The association between problematic cellular phone use and risky behaviors and low self-esteem among Taiwanese adolescents

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cellular phone use (CPU) is an important part of life for many adolescents. However, problematic CPU may complicate physiological and psychological problems. The aim of our study was to examine the associations between problematic CPU and a series of risky behaviors and low self-esteem in Taiwanese adolescents.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 11,111 adolescent students in Southern Taiwan were randomly selected into this study. We used the Problematic Cellular Phone Use Questionnaire to identify the adolescents with problematic CPU. Meanwhile, a series of risky behaviors and self-esteem were evaluated. Multilevel logistic regression analyses were employed to examine the associations between problematic CPU and risky behaviors and low self-esteem regarding gender and age.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results indicated that positive associations were found between problematic CPU and aggression, insomnia, smoking cigarettes, suicidal tendencies, and low self-esteem in all groups with different sexes and ages. However, gender and age differences existed in the associations between problematic CPU and suspension from school, criminal records, tattooing, short nocturnal sleep duration, unprotected sex, illicit drugs use, drinking alcohol and chewing betel nuts.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>There were positive associations between problematic CPU and a series of risky behaviors and low self-esteem in Taiwanese adolescents. It is worthy for parents and mental health professionals to pay attention to adolescents' problematic CPU.</p

Biological Evaluation of an Antibiotic DC-81–Indole Conjugate Agent in Human Melanoma Cell Lines

Pyrrolo[2, 1-c][1, 4]benzodiazepines (PBDs) are potent inhibitors of nucleic acid synthesis because of their ability to recognize and bind to specific sequences of DNA and form a labile covalent adduct. DC-81, an antitumor antibiotic produced by Streptomyces species, is a PBD. We combined DC-81 and an indole carboxylate moiety to synthesize a hybrid designed to have much higher sequence selectivity in DNA interactivity. In this paper, the cytotoxic potency of the hybrid in human melanoma cell lines was studied. XTT assay demonstrated that the DC-81-indole conjugate possessed cytotoxicity against human melanoma cell lines

GenEpi: gene-based epistasis discovery using machine learning.

BackgroundGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide a powerful means to identify associations between genetic variants and phenotypes. However, GWAS techniques for detecting epistasis, the interactions between genetic variants associated with phenotypes, are still limited. We believe that developing an efficient and effective GWAS method to detect epistasis will be a key for discovering sophisticated pathogenesis, which is especially important for complex diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD).ResultsIn this regard, this study presents GenEpi, a computational package to uncover epistasis associated with phenotypes by the proposed machine learning approach. GenEpi identifies both within-gene and cross-gene epistasis through a two-stage modeling workflow. In both stages, GenEpi adopts two-element combinatorial encoding when producing features and constructs the prediction models by L1-regularized regression with stability selection. The simulated data showed that GenEpi outperforms other widely-used methods on detecting the ground-truth epistasis. As real data is concerned, this study uses AD as an example to reveal the capability of GenEpi in finding disease-related variants and variant interactions that show both biological meanings and predictive power.ConclusionsThe results on simulation data and AD demonstrated that GenEpi has the ability to detect the epistasis associated with phenotypes effectively and efficiently. The released package can be generalized to largely facilitate the studies of many complex diseases in the near future

Social skills deficits and their association with Internet addiction and activities in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

The aims of this study were to examine the association between social skills deficits and Internet addiction and activities in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as the moderators for this association. Methods A total of 300 adolescents, aged between 11 and 18 years, who had been diagnosed with ADHD participated in this study. Their Internet addiction levels, social skills deficits, ADHD, parental characteristics, and comorbidities were assessed. The various Internet activities that the participants engaged in were also examined. Results The associations between social skills deficits and Internet addiction and activities and the moderators of these associations were examined using logistic regression analyses. Social skills deficits were significantly associated with an increased risk of Internet addiction after adjustment for the effects of other factors [odds ratio (OR) = 1.049, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.030–1.070]. Social skills deficits were also significantly associated with Internet gaming and watching movies. The maternal occupational socioeconomic levels of the participants moderated the association between social skills deficits and Internet addiction. Conclusions Social skills deficits should be considered targets in prevention and intervention programs for treating Internet addiction among adolescents with ADHD

How E-Servqual Affects Customer\u27s Online Purchase Intention?

With the boom of Internet, Internet has become one of the consumers’ online shopping channels. However, there is different in online shopping situation is because of consumers in different cultures and countries have different online shopping behavior is worth to discuss. This study is to explore the Internet users’ online shopping situation in developing country, Malaysia, and 118 questionnaire respondents were collected. Statistical analysis software SPSS 17.0 and AMOS 6.0 were used to analyze the impact on e-service quality, satisfaction, trust, and purchase intention. The model fit of this study was in an acceptable level, and this indicates that the theoretical model of this study supports the description of e-service quality for e-retailers that online shopping situation will be effected by trust and satisfaction. The result of this study will be available for those who interested in developing a transnational e-retailer as a reference, as well as academic research on cross-cultural comparative analysis

Sources of Economic Growth and Changes in Energy Consumption: Empirical Evidence for Taiwan (2004-2016)

Since the 1990s, Taiwan has promoted the upgrading of industrial structure, and the financial crisis has brought about major economic shocks. After Taiwan became a WTO member in 2002, the total trade volume increased significantly under the trade liberalization economic system. The trade sector has become the main source of Taiwan's economic growth. As energy consumption expands with economic growth, the instability of international energy prices has become an important factor hindering Taiwan's future economic development. Taiwan's energy demand is over 99% dependent on imports, making Taiwan's economic growth and energy consumption really closely related. This study has found that the source of growth has transformed from domestic final demand effect and exports effect to technical coefficients effect and self-sufficiency Coefficients effect. The financial crisis has increased the “self-sufficiency” coefficient effect and the technical coefficient effect, and all other industries except the “agricultural sector” have shown significant growth. On the other hand, the source of energy consumption has changed after the financial crisis. This also confirms that Taiwan's economic growth is closely related to energy consumption, indicating that energy shortage has indeed had an important impact on Taiwan's economic development. Keywords: source of economic growth, energy consumption, technical coefficient JEL Classifications: Q43, C6, E2, E210 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.745

Interferon-b Modulates Inflammatory Response in Cerebral Ischemia

BACKGROUND: Stroke is a leading cause of death in the world. In >80% of strokes, the initial acute phase of ischemic injury is due to the occlusion of a blood vessel resulting in severe focal hypoperfusion, excitotoxicity, and oxidative damage. Interferon-β (IFNβ), a cytokine with immunomodulatory properties, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis for more than a decade. Its anti-inflammatory properties and well-characterized safety profile suggest that IFNβ has therapeutic potential for the treatment of ischemic stroke. METHODS AND RESULTS: We investigated the therapeutic effect of IFNβ in the mouse model of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion. We found that IFNβ not only reduced infarct size in ischemic brains but also lessened neurological deficits in ischemic stroke animals. Further, multiple molecular mechanisms by which IFNβ modulates ischemic brain inflammation were identified. IFNβ reduced central nervous system infiltration of monocytes/macrophages, neutrophils, CD4(+) T cells, and γδ T cells; inhibited the production of inflammatory mediators; suppressed the expression of adhesion molecules on brain endothelial cells; and repressed microglia activation in the ischemic brain. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that IFNβ exerts a protective effect against ischemic stroke through its anti-inflammatory properties and suggest that IFNβ is a potential therapeutic agent, targeting the reperfusion damage subsequent to the treatment with tissue plasminogen activator

Dithiolethione ACDT suppresses neuroinflammation and ameliorates disease severity in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by the central nervous system (CNS) infiltration of myelin-specific pathogenic T cells followed by brain inflammation in association with demyelination. Similarly, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the animal model of MS, also exhibits increased CNS infiltration of pathogenic T cells, including Th1 and Th17, leading to detrimental effects of neuroinflammation and demyelination. We previously reported that 3H-1,2-dithiole-3-thione (D3T), the structurally-simplest of the sulfur-containing dithiolethiones, exerted a promising therapeutic effect in EAE. In the current study we report that 5-Amino-3-thioxo-3H-(1,2)dithiole-4-carboxylic acid ethyl ester (ACDT), a substituted derivative of D3T, exhibits anti-inflammatory properties in EAE. ACDT, administered post immunization, delayed disease onset and reduced disease severity in chronic C57BL/6 EAE, and ACDT, administered during disease remission, suppressed disease relapse in relapsing-remitting SJL/J EAE. Further analysis of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the protective effects of ACDT in EAE revealed that ACDT inhibited pathogenic T cell infiltration, suppressed microglia activation, repressed neurotoxic A1 astrocyte generation, lessened blood-brain barrier disruption, and diminished MMP3/9 production in the CNS of EAE. In summary, we demonstrate that ACDT suppresses neuroinflammation and ameliorates disease severity in EAE through multiple cellular mechanisms. Our findings suggest the potential of developing ACDT as a novel therapeutic agent for the treatment of MS/EAE