This multinational study simultaneously tested three prominent hypotheses—universal disposition, cultural relativity, and livability—that explained differences in subjective well‐being across ...nations. We performed multilevel structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized relationships at both individual and cultural levels in 33 nations. Participants were 6,753 university students (2,215 men; 4,403 women; 135 did not specify), and the average age of the entire sample was 20.97 years (SD = 2.39). Both individual‐ and cultural‐level analyses supported the universal disposition and cultural relativity hypotheses by revealing significant associations of subjective well‐being with Extraversion, Neuroticism, and independent self‐construal. In addition, interdependent self‐construal was positively related to life satisfaction at the individual level only, whereas aggregated negative affect was positively linked with aggregate levels of Extraversion and interdependent self‐construal at the cultural level only. Consistent with the livability hypothesis, gross national income (GNI) was related to aggregate levels of negative affect and life satisfaction. There was also a quadratic relationship between GNI and aggregated positive affect. Our findings reveal that universal disposition, cultural self‐construal, and national income can elucidate differences in subjective well‐being, but the multilevel analyses advance the literature by yielding new findings that cannot be identified in studies using individual‐level analyses alone.
Identification of the novel (E)-N'-((2-chloro-7-methoxyquinolin-3-yl)methylene)-3-(phenylthio)propanehydrazide scaffold 18 has led to the development of a new series of biologically active hydrazide ...compounds. The parent compound 18 and new quinoline derivatives 19-26 were prepared from the corresponding quinoline hydrazones and substituted carboxylic acids using EDC-mediated peptide coupling reactions. Further modification of the parent compound 18 was achieved by replacement of the quinoline moiety with other aromatic systems. All the newly synthesized compounds were evaluated for their anti-cancer activity against the SH-SY5Y and Kelly neuroblastoma cell lines, as well as the MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast adenocarcinoma cell lines. Analogues 19 and 22 significantly reduced the cell viability of neuroblastoma cancer cells with micromolar potency and significant selectivity over normal cells. The quinoline hydrazide 22 also induced G₁ cell cycle arrest, as well as upregulation of the p27(kip1) cell cycle regulating protein.
Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) is a key regulator of body weight in animals by regulating food intake. Its receptor, glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor receptor alpha-like (GFRAL), was ...identified recently. Pre-clinical studies showed that it is a promising therapeutic target for cardiometabolic diseases and anorexia/cachexia. Although many pharmaceutical companies are developing drugs targeting GFRAL, whether the findings from animal studies can be extrapolated to man is unknown. Mendelian randomization (MR) is useful in investigating the relationship between risk factors and disease outcomes. We aimed to use a two-sample MR approach to evaluate the clinical usefulness of targeting GDF15 for cardiometabolic diseases.
Genetic instruments and summary statistics for MR analyses were obtained from a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) of GDF15 and cardiometabolic outcomes (n = 27,394 to 644,875), including body mass index, waist-hip ratio, waist circumference, whole-body lean mass, fat percentage, Type 2 Diabetes, fasting glucose, glycated haemoglobin, fasting insulin, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, total cholesterol, triglycerides, coronary artery disease, and estimated BMD (eBMD). Conventional inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was adopted to obtain the causal estimates of GDF-15 with different outcomes; weighted median and MR-egger were used for sensitivity analyses.
There was null association between GDF15 levels and anthropometric outcomes. One SD increase in genetically-determined GDF15 was significantly associated with reduced HDL-C (beta: -0.048SD; SE: 0.014; P = .001) but the result was not significant in sensitivity analyses. A consistent significant causal association was observed between GDF15 and eBMD in IVW (beta: 0.026 SD; SE: 0.005; P < .001) and subsequent sensitivity analyses.
This study sheds lights on the potential of drugs targeting the GDF15/GFRAL axis. It suggested that the effect of targeting GDF15/GFRAL axis for weight control in human may be different from the effects observed in animal studies. GDF15 treatment may improve BMD in humans.
No specific funding was received for this study.
Chemotherapy is nowadays the main treatment of human cancers. Chemotherapeutic agents target rapidly dividing cancer cells to suppress tumor progression, however, their non-specific cytotoxicity ...often leads to significant side effects that might be intolerable to cancer patients. Multi-component herbal products have been used for thousands of years for the treatment of multiple human diseases. This study aims to systematically summarize and evaluate the experimental and clinical evidences of the efficacy of multi-component herbal products in improving chemotherapy-induced side effect. Literature was retrieved from PubMed database and evaluated based on the side effects described. Multi-component herbal products were found to be effective in ameliorating the neurotoxicity, gastrointestinal toxicity, hematological toxicity, cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. Both experimental and clinical evidences were found, indicating the potential of applying multicomponent herbal products in the clinical treatment of chemotherapy-induced side effects. However, the lack of mechanistic and pharmacokinetic studies, inconsistency in product quality, as well as insufficient clinical evidence suggested that more investigations are urgently necessary. In all, our review shed light on the potential of using multi-component herbal products in the clinical management of chemotherapy-induced toxicity and side effects. We also discussed the potential threats of natural products for cancer treatment and compared the advantages of using herbs to conventional chemical drugs.
There is a paucity of evidence about the associations of physical activity (PA) and handgrip strength (HGS) within different domains of quality of life (QoL) in Chinese pediatric cancer survivors. ...We, therefore, conducted this multicenter cross-sectional study aimed to investigate whether increased PA level and HGS are associated with higher scores in different QoL domains (i.e., physical, emotional, social, and school functioning) in pediatric cancer survivors. PA was assessed with a validated self-reported PA rating scale. In total, 191 Chinese pediatric cancer survivors aged 9 to 16 years were included in the analysis. Results showed that engaging in a higher level of PA was significantly associated with improved QoL in different domains, including physical (β = 0.543, p < 0.001), emotional (β = 0.449, p < 0.001), social (β = 0.434, p < 0.001), and school functioning (β = 0.407, p < 0.001). Greater HGS was also associated with better physical (β = 0.230, p ≤ 0.001) and emotional (β = 0.261, p ≤ 0.001) functioning. Findings from this study provide evidence of the significant beneficial impact of regular PA on pediatric cancer survivors’ QoL along their survivorship trajectory.
Existing transfer learning methods that focus on problems in stationary environments are not usually applicable to dynamic environments, where concept drift may occur. To the best of our knowledge, ...the concept drift-tolerant transfer learning (CDTL), whose major challenge is the need to adapt the target model and knowledge of source domains to the changing environments, has yet to be well explored in the literature. This article, therefore, proposes a hybrid ensemble approach to deal with the CDTL problem provided that data in the target domain are generated in a streaming chunk-by-chunk manner from nonstationary environments. At each time step, a class-wise weighted ensemble is presented to adapt the model of target domains to new environments. It assigns a weight vector for each classifier generated from the previous data chunks to allow each class of the current data leveraging historical knowledge independently. Then, a domain-wise weighted ensemble is introduced to combine the source and target models to select useful knowledge of each domain. The source models are updated with the source instances performed by the proposed adaptive weighted CORrelation ALignment (AW-CORAL). AW-CORAL iteratively minimizes domain discrepancy meanwhile decreases the effect of unrelated source instances. In this way, positive knowledge of source domains can be potentially promoted while negative knowledge is reduced. Empirical studies on synthetic and real benchmark data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
The objective was to examine prospectively the association between retinal microvascular signs and development of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) in Asian and White populations. We analysed two ...population-based cohorts, composing of 1,221 Asians (SEED) and 703 White (WESDR) adults with diabetes. Retinal microvascular signs at baseline included vascular caliber (arteriolar-CRAE, and venular-CRVE) and diabetic retinopathy (DR). Incident cases of DKD were identified after ~ 6-year. Incident cases were defined based on eGFR in SEED and proteinuria or history of renal dialysis in WESDR. The incidence of DKD were 11.8% in SEED and 14.0% in WESDR. Wider CRAE in SEED (OR = 1.58 1.02, 2.45) and wider CRVE (OR = 1.69 1.02, 2.80)) in WESDR were associated with increased risk of DKD. Presence of DR was associated with an increased risk of DKD in both cohorts (SEED: OR = 1.91 1.21, 3.01 in SEED, WESDR: OR = 1.99 1.18, 3.35). Adding DR and retinal vascular calibers in the model beyond traditional risk factors led to an improvement of predictive performance of DKD risk between 1.1 and 2.4%; and improved classification (NRI 3 between 9%). Microvascular changes in the retina are longitudinally associated with risk of DKD.
Caring for children with cancer can be a stressful experience for parents and may have negative effects on their physical and psychological well-being. Although evidence has shown that resilience is ...associated with positive psychological well-being, few interventions have been specifically designed to enhance the resilience of parents of children with cancer.
The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a mobile device-based resilience training program in reducing depressive symptoms and enhancing resilience and quality of life (QoL) in parents of children with cancer.
Parents of children diagnosed with cancer were recruited from the pediatric oncology wards of 3 tertiary hospitals in China. The participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (52/103, 50.5%) to undergo an 8-week mobile device-based resilience training program or to the control group (51/103, 49.5%) to receive an 8-week program of placebo information. The study outcomes included resilience, depressive symptoms, and QoL, as measured by the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, the Self-Rating Depression Scale, and the Short Form of the 6-Dimension Health Survey, respectively. All data were collected at baseline and at 2 and 6 months of follow-up. The data analysis followed the intention-to-treat principle. A generalized estimating equation was used to examine the effects of the intervention.
The participants were mostly female (72/103, 69.9%), and their mean age was 33.6 (SD 5.2) years. The participants in the experimental group showed significantly higher levels of resilience (mean 67.96, SD 15.8 vs mean 58.27, SD 19.0; P<.001) and lower levels of depressive symptoms (mean 40.17, SD 9.9 vs mean 46.04, SD 10.9; P<.001) than those in the control group at 6 months of follow-up. The intervention showed statistically significant effects in improving resilience (β=6.082; P=.01) and decreasing depressive symptoms (β=-2.772; P=.04) relative to the control group. The QoL score in the experimental group was higher than that in the control group at 6 months of follow-up (mean 0.79, SD 0.2 vs mean 0.76, SD 0.3; P=.07); however, no statistically significant intervention effect was detected (β=.020; P=.38).
The mobile device-based resilience training program effectively enhanced resilience and alleviated depressive symptoms in parents of children with cancer. It is highly recommended that health care professionals incorporate this resilience training program when providing psychological care to parents of children with cancer.
Clinical.Trials.gov NCT04038242; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04038242.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Evidence shows that resilience is crucial to maintain psychological well-being and quality of life in the face of stress and adversity. However, the relationships between resilience and psychological ...well-being and factors associated with quality of life in Hong Kong Chinese parents of children with cancer are underexplored. This study aimed to examine the interrelationships among resilience, ways of coping, psychological well-being, and quality of life among Chinese parents of children with cancer, and identify factors associated with their quality of life. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 119 Chinese parents of children with cancer at the Hong Kong Children's Hospital between January 2020 and March 2022. Parents' resilience level, ways of coping, depressive symptoms, state anxiety scores, perceived social support, and quality of life were assessed. Participating parents (
= 119) included 98 mothers (82.4%) and 11 parents were from single-parent families (9.2%). Almost half (47.9%) of the parents were potentially at risk for depression. The results showed that participants from single-parent families reported statistically significantly lower levels of resilience (
< 0.001), more depressive symptoms (
< 0.001), and poorer quality of life (
< 0.001) than those who lived with their partners (married). In addition, parents who adopted problem-focused coping strategies reported statistically significantly higher levels of resilience (
< 0.001), fewer depressive symptoms (
< 0.001), and better quality of life (
< 0.001) than those who adopted emotion-focused coping strategies. A multiple regression analysis revealed that resilience (
< 0.001) was associated with quality of life among parents of children with cancer. This study provides further support that resilience is an important factor associated with quality of life in parents of children with cancer. Assessing resilience in parents is an important prerequisite for designing appropriate interventions to increase their resilience and enhance their quality of life.
Low circulating levels of adiponectin, an adipokine with insulin-sensitizing, antiatherogenic, and anti-inflammatory properties, are found in hypertensive patients. Adiponectin replenishment ...ameliorated hypertension in adiponectin-deficient mice or obese, hypertensive mice with hypoadiponectinemia, suggesting an etiologic role of adiponectin in hypertension. We aimed to determine, in this 5-year prospective study, whether hypoadiponectinemia could predict the development of hypertension in a nondiabetic Chinese cohort. A total of 577 subjects (249 men and 328 women) were recruited from the population-based Hong Kong Cardiovascular Risk Factor Prevalence Study and prospectively followed up for 5 years. The relationship of serum adiponectin with the development of hypertension (sitting blood pressure ≥140/90 mm Hg) was investigated in a nested case–control study consisting of 70 subjects who had developed hypertension on follow-up and 140 age- and sex-matched control subjects who were normotensive both at baseline and at year 5. At baseline, serum adiponectin level in the lowest sex-specific tertile was more likely to be associated with hypertension (P=0.003 versus the highest tertile, after adjusting for age, body mass index, fasting insulin, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein). At year 5, baseline serum adiponectin was a significant independent predictor of incident hypertension in the nested case–control study (P=0.015; age adjusted), together with mean arterial pressure (P<0.001), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (P=0.018), and body mass index (P=0.004). Normotensive subjects with baseline serum adiponectin levels in the lowest sex-specific tertile had an increased risk of becoming hypertensive (adjusted odds ratio2.76; 95% CIs1.06 to 7.16; P=0.037 versus highest tertile). Our data suggest that hypoadiponectinaemia may be involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension in humans.
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