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Elderly long-term care facility residents typically have musculoskeletal conditions that may lead to long-term disability and increased mortality. Our main objective was to explore the relationship between body mass index (BMI), albumin levels, and mortality in elderly individuals with limited performance status. Among 182 participants (mean age, 78.8 years; 57% women), 11%, 64%, and 25% had serum albumin levels of 3.5 g/dL, respectively. After multivariate adjustments, diastolic blood pressure >90 mmHg was associated with all-cause mortality [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.08, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.13-3.82; P = 0.018]. In addition, BMI 3.5 g/dL (HR = 1.80, 95% CI = 1.11-2.94 and HR = 2.54, 95% CI 1.22-5.30, respectively; P = 0.018 and 0.013, respectively). Highest mortality was noted in participants with albumin levels

IoT (Internet of Things) consists of various devices such as cars, electrical appliances, machines, and sensors. With IoT technologies, devices exchange information through the network, people are allowed to obtain information collected by devices without interacting with them, and automatic operations for devices are realized. Owing to the variety of IoT devices, some of them possess limited computational capability. On the other hand, data transmission in IoT networks is usually through a public channel. To ensure efficiency and security in IoT environments, Lee et al. presented a three-factor authentication scheme with XOR operation and hash function. Their scheme possessed superior properties and prevented common attacks. Analyzing the scheme revealed that five flaws threaten the scheme. This paper shows how the flaws threaten the scheme in detail.

The 36-item Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (DFS-2) and Flow State Scale-2 (FSS-2) were developed to assess flow experience in daily and specific activities. Although their validity and reliability had been examined in general populations and different cultures, little is known for schizophrenic subjects. Thus, this study aimed to validate Traditional-Chinese DFS-2 (TCDFS-2) and FSS-2 (TCFSS-2) in Taiwanese subjects with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.We recruited 229 adult participants from outpatient clinics, day care centers, and psychiatric rehabilitation centers in Taipei. They filled out 36-item TCDFS-2 and TCFSS-2 under guidance. The LISREL 9.30 software was used to conduct exploratory factor analysis for exploring measurement structures, and then confirmatory factor analysis for identifying factor models.The six first-order factor and one second-order factor measurement models were obtained for both 36-item TCDFS-2 (Chi-square statistic = 999.1, df = 545, p 0.0001, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA] = 0.0603, and Comparative Fit Index [CFI] = 0.9213) and TCFSS-2 (Chi-square statistic = 987.9, df = 539, p 0.0001, RMSEA = 0.0603, and CFI = 0.9213).Our factor models differed remarkably from those of 36-item DFS-2 and FSS-2. Yet, they were barely acceptable to be used to measure flow experiences in schizophrenic subjects in clinical applications. Since the factor scores, measurement structures, or even definitions of flow experiences could differ substantially between healthy people and patients with mental illness, disease-specific instruments of flow experiences should be considered in the future.

Importance: A reliable observational measure is necessary to measure clients’ behaviors as they participate in activities. The Comprehensive Occupational Therapy Evaluation Scale (COTES) is designed to measure strengths and difficulties in various behaviors that support occupational performance. Objective: To examine the test–retest reliability of the COTES (overall score and scores on the General Behavior, Social Behavior, and Work Behavior subscales) and calculate the minimal detectable change (MDC) for people with schizophrenia. Design: Prospective, observational study. Setting: A psychiatric center. Participants: COTES data for 118 people with schizophrenia were collected from occupational therapy records. Data from the initial and second COTES measurements were chosen for analysis. Outcomes and Measures: Test–retest reliability of the overall scale and three subscales was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The MDC was calculated on the basis of the standard error of measurement. Results: ICCs for the overall scale and three subscales ranged from .91 to .97. The MDC values (MDC%) were 6.5 (10.5%) for the overall scale, 3.4 (13.5%) for the General Behavior subscale, 2.3 (15.2%) for the Social Behavior subscale, and 2.4 (11.0%) for the Work Behavior subscale. Conclusion and Relevance: The COTES has good test–retest reliability. Clinicians and researchers can use the MDC values provided in this study to explain the implications of change scores for behaviors that affect occupational performance for people with schizophrenia. What This Article Adds: The COTES has sound reliability and support for its use in determining whether people with schizophrenia make real improvements in behavior that affects occupational performance over time.

Enzyme-mediated damage repair or mitigation, while common for nucleic acids, is rare for proteins. Examples of protein damage are elimination of phosphorylated Ser/Thr to dehydroalanine/dehydrobutyrine (Dha/Dhb) in pathogenesis and aging. Bacterial LanC enzymes use Dha/Dhb to form carbon-sulfur linkages in antimicrobial peptides, but the functions of eukaryotic LanC-like (LanCL) counterparts are unknown. We show that LanCLs catalyze the addition of glutathione to Dha/Dhb in proteins, driving irreversible C-glutathionylation. Chemo-enzymatic methods were developed to site-selectively incorporate Dha/Dhb at phospho-regulated sites in kinases. In human MAPK-MEK1, such "elimination damage" generated aberrantly activated kinases, which were deactivated by LanCL-mediated C-glutathionylation. Surveys of endogenous proteins bearing damage from elimination (the eliminylome) also suggest it is a source of electrophilic reactivity. LanCLs thus remove these reactive electrophiles and their potentially dysregulatory effects from the proteome. As knockout of LanCL in mice can result in premature death, repair of this kind of protein damage appears important physiologically.

OBJECTIVE. We evaluated the construct validity (i.e., unidimensionality and convergent validity) and Rasch reliability of the 20-item Comprehensive Occupational Therapy Evaluation Scale (COTES) in people with schizophrenia. METHOD. Retrospective chart review was used to collect COTES data from 505 inpatients with schizophrenia. For construct validity, we first examined unidimensionality of each of the three COTES subscales using Rasch analysis. After unidimensionality was supported, we examined convergent validity using Pearson’s r and Rasch reliability of the individual subscales. RESULTS. After deleting two misfitting items, the remaining items (i.e., the COTES–18) showed unidimensionality. Infit and outfit mean squares were 0.73–1.25. Moderate correlations were found among the three COTES–18 subscales (rs = .57–.71). The Rasch reliabilities of the three subscales were .83–.92. CONCLUSION. The COTES–18 has sufficient construct validity and reliability to assess three specific dimensions of behavior affecting occupational performance in people with schizophrenia.

Adipogenic differentiation is a highly regulated process that is necessary for metabolic homeostasis and nutrient sensing. The expression of PPARγ and the subsequent activation of adipogenic genes is critical for the process. In this study, we identified lanthionine synthetase C-like protein 2 (LanCL2) as a positive regulator of adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells. Knockdown of LanCL2, but not LanCL1, inhibited adipogenic differentiation, and this effect was not mediated through cAMP or Akt signaling pathways. The expression of early adipogenic markers CCAAT enhancer binding protein β (C/EBPβ) and C/EBPδ remained intact in LanCL2 knockdown cells, but levels of late adipogenic markers PPARγ and C/EBPα were suppressed. The addition of the naturally occurring PPARγ activator 15-deoxy-Δ(12,14)-prostaglandin J2 or conditioned medium from differentiating cells did not restore differentiation, implying that LanCL2 may not be involved in the production of a secreted endogenous PPARγ ligand. Pulldown assays demonstrated a direct physical interaction between LanCL2 and PPARγ. Consistent with a regulatory role of LanCL2, luciferase reporter assays revealed that full transcriptional activation by PPARγ was dependent on LanCL2. Taken together, our study reveals a novel role of LanCL2 in adipogenesis, specifically involved in PPARγ-mediated transactivation of downstream adipogenic genes.

We design a novel ABA type triblock copolymer (triBCP) by performing efficient synthetic methods of chain-growth condensation polymerization (CGCP), supplemental activator and reducing agent atom transfer radical polymerization (SARA ATRP), and styrenics-assisted atom transfer radical coupling (SA ATRC). A well-defined poly(3-(N-(octyloxy)benzyl benzamide) having a 2-bromo-2-phenylacetate effective ATRP initiating site (i.e., POOBBA-BrPA) through CGCP following quantitative chain end modifications, was firstly synthesized. The POOBBA-BrPA macroinitiator then conducted chain extension with lauryl methacrylate (LMA) via SARA ATRP to obtain the POOBBA-b-PLMA-Br diBCP (Mn = 8800 and Mw/Mn = 1.15). This was followed by SA ATRC of POOBBA-b-PLMA-Br with a high extent of coupling (xc = 0.85, Mn = 15300, and Mw/Mn = 1.26). The obtained triBCP was further purified and the selective removal of the protecting group yielded poly(N-H benzamide)-b-poly(lauryl methacrylate)-b-poly(N-H benzamide) (i.e., PNHBA-b-PLMA-b-PNHBA) was conducted. The characterization of these copolymers was performed using 1H NMR, GPC, FT-IR, TGA, DSC, AFM and SAXS.

A 5.5 inches narrow bezel FFS-mode De-mux LCD was developed with the ESL type a-IGZO TFTs. Those displays have de-mux functions can narrow the bezel and reduce the number of ICs on the display. The Ion/Ioff of the ESL type TFTs are more than 109.

Lutein is a macular pigment that contributes to maintaining eye health. The development of lutein-laden nanocarriers for ocular delivery would have the advantages of user friendliness and cost-effectiveness. Nano-scaled vehicles such as cyclodextrin (CD) and nanoemulsion could overcome the barriers caused by the scleral structure. This study focused on the development of hybrid nanocarriers containing nanoemulsion and CD for scleral lutein accumulation. In the presence of the nanoemulsion, CD forms such as βCD and hydroxyethyl (HE) βCD increased the partition of lutein into the porcine sclera. A combination of nanoemulsion and 2% HEβCD enhanced lutein accumulation to 119±6 µg g(-1) h(-1), which was 9.2-fold higher than that with lutein suspension alone. We explored the dose effect of CD in nanoemulsion on scleral lutein and found that the scleral accumulation of lutein was enhanced by increasing the CD content. The novel nanoemulsion had 95% drug-loading efficiency and low cytotoxicity in retinal cells. The CD-modified nanoemulsion not only improved the stability and entrapment efficacy of lutein in the aqueous system but also enhanced scleral lutein accumulation. An increase in the partition coefficient of lutein in porcine sclera when using the CD-modified nanoemulsion was also confirmed.

Retention registers have been widely used in power gated designs to store data during sleep mode. However, their excessive area and leakage power render it imperative to minimize the total retention storage size. The current industry practice replaces all registers with singlebit retention ones, which significantly limits the design freedom and yields suboptimal designs. Toward this, for the first time in the literature, we propose the concept and the design of multibit retention registers, with which only selected registers need to be replaced. The technique can significantly reduce the number of bits that need to be stored and thus the leakage power, but needs several clock cycles for mode transition. In addition, an efficient assignment algorithm is developed to minimize the total retention storage size subject to mode transition latency constraint. Experimental results show that our framework on average can reduce the leakage power in sleep mode by 84% along with additional mode transition latency of 6 to 11 clock cycles, compared with the singlebit retention register-based design.

In this study, we employed an efficient strategy by the combinations of chain-growth condensation polymerization (CGCP), styrenics-assisted atom transfer radical coupling (SA ATRC), and ring-opening polymerization (ROP) to synthesize novel miktoarm (μ) star copolymers. Accordingly, poly(N-octyl benzamide) (PBA) and poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) arms were conjugated to form μ-(PBA)2(PCL)m star (m = ca. 4; Mn = ca. 13400; Đ = 1.17; abbr.: μ-(PBA)(PCL)). Thermal properties of homopolymers and μ-(PBA)(PCL) were examined by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). In μ-(PBA)(PCL) star copolymer, notably, an increased Tg of PBA chain (26.3 °C) was detected as well as the melting behavior in Tm (44.8 °C) and the peak profile were significantly changed. It might be due to topological influence on the restriction of both chain mobility and crystallinity. The behaviors of slow crystallization and low crystallinity of μ-(PBA)(PCL) star can be revealed by polarized optical microscopy (POM) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). We then analyzed morphology of drop-casting thin films of PCL, PBA, and μ-(PBA)(PCL) (co)polymers on Si wafer by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Casting by 1 wt% μ-star solution, we obtained uniform and clear nanofibers with an average diameter of ca. 20 nm. Using grazing-incidence X-ray diffractometer (GI XRD), orthorhombic (110) and (200) diffraction peaks were clear observed. In addition, grazing-incidence small-to-wide angle X-ray diffractometer (GI SWAXS) of μ-(PBA)(PCL) thin film displayed diffraction peaks composed of q/q* peaks of 1:√3 with a periodic size of approximately 16.1 nm that revealed the diameter of the nanofibril morphology.

Date Presented 4/21/2018 The study results did not support the measurement equivalence of the adapted Chinese Leisure Satisfaction Scale between schizophrenia and general populations. Developing a measure of leisure satisfaction for the schizophrenia population should be considered. Primary Author and Speaker: Lin-Jye Huang Additional Authors and Speakers: Fu-Chang Hu, Chinyu Wu, Yi-Hong Yang, Shu-Chun Lee, Hsu-Chang Huang, Chun-Yi Yu, Kuan-Yu Lai

Date Presented 4/19/2018 The results in this study did not support the measurement equivalence of the Chinese Dispositional Flow Scale–2 between schizophrenia and general populations. Developing a measuring of dispositional flow tendency for the schizophrenia population should be considered. Primary Author and Speaker: Lin-Jye Huang Additional Authors and Speakers: Fu-Chang Hu, Chinyu Wu, Yi-Hong Yang, Shu-Chun Lee, Hsu-Chang Huang, Chun-Yi Yu, Kuan-Yu Lai

Lutein is a macular pigment that contributes to maintaining eye health. The development of lutein-laden nanocarriers for ocular delivery would have the advantages of user friendliness and cost-effectiveness. Nano-scaled vehicles such as cyclodextrin (CD) and nanoemulsion could overcome the barriers caused by the scleral structure. This study focused on the development of hybrid nanocarriers containing nanoemulsion and CD for scleral lutein accumulation. In the presence of the nanoemulsion, CD forms such as βCD and hydroxyethyl (HE) βCD increased the partition of lutein into the porcine sclera. A combination of nanoemulsion and 2% HEβCD enhanced lutein accumulation to 119±6 µg g(-1) h(-1), which was 9.2-fold higher than that with lutein suspension alone. We explored the dose effect of CD in nanoemulsion on scleral lutein and found that the scleral accumulation of lutein was enhanced by increasing the CD content. The novel nanoemulsion had 95% drug-loading efficiency and low cytotoxicity in retinal cells. The CD-modified nanoemulsion not only improved the stability and entrapment efficacy of lutein in the aqueous system but also enhanced scleral lutein accumulation. An increase in the partition coefficient of lutein in porcine sclera when using the CD-modified nanoemulsion was also confirmed.

Date Presented 3/30/2017 This study suggests that occupational therapists could assist persons with schizophrenia through knowledge of flow theory and self-determination theory, as well as enhancing their attention function and leisure satisfaction when providing therapeutic activities for increasing flow experience. Primary Author and Speaker: Lin-Jye Huang Additional Authors and Speakers: Fu-Chang Hu, Chinyu Wu, Yi-Hong Yang, Shu-Chun Lee, Hsu-Chang Huang, Chun-Yi Yu, Kuan-Yu Lai

Date Presented 3/30/2017 The Chinese versions of the Short Dispositional Flow Scale–2 (DFS–2) and Short Flow State Scale–2 (FSS–2) showed goodness of fit when administered to persons with schizophrenia in Taiwan, and future studies would be suggested to apply the same validation method for the Short DFS–2 and Short FSS–2 in other cultures or populations. Primary Author and Speaker: Lin-Jye Huang Additional Authors and Speakers: Fu-Chang Hu, Chinyu Wu, Yi-Hong Yang, Shu-Chun Lee, Yung-Chun Fang, Hsu-Chang Huang, Kuan-Yu Lai, Chun-Yi Yu

The applications of TiO2/graphene nanocomposite as a compact layer for ZnO-based dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) have been studied. It was shown that the role of bifunctional graphene flakes in TiO2 compact layer not only suppressed the electron recombination between indium-doped tin oxide and electrolyte, but also reduced the resistance of compact layer. In addition, compared to typical compact layers, TiO2/graphene nanocomposite without blocking effect in optical transmittance could further boost the power conversion efficiency in DSSC. TiO2/graphene nanocomposite was demonstrated the potential to be an alternative of compact layer to typical dense TiO2 for ZnO-based DSSCs.

Observation of charge coupling effect is important to characterize the electrical behaviors of triple-junction solar cells (TJSCs). Electric modulus (M) spectroscopy incorporated with adequate lasers is demonstrated to be an effective approach to investigate the internal electrical characteristics of the individual subcells in InGaP/InGaAs/Ge TJSCs. The distinct characteristic peaks of imaginary part of M corresponding to three individual subcells are identified, as specific lasers are applied. The charge coupling between the excited subcell and neighboring subcell is observed, which causes the expansion of the depletion region in the latter. This approach provides the information of charge coupling for the design of TJSCs.

Sub-threshold designs play an important role in energy-constrained applications. In those designs, path delays depend exponentially on threshold voltage/temperature. As such, dynamic configurations at runtime are desired for best trade-off between operating power and performance. Unfortunately, most existing works only consider either process or temperature variations but not both, resulting in sub-optimal configurations or even functional failures. Moreover, little study has been performed on the graceful degradation of sub-threshold designs, which is important in the presence of drastic delay variations. Towards this, we present a novel critical path monitor based dynamic voltage scaling scheme. Considering both process and temperature variations, it minimizes the operating power under a given timing error probability (TEP) bound. An exact method to decide the optimal switching thresholds is also proposed. Experimental results on 45nm industrial designs show that with only 1% TEP, our scheme can reduce the operating power by up to 75.3% compared with the constant voltage scheme. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the very first work on dynamic configuration for graceful degradation in sub-threshold designs.

Retention registers have been widely used in power gated design to store data during sleep mode. Since they consume much larger area and power than normal registers, it is imperative to minimize the total retention storage size. The current industry practice only replace all registers with single-bit retention ones, which significantly limits the design freedom and results in excessive area and power overhead. Towards this, for the first time in literature, we propose the concept of multi-bit retention register, with which only selected registers need to be replaced. It can significantly reduce the number of bits that need to be stored and thus the area and leakage power, but needs several clock cycles for mode transition. In addition, an efficient assignment algorithm is developed to minimize the total retention storage size subject to mode transition latency constraint. Experimental results show that our framework on average can reduce the leakage power in sleep mode and the retention storage area by 66.03%, compared with the single-bit retention register based design.

Date Presented 4/9/2016 The interpretations of this study indicated that occupational therapists could assist persons with schizophrenia through the knowledge of flow theory and self-determination theory while providing the therapeutic activities to increase flow experience and facilitate intrinsic motivation. Primary Author and Speaker: Lin-Jye Huang Additional Authors and Speakers: Shu-Chun Lee, Hsu-Chang Huang, Yi-Hong Yang, Kuan-Yu Lai, Chun-Yi Yu, Fu-Chang Hu, Chinyu Wu

Date Presented 4/8/2016 The Chinese version of the Dispositional Flow Scale–2 (DFS–2) and Flow Status Scale–2 (FSS–2) showed adequate goodness of fit when administered to persons with schizophrenia in Taiwan, and future studies would be suggested to apply the same validation method for DFS–2 and FSS–2 in other cultures or populations. Primary Author and Speaker: Lin-Jye Huang Additional Authors and Speakers: Chinyu Wu, Fu-Chang Hu, Kuan-Yu Lai, Yi-Hong Yang, Shu-Chun Lee, Yung-Chun Fang, Su-Mei Chang, Chun-Yi Yu, Hsu-Chang Huang

Understanding the genetic basis of the physical and behavioral traits that separate humans from other primates is a challenging but intriguing topic. The adaptive functions of the expansion and/or reduction in human brain size have long been explored. From a brain transcriptome project we have identified a KRAB-Zn finger protein-encoding gene (M003-A06) that has rapidly evolved since the human-chimpanzee separation. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of different human tissues indicates that M003-A06 expression is enriched in the human fetal brain in addition to the fetal heart. Furthermore, analysis with use of immunofluorescence staining, neurosphere culturing and Western blotting indicates that the mouse ortholog of M003-A06, Zfp568, is expressed mainly in the embryonic stem (ES) cells and fetal as well as adult neural stem cells (NSCs). Conditional gene knockout experiments in mice demonstrates that Zfp568 is both an NSC maintaining- and a brain size-regulating gene. Significantly, molecular genetic analyses show that human M003-A06 consists of 2 equilibrated allelic types, H and C, one of which (H) is human-specific. Combined contemporary genotyping and database mining have revealed interesting genetic associations between the different genotypes of M003-A06 and the human head sizes. We propose that M003-A06 is likely one of the genes contributing to the uniqueness of the human brain in comparison to other higher primates.

Background The Chinese version of the Activities of Daily Living Rating Scale III (ADLRS-III), which has 10 domains, is commonly used for assessing activities of daily living (ADL) in patients with schizophrenia. However, construct validity (i.e., unidimensionality) for each domain of the ADLRS-III is unknown, limiting the explanations of the test results. Purpose This main purpose of this study was to examine unidimensionality of each domain in the ADLRS-III. We also examined internal consistency and ceiling/floor effects in patients with schizophrenia. Methods From occupational therapy records, we obtained 304 self-report data of the ADLRS-III. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the 10 one-factor structures. If a domain showed an insufficient model fit, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to investigate the factor structure and choose one factor representing the original construct. Internal consistency was examined using Cronbach’s alpha (α). Ceiling and floor effects were determined by the percentage of patients with the maximum and minimum scores in each domain, respectively. Results CFA analyses showed that 4 domains (i.e., leisure, picture recognition, literacy ability, communication tools use) had sufficient model fits. These 4 domains had acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.79-0.87) and no ceiling/floor effects, except the leisure domain which had a ceiling effect. The other 6 domains showed insufficient model fits. The EFA results showed that these 6 domains were two-factor structures. Conclusion The results supported unidimensional constructs of the leisure, picture recognition, literacy ability, and communication tool uses domains. The sum scores of these 4 domains can be used to represent their respective domain-specific functions. Regarding the 6 domains with insufficient model fits, we have explained the two factors of each domain and chosen one factor to represent its original construct. Future users may use the items from the chosen factors to assess domain-specific functions in patients with schizophrenia.