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This is a retrospective study in consecutive cases with cultured-proven endogenous endophthalmitis (EE) treated at the largest tertiary medical center in middle Taiwan in the past 10 years. 83 eyes of 70 patients were enrolled. The mean interval between systemic diseases to the diagnosis of EE was 8.84 ± 6.94 days. The mean initial visual acuity (VA) in the logarithm of minimal angle of resolution (logMAR) was 1.63 ± 0.87. Type 2 diabetes mellitus was the most common predisposing medical illness (N = 53, 63.86%). The most common infectious sources were intra-abdominal abscess (N = 36, 43.37%), and the second most reason was urinary tract infection. The causative pathogen was Gram-negative predominant (N = 64, 77.11%). After aggressive treatment, 34.94% of eyes regain useful vision, and only six eyes underwent enucleation or evisceration. The binary multivariate logistic regression model revealed that female gender (95% CI 1.002–19.036, p = 0.05, OR 4.37), initial VA logMAR (95% CI 0.089–0.550, p = 0.01, OR 0.22), and more intravitreal injections (95% CI 0.368–0.927, p = 0.023, OR 0.58) were independent risk factors influencing final outcomes. Based on the results mentioned above, early diagnosis is recommended to gain better outcomes. The mean interval between systemic diseases to the diagnosis of EE was 8.84 ± 6.94 days in our sample population, clinicians should maintain a higher index of suspicion during this period when encountering patients with bacteremia or fungemia.

The purpose of this retrospective interventional case series is to compare the functional and anatomical outcomes in eyes with diabetic macular edema (DME) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) treated intravitreally with aflibercept or ranibizumab under the Taiwan National Insurance Bureau reimbursement policy. 84 eyes were collected and all eyes were imaged with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), color fundus photographs (CFPs), and fluorescein angiography (FA). At 24 months after therapy initiation, the logMAR BCVA improved from 0.58 ± 0.33 to 0.47 ± 0.38 ( p  < 0.01), the CRT decreased from 423.92 ± 135.84 to 316.36 ± 90.02 ( p  < 0.01), and the number of microaneurysms decreased from 142.14 ± 57.23 to 75.32 ± 43.86 ( p  < 0.01). The mean injection count was 11.74 ± 5.44. There was no intergroup difference in logMAR BCVA ( p  = 0.96), CRT ( p  = 0.69), or injection count ( p  = 0.81). However, the mean number of microaneurysms was marginally reduced ( p  = 0.06) in eyes treated with aflibercept at the end of the follow-up, and the incidence rates of supplementary panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) ( p  = 0.04) and subthreshold micropulse laser (SMPL) therapy sessions ( p  = 0.01) were also reduced. Multivariate analysis revealed that only initial logMAR BCVA influenced the final VA improvements (odds ratio (OR) 0.49, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.21 ~ 0.93, p  < 0.01); in contrast, age (OR − 0.38, 95% CI − 6.97 ~ − 1.85, p  < 0.01) and initial CRT (OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.34 ~ 0.84, p  < 0.01) both influenced the final CRT reduction at 24 months. To sum up, both aflibercept and ranibizumab are effective in managing DME with PDR in terms of VA, CRT and MA count. Eyes receiving aflibercept required less supplementary PRP and SMPL treatment than those receiving ranibizumab. The initial VA influenced the final VA improvements at 24 months, while age and initial CRT were prognostic predictors of 24-month CRT reduction.

As the conventional means of analyzing the similarity between a query sequence and database sequences, the Smith-Waterman algorithm is feasible for a database search owing to its high sensitivity. However, this algorithm is still quite time consuming. CUDA programming can improve computations efficiently by using the computational power of massive computing hardware as graphics processing units (GPUs). This work presents a novel Smith-Waterman algorithm with a frequency-based filtration method on GPUs rather than merely accelerating the comparisons yet expending computational resources to handle such unnecessary comparisons. A user friendly interface is also designed for potential cloud server applications with GPUs. Additionally, two data sets, H1N1 protein sequences (query sequence set) and human protein database (database set), are selected, followed by a comparison of CUDA-SW and CUDA-SW with the filtration method, referred to herein as CUDA-SWf. Experimental results indicate that reducing unnecessary sequence alignments can improve the computational time by up to 41%. Importantly, by using CUDA-SWf as a cloud service, this application can be accessed from any computing environment of a device with an Internet connection without time constraints.

本研究應用健康信念模式來探討位於臺灣北部某公司員工之COVID-19防疫行為現況及相關影響因素，以立意抽樣法進行網路問卷調查，最終回收問卷共計384份。本研究方法採用獨立樣本t檢定、單因子變異數分析、皮爾森積差相關分析以及多元階層回歸分析來瞭解研究對象之社會人口學變項、COVID-19健康信念與防疫行為之間的關係。 本研究結果發現，研究對象之防疫行為表現處於良好的水準，介於總是及經常採取防疫行為，且COVID-19健康信念各構面得分皆在中上程度。獨立樣本t檢定、ANOVA結果指出，研究對象不因社會人口學的不同而有不一樣的防疫行為。皮爾森積差相關分析指出，研究對象的防疫行為與自覺罹患性、自覺嚴重性、自覺行動利益、行動線索、防疫行為之自我效能呈顯著正相關，與自覺行動障礙呈顯著負相關。多元階層回歸分析結果顯示，社會人口學變項及COVID-19健康信念可共同解釋防疫行為78.4％。防疫行為之自我效能、行動線索、自覺行動障礙以及自覺罹患性皆是防疫行為之顯著預測變項，其中，防疫行為之自我效能擁有最強的預測力。

Heterogeneity of cancer stem/progenitor cells that give rise to different forms of cancer has been well demonstrated for leukemia. However, this fundamental concept has yet to be established for solid tumors including breast cancer. In this communication, we analyzed solid tumor cancer stem cell markers in human breast cancer cell lines and primary specimens using flow cytometry. The stem/progenitor cell properties of different marker expressing-cell populations were further assessed by in vitro soft agar colony formation assay and the ability to form tumors in NOD/SCID mice. We found that the expression of stem cell markers varied greatly among breast cancer cell lines. In MDA-MB-231 cells, PROCR and ESA, instead of the widely used breast cancer stem cell markers CD44(+)/CD24(-/low) and ALDH, could be used to highly enrich cancer stem/progenitor cell populations which exhibited the ability to self renew and divide asymmetrically. Furthermore, the PROCR(+)/ESA(+) cells expressed epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers. PROCR could also be used to enrich cells with colony forming ability from MB-361 cells. Moreover, consistent with the marker profiling using cell lines, the expression of stem cell markers differed greatly among primary tumors. There was an association between metastasis status and a high prevalence of certain markers including CD44(+)/CD24(-/low), ESA(+), CD133(+), CXCR4(+) and PROCR(+) in primary tumor cells. Taken together, these results suggest that similar to leukemia, several stem/progenitor cell-like subpopulations can exist in breast cancer.

In the electricity market, the real-time balance of electricity generation and consumption is a main task. In view of this, power providers usually sign contracts with their critical consumers (i.e., usually large-scale industrial companies) for managing their capacity demands. On the other hand, aggregators group commercial and residential consumers, and integrate their demands to negotiate with power providers. With a proper grouping of numerous electricity consumers, aggregators help to ensure stable electric supply, and reduce the burden of managing many consumers. In this work, we thus propose a novel data clustering approach to group complementary consumers based on their usage patterns (i.e., daily electricity consumption curves.) Furthermore, we incorporate the technique of discrete wavelet transform to speed up the clustering process. Specifically, approximations reconstructed from only a few wavelet coefficients may precisely capture the shape of original usage patterns. Experimental results based on a real dataset show that our approach is promising in practical applications.

Objective To investigate the effect of long zona dissection (LZD) compared with partial zona dissection (PZD) using ICSI pipettes for mechanical assisted hatching (AH) in vitrified-thawed blastocyst transfers. Design Prospective study. Setting University IVF clinic. Patient(s) A total of 120 women ≦ 38 years old undergone vitrified-thawed blastocyst transfers with LZD or PZD. Intervention(s) The culture of all pronucleate embryos to the blastocyst stage and the selection of blastocysts ≧ grade 3BB (Gardner and Schoolcraft score), followed by vitrified-thawed blastocyst transfers with LZD ( n  = 60) or with PZD ( n  = 60) Main outcome measure(s) Complete hatching rates, implantation rates, pregnancy rates. Result(s) At 5 h after thawing, complete hatching rates of blastocysts were significantly higher in LZD group compared with PZD group, 52.4 % vs. 31.8 % ( P  = 0.001). Implantation and clinical pregnancy rates were significantly higher in LZD group compared with PZD group, 40.9 % vs. 25.7 % and 63.0 % vs. 40.0 %, respectively ( P  = 0.010, P  = 0.011). Conclusion(s) LZD using ICSI pipettes for mechanical AH improves significantly complete hatching, implantation and pregnancy rates in vitrified-thawed blastocyst transfers.