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Abstract Background Children's dental anxiety is common in dental clinics. This study aimed to determine the interrater agreement between children’s self-reported and their mothers’ proxy-reported dental anxiety and its affecting factors. Methods In this cross-sectional study performed in a dental clinic, primary school students and their mothers were assessed for enrollment eligibility. The Modified Dental Anxiety Scale plus Facial Image Scale (MDAS-FIS) was employed to test both the children’s self-reported and their mothers’ proxy-reported dental anxiety independently. The interrater agreement was analyzed using percentage agreement and the linear weighted kappa (k) coefficient. Factors affecting children’s dental anxiety were analyzed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression models. Results One hundred children and their mothers were enrolled. The median ages of the children and mothers were 8.5 and 40.0 years old, respectively, and 38.0% (38/100) of the children were female. The scores of children’s self-reported dental anxiety were significantly higher than their mothers' proxy-reported dental anxiety (MDAS-Questions 1–5, all p

Abstract Background Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a common kind of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, which is a threat to public health. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are associated with the development of various diseases, including cancers. LncRNA titin antisense RNA 1 (TTN-AS1) is known as a crucial regulatory factor in several cancers. Nevertheless, the specific functions of TTN-AS1 in OSCC remains obscure. Methods The expression of TTN-AS1 in OSCC samples or cells was analyzed through qRT-PCR. Colony formation assay, EdU assay, flow cytometry assay, TUNEL assay and wound healing assay were conducted to estimate the functions of TTN-AS1 in OSCC cells. RIP and luciferase reporter assays were utilized to detect the interaction between TTN-AS1 and miR-411-3p as well as between miR-411-3p and NFAT5. Results TTN-AS1 expression was stronger in OSCC cells. Knockdown of TTN-AS1 effectively restrained cell proliferation and migration but had inductive role in apoptosis. Moreover, TTN-AS1 could function as the miR-411-3p sponge in OSCC and miR-411-3p exerted the inhibitory functions on OSCC cell growth. In addition, NFAT5 was proven as the target of miR-411-3p. Rescue assay indicated that overexpressing NFAT5 could reverse the inhibitory function of TTN-AS1 depletion on cell growth. Conclusion lncRNA TTN-AS1 contributed to the progression of OSCC via miR-411-3p/NFAT5 axis.

This paper examines the cost analysis of a hybrid photovoltaic and battery energy storage system (PV-BESS) for demand-side applications in southern Taiwan, R.O.C. The forms of input data and output data for three different investment plans are proposed and discussed. A sensitivity analysis to understand those affecting parameters to the investment is also investigated. The analysis results can support the users with a tradeoff among economic, operational and environmental factors. This paper establishes a potential and practical tool for cost analysis of most energy conversion applications. Index Terms--Battery energy storage system, demand-side management, economic and sensitivity analysis, photovoltaic system.

An application of plant growth simulation algorithm-enhanced honey-bee mating optimization is proposed to solve the fault section estimation problem in a power system. This approach is proposed because the local search capability of the honey-bee mating optimization is highly dependent on the parameter decisions. An inappropriate selection of parameters may affect the computation efficiency. This paper hence has added the plant growth simulation algorithm to enhance the honey-bee mating optimization so that the work of external parameter settings can be economized while the overall computation can be improved. In order to validate the effectiveness of this method, we have conducted the approach on practical power systems. Test results confirm the feasibility of this proposed method for the application considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]