Fabrication of Stable Liquid-like Wetting Buckled Surfaces as Bioinspired Antibiofouling Coatings by Using Silicon-Containing Block Copolymers.

Inspired by animals with a slippery epidermis, durable slippery antibiofouling coatings with liquid-like wetting buckled surfaces are successfully constructed in this study by combining dynamic-interfacial-release-induced buckling with self-assembled silicon-containing diblock copolymer (diBCP). The core diBCP material is polystyrene--poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PS--PDMS). Because silicon-containing polymers with intrinsic characters of low surface energy, they easily flow over and cover a surface after it has undergone controlled thermal treatment, generating a slippery wetting layer on which can eliminate polar interactions with biomolecules.

ChatGPT's innovative application in blood morphology recognition.

Background: Recently, the rapid advancement in generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology, such as ChatGPT-4, has sparked discussions, particularly in image recognition. Accurate results are critical for hematological diagnosis, particularly for blood morphology identification. Despite advanced hematology analyzers, reliance on professional hematopathologists for manual identification remains in cases of abnormal or rare conditions, a process prone to human subjectivity and potential errors.

Increasing salinity stress decreases the thermal tolerance of amphibian tadpoles in coastal areas of Taiwan.

Global warming is the main cause for the rise of both global temperatures and sea-level, both major variables threatening biodiversity. Rising temperatures threaten to breach the thermal limits of organisms while rising sea-level threatens the osmotic balance of coastal animals through habitat salinization. However, variations in thermal tolerance under different salinity stresses have not yet been thoroughly studied.

A check list and population trends of invasive amphibians and reptiles in Taiwan.

Invasive species have impacted biodiversity all around the world. Among various ecosystems, islands are most vulnerable to these impacts due to their high ratio of endemism, highly specialized adaptation, and isolated and unique fauna. As with other subtropical islands, Taiwan faces constant risk of biological invasions and is currently ranked as one of the countries most affected by invasive amphibians and reptiles.

Toward Candidate Proteomic Biomarkers in Clinical Monitoring of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Treatment with Arsenic Trioxide.

The introduction of arsenic trioxide (ATO) in treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) has resulted in high clinical complete remission (CR) rates over 90%. On the contrary, the risk for early death (ED) in APL patients treated with ATO continues to have a negative impact for optimization of APL therapeutics. There is an urgent need for precision medicine and biomarkers in clinical monitoring of ATO toxicity in APL, and ED in particular.

Difference in causes and prognostic factors of early death between cohorts with de novo and relapsed acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Early death (ED) remains the most critical issue in the current care of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Very limited data are available regarding ED in patients with relapsed APL. In this retrospective study, 285 de novo and 79 relapsed patients were included.

Causes and prognostic factors for early death in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia treated with single-agent arsenic trioxide.

Early death (ED) is one of the most critical issues involved in the current care of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Factors identified as independent predictors of ED varied among published studies. We retrospectively analyzed the incidence, causes, and prognostic factors of ED in a series of 216 patients with newly diagnosed APL who received arsenic trioxide (ATO) as induction therapy.

Inferring Microbial Interactions in the Gut of the Hong Kong Whipping Frog () and a Validation Using Probiotics.

The concerted activity of intestinal microbes is crucial to the health and development of their host organisms. Investigation of microbial interactions in the gut should deepen our understanding of how these micro-ecosystems function. Due to advances in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies, various bioinformatic strategies have been proposed to investigate these microbial interactions.

Functional analysis for gut microbes of the brown tree frog (Polypedates megacephalus) in artificial hibernation.

Background: Annual hibernation is an adaptation that helps many animals conserve energy during food shortage in winter. This natural cycle is also accompanied by a remodeling of the intestinal immune system, which is an aspect of host biology that is both influenced by, and can itself influence, the microbiota. In amphibians, the bacteria in the intestinal tract show a drop in bacterial counts.

Zebrafish as a disease model for studying human hepatocellular carcinoma.

Liver cancer is one of the world's most common cancers and the second leading cause of cancer deaths. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a primary hepatic cancer, accounts for 90%-95% of liver cancer cases. The pathogenesis of HCC consists of a stepwise process of liver damage that extends over decades, due to hepatitis, fatty liver, fibrosis, and cirrhosis before developing fully into HCC.

Enhancement of bioactivity on medical polymer surface using high power impulse magnetron sputtered titanium dioxide film.

This study utilizes a novel technique, high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS), which provides a higher ionization rate and ion bombardment energy than direct current magnetron sputtering (DCMS), to deposit high osteoblast compatible titanium dioxide (TiO2) coatings with anatase (A-TiO2) and rutile (R-TiO2) phases onto the biomedical polyetheretherketone (PEEK) polymer substrates at low temperature. The adhesions of TiO2 coatings that were fabricated using HIPIMS and DCMS were compared. The in vitro biocompatibility of these coatings was confirmed.

Zebrafish as a Model for the Study of Human Myeloid Malignancies.

Myeloid malignancies are heterogeneous disorders characterized by uncontrolled proliferation or/and blockage of differentiation of myeloid progenitor cells. Although a substantial number of gene alterations have been identified, the mechanism by which these abnormalities interact has yet to be elucidated. Over the past decades, zebrafish have become an important model organism, especially in biomedical research.

Synergistic Induction of Erlotinib-Mediated Apoptosis by Resveratrol in Human Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Cells by Down-Regulating Survivin and Up-Regulating PUMA.

Background/aim: Treatment of human non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) often involves uses of multiple therapeutic strategies with different mechanisms of action. Here we found that resveratrol (RV) enhanced the anti-tumor effects of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor erlotinib in NSCLC cells.

Methods: Cell viability was measured by MTT assay and clonogenicity assay.

[Development of green hospitals home and abroad].

Green hospital construction is a new challenge for medical industry after global sustainable development strategy was put forward. The core connotation of green hospital includes green building, green healthcare, patient safety, and doctor-patient harmony. Many countries have established green building evaluation system to deal with energy crisis.

Hiwi knockdown inhibits the growth of lung cancer in nude mice.

Hiwi, a human homologue of the Piwi family, plays an important role in stem cell self-renewal and is overexpressed in various human tumors. This study aimed to determine whether an RNA interference-based strategy to suppress Hiwi expression could inhibit tumor growth in a xenograft mouse model. A rare population of SSCloAldebr cells was isolated and identified as lung cancer stem cells in our previous study.

Effect of RNA interference-related HiWi gene expression on the proliferation and apoptosis of lung cancer stem cells.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of HiWi gene silencing on lung cancer tumor stem cell proliferation and apoptosis using gene transfection and RNA interference. Moreover, we examined the feasibility of using the HiWi gene as a molecular target for the inhibition of lung cancer tumor stem cells (TSCs). shRNA eukaryotic expression vectors, pGenesil-2-HiWi1, pGenesil-2-HiWi2263 and pGenesil-2-control, targeting the HiWi gene were constructed.