Suchergebnisse

We used a positive psychology perspective to explore the relationships among university students' social support, belonging, self-esteem, hope, and learning outcomes. Participants, comprising 739 students enrolled at a science and technology university in Taiwan, completed written questionnaires
assessing the focal variables. The results showed that students' perception of social support influenced learning outcomes through self-esteem and belonging, which then influenced their hope. In addition, social support given by teachers versus that given by peers had different influences
on students' hope. Teacher support effectively predicted the goal orientation, pathways thinking, and agency thinking dimensions of students' hope, whereas peer support effectively predicted students' pathways thinking and agency thinking but not goal orientation. Practical implications and
recommendations for future research are presented.

In this study a hierarchical linear model was employed to identify the specific relationships between employee affective commitment, employee perceptions of HR practices and job performance, and the moderating effect of HR strength was examined, using the extent to which employers and
employees share the same perceptions of HR practices as a proxy for consistency. The data were collected via structured questionnaire from hairdressing salons throughout Taiwan. Usable questionnaires from 307 hairdressers and 103 shop owners constituted individual- and organizational-levels
of data. We found that the more consistent the perception of HR practices between hairdressers and shop owners, the greater the employee affective commitment to the organization, emphasizing the value of HR practices in communicating clear and direct signals to employees regarding norms and
expectations.

Light-evoked retinal photodamage is considered an important factor contributing to functional vision deterioration and can even lead to light maculopathy or dry age-related macular degeneration. Loss of visual acuity (VA) and visual contrast sensitivity function (VCSF) are the major symptoms of retinal degenerative diseases. Cordyceps militaris is a carotenoid-rich Chinese medicinal fungus with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory functions. C. militaris extract is a natural substance, and its bioactive constituents have been shown to confer health benefits, but their application in retinal tissue and functional vision protection in vivo remain incompletely understood. In the present study, we evaluated the influence of water-soluble, carotenoid-rich C. militaris extracts on the visual performance of light-damaged mouse retinas in vivo, using adult female CD-1® (ICR) albino mice. We showed that oral administration of this C. militaris extract (10 mg/kg, twice daily) protected the neural retina tissue against light-evoked photoreceptor cell death, reduced Müller cell hypertrophic gliosis, and elevated GSH levels and promoted the recovery of VA- and VCSF-thresholds, especially for high spatial frequency-characterized vision. These results suggest that, probably because of its water-soluble carotenoids, C. militaris extract has the potential to prevent or treat light-induced visual dysfunction.

Abstract

Background
Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with early onset of chronic diseases and increased risk of chronic disorders. Chronic viral infections have been linked to accelerated biological aging based on epigenetic clocks. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between HCV infection and clinical measures of biological aging among 8 306 adults participating in the 2015–2018 waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).


Methods
NHANES 2015–2018 participants aged 20 years and older who had complete data on clinical blood markers and HCV-related tests were included in the current study. We estimated biological age using 2 approaches including phenotypic age (PhenoAge) and allostatic load (AL) score based on 9 clinical biomarkers.


Results
After adjusting for demographic and other confounding factors, HCV antibody-positivity was associated with advanced PhenoAge (β = 2.43, 95% confidence interval: 1.51–3.35), compared with HCV antibody-negativity. Additionally, both active HCV infection (HCV RNA (+)) and resolved infection were associated with greater PhenoAge acceleration. The positive association with the AL score was not statistically significant. We did not observe any significant interactions of potential effect modifiers, including smoking and use of drug/needle injection, with HCV infection on measures of biological aging.


Conclusions
Our findings suggest that HCV infection is independently associated with biological aging measured by phenotypic age in the U.S. general population. Further studies are warranted to confirm the findings.

Abstract
Urban neighborhoods with locations of environmental contamination, known as brownfields, impact entire neighborhoods, but corrective environmental remedial action on brownfields is often tracked on an individual property basis, neglecting the larger neighborhood-level impact. This study addresses this impact by examining spatial differences between brownfields with unmitigated environmental concerns (open site) and sites that are considered fully mitigated or closed in urban neighborhoods (closed site) on the US census tract scale in Wayne County, MI. Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy's leaking underground storage tank (LUST) database provided brownfield information for Wayne County. Local indicators of spatial association (LISA) produced maps of spatial clustering and outliers. A McNemar's test demonstrated significant discordances in LISA categories between LUST open and closed sites (p < 0.001). Geographically weighted regressions (GWR) evaluated the association between open and closed site spatial density (open-closed) with socioeconomic variables (population density, proportion of White or Black residents, proportion of college educated populations, the percentage of owner-occupied units, vacant units, rented units, and median household value). Final multivariate GWR showed that population density, being Black, college education, vacant units, and renter occupied units were significantly associated (p < 0.05) with open-closed, and that those associations varied across Wayne County. Increases in Black population was associated with increased open-closed. Increases in vacant units, renter-occupied units, and college education were associated with decreased open-closed. These results provide input for environmental justice research to identify inequalities and discover the distribution of environmental hazards among urban neighborhoods.

A consortium of translational stem cell and stroke experts from multiple academic institutes and biotechnology companies, under the guidance of the government (FDA/NIH), is missing. Here, we build a case for the establishment of this consortium if cell therapy for stroke is to advance from the laboratory to the clinic.