Search

Purpose: Vancomycin can be used to treat many bacterial infections, although the generation of vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) may cause adverse consequences. We analysed the trends and the risk factors for healthcare-associated urinary tract infections (UTIs) by VRE. Methods: This retrospective study included patients who were hospitalized from 2009–2015 and had hospital-acquired enterococci infections who fulfilled the Centers for Disease Control and Ministry of Health and Welfare criteria, as determined by infection control professionals. Results: The mean age of the 594 participants was 72.3 years. The proportion of men with enterococcal UTIs was 70%. The proportion of VRE infections among all enterococcal UTIs was lowest in 2009 (18.1%) and highest in 2015 (47.3%). An increasing trend in the proportion of patients with VRE UTIs was observed from 2009–2015. Length of hospitalization of more than 40 days, placement of double-lumen catheters, and placement of a nasogastric tube were associated with a higher risk of VRE in UTIs (odds ratio=1.93–2.72, all P Conclusions: The use of unnecessary invasive catheters in patients with double-lumen catheters or nasogastric tubes should be reduced. Environmental disinfection and hand hygiene should be implemented.

AIM: To develop and test a mobile application that supports the disease self-management of adolescents with type 1 diabetes during their transition to early adulthood. DESIGN: A sequential mixed-methods design was employed. METHODS: The application content was designed according to previously identified care needs and expectations, followed by application development on the Android operating system. From the outpatient clinic of the Department of Paediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism at a medical centre in northern Taiwan, 35 individuals aged between 16-25 years participated in application testing. RESULTS: The overall median score of the QUIS was 4-5, most of the 25% quartile was 4-5, and all of the 75% quartile was 5, indicating adequate user interaction satisfaction. ispartof: NURSING OPEN vol:10 issue:3 pages:1755-1766 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Adolescents’ Internet health information usage has rarely been investigated. Adolescents seek all kinds of information from the Internet, including health information, which affects their Health Literacy that eHealth Literacy (eHL). This study is a retrospective observational study, we have total of 500 questionnaires were distributed, 87% of which were recovered, and we explored the channels that adolescents use to search for health information, their ability to identify false information, and factors affecting the type and content of health information queried. Adolescents believe that the Internet is a good means to seek health information because of its instant accessibility, frequent updating, convenience, and lack of time limits. More boys use the Internet to seek health information than girls in junior high schools (p = 0.009). The Internet is an important source of health information for adolescents but contains extensive misinformation that adolescents cannot identify. Additionally, adolescent boys and girls are interested in different health issues. Therefore, the government should implement measures to minimize misinformation on the Internet and create a healthy, educational online environment to promote Adolescents’ eHealth Literacy (eHL).

BACKGROUND Adolescents with type 1 diabetes face various challenges which are often associated with poor blood glucose control during their transition to early adulthood. Using appropriate mobile applications for health management can improve the efficiency of disease self-management. OBJECTIVE To develop and test a mobile application that supports the disease self-management of adolescents with type 1 diabetes during their transition to early adulthood. METHODS A sequential mixed-methods design was employed. The application content was designed according to previously identified care needs and expectations, followed by application development on the Android operating system. From the outpatient clinic of the Department of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism at a medical center in northern Taiwan, 35 individuals aged between 16 and 25 years participated in application testing. RESULTS The final application consisted of 11 interfaces, namely: CEO’s Profile, Health Tracking, CEO Knowledge Base, Barrier-free Communication, See Here: Diet and Exercise, Help Me, Detective!, CEO Chat Room, CEO's Secretary, SOS Calls, Q & A, and Who’s the Best CEO . The average user interaction satisfaction score of the application was 4.54 (± 0.41), indicating positive interaction satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS In this study, we developed the Healthcare Chief Executive Officer application tailored to the needs of patients with type 1 diabetes in the transition period. The application can support the disease self-management of adolescents with type 1 diabetes in the transition period, as well as provide references for clinical intervention. CLINICALTRIAL Future research will use a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design to evaluate the effectiveness of the application. Trial registration: listed on ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT05022875.

The current shortage of nurses is an important global issue. Most male nurses leave nursing within four years of starting their nursing career. It is crucial to understand the influencing factors on newly graduated male nurses staying in nursing. Previous studies on intentions to stay as nurses were seldom based on theory and failed to consider the differences between genders. Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this study tested the model that social support, resilience, and nursing professional commitment influence the intention to stay and the mediating effect of nursing professional commitment in the above relationship. This cross-sectional study adopted purposive and snowball sampling methods. Data were collected using online questionnaire, and 272 newly graduated male nurses completed it. The hypothetical model had a good fit with the data. Nursing professional commitment had a complete mediating effect between social support and intention to stay and between resilience and intention to stay. Nursing professional commitment was highly positively correlated to intention to stay. It is suggested that future research and practice should enhance male nurses’ professional commitment to increase their intention to stay. The findings can serve as reference for developing newly graduated male nurse retention programs.

Gene co-expression network analysis (GCNA) can detect alterations in regulatory activities in case/control comparisons. We propose a framework to detect novel genes and networks for predicting breast cancer recurrence. Thirty-four prognosis candidate genes were selected based on a literature review. Four Gene Expression Omnibus Series (GSE) microarray datasets (n = 920) were used to create gene co-expression networks based on these candidates. We applied the framework to four comparison groups according to node (+/−) and recurrence (+/−). We identified a sub-network containing two candidate genes (LST1 and IGHM) and six novel genes (IGHA1, IGHD, IGHG1, IGHG3, IGLC2, and IGLJ3) related to B cell-specific immunoglobulin. These novel genes were correlated with recurrence under the control of node status and were found to function as tumor suppressors; higher mRNA expression indicated a lower risk of recurrence (hazard ratio, HR = 0.87, p = 0.001). We created an immune index score by performing principle component analysis and divided the genes into low and high groups. This discrete index significantly predicted relapse-free survival (RFS) (high: HR = 0.77, p = 0.019; low: control). Public tool KM Plotter and TCGA-BRCA gene expression data were used to validate. We confirmed these genes are correlated with RFS and distal metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and general breast cancer.

Patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus at the age of 16–25 face the challenges of the deterioration of disease control and accelerated exacerbation. Providing interventions that meet patient’s healthcare needs can reduce the impact and improve health outcome. The purpose of this study was to identify the healthcare needs of patients with type 1 diabetes during the adolescence to adulthood transition period from the perspectives of patients, parents and healthcare providers. A two-round Delphi study was conducted among 48 participants, and included 17 patients, 16 primary caregivers, and 15 healthcare providers. The central tendency and dispersion were computed to establish a consensus. Seventy-one healthcare needs were identified across five dimensions—technology, external support, internal support, management, and healthcare—and 56 were considered as important healthcare needs and with a moderate to high level of agreement. Meanwhile, patients, primary caregivers, and healthcare providers were found to display significantly different opinions (p &lt, 0.05) for 23 healthcare needs. This study concluded the consensus of the healthcare needs of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus during the adolescence to adulthood transition period from a systematic investigation. The findings can serve as reference for developing transitional intervention strategies.

Genetic co-expression network (GCN) analysis augments the understanding of breast cancer (BC). We aimed to propose GCN-based modeling for BC relapse-free survival (RFS) prediction and to discover novel biomarkers. We used GCN and Cox proportional hazard regression to create various prediction models using mRNA microarray of 920 tumors and conduct external validation using independent data of 1056 tumors. GCNs of 34 identified candidate genes were plotted in various sizes. Compared to the reference model, the genetic predictors selected from bigger GCNs composed better prediction models. The prediction accuracy and AUC of 3 ~ 15-year RFS are 71.0–81.4% and 74.6–78% respectively (rfm, ACC 63.2–65.5%, AUC 61.9–74.9%). The hazard ratios of risk scores of developing relapse ranged from 1.89 ~ 3.32 (p –8) over all models under the control of the node status. External validation showed the consistent finding. We found top 12 co-expressed genes are relative new or novel biomarkers that have not been explored in BC prognosis or other cancers until this decade. GCN-based modeling creates better prediction models and facilitates novel genes exploration on BC prognosis.

BACKGROUND The successful completion of medical practices often relies on information collection and analysis. Government agencies and medical institutions have encouraged people to use medical information technology (MIT) to manage their conditions and promote personal health. In 2014, Taiwan established the first electronic personal health record (PHR) platform, My Health Bank (MHB), which allows people to access and manage their PHRs at any time. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Taiwan has used MIT to effectively prevent the spread of COVID-19 and undertaken various prevention measures before the onset of the outbreak. Using MHB to purchase masks in an efficient and orderly way and thoroughly implementing personal protection efforts is highly important to contain disease spread. OBJECTIVE This study aims to understand people’s intention to use the electronic PHR platform MHB and to investigate the factors affecting their intention to use this platform. METHODS From March 31 to April 9, 2014, in a promotion via email and Facebook, participants were asked to fill out a structured questionnaire after watching an introductory video about MHB on YouTube. The questionnaire included seven dimensions: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, health literacy, privacy and security, computer self-efficacy, attitude toward use, and behavioral intention to use. Each question was measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” (1 point) to “strongly agree” (5 points). Descriptive statistics and structural equation analysis were performed using SPSS 21 and AMOS 21 software. RESULTS A total of 350 valid questionnaire responses were collected (female: 219/350, 62.6%; age: 21-30 years: 238/350, 68.0%; university-level education: 228/350, 65.1%; occupation as student: 195/350, 56.6%; average monthly income X2310=2.63), goodness-of-fit index (0.85), adjusted goodness-of-fit index (0.81), comparative fit index (0.91), and root mean square error of approximation (0.07), were calculated. The results indicated a good fit. Further analysis indicated that the most important factor affecting respondents’ behavioral intention to use MHB was their attitude toward use (0.78), followed by perceived ease of use (0.65), perceived usefulness (0.41), health literacy (0.10), and privacy and security (0.07). CONCLUSIONS From the perspective of the populace, this study explored the factors affecting the use of MHB and constructed an interpretation model with a strong goodness of fit. The results of our analysis are consistent with the technology acceptance model. Through the diverse value-added services of MHB, Taiwan's experience in pandemic prevention with smart technology can facilitate future responses to unknown, emerging infectious diseases.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

BACKGROUND Intravenous injection is the most common medical treatment and the main cause of pain in hospitalized children. If there is no appropriate health care for pain relief, the proportion of moderate and severe pain often exceeds 70%. With nonpharmaceutical-based pain management, Buzzy is recognized as an effective device for rapidly relieving injection pain in hospitalized children. However, Buzzy is not widely used in Asia and very few experimental studies in Asia have addressed the effectiveness of the Buzzy device at treating needle pain in hospitalized children. OBJECTIVE The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the Buzzy device for diminishing pain levels among hospitalized children in Taiwan. METHODS We applied a quasiexperimental design with random assignment. According to the time of admission, child participants were randomly assigned to treatment and nontreatment groups. The Buzzy device was applied as an intervention in this study. The samples size was 30 per group. The study participants were recruited from the pediatric ward of a medical center in northern Taiwan. The research data were collected longitudinally at three time points: before, during, and after intravenous injection. Three instruments were used for assessment: a demographic information sheet, the Wong-Baker Face Scale (WBFS), and the Faces Legs Activity Cry Consolability (FLACC) scale. The data were analyzed by descriptive analysis, the Mann-Whitney U test, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and the χ2 test. RESULTS A total of 60 hospitalized children aged 3 to 7 years participated in this study, including 30 participants in the treatment group and 30 participants in the nontreatment group. The average age of children in the treatment and nontreatment groups was 5.04 years and 4.38 years, respectively. Buzzy significantly mitigated pain in children during intravenous injection with a significant difference between the two groups in pain-related response (FLACC) and actual pain (WBFS) (Z=–3.551, PZ=–3.880, PZ=–2.387, P=.02). When Buzzy was employed, the children experienced less pain than they did during previous intravenous injections (Z=–3.643, P CONCLUSIONS The intervention of using the Buzzy device was effective in reducing pain levels of intravenous injection among hospitalized children. The specific focus on children in Asia makes a valuable contribution to the literature. For clinical application, the reliable pain relief measure of Buzzy can be used in other Asian children to help health care providers improve noninvasive care among children. For future applications, researchers could integrate Buzzy into therapy-related games and a technology-based app to increase the efficiency of use and provide more data collection functions.

BACKGROUND Long-distance running can be a form of stress to the heart. Technological improvements combined with the public’s gradual turn toward mobile health (mHealth), self-health, and exercise effectiveness have resulted in the widespread use of wearable exercise products. The monitoring of dynamic cardiac function changes during running and running performance should be further studied. OBJECTIVE We investigated the relationship between dynamic cardiac function changes and finish time for 3000-meter runs. Using a wearable device based on a novel cardiac force index (CFI), we explored potential correlations among 3000-meter runners with stronger and weaker cardiac functions during running. METHODS This study used the American product BioHarness 3.0 (Zephyr Technology Corporation), which can measure basic physiological parameters including heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, maximum oxygen consumption, and activity. We investigated the correlations among new physiological parameters, including CFI = weight * activity / heart rate, cardiac force ratio (CFR) = CFI of running / CFI of walking, and finish times for 3000-meter runs. RESULTS The results showed that waist circumference, smoking, and CFI were the significant factors for qualifying in the 3000-meter run. The prediction model was as follows: ln (3000 meters running performance pass probability / fail results probability) = –2.702 – 0.096 × [waist circumference] – 1.827 × [smoke] + 0.020 × [ACi7]. If smoking and the ACi7 were controlled, contestants with a larger waist circumference tended to fail the qualification based on the formula above. If waist circumference and ACi7 were controlled, smokers tended to fail more often than nonsmokers. Finally, we investigated a new calculation method for monitoring cardiac status during exercise that uses the CFI of walking for the runner as a reference to obtain the ratio between the cardiac force of exercise and that of walking (CFR) to provide a standard for determining if the heart is capable of exercise. A relationship is documented between the CFR and the performance of 3000-meter runs in a healthy 22-year-old person. During the running period, data are obtained while participant slowly runs 3000 meters, and the relationship between the CFR and time is plotted. The runner’s CFR varies with changes in activity. Since the runner’s acceleration increases, the CFR quickly increases to an explosive peak, indicating the runner’s explosive power. At this period, the CFI revealed a 3-fold increase (CFR=3) in a strong heart. After a time lapse, the CFR is approximately 2.5 during an endurance period until finishing the 3000-meter run. Similar correlation is found in a runner with a weak heart, with the CFR at the beginning period being 4 and approximately 2.5 thereafter. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, the study results suggested that measuring the real-time CFR changes could be used in a prediction model for 3000-meter running performance.

Background The successful completion of medical practices often relies on information collection and analysis. Government agencies and medical institutions have encouraged people to use medical information technology (MIT) to manage their conditions and promote personal health. In 2014, Taiwan established the first electronic personal health record (PHR) platform, My Health Bank (MHB), which allows people to access and manage their PHRs at any time. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Taiwan has used MIT to effectively prevent the spread of COVID-19 and undertaken various prevention measures before the onset of the outbreak. Using MHB to purchase masks in an efficient and orderly way and thoroughly implementing personal protection efforts is highly important to contain disease spread. Objective This study aims to understand people’s intention to use the electronic PHR platform MHB and to investigate the factors affecting their intention to use this platform. Methods From March 31 to April 9, 2014, in a promotion via email and Facebook, participants were asked to fill out a structured questionnaire after watching an introductory video about MHB on YouTube. The questionnaire included seven dimensions: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, health literacy, privacy and security, computer self-efficacy, attitude toward use, and behavioral intention to use. Each question was measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” (1 point) to “strongly agree” (5 points). Descriptive statistics and structural equation analysis were performed using SPSS 21 and AMOS 21 software. Results A total of 350 valid questionnaire responses were collected (female: 219/350, 62.6%; age: 21-30 years: 238/350, 68.0%; university-level education: 228/350, 65.1%; occupation as student: 195/350, 56.6%; average monthly income Conclusions From the perspective of the populace, this study explored the factors affecting the use of MHB and constructed an interpretation model with a strong goodness of fit. The results of our analysis are consistent with the technology acceptance model. Through the diverse value-added services of MHB, Taiwan's experience in pandemic prevention with smart technology can facilitate future responses to unknown, emerging infectious diseases.

This paper proposes a driving method for 240Hz field-sequential-color displays. The proposed method redistributes the image energy in the displayed color fields with the modulation of backlight and liquid crystal signals. Most of the image luminance was concentrated in two multicolor fields, while the luminance of the other mono-color fields was much reduced. The proposed driving method can not only avoid the potential flicker issue but suppress the color breakup phenomenon.

Image enhancement by software or firmware has been a necessary function for smart phones. In this paper, a systematic algorithm was introduced to implement white balance correction, detail enhancement, and saturation enhancement with skin color reservation in turn. Additionally, the proposed algorithm was concise enough to adapt to limited computation power of the chip.

This paper considers edge-directed information of an input image to effectively suppress color breakup for a field-sequential-color (FSC) display. The edge-directed concept can be applied on any current color breakup solution or even applying on a global dimming backlight system. From the simulated and emulated results, the edge-directed FSC method significantly suppresses color breakup as using Stencil-FSC with 12×24 backlight segments. Hence, the proposed edge-directed FSC method can much reduce the computational complexity and make an FSC display more promising as next generation eco-displays.

Primary intramedullary spinal cord germinoma (PISCG) is very rare, and its preoperative diagnosis is therefore difficult. In addition, its treatment protocols and long-term outcomes are not yet established. Here, we report the case of a patient with a primary conus medullaris germinoma who initially presented with ejaculatory disturbance and coccygeal hypoesthesia. After the total excision of the germinoma and radiotherapy, no tumor recurrence was noted for 22 years. We have also reviewed the distribution of PISCG in spinal segments and its treatment modalities.

Background Long-distance running can be a form of stress to the heart. Technological improvements combined with the public’s gradual turn toward mobile health (mHealth), self-health, and exercise effectiveness have resulted in the widespread use of wearable exercise products. The monitoring of dynamic cardiac function changes during running and running performance should be further studied. Objective We investigated the relationship between dynamic cardiac function changes and finish time for 3000-meter runs. Using a wearable device based on a novel cardiac force index (CFI), we explored potential correlations among 3000-meter runners with stronger and weaker cardiac functions during running. Methods This study used the American product BioHarness 3.0 (Zephyr Technology Corporation), which can measure basic physiological parameters including heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, maximum oxygen consumption, and activity. We investigated the correlations among new physiological parameters, including CFI = weight * activity / heart rate, cardiac force ratio (CFR) = CFI of running / CFI of walking, and finish times for 3000-meter runs. Results The results showed that waist circumference, smoking, and CFI were the significant factors for qualifying in the 3000-meter run. The prediction model was as follows: ln (3000 meters running performance pass probability / fail results probability) = –2.702 – 0.096 × [waist circumference] – 1.827 × [smoke] + 0.020 × [ACi7]. If smoking and the ACi7 were controlled, contestants with a larger waist circumference tended to fail the qualification based on the formula above. If waist circumference and ACi7 were controlled, smokers tended to fail more often than nonsmokers. Finally, we investigated a new calculation method for monitoring cardiac status during exercise that uses the CFI of walking for the runner as a reference to obtain the ratio between the cardiac force of exercise and that of walking (CFR) to provide a standard for determining if the heart is capable of exercise. A relationship is documented between the CFR and the performance of 3000-meter runs in a healthy 22-year-old person. During the running period, data are obtained while participant slowly runs 3000 meters, and the relationship between the CFR and time is plotted. The runner’s CFR varies with changes in activity. Since the runner’s acceleration increases, the CFR quickly increases to an explosive peak, indicating the runner’s explosive power. At this period, the CFI revealed a 3-fold increase (CFR=3) in a strong heart. After a time lapse, the CFR is approximately 2.5 during an endurance period until finishing the 3000-meter run. Similar correlation is found in a runner with a weak heart, with the CFR at the beginning period being 4 and approximately 2.5 thereafter. Conclusions In conclusion, the study results suggested that measuring the real-time CFR changes could be used in a prediction model for 3000-meter running performance.

Background Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is used for diagnosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The eGFR models based on serum creatinine or cystatin C are used more in clinical practice. Albuminuria and neck circumference are associated with CKD and may have correlations with eGFR. Aim We explored the correlations and modelling formulates among various indicators such as serum creatinine, cystatin C, albuminuria, and neck circumference for eGFR. Design Cross-sectional study. Methods We reviewed the records of patients with high cardiovascular risk from 2010 to 2011 in Taiwan. 24-hour urine creatinine clearance was used as the standard. We utilized a decision tree to select for variables and adopted a stepwise regression method to generate five models. Model 1 was based on only serum creatinine and was adjusted for age and gender. Model 2 added serum cystatin C, models 3 and 4 added albuminuria and neck circumference, respectively. Model 5 simultaneously added both albuminuria and neck circumference. Results Total 177 patients were recruited in this study. In model 1, the bias was 2.01 and its precision was 14.04. In model 2, the bias was reduced to 1.86 with a precision of 13.48. The bias of model 3 was 1.49 with a precision of 12.89, and the bias for model 4 was 1.74 with a precision of 12.97. In model 5, the bias could be lower to 1.40 with a precision of 12.53. Conclusions In this study, the predicting ability of eGFR was improved after the addition of serum cystatin C compared to serum creatinine alone. The bias was more significantly reduced by the calculation of albuminuria. Furthermore, the model generated by combined albuminuria and neck circumference could provide the best eGFR predictions among these five eGFR models. Neck circumference can be investigated potentially in the further studies.

Color breakup is a lethal issue to conventional field-sequential-color LCDs. Several methods have been proposed to solve this problem. However, these solutions are either more than 180 Hz—the currently used LC mode is not sufficiently fast for this field rate—or they degrade the image quality while using a field rate of 120 Hz. To overcome these limitations, a 120 Hz Stencil Local Primary Desaturation, Stencil-LPD, is presented in this work. The 120 Hz Stencil-LPD method provides reduced but sufficient saturated backlight color to precisely present an image with less color distortion or color breakup. After optimizing a number of backlight segments, the experimental results demonstrate that the image fidelity is significantly improved and color breakup is greatly suppressed compared to the existing methods.

Disease affecting the cornea is a common cause of blindness worldwide. To date, the amniotic membrane (AM) is the most widely used clinical method for cornea regeneration. However, donor-dependent differences in the AM may result in variable clinical outcomes. To overcome this issue, biomaterials are currently under investigation for corneal regeneration in vitro and in vivo. In this article, we highlight the recent advances in hydrogels, bioengineered prosthetic devices, contact lenses, and drug delivery systems for corneal regeneration. In clinical studies, the therapeutic effects of biomaterials, including fibrin and collagen-based hydrogels and silicone contact lenses, have been demonstrated in damaged cornea. The combination of cells and biomaterials may provide potential treatment in corneal wound healing in the future.

Purpose This study aimed to translate and evaluate the psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the (DEBQ-C) among Taiwanese preadolescents. Design and Methods The DEBQ-C was translated into Mandarin Chinese (CDEBQ-C) using established translation and back-translation methods and reviewed by an expert panel for cultural equivalence. A convenience sample of 349 preadolescents was randomly split to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on the first half and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the second. Internal consistency estimates for subscales were evaluated using Cronbach's alpha. Construct validation with academic stress, a theoretically related construct, was also examined. Results The theoretical dimensions of the original DEBQ-C were supported with an EFA that revealed the presence of three factors with 41.23% variance explained, and model fit was confirmed by CFA. Construct validation was supported by positive correlations with academic stress. Each subscale of the CDEBQ-C demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.72–0.86). Overweight/obese preadolescents scored significantly higher on restrained eating compared to other weight groups. Conclusions The findings suggest that the CDEBQ-C is a psychometrically valid and reliable instrument for assessing overeating tendencies with Taiwanese preadolescents. Replication studies with greater diversity in age, ethnicity, and weight are needed to provide further evidence of construct validity for the CDEBQ-C. Practice Implications Clinicians and researchers can use the CDEBQ-C to assess or expand the knowledge of children's overeating. At-risk preadolescents can be identified at an early stage and effective and individualized intervention programs may be designed and facilitated.

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading cancers worldwide. Several studies have performed microarray data analyses for cancer classification and prognostic analyses. Microarray assays also enable the identification of gene signatures for molecular characterization and treatment prediction. Objective Microarray gene expression data from the online Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were used to to distinguish colorectal cancer from normal colon tissue samples. Methods We collected microarray data from the GEO database to establish colorectal cancer microarray gene expression datasets for a combined analysis. Using the Prediction Analysis for Microarrays (PAM) method and the GSEA MSigDB resource, we analyzed the 14,698 genes that were identified through an examination of their expression values between normal and tumor tissues. Results Ten genes (ABCG2, AQP8, SPIB, CA7, CLDN8, SCNN1B, SLC30A10, CD177, PADI2, and TGFBI) were found to be good indicators of the candidate genes that correlate with CRC. From these selected genes, an average of six significant genes were obtained using the PAM method, with an accuracy rate of 95%. The results demonstrate the potential of utilizing a model with the PAM method for data mining. After a detailed review of the published reports, the results confirmed that the screened candidate genes are good indicators for cancer risk analysis using the PAM method. Conclusions Six genes were selected with 95% accuracy to effectively classify normal and colorectal cancer tissues. We hope that these results will provide the basis for new research projects in clinical practice that aim to rapidly assess colorectal cancer risk using microarray gene expression analysis.

The H.264 video coding standard has become popular owing to its excellent compression efficiency. However, the H.264-coded video is very vulnerable to data loss. Conventional error concealment techniques interpolate the lost data in units of rectangular blocks, which limit the performance because a visual object is not equivalent to an image block. In this paper, we propose a new error concealment technique that uses visual objects as concealment units. The H.264 error-resilience tool FMO (Flexible Macroblock Ordering) is also incorporated at the encoder side for utilizing the spatial correlation. A lost region is concealed at the decoder side in three steps, namely object segmentation, object matching, and region-based patching. Objects are formed in the reference pictures based on color similarity, and adjacent objects of small area or the same motion are grouped as a unity. Motion estimation is performed on detected objects to find the associated motion vector. A lost region is concealed by the object in the reference picture with the best boundary-matching score. The proposed method provides considerably higher PSNR (peak signal-to-noise ratio) than conventional block-based approaches, especially for traditionally difficult cases and high-quality videos.

Background. Microarray technology shows great potential but previous studies were limited by small number of samples in the colorectal cancer (CRC) research. The aims of this study are to investigate gene expression profile of CRCs by pooling cDNA microarrays using PAM, ANN, and decision trees (CART and C5.0).Methods. Pooled 16 datasets contained 88 normal mucosal tissues and 1186 CRCs. PAM was performed to identify significant expressed genes in CRCs and models of PAM, ANN, CART, and C5.0 were constructed for screening candidate genes via ranking gene order of significances.Results. The first screening identified 55 genes. The test accuracy of each model was over 0.97 averagely. Less than eight genes achieve excellent classification accuracy. Combining the results of four models, we found the top eight differential genes in CRCs; suppressor genes,CA7, SPIB, GUCA2B, AQP8, IL6RandCWH43;oncogenes,SPP1andTCN1. Genes of higher significances showed lower variation in rank ordering by different methods.Conclusion. We adopted a two-tier genetic screen, which not only reduced the number of candidate genes but also yielded good accuracy (nearly 100%). This method can be applied to future studies. Among the top eight genes,CA7,TCN1, andCWH43have not been reported to be related to CRC.

A series of undrained cyclic direct simple shear tests, which used a soil container with a membrane reinforced with stack rings to maintain the K0 condition and integrated bender elements for shear wave velocity measurement, were performed to study the liquefaction characteristics of gap-graded gravelly soils with no fines content. The intergrain state concept was employed to categorize gap-graded sand–gravel mixtures as sand-like, gravel-like, and in-transition soils, which show different liquefaction characteristics. The testing results reveal that a linear relationship exists between the shear wave velocity and the minor fraction content for sand–gravel mixtures at a given skeleton void ratio of the major fraction particles. For gap-graded gravelly sand, the gravel content has a small effect on the liquefaction resistance, and the cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) of gap-graded gravelly sands can be evaluated using current techniques for sands with gravel content corrections. In addition, the results indicate that the current shear wave velocity (Vs) based correlation underestimates the liquefaction resistance for Vs values less than 160 m/s, and different correlations should be proposed for sand-like and gravel-like gravelly soils. Preliminary modifications to the correlations used in current evaluations of liquefaction resistance have thus been proposed.

This study was to perform the viscosity test of adding different ratios (from 10% to 40%) of three recycling agents (RAs), namely RA25, RA75 and RA250, to the reclaimed asphalt binder (RAB) containing a viscosity of 42800 poises. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of various RAs on the viscosity of aged asphalt binders. The viscosity values were also estimated based on the recycling model of aged asphalt binder developed by authors and the equations developed by Arrhenius (1887), Grunberg and Nissan (1949) and Epps et al. (1980). The results show that there are significant variations in the viscosity of recycling asphalt binder when being added different ratios of RA. The estimated viscosity values computed by the recycling model of aged asphalt binder are closer to the tested results when compared with the equations developed by Arrhenius (1887), Grunberg and Nissan (1949) and Epps et al. (1980). Furthermore, the Recycling Index (RI) developed by the recycling model of aged asphalt binder can clearly and precisely reveal the recycling performance of different kinds of RAs. The Gmix from the equation developed by Grunberg and Nissan (1949) has an apparent effect on estimating the viscosity when adding RA to the RAB.