
67, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
African swine fever, a fatal haemorrhagic disease of swine, was confirmed in domestic pigs for the first time in South Korea in September 2019. The causative virus belonged to the p72 genotype II and ...had an additional tandem repeat sequence in the intergenic region (IGR) between the I73R and I329L.
A wide bandgap small molecular acceptor, SFBRCN, containing a 3D spirobifluorene core flaked with a 2,1,3‐benzothiadiazole (BT) and end‐capped with highly electron‐deficient ...(3‐ethylhexyl‐4‐oxothiazolidine‐2‐yl)dimalononitrile (RCN) units, has been successfully synthesized as a small molecular acceptor (SMA) for nonfullerene polymer solar cells (PSCs). This SMA exhibits a relatively wide optical bandgap of 2.03 eV, which provides a complementary absorption to commonly used low bandgap donor polymers, such as PTB7‐Th. The strong electron‐deficient BT and RCN units afford SFBRCN with a low‐lying LUMO (lowest unoccupied molecular orbital) level, while the 3D structured spirobifluorene core can effectively suppress the self‐aggregation tendency of the SMA, thus yielding a polymer:SMA blend with reasonably small domain size. As the results of such molecular design, SFBRCN enables nonfullerene PSCs with a high efficiency of 10.26%, which is the highest performance reported to date for a large bandgap nonfullerene SMA.
A wide bandgap small molecular acceptor, SFBRCN, containing a 3D spirobifluorene core flanked with two 2,1,3‐benzothiadiazole groups and end‐capped with two highly electron‐deficient (3‐ethylhexyl‐4‐oxothiazolidine‐2‐yl)dimalononitrile units, has been successfully synthesized as a small molecular acceptor for nonfullerene polymer solar cells with a high efficiency of 10.26%.
Although it is known that molecular interactions govern morphology formation and purity of mixed domains of conjugated polymer donors and small-molecule acceptors, and thus largely control the ...achievable performance of organic solar cells, quantifying interaction-function relations has remained elusive. Here, we first determine the temperature-dependent effective amorphous-amorphous interaction parameter, χ
(T), by mapping out the phase diagram of a model amorphous polymer:fullerene material system. We then establish a quantitative 'constant-kink-saturation' relation between χ
and the fill factor in organic solar cells that is verified in detail in a model system and delineated across numerous high- and low-performing materials systems, including fullerene and non-fullerene acceptors. Our experimental and computational data reveal that a high fill factor is obtained only when χ
is large enough to lead to strong phase separation. Our work outlines a basis for using various miscibility tests and future simulation methods that will significantly reduce or eliminate trial-and-error approaches to material synthesis and device fabrication of functional semiconducting blends and organic blends in general.
Depression, one of the most costly and common mental disorders, is reported to be associated with lower quality of life (QoL) in several studies. Improved understanding of the associated factors with ...QoL is necessary to optimize long-term outcomes and reduce disability in patients with depression. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify factors that are associated with lower QoL among patients with depression.
The study was based on the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a cross-sectional health examination, years 2008 to 2014. The final analyzed sample consisted of a total of 1,502 study subjects who had been diagnosed by clinicians as having depression. A multivariate logistic regression model was performed to exam the association between the clinical characteristics (age, sex, demographic and health-related characteristics) and QoL. Analysis of covariance was also used to analyze EQ-5D according to mental health.
Older age, lower level of education, lower income, worse subjective perception of health, unemployment, obesity and mental health struggles were found to be significantly associated with low QoL in depressive individuals after adjustment for multiple covariates.
This study has outlined grounding data in identifying patients who are at risk of QoL impairment. Policy makers should direct their interests to these individuals and provide appropriate management.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study reports the cancer statistics and temporal trends in Korea on a nationwide scale, including incidence, survival, prevalence, and mortality in 2017.
The incidence, survival, and prevalence ...rates of cancer were evaluated using data from the Korea National Cancer Incidence Database from 1999 to 2017 with follow-up until December 31, 2018. Deaths from cancer were assessed using cause-of-death data from 1983 to 2017, obtained from Statistics Korea. Crude and age-standardized rates (ASRs) for incidence, mortality, and prevalence, and 5-year relative survival rates were calculated and trend analysis was performed.
In 2017, newly diagnosed cancer cases and deaths from cancer numbered 232,255 (ASR, 264.4 per 100,000) and 78,863 (ASR, 76.6 per 100,000), respectively. The overall cancer incidence rates increased annually by 3.5% from 1999 to 2011 and decreased by 2.7% annually thereafter. Cancer mortality rates have been decreasing since 2002, by 2.8% annually. The 5-year relative survival rate for all patients diagnosed with cancer between 2013 and 2017 was 70.4%, which contributed to a prevalence of approximately 1.87 million cases by the end of 2017.
The burden of cancer measured by incidence and mortality rates have improved in Korea, with the exception of a few particular cancers that are associated with increasing incidence or mortality rates. However, cancer prevalence is increasing rapidly, with the dramatic improvement in survival during the past several years. Comprehensive cancer control strategies and efforts should continue, based on the changes of cancer statistics.
The current study examines personal values and consumer traits as antecedents of attitudes toward using self-service technologies (SSTs), which, in turn, affect intentions to use SSTs. The specific ...SST selected for this study is a self-checkout system for grocery retailers. This study used a panel database and collected data using a self-administered online survey. The results of this study highlight the important role of consumer traits as an additional contributing factor in explaining how personal values lead to SST usage intentions. Although this study partially confirms the direct effects of personal values on attitudes, it shows that utilitarian and hedonic attitudes toward using SSTs are determined by personal values through the consumer traits (i.e., need for human interaction and SST self-efficacy). Lastly, this study reveals that only utilitarian attitudes have a significant effect on the intention to use SSTs. Findings from this study not only fill the gap in the literature, but also provide retailers, marketers, and SST business personnel with comprehensive insight into consumers' underlying needs and desires that prompt them to use SSTs. In particular, this study contributes to the existing literature by examining an extended value-attitude-behavior model with an additional variable, namely consumer traits.
•Testing the value-attitude-behavior hierarchy in SST adoption behavior.•Analyzing a panel database in a grocery setting using structural equation modeling.•Testing the effects of personal values on consumer traits and attitudes.•Verifying the role of personal values and consumer traits on customer segmentation.
Visual scenes are often complex and crowded with many different objects. To interact effectively, we must choose one object at a time as a goal for action. Certain external cues can act as a stop ...signal, quickly cancelling an ongoing action. Less recognized are internal signals. These can come from recent experience, anticipated action outcomes, cognitive states, and when attention is captured by a salient object. These signals elevate one action plan over alternatives and can quickly modify an initial choice. Here, we focus on these internal processes responsible for selecting, abandoning and modifying action plans. We first highlight how the brain resolves competition among multiple action plans. Critical is the existence of parallel motor planning processes, which allow efficient and timely changes. Then, we discuss how the action system interplays with perception, attention and memory processes to bias action selection and suppress or modify erroneous selections. Subsequently, we show how tracking the continuous modification of action trajectories can provide a tool to read out changes in internal cognitive states. Taken together, we shed light on a broader view that sensorimotor networks can continuously modify actions through simultaneous evaluation of alternative activities in concert with widely distributed perceptual and cognitive networks.
This article is part of the themed issue ‘Movement suppression: brain mechanisms for stopping and stillness’.
Bisphenol A (BPA), a ubiquitous endocrine disruptor that is present in many household products, has been linked to obesity, cancer, and, most relevant here, childhood neurological disorders such as ...anxiety and hyperactivity. However, how BPA exposure translates into these neurodevelopmental disorders remains poorly understood. Here, we used zebrafish to link BPA mechanistically to disease etiology. Strikingly, treatment of embryonic zebrafish with very low-dose BPA (0.0068 μM, 1,000-fold lower than the accepted human daily exposure) and bisphenol S (BPS), a common analog used in BPA-free products, resulted in 180% and 240% increases, respectively, in neuronal birth (neurogenesis) within the hypothalamus, a highly conserved brain region involved in hyperactivity. Furthermore, restricted BPA/BPS exposure specifically during the neurogenic window caused later hyperactive behaviors in zebrafish larvae. Unexpectedly, we show that BPA-mediated precocious neurogenesis and the concomitant behavioral phenotype were not dependent on predicted estrogen receptors but relied on androgen receptor-mediated up-regulation of aromatase. Although human epidemiological results are still emerging, an association between high maternal urinary BPA during gestation and hyperactivity and other behavioral disturbances in the child has been suggested. Our studies here provide mechanistic support that the neurogenic period indeed may be a window of vulnerability and uncovers previously unexplored avenues of research into how endocrine disruptors might perturb early brain development. Furthermore, our results show that BPA-free products are not necessarily safer and support the removal of all bisphenols from consumer merchandise.
Significance Here we demonstrate that bisphenol A (BPA) exposure during a time point analogous to the second trimester in humans has real and measurable effects on brain development and behavior. Furthermore, our study is the first, to our knowledge, to show that bisphenol S, a replacement used in BPA-free products, equally affects neurodevelopment. These findings suggest that BPA-free products are not necessarily safe and support a societal push to remove all structurally similar bisphenol analogues and other compounds with endocrine-disruptive activity from consumer goods. Our data here, combined with over a dozen physiological and behavioral human studies that begin to point to the prenatal period as a BPA window of vulnerability, suggest that pregnant mothers limit exposure to plastics and receipts.
Objective To investigate whether screening for thyroid cancer led to the current “epidemic” in South Korea.Design Review of the medical records of nationally representative samples of patients with a ...diagnosis of thyroid cancer in 1999, 2005, and 2008.Setting Sample cases were randomly selected from South Korea’s nationwide cancer registry, using a systematic sampling method after stratification by region.Participants 5796 patients with thyroid cancer were included (891 in 1999, 2355 in 2005, and 2550 in 2008).Main outcome measures The primary outcome was age standardised incidence of thyroid cancer and the changes in incidence between 1999 and 2008 according to the methods used to detect tumours (screen detection versus clinical detection versus unspecified).Results Between 1999 and 2008, the incidence of thyroid cancer increased 6.4-fold (95% confidence interval 4.9-fold to 8.4-fold), from 6.4 (95% confidence interval 6.2 to 6.6) per 100 000 population to 40.7 (40.2 to 41.2) per 100 000 population. Of the increase, 94.4% (34.4 per 100 000 population) were for tumours less than 20 mm, which were detected mainly by screening. 97.1% of the total increase was localised and regional tumours according to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) summary stage. Where cases were clinically detected, 99.9% of the increased incidences (6.4 per 100 000 population) over the same period were tumours less than 20 mm.Conclusion The current “epidemic” of thyroid cancer in South Korea is due to an increase in the detection of small tumours, most likely as a result of overdetection. Concerted efforts are needed at a national level to reduce unnecessary thyroid ultrasound examinations in the asymptomatic general population.
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