Publications by authors named "Christine Chiu"

Endometrial polyps (EPs) are benign overgrowths of the endometrial tissue lining the uterus, often causing abnormal bleeding or infertility. This study analyzed gene expression differences between EPs and adjacent endometrial tissue to elucidate intrinsic abnormalities promoting pathological overgrowth. RNA sequencing of 12 pairs of EPs and the surrounding endometrial tissue from infertile women revealed 322 differentially expressed genes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Study Objective: Rib fractures (RF) are common injuries. Multiple analgesia strategies are available for treatment of pain associated with RF. However, the optimal multimodal technique for pain management is not known.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study focused on the effectiveness and safety of SaiLuoTong (SLT) in improving cognitive functions among individuals aged 60 and older with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
  • Participants were randomly assigned to either SLT (180 mg/day) or a placebo for 12 weeks, with 65 participants finally included in the analysis.
  • Results showed that SLT was well tolerated and led to significant improvements in memory retrieval and executive functions compared to the placebo group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis; EAB) is an Asian insect species that has been invasive to North America for 20 years. During this time, the emerald ash borer has killed tens of millions of American ash (Fraxinus spp) trees. Understanding the inherent defenses of susceptible American ash trees will provide information to breed new resistant varieties of ash trees.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There is a lack of satellite-based aerosol retrievals in the vicinity of low-topped clouds, mainly because reflectance from aerosols is overwhelmed by three-dimensional cloud radiative effects. To account for cloud radiative effects on reflectance observations, we develop a Convolutional Neural Network and retrieve aerosol optical depth (AOD) with 100-500 m horizontal resolution for all cloud-free regions regardless of their distances to clouds. The retrieval uncertainty is 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented shifts in the way health programs and services are delivered. A national lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Australia was introduced in March 2020. This lockdown included the closure of exercise clinics, fitness centers, and other community spaces, which, before the pandemic, were used to deliver Beat It.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The mountain pine beetle epidemic has highlighted the complex interactions of bark beetles with conifer host defenses. In these interactions, oleoresin terpenoids and volatiles, produced and released by the host tree, can be both harmful and beneficial to the beetle's success in colonizing a tree and completing its life cycle. The insect spends almost its entire life, from egg to adult, within the bark and phloem of a pine host, exposed to large quantities of complex mixtures of oleoresin terpenoids.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of -a community-based exercise and lifestyle intervention-in improving anthropometric and physical fitness outcomes in older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: Australians with T2DM who were aged 60 years or older were included. These individuals were enrolled in , a twice-weekly supervised group exercise and education program conducted over 8 weeks.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We introduce new parameterizations for autoconversion and accretion rates that greatly improve representation of the growth processes of warm rain. The new parameterizations capitalize on machine-learning and optimization techniques and are constrained by in situ cloud probe measurements from the recent Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program field campaign at Azores. The uncertainty in the new estimates of autoconversion and accretion rates is about 15% and 5%, respectively, outperforming existing parameterizations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein is essential for neuronal development. Val66Met (rs6265) is a functional polymorphism at codon 66 of the BDNF gene that affects neuroplasticity and has been associated with cognition, brain structure and function. The aim of this study was to clarify the relationship between BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and neuronal oscillatory activity, using the electroencephalogram (EEG), in a normative cohort.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Intrauterine adhesion after hysteroscopic myomectomy contributes to infertility, recurrent miscarriages, menstrual irregularities, and hinders pregnancy outcomes. The aim of this study was to apply the indwelling Malecot catheter in prevention of intrauterine adhesion after hysteroscopic myomectomy and to further evaluate the effectiveness of this approach with reported live birth rates in infertile patients who underwent subsequent infertility treatment.

Materials And Methods: Seventeen patients with FIGO Classification System PALM-COIEN Type 0 or 1 submucous myoma that received hysteroscopic myomectomy were recruited in this retrospective analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Coeliac disease (CD) is a autoimmune disease characterised by mucosal inflammation in the small intestine in response to dietary gluten. Genetic factors play a key role with CD individuals carrying either the HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8 haplotype, however these haplotypes are present in half the general population making them necessary but insufficient to cause CD. Epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylation that can change in response to environmental exposure could help to explain how interactions between genes and environmental factors combine to trigger disease development.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Exposure to negative life stress has been associated with difficulty retrieving memories for specific autobiographical events, with important consequences for the emergence of emotional disorders. We examined whether social support can protect against the effects of negative events on memory specificity. University students ( = 143) were assigned to groups based on whether or not they experienced a negative stressor, operationalised as whether or not their recent exam performance was in line with their expectations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae) is a forest insect pest that attacks several different pine (Pinus) species in its native range of distribution in western North America. MPB are exposed for most of their life cycle to the chemical defenses of their hosts. These defenses are dominated by oleoresin secretions containing mostly various monoterpenes and diterpene resin acids (DRAs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Altered epigenetic profiles are a feature of intestinal diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. DNA methylation studies in these diseases have utilised intestinal mucosal tissue or blood which can be difficult to collect, particularly for large-scale research studies. Saliva is an attractive alternative for epigenetic studies as it is easy to collect and provides high quality methylation profiles.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The recent outbreak of the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae; MPB) has affected over 20 M hectares of pine forests in western North America. During the colonization of host trees, female MPB release the aggregation pheromone (-)-trans-verbenol. (-)-trans-Verbenol is thought to be produced from the pine defense compound (-)-α-pinene by cytochrome P450 (P450) dependent hydroxylation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common form of inherited intellectual disability. It is caused by the overexpansion of cytosine-guanine-guanine (CGG) trinucleotide in gene, resulting in complete loss of the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP). Previous studies using knockout ( KO) mice have suggested that a -methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR) hypofunction in the hippocampal dentate gyrus may partly contribute to cognitive impairments in FXS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The cloud droplet number concentration (N) is crucial for understanding cloud physics and aerosol-cloud interactions, but current satellite methods to retrieve N are limited and uncertain.
  • A review highlights a total relative uncertainty of 78% in pixel-level retrievals for specific cloud types, which decreases to 54% for larger area averages, but accuracy against in situ observations is better than indicated by retrievals.
  • Dominant errors in retrieving N stem from inaccuracies in cloud droplet effective radius (r), and improving these retrievals is essential; the review also suggests recommendations and explores new methods for better N estimates using both satellite and ground-based data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The COMT Val158Met polymorphism affects the availability of synaptic dopamine in the prefrontal cortex and has been widely studied as a genetic risk factor for psychosis. Schizotypy is associated with an increased risk of psychosis, with some studies implicating similar neurobiological mechanisms to schizophrenia. The present study sought to interrogate the link between the COMT Val158Met polymorphism and schizotypy using electroencephalogram (EEG) to identify neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning psychosis risk.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae) is a forest insect pest endemic to western North America. During dispersal and host colonization, MPB identify suitable host trees by olfaction of monoterpene volatiles, contend with host terpene defenses, and communicate with conspecifics using terpenoid and other pheromones. Cytochromes P450 (P450s) have been proposed to function in MPB olfaction, terpene detoxification, and pheromone biosynthesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Difficulties with inhibiting fear have been associated with the emergence of anxiety problems and poor response to cognitive-behavioural treatment. Fear inhibition problems measured using experimental paradigms involving aversive stimuli may be inappropriate for vulnerable samples and may not capture fear inhibition problems evident in everyday life. We present the Fear Inhibition Questionnaire (FIQ), a self-report measure of fear inhibition abilities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A recent outbreak of mountain pine beetle (MPB) has spread over more than 25 million hectares of pine forests in western North America, affecting pine species of sensitive boreal and mountain ecosystems. During initial host colonization, female MPB produce and release the aggregation pheromone -verbenol to coordinate a mass attack of individual trees. -Verbenol is formed by hydroxylation of α-pinene, a monoterpene of the pine oleoresin defense.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae; MPB) is an eruptive bark beetle species affecting pine forests of western North America. MPB are exposed to volatile monoterpenes, which are important host defense chemicals. We assessed the toxicity of the ten most abundant monoterpenes of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), a major host in the current MPB epidemic, against adult MPB from two locations in British Columbia, Canada.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Telomere length is widely considered as a marker of biological aging. Clinical studies have reported associations between reduced telomere length and hypertension. The aim of this study was to compare telomere length in hypertensive and normotensive mice at pre-disease and established disease time points to determine whether telomere length differs between the strains before and after the onset of disease.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Ageing is associated with changes at the molecular and cellular level that can alter cardiovascular function and ultimately lead to disease. The baboon is an ideal model for studying ageing due to the similarities in genetic, anatomical, physiological and biochemical characteristics with humans. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the changes in cardiovascular profile of baboons over the course of their lifespan.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessionjprugi83l682faipbq3uu7if4p5orj36): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once