Attempted Depletion of Passenger Leukocytes by Irradiation in Pigs

Allograft/xenograft rejection is associated with “passenger leukocyte” migration from the organ into recipient lymph nodes. In Study 1, we attempted to deplete leukocytes from potential kidney “donor” pigs, using two regimens of total body irradiation. A dose of 700 cGy was administered, followed by either 800 cGy (“low-dose”) or 1,300 cGy (“high dose”) with the kidneys shielded. Neither regimen was entirely successful in depleting all leukocytes, although remaining T and 8 cell numbers were negligible. Study 2 was aimed at providing an indication of whether near-complete depletion of leukocytes had any major impact on kidney allograft survival. In non-immunosuppressed recipient pigs, survival of a kidney from a donor that received high-dose irradiation was compared with that of a kidney taken from a non-irradiated donor. Kidney graft survival was 9 and 7 days, respectively, suggesting that depletion had little impact on graft survival. The lack of effect may have been related to (i) inadequate depletion of passenger leukocytes, thus not preventing a direct T cell response, (ii) the presence of dead or dying leukocytes (antigens), thus not preventing an indirect T cell response, or (iii) constitutive expression of MHC class II and B7 molecules on the porcine vascular endothelium, activating recipient T cells

Initial Presentations Predict Mortality in Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients - A Prospective Observational Study

Despite effective anti-TB treatments, tuberculosis remains a serious threat to public health and is associated with high mortality. Old age and multiple co-morbidities are known risk factors for death. The association of clinical presentations with mortality in pulmonary tuberculosis patients remains an issue of controversy.This prospective observational study enrolled newly diagnosed, culture-proven pulmonary tuberculosis patients from five medical centers and one regional hospital, which were referral hospitals of TB patients. Radiographic findings and clinical symptoms were determined at the time of diagnosis. Patients who died for any reason during the course of anti-TB treatment were defined as mortality cases and death that occurred within 30 days of initiating treatment was defined as early mortality. Clinical factors associated with overall mortality and early mortality were investigated.A total of 992 patients were enrolled and 195 (19.7%) died. Nearly one-third (62/195, 31.8%) of the deaths occurred before or within 30 days of treatment initiation. Older age (RR = 1.04, 95%CI: 1.03–1.05), malignancy (RR = 2.42, 95%CI: 1.77–3.31), renal insufficiency (RR = 1.77, 95%CI: 1.12–2.80), presence of chronic cough (RR = 0.63, 95%CI: 0.47–0.84), fever (RR = 1.45, 95%CI: 1.09–1.94), and anorexia (RR = 1.49, 95%CI: 1.07–2.06) were independently associated with overall mortality. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated significantly higher mortality in patients present with fever (p<0.001), anorexia (p = 0.005), and without chronic cough (p<0.001). Among patients of mortality, those with respiratory symptoms of chronic cough (RR = 0.56, 95%CI: 0.33–0.98) and dyspnea (HR = 0.51, 95%CI: 0.27–0.98) were less likely to experience early mortality. The radiological features were comparable between survivors and non-survivors.In addition to demographic characteristics, clinical presentations including the presence of fever, anorexia, and the absence of chronic cough, were also independent predictors for on-treatment mortality in pulmonary tuberculosis patients

Impact of the Location of CpG Methylation within the GSTP1 Gene on Its Specificity as a DNA Marker for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hypermethylation of the glutathione S-transferase π 1 (GSTP1) gene promoter region has been reported to be a potential biomarker to distinguish hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from other liver diseases. However, reports regarding how specific a marker it is have ranged from 100% to 0%. We hypothesized that, to a large extent, the variation of specificity depends on the location of the CpG sites analyzed. To test this hypothesis, we compared the methylation status of the GSTP1 promoter region of the DNA isolated from HCC, cirrhosis, hepatitis, and normal liver tissues by bisulfite–PCR sequencing. We found that the 5′ region of the position −48 nt from the transcription start site of the GSTP1 gene is selectively methylated in HCC, whereas the 3′ region is methylated in all liver tissues examined, including normal liver and the HCC tissue. Interestingly, when DNA derived from fetal liver and 11 nonhepatic normal tissue was also examined by bisulfite-PCR sequencing, we found that methylation of the 3′ region of the promoter appeared to be liver-specific. A methylation-specific PCR assay targeting the 5′ region of the promoter was developed and used to quantify the methylated GSTP1 gene in various diseased liver tissues including HCC. When we used an assay targeting the 3′ region, we found that the methylation of the 5′-end of the GSTP1 promoter was significantly more specific than that of the 3′-end (97.1% vs. 60%, p<0.0001 by Fisher's exact test) for distinguishing HCC (n = 120) from hepatitis (n = 35) and cirrhosis (n = 35). Encouragingly, 33.8% of the AFP-negative HCC contained the methylated GSTP1 gene. This study clearly demonstrates the importance of the location of CpG site methylation for HCC specificity and how liver-specific DNA methylation should be considered when an epigenetic DNA marker is studied for detection of HCC

Women with endometriosis have higher comorbidities: Analysis of domestic data in Taiwan

AbstractEndometriosis, defined by the presence of viable extrauterine endometrial glands and stroma, can grow or bleed cyclically, and possesses characteristics including a destructive, invasive, and metastatic nature. Since endometriosis may result in pelvic inflammation, adhesion, chronic pain, and infertility, and can progress to biologically malignant tumors, it is a long-term major health issue in women of reproductive age. In this review, we analyze the Taiwan domestic research addressing associations between endometriosis and other diseases. Concerning malignant tumors, we identified four studies on the links between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, one on breast cancer, two on endometrial cancer, one on colorectal cancer, and one on other malignancies, as well as one on associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome, one on links with migraine headache, three on links with pelvic inflammatory diseases, four on links with infertility, four on links with obesity, four on links with chronic liver disease, four on links with rheumatoid arthritis, four on links with chronic renal disease, five on links with diabetes mellitus, and five on links with cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc.). The data available to date support that women with endometriosis might be at risk of some chronic illnesses and certain malignancies, although we consider the evidence for some comorbidities to be of low quality, for example, the association between colon cancer and adenomyosis/endometriosis. We still believe that the risk of comorbidity might be higher in women with endometriosis than that we supposed before. More research is needed to determine whether women with endometriosis are really at risk of these comorbidities

Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions

Robust Template Decomposition without Weight Restriction for Cellular Neural Networks Implementing Arbitrary Boolean Functions Using Support Vector Classifiers

If the given Boolean function is linearly separable, a robust uncoupled cellular neural network can be designed as a maximal margin classifier. On the other hand, if the given Boolean function is linearly separable but has a small geometric margin or it is not linearly separable, a popular approach is to find a sequence of robust uncoupled cellular neural networks implementing the given Boolean function. In the past research works using this approach, the control template parameters and thresholds are restricted to assume only a given finite set of integers, and this is certainly unnecessary for the template design. In this study, we try to remove this restriction. Minterm- and maxterm-based decomposition algorithms utilizing the soft margin and maximal margin support vector classifiers are proposed to design a sequence of robust templates implementing an arbitrary Boolean function. Several illustrative examples are simulated to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method by comparing our results with those produced by other decomposition methods with restricted weights

「教育與職業不相稱」的新測量與其對工作收入、主觀意識的影響 The New Measure of Education-Job Mismatch and Its Impact on Earnings and Subjective Consciousness

有關於教育與職業不相稱的影響之研究已蔚為風潮，然而，對於過量教育的測量卻往往不一致，再加上各研究控制的變項不同，使得研究結果難以累積。本研究運用臺灣地區社會變遷調查資料發展出教育與職業不相稱的新測量方法 ― 修正自評半標準差法，評估臺灣勞力市場教育與職業不相稱的程度，以及教育與職業不相稱對工作者收入與主觀意識（包括工作滿意度、工作前景評估與階級認同）的影響。研究發現，在控制教育程度後，相較於適量教育者，過量教育工作者的工作收入較低；在控制教育程度與工作收入後，相較於適量教育者，過量教育者會有較低的工作滿意度與五等階級認同，對工作前景較悲觀，較可能認同勞工階級。 Over the past years, many researchers have paid much attention to education-job mismatch. However, it is difficult to accumulate the research results because the measures of overeducation and controlled variables are inconsistent among existing studies. Based on the national survey data, Social Change Survey in Taiwan, this paper develops a new measure of education-job mismatch that integrates self-assessment with half standard deviation method to estimate the extent of education-job mismatch in Taiwan’s labor force and its impact on workers’ earnings and subjective consciousness, including job satisfaction, career perspective and class identification. Findings are as follows: when “education” is controlled, overeducated workers have lower earnings than adequately-educated ones; when both “education” and “earnings” are controlled, overeducated workers have lower job satisfaction and class identification, hold a more pessimisticr career perspective, and are more likely to identify with the proletariat than adequately educated ones

社會網絡與心理幸福因果關聯的方向性之探討：臺東師院追蹤調查資料的貫時性分析 The Study on the Directionality of Causal Relationship between Social Network and Psychological Well-Being: A Longitudinal Analysis of Panel Survey’s Data from National Taitung Teachers College

過去眾多的實證研究結果顯示：社會網絡對心理幸福有很重要的正面影響。由於過去這方面的國內研究較少使用長期追蹤調查資料，以及做適當的統計分析，因此大部分的研究無法釐清這兩個變項因果關聯之方向性。本研究目的在於探討「以上兩個變項之因果方向性到底為何」，這當可為教育社會學開拓一個新的研究議題。本研究使用了1,047位國立臺東師院學生的追蹤調查資料納入統計分析，並對相關干擾變項的影響做進一步控制。貫時性因果分析顯示：心理幸福對社會網絡有正面影響，社會網絡則對心理幸福沒有影響，即得到「心理幸福為因，社會網絡為果」的方向性。 A lot of empirical studies on causal relationship demonstrated the important positive effect of social network on psychological well-being. Panel surveys’ data and adequate statistical analysis, however, were rarely adopted in Taiwan, and that’s why couldn’t clarify the directionality of causal relationship between the two variables. The main purpose of this study was to investigate “what the causal directionality of the two variables was”, and it could be a new research issue in Sociology of Education. To answer this question, this study used the panel survey’s data of 1047 students in National Taitung Teachers college for the statistical analysis. Then this study had a further control on the effect of nuisance variables. The longitudinal causal analysis result indicated that psychological well-being had significant positive effects on social network, not vice versa