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This study evaluated the association between inflammatory diets as measured by the dietary inflammatory index (DII), and inflammation biomarkers, and the development of preeclampsia among the Chinese population. We followed the reporting guidelines of the STROBE statement for observational studies. A total of 466 preeclampsia cases aged over 18 years were recruited between March 2016 and June 2019, and 466 healthy controls were 1:1 ratio matched by age (± 3 years), week of gestation (± 1 week), and gestational diabetes mellitus. The energy-adjusted DII (E-DII) was computed based on dietary intake assessed using a 79-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Inflammatory biomarkers were analyzed by ELISA kits. The mean E-DII scores were -0.65 ± 1.58 for cases and -1.19 ± 1.47 for controls (P value <0.001). E-DII scores positively correlated with IFN-γ (rs = 0.194, P value = 0.001) and IL-4 (rs = 0.135, P value = 0.021). After multivariable adjustment, E-DII scores were positively related to preeclampsia risk (P trend <0.001). The highest tertile of E-DII was 2.18 times the lowest tertiles (95% CI = 1.52, 3.13). The odds of preeclampsia increased by 30% (95% CI= 18%, 43%, P value <0.001) for each E-DII score increase. The preeclampsia risk was positively associated with IL-2 (OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.03, 1.11), IL-4 (OR = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.03, 1.54) and TGF-β (OR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.06, 1.29). Therefore, proinflammatory diets, corresponding to higher IL-2, IL-4 and TGF-β levels, were associated with increased preeclampsia risk.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a heterogeneous autoimmune disorder that leads to severe joint deformities, negatively affecting the patient's quality of life. Extracellular vesicles (EVs), which include exosomes and ectosomes, act as intercellular communication mediators in several physiological and pathological processes in various diseases including RA. In contrast, EVs secreted by mesenchymal stem cells perform an immunomodulatory function and stimulate cartilage repair, showing promising therapeutic results in animal models of RA. EVs from other sources, including dendritic cells, neutrophils and myeloid-derived suppressor cells, also influence the biological function of immune and joint cells. This review describes the role of EVs in the pathogenesis of RA and presents evidence supporting future studies on the therapeutic potential of EVs from different sources. This information will contribute to a better understanding of RA development, as well as a starting point for exploring cell-free-based therapies for RA.
For individual cultures, findings on regulating embryo density by changing the microdrop volume are contradictory. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between embryo density and the developmental outcome of day 3 embryos after adjusting covariates. In total, 1196 embryos from 206 couples who had undergone in vitro fertilization treatment were analyzed retrospectively. Three embryo densities were used routinely, i.e. one embryo in a drop (30 μl/embryo), two embryos in a drop (15 μl/embryo) and three embryos in a drop (10 μl/embryo). Embryo quality on day 3 was evaluated, both the cell number of day 3 embryos and the proportion of successful implantations served as endpoints. Maternal age, paternal age, antral follicles and level of anti-Müllerian hormone, type of infertility, controlled ovarian stimulation protocol, length of stimulation, number of retrieved oocytes, number of zygotes (two pronuclei) and insemination type were covariates and adjusted. After adjusting fully for all covariates, the cell number of day 3 embryos was significantly increased by 0.40 (95% CI 0.00, 0.79; P = 0.048) and 0.78 (95% CI 0.02, 1.54; P = 0.044) in the 15 μl/embryo and 10 μl/embryo group separately, compared with the 30 μl/embryo group. The proportions of implanted embryos were 42.1%, 48.7% and 0.0% in the 30 μl/embryo, 15 μl/embryo and 10 μl/embryo groups respectively. There was no statistical significance (P = 0.22) between the 30 μl/embryo group and the 15 μl/embryo group. After adjusting for confounders that were significant in univariate analysis, embryo density was still not associated with day 3 embryo implantation potential (P > 0.05). In a 30-μl microdrop, culturing embryos with an embryo density of both 15 and 10 μl/embryo increased the cell number of day 3 embryos, which did not benefit embryo implanting potential, compared with individual culture of 30 μl/embryo.
We synthetically create option contracts on a corporate bond index using CDX swaptions, overcoming the limitations that stem from the lack of traded corporate bond options. Our approach allows us to estimate forward-looking moments concerning the corporate bond market in a model-free manner. By constructing an aggregate volatility measure and the associated variance risk premium, we examine the role of volatility risk in the corporate bond market. We highlight that the ex ante conditional second and higher moments we estimate from synthetic corporate bond options carry important implications for credit risk models, providing an extra basis for testing their validity.
In the presence of frictions, the existing literature shows that currency substitution is detrimental for domestic aggregate stability. This paper singles out the role of currency substitution and shows that diversified currency holdings operate as an automatic stabilizer that mitigates belief-driven cyclical fluctuations in Farmer’s (1997) indeterminate monetary economy. When the foreign inflation rate is lower than the domestic inflation rate, the model’s steady state always displays saddle-path stability. Hence, equilibrium indeterminacy originally present in the domestic country is entirely removed in the presence of diversified currency holdings. When the foreign inflation rate is higher than the domestic inflation rate, then depending on the degrees of currency substitution and relative risk aversion, indeterminacy is either impossible or the requisite level of the foreign inflation rate for indeterminacy is too high to square with data. The stabilizing effect of diversified currency holdings on domestic aggregate stability is robust to whether domestic and foreign currencies display as Edgeworth substitutes or complements, or are additively separable in the household’s preferences.
Positive attitudes and appropriate knowledge about dementia are essential for the provision of suitable dementia care. Children as future voters may take on a critical role to increase community awareness and knowledge about dementia. Guided by Chinese filial piety cultural virtues, Taiwanese children are taught to respect and care for family seniors and extend this respect to other seniors. Accordingly, young children are considered part of family dementia caregiving system, despite children rarely assume formal caregiver role and not directly provide care work. However, Taiwanese children may possess stigmatized attitudes toward dementia due to a lack of proper dementia knowledge.
Research Objective:
This study aims to survey Taiwanese children age 9-11 years old attitudes and knowledge to the concepts of dementia.
Methods:
A total of 312 Taiwanese children from 8 elementary schools in the south Taiwan, aged 9-11 years old, were surveyed to assess their knowledge and attitudes toward dementia. Participants completed The Kids Insight into Dementia (KIDS), which is a 5-scale questionnaire containing three factors, “Personhood”, “Stigma”, and “Dementia Understanding”. The data was analyzed using quantitative method.
Results:
The results show that Taiwanese children are unfamiliar with dementia as related to brain disease (M= 3.94, SD=2.91), Taiwanese children are unfamiliar about nursing home provision of care (M=3.97, SD=2.17), Taiwanese children do not know the course of dementia disease (M=3.34, SD-1.39). Participants scored high on the question of “people with dementia have hobbies and interests” (M=4.15, SD=1.22); Participants reported that they agreed less often with stigma attached to the people with dementia, including items of “I would feel a bit scared if I met someone dementia in the street” (M=2.70, SD=1.79), ”people with dementia can be creepy” (M=2.18, SD=1.71), “It would be annoying of frustrating to spend time with someone with dementia” (M=2.15, SD=1.17), “It is unlikely that I would meet someone with dementia” (M=2.36, SD=1.27).
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that Taiwanese children may express less stigmatized attitudes toward people with dementia and yet they report less understanding of concepts of personhood of people with dementia. Therefore, dementia education is necessary to increase dementia knowledge among school age children in Taiwan.
In this work, we investigated the labeling efficiency of hydrophilic (DAPI) and hydrophobic (Nile Red) fluorescent probes using uni- and bi-directional diffusion on porcine liver tissue sections on the order of a few hundred microns in thickness. Bi-directional diffusion significantly enhanced the penetration of probes. Although diffusion most accurately describes the labeling process, we found that after removal of the labeling molecules residual probe molecules in the tissue sections continued to be transported deeper into the tissue resulting in additional tissue constituents being labeled. Our study shows that bi-directional labeling can significantly enhance the labeling of thick tissues for applications in which structural information in three dimensions is needed.
To investigate the safety and feasibility of midazolam for conscious sedation in transcatheter device closure of atrial septal defects guided solely by transthoracic echocardiography.
Methods:
A retrospective analysis was performed on 55 patients who underwent transcatheter device closure of atrial septal defects from October, 2019 to May, 2020. All patients received intravenous midazolam and local anesthesia with lidocaine to maintain sedation. A group of previous patients with unpublished data who underwent the same procedure with general anesthesia was set as the control group. The relevant clinical parameters, the Ramsay sedation scores, the numerical rating scale, and the post-operative satisfaction questionnaire were recorded and analyzed.
Results:
In the midazolam group, the success rate of atrial septal defect closure was 98.2%. Hemodynamic stability was observed during the procedure. None of the patients needed additional endotracheal intubation for general anesthesia. Compared with the control group, the midazolam group had no statistically significant differences in the Ramsay sedation score and numerical rating scale scores. Patients in the midazolam group experienced more post-operative satisfaction than those in the control group.
Conclusions:
Conscious sedation using midazolam is a safe and effective anesthetic technique for transcatheter device closure of atrial septal defects guided solely by transthoracic echocardiography.
It has been shown that progressive income taxation may stabilize an otherwise standard representative-agent real business cycle model with an indeterminate steady state against aggregate fluctuations caused by agents’ animal spirits. By contrast, within an identical model that allows for sustained economic growth, progressive taxation could lead to equilibrium indeterminacy and sunspot-driven fluctuations. In the context of household heterogeneity that gives rise to income and asset inequality, the fiscal authority has (at least) two options of setting the baseline level of taxable income: (i) the economy-wide average level of income and (ii) the economy’s steady-state level of per capita income. I show that the adoption of a fiscal rule (i) invalidates the effects that a progressive tax can exert on the model’s local stability properties. Progressive income taxation thus no longer operates as an automatic stabilizer that mitigates belief-driven cyclical fluctuations in a no-growth economy, nor as an automatic destabilizer that leads to local indeterminacy in a sustained-growth economy. If a tax policy rule (ii) is instead adopted, then the existing literature’s findings of the (de)stabilizing roles of progressive taxation are robust to the inclusion of household heterogeneity.
NaY zeolite was synthesized from kaolin/dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) intercalation composites using an in situ crystallization technique. The effects of the intercalation ratios and the amounts of the kaolin/DMSO intercalation composite on the synthesis of an NaY zeolite molecular sieve were studied. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, differential thermal analysis, N2 adsorption–desorption and scanning electron microscopy. In the in situ synthesis system, when the kaolin/DMSO intercalation composite was added, pure NaY zeolite was formed. By increasing the amount of kaolin/DMSO intercalation composite added, the crystallinity of the samples increased, and after reaching the maximum amount of kaolin/DMSO intercalation composite added, the crystallinity decreased with further increases of the amount of kaolin/DMSO intercalation composite added. To higher intercalation ratio, the crystallinity can be greatly improved at the lower addition content. At an intercalation ratio of 84%, the added amount of kaolin/DMSO intercalation composite was 2.5% and the crystallinity of the NaY zeolite molecular sieve reached a maximum value of 45%. At intercalation ratios of 55% and 22%, the amount of kaolin/DMSO intercalation composite added was 15% and the crystallinities of the NaY zeolite molecular sieves were 44% and 47%, respectively. The NaY zeolite has good thermal stability and a particle diameter of ~0.5 μm. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area and pore volume of the sample were 519 m2 g–1 and 0.355 cm3 g–1, respectively.
This paper systematically examines the interrelations between equilibrium indeterminacy, endogenous entry and exit of intermediate input firms, and increasing returns to specialization within two versions of a parsimonious one-sector monopolistically competitive RBC model. The technology for producing an intermediate good is postulated to display internal increasing returns to scale in our benchmark framework, whereas positive productive externalities are considered in the alternative setting. We analytically show that either formulation will exhibit belief-driven cyclical fluctuations provided the equilibrium wage-hours locus is positively sloped and steeper than the household’s labor supply curve. We also find that ceteris paribus our alternative macroeconomy is more susceptible to indeterminacy and sunspots than the baseline counterpart.
Over recent decades, Chinese giant salamanders Andrias spp. have declined dramatically across much of their range. Overexploitation and habitat degradation have been widely cited as the cause of these declines. To investigate the relative contribution of each of these factors in driving the declines, we carried out standardized ecological and questionnaire surveys at 98 sites across the range of giant salamanders in China. We did not find any statistically significant differences between water parameters (temperature, dissolved oxygen, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, salinity, alkalinity, hardness and flow rate) recorded at sites where giant salamanders were detected by survey teams and/or had been recently seen by local respondents, and sites where they were not detected and/or from which they had recently been extirpated. Additionally, we found direct and indirect evidence that the extraction of giant salamanders from the wild is ongoing, including within protected areas. Our results support the hypothesis that the decline of giant salamanders across China has been primarily driven by overexploitation. Data on water parameters may be informative for the establishment of conservation breeding programmes, an initiative recommended for the conservation of these species.
Tonal carryover assimilation, whereby a tone is assimilated to the preceding one, is conditioned by prosodic boundaries in a way suggesting that its presence may signal continuity or lack of a boundary. Its possibility as a speech segmentation cue was investigated in two artificial language (AL) learning experiments. Mandarin-speaking listeners identified the “words” of a three-tone AL (e.g., [pé.tī.kù]) after listening to six long speech streams in which the words were repeated continuously without pauses. The first experiment revealed that segmentation was disrupted in an “incongruent-cues” condition where tonal carryover assimilation occurred across AL word boundaries and conflicted with statistical regularities in the speech streams. Segmentation was neither facilitated nor inhibited in a “congruent-cues” condition where tonal carryover assimilation occurred only within the AL words in 27% of the repetitions and never across word boundaries. A null effect was again found for the congruent-cues condition of the second experiment, where all AL word repetitions carried tonal carryover assimilation. These findings show that tonal carryover assimilation is exploited to resolve segmentation problems when cues conflict. Its null effect in the congruent-cues conditions might be linked to cue redundancy and suggest that it is weighted low in the segmentation cue hierarchy.
Little is known about methylphenidate (MPH) use and mortality outcomes.
Aims
To investigate the association between MPH use and mortality among children with an attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis.
Method
This population-based cohort study analysed data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). A total of 68 096 children and adolescents aged 4–17 years with an ADHD diagnosis and prescribed MPH between 2000 and 2010 were compared with 68 096 without an MPH prescription, matched on age, gender and year of first ADHD diagnosis. All participants were followed to death, migration, withdrawal from the National Health Insurance programme or 31 December 2013. MPH prescriptions were measured on a yearly basis during the study period, and the association between MPH use and mortality was analysed using a repeated-measures time-dependent Cox regression model. The outcome measures included all-cause, unnatural-cause (including suicide, accident and homicide) and natural-cause mortality, obtained from linkage to the National Mortality Register in Taiwan.
Results
The MPH group had lower unadjusted all-cause, natural-, unnatural- and accident-cause mortality than the comparison group. After controlling for potential confounders, MPH use was associated with a significantly lower all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio AHR = 0.81, 95% CI 0.67–0.98, P = 0.027), delayed use of MPH was associated with higher mortality (AHR = 1.05, 95% CI 1.01–1.09) and longer MPH use was associated with lower mortality (AHR = 0.83, 95% CI 0.70–0.98).
Conclusions
MPH use is associated with a reduced overall mortality in children with ADHD in this cohort study, but unmeasured confounding cannot be excluded absolutely.
Salmonella is a leading cause of foodborne outbreaks in Taiwan. On 27 April 2018, a salmonellosis outbreak among customers of a restaurant was reported to the Taiwan CDC. We investigated the outbreak to identify infection sources and prevent further transmission. We interviewed ill customers and their dining companions. We conducted a case-control study to identify foods associated with the illness. Case-patients were those who had diarrhoea within 72 h after eating at the restaurant during 16–27 April 2018. Specimens, food samples and environmental samples were collected and tested for enteric pathogens. Salmonella isolates were analysed with pulse-field gel electrophoresis and whole-genome sequencing. We inspected the restaurant sanitation and reviewed kitchen surveillance camera recordings. We identified 47 case-patients, including one decedent. Compared with 44 controls, case-patients were more likely to have had a French toast sandwich (OR: 102.4; 95% CI: 18.7–952.3). Salmonella Enteritidis isolates from 16 case-patients shared an indistinguishable genotype. Camera recordings revealed eggshell contamination, long holding time at room temperature and use of leftovers during implicated food preparation. Recommendations for restaurant egg-containing food preparation are to use pasteurised egg products and ensure a high enough cooking temperature and long enough cooking time to prevent Salmonella contamination.
Arsenopyrite (FeAsS) and realgar (As4S4) are two common arsenic minerals that often cause serious environmental issues. Centralised treatment of arsenic-containing tailings can reduce land occupation and save management costs. The current work examined the remediation schemes of tailings from Hunan Province, China, where by different tailings containing arsenopyrite and realgar were blended with exogenous slag zero valence iron (ZVI). Introducing Fe-oxidising bacteria (Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans) recreates a biologically oxidative environment. All bioleaching experiments were done over three stages, each for 7 days and the solid phase of all tests was characterised by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and selective extraction analyses. The results showed that the mixture group reduced arsenic release by 72.9–74.7% compared with the control group. The addition of 0.2 g ZVI clearly decreased arsenic release, and the addition of 4.0 g ZVI led to the lowest arsenic release among all tests. The decrease of arsenic released from the tailings was due to the adsorption and uptake of arsenic by secondary iron-containing minerals and Fe–As(V) secondary mineralisation. The addition of large amounts of ZVI reduced the arsenic detected in the amorphous Fe precipitates. Therefore, a low cost and integrated strategy to reduce arsenic release from tailings is to mix two typical tailings and apply exogenous slag ZVI, which can apply to the in situ remediation of two kinds or more arsenic-containing tailings.
Ketosis is a metabolic disease of dairy cows often characterized by high concentrations of ketone bodies and fatty acids, but low milk protein and milk production. The Janus kinase 2 (JAK2)-signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5) and the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathways are central for the regulation of milk protein synthesis. The effect of high levels of fatty acids on these pathways and β-casein synthesis are unknown in dairy cows with clinical ketosis. Mammary gland tissue and blood samples were collected from healthy (n = 15) and clinically-ketotic (n = 15) cows. In addition, bovine mammary epithelial cells (BMEC) were treated with fatty acids, methionine (Met) or prolactin (PRL), respectively. In vivo, the serum concentration of fatty acids was greater (P > 0.05) and the percentage of milk protein (P > 0.05) was lower in cows with clinical ketosis. The JAK2-STAT5 and mTOR signaling pathways were inhibited and the abundance of β-casein was lower in mammary tissue of cows with clinical ketosis (P > 0.05). In vitro, high levels of fatty acids inhibited the JAK2-STAT5 and mTOR signaling pathways (P > 0.05) and further decreased the β-casein synthesis (P > 0.05) in BMEC. Methionine or PRL treatment, as positive regulators, activated the JAK2-STAT5 and mTOR signaling pathways to increase the β-casein synthesis. Importantly, the high concentration of fatty acids attenuated the positive effect of Met or PRL on mTOR, JAK2-STAT5 pathways and the abundance of β-casein (P > 0.05). Overall, these data indicate that the high concentrations of fatty acids that reach the mammary cells during clinical ketosis inhibit mTOR and JAK2-STAT5 signaling pathways, and further suppress β-casein synthesis.
Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is characterized by delayed P300 latency and reduced grey matter (GM) volume, respectively. The relationship between the features in aMCI is unclear. This study was to investigate the relationship between the altered P300 latency and the GM volume in aMCI.
Methods
Thirty-four aMCI and 34 well-matched normal controls (NC) were studied using electroencephalogram during a visual oddball task and scanned with MRI. Both tests were finished in the same day.
Results
As compared with the NC group, the aMCI group exhibited delayed P300 latency in parietal cortex and reduced GM volumes in bilateral temporal pole and left hippocampus/parahippocampal gyrus. A remarkable negative correlation was found between delayed P300 latency and reduced left hippocampal volume only in the aMCI group. Interestingly, the mediating analysis found P300 latency significantly mediated the association between right supramarginal gyrus volume and information processing speed indicated by Stroop Color and Word Test A scores.
Conclusions
The association between delayed P300 latency and reduced left hippocampal volume in aMCI subjects suggests that reduced left hippocampal volume may be the potential structural basis of delayed P300 latency.
Personality has been proposed as having a possible effect on the reaction that patients have toward auditory hallucination. However, this factor has not been studied previously. Thus, this study investigated the relationship among demographics, personality, cognition and emotional response in schizophrenics with persistent auditory hallucination. One-hundred and fourteen subjects with persistent auditory hallucination completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the revised Beliefs about Voices Questionnaire and the Chinese-version Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Structural equation model showed that personality had an effect on beliefs about the hallucination (malevolent or benevolent), which then affected the reaction of patients toward these voices (engages or resists). Their reaction will further affect the anxious or depressed state of the patients. When these hallucinations were categorized into the three levels of omnipotence, beliefs and reactions, the model was more significant than that of one-level model. Persistent auditory hallucination only accounted for a portion of the emotional distress when malevolent or benevolent voices were perceived, and personality characteristics accounted for the remaining emotional distress in schizophrenics. This model helped us understand the relationship between personality, cognition and affective symptoms, such that, when therapists decide what “trait” to change, they can determine at which point to intervene.