On 31 December 2019, an epidemic of pneumonia of unknown aetiology was first reported in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China. A rapidly progressing epidemic of COVID-19 ensued within China, with multiple exportations to other countries. We aimed to measure perceptions and responses towards COVID-19 in three countries to understand how population-level anxiety can be mitigated in the early phases of a pandemic. Between February and March 2020, we conducted online surveys in Singapore, China and Italy with a total of 4505 respondents to measure respondents' knowledge, perceptions, anxiety and behaviours towards the COVID-19 epidemic, and identified factors associated with lower anxiety and more positive behavioural responses. Respondents reported high awareness of COVID-19 and its accompanying symptoms, comparable information-seeking habits and similarly high levels of information sufficiency, adherence to and acceptance of public health control measures. Higher self-efficacy was associated with lower anxiety levels in all three countries, while willingness to comply with restrictive measures and greater information sufficiency were associated with more positive behavioural changes to reduce spread of infection. Population-level anxiety and behavioural responses to an outbreak can be influenced by information provided. This should be used to inform future outbreak preparedness plans, taking into account the importance of increasing population-level self-efficacy and information sufficiency to reduce anxiety and promote positive behavioural changes.Population-level anxiety and behavioural responses to an outbreak can be influenced by information provided. This should be used to inform future outbreak preparedness plans, taking into account the importance of increasing population-level self-efficacy and information sufficiency to reduce anxiety and promote positive behavioural changes.This study addresses the effect of D-galactose-induced toxicity associated senescence mitigated by alpinate oxyphyllae fructus (AOF; Alpinia oxyphylla Miq) extracts fortified with adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) in rats. Male 18 week-old Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats were used in this study. We analyzed cardiac fibrosis by Masson's trichrome staining. The tissue sections were dyed using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). Tissue sections were stained for the restoration of Nrf2 expression in treatment groups by immunohistochemistry. Immunohistochemistry and western blotting analysis showed that AOF with ADMSCs could significantly reduce aging-induced oxidative stress in D-galactose-induced aging rat hearts by inducing Nrf2 pathway. Reduction in ROS resulted in the suppression of inflammatory signals (p-NF-κB and IL-6). Histopathological studies were showed an increased interstitium and collagen accumulation in aging-induced heart sections. However, AOF and ADMSCs treated hearts were recovered from cardiac remodeling. Furthermore, hypertrophy and fibrosis associated markers were also significantly reduced (P less then  .05) in treatment groups. We speculate that ADMSCs might activate certain paracrine factors, which could target the upstream activator of aging associated cardiac complications and AOF might provide homing for these stem cells.Progesterone and its analogues are known to influence ventilation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of endogenous and pharmaceutical female sex hormones in ventilatory control during the activation of the metaboreflex, mechanoreflex, and CO2 chemoreflex. Women aged 18-30 taking (n = 14) or not taking (n = 12) oral contraceptives (OC and NOC, respectively) were tested in the low hormone (LH) and high hormone (HH) conditions corresponding to the early follicular and mid-luteal phases (NOC) or placebo and high-dose pills (OC). Women underwent three randomized trials (a) 3 min of passive leg movement (PLM), (b) 2 min of 40% maximal voluntary handgrip exercise followed by 2 min of post-exercise circulatory occlusion (PECO), and (c) 5 min of breathing 5% CO2 . We primarily measured hemodynamics and ventilation. During PLM, the OC group had a smaller pressor response (p = .012). During PECO, the OC group similarly exhibited a smaller pressor response (p = .043) and also exhibited a greater ventilatory response (p = .024). Muvalaplin Lastly, in response to breathing 5% CO2 , women in the HH phase had a greater ventilatory response (p = .022). We found that OC use attenuates the pressor response to both the metaboreflex and mechanoreflex while increasing the ventilatory response to metaboreflex activation. We also found evidence of an enhanced CO2 chemoreflex in the HH phase. We hypothesize that OC effects are from the chronic upregulation of pulmonary and vascular β-adrenergic receptors. We further suggest that the increased cyclic progesterone in the HH phase enhances the chemoreflex.Photoacoustic agents have been of vital importance for improving the imaging contrast and reliability against self-interference from endogenous substances. Herein, we synthesized a series of thiadiazoloquinoxaline (TQ)-based semiconducting polymers (SPs) with a broad absorption covering from NIR-I to NIR-II regions. Among them, the excited s-BDT-TQE, a repeating unit of SPs, shows a large dihedral angle and narrow adiabatic energy as well as low radiative decay, attributing to its strongly electron-deficient ester-substituted TQ-segment. In addition, its more vigorous molecular motions trigger a higher reorganization energy that further yields an efficient photoinduced nonradiative decay, which has been carefully examined and understood by theoretical calculation. Thus, BDT-TQE SP-cored nanoparticles with twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) feature exhibit a high NIR-II photothermal conversion efficiency (61.6 %) and preferable PA tracking of in situ hepatic tumor growth for more than 20 days. This study highlights a unique strategy for constructing efficient NIR-II photoacoustic agents via TICT-enhanced PNRD effect, advancing their applications for in vivo bioimaging.