Association of Alzhemier\u27s Disease With Hepatitis C Among Patients With Bipolar Disorder

Associations of hepatitis C virus infection with Alzheimer’s disease have not been studied among higher risk, bipolar disorder patients. This population-based case-control study investigated the risks of hepatitis C virus infection among Alzheimer’s disease patients with bipolar disorder in the years preceding their Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. We used 2000–2013 data from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database in Taiwan. Among patients with bipolar disorder, 73 were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (cases), who were compared with 365 individuals with bipolar disorder but without Alzheimer’s disease (randomly selected controls matched on sex, age, and index year with cases). Prior claims (before the diagnosis year/index year for controls) were screened for a diagnosis of hepatitis C virus infection. Conditional logistic regression models were used for analysis. We found that 23 (31.51%) and 60 (16.44%) patients with bipolar disease were identified with a hepatitis C diagnosis among those with and without Alzheimer’s disease, respectively. Compared to controls, patients with Alzheimer’s disease showed 2.31-fold (95% confidence interval = 1.28–4.16) increased risk of hepatitis C infections adjusted for demographics and socio-economic status. Findings suggest an association of Alzheimer’s disease with a preceding diagnosis of hepatitis C infection among patients with bipolar disorder. Findings may suggest a need for increased awareness of and appropriate surveillance for Alzheimer’s disease in patients with bipolar disorder diagnosed with hepatitis C infection

Future change in extreme precipitation in East Asian spring and Mei-yu seasons in two high-resolution AGCMs

Precipitation in the spring and Mei-yu seasons, the main planting and growing period in East Asia, is crucial to water resource management. Changes in spring and Mei-yu extreme precipitation under global warming are evaluated based on two sets of high-resolution simulations with various warming pattern of sea surface temperature (SST'spa). In the spring season, extreme precipitation exhibits larger enhancements over the northern flank of the present-day prevailing rainy region and a tendency of increased occurrence and enhanced intensity in the probability distribution. These changes imply a northward extension of future spring rainband. Although the mean precipitation shows minor change, enhanced precipitation intensity, less total rainfall occurrence, and prolonged consecutive dry days suggest a more challenging water resource management in the warmer climate. The projected enhancement in precipitation intensity is robust compared with the internal variability related to initial conditions (σˆint) and the uncertainty caused by SST'spa (σˆΔSST). In the Mei-yu season, extreme precipitation strengthens and becomes more frequent over the present-day prevailing rainband region. The thermodynamic component of moisture flux predominantly contributes to the changes in the spring season. In the Mei-yu season, both the thermodynamic and dynamic components of moisture flux enhance the moisture transport and intensify the extreme precipitation from southern China to northeast Asia. Compared with spring season, projecting future Mei-yu precipitation is more challenging because of its higher uncertainty associated with 1) the σˆint and σˆΔSST embedded in the projections and 2) the model characteristics of present-day climatology that determines the spatial distribution of precipitation enhancement.publishedVersio

Technology Anxiety and Implicit Learning Ability Affect Technology Leadership to Promote the use of Information Technology at Elementary Schools

Abstract“Oversold & underused” is a criticism by Cuban (2001) of the investment of information technology (IT) in the classroom. Recently, Taiwan's educational administration has provided considerable financial support to IT in elementary schools, but few reports have provided evidence of its successful use. The present study aims to identify the personal factors that affect principals’ beliefs about the promotion of IT in their schools. 331 data were collected and analyzed with AMOS 19.0. The results of this study indicated that greater technology anxiety was negatively associated with perceived ease of using (PEU) IT, whereas implicit learning ability was positively correlated with perceived usefulness of IT. Technology leadership increased significantly with PEU and perceived usefulness (PU), it is also associated with the intention to overcome difficulties in promoting information technology in schools. The implications of this study may contribute to the reduction of principals’ technology anxiety, increasing their implicit learning ability and therefore fostering the future implementation of IT in schools, changing the myth of technology as “oversold & underused”

Overweight worsens apoptosis, neuroinflammation and blood-brain barrier damage after hypoxic ischemia in neonatal brain through JNK hyperactivation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Apoptosis, neuroinflammation and blood-brain barrier (BBB) damage affect the susceptibility of the developing brain to hypoxic-ischemic (HI) insults. c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) is an important mediator of insulin resistance in obesity. We hypothesized that neonatal overweight aggravates HI brain damage through JNK hyperactivation-mediated upregulation of neuronal apoptosis, neuroinflammation and BBB leakage in rat pups.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Overweight (OF) pups were established by reducing the litter size to 6, and control (NF) pups by keeping the litter size at 12 from postnatal (P) day 1 before HI on P7. Immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting were used to determine the TUNEL-(+) cells and BBB damage, cleaved caspase-3 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), and phospho-JNK and phospho-Bim_ELlevels. Immunofluorescence was performed to determine the cellular distribution of phospho-JNK.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared with NF pups, OF pups had a significantly heavier body-weight and greater fat deposition on P7. Compared with the NF-HI group, the OF-HI group showed significant increases of TUNEL-(+) cells, cleaved levels of caspase-3 and PARP, and ED1-(+) activated microglia and BBB damage in the cortex 24 hours post-HI. Immunofluorescence of the OF-HI pups showed that activated-caspase 3 expression was found mainly in NeuN-(+) neurons and RECA1-(+) vascular endothelial cells 24 hours post-HI. The OF-HI group also had prolonged escape latency in the Morris water maze test and greater brain-volume loss compared with the NF-HI group when assessed at adulthood. Phospho-JNK and phospho-Bim_ELlevels were higher in OF-HI pups than in NF-HI pups immediately post-HI. JNK activation in OF-HI pups was mainly expressed in neurons, microglia and vascular endothelial cells. Inhibiting JNK activity by AS601245 caused more attenuation of cleaved caspase-3 and PARP, a greater reduction of microglial activation and BBB damage post-HI, and significantly reduced brain damage in OF-HI than in NF-HI pups.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Neonatal overweight increased HI-induced neuronal apoptosis, microglial activation and BBB damage, and aggravated HI brain damage in rat pups through JNK hyperactivation.</p

Enhanced photo-excitation and angular-momentum imprint of gray excitons in WSe2_{2} monolayers by spin-orbit-coupled vector vortex beams

A light beam can be spatially structured in the complex amplitude to possess orbital angular momentum (OAM), which introduces a new degree of freedom alongside the intrinsic spin angular momentum (SAM) associated with circular polarization. Moreover, super-imposing two twisted lights with distinct SAM and OAM produces a vector vortex beam (VVB) in non-separable states where not only complex amplitude but also polarization are spatially structured and entangled with each other. In addition to the non-separability, the SAM and OAM in a VVB are intrinsically coupled by the optical spin-orbit interaction and constitute the profound spin-orbit physics in photonics. In this work, we present a comprehensive theoretical investigation, implemented on the first-principles base, of the intriguing light-matter interaction between VVBs and WSe$_{2}$ monolayers (WSe$_{2}$-MLs), one of the best-known and promising two-dimensional (2D) materials in optoelectronics dictated by excitons, encompassing bright exciton (BX) as well as various dark excitons (DXs). One of the key findings of our study is the substantial enhancement of the photo-excitation of gray excitons (GXs), a type of spin-forbidden dark exciton, in a WSe$_2$-ML through the utilization of a twisted light that possesses a longitudinal field associated with the optical spin-orbit interaction. Our research demonstrates that a spin-orbit-coupled VVB surprisingly allows for the imprinting of the carried optical information onto gray excitons in 2D materials, which is robust against the decoherence mechanisms in materials. This observation suggests a promising method for deciphering the transferred angular momentum from structured lights to excitons

A novel randomly textured phosphor structure for highly efficient white light-emitting diodes

We have successfully demonstrated the enhanced luminous flux and lumen efficiency in white light-emitting diodes by the randomly textured phosphor structure. The textured phosphor structure was fabricated by a simple imprinting technique, which does not need an expensive dry-etching machine or a complex patterned definition. The textured phosphor structure increases luminous flux by 5.4% and 2.5% at a driving current of 120 mA, compared with the flat phosphor and half-spherical lens structures, respectively. The increment was due to the scattering of textured surface and also the phosphor particles, leading to the enhancement of utilization efficiency of blue light. Furthermore, the textured phosphor structure has a larger view angle at the full width at half maximum (87°) than the reference LEDs

Tectonic Implication of the 5th March 2005, Doublet Earthquake in Ilan, Taiwan

The 5th March 2005 earthquake doublet focal mechanism was determined as strike-slip faulting from Harvard and BATS moment tensor inversion. However, based on first motion polarities, the first shock has a normal focal mechanism (Wu et al. 2008a). This discrepancy has caused a debate over the focal mechanism solution because different focal mechanisms have different tectonic implications. Based on the dislocation determination from Global Position System (GPS) measurements, we find this event includes both tensile and strike-slip components. This finding illustrates the reason for the differences in the determined focal mechanisms using two different types of seismic data and analyzing methods. Field mapping and microstructure examination results indicate that the ductile deformation around the study area was characterized by the evolution from transpression to transtension with a predominant strike-slip component, but present-day active structures may be dominated by normal faulting. Thus, the active tensile slip result determined from dislocation modeling strongly suggests that the back arc extension of the Okinawa trough influences the stress state in this region, and changes the major transtension from strike-slip faulting to normal faulting

The role of autologous bone graft in surgical treatment of hypertrophic nonunion of midshaft clavicle fractures

AbstractBackgroundThis study was conducted to evaluate the results of treating hypertrophic nonunion of mid-shaft clavicle fracture with a limited contact dynamic compression plate (LC-DCP) without autologous cancellous bone graft.MethodsFrom 1995 to 2008, 51 cases of hypertrophic nonunion of mid-shaft clavicle fracture were managed with open reduction and internal fixation by LC-DCP without bone graft involvement. Of these 51 cases, 30 had nonunion after failure of initial surgical treatment (Group 1), and 21 had nonunion after failure of conservative treatment (Group 2). Preoperative and postoperative case management were the same for both groups, with the average follow-up period being 20.4 months (range 18–36). Our study evaluated the radiographic results and functional outcomes of these cases according to the quick disability of arm, shoulder, and hand score.ResultsAll 51 cases resulted in uneventful unions. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding patient demography, cause of injury, preoperative and postoperative functional scores, length of operation, union time, and duration of hospitalization (p>0.05).ConclusionLC-DCP fixation is an effective method for treating hypertrophic nonunion of mid-shaft clavicle fracture. Local bone graft is sufficient to achieve necessary union, and autologous bone graft from other sites of the body appears unnecessary

Gold nanoparticles as high-resolution X-ray imaging contrast agents for the analysis of tumor-related micro-vasculature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Angiogenesis is widely investigated in conjunction with cancer development, in particular because of the possibility of early stage detection and of new therapeutic strategies. However, such studies are negatively affected by the limitations of imaging techniques in the detection of microscopic blood vessels (diameter 3-5 μm) grown under angiogenic stress. We report that synchrotron-based X-ray imaging techniques with very high spatial resolution can overcome this obstacle, provided that suitable contrast agents are used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We tested different contrast agents based on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for the detection of cancer-related angiogenesis by synchrotron microradiology, microtomography and high resolution X-ray microscopy. Among them only bare-AuNPs in conjunction with heparin injection provided sufficient contrast to allow <it>in vivo </it>detection of small capillary species (the smallest measured lumen diameters were 3-5 μm). The detected vessel density was 3-7 times higher than with other nanoparticles. We also found that bare-AuNPs with heparin allows detecting symptoms of local extravascular nanoparticle diffusion in tumor areas where capillary leakage appeared.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Although high-Z AuNPs are natural candidates as radiology contrast agents, their success is not guaranteed, in particular when targeting very small blood vessels in tumor-related angiography. We found that AuNPs injected with heparin produced the contrast level needed to reveal--for the first time by X-ray imaging--tumor microvessels with 3-5 μm diameter as well as extravascular diffusion due to basal membrane defenestration. These results open the interesting possibility of functional imaging of the tumor microvasculature, of its development and organization, as well as of the effects of anti-angiogenic drugs.</p

Electroconvulsive Therapy and Risk of Dementia—A Nationwide Cohort Study in Taiwan

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder, and a temporary memory loss may occur after ECT. However, the association between ECT in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder, and the risk of dementia is yet to be examined.Objective: This study aimed to clarify as to whether ECT is associated with the risk of dementia after ECT in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder, using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD).Methods: A total of 3,796 enrolled participants (schizophrenia, 46.68%; bipolar disorder, 11.77%; and major depressive disorder, 41.55%) with 994 patients who had received ECT and 2,982 controls matched for sex and age, between January 1, and December 31, 2000, were selected from the NHIRD. After adjusting for confounding factors, Fine and Gray's survival analysis was used to compare the risk of developing dementia during the 10 years of follow-up.Results: Of the study patients, 45 (4.53%) of them developed dementia when compared to 149 (5.0%) in the control group. Fine and Gray's survival analysis revealed that the study patients were not associated with an increased risk of dementia [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.612, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.438–1.854, P = 0.325]. After adjusting for sex, age, monthly income, urbanization level, geographic region, and comorbidities, the adjusted HR was 0.633 (95% CI = 0.448 – 1.895, P = 0.304).Conclusion: This study supports that ECT was not associated with the increased risk of dementia in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder, using the NHIRD