Using Online Games To Teach Personal Finance Concepts

This case study explores the use of online games to teach personal finance concepts at the college level. A number of free online games targeting such topics as budgeting and saving, risk and return, consumer credit, financial services, and investments were introduced to the experimental group as homework assignments. Statistical results indicate that integrating online games into coursework significantly enhanced student learning outcomes. We suggest extending our successful experience to groups of people who need financial knowledge the most

High-throughput Automated Muropeptide Analysis (HAMA) Reveals Peptidoglycan Composition of Gut Microbial Cell Walls

Peptidoglycan (PGN), a net-like polymer constituted by muropeptides, provides protection for microorganisms and has been a major target for antibiotics for decades. Researchers have explored host-microbiome interactions through PGN recognition systems and discovered key muropeptides modulating host responses. However, most common characterization techniques for muropeptides are labor-intensive and require manual analysis of mass spectra due to the complex cross-linked PGN structures. Each species has unique moiety modifications and inter-/intra-bridges, which further complicates the structural analysis of PGN. Here, we developed a high-throughput automated muropeptide analysis (HAMA) platform leveraging tandem mass spectrometry and in silico muropeptide MS/MS fragmentation matching to comprehensively identify muropeptide structures, quantify their abundance, and infer PGN cross-linking types. We demonstrated the effectiveness of HAMA platform using well-characterized PGNs from E. coli and S. aureus and further applied it to common gut bacteria including Bifidobacterium, Bacteroides, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Akkermansia muciiniphila. Specifically, we found that the stiffness and strength of the cell envelopes may correspond to the lengths and compositions of interpeptide bridges within Bifidobacterium species. In summary, the HAMA framework exhibits an automated, intuitive, and accurate analysis of PGN compositions, which may serve as a potential tool to investigate the post-synthetic modifications of saccharides, the variation in interpeptide bridges, and the types of cross-linking within bacterial PGNs.</p

Clinical Study of Uric Acid Urolithiasis

Uric acid urolithiasis develops from various causes. To investigate the clinical and biochemical presentation of patients with uric acid urolithiasis, a retrospective study was designed. A total of 46 cases were enrolled between January 2004 and December 2005. The compositions of the stones were analyzed by infrared spectrophotometry. There were 39 males (84.8%) and seven females (15.2%), with a mean age of 61.5 ± 10.6 years and mean body mass index (BMI) of 26.7 ± 3.1 kg/m2. The stone location was kidney in 10 (21.7%), ureter in 22 (41.8%), and bladder in 14 (30.5%). Multiple stones were diagnosed in 36 patients (78.3%). Pre-existing comorbidities included diabetes mellitus in 11 patients (23.9%), hypertension in 23 (50%), gout in 13 (28.2%), and benign prostatic hyperplasia in 14 (30.4%). Mean serum creatinine and uric acid was 1.6 ± 0.6 mg/dL and 7.6 ± 1.8 mg/dL, respectively. There were 27 patients (58%) with creatinine > 1.4 mg/dL. The mean urinary pH was 5.42 ± 0.46. Patients with uric acid urolithiasis were predominantly male, older, with higher BMI, multiple stone presentation, with lower urinary pH, and hyperuricemia. Exacerbation of the renal function should also be of concern because of the high proportion of patients with renal insufficiency diagnosed in this study

Estimating the Economic Impact of Climate Change on Cardiovascular Diseases—Evidence from Taiwan

The main purpose of this study was to investigate how climate change affects blood vessel-related heart disease and hypertension and to estimate the associated economic damage. In this paper, both the panel data model and the contingent valuation method (CVM) approaches are applied. The empirical results indicate that the number of death from cardiovascular diseases would be increased by 0.226% as the variation in temperature increases by 1%. More importantly, the number of death from cardiovascular diseases would be increased by 1.2% to 4.1% under alternative IPCC climate change scenarios. The results from the CVM approach show that each person would be willing to pay US$51 to US$97 per year in order to avoid the increase in the mortality rate of cardiovascular diseases caused by climate change

Association between genetic variant on chromosome 12p13 and stroke survival and recurrence: a one year prospective study in Taiwan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The association between ischemic stroke and 2 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 12p13, rs12425791 and rs11833579 appears inconsistent across different samples. These SNPs are close to the ninjurin2 gene which may alter the risk of stroke by affecting brain response to ischemic injury. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between these two SNPs and ischemic stroke risk, as well as prognostic outcomes in a Taiwanese sample.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined the relations of these two SNPs to the odds of new-onset ischemic stroke, ischemic stroke subtypes, and to the one year risk of stroke-related death or recurrent stroke following initial stroke in a case-control study. A total of 765 consecutive patients who had first-ever ischemic stroke were compared to 977 stroke-free, age-matched controls. SNPs were genotyped by Taqman fluorescent allelic discrimination assay. The association between ischemic stroke and SNPs were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression. Cox proportional hazard model was used to assess the effect of individual SNPs on stroke-related mortality or recurrent stroke.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was no significant association between SNP rs12425791 and rs11833579 and ischemic stroke after multiple testing corrections. However, the marginal significant association was observed between SNP rs12425791 and large artery atherosclerosis under recessive model (OR, 2.30; 95%CI, 1.22-4.34; q-value = 0.062). Among the 765 ischemic stroke patients, 59 died or developed a recurrent stroke. After adjustment for age, sex, vascular risk factors and baseline stroke severity, Cox proportional hazard analysis indicated that the hazard ratios were 2.76 (95%CI, 1.34-5.68; q-value, 0.02) and 2.15 (95%CI, 1.15-4.02; q-value, 0.03) for individuals with homozygous variant allele of rs12425791 and rs11833579, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This is a precedent study that found genetic variants of rs12425791 and rs11833579 on chromosome 12p13 are independent predictors of stroke-related mortality or stroke recurrence in patients with incident ischemic stroke in Taiwan. Further study is needed to explore the details of the physiological function and the molecular mechanisms underlying the association of this genetic locus with ischemic stroke.</p

An outbreak of coxsackievirus A6 hand, foot, and mouth disease associated with onychomadesis in Taiwan, 2010

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In 2010, an outbreak of coxsackievirus A6 (CA6) hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) occurred in Taiwan and some patients presented with onychomadesis and desquamation following HFMD. Therefore, we performed an epidemiological and molecular investigation to elucidate the characteristics of this outbreak.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Patients who had HFMD with positive enterovirus isolation results were enrolled. We performed a telephone interview with enrolled patients or their caregivers to collect information concerning symptoms, treatments, the presence of desquamation, and the presence of nail abnormalities. The serotypes of the enterovirus isolates were determined using indirect immunofluorescence assays. The VP1 gene was sequenced and the phylogenetic tree for the current CA6 strains in 2010, 52 previous CA6 strains isolated in Taiwan from 1998 through 2009, along with 8 reference sequences from other countries was constructed using the neighbor-joining command in MEGA software.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the 130 patients with laboratory-confirmed CA6 infection, some patients with CA6 infection also had eruptions around the perioral area (28, 22%), the trunk and/or the neck (39, 30%) and generalized skin eruptions (6, 5%) in addition to the typical presentation of skin eruptions on the hands, feet, and mouths. Sixty-six (51%) CA6 patients experienced desquamation of palms and soles after the infection episode and 48 (37%) CA6 patients developed onychomadesis, which only occurred in 7 (5%) of 145 cases with non-CA6 enterovirus infection (<it>p </it>< 0.001). The sequences of viral protein 1 of CA6 in 2010 differ from those found in Taiwan before 2010, but are similar to those found in patients in Finland in 2008.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>HFMD patients with CA6 infection experienced symptoms targeting a broader spectrum of skin sites and more profound tissue destruction, i.e., desquamation and nail abnormalities.</p

Basic Atomic Physics

Contains reports on five research projects.Joint Services Electronics Program Contract DAAL03-89-C-0001National Science Foundation Grant PHY 87-06560National Science Foundation Contract PHY 86-05893U.S. Army Research Office Contract DAAL03-89-K-0082U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Contract N00014-89-J-1207U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Contract N00014-83-K-069

Atomic Resonance and Scattering

Contains reports on two research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant PHY 87-06560)Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAL03-86-K-O002)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-83-K-0695)National Science Foundation (Grant PHY 86-05893