Nosocomial transmission of COVID-19 among immunocompromised hosts can have a serious impact on COVID-19 severity, underlying disease progression and SARS-CoV-2 transmission to other patients and healthcare workers within hospitals. We experienced a nosocomial outbreak of COVID-19 in the setting of a daycare unit for paediatric and young adult cancer patients. Between 9 and 18 November 2020, 473 individuals (181 patients, 247 caregivers/siblings and 45 staff members) were exposed to the index case, who was a nursing staff. Among them, three patients and four caregivers were infected. Two 5-year-old cancer patients with COVID-19 were not severely ill, but a 25-year-old cancer patient showed prolonged shedding of SARS-CoV-2 RNA for at least 12 weeks, which probably infected his mother at home approximately 7–8 weeks after the initial diagnosis. Except for this case, no secondary transmission was observed from the confirmed cases in either the hospital or the community. To conclude, in the day care setting of immunocompromised children and young adults, the rate of in-hospital transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was 1.6% when applying the stringent policy of infection prevention and control, including universal mask application and rapid and extensive contact investigation. Severely immunocompromised children/young adults with COVID-19 would have to be carefully managed after the mandatory isolation period while keeping the possibility of prolonged shedding of live virus in mind.

We describe an ultra-wide-bandwidth, low-frequency receiver recently installed on the Parkes radio telescope. The receiver system provides continuous frequency coverage from 704 to 4032 MHz. For much of the band ( ${\sim}60\%$ ), the system temperature is approximately 22 K and the receiver system remains in a linear regime even in the presence of strong mobile phone transmissions. We discuss the scientific and technical aspects of the new receiver, including its astronomical objectives, as well as the feed, receiver, digitiser, and signal processor design. We describe the pipeline routines that form the archive-ready data products and how those data files can be accessed from the archives. The system performance is quantified, including the system noise and linearity, beam shape, antenna efficiency, polarisation calibration, and timing stability.

Recent analyses of Lee et al. (2018, 2019) have confirmed that Galactic bulge consists of stellar populations originated from Milky Way globular clusters (MWGCs). Motivated by this, here we present the evolutionary population synthesis (EPS) for the Galactic bulge and early-type galaxies (ETGs) with the realistic treatment of individual variations in light elements observed in the MWGCs. We have utilized our model with GC-origin populations to explain the CN spread observed in ETGs, and the results show remarkable matches with the observations. We further employ our model to estimate the age of ETGs, which are considered as good analogs for the MW bulge. We find that, without the effect of our new treatments, EPS models will almost always underestimate the true age of ETGs. Our analysis indicates that the EPS with GC-origin populations is an essential constraint in determining the ETG formation epoch and is closely related to understanding the evolution of the Universe.

Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) is an important medicinal herb and has long been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of several diseases worldwide. Understanding the genetic diversity within Glycyrrhiza species is important for the efficient conservation of these medicinal herbs. In this study, we have developed 20 polymorphic chloroplast microsatellite (cpSSR) markers using the chloroplast genome of G. lepidota. The cpSSR markers were tested on a total of 27 Glycyrrhiza individual plants. The number of alleles per locus ranged from two to eight among the Glycyrrhiza accessions. Overall, the Shannon index (I) for each cpSSR ranged from 0.315 to 1.694, the diversity indices (h) were 0.140–0.793 and the unbiased diversity indices (uh) were 0.145–0.825. In addition, the cpSSR markers were successfully divided and classified the 27 Glycyrrhiza individuals into four groups. The cpSSR markers developed in this study could be used in the assessment of genetic diversity and rapid identification of Glycyrrhiza species.

Despite the potential as a promising alternative to CdTe and Cu(In,Ga)Se2, the kesterite compound Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) presents a critical challenge mainly from its high open-circuit voltage (Voc) deficit. Indeed, the Voc of the record CZTSSe solar cell to date has accounted for only 61% of that calculated by the Shockley–Queisser limit, whose origin can be ascribed to nonradiative recombination from a high density of defects and secondary phases. Therefore, an atomistic understanding and characterization of CZTSSe is highly essential to overcoming the current shortcomings in kesterite. This review discusses the advanced characterization techniques for studying the intrinsic properties of kesterite at a nanometer scale. Moreover, a cation substitution with an ionic mismatch around constituents is recognized as an effective route to address the fundamental limit (i.e., the cationic disorder) in CZTSSe. Here, we review recent studies on a novel chalcogenide Cu2BaSn(S,Se)4 that substitutes Zn with Ba and results in less cationic disordering.

Age difference in the etiology of the relationship between childhood negative emotionality (NE) and conduct problems (CP) has not been previously investigated. Mothers of 662 pairs of twins completed questions on the emotionality (NE) scale of the EAS temperament survey and the CP scale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) via a telephone interview. Twin data were analyzed separately in younger (ages 3 to 7 years; mostly pre-schoolers) and older children (ages 8 to 13 years; mostly elementary school children). The phenotypic correlation between NE and CP increased from 0.33 among younger twins to 0.43 among older twins. Bivariate model-fitting analysis was performed to determine age difference in the etiology of the relationship between NE and CP. Among younger twins, the correlation between NE and CP was entirely explained by additive genetic factors common to NE and CP. Among older children, however, a small but significant amount of unique environmental correlation emerged to account for about 47% of the phenotypic correlation between NE and CP. The remaining 53% of the phenotypic correlation was due to shared additive genetic factors. We speculate that environmental factors associated with school adjustment may exert influences on the relationship between NE and CP among elementary school children.

We present an algorithm for offsetting the workspace obstacles of a circular robot. Our method has two major steps: It finds the raw offset curve for both lines and circular arcs, and then removes the global invalid loops to find the final offset. To generate the raw offset curve and remove global invalid loops, O(n) and O((n+k)log m) computational times are needed respectively, where n is the number of vertices in the original polygon, k is the number of self-intersections and m is the number of segments in the raw offset curve, where m ≤ n. Any local invalid loops are removed before generating the raw offset curve by invoking a pair-wise intersection detection test (PIDT). In the PIDT, two intersecting entities are checked immediately after they are computed, and if the test is positive, portions of the intersecting segments are removed. Our method works for conventional polygons as well as the polygons that contain circular arcs. Our algorithm is simple and very fast, as each sub-process of the algorithm can be completed in linear time except the last one, which is nearly linear. Therefore, the overall complexity of the algorithm is nearly linear. By applying our simple and efficient approach, offsetting obstacles of any shape make it possible to construct a configuration space that ensures optimized motion planning.

The South Korean Twin Registry (SKTR) is an ongoing nation-wide volunteer registry of South Korean twins and their families, which was established in the year 2001 to understand genetic and environmental etiologies of psychological and physical traits among South Koreans. Recently, the SKTR sampling has been extended in two important ways. First, we began to recruit twins from lower socio-economic families to study interaction effects of gene by environmental context. Second, as a parallel study of the SKTR, the Nigerian Twin and Sibling Registry was developed to understand the origin of the population group differences/similarities in psychological traits between South Koreans and Nigerians. This article summarizes the main findings (based on the SKTR sample to date), recruitment procedures, zygosity assessment, measures, and future plans for the SKTR.

Twin studies of Africans have been scarce although Africans have shown the highest twin birth rate in the world. As a parallel study of the South Korean Twin Registry, the Nigerian Twin and Sibling Registry (NTSR) was developed to understand causal influences on the development of cognitive abilities, personality, and mental health among Nigerians. Currently, 1,134 twins and 404 full- and half-siblings have been registered with NTSR. This article describes research background, goals, major recruitment strategies, measures, and future directions of the NTSR.

We present new population synthesis models (Chung et al.2011) for quiescent early-type galaxies (ETGs) with UV-upturn phenomenon using relatively metal-poor and helium-enhanced subpopulations in the model. We find that the presence of helium-enhanced subpopulations in ETGs can naturally reproduce the strong UV-upturns observed in giant elliptical galaxies (Figure 1. left panel), without invoking unrealistically old ages (Park & Lee 1997). Our models with helium-enhanced subpopulations also predict that the well-known Burstein relation can be explained by the fraction of helium-enhanced subpopulation, the mean age, and the mean metallicity of the underlying stellar populations (Figure 1. right panel).

The prevalence of the feeling of cold hands and feet (FCHF) is high in the general population but the etiology of FCHF is largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to explore whether the FCHF is heritable. Eight hundred and ninety-four pairs of twins completed a question about FCHF. Tetrachoric correlations for FCHF were .58, .29, .67, .52, and .04 for monozygotic male, dizygotic male, monozygotic female, and dizygotic female twins, respectively. Model-fitting analyses suggested that in the best fitting model, additive genetic and nonshared environmental variance including measurement error were 64% (95% CI: 55%-72%) and 36% (28%-45%), respectively. Sex differences in genetic and environmental influences were not significant.

Background: This study examined the use of low doses of antipsychotic medications (300 mg/day CPZeq or less) in older Asian patients with schizophrenia and its demographic and clinical correlates.

Methods: Information on hospitalized patients with schizophrenia, aged 55 years or older, was extracted from the database of the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns (REAP) study (2001–2009). Data on 1,452 patients in eight Asian countries and territories including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, India, and Malaysia were analyzed. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and antipsychotic prescriptions were recorded using a standardized protocol and data collection procedure.

Results: The prescription frequency for low doses of antipsychotic medications was 40.9% in the pooled sample. Multiple logistic regression analysis of the whole sample showed that patients on low doses of antipsychotic medications were more likely to be female, have an older age, a shorter length of illness, and less positive symptoms. Of patients in the six countries and territories that participated in all the surveys between 2001 and 2009, those in Japan were less likely to receive low doses of antipsychotics.

Conclusion: Low doses of antipsychotic medications were only applied in less than half of older Asian patients with schizophrenia.

Recent studies indicate relatively high international rates of adjunctive psychotropic medication, including mood stabilizers, for patients with schizophrenia. Since such treatments are little studied in Asia, we examined the frequency of mood-stabilizer use and its clinical correlates among hospitalized Asian patients diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2001–2008. We evaluated usage rates of mood stabilizers with antipsychotic drugs, and associated factors, for in-patients diagnosed with DSM-IV schizophrenia in 2001, 2004 and 2008 in nine Asian regions: China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore. Overall, mood stabilizers were given to 20.4% (n=1377/6761) of hospitalized schizophrenia patients, with increased usage over time. Mood-stabilizer use was significantly and independently associated in multivariate logistic modeling with: aggressive behaviour, disorganized speech, year sampled (2008 vs. earlier), multiple hospitalizations, less negative symptoms, younger age, with regional variation (Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore>Taiwan or China). Co-prescription of adjunctive mood stabilizers with antipsychotics for hospitalized Asian schizophrenia patients increased over the past decade, and was associated with specific clinical characteristics. This practice parallels findings in other countries and illustrates ongoing tension between evidence-based practice vs. individualized, empirical treatment of psychotic disorders.