Epidemiological feature of imported malaria in Taiwan during the 2014-to-2020 period.

Although the World Health Organization (WHO) certified Taiwan as being malaria-free in 1965, there are reports of a few imported cases each year by travelers who visit malaria-endemic areas. This study examined the epidemiology of imported malaria cases in Taiwan from 2014 to 2020, utilizing national surveillance data from the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control. Malaria cases were confirmed through the application of standard laboratory methods.

[ C]Carfentanil PET Whole-Body Imaging of Mu-Opioid Receptors: A First In-Human Study.

Introduction: Mu-opioid receptors (MORs) are G-coupled protein receptors with a high affinity for both endogenous and exogenous opioids. MORs are widely expressed in the central nervous system (CNS), peripheral organs, and the immune system. They mediate pain and reward and have been implicated in the pathophysiology of opioid, cocaine, and other substance use disorders.

The efficacy of abdominal binder in women undergoing cesarean delivery: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Background: Abdominal binders are a prominent non-pharmacological intervention aimed at mitigating adverse outcomes following Cesarean delivery (CD), including pain and distress.

Aim: We conducted a meta-analysis to quantitatively evaluate the effects of abdominal binders on women undergoing CD.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted using terms such as "abdominal binder," "clinical trials," and variations of "cesarean" across multiple electronic databases, including PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ClinicalTrials.

Long-Term Determinants of Depression Mood: A 19-Year Follow Up of 2344 Middle-Aged and Older Adults.

This study explores depression changes and influencing factors in middle-aged and older individuals, focusing on different cognitive function states. This cohort study uses panel data from seven waves of the nationally representative Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging (1996-2015) with 2344 participants aged 50 or above. Data analysis was conducted from 25 January 2023 to 4 May 2023.

Depressive and anxiety symptoms in postpartum women after recovery from COVID-19: a questionnaire-based observational study.

Introduction: Previous studies on the association between recovery from Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and postpartum depressive and anxiety symptoms had conflicting results. This study aimed to investigate the psychological burdens among postpartum women who had experienced COVID-19 infection during their pregnancies and those who had not.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Taichung Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan from April 2022 to January 2023.

Assessment of adverse pregnancy outcomes associated with Helicobacter pylori infection.

The background of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is complex, and its influence on adverse pregnancy outcomes is inconsistently reported. We performed a multi-institutional, retrospective analysis using de-identified electronic health records from the TriNetX Research Network to compare various pregnancy outcomes in women with and those without H.

A Small-molecule Antagonist Radiotracer for Positron Emission Tomography Imaging of the Mu Opioid Receptor.

The opioid crisis is a catastrophic health emergency catalyzed by the misuse of opioids that target and activate the mu opioid receptor. Traditional radioligands used to study the mu opioid receptor are often tightly regulated owing to their abuse and respiratory depression potential. In the present study, we sought to design and characterize a library of 24 non-agonist ligands for the mu opioid receptor.

A refined reweighing technique for nondiscriminatory classification.

Discrimination-aware classification methods remedy socioeconomic disparities exacerbated by machine learning systems. In this paper, we propose a novel data pre-processing technique that assigns weights to training instances in order to reduce discrimination without changing any of the inputs or labels. While the existing reweighing approach only looks into sensitive attributes, we refine the weights by utilizing both sensitive and insensitive ones.

Navigating the Global Landscape of Nursing Informatics Research Collaboration: A Blueprint for Success.

International collaboration is crucial in the field of nursing informatics research to enhance our ability to conduct globally relevant research that informs policy and practice. In this case study we describe how we have established an international research collaboration to evaluate nurses' experiences of technology use during the pandemic. We firstly describe how the collaboration was created and the successes associated with our work, before highlighting the facilitators to make an international collaboration work.

Effectiveness of Online Mindfulness Platform in Improving Anxiety, Depression, and Stress in Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Randomized Control Trial.

COVID-19 epidemic bring a great threat to human physical and mental health. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of an online mindfulness platform in improving mental status. Patients from a regional hospital were randomly divided into the experimental and control groups.

Incidence and Factors Associated with Falls in Older People in a Long-Term Care Facility: A Prospective Study in Taiwan.

Background: The effectiveness of applying a fall-risk assessment to prevent falls in residents of long-term care facilities has not been investigated.

Methods: This prospective study enrolled elderly residents in a long-term care facility in Taiwan. Caregivers were provided with a health-status assessment and fall-risk data to enhance their fall-prevention practices.

Positron Emission Tomography with [F]ROStrace Reveals Progressive Elevations in Oxidative Stress in a Mouse Model of Alpha-Synucleinopathy.

The synucleinopathies are a diverse group of neurodegenerative disorders characterized by the accumulation of aggregated alpha-synuclein (aSyn) in vulnerable populations of brain cells. Oxidative stress is both a cause and a consequence of aSyn aggregation in the synucleinopathies; however, noninvasive methods for detecting oxidative stress in living animals have proven elusive. In this study, we used the reactive oxygen species (ROS)-sensitive positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracer [F]ROStrace to detect increases in oxidative stress in the widely-used A53T mouse model of synucleinopathy.

Congenital bronchogenic cyst: From prenatal diagnosis to postnatal management.

Objective: Bronchogenic cysts are rare congenital abnormalities, and usually asymptomatic until adulthood. We present a fetus prenatally diagnosed with a bronchogenic cyst, experiencing compression symptoms immediately after birth and underwent thoracoscopic surgery at 14 days old.

Case Report: A 33-year-old primigravida had a suspicion of fetal tracheal cyst.

Prenatal phthalate exposure and sex steroid hormones in newborns: Taiwan Maternal and Infant Cohort Study.

Background: Newborn anogenital distance (AGD) has been associated with prenatal exposure of phthalates. The association between prenatal phthalate exposure and sex steroid hormones in newborns is unclear.

Object: This study aimed to examine whether cord-blood sex hormone levels were associated with prenatal phthalate exposure and newborn anogenital distance (AGD).

Long-term follow-up of cancer and catastrophic diseases in hematopoietic stem cell donors: a comprehensive matched cohort study.

Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation, using either bone marrow (BM) or peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC), is a well-established therapy for various hematologic and non-hematologic diseases. However, the long-term health outcomes after HSC donation remain a major concern for several potential donors. Thus, we aimed to conduct a matched cohort study of 5003 unrelated donors (1099 BM and 3904 PBSC) and randomly selected 50,030 matched controls based on age, sex, and resident area from the donor registry between 1998 and 2018.

Application of the Key Characteristics of Carcinogens to Bisphenol A.

The ten key characteristics (KCs) of carcinogens are based on characteristics of known human carcinogens and encompass many types of endpoints. We propose that an objective review of the large amount of cancer mechanistic evidence for the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) can be achieved through use of these KCs. A search on metabolic and mechanistic data relevant to the carcinogenicity of BPA was conducted and web-based software tools were used to screen and organize the results.

Design and Synthesis of DR Bitopic Ligands with Flexible Secondary Binding Fragments: Radioligand Binding and Computational Chemistry Studies.

A series of bitopic ligands based on Fallypride with a flexible secondary binding fragment (SBF) were prepared with the goal of preparing a DR-selective compound. The effect of the flexible linker (,-), SBFs (,-), and the chirality of orthosteric binding fragments (OBFs) (,, , ,, ,, and ,) were evaluated in in vitro binding assays. Computational chemistry studies revealed that the interaction of the fragment binding to the SBF increased the distance between the pyrrolidine nitrogen and ASP110 of the DR, thereby reducing the DR affinity to a suboptimal level.

Predictors of extubation failure and prolonged mechanical ventilation among patients with intracerebral hemorrhage after surgery.

Background: Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a condition associated with high mortality and morbidity. Survivors may require prolonged intubation with mechanical ventilation (MV). The aim of this study was to analyze the predictors of extubation failure and prolonged MV in patients who undergo surgical evacuation.

Delay of Surgery for Spinal Metastasis due to the COVID-19 Outbreak Affected Patient Outcomes.

Objective: The present study is to analyze the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 2019) outbreak and the subsequent lockdown on the outcomes of spinal metastasis patients.

Methods: The study was a retrospective analysis of data from a prospective cohort study. All patients underwent surgical intervention for spinal metastases between January 2019 and December 2021 and had at least 3 months of postoperative follow-up.

Association between a maternal vegetarian diet during pregnancy and the occurrence of atopic dermatitis in children.

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is rising globally, with genetics and environmental factors both playing crucial roles. Dietary habits during pregnancy are linked to children's allergic disease risk. However, limited studies have explored the association between maternal vegetarian diets during pregnancy and child AD.

Phenotyping senescent mesenchymal stromal cells using AI image translation.

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) offer promising potential in biomedical research, clinical therapeutics, and immunomodulatory therapies due to their ease of isolation and multipotent, immunoprivileged, and immunosuppersive properties. Extensive efforts have focused on optimizing the cell isolation and culture methods to generate scalable, therapeutically-relevant MSCs for clinical applications. However, MSC-based therapies are often hindered by cell heterogeneity and inconsistency of therapeutic function caused, in part, by MSC senescence.

Stochastic Optimization for Nonconvex Problem With Inexact Hessian Matrix, Gradient, and Function.

Trust region (TR) and adaptive regularization using cubics (ARC) have proven to have some very appealing theoretical properties for nonconvex optimization by concurrently computing function value, gradient, and Hessian matrix to obtain the next search direction and the adjusted parameters. Although stochastic approximations help largely reduce the computational cost, it is challenging to theoretically guarantee the convergence rate. In this article, we explore a family of stochastic TR (STR) and stochastic ARC (SARC) methods that can simultaneously provide inexact computations of the Hessian matrix, gradient, and function values.

Trustworthy in silico cell labeling via ensemble-based image translation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) image translation has been a valuable tool for processing image data in biological and medical research. To apply such a tool in mission-critical applications, including drug screening, toxicity study, and clinical diagnostics, it is essential to ensure that the AI prediction is trustworthy. Here, we demonstrate that an ensemble learning method can quantify the uncertainty of AI image translation.