Mismatch Negativity and P3a in Unaffected Siblings of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Exploration on the Neurocognitive Implications.

Evidence suggests different mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a responses in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Since unaffected siblings shared aberrant neurocognition and brain connectivity with ASD probands, this study investigated MMN and P3a responses in unaffected siblings and explored its neurocognitive implications and effects modifiers. We assessed 43 unaffected siblings of ASD probands and 64 non-autistic comparisons (NTC) using MMN and P3a on both frequency and duration oddball paradigms.

Pediatric Life Support in Prehospital Emergency Medicine: An Empirical Investigation in the Context of Taiwan's Critical Shortage of Pediatric Emergency Specialists.

Background: This study aims to facilitate parental identification of designated emergency facilities for expeditious pediatric care within the framework of Taiwan's newly implemented "regional joint defense" approach to pediatric emergency services. The research seeks to elucidate the mechanisms by which this novel system can enhance timely access to appropriate emergency care for children, potentially improving health outcomes and resource utilization in acute pediatric situations.

Methods: Factor analysis (FA) and triangular entropy matrix (TEM) analyzed the appearance, breathing and skin of pediatric assessment triangle (ABC of PAT), three types of prehospital pediatric emergence condition (PPEC), five levels of Taiwan's pediatric emergency triage (TPET), and applied the social learning theory (SLT) in educational doctrine, using experts' weighted questionnaires.

Patients with first-episode psychosis in northern Taiwan: neurocognitive performance and niacin response profile in comparison with schizophrenia patients of different familial loadings and relationship with clinical features.

Background: Examining patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP) provides opportunities to better understand the mechanism underlying these illnesses. By incorporating quantitative measures in FEP patients, we aimed to (1) determine the baseline distribution of clinical features; (2) examine the impairment magnitude of the quantitative measures by comparing with external controls and then the counterparts of schizophrenia patients of different familial loadings; and (3) evaluate whether these quantitative measures were associated with the baseline clinical features.

Methods: Patients with FEP were recruited from one medical center, two regional psychiatric centers, and two private clinics in northern Taiwan with clinical features rated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Personal and Social Performance (PSP) scale.

Electroconvulsive therapy for treatment-resistant depression.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), the oldest brain stimulation procedure in psychiatry, is associated with rapid response and remission in majority of patients with resistant, severe, and sometimes life-threatening depression. ECT has been included as an essential component in the definition of treatment-resistant depression (TRD) to display the course and diversification of TRD. On the other hand, ECT remains the treatment of choice for the most severe incapacitating forms of TRD and is a cost-effective treatment.

Dose-tapering trajectories in patients with remitted psychosis undergoing guided antipsychotic reduction to reach minimum effective dose.

Background: Patients with remitted psychosis wish to reduce antipsychotic doses yet facing increased risks of relapse. Examining dose-tapering processes may provide insights to re-evaluate the risk-to-benefit balance. We aimed to depict and subgroup tapering trajectories, and explore factors associated with different dose-reduction patterns.

Guided antipsychotic reduction to reach minimum effective dose (GARMED) in patients with remitted psychosis: a 2-year randomized controlled trial with a naturalistic cohort.

Background: Patients with remitted psychosis face a dilemma between the wish to discontinue antipsychotics and the risk of relapse. We test if an operationalized guided-dose-reduction algorithm can help reach a lower effective dose without increased risks of relapse.

Methods: A 2-year open-label randomized prospective comparative cohort trial from Aug 2017 to Sep 2022.

Hemispheric lateralization of semantic processing before and after aripiprazole treatment in first-episode psychosis or ultra-high risk state.

Whether aberrant language-related lateralization can be improved after antipsychotic treatment in drug-free patients with first-episode psychosis or ultra-high risk state is little known. We aimed to investigate the improvement in lateralization of semantic processing after antipsychotic treatment and associated clinical and cognitive changes. Twenty-one drug-free patients with first-episode psychosis or ultra-high risk state underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging with a semantic task, neuropsychological testing, and clinical assessments with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale before and after 6 weeks of aripiprazole treatment.

Preliminary Research on the Sustainable Determinants of Taiwanese Ecotourism with the International Standards.

To analyze Taiwanese ecotourism with international standards, this research employed the social learning theory (SLT) to identify the determinants of Taiwanese community ecotourism with the international standards. This basic theory of social psychology comprehensively assays the interplays and interconnections among the three analytical perspectives (ecotourism tours, destinations, and accommodations), the four essential issues (management, social, cultural, and environment) of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, the six assessed dimensions of ecotourism resolution from the WCC, and the twenty-nine assessed indexes of the KES ecotourism evaluations. It was then possible to comprehensively explore the sustainable determinants of Taiwanese ecotourism with the international standards through the FA of quantitative and qualitative analyses in combination with the highest research validity, reliability, representativeness, and accuracy.

Deterministic Loading of Microwaves onto an Artificial Atom Using a Time-Reversed Waveform.

Loading quantum information deterministically onto a quantum node is an important step toward a quantum network. Here, we demonstrate that coherent-state microwave photons with an optimal temporal waveform can be efficiently loaded onto a single superconducting artificial atom in a semi-infinite one-dimensional (1D) transmission-line waveguide. Using a weak coherent state (the number of photons () contained in the pulse ≪1) with an exponentially rising waveform, whose time constant matches the decoherence time of the artificial atom, we demonstrate a loading efficiency of 94.

The changes of parental functioning of the patients with bipolar disorder and major depression since discharging from hospital: A longitudinal study.

Aims And Objectives: This study examined the changes in patients' parental functioning and the associated factors, including manic, depressive symptoms and social support from before discharge to 6 months post-discharge.

Background: For parents with bipolar disorder and major depression, parenting is a recovery factor for patients, but little research examines the dynamic parental functioning from acute hospitalisation to a remission stage.

Design: A longitudinal design was used.

Niacin skin flush and membrane polyunsaturated fatty acids in schizophrenia from the acute state to partial remission: a dynamic relationship.

Despite the consistent finding of an attenuated niacin-induced flush response in schizophrenia, its long-term stability and relationship to the membrane polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) levels remain unknown. We conducted niacin skin tests and measured the membrane PUFAs using gas chromatography among 46 schizophrenia inpatients and 37 healthy controls at the baseline and the 2-month follow-up. Attenuated flush responses were persistently observed in schizophrenia patients in both acute and partial remission states, whereas an increased flush response was found in the controls.

Dysregulated affective arousal regulates reward-based decision making in patients with schizophrenia: an integrated study.

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder. Dysregulated decision-making and affective processing have been implicated in patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and have significant impacts on their cognitive and social functions. However, little is known about how affective arousal influences reward-based decision-making in SZ.

Discontinuing Antipsychotic Medication After Remission from First-Episode Psychosis: A Survey of Psychiatrists' Attitudes in Taiwan.

Background: Patients in remission after first-episode psychosis are inclined to discontinue antipsychotic treatment, which may lead to higher risk of relapse and unfavorable outcomes. Paradoxically, also there are evidences suggesting that certain patients may stay well in drug-free condition. Psychiatrists' views towards this dilemma might affect their approaches to these patients, and discrepant attitudes are noted between Western and Asian clinicians.

Comparative early results of a robotics-assisted endoscope holder in single port thoracoscopic surgery in the era of COVID-19.

Background: Innovations in surgical instruments have made single-port surgery more widely accepted and lead to a reduced demand for surgical assistants. As COVID-19 has ravaged the world, maintaining minimum medical staffing requirements and proper social distancing have become major topics of interest. We sought to evaluate the feasibility of applying the unisurgeon approach in single-port video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery aided by a robotic camera holder.

Identifying dopamine supersensitivity through a randomized controlled study of switching to aripiprazole from other antipsychotic agents in patients with schizophrenia.

Background: Aripiprazole has been reported to worsen psychotic symptoms when switching from other antipsychotics, possibly due to dopamine supersensitivity psychosis.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the predictors and possible underlying mechanisms of aripiprazole-related psychotic exacerbation.

Methods: We conducted an 8-week, open-label, randomized controlled study from October 2007 to September 2009, assigning patients with a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder to switch from other antipsychotics to aripiprazole with 2-week dual administration, and then to taper off the original agents in fast (n = 38, within 1 week) or slow (n = 41, within 4 weeks) strategies.

A novel STING agonist-adjuvanted pan-sarbecovirus vaccine elicits potent and durable neutralizing antibody and T cell responses in mice, rabbits and NHPs.

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and potentially other highly pathogenic sarbecoviruses in the future highlights the need for pan-sarbecovirus vaccines. Here, we discovered a new STING agonist, CF501, and found that CF501-adjuvanted RBD-Fc vaccine (CF501/RBD-Fc) elicited significantly stronger neutralizing antibody (nAb) and T cell responses than Alum- and cGAMP-adjuvanted RBD-Fc in mice. Vaccination of rabbits and rhesus macaques (nonhuman primates, NHPs) with CF501/RBD-Fc elicited exceptionally potent nAb responses against SARS-CoV-2 and its nine variants and 41 S-mutants, SARS-CoV and bat SARSr-CoVs.

Follow-up of subjects labelled with putative pre-psychotic states: Viewed from a transdiagnostic clinical high-at-risk mental state (CHARMS) paradigm.

Background: Follow-up of subjects with putative pre-psychotic states is essential to clarify the transition process to psychosis, while "non-converters" also deserve clinical attention as many may evolve into other psychiatric disorders with diverse outcomes. This study aimed to examine help-seeking individuals who have been labelled at clinical high-risk state but not converting to full-blown psychosis during first two years of follow-up.

Methods: A retrospective observational cohort study of help-seeking subjects was conducted by reviewing medical records of participants in a previous early psychosis study at the study hospital between 2006 and 2020.

Challenging the Minimum Effective Antipsychotic Dose During Maintenance: Implications From 10-Year Follow-Up of First Episode Psychosis.

Contradictory messages regarding the necessity of long-term antipsychotic treatment after first episode psychosis arouse deliberations in clinical practice. We explored if there is an alternative beyond the dichotomy of maintenance treatment and discontinuation of medications. We conducted a retrospective observational study by reviewing medical records at the study hospital of a cohort of patients since their participation in an early psychosis study starting from 2006, with special interests in patients able to maintain good functioning under treatment with a low antipsychotic dose.

A quarter of century after: The changing ecology of psychiatric emergency services.

Introduction: Previous studies demonstrated a trend of increasing common mental disorders among the Emergency Department (ED) visitors in Western countries. Little is known about the current conditions of the emergency psychiatric services in Asian countries. This study aims to survey the current epidemiology and the changing ecology of emergency psychiatry services in Taiwan.

The experiences of family resilience from the view of the adult children of parents with bipolar disorder in Chinese society.

Aims: This study explored how adult children perceived family resilience, barriers to develop family resilience and how cultural values influence their experience of parents with bipolar disorder in Chinese society.

Design: A qualitative design with an interpretive phenomenological analysis of data was employed.

Methods: Twenty adults who had lived with parents with bipolar disorder during childhood were recruited from the acute psychiatric ward when their parents were admitted to the hospital.

1-Nitropyrene Induced Reactive Oxygen Species-Mediated Apoptosis in Macrophages through AIF Nuclear Translocation and AMPK/Nrf-2/HO-1 Pathway Activation.

1-Nitropyrene (1-NP), one of the most abundant nitropolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (nitro-PAHs), is generated from the incomplete combustion of carbonaceous organic compounds. 1-NP is a specific marker of diesel exhaust and is an environmental pollutant and a probable carcinogen. Macrophages participate in immune defense against the invasive pathogens in heart, lung, and kidney infection diseases.

Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate-Loaded Liposomes Favor Anti-Inflammation of Microglia Cells and Promote Neuroprotection.

Microglia-mediated neuroinflammation is recognized to mainly contribute to the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), known as a natural antioxidant in green tea, can inhibit microglia-mediated inflammation and protect neurons but has disadvantages such as high instability and low bioavailability. We developed an EGCG liposomal formulation to improve its bioavailability and evaluated the neuroprotective activity in in vitro and in vivo neuroinflammation models.

Protocol of guided antipsychotic reduction to reach minimum effective dose (GARMED) in patients with remitted psychosis based on pragmatic design.

Aims: Patients with psychosis intend to discontinue antipsychotic treatment for various reasons. As antipsychotic discontinuation involves a high risk of relapse, maintenance treatment is recommended by mainstream opinion even when remission is attained. To optimize the risk-to-benefit ratio of long-term antipsychotic treatment, we proposed an operationalized guided dose-reduction algorithm to serve as an intermediate approach as to achieve the lowest effective antipsychotic dose and better functioning for patients with remitted psychosis.