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Purpose: Taiwan experiences frequent seismic activity. Major earthquakes in recent history have seriously damaged the school buildings. School buildings in Taiwan are intended to serve both as places of education and as temporary shelters in the aftermath of major earthquakes. Therefore, the seismic performance assessments of school buildings are critical issues that deserve investigation. Design/methodology/approach: This paper develops a methodology that uses principal component analysis to generalize the seismic factors from the basic seismic parameters of school buildings, uses data mining to cluster different school building sizes and uses grey theory to analyze the relationship between seismic factors and the seismic performance of school buildings. Additionally, this paper employs the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to deduce the seismic assessment model for school buildings. Finally, it adopts support vector machine to validate the ANN's deductive results. Findings: An empirical study was conducted on 326 school buildings in the central area of Taichung City, Taiwan, to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Results show that thickness of wall and width of middle-row column relate significantly with school-building seismic performance. Originality/value: This paper provides a model that structural engineers or architects may use to design school buildings that are adequately resistant to earthquakes as well as a reference for future academic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about spatial–temporal variability of atmospheric temperature across Taiwan, an island with diverse local emission sources partly because of its Asian cultural characteristics. To develop a new land use regression (LUR) model for this study, we used the temperature data collected by the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau from 2000 and 2016, while using the data from 2017 as the external data verification to assess model reliability. Because incense and joss money burning is a cultural-specific emission source in Asia, we further included location of temples, cemeteries, and crematoriums as potential predictors. The overall model performance and tenfold cross-validated are R2 of 0.88 and R2 of 0.87, respectively, which presents a high level of prediction performance. Moreover, we used our LUR model to estimate urban heat islands intensity (UHII) for six metropolises in Taiwan and found Taichung City has the highest UHII value (4.60 °C) among them. These results provide important insights in expanding the remote sensing application on spatial–temporal variation of atmospheric temperature and its further application on UHI effects. [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]

Amid the global dilemma of youth unemployment, youth entrepreneurship has had an important impact on social, cultural and economic progress, and various countries have actively promoted relevant frameworks and strategies. Taiwan has many cultural assets whose original functions are no longer preserved. Fortunately, the public sector has thought a variety of redevelopment strategies to promote sustainable development, and new functions and usage patterns for these sites have emerged. However, there is a lack of research investigating the links between youth entrepreneurship, community participation and place attachment in local-development projects: a gap that this paper intends to fill. Against the backdrop of one such project, this study discusses the interrelationships of youth entrepreneurship, community participation, place dependence and place identity. Its results indicate that the different personal backgrounds of young entrepreneurs had little or no bearing on the extent of their community participation, place dependence or place identity. However, such community participation had a moderately positive correlation with place dependence and place identity, leading the authors to conclude that the participation of a community of young entrepreneurs brings new opportunities for local development that transcend the mere reduction of youth unemployment. That is, in addition to maintaining and preserving historic spaces, it boosts both sustainable development and diversity in the broader local community. They also calls for future research to assess whether community participation influences place attachment in other parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the externalities of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the Taichung metropolitan, Taiwan. The human effects of SO2 from stationary sources are a key element for local air quality management. A methodology to evaluate those effects in monetary term had been adapted and applied. This method was modified from the EU-based impact pathway approach link to the skill of geographic information systems. The studied area was divided into 66 districts and the quantity of SO2 was allocated to each district. Then, the ambient concentration of SO2 was estimated by using the ordinary kriging method. A risk analysis was employed to characterize the health impacts caused by SO2. Finally, a monetary transfer approach based on the European data was conducted to estimate local damage costs per ton of SO2. Health impacts, especially acute mortality, dominate in term of costs. The calculation showed that damage costs ranged from 0.56 to 7.38 USD/kg SO2 based on the 2002 emission data. The results could be used in the internalization of SO2 externalities and management of the stationary sources in the studied area. This paper also concludes that the externalities caused by stationary-related SO2 emissions are some 28.5 million US dollars in Taichung metropolitan (Taiwan) in 2002. [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 paper examines the motives and sources of satisfaction of 286 respondents relating to the 921 Earthquake Museum in Taichung, Taiwan. In concludes that income, age and education remain statistically significant determinants of at\titudes, and notes the existence of four clusters derived from k-means analysis but supported by a cross-tabulation of cluster types and categories derived from themes identified in responses to open-ended questions. The paper lends some support to the continuum of the authentic to 'pure essentialism' while arguing that the latter is a logical corollary of the concept, but in practice will be rare. In that respect the Museum represents a negotiated essentialism in that the core of the Museum is the damaged school, but it has been sanitized. Reference is also made to differing concepts of museums and the literature relating to competing understandings of the roles of museums and why people visit them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This research examines whether public political participation in Taiwan is influenced by people's interactive relations and social environments. In contrast to the "sociodemographic factor" and "political mobilization" approaches used in previous studies of political participation, this paper's theoretical structure is that of "cross-cutting networks." It analyzes the influence exerted by social network "cross-pressures" on voters' engagement in political activities and their likelihood of voting in the 2010 mayoral elections in Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Taichung cities. The study uses national survey data to test the association between cross-cutting networks and political participation. The methodology adopted includes cross-tabulation analyses, ordered logit model, and logit model. The findings reveal that people in cross-cutting networks involving greater political disagreement are less likely to participate in politics while individuals engaging in homogeneous social interactions and under low level cross-pressure are predisposed to participate more actively in politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an application of the Analytic Network Process (ANP) to an architectural project selection problem. ANP is a method based on Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) that accurately models complex environments. This approach is particularly useful in problems that work with partially available data, qualitative variables, and influences among the variables, which are very common situations in the project evaluation context. It is difficult to select the best set of proposed architectural projects because many factors are involved, such as project risk, corporate goals, and limited availability of the firm's architectural resources. In this paper we suggest an improved architectural project selection methodology, which reflects interdependencies among evaluation criteria and candidate projects using ANP within a zero-one goal programming (ZOGP) model. In order to provide a systematic approach to setting priorities among multiple criteria and trade-offs among objectives, we suggest that ANP is applied prior to goal programming (GP) formulation. As an illustration, we apply the new approach to a real case study of an architectural project selection problem located in Taichung, Taiwan, using an integrated approach including fuzzy Delphi, ANP, and ZOGP. The results confirm the validity of the methodology and show that the more information that is incorporated into the model, the more accurate the solution will be, so the presented methodology is a good alternative to current architectural project selection evaluation approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the concentrations and formation rates of ambient nitrous acid (HNO2) in the urban atmosphere. Simultaneous measurements of HNO2 and aerosol particles were carried out from July 2005 to January 2006 by using an annular denuder system (ADS). In addition, the formation rates of NOx to HNO2 were assessed by evaluating potential reactions. The HNO2 concentrations ranged from 0.1 to 15.3 μg m−3 with a mean value of 2.9 μg m−3. The lower levels of HNO2 found in the 10–14 and 14–18-h sampling intervals were due to photolytic reactions. Moreover, heterogeneous reactions of NO2 and H2O on the aerosol surface contributed to the numerous production pathways of HNO2 during nighttime, which was verified by experimental observations and theoretical evaluations. The formation rates of HNO2 ranged from 0.5–2.6 % h−1, while the highest values were found at nighttime. Finally, the factors affecting the formation rate were investigated using sensitivity analysis. The results showed that HNO2 was significantly dependent on NO concentration during daytime, whereas NO2 was the major factor influencing the formation of HNO2 during nighttime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates route choice behaviour on freeways between Taipei and Taichung in Taiwan under the provision of real-time traffic information. Two types of route choice selection rules (the best-route and habitual-route) are analysed using ordered probit models to identify the major influences on freeway travellers' route choice behaviour. The level of service associated with each route is defined as a generalised cost saving (GCS) and specified non-linearly with a threshold inherent to travellers. The marginal (dis)utility thresholds in the 'best' and 'habitual' behaviour models are identified through a goodness-of-fit grid. The results confirm that the thresholds for changing the inertia behaviour of drivers should be larger than the ones for choosing the best routes. In addition, the drivers are more likely to choose either the best or the habitual routes once the GCS are greater than the identified threshold values. [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]

Air pollution is a global problem and can be perceived as a modern-day curse. One way of dealing with it is by finding economical ways to monitor and forecast air quality. Accurately monitoring and forecasting fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations is a challenging prediction task but Internet of Things (IoT) can help in developing economical and agile ways to design such systems. In this paper, we use a historical data-based approach to perform PM2.5 forecasting. A forecasting method is developed which uses exponential smoothing with drift. Experiments and evaluation were performed using the real-time PM2.5 data obtained from large scale deployment of IoT devices in Taichung region in Taiwan. We used the data from 132 monitoring stations to evaluate our model's performance. A comparison of prediction accuracy and computation time between the proposed model and three widely used forecasting models was done. The results suggest that our method can perform PM2.5 forecast for 132 monitoring stations with error as low as 0.16 μ g/ m 3 and also with an acceptable computation time of 30 s. Further evaluation was done by forecasting PM2.5 for next 3 h. The results show that 90 % of the monitoring stations have error under 1.5 μ g/ m 3 which is significantly low. [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]

Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to investigate how atmospheric air pollutants and meteorological conditions affect atmospheric visibility and turbidity. Meteorological parameter and anthropogenic air pollutant values were recorded during 2004 and 2005 at the Wuchi weather station and the Sha-lu environmental quality database station at the Taichung Harbor near the Taiwan Strait. Local weather conditions (temperature, relative humidity and solar radiation) and airborne pollutant (PM10, SO2, NO2, CO and O3) concentrations were used to analyze the relative effects of atmospheric air pollutants and meteorological conditions on atmospheric visibility and turbidity. Based on the analytic results, air pollutant concentrations significantly influence visibility and atmospheric turbidity. Wind speed is an important meteorological parameter that affects atmospheric turbidity parameters at the same atmospheric air pollutant concentrations throughout the periods of observation. At wind speeds of greater than 7m/s, the turbidity factor βVis is below 0.3 and visibility is greater than 6.5km. Under very turbid conditions, βVis >0.4, the wind velocity is below 5m/s, regardless of the atmospheric pollutant concentration. When visibility is ≥11km, the PM10 concentration is predicted to be below 150μg/m3 and the atmosphere is regarded as clear. Under very turbid conditions, the PM10 concentration exceeds 250μg/m3. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper is concerned with the selection of a candidate joint development station (JDS) for a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system. We propose a method to reach consensus for a group decision on the basis of a combination of the analytic hierarchy process and the assurance region model of data envelopment analysis. Several strategies for using this methodology-for example, Delphi procedures-are also discussed. On the basis of these analyses, the evaluators (council members) responsible for recommending the proper candidate JDS for an MRT system in Taichung City, Taiwan, came up with two contenders from among five: one station in Taichung's CBD area and the other in the Situn district. It was not possible to discriminate between the two using multiple criteria for evaluating stations. The evaluators recommended these two stations to the city council, who should now be able to make an informed, objective decision. In this report we have summarized, with emphasis on the methodological aspects, the decision-making processes that the evaluators followed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: It is essential to forecast the variation of storm surge in coastal areas during the typhoon attacks. Conventional investigations of storm surge often used the method of numerical hydrodynamic models or empirical formula. In this paper, the back-propagation neural network (BPN) is applied to predict the short-term typhoon surge and surge deviation in order to overcome the problem of exclusive and nonlinear relationships. The observations obtained during three typhoons of Taichung harbor in Taiwan are verified by the present model. From the comparison with numerical methods, it can be found that the short-term storm surge and surge deviation can be efficiently predicted 1 to 6h ahead using BPN. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The objective of this study is to assess the role of tourist motivation and demographic factors in influencing tourist loyalty toward cultural creative attractions. This study uses self-administered questionnaires to collect the data from five cultural creative attractions in Taichung, Taiwan. Overall, 304 responses were gathered to examine the proposed hypotheses. The results reveal that tourist experience is a key factor in determining loyalty toward cultural creative attractions while tourist motivation strengthens experience quality and perceived value. The multi-group analysis did not find any significant path differences between loyalty and its determinants across the demographic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing energy and environmental systems through sustainable development, in particular integrating concepts of circular economy and cleaner production are important for the emerging needs of humankind. In recent years, the developments in alternative sources of renewable energy counterparts has been prompted to substitute the nonrenewable fossil fuel consumptions towards clearner environment. However, environmental problems arising currently must be carefully addressed and to be solved to conserve the energy, water and other environmental resources for the future. This article highlights the recent developments on alternative energy sources that mainly focus on energy and environmental sustainability, that has been discussed on "The 4th International Conference on Alternative Fuels & Energy (ICAFE–2019)", which was held at Taichung City, Taiwan on October 18–21, 2019. Additionally, it provides useful insights from some of the papers published on a virtual special issue (VSI) of the Bioresourse Technology Journal. The highlighted research works in this review can be used as route-map towards sustainable development and energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the Taiwan government has been calling for the use of public transportation and has been popularizing pollution-reducing green vehicles. Passenger transport operators are being encouraged to replace traditional buses with electric buses, to increase their use in urban transportation. Reduced energy consumption and operating costs are important operational benefits for passenger transport operators, and driving behavior has a significant impact on fuel consumption. Although many literatures or real-world systems have addressed the issues related to reducing energy consumption with electric buses, these works do not involve the records collected from an on-vehicle battery management system (BMS). Accordingly, the results of analyses of existing works lack in-depth discussions, and therefore the applicability of existing works is insignificant. Therefore, in this study, driving data were collected using a battery management system (BMS), and vehicular power consumption was classified according to energy efficiency. Then, decision trees and random forest were applied to construct energy consumption analytical models. Finally, the driving behaviors that influence energy consumption were investigated. A case study was conducted in which a Taichung passenger transport operator's electric bus driving data on urban routes were collected to construct energy consumption analytical models. The data consisted of two parts, i.e., vehicle records and route records. On the basis of these records, we considered the practicability and applicability of the analytical models by transforming the unstructured records into raw data. Passenger transport operators and drivers can leverage the obtained eco-driving indicators for different bus routes for energy savings and carbon reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In other studies the Integrated Process Rate (IPR) method was widely used to analyze the impact of various physical and chemical processes and their relative significance on PM 2.5 in pollution episodes for specific sites; however, sources of pollution and their effect in planning emission control strategies were not considered. Using results of a brute force source sensitivity (BFSS) method may complement IPR. This paper integrates CMAQ-IPR and BFSS to examine the causes of a PM 2.5 episode on Jan 15, 2010 across two air quality monitoring stations in Taichung, Taiwan (Shalu, a rural station and Situn, an urban station). Two pollution deterioration events (time intervals) were observed and simulated. When only CMAQ-IPR was used for simulation, the results revealed most pollution (>60%) was from local sources at the Situn Station. The two deterioration intervals differed however, as interval 1 showed a contribution from local emissions (49%), vertical advection (41%) and aerosols processes (10%). Interval 2 at Shalu Station was categorized as a downwind monitoring station, where emission from the grid constituted only 37%, and the majority of pollutants travelling by horizontal advection (56%), and to some extent, aerosols process (6%). Simulation by integrating IPR and BFSS (including diesel vehicles, gasoline vehicles/motorcycles, construction/road dust, iron/steel industries, and power plants around Taiwan) rendered to the type of physical or chemical process in which pollutants went through and its impact on the concentration of PM 2.5 in the air quality monitoring station, which helped planning of emission control measures. Simulation results indicated improvement of PM 2.5 concentrations in Situn and Shalu would be limited (only 0.2–4.2% contribution to deteriorating PM 2.5 levels at the stations) even the emissions of the power plants and iron/steel industries in whole Taiwan were under control. However, by controlling the emissions of diesel vehicles, gasoline vehicles/motorcycles, and construction/road dust in whole Taiwan, the improvent is much enhanced (49–79% contribution to deteriorating PM 2.5 levels at the stations), but it cost a lot. Nonethless, the improvement was quite significant by controlling the local emissions (around the monitoring station) of diesel vehicles, gasoline vehicles/motorcycles, and construction/road dust for Situn Station as they accounted for 72–85% of these three sources contribution to deteriorating PM 2.5 levels at the station. For Shalu Station, it required a wide area of controlling the emissions from diesel vehicles, gasoline vehicles/motorcycles, and construction/road dust because there was 22–53% of these three sources contribution to deteriorating PM 2.5 levels at the station from horizontal or vertical advection. Image 1 • Combination of BFSS and IPR is applied in the development of control strategies. • Improving Situn (urban) PM 2.5 requires only controlling the nearby specific sources. • Improving Shalu (rural) PM 2.5 requires a wide area of controlling emission sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is one of the most important global environmental issues. Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently using an Air Quality Index (AQI) to measure and monitor its national air quality. The main objective of this study is to assess the air quality per hour every month in Taichung City of Taiwan from 2014 to 2016 based on the nonconformance probability of the AQI index. The nonconformance probability is defined as the probability that a characteristic of interest falls outside of an acceptance region. A lower confidence bound for the nonconformance probability is applied to test whether the AQI index value exceeds a warning threshold, and then the government could issue warnings according to the decision made by such statistical inference. An unbalanced two-way random effects model is presented for fitting the AQI index values. We evaluate three different lower confidence bound construction methods, including a t-based, an adjusted t-based and a generalized pivotal quantity (GPQ) based methods, through a detailed simulation study. Finally, a hybrid method of the t-based and the adjusted t-based estimators is recommended for practical use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the study of Mazuism has been popular among scholars, few have attempted to touch upon its religious tourist behaviour; however, as the purpose of their travel is to worship at the Mazu Temple, it is thus, a tourism destination. Therefore, from the perspective of religious sustainable operation, it is important to understand the tourist behavior patterns of religious tourists visiting Mazu Temple. The purpose of this study is to analyze the interrelationships between destination image, service quality, perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioural intention. This study is conducted with convenience sampling methods for tourists visiting Jenn Lann Temple in Dajia, Taichung, Taiwan, and a total of 408 valid questionnaires are obtained. The valid questionnaires collected in this study are statistically analysed using descriptive statistics and PLS. The results show that destination image, service quality, perceived value, and satisfaction have positive impacts on tourists' behavioural intention. According to the results of the above analysis, this study constructs a religious tourism behaviour model of Mazu believers and gives management advice to the Mazu Temple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated and compared the prevalence of illegal drug use among students and detainees in Taiwan. Stratified sampling of schools in the major cities of Taiwan, including New Taipei City, Taichung City, and Kaohsiung City, was adopted, and surveys were conducted from 2014 to 2017. The sample in the study consists of 2,190 cohort school students and 125 detained juveniles in the Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung Juvenile Detention Houses each year. The response rate is 87% on average. The results show that 1.5% of students and 65.8% of detained juveniles have ever used drugs. From 2014 to 2017, the survey indicates that over 60% of detained juveniles have ever possessed and used drugs. The findings reveal that ketamine and disguised drugs (e.g., cathinone mix with methylamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, and ketamine) are the most popularly used drugs among Taiwanese adolescents. The findings may deserve further attention in tracking and monitoring the juvenile illicit drug use from a comprehensive national prevalence survey. [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]

This study investigated the potential factors contributing to a series of ozone (O) episodes in the Taichung metropolis, which occurred during the first half of May 2007. Surface data of the meteorological parameters and air pollutant concentrations, supported by Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration, and vertical data monitored via tethersonde sampling were analysed. The analyses showed that local anthropogenic activities and physical factors such as the sea-air interaction were not the main factors contributing to the O events. Excluding these potential causes, the results suggest that, during the aforementioned period, the stronger Mainland High and Pacific Low may have been responsible for the long-range transport of large quantities of O from Mainland China to Taiwan. Furthermore, O photochemical activity also played an important role in the O episodes. The faster consumption of NO lead to a more rapid increase in the O concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background, aim, and scope: Topographical and meteorological factors, such as monsoons, can drastically affect ambient dioxin levels. In order to better understand these phenomena, four sampling lines (comprising 16 sampling sites) were selected in accordance with the topographical characteristics and the transport paths of the Taichung Basin. Materials and methods: The ambient air samples were simultaneously collected according to US EPA TO-9A. Seventeen polychlorinated dibenzo- p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) were analyzed by a high-resolution gas chromatograph/high-resolution mass spectrometer. Results: Field measurements indicated that, during monsoons, PCDD/Fs concentrations varied from 128 to 4,230 fg m. Two locations, the pass between two tablelands and the valley in front of a mountain, had the highest PCDD/Fs concentrations; those concentrations were about two to five times greater than the average concentration. There were 189 analyses of 11 kinds of PCDD/Fs emission sources used to develop emission fingerprints for a CMB8.2 simulation. Chemical mass balance (CMB8.2) model simulation with PCDD/Fs and surface wind field measurements were performed. Results of CMB8.2 modeling indicated that the major source of most sites was secondary copper smelting. Conclusions: The CMB8.2 model indicated the effects of hills and river valleys on pollutant transport. Results indicated that secondary copper smelting must be controlled to reduce the ambient concentrations of PCDD/Fs in the Taichung Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study regarding the earthquake damage on the gravity quaywall. The study outllined the three cases in which the discussion of the third case is presented for the kinematics of the deformed submerged backfill. The study surveyed the Taichung Harbour in Taiwan and used the shaking-table tests. Results of the surveys and shaking-table tests were analyzed to explain the failure mechanism in the lateral displacements of gravity quaywalls during earthquake.

The article focuses on a community-based Taichung Community Health study, which aims to assess the impact of metabolic syndrome on arterial stiffness in a longitudinal study. The study involved the measuring of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) in 1518 community-dwelling persons at baseline. The background, methods, results, and conclusions of the study, are discussed.

No abstract available [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road pricing is being introduced in a number of countries to mitigate traffic congestion. It is suggested in the literature that a contributing influence to the success of road pricing is the attitudes of road users to that strategy before it is implemented. Given a general absence of evidence in an Asian setting, we undertake attitudinal surveys in Taichung (Taiwan) and Kyoto (Japan), and estimate a Bivariate ordered probit model to explore the influences on respondents' attitude towards road pricing (Attitude) and their willingness to vote for road pricing in a fictitious election (Vote). The results confirm that there is a complementary relationship between road pricing acceptance attitudes and voting attitudes before implementation. A seemingly uncorrelated regression model is also developed for the respondents' intentions to reduce car use (Self) and expectations of others' car use reduction (Others) in response to the introduction of road user pricing. The evidence suggests that there is a complementary relationship between one's own usage expectations and that of others after implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this research was to explore the developmental process of and possible changes in beginning elementary mathematics teachers’ efficacy. Beginning teachers with and without mathematics and science backgrounds were also compared to explore differences in their efficacy development. A multiple-case study method with a process and recursive design was employed in this study. The participants were six beginning elementary mathematics teachers purposefully selected from Taichung, Taiwan. Data were collected through interviews, recordings, observations, and reflection notes and then analyzed by immersion and editing analytic techniques. Based on the data analysis, a five-gradation developmental model and its characteristics of elementary beginning mathematics teacher efficacy was developed and proposed. The findings demonstrated the developmental process of this five-gradation model and its continuity and cyclical nature. Moreover, beginning mathematics teachers, who were at the same efficacy levels, tended to exhibit substantial similarities but slight differences in their developmental processes. This study also verified that the construct of internal and external factors played a significant role in cyclically contributing to continuous efficacy development. The implications of beginning mathematics teachers’ efficacy and their professional development that derived from the findings and discussions were proposed, as well as a recommendation for further exploration on their efficacy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) measurement was employed for evaluating the effectiveness of fine particulate matter control strategies in Taiwan. There are three scenarios as follows: (I) the 2014 baseline year emission, (II) 2020 emissions reduced via the Clean Air Act (CAA), and (III) other emissions reduced stringently via the Clean Air Act. Based on the Taiwan Emission Data System (TEDs) 8.1, established in 2014, the emission of particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) was 73.5 thousand tons y−1, that of SOx was 121.3 thousand tons y−1, and that of NOx was 404.4 thousand tons y−1 in Taiwan. The CMAQ model simulation indicated that the PM2.5 concentration was 21.9 μg m−3. This could be underestimated by 24% in comparison with data from the ambient air quality monitoring stations of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (TEPA). The results of the simulation of the PM2.5 concentration showed high PM2.5 concentrations in central and southwestern Taiwan, especially in Taichung and Kaohsiung. Compared to scenario I, the average annual concentrations of PM2.5 for scenario II and scenario III showed reductions of 20.1% and 28.8%, respectively. From the results derived from the simulation, it can be seen that control of NOx emissions may improve daily airborne PM2.5 concentrations in Taiwan significantly and control of directly emitted PM2.5 emissions may improve airborne PM2.5 concentrations each month. Nevertheless, the results reveal that the preliminary control plan could not achievethe air quality standard. Therefore, the efficacy and effectiveness of the control measures must be considered to better reduce emissions in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Renal function is a key factor of cardiovascular disease. Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) has been widely used as a marker of early subclinical atherosclerosis. The determinants of cystatin C, a novel marker of renal function, have not been extensively studied in the Asian population. This study aimed to assess the determinants of cystatin C and explore whether carotid thickening was associated with urinary albumin-creatinine ratio and cystatin C in community-living Taiwanese adults.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on participants from Taichung City, Taiwan. All the participants underwent carotid ultrasonography. Carotid IMT-mean and IMT-maximum were derived. Kidney biomarkers were measured on the basis of urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) and cystatin C. Multiple linear regression analysis was used.Results: A total of 1032 individuals were recruited, and 469 (45.44%) of them were men. An increased cystatin C level was significantly associated with older age, male gender, lack of physical activity, low HDL cholesterol, abdominal obesity, high hs-CRP, and high ACR. The multivariate-adjusted mean carotid IMT-mean and IMT-maximum values significantly increased by 80.49 and 195.23 μm for every one unit of increase in cystatin C level and by 0.07 and 0.14 μm for every one unit of increase in ACR, respectively (all p < 0.001 except ACR on IMT-maximum with p < 0.01). Lack of physical activity, low HDL, abdominal obesity, high hs-CRP, and high ACR were the determinants of cystatin C.Conclusion: Cystatin C and ACR were strongly and linearly associated with carotid thickening, a marker of subclinical atherosclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has great potential for establishing a ubiquitous service in the medical industry. However, the planning, optimization, and control of a ubiquitous 3D printing network have not been sufficiently discussed. Therefore, this study established a collaborative and ubiquitous system for making dental parts using 3D printing. The collaborative and ubiquitous system split an order for the 3D printing facilities to fulfill the order collaboratively and forms a delivery plan to pick up the 3D objects. To optimize the performance of the two tasks, a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model and a mixed-integer quadratic programming (MIQP) model are proposed, respectively. In addition, slack information is derived and provided to each 3D printing facility so that it can determine the feasibility of resuming the same 3D printing process locally from the beginning without violating the optimality of the original printing and delivery plan. Further, more slack is gained by considering the chain effect between two successive 3D printing facilities. The effectiveness of the collaborative and ubiquitous system was validated using a regional experiment in Taichung City, Taiwan. Compared with two existing methods, the collaborative and ubiquitous 3D printing network reduced the manufacturing lead time by 45% on average. Furthermore, with the slack information, a 3D printing facility could make an independent decision about the feasibility of resuming the same 3D printing process locally from the beginning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]