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PurposeDuring COVID-19 restrictions, people spent more time in cyberspace and consuming health-related information. An increase was also observed in mediated caring messages or health-relevant information sent to one another. This study aims to explore how the information and interactions around COVID-19 can provide a good learning opportunity for public health, specifically related to eHealth literacy and eHealth promotion.Design/methodology/approachWhile mainstream literature has concentrated on experimental designs and a priming effect, this study inspects psychological distance related to a health threat under real-life circumstances. The article adopted a survey approach and utilized PLS-SEM techniques to examine the proposed hypotheses.FindingsResults indicated that whereas closer social support correlates with closer psychological distance and less usage of the social media approach, more substantial COVID-19 impacts were associated with closer psychological distance but greater use of social media. Since both closer psychological distance and social media approach contribute to eHealth literacy, social support from closer and virtual social networks should be embraced but utilized through different routes and for different purposes. The timing of messages but not psychological distance affects people's social media approach, indicating that morning messages should be employed. Moreover, eHealth literacy mediates timing preferences and leads to a preference for eHealth communication earlier in the day. Overall, morning messages create a virtuous circle during a health crisis.Originality/valueThis paper establishes a mechanism of virtuous cycles for eHealth communication during a health threat. Additionally, it bridges existing research gaps by expanding chronopsychology and CLT in the health domain using an empirical approach, a real-life case and an extension of performance regarding information-seeking and utilization.

This protocol outlines steps for optimizing the transfection of adherent primary mammalian cells using the readily available off-the-shelf cationic polymer, 25-kDa branched polyethylenimine (bPEI25). Transfection efficiency of cationic polymers varies among cell lines and is highly dependent on the conditions and environment in which complexes are formed. Factors requiring optimization include the salt concentration, volume, incubation time, mixing order and ratio of polymer to DNA. In this transfection protocol, complexes are prepared in 30 min, with analysis 24 h later; thus, experiments can be completed in 2 d. In this protocol, as an example, we describe the parameters we have optimized for the transfection of bone marrow stromal cells and normal human foreskin fibroblasts. By using this protocol, we have obtained transfection efficiencies comparable to lipofection. An appropriately optimized protocol enhances the utility of cationic polymers in transfecting mammalian cells, thereby providing an effective alternative to expensive commercial reagents.

Tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) is one of the most economically important vegetable crops worldwide. Bacterial wilt (BW), caused by the Ralstonia solanacearum species complex, has been reported as the second most important plant pathogenic bacteria worldwide, and likely the most destructive. Extensive research has identified two major loci, Bwr-6 and Bwr-12 , that contribute to resistance to BW in tomato; however, these loci do not completely explain resistance. Segregation of resistance in two populations that were homozygous dominant or heterozygous for all Bwr-6 and Bwr-12 associated molecular markers suggested the action of one or two resistance loci in addition to these two major QTLs. We utilized whole genome sequence data analysis and pairwise comparison of six BW resistant and nine BW susceptible tomato lines to identify candidate genes that, in addition to Bwr-6 and Bwr-12, contributed to resistance. Through this approach we found 27,046 SNPs and 5975 indels specific to the six resistant lines, affecting 385 genes. One sequence variant on chromosome 3 captured by marker Bwr3.2dCAPS located in the Asc ( Solyc03g114600.4.1 ) gene had significant association with resistance, but it did not completely explain the resistance phenotype. The SNP associated with Bwr3.2dCAPS was located within the resistance gene Asc which was inside the previously identified Bwr-3 locus. This study provides a foundation for further investigations into new loci distributed throughout the tomato genome that could contribute to BW resistance and into the role of resistance genes that may act against multiple pathogens.

PurposeThis study aims to explore the determinants influencing consumer purchase intentions towards electric vehicles (EVs) within the Asian market. It specifically examines how perceived value and perceived risk interact with the moderating effects of environmental, policy, and social factors to shape consumer behaviors towards EV adoption. The purpose is to delineate the intricate mechanisms driving consumer intentions in the context of sustainable mobility solutions.Design/methodology/approachAdopting a quantitative research design, this investigation collected data via a survey targeting consumers across various Asian countries. The study utilized Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze the responses, enabling a robust examination of the relationships between perceived value, perceived risk, and the potential moderating roles of external factors on consumer purchase intentions towards EVs.FindingsThe analysis revealed that both perceived value and perceived risk significantly influence consumers' intentions to purchase EVs. It was also found that environmental factors effectively moderate the relationship between perceived risk and purchase intentions, while social factors moderate the relationship between perceived risk and purchase intentions, highlighting the complex influence of external elements on consumer decisions. Contrarily, policy factors did not exhibit a significant moderating impact on the relationships examined.Originality/valueThis research enriches the domain of sustainable technology adoption by providing nuanced insights into the factors driving consumer intentions towards EVs in the Asian context. It underscores the critical roles of perceived value and risk, along with the distinct moderating effects of environmental and social factors, offering strategic implications for stakeholders within the EV ecosystem. The study's findings contribute to the broader discourse on consumer behavior in green technology adoption, laying groundwork for future investigations across diverse settings.

Marine natural products offer immense potential for drug development, but the limited supply of marine organisms poses a significant challenge. Establishing aquaculture presents a sustainable solution for this challenge by facilitating the mass production of active ingredients while reducing our reliance on wild populations and harm to local environments. To fully utilize aquaculture as a source of biologically active products, a cell-free system was established to target molecular components with protein-modulating activity, including topoisomerase II, HDAC, and tubulin polymerization, using extracts from aquaculture corals. Subsequent in vitro studies were performed, including MTT assays, flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, and Western blotting, along with in vivo xenograft models, to verify the efficacy of the active extracts and further elucidate their cytotoxic mechanisms. Regulatory proteins were clarified using NGS and gene modification techniques. Molecular docking and SwissADME assays were performed to evaluate the drug-likeness and pharmacokinetic and medicinal chemistry-related properties of the small molecules. The extract from Lobophytum crassum (LCE) demonstrated potent broad-spectrum activity, exhibiting significant inhibition of tubulin polymerization, and showed low IC50 values against prostate cancer cells. Flow cytometry and Western blotting assays revealed that LCE induced apoptosis, as evidenced by the increased expression of apoptotic protein-cleaved caspase-3 and the populations of early and late apoptotic cells. In the xenograft tumor experiments, LCE significantly suppressed tumor growth and reduced the tumor volume (PC3: 43.9%; Du145: 49.2%) and weight (PC3: 48.8%; Du145: 7.8%). Additionally, LCE inhibited prostate cancer cell migration, and invasion upregulated the epithelial marker E-cadherin and suppressed EMT-related proteins. Furthermore, LCE effectively attenuated TGF-β-induced EMT in PC3 and Du145 cells. Bioactivity-guided fractionation and SwissADME validation confirmed that LCE’s main component, 13-acetoxysarcocrassolide (13-AC), holds greater potential for the development of anticancer drugs.

The cultivated peanut ( Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important oil crop but has a narrow genetic diversity. Molecular markers can be used to probe the genetic diversity of various germplasm. In this study, the restriction site associated DNA (RAD) approach was utilized to sequence 31 accessions of Taiwanese peanut germplasm, leading to the identification of a total of 17,610 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). When we grouped these 31 accessions into two subsets according to origin, we found that the “global” subset (n = 17) was more genetically diverse than the “local” subset (n = 14). Concerning botanical varieties, the var. fastigiata subset had greater genetic diversity than the other two subsets of var. vulgaris and var. hypogaea , suggesting that novel genetic resources should be introduced into breeding programs to enhance genetic diversity. Principal component analysis (PCA) of genotyping data separated the 31 accessions into three clusters largely according to the botanical varieties, consistent with the PCA result for 282 accessions genotyped by 14 kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) markers developed in this study. The SNP markers identified in this work not only revealed the genetic relationship and population structure of current germplasm in Taiwan, but also offer an efficient tool for breeding and further genetic applications.

Heteronemin, the most abundant secondary metabolite in the sponge Hippospongia sp., exhibited potent cytotoxic activity against several cancer cell lines. It increased the percentage of apoptotic cells and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in Molt4 cells. The use of ROS scavenger, N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), suppressed both the production of ROS from mitochondria and cell apoptosis that were induced by heteronemin treatment. Heteronemin upregulated talin and phosphorylated talin expression in Molt4 cells but it only upregulated the expression of phosphorylated talin in HEK293 cells. However, pretreatment with NAC reversed these effects. Talin siRNA reversed the activation of pro-apoptotic cleaved caspases 3 and 9. On the other hand, the downstream proteins including FAK and NF-κB (p65) were not affected. In addition, we confirmed that heteronemin directly modulated phosphorylated talin expression through ROS generation resulting in cell apoptosis, but it did not affect talin/FAK complex. Furthermore, heteronemin interfered with actin microfilament and caused morphology changes. Taken together, these findings suggest that the cytotoxic effect of heteronemin is associated with oxidative stress and induction of phosphorylated talin expression. Our results suggest that heteronemin represents an interesting candidate which can be further developed as a drug lead against leukemia.

In, essentially, all species where meiotic crossovers (COs) have been studied, they occur preferentially in open chromatin, typically near gene promoters and to a lesser extent, at the end of genes. Here, in the case of Arabidopsis thaliana , we unveil further trends arising when one considers contextual information, namely summarised epigenetic status, gene or intergenic region size, and degree of divergence between homologs. For instance, we find that intergenic recombination rate is reduced if those regions are less than 1.5 kb in size. Furthermore, we propose that the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms enhances the rate of CO formation compared to when homologous sequences are identical, in agreement with previous works comparing rates in adjacent homozygous and heterozygous blocks. Lastly, by integrating these different effects, we produce a quantitative and predictive model of the recombination landscape that reproduces much of the experimental variation.

Background/Objectives: Some classification problems involve ordered categories (e.g., low–medium–high), which are better modeled as ordinal regression. This study aimed to propose and evaluate a dual loss framework—Ordinal Residual Dual Loss—for lumbar vertebra classification on CT images to assist L3 identification and sarcopenia detection. Methods: In this retrospective study, lumbar spine CT images were used to train a deep learning model based on a MobileNet-v3-Large network. The proposed framework combines standard cross-entropy loss for classification with an Ordinal Residual Loss defined on the difference between output probabilities and target ordinal probabilities. Results: Experimental results show that the Ordinal Residual Dual Loss approach outperforms using cross-entropy alone and also surpasses methods from previous studies in lumbar vertebra classification performance. Conclusions: Leveraging a dual loss design that incorporates ordinal information improves vertebral level classification on CT images and has potential to support more accurate automated L3 localization and sarcopenia assessment in clinical practice.

Saridoscelis Meyrick, 1894 belongs to Yponomeutidae, with 9 described species. A new species, Saridoscelis diffusolinearum Lu ＆ Hsu, sp. nov., is described from Taiwan, with diagnostic characters provided for both sexes herein. We also proposed that S. diffusolinearum sp. nov. is close related to S. kodamai Moriuti, 1961. The new species feeds on a subalpine bush Gaultheria cumingiana Vidal (Ericaceae) further indicating that the host plant of the subfamily Saridoscelinae may restricted to Ericaceae.