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"Fang, Min"
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A systematic review of artificial intelligence chatbots for promoting physical activity, healthy diet, and weight loss
Background
This systematic review aimed to evaluate AI chatbot characteristics, functions, and core conversational capacities and investigate whether AI chatbot interventions were effective in changing physical activity, healthy eating, weight management behaviors, and other related health outcomes.
Methods
In collaboration with a medical librarian, six electronic bibliographic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, ACM Digital Library, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and IEEE) were searched to identify relevant studies. Only randomized controlled trials or quasi-experimental studies were included. Studies were screened by two independent reviewers, and any discrepancy was resolved by a third reviewer. The National Institutes of Health quality assessment tools were used to assess risk of bias in individual studies. We applied the AI Chatbot Behavior Change Model to characterize components of chatbot interventions, including chatbot characteristics, persuasive and relational capacity, and evaluation of outcomes.
Results
The database search retrieved 1692 citations, and 9 studies met the inclusion criteria. Of the 9 studies, 4 were randomized controlled trials and 5 were quasi-experimental studies. Five out of the seven studies suggest chatbot interventions are promising strategies in increasing physical activity. In contrast, the number of studies focusing on changing diet and weight status was limited. Outcome assessments, however, were reported inconsistently across the studies. Eighty-nine and thirty-three percent of the studies specified a name and gender (i.e., woman) of the chatbot, respectively. Over half (56%) of the studies used a constrained chatbot (i.e., rule-based), while the remaining studies used unconstrained chatbots that resemble human-to-human communication.
Conclusion
Chatbots may improve physical activity, but we were not able to make definitive conclusions regarding the efficacy of chatbot interventions on physical activity, diet, and weight management/loss. Application of AI chatbots is an emerging field of research in lifestyle modification programs and is expected to grow exponentially. Thus, standardization of designing and reporting chatbot interventions is warranted in the near future.
Systematic review registration
International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO):
CRD42020216761
.
Journal Article
Cognitive functions and underlying parameters of human brain physiology are associated with chronotype
Circadian rhythms have natural relative variations among humans known as chronotype. Chronotype or being a morning or evening person, has a specific physiological, behavioural, and also genetic manifestation. Whether and how chronotype modulates human brain physiology and cognition is, however, not well understood. Here we examine how cortical excitability, neuroplasticity, and cognition are associated with chronotype in early and late chronotype individuals. We monitor motor cortical excitability, brain stimulation-induced neuroplasticity, and examine motor learning and cognitive functions at circadian-preferred and non-preferred times of day in 32 individuals. Motor learning and cognitive performance (working memory, and attention) along with their electrophysiological components are significantly enhanced at the circadian-preferred, compared to the non-preferred time. This outperformance is associated with enhanced cortical excitability (prominent cortical facilitation, diminished cortical inhibition), and long-term potentiation/depression-like plasticity. Our data show convergent findings of how chronotype can modulate human brain functions from basic physiological mechanisms to behaviour and higher-order cognition.
How being a “morning person” or “evening person” affects human cognition and brain physiology is not well understood. Here the authors show evidence of an association of chronotype with cognitive functions and related physiological parameters.
Journal Article
Natural Killer Cells in Viral Infection: Special Issue Editorial
NK cells are a critical cell population in innate immunity, playing an important role in antiviral immunity [...].NK cells are a critical cell population in innate immunity, playing an important role in antiviral immunity [...].
Journal Article
The interaction between ferroptosis and inflammatory signaling pathways
Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent regulated cell death driven by excessive lipid peroxidation. Inflammation is one common and effective physiological event that protects against various stimuli to maintain tissue homeostasis. However, the dysregulation of inflammatory responses can cause imbalance of the immune system, cell dysfunction and death. Recent studies have pointed out that activation of inflammation, including the activation of multiple inflammation-related signaling pathways, can lead to ferroptosis. Among the related signal transduction pathways, we focused on five classical inflammatory pathways, namely, the JAK-STAT, NF-κB, inflammasome, cGAS-STING and MAPK signaling pathways, and expounded on their roles in ferroptosis. To date, many agents have shown therapeutic effects on ferroptosis-related diseases by modulating the aforementioned pathways in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, the regulatory effects of these pathways on iron metabolism and lipid peroxidation have been described in detail, contributing to further understanding of the pathophysiological process of ferroptosis. Taken together, targeting these pathways related to inflammation will provide appropriate ways to intervene ferroptosis and diseases.
Journal Article
Expanding the parameter space of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of the primary motor cortex
Size and duration of the neuroplastic effects of tDCS depend on stimulation parameters, including stimulation duration and intensity of current. The impact of stimulation parameters on physiological effects is partially non-linear. To improve the utility of this intervention, it is critical to gather information about the impact of stimulation duration and intensity on neuroplasticity, while expanding the parameter space to improve efficacy. Anodal tDCS of 1–3 mA current intensity was applied for 15–30 minutes to study motor cortex plasticity. Sixteen healthy right-handed non-smoking volunteers participated in 10 sessions (intensity-duration pairs) of stimulation in a randomized cross-over design. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-induced motor-evoked potentials (MEP) were recorded as outcome measures of tDCS effects until next evening after tDCS. All active stimulation conditions enhanced motor cortex excitability within the first 2 hours after stimulation. We observed no significant differences between the three stimulation intensities and durations on cortical excitability. A trend for larger cortical excitability enhancements was however observed for higher current intensities (1 vs 3 mA). These results add information about intensified tDCS protocols and suggest that the impact of anodal tDCS on neuroplasticity is relatively robust with respect to gradual alterations of stimulation intensity, and duration.
Journal Article
Probing new physics in class-I B-meson decays into heavy-light final states
A
bstract
With updated experimental data and improved theoretical calculations, several significant deviations are being observed between the Standard Model predictions and the experimental measurements of the branching ratios of
B
¯
s
0
→
D
s
∗
+
L
−
decays, where
L
is a light meson from the set {
π
,
ρ
,
K
(∗)
}. Especially for the two channels
B
¯
0
→
D
+
K
−
and
B
¯
s
0
→
D
s
+
π
−
, both of which are free of the weak annihilation contribution, the deviations observed can even reach 4–5
σ
. Here we exploit possible new-physics effects in these class-I non-leptonic
B
-meson decays within the framework of QCD factorization. Firstly, we perform a model-independent analysis of the effects from twenty linearly independent four-quark operators that can contribute, either directly or through operator mixing, to the quark-level
b →
c
u
¯
d
s
transitions. It is found that, under the combined constraints from the current experimental data, the deviations observed could be well explained at the 1
σ
level by the new-physics four-quark operators with
γ
μ
(1
− γ
5
) ⨂
γ
μ
(1
− γ
5
) structure, and also at the 2
σ
level by the operators with (1 +
γ
5
) ⨂ (1
− γ
5
) and (1 +
γ
5
) ⨂ (1 +
γ
5
) structures. However, the new-physics four-quark operators with other Dirac structures fail to provide a consistent interpretation, even at the 2
σ
level. Then, as two specific examples of model-dependent considerations, we discuss the case where the new-physics four-quark operators are generated by either a colorless charged gauge boson or a colorless charged scalar, with their masses fixed both at the 1 TeV. Constraints on the effective coefficients describing the couplings of these mediators to the relevant quarks are obtained by fitting to the current experimental data.
Journal Article
Young Generation’s Mobile Payment Adoption Behavior: Analysis Based on an Extended UTAUT Model
Younger generations comprise an essential segment for the mobile payment market to prosper. However, empirical evidence of the drivers/barriers of the young generation’s adoption of mobile payment has been inconclusive. This study intends to advance the body of knowledge on this subject based on the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), incorporating the young generation’s risk perception and bonus/rewards provided by the mobile-pay firms. To this end, 295 samples with the majority being more tech-savvy, namely generation Y and generation Z, were collected from an online survey in Taiwan. The empirical results in this study demonstrate the uniquely positive effect of social influence on the young generations’ behavioral intention to adopt mobile payment. While behavioral intention and promotional activities are the drivers of the young generation’s actual usage of mobile payment, perceived risks are found to exert a negative impact, reflecting the risk-averse preferences of the young generation in Taiwan. The ignorable moderation effect of gender, on the other hand, suggests the absence of a gender gap in the use of mobile payment among the young generations. The findings in this research have important implications for the development of promotion programs motivating the young generation’s adoption of mobile payment.
Journal Article
Regulation of CCL2 by EZH2 affects tumor-associated macrophages polarization and infiltration in breast cancer
Tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) play an important role in tumorigenesis, development and anti-cancer drug therapy. However, very few epigenetic compounds have been elucidated to affect tumor growth by educating TAMs in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Herein, we identified that EZH2 performs a crucial role in the regulation of TAMs infiltration and protumoral polarization by interacting with human breast cancer (BC) cells. We showed that EZH2 inhibitors-treated BC cells induced M2 macrophage polarization in vitro and in vivo, while EZH2 knockdown exhibited the opposite effect. Mechanistically, inhibition of EZH2 histone methyltransferase alone by EZH2 inhibitors in breast cancer cells could reduce the enrichment of H3K27me3 on
CCL2
gene promoter, elevate CCL2 transcription and secretion, contributing to the induction of M2 macrophage polarization and recruitment in TME, which reveal a potential explanation behind the frustrating results of EZH2 inhibitors against breast cancer. On the contrary, EZH2 depletion led to DNA demethylation and subsequent upregulation of miR-124-3p level, which inhibited its target CCL2 expression in the tumor cells, causing arrest of TAMs M2 polarization. Taken together, these data suggested that EZH2 can exert opposite regulatory effects on TAMs polarization through its enzymatic or non-enzymatic activities. Our results also imply that the effect of antitumor drugs on TAMs may affect its therapeutic efficacy, and the combined application with TAMs modifiers should be warranted to achieve great clinical success.
Journal Article