Sanitized boundaries, sanitized homes: COVID-19 and the sporadic hyper-precarity of migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong.

This paper explores the "sporadic hyper-precarity" encountered by migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong when the city was hit by the Omicron outbreaks in early 2022. Migrant workers have long been suffering from job insecurity and structural vulnerability due to the contractization and flexibilization of work. The paper discusses how this structural vulnerability came to intersect with the health risks induced by the COVID pandemic. Adding to the debates of the structural precarity characterizing migrant work, we will further interrogate how workers are also susceptible to "sporadic hyper-precarity" - the kind of sporadic risks, uncertainty, vulnerabilities and stigmatization at times of crisis. The paper will elaborate on the "sanitized divide" and "care divide" between local families and domestic workers that has resulted in the unequal treatment of workers.

Rethinking the migration-development nexus in the post-COVID-19 era.

This concluding article serves as an epilogue summing up key issues about migration, labor migrants and development amid a crisis of public health. We predict the forging of an age of sanitization in which different kinds of sanitizing policies will still be in place, especially in Asia, to deal with the sporadic changes of the pandemic. Sanitization politics will continue to intersect with different policy sectors and powers, which will extend beyond the medical understanding of a pandemic and blur the division between science and politics. It will have varied impacts on the migration regime and global governance as a whole.

The politics of sanitization: Pandemic crisis, migration and development in Asia-Pacific.

COVID-19 has resulted in new anxieties about the risks and dangers involved in human mobility and forced governments to simultaneously re-engineer policies for temporary health control and longer-term border-crossing and migration policies; characterized by the sanitization of space and mobility. This special issue considers the policies, including health and non-health measures, that have impacts on migrant workers and migration. While COVID control measures are often phrased in medical language and policy discourses, they often serve multiple goals including political and social control. The papers in this issue cover different places in Asia and the Pacific. We propose the "politics of sanitization" as a conceptual framework to examine the multiple dimensions of state governance and the variegated impacts upon migrants, including: (1) sanitizing space and borders, (2) stigmatization and sanitizing migrants' bodies, (3) sanitizing ethnic borders and the national body, and (4) reorganizing the borders of sanitization and membership of society.

Adipose-derived stem cells and cancer cells fuse to generate cancer stem cell-like cells with increased tumorigenicity.

Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are a type of mesenchymal stem cells isolated from adipose tissue and have the ability to differentiate into adipogenic, osteogenic, and chondrogenic lineages. Despite their great therapeutic potentials, previous studies showed that ADSCs could enhance the proliferation and metastatic potential of breast cancer cells (BCCs). In this study, we found that ADSCs fused with BCCs spontaneously, while breast cancer stem cell (CSC) markers CD44+ CD24-/low EpCAM+ were enriched in this fusion population. We further assessed the fusion hybrid by multicolor DNA FISH and mouse xenograft assays. Only single nucleus was observed in the fusion hybrid, confirming that it was a synkaryon. In vivo mouse xenograft assay indicated that the tumorigenic potential of the fusion hybrid was significantly higher than that of the parent tumorigenic triple-negative BCC line MDA-MB-231. We had compared the fusion efficiency between two BCC lines, the CD44-rich MDA-MB-231 and the CD44-poor MCF-7, with ADSCs. Interestingly, we found that the fusion efficiency was much higher between MDA-MB-231 and ADSCs, suggesting that a potential mechanism of cell fusion may lie in the dissimilarity between these two cell lines. The cell fusion efficiency was hampered by knocking down the CD44. Altogether, our findings suggest that CD44-mediated cell fusion could be a potential mechanism for generating CSCs.

Identification and Growth Inhibitory Activity of the Chemical Constituents from Imperata Cylindrica Aerial Part Ethyl Acetate Extract.

Imperata cylindrica (L.) Raeusch. (IMP) aerial part ethyl acetate extract has anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic, and pro-oxidative effects towards colorectal cancer in vitro. The chemical constituents of IMP aerial part ethyl acetate extract were isolated using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and identified with tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) in combination with ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry and 400 MHz NMR. The growth inhibitory effects of each identified component on BT-549 (breast) and HT-29 (colon) cancer cell lines were evaluated after 48/72 h treatment by MTT assay. Four isolated compounds were identified as trans-p-Coumaric acid (1); 2-Methoxyestrone (2); 11, 16-Dihydroxypregn-4-ene-3, 20-dione (3); and Tricin (4). Compounds (2), (3), and (4) exhibited considerable growth inhibitory activities against BT-549 and HT-29 cancer cell lines. Compounds (2), (3), and (4) are potential candidates for novel anti-cancer agents against breast and colorectal cancers.

Peer Education Group Intervention to Reduce Psychological Insulin Resistance: A Pilot Mixed-Method Study in a Chinese Population.

INTRODUCTION: Psychological insulin resistance (PIR) is common among type II diabetes (DM) patients. Although interventions to reduce PIR have been suggested, there is no standardized intervention to reduce PIR. This trial aimed to assess the preliminary effectiveness of a well-structured interventional patient group (for sample size calculation for larger trials), as well as the acceptability and feasibility of this intervention group. METHODS: This study used a quasi-experimental, mixed-method approach. Fifty-three patients with DM were recruited to an interventional group that included a general education of DM and insulin, an insulin pen demonstration, and an insulin-using peer sharing session. Each group consisted of around 15 participants and lasted for 2 h each. The validated Chinese version of the insulin treatment appraisal scale (C-ITAS) was administered before, immediately after, and 1 month after the intervention to measure any changes in the participants' PIR. Patients were interviewed to assess the acceptability of the intervention until data saturation. RESULTS: Repeated measures ANOVA showed that the post-intervention C-ITAS scores (immediately post group and at 1 month) were lower than the pre-intervention C-ITAS scores (p < 0.001). Changes in multiple attitudes toward insulin were detected before and after the group intervention. Ten patient interviews were conducted and found that the intervention was welcomed by all interviewees; no discomfort or adverse reactions were reported. CONCLUSION: Preliminary results showed that patient intervention groups with general education, insulin pen demonstration, and peer sharing appeared to be safe, acceptable, and effective in reducing PIR. Larger multicenter trials are needed to generalize these findings.