Family, personal, parental correlates and behavior disturbances in school-aged boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a cross-sectional study.

Background: To evaluate the relationship among family, personal, parental correlates, and behavioral disturbances in boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Methods: We performed a hospital-based cross-sectional study. School-aged boys who first visited the hospital between 2000 and 2011 with ADHD were identified.

Family structure, birth order, and aggressive behaviors among school-aged boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Purpose: To evaluate the associations between family structure, birth order, and aggressive behaviors among school-aged boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Methods: We conducted a matched case-control study. Data were retrieved from medical records at a psychiatry center in northern Taiwan.

Child maltreatment in Taiwan for 2004-2013: A shift in age group and forms of maltreatment.

Cases of child maltreatment are being increasingly reported in Taiwan. However, the trend or changes of child maltreatment in Taiwan are fragmentary and lack empirical evidence. This study analyzed the epidemiological characteristics of substantiated child maltreatment cases from the previous decade, using mortality as an indicator to investigate the care of children who experienced substantiated maltreatment in the past to determine any new developments.

Rat aortic smooth muscle cells cultured on hydroxyapatite differentiate into osteoblast-like cells via BMP-2-SMAD-5 pathway.

Vascular calcification is an important pathological condition associated with increased risk of cardiovascular mortality. Hydroxyapatite (HA) found in such deposits is the same polymorph of calcium (Ca) found in bone, indicating calcification may involve mechanisms akin to bone formation. Vascular smooth muscle cells (Vsmcs) have been shown to undergo phenotypic change to osteoblast-like cells.

Paradox of the drinking-straw model of the butterfly proboscis.

Fluid-feeding Lepidoptera use an elongated proboscis, conventionally modeled as a drinking straw, to feed from pools and films of liquid. Using the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus (Linnaeus), we show that the inherent structural features of the lepidopteran proboscis contradict the basic assumptions of the drinking-straw model. By experimentally characterizing permeability and flow in the proboscis, we show that tapering of the food canal in the drinking region increases resistance, significantly hindering the flow of fluid.

Characterization of permeability of electrospun yarns.

We developed a novel technique enabling determination of the permeability of electrospun yarns composed of hundreds of fibers. Analyzing the wicking kinetics in a yarn-in-a-tube composite conduit, it was found that the kinetic is very specific. The liquid was pulled by the capillary pressure associated with the meniscus in the tube while the main resistance comes from the yarn.

Nanoporous artificial proboscis for probing minute amount of liquids.

We describe a method of fabrication of nanoporous flexible probes which work as artificial proboscises. The challenge of making probes with fast absorption rates and good retention capacity was addressed theoretically and experimentally. This work shows that the probe should possess two levels of pore hierarchy: nanopores are needed to enhance the capillary action and micrometer pores are required to speed up fluid transport.