Investigating the Role of Obesity in Prostate Cancer and Identifying Biomarkers for Drug Discovery: Systems Biology and Deep Learning Approaches.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer for men and is viewed as the fifth leading cause of death worldwide. The body mass index (BMI) is taken as a vital criterion to elucidate the association between obesity and PCa. In this study, systematic methods are employed to investigate how obesity influences the noncutaneous malignancies of PCa. By comparing the core signaling pathways of lean and obese patients with PCa, we are able to investigate the relationships between obesity and pathogenic mechanisms and identify significant biomarkers as drug targets for drug discovery. Regarding drug design specifications, we take drug-target interaction, drug regulation ability, and drug toxicity into account. One deep neural network (DNN)-based drug-target interaction (DTI) model is trained in advance for predicting drug candidates based on the identified biomarkers. In terms of the application of the DNN-based DTI model and the consideration of drug design specifications, we suggest two potential multiple-molecule drugs to prevent PCa (covering lean and obese PCa) and obesity-specific PCa, respectively. The proposed multiple-molecule drugs (apigenin, digoxin, and orlistat) not only help to prevent PCa, suppressing malignant metastasis, but also result in lower production of fatty acids and cholesterol, especially for obesity-specific PCa.

Electronic structure and lattice dynamics of Ba2CuTeO6 single crystals.

The electronic structure and lattice dynamics of Ba2CuTeO6 single crystals were investigated through spectroscopic ellipsometry and Raman scattering measurements. The room-temperature optical absorption spectrum of Ba2CuTeO6 presented a direct optical band gap at approximately 1.04 eV and exhibited four bands at approximately 1.45, 3.43, 4.65, and 5.79 eV. The optical absorption band at 1.45 eV was attributed to on-site Cu2+ d-d transition. The other bands were attributed to charge-transfer transitions between the O 2p and Cu 3d or Te 5p states. The room-temperature Raman scattering spectrum of Ba2CuTeO6 exhibited 16 phonon modes at approximately 85, 97, 104, 119, 160, 194, 380, 396, 404, 409, 492, 568, 574, 606, 679, and 751 cm-1. When the temperature decreased to less than 287 K, which is the temperature at which structural phase transition occurs from the monoclinic phase to the triclinic phase, additional phonon modes appeared at approximately 124, 128, 152, and 601 cm-1. On further cooling to lower than 75 and 15 K, which are the temperatures at which short- and long-range antiferromagnetic phase transitions occur, respectively, the phonon modes at approximately 97, 104, 124, 128, 152, 160, 194, 380, 396, 409, 568, 574, 606, and 679 cm-1 exhibited softening, which indicates a coupling between the magnetic and lattice degrees of freedom. The stretching vibration of CuO6 octahedra located at 679 cm-1 had the largest spin-phonon coupling constant (1.67 mRy Å-2).

Using cognitive modelling to investigate the psychological processes of the Go/NoGo discrimination task in male abstinent heroin misusers.

AIMS: To use cognitive modelling to investigate psychological processes underlying decision-making in male abstinent heroin misusers (AHMs). DESIGN: A case-control study design. SETTING: A drug misuse treatment centre in Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: Eighty-eight male AHMs and 48 male controls. MEASUREMENTS: Four parameters representing the attention to wins, learning rate, response sensitivity and incentive of heroin-related stimuli from the modified Go/NoGo discrimination task. FINDINGS: A modified cue-dependent learning (CD) model with four parameters representing attention to wins, learning rate, response sensitivity and incentive of heroin-related stimuli had a lower value of the sum of Bayesian information criterion (showing a better fit) than the original CD model (9555.50 versus 11,192.22, P < 0.001). The AHM group had a higher value of the heroin-incentive parameter than the control group (0.26 versus -1.66, P < 0.05). The attention to wins and heroin-incentive parameters were associated positively with total commission rate and negatively with total omission rate in the AHM group (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Male abstinent heroin misusers appear to be more influenced by heroin-related stimuli during decision-making than males with no history of heroin misuse.

Effectiveness of multimedia interactive patient education on knowledge, uncertainty and decision-making in patients with end-stage renal disease.

AIM: This study tested the efficacy of a multimedia interactive DVD as an education tool for patients with end-stage renal disease in terms of enhancing patient knowledge and decision-making skills and decreasing uncertainty. BACKGROUND: End-stage renal case numbers in Taiwan are growing by approximately 6000 new patients per year. Helping patients choose an optimal treatment method to maximise quality of life is an important healthcare issue for this patient population. DESIGN: This study adopted a quasi-experimental design and focused on subjects being treated at one medical centre in southern Taiwan. The study divided subjects into experimental and control groups. METHODS: The experimental group received three multimedia interactive DVD nursing-guided interventions. The control group received only normal hospital health education. The study gathered data using several scales addressing knowledge, uncertainty perception and decision regret. Scales were implemented immediately before and after the multimedia interactive DVD nursing guidance intervention and at four and eight weeks postintervention. This study used an independent t-test, chi-square test and repeated measures analysis of variance. RESULTS: This study found significant improvements in the experimental group in terms of knowledge, pre-dialysis uncertainty and decision regret. Experimental group subjects scored particularly less in terms of decision regret than those in the control group. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study demonstrated the efficacy of the developed multimedia interactive DVD in significantly improving end-stage renal patient knowledge and reducing patient uncertainties and postdecision regret. Study findings can be used as a reference guide for clinical nursing education efforts in hospital and other healthcare settings.