We report on the discovery and analysis of bursts from nine new repeating fast radio burst (FRB) sources found using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) telescope. These ...sources span a dispersion measure (DM) range of 195-1380 pc cm−3. We detect two bursts from three of the new sources, three bursts from four of the new sources, four bursts from one new source, and five bursts from one new source. We determine sky coordinates of all sources with uncertainties of ∼10′. We detect Faraday rotation measures (RMs) for two sources, with values −20(1) and −499.8(7) rad m−2, that are substantially lower than the RM derived from bursts emitted by FRB 121102. We find that the DM distribution of our events, combined with the nine other repeaters discovered by CHIME/FRB, is indistinguishable from that of thus far non-repeating CHIME/FRB events. However, as previously reported, the burst widths appear statistically significantly larger than the thus far non-repeating CHIME/FRB events, further supporting the notion of inherently different emission mechanisms and/or local environments. These results are consistent with previous work, though are now derived from 18 repeating sources discovered by CHIME/FRB during its first year of operation. We identify candidate galaxies that may contain FRB 190303.J1353+48 (DM = 222.4 pc cm−3).
Traffic emissions are a significant source of airborne particulate matter (PM) in ambient environments. These emissions contain an abundance of toxic metals and thus pose adverse effects on human ...health. Size-fractionated aerosol samples were collected from May to September 2013 by using micro-orifice uniform deposited impactors (MOUDIs). Sample collection was conducted simultaneously at the inlet and outlet sites of Hsuehshan Tunnel in northern Taiwan, which is the second-longest freeway tunnel (12.9 km) in Asia. This endeavor aims to characterize the chemical constituents and size distributions, as well as fingerprinting ratios of particulate metals emitted by vehicle fleets. A total of 36 metals in size-resolved aerosols were determined through inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Three major groups – namely, tailpipe emissions (Zn, Pb, and V in fine mode), wear debris (Cu, Cd, Fe, Ga, Mn, Mo, Sb, and Sn), and resuspended dust (Ca, Mg, K, and Rb) – of airborne PM metals were categorized on the basis of the results of enrichment factor, correlation matrix, and principal component analysis. Size distributions of wear-originated metals resembled the pattern of crustal elements, which were predominated by super-micron particulates (PM1–10). By contrast, tailpipe exhaust elements such as Zn, Pb, and V were distributed mainly in submicron particles. By employing Cu as a tracer of wear abrasion, several inter-metal ratios – including Fe / Cu (14), Ba / Cu (1.05), Sb / Cu (0.16), Sn / Cu (0.10), and Ga / Cu (0.03) – served as fingerprints for wear debris. However, the data set collected in this work is useful for further studies on traffic emission inventory and human health effects of traffic-related PM.
Objective
We investigated the risk of dementia in patients with type 2 diabetes with or without prior hypoglycaemic episodes.
Subjects and Setting
One million subjects randomly selected from the ...National Health Insurance Research Database, Taiwan.
Results
A total of 15 404 diabetic subjects without prior dementia and a mean age of 64.2 years were enrolled in the study. About 2% (n = 289) of participants had at least one episode of hypoglycaemia in a 3‐year period; these subjects were older and more likely to be women and also had higher rates of insulin use and comorbidities compared to those without hypoglycaemia. During a total of 7 years of follow‐up (mean and median follow‐up, 3.8 and 4.8 years, respectively), 1106 patients with diabetes (7.2%) developed dementia. The incidence rate of dementia was higher in diabetic subjects with 29.9 per 1000 person‐years (95% CI 22.1–39.2) compared to those without 11.1 per 1000 person‐years (95% CI 10.3–11.8) hypoglycaemic episodes. The crude rate ratio (RR) and age‐ and gender‐adjusted RR values for dementia were 2.76 (95% CI 2.06–3.70, P < 0.001) and 1.60 (95% CI 1.19–2.14, P = 0.002), respectively, in diabetic subjects with hypoglycaemia compared to those without hypoglycaemia. Results of Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed that hypoglycaemia, older age, female gender and insulin use were independent predictors of dementia.
Conclusion
Adult diabetic patients with prior hypoglycaemia had a significantly increased risk of dementia. The influence of hypoglycaemic episodes on brain function warrants further investigation.
The Critical Zone (CZ) is a holistic framework for integrated studies of water with soil, rock, air, and biotic resources in the near-surface terrestrial environment. This most heterogeneous and ...complex region of the Earth ranges from the vegetation top to the aquifer bottom, with a highly variable thickness globally and a yet-to-be clearly defined lower boundary of active water cycle. Interfaces among different compartments in the CZ are critical, which provide fertile ground for interdisciplinary research. The reconciliation of coupled geological and biological cycles (vastly different in space and time scales) is essential to understanding the complexity and evolution of the CZ. Irreversible evolution, coupled cycling, interactive layers, and hierarchical heterogeneity are the characteristics of the CZ, suggesting that forcing, coupling, interfacing, and scaling are grand challenges for advancing CZ science. Hydropedology - the science of the behaviour and distribution of soil-water interactions in contact with mineral and biological materials in the CZ - is an important contributor to CZ study. The pedosphere is the foundation of the CZ, which represents a geomembrance across which water and solutes, as well as energy, gases, solids, and organisms are actively exchanged with the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere, thereby creating a life-sustaining environment. Hydropedology emphasizes in situ soils in the landscape setting, where distinct pedogenic features and soil-landscape relationships are essential to understanding interactive pedologic and hydrologic processes. Both CZ science and hydropedology embrace an evolutionary and holistic worldview, which offers stimulating opportunities through steps such as integrated systems approach, evolutionary mapping-monitoring-modeling framework, and fostering a global alliance. Our capability to predict the behaviour and evolution of the CZ in response to changing environment can be significantly improved if cross-site scientific comparisons, evolutionary treatment of organized complex systems, and deeper insights into the CZ can be made.
This cutting-edge study delves into regional magmatism in northern Taiwan through advanced 3-D P- and S-wave frequency-dependent attenuation tomography. Positioned at the dynamic convergence boundary ...between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate, Taiwan experiences moderate earthquakes and intriguing volcanic activity, with a focus on the Tatun volcano group. Employing the Formosa seismic array for high-resolution results, our research identifies high-attenuation anomalies (low Q) beneath the northern Taiwan volcanic zone (NTVZ) and offshore submarine volcanoes, indicative of potential hydrothermal activities and magma reservoirs at varying depths. Additionally, we explore low-attenuation anomalies (high Q) in the forearc region of the Ryukyu subduction zone, suggestive of partial saturation linked to serpentinization processes resulting from seawater infiltration or forearc mantle hydration. These findings shed light on the complex geological features and provide essential insights into the crustal properties of northern Taiwan, contributing to a deeper understanding of its magmatic evolution and tectonic processes.
Summary
Background
The risk factors for gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) in clopidogrel users have not been identified.
Aim
To clarify whether clopidogrel use is a risk factor for upper GIB (UGIB) and ...lower GIB (LGIB) and identify the risk factors in clopidogrel users.
Methods
Using the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan, 3238 clopidogrel users and 12 952 age‐, sex‐, and enrolment time‐matched controls in a 1:4 ratio were extracted for comparison from a cohort dataset of 1 000 000 randomly sampled subjects. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to identify the independent risk factors for UGIB and LGIB in all enrollees and clopidogrel users after adjustments for age, gender, comorbidity i.e., coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease (CKD), cirrhosis, uncomplicated peptic ulcer disease, and peptic ulcer bleeding (PUB), and medications e.g., nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), cyclooxygenase‐2 inhibitors, aspirin, steroids, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), warfarin and alendronate.
Results
Cox proportional hazard regression analysis showed that use of clopidogrel increased the risk of UGIB hazard ratio (HR): 3.66; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.96–4.51 and LGIB HR: 3.52, 95% CI: 2.74–4.52. Age, CKD, PUB history, use of aspirin and NSAIDs were independent risk factors for UGIB in the clopidogrel users. Age, CKD, PUB history, use of aspirin and SSRIs were independent risk factors for LGIB.
Conclusions
In clopidogrel users, age, CKD, PUB history, use of aspirin and NSAIDs are independent risk factors for UGIB; age, CKD, PUB history, use of aspirin and SSRIs are independent risk factors for LGIB.
Airborne disease transmission has always been a topic of wide interests in various fields for decades. Cough is found to be one of the prime sources of airborne diseases as it has high velocity and ...large quantity of droplets. To understand and characterize the flow dynamics of a cough can help to control the airborne disease transmission. This study has measured flow dynamics of coughs with human subjects. The flow rate variation of a cough with time can be represented as a combination of gamma‐probability‐distribution functions. The variables needed to define the gamma‐probability‐distribution functions can be represented by some medical parameters. A robust multiple linear regression analysis indicated that these medical parameters can be obtained from the physiological details of a person. However, the jet direction and mouth opening area during a cough seemed not related to the physiological parameters of the human subjects. Combining the flow characteristics reported in this study with appropriate virus and droplet distribution information, the infectious source strength by coughing can be evaluated.
Practical Implications
There is a clear need for the scientific community to accurately predict and control the transmission of airborne diseases. Transportation of airborne viruses is often predicted using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. CFD simulations are inexpensive but need accurate source boundary conditions for the precise prediction of disease transmission. Cough is found to be the prime source for generating infectious viruses. The present study was designed to develop an accurate source model to define thermo‐fluid boundary conditions for a cough. The model can aid in accurately predicting the disease transmission in various indoor environments, such as aircraft cabins, office spaces and hospitals.
Summary
Aims: Movement disorders are one of the central nervous system complications in uremic patients. Asterixis, multifocal myoclonus, and restless leg syndrome are well‐documented in this ...category. Acute parkinsonism, however, is only reported in rare series with a small number of cases. In this study, we investigated the risk for parkinsonism during a 3‐year follow‐up period after a diagnosis of uremia.
Methods: The Longitudinal Health Insurance Database in Taiwan was utilised. We identified a total of 2862 patients who had visited ambulatory care centers with a diagnosis of chronic renal failure between 1999 and 2001 as the study cohort. We further randomly selected 14,310 enrollees matched with the study cohort in terms of gender, age, and year of their index visit for comparison. Each patient was individually tracked for 3 years to identify the occurrence of parkinsonism. Stratified Cox proportional hazard regressions (stratified by age and gender) were performed for analyses.
Results: We found the annual incidence rates of parkinsonism to be 1.2% and 0.6% in the uremic and non‐uremic groups, respectively. Furthermore, uremic patients were more vulnerable to developing parkinsonism with a 1.81‐fold higher risk 95%CI = (1.21–2.71) than the non‐uremic group after adjusting for diabetes mellitus, which did not augment the risk.
Conclusions: The importance of raising awareness regarding the early symptoms of parkinsonism among patients with uremia is tied to its early identification, with timely aggressive dialysis being able to apply to slow the progression of the disease and its symptoms. Further study is warranted to elucidate the pathophysiology of uremic parkinsonism.
Chronic inflammation plays an important role in cancer development and progression. Cyclooxygenases-2 (COX-2) is a key enzyme in generating prostaglandins causing inflammation, is often found to be ...overexpressed in prostate cancer (PCa) and is correlated with PCa cell invasion and metastasis. We aim to investigate the molecular mechanism of how COX-2 promotes PCa cell invasion and metastasis and to evaluate the effect of COX-2 inhibitors in a selected model of PCa progression. Our results showed that the expression of COX-2 and Interleukin 1β (IL-1β) was upregulated in highly invasive PCa cells and was correlated with the activated levels of membrane-anchored serine protease matriptase. The expression levels of COX-2 were increased and were correlated with matriptase levels in PCa specimens. Moreover, results showed that COX-2 overexpression or a COX-2 product Prostaglandin E
(PGE
) caused an increase in matriptase activation and PCa cell invasion, whereas COX-2 silencing antagonized matriptase activation and cell invasion. In addition, the inhibition of COX-2-mediated matriptase activation by Celebrex and sulindac sulfide suppressed the androgen-independent and COX2-overexpressing PCa PC-3 cell invasion, tumor growth and lung metastasis in an orthotopic xenograft model. Our results indicate that COX-2/matriptase signaling contributes to the invasion, tumor growth and metastasis of COX-2-overexpressing and androgen-independent PCa cells.
Summary
Bone mineral density (BMD) may be increased due to vertebral compression fractures (VCF). Our study showed trabecular bone scores (TBS) was less affected than BMD by fractured vertebrae. The ...TBS of most compression fractures, including old and recent VCF with mild or moderate deformity and old VCF with severe deformity, could still be used in predicting fracture risk.
Introduction
Trabecular bone score (TBS), a noninvasive tool estimating bone microarchitecture, provides complementary information to lumbar spine bone mineral density (BMD). Lumbar spine BMD might be increased due to both degenerative disease and vertebral compression fractures (VCF). Lumbar spine TBS has been confirmed not influenced by osteoarthrosis, but the effects of VCF are still not been well evaluated. This study aimed to investigate whether lumbar spine TBS was affected by fractured vertebrae.
Methods
We studied postmenopausal women and men above 50 years old who underwent DXA between January 1, 2017, and May 31, 2019. By calculating the difference of BMD and TBS between L1 and the mean of L2-3, the study compared the difference of values between the control group and fracture group to determine the effects of fractured vertebrae on BMD and TBS.
Results
A total of 377 participants were enrolled with 202 in the control group (157 females; age: 68.06 ± 6.47 years) and 175 in the fracture group (147 females; age: 71.71 ± 9.44 years). The mean BMD of the L1 vertebrae in the fracture group was significantly higher than that in the control group (
p
< 0.0001). There was no significant difference between the mean differences of TBS between L1 and the means of L2-3 vertebrae in the control group and the most compression fractures, including old and recent VCF with mild or moderate deformity and old VCF with severe deformity.
Conclusion
Lumbar spine TBS, unlike BMD, is less affected by fractured vertebrae. The TBS of most compression fractures, including old and recent VCF with mild or moderate deformity and old VCF with severe deformity, could still be used in predicting fracture risk.
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