Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in healthcare workers: a cohort study at a designated COVID-19 hospital in Taiwan.

Objectives: This cohort study aimed to determine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevalence of Metabolic syndrome (MetS) among healthcare workers at a dedicated COVID-19 hospital in Taiwan.

Methods: This study recruited 397 healthcare workers who completed health checkups before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The differences of MetS and its components prevalence before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were compared using the paired samples t-tests for normally distributed variables, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for non-normally distributed variables.

Modification of Risk for All-Cause and Cardiovascular Disease-Related Mortality with Changes in the Body Mass Index in Older Individuals: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Introduction: Existing evidence evaluating the impact of change in body mass index (BMI) on the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related mortality in older people is limited and inconsistent. This population-based cohort study evaluated the association of changes in BMI over time with all-cause and CVD-related mortality in older adults.

Methods: We recruited 55,351 adults aged over 65 years between 2006 and 2011 from Taipei Elderly Health Examination Program who underwent repeated annual health examinations at 3.

Perturbation of tonoplast sucrose transport alters carbohydrate utilization for seasonal growth and defense metabolism in coppiced poplar.

Nonstructural carbohydrate reserves of stems and roots underpin overall tree fitness and productivity under short-rotation management practices such as coppicing for bioenergy. While sucrose and starch comprise the predominant stem carbohydrate reserves of Populus, utilization for fitness and agricultural productivity is understood primarily in terms of starch turnover. The tonoplast sucrose transport protein SUT4 modulates sucrose export from source leaves to distant sinks during photoautotrophic growth, but the possibility of its involvement in remobilizing carbohydrates from storage organs during heterotrophic growth has not been explored.

Quality and production enhancement of fish mint, Thunb., cultivated in a hydroponic planting system with designed plant growth-promoting additives.

Fish mint, Thunb. (HCT) is an edible vegetable that has also been used in traditional folk medicines. As both a medicinal herb and a dietary source, HCT has been clinically proven to be a pivotal ingredient in formulas administered to alleviate COVID-19 symptoms.

Pharmacological Prevention of Hypersensitivity Reactions Caused by Iodinated Contrast Media: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objectives: Hypersensitivity reactions (HSRs) are uncommon but serious adverse events following the administration of iodinated contrast media (ICM) prior to CT imaging. While premedication is almost universally given in high-risk patients, there is a lack of evidence regarding the efficacy of such premedication. This study aims to determine the efficacy of premedication with corticosteroids prior to ICM administration in the prevention of HSRs through meta-analysis.

Critical Packing Density of Water-Mediated Nonstick Self-Assembled Monolayer Coatings.

Nanoparticle-mineral surface interactions are relevant in many biological and geological applications. We have previously studied nanoparticle coatings based on closely packed bicomponent polyol-fluoroalkane self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) that can have tunable stickiness on calcite surfaces by changing the compositions of fluoroalkanes in SAMs, where the coatings show nonstick properties if fluoroalkanes can effectively perturb hydration layers on calcite surfaces. However, when applying coatings on nanoparticles, it can be challenging to predict the maximum achievable coating density.

Emergent slow dynamics of collapsed polymers flowing through porous media.

Using hydrodynamic simulations, we study the single polymers flowing through model porous media (close-packed colloidal crystal). In good solvent or high flow rates, the polymer transport is similar to gel electrophoresis, with size-dependent sieving for L_{c}/L≲1 and size-independent biased reptation for L_{c}/L≳1 (L_{c} is the polymer contour length and L is the diameter of colloids forming the porous media). Importantly, in bad solvent and low flow rates, the polymers show an extra window of size-dependent velocity for 1≲L_{c}/L≲2, where the polymer transport is controlled by a globule-stretch transition at pore throats, and the transport velocity is much slower than reptation.

Controlling water-mediated interactions by designing self-assembled monolayer coatings.

Engineered nanoparticles have been broadly used in biological and geological systems. Hydrophilic molecules such as polyols have been used as coatings on nanoparticle surfaces due to their good biocompatibility and solubility in saline water. However, polyol coatings can cause huge retention of nanoparticles when encountering mineral surfaces.

Novel Toilet Paper-Based Point-Of-Care Test for the Rapid Detection of Fecal Occult Blood: Instrument Validation Study.

Background: Colorectal cancer screening by fecal occult blood testing has been an important public health test and shown to reduce colorectal cancer-related mortality. However, the low participation rate in colorectal cancer screening by the general public remains a problematic public health issue. This fact could be attributed to the complex and unpleasant operation of the screening tool.

Effects of Kinect exergames on balance training among community older adults: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Recent years have witnessed wide applications of exergames to balance training among the older adults. However, research concerning balance training with the use of Kinect for Xbox has remained scarce. While previous studies have shown the positive effects of exergames on improving balance and preventing falling among the older adults, there has been a paucity of empirical evidence supporting the superiority of Kinect exercise to conventional exercise over balance training among the older adults.

Early versus Delayed Phacoemulsification and Intraocular Lens Implantation for Acute Primary Angle-Closure.

Purpose: To compare the effects of early phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation (phaco/IOL), delayed phaco/IOL after initial laser peripheral iridotomy (LPI), and conventional LPI alone in patients with acute primary angle-closure (PAC).

Methods: Patients with acute PAC were included in the study, and those with secondary glaucoma, prior ocular trauma, or other ocular diseases and those who had undergone ocular surgeries previously were excluded. Patients were categorized into three groups: Group A, which underwent primary phaco/IOL after acute PAC; Group B, which underwent LPI initially after acute PAC, followed by phaco/IOL within 6 months; and Group C, which underwent LPI alone.

A High Resolution Melting Analysis-Based Genotyping Toolkit for the Peach () Chilling Requirement.

The chilling requirement (CR) is the main factor controlling the peach floral bud break and subsequent reproductive growth. To date, several peach CR quantitative trait loci (QTLs) have been identified. To improve the accessibility and convenience of this genetic information for peach breeders, the aim of this study was to establish an easy-to-use genotype screening system using peach CR molecular markers as a toolkit for marker-assisted selection.

Molecular Assembly of Surfactant Mixtures in Oil-Swollen Micelles: Implications for High Salinity Colloidal Stability.

Alkylbenzene sulfonates are one of the most important synthetic surfactant families, considering their wide applicability, cost-effectiveness, and overall consumption levels. Nevertheless, their low salt tolerance (especially divalent ion contents) prevented their wider applications such as enhanced oil recovery in high salinity reservoirs. Here, using experiments and atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrated that the high salinity colloidal stability of alkylbenzene sulfonates can be dramatically increased by mixing with zwitterionic cosurfactants in oil-swollen micelles.

Predicting Stability Constants for Terbium(III) Complexes with Dipicolinic Acid and 4-Substituted Dipicolinic Acid Analogues using Density Functional Theory.

The relative stability constants of Tb(III) complexes exhibiting binding to a series of 4-substituted analogues of dipicolinic acid (2,6-pyridinedicarboxylic acid) (DPA) were calculated using density functional theory (DFT) with the standard thermodynamic cycle. DFT calculations showed that the strengths of the stability constants were modified by the substituents in the following (decreasing) order: -NH > -OH ∼ -CHOH > -imidazole ∼ -Cl ∼ -Br ∼ -H > -F > -I, with the differences among them falling within one to two log units except for -NH. Through population and structural analysis, we observed that the -NH, -OH, -CHOH, and halide substituents can donate electrons via resonance effect to the pyridine ring of DPA while inductively withdrawing electrons with different strengths, thus resulting in the different binding strengths of the 4-substituted DPAs to the Tb(III) ions.

Understanding Calcium-Mediated Adhesion of Nanomaterials in Reservoir Fluids by Insights from Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Interest in nanomaterials for subsurface applications has grown markedly due to their successful application in a variety of disciplines, such as biotechnology and medicine. Nevertheless, nanotechnology application in the petroleum industry presents greater challenges to implementation because of the harsh conditions (i.e.

The impact of orbital bony or fat decompression on the outcome of strabismus surgery in patients with Graves' ophthalmopathy.

Background/purpose: To compare the outcomes of strabismus surgery in patients with Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) who had undergone bone removal orbital decompression (BROD) or fat removal orbital decompression (FROD) with those who had not undergone any orbital decompression.

Methods: The records of patients with GO who underwent strabismus surgery over a period of 66 months were retrospectively reviewed.

Results: Eighty-nine patients with a mean age of 55.

Molecular Modeling of Surfactant Micellization Using Solvent-Accessible Surface Area.

We report a new implicit solvent simulation model for studying the self-assembly of surfactants, where the hydrophobic interactions were captured by calculating the relative changes of the solvent-accessible surface area (SASA) of the hydrophobic domains. Using histogram-reweighting grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate that this approach allows us to match both the experimental critical micelle concentrations (cmc) and micellar aggregation numbers simultaneously with a single phenomenological surface tension γ for the poly(oxyethylene) monoalkyl ether (C E ) surfactants in aqueous solutions. Excellent transferability is observed: the same model can accurately predict the experimental cmc and aggregation numbers for the C E surfactants with the alkyl lengths m between 6 and 12 and the poly(oxyethylene) lengths n between 1 and 9.

Limits of Directed Self-Assembly in Block Copolymers.

Understanding the conditions under which defects appear in self-assembling soft-matter systems is of great importance, for example, in the development of block-copolymer (BCP) nanolithography. Here, we explore the limits of the directed self-assembly of BCPs by deliberately adding random imperfections to the template. Our results show that defects emerge due to local "shear-like" distortions of the polymer-template system, a new mechanism that is fundamentally different from the canonical mechanisms of 2D melting.

Communication: Modeling electrolyte mixtures with concentration dependent dielectric permittivity.

We report a new implicit-solvent simulation model for electrolyte mixtures based on the concept of concentration dependent dielectric permittivity. A combining rule is found to predict the dielectric permittivity of electrolyte mixtures based on the experimentally measured dielectric permittivity for pure electrolytes as well as the mole fractions of the electrolytes in mixtures. Using grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate that this approach allows us to accurately reproduce the mean ionic activity coefficients of NaCl in NaCl-CaCl mixtures at ionic strengths up to I = 3M.

Micromechanical model for isolated polymer-colloid clusters under tension.

Binary polymer-colloid (PC) composites form the majority of biological load-bearing materials. Due to the abundance of the polymer and particles, and their simple aggregation process, PC clusters are used broadly by nature to create biomaterials with a variety of functions. However, our understanding of the mechanical features of the clusters and their load transfer mechanism is limited.

Hydration Repulsion between Carbohydrate Surfaces Mediated by Temperature and Specific Ions.

Stabilizing colloids or nanoparticles in solution involves a fine balance between surface charges, steric repulsion of coating molecules, and hydration forces against van der Waals attractions. At high temperature and electrolyte concentrations, the colloidal stability of suspensions usually decreases rapidly. Here, we report a new experimental and simulation discovery that the polysaccharide (dextran) coated nanoparticles show ion-specific colloidal stability at high temperature, where we observed enhanced colloidal stability of nanoparticles in CaCl2 solution but rapid nanoparticle-nanoparticle aggregation in MgCl2 solution.

Force Fields for Carbohydrate-Divalent Cation Interactions.

We report molecular dynamics simulations to study intermolecular interactions for carbohydrate-divalent cation complexes. We observed that common force fields from literature with standard Lorentz-Berthelot combining rules are unable to reproduce the experimental stability constants for model carbohydrate monomer (α-d-Allopyranose) and alkali earth metal cation (Mg(2+), Ca(2+), Sr(2+), or Ba(2+)) complexes. A modified combining rule with rescaled effective cross-interaction radius between cations and the hydroxyl oxygens on the carbohydrates was introduced to reproduce the experimental stability constants, which the preferential carbohydrate-cation complexing structures through the ax-eq-ax sequence of O-1, O-2, and O-3 on α-d-Allopyranose were also observed.

Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of carbohydrate-calcite interactions in concentrated brine.

We report atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to study the interactions of a model carbohydrate monomer (Glucopyranose) and calcite slabs in brine. We show that the interactions between the sugar molecules and the mineral decrease with increasing salinity. The decrease is due to the formation of salt layers on the calcite surfaces, which screen the carbohydrate-calcite hydrogen bonding.

Copper Electrodeposition on a Magnesium Alloy (AZ80) with a U-Shaped Surface.

Cu electrodeposition was performed on a cylindrical AZ80 substrate with a U-shaped surface. A uniform deposition of Cu was achieved on an AZ80 electrode via galvanostatic etching, followed by Cu electrodeposition in an eco-friendly alkaline Cu plating bath. Improper wetting and lower rotational speeds of the AZ80 electrode resulted in an uneven Cu deposition at the inner upper site of the U-shaped surface during the Cu electroplating process.