•Public acceptance of autonomous electric vehicles (AEVs) is surveyed online.•This study focuses on the environmental benefits of AEVs.•Environmental concern is an important stimulus to influence the ...adoption of AEVs.•Green perceived usefulness has a powerful effect on using intention of AEVs.
The development of electric vehicles (EVs) and autonomous vehicles (AVs) has made great progress and been expected to play an important role in a future transport system. Some researchers have explored the potential impacts of autonomous electric vehicles (AEVs), while few have focused on the public attitude towards AEVs. This paper aims to understand the public acceptance of AEVs through the application of Technology Acceptance Model. Considering the potential environmental benefits of AEVs, this study concentrates on how environmental concern affects AEVs acceptance. Data is collected from an online survey in China and analyzed by a structural model. The results indicate that green perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and environmental concern have a positive relationship with people’s intentions to use AEVs. Environmental concern poses a powerful indirect effect on using intention through mediating effects. Implications for improving the public acceptance of AEVs and suggestions for further research are given correspondingly in this study.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
12.
Sleep Apnea and Risk of Panic Disorder Su, Vincent Yi-Fong, MD; Chen, Yung-Tai, MD; Lin, Wei-Chen, MD ...
Annals of family medicine,
07/2015, Volume:
13, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Abstract Purpose Epidemiological studies have identified a trend in the development of depressive and anxiety disorders following a diagnosis of sleep apnea. The relationship between sleep apnea and ...subsequent panic disorder, however, remains unclear. Methods Using a nationwide database, the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, patients with sleep apnea and age-, sex-, income-, and urbanization-matched control patients who did not have sleep apnea were enrolled between 2000 and 2010. Patients with a prior diagnosis of panic disorder before enrollment were excluded. The 2 cohorts were observed until December 31, 2010. The primary endpoint was occurrence of newly diagnosed panic disorder. Results A total of 8,704 sleep apnea patients and 34,792 control patients were enrolled. Of the 43,496 patients, 263 (0.60%) suffered from panic disorder during a mean follow-up period of 3.92 years, including 117 (1.34%) from the sleep apnea cohort and 146 (0.42%) from the control group. The Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a predisposition of patients with sleep apnea to develop panic disorder (log-rank test, P <.001). After multivariate adjustment, the hazard ratio for subsequent panic disorder among the sleep apnea patients was 2.17 (95% confidence interval, 1.68–2.81; P <.001). Conclusions Sleep apnea appears to confer a higher risk for future development of panic disorder.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The exploration of virology knowledge was limited by the optical technology for the observation of virus. Previously, a three-dimensional multi-resolution real-time microscope system (3D-MRM) was ...developed to observe the uptake of HIV-1-tat peptide-modified nanoparticles in cell membrane. In this study, we labeled HIV-1 virus-like particles (VLPs) with passivated giant quantum dots (gQDs) and recorded their interactive trajectories with human Jurkat CD4 cells through 3D-MRM.
The labeled of gQDs of the HIV-1 VLPs in sucrose-gradient purified viral lysates was first confirmed by Cryo-electronic microscopy and Western blot assay. After the infection with CD4 cells, the gQD-labeled VLPs were visualized and their extracellular and intracellular trajectories were recorded by 3D-MRM.
A total of 208 prime trajectories was identified and classified into three distinct patterns: cell-free random diffusion pattern, directional movement pattern and cell-associated movement pattern, with distributions and mean durations were 72.6%/87.6 s, 9.1%/402.7 s and 18.3%/68.7 s, respectively. Further analysis of the spatial–temporal relationship between VLP trajectories and CD4 cells revealed the three stages of interactions: (1) cell-associated (extracellular) diffusion stage, (2) cell membrane surfing stage and (3) intracellular directional movement stage.
A complete trajectory of HIV-1 VLP interacting with CD4 cells was presented in animation. This encapsulating method could increase the accuracy for the observation of HIV-1-CD4 cell interaction in real time and three dimensions.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The extension of the cosmic-ray spectrum beyond 1 petaelectronvolt (PeV; 10
electronvolts) indicates the existence of the so-called PeVatrons-cosmic-ray factories that accelerate particles to PeV ...energies. We need to locate and identify such objects to find the origin of Galactic cosmic rays
. The principal signature of both electron and proton PeVatrons is ultrahigh-energy (exceeding 100 TeV) γ radiation. Evidence of the presence of a proton PeVatron has been found in the Galactic Centre, according to the detection of a hard-spectrum radiation extending to 0.04 PeV (ref.
). Although γ-rays with energies slightly higher than 0.1 PeV have been reported from a few objects in the Galactic plane
, unbiased identification and in-depth exploration of PeVatrons requires detection of γ-rays with energies well above 0.1 PeV. Here we report the detection of more than 530 photons at energies above 100 teraelectronvolts and up to 1.4 PeV from 12 ultrahigh-energy γ-ray sources with a statistical significance greater than seven standard deviations. Despite having several potential counterparts in their proximity, including pulsar wind nebulae, supernova remnants and star-forming regions, the PeVatrons responsible for the ultrahigh-energy γ-rays have not yet been firmly localized and identified (except for the Crab Nebula), leaving open the origin of these extreme accelerators.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ
The biological functions of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) I and II are modulated by a family of IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs) in complex IGF-dependent and IGF-independent pathways. For further ...understanding of the actions of IGFs, some of these binding proteins have been cloned and characterized. We report the molecular cloning of IGFBP-3 cDNA for zebrafish. The tissue-specific and developmental stage-specific expression of IGFBP-3 and the hormonal regulation of its expression have also been determined by comparative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Zebrafish IGFBP-3 cDNA contains an open reading frame of 879 bp, encoding a polypeptide of 293 amino acid residues. Results of this analysis revealed high levels of IGFBP-3 messenger RNA in ovary and fin tissue. Expression of IGFBP-3 mRNA was throughout the entire embryonic development, with the highest level of expression observed at 36 hours after the onset of development. Elevated levels of expression of IGFBP-3 were observed 24 hours after injection with IGF-I and 48 hours with IGF-II or insulin. These results suggest that the expression of IGFBP3 gene might be modulated by IGF-I, IGF-II, and insulin.
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CEKLJ, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Alteration of gene expression tightly regulates lipogenesis. Stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD-1), a key enzyme in lipogenesis, catalyzes the conversion of SFA to MUFA, and inhibition of its activity ...impairs lipid synthesis. As posttranscriptional regulators, microRNAs are involved in many pathways of lipid metabolism; however, their effect on SCD-1 has not been reported. In this study, miR-125b was identified as a potential regulator of SCD-1 using bioinformatics analysis. Here, we validated SCD-1 as the target of miR-125b using a dual luciferase assay. During adipogenesis, a synthetic mimic or inhibitor was used to overexpress or reduce the expression of miR-125b in porcine adipocytes. Overexpression of miR-125b reduced the accumulation of lipid droplets and triglycerides concentration and repressed SCD-1 protein expression and MUFA composition. The inhibitor had the reverse effect. Small interfering RNA against tested in adipocytes further proved the direct correlation between miR-125b and SCD-1. Moreover, in vivo experiments in mice showed that injection of miR-125b expression vector decreased the hepatic triglycerides concentration relative to saline. This study indicated that miR-125b regulates lipogenesis by targeting SCD-1; therefore, miR-125b might be applied in therapy of lipid metabolism disorders.
Background. The study aimed to evaluate the risk of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection on hepatic and extrahepatic deaths. Methods. A cohort of 23 820 adults aged 30—65 years old were enrolled during ...1991—1992. The seromarkers hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), anti-HCV, and serum HCV RNA levels at study entry were tested. The vital status was ascertained through computerized linkage with national death certification profiles from 1991 to 2008. Results. There were 19 636 HBsAg-seronegatives, including 18 541 anti-HCV seronegatives and 1095 anti-HCV seropositives. Among anti-HCV seropositives, 69.4% had detectable serum HCV RNA levels. There were 2394 deaths that occurred during an average follow-up period of 16.2 years. Compared with anti-HCV seronegatives, anti-HCV seropositives had higher mortality from both hepatic and extrahepatic diseases, showing multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of 1.89 (1.66—2.15) for all causes of death; 12.48 (9.34—16.66) for hepatic diseases; 1.35 (1.15—1.57) for extrahepatic diseases; 1.50 (1.10—2.03) for circulatory diseases; 2.77 (1.49—5.15) for nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis; 4.08 (1.38—12.08) for esophageal cancer; 4.19 (1.18—14.94) for prostate cancer; and 8.22 (1.36—49.66) for thyroid cancer. Anti-HCV seropositives with detectable HCV RNA levels had significantly higher mortality from hepatic and extrahepatic diseases than anti-HCV seropositives with undetectable HCV RNA. Conclusions. Monitoring HCV RNA in anti-HCV seropositives is essential for the prediction of mortality associated with hepatitis C.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study focuses on how aerosols, serving as cloud
condensation nuclei (CCN), affect the properties of diurnal precipitation
under the weak synoptic weather regime over complex topography, which is ...a
common summertime environmental regime in Taiwan. Semi-realistic large-eddy
simulations (LESs) were carried out using TaiwanVVM and driven by idealized
observational soundings. We perform object-based tracking analyses, which
diagnose both the spatial and temporal connectivity of convective systems,
aiming to reduce the variability in convection and align the aerosol effects
on the mature stage of the convective life cycle. In the hotspot areas of
strong orographic locking processes, the precipitation initiation is
postponed significantly when the CCN concentration is increased from the
clean scenario to the normal scenario, which prolongs the development of
local circulation and convection. For this organized regime, the occurrence
of the tracked extreme diurnal precipitating systems is notably enhanced.
Also, the 99th percentile of the maximum rain rate, cloud depth, and in-cloud
vertical velocity during the lifetime of the diurnal precipitating systems
increases by 9.4 %, 4.4 %, and 1.3 %. This study demonstrates that
the design of semi-realistic LESs, as well as the object-based tracking
analyses, is useful to investigate the responses of orographically driven
diurnal convective systems to ambient conditions.
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