Applying the Social Cognitive Theory to Design a Health Education Program on Weight-Loss Behaviors Among Police Officers: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Being overweight/having obesity is a prevalent condition not only among the general population but also among individuals with special occupations such as police officers, where fitness is often a necessity. The present study's aim was to assess how much a psychoeducational intervention based on social cognitive theory (SCT) would be helpful for encouraging weight loss behaviors among police officers.

Methods: In a randomized control trial, 102 police officers who were overweight or had obesity voluntarily registered for a weight loss program and were assigned to either an intervention or control group.

Factors influencing workload and stress during resuscitation - A scoping review.

Aim: This scoping review aimed to identify potential variables influencing healthcare provider's perceived workload or stress when performing resuscitation on patients in cardiac arrest.

Methods: We searched Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane, and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) to identify studies published prior to February 1, 2024. We used a PECO format for this review: the population were healthcare providers performing resuscitation during simulated or real cardiac arrest; the exposure was the presence of any factor that could impact perceived workload or stress; and the comparator was the absence of any specific factor.

Pregnancy among thyroid cancer survivors: do thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine matter?

Background: Thyroid cancer primarily affects young women and raises concerns about future fertility due to treatments of thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy. This study investigated the effects of these treatments on pregnancy probability in young female patients post-diagnosis.

Methods: A nationwide, population-based study using data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (2000-2017) examined pregnancy likelihood in women ≤45 years with thyroid cancer.

Gender Different Impacts of Muscle Mass and Adipose Tissue on Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma Undergoing Surgical Resection.

Background & Aims: Body composition is an objective assessment reflecting nutritional status and is highly gender different. Surgical resection, the standard treatment for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is an energy-consuming major operation that would affect body composition. However, the impacts of body composition on the post-operative prognosis of HCC are still uncertain.

Low Versus High Levels of Social Cognition Impairment and Their Associations With Specific Schizophrenia Symptom Domains.

Objective: Social cognition is defined as the ability to construct mental representations about oneself, others, and one's relationships with others to guide social behaviors, including referring to mental states (cognitive factor) and understanding emotional states (affective factor). Difficulties in social cognition may be symptoms of schizophrenia. The authors examined associations between two factors of social cognition and specific schizophrenia symptoms, as well as a potential path from low-level affective perceptual social cognition to high-level social cognition, which may be associated with schizophrenia symptoms.

Pandemic or "Plandemic"?: The Mediating Role of Epistemic Justification Strategies in the Relationship Between COVID-19 Conspiracy Beliefs and COVID-19 Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs.

Background: In today's post-truth times, where personal feelings and beliefs have become increasingly important, determining what is accurate knowledge has become an important skill. This is especially important during uncertainty crises (e.g.

Potential beneficial impacts of tadalafil on cardiovascular diseases.

Tadalafil is a selective phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitor commonly used for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and benign prostatic hyperplasia. Its mechanism of action involves the inhibition of PDE5, leading to increased levels of nitric oxide and cyclic guanosine monophosphate in the corpus cavernosum, which facilitates smooth muscle relaxation. This article reviews studies using tadalafil in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and emphasizes its potential advantages in conditions such as pulmonary arterial hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, diabetic ulcers, and cardiomyopathy.

Histamine N-methyltransferase (HNMT) as a potential auxiliary biomarker for predicting adaptability to anti-HER2 drug treatment in breast cancer patients.

Background: Up to 23% of breast cancer patients recurred within a decade after trastuzumab treatment. Conversely, one trial found that patients with low HER2 expression and metastatic breast cancer had a positive response to trastuzumab-deruxtecan (T-Dxd). This indicates that relying solely on HER2 as a single diagnostic marker to predict the efficacy of anti-HER2 drugs is insufficient.

Decreasing hepatitis B seroprevalence in pregnant women in Taiwan between 2016 and 2021: a claim-based cohort study.

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBsAg) seroprevalence was high before the national vaccine policy was introduced in Taiwan, indicating significant HBV infection rates. The success of the HBV immunization program and other preventive measures likely led to decreased HBsAg prevalence among pregnant women. This study reports on the HBV seroprevalence among pregnant women in Taiwan from 2016 to 2021, including those potentially affected by the universal hepatitis B vaccination at birth.

The added value of anosmic subtype on motor subtype in Parkinson's disease: a pilot study.

This study investigates whether incorporating olfactory dysfunction into motor subtypes of Parkinson's disease (PD) improves associations with clinical outcomes. PD is commonly divided into motor subtypes, such as postural instability and gait disturbance (PIGD) and tremor-dominant PD (TDPD), but non-motor symptoms like olfactory dysfunction remain underexplored. We assessed 157 participants with PD using the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT), Movement Disorder Society-Sponsored Revision of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (M-UPDRS), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), 39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire Summary Index (PDQ-39 SI), and 99mTc-TRODAT-1 imaging.

A portable optical detection system for rapid quantification of two rheumatoid arthritis biomarkers.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes joint damage and progressive destruction of adjacent cartilage and bones. Quick and accurate detection of rheumatoid factors (RF) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP) in serum is effective in diagnosing RA and preventing its progression. However, current methods for detecting these two biomarkers are costly, time-consuming, labor-intensive, and require specialized equipment.

Revisiting human language and speech production network: a meta-analytic connectivity modeling study.

In recent decades, converging evidence has reached a consensus that human speech production is carried out by large-scale hierarchical network comprising both language-selective and domain-general systems. However, it remains unclear how these systems interact during speech production and the specific contributions of their component regions. By utilizing a series of meta-analytic approaches based on various language tasks, we dissociated four major systems in this study: domain-general, high-level language, motor-perception, and speech-control systems in this study.

Growth inhibition and toxicity assessments of cis-3,4-diaryl-α-methylene-γ-butyrolactams in cultured human renal cancer cells and zebrafish embryos.

This study aimed to compare and evaluate the growth inhibition effects of eight previously synthesized compounds, cis-3,4-diaryl-α-methylene-γ-butyrolactams (compounds 1-8), on two human renal carcinoma cell (RCC) lines: CRL-1932 (rapid growth) and HTB-44 (slow growth). MTT assays and flow cytometry were conducted, revealing that compounds 5 and 6 had the potential to induce cell death in the slow-growing RCC cells (HTB-44), while compound 8 demonstrated effectiveness in both RCC lines (HTB-44 and CRL-1932). Additionally, a non-transformed HEK293 cell line and a transgenic zebrafish with a green fluorescent kidney Tg(wt1b:egfp) were used to assess the toxicities of compounds 5, 6, and 8.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Interactive Robot-Assisted Virtual Health Coaching for Health Literacy and Disease Knowledge of Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: Quasiexperimental Study.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) imposes a significant global health and economic burden, impacting millions globally. Despite its high prevalence, public awareness and understanding of CKD remain limited, leading to delayed diagnosis and suboptimal management. Traditional patient education methods, such as 1-on-1 verbal instruction or printed brochures, are often insufficient, especially considering the shortage of nursing staff.

Long-Term Moderating Effect of Resilience Capacity on the Impact of Stressful Life Events on Depressive Symptoms After 6 Years in Outpatients With Depression and/or Anxiety.

Previous cross-sectional studies have utilized scales to explore potential indications of the moderating effect of resilience on the relationship between stressful life events (SLEs) and mental health. However, there remains a notable dearth of psychometrically driven models in longitudinal resilience research, especially concerning the prognosis of individuals with affective disorders and/or anxiety. This study aimed to investigate whether baseline resilience capacity, measured by the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, could mitigate the impact of SLEs on depressive symptoms assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-II among 66 outpatients with depression and/or anxiety disorders during a follow-up period ranging from 4-8 years.

Effect of Occupational Noise on Employee Health: A Longitudinal Study.

Objective: This study investigated the long-term health risks associated with occupational noise exposure. By using 9 years of health examination data from a major manufacturing company in Taiwan, this study compared the health indices of employees in noise-intensive and non-noise-intensive work environments.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of 6278 health examination reports spanning 9 years was conducted to compare 20 health indices among 166 employees evenly distributed between noise-intensive and non-noise-intensive workgroups.

Effectiveness and safety of talimogene laherparepvec and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor for metastatic melanoma: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Melanoma is an aggressive tumor that is challenging to treat. Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC), the first oncolytic virus treatment approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat unresectable melanoma, was recently used in recurrent tumors after initial surgery. Our network meta-analysis aimed to compare T-VEC treatment of metastatic melanoma with treatment of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and control group.

Selection of the apposite vacuum extractor during operative delivery: A biomechanical study.

Background: Operative delivery is a technique used during vaginal or cesarean birth to facilitate the patient's labor course through the assistance of a vacuum extractor. This method is increasingly used compared with forceps. This study aimed to investigate the forced effects of vacuum extractors comprising vacuum cups with different thicknesses on the fetal head and the vacuum extractor during vacuum-assisted delivery and to determine the optimal thickness for reducing the failure rate and minimizing neonatal and maternal morbidity.

Incidence and influential factors of postoperative pruritus in morphine-based intravenous patient-controlled analgesia.

Background: Pruritus is a distressing symptom of systemic opioid analgesia that responds poorly to conventional antipruritus treatments. This study aimed to determine the incidence and risk factors for postoperative pruritus using intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV-PCA).

Methods: Opioid-naïve patients who underwent morphine-based IV-PCA for postoperative pain at a tertiary center between January 1, 2020, and June 30, 2023, were included retrospectively.

3D Imaging Resolves Human Pancreatic Duct-β-Cell Clusters During Cystic Change.

Pancreatic cystic changes in adults are increasingly identified through advanced cross-sectional imaging. However, the impact of initial/intra-lobular epithelial remodeling on the local β-cell population remains unclear. In this study, we examined 10 human cadaveric donor pancreases (tail and body regions) via integration of stereomicroscopy, clinical H&E histology, and 3D immunohistochemistry, identifying 36 microcysts (size: 1.

Superstable lipid vacuoles endow cartilage with its shape and biomechanics.

Conventionally, the size, shape, and biomechanics of cartilages are determined by their voluminous extracellular matrix. By contrast, we found that multiple murine cartilages consist of lipid-filled cells called lipochondrocytes. Despite resembling adipocytes, lipochondrocytes were molecularly distinct and produced lipids exclusively through de novo lipogenesis.

Recombinant Thrombomodulin Domain 1 Modulates Macrophage Polarization and Enhances Healing in Corneal Alkali Burns.

Purpose: Corneal alkali burns are severe ocular injuries characterized by intense inflammation, tissue damage, and vision impairment, with current treatments often insufficient in restoring corneal function and clarity. This study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic effects of recombinant thrombomodulin domain 1 (rTMD1) in the treatment of corneal alkali burns, focusing on its impact on inflammation, tissue repair, fibrosis, and neovascularization.

Methods: A murine model of corneal alkali burn was utilized to investigate the therapeutic potential of rTMD1.

The Impact of Photobiomodulation Therapy on Swelling Reduction and Recovery Enhancement in Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is commonly performed for severe osteoarthritis but often results in significant postoperative swelling and discomfort, impacting early rehabilitation. Photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT), utilizing low-level laser therapy (LLLT), has emerged as a potential adjunctive treatment to alleviate these symptoms. In this single-center, nonblinded prospective randomized clinical trial, conducted from May to July 2024, 30 patients undergoing primary TKA were enrolled and divided into two groups.

KCNJ5 Somatic Mutations are Associated with Better Long-Term Outcomes in Patients with Unilateral Primary Aldosteronism.

Context: The association between KCNJ5 somatic mutations and long-term outcomes in patients with operated unilateral primary aldosteronism (uPA) is unclear.

Objective: To evaluate associations among KCNJ5 somatic mutations, clinical characteristics, incident long-term cardiovascular events, and all-cause mortality in uPA patients after adrenalectomy in a large longitudinal population study.

Methods: We enrolled uPA patients from the Taiwan Primary Aldosteronism Investigation database who had undergone adrenalectomy between 2013 and 2017 and followed them until 2020.