Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Beta‐Blocker Initiation Timing on Mortality Risk in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery: A Nationwide Population‐Based Cohort Study

Background Relevant clinical studies have been small and have not convincingly demonstrated whether the perioperative initiation of beta‐blockers should be considered in patients with diabetes mellitus undergoing noncardiac surgery. Methods and Results In this nationwide propensity score–matched study, we included patients with diabetes mellitus undergoing noncardiac surgery between 2000 and 2011 from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. Patients were classified as beta‐blocker and non–beta‐blocker cohorts. We further stratified beta‐blocker users into cardioprotective beta‐blocker (atenolol, bisoprolol, metoprolol, or carvedilol) and other beta‐blocker users. To investigate time of initiation of beta‐blocker use, initiation time was stratified into 2 periods (>30 and ≤30 days preoperatively). The outcomes of interest were in‐hospital and 30‐day mortality. After propensity score matching, we identified 50 952 beta‐blocker users and 50 952 matched controls. Compared with non–beta‐blocker users, cardioprotective beta‐blocker users were associated with lower risks of in‐hospital (odds ratio 0.75, 95% CI 0.68–0.82) and 30‐day (odds ratio 0.75, 95% CI 0.70–0.81) mortality. Among initiation times, only the use of cardioprotective beta‐blockers for >30 days was associated with decreased risk of in‐hospital (odds ratio 0.72, 95% CI 0.65–0.78) and 30‐day (odds ratio 0.72, 95% CI 0.66–0.78) mortality. Of note, use of other beta‐blockers for ≤30 days before surgery was associated with increased risk of both in‐hospital and 30‐day mortality. Conclusions The use of cardioprotective beta‐blockers for >30 days before surgery was associated with reduced mortality risk, whereas short‐term use of beta‐blockers was not associated with differences in mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus.
China's Response to the Brain Drain

The past decade and a half has witnessed rapid increases in the number of people studying in foreign countries in undergraduateand graduatelevel programs. ' In the United States alone, the number of foreign students jumped from 179,340 in 1975-76 to 407,530 in 1990-91.2 A major contribution to this trend was the decision of the People's Republic of China (PRC), in the period of "opening and reform" since 1978, to reinvolve itself diplomatically, economically, and academically in the world community. What began in the early 1980s as a trickle of midcareer and older Chinese academics visiting Western countries to reacquaint themselves with developments in their fields had become by the end of the decade a large and increasing flow of graduate-degree-seeking students and visiting scholars of various kinds. " By 1984, the PRC was eleventh among countries sending students to the United States, and by 1989 PRC students had become the single most numerous group of foreign students in the United States, surpassing those from Taiwan and Japan. As part of its emphasis since 1978 on the leading role of science and technology in its modernization drive, the PRC has sent at least 80,000 students and scholars to other countries for advanced study, of whom perhaps 20,000 have returned to China. As early as 1988 there was an emergent but clear tendency for Chinese students and scholars abroad (hereafter referred to as CSSAs) to prolong their studies, and hence there was a good deal of concern in the PRC about the potential for a significant "brain drain. " This concern was of course intensified by the PRC government's harsh crackdown on student demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square in June 1989 and the subsequent widespread public protests by CSSAs in the United States and other countries. The international migration of highly educated personnel, commonly known as the brain drain, was a topic of considerable scholarly study and
Regulation of SERCA Ca 21 pump expression by cytoplasmic (Ca 21 ) in vascular smooth muscle cells

KWAN-DUN WU, DAVID BUNGARD, AND JONATHAN LYTTON Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan 100, Republic of China; Renal Division, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115; and Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Physiology & Biophysics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 4N1, Canada
Regulatory considerations for the clinical and research use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS): Review and recommendations from an expert panel

Abstract The field of transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) has experienced significant growth in the past 15 years. One of the tES techniques leading this increased interest is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Significant research efforts have been devoted to determining the clinical potential of tDCS in humans. Despite the promising results obtained with tDCS in basic and clinical neuroscience, further progress has been impeded by a lack of clarity on international regulatory pathways. Therefore, a group of research and clinician experts on tDCS were convened to review the research and clinical use of tDCS. This report reviews the regulatory status of tDCS and summarizes the results according to research, off-label, and compassionate use of tDCS in the following countries: Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Portugal, South Korea, Taiwan, and the US. Research use, off label treatment, and compassionate use of tDCS are employed in most of the countries reviewed in this study. It is critical that a global or local effort is organized to pursue definite evidence to either approve and regulate or restrict the use of tDCS in clinical practice on the basis of adequate randomized controlled treatment trials.
Examination of Geographical, Clinical and Intrahost Variations in the 3' Repeat Region of CagA Gene in Helicobacter pylori

The size variation of the cytoxin-associated protein (cagA), which is dependent on the 3' repeat region (3'RR) of the cagA gene, is known to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of Helicobacter pylori infection. The present study evaluated the relationship between the 3'RR variation and the geographic distribution, clinical manifestations, and locations of colonization in the stomach. We evaluated the 3'RR of H. pylori isolates from 78 patients with gastric cancer, peptic ulcer, and non-ulcer dyspepsia from Japan, Hong Kong, India, and the United States and assessed the variations of 3'RR according to the geographical and clinical characteristics. Sixty eight (87.2%) patients had the same 650 bp band without geographical differences. The frequency of polymorphisms in the 3'RR did not differ when compared to the clinical manifestations (P=0.868). The length of 3'RR did not differ by location of colonization. In conclusion, the 3'RR variation of cagA gene is not associated with the geographical and clinical characteristics of the patients studied.
Asia-Pacific Strategic Relations: Seeking Convergent Security

1. Introduction 2. Great power strategy I: China 3. Great power strategy II: Japan 4. Other key players I: Korea and Taiwan 5. Other key players II: ASEAN and Australia 6. The superpower respondent: the United States 7. Conclusion Bibliography Index.
Implications of China's Accession to the World Trade Organisation for China and the WTO

China’s accession package to the WTO provides China with some substantial advantages. In terms of market access, the most important advantage to China is the promised phase-out of the quotas on textiles and clothing originally introduced under the Multifibre Arrangement. But accession will provide important additional gains on the export side by securing current market access and the rules under which China operates on world markets. It will also provide China with important future opportunities to increase its market access in areas such as labor-intensive agricultural products and textiles and clothing, where exports are currently tightly constrained. Domestically, the accession negotiations have helped China to bring about a major reform of trade policy that will increase its openness to the world economy in a way that is projected to increase economic welfare and, by raising demand for unskilled labor, to increase the incomes of the poor. The longevity of China’s liberalization commitments is more assured than if they had simply been made without the binding commitments that are part of the WTO process, and the greater credibility of these commitments should help attract investment into the efficient industries that benefit from these reforms. China will have a major impact on the WTO by increasing the WTO’s share of world trade by about 5 percent (with Taiwan, China), and by introducing another major developing country with a wide range of interests. The wide range of reforms being undertaken, and the inevitable lack of clarity in some of the commitments involved in China’s accession means that there is likely to be a considerable upsurge in dispute settlement activity. This poses some risks for the WTO system if the dispute settlement is used in a confrontational manner, rather than as a basis for devising agreed solutions to the inevitable trade problems.
Anti-carbamylated Protein Antibodies Are Present Prior to Rheumatoid Arthritis and Are Associated with Its Future Diagnosis

Objective. Anti-carbamylated protein (anti-CarP) antibodies could further elucidate early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pathogenesis and predict clinical disease. We compared the diagnostic accuracy of anti-CarP antibodies for future RA to other RA-related antibodies in military personnel. Methods. Stored pre-RA diagnosis serum samples from 76 RA cases were tested for anti-CarP fetal calf serum (FCS), anti-CarP fibrinogen (Fib), anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies version 2 (anti-CCP2), rheumatoid factor-nephelometry (RF-Neph), and RF isotypes [immunoglobulin M (IgM), IgG, and IgA]. Positivity for all antibodies was determined as ≥ 2 SD of log-transformed means from controls. Relationships between autoantibodies and future RA were assessed in prediagnosis serum for all RA cases compared to controls using sensitivity, specificity, and logistic regression. Differences in diagnostic accuracy between antibody combinations were assessed using comparisons of area under the curves (AUC). Results. Anti-CarP-FCS was 26% sensitive and 95% specific for future RA, whereas anti-CarP-Fib was 16% sensitive and 95% specific for future RA. Anti-CarP-FCS positivity was associated with future RA, while anti-CarP-Fib trended toward association. The antibody combination of anti-CCP2 and/or ≥ 2 RF (RF-Neph and/or RF-isotypes) resulted in an AUC of 0.72 for future RA, where the AUC was 0.71 with the addition of anti-CarP-FCS to this prior combination. Conclusion. Adding anti-CarP-FCS to antibody combinations did not improve AUC. However, anti-CarP-FCS was associated with future onset of RA, and was present in prediagnosis serum in ∼10% of RA cases negative for anti-CCP2 but positive for RF.
Research on co-movement effects of conglomerate stock prices and derived investment strategies

This study investigated the co-movement in stock indices between Taiwan business group members to find investment arbitrage portfolios. Two investment strategies, called co-integration model and quasi-arbitrage model to arbitrage, were developed and thus allowed excess return in Taiwan capital market to be obtained.Finally, the proposed quasi-arbitrage strategy was compared with the co-integration model to identify which had the higher annual return. The empirical results showed that the co-movement in stock indices between Taiwan business group members did exist. The predicted investment annual return of the quasi-arbitrage model was higher than that of the co-integration model. Therefore, the quasi-arbitrage model was the better investment strategy. Key words: Conglomerate, business group, co-movement, quasi-arbitrage model, co-integration model.
Two New Species of Liuixalus (Rhacophoridae, Anura): Evidence from Morphological and Molecular Analyses

Due to small body sizes, superficial similarities in morphologies, and obscure activity behaviors, the phylogeny and taxonomy of species in the genus Liuixalus were very troublesome. Some species might comprise a complex of cryptic species. To investigate the species of group, we constructed the matrilineal genealogy of the genus using 16s rRNA mitochondrial DNA sequences. Analyses recovered six well supported matrilines that involved L. romeri, L. ocellatus, L. hainanus, L. calcarius, Liuixalus shiwandashan sp. nov. and Liuixalus jinxiuensis sp. nov., though the historical relationships among them remained unresolved. Currently, Liuixalus included 4 species, distributed eastwards from northern Vietnam to Hong Kong, China. Based on genealogical and morphological distinctiveness, we described Liuixalus jinxiuensis sp. nov. from the type locality Mt. Dayao, Jinxiu, China and Liuixalus shiwandashan sp. nov. from the type locality Mt. Shiwanda, China. A combination of morphological measurements, genetic, bioacoustic and osteological analysis was served to diagnose the new taxa.
Universal hepatitis B vaccination in Taiwan and the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in children. Taiwan Childhood Hepatoma Study Group.

BACKGROUND A nationwide hepatitis B vaccination program was implemented in Taiwan in July 1984. To assess the effect of the program on the development of hepatocellular carcinoma, we studied the incidence of this cancer in children in Taiwan from 1981 to 1994. METHODS We collected data on liver cancer in children from Taiwan's National Cancer Registry, which receives reports from each of the country's 142 hospitals with more than 50 beds. Data on childhood liver cancer were also obtained from Taiwan's 17 major medical centers. To prevent the inclusion of cases of hepatoblastoma, the primary analysis was confined to liver cancers in children six years of age or older. Data were also obtained on mortality from liver cancer among children. RESULTS The average annual incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in children 6 to 14 years of age declined from 0.70 per 100,000 children between 1981 and 1986 to 0.57 between 1986 and 1990, and to 0.36 between 1990 and 1994 (P<0.01). The corresponding rates of mortality from hepatocellular carcinoma also decreased. The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in children 6 to 9 years of age declined from 0.52 for those born between 1974 and 1984 to 0.13 for those born between 1984 and 1986 (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Since the institution of Taiwan's program of universal hepatitis B vaccination, the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in children has declined.
Quality of Life Patterns and Survival Among Older People

Background:As the numbers and proportions of elderly people in the global population increase, quality of life (QOL) within this group becomes an important research issue. Undertaking cross-national comparisons of elderly people can provide a better understanding of QOL patterns. Purpose:This study examines QOL patterns using a harmonization data set from two longitudinal studies of the older people in the United Kingdom (UK) and Taiwan and explores the relationship between clusters of older people and mortality hazards in these countries. Methods:Data were derived from the 1989 wave of the Nottingham Longitudinal Study of Activity and Ageing and the Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan. Cluster analysis was used to observe QOL patterns in the older people and their profiles. Cox regression analysis was used to test for the presence of clusters associated with mortality hazards. Result:Fifteen subgroups were extracted from cluster analysis of the Nottingham Longitudinal Study of Activity and Ageing sample (n = 690), and 20 groups were generated from cluster analysis of the Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan data set (n = 1,438). Cox regression analyses revealed a relationship between mortality risk and certain clusters over a 14-year period in the UK and Taiwan. Conclusions:Using cluster analyses to group the older people according to shared characteristics identified different QOL levels across these profiles both in the UK and Taiwan. The author also identified differences in the same profile levels between the two countries. It is important to explore the relationship between clusters and mortality hazards because clusters reflect important QOL factors affecting mortality risk.
Isolation and Characterization of an Autoinducer Synthase from Acinetobacter baumannii

ABSTRACT The opportunistic human pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii strain M2 was found to produce distinct acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) signals based on the use of an Agrobacterium tumefaciens traG-lacZ biosensor. An A. baumannii gene, designated abaI, was cloned and directed AHL production in recombinant Escherichia coli. The AbaI protein was similar to members of the LuxI family of autoinducer synthases and was predicted to be the only autoinducer synthase encoded by A. baumannii. The primary AHL signal directed by AbaI was identified by mass spectrometry as being N-(3-hydroxydodecanoyl)-l-HSL (3-hydroxy-C12-HSL). Minor amounts of at least five additional AHLs were also identified. The expression of abaI at the transcriptional level was activated by ethyl acetate extracts of culture supernatants or by synthetic 3-hydroxy-C12-HSL. An abaI::Km mutant failed to produce any detectable AHL signals and was impaired in biofilm development.
4 Link Quality Prediction in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

Cognitive radio is the radio revolution of our time. With it comes the promise of huge swathes of unused bandwidth which will provide the fuel for sophisticated wireless applications and fast and reliable wireless internet use. It is as yet unclear precisely what form cognitive networks will take. They may be infrastructure-based, ad-hoc or some combination of the two resulting from a trade-off between technological ideals and economic imperatives. With regard to ad-hoc networks it is clear that they will, at the very least, form an important part of cognitive radio networks for without them co-operative sensing would be considerably less effective. Cooperative sensing is an important tool in guaranteeing non-interference. Indeed in areas or at times where there is no radio infrastructure ad-hoc networks are essential. Communication between ad-hoc nodes is a vexed problem. The propagation environment may be harsh and/or changeable. Furthermore it is very difficult to predict accurately what the signal strength at an intended receiver is. Of course propagation models abound but none can accurately predict signal strength without recourse to topological data and even then these are slow to compute. This is why researchers have focused on path-loss models or statistical methods with which to make their predictions. The following is a literature review of the most prominent methods which have been published over the last fifteen years which will convey for the reader the coalface of research in this area.
Risk and Predisposing Factors for Suicide Attempts in Patients with Migraine and Status Migrainosus: A Nationwide Population-Based Study

Objective: To investigate the risk and risk factors for suicide attempt by patients with regular migraines (RM) and status migrainosus (SM) in Taiwan. Methods: We analyzed a subset of the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan and enrolled patients (≥20 years old) who had ever received a diagnosis of RM or SM between 2000 and 2012 in the RM and SM cohort. The SM cohort included 13,605 patients, the RM cohort had 21,485 patients, and the comparison cohort contained approximately four times that many patients. We calculated the adjusted hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for suicide attempts after adjusting for age, sex, monthly income, urbanization level, occupation, and comorbidities. Results: The SM cohort had a 1.81-fold risk of attempting suicide (95% CI = 1.14–2.89) compared to the comparison cohort. Other factors that predispose patients with SM to attempt suicide include the following: female sex, relatively young age (<50 years old), and low monthly income (<15,000 New Taiwan Dollars, approximately equivalent to 495 US Dollars). Additionally, the risk of attempting suicide only increased in patients who had been diagnosed with SM for longer than five years. Conclusion: SM is associated with a higher risk for suicide attempt in migraineurs in Taiwan. This finding is important to clinicians and government officials seeking to prevent patients from attempting suicide in Taiwan and other similar East Asian countries.
Couple relationship standards in Pakistan.

Relationship standards are the beliefs people hold about what a good relationship should be like, which vary substantially across Western and Chinese cultures. The current study extends the assessment of couple relationship standards to Pakistan, a large, developing Muslim majority country with a distinctive collectivistic, hierarchical, religious, and tight culture. We administered the Cross-Cultural Couple Relationships Standards Scale to 354 Pakistanis and compared their standards with those of 312 Westerners living in Australia and 286 Chinese living in Hong Kong, China. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed an acceptable fit of a model of two positively correlated latent factors, Couple Bond and Family Responsibility, in each sample. We added two standards hypothesized likely to be of importance to Pakistanis: Religion and Relationship Self-Regulation. Pakistanis endorsed all standards as important; they endorsed Couple Bond standards more than Westerners or Chinese, and Family Responsibility standards a lot more than Westerners or Chinese. Gender differences were of very small effect size.
Even Censors Have a Backup: Examining China's Double HTTPS Censorship Middleboxes

The Great Firewall of China (GFW) has long censored HTTPS (via the Server Name Indication field, or SNI). Its mechanism for doing so has been studied, with various evasion strategies discovered in recent years. In this paper, we have evidence that suggests the GFW has deployed a second HTTPS censorship middlebox that runs in parallel to the first. We present a detailed analysis of this secondary censorship middlebox---how it operates, the content it blocks, and how it interacts with the primary middlebox---and present evidence that this has been in operation since at least September 2019. We also present several packet-based evasion strategies for the secondary middlebox and demonstrate that the primary censorship middlebox can be defeated independently from the secondary. Our code is publicly available.
How COVID-19 has Impacted American Attitudes Toward China: A Study on Twitter

Past research has studied social determinants of attitudes toward foreign countries. Confounded by potential endogeneity biases due to unobserved factors or reverse causality, the causal impact of these factors on public opinion is usually difficult to establish. Using social media data, we leverage the suddenness of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine whether a major global event has causally changed American views of another country. We collate a database of more than 297 million posts on the social media platform Twitter about China or COVID-19 up to June 2020, and we treat tweeting about COVID-19 as a proxy for individual awareness of COVID-19. Using regression discontinuity and difference-in-difference estimation, we find that awareness of COVID-19 causes a sharp rise in anti-China attitudes. Our work has implications for understanding how self-interest affects policy preference and how Americans view migrant communities.