This study examined the effects of group art therapy on self-concept and peer relationships among adolescents using a mixed-method approach. Twelve recruited adolescents from a high school in Northern Taiwan attended weekly 2-h group art therapy sessions for 8 weeks. Through a discovery-oriented approach incorporating focus group interviews and individual interviews, qualitative results revealed that the participants started getting to know themselves better and were able to explore their inner selves while noticing their own emotions. Their self-concept also became more positive along with reduced negative self-concept, increased positive self-concept, and clearer visions towards future goals. Furthermore, the therapy modified adolescents' negative peer relationships by reducing their social anxiety and adjusting their complicated experiences. Participants were found to experience trustable, allied, and compassionate positive peer relationships while having reduced loneliness and improved social skills at the same time. Besides, the participants answered self-concept and peer relationship scales at pre- and post-interventions as well as a 12-month follow-up thereafter. Friedman test on the longitudinal data showed participants reporting consistently higher self-concept and peer relationship at post-intervention and 12-month follow-up than at the pre-intervention stage. Taken together, the findings duly support art therapy in boosting adolescents' self-concept and peer relationships.
BACKGROUND: Little is known about autoimmune liver disease (AILD) in Asian children. We studied the clinical features and predictors of outcome in childhood AILD in an Asian population.
METHODS: Retrospective review of AILD [autoimmune hepatitis type 1 and 2 (AIH1, AIH2), primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and autoimmune sclerosing cholangitis (ASC)] seen at two pediatric liver units in Malaysia.
RESULTS: At presentation, 17 (56%) of the 32 children [19 females, 59%; median (range) age 7.7 (1.8-15.5) years] with AILD (AIH1 = 18, AIH2 = 5, PSC = 0, ASC = 9) had liver cirrhosis. At final review [median (range) duration of follow-up 4.8 (0.4-12) years], 24 patients (75%) survived with a native liver. Twenty-one (66%) were in remission; 19 (AIH1 = 11; AIH2 = 4, ASC = 4) were on prednisolone and/or azathioprine, one on cyclosporine and another on mycophenolate mofetil. Three (AIH1 = 3) were in partial remission. Of the two who underwent liver transplantation (LT; 6.5%; both ASC), one died of primary graft failure after LT. Six patients (19%) died without LT (acute liver failure, n = 1; end-stage liver disease, n = 5). The overall survival rate (native liver and survival post-LT) was 78%. A delay in seeking treatment adversely affected the final outcome [survival with native liver vs. LT or death (duration between onset of disease and treatment; median ± standard error) = 2.5 ± 2.9 months vs. 24.0 ± 13.3 months; p = 0.012].
CONCLUSIONS: Although remission was achieved in the majority of patients with prednisolone and/or azathioprine therapy, delay in seeking diagnosis and treatment adversely affects the outcome of childhood AILD in Malaysia.
In China, waste sorting practice is not strictly followed, plastics, especially food packaging, are commonly mixed in food waste. Supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of unsorted food waste was conducted in this study, using model unsorted food waste by mixture of pure food waste and plastic. Different operating parameters including reaction temperature, residence time, and feedstock concentration were investigated. Moreover, the effect of three representative food additives namely NaCl, NaHCO3 and Na2CO3 were tested in this work. Finally, comparative analysis about SCWG of unsorted food waste, pure food waste, and plastic was studied. It was found that higher reaction temperature, longer residence time and lower feedstock concentration were advantageous for SCWG of unsorted food waste. Within the range of operating parameters in this study, when the feedstock concentration was 5 wt%, the highest H2 yield (7.69 mol/kg), H2 selectivity (82.11%), total gas yield (17.05 mol/kg), and efficiencies of SCWG (cold gas efficiency, gasification efficiency, carbon gasification efficiency, and hydrogen gasification efficiency) were obtained at 480 °C for 75 min. Also, the addition of food additives with Na+ promoted the SCWG of unsorted food waste. The Na2CO3 showed the best catalytic performance on enhancement of H2 and syngas production. This research demonstrated the positive effect of waste sorting on the SCWG of food waste, and provided novel results and information that help to overcome the problems in the process of food waste treatment and accelerate the industrial application of SCWG technology in the future.
The human brain possesses a remarkable ability to memorize information with the assistance of a specific external environment. Therefore, mimicking the human brain's environment-enhanced learning abilities in artificial electronic devices is essential but remains a considerable challenge. Here, a network of Ag nanowires with a moisture-enhanced learning ability, which can mimic long-term potentiation (LTP) synaptic plasticity at an ultralow operating voltage as low as 0.01 V, is presented. To realize a moisture-enhanced learning ability and to adjust the aggregations of Ag ions, we introduced a thin polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) coating layer with moisture-sensitive properties to the surfaces of the Ag nanowires of Ag ions. That Ag nanowire network was shown to exhibit, in response to the humidity of its operating environment, different learning speeds during the LTP process. In high-humidity environments, the synaptic plasticity was significantly strengthened with a higher learning speed compared with that in relatively low-humidity environments. Based on experimental and simulation results, we attribute this enhancement to the higher electric mobility of the Ag ions in the water-absorbed PVP layer. Finally, we demonstrated by simulation that the moisture-enhanced synaptic plasticity enabled the device to adjust connection weights and delivery modes based on various input patterns. The recognition rate of a handwritten data set reached 94.5% with fewer epochs in a high-humidity environment. This work shows the feasibility of building our electronic device to achieve artificial adaptive learning abilities.
In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field.