A bubble-based acoustofluidic filtration (BAF) microfluidic device, which employs cross-flow filtration (CFF) and acoustic streaming, separates cells with high efficiency for forensic analysis. ...Forensic samples are typically complex and contain a substantial number of squamous epithelial cells from the female vagina, which tend to have fouling problems during filtration due to their morphological and cell adhesion differences. To overcome this issue, the BAF device utilizes bubble oscillation by bulk acoustic wave (BAW) to generate acoustic streaming, which offers additional hydrodynamic forces for side flushing cleaning and achieves effective removal within a mere 0.5 seconds. Our device is tested with imbalanced cell mixtures of sperm and epithelial cells with large disparity ratios. By concurrently employing CFF and acoustic streaming, the samples with our sperm-enrichment can achieve 91.72-97.78% for the recovery rate and 74.58-89.26% for the purity in the sperm enrichment. They are further subjected to short tandem repeat (STR) profiling, enabling the identification of perpetrators. Notably, even samples with minimal sperm cells demonstrated a significant increase in the male donor DNA ratio, while the peak heights of female alleles became virtually undetectable. The exceptional cell separation capability demonstrated by our BAF device highlights its potential applications in forensic sciences and other areas of cell biology.
Objectives
Previously developed methods in subadult body mass estimation have not been tested in populations other than European–American or African–American. This study uses a contemporary Taiwanese ...sample to test these methods. Through evaluating their accuracy and bias, we addressed whether the allometric relationships between body mass and skeletal traits commonly used in subadult body mass estimation are conserved among different populations.
Materials and Methods
Computed tomography scans of lower limbs from individuals aged 0–17 years old of both sexes were collected from National Taiwan University Hospital along with documented body weight. Polar second moment of area, distal femoral metaphyseal breadth, and maximum superior/inferior femoral head diameter were collected either directly from the scans or from reconstructed 3D models. Estimated body mass was compared with documented body mass to assess the performance of the equations.
Results
Current methods provided good body mass estimates in Taiwanese individuals, with accuracy and bias similar to those reported in other validation studies. A tendency for increasing error with increasing age was observed for all methods. Reduced major axis regression showed the allometric relationships between different skeletal traits and body mass across different age categories can all be summarized using a common fitted line. A revised, maximum likelihood‐based approach was proposed for all skeletal traits.
Discussion
The results suggested that the allometric relationships between body mass and different skeletal traits are largely conserved among populations. The revised method provided improved applicability with strong underlying theoretical justifications, and potential for future improvements.
This study examines the moderating effects of both emotional intelligence and social intelligence (social awareness and social information processing) on the relationship between peer victimization ...and internet addiction, and on the association between peer victimization and psychological distress. We collected data from a national proportionately-stratified random sample of 6233 fourth-grade primary school students in Taiwan and constructed hierarchical linear regression models to test the research hypotheses. The results show that youth who have experienced more peer victimization are at a higher risk of internet addiction and psychological distress than youth who have experienced less peer victimization. In this study, emotional intelligence was negatively associated with internet addiction, but it did not significantly buffer the impact of victimization on internet addiction. Social awareness was negatively associated with internet addiction, but it exacerbated the negative impact of peer victimization on internet addiction. On the other hand, emotional intelligence was negatively associated with psychological distress and buffered the negative impact of victimization on mental health. Social information processing was negatively associated with psychological distress, but it amplified the negative impact of peer victimization on mental health among Taiwanese adolescents. The research implications of these findings are discussed.
Although research on the negative effects of childhood poly-victimization is substantial, few studies have examined the relationship between poly-victimization and younger children’s physical health ...and diseases.
This study examines the associations between poly-victimization and children’s health problems requiring medical attention.
A national stratified cluster random sampling was used to select and approach 25% of the total primary schools in Taiwan, and 49% of the approached schools agreed to participate in this study. We collected data with a self-report questionnaire from 6233 (4th-grade) students aged 10–11, covering every city and county in Taiwan.
Logistic regression analyses demonstrate a significant dose-response relationship between children’s poly-victimization exposure and their health problems including hospitalization, serious injury, surgery, daily-medication requirements, heart murmurs, asthma, dizziness or fainting, allergies, kidney disease, therapies for special needs, smoking, and alcohol use. The results indicate that children’s risk of having a health problem grew significantly with each increase in the number of victimization types that children experienced.
These research findings underscore the effect of poly-victimization on children’s health problems requiring medical attention, and stress the need for both proper screening methods for children’s exposure to poly-victimization and stronger awareness of poly-victimization’s effects on health conditions in healthcare clinics.
This study aims to examine the associations between child maltreatment (physical and psychological neglect and abuse), dysfunctional family environment (inter-parental violence, parental substance ...abuse), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and children’s bullying perpetration, and the potential mediating effect of PTSD in the associations. We collected data using a self-report questionnaire with a nation-wide, proportionately stratified random sample of 6233 fourth-grade students in Taiwan. We performed hierarchical regression analysis and mediation analysis to test the research hypotheses. The results indicate that parental substance abuse, physical and psychological neglect, physical and psychological abuse, witness of inter-parental violence, and PTSD are positively associated with child bullying (
p
< .001), after controlling for gender. These variables, referred to as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), explain 23% of the variance, and the results are statistically significant. PTSD fully mediated the relationship between psychological neglect and child bullying and partially mediated the associations between other ACE variables and child bullying. Children with higher levels of bullying perpetration reported more family violence and neglect at home and parental substance abuse problems. These ACEs also indirectly affect child bullying through PTSD. Among school-age children in Taiwan, children who had these adverse experiences were more likely to have PTSD symptoms, which in turn can lead to externalizing problems that increase the risk of exhibiting bullying perpetration toward others. In addition to behavioral modeling and corrections as strategies to combat bullying in schools, prevention and intervention efforts should address and screen for ACEs and tackle psychological problems.
Multipotent human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) harbor clinically relevant immunomodulation, and HLA-G, a non-classical MHC class I molecule with highly restricted tissue expression, is one important ...molecule involved in these processes. Understanding of the natural regulatory mechanisms involved in expression of this elusive molecule has been difficult, with near exclusive reliance on cancer cell lines. We therefore studied the transcriptional control of HLA-G in primary isolated human bone marrow- (BM), human embryonic stem cell-derived (hE-), as well as placenta-derived MSCs (P-MSCs), and found that all 3 types of MSCs express 3 of the 7 HLA-G isoforms at the gene level; however, fibroblasts did not express HLA-G. Protein validation using BM- and P-MSCs demonstrated expression of 2 isoforms including a larger HLA-G-like protein. Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) stimulation upregulated both gene and protein expression in MSCs but not the constitutively expressing JEG-3 cell line. Most interestingly in human MSCs and placental tissue, hypomethylation of CpG islands not only occurs on the HLA-G proximal promoter but also on the gene body as well, a pattern not seen in either of the 2 commonly used choriocarcinoma cell lines which may contribute to the unique HLA-G expression patterns and IFN-γ-responsiveness in MSCs. Our study implicates the importance of using normal cells and tissues for physiologic understanding of tissue-specific transcriptional regulation, and highlight the utility of human MSCs in unraveling the transcriptional regulation of HLA-G for better therapeutic application.
Background
Fertility‐sparing surgery (FSS) is an alternative choice of young patients who have not completed their family planning and still have fertility needs. The aims of this study were to ...compare the outcomes of early‐stage epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients undergoing FSS and radical comprehensive staging surgery (RCS), and the suitability of FSS.
Methods
A total of 1297 patients aged between 20 and 44 years with newly diagnosed early‐stage EOC were recruited from the Taiwan Cancer Registry database between 2009 and 2017. Site‐specific surgery codes were used to distinguish patients in FSS group or RCS group. Cancer‐specific survival (CSS) was evaluated using Kaplan–Meier method with log‐rank test and Cox regression model.
Results
There were 401 and 896 patients in FSS and RCS group. Patients in FSS group were with younger age and mostly had Stage I disease. In contrast, patients in RCS group were older. There were more Stage II, high‐grade (Grade 3) disease, and adjuvant chemotherapy in RCS group. Stage and tumor grade were two independent factors correlating with CSS and the type of surgery showed no effect on CSS (HR: 1.09, 95% CI: 0.66–1.77, p = 0.73) in multivariable analysis. In multivariable analysis, the clear cell carcinoma group who underwent FSS demonstrated better CSS compared to those in the RCS group (HR: 0.28, 95% CI: 0.06–0.82, p = 0.04). A total of 17 women who underwent FSS developed second malignancies of the uterine corpus or contralateral ovary.
Conclusion
FSS can be a safe alternative procedure in selected young patients of Stage I EOC who have fertility desire. Endometrial biopsy before or during FSS and regular surveillance to detect recurrence are mandatory for ovarian cancer patients undergoing FSS.
Fertility‐sparing surgery (FSS) can be a safe alternative procedure in selected young patients of early‐stage epithelial ovarian cancer who have fertility desire. Endometrial biopsy should be performed before or during FSS. Regular surveillance to detect recurrence is mandatory for ovarian cancer patients undergoing FSS.
Highlights • The injury patterns were different between adult femicide victims murdered by intimate partners and non-intimate partner offenders. • The rates of intracranial injury of non-intimate ...partner group were significantly higher than that of the intimate partner group. • The most common causes of death in both groups were strangulation and sharp force injury. • The heart injury was significantly more frequent in victims offended by intimate partners than by other assailants.
We examined multidimensional factors within four systems (individual, family, school, and community) that influence internet addiction across time among children through adolescence in Taiwan. We ...hypothesize that internet addiction increases from childhood to adolescence and that resilience, child neglect, positive school experiences, and community violence are significant predictors at baseline and of the rate of change across time. Based on stratified random sampling, a valid sample size of 6233 Taiwanese children participated in our study, which we began in 2014 and then followed this sample in 2016 and 2018 using repeated measures. We used hierarchical linear modeling to model changes in internet addiction across time (with equal two-year intervals between assessments) and the associations between the predictors and internet addiction over time. The results show that internet addiction increases from childhood to adolescence. After controlling for gender, we found that resilience and positive school experiences predict less internet addiction, whereas neglect and community violence predict greater internet addiction. Over time, greater resilience predicts a decreasing trajectory of internet addiction, whereas greater neglect and community violence predict a slower increasing trajectory and positive school experiences predict a faster-increasing trajectory. A holistic approach can help children cope with internet addiction.
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