Involvement of 5-HT-BDNF signaling axis in mediating synergistic antidepressant-like effects after combined administration of two oligosaccharide esters.

Potential mechanisms of depression involving herbal medicines and their specific compounds include elevated 5-HT level and downstream BDNF pathway. To identify potentially new combined therapeutic strategies, 3,6'-disinapoylsucrose (DISS) and tenuifoliside A (TFSA) have been observed to show antidepressant-like effects and its related 5-HT-BDNF pathway. We have tried to investigate whether combined administration of DISS and TFSA exerted more effective in the treatment of depression, as assessed through tail suspension test (TST) and forced swimming test (FST).

Trends and Age-Period-Cohort Effects of Fertility Rate: Analysis of 26,224 Married Women in Taiwan.

Taiwan and a few Asian societies have had among the lowest fertility rates in the world for the past decade. Understanding the reasons behind the low fertility and designing policies accordingly to improve fertility has been a priority of governments in the region. It what follows we examine the low fertility rate in Taiwan by studying the trend of actual fertility rate and desired fertility rate in Taiwan using an age-period-cohort (APC) model.

Utilization of well-baby care visits provided by Taiwan's National Health Insurance Program.

In April of 1995, Taiwan's National Health Insurance Program started providing each eligible child a total of six well-baby care visits. The first four are for infancy, the fifth is for the second and the third years of life, and the sixth is for the fourth year. These services are in addition to neonatal screening and a series of primary immunizations that have been publicly financed and utilized conventionally for years.