Changes in Consumer Purchasing Behavior of Cultural and Creative Products During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020 has led the changes of many business models, including rapid growth in e-commerce that had made the change of consumers' shopping behavior from physical to online shopping. This study takes Taiwan's cultural and creative industry as an example to understand the relationship between the development of e-commerce and the design of commodity packaging during COVID-19, as well as the changes in consumer consumption patterns during the epidemic period. After exploring more than a dozen cultural and creative brand operators in the target research area using qualitative research methods, this study found that the epidemic has indeed affected the sales of some cultural and creative brands, but through the change of packaging design, consumers' visual perception stimulates the sales of goods and re-established pay attention to the cultural and creative brands when add some new packaging designs, and bring positive effects on e-commerce sales to the brand. Also, the good packaging design brought some more attention and procurement of goods, and also brings the effect of quality improvement.

Sleep apnea assessment using declination duration-based global metrics from unobtrusive fiber optic sensors.

OBJECTIVE: Sufficient sleep helps to restore the immune, nervous and cardiovascular systems, but is sometimes disturbed by sleep apnea (SA). The early diagnosis of sleep apnea is beneficial for the prevention of diseases. Polysomnography (PSG) recording provides comprehensive data for such assessment, but is not suitable for use at home due to discomfort during measurement and the difficulty of identification. This study proposes an unobtrusive measurement process by placing fiber optic sensors (FOSs) in a pillow (head-neck) or a bed mattress (thoracic-dorsal). APPROACH: We test two approaches: drop degrees from the baseline to validate the capability of catching respiratory drops, and linear regression models based on a new global measure, the percentage of the total duration of respiratory declination (PTDRD), to estimate the hand-scored apnea/hypopnea index (AHI). MAIN RESULTS: Based on data recorded from 63 adults, the drop degrees derived from respiratory signals exhibited statistical differences among central sleep apnea (CSA), obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and normal breathing. The regression models based on the PTDRDs derived from head-neck FOS and thoracic-dorsal FOS also achieved good agreement with manually scored AHIs in Bland-Altman plots as well as oronasal airflow and thoracic wall movement. SIGNIFICANCE: The aforementioned performance demonstrates the capability of the FOS measurement and the efficacy of the PTDRD metrics for SA assessment.

Metabolomics Reveals Dynamic Metabolic Changes Associated with Age in Early Childhood.

OBJECTIVES: A detailed understanding of the metabolic processes governing rapid growth in early life is still lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the age-related metabolic changes in healthy children throughout early childhood. METHODS: Healthy children from a birth cohort were enrolled in this study from birth through 4 years of age. Urinary metabolites were assessed at 6 months, and 1, 2, 3, and 4 yr of age by using 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy coupled with multivariate statistical analysis including principal components analysis (PCA) and partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Metabolic pathway analysis was performed using the MetPA web tool. RESULTS: A total of 105 urine samples from 30 healthy children were collected and analyzed. Metabolites contributing to the discrimination between age groups were identified by using supervised PLS-DA (Q2 = 0.60; R2 = 0.66). A significantly higher urinary trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) and betaine level was found in children aged 6 months. Urinary glycine and glutamine levels declined significantly after 6 months of age and there was a concomitant compensatory increase in urinary creatine and creatinine. Metabolic pathway analysis using MetPA revealed similar nitrogen metabolism associated energy production across all ages assessed. Pathways associated with amino acid metabolism were significantly different between infants aged 6 months and 1 year, whereas pathways associated with carbohydrate metabolism were significantly different between children at ages 2 and 3 years. CONCLUSIONS: Urine metabolomics ideally represents dynamic metabolic changes across age. Urinary metabolic profiles change significantly within the first year of life, which can potentially provide crucial information about infant nutrition and growth.

Osteoporosis prevention behaviors practiced among youth in Taichung City, Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE: To examine demographic characteristics, knowledge, and attitudes of adolescents on osteoprotective practices in Taichung City, Taiwan. METHODS: Using convenience sampling, 329 students from randomly selected high schools and colleges were recruited to respond to a 58-item questionnaire. RESULTS: Adolescents had significantly higher overall osteoprotective behavior practice scores than those of young adults (P<0.001). Those self-described as healthy had significantly higher osteoprotective behavior scores. Younger participants had significantly higher scores regarding osteoprotective behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Young people in Taiwan have moderate knowledge about osteoporosis and do practice osteoprotective behaviors, but infrequently. Osteoporosis knowledge and attitudes are not associated with osteoprotective behaviors.

[The relationship between sleep/awake rhythm development and caregiving activities].

Ensuring proper central nerve system (CNS) development is the core issue in premature infant care. Because an infant's sleep pattern (or sleep state) manifests his or her CNS integration, recognizing infant sleep patterns is essential for caregivers involved with developmental care. This article aims to explore the development of biological rhythms and infant sleep/awake states, factors influencing sleep states, and the effectiveness of various interventions to promote infant sleep. Five major factors that influence infant sleep states include noise, light, environmental temperature, physical contact with caregivers, and body position. Accordingly, we propose interventions to improve infant sleep quality to facilitate the growth of premature infants.