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Background Geographic Information Systems (GIS) combined with spatial analytical methods could be helpful in examining patterns of drug use. Little attention has been paid to geographic variation of cardiovascular prescription use in Taiwan. The main objective was to use local spatial association statistics to test whether or not the cardiovascular medication-prescribing pattern is homogenous across 352 townships in Taiwan. Methods The statistical methods used were the global measures of Moran's I and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA). While Moran's I provides information on the overall spatial distribution of the data, LISA provides information on types of spatial association at the local level. LISA statistics can also be used to identify influential locations in spatial association analysis. The major classes of prescription cardiovascular drugs were taken from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), which has a coverage rate of over 97%. The dosage of each prescription was converted into defined daily doses to measure the consumption of each class of drugs. Data were analyzed with ArcGIS and GeoDa at the township level. Results The LISA statistics showed an unusual use of cardiovascular medications in the southern townships with high local variation. Patterns of drug use also showed more low-low spatial clusters (cold spots) than high-high spatial clusters (hot spots), and those low-low associations were clustered in the rural areas. Conclusions The cardiovascular drug prescribing patterns were heterogeneous across Taiwan. In particular, a clear pattern of north-south disparity exists. Such spatial clustering helps prioritize the target areas that require better education concerning drug use.

We show that tourism activities severely impact the ecology of Orchid Island, its natural resources, and the culture of the Tao tribe. For example, highway widening, in response to the increased traffic volumes caused by tourism, required many Pandanus trees to be cut and removed, which has placed the coconut crabs in danger of extinction. To promote eco-tourism, observation trips to observe Elegant Scops owls and Birdwing butterflies have taken place, which has affected the breeding of these two protected species. The Elegant Scops owls- and Birdwing butterflies-related tourism activities also break the “evil spirits” taboo of the Tao people and have caused the disappearance of the specifications for using traditional natural resources, causing natural ecosystems to face the threat of excessive use. In addition to promoting and advocating aboriginal tourism of the Tao people on Orchid Island, the Taiwanese government should help the Tao people to develop a management model that combines traditional regulations and tourism activities.

Background Grana and starch are major functional structures for photosynthesis and energy storage of plant, respectively. Both exhibit highly ordered molecular structures and appear as micrometer-sized granules inside chloroplasts. In order to distinguish grana and starch, we used multiphoton microscopy, with simultaneous acquisition of two-photon fluorescence (2PF) and second harmonic generation (SHG) signals. SHG is sensitive to crystallized structures while 2PF selectively reveals the distribution of chlorophyll. Result Three distinct microstructures with different contrasts were observed, i.e. “SHG dominates”, “2PF dominates”, and “SHG collocated with 2PF”. It is known that starch and grana both emit SHG due to their highly crystallized structures, and no autofluorescence is emitted from starch, so the “SHG dominates” contrast should correspond to starch. The contrast of “SHG collocated with 2PF” is assigned to be grana, which exhibit crystallized structure with autofluorescent chlorophyll. The “2PF dominates” contrast should correspond to stroma thylakoid, which is a non-packed membrane structure with chrolophyll. The contrast assignment is further supported by fluorescence lifetime measurement. Conclusion We have demonstrated a straightforward and noninvasive method to identify the distribution of grana and starch within an intact leaf. By merging the 2PF and SHG images, grana, starch and stroma thylakoid can be visually distinguished. This approach can be extended to the observation of 3D grana distribution and their dynamics in living plants.