Effect of cognitive behavior-aided counseling on entrepreneurial self-efficacy of students of home economics education in South-East Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Raising potential entrepreneurs to advance the economy of nations through education has been projected by scholars. On the contrary, Nigerian students lack the enthusiasm and internal force to pursue the aims enshrined in their courses of study. Rather they prefer white-cola jobs to the entrepreneurial intention of the institutions. Given this reason, we tested the effect of cognitive behavior-aided counseling on entrepreneurial self-efficacy of students of Home Economics in South-East Nigeria. METHODS: This is a pretest and posttest with a follow-up group randomized control design. A total of 119 Home Economics Education students from Universities and Colleges of Education were measured and screened using an entrepreneurial self-efficacy scale and inclusion criteria. Data collected from the pretest, post-test, and follow-up test were statistically analyzed using repeated measures of Analysis of Variance statistical method. The effect size of the cognitive behavior-aided counseling intervention on entrepreneurial self-efficacy was reported using partial eta square. The follow-up data was tested using a Univariate analysis. RESULTS: The result showed that cognitive behavior-aided counseling intervention had a significant effect on entrepreneurial self-efficacy among the Universities and Colleges of Education in South-East Nigeria. A follow-up result also showed that intervention had a significant effect on participants' entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

Development of novel pyrimidine nucleoside analogs as potential anticancer agents: Synthesis, characterization, and In-vitro evaluation against pancreatic cancer.

The present study proposed modification of 5-FU by conjugation with an acyl chloride and a 5-membered heterocyclic ring to improve its in-vitro cytotoxicity and metabolic stability. XYZ-I-71 and XYZ-I-73 were synthesized by introducing a tetrahydrofuran ring on 5-fluorocytosine (a precursor of 5-FU) and conjugation with octanoyl chloride and lauroyl chloride, respectively. The structure of the synthesized compounds was validated using NMR and micro-elemental analysis. The antiproliferative activity of the analogs was determined against MiaPaCa-2, PANC-1, and BxPC-3 pancreatic cancer cells. The analog's stability in human liver microsomes was quantified by HPLC. We found that the XYZ-I-73 (IC50 3.6 ± 0.4 µM) analog was most effective against MiaPaCa-2 cells compared to XYZ-I-71(IC50 12.3 ± 1.7 µM), GemHCl (IC50 24.2 ± 1.3 µM), Irinotecan (IC50 10.1 ± 1.5 µM) and 5-FU (IC50 13.2 ± 1.1 µM). The antiproliferative effects of this analog in Miapaca-2 cells is evident based on it having a 7-fold,3-fold, and 4-fold increased cytotoxic effect over Gem-HCl, Irinotecan, and 5-FU, respectively. On the other hand, XYZ-I-71 exhibited a 2-fold increased cytotoxic effect over Gem-HCl but a comparable cytotoxic effect to 5-FU and Irinotecan in MiaPaCa-2 cells. A similar trend of higher XYZ-I-73 inhibition was observed in PANC-1 and BxPC-3 cultures. For 48-h MiaPaCa-2 cell migration studies, XYZ-I-73 (5 µM) significantly reduced migration (# of migrated cells, 168 ± 2.9), followed by XYZ-I-71(315±2.1), Gem-HCl (762±3.1) and 5-FU (710 ± 3.2). PARP absorbance studies demonstrated significant inhibition of PARP expression of XYZ-I-73 treated cells compared to 5-FU, GemHCl, and XYZ-I-71. Further, BAX and p53 expressions were significantly increased in cells treated with XYZ-I-73 compared to 5-FU, GemHCl, and XYZ-I-71. In-vitro, metabolic stability studies showed that 80 ± 5.9% of XYZ-I-71 and XYZ-I-73 remained intact after 2 h exposure in liver microsomal solution compared to 5-FU. The XYZ-I-73 analog demonstrated a remarkable cytotoxic effect and improved in-vitro metabolic stability over the selected standard drugs and may have potential anticancer activity against pancreatic cancer.

Effect of psychological intervention in cushioning work-induced stress among secondary school home economics teachers: Implications for policy and administration.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Work demands in the contemporary Nigerian work environment are a critical concern to many including occupational stress researchers. This informed the current study to investigate the effect of psychological intervention in cushioning teachers' stress in public secondary schools in Nigeria. METHODS: A randomized control design was applied. The participants were 80 secondary school home economics teachers. They were randomized into 2 groups, that is, treatment and waitlisted arms. The former was designed as a 12-session cognitive behavior intervention while the latter was waitlisted and the members received theirs at the end of the study. Both group members were evaluated at the pretest, posttest, and follow-up test to understand the baseline of the problem, treatment outcome, and sustainability respectively. Perceived Stress Scale and Teacher irrational belief scale were used as test tools. Data from the 3-time tests were analyzed using multivariate statistic. RESULTS: The main effect results showed a significant reduction in teachers' stress and irrational beliefs due to cognitive behavior intervention. The follow-up test results also indicate that the impactful benefit of cognitive behavioral intervention on job stress reduction was significantly sustained over time. Regarding the influence of gender, the result shows no significant influence of gender on teachers' job stress in schools. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that cognitive behavior intervention can decrease work-induced stress among secondary school home economics teachers. Therefore, the management of schools is enjoined to deploy the services of cognitive behavior therapists to monitor the mood and mental health of teachers.

Impact of stress coping strategy in modifying perceptions of school stress among adult learners enrolled in Home Economics and Indigenous Textiles Education in Nigerian Universities.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Studying some professions is so demanding that if not well managed it leads to severe stress, withdrawal, burnout, and other health-related problems. Hence, practical engagement and exhibition of catering, cooking, and home management are so tasking as they are time-consuming and very intensive. Many students in the specialties experience excess academic loads and internal and external demands. Given these, this study tested the impact of cognitive behavior coping strategy on school stress among adult learners enrolled in Home Economic and Indigenous Textile Education. METHODS: A pretest-posttest randomized control group design was applied. Ninety-five students (43 [45.3%] males; 52 [54.7%] females) participated in the current study. Stress assessment was induced and then students were randomly allocated to the cognitive behavior coping strategy group and the waitlist conditions. Later, students on the waitlist received the cognitive behavior coping strategy contents. Data collected were analyzed using analysis of covariance. RESULTS: Results showed that at pretest, there was no significant difference among the participants in the 2 groups as measured by Educational Stress Scale and Perceived Stress Scale scores. However, the post-intervention test result showed a long-term impact of cognitive behavior coping strategy in improving the management of school stress among students. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that cognitive behavior coping strategy has a long-term impact on modifying the students' perception of school stress in a sample of adult learners enrolled in Home Economic and Indigenous Textile Education.

Commensal myeloid crosstalk in neonatal skin regulates long-term cutaneous type 17 inflammation.

Early life microbe-immune interactions at barrier surfaces have lasting impacts on the trajectory towards health versus disease. Monocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells are primary sentinels in barrier tissues, yet the salient contributions of commensal-myeloid crosstalk during tissue development remain poorly understood. Here, we identify that commensal microbes facilitate accumulation of a population of monocytes in neonatal skin. Transient postnatal depletion of these monocytes resulted in heightened IL-17A production by skin T cells, which was particularly sustained among CD4+ T cells into adulthood and sufficient to exacerbate inflammatory skin pathologies. Neonatal skin monocytes were enriched in expression of negative regulators of the IL-1 pathway. Functional in vivo experiments confirmed a key role for excessive IL-1R1 signaling in T cells as contributing to the dysregulated type 17 response in neonatal monocyte-depleted mice. Thus, a commensal-driven wave of monocytes into neonatal skin critically facilitates long-term immune homeostasis in this prominent barrier tissue.

Long-term tolerance to skin commensals is established neonatally through a specialized dendritic cell subgroup.

Early-life establishment of tolerance to commensal bacteria at barrier surfaces carries enduring implications for immune health but remains poorly understood. Here, we showed that tolerance in skin was controlled by microbial interaction with a specialized subset of antigen-presenting cells. More particularly, CD301b+ type 2 conventional dendritic cells (DCs) in neonatal skin were specifically capable of uptake and presentation of commensal antigens for the generation of regulatory T (Treg) cells. CD301b+ DC2 were enriched for phagocytosis and maturation programs, while also expressing tolerogenic markers. In both human and murine skin, these signatures were reinforced by microbial uptake. In contrast to their adult counterparts or other early-life DC subsets, neonatal CD301b+ DC2 highly expressed the retinoic-acid-producing enzyme, RALDH2, the deletion of which limited commensal-specific Treg cell generation. Thus, synergistic interactions between bacteria and a specialized DC subset critically support early-life tolerance at the cutaneous interface.

Evaluation of Anticancer Activity of Zhubech, a New 5-FU Analog Liposomal Formulation, against Pancreatic Cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is projected to be the second leading cause of cancer-related death by 2030 in the US. The benefits of the most common systemic therapy for various pancreatic cancers have been masked by high drug toxicities, adverse reactions, and resistance. The use of nanocarriers such as liposomes to overcome these unwanted effects has become very popular. This study aims to formulate 1,3-bistertrahydrofuran-2yl-5FU (MFU)-loaded liposomal nanoparticles (Zhubech) and to evaluate itsstability, release kinetics, in vitro and in vivo anticancer activities, and biodistribution in different tissues. Particle size and zeta potential were determined using a particle size analyzer, while cellular uptake of rhodamine-entrapped liposomal nanoparticles (Rho-LnPs) was determined by confocal microscopy. Gadolinium hexanoate (Gd-Hex) was synthesized and entrapped into the liposomal nanoparticle (LnP) (Gd-Hex-LnP), as a model contrast agent, to evaluate gadolinium biodistribution and accumulation by LnPs in vivo using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The mean hydrodynamic diameters of blank LnPs and Zhubech were 90.0 ± 0.65 nm and 124.9 ± 3.2 nm, respectively. The hydrodynamic diameter of Zhubech was found to be highly stable at 4 °C and 25 °C for 30 days in solution. In vitro drug release of MFU from Zhubech formulation exhibited the Higuchi model (R2 value = 0.95). Both Miapaca-2 and Panc-1 treated with Zhubech showed reduced viability, two- or four-fold lower than that of MFU-treated cells in 3D spheroid (IC50Zhubech = 3.4 ± 1.0 µM vs. IC50MFU = 6.8 ± 1.1 µM) and organoid (IC50Zhubech = 9.8 ± 1.4 µM vs. IC50MFU = 42.3 ± 1.0 µM) culture models. Confocal imaging confirmed a high uptake of rhodamine-entrapped LnP by Panc-1 cells in a time-dependent manner. Tumor-efficacy studies in a PDX bearing mouse model revealed a more than 9-fold decrease in mean tumor volumes in Zhubech-treated (108 ± 13.5 mm3) compared to 5-FU-treated (1107 ± 116.2 mm3) animals, respectively. This study demonstrates that Zhubech may be a potential candidate for delivering drugs for pancreatic cancer treatment.

Feeling Not Wanted/Loved and Depression: Does Gender Matter?

Depression affects over 17 million American adults yearly and has been identified as the leading cause of disability in people between the ages of 15 and 44 years. There is evidence that feeling neglect or a lack of parental attachment during childhood is associated with depression. One construct that has been overlooked is love from a parent. The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between individuals who felt not wanted/loved during adolescence and lifetime depression and to examine this association by gender. We examined 5114 participants aged 24-32 years at Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) public use dataset. We used logistic regression analysis to determine the association between an individual feeling not wanted/loved by their parent/caregiver prior to age 18, covariates, and lifetime depression. We then stratified by gender and ran logistic models for both men and women separately. Overall, 16.2% (n = 827) reported lifetime depression diagnosis, while 16.5% of the participants reported feeling not wanted/loved "often," while 29.8% reported it as "sometimes." Feeling not wanted/loved "often" was associated with higher odds of depression (AOR = 3.00; 95% CI, 2.45-3.66; p < .001) versus "sometimes" (AOR = 1.59; 95% CI, 1.31-1.90; p < .001). When stratified by gender, feeling not loved/wanted was associated with depression among both men (AOR = 3.70; 95% CI, 2.60-5.25; p < .001) and women (AOR = 2.73; 95% CI, 2.13-3.48; p < .001). Feeling not loved or wanted by a parent/caregiver during adolescence has serious implications, for both men and women. Future studies should further examine this construct and identify family-based interventions that focus on parent/caregiver and child relationships.

FLG Deficiency in Mice Alters the Early-Life CD4+ T-Cell Response to Skin Commensal Bacteria.

FLG variants underlie ichthyosis vulgaris and increased risk of atopic dermatitis, conditions typified by disruption of the skin microbiome and cutaneous immune response. Yet, it remains unclear whether neonatal skin barrier compromise because of FLG deficiency alters the quality of commensal-specific T cells and the functional impact of such responses. To address these questions, we profiled changes in the skin barrier and early cutaneous immune response of neonatal C57BL/6 Flg‒/‒ and wild-type mice using single-cell RNA sequencing, flow cytometry, and other modalities. Flg‒/‒ neonates showed little alteration in transepidermal water loss or lipid- or corneocyte-related gene expression. However, they showed increases in barrier disruption genes, epidermal dye penetration, and numbers of skin CD4+ T cells. Using an engineered strain of Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis 2W) to study the response to neonatal skin colonization, we found that commensal-specific CD4+ T cells were skewed in Flg‒/‒ pups toward effector rather than regulatory T cells. This altered response persisted into adulthood, where it was typified by T helper 17 (Th17) cells and associated with increased susceptibility to imiquimod-induced skin inflammation. Thus, subtle but impactful differences in neonatal barrier function in Flg‒/‒ mice are accompanied by a skewed commensal-specific CD4+ response, with enduring consequences for skin immune homeostasis.

An Assessment of Systemic Factors and COVID-19 Mortality in Africa.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine the association between several country-level systemic indices and the deaths from COVID-19 across African countries. Method: Regression analyses were conducted to test the association between selected indices and deaths from COVID-19 across African countries. All tests were run at the α = 0.05 level of significance. Result: We found a statistically significant correlation between total COVID-19 deaths per million and Stringency Index (p-value <0.001) and Human Development Index (p-value <0.001). Multiple regression analysis showed that Stringency Index was the only variable that remained significant when other factors are controlled for in the model. Conclusion: Countries in Africa with poorer governance, inadequate pandemic preparedness and lower levels of development have unexpectedly fared better with respect to COVID-19 deaths mainly because of having a younger population than the countries with better indices.

Intestinal inflammation alters the antigen-specific immune response to a skin commensal.

Resident microbes in skin and gut predominantly impact local immune cell function during homeostasis. However, colitis-associated neutrophilic skin disorders suggest possible breakdown of this compartmentalization with disease. Using a model wherein neonatal skin colonization by Staphylococcus epidermidis facilitates generation of commensal-specific tolerance and CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs), we ask whether this response is perturbed by gut inflammation. Chemically induced colitis is accompanied by intestinal expansion of S. epidermidis and reduces gut-draining lymph node (dLN) commensal-specific Tregs. It also results in reduced commensal-specific Tregs in skin and skin-dLNs and increased skin neutrophils. Increased CD4+ circulation between gut and skin dLN suggests that the altered cutaneous response is initiated in the colon, and resistance to colitis-induced effects in Cd4creIl1r1fl/fl mice implicate interleukin (IL)-1 in mediating the altered commensal-specific response. These findings provide mechanistic insight into observed connections between inflammatory skin and intestinal diseases.

Association between per and polyfluoroalkyl substances and markers of inflammation and oxidative stress.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the association of Per and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and markers of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress. METHODS: Using data (n = 6652) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2012, generalized linear models were used to examine the association between PFAS and inflammatory (ferritin, alkaline phosphatase, C-reactive protein, absolute neutrophil count and lymphocyte count) and oxidative stress (serum bilirubin, albumin and iron) per unit exposure to PFAS while adjusting for covariates. Study participants were those ≥20 years of age. Outcome variables were markers of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress and exposure variables were PFAS. RESULLTS: Percentage change in Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), and Perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) were all significantly associated with percentage increases in lymphocyte counts, beta (95% confidence interval); 0.04(0.02,0.05), 0.04(0.02,0.05), 0.05(0.03, 0.07), 0.04(0.03,0.05), 0.03(0.13,1.23) and with percentage increases in serum iron 0.07(0.05,0.09), 0.04(0.02,0.07), 0.10(0.07,0.12), 0.05(0.03,0.07), 0.04(0.02,0.06) and increased serum albumin 0.02(0.02,0.02), 0.02(0.02,0.03), 0.03(0.03,0.04), 0.02(0.017, 0.025), 0.01 (0.01, 0.05). Only PFHxS, PFNA, PFOA and PFOS were associated with percentage increases in serum total bilirubin 0.04(0.03,0.05), 0.02(0.00,0.03), 0.06(0.04,0.08), 0.03(0.02,0.05). Similar results were obtained for categorical quintile analysis with PFOA showing a significant trend (P < 0.001) with lymphocyte count, serum iron, serum total bilirubin and serum albumin. Trend for neutrophil count was not significant (p = 0.183). CONCLUSION: Per and Polyfluoroalkyl substances are associated with markers of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress. Increased exposure leads to increase in serum concentration of these markers meaning these chemicals are associated with both chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.

Risk and protective factors for intention of contraception use among women in Ghana.

The use of various forms of contraception in Ghana gained prominence after the government resorted to investing more in family planning programs when maternal mortality was declared an emergency in the country. In Ghana, the intention to use and actual usage of contraceptives is influenced by many factors, which may lead to non-usage or discontinuation. This quantitative study was conducted to determine risk and protective factors impacting on the intention and usage of contraceptives. Survey data from the Ghana 2014 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) (n = 9396) was used. A sub-sample of 7661 women in their reproductive age were included in this study, who reported being sexually active within the last year. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to test the association between a broad range of risk and protective factors including religion, early sexual intercourse, frequency of sex, number of lifetime sexual partners with intention to use contraception. We controlled for income, educational attainment, and age. Overall (n = 3661; 47.8%) reported no intention of contraception use. Logistic regression analysis revealed that no formal education (OR = 1.49; 95% CI, 1.29-1.72; p < 0.001), and primary school as highest educational level (OR = 1.19; 95% CI, 1.04-1.25; p < 0.001), Islamic religion (OR = 0.73; 95% CI, 0.59-0.90; p < 0.001), not currently employed (OR = 1.50; 95% CI, 1.34-1.69; p < 0.001), husband opposing contraception use (OR = 2.19; 95% CI, 1.42-3.46; p < 0.001), and currently pregnant (OR = 1.30; 95% CI, 1.09-1.54; p < 0.001) were also positively associated with no intention of use. Engaging religious leaders for advocacy in the community was identified as an approach to address barriers and increase awareness on contraceptive use. Targeted family planning programs should intensify public education on safe sex behaviors.