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Salt is one of the most common abiotic stresses, causing ionic and osmotic pressure changes that affect plant growth and development. In this work, we present molecular and genetic evidence that Arabidopsis Toxicos en Levadura 12 (ATL12) is involved in both salt stress and in the abscisic acid response to this stress. We demonstrate that ATL12 is highly induced in response to salt stress and that atl12 mutants have a lower germination rate, decreased root length, and lower survival rate compared to the Col-0 wild-type in response to salt stress. Overexpression of ATL12 increases expression of the salt stress-associated genes SOS1/2, and ABA-responsive gene RD29B. Additionally, higher levels of reactive oxygen species are detected when ATL12 is overexpressed, and qRT-PCR showed that ATL12 is involved in the AtRBOHD/F-mediated signaling. ATL12 expression is also highly induced by ABA treatment. Mutants of atl12 are hypersensitive to ABA and have a shorter root length. A decrease in water loss and reduced stomatal aperture were also observed in atl12 mutants in response to ABA. ABA-responsive genes RD29B and RAB18 were downregulated in atl12 mutants but were upregulated in the overexpression line of ATL12 in response to ABA. Taken together our results suggest that ATL12 modulates the response to salt stress and is involved in the ABA signaling pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the relationship between gratitude and life satisfaction, and the mediation role of social support and enjoyment of life among older individuals. The measures employed include the Gratitude, Resentment, and Appreciation test; the Enjoyment of Life scale; the Satisfaction with Life scale; and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. These were administered to a sample of 260 older individuals aged between 60 and 80. The main findings revealed a positive association between gratitude and life satisfaction, and social support was a partial mediator in this relationship. Although enjoyment of life was not a direct mediator in the relationship between gratitude and life satisfaction, the final model indicated a significant serial pathway from gratitude to social support and then through enjoyment of life to life satisfaction. In conclusion, enhancing gratitude, promoting the enjoyment of life, and social support to older individuals might increase their life satisfaction, which in turn might contribute to their successful aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermo-oxidative aging plays an important role in changing the properties of rubber materials; it significantly decreases the fatigue life of air spring bags and further causes safety hazards. However, due to the great uncertainty of rubber material properties, an effective interval prediction model has not been established considering the effect of aging on airbag rubber properties. To solve the problem, this study proposes an interval parameter correlation model that can more accurately describe rubber crack propagation characteristics by considering material uncertainty. Furthermore, an aging prediction model of the rubber crack propagation characteristic region is established based on the Arrhenius equation. The effectiveness and accuracy of the method are verified by comparing the test and prediction results under the temperature spectrum. The method can be used to determine the variations in the interval change of the fatigue crack propagation parameters during rubber aging and can guide fatigue reliability analyses of air spring bags. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reward has been shown to influence selective attention, yet previous research has primarily focused on rewards associated with specific locations or features, with limited investigation into the impact of a reward object on object-based attention (OBA). Therefore, it remains unclear whether objects previously associated with rewards affect OBA. To address this issue, we conducted two experiments using a paradigm that combined a reward training phase with a modified two-rectangle paradigm. The results indicate that a reward object modulates both space-based attention (SBA) and OBA. When cues appear on a reward object, the effects of both SBA and OBA are amplified compared to when cues appear on a no-reward object. This finding supports the value-driven attentional capture (VDAC) theory, which suggests that a reward object gain enhanced saliency to capture attention, thereby providing a theoretical support for the treatment of conditions such as drug addiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrical energy is often wasted through human negligence when people do not switch off electrical appliances such as lighting after leaving a place. Such a scenario often happens in a classroom when the last person leaves the class and forgets to switch off the electrical appliances. Such wastage may not be able to be afforded by schools that are limited financially. Therefore, this research proposed a simple and cost-effective system that can analyze whether there is or is not a human presence in the classroom by applying a counter to count the total number of people entering and leaving the classroom based on the sensing signals of a set of dual PIR sensors only and then correlating this to automatically turn on or off the electrical appliances mentioned. The total number of people identified in the classroom is also displayed on an LCD screen. A TRIZ approach is used to support the ideation of the system. The system can switch on several electrical output loads simultaneously when the presence of people is detected and switch them off when there are no people in the classroom. The proposed system can be expanded to be used in homes, offices, and buildings to prevent the high cost of electricity consumption caused by the negligence of people. This enables smarter control of electricity consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' well-being at work is an important indicator of their mental health. Strengths use has been identified as a significant predictor of enhanced well-being at work. However, there is a scarcity of studies that have examined the connection between teachers' strengths use and well-being at work; thus, its underlying psychological mechanism is unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the association between teachers' strengths and well-being at work together with the mediating role of basic need satisfaction. A total of 374 university teachers completed a series of questionnaires on strengths use, basic need satisfaction, hedonic well-being, and eudaimonic well-being. The results showed that there were positive correlations between strength use and both types of well-being at work. Moreover, basic need satisfaction mediated the association between strength use and two types of well-being at work. The findings suggest that institutions should prioritize enhancing teachers' ability to utilize their strengths and foster an environment conducive to such practices, thereby improving their workplace well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, "lying flat" has been enthusiastically pursued by young people in China, and it is worth studying its cause and social impact. However, there is still a lack of measurement tools that can scientifically evaluate an individual's tendency for "lying flat." In this study, a 6-item "Lying Flat" Tendency Scale was developed and cross-validated for reliability and validity in different samples from China. The findings demonstrated that the scale showed good internal consistency in three different samples; both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis supported the single dimension model of the scale, indicating good construct validity; the LFTS total score was negatively correlated with the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, happiness index, and positive emotions, and was positively correlated with negative emotions; simultaneously, the LFTS total score was also significantly positively correlated with the choice of "lying flat" behavior in the simulated situation. These results show that the scale has good validity and reliability, and can be used as a measuring tool for subsequent empirical research. It will help to promote the development of empirical research on the phenomenon of "lying flat", help to understand the causes and consequences of "lying flat" more deeply, and also help to find effective ways to help young people break out of the "lying flat" dilemma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The N staging system for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) is constantly improving for better survival risk stratification with accumulating clinical evidence. Discovering new prognostic factors often depends on clinical observations, which often lack comprehensiveness and precision. This study aimed to propose new quantitative spatial characterizations of LN tumor and demonstrate their feasibility of improving N stage. Independent anatomical prognostic factors were discovered and achieved superior risk stratification performance when combined with N stage. This quantitative approach could be applied to other cancer sites to discover new prognostic or predictive factors and ultimately benefit precision medicine. This study aims to investigate the feasibility of improving the prognosis stratification of the N staging system of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) from quantitative spatial characterizations of metastatic lymph node (LN) for NPC in a multi-institutional setting. A total of 194 and 284 NPC patients were included from two local hospitals as the discovery and validation cohort. Spatial relationships between LN and the surrounding organs were quantified by both distance and angle histograms, followed by principal component analysis. Independent prognostic factors were identified and combined with the N stage into a new prognostic index by univariate and multivariate Cox regressions on disease-free survival (DFS). The new three-class risk stratification based on the constructed prognostic index demonstrated superior cross-institutional performance in DFS. The hazard ratios of the high-risk to low-risk group were 9.07 (p < 0.001) and 4.02 (p < 0.001) on training and validation, respectively, compared with 5.19 (p < 0.001) and 1.82 (p = 0.171) of N3 to N1. Our spatial characterizations of lymph node tumor anatomy improved the existing N-stage in NPC prognosis. Our quantitative approach may facilitate the discovery of new anatomical characteristics to improve patient staging in other diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Emerging evidence indicates that the immune system plays an important role in controlling tumors during radiotherapy, and radiation-induced immune toxicity such as lymphopenia is associated with poor survival. However, the immune system is not considered as a critical organ at risk in radiotherapy partially because the radiation dose to the immune system is difficult to compute. In this study, we developed a model to compute the radiation dose to the circulating blood, which contains the majority of active immune cells. We then validated this model by examining the correlations of the blood dose with treatment outcome for patients enrolled in the NRG/RTOG0617 phase III clinical trial. We demonstrated that the blood dose was significantly and independently associated with overall survival and local progression-free survival. This result suggests that radiation dose to circulating immune cells is critical for tumor control, and decreasing the dose to the immune system has the potential to improve survival. Background: We hypothesized that the Effective radiation Dose to the Immune Cells (EDIC) in circulating blood is a significant factor for the treatment outcome in patients with locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: This is a secondary study of a phase III trial, NRG/RTOG 0617, in patients with stage III NSCLC treated with radiation-based treatment. The EDIC was computed as equivalent uniform dose to the entire blood based on radiation doses to all blood-containing organs, with consideration of blood flow and fractionation effect. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), and the secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and local progression-free survival (LPFS). The EDIC–survival relationship was analyzed with consideration of clinical significant factors. Results: A total of 456 patients were eligible. The median EDIC values were 5.6 Gy (range, 2.1–12.2 Gy) and 6.3 Gy (2.1–11.6 Gy) for the low- and high-dose groups, respectively. The EDIC was significantly associated with OS (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.12, p = 0.005) and LPFS (HR = 1.09, p = 0.02) but PFS (HR = 1.05, p = 0.17) after adjustment for tumor dose, gross tumor volume and other factors. OS decreased with an increasing EDIC in a non-linear pattern: the two-year OS decreased first with a slope of 8%/Gy when the EDIC < 6 Gy, remained relatively unchanged when the EDIC was 6–8 Gy, and followed by a further reduction with a slope of 12%/Gy when the EDIC > 8 Gy. Conclusions: The EDIC is a significant independent risk factor for poor OS and LPFS in RTOG 0617 patients with stage III NSCLC, suggesting that radiation dose to circulating immune cells is critical for tumor control. Organ at risk for the immune system should be considered during RT plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Development of radioresistance in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains a significant problem in cancer treatment, contributing to the lack of improvement in survival trends in recent decades. Effective strategies to overcome radioresistance are necessary to improve the therapeutic outcomes of radiotherapy in OSCC patients. Methods: Cells and xenograft tumors were irradiated using the Small Animal Radiation Research Platform. AKT inhibitor capivasertib (AZD5363) was encapsulated into cathepsin B-responsible nanoparticles (NPs) for tumor-specific delivery. Cell viability was measured by alamarBlue, cell growth was determined by colony formation and 3D culture, and apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometry with the staining of Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) Annexin V and PI. An orthotopic tongue tumor model was used to evaluate the in vivo therapeutic effects. The molecular changes induced by the treatments were assessed by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Results: We show that upregulation of AKT signaling is the critical mechanism for radioresistance in OSCC cells, and AKT inactivation by a selective and potent AKT inhibitor capivasertib results in radiosensitivity. Moreover, relative to irradiation (IR) alone, IR combined with the delivery of capivasertib in association with tumor-seeking NPs greatly enhanced tumor cell repression in 3D cell cultures and OSCC tumor shrinkage in an orthotopic mouse model. Conclusions: These data indicate that capivasertib is a potent agent that sensitizes radioresistant OSCC cells to IR and is a promising strategy to overcome failure of radiotherapy in OSCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]