Association between high polygenic risk scores and long-term exposure to air pollution in asthma development: a hospital-based case-control study.

Background: Air pollution is widely associated with allergic diseases, including asthma. Although previous studies have suggested an epidemiological link between air pollution and asthma, the combined effects of air pollutants and polygenic risk scores (PRSs) on asthma risk remain incompletely understood. This study aimed to examine the impact of air pollutants and PRS on asthma risk among patients in a Taiwan medical institution.

Autoimmune Skin Diseases and Survival Outcomes After Antineoplastic Treatment in Patients With Cancer.

Importance: Autoimmune skin diseases (ASDs) and cancer both involve immune system dysregulation, with ASDs characterized by heightened immune activity, and cancer associated with immune evasion; however, their impact on cancer prognosis remains unclear.

Objective: To investigate the association of ASDs with cancer prognosis and survival outcomes after antineoplastic treatment in patients with cancer.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This population-based cohort study used data from Taiwan's Nationwide Cancer Registry and National Health Insurance Database to evaluate survival outcomes in patients with cancer who received antineoplastic treatment (ie, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, or immunotherapy) between January 1, 2019, and June 30, 2021.

Fractal biomarker of daily activity for women with early onset depression.

Background: Depression is a major health issue in adolescence and young adulthood, emphasising the need for early risk identification. Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) often show disturbed daily rest-activity patterns, but such changes are often confounded by medication intake, comorbidities and disease duration.

Objective: In this exploratory analysis, we tested whether there are specific changes in daily rest activity (from wrist-worn actigraphy) in women at the onset of MDD without medication, as compared with age-matched controls.

Hormone therapy and increased risk of psoriasis in reproductive-age and postmenopausal women: a nationwide cohort study and target trial emulation.

Background: Hormone therapy (HT) is widely administered for contraception and menopausal symptom management. However, its impact on psoriasis risk remains unclear, requiring an evaluation across diverse age groups to inform clinical practice and optimize treatment strategies.

Objectives: To investigate the association between HT and the risk of psoriasis in reproductive-age and postmenopausal women.

Uncovering key factors in weight loss effectiveness through machine learning.

Background/objectives: One of the main challenges in weight loss is the dramatic interindividual variability in response to treatment. We aim to systematically identify factors relevant to weight loss effectiveness using machine learning (ML).

Subjects/methods: We studied 1810 participants in the ONTIME program, which is based on cognitive-behavioral therapy for obesity (CBT-OB).

Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors and inverse risk of new-onset atopic dermatitis in a cohort with diabetes: a nationwide active-comparator study.

Background: Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), a novel class of antidiabetic medication, have emerged as a key treatment option in diabetes management. Notably, SGLT2i promote glucose and sodium excretion through urine, a mechanism that may be implicated in the potential association between SGLT2i use and risk of atopic dermatitis (AD).

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between SGLT2i use and new-onset AD in people with diabetes.

Dual-Stream Attention-Based Classification Network for Tibial Plateau Fractures via Diffusion Model Augmentation and Segmentation Map Integration.

Objective: This study aimed to explore a novel method that integrates the segmentation guidance classification and the diffusion model augmentation to realize the automatic classification for tibial plateau fractures (TPFs).

Methods: YOLOv8n-cls was used to construct a baseline model on the data of 3781 patients from the Orthopedic Trauma Center of Wuhan Union Hospital. Additionally, a segmentation-guided classification approach was proposed.

Interplay of Polygenic Risk Score, Smoking Statuses, and Air Pollution on Lung Adenocarcinoma Risk in a Taiwanese Population.

Background And Objective: We determined the impact of genetic susceptibility and its interaction with smoking and air pollution on the risk of developing lung adenocarcinoma.

Methods: This retrospective case-control study utilised data from Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative (TPMI) project conducted between June 2019 and November 2022. The study population consisted of lung adenocarcinoma patients and 1:4 age-, gender-, and index year-matched non-lung cancer controls.

Increased Risk of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Patients Receiving Sedative-Hypnotics: A Propensity Score Weighting Cohort Study.

Purpose: Benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRAs), including benzodiazepines (BZDs) and Z drugs, are widely prescribed for anxiety and sleep. Therefore, issues of tolerance, dependence and adverse effects are of concern. Recent studies suggested a potential link between BZRAs and hearing problems.

Corrigendum: Myricetin suppresses TGF-β-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in ovarian cancer.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2023.

Psoriasis Risk With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors.

Importance: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are recognized as revolutionary cancer therapies but have raised concerns about immune-related adverse events, including the development of autoimmune diseases.

Objective: To evaluate the psoriasis risk associated with the use of ICIs in patients with cancer.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This nationwide cohort study with a target trial emulation design used data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance database and the Taiwan Cancer Registry.

Medication use patterns in pregnant women with psoriasis: a nationwide study in Taiwan.

Background: Psoriasis, an autoimmune skin condition, affects 2-4% of the global population, with significant prevalence among women of childbearing age. Pregnancy presents challenges in managing psoriasis because of hormonal changes and treatment safety concerns. Understanding treatment patterns in pregnant women is crucial, given limited real-world evidence.

[Effect of Integrated Landscape Characteristics Around Chaohu Lake on River Water Quality Based on Watershed Units].

Considering the impact of differences in watershed characteristics on river water quality, with the Chaohu Lake Basin as the research object, based on the data of water quality, meteorology, topography, soil, and remote sensing images of the river monitoring points from October 2019 to September 2020, the watershed unit at each monitoring point was divided through digital terrain analysis, and the comprehensive landscape characteristics based on the watershed unit were explored through the comprehensive use of correlation analysis, redundancy analysis, and multiple regression analysis to investigate the influence of comprehensive landscape characteristics based on watershed units (including land use, climate, topography, soil, etc.) on the water quality of rivers around Chaohu Lake. The results showed that:① the water quality of rivers around Chaohu Lake had large spatial differences, with the main pollutants being total nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen.

Association of Rest-Activity Rhythm and Risk of Developing Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment in the Middle-Aged and Older Population: Prospective Cohort Study.

Background: The relationship between 24-hour rest-activity rhythms (RARs) and risk for dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) remains an area of growing interest. Previous studies were often limited by small sample sizes, short follow-ups, and older participants. More studies are required to fully explore the link between disrupted RARs and dementia or MCI in middle-aged and older adults.

Resveratrol inhibits arecoline-induced fibrotic properties of buccal mucosal fibroblasts via miR-200a activation.

Background/purpose: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is a precancerous lesion in the oral cavity, commonly results from the Areca nut chewing habit. Arecoline, the main component of Areca nut, is known to stimulate the activation of myofibroblasts, which can lead to abnormal collagen I deposition. Meanwhile, Resveratrol is a non-flavonoid phenolic substance that can be naturally obtained from various berries and foods.

The characterization and comorbidities of heterozygous Bardet-Biedl syndrome carriers.

Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder with clinical features of retinal dystrophy, obesity, postaxial polydactyly, renal anomalies, learning disabilities, hypogonadism, and genitourinary abnormalities. Nevertheless, previous studies on the phenotypic traits of BBS heterozygous carriers have generated inconclusive results. The aim of our study was to investigate the impact of BBS heterozygosity on carriers when compared to non-carriers within the Taiwanese population.

Polygenic Risk Score in Predicting Esophageal, Oropharyngeal, and Hypopharynx Cancer Risk among Taiwanese Population.

Esophageal cancer shares strong associations with oropharyngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers, primarily due to shared risk factors like excessive tobacco and alcohol use. This retrospective study at Taichung Veterans General Hospital involved 54,692 participants, including 385 with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the esophagus, oropharynx, or hypopharynx. Using a polygenic risk score (PRS) derived from 8353 single-nucleotide polymorphisms, researchers aimed to assess its correlation with cancer incidence and prognosis.

Biomechanical Evaluation of 2 Endoscopic Spine Surgery Methods for Treating Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Finite Element Study.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of 2 endoscopic spine surgeries on the biomechanical properties of normal and osteoporotic spines.

Methods: Based on computed tomography images of a healthy adult volunteer, 6 finite element models were created. After validating the normal intact model, a concentrated force of 400 N and a moment of 7.

A transferable in-silico augmented ischemic model for virtual myocardial perfusion imaging and myocardial infarction detection.

This paper proposes an innovative approach to generate a generalized myocardial ischemia database by modeling the virtual electrophysiology of the heart and the 12-lead electrocardiography projected by the in-silico model can serve as a ready-to-use database for automatic myocardial infarction/ischemia (MI) localization and classification. Although the virtual heart can be created by an established technique combining the cell model with personalized heart geometry to observe the spatial propagation of depolarization and repolarization waves, we developed a strategy based on the clinical pathophysiology of MI to generate a heterogeneous database with a generic heart while maintaining clinical relevance and reduced computational complexity. First, the virtual heart is simplified into 11 regions that match the types and locations, which can be diagnosed by 12-lead ECG; the major arteries were divided into 3-5 segments from the upstream to the downstream based on the general anatomy.

Myricetin suppresses TGF-β-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the second most common gynecological malignancy and has a high mortality rate. The current chemotherapeutic drugs have the disadvantages of drug resistance and side effects. Myricetin, a kind of natural compound, has the advantages of easy extraction, low price, and fewer side effects.

Association between neighborhood availability of physical activity facilities and cognitive performance in older adults.

The existing evidence on the contextual influence of the availability of local facilities for physical activity on the cognitive health of elderly residents is sparse. This study examined the association between neighborhood physical activity facilities and cognitive health in older individuals. A cohort study of community-dwelling older adults was performed using baseline data and follow-up data from the Taiwan Biobank.