Cell-based Therapy Approach for Drug-resistant Epilepsy

Drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) is a global public health problem. This category includes patients who continue to experience seizures despite long-term anti-epileptic medications. DRE can lead to severe disability and morbidity in older children and adults and is associated with increased risk of mortality than the general population. This report describes the case of a 15-year-old male patient with DRE successfully managed with autologous cell-based and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The patient underwent two sessions of cell-based therapy consisting of cells derived from the bone marrow, adipose tissue, and peripheral blood followed by neuro-physiotherapy and oxygen therapy. Post-treatment, the patient experienced decrease in the frequency of seizures and reduction in the dosage of anti-epileptic medications. Electroencephalogram taken one year after the therapy revealed improvement in seizure activity. The outcomes in this case may be considered a preliminary finding in formulating more robust treatment strategies using cell-based therapy for DRE.

Communication Strategy Analysis of COVID-19 Pandemic’s Public Service Announcement (PSA) Production

Communication through media is one of the most important aspects if a country faces a health crisis such as a pandemic. One of the mediums that are often used is via the production of public service announcements or PSA. PSA is a short video lasting between 30 to 120 seconds, communicating to large-scale audiences for social behaviour changes. However, certain PSA will be considered a failure if the audience ignores or does not understand the message. When Malaysia faces a health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the PSA barely emphasises the aspects of behavioural balance, message recall, and the aesthetic of message presentation. Thus, this paper aims to discuss the mode of presentation and styles in 30 public service announcements related to COVID-19 in MyHealth’s YouTube channel under the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) from January to June 2020. The preliminary finding shows that most PSAs used 2D animation production techniques by representing the real scenarios and situations faced by the Malaysian to facilitate the audience's understanding of the message. Overall, PSA's presentation style on COVID-19 in Malaysia emphasises the balance between the importance of message and communication strategy with five phases in the theory of audience behavioural change. Keywords: Public service announcement, media production, crisis communication, pandemic, COVID-19.

Implementing ACT-Based Modalities for Establishing Connectivity among Teachers and Students in the Context of COVID-19

The government aims to make education accessible to all the people of the country can be fulfilled if the online education system is developed enough for all. The country may be benefited by the use of the right type of education system. Learners and teachers get advantages if the education system is reformed using digital technologies like Automatic Call Tree (ACT)-based modalities. Such types of education system has key significant in the pandemic situation which have been facing since two years. This study is assumed to examine the Automatic Call Tree (ACT) based modalities and their utilization for connection between students, teachers, parents and school management committee; and some recommendations are made concerning online education. The main information source for this study is primary. Instruments used are questionnaires, interview with video recording, phone call, and class room observation. The preliminary finding showed that there is a scarcity of orientations of online education to parents, students, teachers, and administrators, though all were found to realize its importance. Likewise, major problems found are lack of digital devices, regular power supply and backup; and network connectivity. Based on the opinions of the respondents and observations of the situations of the different parts of the country running online education during this pandemic period, many recommendations are made. The country needs strategic plans and policy to make online education accessible to all learners specially in urban areas of Nepal and this will ensure online education smooth. It concludes that the Automatic Call Tree (ACT)-based modalities became fruitful for some schools of Nepal during Corona Virus (COVID)-19 pandemic. But many of them are facing different problems while conducting online classes, examination and result processing. Providing practical knowledge and skills about engineering, mathematics, health science, account, computer science subjects are very difficult and to examine them.

Spatial Usage and Circadian Rhythm for Older Adults in the Community in Taiwan

Objective measure of lifestyle of the older adults living in the community is void in the literature. To obtain both objective and subjective measurements to ascertain mobile and day and night lifestyle of older adults living in the community, and to build lifestyle model of older adults in the community by sociodemographic character. This study is a cross-sectional research. 200 over-50-year older adults who own smartphone and live in southern Taiwan were interviewed. Wrist accelerometers to detect behavioral circadian rhythm, GPS app in smartphone to survey mobility, and questionnaire to assess psychological and social status. Preliminary finding of six participants (2 men and 4 women) was analyzed. Data show that participants about 60 years old have large discrepancies in comparison with participants in their 50s: lower sleep efficiency (73 vs 83), earlier Most active 10 hour midpoint (11.48vs 14.13 hour), higher interdaily variability (0.84 vs 0.75), wake after sleep onset (100.39vs 47.78 minutes), and higher exercise frequency (4.33 vs 1.66 times per week). In addition, men have more chronic disease, bigger waistline (103.5 vs 77.5 cm), higher BMI (30 vs 22.5), lower middle to vigorous physical activity time (39 vs 79 minutes), and more total sleep time (356 vs 317 minutes). Age and sex seem to be significant factors determining lifestyle of older adults. Other sociodemographic parameters will be further analyzed.

Iota-carrageenan and xylitol inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in Vero cell culture

Last year observed a global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2) infection affecting millions of individuals worldwide. There is an urgent unmet need to provide an easily producible and affordable medicine to prevent transmission and provide early treatment for this disease. Since the nasal cavity and the rhinopharynx are the sites of initial replication of SARS-CoV-2, a nasal spray may be an effective option to target SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this study, we tested the antiviral action of three candidate nasal spray formulations against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. We determined that iota-carrageenan in concentrations as low as 6 μg/mL inhibits SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. The concentrations of iota-carrageenan with activity against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro may be easily achieved through the application of nasal sprays as commonly used in several countries. Recently a double-blind, placebo-controlled study showed that iota-carrageenan in isotonic sodium chloride reduces ca. five times the risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2 in health care personnel. Further, xylitol at a concentration of 50 mg/mL (ca. 329 mM) was found to exert some antiviral action, though this preliminary finding needs further confirmation.

The association between depression and esophageal cancer in China: a multicentre population-based study

Background Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the leading contributors to the global burden of cancer, and the underlying mechanism is still unknown. Recently, there has been a growing interest in understanding modifiable psychosocial risk factors, particularly depression, to prevent EC and reduce morbidity and mortality. However, related research is sparse and has been ignored. The study was designed to assess the association between depression and EC in China. Methods From 2017 to 2019, a population-based multicenter study was conducted in high-risk regions of EC. Participants underwent a free endoscopy screening. If the endoscopic results were suspicious, a pathological biopsy was applied to confirm. Depression was measured with Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). In addition, information on demographic characteristics and risk factors was collected from participants by trained interviewers using uniform questionnaires. Results After Endoscopy and pathologic diagnosis, 15,936 participants in high-risk regions of EC (ECHRRs) were enrolled, 10,907 (68.44%) of which were diagnosed health, 4048 (25.40%) with esophagitis, 769 (4.83%) with low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (LGIN), 157 (0.99%) with high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (HGIN), and 55 (0.35%) with EC, respectively. The overall prevalence of depression symptoms of participants was 4.16% (health: 4.63%, esophagitis: 2.99%, LGIN: 2.99%, HGIN: 5.73%, and EC: 9.09%). Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that the unadjusted OR (95% CI) between depression and each esophageal pathology grades were esophagitis 0.93 (0.92-0.95), LGIN 0.97 (0.94-0.99), HGIN 1.05 (1.00-1.10), and EC 1.04 (0.97-1.14), respectively. However, after adjustment for potential confounders (age, gender, region, alcohol consumption, BMI), no statistically significant associations between depression and EC (adjusted OR = 1.10, 0.99-1.21) and esophageal lesions (esophagitis: adjusted OR = 1.02, 0.99-1.04; LGIN: adjusted OR = 0.98, 0.95-1.01; HGIN: adjusted OR = 1.04, 0.98-1.11) were observed in this study. Conclusions No significant association was observed between depression and EC in the study. Future prospective cohort studies are needed to verify this preliminary finding.

Correlation of SARS-CoV-2-breakthrough infections to time-from-vaccine

The short-term effectiveness of a two-dose regimen of the BioNTech/Pfizer mRNA BNT162b2 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine was widely demonstrated. However, long term effectiveness is still unknown. Leveraging the centralized computerized database of Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS), we assessed the correlation between time-from-vaccine and incidence of breakthrough infection between June 1 and July 27, the date of analysis. After controlling for potential confounders as age and comorbidities, we found a significant 1.51 fold (95% CI, 1.38–1.66) increased risk for infection for early vaccinees compared to those vaccinated later that was similar across all ages groups. The increased risk reached 2.26- fold (95% CI, 1.80–3.01) when comparing those who were vaccinated in January to those vaccinated in April. This preliminary finding of vaccine waning as a factor of time from vaccince should prompt further investigations into long-term protection against different strains.

Evaluation of Mental Load of Drivers in Long Highway Tunnel Based on Electroencephalograph

In recent years, the mileage of the tunnels has substantially increased with the rapid highway construction that led to increasing highway tunnels. Most studies on tunnel accidents have mainly focused on the external environments, such as tunnel structure, traffic volume, and lighting. In addition, although many studies on mental load of drivers have been conducted for public roads, such studies for highway tunnels have been limited. In this study, three scenarios with different front vehicle speeds (60, 45, and 30 km/h) in a two-lane long tunnel (one lane in each travel direction) were evaluated using a driving simulator. The experiment involved 24 participants (14 men and 10 women) with an average age of 25.8 years and an average experience of 3.2 years. The electroencephalogram (EEG) technology was used to collect the leading EEG indicators during the driving simulation of the scenarios: α, β, and θ waves and the wave ratio, (α + θ)/β. According to the β-wave energy measurements, the alertness of drivers was the lowest at 45 km/h after adapting to the tunnel environment, indicating that the drivers were more comfortable at this speed. This preliminary finding should help in determining the speed limit in this type of tunnel.