Publications by authors named "Cheng-Hao Huang"

Article Synopsis
  • Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder that includes both motor and non-motor symptoms, like insomnia, which might influence the disease's development.
  • A study analyzed data from over 150,000 insomnia patients in Taiwan, ultimately comparing 20,112 who received acupuncture to those who did not.
  • Results indicated that insomnia patients who received acupuncture had a significantly lower risk of developing PD, but more research is needed to confirm these results.
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Akkermansia muciniphila and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii are next-generation probiotics, which has been reported to protect disease and effectively utilize various carbohydrates (starch and pectin) as nutrients for growth. Atemoya exhibiting fruity flavor, which is suitable for enhancing aroma and attenuating unpleasant taste caused by the koji metabolites. Results indicated that malic acid was increased (from 42.

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  • Rice straw is difficult to decompose and emits significant CO2 during composting, highlighting the need for better recycling methods in agriculture to boost sustainability.
  • The imbalance of soil microorganisms can increase plant disease risks and lower crop yields, which makes nurturing the soil microbial community essential for plant growth.
  • The study explored using composted rice stalks to cultivate beneficial microbes, which showed positive changes in soil mycobiota and improved rice growth and yield when transplanted back into paddy fields.
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Coffee flavor considerably depends on the fermentation process, with contributing factors including fermentation temperature, oxygen concentration, and microbial diversity. Efficient controlling of the fermentation can improve the quality of coffee beverages. Therefore, several studies on coffee fermentation processes have been conducted in various regions.

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Background And Aim: Insomnia is a subjective illness that has been identified as a risk factor for dementia. In this study, we investigated the association of acupuncture treatment for insomnia with the risk of dementia. We collected data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan to analyze the incidence of dementia in patients with insomnia who received acupuncture treatment.

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  • Migraine is linked to an increased risk of dementia, prompting a study that analyzed data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database to examine this relationship among patients receiving acupuncture versus those who did not.
  • The study matched 4,813 patients using a 1:1 propensity score method, assessing various factors and employing Cox proportional hazards models to quantify the risk of developing dementia.
  • Results indicated that migraine patients who received acupuncture had a significantly lower risk of dementia (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.51) and a much lower cumulative incidence compared to those who did not receive acupuncture.
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Soft devices, especially capacitive stress (or strain) sensors, are important for applications, including wearable medical monitoring, electronic skin, and soft robotics. The incorporation of liquid metal particles (LMPs) into highly deformable elastomers as inclusions ameliorates the mechanical compliance caused by a rigid filler. The high dielectric constant and liquid feature of LMPs are suitable for soft sensors with high sensitivity and a large real-time dynamic detection range.

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  • Gilles de la Tourette's Syndrome (TS) is a childhood disorder characterized by motor and vocal tics, and the study explored the effects of Yi-Gan-san (YGS), a traditional Chinese medicine, on TS symptoms in children and adolescents.
  • A double-blind, randomized, controlled trial with 38 patients assessed the impact of YGS compared to a placebo over 4 weeks, focusing on changes in tic severity using the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS).
  • Results indicated that after one week, YGS significantly reduced the intensity of phonic tics compared to the placebo, but longer-term effects were less clear, warranting further research on dosage, placebo selection, and extended observations.
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Depression is a risk factor for subsequent Parkinson's disease (PD). Some patients with depression undergo acupuncture treatment because of other diseases in Taiwan. Therefore, the present study used data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) to investigate the incidence of PD in patients having depression with and without acupuncture treatment.

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  • The HBV X protein (HBx) binds to anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, which helps the virus replicate and can cause cell damage.
  • Researchers identified the crystal structure of HBx's binding motif interacting with Bcl-xL, revealing specific residues critical for this interaction.
  • Mutations in key residues weaken HBx's ability to bind Bcl-xL and reduce HBV replication, indicating that understanding this interaction is key for developing therapies to inhibit HBV.
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  • - Dengue fever, caused by four serotypes of the dengue virus, is the leading cause of arboviral diseases globally, and virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from the virus have potential as vaccine candidates.
  • - Researchers engineered mature dengue VLPs (mD2VLP) from serotype-2, which exhibited a consistent size of approximately 31 nm and a specific icosahedral symmetry, revealing new neutralizing epitopes on the E-protein.
  • - Mice vaccinated with these mD2VLPs produced strong cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies and were fully protected against all four dengue serotypes, indicating a promising direction for future dengue vaccine development.
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Among various heterogeneous types of bladder tumors, urothelial carcinoma is the most prevalent lesion. Some of the urinary bladder urothelial carcinomas (UBUCs) develop local recurrence and may cause distal invasion. Galectin-1 de-regulation significantly affects cell transformation, cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and cell invasiveness.

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Human galectin-1 is a member of the galectin family, proteins with conserved carbohydrate-recognition domains that bind galactoside. Galectin-1 is highly expressed in various tumors and participates in various oncogenic processes. However, detailed descriptions of the function of galectin-1 in urinary bladder urothelial carcinoma have not been reported.

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Background: Investigating the neutralizing antibody (NAb) titer against HSV-1 is essential for monitoring the immune protection against HSV-1 in susceptible populations, which would facilitate the development of vaccines against herpes infection and improvement of HSV-1 based oncolytic virotherapy.

Results: In this study, we have developed a neutralization test based on the enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT-NT) to determine the neutralizing antibody titer against HSV-1 in human serum samples. This optimized assay employed a monoclonal antibody specifically recognizing glycoprotein D to detect the HSV-1 infected cells.

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The ligand 2,4,6-tris(2-picolylamino)-1,3,5-triazine (o-H3tpat) with essentially resonative structure and two copper(II)-based one-dimensional coordination chain structures, [Cu3Cl5(o-H2tpat)(H2O)]·MeOH·CH2Cl2 (1) and [Cu2(o-H2tpat)(H2O)(MeOH)(NO3)2](NO3)·3MeOH (2), with different structural patterns have been synthesized and characterized using single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. For o-H3tpat, two crystalline forms showing different solid-state structural features are obtained from MeOH/Et2O (form I) and CH2Cl2/Et2O (form II), respectively. The o-H3tpat form I adopts an asymmetric-configured all-amino resonative tautomer with three cis-trans-trans-arranged pyridyl groups, whereas the o-H3tpat form II adopts also an identical resonative structure but where two of the three pyridyl groups are in a cis-manner and the third one is nearly coplanar with the central aminotriazine core.

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  • The study investigates mutations in the hepatitis B surface protein in individuals with occult hepatitis B virus infection and their effect on viral factors.
  • It analyzes 61 occult HBV carriers and compares them with two other groups based on HBsAg levels, identifying mutations in the major hydrophilic region (MHR) of HBV.
  • Results show that a significant proportion of occult carriers have MHR mutations that reduce antigen detection and impair protein secretion, which may lead to challenges in diagnosing the infection.
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Depending on the electronic properties of their substituents, the major products generated by palladium-catalyzed cycloisomerizations of diarylalkynes are either highly substituted 8,8a-dihydrocyclopenta[a]indenes 3 or naphthalenes 4. The structures of these compounds were verified by X-ray crystallographic analysis. Many functional groups tolerated the reaction conditions evaluated in this study.

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Density functional theory calculations were performed to explore the influence of halogenation on the reorganization energies (λ), adiabatic ionization potentials (IPs), adiabatic electron affinities (EAs), and air stabilities of a series of pentacene (PENT) and tetraceno[2,3-b]thiophene (TbTH) derivatives. According to calculated IP and EA values, all well-known PENT and TbTH derivatives in this paper are air-stable p-channel but not air-stable n-channel organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) due to insufficient EAs, consistent with experimental observations. The calculated results show that attaching two or more halogen atoms onto air-unstable 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-5,7,12,14-tetraazapentacene (TIPS-N4PENT) is sufficient for promoting ambipolar air-stable properties.

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Diindeno[1,2,3,4-defg;1',2',3',4'-mnop]chrysenes 2 were straightforwardly prepared in around 20% yield from 9,10-diarylphenanthrenes 3 by palladium-catalyzed intramolecular arylations. The bowl-to-bowl inversion barrier for buckybowl 2-iPr is predicted to be approximately 7 kcal mol(-1) based on density functional theory calculations and this value is consistent with the results of a variable-temperature (1)H-NMR study.

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The characteristics of 30 carriers with occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection (OBI) were compared with those of 30 individuals diagnosed as being HBV carriers at the time of blood donation, 60 asymptomatic carriers, and 60 chronic hepatitis patients. The prevalence of genotype C was significantly higher in carriers with OBIs than in any other HBsAg-positive (HBsAg(+)) group (P < 0.001).

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