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The aquaculture of spotted hard clams, Meretrix petechialis, is a well‐developed industry in Taiwan. Spats have been produced for decades through artificial propagation using broodstocks selected from neighbouring culture farms on the basis of size and maturity, and the produced spats are resold to these culture farms. Although mass mortality occurs frequently in this practice, the effect of inbreeding depression has never been evaluated. Therefore, genetic diversity of 173 spotted hard clams from museums, two culture farms and three purchased populations was examined in this study. Phylogenetic analyses, based on either COI or cyt b fragments, indicated a division into lineages A and B among the samples. Cultured clams, except for one clustered with M. lusoria, museum specimens, and purchased samples from Hsinchu were all grouped into lineage A. The remaining two purchased populations were placed in both lineages. Compared with cultured clams from the Chinese coast in a previous study, our results exhibited a much lower haplotype (0.354 vs. 0.900) and nucleotide diversity (0.00113 vs. 0.00543). However, whether the loss of genetic variation is a consequence of inbreeding or the founder effect in the initial small broodstocks is unclear. The introduction of broodstocks from northern Vietnam and southern China may facilitate the management of genetic diversity. Environmental factors that potentially cause mass mortality require further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assessed the total arsenic content and arsenic speciation in rice to determine the health risks associated with rice consumption in various age-gender subgroups in Taiwan. The average total arsenic levels in white rice and brown rice were 116.6 ± 39.2 and 215.5 ± 63.5 ng/g weight ( n = 51 and 13), respectively. The cumulative cancer risk among males was 10.4/100,000. The highest fraction of inorganic/total arsenic content in white rice ranged from 76.9 to 88.2 % and from 81.0 to 96.5 % in brown rice. The current study found different arsenic speciation of rice in southern Taiwan, where the famous blackfoot disease has been reported compared with arsenic speciation from other Taiwan areas. Therefore, rice and other grains should be further monitored in southern Taiwan to evaluate whether arsenic contamination is well controlled in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The lifelong administration of immunosuppressants remains the largest drawback in vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA). Therefore, developing alternative strategies to minimize the long-term use of immunosuppressive agents is crucial. This study investigated whether full-spectrum bright light therapy (FBLT) combined with short-term immunosuppressant therapy could prolong VCA survival in a rodent hindlimb model., Methods: Hindlimb allotransplantation was conducted from Brown-Norway to Lewis rats, and the rats were divided into 4 groups. Group 1 did not receive treatment as a rejection control. Group 2 received FBLT alone. Group 3 was treated with short-term antilymphocyte serum (ALS) and cyclosporine A (CsA). Group 4 was administered short-term ALS/CsA combined with FBLT for 8 weeks. Peripheral blood and transplanted tissues were collected for analysis., Results: The results revealed median survival time of FBLT alone (group 2) did not increase allograft survival compared with the control (group 1). However, in group 4, FBLT combined with short-term ALS/CsA, median composite tissue allograft survival time (266 days) was significantly prolonged compared with groups 1 (11 days), 2 (10 days), and 3 (41 days) ( P < 0.01). Group 4 also showed a significant increase in regulatory T cells ( P = 0.04) and transforming growth factor-β1 levels ( P = 0.02), and a trend toward a decrease in interleukin-1β levels ( P = 0.03) at 16 weeks after transplantation as compared with control (group 1)., Conclusions: FBLT combined with short-term immunosuppressants prolonged allotransplant survival by modulating T-cell regulatory functions and antiinflammatory cytokine expression. This approach could be a potential strategy to increase VCA survival., Clinical Relevance Statement: Full-spectrum light therapy could be a potential strategy to increase vascularized composite allotransplant survival., (Copyright © 2023 by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.)