Different dietary nutrients have distinct effects, including enhancing immune response activity and supporting mucous membrane integrity. These effects are critical in fighting against pathogenic agents, which cover coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the coronavirus disease that shuts down globally. Recent researches have shown that micronutrient deficiency is commonly associated with compromised immune responses, respiratory tract infections, or even susceptibility to COVID-19. The relationship between Vit A and infection is its role in mucosal epithelium integrity (skin and mucous membrane), the supplementation could be an option for assisted-treating the SARS-CoV-2 virus and a possible prevention of lung infection. Vit C/ascorbic acid stimulates oxygen radical scavenging activity of the skin and enhances epithelial barrier function. Ascorbic acid alone or with other natural compounds (baicalin and theaflavin) may inhibit the expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme II in human small alveolar epithelial cells and limited the entry of SARS-CoV-2. Vitamin D receptors can be expressed by immune cells, and different immune cells (macrophages, monocytes, dendritic cells, T cells, and B cells) can convert Vit D into its active form 1,25-(OH)2 D. Oral vitamin D intake can be a readily way to restrict the viral infection through downregulation of ACE2 receptor and to attenuate the disease severity by decreasing the frequency of cytokine storm and pulmonary pro-inflammatory response. Vit E supports T-cell mediated functions, optimization of Th1 response, and suppression of Th2 response. Vitamin E supplementation can lower the production of superoxides and may favors the antioxidants and benefit the progress of COVID-19 treatment. Zinc plays an essential role in both innate and adaptive immune systems and cytokine production, and Zinc-dependent viral enzymes to initiate the infectious process have proved the Zinc levels are directly associated with symptoms relieved of COVID-19. Iron is an essential component of enzymes involved in the activation of immune cells, lower iron levels predispose to severe symptoms of SARS-CoV-2, and monitoring the status can predict the disease severity and mortality. Selenium participates in the adaptive immune response by supporting antibody production and development. Deficiency can reduce antibody concentration, decreased cytotoxicity of NK cells, compromised cellular immunity, and an attenuated response to vaccination. The COVID-19 vaccines including three broad categories, protein-based vaccines, gene-based vaccines (mRNA vaccines and DNA vaccines), combination of gene and protein-based vaccines. Micronutrients are involved in immunity from the virus entering the human to innate immune response and adaptive immune response. Micronutrients are indispensable in immune response of vaccination.

Background: Most reproductive system studies suggest the protective effects of vitamin D, but vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency are growing global health issues. The present study investigates the association between vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency and gynecologic diseases to identify illness risks at different serum vitamin D levels in Taiwan. Methods: A total of 7699 female adults aged ≥20 years with results for both serum vitamin D and gynecologic-associated diseases were drawn from the Taiwan MJ cohort. We analyzed the correlation between serum vitamin D levels and results from reproductive system evaluations, including history of dysmenorrhea, results of Pap smear, high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection of the cervix, mammography, and ultrasound of breast and pelvis. Results: Over 80% of participants showed vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency. Participants with abnormal Pap smear results, high-risk HPV infection, and history of dysmenorrhea showed significantly lower levels of serum vitamin D (p < 0.001–0.05). Serum vitamin D deficiency was significantly associated with positive high-risk HPV infection of the cervix (p < 0.05) and dysmenorrhea (p < 0.001). After controlling for age as a confounding variable for each gynecologic disease, level of serum vitamin D was significantly associated with abnormal breast ultrasound (odds ratio = 0.724) and uterus ultrasound (odds ratio = 0.673 – 0.8), and dysmenorrhea (odds ratio = 0.829). Conclusion: Associations were found between vitamin D deficiency and endometriosis, uterine myoma, dysmenorrhea, abnormal Pap smear results, and high-risk HPV infection of the cervix. Therefore, vitamin D supplements may present a cost-effective benefit for the prevention and treatment of gynecologic diseases, and thus reduction of healthcare expenditures.

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A reservoir is an integrated water resource management infrastructure that can be used for water storage, flood control, power generation, and recreational activities. Predicting reservoir levels is critical for water supply management and can influence operations and intervention strategies. Currently, the water supply monitoring index is used to warn the water level of most reservoirs. However, there is no precise calculation method for the current water supply monitoring index to warn about the adequacy of the domestic water demand. Therefore, taking Feitsui Reservoir as an example, this study proposes a new early warning water survival index (WSI) to warn users whether there is a shortage of domestic water demand in the future. The calculation of WSI was divided into two stages. In the first stage, the daily rainfall, daily inflow, daily outflow, and daily water level of the Feitsui Reservoir were used as input variables to predict the water level of the Feitsui Reservoir by the machine learning method. In the second stage, the interpolation method was used to calculate the daily domestic water demand in Greater Taipei. Combined with the water level prediction results of the Feitsui Reservoir in the first stage, the remaining estimated days of domestic water supply from the Feitsui Reservoir to Greater Taipei City were calculated. Then, the difference between the estimated remaining days of domestic water demand and the moving average was converted by the bias ratio to obtain a new WSI. WSI can be divided into short-term bias ratios and long-term bias ratios. In this study, the degree of the bias ratio of WSI was given in three colors, namely, condition blue, condition green, and condition red, to provide users with a warning of the shortage of domestic water in the future. The research results showed that compared with the existing water supply monitoring index, the new WSI proposed in this study can faithfully present the warning of the lack of domestic water demand in the future.

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy and early detection of ovarian cancer is important for prognosis. Human epididymal secretory protein 4 (HE4) elevation has been studied as a crucial biomarker for ovarian cancer. There are currently many organic pollutants in the environment including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The purpose of our study was to reveal the effects of PAHs and HE4 on the risk of ovarian cancer.The potential pathogenic mechanism of PAHs for ovarian cancer is inferred to be mediated by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) present in the different ovarian cells. Subsequent AhR signaling pathways are promising carcinogenic with higher performance of AhR in ovarian cancer cell lines. The results indicated the PAH exposure was associated with elevated HE4 levels and a higher risk of ovarian cancer.