Population based norms for the box and blocks test in healthy right-handed Taiwanese adults.

BACKGROUND: This study establishes norms for the Box and Block Test (BBT) in healthy Taiwanese adults between 15 and 75 years of age. METHODS: 621 right-handed healthy adults (296 males and 325 females) completed the study. All participants performed the BBT following the standard protocol. An age by gender by testing hand analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to determine differences for the variables of interest. RESULTS: On average, females performed better on the BBT than males by approximately 2 points (p < 0.001). Across all participants, dominant hand performance was 2.8 points higher than non-dominant hand performance (p < 0.001). Significant changes of BBT scores across life span were observed at the ages of 30, 45 and 60 years old. Average scores across all age groups are at least one standard deviation below the previously established American norms for each corresponding age group. CONCLUSION: When using the BBT test with adult Taiwanese clients, clinical practitioners should strongly consider using right-handed normative data from Taiwanese individuals as the norms for this population differ from the previously established norms from American adult participants.

Seismology-based early identification of dam-formation landquake events.

Flooding resulting from the bursting of dams formed by landquake events such as rock avalanches, landslides and debris flows can lead to serious bank erosion and inundation of populated areas near rivers. Seismic waves can be generated by landquake events which can be described as time-dependent forces (unloading/reloading cycles) acting on the Earth. In this study, we conduct inversions of long-period (LP, period ≥20 s) waveforms for the landquake force histories (LFHs) of ten events, which provide quantitative characterization of the initiation, propagation and termination stages of the slope failures. When the results obtained from LP waveforms are analyzed together with high-frequency (HF, 1-3 Hz) seismic signals, we find a relatively strong late-arriving seismic phase (dubbed Dam-forming phase or D-phase) recorded clearly in the HF waveforms at the closest stations, which potentially marks the time when the collapsed masses sliding into river and perhaps even impacting the topographic barrier on the opposite bank. Consequently, our approach to analyzing the LP and HF waveforms developed in this study has a high potential for identifying five dam-forming landquake events (DFLEs) in near real-time using broadband seismic records, which can provide timely warnings of the impending floods to downstream residents.

Seismologically determined bedload flux during the typhoon season.

Continuous seismic records near river channels can be used to quantify the energy induced by river sediment transport. During the 2011 typhoon season, we deployed a seismic array along the Chishan River in the mountain area of southern Taiwan, where there is strong variability in water discharge and high sedimentation rates. We observe hysteresis in the high-frequency (5-15 Hz) seismic noise level relative to the associated hydrological parameters. In addition, our seismic noise analysis reveals an asymmetry and a high coherence in noise cross-correlation functions for several station pairs during the typhoon passage, which corresponds to sediment particles and turbulent flows impacting along the riverbed where the river bends sharply. Based on spectral characteristics of the seismic records, we also detected 20 landslide/debris flow events, which we use to estimate the sediment supply. Comparison of sediment flux between seismologically determined bedload and derived suspended load indicates temporal changes in the sediment flux ratio, which imply a complex transition process from the bedload regime to the suspension regime between typhoon passage and off-typhoon periods. Our study demonstrates the possibility of seismologically monitoring river bedload transport, thus providing valuable additional information for studying fluvial bedrock erosion and mountain landscape evolution.

TM-1-1DP exerts protective effect against myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury via AKT-eNOS pathway.

Coronary heart disease remains a leading cause of death in the world. The demand on targeting therapy to reduce myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is still urgent. The pathogenesis of I/R-induced myocardial injury is complicated. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and inflammatory response activation participate in the development of I/R injury. Cell death occurs and finally leads to myocardial infarction. A newly phenolic aporphine alkaloid derivative, TM-1-1DP, was synthesized in our team. We aimed to investigate the effect of novel compound on myocardial I/R injury. Rats were subjected to 1-h coronary artery occlusion and followed by 2-h reperfusion. Adult rat cardimoycyte was isolated for the cell study, and H2O2 was added into culture medium to induce ROS stress. As compared to the sham group, TM-1-1DP-treated rats had better cardiac performance in association with less infarct size and cardiac injury markers after myocardial I/R. The protective effect is associated with the inhibition of inflammatory response, cell death-related pathway (caspase-3 and TNF-α), and the activation of AKT-eNOS pathway. The finding was further coincided with the cell study. TM-1-1DP treatment significantly alleviated ROS production and improved cell viability in cardiomyocyte after H2O2 exposure. The action of TM-1-1DP is via a nitric oxide (NO)-dependent manner, since NOS inhibitor, L-NAME, abolished the protective effect. We provide a new insight into this therapeutic potential for phenolic aporphine alkaloid in myocardial I/R.