The aim of this study was to examine the association between adherence to immediate-release methylphenidate (IR MPH) and maternal psychological distress, parenting style, parent- child relationship, ...and perceived family support.
The sample consisted of 307 children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (271 boys and 36 girls), 6-17 years of age, who had been treated with IR MPH for the past 6 months. The measures included the Chinese Health Questionnaire, Parental Bonding Instrument, Family APGAR, and Home Behaviors of the Social Adjustment Inventory for Children and Adolescents.
Reasons for poor adherence (n = 79; 25.7%) included forgetting medication (72.7%), the medication having no effect (20.0%), and refusing medication (12.7%). Increased age and three-times-daily administration were the major predictors for poor adherence to IR MPH. Poor adherence was associated with increased degree of maternal psychological distress, indifferent parenting, maternal overprotection/control, poor family support, decreased interaction with parents, and increased problems at home.
Findings indicate that multiple daily dosing of MPH increases the likelihood of poor adherence, particularly in adolescents, and that poor adherence is associated with impaired maternal/family process. Once-daily administration of MPH is necessary to improve adherence and to decrease the possible exacerbation of tense parent-child relationships caused by poor drug adherence.
Objective: This study aims to investigate: (a) the association of eating disorders with childhood sexual abuse and recent stressful life events; (b) the coexistence of eating disorders and other ...common psychiatric disorders; and (c) the impact of eating disorders on obesity, medical conditions, and health service utilization. Method: We conducted secondary data analyses based on population-based study, which consists of a nationally representative sample of 2,870 community-dwelling adults aged 50 and above, interviewed in 2006 to 2007. Results and conclusion: The 12-month prevalence of eating disorders was 2.61%. Multivariate analyses revealed that eating disorders were more common among younger age groups, women, and those who reported stressful life events. In addition, eating disorders were significantly related to anxiety disorders, agoraphobia, panic disorder, obesity, and cancer. Discussion: This study supports the notion that eating disorders in older adults are associated with a number of psychosocial, psychiatric, and medical conditions.
Oral Diseases (2012) 18, 307–314
Objectives: Interleukin‐8 (IL‐8), which is an angiogenic chemokine with a high expression level in tumor tissues, plays important roles in developing many human ...malignancies including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). This study was designed to examine the association of IL‐8 gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility and clinicopathological characteristics of OSCC.
Methods: A total of 270 patients with OSCC and 350 healthy control subjects were recruited. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of IL‐8 genes were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR‐RFLP) genotyping analysis.
Results: Results showed that four IL‐8 SNPs (−251 T/A, +781 C/T, +1633 C/T, and +2767 A/T) were not associated with oral cancer susceptibility as well as clinicopathological parameters. But among 345 smokers, IL‐8 polymorphisms carriers with betel quid chewing were found to have a 17.41‐ to 23.14‐fold risk to have oral cancer compared to IL‐8 wild‐type carriers without betel quid chewing. Among 262 betel quid chewers, IL‐8 polymorphisms carriers with smoking have a 10.54‐ to 20.44‐fold risk to have oral cancer compared to those who carried wild type without smoking.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that the combination of IL‐8 gene polymorphisms and environmental carcinogens might be highly related to the risk of oral cancer.
Studies on migration often assume that members of the same ethnic category are less likely to develop exclusionary attitudes toward each other. In order to explain why many Hong Kong people exhibit ...exclusionary attitudes toward granting social rights to Chinese immigrants who share the same ethnic ancestry with them, we conducted a phone survey to examine four important factors: (1) economic threat; (2) social threat; (3) negative stereotypes; and (4) contact with immigrants. We find that the economic threat—either at the societal or individual level—perceived by respondents does not explain their exclusionary attitudes. The results are consistent with alternative explanations emphasizing cultural and non-economic concerns commonly associated with ethnocentrism.
We report the results of atomic force microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, and molecular dynamics (MD) calculations for amyloid fibrils formed ...by residues 109–122 of the Syrian hamster prion protein (H1). Our data reveal that H1 fibrils contain no more than two β-sheet layers. The peptide strands of H1 fibrils are antiparallel with the A117 residues aligned to form a linear chain in the direction of the fibril axis. The molecular structure of the H1 fibrils, which adopts the motif of steric zipper, is highly uniform in the region of the palindrome sequence AGAAAAGA. The closest distance between the two adjacent β-sheet layers is found to be about 5 Å. The structural features of the molecular model of H1 fibrils obtained by MD simulations are consistent with the experimental results. Overall, our solid-state NMR and MD simulation data indicate that a steric zipper, which was first observed in the crystals of fibril-forming peptides, can be formed in H1 fibrils near the region of the palindrome sequence.
Summary
Background Previous studies have shown that cytokine gene polymorphisms may confer susceptibility to psoriasis.
Objectives To determine whether genetic polymorphisms of the cytokine genes ...might influence the development of psoriasis in Chinese patients in Taiwan.
Methods DNA samples were obtained from 170 patients with psoriasis vulgaris (PV), 102 patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and 210 control subjects. Using direct sequencing and microsatellite genotyping, we examined 28 polymorphisms in 11 cytokine genes including the interleukin (IL)‐1α, IL‐1β, IL‐1 receptor antagonist, IL‐4, IL‐8, IL‐10, IL‐12B, IL‐13, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)‐α, TNF‐β and interferon‐γ genes. Genotypes of HLA‐Cw*0602, killer cell immunoglobulin‐like receptor (KIR) genes and major histocompatibility complex class I chain‐related gene A (MICA) were also determined in patients with PsA.
Results The patients with PV were more likely to carry the +4496G allele of the IL‐12B gene (59·4% vs. 49·3%, P = 0·0067, Pc = 0·033). However, no significantly different allelic and genotypic distributions of the other analysed genes including IL‐1β, TNF‐α, TNF‐β, KIR genes and MICA were found between the PV/PsA patients and controls. Moreover, no association was observed with disease onset, gender, peripheral arthritis or joint erosion. With regards to HLA‐Cw*0602, its allele frequency was significantly increased in patients with early‐onset PV (25·3% vs. 4·8%, P < 10−7), but not in patients with PsA.
Conclusions The IL‐12B gene polymorphism conferred a risk for PV in our Chinese population, although the effect was more minor than that of HLA‐Cw*0602. Cw*0602, KIR2DS1/S2 and MICA‐A9 were unlikely to be risk alleles in our patients with PsA. The other analysed genetic polymorphisms of cytokine genes do not appear to be associated with susceptibility to PV and PsA in Chinese patients in Taiwan.
A direct human ferritin immunosensor was developed using anti-human ferritin monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) immobilized on the gold surface of a self-assembled surface plasmon resonance (SPR) ...apparatus. A kind of self-assembled monolayer (SAM) prepared by cystamine-glutaraldehyde method was applied to immobilize the MAbs. The reusability of the sensor chip adopting the SAM was found to be better than the other immobilization methods including adsorption, protein A, concanavalin A method. Ten cycles of measurements could be performed on the same chip regenerated with a 0.1M HCl solution. A linear relationship existed between the angle shifts (millidegrees) and the log values of ferritin concentrations in the range from 0.2 to 200 ng/ml in buffer and human serum. When used for 15 days, the angle shifts were all >95% of those on the response at the first day. A 10 M NaOH solution was used for clearing nonspecific binding in human serum. Correlation coefficient was 0.991 between this SPR method and chemiluminescent immunoassay for determination of ferritin in clinical human serum samples. The SPR sensor offers advantages of simplicity of immobilization, high sensitivity, high specificity, low sample requirement, high reusability, no label and no pretreatment etc.
Abstract Posttransplantation diabetes mellitus (PTDM) is a major complication in renal transplant recipients. Some studies have demonstrated that tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) expression and ...its genetic polymorphism are associated with diabetes mellitus. We investigated this association in Asian renal transplant recipients. Polymerase chain reaction–restriction-fragment length polymorphism was used to measure TNF-α G-238A and G-308A gene polymorphisms among 241 nonposttransplantation diabetic subjects and 73 PTDM patients. PTDM patients showed higher values of body weight and body mass index (BMI) than the non-PTDM group. However, no significant association was observed between TNF-α G-238A and TNF-α G-308A polymorphisms with PTDM incidence, gender, age at transplantation, follow-up duration, BMI, or type of immunosuppression.
This study investigates the determinants of social support. We used a random sample of 211 female Chinese marriage migrants from a 2-year longitudinal secondary data set and conducted bivariate and ...multivariate multiple regressions to examine the associations of social support with acculturation stress, persistent acculturation stress, psychological wellbeing, perceived neighborhood disorder, and optimism. Results showed that marriage migrants have difficulties rebuilding their social network outside their own communities. Acculturation stress and psychological wellbeing were the two significant factors affecting social support. Findings suggest that social support interventions should focus on alleviating acculturation stress, expanding social networking opportunities, and enhancing psychological wellbeing.
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