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Abstract Background Blood flow restriction (BFR) resistance training has demonstrated efficacy in promoting strength gains beneficial for rehabilitation. Yet, the distinct functional advantages of BFR strength training using high-load and low-load protocols remain unclear. This study explored the behavioral and neurophysiological mechanisms that explain the differing effects after volume-matched high-load and low-load BFR training. Methods Twenty-eight healthy participants were randomly assigned to the high-load blood flow restriction (BFR-HL, n = 14) and low-load blood flow restriction (BFR-LL, n = 14) groups. They underwent 3 weeks of BFR training for isometric wrist extension at intensities of 25% or 75% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) with matched training volume. Pre- and post-tests included MVC and trapezoidal force-tracking tests (0–75%–0% MVC) with multi-channel surface electromyography (EMG) from the extensor digitorum. Results The BFR-HL group exhibited a greater strength gain than that of the BFR-LL group after training (BFR_HL: 26.96 ± 16.33% vs. BFR_LL: 11.16 ± 15.34%)(p = 0.020). However, only the BFR-LL group showed improvement in force steadiness for tracking performance in the post-test (p = 0.004), indicated by a smaller normalized change in force fluctuations compared to the BFR-HL group (p = 0.048). After training, the BFR-HL group activated motor units (MUs) with higher recruitment thresholds (p

Abstract Objective This study explored the impact of one session of low-pressure leg blood flow restriction (BFR) during treadmill walking on dual-task performance in older adults using the neurovisceral integration model framework. Methods Twenty-seven older adults participated in 20-min treadmill sessions, either with BFR (100 mmHg cuff pressure on both thighs) or without it (NBFR). Dual-task performance, measured through light-pod tapping while standing on foam, and heart rate variability during treadmill walking were compared. Results Following BFR treadmill walking, the reaction time (p = 0.002) and sway area (p = 0.012) of the posture dual-task were significantly reduced. Participants exhibited a lower mean heart rate (p

Background: Lactobacilli are common microorganisms in the human body. Some species were used as probiotics supplement for many purposes such as preventing necrotizing enterocolitis, or improving allergic diseases or diarrhea. Previously, Lactobacillus infection was thought of as contamination due to its low pathogenicity. However, there have been reports of invasive Lactobacillus infection in immunocompromised patients or patients with comorbidities. The purpose of this study was to analyze the clinical characteristics, antibiotic treatment and outcomes of pediatric patients with invasive Lactobacillus infection. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed pediatric patients diagnosed with invasive Lactobacillus infection between 2004 and 2020. Invasive Lactobacillus infection was diagnosed if sterile sites yielded Lactobacillus spp. Clinical manifestations, chronic diseases, potential predisposing factors, medical treatments, antimicrobial susceptibility tests and outcomes were recorded. Results: Fifteen pediatric patients were diagnosed with invasive Lactobacillus infection, accounting for 2.4% of total invasive Lactobacillus infections during the 16-year period. Eleven infections were bacteremia, two were intra-abdominal infections, and two were biliary tract infections. Fever was the most common symptom. Potential predisposing factors were immunocompromised status, central venous device, prolonged antibiotics use and receiving supplemented probiotics for at least one week. All patients survived with favorable outcomes. Most pathogens were identified as Lactobacillus spp, and two were Lactobacillus rhamnosus, which were related to supplemented probiotics. The antimicrobial susceptibility tests showed that Lactobacilli were all sensitive to ampicillin but resistant to glycopeptides. Conclusion: Invasive Lactobacillus infections in pediatric patients were rare. Despite its low pathogenicity, Lactobacillus could cause invasive infection in those immunocompromised patients.

Through phase-amplitude analysis, this study investigated how low-frequency postural fluctuations interact with high-frequency scalp electroencephalography (EEG) amplitudes, shedding light on age-related mechanic differences in balance control during uneven surface navigation. Twenty young ( $24.1~\pm ~1.9$ years) and twenty older adults ( $66.2~\pm ~2.7$ years) stood on a training stabilometer with visual guidance, while their scalp EEG and stabilometer plate movements were monitored. In addition to analyzing the dynamics of the postural fluctuation phase, phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) for postural fluctuations below 2 Hz and within EEG sub-bands (theta: 4-7 Hz, alpha: 8-12 Hz, beta: 13-35 Hz) was calculated. The results indicated that older adults exhibited significantly larger postural fluctuation amplitudes(p ${p} =0.005$ ) than young adults. The PAC between postural fluctuation and theta EEG (FCz and bilateral temporal-parietal-occipital area), as well as that between postural fluctuation and alpha EEG oscillation, was lower in older adults than in young adults (p ${p}=0.006$ ), was higher in older adults than in young adults. In summary, the postural fluctuation phase and phase-amplitude coupling between postural fluctuation and EEG are sensitive indicators of the age-related decline in postural adjustments, reflecting less flexible motor state transitions and adaptive changes in error monitoring and visuospatial attention.

Background: Outbreak of Omicron BA.2 in Taiwan led to an increased number of acute encephalitis/encephalopathy cases in children and several fatal cases drew public attention. In pre-Omicron period, pediatric cases of COVID-19-associated acute encephalitis have been reported and during Omicron epidemic, febrile convulsions, encephalitis were mentioned more frequently. The outcome of patients with neurological complications was worse. However, few studies investigated the risk factors, pathophysiology and prognosis of COVID-19-associated encephalitis/encephalopathy. Here, we describe the presentation of pediatric cases of COVID-19-associated acute encephalitis/encephalopathy and explore the associated risk factors. Methods: Pediatric patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections were prospectively enrolled at admission at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital between April and August 2022. Patients were categorized into groups of acute encephalitis/encephalopathy, febrile convulsions or mild disease. Demographic descriptions, clinical manifestations and laboratory data were collected. Results: Of 288 acute COVID-19 patients, there were 38 (13.2%) acute encephalitis/encephalopathy, 40 (13.9%) febrile convulsions, and 210 (72.9%) mild disease. Among acute encephalitis/encephalopathy group, the mean age was 68.3 ± 45.0 months. The common neurological symptoms were lethargy (65.8%), seizures (52.6%), and impaired consciousness (34.2%). Over 3 years old (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 7.57, p

Background/Purpose: Precise detection of respiratory pathogens by molecular method potentially may shorten the time to diagnose and reduce unnecessary antibiotic use. Methods: Medical records of hospitalized children from January 2020 to June 2021 with acute respiratory illness who received a FilmArray RP for respiratory pathogens were reviewed and compared with data from diagnosis-matched patients without receiving the test. Results: In total, 283 patients and 150 diagnosis-matched controls were included. Single pathogen was detected in 84.3% (193/229) of the patients. The most common pathogen was human rhinovirus/enterovirus (31.6%, 84/266), followed by respiratory syncytial virus (18.8%, 50/266) and adenovirus (15%, 40/266). Although antimicrobial days of therapy (DOT) was significantly longer in FilmArray group than the control [7.1 ± 4.9 days vs 5.7 ± 2.7 days, P = 0.002], the former showed a higher intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate (3.9% vs 0%; P = 0.010). All ICU admissions were in FilmArray RP-positive group. There was no difference in antimicrobial DOT between FilmArray RP-positive and the negative groups, in all admissions, even after excluding ICU admissions. Antimicrobial DOT was shorter in the positive than negative group in patients with lower respiratory tract infections without admission to ICU [median (IQR): 6 (4–9) days vs 9 (4–12) days, P = 0.047]. Conclusions: Shorter antimicrobial DOTs were identified in children with lower respiratory tract infection admitted to general pediatric ward and with an identifiable respiratory pathogen, indicating a role of the multiplex PCR in reducing antimicrobial use for children with respiratory tract infection.

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) worsens inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) prognosis. While fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is effective for refractory or recurrent CDI (rrCDI), comparative success rates between IBD and non-IBD patients are scarce. This study addresses this gap. A retrospective cohort study was conducted at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital from April 2019 to October 2023. Patients receiving FMT for rrCDI were categorized into IBD and non-IBD groups. Baseline characteristics and outcomes were compared at one month and one year, with successful FMT defined as the resolution of diarrhea without CDI recurrence. The study included 88 patients: 30 with IBD and 58 without IBD. The IBD group was younger, with fewer comorbidities. Success rates at one month were similar between groups (IBD: 80.0% vs. non-IBD: 78.9%, p = 0.908), as were negative toxin tests (IBD: 83.3% vs. non-IBD: 63.8%, p = 0.174). One-year success rates (IBD: 70.0% vs. non-IBD: 67.6%, p = 0.857) and eradication rates (IBD: 94.4% vs. non-IBD: 73.9%, p = 0.112) were also similar. Poor bowel preparation predicted FMT failure at one month (OR = 0.23, p = 0.019). No safety issues were reported. FMT is a safe, effective treatment for rrCDI, demonstrating similar success rates in patients with and without IBD.

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is an emerging infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 that has rapidly evolved into a pandemic to cause over 600 million infections and more than 6.6 million deaths up to Nov 25, 2022. COVID-19 carries a high mortality rate in severe cases. Co-infections and secondary infections with other micro-organisms, such as bacterial and fungus, further increases the mortality and complicates the diagnosis and management of COVID-19. The current guideline provides guidance to physicians for the management and treatment of patients with COVID-19 associated bacterial and fungal infections, including COVID-19 associated bacterial infections (CABI), pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA), candidiasis (CAC) and mucormycosis (CAM). Recommendations were drafted by the 7th Guidelines Recommendations for Evidence-based Antimicrobial agents use Taiwan (GREAT) working group after review of the current evidence, using the grading of recommendations assessment, development, and evaluation (GRADE) methodology. A nationwide expert panel reviewed the recommendations in March 2022, and the guideline was endorsed by the Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan (IDST). This guideline includes the epidemiology, diagnostic methods and treatment recommendations for COVID-19 associated infections. The aim of this guideline is to provide guidance to physicians who are involved in the medical care for patients with COVID-19 during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

BackgroundCompared to antibiotic treatment, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a more effective treatment for refractory or recurrent CDI (rCDI). Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have a higher incidence of CDI and worse outcomes. There has been no study from Asia to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of FMT for overall rCDI patients and rCDI patients with IBD.MethodsWe applied a Markov model with deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses to evaluate the cost and effectiveness of different treatments for rCDI patients with a time horizon of 1 year from the payer's perspective. We compared the cost and clinical outcomes of FMT through colonoscopy to two antibiotics (vancomycin and fidaxomicin) using data from Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan.ResultsCompared to vancomycin, FMT was cost-effective in overall rCDI patients as well as IBD patients with rCDI [USD 39356 (NT$1,101,971.98)/quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained in overall patients; USD65490 (NT$1,833,719.14)/QALY gained in IBD patients]. Compared to fidaxomicin, FMT was only cost-effective in overall rCDI patients [USD20255 (NT$567,133.45)/QALY gained] but slightly increased QALY (0.0018 QALY gained) in IBD patients with rCDI.ConclusionFMT is cost-effective, compared to vancomycin or fidaxomicin, for the treatment of rCDI in most scenarios from the payers' perspective in Taiwan.

This study investigated the relative effectiveness of a mix-and-match vaccination strategy, primarily comprising ChAdOx1 nCOV-19, mRNA-1273, BNT162b2, and a protein-based vaccine, MVC-COV1901, against COVID-19 in a healthcare worker (HCW) cohort in Taiwan during a period when the Omicron variant was predominant. The analysis included a total of 21,729 HCWs and recorded 3,672 infections with no severe disease nor death. Two main findings were observed from the study. Firstly, for those with ChAdOx1 nCOV-19 as primary series, a booster dose with BNT162b2 was associated with a small decrease in the risk of acquiring infection compared to those with mRNA-1273 as a booster (Adjust hazard ratio [Adj HR] 0.864; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.761‒0.981, P = .024). Secondly, for HCWs receiving an mRNA-1273 booster, compared to those receiving ChAdOx1 nCOV-19 as the primary series, mixed primary series and homologous mRNA-1273 primary series were associated with a higher (Adj HR 1.144; 95% CI 1.021‒1.282, P = .021) and lower risk (Adj HR 0.735; 95% CI 0.671‒0.805, P

Objective: This study investigated the neuromuscular control of increasing and releasing force in patients with chronic lateral epicondylitis (CLE).Methods: Fifteen patients with CLE (10 males, 5 females, 46.5 ± 6.3 years) and fifteen healthy participants (9 males, 6 females, 45.3 ± 2.5 years) participated in this study. In addition to power grip and maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) of wrist extension, force fluctuation dynamics and characteristics of inter-spike intervals (ISI) of motor units (MUs) with various recruitment thresholds in the extensor carpi radialis brevis (ECRB) and extensor carpi radialis longus (ECRL) during a designated force-tracking task with a trapezoidal target (0%–75%–0% MVC) were assessed.Results: Besides a smaller MVC of wrist extension, the patients exhibited significantly greater task errors (p = 0.007) and force fluctuations (p = 0.001) during force increment than the healthy counterparts. Nevertheless, no force variables significantly differed between groups during force release (p > 0.05). During force increment, the amplitudes of the motor unit action potential of the ECRB and ECRL muscles of the patients were smaller than those of the heathy counterparts (p < 0.001). The patient group also exhibited a higher percentage of motor units (MU) with lower recruitment threshold (40% MVC) in the ECRB muscle, compared to the healthy group. During force increment, the patient group exhibited a higher rate of decrease in inter-spike intervals (ISIs) of motor units with lower recruitment thresholds (

Abstract This study investigated behavioral and cortical mechanisms for short-term postural training with error amplification (EA) feedback in the elderly. Thirty-six elderly subjects (65.7 ± 2.2 years) were grouped (control and EA, n = 18) for training in stabilometer balance under visual guidance. During the training session (8 training rounds of 60 s in Day 2), the EA group received visual feedback that magnified errors to twice the real size, whereas the control group received visual feedback that displayed real errors. Scalp EEG and kinematic data of the stabilometer plate and ankle joint were recorded in the pre-test (Day 1) and post-test (Day 3). The EA group (−46.5 ± 4.7%) exhibited greater post-training error reduction than that of the control group (−27.1 ± 4.0%)(p = 0.020), together with a greater decline in kinematic coupling between the stabilometer plate and ankle joint (EA: −26.6 ± 4.8%, control: 2.3 ± 8.6%, p = 0.023). In contrast to the control group, the EA group manifested greater reductions in mean phase-lag index (PLI) connectivity in the theta (4–7 Hz)(p = 0.011) and alpha (8–12 Hz) (p = 0.027) bands. Only the EA group showed post-training declines in the mean PLI in the theta and alpha bands. Minimal spanning tree analysis revealed that EA-based training led to increases in the diameter (p = 0.002) and average eccentricity (p = 0.004) of the theta band for enhanced performance monitoring and reduction in the leaf fraction (p = 0.030) of the alpha band for postural response with enhanced automaticity. In conclusion, short-term EA training optimizes balance skill, favoring multi-segment coordination for the elderly, which is linked to more sophisticated error monitoring with less attentive control over the stabilometer stance.

Previous studies had showed that indigenous clones of Salmonella Typhi and S. Paratyphi were originally imported from other countries in Taiwan. We presented the clinical manifestations and laboratory findings of indigenous and imported enteric fever cases in Taiwan in the current decade. We retrospectively reviewed typhoid and paratyphoid fever cases in two medical centers of Chang Gung Memorial Hospitals in 2010–2020. A total of 37 enteric fever cases including 24 typhoid fever and 13 paratyphoid fever were recorded. There were 20 indigenous cases, 16 imported cases, and one indetermined case. Splenomegaly and hepatitis were more frequent in typhoid fever than in paratyphoid fever (P

Background/purpose: Morbidity and mortality from typhoid and paratyphoid fever remain an important problem for public health authorities in developing countries. In countries with lower incidences, most cases occur in travelers who visit regions in which typhoid and paratyphoid fever are highly endemic. The aim was to evaluate the source and transmission dynamics of typhoid and paratyphoid fever in Taiwan by using genomic analysis. Methods: During 2012–2019, 15 clinical isolates of Salmonella Typhi and S. Paratyphi A were collected. Demographic and clinical information of the infections were analyzed. We performed whole genome sequencing and evolutionary analysis on these isolates. Results: Clinical and microbiological data from 7 S. Typhi and 8 S. Paratyphi A isolates in Taiwan showed epidemiological and bacterial genomic link to the infection in South and Southeast Asia. The Taiwanese typhoidal isolates also share highly similar genomes with those collected from UK, indicating global circulation of the typhoidal clones. Local transmission of the imported but indigenized international clones was observed. Mutations occurring at gyrA 83 aa, including S83Y and S83F, were identified in the ciprofloxacin-resistant strains. Conclusion: Due to the advance of global transportation and communication, the transmission mode of infectious disease has been modified. Domestic typhoid and paratyphoid fever caused by international resistant clones can occur in low-incidence countries. Genome analysis showed that the indigenous clone originally imported from other countries has been circulating in Taiwan for over a decade.

Background/purpose: Superspreading events (SSEs) are pivotal in the spread of SARS-CoV-2. This study aimed to investigate an SSE of COVID-19 in a hospital and explore the transmission dynamics and heterogeneity of SSE. Methods: We performed contact tracing for all close contacts in a cluster. We did nasopharyngeal or throat swabbing for SARS-CoV-2 by real-time RT-PCR. Environmental survey was performed. The epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the SSE were studied. Results: Patient 1 with congestive heart failure and cellulitis, who had onset of COVID-19 two weeks after hospitalization, was the index case. Patient 1 led to 8 confirmed cases, including four health care workers (HCW). Persons tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were HCW (n = 4), patient 1's family (n = 2), an accompanying person of an un-infected in-patient (n = 1), and an in-patient admitted before the SSE (n = 1). The attack rate among the HCW was 3.2 % (4/127). Environmental survey confirmed contamination at the bed rails, mattresses, and sink in the room patient 1 stayed, suggesting fomite transmission. The index case's sputum remained positive on illness day 35. Except one asymptomatic patient, at least three patients acquired the infection from the index case at the pre-symptomatic period. The effective reproduction number (Rt) was 0.9 (8/9). Conclusion: The host factor (heart failure, longer viral shedding), transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 (Rt, pre-symptomatic transmission), and possible multiple modes of transmission altogether contributed to the SSE. Rapid response and advance deployment of multi-level protection in hospitals could mitigate COVID-19 transmission to one generation, thereby reducing its impact on the healthcare system.

Background: Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a major pathogen for community-acquired pneumonia and frequently causes outbreaks in children. M. pneumoniae-specific antibody response is detected upon acute infection and the serology is widely used in the clinical setting. Nevertheless, the cellular basis for antigen-specific antibody response to acute M. pneumoniae infection is largely undetermined in children. Methods: Hospitalized children with community-acquired pneumonia were enrolled and the infection with M. pneumoniae was confirmed with positive PCR result and negative findings for other pathogens. The M. pneumoniae P1-specific antibody-secreting B cell (ASC) response was examined with the ex vivo enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot assay and the relationships between the ASC frequency and serological level and clinical parameters within M. pneumoniae patients were studied. Results: A robust M. pneumoniae P1-specific ASC response was detected in the peripheral blood among M. pneumoniae-positive patients. By contrast, no M. pneumoniae-specific ASCs were detected among M. pneumoniae-negative patients. The IgM-secreting B cells are the predominant class and account for over 60% of total circulating M. pneumoniae-specific ASCs in the acute phase of illness. The M. pneumoniae P1-specific ASC frequency significantly correlated with the fever duration, and the IgG ASC frequency significantly correlated with serological titer among patients. Conclusion: A rapid and potent elicitation of peripheral M. pneumoniae-specific ASC response to acute infection provides the cellular basis of antigen-specific humoral response and indicates the potential of cell-based diagnostic tool for acute M. pneumoniae infection. Our findings warrant further investigations into functional and molecular aspects of antibody immunity to M. pneumoniae.

Visual feedback that reinforces accurate movements may motivate skill acquisition by promoting self-confidence. This study investigated neuromuscular adaptations to visuomotor training with visual feedback with virtual error reduction. Twenty-eight young adults (24.6 ± 1.6 years) were assigned to error reduction (ER) (n = 14) and control (n = 14) groups to train on a bi-rhythmic force task. The ER group received visual feedback and the displayed errors were 50% of the real errors in size. The control group was trained with visual feedback with no reduction in errors. Training-related differences in task accuracy, force behaviors, and motor unit discharge were contrasted between the two groups. The tracking error of the control group progressively declined, whereas the tracking error of the ER group was not evidently reduced in the practice sessions. In the post-test, only the control group exhibited significant task improvements with smaller error size (p = .015) and force enhancement at the target frequencies (p = .001). The motor unit discharge of the control group was training-modulated, as indicated by a reduction of the mean inter-spike interval (p = .018) and smaller low-frequency discharge fluctuations (p = .017) with enhanced firing at the target frequencies of the force task (p = .002). In contrast, the ER group showed no training-related modulation of motor unit behaviors. In conclusion, for young adults, ER feedback does not induce neuromuscular adaptations to the trained visuomotor task, which is conceptually attributable to intrinsic error dead-zones.

Although in a critical position in the economy, the paper industry releases a lot of wastewater that requires adequate treatment for sustainable development. This study presents an application of Life cycle assessment (LCA) with the ReCiPe tool on the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) of a paper factory in Vietnam to evaluate the environmental effect of the individual techniques in WWTP, especially the internal circulation (IC) reactor, a pioneer and practical anaerobic technology. Both Midpoint and Endpoint categories results demonstrated that chemical use and electricity consumption mainly contributed to the environmental impact in the WWTP. The Dissolved air flotation (DAF) and Moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) are classified as effective techniques to reduce the impacts on the environment. Moreover, the comparison of LCA between IC and up-flow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) shows that IC is the better practically green technique for the environment. HIGHLIGHTS Life cycle assessment was applied in a paper mill wastewater treatment plant.; Midpoint and Endpoint indicators were employed to evaluate environmental impact.; Two scenarios of electricity generating from biogas between Internal circulation and up-flow anaerobic sludge bed were investigated.; Chemicals use and energy consumption were determined to be the most factors to damage indicators.;

Vancomycin-resistant Clostridium innocuum was recently identified as an etiologic agent for antibiotic-associated diarrhea in humans. We conducted a case–control study involving 152 C. innocuum-infected patients during 2014–2019 in Taiwan, using 304 cases of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) matched by diagnosis year, age (+2 years), and sex as controls. The baseline characteristics were similar between the 2 groups. C. innocuum–infected patients experienced more extraintestinal clostridial infection and gastrointestinal tract–related complications than did patients with CDI. The 30-day mortality rate among C. innocuum–infected patients was 14.5%, and the overall rate was 23.0%. Chronic kidney disease, solid tumor, intensive care unit admission, and shock status were 4 independent risk factors for death. C. innocuum identified from clinical specimens should be recognized as a pathogen requiring treatment, and because of its intrinsic vancomycin resistance, precise identification is necessary to guide appropriate and timely antimicrobial therapy.

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness (VE) of mix-and-match vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant infection and severe outcomes. An SARS-CoV-2 PCR-confirmed retrospective cohort from Chang Gung Medical System in Taiwan was constructed. Vaccination records were tracked from the National Immunization Information System and categorized by different regimens or unvaccinated status. The main outcomes are VE against PCR-confirmed infection and COVID-19-associated moderate to severe disease. Participants were observed during the Omicron wave from March to August 2022. Of 298,737 PCR testing results available, 162,219 were eligible for analysis. VE against infection was modest, ranging from 38.3% to 49.0%, while mRNA-based vaccine regimens revealed better protection against moderate to severe disease, ranging from 80.8% to 90.3%. Subgroup analysis revealed lower VE among persons with major illness in preventing moderate to severe disease. For young adults, the VE of protein-based vaccine regimens showed a comparable protection with other mixed vaccine regimens. The mix-and-match vaccination strategy provided modest clinical effectiveness in preventing Omicron variant infection. mRNA vaccine-based regimens were superior to other regimens against moderate to severe disease especially in older adults. The mix-and-match vaccination strategy could be an alternative to prevent COVID-19 in unstable vaccine supply regions.

Abstract Background Error amplification (EA), virtually magnify task errors in visual feedback, is a potential neurocognitive approach to facilitate motor performance. With regional activities and inter-regional connectivity of electroencephalography (EEG), this study investigated underlying cortical mechanisms associated with improvement of postural balance using EA. Methods Eighteen healthy young participants maintained postural stability on a stabilometer, guided by two visual feedbacks (error amplification (EA) vs. real error (RE)), while stabilometer plate movement and scalp EEG were recorded. Plate dynamics, including root mean square (RMS), sample entropy (SampEn), and mean frequency (MF) were used to characterize behavioral strategies. Regional cortical activity and inter-regional connectivity of EEG sub-bands were characterized to infer neural control with relative power and phase-lag index (PLI), respectively. Results In contrast to RE, EA magnified the errors in the visual feedback to twice its size during stabilometer stance. The results showed that EA led to smaller RMS of postural fluctuations with greater SampEn and MF than RE did. Compared with RE, EA altered cortical organizations with greater regional powers in the mid-frontal cluster (theta, 4–7 Hz), occipital cluster (alpha, 8–12 Hz), and left temporal cluster (beta, 13–35 Hz). In terms of the phase-lag index of EEG between electrode pairs, EA significantly reduced long-range prefrontal-parietal and prefrontal-occipital connectivity of the alpha/beta bands, and the right tempo-parietal connectivity of the theta/alpha bands. Alternatively, EA augmented the fronto-centro-parietal connectivity of the theta/alpha bands, along with the right temporo-frontal and temporo-parietal connectivity of the beta band. Conclusion EA alters postural strategies to improve stance stability on a stabilometer with visual feedback, attributable to enhanced error processing and attentional release for target localization. This study provides supporting neural correlates for the use of virtual reality with EA during balance training.

Background: Severe illness can occur in young children infected with certain types of enteroviruses including echovirus 11 (Echo11) and coxsackievirus B5 (CoxB5). The manifestations and outcomes of Echo11 and CoxB5 diseases across all ages of children remained not comprehensively characterized in Taiwan. Methods: Culture-confirmed Echo11 (60 patients) or CoxB5 (65 patients) infections were identified in a hospital from 2010 to 2018. The demographics, clinical presentations, laboratory data and outcomes were abstracted and compared between the two viruses infections. Results: Echo11 and CoxB5 was respectively identified in 7 (77.8%) and 2 (22.2%) of 9 calendar years. The median age of all patients was 15 months (range, 1 day–14.5 years). For infants ≤3 months old, Echo11 (23 cases) was associated with higher incidence of aseptic meningitis (35% versus 0%, P = 0.003), and a lower rate of upper respiratory tract infections (URI) (22% versus 65%, P = 0.004) compared to CoxB5 (20 cases) infections. For patients >3 months old, URI was the cardinal diagnosis (60%) for both viruses. Aseptic meningitis was also more commonly identified in elder children with Echo11 infections (27% versus 11%), though with marginal significance (P = 0.07). Acute liver failure was identified in four young infants with Echo11 infections including one neonate dying of severe sepsis and myocarditis. All patients with CoxB5 infections recovered uneventfully. Conclusion: Aseptic meningitis, sepsis-like illness and acute liver failure were more commonly identified in children with Echo11 than those with CoxB5 infections, suggesting greater neurological tropism and virulence toward Echo11.

Background: Stroboscopic vision (SV), intermittent visual blocking, has recently been incorporated into postural training in rehabilitation. This study investigated interactions of postural fluctuation dynamics and cortical processing for the elderly during stabilometer stance with SV.Methods: Thirty-five healthy elderly maintained an upright stance on a stabilometer. Along with postural fluctuation dynamics, EEG relative power and EEG-EEG connectivity were used to contrast neuromechanical controls of stabilometer stance with SV and full-vision.Results: Compared with the full-vision, SV led to greater postural fluctuations with lower sample entropy and mean frequency (MF). SV also reduced regional power in the mid-frontal theta cluster, which was correlated to SV-dependent changes in the size of postural fluctuations. SV also enhanced the alpha band supra-threshold connectivity in the visual dorsal and frontal–occipital loops of the right hemisphere, and the supra-threshold connectivity from Fp2 positively related to variations in the MF of postural fluctuations.Conclusion: SV adds challenge to postural regulation on the stabilometer, with the increasing regularity of postural movements and fewer corrective attempts to achieve the postural goal. The elderly shift over-reliance on visual inputs for posture control with more non-visual awareness, considering deactivation of the dorsal visual stream and visual error processing.

Background: Craniopharyngiomas are benign tumors of embryologic origin located in the sellar region. Patients have both neurological and endocrinological symptoms. Symptoms may be subtle in the early clinical course, which leads to delayed diagnosis. This study evaluated the clinical and endocrinological manifestations of childhood-onset craniopharyngioma. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 45 children diagnosed as having craniopharyngioma between 1995 and 2019. We collected data on clinical symptoms and signs, height, weight, biochemical and hormone data, images, operation records, and pathology reports. A three-graded classification system was applied to define the degree of hypothalamic damage (HD). We analyzed clinical and endocrinological manifestations among patients with and without obesity, with short and normal stature, and with differing degrees of HD. Results: Clinical endocrinologic manifestations included adrenocortical insufficiency (42%), central hypothyroidism (37%), short stature (31%), obesity (20%), weight

Background/Purpose: Post-stroke dysphagia is a frequent complication. Although most patients with dysphagia recover after the acute phase, some patients require long-term enteral feeding, either through a nasogastric (NG) or gastrostomy tube; the effectiveness of using either tube is still under debate. This study elucidated the natural course of NG tube installation and removal and examined the predictors and associating factors based on clinical and brain imaging data. Methods: This retrospective cohort study with medical record reviews recruited patients received NG tube installation after their acute stroke events between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2016. Inclusion criteria were subjects above 20 years of age and with a diagnosis of a newly onset stroke except SAH whose comprehensive clinical and imaging data were available. Survival analysis was performed for the right-censored data because some patients were lost to follow-up after discharge or transferal. Results: In total we recruited 135 patients. Among these patients, the timing of their NG tube removal reached a plateau at 12–16 weeks after stroke. The modified Rankin score on discharge, representing the overall subacute disease status, was the most significant factor. Other clinical variables could be divided into 2 categories: baseline patient characteristics and stroke event severity. Moreover, semi-quantitative brain imaging scores corresponding to the aforementioned 3 categories were correlated significantly. Conclusion: In Taiwan, the NG tube removal rate reached a plateau at around 12–16 weeks after stroke onset. Variables related to long-term NG tube use were divided into baseline characteristics of patient and stroke event severity.

Background: The most severe form of pneumococcal disease is invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), including empyema, sepsis and meningitis. Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen (TA; Galβ1-3GalNAc) activation is known to be a predictor of Streptococcus pneumoniae-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome (Sp-HUS). There have been limited data to correlate TA activation and overall disease severity of IPD in children. The study aimed to prove the positive correlation between TA activation and disease severity and to demonstrate the trend of TA level during the disease course. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records from 38 pediatric patients aged from 0 to 18 years with microbiologically-confirmed IPD between 2010 and 2015 at a medical center in Taiwan. All cases underwent TA activation testing by the fluorescence-labeled peanut lectin agglutination method. Medical information including demographic data, laboratory findings, co-morbidities, and outcome was collected and reviewed. We compared the clinical manifestations and associated co-morbidities between TA-positive and TA-negative patients. Results: Among the 38 patients, 25 (66%) showed TA activation. Compared to TA-negative patients, patients with TA activation had a statistically higher rate of prolonged anemia, thrombocytopenia, and acute kidney injury. TA-positive patients also had a longer intensive care unit stay and overall hospitalization days. The TA levels usually peaked 5–10 days after disease onset. Twenty-one pneumococcal isolates were recovered from the patients and serotyping was determined in 11 isolates: 10 serotype 19A and 1 serotype 3. Conclusions: TA determination not only helps to diagnose Sp-HUS but also is a predictor for IPD severity. Among hospitalized patients with severe pneumococcal disease, the peak of TA level usually appeared 5–10 days after disease onset.

ABSTRACTAcinetobacter baumannii emerged as one of the most important pathogens that causes nosocomial infections due to its increased multidrug resistance. Identifying capsular epidemiology in A. baumannii can aid in the development of effective treatments and preventive measures against this emerging pathogen. Here we established a wzc-based method, and combined it with wzy-PCR to determine capsular types of A. baumannii causing nosocomial bacteraemia collected at two medical centres in Taiwan from 2015 to 2017. Among the 237 patients with A. baumannii bacteraemia, 98 (41.4%) isolates were resistant to carbapenems. Four prevalent capsular types (KL2, KL10, KL22, and KL52) accounted for 84.7% of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii (CRAB) and 12.2% of non-CRAB. The rate of pneumonia, intensive care unit admission, APACHE II score, and Pitt bacteraemia score were higher in patients with KL2/10/22/52 infection than in those with non-KL2/10/22/52 infection. Patients with KL2/10/22/52 infection and patients with CRAB infection have a higher cumulative incidence of attributable and all-cause in-hospital 30-day mortality. On multivariate analysis, appropriate empirical antimicrobial therapy within 24 h was associated with a lower risk of 30-day attributable mortality in the KL2/10/22/52 isolates (odds ratio = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.06–0.66, p = 0.008) but not in non-KL2/10/22/52 isolates. Early recognition of carbapenem resistance-associated capsular types may help clinicians to promptly implement appropriate antimicrobial therapy for improving the outcomes in patients with CRAB bacteraemia.

A car muffler is a device to improve car noise emission. Some conventional mufflers use layers of glass fiber as a material to absorb noise. However, filling glass fiber is an environmentally unfriendly work, mainly manually filling with chop strand fiber. This research selected a composite material of glass fiber and foam concrete to replace chop strand fiber to avoid this hazard and maintain the muffler’s good noise reduction performance. A response surface methodology with a two-way factorial experimental design repeated the center point twice is performed. The density of the foamed concrete and the weight of the glass fiber is being considered in order to determine the nearly optimal combination of the values in two factors. The response variable is the loudness sensation in Sone of the noise generated from the muffler. At present, the lowest loudness sensation from the two-way factorial design is 16.6494 Sones, which occurred for a muffler with a formula combination of a density of 0.2 g/cm3 and 40 g of glass fiber. The significance of this paper is the presentation of a new application of foam concrete to the green muffler design. To the best of our knowledge, this unique area has never been tackled in the material application of concrete. We have discovered that foam concrete indeed does an excellent job in terms of noise reduction as compared with that of a market muffler.

Mitochondria dysfunction is implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Exercise training is potentially an effective non-pharmacological strategy to restore mitochondrial health in CVD. However, how exercise modifies mitochondrial functionality is inconclusive. We conducted a systematic review using the PubMed; Scopus and Web of Science databases to investigate the effect of exercise training on mitochondrial function in CVD patients. Search terms included “mitochondria”, “exercise”, “aerobic capacity”, and “cardiovascular disease” in varied combination. The search yielded 821 records for abstract screening, of which 20 articles met the inclusion criteria. We summarized the effect of exercise training on mitochondrial morphology, biogenesis, dynamics, oxidative capacity, antioxidant capacity, and quality. Amongst these parameters, only oxidative capacity was suitable for a meta-analysis, which demonstrated a significant effect size of exercise in improving mitochondrial oxidative capacity in CVD patients (SMD = 4.78; CI = 2.99 to 6.57; p < 0.01), but with high heterogeneity among the studies (I2 = 75%, p = 0.003). Notably, aerobic exercise enhanced succinate-involved oxidative phosphorylation. The majority of the results suggested that exercise improves morphology and biogenesis, whereas findings on dynamic, antioxidant capacity, and quality, were inadequate or inconclusive. A further randomized controlled trial is clearly required to explain how exercise modifies the pathway of mitochondrial quantity and quality in CVD patients.

Older adults with degenerative declines in sensory systems depend strongly on visual input for postural control. By connecting advanced neural imaging and a postural control model, this study investigated the visual effect on the brain functional network that regulates feedback and feedforward processes of the postural system in older adults under somatosensory perturbations. Thirty-six older adults conducted bilateral stance on a foam surface in the eyes-open (EO) and eyes-closed (EC) conditions while their center of pressure (COP) and scalp EEG were recorded. The stochastic COP trajectory was modeled with non-linear stabilogram diffusion analysis (SDA) to characterize shifts in postural control in a continuum of feedback and feedforward processes. The EEG network was analyzed with the phase-lag index (PLI) and minimum spanning tree (MST). The results indicated that visual input rebalanced feedforward and feedback processes for postural sway, resulting in a greater critical point of displacement (CD), short-term effective diffusion coefficients (Ds) and short-term exponent (Hs), but the smaller critical point of time (CT) and long-term exponent (Hl) for the EC state. The EC network demonstrated stronger frontoparietal-occipital connectivity but weaker fronto-tempo-motor connectivity of the theta (4–7 Hz), alpha (8–12 Hz), and beta (13–35 Hz) bands than did the EO network. MST analysis revealed generally greater leaf fraction and maximal betweenness centrality (BCmax) and kappa of the EC network, as compared with those of the EO network. In contrast, the EC network exhibited a smaller diameter and average eccentricity than those of the EO network. The modulation of long-term negative feedback gain of the aged postural system with visual occlusion was positively correlated with leaf fraction, BCmax, and kappa, but negatively correlated with the diameter and average eccentricity for all EEG sub-bands. In conclusion, the aged brain functional network in older adults is tuned to visual information for modulating long-term negative feedback of the postural system under somatosensory perturbations.

Although force steadiness varies with visuospatial information, accountable motor unit (MU) behaviors are not fully understood. This study investigated the modulation of MU discharges and force–discharge relation due to variations in the spatial resolution of visual feedback, with a particular focus on discharge variability among MUs. Fourteen young adults produced isometric force at 10% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) through index abduction, under the conditions of force trajectory displayed with low visual gain (LVG) and high visual gain (HVG). Together with smaller and more complex force fluctuations, HVG resulted in greater variabilities of the mean interspike interval and discharge irregularity among MUs than LVG did. Estimated via smoothening of a cumulative spike train of all MUs, global discharge rate was tuned to visual gain, with a more complex global discharge rate and a lower force–discharge relation in the HVG condition. These higher discharge variabilities were linked to larger variance of the common drive received by MUs for regulation of muscle force with higher visuospatial information. In summary, higher visuospatial information improves force steadiness with more complex force fluctuations, underlying joint effects of low-pass filter property of the musculotendon complex and central modulation of discharge variability among MUs.

This study addresses one of the most commonly-asked questions in synthetic aperture radar (SAR)-based landslide detection: How the choice of datatypes affects the detection performance. In two examples, the 2018 Hokkaido landslides in Japan and the 2017 Putanpunas landslide in Taiwan, we utilize the Growing Split-Based Approach to obtain Bayesian probability maps for such a performance evaluation. Our result shows that the high-resolution, full-polarimetric data offers superior detection capability for landslides in forest areas, followed by single-polarimetric datasets of high spatial resolutions at various radar wavelengths. The medium-resolution single-polarimetric data have comparable performance if the landslide occupies a large area and occurs on bare surfaces, but the detection capability decays significantly for small landslides in forest areas. Our result also indicates that large local incidence angles may not necessarily hinder landslide detection, while areas of small local incidence angles may coincide with layover zones, making the data unusable for detection. The best area under curve value among all datatypes is 0.77, suggesting that the performance of SAR-based landslide detection is limited. The limitation may result from radar wave’s sensitivity to multiple physical factors, including changes in land cover types, local topography, surface roughness and soil moistures.

Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) typically causes self-limiting diarrheal disease but may occasionally lead to invasive infection. This study investigated the epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of children with NTS infection between 2012 and 2019. We retrospectively analyzed pediatric patients with NTS infections, confirmed by positive cultures, in a tertiary medical center in Taiwan in 2012 and 2019. Clinical features and laboratory data of the patients were collected. Changes in the serogroup category and antimicrobial resistance were also analyzed. Of the total 797 isolates collected, 55 had NTS bacteremia. Compared with the resistance rates in 2012, the rates of resistances to third-generation cephalosporin and ciprofloxacin were significantly higher in 2019 (4.1% vs 14.3%, P < 0.001; 1.9% vs 28.6%, P < 0.001), especially in groups B, D, and E. Moreover, we observed significantly higher antimicrobial resistance (25.3%) to third-generation cephalosporin, and approximately half the NTS isolates in the infant group were multidrug resistant – a higher rate than those of other age groups in 2019. Invasive NTS often presented with a longer fever duration, lower hemoglobin level and with no elevated C-reactive protein (P < 0.05). Non-invasive NTS isolates in 2019 were significantly more resistant to ceftriaxone (P < 0.001) and ciprofloxacin (P < 0.001) than those in 2012. The antimicrobial resistance of NTS in children has increased progressively in the past decade, and different serogroups exhibited different resistance patterns. During this period, infants showed the highest risk to get a third-generation cephalosporin-resistant NTS infection. The high rates of antimicrobial resistance among children with NTS in Taiwan merit continual surveillance.

Skill transfer from trained balance exercises is critical to reduce the rate of falls in older adults, who rely more on vision to control postural responses due to age-dependent sensory reweighting. With an electroencephalography (EEG) minimum spanning tree (MST) structure, the purpose of this study was to compare the organization of supraspinal neural networks of transfer effect after postural training using full and intermittent visual feedbacks for older adults. Thirty-two older adults were randomly assigned to the stroboscopic vision (SV) (n = 16; age = 64.7 ± 3.0 years) and control (16; 66.3 ± 2.7 years) groups for balance training on a stabilometer (target task) with on-line visual feedback. Center-of-pressure characteristics and an MST-based connectome of the weighted phase-lag index during the bilateral stance on a foam surface (transfer task) were compared before and after stabilometer training. The results showed that both the SV and control groups showed improvements in postural stability in the trained task (p < 0.001). However, unlike the control group (p = 0.030), the SV group who received intermittent visual feedback during the stabilometer training failed to reduce the size of postural sway in the anteroposterior direction of the postural transfer task (unstable stance on the foam surface) in the post-test (p = 0.694). In addition, network integration for the transfer task in the post-test was absent in the SV group (p > 0.05). For the control group in the post-test, it manifested with training-related increases in leaf fraction in beta band (p = 0.015) and maximum betweenness in alpha band (p = 0.018), but a smaller diameter in alpha (p = 0.006)/beta (p = 0.021) bands and average eccentricity in alpha band (p = 0.028). In conclusion, stabilometer training with stroboscopic vision impairs generalization of postural skill to unstable stance for older adults. Adequate visual information is a key mediating factor of supraspinal neural networks to carry over balance skill in older adults.

Abstract Background The natural killer cell line, NK-92MI, is cytotoxic against various types of cancer. The aim of this study was to develop chimeric antigen receptor-modified (CAR) NK-92MI cells targeting carcinoembryonic antigen-expressing (CEA) tumours and increase killing efficacy by pharmacologically modifying CEA-expression. Result We generated anti-CEA-CAR NK-92MI cells by retroviral vector transduction. This genetically-modified cell line recognised and lysed high CEA-expressing tumour cell lines (LS174T) at 47.54 ± 12.60% and moderate CEA-expressing tumour cell lines (WiDr) at 31.14 ± 16.92% at a 5:1 effector: target (E/T) ratio. The cell line did not lyse low CEA-expressing tumour cells (HCT116) as they did their parental cells (NK-92MI cells). The histone deacetylase-inhibitor (HDAC) sodium butyrate (NaB) and the methylation-inhibitor 5-azacytidine (5-AZA), as epigenetic modifiers, induced CEA-expression in HCT116 and WiDr cells. Although the IC50 of 5 fluorouracil (5-FU) increased, both cell lines showed collateral sensitivity to anti-CEA-CAR NK-92MI cells. The cytolytic function of anti-CEA-CAR NK-92MI cells was increased from 22.99 ± 2.04% of lysis background to 69.20 ± 11.92% after NaB treatment, and 69.70 ± 9.93% after 5-AZA treatment, at a 10:1 E/T ratio in HCT116 cells. The WiDr cells showed similar trend, from 22.99 ± 4.01% of lysis background to 70.69 ± 10.19% after NaB treatment, and 59.44 ± 10.92% after 5-AZA treatment, at a 10:1 E/T ratio. Conclusions This data indicates that the effector-ability of anti-CEA-CAR NK-92MI increased in a CEA-dependent manner. The combination of epigenetic-modifiers like HDAC-inhibitors, methylation-inhibitors, and adoptive-transfer of ex vivo-expanded allogeneic-NK cells may be clinically applicable to patients with in 5-FU resistant condition.

Abstract Background Post-surgical prognosis is usually poor for combined hepatocellular cholangiocarcinoma (CHCC-CC), a rare primary liver cancer. Although midkine (MK) is a prognostic biomarker for several known cancers, it is not known whether it can be used as such in resectable CHCC-CC. This study examined whether MK expression can predict recurrence and survival in patients with resectable CHCC-CC. Methods We retrospectively enrolled 52 patients with resectable CHCC-CC who had received curative hepatic resections. MK expression was assessed in post-surgical immunohistochemical studies of specimens in paraffin blocks. Clinical outcomes were analyzed from medical records. Results Two-year disease-free and three-year overall survival rates were 42.1% and 44.6%. MK was expressed in 30 patients. Univariate analysis showed patients positively expressing MK had a significantly poorer 2-year disease free and three-year overall survival. Multivariate analysis found positive MK expression independently predicted recurrence. Conclusions Positive expression of MK predicts poor prognosis in patients with resectable CHCC-CC.

Traditional chicken manure fermentation is mostly natural composting or exposure, which is not only time consuming but also susceptible to weather, resulting in uncontrollable quality and environmental pollution. This research aims to build a smart solar chicken manure fermentation system to control the conditions of chicken manure fermentation effectively, improve quality, and solve the problems of environmental pollution. Hot water produced by solar energy is the heat source for the main system of fermentation, and a backup supplemental heat source by gas heater is applied. The mechanism of drive, agitation, ventilation and drying as well as temperature conditions are controlled by the Arduino’s control core. Fuzzy logic is applied to maintain the optimal temperature, so that the system decomposes the bacteria optimally and reduces the consumed time for fermentation. The chicken manure humidity can be decreased from 70% to 30%, and the effective control system temperature is between 40 and 42 °C, while the pH value is changed from 8.7 to 7.4. The sample analysis of the fermentation also shows that there was 13.12% more organic matter in the chicken manure that added the decomposing bacteria than which did not contain the decomposing bacteria.

Although error amplification (EA) feedback has been shown to improve performance on visuomotor tasks, the challenge of EA is that it concurrently magnifies task-irrelevant information that may impair visuomotor control. The purpose of this study was to improve the force control in a static task by preclusion of high-oscillatory components in EA feedback that cannot be timely used for error correction by the visuomotor system. Along with motor unit behaviors and corticomuscular coherence, force fluctuations (Fc) were modeled with non-linear SDA to contrast the reliance of the feedback process and underlying neurophysiological mechanisms by using real feedback, EA, and low-frequency error amplification (LF-EA). During the static force task in the experiment, the EA feedback virtually potentiated the size of visual error, whereas the LF-EA did not channel high-frequency errors above 0.8 Hz into the amplification process. The results showed that task accuracy was greater with the LF-EA than with the real and EA feedback modes, and that LF-EA led to smaller and more complex Fc. LF-EA generally led to smaller SDA variables of Fc (critical time points, critical point of Fc, the short-term effective diffusion coefficient, and short-term exponent scaling) than did real feedback and EA. The use of LF-EA feedback increased the irregularity of the ISIs of MUs but decreased the RMS of the mean discharge rate, estimated with pooled MU spike trains. Beta-range EEG–EMG coherence spectra (13–35 Hz) in the LF-EA condition were the greatest among the three feedback conditions. In summary, amplification of low-frequency errors improves force control by shifting the relative significances of the feedforward and feedback processes. The functional benefit arises from the increase in the common descending drive to promote a stable state of MU discharges.

The ancestral mixture model, an important model building a hierarchical tree from high dimensional binary sequences, was proposed by Chen and Lindsay in 2006. As a phylogenetic tree (or evolutionary tree), a mixture tree created from ancestral mixture models, involves the inferred evolutionary relationships among various biological species. Moreover, it contains the information of time when the species mutates. The tree comparison metric, an essential issue in bioinformatics, is used to measure the similarity between trees. To our knowledge, however, the approach to the comparison between two mixture trees is still unknown. In this paper, we propose a new metric named the mixture distance metric, to measure the similarity of two mixture trees. It uniquely considers the factor of evolutionary times between trees. If we convert the mixture tree that contains the information of mutation time of each internal node into a weighted tree, the mixture distance metric is very close to the weighted path difference distance metric. Since the converted mixture tree forms a special weighted tree, we were able to design a more efficient algorithm to calculate this new metric. Therefore, we developed two algorithms to compute the mixture distance between two mixture trees. One requires O(n2) and the other requires O(nh1h2) computational time with O(n) preprocessing time, where n denotes the number of leaves in the two mixture trees, and h1 and h2 denote the heights of these two trees.

Error amplification (EA) feedback is a promising approach to advance visuomotor skill. As error detection and visuomotor processing at short time scales decline with age, this study examined whether older adults could benefit from EA feedback that included higher-frequency information to guide a force-tracking task. Fourteen young and 14 older adults performed low-level static isometric force-tracking with visual guidance of typical visual feedback and EA feedback containing augmented high-frequency errors. Stabilogram diffusion analysis was used to characterize force fluctuation dynamics. Also, the discharge behaviors of motor units and pooled motor unit coherence were assessed following the decomposition of multi-channel surface electromyography (EMG). EA produced different behavioral and neurophysiological impacts on young and older adults. Older adults exhibited inferior task accuracy with EA feedback than with typical visual feedback, but not young adults. Although stabilogram diffusion analysis revealed that EA led to a significant decrease in critical time points for both groups, EA potentiated the critical point of force fluctuations , short-term effective diffusion coefficients (Ds), and short-term exponent scaling only for the older adults. Moreover, in older adults, EA added to the size of discharge variability of motor units and discharge regularity of cumulative discharge rate, but suppressed the pooled motor unit coherence in the 13–35 Hz band. Virtual EA alters the strategic balance between open-loop and closed-loop controls for force-tracking. Contrary to expectations, the prevailing use of closed-loop control with EA that contained high-frequency error information enhanced the motor unit discharge variability and undermined the force steadiness in the older group, concerning declines in physiological complexity in the neurobehavioral system and the common drive to the motoneuronal pool against force destabilization.

Discharge patterns from a population of motor units (MUs) were estimated with multi-channel surface electromyogram and signal processing techniques to investigate parametric differences in low-frequency force fluctuations, MU discharges, and force-discharge relation during static force-tracking with varying sizes of execution error presented via visual feedback. Fourteen healthy adults produced isometric force at 10% of maximal voluntary contraction through index abduction under three visual conditions that scaled execution errors with different amplification factors. Error-augmentation feedback that used a high amplification factor (HAF) to potentiate visualized error size resulted in higher sample entropy, mean frequency, ratio of high-frequency components, and spectral dispersion of force fluctuations than those of error-reducing feedback using a low amplification factor (LAF). In the HAF condition, MUs with relatively high recruitment thresholds in the dorsal interosseous muscle exhibited a larger coefficient of variation for inter-spike intervals and a greater spectral peak of the pooled MU coherence at 13-35 Hz than did those in the LAF condition. Manipulation of the size of error feedback altered the force-discharge relation, which was characterized with non-linear approaches such as mutual information and cross sample entropy. The association of force fluctuations and global discharge trace decreased with increasing error amplification factor. Our findings provide direct neurophysiological evidence that favors motor training using error-augmentation feedback. Amplification of the visualized error size of visual feedback could enrich force gradation strategies during static force-tracking, pertaining to selective increases in the discharge variability of higher-threshold MUs that receive greater common oscillatory inputs in the β-band.

Many drugs have been reported to induce lupus in a minority of patients. Ticlopidine hydrochloride inhibits platelet aggregation and is widely used for the prevention of thrombosis. There have been only a few reports of ticlopidine-induced lupus. Here, we review 13 previously reported cases and describe the case of a 71-year-old man with ticlopidine-induced subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus. His diagnosis was supported by the appearance of papulosquamous skin lesions on sun-exposed areas and detectable anti-Ro/SS-A antibodies, shortly after drug initiation as well as the gradual resolution of these symptoms after the discontinuation of ticlopidine. Our case highlights that when a patient presents with subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus-like skin lesions, ticlopidine should be considered as a potential causative agent.

Acute type A aortic dissection has long been a challenging issue. The surgical techniques traditionally vary with the anatomic extent of the aortic dissection. Simple ascending aortic grafting can be lifesaving, but the lesions beyond the aorta, which include the arch vessels and descending aorta, remain potential hazards. In this paper, we present a patient in which acute type A aortic dissection with lesions extending into descending thoracic aorta was successfully managed by total arch replacement with supra-aortic transposition plus the frozen elephant trunk technique to the descending aorta. A 67-year-old gentleman presented with severe tearing pain from the anterior to posterior chest. Computed tomography confirmed the diagnosis of acute type A dissection extending to the level of the right common iliac artery. An emergent operation was performed as in the aforementioned technique. The surgery went well and the patient was discharged without comorbidities on postoperative day 25. The patient had regular outpatient clinical follow-up. The follow-up computed tomography images showed adequate results with the obliteration of the false lumen. In conclusion, total aortic arch replacement with supra-aortic transposition plus frozen elephant trunk technique is a safe and feasible operative method for patients with detrimental acute type A aortic dissection.

Lead (Pb) is a heavy metal that negatively affects human health. Many studies have shown the relationship between lead exposure and various human activities, of which automobile service stations with gasoline emissions are considered the main cause. However, a limited number of studies have specifically considered lead exposure from automobile stations in Vietnam, as well as its impact on human activities and the surrounding natural resources. The objective of this study was to assess the possible risks of lead exposure to the surrounding agricultural and non-agricultural farms of a bus station located in the center of Dalat city, Lamdong province, Vietnam. To address this objective, 45 samples were collected from the soil, irrigated water resources, and vegetable crops of areas both close to and far away from the bus station. These samples were tested using the atomic absorption spectrometry technique. Our findings demonstrated higher lead concentration levels from all three types of samples collected from areas near the bus station. Of which, soil and water samples showed higher than normal exposure values of lead, but these were still under the allowed limits established by the Vietnam standard. Different from the soil and water, vegetable samples surrounding the bus station presented greater lead contamination than the permitted limit. High risk quotient (RQ) indexes were detected to point out that accumulative consumption of leaded vegetables over time could cause lead poisoning and harm human health. This study not only provides significant inferential evidence of the risk of lead exposure to agricultural activities and human health in Vietnam, but also delivers a real-life example for a real-world context.

Angiogenesis is critical in the development of cancer, which involves several angiogenic factors in its peritoneal dissemination. The role of protein tumor progression locus 2 (Tpl2) in angiogenic factor-related endothelial cell angiogenesis is still unclear. To understand the precise mechanism(s) of Tpl2 inhibition in endothelial cells, this study investigated the role of Tpl2 in mediating angiogenic signals using in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo models. Results showed that inhibition of Tpl2 inhibitor significantly reduced peritoneal dissemination in a mouse model by positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging. Simultaneously, inhibiting Tpl2 blocked angiogenesis in tumor nodules and prevented angiogenic factor-induced proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in endothelial cells. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) or chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 1 (CXCL1) increased Tpl2 kinase activity and phosphorylation in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Furthermore, Tpl2 inhibition or ablation by siRNA prevented the angiogenic signal-induced tube formation in Matrigel plug assay or aortic ring assay. Inhibiting Tpl2 also prevented the angiogenic factor-induced chemotactic motility and migration of endothelial cells. Tpl2 inhibition by CXCL1 or epidermal growth factor in endothelial cells was associated with inactivation of CCAAT/enhancer binding protein β, nuclear factor κ light-chain enhancer of activated B cells, and activating protein 1 and suppression of VEGF expression. Thus, Tpl2 inhibitors thwart Tpl2-regulated VEGF by inactivating transcription factors involved in angiogenic factor-triggered endothelial cell angiogenesis. These results suggest that the therapeutic inhibition of Tpl2 may extend beyond cancer and include the treatment of other diseases involving pathologic angiogenesis.