Publications by authors named "Meng Che Tsai"

Background: Adverse childhood events (ACEs) have been associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders in young adulthood. To identify at-risk individuals and potential strategies to combat the negative impacts of ACE, this study investigated the mediating role of exercise in the relationship between psychological distress and ACEs. Further, we examined the moderating effect of the BDNF polymorphism in the mediation relationship.

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Background: Impaired mitochondrial protein import machinery leads to phenotypically heterogeneous diseases. Here, we report a recurrent homozygous missense variant in the gene that encodes the translocase of outer mitochondrial membrane 7 (TOMM7) in nine patients with microcephaly, short stature, facial dysmorphia, atrophic macular scarring, and moyamoya disease from seven unrelated families.

Methods: To prove the causality of the TOMM7 variant, mitochondrial morphology, proteomics, and respiration were investigated in CRISPR/Cas9-edited iPSCs-derived endothelial cells.

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Designing hybrid transition metal phosphosulfide electrocatalysts is critical for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). We propose a novel approach by designing a hierarchical structure of cobalt phosphide (CoP) and nickel phosphide (NiP) nanoparticles topotactically developed on nickel sulfide (NiS) nanorods (CoNiP/NiS) a sulfuration-phosphorization strategy using conductive 3D nickel foam. Hierarchical heterostructured nanorods were achieved without the need for template removal steps or the assistance of surfactants.

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Backgrounds: Ample evidence supports potential influence of age at menarche (AM) on adult height (AH), but multiple confounders may affect causal estimates. To address this issue, the Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was used to explore the causal impacts of AM on AH.

Methods: Using data (n = 57,349) from the publicly accessible Taiwan Biobank and randomly splitting them into 2 equal-size subsets, we identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with AM in the exploration subset and used these SNPs as instrumental variables to estimate the effects of instruments on AH in the validation subset based on two stage least squares (2SLS) regression.

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Electrochemical approaches for generating hydrogen from water splitting can be more promising if the challenges in the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) can be harnessed. The interface heterostructure materials offer strong electronic coupling and appropriate charge transport at the interface regions, promoting accessible active sites to prompt kinetics and optimize the adsorption-desorption of active species. Herein, we have designed an efficient multi-interface-engineered NiFe LDH/NiS/TW heterostructure on in situ generated titanate web layers from the titanium foam.

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Urea electrolysis can address pressing environmental concerns caused by urea-containing wastewater while realizing energy-saving hydrogen production. Highly efficient and affordable electrocatalysts are indispensable for realizing the great potential of this emerging technology. Among the numerous candidates, α-Ni(OH) has the merits of good electrocatalytic activity, adjustable heteroelement doping, and low cost; consequently, it has received tremendous attention in the electrolytic fields.

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The UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Model and the various psychometric instruments developed and validated based on this model are well established in clinical and research settings. However, evidence regarding the psychometric validity, reliability, and equivalence across multiple countries of residence, languages, or gender identities, including gender-diverse individuals, is lacking to date. Using data from the International Sex Survey ( = 82,243), confirmatory factor analyses and measurement invariance analyses were performed on the preestablished five-factor structure of the 20-item short version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale to examine whether (a) psychometric validity and reliability and (b) psychometric equivalence hold across 34 country-of-residence-related, 22 language-related, and three gender-identity-related groups.

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Background And Objectives: Psychosocial factors affect individuals' desire for physical activity. A newly developed instrument (Tendency to Avoid Physical Activity and Sport; TAPAS) has been designed to assess the avoidance of physical activity. Considering cultural differences could be decisive factors, the present study aimed to translate and validate the TAPAS into Chinese (Mandarin) for Taiwanese youths, and further cultural comparisons are expected.

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Background: Food insecurity is a heightened concern among economically disadvantaged youth, and it may contribute to the atypical body mass index (BMI) patterns frequently observed in this group. Self-efficacy seems to intervene in the negative impacts of contextual restraints. This study investigated the relationship between food insecurity, self-efficacy, and BMI trajectory among economically disadvantaged Taiwanese youth.

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Thyroid dyshormonogenesis (TDH) is responsible for 15%-25% of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) cases. Pathogenetic variants of this common inherited endocrine disorders vary geographically. Unraveling the genetic underpinnings of TDH is essential for genetic counseling and precise therapeutic strategies.

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Background: The three-item Sexual Distress Scale (SDS-3) has been frequently used to assess distress related to sexuality in public health surveys and research on sexual wellbeing. However, its psychometric properties and measurement invariance across cultural, gender and sexual subgroups have not yet been examined. This multinational study aimed to validate the SDS-3 and test its psychometric properties, including measurement invariance across language, country, gender identity, and sexual orientation groups.

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This case report sheds light on the management of skeletal deformity in a young child with X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH), emphasizing the significance of a timely orthotic intervention alongside pharmacological treatment, which is a strategy not frequently highlighted in the XLH literature. The patient, a 2-year-and-7-month-old female, presented with classic XLH symptoms, including short stature, pronounced genu varum, and hypophosphatemia, with deformities observed in both the coronal and sagittal planes of the femur and tibia. Despite initial reliance on pharmacotherapy, which proved insufficient for skeletal realignment, the integration of orthotic treatment at age 3 marked a pivotal turn in the management strategy.

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Background: Syndromic ciliopathies are a group of congenital disorders characterized by broad clinical and genetic overlap, including obesity, visual problems, skeletal anomalies, mental retardation, and renal diseases. The hallmark of the pathophysiology among these disorders is defective ciliary functions or formation. Many different genes have been implicated in the pathogenesis of these diseases, but some patients still remain unclear about their genotypes.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study is the first extensive investigation of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) in Taiwan, revealing significant medical resource use and emphasizing the need for early diagnosis to improve care quality.
  • Researchers analyzed data from 319 validated OI patients, noting that most were identified before age 20, and highlighting high hospitalization rates and costs primarily due to lower limb fractures.
  • Findings indicated that early validation is crucial, as younger patients require fewer surgeries and have better survival rates than those validated later in life, with mortality mainly linked to OI complications and related diseases.*
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Introduction: The potential influence of age at menarche (AM) on cognitive aging remains inadequate, partly because of the difficulties presented by multiple confounders. To address this issue, Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was used to explore the causal impacts of AM on cognitive aging.

Methods: Using the publicly accessible Taiwan Biobank, we identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with AM as instrumental variables to estimate the effects of instruments on cognitive function assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).

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Background: Numerous factors can influence bowel movement recovery and anastomotic healing in colorectal surgery, and poor healing can lead to severe complications and increased medical expenses. Collagen patch cover (CPC) is a promising biomaterial that has been demonstrated to be safe in animal models and has been successfully applied in various surgical procedures in humans. This study.

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Age at menarche (AAM) has been associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, little is known about their shared heritability. Our data comes from the Taiwan Biobank.

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Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS; OMIM #180860) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous imprinting disorder characterized by prenatal and postnatal growth failure. The aim of this study was to identify the epigenotype-phenotype correlations in these patients using quantitative DNA methylation analysis. One hundred and eighty-three subjects clinically suspected of having SRS were referred for diagnostic testing by the methylation profiling of -associated imprinting center (IC) 1 and imprinted regions using methylation-specific high-resolution melting analysis and methylation quantification with the MassARRAY assay.

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Currently, hydrogen peroxide (HO) manufacturing involves an energy-intensive anthraquinone technique that demands expensive solvent extraction and a multistep process with substantial energy consumption. In this work, we synthesized Pd-N-CO, Pd-S-NCO, and Pd-NO-C single-atom catalysts via an in situ synthesis approach involving heteroatom-rich ligands and activated carbon under mild reaction conditions. It reveals that palladium atoms interact strongly with heteroatom-rich ligands, which provide well-defined and uniform active sites for oxygen (O) electrochemically reduced to hydrogen peroxide.

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Despite the unique advantages of single-atom catalysts, molecular dual-active sites facilitate the C-C coupling reaction for C products toward the CO reduction reaction (CORR). The Ni/Cu proximal dual-active site catalyst (Ni/Cu-PASC) is developed, which is a harmonic catalyst with dual-active sites, by simply mixing commercial Ni-phthalocyanine (Ni-Pc) and Cu-phthalocyanine (Cu-Pc) molecules physically. According to scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) data, Ni and Cu atoms are separated, creating dual-active sites for the CORR.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study investigates the link between central precocious puberty (CPP) and early hypertension in children, focusing on both boys and girls.
  • It specifically finds that boys experiencing CPP have a significantly higher risk of early hypertension compared to those with normal puberty onset, with notable differences in systolic blood pressure before and after puberty.
  • Ultimately, the research suggests that addressing CPP in boys could help manage elevated blood pressure levels and reduce early hypertension risks.
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Intergroup contact is important to reduce prejudice toward sexual minorities. Yet little is known regarding how kindergarten teachers' contact experiences with sexual minority affect their attitudes toward sexual minorities and their beliefs regarding same-sex family parents' parenting skills and same-sex family children's adjustment. This cross-sectional study recruited kindergarten teachers ( = 261; mean age = 38.

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Background: Weight stigma is an issue often studied in Western countries; however, such information is scarce in Asian studies.

Methods: This study aimed to examine the role of internalized weight stigma as a mediator in the relationship between perceived weight stigma and changes in body mass index (BMI). The data were collected through a longitudinal online survey with two phases (n = 974; Phase 1: August and September 2021; Phase 2: November and December 2021).

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Introduction: Despite being a widely used screening questionnaire, there is no consensus on the most appropriate measurement model for the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Furthermore, there have been limited studies on its measurement invariance across cross-cultural subgroups, genders, and sexual orientations.

Aims: The present study aimed to examine the fit of different measurement models for the AUDIT and its measurement invariance across a wide range of subgroups by country, language, gender, and sexual orientation.

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