Exposure to Secondhand Smoke and Risk of Tuberculosis: Prospective Cohort Study

Background: Prospective evidence on the association between secondhand-smoke exposure and tuberculosis is limited. Methods: We included 23,827 never smokers from two rounds (2001 and 2005) of Taiwan National Health Interview Survey. Information on exposure to secondhand smoke at home as well as other sociodemographic and behavioral factors was collected through in-person interview. The participants were prospectively followed for incidence of tuberculosis through cross-matching the survey database to the national tuberculosis registry of Taiwan. Results: A total of 85 cases of active tuberculosis were identified after a median follow-up of 7.0 years. The prevalence of exposure to secondhand smoke at home was 41.8% in the study population. In the multivariable Cox proportional hazards analysis, secondhand smoke was not associated with active tuberculosis (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.03; 95% CI, 0.64 to 1.64). In the subgroup analysis, the association between secondhand smoke and tuberculosis decreased with increasing age; the adjusted HR for those = 18 and = 40 and = 60 years old was 8.48 (0.77 to 93.56), 2.29 (0.75 to 7.01), 1.33 (0.58 to 3.01), and 0.66 (0.35 to 1.23) respectively. Results from extensive sensitivity analyses suggested that potential misclassification of secondhand-smoke exposure would not substantially affect the observed associations. Conclusions: The results from this prospective cohort study did not support an overall association between secondhand smoke and tuberculosis. However, the finding that adolescents might be particularly susceptible to secondhand smoke's effect warrants further investigation

Application of 2,3-Naphthalenediamine in Labeling Natural Carbohydrates for Capillary Electrophoresis

Neutral and acidic monosaccharide components in <em>Ganoderma lucidum</em> polysaccharide are readily labeled with 2,3-naphthalenediamine, and the resulting saccharide-naphthimidazole (NAIM) derivatives are quantified by capillary electrophoresis (CE) in borate buffer. Using sulfated-α-cyclodextrin as the chiral selector, enantiomers of monosaccharide-NAIMs are resolved on CE in phosphate buffer, allowing a simultaneous determination of the absolute configuration and sugar composition in the mucilage polysaccharide of a medicinal herb<em> Dendrobium</em> <em>huoshanense</em>. Together with the specific enzymatic reactions of various glycoside hydrolases on the NAIM derivatives of glycans, the structures of natural glycans can be deduced from the digestion products identified by CE analysis. Though heparin dissachrides could be successfully derived with the NAIM-labeling method, the heparin derivatives with the same degree of sulfation could not be separated by CE

Transcriptomic analyses of regenerating adult feathers in chicken

Transcriptome Expression Data. Table of mapped reads to Galgal4 transcripts for all 15 data sets. FPKM (Fragments per kilobase of exon per million fragments mapped): normalized transcript abundance values for each gene in the indicated tissues. (CSV 1314 kb

Retrospective and Real-time Measures of the Quantity of E-cigarette Use: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

INTRODUCTION: Quantifying e-cigarette use is challenging because of the wide variety of products and the lack of a clear, objective demarcation of a use event. This study aimed to characterize the difference between retrospective and real-time measures of the quantity of e-cigarette use and identify the covariates that may account for discrepancies between the two types of measures. METHODS: This study analyzed data from 401 college student e-cigarette users in Indiana and Texas who responded to a web survey (retrospective) and 7-day ecological momentary assessments (EMA) (real-time) on their e-cigarette use behavior, dependence symptomatology, e-cigarette product characteristics, and use contexts from Fall 2019 to Fall 2021. Generalized linear mixed models were used to model the real-time measures of quantity offset by the retrospective average quantity. RESULTS: Although the number of times using e-cigarettes per day seems to be applicable to both retrospective and real-time measures, the number reported via EMA was 8.5 times the retrospective report. E-cigarette users with higher e-cigarette primary dependence motives tended to report more daily nicotine consumption via EMA than their retrospective reports (ie, perceived average consumption). Other covariates that were associated with discrepancies between real-time and retrospective reports included gender, nicotine concentration, using a menthol- or fruit-flavored product, co-use with alcohol, and being with others when vaping. CONCLUSIONS: The study found extreme under-reporting of e-cigarette consumption on retrospective surveys. Important covariates identified to be associated with higher than average consumption may be considered as potential targets for future vaping interventions. IMPLICATIONS: This is the first study that characterizes the direction and magnitude of the difference between retrospective and real-time measures of the quantity of e-cigarette use among young adults-the population most likely to use e-cigarettes. An average retrospective account of vaping events per day may significantly underestimate e-cigarette use frequency among young adults. The lack of insight into the degree of consumption among users with heavy primary dependence motives illustrates the importance of incorporating self-monitoring into cessation interventions

An Ecological Momentary assessment Study to Examine Covariates and Effects of Concurrent and Simultaneous Use of Electronic Cigarettes and Marijuana among College Students

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of concurrent and simultaneous use of e-cigarette and marijuana among college students is high. Yet, the literature was mainly based on cross-sectional surveys with emphasis on the smoking route. This is the first ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study that examined the vaping route of nicotine-marijuana co-use and the associated short-term psychological effects. METHODS: This study recruited 686 college student e-cigarette users to participate in an on-line survey and 7-day EMA. Frequent marijuana users (247) - using marijuana weekly or daily - were compared with infrequent/non-users (439) on academic performance, e-cigarette use patterns, and dependence and respiratory symptoms. EMA data from the frequent users were used to study the association between marijuana vaping and e-cigarette consumption and the short-term psychological effects of e-cigarette and marijuana use. RESULTS: The results show that e-cigarette users who frequently used marijuana tended to have lower academic performance, be involved in higher-risk use patterns, and have higher levels of e-cigarette dependence, marijuana problems, and respiratory symptoms, compared to infrequent/non-users. Marijuana vaping was associated with a higher level of e-cigarette consumption. E-cigarette use and marijuana use were both associated with higher levels of positive affect, physiological sensation, and craving for e-cigarettes. While marijuana use was linked to a lower level of negative affect, e-cigarette use did not have a significant effect. Further, none of the interaction effects between e-cigarette and marijuana use on psychological states were significant. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed additive effects of e-cigarette and marijuana use although the hypothesized synergistic effects were not supported

Customer Behavior Survery for Cultural and Creative Park in Taiwan

Cultural and Creative Park is a recreational campus which usually consists of exhibition, gallery, show room, movie theater, and multi-function facilities to provide the cultural activities. Besides, in the Cultural and Creative Park, restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores, gift shops, and other business units are nearby. How to improve the customer experience in the Cultural and Creative Park is an important research question for the managerial division to promote culture industries. In this research, the questionnaires were developed and performed in one of creative park in Taipei, Taiwan to study customer behavior. This paper addresses the survey result and the insights revealed from the survey

Observation of the nonlinear Hall effect under time reversal symmetric conditions

The electrical Hall effect is the production of a transverse voltage under an out-of-plane magnetic field. Historically, studies of the Hall effect have led to major breakthroughs including the discoveries of Berry curvature and the topological Chern invariants. In magnets, the internal magnetization allows Hall conductivity in the absence of external magnetic field. This anomalous Hall effect (AHE) has become an important tool to study quantum magnets. In nonmagnetic materials without external magnetic fields, the electrical Hall effect is rarely explored because of the constraint by time-reversal symmetry. However, strictly speaking, only the Hall effect in the linear response regime, i.e., the Hall voltage linearly proportional to the external electric field, identically vanishes due to time-reversal symmetry. The Hall effect in the nonlinear response regime, on the other hand, may not be subject to such symmetry constraints. Here, we report the observation of the nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE) in the electrical transport of the nonmagnetic 2D quantum material, bilayer WTe2. Specifically, flowing an electrical current in bilayer WTe2 leads to a nonlinear Hall voltage in the absence of magnetic field. The NLHE exhibits unusual properties sharply distinct from the AHE in metals: The NLHE shows a quadratic I-V characteristic; It strongly dominates the nonlinear longitudinal response, leading to a Hall angle of about 90 degree. We further show that the NLHE directly measures the "dipole moment" of the Berry curvature, which arises from layer-polarized Dirac fermions in bilayer WTe2. Our results demonstrate a new Hall effect and provide a powerful methodology to detect Berry curvature in a wide range of nonmagnetic quantum materials in an energy-resolved way