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When the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) began to ravage the world in 2019, the World Health Organization became concerned. The epidemic has a high mortality and contagion rate, with severe health and psychological impacts on frontline emergency medical service system practitioners. There are many hospital staff surveys, but few have covered the stress among emergency medical technicians. DASS-21, PSQI, and AUDIT questionnaires were used to evaluate the sources of psychological stress factors of firefighters in Taiwan. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the questionnaire content. We conducted questionnaire surveys from May 2022 to July 2022. Our sample comprised 688 participants. The odds ratios of increased depression, anxiety, and stress levels due to reduced family or peer understanding and support were 2.72 (95% CI: 1.50–4.92), p = 0.001; 2.03 (95% CI: 1.11–3.68), p = 0.021; and 3.27 (95% CI: 1.83–5.86), p < 0.001, respectively. The odds ratios of poor sleep quality due to depression, anxiety, and increased stress levels were 5.04 (3.18–7.99), p < 0.001; 2.44 (95% CI: 1.57–3.81), p < 0.001; and 4.34 (95% CI: 2.76–6.82), p-value < 0.001, respectively. During the COVID-19 pandemic, poor sleep quality and a lack of understanding and support from the Taiwan firefighting agency staff, family, or peers resulted in increased depression, anxiety, and stress levels.

Solute carrier family 9 isoform 3 (SLC9A3), a Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger, regulates the transepithelial absorption of Na⁺ and water and is primarily expressed on the apical membranes of the intestinal epithelium, renal proximal tubule, epididymis, and vas deferens. Loss of the Slc9a3 allele in mice enhances intestinal fluid and causes diarrhoea as a consequence of diminished Na⁺ and HCO₃- absorption. Hence, the loss also causes male infertility and reveals the abnormal dilated lumen of the rete testis and calcification in efferent ductules. However, whether loss of Slc9a3 alleles also disrupts mammalian spermatogenesis remains unknown. First, through immunoblotting, we determined that SLC9A3 is highly expressed in the murine testis compared with the small intestine, epididymis, and vas deferens. During murine spermatogenesis, SLC9A3 is specifically expressed in the acrosome region of round, elongating, and elongated spermatids through immunostaining. Furthermore, SLC9A3 signals are enriched in the acrosome of mature sperm isolated from the vas deferens. In Slc9a3 knockout (KO) mice, compared with the same-aged controls, the number of spermatids on the testicular section of the mice progressively worsened in mice aged 20, 35, and 60 days. Sperm isolated from the epididymis of Slc9a3 KO mice revealed severe acrosomal defects. Our data indicated that SLC9A3 has a vital role in acrosomal formation during spermiogenesis.

An efficient and eco-friendly injection-port tert-butyldimethylsilylated (TBDMS) derivatization and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was developed to determine triclosan (TCS, an antibacterial agent) in the samples of toothpaste, liquid hand-soap and facial cleansing cream. This on-line derivatization coupled ultrasonic extraction provides sensitivity, fast and reproducible results for TCS analysis. The accuracy and precision of the method was evaluated. The developed method was successfully applied to determine the content of TCS in selected personal care products.

An efficient and eco-friendly injection-port tert-butyldimethylsilylated (TBDMS) derivatization and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were developed to determine an antibacterial agent, triclosan (TCS), and its metabolite: methyltriclosan (MTCS), in wastewater and surface water samples. The effects of several parameters related to the TBDMS-derivatization process (i.e., injection-port temperature, residence time and volume of silylating agent) were investigated. This on-line derivatization-coupled large-volume (10 µL) sample introduction provides sensitive, fast and reproducible results for TCS residue analyses. Each water sample was extracted by reversed-phase C18 solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridge, and then the recovery efficiency was evaluated using various eluting solutions. Limits of quantitation (LOQs) for MTCS and TCS were 3.0 and 1.0 ng/L in 100 mL of water samples, respectively. Intra- and inter-batch precision with their accuracy were also investigated. The precision for these analytes, as indicated by relative standard deviations (RSDs), proved to be less than 7 and 11%, respectively, for intra- and inter-batch. Accuracy, expressed as the mean recovery, was between 80 and 95%. The method was then applied to environmental water samples, showing the occurrence of TCS in both surface water and municipal wastewater treatment plant (MWTP) influent/effluent samples.