A case study of designing a mobile app prototype for seniors

As technology has advanced rapidly over recent decades, the aging population has also grown. Therefore, the importance of addressing senior users’ needs in using and learning technology deserves attention from the government and industry. There have been websites and mobile applications designed for senior learners to take online courses, join online discussions or make friends. However, there are limited mobile apps for seniors to acquire information, while connecting to others online. To fill the gap, this report explores the design considerations that should be taken into account to facilitate seniors to better use of technology. A mobile app prototype, Chatlet, was developed to illustrate the ideas of a mobile app that might interest seniors. To evaluate the design features, a case study on four seniors between 56 and 76 years old was conducted through interviews and usability testing. The findings indicate that seniors are motivated to use mobile apps mostly for getting information and communication, and one’s self-efficacy with technology could impact their selection of online activities. It is recommended that a senior-friendly mobile app be responsive to users’ actions on the app, have availability of technical support and clearly present the purpose of the app. Further details about design recommendations on mobile apps for seniors and pedagogical implications are discussed within the reportCurriculum and Instructio

Case Report: Hexachloroethane Smoke Inhalation: A Rare Cause of Severe Hepatic Injuries

CONTEXT: We report on two patients, a 23-year-old man and a 24-year-old man, who had chemical pneumonitis and respiratory distress after inhaling hexachloroethane/zinc oxide (HC/ZnO) smoke during military training. CASE PRESENTATION: The patients had been healthy previously and denied any history of alcohol or drug abuse. Hematologic tests revealed leukocytosis with neutrophils predominant. The respiratory conditions of both patients improved after steroid therapy and oxygen support, but deterioration of liver function was found. The laboratory results showed that alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase levels were elevated about 1.5-fold the normal limits and that aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels were marginally elevated. The elevation of liver aminotransferase started from day 1 and day 2 and peaked from day 18 to day 22. ALT/AST levels then returned to normal in 6 weeks. Common viral hepatitis was ruled out after serologic tests. Abdominal sonography and physical examination failed to show any specific findings. DISCUSSION: The hepatotoxic effect was attributed to inhalation of high-concentration HC/ZnO smoke in an enclosed area, where several hepatotoxicants, including ZnCl(2), HC, and chlorinated vapors, could have been generated and mixed in the smoke. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: These case reports elaborate the hepatic effects that may occur in addition to pulmonary effects of HC/ZnO smoke

Occupational Bladder Cancer in a 4,4′-Methylenebis(2-chloroaniline) (MBOCA)-Exposed Worker

A 52-year-old male chemical worker was admitted to the hospital with a history of paroxysmal microscopic hematuria for about 2 years and nocturia with gross hematuria about five times per night for 2 months. He was a nonsmoker and denied a history of any other bladder carcinogen exposure except for occasional pesticide application during agricultural work. Intravenous urogram imaging showed a mass occupying half of the bladder capacity. Cystoscopy revealed a mass over the left dome of the bladder. Cystoscopic biopsy revealed a grade 3 invasive transitional cell carcinoma with marked necrosis. From 1987 until hospital admission in 2001, the patient had worked in a company that produced the 4,4′-methylenebis(2-chloroaniline) (MBOCA) curing agent. He did not wear any personal protective equipment during work. Ambient air MBOCA levels in the purification process area (0.23–0.41 mg/m(3)) exceeded the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s permissible exposure level. Urinary MBOCA levels (267.9–15701.1 μg/g creatinine) far exceeded the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s reference value of 100 μg/L. This patient worked in the purification process with occupational exposure to MBOCA for 14 years. According to the environmental and biologic monitoring data and latency period, and excluding other potential bladder carcinogen exposure, this worker was diagnosed as having occupational bladder cancer due to high exposure to MBOCA through inhalation or dermal absorption in the purification area. This case finding supports that MBOCA is a potential human carcinogen. Safe use of skin-protective equipment and respirators is required to prevent workers from MBOCA exposure

Visible Light Responsive Photocatalyst Induces Progressive and Apical-Terminus Preferential Damages on Escherichia coli Surfaces

BACKGROUND: Recent research shows that visible-light responsive photocatalysts have potential usage in antimicrobial applications. However, the dynamic changes in the damage to photocatalyzed bacteria remain unclear. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Facilitated by atomic force microscopy, this study analyzes the visible-light driven photocatalyst-mediated damage of Escherichia coli. Results show that antibacterial properties are associated with the appearance of hole-like structures on the bacteria surfaces. Unexpectedly, these hole-like structures were preferentially induced at the apical terminus of rod shaped E. coli cells. Differentiating the damages into various levels and analyzing the percentage of damage to the cells showed that photocatalysis was likely to elicit sequential damages in E. coli cells. The process began with changing the surface properties on bacterial cells, as indicated in surface roughness measurements using atomic force microscopy, and holes then formed at the apical terminus of the cells. The holes were then subsequently enlarged until the cells were totally transformed into a flattened shape. Parallel experiments indicated that photocatalysis-induced bacterial protein leakage is associated with the progression of hole-like damages, further suggesting pore formation. Control experiments using ultraviolet light responsive titanium-dioxide substrates also obtained similar observations, suggesting that this is a general phenomenon of E. coli in response to photocatalysis. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The photocatalysis-mediated localization-preferential damage to E. coli cells reveals the weak points of the bacteria. This might facilitate the investigation of antibacterial mechanism of the photocatalysis

Frailty and Its Impact on Health-Related Quality of Life: A Cross-Sectional Study on Elder Community-Dwelling Preventive Health Service Users

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to identify the incidence of frailty and to investigate the relationship between frailty status and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in the community-dwelling elderly population who utilize preventive health services. METHODS: People aged 65 years and older who visited a medical center in Taipei City from March to August in 2011 for an annual routine check-up provided by the National Health Insurance were eligible. A total of 374 eligible elderly adults without cognitive impairment had a mean age of 74.6±6.3 years. Frailty status was determined according to the Fried frailty criteria. HRQoL was measured with Short Form-36 (SF-36). Multiple regression analyses examined the relationship between frailty status and the two summary scales of SF-36. Models were adjusted for the participants' sociodemographic and health status. RESULTS: After adjusting for sociodemographic and health-related covariables, frailty was found to be more significantly associated (p<0.001) with lower scores on both physical and mental health-related quality of life summary scales compared with robustness. For the frailty phenotypes, slowness represented the major contributing factor in the physical component scale of SF-36, and exhaustion was the primary contributing factor in the mental component scale. CONCLUSION: The status of frailty is closely associated with HRQoL in elderly Taiwanese preventive health service users. The impacts of frailty phenotypes on physical and mental aspects of HRQoL differ

Genome-Wide Association Study of Treatment Refractory Schizophrenia in Han Chinese

We report the first genome-wide association study of a joint analysis using 795 Han Chinese individuals with treatment-refractory schizophrenia (TRS) and 806 controls. Three loci showed suggestive significant association with TRS were identified. These loci include: rs10218843 (P = 3.04×10−7) and rs11265461 (P = 1.94×10−7) are adjacent to signaling lymphocytic activation molecule family member 1 (SLAMF1); rs4699030 (P = 1.94×10−6) and rs230529 (P = 1.74×10−7) are located in the gene nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer in B-cells 1 (NFKB1); and rs13049286 (P = 3.05×10−5) and rs3827219 (P = 1.66×10−5) fall in receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 4 (RIPK4). One isolated single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs739617 (P = 3.87×10−5) was also identified to be associated with TRS. The -94delATTG allele (rs28362691) located in the promoter region of NFKB1 was identified by resequencing and was found to associate with TRS (P = 4.85×10−6). The promoter assay demonstrated that the -94delATTG allele had a significant lower promoter activity than the -94insATTG allele in the SH-SY5Y cells. This study suggests that rs28362691 in NFKB1 might be involved in the development of TRS

Microarray gene expression profiling and analysis in renal cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common cancer in adult kidney. The accuracy of current diagnosis and prognosis of the disease and the effectiveness of the treatment for the disease are limited by the poor understanding of the disease at the molecular level. To better understand the genetics and biology of RCC, we profiled the expression of 7,129 genes in both clear cell RCC tissue and cell lines using oligonucleotide arrays. METHODS: Total RNAs isolated from renal cell tumors, adjacent normal tissue and metastatic RCC cell lines were hybridized to affymatrix HuFL oligonucleotide arrays. Genes were categorized into different functional groups based on the description of the Gene Ontology Consortium and analyzed based on the gene expression levels. Gene expression profiles of the tissue and cell line samples were visualized and classified by singular value decomposition. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was performed to confirm the expression alterations of selected genes in RCC. RESULTS: Selected genes were annotated based on biological processes and clustered into functional groups. The expression levels of genes in each group were also analyzed. Seventy-four commonly differentially expressed genes with more than five-fold changes in RCC tissues were identified. The expression alterations of selected genes from these seventy-four genes were further verified using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Detailed comparison of gene expression patterns in RCC tissue and RCC cell lines shows significant differences between the two types of samples, but many important expression patterns were preserved. CONCLUSIONS: This is one of the initial studies that examine the functional ontology of a large number of genes in RCC. Extensive annotation, clustering and analysis of a large number of genes based on the gene functional ontology revealed many interesting gene expression patterns in RCC. Most notably, genes involved in cell adhesion were dominantly up-regulated whereas genes involved in transport were dominantly down-regulated. This study reveals significant gene expression alterations in key biological pathways and provides potential insights into understanding the molecular mechanism of renal cell carcinogenesis

Comparison of cardiorespiratory fitness between preschool children with normal and excess body adipose ~ An observational study.

ObjectiveOverweight and obesity in preschoolers might develop into childhood and even adulthood obesity. Overweight and obesity have been shown to be negatively related with cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in children and adults but few studies did among preschoolers. We aimed to evaluate whether excess body adipose is negatively associated with CRF in both the submaximal and maximal effort of preschool children in exercise testing and to examine if there is difference to achieve maximal effort during exercise testing between preschoolers with normal and excess body adipose.MethodsData of 106 preschoolers aged 4-6 that received symptom-limited treadmill exercise testing was analyzed. Anthropometry was measured by vector bioelectrical impedance analysis. Excess body adipose was defined as (1) 'overweight' and 'obesity' by body mass index (BMI), (2) fat mass index (FMI) greater than the sex- and age-specific 75th percentile of whole subjects, and (3) fat-free mass index (FFMI) smaller than the sex- and age-specific 25th percentile. CRF was indicated by metabolic equivalent (MET) at anaerobic threshold (AT MET), peak MET, oxygen uptake efficiency slope (OUES) calculated by the 50% (OUES-50) and the entire (OUES-100) duration of the exercise testing.ResultsPreschoolers with excess body adipose by three different definitions (BMI, FMI, and FFMI) all had poorer ability to perform maximal effort (p = 0.004, 0.043, and 0.007, respectively). Preschoolers with excess body adipose by BMI and FFMI classifications had lower OUES-50 (p = 0.018, and 0.001, respectively), and lower OUES-100 (p = 0.004, and 0.001, respectively) than peers with normal body adipose during exercise testing while those with excess body adipose by FMI classification showed no significant differences from peers with normal body adipose in both OUES-50 and OUES-100.ConclusionsPreschoolers with excess body adipose had lower CRF significantly during treadmill exercise testing. Weight control and health promotion should start as early as possible

When two Z-scores meet—analysis of exercise capacity of children and adolescents with Kawasaki disease by a new Z-score model of coronary artery and a new Z-score evaluating peak oxygen consumption

Abstract Background Coronary artery (CA) Z-score system is widely used to define CA aneurysm (CAA). Children and adolescents after acute stage of Kawasaki disease (KD-CA) have a higher risk of developing CAAs if their CA Z-score ≥ 2.5. Z-score system of peak oxygen consumption (Peak VO2 Z-score) allows comparisons across ages and sex, regardless of body size and puberty. We aimed to compare the exercise capacity (EC) indicated by peak VO2 Z-score during cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) directly between KD-CA with different CA Z-score. Methods KD-CA after acute stage who received CPET in the last 5 years were retrospectively recruited. CA Z-score was based on Lambda-Mu-Sigma method. Max-Z was the maximum CA Z-score of different CAs. KD children with Max-Z < 2.5 and ≥ 2.5 were defined as KD-1 and KD-2 groups, respectively. Peak VO2 Z-score was calculated using the equation established based on Hong Kong Chinese children and adolescent database. Results One hundred two KD-CA were recruited (mean age: 11.71 ± 2.57 years). The mean percent of measured peak VO2 to predicted value (peak PD%) was 90.11 ± 13.33. All basic characteristics and baseline pulmonary function indices were comparable between KD-1 (n = 87) and KD-2 (n = 15). KD-1 had significantly higher peak VO2 Z-score (p = .025), peak PD% (p = .008), peak metabolic equivalent (p = .027), and peak rate pressure product (p = .036) than KD-2. Conclusions KD-CA had slightly reduced EC than healthy peers. KD-CA with Max-Z ≥ 2.5 had significantly lower peak EC than those < 2.5. Max-Z is potentially useful follow-up indicator after acute stage of KD