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Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is the major treatment for metastatic prostate cancer (PCa), but few studies have investigated the effects of ADT on thyroid diseases.This population-based, nationwide cohort study utilized the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) with 17,192 PCa patients between 1997 and 2013. We used the Cox proportional hazards models and propensity score-matched analysis to analyze the association between ADT and the development of thyroid diseases.A total of 17,192 newly diagnosed men with PCa were selected from the NHIRD. There were 6200 ADT users and 6200 non-ADT users after 1:1 propensity score matching. There was a significantly decreased risk of thyroid diseases among ADT users compared with non-ADT users (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR): 0.79, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.65-0.95, p 0.001). Further analysis showed a significantly decreased risk of thyroid diseases with increasing ADT duration (p 0.001).The result showed that ADT use in men with PCa was associated with a decreased risk of thyroid disease development.

Okara is a by-product of tofu or soymilk production processes. The disposal of huge quantities of okara is a significant issue. Based on previous reports, protein hydrolysis can release excess free amino acids and small peptides from okara and exhibit anti-fatigue function. We aimed to investigate the anti-fatigue effect of okara protein hydrolysate (OPH)

Purpose This study aims to analyze why listed Taiwanese firms uniquely rejected the early adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2012. It investigates the underlying decision-making processes behind this policy reluctance to further understand the continuous phenomenon of rare voluntary IFRS adoption. Design/methodology/approach It reports on fieldwork evidence obtained in situ by in-depth interviewing in Mandarin. It uses qualitative methods, complemented by quantitative cost-benefit metrics of IFRS adoption. It presents five diverse illustrative case-study vignettes, using a judgment sample based on expert opinion. Findings While the net-benefits of implementing IFRS varied across firms, this study’s unanimous finding was that no firms (in the sample or population) adopted IFRS early, despite stated intentions to the contrary. The key reasons for shunning early IFRS adoption were found to be frequent changes in regulations, insufficient benefits from adopting IFRS and the undermining of comparability across companies, compounded with scarce preparation time. Further, this study found that the Taiwanese accounting regulator’s reluctance toward IFRS adoption, partly caused by a long-standing US influence, contributed to this anomalous outcome. Practical implications This study recommends two critical policy changes: more realistic timelines and less frequent regulatory changes. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the reasons behind the anomaly of no early adoption of IFRS in Taiwan, using new primary data and illustrative case studies. Its novelty lies in extending understanding beyond the existing quantitative literature on accounting standards, using new “thick” qualitative evidence on motives for such choices and decision-making processes, which have been neglected in previous work.

Chirality or handedness of a material can be used as an order parameter to uncover emergent electronic properties for quantum information science. Conventionally, chirality is found in naturally occurring biomolecules and magnetic materials. Chirality can be engineered in a topological polar vortex ferroelectric/dielectric system via atomic-scale symmetry-breaking operations. We use four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) to map out topology-driven three-dimensional domain walls, where the handedness of two neighbor topological domains change or remain the same. The nature of the domain walls is governed by the interplay of local perpendicular (lateral) and parallel (axial) polarization with respect to the tubular vortex structures. Unique symmetry-breaking operations and the finite nature of domain walls results in a triple point at the junction of chiral and achiral domain walls. The unconventional nature of the domain walls with triple point pairs may result in unique electrostatic and magnetic properties potentially useful for quantum sensing applications.

BackgroundAccording to a report from the World Health Organization, traumatic brain injury (TBI) will surpass many diseases by 2020 and become the main cause of death and disability. It is estimated that 10 million people are affected by TBI every year, and the burden of death and morbidity disease is imposed on society, making TBI urgent public health and medical problem (Hyder et al., 2007).In Taiwan, for every 100,000 emergency patients, there are 333 patients with traumatic brain injury, and the predominant group is 15-24 years old, and the mortality rate is 9 per 10,000.The survivors caused a lot of troubles in life because of the remaining obstacles, especially health and socio-economic problems (Wang et al., 2012).Therefore, post-acute care (PAC) is immediately given active integrated care during the golden period of post-acute care to restore its function, which will reduce the medical expenses of subsequent rehospitalization and reduce the burden of family and social care.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to exploring the effectiveness of post -acute care for the patients with traumatic brain injury.MethodsThis is a retrospective cohort study that enrolled 168 patients over 18 years of age (inclusive) about before and after PAC. The differences between the before and after receiving PAC were collected about the Barthel Index (ADL), Lawton-Brody IADL Scale (IADL), and EuroQoL-5D(EQ-5D) by using purposive sampling. The Statistics SPSS 25.0 package software was used to test the Paired Samples t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, Chi-square Test for statistical analysis.ResultsThe results showed that this study predicts that the functional recovery of patients with traumatic brain injury receiving PAC treatment will be effective. The optimal length of hospitalization for rehabilitation was predicted by the Barthel Index(ADL), Lawton-Brody IADL Scale (IADL), and EuroQoL-5D(EQ-5D).ConclusionThe results of this study can confirm that PAC has important effects. This result can be used as a reference for national planning health policies and cross-disciplinary professional design cases and family PAC intervention plans, in order to restore activity functions as soon as possible, improve the quality of life, and reduce the burden of family and social care.

Dielectric electrostatic capacitors, due to their ultrafast charge-discharge capability, are attractive for high power energy storage applications. Along with ultrafast operation, on-chip integration can enable miniaturized energy storage devices for emerging autonomous microelectronics and microsystems. Additionally, state-of-the-art electrochemical miniaturized energy storage systems – microsupercapacitors and microbatteries – currently face safety, packaging, materials, and microfabrication challenges preventing on-chip technological readiness, leaving an opportunity for electrostatic microcapacitors. Here we report record-high energy storage density (ESD) and power density (PD) across all electrostatic systems in HfO2-ZrO2 (HZO)-based thin film microcapacitors integrated directly on silicon, through a three-pronged approach. First, to increase intrinsic energy storage, atomic-layer-deposited antiferroelectric HZO films are engineered near a field-driven ferroelectric phase transition to exhibit amplified charge storage via the negative capacitance (NC) effect, which enhances volumetric-ESD beyond the best-known back-end-of-the-line (BEOL) compatible dielectrics (115 J-cm−3). Second, to increase overall stored energy, superlattice engineering of amorphous-templated HZO-Al2O3 heterostructures scales-up the high-storage antiferroelectric-NC behavior to the 100 nm regime, which overcomes the conventional thickness limitations of HZO-based (anti)ferroelectricity (10-nm regime). Third, to increase storage-per-footprint, the superlattices are conformally integrated into three-dimensional (3D) capacitors, which boosts areal-ESD (areal-PD) 9-times (170-times) the best known 3D electrostatic capacitors: 80 mJ-cm−2 (300 kW-cm−2). This simultaneous demonstration of ultrahigh ESD and PD overcomes the traditional capacity-speed trade-off across the electrostatic-electrochemical energy storage hierarchy. Furthermore, integration of ultrahigh-density and ultrafast charging thin films within a BEOL-compatible process enables monolithic integration of on-chip microsupercapacitors, which opens the door for substantial energy storage and power delivery for electronic microsystems.

Ischemic cardiac or cerebrovascular disease (ICCD) survivors represent a subpopulation with a high cancer risk. Antiplatelet medications, such as aspirin, remain a fundamental therapy for the secondary prevention of ischemic attack in these patients. We conducted a population-based cohort study to investigate the association of long-term low-dose aspirin use with the risk of primary cancer in ICCD survivors. Patients aged ≥20 years with newly diagnosed ICCD (n = 98,519) between January 2000 and December 2013 were identified from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The aspirin user and nonuser groups (each n = 24,030) were propensity-matched (1:1) for age, sex, comorbidities, prior medications, ICCD diagnosis year, and year of index dates. The incidence rate of primary cancer was significantly lower in the user group (6.49/1000 person-years) than in the nonuser group (14.04/1000 person-years). Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that aspirin use was an independent factor associated with a reduced risk of primary cancer (aHR (95% confidence interval) = 0.42 (0.38–0.45)) after adjustment. Kaplan–Meier curve analysis revealed that the cumulative incidence rate of primary cancer was significantly lower (p < 0.0001) in the user group than in the nonuser group over the 14-year follow-up period. Subgroup analyses demonstrated that this anticancer effect increased with duration of treatment and with similar estimates in women and men. In addition, aspirin use was associated with a reduced risk for seven out of the ten most common cancers in Taiwan. These findings suggest the anticancer effect of aspirin in ICCD survivors and provide information for assessing the benefit-to-risk profile of aspirin as an antiplatelet medication in these patients.

Stroke is the third largest cause of death both worldwide and in Taiwan. Among the various stroke subtypes, lacunae strokes account for 20 to 30% of the total stroke population. Through vigorous risk control factors, the effective prevention and the long-term functional outcome remains are yet to be investigated. Carotid duplex is a non-invasive neuroimaging modality that is routinely applied to stroke patients. In the current research, we correlate baseline carotid duplex examination parameters with functional outcome assessment in an attempt to ascertain important variables for early outcome prediction.We retrospectively recruited lacunae ischemic stroke patients from the Department of Neurology, Changhua Christian Hospital. Patient baseline demographics, biochemistry, neuroimaging, and outcome assessments were thoroughly evaluated via a modified Rankin Scale (mRS), NIHSS, and Barthel index scores, both prior and subsequent to patient discharge for a period of up to one year. Patients were divided into two groups based on their functional recovery status. This current study utilizes the Kaplan-Meier method to draw the survival curve and adopts the Cox proportional hazards model to estimate the hazard ratio between the two groups. The risk modeling method is also applied to formulate the best fit in seeking and identifying the variables, which has the most impact on determining theoutcome predictor. All statistical analyses were performed using R for Windows (version 3.6.3), withOne hundred forty-one ischemic lacunae stroke patients are included in the study, of which the follow-ups of 69 patients showed no physical functionality improvement, whereas 72 patients demonstrated favorable functional outcomes. In terms of underlying diseases, more than 80% of the patients suffered from hyperlipidemia upon hospitalization and more than 40% of the patients suffered from diabetes mellitus and heart disease. There was a significant difference in pulmonary disease between improvement and non-improvement in disability (1.4% vs 10.1%,In the current study, the most suitable length of stay in hospital for lacunae stroke patients to fully recuperate is ten days. Additionally, CCA EDV might be the key determinant, with baseline diabetes mellitus acting in a medium role, capable of altering long-term outcome functionality and recovery.

Hyperuricemia (HC) was one of the important risk factors for gout, arteriosclerosis, and cardiovascular disease. Animal studies have shown that Lactobacillus plantarum can improve the microbiota, immune regulation, and inhibit the uric acid production. However, it was not clear whether L. plantarum can improve HC and intestinal microbiota. We used potassium oxonate (PO) to induce HC in male SD rats, and then treated L. plantarum TCI227 in a dose dependent (HC+LD, HC+MD, HC+HD) for 4 weeks, and examined weight organs, biochemical examination of blood and urine, and analyzed the intestinal microbiota in feces by 16s rDNA sequence analysis. In this study, TCI227 improved body weight, decreased creatinine, serum uric acid, and increased urine uric acid compared to the HC group. Furthermore, TCI227 increased short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). In fecal microbiota (family), TCI227 increased the level of Lactobacillaceae, and then decreased the level of Deferribacteres and Prevotellaceae compared to the HC group. Finally, in fecal microbiota (genus), TCI227 decreased the level of Prevotella, and then increased the level of Lactobacillus and Ruminococcus compared to the HC group. This study suggested that TCI227 can improve HC and change the compositions of the intestinal microbiota in PO induced male HC SD rats.

High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infections and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression have been reported to be associated with more favorable survival outcomes in lung adenocarcinoma patients. In this study, we utilized transfected HPV 16E5/16E6/16E7 H292 cells to investigate the mechanism of HPV oncoproteins interfering with EGFR nuclear trafficking related to a better response to cisplatin. Furthermore, we correlated HPV 16E6/18E6 expression and differentially localized EGFR expression with the clinical association and survival impact in lung adenocarcinoma patients. Our results found significantly higher phosphorylated nuclear EGFR expression upon epidermal growth factor stimulus and better responses to cisplatin in transfected HPV 16E5/16E6/16E7 NCI-H292 cells and xenograft animal models. Our data were compatible with clinical results of a high correlation of HPV 16E6/18E6 and EGFR expression in non-small cell lung cancer tissues and the synergistic effects of both with the best survival prognosis in a lung adenocarcinoma cohort, especially in patients with older age, no brain metastasis, smoking history, and wild-type EGFR status. Cumulatively, our study supports HPV 16E5/16E6/16E7 oncoproteins interfering with EGFR nuclear trafficking, resulting in increased sensitivity to cisplatin. HPV 16E6/18E6 and EGFR expression serve as good prognostic factors in lung adenocarcinoma patients.

Nanobeam electron diffraction can probe local structural properties of complex crystalline materials including phase, orientation, tilt, strain, and polarization. Ideally, each diffraction pattern from a projected area of a few unit cells would produce clear a Bragg diffraction pattern, where the reciprocal lattice vectors can be measured from the spacing of the diffracted spots, and the spot intensities are equal to the square of the structure factor amplitudes. However, many samples are too thick for this simple interpretation of their diffraction patterns, as multiple scattering of the electron beam can produce a highly nonlinear relationship between the spot intensities and the underlying structure. Here, we develop a stacked Bloch wave method to model the diffracted intensities from thick samples with structure that varies along the electron beam. Our method reduces the large parameter space of electron scattering to just a few structural variables per probe position, making it fast enough to apply to very large fields of view. We apply our method to SrTiO$_3$/PbTiO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ multilayer samples, and successfully disentangle specimen tilt from the mean polarization of the PbTiO$_3$ layers. We elucidate the structure of complex vortex topologies in the PbTiO$_3$ layers, demonstrating the promise of our method to extract material properties from thick samples.

Heart failure is a major health risk, and with limited availability of donor organs, there is an increasing need for developing cardiac assist devices (CADs). Mock circulatory loops (MCL) are an important in-vitro test platform for CAD’s performance assessment and optimisation. The MCL is a lumped parameter model constructed out of hydraulic and mechanical components aiming to simulate the native cardiovascular system (CVS) as closely as possible. Further development merged MCLs and numerical circulatory models to improve flexibility and accuracy of the system; commonly known as hybrid MCLs. A total of 128 MCLs were identified in a literature research until 25 September 2020. It was found that the complexity of the MCLs rose over the years, recent MCLs are not only capable of mimicking the healthy and pathological conditions, but also implemented cerebral, renal and coronary circulations and autoregulatory responses. Moreover, the development of anatomical models made flow visualisation studies possible. Mechanical MCLs showed excellent controllability and repeatability, however, often the CVS was overly simplified or lacked autoregulatory responses. In numerical MCLs the CVS is represented with a higher order of lumped parameters compared to mechanical test rigs, however, complex physiological aspects are often simplified. In hybrid MCLs complex physiological aspects are implemented in the hydraulic part of the system, whilst the numerical model represents parts of the CVS that are too difficult to represent by mechanical components per se. This review aims to describe the advances, limitations and future directions of the three types of MCLs.

Agricultural product prices have a great influence on the production value of a country, with significant economic impacts on farmers and consumers. This research uses weather data, international oil price data and social news to conduct sentiment analysis to predict future agricultural product price trends. The resulting data is then displayed using rolling and recursive window methods for segmentation and evaluation. The research results show that adding emotional scores and oil prices to predict agricultural product prices can effectively improve the prediction results. In terms of segmentation performance, the linear regression provides better prediction results than the quantile regression, and the recursive window method provides better prediction results than the rolling window.

There is an ongoing policy debate over whether the adoption of IFRS should be mandatory. All Taiwanese listed companies had to adopt IFRS from 2013, but they could choose to adopt earlier in 2012. Surprisingly, given cross-national comparisons, not one Taiwanese company adopted early. This is an extreme example of policy "reluctance." We explore this unique setting, by analyzing a leading reluctant Taiwanese company, Clevo. It was widely known as a potential early adopter but withdrew at the last minute. This paper illustrates how a firm which perceived net benefits would be incentivized to adopt IFRS early, but then how uncertainties in regulations could stall such intentions. Through discussing how the accounting regulators responded to this firm's actions (and vice versa), this paper helps us to understand better the prerequisites for effective policy design and corporate decision-making in the context of IFRS adoption and implementation. This paper, using a qualitative research method, will also add to exiting IFRS literature which mainly focuses on quantitative analysis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory neurodegenerative disorder manifesting as gradual or progressive loss of neurological functions. Most patients present with relapsing-remitting disease courses. Extensive research over recent decades has expounded our insights into the presentations and diagnostic features of MS. Groups of genetic diseases, CADASIL and leukodystrophies, for example, have been frequently misdiagnosed with MS due to some overlapping clinical and radiological features. The delayed identification of these diseases in late adulthood can lead to severe neurological complications. Herein we discuss genetic diseases that have the potential to mimic multiple sclerosis, with highlights on clinical identification and practicing pearls that may aid physicians in recognizing MS-mimics with genetic background in clinical settings.

Although the PVR/TIGIT immune checkpoint axis has been suggested as a promising target for cancer immunotherapy and multiple TIGIT-targeting therapies are undergoing clinical trials, the underlying regulatory mechanisms of PVR/TIGIT interaction remain inconclusive. Here we show that TIGIT N-glycosylations are critical for maintaining the interaction between TIGIT and PVR. TIGIT has two N-glycosylation residues, N32 and N101. N-glycosylation on N101 of TIGIT and, to less extent, on N32, play potent roles in PVR binding. Taken together, these findings suggest that the N-glycosylation sites on TIGIT, especially residue N101, may be potential targets for PVR/TIGIT immune checkpoint blockade.