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Abstract Background Urinary incontinence is a common complication among patients with prostate cancer who have undergone radical prostatectomy. Guided by social cognitive theory and a framework for the recovery of health and well-being, we propose to develop and test a self-management intervention for patients with prostate cancer who experience urinary incontinence after undergoing radical prostatectomy. Methods In this study, a self-management intervention for urinary incontinence (SMI-UI) is developed, comprising a mobile self-management application, a self-management handbook, and professional support. The feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of this intervention will be assessed. Patient data from the urology departments of two hospitals will be collected through convenience sampling by adopting an experimental, parallel, and random assignment research design. Patients experiencing urinary incontinence after undergoing radical prostatectomy will be invited to participate. After completing the pretest questionnaire, patients will be randomly divided into the experimental and attention control groups. The experimental group will undergo a 12-week SMI-UI, whereas the attention control group will receive an intervention consisting of a single dietetic education information package. The two groups will be tested 12 and 16 weeks after the pretest. In this study, we recorded the sociodemographic and clinical variables; recruitment rate; retention rate; satisfaction with the intervention; cancer-related self-efficacy; urination symptoms and disturbance; social participation and satisfaction; resilience; and demoralization. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT05335967 [date of registration 04-04-2022].

Previous studies have revealed the microbial metabolism of dietary choline in the gut, leading to its conversion into trimethylamine (TMA). Polymethoxyflavones (PMFs), exemplified by tangeretin, have shown efficacy in mitigating choline-induced cardiovascular inflammation. However, the specific mechanism by which these compounds exert their effects, particularly in modulating the gut microbiota, remains uncertain. This investigation focused on tangeretin, a representative PMFs, to explore its influence on the gut microbiota and the choline–TMA conversion process. Experimental results showed that tangeretin treatment significantly attenuated the population of CutC–active bacteria, particularly Clostridiaceae and Lactobacillus, induced by choline chloride in rat models. This inhibition led to a decreased efficiency in choline conversion to TMA, thereby ameliorating cardiovascular inflammation resulting from prolonged choline consumption. In conclusion, tangeretin’s preventive effect against cardiovascular inflammation is intricately linked to its targeted modulation of TMA–producing bacterial activity.

To meticulously examine the repercussions of nonlinear vibrations on fretting damage within aero-engine involute spline pairs, a dynamic model was constructed rooted in well-established theories and methodologies. MATLAB was engaged to resolve the model, where the vibration displacement function was treated under Fourier transformation. The emergent sub-model was then integrated into finite element analysis software to scrutinize the distribution curves of fretting damage over the external spline tooth surface. The analysis included a comprehensive comparison of the axial and radial distributions, in addition to scenarios with and without vibration interferences. Further, an empirical platform was devised to authenticate the outcomes harvested through finite element simulation. The results indicate that the principal mode of fretting damage failure in aero-engine involute spline pairs fundamentally comprises fretting wear. This wear occurs throughout the rotational period of the fretting cycle and reciprocally interacts with fretting fatigue phenomena. Significantly, it was ascertained that acute nonlinear vibrations escalate the magnitude of fretting damage and the quantity of worn teeth within aero-engine spline pairs. Beyond that, angular misalignment was recognized as an aggravating factor that compounds fretting damage in the secondary bond teeth of involute spline pairs. These newfound insights are of paramount significance for the strategic design of involute splines to combat wear.

In order to design an involute spline made of PEEK (polyetheretherketone)-based material with better performance and improve the design rules of involute splines, initially, an involute splines design theory for PEEK (polyetheretherketone)-based materials is presented, which combines international standards (ISO 4156, 1. 2. 3, 2005), American standards (ANSI B92.2M. 1989), and traditional empirical formulas. Second, using the involute splines calibration method in international standards as a guide, we developed the involute splines calibration method for PEEK-based materials by estimating the impact of energy consumption caused by viscoelasticity on temperature field calibration. Next, the contact characteristics of the designed spline were analyzed using ABAQUS2022 software to confirm the accuracy and reliability of the design and calibration methods. Finally, finite element simulation was used to analyze the influence of different pressure angles, moduli, combined lengths, and other parameters on the contact characteristics of the spline in order to realize the optimal design of PEEK-based material involute splines, to offer a theoretical foundation and improved design methodology for cylindrical straight-tooth involute splines.

Background: The pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus is mediated mainly by oxidative stress produced by damaged pancreatic β-cells. We identified that an ethyl-acetate fraction (EA) from a cinnamon-cortex extract (CCE) is rich in flavonoid, and showed no toxicity to β cells.Objective: In this study, we evaluated the pharmacologic activities of EA on pancreatic β cells using a model of oxidative stress induced by H2O2 or alloxan.Results: The results showed that EA could significantly reduce reactive oxygen (ROS) accumulation to improve the survival of cells. Western blot showed that EA treatment upregulated expression of nuclear factor erythroid 2 related factor 2, heme oxygenase-1, and gamma glutamylcysteine synthetase. The same model study found that EA also can protect β cells against the apoptosis induced by oxidative stress. Furthermore, EA can enhance insulin secretion in rat and mouse β cell lines treated or not with alloxan or H2O2. The expression of the insulin transcription factor PDX-1 increased in an EA concentration-dependent manner. At last, the major functional compounds of EA analysis showed that three compounds, cinnamyl alcohol, coumarin, and cinnamic acid, had similar effects as EA.Conclusions: In sum, our data suggested that EA fraction from CCE can protect β cells from oxidative stress, and increase insulin secretion to improve the function of β cells. This function might be due to these three compounds found in EA. Our findings provide a theoretical basis and functional molecules for the use of CCE against diabetes mellitus.

Abstract Background Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has been shown to be associated with infections. Tuberculosis (TB) is a highly prevalent infectious disease. Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and post-tuberculosis experience similar symptoms. Furthermore, chronic fatigue syndrome and tuberculosis share similar plasma immunosignatures. This study aimed to clarify the risk of chronic fatigue syndrome following the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection (MTI), by analyzing the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. Methods 7666 patients aged 20 years or older with newly diagnosed Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection during 2000–2011 and 30,663 participants without Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection were identified. Both groups were followed up until the diagnoses of chronic fatigue syndrome were made at the end of 2011. Results The relationship between Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and the subsequent risk of chronic fatigue syndrome was estimated through Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, with the incidence density rates being 3.04 and 3.69 per 1000 person‐years among the non‐Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection populations, respectively (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.23, with 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03–1.47). In the stratified analysis, the Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection group were consistently associated with a higher risk of chronic fatigue syndrome in the male sex (HR = 1.27, 95% CI 1.02–1.58) and age group of ≥ 65 years old (HR = 2.50, 95% CI 1.86–3.38). Conclusions The data from this population‐based retrospective cohort study revealed that Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection is associated with an elevated risk of subsequent chronic fatigue syndrome.

Excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) production contributes to brain ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury through many mechanisms including inflammation, apoptosis, and cellular necrosis. Chebulic acid (CA) isolated from Terminalia chebula has been found to have various biological effects, such as antioxidants. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of the anti-hypoxic neuroprotective effect of CA in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that CA could protect against oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) induced neurotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells, as evidenced by the enhancement of cell viability and improvement of total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) in SH-SY5Y cells. CA also attenuated OGD/R-induced elevations of malondialdehyde (MDA) and ROS in SH-SY5Y cells. Nuclear factor-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is one of the key regulators of endogenous antioxidant defense. CA acted as antioxidants indirectly by upregulating antioxidant-responsive-element (ARE) and Nrf2 nuclear translocation to relieve OGD/R-induced oxidative damage. Furthermore, the results showed that CA treatment resulted in a significant decrease in ischemic infarct volume and improved performance in the motor ability of mice 24 h after stroke. This study provides a new niche targeting drug to oppose ischemic stroke and reveals the promising potential of CA for the control of ischemic stroke in humans.

Current therapies for ischemic stroke are insufficient due to the lack of specific drugs. This study aimed to investigate the protective activity of polyphenol extracts from Terminalia chebula against cerebral ischemia-reperfusion induced damage. Polyphenols of ethyl acetate and n-butanol fractions were extracted from T. chebula. BV2 microglial cells exposed to oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation and mice subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion were treated by TPE and TPB. Cell viability, cell morphology, apoptosis, mitochondrial membrane potential, enzyme activity and signaling pathway related to oxidative stress were observed. We found that TPE and TPB showed strong antioxidant activity in vitro. The protective effects of TPE and TPB on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury were demonstrated by enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities, elevated level of the nucleus transportation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 and expressions of antioxidant proteins, with a simultaneous reduction in cell apoptosis and reactive oxygen species level. In conclusion, TPE and TPB exert neuroprotective effects by stimulating the Nrf2 signaling pathway, thereby inhibiting apoptosis.

Multidimensional theory of mind assessments should include items assessing both explicit theory of mind (theory of mind knowledge) and applied theory of mind (application of theory of mind knowledge in real-life contexts). However, the two theory of mind scores cannot be interpreted collectively to identify children having mismatched explicit and applied theory of mind due to the lack of links between the two scores. To map the information between two theory of mind scores, data of 221 autistic children aged 3-12 years were extracted. Items of the Theory of Mind Task Battery and Theory of Mind Inventory-2 were used to respectively assess the explicit and applied theory of mind. Rasch analysis and correlation coefficients were used to examine the model fits/dimensionality and relationships. After the removal of misfit items, the remaining 45 items showed satisfactory model fits (infit and outfit mean squares < 1.35). Large correlation (r = 0.63) was found between the Rasch scores of the two theory of mind constructs. The scatter plots highlighted that each applied theory of mind score could reflect multiple explicit ToM scores. Accordingly, the information from each theory of mind measure is unique and irreplaceable. Moreover, cutoff scores for identifying children with mismatched explicit and applied theory of mind were proposed to determine the priority of interventions.

This study compared the sensing characteristics of ZnO (ZO) treated with ammonia (NH3) plasma for 1 min, 3 min, and 6 min, under the EIS structure. The measurement results revealed that, after 3 min of NH3 plasma treatment, the Mg-doped ZnO (MZO) sensing film had a high hydrogen ion sensitivity, linearity, hysteresis, and drift rate of 53.82 mV/pH, 99.04%, 2.52 mV, and 1.75 mV/h, respectively. The sensing film was used with sodium and potassium ion solutions, and it performed satisfactorily in sensing hydrogen ions. Additionally, we investigated the biomedical sensing properties of Mg-doped ZnO (MZO) sensing film with regard to urea, creatinine, and glucose solutions and found that the Mg-doped ZnO (MZO) sensing film treated with NH3 plasma for 3 min had the best properties for sensing urea, creatinine, and glucose. Specifically, with glucose, the sensing film achieved the best linearity and sensitivity and of 97.87% and 10.73 mV/mM, respectively. The results revealed that the sensing characteristics varied with the processing environment and are useful in the developing biomedical sensing applications with different sensing elements.

Highly transparent zinc oxide (ZnO)-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) capable of detecting visible light were fabricated through spray pyrolysis on a fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate. The spray-deposited channel layer of ZnO had a thickness of approximately 15 nm, and the thickness exhibited a linear increase with an increasing number of sprays. Furthermore, the ZnO thin-film exhibited a markedly smoother channel layer with a significantly lower surface roughness of 1.84 nm when the substrate was 20 cm from the spray nozzle compared with when it was 10 cm away. Finally, a ZnO and Au-NP heterojunction nanohybrid structure using plasmonic energy detection as an electrical signal, constitutes an ideal combination for a visible-light photodetector. The ZnO-based TFTs convert localized surface plasmon energy into an electrical signal, thereby extending the wide band-gap of materials used for photodetectors to achieve visible-light wavelength detection. The photo-transistors demonstrate an elevated on-current with an increase of the AuNP density in the concentration of 1.26, 12.6, and 126 pM and reach values of 3.75, 5.18, and 9.79 × 10−7 A with applied gate and drain voltages. Moreover, the threshold voltage (Vth) also drifts to negative values as the AuNP density increases.

This two-year follow-up study examined the predictive relationships of theory of mind (ToM) to social interaction by reciprocal social behaviors (RSBs) and social functioning (SF) in 106 children with ASD. The results of the path analysis showed that the earlier ToM predicted children's current component RSBs (B = 3.53, SE = 1.86, p = 0.039) and the current SF (B = 1.79-1.87, SE = 0.03-0.34, p < 0.001). The aloof and passive social interaction styles predicted fewer turn-taking of RSBs (B = - 48.77 to - 111.17, p < 0.001) and fewer components of RSBs (B = - 36.30 to - 81.41, p < 0.001). This finding provides empirical evidence that ToM predicts social interaction in children with ASD.

The Theory of Mind Inventory-2 (ToMI-2) is a promising measure for assessing theory of mind (ToM) and social-related functions. However, limited evidence on its factorial validity hampers score interpretation. To examine the factorial validity, confirmatory factor analysis for two currently-available structures was performed in 420 typically developing children aged three to seven years. One, the development-based structure, contains three stages of ToM development: the early, basic, and advanced ToM stages. The other, the social-related structure, comprises three social-related ToM functions: emotion recognition, mental state term comprehension, and pragmatics. The results showed that these structures and the unidimensionality of each domain were not supported even after modifications. Thus, further revisions and examinations of the underlying structures of the ToMI-2 are needed.