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In Taiwan, where relations with China define the major political cleavage, voters have distinct preferences on the issue of independence. Do Taiwanese favor a symbolic or pragmatic approach to the Taiwan independence issue? What are the factors that account for their political preferences? We identify two types of voters, symbolic and pragmatic, according to whether their preferences on independence are conditional or unconditional on China's potential counter actions. Specifically, symbolic voters have unconditional preferences on independence, while pragmatic voters are more agreeable to independence under more favorable conditions. Using multiple wave data from the Taiwan National Security Surveys (TNSS 2002–2022), we investigate the individual- and macro-level factors and find that gender, age, education level, ethnicity, partisan strength, and economic growth rate shape the types of voters in Taiwan. This paper contributes to the study of political attitudes in Taiwan, and have important implications on the regional stability in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis can affect individuals of all age groups. While the epidemiology of psoriasis in adults has been extensively studied, there is limited research specifically investigating pediatric cases. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and incidence of skin psoriasis (PsO) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) among pediatric patients in Taiwan. A nationwide cohort of 17 535 patients with psoriatic diseases under the age of 18 was enrolled from the National Health Insurance Research Database for the period 2000–2013, including 16 129 PsO patients and 2022 PsA patients. The age‐ and sex‐standardized prevalence and incidence of pediatric PsO and PsA were calculated. The 2007 yearly reports of age‐ and sex‐specific distribution of the general population was adopted as a standard. The results showed that between 2000 and 2013, the prevalence for pediatric PsO increased from 0.03% to 0.07%, and from 0.003% to 0.014% for pediatric PsA. During the same period, the incidence slightly decreased from 19.81 to 17.55 per 100 000 for pediatric PsO but increased from 1.02 to 5.06 per 100 000 for pediatric PsA. Adolescents (12 to <18 years) had higher prevalence and incidence rates of PsO and PsA than children (aged ≤ 12 years), with no sex difference observed in either age group. PsA preceding PsO was more common among children than adolescents (27.07% vs. 13.46%). This study provides important insights into the prevalence and incidence of psoriatic diseases in the pediatric population. Further research is needed to identify risk factors for pediatric psoriasis and to investigate its long‐term health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Background: Finite nucleos(t)ide analogue (NUC) therapy has been proposed as an alternative treatment strategy for chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Aim: To quantify the incidence of severe hepatitis flares following NUC cessation in everyday clinical practice. Methods: This population‐based cohort study enrolled 10,192 patients (male 71.7%, median age 50.9 years, cirrhosis 10.7%) who had received first‐line NUCs for at least 1 year before discontinuing treatment. The primary outcome was severe flare with hepatic decompensation. We used competing risk analyses to assess event incidences and associated risk factors. Results: During a median follow‐up of 2.2 years, 132 patients developed severe flares with hepatic decompensation, yielding a 4‐year cumulative incidence of 1.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.5%–2.2%). Significant risk factors were cirrhosis (adjusted sub‐distributional hazard ratio [aSHR], 2.74; 95% CI, 1.82–4.12), manifestations of portal hypertension (aSHR, 2.46; 95% CI, 1.45–4.18), age (aSHR, 1.21 per 10 years; 95% CI, 1.03–1.42) and male sex (aSHR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.04–2.38). In patients without cirrhosis or portal hypertension (n = 8863), the 4‐year cumulative incidence of severe withdrawal flares stood at 1.3% (95% CI, 1.0%–1.7%). For those patients with available data confirming adherence to the standard stopping rules (n = 1274), the incidence was 1.1% (95% CI, 0.6%–2.0%). Conclusions: Severe flares with hepatic decompensation were observed in 1%–2% of patients with CHB after stopping NUC therapy in daily practice. Risk factors included older age, cirrhosis, portal hypertension and male sex. Our findings argue against NUC cessation as part of routine clinical care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While authoritarian regimes are often characterized by their civil liberty restrictions, some dictatorships acknowledge the ethnolinguistic diversity of their population. Are minorities in multiethnic authoritarian states more likely to trust the government when their language is recognized? In this paper, we argue while recognition of a group's language improves trust in democracies through a substantive representation mechanism, the same cannot be said in authoritarian regimes. Instead, recognition is a mere symbolic gesture. Such window-dressing efforts call attention to the horizontal inequality between hegemon and minority groups—and such, minority language recognition is associated with negative political trust. We test our argument with the World Values Survey. By identifying which minority groups have been afforded linguistic recognition, we find evidence of a significant—but negative—link between recognition and political trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]