Determinants of prescription drug use by adolescents with intellectual disabilities in Taiwan

[[abstract]]Direct family caregivers of population-based adolescents with intellectual disabilities in Taiwan were surveyed regarding their perceptions of the use of prescribed medication and its relationship with health-related behaviors, medical care and preventive health utilization of people with intellectual disabilities. Cross-sectional data on 1419 adolescents 12-17 years of age was collected from the 2007 National Survey on Healthy Behaviors and Preventive Health Utilizations of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Taiwan. Multiple logistic regression models were used to examine risk profiles in relation to the use of prescribed medication and other relevant variables: participant characteristics, health-related behaviors, medical care and preventive health utilization. The results indicate that 47.1% of subjects were accompanied by other impairments, the morbidity prevalence was 16.5% and 23.8% of subjects were reported to have used prescribed medication regularly in the past 6 months. The main reasons for medication use were epilepsy (36.9%), psychiatric problems (24.2%) and gastrointestinal problems (6.3%). A large majority of caregivers reported that the subject's health status was excellent (15.4%), good (38%) or fair (38%), and only 6.5% were reported to be in bad health. Finally, data were analyzed using a logistic regression model to identify possible reasons for drug use. The following factors correlate with the regular use of prescribed medication by adolescents with intellectual disabilities: Down syndrome, possession of a Major Illness Card, a history of smoking, an additional impairment, reported health status, outpatient care and acceptance of other specific medical examinations. Our principal conclusion was that these data indicate a need for more education on a variety of issues, including predisposition, healthy behavior, medical care and preventive health utilization issues as they relate to prescribed medication use, and assessment of the long-term effects of drug use on people with intellectual disabilities. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Torsion of ovarian cyst during pregnancy: a case report

In this case we report a 23 -year-old primigravida with 30 weeks presenting with torsion of the ovarian cyst. She presented to the antenatal clinic with acute pain abdomen. She was diagnosed to have torsion of ovarian cyst during pregnancy and a cystecomy was carried out. Her histopathology report showed a benign serous cystadenoma. Her pregnancy was followed up. She delivered a healthy female baby at term. Although the safety of antepartum surgical intervention has been accepted, abdominal surgery nevertheless carries some risks to a pregnant woman and unborn fetus, and so the choice of management necessitates a weighing of risks based on characterization of the adnexal mass and gestational age

Low density lipoprotein and liposome mediated uptake and cytotoxic effect of N4-octadecyl-1-β-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine in Daudi lymphoma cells

Low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor-mediated uptake and cytotoxic effects of N4-octadecyl-1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (NOAC) were studied in Daudi lymphoma cells. NOAC was either incorporated into LDL or liposomes to compare specific and unspecific uptake mechanisms. Binding of LDL to Daudi cells was not altered after NOAC incorporation (K(D) 60 nM). Binding of liposomal NOAC was not saturable with increasing concentrations. Specific binding of NOAC-LDL to Daudi cells was five times higher than to human lymphocytes. LDL receptor binding could be blocked and up- or down-regulated. Co-incubation with colchicine reduced NOAC-LDL uptake by 36%. These results suggested that NOAC-LDL is taken up via the LDL receptor pathway. In an in vitro cytotoxicity test, the IC50 of NOAC-LDL was about 160 microM, whereas with liposomal NOAC the IC50 was 40 microM. Blocking the LDL receptors with empty LDL protected 50% of the cells from NOAC cytotoxicity. The cellular distribution of NOAC-LDL or NOAC-liposomes differed only in the membrane and nuclei fraction with 13% and 6% respectively. Although it is more convenient to prepare NOAC-liposomes as compared to the loading of LDL particles with the drug, the receptor-mediated uptake of NOAC-LDL provides an interesting rationale for the specific delivery of the drug to tumours that express elevated numbers of LDL receptors

Performance comparison of dwarf laying hens segregating for the naked neck gene in temperate and subtropical environments

This study compares laying performances between two environments of dwarf laying hen lines segregating for the naked neck mutation (NA locus), a selected dwarf line of brown-egg layers and its control line. Layers with one of the three genotypes at the NA locus were produced from 11 sires from the control line and 12 sires from the selected line. Two hatches produced 216 adult hens in Taiwan and 297 hens in France. Genetic parameters for laying traits were estimated in each environment and the ranking of sire breeding values was compared between environments. Laying performance was lower, and mortality was higher in Taiwan than in France. The line by environment interaction was highly significant for body weight at 16 weeks, clutch length and egg number, with or without Box-Cox transformation. The selected line was more sensitive to environmental change but in Taiwan it could maintain a higher egg number than the control line. Estimated heritability values in the selected line were higher in France than in Taiwan, but not for all the traits in the control line. The rank correlations between sire breeding values were low within the selected line and slightly higher in the control line. A few sire families showed a good ranking in both environments, suggesting that some families may adapt better to environmental change

Risk factors for methamphetamine use in youth: a systematic review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Methamphetamine (MA) is a potent stimulant that is readily available. Its effects are similar to cocaine, but the drug has a profile associated with increased acute and chronic toxicities. The objective of this systematic review was to identify and synthesize literature on risk factors that are associated with MA use among youth.</p> <p>More than 40 electronic databases, websites, and key journals/meeting abstracts were searched. We included studies that compared children and adolescents (≤ 18 years) who used MA to those who did not. One reviewer extracted the data and a second checked for completeness and accuracy. For discrete risk factors, odds ratios (OR) were calculated and when appropriate, a pooled OR with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) was calculated. For continuous risk factors, mean difference and 95% CI were calculated and when appropriate, a weighted mean difference (WMD) and 95% CI was calculated. Results were presented separately by comparison group: low-risk (no previous drug abuse) and high-risk children (reported previous drug abuse or were recruited from a juvenile detention center).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twelve studies were included. Among low-risk youth, factors associated with MA use were: history of heroin/opiate use (OR = 29.3; 95% CI: 9.8–87.8), family history of drug use (OR = 4.7; 95% CI: 2.8–7.9), risky sexual behavior (OR = 2.79; 95% CI: 2.25, 3.46) and some psychiatric disorders. History of alcohol use and smoking were also significantly associated with MA use. Among high-risk youth, factors associated with MA use were: family history of crime (OR = 2.0; 95% CI: 1.2–3.3), family history of drug use (OR = 4.7; 95% CI: 2.8–7.9), family history of alcohol abuse (OR = 3.2; 95% CI: 1.8–5.6), and psychiatric treatment (OR = 6.8; 95% CI: 3.6–12.9). Female sex was also significantly associated with MA use.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Among low-risk youth, a history of engaging in a variety of risky behaviors was significantly associated with MA use. A history of a psychiatric disorder was a risk factor for MA for both low- and high-risk youth. Family environment was also associated with MA use. Many of the included studies were cross-sectional making it difficult to assess causation. Future research should utilize prospective study designs so that temporal relationships between risk factors and MA use can be established.</p

Can disordered mobile phone use be considered a behavioral addiction? An update on current evidence and a comprehensive model for future research

Despite the many positive outcomes, excessive mobile phone use is now often associated with potentially harmful and/or disturbing behaviors (e.g., symptoms of deregulated use, negative impact on various aspects of daily life such as relationship problems, and work intrusion). Problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) has generally been considered as a behavioral addiction that shares many features with more established drug addictions. In light of the most recent data, the current paper reviews the validity of the behavioral addiction model when applied to PMPU. On the whole, it is argued that the evidence supporting PMPU as an addictive behavior is scarce. In particular, it lacks studies that definitively show behavioral and neurobiological similarities between mobile phone addiction and other types of legitimate addictive behaviors. Given this context, an integrative pathway model is proposed that aims to provide a theoretical framework to guide future research in the field of PMPU. This model highlights that PMPU is a heterogeneous and multi-faceted condition

Membrane Porters of ATP-Binding Cassette Transport Systems Are Polyphyletic

The ATP-binding cassette (ABC) superfamily consists of both importers and exporters. These transporters have, by tradition, been classified according to the ATP hydrolyzing constituents, which are monophyletic. The evolutionary origins of the transmembrane porter proteins/domains are not known. Using five distinct computer programs, we here provide convincing statistical data suggesting that the transmembrane domains of ABC exporters are polyphyletic, having arisen at least three times independently. ABC1 porters arose by intragenic triplication of a primordial two-transmembrane segment (TMS)-encoding genetic element, yielding six TMS proteins. ABC2 porters arose by intragenic duplication of a dissimilar primordial three-TMS-encoding genetic element, yielding a distinctive protein family, nonhomologous to the ABC1 proteins. ABC3 porters arose by duplication of a primordial four-TMS-encoding genetic element, yielding either eight- or 10-TMS proteins. We assign each of 48 of the 50 currently recognized families of ABC exporters to one of the three evolutionarily distinct ABC types. Currently available high-resolution structural data for ABC porters are fully consistent with our findings. These results provide guides for future structural and mechanistic studies of these important transport systems

Stringy Stability of Charged Dilaton Black Holes with Flat Event Horizon

Electrically charged black holes with flat event horizon in anti-de Sitter space have received much attention due to various applications in Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence, from modeling the behavior of quark-gluon plasma to superconductor. Crucial to the physics on the dual field theory is the fact that when embedded in string theory, black holes in the bulk may become vulnerable to instability caused by brane pair-production. Since dilaton arises naturally in the context of string theory, we study the effect of coupling dilaton to Maxwell field on the stability of flat charged AdS black holes. In particular, we study the stability of Gao-Zhang black holes, which are locally asymptotically anti-de Sitter. We find that for dilaton coupling parameter $\alpha$ > 1, flat black holes are stable against brane pair production, however for 0 < $\alpha$ < 1, the black holes eventually become unstable as the amount of electrical charges is increased. Such instability however, behaves somewhat differently from that of flat Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes. In addition, we prove that the Seiberg-Witten action of charged dilaton AdS black hole of Gao-Zhang type with flat event horizon (at least in 5-dimension) is always logarithmically divergent at infinity for finite values of $\alpha$, and is finite and positive in the case $\alpha$ tends to infinity . We also comment on the robustness of our result for other charged dilaton black holes that are not of Gao-Zhang type.Comment: Fixed some confusions regarding whether part of the discussions concern electrically charged hole or magnetically charged one. No changes to the result

Past Achievements and Future Challenges in 3D Photonic Metamaterials

Photonic metamaterials are man-made structures composed of tailored micro- or nanostructured metallo-dielectric sub-wavelength building blocks that are densely packed into an effective material. This deceptively simple, yet powerful, truly revolutionary concept allows for achieving novel, unusual, and sometimes even unheard-of optical properties, such as magnetism at optical frequencies, negative refractive indices, large positive refractive indices, zero reflection via impedance matching, perfect absorption, giant circular dichroism, or enhanced nonlinear optical properties. Possible applications of metamaterials comprise ultrahigh-resolution imaging systems, compact polarization optics, and cloaking devices. This review describes the experimental progress recently made fabricating three-dimensional metamaterial structures and discusses some remaining future challenges