Postnatal women's breastfeeding beliefs, practices, and support during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional comparative study across five countries.

BACKGROUND: Women with COVID-19 experienced numerous concerns and doubts about the safety of breastfeeding their babies, and lack of support may have impacted breastfeeding practices. This study aims to compare breastfeeding beliefs, practices, and contact with healthcare professionals regarding the level of postnatal feeding support provided during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. METHODS: A multi-country cross-sectional study was conducted with postnatal women in five countries. Women up to six months postpartum were invited to complete an online survey concerning the transmission of preventative measures, beliefs toward breastfeeding, infant feeding practices in the last 24 hours and experiences of postnatal infant feeding support between July to November 2021. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the association. RESULTS: Of the 3,253 eligible responses received, 39.5% of children were aged between one and two months, but in Taiwan (36%) and South Korea (42.8%) they were between three and four months. The mean of the belief score was significantly different among countries (p < 0.0001). Women in Brazil and the UK had a higher rate of breastfeeding at the breast (90.7% and 85.4%, respectively) compared to the three Asian countries (p < 0.0001) while feeding with expressed breastmilk in Thailand (59.9%), Taiwan (52.6%), and South Korea (50.4%) was higher than the others (p < 0.0001). Brazil and UK mothers (mean = 16.0 and 14.5 respectively) had a higher mean score for belief toward breastfeeding during the COVID-19 than the others. These results are inversely associated with breastfeeding but positively related to formula feeding practice. Postnatal feeding support during the COVID-19 pandemic was mainly provided by healthcare professionals (67.1%) and peers / family through face-to-face personal contact (51.6%) in all countries. CONCLUSION: Some differences were found in breastfeeding beliefs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Asian countries. A positive breastfeeding belief was associated with the practice of breastfeeding at the breast. Women from all countries received postpartum infant feeding support from health professionals and peers / family through personal contacts. Governments need to emphasize and disseminate the importance of breastfeeding safety, especially in Asian countries.

Betel quid chewing and its prevalence and determinants: data from Myanmar Demographic Health and Survey of 2015-2016.

BACKGROUND: Although betel quid chewing with tobacco use is one of the major behavioral risk factors for chronic diseases, the prevalence is rather on the increase in Myanmar. This study determined prevalence of betel quid chewing at the national and subnational levels and its associations with tobacco and sociodemographic factors. METHODS: This study is a secondary data analysis of Myanmar demographic health survey 2015-2016 with a total of 11 773 women and 4251 men aged 18-49 years. Chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression tests were performed. RESULTS: Prevalence of betel quid chewing was 61.8% in men and 19.5% in women and by regions it ranged from 34 to 82.2% and from 5-8 to 52.9%, respectively. The prevalence of the concurrent use with tobacco was 25.8 and 2.3%, respectively. Women with older age, low education and low wealth and occupation and living with spouse were associated with betel quid chewing, while low education, living with spouse and Myanmar speaker were associated with men. Tobacco use was inversely and positively associated with betel quid chewing in men and women, respectively (P-interaction <0.0001). CONCLUSION: Implementation of culturally sensitive intervention and policies including effective community awareness campaigns for anti-betel quid chewing is strongly recommended in Myanmar.

Experimental study of the potential hazards of surgical smoke from powered instruments.

BACKGROUND: Many surgical instruments have been replaced with powered devices in open gastrointestinal and laparoscopic surgery. The production of smoke as a result of vaporization of surgical tissue is inevitable, and exposure to surgical smoke is a long-standing concern. These vapours are potentially hazardous to patients and surgical teams. The present research was designed to compare various surgical devices to determine whether viable cells exist in their surgical smoke. METHODS: The search for viable cells in surgical smoke was conducted using both in vitro and in vivo experiments. Various cancers were cauterized with electrocautery, radiofrequency ablation and ultrasonic scalpels, and the resulting surgical smoke was aspirated with Transwell(®) membrane; viable cells were sought in the surgical smoke. In an in vivo experiment, samples of SCC7 were cauterized with an ultrasonic scalpel and the sediment from the rinsed Transwell(®) membrane liquid after centrifugation was injected subcutaneously into the lower back of mice. RESULTS: Viable cells were found only in the smoke from ultrasonic scalpels (in all 25 samples taken 5 cm from the cautery; 2 of 25 samples at 10 cm). Viable cells in the surgical smoke from ultrasonic scalpels implanted in mice grew in 16 of 40 injection sites. Histological and biochemical analyses revealed that these cancer cells were identical to the cancer cells cauterized by the ultrasonic scalpel. CONCLUSION: Viable tumour cells are produced in the surgical smoke from tumour dissection by ultrasonic scalpel. Surgical relevance Surgical smoke is a byproduct of dissection using a number of powered devices. Hazards to operating room personnel and patients are unclear. This study has shown that use of an ultrasonic dissection device can produce smoke that contains viable tumour cells. Although the model is somewhat artificial, a theoretical risk exists, and measures to evacuate surgical smoke efficiently are important.

Trends in the inequality of fruit and vegetable consumption between education levels indicated by the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to investigate whether an inequality in fruit and/or vegetable (FV) consumption exists between adults of different educational levels in Korea and whether this has changed over the past decade. SUBJECTS/METHODS: This study included adults ≥ 20 years) who participated in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1998-2009). The FV intakes were examined using 24-h dietary-recall surveys (n=35,725) and food frequency questionnaires (n=35,400). The relative index of inequality (RII) was used to examine the magnitude and trend of inequality in insufficient FV intake (<500 gram/day for total FV; <100 gram/day, less than once per day for fruits) between educational levels. RESULTS: The low-education group had lower intakes of total FV, vegetables excluding Kimchi and fruit (both by frequency and quantity), but higher intakes of Kimchi, in both sexes in most years in which surveys were conducted. This group also had a higher proportion of adults with insufficient total FV and fruit intakes. The inequality, as indicated by the RII, was apparent in both sexes and in each survey year. The inequality in insufficient total FV intake increased between 1998 and 2009 in both sexes (P<0.05). An increase in the inequality in fruit intake was only detected in women (P<0.0001 for frequency and P=0.0285 for quantity, from 2007 to 2009). CONCLUSION: There is a wide discrepancy in total FV and fruit consumption across education levels among Korean adults. This inequality has increased over time for total FV intake in both sexes and for fruit intake in women.

Identification of a novel HLA-B*40 allele, HLA-B*4071, by sequence-based typing.

HLA-B*4071 allele shows six nucleotides difference from B*4005 allele in exon 3 at nucleotides 419A>T, 420C>A, 463C>A, 477C>G, 486G>C and 527A>T, resulting in three amino acid changes Tyr116Leu, Arg131Ser and Glu152Val.

HLA-A*2634, a new allele identified by sequence-based typing in the Korean population.

A new HLA-A*2634 allele differs from A*260101 by a change from C to T at the nucleotide 559 of exon 3, with a coding change R163W.

Novel HLA-A*31 allele, A*3111 identified by sequence-based typing.

In this report, we describe the identification of an HLA-A*31 nucleotide sequence variant, a new HLA-A*3111, in three members of a Korean family by using sequence-based typing (SBT). The new allele was detected during routine HLA typing by high-resolution SBT. Allele A*3111 showed one nucleotide difference with A*310102 at codon 165 (GTG-->CTG) resulting in an amino acid change from valine to leucine (V165L). Serologic reactivity was shorter than normally expected.

Angiotensin and adrenoceptors in the hemodynamic response to aortic cross-clamping.

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that activation of adrenoceptors and/or the renin-angiotensin system plays an important role in the overall hemodynamic response to aortic cross-clamping. The experiments were performed on anesthetized rats pretreated with either saline (control group), an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (enalapril maleate, 2 mg/kg), an alpha 1-adrenergic antagonist (prazosin hydrochloride, 0.5 mg/kg), a beta-adrenergic antagonist (propranolol hydrochloride, 5 mg/kg), or an alpha 2-adrenergic antagonist (atipamezole, 5 mg/kg). Cross-clamping of the thoracic aorta was associated with an expected increase in mean arterial pressure and systemic vascular resistance in all animals. During the period of cross-clamping, cardiac output gradually decreased in all groups. Animals pretreated with the alpha 1-adrenergic antagonist or the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor developed hypertension of a lesser degree than the control animals, while rats pretreated with the beta-adrenergic or alpha 2-adrenergic antagonist demonstrated a greater arterial hypertension than the control animals. The possible mechanisms underlying the observed differences are discussed. In conclusion, the present study confirms the posed hypothesis that the reninangiotensin and sympathetic nervous systems play an important role in hemodynamic response to cross-clamping of the thoracic aorta.

A study on enzymatic reaction using a liquid emulsion membrane technique.

An enzymatic reaction using a liquid emulsion membrane technique was studied to investigate the effects of some experimental variables on the stability of liquid membrane, enzyme deactivation, and transport of substrates and products. The hydrolysis of L-phenylalanine methyl ester by alpha-chymotrypsin was selected as a model reaction system. First, a transport mechanism for the substrates and products across the membrane was qualitatively identified. Second, it was found that the pH of the internal phase was one of the most important variables to determine the enzyme activity in a liquid membrane. Third, the effect of membrane phase which consists of surfactant, carrier, and organic solvent on the emulsion stability was investigated. It was found that the properties of the organic solvents greatly affect the emulsion stability. For an optimum condition, it was possible to reuse the emulsion which consists of membrane phase and internal phase without further separation. It was finally concluded that the enzyme in a liquid membrane retained 60% of its native activity in spite of vigorous mixing during the emulsification step.