The Effects and Measures of Auricular Acupressure and Interactive Multimedia for Smoking Cessation in College Students

The earlier one starts to smoke, the more likely it is that one’s tobacco use will increase. Either auricular acupressure or multimedia education could improve physiological health status and reduce smoking for young smokers. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a 10-week auricular acupressure (AA) and interactive multimedia (IM) on smoking cessation in college smokers. A pre- and posttest control research design with two experiments (AA and IM) and one control was used. Thirty-two participants were in each of three groups. A significant difference from pretest to posttest among three groups was exhibited on carbon monoxide (CO), cotinine, and nicotine dependence. Scheffe’s post hoc test found significances on CO in the AA between the IM and the control and cotinine and nicotine dependence between the AA and the control. After controlling the covariates, the main effect of the group was no difference in all outcomes. The interventions, especially AA, may contribute to a decrease of CO, cotinine, and nicotine dependence along with the time change. An analysis without controlling influences may overestimate interventional effects

Differential Gene Expression in Response to Papayaringspot virus Infection in Cucumis metuliferus UsingcDNA- Amplified Fragment Length PolymorphismAnalysis

A better understanding of virus resistance mechanisms can offer more effective strategies to control virus diseases. Papayaringspot virus (PRSV), Potyviridae, causes severe economical losses in papaya and cucurbit production worldwide. However,no resistance gene against PRSV has been identified to date. This study aimed to identify candidate PRSV resistance genesusing cDNA-AFLP analysis and offered an open architecture and transcriptomic method to study those transcriptsdifferentially expressed after virus inoculation. The whole genome expression profile of Cucumis metuliferus inoculated withPRSV was generated using cDNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism (cDNA-AFLP) method. Transcript derivedfragments (TDFs) identified from the resistant line PI 292190 may represent genes involved in the mechanism of PRSVresistance. C. metuliferus susceptible Acc. 2459 and resistant PI 292190 lines were inoculated with PRSV and subsequentlytotal RNA was isolated for cDNA-AFLP analysis. More than 400 TDFs were expressed specifically in resistant line PI 292190. Atotal of 116 TDFs were cloned and their expression patterns and putative functions in the PRSV-resistance mechanism werefurther characterized. Subsequently, 28 out of 116 candidates which showed two-fold higher expression levels in resistant PI292190 than those in susceptible Acc. 2459 after virus inoculation were selected from the reverse northern blot andbioinformatic analysis. Furthermore, the time point expression profiles of these candidates by northern blot analysissuggested that they might play roles in resistance against PRSV and could potentially provide valuable information forcontrolling PRSV disease in the future

CFEVER: A Chinese Fact Extraction and VERification Dataset

We present CFEVER, a Chinese dataset designed for Fact Extraction and VERification. CFEVER comprises 30,012 manually created claims based on content in Chinese Wikipedia. Each claim in CFEVER is labeled as "Supports", "Refutes", or "Not Enough Info" to depict its degree of factualness. Similar to the FEVER dataset, claims in the "Supports" and "Refutes" categories are also annotated with corresponding evidence sentences sourced from single or multiple pages in Chinese Wikipedia. Our labeled dataset holds a Fleiss' kappa value of 0.7934 for five-way inter-annotator agreement. In addition, through the experiments with the state-of-the-art approaches developed on the FEVER dataset and a simple baseline for CFEVER, we demonstrate that our dataset is a new rigorous benchmark for factual extraction and verification, which can be further used for developing automated systems to alleviate human fact-checking efforts. CFEVER is available at https://ikmlab.github.io/CFEVER.Comment: AAAI-2

Differentiating impacts of non‐pharmaceutical interventions on non‐coronavirus disease‐2019 respiratory viral infections: Hospital‐based retrospective observational study in Taiwan

Background Physical distancing and facemask use are worldwide recognized as effective non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) against the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Since January 2020, Taiwan has introduced both NPIs but their effectiveness on non-COVID-19 respiratory viruses (NCRVs) remain underexplored. Methods This retrospective observational study examined electronic records at a tertiary hospital in northern Taiwan from pre-COVID (January–December 2019) to post-COVID period (January–May 2020). Patients with respiratory syndromes were tested for both enveloped (eg, influenza virus and seasonal coronavirus) and non-enveloped RVs (eg, enterovirus and rhinovirus) using multiplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assays. Monthly positivity rates of NCRVs among adult and pediatric patients were analyzed with comparison between pre- and post-COVID periods. Results A total of 9693 patients underwent 12 127 multiplex RT-PCR tests. The average positivity rate of NCRVs reduced by 11.2% (25.6% to 14.4%) after nationwide PHIs. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the most commonly identified enveloped and non-enveloped viruses were influenza virus and enterovirus/rhinovirus, respectively. Observed reduction in NCRV incidence was predominantly contributed by enveloped NCRVs including influenza viruses. We did not observe epidemiological impacts of NPIs on non-enveloped viruses but an increasing trend in enterovirus/rhinovirus test positivity rate among pediatric patients. Our data were validated using Taiwan's national notification database. Conclusions Our frontline investigation suggests that the current NPIs in Taiwan might not effectively control the transmission of non-enveloped respiratory viruses, despite their protective effects against influenza and seasonal coronavirus. Health authorities may consider using hydrogen peroxide or chloride-based disinfectants as additional preventative strategies against non-enveloped respiratory viruses in the post-COVID-19 era

Detection of the inferred interaction network in hepatocellular carcinoma from EHCO (Encyclopedia of Hepatocellular Carcinoma genes Online)

BACKGROUND: The significant advances in microarray and proteomics analyses have resulted in an exponential increase in potential new targets and have promised to shed light on the identification of disease markers and cellular pathways. We aim to collect and decipher the HCC-related genes at the systems level. RESULTS: Here, we build an integrative platform, the Encyclopedia of Hepatocellular Carcinoma genes Online, dubbed EHCO , to systematically collect, organize and compare the pileup of unsorted HCC-related studies by using natural language processing and softbots. Among the eight gene set collections, ranging across PubMed, SAGE, microarray, and proteomics data, there are 2,906 genes in total; however, more than 77% genes are only included once, suggesting that tremendous efforts need to be exerted to characterize the relationship between HCC and these genes. Of these HCC inventories, protein binding represents the largest proportion (~25%) from Gene Ontology analysis. In fact, many differentially expressed gene sets in EHCO could form interaction networks (e.g. HBV-associated HCC network) by using available human protein-protein interaction datasets. To further highlight the potential new targets in the inferred network from EHCO, we combine comparative genomics and interactomics approaches to analyze 120 evolutionary conserved and overexpressed genes in HCC. 47 out of 120 queries can form a highly interactive network with 18 queries serving as hubs. CONCLUSION: This architectural map may represent the first step toward the attempt to decipher the hepatocarcinogenesis at the systems level. Targeting hubs and/or disruption of the network formation might reveal novel strategy for HCC treatment

Effects of Dehydration on Brain Perfusion and Infarct Core After Acute Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion in Rats: Evidence From High-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Background: Dehydration is common among ischemic stroke patients and is associated with early neurological deterioration and poor outcome. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that dehydration status is associated with decreased cerebral perfusion and aggravation of ischemic brain injury.Methods: Diffusion-weighted imaging and arterial spin labeling perfusion MR imaging were performed on rats with middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) by using a 9.4T MR imaging scanner to measure the volume of infarction and relative cerebral blood flow (rCBF) after infarction. Twenty-five rats were assigned to either a dehydration group or normal hydration group, and dehydration status was achieved by water deprivation for 48 h prior to MCAO.Results: The volume of the infarction was significantly larger for the dehydration group at the 4th h after MCAO (p = 0.040). The progression in the infarct volume between the 1st and 4th h was also larger in the dehydration group (p = 0.021). The average rCBF values of the contralateral normal hemispheres at the 1st and the 4th h were significantly lower in the dehydration group (p = 0.027 and 0.040, respectively).Conclusions: Our findings suggested that dehydration status is associated with the progression of infarct volume and decreases in cerebral blood flow during the acute stage of ischemic stroke. This preliminary study provided an imaging clue that more intensive hydration therapies and reperfusion strategies are necessary for the management of acute ischemic stroke patients with dehydration status

Women's preference for cesarean delivery and differences between Taiwanese women undergoing different modes of delivery

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The rate of cesarean delivery was 35% in 2007 in Taiwan. It is unclear how many of the cesarean deliveries were without medical indications. Women's preference for cesarean delivery during their course of pregnancy has rarely been studied and therefore our objectives were to examine rate of cesarean deliveries without medical indications, to explore women's preference for cesarean delivery as their gestation advances, and to compare background and perinatal factors among women who underwent different modes of delivery in Taiwan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This prospective study applied a longitudinal design. The study participants were 473 women who received prenatal care at four hospitals in Taipei and answered structured questionnaires at 20 to 24 weeks of pregnancy, 34 to 36 weeks of pregnancy, and 5 to 7 weeks after delivery.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the 151 women (31.9%) who had cesarean deliveries, 19.9% were without medical indication. Three indications: malpresentation, prior cesarean section, and dysfunctional labor together accounted for 82.6% of cesarean section with medical indications. The prevalence of maternal preference for cesarean delivery was found to be 12.5% and 17.5% during the second and third trimester, respectively. Of the women who preferred cesarean delivery during the second trimester, 93.2% eventually had a cesarean delivery. Women who were older, with older spouses, and who had health problems before or during pregnancy were more likely to have cesarean deliveries.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>About 20% of cesarean deliveries were without medical indications. Women's preference for cesarean delivery during the second trimester predicts subsequent cesarean delivery. Counseling regarding mode of delivery should be offered early in pregnancy, especially for women who are older or with older spouses, have health problems, or had a prior cesarean section.</p

A Method of Upgrading a Hydrostatic Model to a Nonhydrostatic Model

As the sigma-p coordinate under hydrostatic approximation can be interpreted as the mass coordinate with out the hydro static approximation, we propose a method that up grades a hydro static model to a nonhydrostatic model with relatively less effort. The method adds to the primitive equations the extra terms omitted by the hydro static approximation and two prognostic equations for vertical speed w and nonhydrostatic part pres sure p'. With properly formulated governing equations, at each time step, the dynamic part of the model is first integrated as that for the original hydro static model and then nonhydrostatic contributions are added as corrections to the hydro static solutions. In applying physical parameterizations after the dynamic part integration, all physics pack ages of the original hydro static model can be directly used in the nonhydrostatic model, since the up graded nonhydrostatic model shares the same vertical coordinates with the original hydro static model. In this way, the majority codes of the nonhydrostatic model come from the original hydro static model. The extra codes are only needed for the calculation additional to the primitive equations. In order to handle sound waves, we use smaller time steps in the nonhydrostatic part dynamic time integration with a split-explicit scheme for horizontal momentum and temperature and a semi-implicit scheme for w and p'. Simulations of 2-dimensional mountain waves and density flows associated with a cold bubble have been used to test the method. The idealized case tests demonstrate that the pro posed method realistically simulates the nonhydrostatic effects on different atmospheric circulations that are revealed in the oretical solutions and simulations from other nonhydrostatic models. This method can be used in upgrading any global or mesoscale models from a hydrostatic to nonhydrostatic model