Association Between Current Medical Decision-Making Participation Self-Efficacy and Advance Care Planning Engagement Among Older Adults: Baseline Findings from a Nationwide Longitudinal Cohort Study.

Misconceptions of and cultural differences in aging influence older adults' medical decision-making self-efficacy and engagement in advance care planning (ACP). This study aims to investigate the association between current medical decision-making participation self-efficacy and ACP engagement among older individuals receiving home-based medical care (HBMC) in Taiwan. Baseline data analysis of a nationwide cohort study.

Adaptation of the Taiwan Version of the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool (SPICT-TW) and Its Association with Six-Month Mortality: A Multi-Center Validation Study in Older People.

The Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool (SPICT) was developed for identifying, in a timely manner, patients who may benefit from supportive and palliative care for better treatment review, care-plan discussion, and end-of-life care. Although the SPICT has been validated in different languages and for patients living in different settings, it has not been validated for patients receiving home-based medical care (HBMC), or in the context of using traditional Chinese characters. The present study aimed to validate the Taiwanese version of the SPICT (SPICT-TW) and to measure its ability to predict six-month mortality in patients who received HBMC in Taiwan.

Nanotechnology for Targeted Inflammatory Bowel Disease Therapy: Challenges and Opportunities.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a complex and recurring inflammatory disorder that affects the gastrointestinal tract and is influenced by genetic predisposition, immune dysregulation, the gut microbiota, and environmental factors. Advanced therapies, such as biologics and small molecules, target diverse immune pathways to manage IBD. Nanoparticle (NP)-based drugs have emerged as effective tools, offering controlled drug release and targeted delivery.

Discovering Novel Loci of Chronic Kidney Disease via Principal Component Analysis-Based Multiple-Trait Genome-Wide Association Study.

Introduction: Chronic kidney diseases (CKD) encompass a spectrum of complex pathophysiological processes. While numerous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have focused on individual traits such as albuminuria, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and eGFR change, there remains a paucity of genetic studies integrating these traits collectively for comprehensive evaluation.

Methods: In this study, we performed individual GWASs for albuminuria, baseline eGFR, and eGFR slope utilizing data from non-diabetic individuals enrolled from the Taiwan Biobank (TWB).

Potential toxic effects linked to taurine interactions with alkanolamines and diisopropylamine.

Unlabelled: Diisopropylamine (DIPA), aminomethyl propanol (AMP), amino ethoxy ethanol (AEE), diethanolamine (DEA), ethanolamine (EA), pyridine (PYR) and methyl diethanolamine (MDEA) are used for carbon capture and to sweeten sour gas, and are found in groundwater. They are also used in cosmetic products. Taurine is abundant in the body, with key biological functions linked to its charged SO groups.

The Association between Dietary Inflammatory Patterns and the Incidence of Frailty and Its Reversal in Older Adults: A Community-Based Longitudinal Follow-Up Study in Taiwan.

Dietary patterns related to inflammation have garnered great interest in disease prevention. The aims of this study were to evaluate whether a proinflammatory diet affects the incidence of frailty and its reversal in a prospective follow-up study. Data were taken from 5663 community-dwelling individuals ≥ 55 years old in Taiwan.

Neuroserpin normalization by mesenchymal stem cell therapy after encephalopathy of prematurity in neonatal rats.

Background: Hypoxic-ischemia (HI), infection/inflammation and reperfusion injury are pathogenic factors of encephalopathy of prematurity, which involves maturational/neurotrophic disturbances in oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPC) and neurons/axons. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) might facilitate neuroserpin production, which is neurotrophic for OPC/neurons. This study investigated MSC effects on developmental disturbances after lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-sensitized HI/reperfusion (LHIR) injury and the relation to neuroserpin expression.

Psychometric Properties and Measurement Invariance of the Awareness of Age-Related Change Short Form in Older Adult Samples From Taiwan and Germany.

Background And Objectives: This study examined the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the 10-item Awareness of Age-Related Change Short Form (AARC-SF) questionnaire in a Chinese-speaking sample of older adults in Taiwan.

Research Design And Methods: Data from 292 participants (Mage = 77.64 years) in the Healthy Aging Longitudinal Study in Taiwan cohort were used for Study 1, whereas data from young-old adult samples in Germany were used for Study 2.

The mutagenic forces shaping the genomic landscape of lung cancer in never smokers.

Lung cancer in never smokers (LCINS) accounts for up to 25% of all lung cancers and has been associated with exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke and air pollution in observational studies. Here, we evaluate the mutagenic exposures in LCINS by examining deep whole-genome sequencing data from a large international cohort of 871 treatment-naïve LCINS recruited from 28 geographical locations within the Sherlock- study. mutations were 3.

Engineered CRISPR-Cas12a for higher-order combinatorial chromatin perturbations.

Multiplexed genetic perturbations are critical for testing functional interactions among coding or non-coding genetic elements. Compared to double-stranded DNA cutting, repressive chromatin formation using CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) avoids genotoxicity and is more effective for perturbing non-coding regulatory elements in pooled assays. However, current CRISPRi pooled screening approaches are limited to targeting one to three genomic sites per cell.

Develop and Validate a Prognostic Index With Laboratory Tests to Predict Mortality in Middle-Aged and Older Adults Using Machine Learning Models: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Background: Prognostic indices can enhance personalized predictions of health burdens. However, a simple, practical, and reproducible tool is lacking for clinical use. This study aimed to develop a machine learning-based prognostic index for predicting all-cause mortality in community-dwelling older individuals.

Examining the role of living alone and loneliness in predicting health-related quality of life: results from the Healthy Aging Longitudinal Study in Taiwan (HALST).

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the distinct yet interconnected aspects of social isolation, namely living alone and loneliness, and their individual and combined effects on predicting health-related quality of life (HRQoL).

Methods: A comprehensive analysis, encompassing both cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches, was conducted using a nationally representative sample of 5644 community-dwelling adults aged 55 and older from the Healthy Aging Longitudinal Study in Taiwan (HALST).

Results: Baseline data revealed that 9% of the sample reported living alone, while 10.