Objectives
Burnout among health care workers is highly prevalent and has profound impact on quality of care. Hospital on‐duty schedules lead to long working hours and short sleeping hours; both are ...common factors associated with burnout. We examined the dose‐response relationship and the potential mediating role of sleeping hours on the association between working hours and burnout among health care workers.
Methods
We collected data on the burnout status, using the Mandarin version of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (subscales measure work‐related and personal burnouts), working hours, sleeping hours, and relevant measures for 2081 health care personnel who underwent a routine health examination in a medical center in Taiwan during 2016‐2017. Four subgroups were compared: physicians (n = 369), nurses (n = 973), technicians (n = 391), and administrators (n = 348).
Results
Average weekly working hours are associated with burnout scores in a non‐linear dose‐response manner. Compared with a work week of 40 hours, the odds ratio of work‐related burnout doubled when hours exceeded 60, tripled when hours exceeded 74, and quadrupled when hours exceeded 84. Physicians’ burnout is less susceptible to incremental increases in working hours, compared to the situations in other health care workers. The proportions eliminated by reducing sleeping hours were 25%‐73% for physicians and 7%‐29% for nurses respectively.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that working hours are associated with burnout, and the association was partially mediated by sleeping hours.
The charge carrier dynamics in organic solar cells and organic–inorganic hybrid metal halide perovskite solar cells, two leading technologies in thin‐film photovoltaics, are compared. The ...similarities and differences in charge generation, charge separation, charge transport, charge collection, and charge recombination in these two technologies are discussed, linking these back to the intrinsic material properties of organic and perovskite semiconductors, and how these factors impact on photovoltaic device performance is elucidated. In particular, the impact of exciton binding energy, charge transfer states, bimolecular recombination, charge carrier transport, sub‐bandgap tail states, and surface recombination is evaluated, and the lessons learned from transient optical and optoelectronic measurements are discussed. This perspective thus highlights the key factors limiting device performance and rationalizes similarities and differences in design requirements between organic and perovskite solar cells.
The similarities and differences in the charge carrier dynamics in organic solar cells and organic–inorganic hybrid metal halide perovskite solar cells, two leading technologies in thin‐film photovoltaics, are discussed, linking these back to the intrinsic material properties of organic and perovskite semiconductors, and how these factors impact on photovoltaic device performance is elucidated.
While laser-printed metals do not tend to match the mechanical properties and thermal stability of conventionally-processed metals, incorporating and dispersing nanoparticles in them should enhance ...their performance. However, this remains difficult to do during laser additive manufacturing. Here, we show that aluminum reinforced by nanoparticles can be deposited layer-by-layer via laser melting of nanocomposite powders, which enhance the laser absorption by almost one order of magnitude compared to pure aluminum powders. The laser printed nanocomposite delivers a yield strength of up to 1000 MPa, plasticity over 10%, and Young's modulus of approximately 200 GPa, offering one of the highest specific Young's modulus and specific yield strengths among structural metals, as well as an improved specific strength and thermal stability up to 400 °C compared to other aluminum-based materials. The improved performance is attributed to a high density of well-dispersed nanoparticles, strong interfacial bonding between nanoparticles and Al matrix, and ultrafine grain sizes.
Prolonged exposure to negative stressors could be harmful if a subject cannot respond appropriately. Strategies evolved to respond to stress, including repetitive displacement behaviours, are ...important in maintaining behavioural homoeostasis. In rodents, self-grooming is a frequently observed repetitive behaviour believed to contribute to post-stress de-arousal with adaptive value. Here we identified a rat limbic di-synaptic circuit that regulates stress-induced self-grooming with positive affective valence. This circuit links hippocampal ventral subiculum to ventral lateral septum (LSv) and then lateral hypothalamus tuberal nucleus. Optogenetic activation of this circuit triggers delayed but robust excessive grooming with patterns closely resembling those evoked by emotional stress. Consistently, the neural activity of LSv reaches a peak before emotional stress-induced grooming while inhibition of this circuit significantly suppresses grooming triggered by emotional stress. Our results uncover a previously unknown limbic circuitry involved in regulating stress-induced self-grooming and pinpoint a critical role of LSv in this ethologically important behaviour.
Intense light attenuation in water/wastewater results in photocatalysts exhibiting a low quantum efficiency. This study develops a novel piezoelectrocatalysis system, which involves quartz microrods ...(MRs) abundantly decorated with active‐edge‐site MoS2 nanosheets to form a quartz microrods@few‐layered MoS2 hierarchical heterostructure (QMSH). Through theoretical calculations, it is found that the quartz MRs serve as a parallel‐plate capacitor, which is self‐powered to provide an internal electric field to the few‐layered MoS2 nanosheets surrounding the quartz MR surfaces, and the piezoelectric potential (piezopotential) effectively facilitates redox reactions with the free carriers in MoS2. The self‐powered quartz MRs in the QMSH present an internal bias to the MoS2 nanosheets, thus yielding a piezoelectrocatalysis system. An efficient piezoelectrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction and decomposition of wastewater without light irradiation can be achieved simultaneously. The second‐order rate constant of the QMSH is ≈0.631 L mg−1 min−1, which is 650‐fold that of quartz MRs, indicating that the piezoelectric heterostructural catalysts display exceptionally high efficiency on piezoelectrocatalytic redox reactions rather than in the piezocatalytic process. The H2‐production rate of QMSH catalysts approaches ≈6456 µmo1 g−1 h−1 and peaks at ≈16.8 mmol g−1 in 8 h. The piezoelectrocatalytic process may be a promising method for treating industrial wastewater and producing clean energy.
A novel piezoelectrocatalysis system is developed, which involves quartz microrods abundantly decorated with active‐edge‐site MoS2 nanosheets to form a quartz microrods@few‐layered MoS2 hierarchical heterostructure (QMSH). The quartz microrods in the QMSH present an internal bias to the MoS2 nanosheets, thus yielding a piezoelectrocatalysis system. An efficient piezoelectrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction and decomposition of wastewater can be achieved simultaneously without light irradiation.
The mast cell–nerve unit classically has represented a fundamental neuroimmune axis in the development of itch because of the traditional prominence of histamine as a pruritogen. However, it is ...appreciated increasingly that most chronic itch disorders are likely nonhistaminergic in nature, provoking the hypothesis that other novel effector itch mechanisms derived from mast cells are important. In this review, we present an overview of classical mast cell biology and put these concepts into the context of recent advances in our understanding of the regulation and function of the mast cell–nerve unit in itch biology.
The combined effects of low-molecular-weight fucoidan (LMF) and fucoxanthin (Fx) in terms of antihyperglycemic, antihyperlipidemic, and hepatoprotective activities were investigated in a mouse model ...of type II diabetes. The intake of LMF, Fx, and LMF + Fx lowered the blood sugar and fasting blood sugar levels, and increased serum adiponectin levels. The significant decrease in urinary sugar was only observed in LMF + Fx supplementation. LMF and Fx had ameliorating effects on the hepatic tissue of db/db mice by increasing hepatic glycogen and antioxidative enzymes, and LMF was more effective than Fx at improving hepatic glucose metabolism. As for glucose and lipid metabolism in the adipose tissue, the expression of insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1, glucose transporter (GLUT), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), and uncoupling protein (UCP)-1 mRNAs in the adipose tissue of diabetic mice was significantly upregulated by Fx and LMF + Fx, and levels of inflammatory adipocytokines, such as adiponectin, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interleukin-6 (IL-6), were significantly modulated only by LMF + Fx supplementation. The efficacy of LMF + Fx supplementation on the decrease in urinary sugar and on glucose and lipid metabolism in the white adipose tissue of db/db mice was better than that of Fx or LMF alone, indicating the occurrence of a synergistic effect of LMF and Fx.
The structure, stability, and function of various coding and noncoding RNAs are influenced by chemical modifications. Pseudouridine (Ψ) is one of the most abundant post‐transcriptional RNA base ...modifications and has been detected at individual positions in tRNAs, rRNAs, mRNAs, and snRNAs, which are referred to as Ψ‐sites. By allowing formation of additional bonds with neighboring atoms, Ψ strengthens RNA–RNA and RNA–protein interactions. Although many aspects of the underlying modification reactions remain unclear, the advent of new transcriptome‐wide methods to quantitatively detect Ψ‐sites has recently changed our perception of the functional roles and importance of Ψ. For instance, it is now clear that the occurrence of Ψs appears to be directly linked to the lifetime and the translation efficiency of a given mRNA molecule. Furthermore, the administration of Ψ‐containing RNAs reduces innate immune responses, which appears strikingly advantageous for the development of generations of mRNA‐based vaccines. In this review, we aim to comprehensively summarize recent discoveries that highlight the impact of Ψ on various types of RNAs and outline possible novel biomedical applications of Ψ.
Pruritus in allergy and immunology Yang, Ting-Lin B.; Kim, Brian S.
Journal of allergy and clinical immunology,
August 2019, 2019-08-00, 20190801, Volume:
144, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Although evolutionarily conserved to expel ectoparasites and aid in the clearance of toxins and noxious environmental stimuli from the host, the type 2 immune response can become pathologic in the ...setting of a variety of allergic disorders. Itch can be a behavioral extension of type 2 immunity by evoking scratching and, in the setting of disease, can become chronic and thus highly pathologic as well. Classically, our understanding of itch mechanisms has centered around the canonical IgE–mast cell–histamine axis. However, therapies aimed at blocking the histaminergic itch pathway have been largely ineffective, suggesting the existence of nonhistaminergic itch pathways. Indeed, recent advances in itch biology have provided critical new insight into a variety of novel therapeutic avenues for chronic itch in the setting of a number of allergic disorders. Here we highlight how these new developments will likely inform the problem of pruritus in a variety of well-established and emerging conditions in the field of allergy.
Understanding the internal spin structure of the nucleon remains a challenge in strong interaction physics. The unique capability of RHIC opened new avenues in studying the internal structure of the ...proton with unprecedented depth and precision. Significant progress has been made in the last few years through various measurements at STAR. The longitudinal spin measurements have contributed significantly to our understanding of the quark and gluon helicity distributions inside the proton. The longitudinal double-spin asymmetry, A LL , from STAR inclusive jet and dijet measurements provides the first evidence of a positive gluon polarization with partonic momentum fraction x > 0.05. The reconstruction of W ± / Z in longitudinally polarized proton-proton collisions indicates that there is a flavor separation of the light sea quark helicity distributions. In transversely polarized proton collisions, W ± / Z -bosons provide the first constraint on the sea-quark Sivers function and contributes to the tests of the predicted sign change. The tilt of the dijet opening angle provides a direct access to the first Mellin momentum of the Sivers function and avoids the spin-correlated fragmentation contributions. The novel measurements of the azimuthal distributions of identified hadrons in jets and spin-dependent dihadron correlations directly probe the collinear quark transversity in the proton, with the former coupled to the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) Collins fragmentation function and the latter to the dihadron interference fragmentation function. These measurements shed lights on Sivers function, quark transversity and spin-dependent fragmentation functions in both collinear and TMD formalism. In this proceeding, recent jet results on both the longitudinal and transverse spin structure of the proton from STAR are presented.
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