Determinants of macaques' space use: A test for the ecological constraints model using GPS collars.

As a central topic in Behavioral Ecology, animal space use involves dynamic responses to social and ecological factors. We collared 22 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) from six groups on Neilingding Island, China, and collected 80,625 hourly fixes over a year. Using this high-resolution location data set, we quantified the macaques' space use at the individual level and tested the ecological constraints model while considering various environmental and human interfering factors. As predicted by the ecological constraints model, macaques in larger groups had longer daily path lengths (DPLs) and larger home ranges. We found an inverted U-shape relationship between mean daily temperatures and DPLs, indicating that macaques traveled farther on mild temperature days, while they decreased DPLs when temperatures were too high or too low. Anthropogenic food subsidies were positively correlated to DPLs, while the effect of rainfall was negative. Macaques decreased their DPLs and core areas when more flowers and less leaves were available, suggesting that macaques shifted their space use patterns to adapt to the seasonal differences in food resources. By applying GPS collars on a large number of individuals living on a small island, we gained valuable insights into within-group exploitation competition in wild rhesus macaques.

[Clinical centralized safety monitoring and evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine formula granules].

Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) formula granules are highly praised for the advanced, convenient, and modern use of Chinese medicinal materials. The safety of TCM formula granules has long been a concern of regulatory authorities and the medical industry. A multi-center, prospective, open, non-interventional, and centralized monitoring was carried out for the patients treated with TCM formula granules in 252 medical institutions from February 5, 2020 to April 19, 2022. All the case data and the incidence of adverse drug reactions/events were recorded. This study evaluated the safety of TCM formula granules, aiming to provide a reference for the clinically use. A total of 20 547 patients were included in this study. Four adverse events were recorded, including 3 adverse drug reactions with an adverse drug reaction rate of 0.015%, all of which occurred in the digestive system. There was no serious adverse event, and no factors related to adverse drug reactions/events were identified. The incidence of adverse drug reactions/events associated with China Resources Sanjiu Medical & Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. TCM formula granules was rare, which proved their safety in clinical use. A comprehensive data mining and objective analysis was carried out for the medicines with high frequency in TCM formula granules, the commonly used medicine pairs and combinations, and departmental medication. The drug use characteristics, prescription rules, and departmental use of TCM formula granules were summarized, which can shed light on the prescription compatibility and clinical application.

Patient safety in Work Environments: Perceptions of Pediatric Healthcare Providers in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: Extensive research on the link between the organizational characteristics of the work environment and patient safety in a healthcare organization has been conducted; yet, only a few studies have concentrated on care providers in a pediatric unit. OBJECTIVES: To determine the correlation between different work environment factors impacting patient safety in a pediatric care unit from the perspective of registered nurses working in these units. DESIGN: Cross-sectional design. DATA SOURCES AND METHODS: The study was conducted with 155 registered nurses from a pediatric unit in a medical center in Taiwan with the Chinese version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) 2014-2017. RESULTS: Teamwork climate, higher job satisfaction, and better working conditions are linked to positive perceptions of patient safety culture. Emotional exhaustion is negatively related to most dimensions of patient safety. CONCLUSION: Teamwork climate, job satisfaction, working conditions, and emotional exhaustion were identified as critical factors impacting the patient safety climate. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING OR HEALTH POLICY: Investments to improve teamwork climate, job satisfaction, and working conditions and reduce emotional exhaustion may have a positive effect on patient safety in pediatric care units.

Diindeno-Fused Dibenzo[a,h]anthracene and Dibenzo[c,l]chrysene: Syntheses, Structural Analyses, and Properties.

Diindeno-fused dibenzo[a,h]anthracene 6 and diindeno-fused dibenzo[c,l]chrysene 9 contain the key moieties 1,4-quinodipropene (1,4-QDP) and 2,6-naphthoquinodipropene (2,6-NQDP), respectively, and they both have an open-shell singlet ground state. The latter compound exhibits a strong biradical character and interesting properties, including a low ΔET-S (2.44 kcal mol-1 ), a small HOMO-LUMO gap (1.06 eV), a wide photoabsorption range (250-1172 nm), and a large two-photon absorption cross-section (σ=1342±56 GM). This work verifies that 6 has a slightly larger HOMO-LUMO gap and ΔET-S than its helical isomer diindeno[2,1-f:1',2'-j]picene (DIP), but is a much stronger two-photon absorber, verifying the important effect of geometry on the photophysical properties.

5,14-Diaryldiindeno[2,1- f:1',2' -j]picene: A New Stable [7]Helicene with a Partial Biradical Character.

5,14-Diaryldiindeno[2,1- f:1',2' -j]picene (DDP, 1), a thermally and chemically stable helical arene, can be prepared from 1,4-bis[2-(arylethynyl)phenyl]benzene in four synthetic steps. Its helical backbone, which incorporates an o-quinodimethane moiety, was verified by X-ray crystallography, and this structural feature results in a very high barrier to racemization (exceeding 50 kcal/mol). DDP possesses versatile and promising properties, including a small HOMO-LUMO energy gap (1.31 eV for the dimesityl-substituted derivative 1ab), an electron spin resonance (ESR)-active character, a small triplet-singlet energy gap (4.75 kcal/mol), broad photoabsorption covering the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared (NIR) regions, two-photon absorption in the NIR range, and respectable ambipolar charge-transport behavior in a solution-processed organic field-effect transistor.

Effects of group size and rank on mother-infant relationships and reproductive success in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).

In the present study, we compared mother-infant relationships in 57 mother-infant dyads residing in two wild, semi-provisioned (22 mother-infant dyads in 2014, 35 dyads in 2015) groups of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in the Nanwan Nature Reserve for Rhesus Macaques, Hainan, China. We also compared reproductive success between these two groups. The ecology and provisioning regime for each group was similar. These groups differed however, in size. Group 1 contained ∼35 individuals and Group 2 contained ∼120 individuals. Data were collected over a 2-year period (2014-2015). We found that during the birth season, mother-infant relationships in the larger group were characterized by less time in contact and more time separated than in the smaller group. Mothers in the smaller group initiated more contact and proximity with their infants. During the mating season when infants were approximately 6 months old, mother-infant relationships in the smaller group were more rejecting. We also found that birth rates were significantly higher but infant survivorship (to 1-year-old) was significantly lower in the smaller group. Moreover, higher-ranking mothers in the larger group were characterized by a higher reproductive output than females of lower rank. In the smaller group, female rank did not affect reproductive output. There was, however, no clear relationship between infant survivorship and maternal rank. We hypothesize that differences in reproductive success and changes in mother-infant relationships between the birth and mating seasons reflect differences in the costs and benefits of group size: females in the larger group faced (i) higher intragroup feeding competition leading to a reduction in birth rate but also (ii) lower predation risk, resulting in higher infant survival rate compared to females in the smaller group. The results of this study point to the tradeoffs that primate females face in living in smaller and larger social groups.

Variation in body mass and morphological characters in Macaca mulatta brevicaudus from Hainan, China.

The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) is the most widely distributed nonhuman primate species in the world, with six subspecies distributed through China. From 2012 to 2014, we conducted studies on the body mass and morphological variation of the southernmost subspecies M. m. brevicaudus in Nanwan Nature Reserve for Rhesus Macaque, Hainan, China. We compared measurements with other populations of this species. We also investigated the inter-group body mass variation from seven provisioned free-ranging groups in our study site. Our results show that M. m. brevicaudus has the smallest body size, the smallest body mass, and the shortest tail among rhesus macaque subspecies. Its sexual dimorphism score is also among the lowest, which is similar to other southern distributed subspecies in China, but smaller than northern distributed subspecies. We found that the average body mass of female macaques is not correlated with their dominance ranks. There are significant differences in body mass among the seven adjacent study groups at the same site, suggesting the existence of inter-group competition. Average body mass of a group is better described by a quadratic function of group size than a linear one as predicted by the socio-ecological model. Am. J. Primatol. 78:679-698, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Transportation, Environmental Degradation, and Health Dynamics in the United States and China: Evidence From Bootstrap ARDL With a Fourier Function.

Transportation and environmental degradation, with indirect and direct effects, play a significant role in determining the health of a nation's citizens. This study uses bootstrap ARDL with a Fourier function to examine transportation, environmental degradation, and health dynamics in the United States and China. In the long run, the results support the cointegration relationship between transportation, environmental degradation, and health in both countries. The results show the contingency of the causality where a negative impact of transportation on environmental degradation exists in the United States while a positive impact exists in China. The effect of environmental degradation on health is negative in the United States while a positive effect exists in China. Regarding the causal direction between the variables of interest, the implications provide policymakers in developing strategy and policy for sustainable development.

Impact of globalization on the environment in major CO2-emitting countries: Evidence using bootstrap ARDL with a Fourier function.

Alongside sustainable development as a major global aim, the contribution made by globalization to environmental issues has become crucial in recent decades. Prior studies have focused on how trade in globalization influences the environment. However, multiple economic, social, and political factors are also important, the integration of which needs to be considered in sustainable development. Sharp and smooth breaks in time series models are the consequence of real-world structures. Using the bootstrap autoregressive-distributed lag test with a Fourier function, the present study reexamined the nexus between globalization and the environment in China, the United States, and India. The empirical results indicate that in the United States, the nexus between globalization and the environment is cointegrated in the long-term. In the short term, globalization is improving the environment in the United States and India. However, in China, globalization is resulting in environmental degradation. This research will assist policymakers in developing comprehensive strategies for sustainable development.

Real-time telemetry system for amperometric and potentiometric electrochemical sensors.

A real-time telemetry system, which consists of readout circuits, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a microcontroller unit (MCU), a graphical user interface (GUI), and a radio frequency (RF) transceiver, is proposed for amperometric and potentiometric electrochemical sensors. By integrating the proposed system with the electrochemical sensors, analyte detection can be conveniently performed. The data is displayed in real-time on a GUI and optionally uploaded to a database via the Internet, allowing it to be accessed remotely. An MCU was implemented using a field programmable gate array (FPGA) to filter noise, transmit data, and provide control over peripheral devices to reduce power consumption, which in sleep mode is 70 mW lower than in operating mode. The readout circuits, which were implemented in the TSMC 0.18-µm CMOS process, include a potentiostat and an instrumentation amplifier (IA). The measurement results show that the proposed potentiostat has a detectable current range of 1 nA to 100 µA, and linearity with an R2 value of 0.99998 in each measured current range. The proposed IA has a common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) greater than 90 dB. The proposed system was integrated with a potentiometric pH sensor and an amperometric nitrite sensor for in vitro experiments. The proposed system has high linearity (an R2 value greater than 0.99 was obtained in each experiment), a small size of 5.6 cm × 8.7 cm, high portability, and high integration.

Measuring the Impact of Health on Economic Growth Using Pooling Data in Regions of Asia: Evidence From a Quantile-On-Quantile Analysis.

Health improvement has become a significant social priority since a moderately good human capital condition improves the workforce's abilities, efficiency, and quality of life. A rapid increase in healthcare expenditure is a trend in major developing and developed countries; however, healthcare expenditure widely varies among most Asian countries. Asian countries contribute a significant amount of output to economic development worldwide. The statistical test power is more efficient for the pooling of national data than individual national data because of the economic value and trade integration of regional nations. This is the first study that applies the quantile-on-quantile approach to investigate the influence of the quantiles of healthcare on the quantiles of the economy's growth for pooling forty countries in the Asian region. As the quantile of healthcare expenditure increases in the countries, the impact of healthcare expenditure on the economy's growth does not guarantee an increase. The positive and negative effects of healthcare expenditure on developing the economic relationship will repeatedly occur when the quantiles of the economy's growth increase in the countries. One implication is that the governments should account for problems such as corruption, bureaucracy, underinvestment, and inefficiency in health-related resource utilization.

A Dynamic Relationship between Environmental Degradation, Healthcare Expenditure and Economic Growth in Wavelet Analysis: Empirical Evidence from Taiwan.

This paper analyzes the co-movement and causal linkages between environmental pollution and healthcare expenditure, taking economic growth as a control variable by using wavelet analysis for Taiwan over the period 1995 Q1-2016 Q4. The results show that there exists co-movement and causality between environmental pollution and healthcare expenditure at different frequencies and times. The changes in the relationships of the two variables are observed in certain events such as the period of the expansion stage, the policy of environmental pollution, and the issue of the National Health Insurance Integrated Circuit card (NHI-IC) in Taiwan. In the short-term, positive causality runs from healthcare expenditure to environmental pollution before 2004, while negative causality runs from healthcare expenditure to environmental pollution before 2007 in the long-term. After adding economic growth as a control variable, positive causality runs from healthcare expenditure to environmental pollution in the period 2009-2011 in the short-term, while negative causality running from healthcare expenditure to environmental pollution is shown in 2008 in the long-term. The results indicate that "higher government health expenditure leading to higher demand for environment quality" exists in different sub-periods and the argument may concern the factor of economics in the long-term. The positive healthcare lead in the short-term may be based on economics in the expansion stage. Also, the issue of NHI-IC possibly affects the dynamic relationship between healthcare expenditure and environmental pollution without considering economics. Based on empirical analysis, certain policy and managerial implications are addressed for decision-makers at macroeconomic and microeconomic levels.

Bootstrap ARDL on Health Expenditure, CO2 Emissions, and GDP Growth Relationship for 18 OECD Countries.

Using annual time-series data over the period 1975-2017, the researcher applied the bootstrap autoregressive-distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration model developed by McNown et al. (1) to examine whether there is a long run relationship among health expenditure, CO2 emissions, and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in 18 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. We find cointegration exists in Netherlands when real GDP per capita serves as a dependent variable, in New Zealand when health expenditure is the dependent variable, and in the United States when CO2 emissions are dependent variables. The main results show evidence of a short run relationship between the three variables. The empirical results support that there is a bidirectional causality between health expenditure and GDP growth for Germany and the United States, between CO2 emissions and GDP growth for Canada, Germany, and the United States, and between health expenditure and CO2 emissions for New Zealand and Norway. The results also indicate that there are unidirectional causality in other countries.

Investigation of the Co-Movement Relationship between Medical Expenditure and GDP in Taiwan-Based on Wavelet Analysis.

In this study, using the medical expenditures of the Taiwanese government and gross domestic product (GDP) as variables, the wavelet analysis method was used to empirically study the correlations and lead-lag relationships in quarterly data in the period from 1996 to 2016. In addition, the dependent population of the insured was used as the control variable. Results: After the dependent population was included as a control variable, there was a period of low- frequency (one to four years, short-term) linkage correlation, as well as a period of high- frequency (four to eight years, long-term) linkage correlation. In addition, for more than eight years, there was a high degree of linkage correlation, indicating that the linkage between medical expenditures and GDP occurred over the long- term. Moreover, since medical expenditures positively affected GDP, one-way causality was observed. However, after 2008, regardless of whether long or short- term was examined, there was almost no linkage correlation. Before 2008, the medical expenditures of the government were positively correlated with economic growth. After 2008, this effect had already disappeared. The universal health insurance system has long been denounced as a waste of medical resources. The government needs to find a new solution.

The influence of kinship and dominance hierarchy on grooming partner choice in free-ranging Macaca mulatta brevicaudus.

In group-living animals, individuals do not interact uniformly with their conspecifics. Among primates, such heterogeneity in partner choice can be discerned from affiliative grooming patterns. While the preference for selecting close kin as grooming partners is ubiquitous across the primate order, the selection of higher-ranking non-kin individuals as grooming partners is less common. We studied a group of provisioned rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta brevicaudus) on Hainan Island, China, to examine rank-related benefits of grooming exchanges and the influence of kin relationships. We tested four hypotheses based on Seyfarth's model: (1) there will be kin preference in grooming relationships; (2) grooming between non-kin individuals will be directed up the dominance rank; (3) grooming between non-kin individuals will reduce aggression from higher-ranking ones; and (4) non-kin individuals will spend more time grooming with adjacent ranked ones. We found that grooming relationships between kin individuals were stronger than those between non-kin individuals. For non-kin relationships, lower-ranking individuals received less aggression from higher-ranking ones through grooming; a benefit they could not derive through grooming exchanges with individuals related by kinship. Individuals spent more time grooming adjacent higher-ranking non-kin individuals and higher-ranking individuals also received more grooming from non-kin individuals. Our results supported Seyfarth's model for predicting partner choice between non-kin individuals. For relationships between kin individuals, we found results that were not consistent with prediction for the exchanges of aggression and grooming, indicating the importance to control for the influence of kinship in future studies.

Anti-invasion effects of 6-shogaol and 6-gingerol, two active components in ginger, on human hepatocarcinoma cells.

SCOPE: Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer and is highly metastatic. Metastasis is considered to be the major cause of death in cancer patients. Ginger is a natural dietary rhizome with anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-carcinogenic activities. The aims of this study were to evaluate the anti-invasion activity of 6-shogaol and 6-gingerol, two compounds found in ginger, on hepatoma cells. METHODS AND RESULTS: The migratory and invasive abilities of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-treated HepG2 and PMA-untreated Hep3B cells were both reduced in a dose-dependent manner by treatment with 6-shogaol and 6-gingerol. Upon incubation of PMA-treated HepG2 cells and PMA-untreated Hep3B cells with 6-shogaol and 6-gingerol, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 activity decreased, whereas the expression of tissue inhibitor metalloproteinase protein (TIMP)-1 increased in both cell types. Additionally, urokinase-type plasminogen activator activity was dose-dependently decreased in Hep3B cells after incubation with 6-shogaol for 24 h. Analysis with semi-quantitative reverse transcription-PCR showed that the regulation of MMP-9 by 6-shogaol and 6-gingerol and the regulation of TIMP-1 by 6-shogaol in Hep3B cells may on the transcriptional level. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that 6-shogaol and 6-gingerol might both exert anti-invasive activity against hepatoma cells through regulation of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 and that 6-shogaol could further regulate urokinase-type plasminogen activity.

Evaluation of anti-invasion effect of resveratrol and related methoxy analogues on human hepatocarcinoma cells.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer and is also highly metastatic. Metastasis is considered to be the major cause of death in cancer patients. Resveratrol (3,5,4'-trihydroxystilbene) and related analogues have been reported as candidates to prevent cancer growth and invasion. The bioactivity of resveratrol-related analogues could be altered due to the presence and positioning of methoxy groups on the basic resveratrol chemical structure. This study investigated the effects and mechanism of action of resveratrol and its methoxy analogues on invasion of human hepatocarcinoma cells. The migratory and invasive abilities of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-treated HepG2 and PMA-untreated Hep3B cells were both reduced in a dose-dependent manner by treatment with resveratrol and 3,5,4'-trimethoxy-trans-stilbene (MR-3). Upon incubation of PMA-treated HepG2 cells with resveratrol (0-50 microM) or MR-3 (0-50 microM), the MMP-9 activity decreased but TIMP-1 protein increased in a dose-dependent manner. With resveratrol (0-50 microM) or MR-3 (0-1 microM) treatment on PMA-untreated Hep3B cells, both of the MMP-9 and MMP-2 activities decreased but TIMP-2 protein increased in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that resveratrol and its related methoxy analogue MR-3 might exert anti-invasive activity against hepatoma cells through regulation of MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1, and TIMP-2. Further analysis with semiquantitative RT-PCR showed that the regulation of MMP-9 and TIMP-2 expressions by resveratrol and MR-3 in hepatoma cells may be on the transcriptional level but on the translational or post-translational level for TIMP-1.

Naturally occurring flavonoids attenuate high glucose-induced expression of proinflammatory cytokines in human monocytic THP-1 cells.

Activation of circulating monocytes by hyperglycemia is bound to play a role in inflammatory and atherosclerosis. In this study, we examined whether flavonoids (catechin, EGCG, luteolin, quercetin, rutin) - phytochemicals that may possible belong to a new class of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) inhibitors - can attenuate high glucose (15 mmol/L, HG)-induced inflammation in human monocytes. Our results show that all flavonoids significantly inhibited HG-induced expression of proinflammatory genes and proteins, including TNF-alpha, interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2, at a concentration of 20 microM. Flavonoids also prevented oxidative stress in activated monocytes, as demonstrated by their inhibitory effects on intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and N(epsilon)-(carboxymethyl)lysine formation caused by HG. These inhibitory effects may involve inhibition of nuclear factor-kappaB activation and may be supported by downregulation of the following: i) PKC-dependent NADPH oxidase pathway; ii) phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase, and iii) mRNA expression of receptor of AGEs. In addition, we found for the first time that lower levels of Bcl-2 protein under HG conditions could be countered by the action of flavonoids. Our data suggest that, along with their antioxidant activities, flavonoids possess anti-inflammatory properties and might therefore have additional protective effects against glycotoxin-related inflammation.