Our study aimed to investigate the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and quality of life among local Chinese residents aged ≥18 years in Liaoning Province, mainland China. An online survey was distributed through a social media platform between January and February 2020. Participants completed a modified validated questionnaire that assessed the Impact of Event Scale (IES), indicators of negative mental health impacts, social and family support, and mental health-related lifestyle changes. A total of 263 participants (106 males and 157 females) completed the study. The mean age of the participants was 37.7 ± 14.0 years, and 74.9% had a high level of education. The mean IES score in the participants was 13.6 ± 7.7, reflecting a mild stressful impact. Only 7.6% of participants had an IES score ≥26. The majority of participants (53.3%) did not feel helpless due to the pandemic. On the other hand, 52.1% of participants felt horrified and apprehensive due to the pandemic. Additionally, the majority of participants (57.8-77.9%) received increased support from friends and family members, increased shared feeling and caring with family members and others. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with mild stressful impact in our sample, even though the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing. These findings would need to be verified in larger population studies.

Permanent adsorption-conversion of lithium polysulfides by iron single atom anchored porous nitrogen-rich carbon nanocages endows lithium sulfur batteries with long lasting rate performance.

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a profound impact on health and well-being of populations. However, there are limited studies that have investigated the psychological aspects of vulnerable groups including pregnant women amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we aimed to assess the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among Chinese pregnant women from February 2020 until March 2020. Methods: Our study was conducted using a modified validated online questionnaire comprising of sociodemographic, the Impact of Event Scale (IES), attitude and mental health-related questions towards COVID-19. Results: A total of 560 women were included. The overall mean age and IES of women was 25.8 ± 2.7 years and 31.4 ± 13.7. Moreover, 67.1% of them had IES ⩾26. Psychological impact seemed to be more severe in women in second trimester of pregnancy (the highest IES) ( p = .016). There was a significant association between trimesters of pregnancy and some indicators of negative health impacts (including increased stress from work, increased stress from home, feeling apprehensive and helpless during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic) (all p < .05). Conclusions: Our results reported moderate-to-severe stressful impact among Chinese pregnant women. We recommend that appropriate measures should be taken to address the maternal mental health issues.

Objectives: Our study aimed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological responses and lifestyle changes among the general population in mainland China following the re-opening of the Wuhan city. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in April 2020. Participants of Chinese nationality aged ⩾ 18 years were asked to complete a modified validated Chinese version of a questionnaire regarding the impact of event scale (IES), family and social support, mental health–related lifestyle changes, and indicators of negative mental health impacts. Results: A total of 728 participants (i.e., 217 males and 511 females) completed the questionnaire. The mean age of the participants was 32.9 ± 10.4 years, with a majority of them (92.2%) having a higher educational qualification level. The overall mean IES in participants was 21.5 ± 7.0, reflecting mild stressful impact (i.e., following the re-opening of the Wuhan city); 25.5% of the participants had an IES score ⩾ 26. Being females and married were significantly associated with a higher mean IES score. The overall mean scores for intrusion and avoidance score scales in participants were 9.4 ± 3.7 and 12.1 ± 4.2, respectively. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increased stressful impact in our participants following the re-opening of the Wuhan city when compared with our previous study, which should not be taken lightly.

BackgroundTivantinib has been described as a highly selective inhibitor of MET and is currently in a phase III clinical trial for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the mechanism of tivantinib anti-tumor effect has been questioned by recent studies.ResultsWe show that tivantinib indiscriminately inhibited MET dependent and independent HCC cells proliferation. In contrast, other MET inhibitors, JNJ-38877605 and PHA-665752, just specifically inhibited the growth of MET dependent HCC cells. Tivantinib neither inhibit constitutive MET phosphorylation nor HGF-induced MET phosphorylation in HCC cells. In the microtubule polymerization analysis, tivantinib affected microtubule dynamics by a mechanism as a microtubule depolymerizer. Interesting, unlike other microtubule-targeting agents, paclitaxel and vincristine, tivantinib showed similar anti-proliferative activity in parental and multidrug-resistant cells. Further studies demonstrated that tivantinib induced a G2/M arrest and promoted apoptosis by both intrinsic and extrinsic pathway. The in vivo efficacy evaluation showed that tivantinib exhibited a good anti-tumor growth activity with anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects.ConclusionsThe potent anti-tumor activity of tivantinib in HCC was achieved by targeting microtubule. Tivantinib treatment for patients with HCC should not be selected based on MET status.

Recently, LOC285194 has shown a potential tumor-suppressor function in several types of human cancers, but its function in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains unknown. This study intended to investigate the biological role of LOC285194 and its clinical significance in NSCLC. LOC285194 was detected by qRT-PCR, and its correlation with clinicopathological features of NSCLC was analyzed. The expression of LOC285194 was knocked down or ectopically expressed in lung cancer cells (A549 and H1299) and tumor cell growth, migration and invasion in vitro were investigated. In addition, the interaction of LOC285194 and target proteins was assessed by RNA pulldown and RNA immunoprecipitation in vitro. The results revealed that the expression of LOC285194 was significantly lower in tumor tissues when compared with the corresponding non-tumor tissues (P<0.001). Its expression was correlated with the tumor size (P=0.027). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patients with lower LOC285194 expression had worse disease-free survival and overall survival rates (P<0.05). RNA protein interaction analysis revealed that p53 was the direct binding target of LOC285194 in NSCLC. Bioinformatics analyses suggested that depletion of LOC285149 could affect its antitumor function through the KRAS/BRAF/SMEK pathway. Our findings indicated that LOC285194 was a novel non-coding prognostic indicator and contributed to tumor suppression by targeting p53 in NSCLC, suggesting that it may be a non-coding target for NSCLC gene therapy.

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The MnCO3/Mn3O4/reduced graphene oxide ternary composites which exhibit excellent electrochemical performance are synthesised via a green and facile method.