The Singapore Green Plan 2030 was released by the Singapore government to set targets for sustainability by 2030. The adoption of novel technologies, processes and substances creates new jobs, and such developments bring about new challenges and risks for both employers and workers. Beyond emerging hazards, traditional hazards still remain, but they may take on new forms through new work processes. This review aims to provide an overview of the potential occupational health issues we may encounter or anticipate in these key sectors: solar energy, waste management and recycling, green buildings, electric vehicles and battery recycling, and sustainable fuels. While existing Occupational Safety and Health regulations in Singapore serve as a foundation, there may be gaps in addressing the specific hazards and risks associated with green jobs. In this review, we propose and outline possible approaches to the protection of worker safety and health.
Singapore ; Humans ; Occupational Health ; Recycling ; Waste Management ; Solar Energy ; Occupational Exposure

INTRODUCTION: Widespread mask use is an important intervention for control of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. However, data on the factors affecting mask use are lacking. In this observational study, we evaluated the proportion of and factors influencing face mask use and related hygiene practices. METHODS: We observed randomly selected members from the public in 367 venues across Singapore, and recorded the proportion of individuals with full compliance with mask use and mask hygiene (hand hygiene before and after touching the mask or face). Logistic regression analyses were used to determine variables associated with mask and hand hygiene compliance. RESULTS: We made 3,821 observations - 2,149 (56.2%) females, 3,569 (93.4%) adults (≥21 years), 212 (5.5%) children (6-20 years) and 40 (1.0%) children (2-5 years). The overall full compliance rate (correct mask use), poor compliance rate (incorrect mask use) and absent mask use were 84.5%, 12.9% and 2.6%, respectively. The factors - male gender, fabric mask usage and crowded indoor venues - were associated with lower mask compliance. Face or mask touching behaviour was observed in 10.7% and 13.7% of individuals observed, respectively. Only one individual performed hand hygiene before and after touching the mask. CONCLUSION The rate of mask compliance was high, probably due to legislation mandating mask usage. However, specific factors and crowded indoor venues associated with lower mask compliance were identified. We also noted an issue with the absence of hand hygiene before and after face or mask touching. These issues may benefit from targeted public health messaging.
Humans ; COVID-19/epidemiology* ; Singapore ; Masks ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Child ; Adolescent ; Hand Hygiene ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Young Adult ; Child, Preschool ; Pandemics/prevention & control* ; Middle Aged ; Patient Compliance/statistics & numerical data*

To address the increasing need for detecting and validating protein biomarkers in clinical specimens, mass spectrometry (MS)-based targeted proteomic techniques, including the selected reaction monitoring (SRM), parallel reaction monitoring (PRM), and massively parallel data-independent acquisition (DIA), have been developed. For optimal performance, they require the fragment ion spectra of targeted peptides as prior knowledge. In this report, we describe a MS pipe-line and spectral resource to support targeted proteomics studies for human tissue samples. To build the spectral resource, we integrated common open-source MS computational tools to assemble a freely accessible computational workflow based on Docker. We then applied the workflow to gen-erate DPHL, a comprehensive DIA pan-human library, from 1096 data-dependent acquisition (DDA) MS raw files for 16 types of cancer samples. This extensive spectral resource was then applied to a proteomic study of 17 prostate cancer (PCa) patients. Thereafter, PRM validation was applied to a larger study of 57 PCa patients and the differential expression of three proteins in prostate tumor was validated. As a second application, the DPHL spectral resource was applied to a study consisting of plasma samples from 19 diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients and 18 healthy control subjects. Differentially expressed proteins between DLBCL patients and healthy control subjects were detected by DIA-MS and confirmed by PRM. These data demonstrate that the DPHL supports DIA and PRM MS pipelines for robust protein biomarker discovery. DPHL is freely accessible at https://www.iprox.org/page/project.html?id=IPX0001400000.

It is not fully clear why there is a higher contribution of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) to the chimera produced by injection of PSCs into 4-cell or 8-cell stage embryos compared with blastocyst injection. Here, we show that not only embryonic stem cells (ESCs) but also induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can generate F0 nearly 100% donor cell-derived mice by 4-cell stage embryo injection, and the approach has a "dose effect". Through an analysis of the PSC-secreted proteins, Activin A was found to impede epiblast (EPI) lineage development while promoting trophectoderm (TE) differentiation, resulting in replacement of the EPI lineage of host embryos with PSCs. Interestingly, the injection of ESCs into blastocysts cultured with Activin A (cultured from 4-cell stage to early blastocyst at E3.5) could increase the contribution of ESCs to the chimera. The results indicated that PSCs secrete protein Activin A to improve their EPI competency after injection into recipient embryos through influencing the development of mouse early embryos. This result is useful for optimizing the chimera production system and for a deep understanding of PSCs effects on early embryo development.
Activins ; metabolism ; Animals ; Cells, Cultured ; Embryonic Development ; Germ Layers ; metabolism ; Mice ; Pluripotent Stem Cells ; cytology ; metabolism

Purpose: There are relatively few student-led medical conferences worldwide. A group of medical and nursing students from Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, organized an annual student-led faculty-supported inter-professional Student Medical-Nursing Education Conference (SMEC), which consisted of plenary talks, lectures and workshops, and a scientific competition. This research focused on the evaluation of workshops conducted during the 8th SMEC 2012. Method: The authors used various process variables to survey the conference participants on the educational value of the 4 plenary lectures and 20 workshops, half of which were run by experienced healthcare professionals and the other half by current seniors or recent graduates. Results: A total of 270 medical and nursing students completed the survey. Good to excellent educational value was reported for most of the workshops. Higher educational value was associated with use of props (correlation coefficient, r=0.733 and 0.568), adherence to workshop topic/focus (r=0.608 and 0.815) and openness of presenter to questions (r=0.555 and 0.453). Conclusion: A student-led, faculty-supported interprofessional conference organized by medical and nursing students had good to excellent self-reported education value in helping their fellow medical and nursing students learn about various healthcare disciplines and prepare for medical and nursing school.