Benefits of RENEW: A Faith-Infused, Game-Based Social-Emotional Intervention: Evidence from a Pilot Cluster Randomized Crossover Trial on Primary School Children in Taiwan.

Social-emotional competence (SEC) enables children to build successful relationships and reduces the risk of mental issues. It has been demonstrated that implementing social-emotional learning (SEL) programs helps develop students' SEC and that better results are obtained utilizing gamification. This paper illustrates the impact of the faith-infused, game-based intervention RENEW (REsilience iN Emotional and behavioral Well-being) on primary school students' SEC.

Geo-temporal distribution of 1,688 Chinese healthcare workers infected with COVID-19 in severe conditions-A secondary data analysis.

Introduction: The COVID-19 outbreak is posing an unprecedented challenge to healthcare workers. This study analyzes the geo-temporal effects on disease severity for the 1,688 Chinese healthcare workers infected with COVID-19.

Methods: Using the descriptive results recently reported by the Chinese CDC, we compare the percentage of infected healthcare workers in severe conditions over time and across three areas in China, and the fatality rate of infected healthcare workers with all the infected individuals in China aged 22-59 years.

Are e-cigarettes reviving the popularity of conventional smoking among Taiwanese male adolescents? A time-trend population-based analysis for 2004-2017.

Introduction: In Taiwan, national tobacco use surveys show that e-cigarette use has increased since 2014 among youth, while, at the same time, conventional cigarette smoking has continuously decreased. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the increased popularity of e-cigarettes has undermined this favourable declining trend for cigarette smoking.

Methods: We examined conventional cigarette and e-cigarette prevalence among male high school students (aged 16-18 years) and adults from 2004 to 2017, using data from cross-sectional nationally representative surveys.

Air pollution is not 'the new smoking': comparing the disease burden of air pollution and smoking across the globe, 1990-2017.

Air pollution has been labelled the 'new smoking', with news articles bearing titles such as 'If You Live in a Big City You Already Smoke Every Day' and 'The Air Is So Bad in These Cities, You May As Well Be Smoking'. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, highlighted this attention-catching comparison, saying, 'The world has turned the corner on tobacco. Now it must do the same for the 'new tobacco' - the toxic air that billions breathe every day' and 'Globally, with smoking on the decline, air pollution now causes more deaths annually than tobacco' at the First Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health in 2018.

Exploiting a low tax system: non-tax-induced cigarette price increases in Taiwan 2011-2016.

Introduction: This study aims to analyse the non-tax-induced price increasing strategies adopted by tobacco industry in Taiwan, a high-income country with comprehensive tobacco control policies but low tobacco taxes and a declining cigarette market.

Methods: Using governmental tax, price and inflation data, we analysed cigarette sales volume, affordability, affordability elasticity of demand, market share, pricing and net revenue of the top five tobacco companies in Taiwan from 2011 to 2016 when no tax increases occurred.

Results: Total revenue after tax grew significantly for all the major transnational tobacco companies between 2011 and 2016 at the expense of the state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation.

Electronic Cigarette Use and Smoking Initiation in Taiwan: Evidence from the First Prospective Study in Asia.

A growing literature indicates that electronic cigarette use increases the risk of subsequent initiation of conventional smoking among cigarette-naïve adolescents in several Western countries. This research assesses the same relationship in an Asian country, Taiwan. The Taiwan Adolescent to Adult Longitudinal Study is a school-based survey that was carried out in two waves in 2014 (baseline) and in 2016 (follow-up).

Tobacco control within and beyond WHO MPOWER: outcomes from Taiwan SimSmoke.

Introduction: Adult smoking prevalence in Taiwan rapidly declined from 26.5% in 2005 to 20.0% in 2015.

Juggling Two Balls-Smoking (Re)Normalization and Harm Reduction: E-Cigarettes-Facts and Misconceptions in Taiwan.

The increasing popularity of e-cigarettes, especially among adolescents, has alarmed health advocates and government officials, dominating the tobacco control narrative in the past few years. According to the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, the percentage of Taiwanese teenagers reporting use of e-cigarettes in the past 30 days rose from 2.01% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.

Spatial and Temporal Characteristics of 2014 Dengue Outbreak in Guangdong, China.

The record-breaking number of dengue cases reported in Guangdong, China in 2014 has been topic for many studies. However, the spatial and temporal characteristics of this unexpectedly explosive outbreak are still poorly understood. We adopt an integrated approach to ascertain the spatial-temporal progression of the outbreak in each city in Guangdong as well as in each district in Guangzhou, where the majority of cases occurred.

Ascertaining the impact of public rapid transit system on spread of dengue in urban settings.

Urbanization is an important factor contributing to the global spread of dengue in recent decades, especially in tropical regions. However, the impact of public transportation system on local spread of dengue in urban settings remains poorly understood, due to the difficulty in collecting relevant locality, transportation and disease incidence data with sufficient detail, and in suitably quantifying the combined effect of proximity and passenger flow. We quantify proximity and passenger traffic data relating to 2014-2015 dengue outbreaks in Kaohsiung, Taiwan by introducing a "Risk Associated with Metro Passengers Presence" (RAMPP), which considers the passenger traffic of stations located within a fixed radius, giving more weight to the busier and/or closer stations.

Temporal patterns of dengue epidemics: The case of recent outbreaks in Kaohsiung.

Objective: To investigate whether major dengue outbreaks in the last two decades in Kaohsiung follow a precise temporal pattern.

Methods: Government daily lab-confirmed dengue case data from three major dengue outbreaks occurring during the last two decades in Kaohsiung in 2002, 2014 and 2015, is utilized to compute the corresponding weekly cumulative percentage of total case numbers. We divide each of the three time series data into two periods to examine the corresponding weekly cumulative percentages of case numbers for each period.

Avoiding social traps in the ecosystem stewardship: The Italian Fontanile lowland spring.

Fontanile is a Po Valley (Italy) quasi-natural lowland spring built in the middle age. This paper identifies options for the conservation of the Fontanile water dependent ecosystem, using scenarios and simulations, and exploring different policy options. Three modeling analysis have been performed: the first was carried out for estimating groundwater contamination and recharge from above, the second for evaluating the function of vegetative filter strip on the surface water quality and the last one for testing pesticide drift reduction due to the vegetative filter strip.

Designing a high-yielding maize ideotype for a changing climate in Lombardy plain (northern Italy).

The expected climate change will affect the maize yields in view of air temperature increase and scarce water availability. The application of biophysical models offers the chance to design a drought-resistant ideotype and to assist plant breeders and agronomists in the assessment of its suitability in future scenarios. The aim of the present work was to perform a model-based estimation of the yields of two hybrids, current vs ideotype, under future climate scenarios (2030-2060 and 2070-2100) in Lombardy (northern Italy), testing two options of irrigation (small amount at fixed dates vs optimal water supply), nitrogen (N) fertilization (300 vs 400 kg N ha(-1)), and crop cycle durations (current vs extended).