A randomized clinical trial was utilized to compare the improvement of depression and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels between community women with and without music aerobic exercise ...(MAE) for 12 weeks. The MAE group involved 47 eligible participants, whereas the comparison group had 59 participants. No significant differences were recorded in the demographic characteristics between the participants in the MAE group and the comparison group. Forty-one participants in the MAE group and 26 in the comparison group completed a pre- and posttest. The MAE group displayed significant improvement in depression scores (p = 0.016), decreased depression symptoms in crying (p = 0.03), appetite (p = 0.006), and fatigue (p = 0.011). The BDNF levels of the participants significantly increased after the 12-week MAE (p = 0.042). The parallel comparison group revealed no significant changes in depression scores or BDNF levels. In summary, the 12-week MAE had a significant impact on the enhancement of BDNF levels and improvement of depression symptoms. Middle-aged community women are encouraged to exercise moderately to improve their depression symptoms and BDNF levels.
Neurotoxicity resulting from air pollution is of increasing concern. Considering exposure timing effects on neurodevelopmental impairments may be as important as the exposure dose. We used ...distributed lag regression to determine the sensitive windows of prenatal exposure to fine particulate matter (PM
) on children's cognition in a birth cohort in Mexico.
Analysis included 553 full-term (≥37 weeks gestation) children. Prenatal daily PM
exposure was estimated using a validated satellite-based spatiotemporal model. McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA) were used to assess children's cognitive function at 4-5 years old (lower scores indicate poorer performance). To identify susceptibility windows, we used Bayesian distributed lag interaction models to examine associations between prenatal PM
levels and MSCA. This allowed us to estimate vulnerable windows while testing for effect modification.
After adjusting for maternal age, socioeconomic status, child age, and sex, Bayesian distributed lag interaction models showed significant associations between increased PM
levels and decreased general cognitive index scores at 31-35 gestation weeks, decreased quantitative scale scores at 30-36 weeks, decreased motor scale scores at 30-36 weeks, and decreased verbal scale scores at 37-38 weeks. Estimated cumulative effects (CE) of PM
across pregnancy showed significant associations with general cognitive index (
= -0.35, 95% confidence interval CI = -0.68, -0.01), quantitative scale (
= -0.27, 95% CI = -0.74, -0.02), motor scale (
= -0.25, 95% CI = -0.44, -0.05), and verbal scale (
= -0.2, 95% CI = -0.43, -0.02). No significant sex interactions were observed.
Prenatal exposure to PM
, particularly late pregnancy, was inversely associated with subscales of MSCA. Using data-driven methods to identify sensitive window may provide insight into the mechanisms of neurodevelopmental impairment due to pollution.
Population-based colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programs that use a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) are often faced with a noncompliance issue and its subsequent waiting time (WT) for those FIT ...positives complying with confirmatory diagnosis. We aimed to identify factors associated with both of the correlated problems in the same model.
A total of 294,469 subjects, either with positive FIT test results or having a family history, collected from 2004 to 2013 were enrolled for analysis. We applied a hurdle Poisson regression model to accommodate the hurdle of compliance and also its related WT for undergoing colonoscopy while assessing factors responsible for the mixture of the two outcomes.
The effect on compliance and WT varied with contextual factors, such as geographic areas, type of screening units, and level of urbanization. The hurdle score, representing the risk score in association with noncompliance, and the WT score, reflecting the rate of taking colonoscopy, were used to classify subjects into each of three groups representing the degree of compliance and the level of health awareness.
Our model was not only successfully applied to evaluating factors associated with the compliance and the WT distribution, but also developed into a useful assessment model for stratifying the risk and predicting whether and when screenees comply with the procedure of receiving confirmatory diagnosis given contextual factors and individual characteristics.
Immigration is a demanding and challenging life event that may cause married immigrant women to be likely to adopt unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. The aim of the authors of this study was to assess ...the prevalence of health-promoting lifestyle behaviors and their correlates among Vietnamese female immigrants in Taiwan. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 140 Vietnamese female immigrants from November 2012 to October 2013. Measures included demographic information, the Chinese Health Questionnaire, the General Functioning Scale of the Family Assessment Device, and a short version of the Chinese Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile. Data analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficients, t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, and a hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Vietnamese female immigrants with better individual health status, higher education from their original country, greater communication ability, better health status of the husband, and adaptive family functioning demonstrated greater participation in health-promoting lifestyle behaviors. Particularly, better husband's health status and family functioning correlated with greater practices of health-promoting lifestyle behaviors after controlling for individual characteristics and experiences, with 38% of the total variance explained. Findings may serve to guide and design culturally specific, family-focused health promotion interventions to assist Vietnamese female immigrants and their families.
Much of the existing research on caregiving in families of individuals with mental illness has been conducted in Western societies. Therefore, the purpose of this review was to critically examine ...research on caregiving in families of individuals with mental illness living in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China. A search using computerized databases, public search engines, and references from retrieved articles revealed 37 studies published from 1990 to 2009. Four studies were theory driven at an individual level, and one study was guided by a family-level framework. Thirty-two articles were quantitative studies, and 5 were qualitative studies. All but 5 of 37 studies were cross-sectional. Findings suggest that misconceptions about mental illness, behavior disturbances, inadequate social support, and the limited value placed on caregiving contribute to maladaptation. Future research should include longitudinal studies guided by culturally appropriate family frameworks and studies using mixed methods.
Ball-bearing-like specimens are prepared with different groove factors (GF) to simulate a ball screw operating in dry contact and grease lubrication. The fluctuations of frictional coefficient μ are ...identified as instabilities in the running-in process and in the tribo contacts through the model developed for the threshold value μthreshold. The thermoelastic instability in the running-in is dominated by the surface roughness (Ra) and the GF, and is thus governed by the slip ratio (SR). The inception of running-in instability is the earliest when SR is the highest. With a fixed GF, an increase in Ra results in a SR rise. Wear coefficient increases by raising SR. The time for instability inception of base material is shortened by increasing SR.
•Tribological behaviors demonstrated in specimens with dry contact and grease lubrication are investigated.•Friction coefficient fluctuations in two regions occur running-in and thermoelastic instability.•Effects of groove factor and roughnesses of two raceways on slip ratio are evaluated.•Effects of slip ratio on inception time of instability are evaluated.
The use of a pseudo-halide anion, such as thiocyanate (SCN–), as an additive in the composition-engineered perovskite film is verified and its impact on the perovskite solar cell (PSCs) performance ...is investigated. The perovskite precursor added with a small amount of formamidinium thiocyanate is deposited by a one-step solution process to prepare the perovskite film. We observe a significant enlargement in domain size after the incorporation of thiocyanate ions in the perovskite film. Moreover, a trace amount of thiocyanate groups across the perovskite film measured by the time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer identifies the thiocyanate existing inside the perovskite bulk, especially near the film bottom. Replacement of halide with thiocyanate groups in the perovskite framework effectively suppresses bulk recombination in the perovskite film, leading to an improvement on the open-circuit voltage (V OC) and fill factor for the pseudo-halide-based PSCs. Our studies confirm the existence of SCN– in the final film and the passivation effect of SCN– for enhancing the device performance.
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