Effects of Auricular Acupressure on Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting in Patients With Gynecological Laparoscopic Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Purpose: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is common among females undergoing gynecological surgeries. PONV not only causes patients discomfort but also leads to serious complications, affecting their health outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of applying auricular acupressure to alleviate PONV and postoperative anxiety and to improve satisfaction with anesthesia care in patients undergoing gynecological laparoscopic surgery (GLS).

Development and psychometric testing of the Perception of Childbirth Environment Scale in Taiwan.

Background: Previous research has shown that women's perceptions of their childbirth environment are critical in ensuring that they feel supported and in facilitating physiological childbirth.

Aim: To develop and validate the Perception of Childbirth Environment Scale (PCES) for expectant mothers.

Methods: The PCES was developed based on findings from a scoping review and a qualitative study on childbirth environments conducted by the authors.

Prediction of sepsis mortality in ICU patients using machine learning methods.

Problem: Sepsis, a life-threatening condition, accounts for the deaths of millions of people worldwide. Accurate prediction of sepsis outcomes is crucial for effective treatment and management. Previous studies have utilized machine learning for prognosis, but have limitations in feature sets and model interpretability.

Psychological distress, sexual satisfaction and quality of life of gynaecological cancer patients and their spouses during cancer survivorship: A comparison of husbands and wives.

Aims And Objectives: To investigate the psychological distress, sexual satisfaction, and quality of life of gynaecological cancer survivors and their spouses during cancer survivorship.

Background: The survival rate of patients with cancer is increasing owing to advances in medical treatment technology. Spouses are the closest companions of gynaecological cancer survivors.

Access Site Complication Rates Following Peripheral Artery Revascularization in patients With End-Stage Renal Disease: A Comparison of Vascular Closure Devices and Manual Compression.

Objectives: Manual compression (MC) or vascular closure devices (VCDs) are used to achieve hemostasis after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). However, limited data on the comparative safety and effectiveness of VCDs vs MC in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) undergoing PTA are available. Accordingly, this study compared the safety and effectiveness of VCD and MC in patients with ESRD undergoing PTA.

Rapid and highly potent humoral responses to mpox nanovaccine candidates adjuvanted by thermostable scaffolds.

Monkeypox (mpox) is a zoonotic disease caused by monkeypox virus (MPXV) of the orthopoxvirus genus. The emergence and global spread of mpox in 2022 was declared as a public health emergency by World Health Organization. This mpox pandemic alarmed us that mpox still threaten global public health.

Factors influencing health-related quality of life in women with endometriosis: A cross-sectional study.

This study aimed to assess the health-related quality of life and identify its associated factors in women with endometriosis. A cross-sectional correlation study design and convenience sampling were conducted in the gynecological outpatient clinic of a teaching hospital in northern Taiwan. A total of 216 women with endometriosis were recruited.

Potent immune responses against thermostable Foot-and-Mouth disease virus VP1 nanovaccine adjuvanted with polymeric thermostable scaffold.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an acute zoonosis causes significant economic losses. Vaccines able to stimulate efficient protective immune responses are urgently needed. In this study, Escherichia coli-derived recombinant VP1 of serotype A and O FMD virus (FMDV) was conjugated to thermostable scaffold lumazine synthase (LS) or Quasibacillus thermotolerans encapsulin (QtEnc) using a robust plug-and-display SpyTag/SpyCatcher system to generate multimeric nanovaccines.

Metagenomic next-generation sequencing of cell-free DNA for the identification of viruses causing central nervous system infections.

This study provides significant new data on the application of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) to clinical diagnostics of central nervous system (CNS) viral infections, which can have high mortality rates and severe sequelae. Conventional diagnostic procedures for identifying viruses can be inefficient and rely on preconceived assumptions about the pathogen, making mNGS an appealing alternative. However, the effectiveness of mNGS is affected by the presence of human DNA contamination, which can be minimized by using cell-free DNA (cfDNA) instead of whole-cell DNA (wcDNA).

Associated factors of sexual dysfunction among postpartum women in Taiwan- a cross-sectional study.

Sexual function among postpartum women is often overlooked by health-care professionals. This study aimed to investigate associated factors of sexual dysfunction among postpartum women. This study used a cross-sectional study design.

Comparative Effectiveness of Olive Oil and Breast Milk on Nipple Soreness in Breastfeeding Mothers.

Breastfeeding has health benefits for both mothers and children. Nipple problems may result in the child being weaned prematurely before the recommended 6 months minimum period of exclusive breastfeeding. The study aimed to compare the effectiveness of topically applying olive oil and breast milk in treating nipple pain and soreness in breastfeeding mothers during the early postpartum period.

Factors associated with the utilization of antenatal care services among pregnant women in Eswatini - A cross-sectional study.

The study aimed to assess the utilization of antenatal care services and its associated factors among pregnant women in Eswatini. A cross-sectional study was adopted. Convenience sampling was conducted in a public referral hospital in central Eswatini from 1st of August to the 30 of September 2021.

Comparison of long-term outcomes of complete vs. incomplete revascularization in elderly patients (≥75 years) with acute coronary syndrome and multi-vessel disease undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.

Background: The optimal revascularization strategy for elderly patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains uncertain. We evaluated the impact of complete revascularization (CR) vs. incomplete revascularization (IR) in elderly ACS patients with multivessel disease (MVD) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

T Cell Activating Thermostable Self-Assembly Nanoscaffold Tailored for Cellular Immunity Antigen Delivery.

Antigen delivery based on non-virus-like particle self-associating protein nanoscffolds, such as Aquifex aeolicus lumazine synthase (AaLS), is limited due to the immunotoxicity and/or premature clearance of antigen-scaffold complex resulted from triggering unregulated innate immune responses. Here, using rational immunoinformatics prediction and computational modeling, we screen the T epitope peptides from thermophilic nanoproteins with the same spatial structure as hyperthermophilic icosahedral AaLS, and reassemble them into a novel thermostable self-assembling nanoscaffold RP that can specifically activate T cell-mediated immunity. Tumor model antigen ovalbumin T epitopes and the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 receptor-binding domain are loaded onto the scaffold surface through the SpyCather/SpyTag system to construct nanovaccines.

Ultrasensitive optical modulation in hybrid metal-perovskite and metal-graphene metasurface THz devices.

Implementation of efficient terahertz (THz) wave control is essential for THz technology development for applications including sixth-generation communications and THz sensing. Therefore, realization of tunable THz devices with large-scale intensity modulation capabilities is highly desirable. By integrating perovskite and graphene with a metallic asymmetric metasurface, two ultrasensitive devices for dynamic THz wave manipulation through low-power optical excitation are demonstrated experimentally here.

Isoorientin ameliorates HO-induced apoptosis and oxidative stress in chondrocytes by regulating MAPK and PI3K/Akt pathways.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic and complicated degenerative disease for which there is currently no effective treatment. Isoorientin (ISO) is a natural plant extract that has antioxidant activity and could be used to treat OA. However, due to a lack of research, it has not been widely used.

Early autoimmunity and outcome in virus encephalitis: a retrospective study based on tissue-based assay.

Unlabelled: To explore the autoimmune response and outcome in the central nervous system (CNS) at the onset of viral infection and correlation between autoantibodies and viruses.

Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted in 121 patients (2016-2021) with a CNS viral infection confirmed via cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) next-generation sequencing (cohort A). Their clinical information was analysed and CSF samples were screened for autoantibodies against monkey cerebellum by tissue-based assay.

Metformin attenuates sevoflurane-induced neurogenesis damage and cognitive impairment: involvement of the Nrf2/G6PD pathway.

Anesthetics such as sevoflurane are commonly administered to infants and children. However, the possible neurotoxicity caused by prolonged or repetitive exposure to it should be a concern. The neuroprotective effects of metformin are observed in many models of neurological disorders.

Selected ssDNA aptamers-graphene oxide-based fluorescent biosensor to detect sulfameter in milk.

The abuse of sulfameter (SME) in animal husbandry can cause drug resistance and toxic or allergic reactions in humans. Therefore, it is very important to establish a simple, inexpensive, and efficient method for detecting SME in food. In this work, we propose a single fluorescent aptamer/graphene oxide (GO)-based biosensor to detect SME residues in milk.

A Multivalent and Thermostable Nanobody Neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (B.1.1.529).

Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variants have risen to dominance, which contains far more mutations in the spike protein in comparison to previously reported variants, compromising the efficacy of most existing vaccines or therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. Nanobody screened from high-throughput naïve libraries is a potential candidate for developing preventive and therapeutic antibodies.

Methods: Four nanobodies specific to the SARS-CoV-2 wild-type receptor-binding domain (RBD) were screened from a naïve phage display library.

A pan-cancer analysis reveals role of clusterin () in carcinogenesis and prognosis of human tumors.

Clusterin () is a chaperone-like protein that has been demonstrated to have a direct relationship with cancer occurrence, progression, or metastasis. Clusterin was downregulated in tumor tissues using three datasets of tongue squamous carcinoma from the Gene Expression Omnibus. We further retrieved datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus to thoroughly investigate the carcinogenic consequences of Clusterin.

Driving effect of multiplex factors on human brucellosis in high incidence region, implication for brucellosis based on one health concept.

Brucellosis is a typical zoonosis driven by various risk factors, including environmental ones. The present study aimed to explore the driving effect of environmental factors on human brucellosis in a high incidence rate area, which provides understanding and implications in mitigating disease transmission risk in a multi-system between the human-animal-environment interface for preventing and controlling brucellosis based on the One Health concept. Based on the monthly time series data of human brucellosis and environmental variables, a Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average Model with explanatory variables (SARIMAX) was applied to assess the association between environmental indicators and human brucellosis incidence (IHB).

Comparisons in the changes of clinical characteristics and cerebrospinal fluid cytokine profiles between varicella-zoster virus meningitis/encephalitis and other central nervous system infections.

Objectives: Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is one of the most common etiologies of viral meningitis/encephalitis. The early clinical manifestations and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) changes of VZV meningitis/encephalitis lack specificity, and it is easy to be misdiagnosed as other viral encephalitides or tuberculous meningitis. This study aims to investigate whether the clinical characteristics, CSF analysis findings, and CSF cytokine levels could distinguish VZV meningitis/encephalitis from central nervous system (CNS) herpes simplex virus (HSV) and () infections.

Graphene-integrated toroidal resonance metasurfaces used for picogram-level detection of chlorothalonil in the terahertz region.

Toroidal dipole resonance can significantly reduce radiation loss of materials, potentially improving sensor sensitivity. Generally, toroidal dipole response is suppressed by electric and magnetic dipoles in natural materials, making it difficult to observe experimentally. However, as 2D metamaterials, metasurfaces can weaken the electric and magnetic dipole, enhancing toroidal dipole response.