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The article offers information on the 39th Annual International Computers, Software & Applications Conference to be held at Tunghai University in Taichung, Taiwan from July 1-5, 2015.

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]

The article offers information on 39th Annual International Computer, Software & Applications Conference to be held in Taichung, Taiwan on July 1-5, 2015.

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]

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]

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]

The article offers information on the 39th Annual International Computer, Software and Applications Conference to be held from July 1-5, 2015 at Tungai University in Taichung, Taiwan.

Conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) may generate the non-integer targets for integer-valued inputs and outputs of decision-making units (DMUs). To derive the convincing projections, integer-valued DEA has attracted much attention. Given the integrality restriction, Du et al. (Eur J Oper Res 218(1):186–192, 2012) proposed the super-efficiency approach consisting of additive integer-valued and additive super-efficiency integer-valued models for the differentiation of efficient DMUs, thereby raising the discriminatory power. This paper extends their approach to develop a simpler but stricter version, which we refer to as the unified additive super-efficiency model. The newly-developed model has three advantages. First, the slacks of input excess, input saving, output shortage and output surplus can be directly computed in a single program to obtain the efficiencies of inefficient DMUs and super-efficiencies of efficient DMUs. Secondly, it suggests the strongly Pareto-efficient projections for efficient DMUs. Finally, the identified super-efficiencies allow for the property of continuity. A comparison of the proposed model, with Du et al.'s (2012) and standard additive super-efficiency approaches is discussed using a numerical example. In addition, the applicability of the proposed model is illustrated by a data set covering 13 bus companies operating in the municipal bus system of Taichung. Our work not only provides managerial insights into the primary sources of inefficiency and super-efficiency but also contributes to the current understanding of how super-efficiency would be effectively and accurately measured in the presence of integer-valued data. [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]

The greenway system in Taichung is a successful case that regenerates urban greenbelts through various activation strategies. This paper takes greenways in Taichung for example, analyzes their renewal plans, and finds out their experience of regeneration. The greenways in Taichung were first designed to control urban sprawl and then became idle greenbelts. Afterwards, the greenways were transformed into an urban vitality belt with the joint efforts of multiple parties. The existing greenbelt model in many cities does have some deficiencies. Therefore, it is recommended that there be room for growth in urban development in these cities and they can draw lessons from Taichung. [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 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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In the face of continuing development and the demands associated with the active lifestyle of its residents, the Taichung City Government needed to construct a complete public transportation network with high quality bus service. Since 2002, the Taichung City Government has proposed a series of reforms to gradually improve bus operations. As a result, bus ridership grew more than 20 times from 13,000 per day in 2001 to 330,000 per day in 2014. These successful reforms have led to increased public acceptance of bus service and created a win-win-win situation for the government, the public and the bus companies. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the crucial strategies and policies that resulted in the successful implementation of bus reforms in Taichung City. The causes and effects, in terms of new institutional economics, are also discussed. The results showed that before the implementation of reforms, the Taichung bus market was locked in a vicious cycle. The Taichung City Government re-shaped the market structure through fare adjustment, electronic fare payment, subsidies and promotional efforts. Through institutional change, a new market-oriented framework was created. Institutional change is a gradual process that involves numerous interactions among relevant parties and interest groups. Policy progress is not made by the government alone, but rather through limited consensus among interest groups. The results of this paper also suggested that the government play the role of initiator of a new institutional environment and provide direction for institutional evolution. The case of Taichung City bus reform provides a good reference for similar-sized cities planning to upgrade or reform their public transportation system. [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 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]

An experimental population commonly used in genetic analyses of gene or quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in rice is chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs). In the present study, with the typical indica variety Guangluai 4 as a donor and japonica variety Taichung 65 as a recipient, seven CSSLs carrying F1 pollen sterility genes S-b, S-d, S-e, S-b/S-d, S-b/S-e, S-d/S-e, and S-b/S-d/S-e were obtained by specific selection for the target genes, non-specific selection for the genome of the recurrent parents in four backcross populations (BC1F2, BC2F2, BC3F2 and BC3F3). We evaluated the genetic effect of the F1 pollen sterility genes using 35 F1 hybrid individuals in crosses derived from CSSLs and Taichung 65. Pollen fertility of F1 hybrid plants was observed and the results indicated that the single genes S-b, S-d and S-e can cause 67.7%, 14.6% and 53.2% of pollen sterility, respectively. Multiple genes S-b/S-d, S-b/S-e, S-d/S-e, and S-b/S-d/S-e can cause 76.6%, 85%, 68.7%, and 93% of pollen sterility, respectively. [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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 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]

Wheat stripe/yellow rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is one of the serious diseases of wheat. The application of resistance cultivars underpins control of wheat stripe rust. The Chinese wheat landrace Dabaimai displayed resistance to most of the Chinese yellow rust races. To decipher the genetic bases of resistance in Dabaimai, a total of 202 recombinant inbred lines F6 of Taichung 29/Dabaimai were tested under field conditions with a predominant Pst race CYR32. Based on SSR markers and field resistance data, two resistance QTLs were detected and named QYr.caas-1AS and QYr.caas-4BS, respectively. QYr.caas-1AS, located on chromosome 1AS between markers Xgwm136 and Xcfd15, can explain 45.97% and 26.83% of the phenotypic variance for infection type (IT) and disease severity (DS), respectively. QYr.caas-4BS, located on chromosome 4BS between markers Xwmc652 and Xgpw4388, can explain 43.38% and 21.30% of the phenotypic variance for IT and DS, respectively. The adult plant stripe rust resistance loci and linked SSR markers will be valuable in combining with other effective genes for combating wheat stripe rust. [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]