Electronic structures of graphene oxide (GO) and hydro-thermally reduced graphene oxides (rGOs) processed at low temperatures (120-180°C) were studied using X-ray absorption near-edge structure ...(XANES), X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS). C K-edge XANES spectra of rGOs reveal that thermal reduction restores C = C sp(2) bonds and removes some of the oxygen and hydroxyl groups of GO, which initiates the evolution of carbonaceous species. The combination of C K-edge XANES and Kα XES spectra shows that the overlapping π and π* orbitals in rGOs and GO are similar to that of highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), which has no band-gap. C Kα RIXS spectra provide evidence that thermal reduction changes the density of states (DOSs) that is generated in the π-region and/or in the gap between the π and π* levels of the GO and rGOs. Two-dimensional C Kα RIXS mapping of the heavy reduction of rGOs further confirms that the residual oxygen and/or oxygen-containing functional groups modify the π and σ features, which are dispersed by the photon excitation energy. The dispersion behavior near the K point is approximately linear and differs from the parabolic-like dispersion observed in HOPG.
We present improved germanium-based constraints on sub-GeV dark matter via dark matter-electron (χ-e) scattering using the 205.4 kg·day dataset from the CDEX-10 experiment. Using a novel calculation ...technique, we attain predicted χ-e scattering spectra observable in high-purity germanium detectors. In the heavy mediator scenario, our results achieve 3 orders of magnitude of improvement for m_{χ} larger than 80 MeV/c^{2} compared to previous germanium-based χ-e results. We also present the most stringent χ-e cross-section limit to date among experiments using solid-state detectors for m_{χ} larger than 90 MeV/c^{2} with heavy mediators and m_{χ} larger than 100 MeV/c^{2} with electric dipole coupling. The result proves the feasibility and demonstrates the vast potential of a new χ-e detection method with high-purity germanium detectors in ultralow radioactive background.
Objectives
This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a multidomain intervention program on the change in functional status of hospitalized older adults.
Design
This single-arm, prospective, ...non-randomized interventional study investigates the efficacy of a multidomain interventional program including cognitive stimulation activity, simple exercises, frailty education, and nutrition counseling.
Setting and Participants
At a tertiary hospital in southern Taiwan, 352 eligible patients were sequentially enrolled. Included patients were aged ≥65 years (mean age, 79.6 ± 9.0 years; 62% male), scored 3–7 on the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), and were hospitalized in the geriatric acute ward.
Intervention
Those receiving standard care (physical rehabilitation and nutrition counseling) during January–July 2019 composed the historical control group. Those receiving the multidomain intervention during August–December 2019 composed the intervention group.
Measurements
The primary outcome was the change in activities of daily life (ADL) and frailty status, as assessed by Katz Index and Clinical Frailty Scale, with using the generalized estimating equation model. The length of hospital stay, medical costs, and re-admission rates were secondary outcomes.
Results
Participants undergoing intervention (n = 101; 27.9%) showed greater improvements in the ADL and CFS during hospitalization (ADL adjusted estimate, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.11–1.11; p = 0.02; CFS adjusted estimate, −1.11; 95% CI, −1.42–−0.80; p < 0.01), shorter length of hospital stay (adjusted estimate, -5.00; 95% CI, −7.99–−2.47; p < 0.01), lower medical costs (adjusted estimate, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.49–0.69; p < 0.01), and lower 30- and 90-day readmission rates (30-day adjusted OR aOR, 0.12; 95% CI, 0.27–0.50; p < 0.01; 60-day aOR, 0.04; 95% CI, 0.01–0.33; p < 0.01) than did controls.
Conclusions
Participation in the multidomain intervention program during hospitalization improved the functional status and decreased the hospital stay length, medical costs, and readmission rates of frail older people.
This study proposed a computerized inquiry‐stage‐dependent argumentation assistance and investigated whether this can help improve elementary students' performance in science processes and the ...construction of quality arguments. Various argumentation assistances were developed and incorporated into each stage of scientific inquiry in a computer‐supported scientific inquiry system. A nonequivalent quasi‐experimental design was adopted to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach. Two intact sixth grade classes (N = 55) participated in this study, and each student used a tablet computer to accomplish the designated inquiry activities. One class of students was arranged to use the stage‐dependent argumentation assistance, and the other used a generic text‐based interface. The findings indicate that students who used the stage‐dependent argumentation assistance could acquire significantly better science process and argument construction skills than those using the generic text‐based interface.
Lay Description
What is already known about this topic:
Developing argument construction skills is crucial for learning and conducting scientific inquiry.
The required argument patterns and discourse processes should vary with each stage of scientific inquiry.
Teachers need to provide students with assistance to help them construct quality arguments.
What this paper adds:
This study developed a computerized argumentation assistance that complies with the features of each inquiry stage.
Various forms of augmentation assistance and scripted rules of reciprocal interaction were developed and incorporated into a scientific inquiry system.
This research focus on the effects of argumentation assistance on students' science process and argument construction skills.
Implications of study findings for practitioners:
Students can effectively practice the science process skills in argumentative scientific inquiry.
The argumentation assistance can increase the students' argumentative knowledge and engage them in intensive scientific argumentation.
This system can help teachers to implement scientific inquiry in the classroom and guide students to carry out scientific inquiry.
Mechanisms of the development of abnormal metabolic phenotypes among obese population are not yet clear. In this study, we aimed to screen metabolomes of both healthy and subjects with abnormal ...obesity to identify potential metabolic pathways that may regulate the different metabolic characteristics of obesity.
We recruited subjects with body mass index (BMI) over 25 from the weight-loss clinic of a central hospital in Taiwan. Metabolic healthy obesity (MHO) is defined as without having any form of hyperglycemia, hypertension and dyslipidemia, while metabolic abnormal obesity (MAO) is defined as having one or more abnormal metabolic indexes. Serum-based metabolomic profiling using both liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of 34 MHO and MAO individuals with matching age, sex and BMI was performed. Conditional logistic regression and partial least squares discriminant analysis were applied to identify significant metabolites between the two groups. Pathway enrichment and topology analyses were conducted to evaluate the regulated pathways.
A differential metabolite panel was identified to be significantly differed in MHO and MAO groups, including L-kynurenine, glycerophosphocholine (GPC), glycerol 1-phosphate, glycolic acid, tagatose, methyl palmitate and uric acid. Moreover, several metabolic pathways were relevant in distinguishing MHO from MAO groups, including fatty acid biosynthesis, phenylalanine metabolism, propanoate metabolism, and valine, leucine and isoleucine degradation.
Different metabolomic profiles and metabolic pathways are important for distinguishing between MHO and MAO groups. We have identified and discussed the key metabolites and pathways that may prove important in the regulation of metabolic traits among the obese, which could provide useful clues to study the underlying mechanisms of the development of abnormal metabolic phenotypes.
Background
Exposure to environmental pollutants promotes Th2 cell responses. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) activation aggravates allergic responses. Epithelium‐derived thymic stromal lymphopoietin ...(TSLP), interleukin (IL)‐25, and IL‐33 are implicated in the dysregulation of Th2 immune responses in severe allergic asthma.
Methods
Bronchial biopsies of 28 allergic severe asthma and 6 mild asthma subjects from highly polluted areas were analyzed for AhR nuclear translocation (NT), cytokine expression, and gene activation. Cultured primary epithelial cells were stimulated with diesel exhausted particles (DEP) to determine AhR‐mediated IL‐33, Il‐25, and TSLP synthesis and release.
Results
Primary bronchial epithelial cells exposed to DEP showed upregulation of IL‐33, IL‐25, and TSLP. These effects were abolished by knockdown of AhR by siRNA. Increased AhR/ARNT binding to promoters of IL‐33, IL‐25, and TSLP was found using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay. Allergic severe asthma with high AhR NT had higher bronchial gene and protein expression of IL‐33, IL‐25, and TSLP. These patients derived clinical benefit from anti‐IgE treatment.
Conclusion
Aryl hydrocarbon receptor activation by DEP mediates upregulation of IL‐33, IL‐25, and TSLP with Th2 activation, potentially linking environmental pollution and allergic severe asthma.
Environmental diesel exhaust particles (DEP) exposed to airway epithelium ligate cytoplasmic aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), translocate to the nucleus with aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (ARNT), and then transactivate IL‐33, Il‐25, and TSLP gene expression. Patients with high AhR nucleus translocation overexpressed IL‐33, Il‐25, and TSLP cytokines compared to those with low. Patients with high AhR nucleus translocation are more response to anti‐IgE therapy compared to those with low.
The relationship between tuberculosis (TB) and subsequent chronic kidney disease (CKD) remains unclear. Therefore, we examined the risk of CKD among patients with TB in a nationwide study.
We ...conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from the National Health Insurance system of Taiwan. The cohort included 8735 patients who were newly diagnosed with TB. Patients were recruited between 1998 and 2002, and the date of diagnosis was defined as the index date. Each patient was randomly matched with four people from the general population without TB, according to age, gender and the index year. The occurrence of CKD was followed up until the end of 2011. The relative risks of CKD were estimated using the Cox proportional hazard model after adjusting for age, gender, index year and comorbidities.
The overall incidence of CKD was 1.27-fold greater in the TB cohort than in the non-TB cohort. The adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of CKD associated with TB was higher in women (1.72; 95% confidence interval CI: 1.33-2.22), those aged <50 years (1.67; 95% CI: 1.15-2.41) and those without comorbidities (1.39; 95% CI: 1.06-1.83). In addition, patients with more comorbidities among hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia have a greater risk of developing CKD in both cohorts, and the adjusted HRs were higher in the TB cohort than in the non-TB cohort.
TB patients had a significantly higher risk of developing CKD than the general population. The detailed mechanisms need further investigation.
We have fabricated surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates based on arrays of silver nanoparticles grown on porous anodic alumina templates. Using this nanotechnology platform, label-free ...and high-speed detection of bacteria are achieved. SERS spectra of various bacteria including Staphylococcus Aureus (Gram-positive bacterium), Klebsiella Pneumoniae (Gram-negative bacterium), and Mycobacterium Smegmatis (Mycobacterium) were recorded. The highly reproducible SERS-based technological platform is capable of differentiating different kinds of bacteria by PCA, LDA, clustering analysis, and SVM methods, which provides promising opportunity for biosensing of clinical microbes.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in tumorigenesis by regulating oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes. In this study, miR-187 and miR-200a were found to be expressed at higher levels in ovarian ...cancers than in benign tumors. In patients with ovarian cancer, however, higher levels of miR-187 and miR-200a expression were paradoxically associated with better OS and recurrence-free survival. Further, multivariate analysis showed that miR-187 served as an independent prognostic factor for patients with ovarian cancer (n=176). Computational prediction and microarray results indicated that miR-187 directly targeted Disabled homolog-2 (Dab2), and luciferase reporter assays confirmed that the target site of miR-187 was located at the 3'-UTR of the Dab2 gene. Generally considered as a tumor-suppressor gene, Dab2 may actually promote tumor progression in advanced cancers through epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Ectopic expression of miR-187 in cancer cells promoted cell proliferation, but continued overexpression of miR-187 suppressed Dab2 and inhibited migration. Suppression of miR-187 upregulated Dab2, which, by inhibiting E-cadherin levels while stimulating vimentin and phospho-FAK levels, promoted EMT. Reduced ovarian cancer Dab2 histoscores correlated with high miR-187 levels and improved outcomes of patients. Collectively, these results demonstrate distinct dual roles of Dab2 in cell proliferation and tumor progression. In the initial steps of tumorigenesis, upregulated miR-187 suppresses Dab2, promoting cell proliferation. During the later stages, however, continued increased levels of miR-187 inhibits the Dab2-dependent EMT that is associated with tumor invasiveness, which is presumed to be the reason why cancers with high miR-187 levels were associated with better survivals.
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