Childrens Education, Intergenerational Support, And Elderly Parents Health in Taiwan

This study uses longitudinal data to examine how adult children's education and support patterns affect their elderly parents' health transitions in Taiwan, after controlling for various socioeconomic characteristics of the elderly. Although we are unable to completely eliminate the possibility of reverse causal influences or selectivity, we find evidence that adult children's education promotes good health among their elderly parents. The mean years of adult children's schooling decrease the incidence of disability among the functionally independent elderly at the baseline, and enhance recovery from disability among the disabled elderly at the baseline for the six-year interval that followed. Data suggest that these effects are created mainly when children share their nonmaterial resources, including knowledge about health and health care systems. We speculate that this association between children's education and elderly health is unique to social contexts with a tradition of extended family systems and current rapid economic growth; however this hypothesis needs further tests in diverse social contexts

Incidence and recurrence of acute otitis media in Taiwan's pediatric population

OBJECTIVE: To report the incidence and recurrence of acute otitis media (AOM) in Taiwan's pediatric population. METHODS: Information from children (aged <= 12 years) with a diagnosis of AOM was retrieved from the 2006 National Healthcare Insurance claims database. We calculated the cumulative incidence rate and the incidence density rate of recurrent AOM within one year after the initial diagnosis in 2006. We used a multivariate logistic regression model to assess the predictors for recurrence of AOM. RESULTS: The annual incidence rate of AOM was estimated to be 64.5 cases per 1,000 children. The overall one-year cumulative incidence rate of recurrence was 33.1%, and the incidence density rate was 33.5 cases per 100 personyears, with the highest figure (41.2 cases per 100 person-years) noted for children aged 0-2 years. Recurrence was significantly associated with age, gender, place of treatment, and physician specialty. CONCLUSION: AOM remains a major threat to children's health in Taiwan. Male children and very young children require more aggressive preventive strategies to reduce the risk of recurrence

The Known Distribution of an Invasive Lizard, the Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei Duméril & Bibron, 1837), in Taiwan

The Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei) has become an invasive species in some parts of the Americas and in some localities in the Pacific region. In Taiwan A. sagrei was recorded for the first time in 2000 in Santzepu, southwestern Taiwan, and was subsequently recorded in Chisintang, eastern Taiwan, during 2006. For future monitoring and research, we describe the known distribution of A. sagrei in Taiwan by plotting GPS coordinates of localities where A. sagrei was observed during surveys (conducted on an ad hoc basis since this species was first discovered in Taiwan) or where specimens have been collected on GIS User Community aerial photographs that were divided into 100 x 100-m grids. We recorded this invasive lizard in southwestern Taiwan in an area spanning approximately 237 ha and in an approximately 8-ha area in eastern Taiwan. Since A. sagrei is easily spread by human activities, and because not all areas could be thoroughly surveyed, we conclude that the current actual distribution of A. sagrei in Taiwan is probably more extensive than shown. We believe that the eradication of A. sagrei in Taiwan through removal is unrealistic, and propose that ongoing efforts should focus on managing this species

Binary Star Evolution in Different Environments: Filamentary, Fractal, Halo and Tidal-tail Clusters

Using membership of 85 open clusters from previous studies (Pang et al. 2021a,b, 2022b; Li et al. 2021) based on Gaia DR3 data, we identify binary candidates in the color-magnitude diagram, for systems with mass ratio q > 0.4. The binary fraction is corrected for incompleteness at different distances due to the Gaia angular resolution limit. We find a decreasing binary fraction with increasing cluster age, with substantial scatter. For clusters with a total mass > 200$M_\odot$, the binary fraction is independent of cluster mass. The binary fraction depends strongly on stellar density. Among four types of cluster environments, the lowest-density filamentary and fractal stellar groups have the highest mean binary fraction: 23.6% and 23.2%, respectively. The mean binary fraction in tidal-tail clusters is 20.8%, and is lowest in the densest halo-type clusters: 14.8%. We find clear evidence of early disruptions of binary stars in the cluster sample. The radial binary fraction depends strongly on the cluster-centric distance across all four types of environments, with the smallest binary fraction within the half-mass radius $r_h$, and increasing towards a few $r_h$. Only hints of mass segregation is found in the target clusters. The observed amount of mass segregation is not significant to generate a global effect inside the target clusters. We evaluate the bias of unresolved binary systems (assuming a primary mass of 1$M_\odot$) in 1D tangential velocity, which is 0.1-1$\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$. Further studies are required to characterize the internal star cluster kinematics using Gaia proper motions

Effects of and satisfaction with short message service reminders for patient medication adherence: a randomized controlled study

BACKGROUND: Medication adherence is critical for patient treatment. This study involved evaluating how implementing Short Message Service (SMS) reminders affected patient medication adherence and related factors. METHODS: We used a structured questionnaire to survey outpatients at three medical centers. Patients aged 20 years and older who were prescribed more than 7 days of a prescription medication were randomized into SMS intervention or control groups. The intervention group received daily messages reminding them of aspects regarding taking their medication; the control group received no messages. A phone follow-up was performed to assess outcomes after 8 days. Data were collected from 763 participants in the intervention group and 435 participants in the control group. RESULTS: After participants in the intervention group received SMS reminders to take medication or those in the control group received no messages, incidences of delayed doses were decreased by 46.4 and 78.8% for those in the control and intervention groups, respectively. The rate of missed doses was decreased by 90.1% for participants in the intervention group and 61.1% for those in the control group. We applied logistic regression analysis and determined that participants in the intervention group had a 3.2-fold higher probability of having a decrease in delayed doses compared with participants in the control group. Participants in the intervention group also showed a 2.2-fold higher probability of having a decrease in missed doses compared with participants in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Use of SMS significantly affected the rates of taking medicine on schedule. Therefore, daily SMS could be useful for reminding patients to take their medicine on schedule

Effects of Growth Hormone Treatment on Height, Weight, and Obesity in Taiwanese Patients with Prader-Willi Syndrome

BackgroundInformation regarding the efficacy of growth hormone (GH) therapy in Asian Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) patients is lacking. We report our experience with GH treatment in children with PWS in Taiwan.MethodsForty-six PWS patients (27 males, 19 females; age range, 1 year 4 months to 13 years 7 months) who received and/or who are currently receiving GH treatment (0.1 IU/kg/day subcutaneously) for a period from 1 year to 3 years were retro-spectively analyzed. We evaluated height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and Rohrer index, before and after GH treatment.ResultsAfter patients had received GH for 1, 2 and 3 years, a significant improvement in mean height standard deviation score (SDS) was noted from −1.24 to −0.31 (p <0.01), 0.00 (p <0.001) and −0.26 (p <0.001), respectively. Mean BMI SDS decreased significantly from 1.93 to 1.13 (p <0.05) after 1 year of treatment; however, no significant changes were observed afterward. Mean Rohrer index decreased significantly, from 224.2 to 186.6 (p <0.001), 178.9 (p <0.001) and 169.3 (p <0.001). No significant gender or genotype pattern differences were noted among the 4 parameters examined.ConclusionThis 3-year, retrospective study indicates that PWS patients benefit from GH therapy in height increase and improved body composition

Optoelectronics with electrically tunable PN diodes in a monolayer dichalcogenide

One of the most fundamental devices for electronics and optoelectronics is the PN junction, which provides the functional element of diodes, bipolar transistors, photodetectors, LEDs, and solar cells, among many other devices. In conventional PN junctions, the adjacent p- and n-type regions of a semiconductor are formed by chemical doping. Materials with ambipolar conductance, however, allow for PN junctions to be configured and modified by electrostatic gating. This electrical control enables a single device to have multiple functionalities. Here we report ambipolar monolayer WSe2 devices in which two local gates are used to define a PN junction exclusively within the sheet of WSe2. With these electrically tunable PN junctions, we demonstrate both PN and NP diodes with ideality factors better than 2. Under excitation with light, the diodes show photodetection responsivity of 210 mA/W and photovoltaic power generation with a peak external quantum efficiency of 0.2%, promising numbers for a nearly transparent monolayer sheet in a lateral device geometry. Finally, we demonstrate a light-emitting diode based on monolayer WSe2. These devices provide a fundamental building block for ubiquitous, ultra-thin, flexible, and nearly transparent optoelectronic and electronic applications based on ambipolar dichalcogenide materials.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Pembuatan Niosom Berbasis Maltodekstrin De 5-10 Dari Pati Singkong (Manihot Utilissima)

Niosomes are non ionic surfactant vesicles that have potential application in the delivery of hydrophobic or amphilic drugs. We developed proniosomes, a dry formulation using a maltodextrin as a carrier coated with non ionic surfactant, which can be used to produce niosomes within a minutes by addition of hot water followed by agitation. A novel method is reported here for rapid preparation of proniosomes with wide range of surfactant loading. Maltodextrin DE 5-10 was hidrolyzed from tapioca starch using Thermamyl L 120 da Novo at 85o C. The result from SEM analyses shown that proniosomes appear very similar to the maltodextrin, but the surface was more smooth. Niosome suspensions which was observed under the optical microscopy and particle size analyzer were evaluated as drug carrier using ibuprofen as a model. The result provide an indication of maltodextrin DE 5-10 from tapioca starch are potentialy carrier in the proniosome preparation which can be used for producing niosomes