Family-centered decision making in living liver transplantation: Analyzing the tripartite physician-patient-family model in Taiwan.

Introduction: Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) necessitates effective shared decision making (SDM) to ensure optimal outcomes. Traditional models focus on the physician-patient dyad; however, in Taiwan, family involvement is integral to the decision-making process. This study addresses the gap by proposing a tripartite model that incorporates physicians, patients, and family members to capture the cultural nuances influencing LDLT decisions.

Expression and prognostic value of estrogen-related receptor β alternative splicing isoforms in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: Estrogen-related receptor β (ERRβ) alternative splicing isoforms, including ERRβsf, ERRβ2, and ERRβΔ10, have been implicated in the pathogenesis of malignant tumors. Nevertheless, their specific impact on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains unclear. The study aimed to investigate the expression and prognostic value of ERRβ alternative splicing isoforms in ESCC.

Baicalein relieves lung graft ischemia-reperfusion injury by reducing advanced glycation endproducts: From screens to mechanisms.

Background: The lack of effective drugs for treating ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in lung transplants (LTx) remains an issue. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) ingredients are promising but poorly studied in LTx. This study aimed to identify potential ingredients and elucidate their mechanisms.

Identifying categories of patient-driven health services innovation: insights from Taiwan's health services sector.

Purpose: This study aims to build a typology of patient-driven health services innovation (PDHSI) and propose their relationships with healthcare quality.

Design/methodology/approach: Guided by value co-creation theory (VCC), this study adopted in-depth interviews and focus groups to collect qualitative data in Taiwan's health services sector. The collected data were analyzed using manual thematic analysis, following the standard procedures for transcribing, encoding and identifying themes.

Case report: A case of giant malignant solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura with Doege-Potter's syndrome and review of the literature.

The solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura (SFTP) is a rare intrathoracic neoplasm that commonly originates from the subpleural mesenchymal cells of the visceral pleura and accounts for less than 5% of all pleural tumors. We reported a case of a 54-year-old man with a two-week history of hypoglycemia, a six-month history of productive cough and fatigue, and chronic right chest pain. Radiological techniques revealed a giant intra-thoracic mass with hypervascularization, and pathological staining was carried out to make a definitive diagnosis of SFTP.

A Multi-Level Model of Institutional Innovation and Knowledge Creation Capabilities: Insights From the Development of Taiwan's Nation Health Insurance.

This study proposes a multi-level model of institutional innovation in the healthcare sector-in other words, field-level institutional change pressures that start as network-level institutional innovation by hospitals and government for their organizational performance, with an emphasis on the effect of organizational-level construct-knowledge creation capabilities. A case study using in-depth interviews and a historical inquiry approach has been used to qualitatively analyze our cases during the development of Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI). Our results propose a multi-level explanation of institutional innovation by showing how field-level institutional change pressures can stimulate the government's institutional innovation at the network level.

Dual-Region Computed Tomography Radiomics-Based Machine Learning Predicts Subcarinal Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer.

Background: Noninvasively and accurately predicting subcarinal lymph node metastasis (SLNM) for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains challenging. This study was designed to develop and validate a tumor and subcarinal lymph nodes (tumor-SLNs) dual-region computed tomography (CT) radiomics model for predicting SLNM in NSCLC.

Methods: This retrospective study included NSCLC patients who underwent lung resection and SLNs dissection between January 2017 and December 2020.

Kidney Organoid and Microphysiological Kidney Chip Models to Accelerate Drug Development and Reduce Animal Testing.

Kidneys are critical for the elimination of many drugs and metabolites via the urine, filtering waste and maintaining proper fluid and electrolyte balance. Emerging technologies incorporating engineered three-dimensional (3D) cell culture models, such as organoids and microphysiological systems (MPS) culture platforms, have been developed to replicate nephron function, leading to enhanced efficacy, safety, and toxicity evaluation of new drugs and environmental exposures. Organoids are tiny, self-organized three-dimensional tissue cultures derived from stem cells that can include dozens of cell types to replicate the complexity of an organ.

Patient-centred e-health supports value cocreation and quality of medical care in Taiwan.

Background: Patient-centred e-health (PCEH) focusses on the interaction between patients and physicians. However, only a limited number of studies have focussed on the design of physician-patient value cocreation mechanisms in the PCEH context. Thus, we extend Grönroos' concept of value cocreation to understand how PCEH might improve the quality of care.

Transcriptomics identifies STAT3 as a key regulator of hippocampal gene expression and anhedonia during withdrawal from chronic alcohol exposure.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is highly comorbid with depression. Withdrawal from chronic alcohol drinking results in depression and understanding brain molecular mechanisms that drive withdrawal-related depression is important for finding new drug targets to treat these comorbid conditions. Here, we performed RNA sequencing of the rat hippocampus during withdrawal from chronic alcohol drinking to discover key signaling pathways involved in alcohol withdrawal-related depressive-like behavior.

Risk factors for lymph node metastasis in T1 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Lymph node metastasis (LNM) affects the application and outcomes of endoscopic resection in T1 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However, reports of the risk factors for LNM have been controversial.

Aim: To evaluate risk factors for LNM in T1 ESCC.

Epigenetic mechanisms underlying stress-induced depression.

Stressful life events are a major contributor to the development of major depressive disorder. Environmental perturbations like stress change gene expression in the brain, leading to altered behavior. Gene expression is ultimately regulated by chromatin structure and the epigenetic modifications of DNA and the histone proteins that make up chromatin.

Elevated Fructose and Uric Acid Through Aldose Reductase Contribute to Experimental and Human Alcoholic Liver Disease.

Background And Aims: Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) is a common chronic liver disease worldwide with high morbidity and mortality, and no Food and Drug Administration-approved therapies. Fructose (dietary or endogenous), its metabolite uric acid, and aldose reductase (AR, the only endogenous enzyme that produces fructose) are strongly associated with the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. However, the role of AR or its metabolites in ALD remains understudied and was examined using human specimens, cultured cells, and mouse model systems.

The histone deacetylase inhibitor suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) alleviates depression-like behavior and normalizes epigenetic changes in the hippocampus during ethanol withdrawal.

Withdrawal from chronic alcohol drinking can cause depression, leading to an inability to function in daily life and an increased risk for relapse to harmful drinking. Understanding the causes of alcohol withdrawal-related depression may lead to new therapeutic targets for treatment. Epigenetic factors have recently emerged as important contributors to both depression and alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Urinary acrolein metabolite levels in severe acute alcoholic hepatitis patients.

Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) remains a major health concern worldwide. Alcohol consumption gives rise to reactive/toxic acrolein, a pathogenic mediator of liver injury in experimental ALD. Elevated acrolein adducts and metabolites are detectable in blood and urine.

DeepDemosaicking: Adaptive Image Demosaicking via Multiple Deep Fully Convolutional Networks.

Convolutional neural networks are currently the state-of-the-art solution for a wide range of image processing tasks. Their deep architecture extracts low and high-level features from images, thus, improving the model's performance. In this paper, we propose a method for image demosaicking based on deep convolutional neural networks.

Releasing Addiction Memories Trapped in Perineuronal Nets.

Drug addiction can be conceptualized at a basic level as maladaptive learning and memory. Addictive substances elicit changes in brain circuitry involved in reward, cognition, and emotional state, leading to the formation and persistence of strong drug-associated memories that lead to craving and relapse. Recently, perineuronal nets (PNNs), extracellular matrix (ECM) structures surrounding neurons, have emerged as regulators of learning, memory, and addiction behaviors.

Acrolein Disrupts Tight Junction Proteins and Causes Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Mediated Epithelial Cell Death Leading to Intestinal Barrier Dysfunction and Permeability.

Increasing evidence suggests that environmental and dietary factors can affect intestinal epithelial integrity leading to gut permeability and bacterial translocation. Intestinal barrier dysfunction is a pathogenic process associated with many chronic disorders. Acrolein is an environmental and dietary pollutant and a lipid-derived endogenous metabolite.

The association of hospital governance with innovation in Taiwan.

Hospitals in Taiwan are facing major changes and innovation is increasingly becoming a critical factor for remaining competitive. One determinant that can have a significant impact on innovation is hospital governance. However, there is limited prior research on the relationship between hospital governance and innovation.

Acrolein Is a Pathogenic Mediator of Alcoholic Liver Disease and the Scavenger Hydralazine Is Protective in Mice.

Background & Aims: Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality, with no Food and Drug Administration-approved therapy. Chronic alcohol consumption causes a pro-oxidant environment and increases hepatic lipid peroxidation, with acrolein being the most reactive/toxic by-product. This study investigated the pathogenic role of acrolein in hepatic endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, steatosis, and injury in experimental ALD, and tested acrolein elimination/scavenging (using hydralazine) as a potential therapy in ALD.

Acrolein enhances epigenetic modifications, FasL expression and hepatocyte toxicity induced by anti-HIV drug Zidovudine.

Zidovudine (AZT) remains the mainstay of antiretroviral therapy against HIV in resource-poor countries; however, its use is frequently associated with hepatotoxicity. Not all HIV patients on AZT develop hepatotoxicity, and the determining factors are unclear. Alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking are known risk factors for HIV hepatotoxicity, and both are significant sources of acrolein, a highly reactive and toxic aldehyde.

Implementing hospital innovation in Taiwan: the perspectives of institutional theory and social capital.

The main purpose of this study is to develop an innovation model for hospital organisations. For this purpose, this study explores and examines the determinants, capabilities and performance in the hospital sector. First, this discusses three categories of determinants that affect hospitals' innovative capability studies: (1) knowledge stock; (2) social ties; and (3) institutional pressures.

Agency problems of global budget system in Taiwan's National Health Insurance.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the agency problem presented by the global budget system followed by hospitals in Taiwan. In this study, we examine empirically the interaction between the principal: Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) and agency: medical service providers (hospitals); we also describe actual medical service provider and hospital governance conditions from a agency theory perspective. This study identified a positive correlation between aversion to agency hazard (self-interest behavior, asymmetric information, and risk hedging) and agency problem risks (disregard of medical ethics, pursuit of extra-contract profit, disregard of professionalism, and cost orientation).

The influences of computer system success and informatics competencies on organizational impact in nursing environments.

The previous literature provides evidence that the characteristics of a successful computer system and the informatics competencies of individuals play a critical role in the adoption of information technology. However, while the combined effects of the two may provide a comprehensive view in understanding nursing informatics research, they have rarely been studied simultaneously. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the influences of computer system success and informatics competencies on nursing organizational impact.