Assessing anti-doping knowledge among Taiwanese pharmacists.

BACKGROUND: Taiwan's unique health behaviour, such as extensive exposure to Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM), has introduced a risk of inadvertent doping among competing athletes. Pharmacy professionals have an imperative role in advising athletes on the safe use of medicines. This study provides an overview of anti-doping knowledge and educational needs among pharmacists in Taiwan and examines influencing factors. METHODS: A cross-sectional online questionnaire survey consisting of five domains, namely demographic characteristics, source of prohibited substances, identification of prohibited substances, understanding of doping control, and education needs on anti-doping, was distributed to the registered pharmacists in Taiwan. In total, 491 responses were included in the analyses. RESULTS: Respondents (65% female, aged 41.9 ± 11.4 years, with 68% having a Bachelor's degree) reported a moderate anti-doping knowledge score of 37.2 ± 4.9, ranging from 21 to 48 (out of 51). Fifteen per cent of them had the experience of being counselled about drug use in sports. Higher knowledge scores were observed in younger respondents, showing an age-dependent effect (p < 0.001). Individuals practising in southern Taiwan (compared to northern Taiwan) and those working at clinics (compared to hospitals) exhibited lower knowledge. Most of the respondents (90%) knew that stimulant ephedrine is prohibited in sports, but few had recognised diuretic furosemide (38%) and CHM (7%) containing ß2-agonist higenamine. Approximately 90% of respondents agreed with the need for anti-doping education. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the heterogeneity of anti-doping knowledge among pharmacy professionals and provides practical relevance in organising future educational topics and research-based activities.

Realization of NIR-II 3D whole-body contour and tumor blood vessels imaging in small animals using rotational stereo vision technique.

Significance: Optical imaging in the second near-infrared (NIR-II, 1000 to 1700 nm) region is capable of deep tumor vascular imaging due to low light scattering and low autofluorescence. Non-invasive real-time NIR-II fluorescence imaging is instrumental in monitoring tumor status. Aim: Our aim is to develop an NIR-II fluorescence rotational stereo imaging system for 360-deg three-dimensional (3D) imaging of whole-body blood vessels, tumor vessels, and 3D contour of mice. Approach: Our study combined an NIR-II camera with a 360-deg rotational stereovision technique for tumor vascular imaging and 3D surface contour for mice. Moreover, self-made NIR-II fluorescent polymer dots were applied in high-contrast NIR-II vascular imaging, along with a 3D blood vessel enhancement algorithm for acquiring high-resolution 3D blood vessel images. The system was validated with a custom-made 3D printing phantom and in vivo experiments of 4T1 tumor-bearing mice. Results: The results showed that the NIR-II 3D 360-deg tumor blood vessels and mice contour could be reconstructed with 0.15 mm spatial resolution, 0.3 mm depth resolution, and 5 mm imaging depth in an ex vivo experiment. Conclusions: The pioneering development of an NIR-II 3D 360-deg rotational stereo imaging system was first applied in small animal tumor blood vessel imaging and 3D surface contour imaging, demonstrating its capability of reconstructing tumor blood vessels and mice contour. Therefore, the 3D imaging system can be instrumental in monitoring tumor therapy effects.

Development of Stereo NIR-II Fluorescence Imaging System for 3D Tumor Vasculature in Small Animals.

Near-infrared-II (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm) fluorescence imaging boasts high spatial resolution and deep tissue penetration due to low light scattering, reduced photon absorption, and low tissue autofluorescence. NIR-II biological imaging is applied mainly in the noninvasive visualization of blood vessels and tumors in deep tissue. In the study, a stereo NIR-II fluorescence imaging system was developed for acquiring three-dimension (3D) images on tumor vasculature in real-time, on top of the development of fluorescent semiconducting polymer dots (IR-TPE Pdots) with ultra-bright NIR-II fluorescence (1000-1400 nm) and high stability to perform long-term fluorescence imaging. The NIR-II imaging system only consists of one InGaAs camera and a moving stage to simulate left-eye view and right-eye view for the construction of 3D in-depth blood vessel images. The system was validated with blood vessel phantom of tumor-bearing mice and was applied successfully in obtaining 3D blood vessel images with 0.6 mm- and 5 mm-depth resolution and 0.15 mm spatial resolution. The NIR-II stereo vision provides precise 3D information on the tumor microenvironment and blood vessel path.

Knock-out or knock-in? Converting a SacB-based gene disruption system for site-specific chromosomal integration in Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000.

Recent advances in next generation sequencing technology allow us to retrieve the whole genome sequence of a requested bacterium in less than a day. Thus, development of quick, easy and efficient means to systemically analyze the functions of all genes is required in the post-genome era. Here, a procedure of finding a suitable chromosome integration site and developing a gene disruption system into a knock-in system in Gram-negative bacteria is proposed. As a proof of concept, we successfully modified a sacB-based gene knock-out strategy into a site-specific gene integration system to deliver a DNA fragment into the genome site between 313,520bp and 313,521bp of the model phytopathogenic bacterium, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) DC3000. The expression levels of avrPtoB and hcp2 integrated using this method exhibited steady and similar expression levels as those in the wild type. In the future, this concept could allow us to easily develop gene replacement and delivery systems at the same time using a counter-selectable suicide vector-based allelic exchange strategy, and facilitate functional genomics studies of any bacterium whose genome has been sequenced.

Explanatory style differences in health literacy: a survey among young adults in Taiwan.

Explanatory styles are related to individuals' positive health management. Everyone interprets and thinks about issues differently; therefore, medical information is understood in different ways. This study explored the relationship of optimistic and positive views on health literacy. A survey method was used to collect information from 342 university students. This study used PLS2.0 and SPSS 18.0 for data analysis. The results indicated that optimists had more accurate self-reported health status and medication-taking and nutritional knowledge than pessimists did. Females had higher scores on health knowledge and medication-taking and nutritional knowledge than males. In addition, female optimists had better performance on self-reported health status and health and medication-taking knowledge than female pessimists did. The major contribution of this study is the confirmation of the effect of explanatory style on health literacy.