A traffic-induced shift of ultrafine particle sources under COVID-19 soft lockdown in a subtropical urban area.

During the unprecedented COVID-19 city lockdown, a unique opportunity arose to dissect the intricate dynamics of urban air quality, focusing on ultrafine particles (UFPs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This study delves into the nuanced interplay between traffic patterns and UFP emissions in a subtropical urban setting during the spring-summer transition of 2021. Leveraging meticulous roadside measurements near a traffic nexus, our investigation unravels the intricate relationship between particle number size distribution (PNSD), VOCs mixing ratios, and detailed vehicle activity metrics. The soft lockdown era, marked by a 20-27% dip in overall traffic yet a surprising surge in early morning motorcycle activity, presented a natural experiment. We observed a consequential shift in the urban aerosol regime: the decrease in primary emissions from traffic substantially amplified the role of aged particles and secondary aerosols. This shift was particularly pronounced under stagnant atmospheric conditions, where reduced dilution exacerbated the influence of alternative emission sources, notably solvent evaporation, and was further accentuated with the resumption of normal traffic flows. A distinct seasonal trend emerged as warmer months approached, with aromatic VOCs such as toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene not only increasing but also significantly contributing to more frequent particle growth events. These findings spotlight the criticality of targeted strategies at traffic hotspots, especially during periods susceptible to weak atmospheric dilution, to curb UFP and precursor emissions effectively. As we stand at the cusp of widespread vehicle electrification, this study underscores the imperative of a holistic approach to urban air quality management, embracing the complexities of primary emission reductions and the resultant shifts in atmospheric chemistry.

Unmasking air quality: A novel image-based approach to align public perception with pollution levels.

In the quest to reconcile public perception of air pollution with scientific measurements, our study introduced a pioneering method involving a gradient boost-regression tree model integrating PM2.5 concentration, visibility, and image-based data. Traditional stationary monitoring often falls short of accurately capturing public air quality perceptions, prompting the need for alternative strategies. Leveraging an extensive dataset of over 20,000 public visibility perception evaluations and over 8,000 stationary images, our models effectively quantify diverse air quality perceptions. The predictive prowess of our models was validated by strong performance metrics for perceived visibility (R = 0.98, RMSE = 0.19), all-day PM2.5 concentrations (R: 0.77-0.78, RMSE: 8.31-9.40), and Central Weather Bureau visibility records (R = 0.82, RMSE = 9.00). Interestingly, image contrast and light intensity hold greater importance than scenery clarity in the visibility perception model. However, clarity is prioritized in PM2.5 and Central Weather Bureau models. Our research also unveiled spatial limitations in stationary monitoring and outlined the variations in predictive image features between near and far stations. Crucially, all models benefit from the characterization of atmospheric light sources through defogging techniques. The image-based insights highlight the disparity between public perception of air pollution and current policy implementation. In other words, policymakers should shift from solely emphasizing the reduction of PM2.5 levels to also incorporating the public's perception of visibility into their strategies. Our findings have broad implications for air quality evaluation, image mining in specific areas, and formulating air quality management strategies that account for public perception.

A 5+1 assemble-to-activate mechanism of the Lon proteolytic machine.

Many AAA+ (ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities) proteins function as protein or DNA remodelers by threading the substrate through the central pore of their hexameric assemblies. In this ATP-dependent translocating state, the substrate is gripped by the pore loops of the ATPase domains arranged in a universal right-handed spiral staircase organization. However, the process by which a AAA+ protein is activated to adopt this substrate-pore-loop arrangement remains unknown. We show here, using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), that the activation process of the Lon AAA+ protease may involve a pentameric assembly and a substrate-dependent incorporation of the sixth protomer to form the substrate-pore-loop contacts seen in the translocating state. Based on the structural results, we design truncated monomeric mutants that inhibit Lon activity by binding to the native pentamer and demonstrated that expressing these monomeric mutants in Escherichia coli cells containing functional Lon elicits specific phenotypes associated with lon deficiency, including the inhibition of persister cell formation. These findings uncover a substrate-dependent assembly process for the activation of a AAA+ protein and demonstrate a targeted approach to selectively inhibit its function within cells.

Implementing a Novel Machine Learning System for Nutrition Education in Diabetes Mellitus Nutritional Clinic: Predicting 1-Year Blood Glucose Control.

(1) Background: Persistent hyperglycemia in diabetes mellitus (DM) increases the risk of death and causes cardiovascular disease (CVD), resulting in significant social and economic costs. This study used a machine learning (ML) technique to build prediction models with the factors of lifestyle, medication compliance, and self-control in eating habits and then implemented a predictive system based on the best model to forecast whether blood glucose can be well-controlled within 1 year in diabetic patients attending a DM nutritional clinic. (2) Methods: Data were collected from outpatients aged 20 years or older with type 2 DM who received nutrition education in Chi Mei Medical Center. Multiple ML algorithms were used to build the predictive models. (3) Results: The predictive models achieved accuracies ranging from 0.611 to 0.690. The XGBoost model with the highest area under the curve (AUC) of 0.738 was regarded as the best and used for the predictive system implementation. SHAP analysis was performed to interpret the feature importance in the best model. The predictive system, evaluated by dietitians, received positive feedback as a beneficial tool for diabetes nutrition consultations. (4) Conclusions: The ML prediction model provides a promising approach for diabetes nutrition consultations to maintain good long-term blood glucose control, reduce diabetes-related complications, and enhance the quality of medical care.

The role of the west-dipping collision boundary fault in the Taiwan 2022 Chihshang earthquake sequence.

On 17-18 September 2022, an earthquake sequence with a moment magnitude of 6.6 foreshock and a 7.0 mainshock occurred in southeast Taiwan along the Longitudinal Valley. Several surface breaks and collapsed buildings were observed after the event and one person died. The focal mechanisms of the foreshock and mainshock both had a west-dipping fault plane, which is different from the known active east-dipping boundary fault between the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate. Joint source inversions were performed to better understand the rupture mechanism of this earthquake sequence. The results show that the ruptures mainly occurred on a west-dipping fault. In the mainshock, the slip originated from the hypocenter and propagated toward the north with a rupture velocity of approximately 2.5 km/s. The east-dipping Longitudinal Valley Fault also ruptured, which could be passive and dynamically triggered by the significant rupture on the west-dipping fault. Most importantly, this source rupture model together with the occurrence of large local earthquakes over the past decade strongly supports the existence of the Central Range Fault, which is a west-dipping boundary fault that lies along the north to south ends of the Longitudinal Valley suture.

Implementation of a patient-centered mobile shared decision making platform and healthcare workers' evaluation: a case in a medical center.

Shared decision making is a patient-centered clinical decision-making process that allows healthcare workers to share the existing empirical medical outcomes with patients before making critical decisions. This study aims to explore a project in a medical center of developing a mobile SDM in Taiwan. Chi Mei Medical Center developed the mobile SDM platform and conducted a survey of evaluation from healthcare workers. A three-tier platform that based on cloud infrastructure with seven functionalities was developed. The survey revealed that healthcare workers with sufficient SDM knowledge have an antecedent effect on the three perceptive factors of acceptance of mobile SDM. Resistance to change and perceived ease of use show significant effect on behavioral intention. We provided a comprehensive architecture of mobile SDM and observed the implementation in a medical center. The majority of healthcare workers expressed their acceptancem; however, resistance to change still present. It is, therefore, necessary to be eliminated by continuously promoting activities that highlight the advantages of the Mobile SDM platform. In clinical practice, we validated that the mobile SDM provides patients and their families with an easy way to express their concerns to healthcare workers improving significantly their relationship with each other.

Spatial allocation of LID practices with a water footprint approach.

Urban water problems due to stormwater have been aggravated by the higher frequency of high-intensity precipitation events and the increase of paved surfaces. However, with appropriate stormwater management practices, such as low-impact development (LID), stormwater can provide an additional urban water resources rather than cause damage. This study aims to apply a water footprint to location determination of LID practices in the urban area. The LID planning procedure was demonstrated with the highest population density region in Taipei, Taiwan. In order to improve the spatial resolution of LID allocation, the "first-level dissemination area" with 450 residents was used as a spatial unit. The performance of LID practices was then evaluated with the simulation using the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). Three LID practices, rainwater harvesting systems, permeable pavements, and bioretention systems, were selected. After the water footprint accounting, ten sites were suggested for LID implementation. The runoff reduction rate reached up to 65 % by rainwater harvesting systems or at least 3 % by permeable pavements. This study provides a simpler and more effective approach to ways of integrating an urban water footprint into LID planning and stormwater management in urban areas.

Does AI explainability affect physicians' intention to use AI?

BACKGROUND: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being developed to support clinical decisions for better health service quality, but the adoption of AI in hospitals is not as popular as expected. A possible reason is that the unclear AI explainability (XAI) affects the physicians' consideration of adopting the model. PURPOSE: To propose and validate an innovative conceptual model aimed at exploring physicians' intention to use AI with XAI as an antecedent variable of technology trust (TT) and perceived value (PV). METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from physicians of three hospitals in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to validate the proposed model and test the hypotheses. RESULTS: A total of 295 valid questionnaires were collected. The research results showed that physicians expressed a high intention to use AI. The XAI was found to be of great importance and had a significant impact both on AI TT and PV. We also observed that TT in AI had a significant impact on PV. Moreover, physicians' PV and TT in AI had a significant impact on their behavioral intention to use AI (BI). However, XAI's impact on BI cannot be proved. CONCLUSIONS: The conceptual model developed in this study provides empirical evidence that could be used as guidelines to effectively explore physicians' intention to use medical AI from the antecedent of XAI. Our findings contribute crucial AI-human interaction insights in health care studies.

Deployment of a mobile platform to characterize spatial and temporal variation of on-road fine particles in an urban area.

Traffic-related air pollutants (TRAPs) pose a serious health hazard for residents and commuters in urban areas. In this study, a real-time mobile monitoring system was deployed in Taipei, a typical East Asian city with an overlap of high population density, traffic, and special structures (e.g., viaducts), to capture the on-road TRAPs at different times of the day. In general, black carbon, ultrafine particles (UFPs), CO concentrations, and lung deposition surface area (LDSA) were positively correlated with traffic flow, and for PM2.5, a more independent fluctuating concentration was observed. During rush-hour periods, the mean concentrations of UFPs, PM2.5, and LDSA were 6.12 × 104 ± 3.83 × 104 cm-3, 23 ± 8 µg/m3, and 2.29 × 102 ± 1.20 × 102 µm2/cm3, respectively. Additionally, the UFP number concentration and LDSA were two times higher along the high-traffic commuting route than along the lower traffic route. Pollutants tended to accumulate at sites near viaducts and high buildings and were significantly influenced by vehicle composition. In this study, the ratio of LDSA to total particle surface area concentration was used as an indicator of the degree of particle irregularity, which was directly related to aging during transport.

Pre-operative diagnosis of a primary uterine mature teratoma.

OBJECTIVE: Mature cystic teratoma is a common benign ovarian tumor. But extragonadal teratomas are very rare. They mainly occur in the midline structure of the body. Uterine teratomas are extremely rare with only few reports. The diagnosis was mainly based on the operative findings. We report a case of uterine mature teratoma in a 37 year-old woman who was diagnosed before the operation. We also review the literature about this exceptional presentation. CASE REPORT: We report a case of uterine teratoma that was initially diagnosed as a uterine tumor under ultrasound examination. But teratoma was highly suspected preoperatively by the abdominal CT scan. She underwent tumor excision via laparotomy. The operative finding and the histological examination confirms the diagnosis of primary uterine teratoma. CONCLUSION: Preoperatively diagnosis of uterine teratoma was difficult. Although there are no gold standard to treat the uterine teratoma, the majority of the treatment choice is surgery. The prognosis of this unusual disease is relatively good in benign lesions.

Briarenols I-K, New Anti-inflammatory 8,17-Epoxybriaranes from the Octocoral Briareum excavatum (Briareidae).

Five 8,17-epoxybriaranes, including three new compounds-briarenols I-K (1-3), along with two known analogues, briaexcavatolide P (4) and briaexcavatin P (5), were isolated from the octocoral Briareum excavatum. The structures of briaranes 1-3 were elucidated by spectroscopic methods, including 1D and 2D NMR studies and (+)-HRESIMS. Briarane 4 exerted inhibition effects on inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) release from RAW 264.7.

C1GALT1 is associated with poor survival and promotes soluble Ephrin A1-mediated cell migration through activation of EPHA2 in gastric cancer.

C1GALT1 controls the crucial step of GalNAc-type O-glycosylation and is associated with both physiologic and pathologic conditions, including cancers. EPH receptors comprise the largest family of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and modulate a diverse range of developmental processes and human diseases. However, the role of C1GALT1 in the signaling of EPH receptors remains largely overlooked. Here, we showed that C1GALT1 high expression in gastric adenocarcinomas correlated with adverse clinicopathologic features and is an independent prognostic factor for poor overall survival. Silencing or loss of C1GALT1 inhibited cell viability, migration, invasion, tumor growth and metastasis, as well as increased apoptosis and cytotoxicity of 5-fluorouracil in AGS and MKN45 cells. Phospho-RTK array and western blot analysis showed that C1GALT1 depletion suppressed tyrosine phosphorylation of EPHA2 induced by soluble Ephrin A1-Fc. O-glycans on EPHA2 were modified by C1GALT1 and both S277A and T429A mutants, which are O-glycosites on EPHA2, dramatically enhanced phosphorylation of Y588, suggesting that not only overall O-glycan structures but also site-specific O-glycosylation can regulate EPHA2 activity. Furthermore, depletion of C1GALT1 decreased Ephrin A1-Fc induced migration and reduced Ephrin A1 binding to cell surfaces. The effects of C1GALT1 knockdown or knockout on cell invasiveness in vitro and in vivo were phenocopied by EPHA2 knockdown in gastric cancer cells. These results suggest that C1GALT1 promotes phosphorylation of EPHA2 and enhances soluble Ephrin A1-mediated migration primarily by modifying EPHA2 O-glycosylation. Our study highlights the importance of GalNAc-type O-glycosylation in EPH receptor-regulated diseases and identifies C1GALT1 as a potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer.

GALNT6 expression enhances aggressive phenotypes of ovarian cancer cells by regulating EGFR activity.

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal of the gynecologic malignancies. N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 6 (GALNT6), an enzyme that mediates the initial step of mucin type-O glycosylation, has been reported to regulate mammary carcinogenesis. However, the expression and role of GALNT6 in ovarian cancer are still unclear. Here we showed that high GALNT6 expression correlates with increased recurrence, lymph node metastasis, and chemoresistance in ovarian endometrioid and clear cell carcinomas; and higher GALNT6 levels are significantly associated with poorer patient survivals. GALNT6 knockdown with two independent siRNAs significantly suppressed viability, migration, and invasion of ovarian cancer cells. Using phospho-RTK array and Western blot analyses, we identified EGFR as a critical target of GALNT6. GALNT6 knockdown decreased phosphorylation of EGFR, whereas GALNT6 overexpression increased the phosphorylation. Lectin pull-down assays with Vicia villosa agglutinin (VVA) indicated that GALNT6 was able to modify O-glycans on EGFR. Moreover, the GALNT6-enhanced invasive behavior was significantly reversed by erlotinib, an EGFR inhibitor. Our results suggest that GALNT6 expression is associated with poor prognosis of ovarian cancer and enhances the aggressive behavior of ovarian cancer cells by regulating EGFR activity.

MUC20 promotes aggressive phenotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer cells via activation of the integrin ß1 pathway.

OBJECTIVE: Mucin (MUC) 20 has recently been implicated to play a role in human carcinogenesis. However, the role of MUC20 in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains to be elucidated. METHODS: MUC20 expression was assessed in tissue microarray and tumor specimens of EOC patients by immunohistochemistry. Effects of MUC20 on cell viability, adhesion, migration, and invasion were analyzed in MUC20 overexpressing or knockdown EOC cells. Western blotting was performed to analyze signaling pathways modulated by MUC20. RESULTS: MUC20 was overexpressed in EOC samples compared with benign tissues. High MUC20 expression was significantly associated with poor overall survival in patients with advanced-stage disease. MUC20 overexpression significantly enhanced EOC cell migration and invasion, but not viability. Mechanistic investigations showed that MUC20 increased cell adhesion to extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and enhanced activation of integrin ß1 and phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK). The enhancement of cell motility and the integrin ß1 signaling by MUC20 was significantly suppressed by integrin ß1 blocking antibody. Furthermore, these effects of MUC20 on EOC cells were also demonstrated in MUC20 knockdown cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that MUC20 enhances aggressive behaviors of EOC cells by activating integrin ß1 signaling and provide novel insights into the role of MUC20 in ovarian cancer metastasis.

The Impact of Market Orientation on Patient Safety Climate Among Hospital Nurses.

Improving market orientation and patient safety have become the key concerns of nursing management. For nurses, establishing a patient safety climate is the key to enhancing nursing quality. This study explores how market orientation affects the climate of patient safety among hospital nurses. We proposed adopting a cross-sectional research design and using questionnaires to collect responses from nurses working in two Taiwanese hospitals. Three-hundred and forty-three valid samples were obtained. Multiple regression and path analyses were conducted to test the study. Market orientation was defined as the combination of customer orientation, competitor orientation, and interfunctional coordination. Customer orientation directly affects the climate of patient safety. Although the findings only supported Hypothesis 1, competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination positively affected the patient safety climate through the mediating effects of hospital support for staff. Health care managers could encourage nurses to adopt customer-oriented perspectives to enhance their nursing care. In addition, to enhance competitor orientation, interfunctional coordination, and the patient safety climate, hospital managers could strengthen their support for staff members.

Risk factors for gestational diabetes mellitus: ethnic disparities.

OBJECTIVE: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) increases the risk of poor maternal and infant health outcomes; therefore, the objective of this study was to compare the ethnic disparities and identify the risk factors for GDM. DESIGN: We performed a cross-sectional analysis using patient records from a hospital located in the Puli area of Central Taiwan. SETTING: A teaching hospital located in a rural mountainous area of Central Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: Between 2002 and 2012, the hospital admitted 154 patients (107 non-aborigines, 30 aborigines, and 17 non-Taiwanese) who exhibited glucose intolerance during their pregnancy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: GDM was confirmed using the oral-glucose-tolerance-test administered in dose of either 100 g or 75 g. The incidence and risk factors for GDM in the aboriginal and non-aboriginal women was compared. RESULTS: We excluded the patients who had overt diabetes or were non-Taiwanese. Thus, 132 patients (28 aboriginal and 104 non-aboriginal women; mean age 30 years) were enrolled in the final study. A total of 51 patients (15 aboriginal, 36 non-aboriginal women) had GDM, which was more prevalent among the aboriginal mothers (53.6% versus 34.6%). The risk factors for GDM among the aboriginal women were persistent glycosuria and prior macrosomia. CONCLUSION: The Taiwanese aboriginal women exhibited higher incidence of GDM; thus, we recommend that early screening and health education for pregnant aboriginal women be provided.