The use of Pap smear and its influencing factors among women with disabilities

[[abstract]]Cervical cancer is a prevalent cancer among Taiwanese women, and can be effectively cured if diagnosed early. Therefore, cervical cancer is worthy of preventive health screening. Due to physical and psychological barriers, patients with disability may be unable to express their physical complaints accurately, thus reducing their access to health care; some may not even receive proper preventive health care or medical treatment. This study investigates the utilization of Pap smear among women with disability in Taiwan and its influencing factors. With women aged 30 and over as the study subjects, this retrospective cohort study is conducted based on the database of the Ministry of the Interior, Taiwan, 2008, combined with information gathered between 2006 and 2008 regarding preventive health care and health insurance medical claims data from the Bureau f Health Promotion and the National Health Research Institutes, respectively. The frequency of Pap smears and the percentage differences of each variable are examined using the 2× tests to check for statistical significance. Finally, logistic regression analysis is used to examine the factors influencing the use of Pap smears. The results revealed that among disabled women aged 30 and over, the use of Pap smears was 7.71% in 2008. Disabled women with the following characteristics had lower use levels regarding Pap smears: greater age, residing in areas of higher urbanization, lower income, lower education levels, unmarried, not diagnosed with cancer, diagnosed with diabetes, and with severe disability levels. Disabled women with hearing impairments or mental retardation were possessed of the highest and lowest probabilities of using Pap smear, respectively. The recommendations of this study include: (1) provide physicians with a varying pricing scheme and incentives for Pap smear based on the type or severity of disability; (2) proactively encourage gynecologist and obstetricians to conduct regular and convenient Pap smear on disabled women; and (3) target disabled women in low usage groups, and improve their knowledge of Pap smear

Multi-layer holographic bifurcative neural network system for real-time adaptive EOS data analysis

Optical data processing techniques have the inherent advantage of high data throughout, low weight and low power requirements. These features are particularly desirable for onboard spacecraft in-situ real-time data analysis and data compression applications. The proposed multi-layer optical holographic neural net pattern recognition technique will utilize the nonlinear photorefractive devices for real-time adaptive learning to classify input data content and recognize unexpected features. Information can be stored either in analog or digital form in a nonlinear photorefractive device. The recording can be accomplished in time scales ranging from milliseconds to microseconds. When a system consisting of these devices is organized in a multi-layer structure, a feed forward neural net with bifurcating data classification capability is formed. The interdisciplinary research will involve the collaboration with top digital computer architecture experts at the University of Southern California

Predicting taxonomic and functional structure of microbial communities in acid mine drainage.

Predicting the dynamics of community composition and functional attributes responding to environmental changes is an essential goal in community ecology but remains a major challenge, particularly in microbial ecology. Here, by targeting a model system with low species richness, we explore the spatial distribution of taxonomic and functional structure of 40 acid mine drainage (AMD) microbial communities across Southeast China profiled by 16S ribosomal RNA pyrosequencing and a comprehensive microarray (GeoChip). Similar environmentally dependent patterns of dominant microbial lineages and key functional genes were observed regardless of the large-scale geographical isolation. Functional and phylogenetic β-diversities were significantly correlated, whereas functional metabolic potentials were strongly influenced by environmental conditions and community taxonomic structure. Using advanced modeling approaches based on artificial neural networks, we successfully predicted the taxonomic and functional dynamics with significantly higher prediction accuracies of metabolic potentials (average Bray-Curtis similarity 87.8) as compared with relative microbial abundances (similarity 66.8), implying that natural AMD microbial assemblages may be better predicted at the functional genes level rather than at taxonomic level. Furthermore, relative metabolic potentials of genes involved in many key ecological functions (for example, nitrogen and phosphate utilization, metals resistance and stress response) were extrapolated to increase under more acidic and metal-rich conditions, indicating a critical strategy of stress adaptation in these extraordinary communities. Collectively, our findings indicate that natural selection rather than geographic distance has a more crucial role in shaping the taxonomic and functional patterns of AMD microbial community that readily predicted by modeling methods and suggest that the model-based approach is essential to better understand natural acidophilic microbial communities

Potential of Cellular Therapy for ALS: Current Strategies and Future Prospects

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive upper and lower motor neuron (MN) degeneration with unclear pathology. The worldwide prevalence of ALS is approximately 4.42 per 100,000 populations, and death occurs within 3–5 years after diagnosis. However, no effective therapeutic modality for ALS is currently available. In recent years, cellular therapy has shown considerable therapeutic potential because it exerts immunomodulatory effects and protects the MN circuit. However, the safety and efficacy of cellular therapy in ALS are still under debate. In this review, we summarize the current progress in cellular therapy for ALS. The underlying mechanism, current clinical trials, and the pros and cons of cellular therapy using different types of cell are discussed. In addition, clinical studies of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in ALS are highlighted. The summarized findings of this review can facilitate the future clinical application of precision medicine using cellular therapy in ALS

The microbial antibodies secretion expression platform with scale down fermentors

Therapeutic antibodies have become one of the most effective therapeutics for human diseases such as cancer, inflammation and viral infection. The production of antibody-based drugs using microbial expression systems is more cost effective with ease of gene manipulation compared to mammalian expression systems. In our team, antibody fragments (ex: BsAb, scFv and Fab) were produced from methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris secretion expression system with the AOX1 as driven promoter or E. coli secretion expression system. To achieve high production yield for both system, we investigated fermentation parameter such as base medium, induction medium, induction condition, feeding strategy and pH. For the 250 ml fermentor Pichia system, the nitrogen have been add into glycerol fed medium and/or methanol induction medium and also compared base-medium, buffered glycerol-complex medium (BMGY) and basal salt medium (BS). The highest scFv production was yielded from the basal salt medium as base medium, glycerol fed medium plus nitrogen and multiple carbon source methanol induction medium. This process can yielded over 500 mg/L scFv. After scale-up from 250 ml fermentor to 5L fermentor, the methanol fed-back control system also applied on the 5 L fermentor, can achieve 1.7 g/L scFv in 5 days. The E. coli expression process has passed through screening for high production yield clones in 2 ml deep-well then confirmed by using 250 ml flask scale. Feeding medium, DO, pH etc, parameters were investigated by parallel 250 ml-fermenter. The parameters from 250 ml fermentor were validated by using 5 L fermenter. Under this scale-up procedure, the antibody Fab was 100 folds production yield, production deep well stage at 1 mg/L, production from 250 ml fermentor stage is 50-100 mg/L and production 5 L fermentor stage is over 35-90 mg/L. Although different antibodies will result in different production yield, building a reliable platform to predict production yield from antibody cell clones under deep well and shake flask stage serves a good scale-down model for future scale-up prediction

Bis[μ2-bis­(diphenyl­phosphan­yl)methane-κ2 P:P′]bis­(μ4-diphenyl­phosphinato-κ4 O:O:O′:O′)bis­(μ2-trifluoro­acetato-κ2 O:O′)tetra­silver(I) acetonitrile disolvate

In the cation of the title compound, [Ag4(C2F3O2)2(C12H10O2P)2(C25H22P2)2]·2CH3CN, the two independent Ag+ cations are four-coordinated in a distorted tetra­hedral geometry by one P atom from a bis­(diphenyl­phosphan­yl)methane (dppm) ligand, one O atom from a trifluoro­acetate anion and two O atoms from two diphenyl­phosphinate (dpp) ligands. Two dppm ligands, two dpp ligands and two trifluoro­acetate anions bridge four metal atoms, forming a centrosymmetric tetra­nuclear complex. Intra­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds and a weak π–π inter­action [centroid–centroid distance = 3.9804 (13) Å] are also observed

Glueball Interpretation of ξ\xi(2230)

On the basis of the results of $\xi(2230)\rightarrow\pi^{+}\pi^{-}, p\bar{p}$ and $K\bar{K}$, measured by the BES Collaboration in radiative J/$\psi$ decays, combined with the upper limit of Br($\xi\rightarrow p\bar{p}$)Br($\xi\rightarrow K\bar{K}$), measured by PS185 experiment, we argue that the distinctive properties of $\xi$(2230), the flavor-symmetric decays and the narrow partial decay widths to $\pi\pi$ and $K\bar{K}$ as well as its copious production in radiative J/$\psi$ decay, would strongly favor the glueball interpretation of $\xi$(2230).Comment: Latex file, no figure

Use of Seasonal Influenza Vaccination and Its Associated Factors among Elderly People with Disabilities in Taiwan: A Population-Based Study

Influenza immunization among elderly people with disabilities is a critical public health concern; however, few studies have examined the factors associated with vaccination rates in non-Western societies.By linking the National Disability Registration System and health service claims dataset from the National Health Insurance program, this population-based study investigated the seasonal influenza vaccination rate among elderly people with disabilities in Taiwan (N = 283,172) in 2008. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to adjust for covariates.Nationally, only 32.7% of Taiwanese elderly people with disabilities received influenza vaccination. The strongest predictor for getting vaccinated among older Taiwanese people with disabilities was their experience of receiving an influenza vaccination in the previous year (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 6.80, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.67-6.93). Frequent OPD use (AOR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.81-1.89) and undergoing health examinations in the previous year (AOR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.62-1.69) also showed a moderate and significant association with receiving an influenza vaccination.Although free influenza vaccination has been provided in Taiwan since 2001, influenza immunization rates among elderly people with disabilities remain low. Policy initiatives are required to address the identified factors for improving influenza immunization rates among elderly people with disabilities