Search

To date, cross-cultural studies on Theory of Mind (ToM) have predominantly focused on preschoolers. This study focuses on middle childhood, comparing two samples of mainland Chinese (n = 126) and Australian (n = 83) children aged between 5.5 and 12 years. Strange Stories, the most commonly used measure of ToM, was employed. The study aimed to examine the one- versus two-factor structure and measurement invariance of Strange Stories across two cultures; use the verified invariant model of Strange Stories to compare children's cognitive and affective ToM across two cultures; and finally, to investigate correlates of individual differences on Strange Stories cross-culturally. Multiple-groups confirmatory factor analysis revealed the measurement invariance of a two-factor model of Strange Stories (cognitive and affective) in both groups. Chinese children performed comparably to Australian children on cognitive ToM stories, but more poorly than Australian children on affective ToM stories. There were cultural differences in the correlates of ToM. The number of older siblings was a positive predictor of cognitive ToM for Chinese children, but a negative predictor of cognitive ToM for Australian children. The findings confirm that Strange Stories is a reliable measure for evaluating ToM in school-aged children from mainland China and Australia and highlight the importance of considering both cognitive and affective aspects of ToM in cross-cultural comparison.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) refers to a cluster of viral pneumonia cases that first occurred in Wuhan, a city in Hubei Province, China, beginning in December 2019. Etiology was unknown during [...]

An AI-empowered indoor digital contact-tracing systemwas developed using a centralized architecture and advanced low-energy Bluetooth technologies for indoor positioning, with careful preservation of privacy and data security. We analyzed the contact pattern data from two RCHs and investigated a COVID-19 outbreak in one study site. To evaluate the effectiveness of the system in containing outbreaks with minimal contacts under quarantine, a simulation study was conducted to compare the impact of different quarantine strategies on outbreak containment within RCHs. The significant difference in contact hours between weekdays and weekends was observed for some pairs of RCH residents and staff during the two-week data collection period. No significant difference between secondary cases and uninfected contacts was observed in a COVID-19 outbreak in terms of their demographics and contact patterns. Simulation results based on the collected contact data indicated that a threshold of accumulative contact hours one or two days prior to diagnosis of the index case could dramatically increase the efficiency of outbreak containment within RCHs by targeted isolation of the close contacts. This study demonstrated the feasibility and efficiency of employing an AI-empowered system in indoor digital contact tracing of outbreaks in RCHs in the post-pandemic era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leishmaniasis, an infectious disease caused by pathogenic Leishmania parasites, affects millions of people in developing countries, and its re-emergence in developed countries, particularly in Europe, poses a growing public health concern. The limitations of current treatments and the absence of effective vaccines necessitate the development of novel therapeutics. In this study, we focused on identifying small molecule inhibitors which prevents the interaction between peroxin 5 (PEX5) and peroxisomal targeting signal 1 (PTS1), pivotal for kinetoplastid parasite survival. The Leishmania donovani PEX5, containing a C-terminal tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domain, was expressed and purified, followed by the quantification of kinetic parameters of PEX5-PTS1 interactions. A fluorescence polarization-based high-throughput screening assay was developed and small molecules inhibiting the LdPEX5-PTS1 interaction were discovered through the screening of a library of 51,406 compounds. Based on the confirmatory assay, nine compounds showed half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values ranging from 3.89 to 24.50 µM. In silico docking using a homology model of LdPEX5 elucidated that the molecular interactions between LdPEX5 and the inhibitors share amino acids critical for PTS1 binding. Notably, compound P20 showed potent activity against the growth of L. donovani promastigotes, L. major promastigotes, and Trypanosoma brucei blood stream form, with IC50 values of 12.16, 19.21, and 3.06 μM, respectively. The findings underscore the potential of targeting LdPEX5-PTS1 interactions with small molecule inhibitors as a promising strategy for the discovery of new anti-parasitic compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To undertake an economic evaluation of a telehealth psychological support intervention for patients with primary brain tumor (PBT). Methods: A within‐trial cost‐utility analysis over 6 months was performed comparing a tailored telehealth‐psychological support intervention with standard care (SC) in a randomized control trial. Data were sourced from the Telehealth Making Sense of Brain Tumor (Tele‐MAST) trial survey data, project records, and administrative healthcare claims. Quality‐adjusted life years (QALYs) were calculated based on the EuroQol‐5D‐5L. Non‐parametric bootstrapping with 2000 iterations was used to determine sampling uncertainty. Multiple imputation was used for handling missing data. Results: The Tele‐MAST trial included 82 participants and was conducted in Queensland, Australia during 2018–2021. When all healthcare claims were included, the incremental cost savings from Tele‐MAST were ‐AU$4,327 (95% CI: −$8637, −$18) while incremental QALY gains were small at 0.03 (95% CI: −0.02, 0.08). The likelihood of Tele‐MAST being cost‐effective versus SC was 87% at a willingness‐to‐pay threshold of AU$50,000 per QALY gain. When psychological‐related healthcare costs were included only, the incremental cost per QALY gain was AU$10,685 (95% CI: dominant, $24,566) and net monetary benefits were AU$534 (95% CI: $466, $602) with a 65% likelihood of the intervention being cost‐effective. Conclusions: Based on this small randomized controlled trial, the Tele‐MAST intervention is a cost‐effective intervention for improving the quality of life of people with PBT in Australia. Patients receiving the intervention incurred significantly lower overall healthcare costs than patients in SC. There was no significant difference in costs incurred for psychological health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Madurastatins are a group of pentapeptides containing an oxazoline moiety, and, in a few cases, an imidazolidinone ring as an additional structural feature. In our search for new potential antiparasitic metabolites from natural sources, we studied the acetone extracts from a culture of Actinomadura sp. CA-135719. The LC/HRMS analysis of this extract identified the presence of the known madurastatins C1 (1), D1 (4), and D2 (5) together with additional members of the family that were identified as the new madurastatins H2 (2) and 33-epi-D1 (3) after isolation and spectroscopic analysis. The planar structures of the new compounds were established by HRMS, ESI-qTOF-MS/MS, and 1D and 2D NMR data, and their absolute configuration was proposed using Marfey's and bioinformatic analyses of the biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC). A revision of the absolute configuration of madurastatins D1 and D2 is proposed. Additionally, madurastatins containing imidazolidinone rings are proved to be artifacts originating during acetone extraction of the bacterial cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuropeptides are mostly expressed in regions of the brain responsible for learning and memory and are centrally involved in cognitive pathways. The majority of neuropeptide research has been performed in animal models; with acknowledged differences between species, more research into the role of neuropeptides in humans is necessary to understand their contribution to higher cognitive function. In this study, we investigated the influence of genetic polymorphisms in neuropeptide genes on verbal learning and memory. Variants in genes encoding neuropeptides and neuropeptide receptors were tested for association with learning and memory measures using the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test—Revised (HVLT-R) in a healthy cohort of individuals (n = 597). The HVLT-R is a widely used task for verbal learning and memory assessment and provides five sub-scores: recall, delay, learning, retention, and discrimination. To determine the effect of candidate variants on learning and memory performance, genetic association analyses were performed for each HVLT-R sub-score with over 1300 genetic variants from 124 neuropeptide and neuropeptide receptor genes, genotyped on Illumina OmniExpress BeadChip arrays. This targeted analysis revealed numerous suggestive associations between HVLT-R test scores and neuropeptide and neuropeptide receptor gene variants; candidates include the SCG5, IGFR1, GALR1, OXTR, CCK, and VIPR1 genes. Further characterization of these genes and their variants will improve our understanding of the genetic contribution to learning and memory and provide insight into the importance of the neuropeptide network in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]