Learning with games has been increasing in practice, but studies of the features and learning outcomes involving digital games to develop language learning are scarce. This scoping review ...investigates the current practices of digital game-based language learning to support English language learning, in terms of participants’ characteristics, methodological features, gaming characteristics, and an association between game availability and gaming characteristics. Our results indicate: (1) vocabulary is the most dominant practiced language skills; (2) methods employed were primarily quantitative with researcher-designed tests; (3) commercial games contain the most elements of a good game; (4) use of good gaming elements is inconsistent among digital games. We provide strategies for educational researchers to improve their rigor in research, along with explicit criteria that digital game designers can apply toward language-learning game development. As educational technology continues to transform language learning, we emphasize the need for continued research and development that investigates how gaming elements in mobile learning environments may improve language-learning outcomes.
Purpose
To assess and summarize the effects of informational support on depression and quality of life of older patients with cancer.
Methods
PubMed, MEDLINE, and Web of Science were searched to ...identify articles written in English and published until March 2021. Studies within 10 years period (2010–2021) were included. Randomized controlled trials were included if they evaluated the impact of informational support on depression and quality of life. All analyses were performed with Review Manager 5.3.
Results
Twelve studies with a total of 2374 participants met the inclusion criteria. Our primary outcomes included depression and quality of life. (1) Depression: results indicated no statistically significant difference and low heterogeneity
SMD
= 0.28, 95%
CI
(− 0.24,0.80),
p
= 0.45;
I
2
= 0%, (2) Quality of life: in the subgroup analyses of EORTC QLQ-C30, results indicated a significant effect of informational support on quality of life
SMD
= 2.84, 95%
CI
(0.63, 5.05),
p
= 0.03;
I
2
= 79%; in the subgroup analyses of FACT and SF-36, there were no significance.
Conclusions
Informational support could reduce depression and did improve the quality of life in older cancer patients with statistical significance. The findings suggested that informational support was an effective approach to improve depression and quality of life in older patients with cancer.
Abstract
Introduction
Many studies have revealed the effect of medical history on dementia. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between the history of disease and onset of dementia.
...Methods
This was a multi-center, cross-sectional study, with 2595 older adults enrolled. The onset of dementia was evaluated with Revised Hasegawa Dementia Scale (HDS-R). The diagnosed diseases after the age of 40 of the participants were investigated, including respiratory system diseases, digestive system diseases, cardiovascular diseases, endocrine disorders, genitourinary system diseases, nervous system disease, sensory system diseases, dental/oral diseases, bone/joint diseases and mental illnesses.
Results
Data of 2458 older adults were analyzed. Univariate analysis showed that diabetes, thyroid disease, mental illness, hearing loss, stroke, dental/oral disease, Denture use, fracture/osteoporosis, kidney disease and number of diseases were risk factors for dementia. After controlling for demographic sociological variables, diabetes, dental/oral disease, and denture use were independent risk factors for dementia. Thyroid disease (
P
= 0.313), mental illnesses (
P
= 0.067), hearing loss (
P
= 0.595), stroke (
P
= 0.538), fractures/osteoporosis (
P
= 0.069), kidney disease (
P
= 0.168) were no longer significant to dementia.
Conclusion
Diabetes, dental/oral disease and denture use were main risk factors for dementia.
Shufeng Jiedu capsules (SFJDC), a patented herbal drug composed of eight medicinal plants, is used for the treatment of different viral respiratory tract infectious diseases. Based on its antiviral, ...anti-inflammatory and immunoregulatory activity in acute lung injury, SFJDC might be a promising candidate for the treatment of COVID-19.
To evaluate the antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties and to discover the mechanism of action of SFJDC as a potential drug for the treatment of COVID-19. Furthermore, the study should determine the clinical effectiveness of SFJDC for the treatment of COVID-19.
We analyzed the antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects of SFJDC in a HCoV-229E mouse model on lung index, virus load in the lung, the release of cytokines, and on T- and B-lymphocytes. The mechanism of action was further investigated by network analysis. Additionally, we investigated data from a clinical pragmatic real-world study for patients with confirmed COVID-19, to evaluate the clinical effect of SFJDC and to determine the best time to start the treatment.
SFJDC significantly reduced the virus load in the lung of HCoV-229E mice (from 1109.29 ± 696.75 to 0 ± 0 copies/ml), decreased inflammatory factors IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, and IFN-γ in the lung, and increased the amount of CD4+ and CD8+ cells in the blood compared to the model group. Network analysis revealed that SFJDC reduces the activity of NFκB via several signaling pathways. Quercetin, wogonin, and polydatin bind directly to the main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2.
Clinical data showed that SFJDC, added to standard antiviral therapy (AVD), significantly reduced the clinical recovery time of COVID-19 and fatigue (from 3.55 ± 4.09 to 1.19 ± 2.28 days) as well as cough (from 5.67 ± 5.64 to 3.47 ± 3.75) days compared to AVD alone. SFJDC therapy was significantly more effective when used within the first 8 days after the onset of symptoms.
SFJDC might be a promising drug for the treatment of COVID-19, but large-scale randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trials are needed to complement the real-world evidence. It might be beneficial to start SFJDC treatment as early as possible in suspected cases of COVID-19.
To date, IgG in the tumor microenvironment (TME) has been considered a product of B cells and serves as an antitumor antibody. However, in this study, using a monoclonal antibody against ...cancer-derived IgG (Cancer-IgG), we found that cancer cells could secrete IgG into the TME. Furthermore, Cancer-IgG, which carries an abnormal sialic acid modification in the CH1 domain, directly inhibited effector T-cell proliferation and significantly promoted tumor growth by reducing CD4
and CD8
T-cell infiltration into tumor tissues. Mechanistic studies showed that the immunosuppressive effect of sialylated Cancer-IgG is dependent on its sialylation and binding to sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-type lectins (Siglecs) on effector CD4
and CD8
T cells. Importantly, we show that several Siglecs are overexpressed on effector T cells from cancer patients, but not those from healthy donors. These findings suggest that sialylated Cancer-IgG may be a ligand for Siglecs, which may serve as potential checkpoint proteins and mediate tumor immune evasion.
Epidemiological studies have established an association between chronic exposure to PM2.5 and male infertility. However, the underlying mechanisms were not fully revealed. In this study, we ...established mice models exposed to PM2.5 for 16 weeks, and a significant decrease in sperm quality accompanied by an increase in testosterone levels were observed after PM2.5 exposure. Moreover, treatment with ferrostatin-1 (Fer-1), a specific ferroptosis inhibitor, effectively mitigated PM2.5-induced testicular dysfunction in mice. And lipid peroxidation and ferritin accumulation were found to be significantly increased in Leydig cells of testes with a PM2.5-dose dependent manner. Further investigations revealed that TM-3 cells, a mouse Leydig cell line, were prone to ferroptosis after PM2.5 exposure, and the cell viability was partly rescued after the intervention of Fer-1. Furthermore, our results supported that the ferroptosis of TM-3 cells was attributed to the upregulation of ferredoxin 1 (FDX1), which was the protein transferring electrons to cytochrome P450 family 11 subfamily A member 1 to aid lysing cholesterol to pregnenolone at initial of steroidogenesis. Mechanically, PM2.5-induced FDX1 upregulation resulted in cellular ROS elevation and ferrous iron overload, which together initiated an autoxidation process of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the cell membrane of Leydig cells until the accumulated lipid peroxides triggered ferroptotic cell death. Simultaneously, upregulation of FDX1 promoted steroidogenesis and let to an increased level of testosterone. In summary, our work suggested that FDX1, a mediator involving steroidogenesis, was a key regulator in PM2.5-induced Leydig cells ferroptosis.
Display omitted
•Long-term exposed to PM2.5 could result in perturbed steroidogenesis of mice.•Leydig cells were sensitive to ferroptosis after PM2.5 exposure.•FDX1 was a novel ferroptosis promoter in Leydig cells.•Inhibition of ferroptosis improved PM2.5-induced testicular dysfunction.
We present a 10-GHz granularity reconfigurable WDM superchannel filter in a photonic integrated circuit. The filter uses a ring-resonator-assisted tapped-delay-line topology. An example configuration ...with two ring resonators and four tapped delay lines provides a spectral filter with a flat-top passband, a roll-off factor of 8%, a tunable central wavelength, and a selectable free spectral range, i.e., 2× or 4× the 3-dB passband bandwidth. The device was fabricated in a silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 /SiO 2 ) waveguide with a chip area of 0.36 cm 2 and has a fiber-to-fiber insertion loss of 5 dB. We experimentally demonstrate the filter for selecting a subchannel from a WDM superchannel comprising 10-GHz subchannels with 10% and zero guard bands. Owing to the infinite impulse responses of ring resonators, this filter requires a significantly smaller area and fewer tuning elements compared with designs based on only tapped-delay-line finite-impulse-response filters. This paper contributes to the creation of chip-scale all-optical WDM superchannel transceivers and reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs).
Abstract
Background
Previous studies indicated that poor quantity and quality of instrumental support are one of the main barriers in the application of transitional care. Instrumental support, as ...one common function of social support, is the provision of financial assistance, material goods, or services. The purpose of our study is to develop an Instrumental Support in Transitional Care Questionnaire (ISTCQ) and use this questionnaire to make an assessment among older adults with chronic diseases.
Methods
The draft questionnaire was examined by 18 experts from different professional fields performing three rounds of content validity testing with the Delphi method. Afterward, we conducted a pilot test recruiting 174 participants as a convenience sample in Nantong, China. The construct validity was confirmed via exploratory factor analysis and reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha.
Results
The authority coefficient of experts was 0.74–0.99 and Kendall harmony coefficient W was 0.381. The exploratory factor analysis indicated that the questionnaire can be interpreted by three factors: namely, anticipated support (items 1, 2, 3, 4), received support (items 5, 6, 7, 8) and support satisfaction (items 9, 10, 11, 12). These three factors (eigenvalues > 1 and factor loading > 0.4) explained 69.128% of the total variance. Furthermore, the calculation of Cronbach's alpha and test–retest reliability have shown good reliability among each dimension of the 12-item questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha 0.711–0.827, test–retest reliability 0.704–0.818).
Conclusion
Results from the pilot test demonstrated excellent reliability and validity of ISTCQ through each dimension and as an entire.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute respiratory infectious disease caused by the SARA-CoV-2, characterized by high infectivity and incidence. Clinical data indicates that COVID-19 ...significantly damages patients' perception, motor function, and cognitive function. However, the electrophysiological mechanism by which the disease affects the patient's nervous system is not yet clear. Our aim is to investigate the abnormal levels of brain activity and changes in brain functional connectivity network in patients with COVID-19.
We compared and analyzed electroencephalography signal sample entropy, energy spectrum, and brain network characteristic parameters in the delta (1-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-13 Hz), and beta (13-30 Hz) bands of 15 patients with COVID-19 and 15 healthy controls at rest.
At rest, energy values of the four frequency bands in the frontal and temporal lobes of COVID-19 patients were significantly reduced. At the same time, the sample entropy value of the delta band in COVID-19 patients was significantly increased, while the value of the beta band was significantly decreased. However, the average value of the directed transfer function of patients did not show any abnormalities under the four frequency bands. Furthermore, node degree in the temporal lobe of patients was significantly increased, while the input degree of the frontal and temporal lobes was significantly decreased, and the output degree of the frontal and occipital lobes was significantly increased.
The level of brain activity in COVID-19 patients at rest is reduced, and the brain functional network undergoes a rearrangement. These results preliminarily demonstrate that COVID-19 patients exhibit certain brain abnormalities during rest, it is feasible to explore the neurophysiological mechanism of COVID-19's impact on the nervous system by using EEG signals, which can provide a certain technical basis for the subsequent diagnosis and evaluation of COVID-19 using artificial intelligence and the prevention of brain nervous system diseases after COVID-19 infection.
Exposure to sensitizer has been suggested to be hazardous to human health, evaluation the sensitization of sensitizer is particularly important and urgently needed. Dendritic cells (DCs) exert an ...irreplaceable function in immunity, and the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire is key to ensuring immune response to foreign antigens. We hypothesized that a co-culture model of human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (Mo-DCs) and T cells could be employed to evaluate the sensitization of DNCB. An experimental model of DNCB-induced sensitization in rat was employed to examine alterations of cluster of differentiation CD103+ DCs and T cells. A co-cultured model of Mo-DCs and T cells was developed in vitro to assess the sensitization of DNCB through the phenotypic and functional alterations of Mo-DCs, as well as the TCR repertoire. We found that the CD103+ DCs phenotype and T-helper (Th) cells polarization altered in sensitization rats. In vitro, phenotypic alteration of Mo-DCs caused by DNCB were consistent with in vivo results, antigen uptake capacity of Mo-DCs diminished and capacity of Mo-DCs to prime T cell increased. Clones of the TCR repertoire and the diversity of TCR repertoire were enhanced, changes were noted in the usage of variable, joining, and variable-joining gene combinations. DNCB exposure potentiated alterations and characteristics of Mo-DCs and the TCR repertoire in a co-culture model. Such changes provided innovative ideas for evaluating sensitization of DNCB.
•CD103+ dendritic cells and Th polarization altered in the experimental model of DNCB-induced sensitization in rat.•The co-culture model of Mo-DCs and T cells was used to evaluate the sensitization of DNCB.•DNCB caused phenotypic and functional alterations of Mo-DCs in vitro.•DNCB enhanced the diversity of TCRα repertoire, and specifically changed the usage of V, J, and V-J gene combinations.
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