Play interventions to reduce anxiety and negative emotions in hospitalized children

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Effectiveness of an integrated adventure-based training and health education program in promoting regular physical activity among childhood cancer survivors

Background: There is growing concern about declining levels of physical activity in childhood cancer survivors. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of an integrated adventure-based training and health education program in promoting changes in exercise behavior and enhancing the physical activity levels, self-efficacy, and quality of life of Hong Kong Chinese childhood cancer survivors. Methods: A randomized controlled trial, two-group pretest and repeated post-test, between-subjects design was conducted to 71 childhood cancer survivors (9- to 16-year-olds). Participants in the experimental group joined a 4-day integrated adventure-based training and health education program. Control group participants received the same amount of time and attention as the experimental group but not in such a way as to have any specific effect on the outcome measures. Participants' exercise behavior changes, levels of physical activity, self-efficacy, and quality of life were assessed at the time of recruitment, 3, 6, and 9 months after starting the intervention. Results: Participants in the experimental group reported statistically significant differences in physical activity stages of change (p < 0.001), higher levels of physical activity (p < 0.001) and self-efficacy (p = 0.04) than those in the control group. Besides, there were statistically significant mean differences (p < 0.001) in physical activity levels (-2.6), self-efficacy (-2.0), and quality of life (-4.3) of participants in the experimental group from baseline to 9 months after starting the intervention. Conclusions: The integrated adventure-based training and health education program was found to be effective in promoting regular physical activity among childhood cancer survivors. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.postprin

Factors contributing to the psychological well-being for Hong Kong Chinese children from low-income families: a qualitative study

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A prospective interventional study to examine the effect of a silver alloy and hydrogel--coated catheter on the incidence of catheter-associated urinary tract infection

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A brief group intervention using a cognitive-behavioural approach to reduce postnatal depressive symptoms: a randomised controlled trial

Key Messages: 1. Postnatal women preferred psychotherapy to pharmacotherapy for reduction of postnatal depression. ; 2. A brief, cognitive-behavioural, group intervention with 6 weekly sessions significantly reduced depressive symptoms and was well received by postnatal women. ; 3. This brief group intervention could be further tested as an integral part of postnatal care to complement existing services and reduce waiting time

Adiponectin is protective against oxidative stress induced cytotoxicity in amyloid-beta neurotoxicity

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Long-Term Changes of Urinary Exosomal Peptide Levels After Thyroidectomy in Patients with Thyroid Cancer: A Prospective Observational Study

Chih-Yuan Wang,1 Shyang-Rong Shih,1 Kuen-Yuan Chen,2 Yi-Chieh Chung,1 Pei-Jie Huang1 1Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; 2Department of Internal Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, TaiwanCorrespondence: Chih-Yuan Wang, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, 7, Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei, Taiwan, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: The recurrence rate of thyroid cancer can be as high as 30%. The purpose of this study was to examine changes of urine exosomal peptide levels after thyroidectomy in patients with thyroid cancer to determine if levels can predict the risk of recurrence.Methods: Patients > 20 years old as newly diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer who had received a thyroidectomy were recruited. Urine samples were collected at 12 months after enrollment to the study, and 1 year later. Urine exosomes containing different peptides were identified and compared.Results: A total of 70 patients were enrolled in the study, and were classified by the interval between surgery and enrollment: 42 patients with < 5 years between surgery and enrollment, 14 patients between 5– 10 years, and 14 patients longer than 10 years. No recurrence was observed in any patient during the 2 years after enrollment. No significant differences were found in the levels of serum proteins or urine exosomal peptides between groups, or between intervals. Known risk factors for high-risk thyroid cancer had only a mild correlation with serum protein levels and urine exosomal peptides.Conclusion: Our study revealed the long-term basal fluctuation ranges of serum proteins and urine exosomal peptides in patients with thyroid cancer who underwent thyroidectomy. For high-risk patients after thyroidectomy, concentrations of serum proteins or urine exosomal peptides within the ranges may indicate there is a lower risk of thyroid cancer recurrence during long-term follow-up.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03488134.Keywords: thyroid cancer, urine exosome, peptide, thyroglobulin, recurrenc

Effects of Huanglian-Jie-Du-Tang and its modified formula on the modulation of amyloid-β precursor protein processing in Alzheimer's disease models.

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Anodization of nanoporous alumina on impurity-induced hemisphere curved surface of aluminum at room temperature

Nanoporous alumina which was produced by a conventional direct current anodization [DCA] process at low temperatures has received much attention in various applications such as nanomaterial synthesis, sensors, and photonics. In this article, we employed a newly developed hybrid pulse anodization [HPA] method to fabricate the nanoporous alumina on a flat and curved surface of an aluminum [Al] foil at room temperature [RT]. We fabricate the nanopores to grow on a hemisphere curved surface and characterize their behavior along the normal vectors of the hemisphere curve. In a conventional DCA approach, the structures of branched nanopores were grown on a photolithography-and-etched low-curvature curved surface with large interpore distances. However, a high-curvature hemisphere curved surface can be obtained by the HPA technique. Such a curved surface by HPA is intrinsically induced by the high-resistivity impurities in the aluminum foil and leads to branching and bending of nanopore growth via the electric field mechanism rather than the interpore distance in conventional approaches. It is noted that by the HPA technique, the Joule heat during the RT process has been significantly suppressed globally on the material, and nanopores have been grown along the normal vectors of a hemisphere curve. The curvature is much larger than that in other literatures due to different fabrication methods. In theory, the number of nanopores on the hemisphere surface is two times of the conventional flat plane, which is potentially useful for photocatalyst or other applications