Publications by authors named "Ching-Chi Yang"

Understanding the origin and natural organization of early infant vocalizations is important for predicting communication and language abilities in later years. The very frequent production of speech-like vocalizations (hereafter "protophones"), occurring largely independently of interaction, is part of this developmental process. This study aims to investigate the gap durations (time intervals) between protophones, comparing typically developing (TD) infants and infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in a naturalistic setting where endogenous protophones occur frequently.

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Health literacy has been identified as an influential factor affecting the HIV care continuum and HIV epidemic, but recent systematic reviews found mixed relationships between health literacy and HIV medication adherence. This may be partially due to discrepancies between health literacy conceptualizations, health literacy measures, and the lifeworld, day-to-day challenges that persons with HIV (PWH) face as they seek and receive care. To address these challenges, a new health literacy tool, Communicating Care Needs Tool for HIV (CCNT-HIV), was developed.

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has triggered an enormous number of discussion topics on social media Twitter. It has an impact on the global health system and citizen responses to the pandemic. Multiple responses (replies, favorites, and retweets) reflect the followers' attitudes and emotions towards these tweets.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the link between human rhinovirus type C (HRV-C) and asthma exacerbations (AE) in Taiwanese children, focusing on the prevalence of respiratory viruses in those with acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRTI).
  • Conducted between 2011 and 2013, the research involved two groups of children: those experiencing AE (28 participants) and those without asthma (66 participants), using various methods to detect viruses in nasopharyngeal swabs.
  • Results showed that HRV and specifically HRV-C were significantly more prevalent in the AE group compared to the non-asthma group, indicating that HRV is the most common viral cause of pediatric AEs in Taiwan, with HRV-C
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Context: Dioscorins, the primary storage proteins in yam tubers, of different species exhibited varying immunomodulatory activities in mice. We inferred that this might be attributed to the various isoforms in the yam tubers.

Objective: We aimed to investigate the antiallergic potential of the Class A dioscorins of various yam species using the ovalbumin (OVA)-induced murine allergy model.

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Background: Dioscorins are the major storage proteins of yam tubers. However, the molecular nature of their heterogeneity in tubers has not been fully elucidated. In this study the authors isolated the dioscorin gene families of Dioscorea japonica and Dioscorea pseudojaponica, performed matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) and elucidated which dioscorin isoforms are the major constituents in tubers.

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Article Synopsis
  • Dioscorins, the main storage proteins in yam tubers, show biochemical and immunomodulatory functions, making them interesting for biomedical research.
  • Two dioscorin genes (Dj-dioA3 and Dp-dioA2) were successfully expressed in E. coli, yielding significant amounts of recombinant proteins (15-30 mg/L for rDj-dioscorinA3 and 4-8 mg/L for rDp-dioscorinA2).
  • Analyses revealed that these recombinant proteins resemble native dioscorins in structure and function, exhibiting similar antigenic properties, radical scavenging abilities, and the capacity to enhance macrophage activity against pathogens, indicating their potential for future biomedical applications.
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Background/purpose: This aim of this study was to assess the clinical manifestations, the microorganisms involved and their antibiotic resistance in children hospitalized due to acute lobar nephronia (ALN) and non-ALN community-acquired urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 265 previously healthy children hospitalized due to a first-episode of community-acquired febrile UTI between July 2004 and June 2007. Based on the results of renal ultrasonography and computed tomography, they were divided into ALN and non-ALN groups.

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