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Background: The study aimed to identify the level of and factors influencing stress experienced by tertiary hospital workers related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and provide a foundation to develop a systematic stress-relief intervention program. Methods: This descriptive study conducted a questionnaire survey using the Korean version of the COVID-19 Stress Scale. The participants were medical workers, medical technicians, office workers, and other occupational groups in two tertiary general hospitals in J province of Korea with more than six months of work experience. Data were collected from November 2021 to December 2021. Results: The results indicated that being male, being a healthcare provider, such as doctor or nurse, and income dissatisfaction were significant influencing factors of COVID-19 stress. The independent variables explained the dependent variable by 14.5%. The job category was the most influencing factor, and healthcare providers exhibited significantly less stress than office workers. Conclusions: Therefore, appropriate education, systematic and differentiated stress management, and policy efforts are required to relieve COVID-19-related stress among tertiary hospital workers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate a student’s career maturity during a career exploration program based on the ecological system perspective and to propose directions for the career maturation process to help H. Meister High School students to get jobs. A single-case 12-session career exploration program was applied to a first-year student at H. Meister High School in U. City for 90 minutes per session twice a week. To verify the effects of the program, this study conducted a pre-test and post-test of career maturity to analyze changes. In addition, the study qualitatively analyzed changes in the program activity sheets and process evaluation sheets per session. The results of the study are as follows: Firstly, the career exploration program based on the ecological system perspective conducted with the student at H. Meister High School improved the student’s career maturity. Secondly, changes were observed in the scores in the sub-factors of career maturity between the pre-test and the post-test. Significant differences in the results of the analysis of the sub-factors of career maturity indicate that the program had a statistically positive impact on the career maturation process of the participant. In conclusion, as a result of the in-depth implementation of the program for 12 sessions, the participant expressed his desires which were clarified. In addition, a positive career maturation process appears to have taken place, owing to the self-directed program that led the participant to initiate plans and explore his career by himself. This study was conducted as a single case based on the ecological system perspective concerning career exploration and the career maturation process, but it will be necessary to expand the study to investigate the effects of group counseling, information exchange considering peer influences, common discussions on goal-setting, and other methods on the career maturation process.

Much research has documented that second language (L2) development of tense and aspect markers is influenced by a range of factors that include cross-linguistic influences, phonological nature of forms, inherent semantics of predicates, and discourse structure. Nonetheless, relatively little research has examined the role of discourse organization in the development of tense and aspect marking. To expand our understanding of L2 tense and aspect, this study examined child L2 development of English tense and aspect in oral narratives in relation to the foregrounding and backgrounding of narrative discourse. Thirty-eight learners’ oral narratives were elicited, using Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer, 1969) three points in time: kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2. The foreground in oral narratives was associated with more frequent use of the simple past than the background across the grade levels. While the occurrence of the simple past did not necessarily mark the foreground, the simple past emerged as the dominant form in the foreground in Grade 1. In the background, on the other hand, it took longer for the past forms to catch up with the non-past forms. The simple past became dominant in the background in Grade 2.

This is a secondary analysis study using raw data from the 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2019), which identified the factors affecting the happiness of middle-aged adults. The data of the 1,862 subjects from the said survey were analyzed. Complex sample cross-analysis and complex sample logistic regression were performed on middle-aged adults. Studies have shown statistically significant differences in education level, marital status, household income quintile, economic activity, smoking, sleep time, subjective health awareness, and stress awareness. Education level, smoking, subjective health awareness, and stress awareness were found to be factors affecting the happiness of middle-aged adults. Compared to the poor health groups, happiness was 3.41 and 3.20 times higher in the good and usual health groups, respectively. The group that felt less stress was 6.15 times happier than the group that felt more stress. The happiness of elementary, middle school, and high school graduates was 0.16, 0.72, and 0.47 times lower, in this order, than that of college graduates and above. Smokers’ level of happiness was 0.29 times lower than non-smokers.

Supplementary Movie 1 from GPR54 Is a Target for Suppression of Metastasis in Endometrial Cancer

Supplementary Figure S4. Stable knockdown of STAT1 expression.

Supplementary Figure Legends. Legend for Supplementary Figures S1-S5.

PDF file - 260K

Supplementary Methods and References. Description of additional methods and procedures used in the study. Also includes Supplementary References.

Administration of the antimitotic chemotherapeutic taxol is known to cause accumulation of the mitotic kinase Aurora-A (Aur-A). Here, we report that Aur-A phosphorylates S203 of the Fas associated with death domain protein (FADD) in response to taxol treatment. In addition, polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) failed to phosphorylate the Aur-A–unphosphorylatable FADD substitution mutant S203A, indicating that phosphorylation of S203 by Aur-A serves to prime FADD for Plk1-mediated phosphorylation at S194. The double-phosphorylation-mimicking mutant form of FADD, FADD-S194D/S203D (FADD-DD), recruited caspase-8, activating the caspase-dependent cell death pathway. FADD-DD also dissociated the cell death protein RIP1 from FADD, resulting in activation of RIP1 and triggering of caspase-independent cell death. Consistent with its death-promoting potential, FADD-DD showed robust tumor suppressor activity. However, single-phosphorylation-mimicking mutant forms of FADD, FADD-S194D/S203A (FADD-DA) and FADD-S194A/S203D (FADD-AD), were incapable of carrying out such functions, indicating that double phosphorylation of FADD is critical for the execution of cell death and tumor suppression. Collectively, our data show the existence of cooperative actions between Aur-A and Plk1 mitotic kinases in response to taxol, providing a molecular explanation for the action mechanism of taxol. Cancer Res; 71(23); 7207–15. ©2011 AACR.

Nightly fasting duration and meal timing are associated with metabolic disorders. This study aimed to investigate the relationships of nightly fasting duration and meal timing with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) using data from the 2016–2020 Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey. A total of 22,685 adults ≥ 19 years were included in this study. Nightly fasting duration was calculated by subtracting the interval between the day’s first and last meal eating times from 24 h. The meal timing were analyzed using various parameters, including the times of the first and last eating episodes and the percentage of energy intake during the morning (05:00 to 9:00 a.m.), evening (06:00 to 09:00 p.m.), and night (after 09:00 p.m.). Men who fasted nightly for ≥ 12 h had lower odds of T2DM (odds ratio (OR): 0.86; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.75–0.99) than those who fasted for < 12 h. Individuals who had their last meal after 09:00 p.m. had higher odds of T2DM (OR: 1.19, 95% CI: 1.03–1.38, men; OR: 1.19, 95% CI: 1.01–1.40, women). Additionally, the percentage of energy intake during the evening was associated with increased odds of T2DM (OR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.08–1.84, men; OR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.02–1.70, women). These findings emphasize the importance of nightly fasting duration and meal timing in modulating the risk of T2DM among Korean adults.

Translation is an indispensable language activity and communication method. Translation from Chinese to foreign languages, especially English, is significant to tell Chinese stories well, growing into an urgent issue in China. While cultivating translation talents is crucial, translation competence is a complicated system consisting of various sub competences. To improve English majors’ Chinese-English (C-E) translation competence, it is necessary to first investigate their perceptions of C-E translation learning and competence. Based on the preliminary mastery of English majors’ status quo in C-E translation learning and competence, this research sheds insight into the C-E translation pedagogy. This paper presented: How do English majors perceive C-E translation learning and C-E translation competence? To answer the question, this study adopted a survey research design that was quantitative and applied the instrument of two questionnaires. The multiple-choice questionnaire was to investigate their perceptions of C-E translation learning, and the five-Likert scale questionnaire was to seek their self-perceived C-E translation competence. The study was carried out in 2022 among 125 English majors at Zaozhuang University, China. The results showed that most participants recognized the importance of C-E translation and their primary purpose was to enhance bilingual proficiency, and the texts that they were most interested in translating were practical styles and on diverse topics of China. Furthermore, more than half held the active involvement of teachers and learners and over 85% affirmed the effect of group learning and individual learning. It was found that their mean score of self-perceived C-E translation competence was 2.87.

Several diverse proteins possess similar binding sites. Protein binding site comparison provides valuable insights for the drug discovery and development. Binding site similarities are useful in understanding polypharmacology, identifying potential off-targets and repurposing of known drugs. Many binding site analysis and comparison methods are available today, however, these methods may not be adequate to explain variation in the activity of a drug or a small molecule against a number of similar proteins. Water molecules surrounding the protein surface contribute to structure and function of proteins. Water molecules form diverse types of hydrogen-bonded cyclic water-ring networks known as topological water networks (TWNs). Analysis of TWNs in binding site of proteins may improve understanding of the characteristics of binding sites. We propose TWN-based residue encoding (TWN-RENCOD), a novel binding site comparison method which compares the aqueous environment in binding sites of similar proteins. As compared to other existing methods, results obtained using our method correlated better with differences in wide range of activity of a known drug (Sunitinib) against nine different protein kinases (KIT, PDGFRA, VEGFR2, PHKG2, ITK, HPK1, MST3, PAK6 and CDK2).

Defective solute carrier (SLC) transporters are responsible for neurotransmitter dysregulation, resulting in neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We provided the role and kinetic parameters of transporters such as ASCTs, Taut, LAT1, CAT1, MCTs, OCTNs, CHT, and CTL1, which are mainly responsible for the transport of essential nutrients, acidic, and basic drugs in blood–brain barrier (BBB) and motor neuron disease. The affinity for LAT1 was higher in the BBB than in the ALS model cell line, whereas the capacity was higher in the NSC-34 cell lines than in the BBB. Affinity for MCTs was lower in the BBB than in the NSC-34 cell lines. CHT in BBB showed two affinity sites, whereas no expression was observed in ALS cell lines. CTL1 was the main transporter for choline in ALS cell lines. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) analysis of [3H]choline uptake indicated that choline is sensitive in TR-BBB cells, whereas amiloride is most sensitive in ALS cell lines. Knowledge of the transport systems in the BBB and motor neurons will help to deliver drugs to the brain and develop the therapeutic strategy for treating CNS and neurological diseases.