56 research outputs found

    Effects of interventions on trajectories of health-related quality of life among older patients with hip fracture: a prospective randomized controlled trial

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    Abstract Background Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been used to assess subjects’ prognosis and recovery following hip fracture. However, evidence is mixed regarding the effectiveness of interventions to improve HRQoL of elders with hip fracture. The purposes of this study were to identify distinct HRQoL trajectories and to evaluate the effects of two care models on these trajectories over 12 months following hip-fracture surgery. Methods For this secondary analysis, data came from a randomized controlled trial of subjects with hip fracture receiving three treatment care models: interdisciplinary care (n = 97), comprehensive care (n = 91), and usual care (n = 93). Interdisciplinary care consisted of geriatric consultation, discharge planning, and 4 months of in-home rehabilitation. Comprehensive care consisted of interdisciplinary care plus management of malnutrition and depressive symptoms, fall prevention, and 12 months of in-home rehabilitation. Usual care included only in-hospital rehabilitation and occasional discharge planning, without geriatric consultation and in-home rehabilitation. Mental and physical HRQoL were measured at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after discharge by the physical component summary scale (PCS) and mental component summary scale (MCS), respectively, of the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36, Taiwan version. Latent class growth modeling was used to identify PCS and MCS trajectories and to evaluate how they were affected by the interdisciplinary and comprehensive care models. Results We identified three quadratic PCS trajectories: poor PCS (n = 103, 36.6 %), moderate PCS (n = 96, 34.2 %), and good PCS (n = 82, 29.2 %). In contrast, we found three linear MCS trajectories: poor MCS (n = 39, 13.9 %), moderate MCS (n = 84, 29.9 %), and good MCS (n = 158, 56.2 %). Subjects in the comprehensive care and interdisciplinary care groups were more likely to experience a good PCS trajectory (b = 0.99, odds ratio [OR] = 2.69, confidence interval [CI] = 7.24–1.00, p = 0.049, and b = 1.32, OR = 3.75, CI = 10.53–1.33, p = 0.012, respectively) than those who received usual care. However, neither care model improved MCS. Conclusions The interdisciplinary and comprehensive care models improved recovery from hip fracture by increasing subjects’ odds for following a trajectory of good physical functioning after hospitalization. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT01350557 )http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134528/1/12891_2016_Article_958.pd

    Enhanced Differentiation of Three-Gene-Reprogrammed Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells into Adipocytes via Adenoviral-Mediated PGC-1α Overexpression

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    Induced pluripotent stem cells formed by the introduction of only three factors, Oct4/Sox2/Klf4 (3-gene iPSCs), may provide a safer option for stem cell-based therapy than iPSCs conventionally introduced with four-gene iPSCs. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) plays an important role during brown fat development. However, the potential roles of PGC-1α in regulating mitochondrial biogenesis and the differentiation of iPSCs are still unclear. Here, we investigated the effects of adenovirus-mediated PGC-1α overexpression in 3-gene iPSCs. PGC-1α overexpression resulted in increased mitochondrial mass, reactive oxygen species production, and oxygen consumption. Microarray-based bioinformatics showed that the gene expression pattern of PGC-1α-overexpressing 3-gene iPSCs resembled the expression pattern observed in adipocytes. Furthermore, PGC-1α overexpression enhanced adipogenic differentiation and the expression of several brown fat markers, including uncoupling protein-1, cytochrome C, and nuclear respiratory factor-1, whereas it inhibited the expression of the white fat marker uncoupling protein-2. Furthermore, PGC-1α overexpression significantly suppressed osteogenic differentiation. These data demonstrate that PGC-1α directs the differentiation of 3-gene iPSCs into adipocyte-like cells with features of brown fat cells. This may provide a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of mitochondrial disorders and obesity

    A Combined DNA-Affinic Molecule and N-Mustard Alkylating Agent Has an Anti-Cancer Effect and Induces Autophagy in Oral Cancer Cells

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    Although surgery or the combination of chemotherapy and radiation are reported to improve the quality of life and reduce symptoms in patients with oral cancer, the prognosis of oral cancer remains generally poor. DNA alkylating agents, such as N-mustard, play an important role in cancer drug development. BO-1051 is a new 9-anilinoacridine N-mustard-derivative anti-cancer drug that can effectively target a variety of cancer cell lines and inhibit tumorigenesis in vivo. However, the underlying mechanism of BO-1051-mediated tumor suppression remains undetermined. In the present study, BO-1051 suppressed cell viability with a low IC50 in oral cancer cells, but not in normal gingival fibroblasts. Cell cycle analysis revealed that the tumor suppression by BO-1051 was accompanied by cell cycle arrest and downregulation of stemness genes. The enhanced conversion of LC3-I to LC3-II and the formation of acidic vesicular organelles indicated that BO-1501 induced autophagy. The expression of checkpoint kinases was upregulated as demonstrated with Western blot analysis, showing that BO-1051 could induce DNA damage and participate in DNA repair mechanisms. Furthermore, BO-1051 treatment alone exhibited a moderate tumor suppressive effect against xenograft tumor growth in immunocompromised mice. Importantly, the combination of BO-1051 and radiation led to a potent inhibition on xenograft tumorigenesis. Collectively, our findings demonstrated that BO-1051 exhibited a cytotoxic effect via cell cycle arrest and the induction of autophagy. Thus, the combination of BO-1051 and radiotherapy may be a feasible therapeutic strategy against oral cancer in the future

    An Introductory Review of Altmetrics

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    Advancements in the Internet and information communication technology have motivated researchers to frequently seek and use online information. In addition, the diverse development of social network has substantially changed the methods of scholarly communication. Therefore, the use of the traditional citation-based academic evaluation can no longer reflect the true academic influences of a digital environment. Consequently, conventional and innovative metrics were combined to create new academic evaluation indicators. In response to the development of open access, digital publishing, and big data, novel indicators for Scholarly Communication in web 2.0 called “Altmetrics” emerged. In this study, we explored the origin and developmental process of Altmetrics, focusing on the characteristics, indicator types, data sources, and analytical tools. Furthermore, we described the current challenges in Altmetrics and examined the effects of Altmetrics on library and information science research and library management. The objective of this study was to provide researchers insight into the research domain of Altmetrics to facilitate the development of related studies in the future

    Completeness and overlap in open access systems: Search engines, aggregate institutional repositories and physics-related open sources.

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    This study examines the completeness and overlap of coverage in physics of six open access scholarly communication systems, including two search engines (Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic), two aggregate institutional repositories (OAIster and OpenDOAR), and two physics-related open sources (arXiv.org and Astrophysics Data System). The 2001-2013 Nobel Laureates in Physics served as the sample. Bibliographic records of their publications were retrieved and downloaded from each system, and a computer program was developed to perform the analytical tasks of sorting, comparison, elimination, aggregation and statistical calculations. Quantitative analyses and cross-referencing were performed to determine the completeness and overlap of the system coverage of the six open access systems. The results may enable scholars to select an appropriate open access system as an efficient scholarly communication channel, and academic institutions may build institutional repositories or independently create citation index systems in the future. Suggestions on indicators and tools for academic assessment are presented based on the comprehensiveness assessment of each system

    Connection admission control for QoS guarantees in mobile networks

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    AbstractWith the fast deployment of wireless hand-heldterminals, multimedia applications are getting more and moresignificant for mobile networks. As a result, the QoS (Quality ofService) support for the multimedia in mobile networks hasbecome more and more important. The resource reservation isthe current scheme supporting QoS for Internet. However,reservation of resources and maintenance of QoS for the mobilehost as it moves form one area to another create a new set ofchallenges. It needs other mechanisms to help maintain QoS. Inthis paper, we propose to use combining MRSVP and CAC(connection admission control) to enforce QoS guarantees inMobile networks. Our CAC algorithm not only considers theconnection number in the current cell, but also takes thereservation flows of adjacent cells into account. And thesimulation results show that our algorithm does provide niceperformance for mobile networks6 Halama

    Completeness of the sample publication list in physics in the open access systems.

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    <p>Completeness of the sample publication list in physics in the open access systems.</p

    Percentage of external overlap of the publication list of the 2001–2013 Nobel Laureates in Physics in the open access systems (cross-column system and cross-reference system).

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    <p>Percentage of external overlap of the publication list of the 2001–2013 Nobel Laureates in Physics in the open access systems (cross-column system and cross-reference system).</p
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