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In recent studies, artificial intelligence models have been developed for the prediction of nitrogen oxide emissions from thermal power plants. This research utilizes an artificial intelligence prediction model with more coal input features than boiler features, including volatility, ash content, sulfur content, fixed carbon, total moisture, calorific value, grinding rate, fuel ratio, coal feeding rate, boiler efficiency, total air volume, and excess air volume. The paper delves into the importance analysis of input features for artificial intelligence models. Moreover, feature importance analysis is not only a prerequisite for predicting nitrogen oxide emissions but also a study providing insights into model performance. An artificial neural networks (ANN) regression model is employed to predict nitrogen oxide emissions, and the results demonstrate that the number of feature importance significantly impacts model performance. The best model performance is achieved with eight specific input features. Finally, after the training and validation processes, the ANN model yields the optimal coefficient of determination (R2) value. • Development of an artificial intelligence prediction model for nitrogen oxide emissions from thermal power plants. • A comprehensive set of input features is utilized for emissions prediction. • Importance analysis of input features significantly impacts model performance. • Optimal model performance was achieved with eight specific input features. • The robust coefficient of determination (R2) value demonstrates the accuracy of the ANN model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earthquakes as a natural hazard have caused substantial economic losses and human life loss in many countries. Taiwan, which is located on the western Circum-Pacific seismic belt, encountered this problem in the form of the Meishan, Hsinchu-Taichung, and Chi-Chi earthquakes a few years ago. In this paper, the researchers propose a novel robot-event integrated system capable of doing the automated inspection and emergency response due to a significant earthquake. As the household's earthquake warning receiving device picks up an alert, its built-in wireless communications system will send a signal to the robot. The robot will then commence the inspection of the indoor area via real-time image recognition and tracking. Upon detecting fallen people, it will approach them, regulating their movements via the robot operating system monitoring interface. The robot is designed to operate in a house that remains standing with acceptable damage in which the furniture might be falling and injure the occupants after an earthquake hit. The indoor experiment was conducted to verify the robot system and operation with a designed condition such as fallen and non-fallen people as the detected object. The precision of the robot arm was tested in the case of the delivery of supplies to the fallen people while waiting for the rescuers to arrive. The tests indicated that the proposed smart robot has prospective implementation in real-world applications with more research and development. The smart robot integrated with an earthquake early warning system is a promising approach to the temporary care of people affected by earthquakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hand-dug caissons are often used in Taichung City to serve as a structural element to counter the buoyance induced by ground water for high-rise buildings with multi-level basement. The subsurface of Taichung City consists predominately of very dense sandy gravel that cannot be sampled for routine laboratory tests, thus impeding the use of empirical equations to estimate the capacities of caissons for lack of strength or index parameters of gravels. This paper presented the pile loading test result of a well-instrumented hand-dug caisson to shed a light on the uplift behavior of caisson within Taichung gravel. It is found that ultimate side friction of this caisson is about 25% higher than the maximum values stipulated in local design code, and the mobilized side friction is likely a function of the overburden pressure. Using the β-method as a basis, the ratio of ultimate skin friction to the overburden pressure of this test is calibrated against the published average curve. The calibrated curve was found shifting to the right of the original curve, indicating that Taichung gravel is perhaps more capable of providing a higher uplift capacity than average gravels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inefficient patient transport in hospitals often leads to delays, overworked staff, and suboptimal resource utilization, ultimately impacting patient care. Existing dispatch management algorithms are often evaluated in simulation environments, raising concerns about their real-world applicability. This study presents a real-world experiment that bridges the gap between theoretical dispatch algorithms and real-world implementation. It applies process capability analysis at Taichung Veterans General Hospital in Taichung, Taiwan, and utilizes IoT for real-time tracking of staff and medical devices to address challenges associated with manual dispatch processes. Experimental data collected from the hospital underwent statistical evaluation between January 2021 and December 2021. The results of our experiment, which compared the use of traditional dispatch methods with the Beacon dispatch method, found that traditional dispatch had an overtime delay of 41.0%; in comparison, the Beacon dispatch method had an overtime delay of 26.5%. These findings demonstrate the transformative potential of this solution for not only hospital operations but also for improving service quality across the healthcare industry in the context of smart hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyses the key factors that contributed to the cancellation of the 2019 Taichung East Asian Youth Games. The systemic governance approach is used to frame and interpret dynamic relations and interactions in the network, illustrating changes in events. In addition, documentary analysis is used to construct the background context, and responses from in-depth interviews provide diverse perspectives. The East Asian Olympic Committee (EAOC) revoked Taichung's hosting rights in 2018 after the proposal of a name rectification referendum, which was seen as a challenge to the Olympic Protocol specified in the Lausanne Agreement. However, based on the relationships and interactions among stakeholders, the cancellation was strategically manipulated to achieve specific goals. A stakeholder with close relations in the network can obtain support from others to determine the outcome. The results show how critical political considerations are to Taiwan/ROC when interacting with China/PRC in the same network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of gluten-related disorders has risen due to the increased consumption of bakery products made from refined flour in recent decades. This study focused on employing indigenous hill grain flours, such as Taichung 176 rice flour, maize flour, sweet buckwheat flour, and finger millet flour from Nepal, to create gluten-free cookies by incorporating fungal αamylase, baking powder, and baker's yeast as modified leavening agents, in contrast to the typical refined flour-based cookies. 16 different composite flours were made by combining millet, maize, buckwheat, and glutinous rice flours in a 75:25 percentage, then subjected to 30°C proofing for 1 hour for food grade fungal α-amylase with an improver and baker's yeast treated sample before blending with cream and baking for 20 minutes at 200°C.The ash content, moisture content, sensory qualities, microbial load, and shelf life of cookies were studied and compared with control cookies. Over 60-days storage period, most formulated cookies had moisture content below 5%, except BWBY cookies (6%to 8.37%). The ash percentage of cookies significantly increased from 0.81% to 2.59%. The highest ratings for taste (8.0), texture (7.6), and crunchiness (8.1) were achieved for cookies produced with 75:25% Millet: Taichung 176 rice flour, treated with fungal α-amylase, improver, and baker’s yeast.Utilization of proofing techniques in that sample improved their color, taste and resolved the gritty texture issue Formulated gluten-free cookies (GFC) had higher ash and moisture but were still acceptable despite increased microbial load and moisture until the 60th day of storage. Overall acceptability (OAC) score slightly dropped but remained good (7 of 9) after 2 months of storage. Notably, gluten-free cookies exhibited higher nutritional value and retained their acceptability for up to 60 days when stored at ambient temperature (25 ± 2°C). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has led to more frequent extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, and storms, which significantly impact agriculture, causing crop damage. Greenhouse cultivation not only provides a manageable environment that protects crops from external weather conditions and pests but also requires precise microclimate control. However, greenhouse microclimates are complex since various heat transfer mechanisms would be difficult to model properly. This study proposes an innovative hybrid model (DF-RF-ANN), which seamlessly fuses three components: the dynamic factor (DF) model to extract unobserved factors, the random forest (RF) to identify key input factors, and a backpropagation neural network (BPNN) to predict greenhouse microclimate, including internal temperature, relative humidity, photosynthetically active radiation, and carbon dioxide. The proposed model utilized gridded meteorological big data and was applied to a greenhouse in Taichung, Taiwan. Two comparative models were configured using the BPNN and the Long short-term memory neural network (LSTM). The results demonstrate that DF-RF-ANN effectively captures the trends of the observations and generates predictions much closer to the observations compared to LSTM and BPNN. The proposed DF-RF-ANN model hits a milestone in multi-horizon and multi-factor microclimate predictions and offers a cost-effective and easily accessible approach. This approach could be particularly beneficial for small-scale farmers to make the best use of resources under extreme climatic events for contributing to sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the transition towards a green economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes an ethno‐phenomenographic essay combining writing and photography to examine the contemporary atmosphere in Taichung, Taiwan. It explores the atmospheric effect of painted powerboxes. A selection of situations and atmospheric characteristics is described from different angles, and the history of the painting of these boxes is reflected upon, while themes and colorization of their peinture (painted image, my translation) are presented. Combined methods of photography and commented walk show an overall picture of this effect. The photographs illustrate how these boxes are present as people pass them by in their daily lives. Our comments sketch how these boxes and their environments weave themselves in and out of the perception of passers‐by to create a certain city atmosphere. We use photographs and writing in this way to support each other through dialogue. We contribute to the discussion of the phenomenology of the atmosphere through the use of visual anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of mammalian species worldwide have adapted to urban environments following the alteration and fragmentation of natural habitats. In recent years, the masked palm civet (Paguma larvata) has increased in several highly populated cities in Taiwan. Twelve‐years (2010–2021) of civet records in Taichung (the largest city in central Taiwan) from the rescue center of Taichung Wildlife Conservation Group report the population of civets has grown steadily since 2017, with the number of records in 2020 (n = 58) and 2021 (n = 55) approximately 5 times of that in 2010–2014 (mean ± SD = 5.0 ± 2.6). Our objective was to use the records from the rescue center to evaluate the potential sexual dimorphism of urban civets, explore temporal variation of civet activity and age structure, identify major threats to civets inhabiting urban areas, and investigate the environmental characteristics surrounding civet nesting sites in urban environments. The civet breeding season lasts from spring to autumn, with primary mating season in spring. The main cause of mortality in adults was dog attack followed by car accident, while the main rescue reason for young civets was because they were considered orphans following human interferences. Many civets in urban areas inhabit locations where >90% of the land cover is covered by buildings and man‐made structures, and even nest inside buildings. Our results demonstrated the need for new civet conservation and management policies to minimize dog attacks on civets to enhance co‐existence between wildlife and humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highway congestion is a common problem worldwide, and different management strategies have been proposed and implemented. In Taiwan, commuter trips in urban areas tend to use freeways for daily trips. One particular problem in Taiwan is consecutive on-ramps within metropolitan areas, such as Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. Three to four on-ramps bring more vehicles to the freeways, and coordinating with an integrated ramp control strategy is critical to avoiding congestion in metropolitan areas. Based on the concept of the store-and-forward method, this study proposes a linear optimal control model to optimize integrated on-ramp control strategies. The storeand-forward method is chosen because freeway congestion is usually observed in these areas, and freeway efficiency depends on avoiding queue length. The developed mathematical program can be solved efficiently through mathematical optimization packages. The objective of the formulation is to minimize the total queue length within considered areas. In the Taipei metropolitan area, numerical experiments were conducted based on three consecutive on-ramps, including Yuanshan, Taipei, and Sanchun ramps. Several scenarios were designed to illustrate the possible benefits of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit exogenous changes in land value tax burden caused by a municipal-level government reform in 2010 to examine the property tax capitalization. In 2010, three pairs of counties and cities were merged into three municipalities (Taichung City, Tainan City, and Kaohsiung City), resulting in increases in taxes of lands of the original cities and decreases in taxes of lands of the original counties. Using 2007-2015 land transaction data, the difference-in-difference estimates suggest robust evidence of capitalization in lands of the original counties. However, there are mixed results on capitalization in the lands of the original cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the diverse treatment outcomes after a botulinum toxin A (BoNT-A) injection to the external sphincter, this study aimed to develop a new technique: an ultrasound-guided BoNT-A external sphincter injection. This single-center prospective cohort study was conducted at a tertiary medical center in Taichung, Taiwan. From December 2020 to September 2022, 12 women were enrolled. The patients were evaluated for lower urinary tract syndrome using patient perception of bladder condition (PPBC), international prostate symptom score (IPSS), uroflowmetry, post-void residual volume (PVR), cystometry, and external sphincter electromyography. We evaluated the patients the day before surgery and 1 week after the BoNT-A injection. For the patients requiring self-catheterization, we recorded the number of times they required clean intermittent catheterization (CIC) per day before the procedure and 1 month after the procedure. The IPSS, PPBC, and PVR were significantly better after the transvaginal ultrasound-guided BoNT-A external sphincter injection. The number of times the patients required daily CIC was also reduced after the injection. Only one patient developed de novo urge urinary incontinence. Our results demonstrated that a transvaginal ultrasound-guided BoNT-A injection was efficacious and safe in the treatment of underactive bladder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Fidas Frog sampler is used to collect ambient air pollutants with various particle sizes at the Taichung Science Park in Taichung, Taiwan. The relationship between particle size and total number of ambient air particles is determined. Fine (PM≤2.5) and coarse (PM>2.5) particulate concentrations are obtained as percentages of the total particulate concentration. The mean concentrations of particles of various sizes (PM1, PM2.5, PM4, PM10, and PMtot) and the total number of particles were all highest on February 24, and declined from then until June 30. The particle concentration was strongly correlated with particle size (PM1, PM2.5, PM4, PM10, PMtotal suspended particles (PMtot.)). The relationship was stronger for smaller particles. The fine particulate concentrations (PM≤2.5) that were obtained using the Fidas Frog sampler were around 67.7% of those obtained in a previous study at the same sampling site. The coarse particulate concentrations (PM>2.5) that were obtained using the Fidas Frog sampler were about 89.4% of those obtained in (a previous study at the same sampling site OR JUST that study) (Fang et al., 2019). Finally, the average coarse particle concentrations that were obtained using the Fidas Frog sampler at this Taichung Science Park site were about 3.1 times the thus obtained fine particles concentrations. The main sources of particulate pollutants at the Taichung Science Park site were abrasion processes, crustal materials and products of vehicle wear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat stripe rust is an important disease and can seriously threaten wheat production. The most economical, safe and effective approach to manage this disease is to breed and deploy resistant varieties. Sifangmai is a Chinese wheat landrace and maintained adequate resistance to the Chinese stripe rust races. In order to decipher genetic bases of resistance in Sifangmai, the F1, F2 and F2:3 of the cross Sifangmai/Taichung 29 were tested at adult stage with race CYR32. Genetic analysis revealed that resistance in Sifangmai was controlled by a single dominant gene named as YrSF. Six SSR on chromosome 5BS showed polymorphism among 'Taichung 29', Sifangmai, and resistant and susceptible bulks. Chinese Spring nulli‐tetrasomic and monosomic lines were confirmed YrSF on chromosome 5B. A linkage map of YrSF was constructed and the closely linked marker to YrSF was Xgpw8015 with 1.8 cM. Based on the comparisons of resistance infection type, pedigree analysis, gene origin and chromosomal position of previously reported Yr genes on chromosome 5B, YrSF is different from these known genes and is likely a novel gene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A virtual tour of the onshore wind farm near Gaomei Wetland, Taichung City, Taiwan, was produced by producing panoramic images of the site by stitching images captured with a full-frame digital single-lens reflex camera and a multi-row panorama instrument, which automatically and precisely divided each scene into several images. Subsequently, the image stitching quality was improved by calculating the root mean square error (RMSE) of tie point matching and adjusting the tie points. Errors due to eccentricity attributed to the camera's relative position to the rotational axis of the multi-row panorama instrument were examined and solved; the effect of the overlap rate on image stitching quality was also investigated. According to the study results, the overlap rate between the original images was inversely proportional to the RMSE and directly proportional to the time required for photography and image processing. The stitching quality was improved by resolving eccentricity and by increasing the number of tie points. The RMSEs of the panoramas of all stations were all less than 5 pixels. Subsequently, multimedia materials providing information on wind turbine attributes were combined with the panorama platform to establish a virtual reality tour platform. The content of the platform could be accessed with a smartphone and viewed with a virtual reality device and could promote both tourist attractions and wind energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The status of insecticide resistance levels is important for applying suitable pest management approaches. The present study investigated the insecticide resistance of Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) populations from five major cruciferous growing areas in Taiwan. The surveyed locations were distributed from central to southern Taiwan and included Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi, and Kaohsiung. High levels of resistance to spinosad, indoxacarb, metaflumizone, and chlorantraniliprole were recorded among the surveyed populations except in Taichung. The resistance ratios ranged from 2.376 to 1,236-fold for spinosad and 24.63–1,511-fold for indoxacarb. Similarly, those for metaflumizone and chlorantraniliprole, were 2.563–76.21- and 4.457–683.0-fold, respectively. However, Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. aizawai , Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki , emamectin benzoate, and diafenthiuron were still relatively effective against most field populations of P. xylostella. After approximately 10 generations of being maintained in the laboratory without exposure to insecticides, the resistance ratios of the Kaohsiung and Changhua populations declined to approximately 1.4–10-fold, and insecticides with control failure likelihood also began to show a negligible risk of control failure. Although spinosad, indoxacarb, metaflumizone, and chlorantraniliprole have lost their effectiveness in most field populations of P. xylostella in Taiwan, their effectiveness may be recovered in the absence of insecticide-selection pressure for approximately 10 generations. Therefore, we suggest that a constant survey of insecticide resistance and well-designed insecticide rotation based on the survey results are necessary for the effective control and insecticide resistance management of P. xylostella. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of extreme climate due to global climate transition, rainwater adaptation in resilient cities is a key issue for countries. The purpose of this study is to identify the rainfall hotspots in urban areas and investigate whether these hotspots have environmental conditions for rainfall adaptation. The study site is located in the Taichung area. This study collects rainfall data from rainfall stations at elevations below 500 m, employs QGIS (quantum GIS) to create an inverse distance weighted graphical distribution of rainfall to determine the hotspots where the maximum and minimum rainfalls occur, identifies the topography, green spaces, water areas, and buildings in the catchment, integrates the coverage area in the project, and estimates the amount of rainwater that could be directly absorbed by the land within the catchment. The results of this study show that, among the rainfall stations at an elevation below 100 m where most urban areas are located, the Taichung rainfall station is the area with the highest number of rainfall events from May to August. Without reliance on gully or river drainage, the natural infiltration of the land in the catchment could only adjust to 80 mm of heavy precipitation within 24 h of the rainfall warning level of the Central Weather Bureau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Mesophyll conductance gm determines CO2 diffusion rates from mesophyll intercellular air spaces to the chloroplasts and is an important factor limiting photosynthesis. Increasing gm in cultivated plants is a potential strategy to increase photosynthesis and intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi). The anatomy of the leaf and metabolic factors such as aquaporins and carbonic anhydrases have been identified as important determinants of gm. However, genes involved in the regulation and modulation of gm remain largely unknown.In this work, we investigated the role of heterotrimeric G proteins in gm and drought tolerance in rice d1 mutants, which harbor a null mutation in the Gα subunit gene, RGA1.d1 mutants in both cv Nipponbare and cv Taichung 65 exhibited increased gm, fostering improvement in photosynthesis, WUEi, and drought tolerance compared with wild‐type. The increased surface area of mesophyll cells and chloroplasts exposed to intercellular airspaces and the reduced cell wall and chloroplast thickness in the d1 mutant are evident contributors to the increase in gm.Our results indicate that manipulation of heterotrimeric G protein signaling has the potential to improve crop WUEi and productivity under drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a common clinical disease. Knee pain is the major symptom of knee OA and the primary reason why patients seek treatment. Fu's subcutaneous needling (FSN) has been used to treat knee OA for more than 20 years. However, the establishment of treatment methods and rigorous evaluation of FSN's efficacy are still lacking. A randomized single-blind clinical trial will be conducted to evaluate whether FSN treatment can immediately alleviate pain due to knee OA surrounding the patella and the curative effective of 1-week and 2-week treatments. In addition, the feasibility and initial effect of FSN treatment for patients with knee OA will be discussed. Materials and Methods: Patients with confirmed knee OA, as diagnosed by doctors using X-ray films or from clinical symptoms, who are over 50 years old will be participants recruited. They will be randomly assigned either FSN treatment or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation treatment. In addition, their pressure pain threshold, muscle tone of lower leg muscle, and physical ability will be measured. Participants will be asked to complete the questionnaires of Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index and Lequesne' index as the measurements for quality of life. Results: The findings of this study will reveal whether FSN or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation is clinically efficacious for treating pain due to knee OA, with respect to muscle stiffness, gait, dynamic balance, the pressure pain threshold, and quality of life before and after treatment. Study Registration: This study is approved by the Research Ethics Committee of China Medical University & Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan (CMUH107-REC3-027) and registered at the ClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Registration and Results System (registration number NCT04356651). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xanthomonas Oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) causes bacterial blight and Rhizoctonia solani (R. solani) causes sheath blight in rice accounting for >75% of crop losses. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop strategies for the mitigation of these pathogen infections. In this study, we report the antimicrobial efficacy of Cholic Acid-Glycine Conjugates (CAGCs) against Xoo and R. solani. We show that CAGC C6 is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial and is also able to degrade biofilms. The application of C6 did not hamper plant growth and showed minimal effect on the plant cell membranes. Exogenous application of C6 on pre-infection or post-infection of Xoo on rice susceptible genotype Taichung native (TN1) can mitigate the bacterial load and improve resistance through upregulation of plant defense genes. We further demonstrate that C6 can induce plant defense responses when seeds were primed with C6 CAGC. Therefore, this study demonstrates the potential of CAGCs as effective antimicrobials for crop protection that can be further explored for field applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia (Coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19) created a serious impact on the lives of people around the world. Humans, affected by the COVID-19 virus, must reduce related activities to suppress the spread of this disease. However, the pandemic had a positive impact on the environment due to reduced outdoor activities. The correlation between reduced human outdoor activities and health effects was investigated in this study through two Metropolitan parks in Taichung, Taiwan. The developed low-cost air quality sensors were installed in these two parks to detect the variances in PM2.5 concentrations during the epidemic outbreak. Experimental results indicated that PM2.5 concentrations in these two parks were reduced from about 23.25 and 22.96 μg/m3 to 8.19 and 8.48 μg/m3, respectively, the median absolute deviations (MAD) decreased from 4.21 and 4.57 to 1.71 and 1.35, respectively after the epidemic outbreak, and the calculated standard deviation of all normal-to-normal interval (SDNN) and the ratio of low-frequency power to high-frequency (LF/HF) indicated that the drops of PM2.5 concentrations caused the increased health-related benefits by 73.53% with the variances being low. These results showed that the PM2.5 concentrations displayed high correlations with human activities, which also played important roles in human health effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the widespread vaccination against COVID-19, people began to resume regional tourism. Outdoor attractions, such as leisure agricultural parks, are particularly attractive because they are well ventilated and can prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the considerations around choosing a leisure agricultural park are different from usual, and will be affected by uncertainty. Therefore, this research proposes a fuzzy collaborative intelligence (FCI) approach to help select leisure agricultural parks suitable for traveler groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed FCI approach combines asymmetrically calibrated fuzzy geometric mean (acFGM), fuzzy weighted intersection (FWI), and fuzzy Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (fuzzy VIKOR), which is a novel attempt in this field. The effectiveness of the proposed FCI approach has been verified by a case study in Taichung City, Taiwan. The results of the case study showed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, travelers (especially traveler groups) were very willing to go to leisure agricultural parks. In addition, the most important criterion for choosing a suitable leisure agricultural park was the ease of maintaining social distance, while the least important criterion was the distance from a leisure agricultural park. Further, the successful recommendation rate using the proposed methodology was as high as 90%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]