Use of Machine Learning to Predict the Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes Among Relatively Healthy Adults: A 10-Year Longitudinal Study in Taiwan.

: The prevalence of diabetes is increasing worldwide, particularly in the Pacific Ocean island nations. Although machine learning (ML) models and data mining approaches have been applied to diabetes research, there was no study utilizing ML models to predict diabetes incidence in Taiwan. We aimed to predict the onset of diabetes in order to raise health awareness, thereby promoting any necessary lifestyle modifications and help mitigate disease burden.

The Potential for High-Priority Care Based on Pain Through Facial Expression Detection with Patients Experiencing Chest Pain.

Background And Objective: Cardiovascular disease (CVD), one of the chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), is defined as a cardiac and vascular disorder that includes coronary heart disease, heart failure, peripheral arterial disease, cerebrovascular disease (stroke), congenital heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, and elevated blood pressure (hypertension). Having CVD increases the mortality rate. Emotional stress, an indirect indicator associated with CVD, can often manifest through facial expressions.

Association between severity of diabetic complications and risk of cancer in middle-aged patients with type 2 diabetes.

Aim: Hyperglycemia was found to be associated with an increased risk of cancer in a general population cohort. However, it remains to be established whether the severity of diabetic complications is associated with cancer risk in patients with diabetes.

Materials And Methods: We used the National Health Insurance Research Database from 2000 through 2013, including those with newly diagnosed diabetic patients (n = 616,742).

Biallelic EPB41L3 variants underlie a developmental disorder with seizures and myelination defects.

Erythrocyte membrane protein band 4.1 like 3 (EPB41L3: NM_012307.5), also known as DAL1, encodes the ubiquitously expressed, neuronally enriched 4.

RING1 missense variants reveal sensitivity of DNA damage repair to H2A monoubiquitination dosage during neurogenesis.

Polycomb repressive complex 1 (PRC1) modifies chromatin through catalysis of histone H2A lysine 119 monoubiquitination (H2AK119ub1). RING1 and RNF2 interchangeably serve as the catalytic subunit within PRC1. Pathogenic missense variants in PRC1 core components reveal functions of these proteins that are obscured in knockout models.

Biallelic variants in CSMD1 are implicated in a neurodevelopmental disorder with intellectual disability and variable cortical malformations.

CSMD1 (Cub and Sushi Multiple Domains 1) is a well-recognized regulator of the complement cascade, an important component of the innate immune response. CSMD1 is highly expressed in the central nervous system (CNS) where emergent functions of the complement pathway modulate neural development and synaptic activity. While a genetic risk factor for neuropsychiatric disorders, the role of CSMD1 in neurodevelopmental disorders is unclear.

Implementation of a Smart Teaching and Assessment System for High-Quality Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.

The purpose of this study is to develop a smart training and assessment system called , for teaching and training cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), based on human posture estimation techniques. In this system, trainees can automatically recognize and evaluate whether chest compressions during CPR meet the standard of high-quality CPR by simply using a device such as a smart phone. Through the system, trainees are able to obtain real-time feedback on the quality of compressions so that they can adjust the cycle, depth, frequency, and posture of compressions to meet the standard of high-quality CPR.

Association between self-efficacy, spiritual well-being and the willingness to provide spiritual care among nursing staff in Taiwan: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Spiritual care plays a significant role in holistic patient care, addressing not only physical ailments but also attending to patients' emotional and spiritual well-being. While the importance of spiritual care in nursing is widely recognized, there is often a gap in understanding nurses' willingness to provide such care. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore the association between self-efficacy, spiritual well-being, and willingness to provide spiritual care among nursing staff.

In Vitro Assessment of Cardiac Fibroblast Activation at Physiologic Stiffness.

Cardiac fibroblasts (CF) are an essential cell type in cardiac physiology, playing diverse roles in maintaining structural integrity, extracellular matrix (ECM) synthesis, and tissue repair. Under normal conditions, these cells reside in the interstitium in a quiescent state poised to sense and respond to injury by synthesizing and secreting collagen, vimentin, hyaluronan, and other ECM components. In response to mechanical and chemical stimuli, these "resident" fibroblasts can undergo a transformation through a continuum of activation states into what is commonly known as a "myofibroblast," in a process critical for injury response.

Advance Care Planning Affects End-of-Life Treatment Preferences Among Patients With Heart Failure: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

This study explored the effects of advance care planning interventions on end-of-life treatment decisions among patients with heart failure. The study design was a randomized controlled trial. An intervention involving a motivational video, a cartoon version educational brochure, and a guided discussion was implemented.

Prediction of risk of ischemic heart disease in first-diagnosed systemic lupus erythematosus patients in taiwan: is air pollution exposure a risk factor?

Background: Air pollution is a key public health factor with the capacity to induce diseases. The risk of ischemia heart disease (IHD) in those suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) from air pollution exposure is ambiguous. This study aimed to: (1) determine the hazard ratio (HR) of IHD after the first-diagnosed SLE and (2) examine the effects of air pollution exposure on IHD in SLE for 12 years.

Risk of Fractures, Repeated Fractures and Osteoporotic Fractures among Patients with Hemophilia in Taiwan: A 14-Year Population-Based Cohort Study.

The world is aging, and hemophilia patients are as well. The association between patients with hemophilia (PWH) and low bone mineral density is clear. However, the incidence of fractures in patients with hemophilia is inconclusive, and no research has yet explored repeated fractures among PWH.

Risk Factors Surrounding an Increase in Burnout and Depression Among Health Care Professionals in Taiwan During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the risk factors surrounding an increase in both burnout levels and depression among health care professionals in Taiwan through use of a longitudinal study design.

Design: This is a 2-year observational study that took place from January 2019 to December 2020.

Setting And Participants: Data among health care professionals were extracted from the Overload Health Control System of a tertiary medical center in central Taiwan.

A model for predicting fall risks of hospitalized elderly in Taiwan-A machine learning approach based on both electronic health records and comprehensive geriatric assessment.

Backgrounds: Falls are currently one of the important safety issues of elderly inpatients. Falls can lead to their injury, reduced mobility and comorbidity. In hospitals, it may cause medical disputes and staff guilty feelings and anxiety.

In the Seeking of Association between Air Pollutant and COVID-19 Confirmed Cases Using Deep Learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic raises awareness of how the fatal spreading of infectious disease impacts economic, political, and cultural sectors, which causes social implications. Across the world, strategies aimed at quickly recognizing risk factors have also helped shape public health guidelines and direct resources; however, they are challenging to analyze and predict since those events still happen. This paper intends to invesitgate the association between air pollutants and COVID-19 confirmed cases using Deep Learning.

Testosterone Level Reduction Increases the 10-Year Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases: A Retrospective Cohort Study in a Taiwanese Young Male Population.

Low testosterone levels are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease; however, most previous studies assessed the relationship of testosterone levels with a history of cardiovascular (CV) events rather than with CV risk prediction scores consequently neglecting the effect of testosterone on CV risk in healthy young individuals. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between testosterone levels and predict the 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease. This retrospective cohort study was conducted through a large medical health examination system in four metropolises in Taiwan.

Biomonitoring of Urinary Nickel Successfully Protects Employees and Introduces Effective Interventions.

Nickel is a heavy metal used in many industries. Nickel exposure can induce respiratory diseases and allergic reactions, and increase cancer risk. This study evaluated the introduction of a grinding and polishing system to prevent injuries from nickel toxicity in workers.

The Prediction of Influenza-like Illness and Respiratory Disease Using LSTM and ARIMA.

This paper proposed the forecasting model of Influenza-like Illness (ILI) and respiratory disease. The dataset was extracted from the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for air pollutants data and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for disease cases from 2009 to 2018. First, this paper applied the ARIMA method, which trained based on the weekly number of disease cases in time series.

Physiologic biomechanics enhance reproducible contractile development in a stem cell derived cardiac muscle platform.

Human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) allow investigations in a human cardiac model system, but disorganized mechanics and immaturity of hPSC-CMs on standard two-dimensional surfaces have been hurdles. Here, we developed a platform of micron-scale cardiac muscle bundles to control biomechanics in arrays of thousands of purified, independently contracting cardiac muscle strips on two-dimensional elastomer substrates with far greater throughput than single cell methods. By defining geometry and workload in this reductionist platform, we show that myofibrillar alignment and auxotonic contractions at physiologic workload drive maturation of contractile function, calcium handling, and electrophysiology.

Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment and Clinical Outcomes in the Older People at the Emergency Department.

Visits by older people to the Emergency Department (ED) have increased in recent decades with higher revisiting and admission rates after discharge, particularly for those with frailties. This study used a before-after design aimed at evaluating Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) screening in older ED patients (aged ≥ 75 years) during the 12-month preintervention period. Additionally, a CGA-based structured follow-up program after ED discharge was executed during the next 12-month intervention period.

Predictors of Quality of Life Change in Head-and-Neck Cancer Survivors during Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy: A Prospective Study.

Objective: Head-and-neck cancer (HNC) and its treatment impact patients' quality of life (QoL) and survival. The symptom burden of HNC survivors severely affects QoL, while hope serves as an impetus for adjustment that enables survivors to sustain basic QoL. This study investigated the change of QoL, symptom burden, and hope and the predictors of QoL change in HNC survivors from diagnosis to 3 months after concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) completing.

Late-career unemployment and risk of frailty among older adults in Taiwan: An 8-year population-based cohort study.

Aim: To evaluate whether late-career unemployment is associated with increased physical frailty among older adults in Taiwan by the design of a population-based cohort study.

Methods: Data were retrieved from the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging. The study examined data from the period 1999 to 2007.

Myofibrillar Structural Variability Underlies Contractile Function in Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes.

Disease modeling and pharmaceutical testing using cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-CMs) requires accurate assessment of contractile function. Micropatterning iPSC-CMs on elastic substrates controls cell shape and alignment to enable contractile studies, but determinants of intrinsic variability in this system have been incompletely characterized. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of myofibrillar structure on contractile function in iPSC-CMs.