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Cigarette smoking is associated with surgical complications, including wound healing and surgical site infection. However, the association between smoking status and postoperative wound complications is not completely understood. Our objective was to investigate the effect of smoking on postoperative wound complications for major surgeries. Data were collected from the 2013 to 2018 participant use files of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database. A propensity score matching procedure was used to create the balanced smoker and nonsmoker groups. Multivariable logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for postoperative wound complications, pulmonary complications, and in-hospital mortality associated with smokers. A total of 1 156 002 patients (578 001 smokers and 578 001 nonsmokers) were included in the propensity score matching analysis. Smoking was associated with a significantly increased risk of postoperative wound disruption (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.56-1.75), surgical site infection (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.28-1.34), reintubation (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.40-1.54), and in-hospital mortality (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.07-1.19) compared with nonsmoking. The length of hospital stay was significantly increased in smokers compared with nonsmokers. Our analysis indicates that smoking is associated with an increased risk of surgical site infection, wound disruption, and postoperative pulmonary complications. The results may drive the clinicians to encourage patients to quit smoking before surgery.

Aim We aimed to evaluate the long-term risk of dementia in patients with periodontitis and its associated factors. Materials and methods Using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Database, we identified 56,018 patients aged ≥50 years with newly diagnosed periodontitis in 2000-2008. A cohort of 56,018 adults without periodontitis was selected for comparison, with matching by age and sex. Both cohorts were followed from 2000 to the end of 2013, and incident dementia was identified during the follow-up period. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of dementia associated with periodontitis were calculated in the multivariate regressions. Results Periodontitis was associated with dementia risk (HR: 1.79, 95% CI: 1.67-1.93), and the association between periodontitis and dementia risk was significant in men, women, and people aged more than 60 years. Among patients with periodontitis, the use of statins (HR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.71-0.87), metformin (HR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.44-0.62), and influenza vaccination (HR: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.61-0.74) were associated with a reduced risk of dementia, while diabetes, mental disorders, and stroke were major significant risk factors. Conclusions Periodontitis was a risk factor for dementia, while the use of statins and metformin may reduce the risk of dementia.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare histiocytic disorder resulting from dysregulated clonal proliferation of Langerhans cells. Reticulohistiocytosis (RH) is another rare histiocytosis caused by the proliferation of histiocytes other than Langerhans cells. Co-existence of LCH and RH in different organs and in the same skin area has not been reported. We present the case of a 20-year-old woman who initially had co-existing bone LCH and cutaneous RH. After 1 year of chemotherapy with cytarabine, bone LCH significantly improved but cutaneous LCH developed in the same area where cutaneous RH was, resulting in hybrid LCH and RH of the skin. This unique history provides some evidence to support the theory that LCH and RH originate from the same stem cells and subsequently develop into hybrid LCH and RH of the skin in a cytokine environment influenced by chemotherapy. Repeat skin biopsies may be considered for adjusting treatment regimens in LCH patients whenever pre-existing skin lesions progress.

Observation of resonance modes is the most straightforward way of studying mechanical oscillations because these modes have maximum response to stimuli. However, a deeper understanding of mechanical motion can be obtained by also looking at modal responses at frequencies in between resonances. Here, an imaging of the modal responses for a nanomechanical drum driven off resonance is presented. By using the frequency modal analysis, these shapes are described as a superposition of resonance modes. It is found that the spatial distribution of the oscillating component of the driving force, which is affected by both the shape of the actuating electrode and inherent device properties such as asymmetry and initial slack, greatly influences the modal weight or participation. This modal superposition analysis elucidates the dynamics of any nanomechanical system through modal weights. This aids in optimizing mode‐specific designs for force sensing and integration with other systems., Nanomechanical motion in between resonances are imaged and then described as superposition of resonance modes. The modal weight behavior allows for the elucidation of the dynamics of any nanomechanical system such as the spatial distribution of the oscillating driving force. This analysis demonstrates that spatial imaging of mechanical motion is more than just a visualization tool.

BACKGROUND Duck muscle is a popular source of red meat in Asia. However, information regarding the postmortem proteolysis of skeletal muscle between duck species is very limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the postmortem calpain and desmin degradations between Pekin (PD) and Muscovy (MD) duck breast muscles stored at 5°C. RESULTS The pH and μ/m-calpain activity were not different (P > 0.05) between PD and MD postmortem muscles. However, μ-calpain activity and desmin content decreased more rapidly (P < 0.05) in PD than in MD samples. CONCLUSION Therefore, our results suggest that the postmortem proteolysis is more rapid and extensive in breast muscle from PD compared to MD. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

Over-expression of AURKC has been detected in human colorectal cancers, thyroid carcinoma and several cancer cell lines. However, the regulation and clinical implications of over-expressed AURKC in cancer cells are unclear. Here we show that elevated AURKC increases the proliferation, transformation and migration of cancer cells. Importantly, the kinase activity of AURKC is required for these tumour-associated properties. Analysis of human cancer specimens shows that the expression of AURKC is increased in cervical cancer, and is highly correlated with staging in colorectal cancer. Over-expressed AURKC-GFP localizes to the centromeric regions of mitotic chromosomes and results in a decreased level of AURKB, a key regulator of spindle checkpoint. Expression of AURKC is down-regulated by PLZF, a transcriptional repressor, through recruitment to its promoter region. The expression levels of PLZF and AURKC mRNA display opposite patterns in human cervical and colorectal cancers. Taken together, our results provide important insights into human cancers with AURKC expression, which may serve as a potential target for cancer therapy in the future. Copyright  2011 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An 80ppi ¼ VGA full color, single layer, Reflex™ display with red, green and blue reflecting sub-pixels is reported. A phototunable chiral dopant is UV exposed to produce these colors, and polymer walls keep the colors separate after tuning. We will present details of this development and discuss applications.

To reduce the power consumption and improve the image quality of a full color Cholesteric LCD, low driving voltage Cholesteric LC and crosstalk-free drive schemes have been respectively developed. The developed technologies were integrated into a 5″ full color QVGA Cholesteric LCD with a low-cost single-layer structure. The performance of the display validated the development approaches.

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), with unclear etiology, is the most common entrapment neuropathy. Its occurrence is related to lots of medical and non-medical conditions with uncertain causality. With a large population, we characterized selected demographical and clinical factors to add more information on CTS-correlated factors and new insight into future CTS prevention. Methods: A national insurance claim dataset of one million enrollees in Taiwan was used to identify 15 802 patients with CTS and 31 604 randomly selected controls, during a period of 7 years starting 1 January 2000. Statistical association with CTS was determined for five sociodemographic and nine medical factors. Results: Patients were predominantly women (65.6% vs. 47.7% in the control group) and older (40 and above, 62.6% vs. 36.2%). Rheumatoid arthritis was found to be the most significant comorbidity associated with CTS, followed by gout, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, uremia, and acromegaly. For younger group age ≤39, the association of these comorbidities was stronger, and hypothyroidism and vitamin B6 deficiency were additional comorbidities. Aging appears to reduce the relative impact of the diseases commonly associated with CTS as the possible risk factors. Conclusions: Identification of the CTS correlates in younger group would be of greater value in timely detection and treatment for these diseases. Correcting these disorders may aid in removing possible causes of CTS. This is the first report on the effect of aging on probable CTS risk factors. How factors associated with aging contribute to the development of CTS remains to be determined.

In the conventional English as a Second Language (ESL) class-based learning environment, teachers use a fixed learning sequence and content for all students without considering the diverse needs of each individual. There is a great deal of diversity within and between classes. Hence, if students' learning outcomes are to be maximised, it is important to know how to provide learning content using students' preferences, learning characteristics and knowledge background as a basis. A five-step algorithm was proposed that was based on the four factors (gender, learning motivation, cognitive style and learning style) as the different learner characteristics. The percentage increase between the pretest and posttest scores was used to determine optimal adaptive learning sequences to accommodate a variety of individual differences. The algorithm included the following five steps-to obtain the learning performance, to distinguish the learning performance of the lowest and highest groups, to use the different learning sequences as a basis for categorisation, to test the four factors between the lowest and highest performance, and to reduce the number of handouts. Finally, an empirical study for validating the adaptive learning sequence was conducted. By analysing the students' characteristics and the optimal learning sequences, an attempt was made to develop an adaptive learning sequence system to facilitate students' learning and to maximise their learning outcome, thus addressing the problem of fixed learning sequences in conventional ESL instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A plasma-beam-irradiated PI film has been used in flexible liquid crystal display manufacturing. The beam had energy of 450 eV and incident angle of 70° with respect to normal flexible indium-zinc-oxide coated substrate. The pretilt angle and anchoring energy of LCs on plasma aligned PI surface were almost identical to those on rubbing aligned PI surface. However, the optical performance of plasma aligned cell was superior to the rubbing cell under various bending conditions. Furthermore, such non-contact alignment technology is suitable for large area and roll-to-roll fabrication of flexible LC films.

This paper study the influence of surface properties of encapsulated CLC on response time and reflectance via polymerization induced phase separation. The cured polymer layer, which is composed of the mixture of EMA and TRI, adhere to the inside of the non-treated glass substrate and change the surface properties to vertical alignments. Different boundary conditions caused by various UV curing intensity and cell gap lead to different electro-optical properties for CLC display. With a proper boundary structure, the transition time from homeotropic to planar of CLC can be reduced obviously with slightly reduced reflectance.

Light weight bistable cholesteric liquid crystal displays were fabricated using 100 um flexible glass as the top and bottom substrates. The flexible glass provided better registration control compared to plastic substrates previously used in the device process. A passive matrix full-color panel using a color sharing architecture was successfully demonstrated.

This study developed an ink-jet printing method capable of producing multi-domain alignment liquid crystal displays. Based on the drop-on-demand characteristics of ink jet printing, the ink's location in different alignment manners could be defined in one pixel. This paper describes two practical applications. The first involves integrating the hybrid aligned zone with the homeotropic aligned area in one pixel to create a multi-domain alignment when the voltage is applied. This proposed method achieved a wide viewing angle. The second, similar approach using ink jet printing was performed on a single-cell-gap transflective liquid crystal display. A 2.4-in 170-ppi prototype demonstrates mass-production feasibility.

Influences of anti-reflection and anti-glare surface treatments, radius of curvature and ambient illuminance on legibility and visual fatigue of reflective-type displays were studied. The results showed that legibility and visual fatigue mainly depended on the surface treatment, and better surface treatment can improve legibility and reduce visual fatigue especially in the intense ambient illumination. Surface treatments of 0.8% anti-reflection and 44% anti-glare show the same visual performance.

The crystallization and sintering behaviors of glass–ceramics (Nd2O3–TiO2–SiO2) have been investigated using the differential thermal analyzer, thermal mechanical analyzer, X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the onset of glass shrinkage occurred at around the glass transition temperature (Tg=708°C). The first crystalline phase, Nd2Ti4O11, was observed at around 775°C. Fully densified NdTiSi glass can be obtained via glass viscous flow before the second crystalline phase, Nd0.66TiO3, occurring at about 850°C. The as-prepared NdTiSi glass–ceramics sintered at 900°C exhibited a high dielectric constant of 23 and a quality factor of about 600, which provided a promising candidate for low-temperature cofired ceramics applications.

Background: The increasing rate of childhood obesity has become a major threat to children health. This study reports the association between hip circumference (HC) and risk of elevated blood pressure in school children. Methods: We measured height, weight, neck circumference, HC, and blood pressure in regular health examinations among children in grade 1 at six elementary schools in Taipei, Taiwan. This study used age-, sex-, and height-specific criteria to define elevated blood pressure. Results: Among 2,334 school children, the mean of blood pressure and the prevalence of elevated blood pressure increased as HC quartiles increased (p

Purpose: This study investigated the outcome of childhood hypertension among children urine screened positive for proteinuria, glucosuria and/or hematuria. Methods: Between 1992 and 2000, an islandwide mass urine screening program for proteinuria, glucosuria, and hematuria was conducted annually for all students aged 6–18 years in Taiwan Province. Among 732 students also found to be hypertensive in Taipei County, 164 were invited for a follow-up check in 2006 for their present health status. They were compared with 97 good-friend controls (invited by cases) for blood pressure, anthropometric and lipid measures, etc. Results: Compared with controls, cases were younger but had greater body mass index, waist circumference, waist-hip ratio, blood pressure, and lipidemia prevalence. The stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that cases were at greater risk than controls for chronic disease (odds ratio [OR]=3.27 (95% confidence interval [CI]=1.17–9.12), low high-density lipoprotein (OR=1.76, 95% CI=1.01–3.09), pre-hypertension (OR=2.97, 95% CI=1.43–6.15), and greater waist to hip ratio (OR=6.46, 95% CI=1.87–22.3). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that children screened with hypertension remain at elevated risk of having chronic disease and risk factors associated with hypertension.

A 10 inch full color cholesteric liquid crystal display ChLCD with high reflectivity and high resolution is demonstrated. This display consists only one ChLC panel which is fabricated by the development of the pixelized vacuum filling PVF technique. The reflectivity of our ChLCD was improved to about 26% with 4bit color, its contrast ration is over 6 and the resolution is 100 ppi.

A 10.4-inch full color cholesteric liquid crystal display (ChLCD) with high reflectivity and high resolution by dual stacking is demonstrated. This display consists of two cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLC) panels with the same chirality ChLC but separated by a layer of half-wave plate material allow the reflection of both components of incident circularly polarized light in a single display. Each individual ChLC panel is fabricated by the development of the pixelized vacuum filling (PVF) technique. The reflectivity of our ChLCD is about 26% with 100 ppi resolution and 3-bit color.

— A 3-m-long rugged flexible display having a novel single-plastic-substrate structure has been demonstrated with a coated cholesteric liquid-crystal mixture. The display is designed to be fabricated by a roll-to-roll process to increase productivity at a competitive cost. It has the advantage of having almost no limitation in display length. The high-resolution (300-dpi) monochrome cholesteric liquid-crystal display (ChLCD) can be achieved by using a photo-addressing method. A single-layered 10.4-in. color ChLCD also has been developed with good color and contrast.

— Ink-jet printing was used to prepare a single-substrate multicolor cholesteric liquid-crystal (Ch-LC) display incorporating three Ch-LCs exhibiting different reflective wavelengths. A room-temperature low-vacuum chemical-vapor-deposition process was developed for coating a thin polymer film onto the Ch-LC so that the top electrode could be coated onto the Ch-LC layer. Herein, the successful operation of such a 10.4-in. QVGA Ch-LC display at 40 V will be described.

A 10.4-inch flexible single layer color cholesteric liquid crystal display (ChLCD) is demonstrated. The display is realized by the development of the pixelized vacuum filling (PVF) technique. The performance of the display is 3-bit color and the resolution is QVGA. The display had passed the bending test over 10,000 times with 3 cm curvature.

A polarizer-free flexible display using a dye-doped nematic liquid crystal (LC) gel is demonstrated in reflective mode and transmissive mode. By mimicking the display principle of a paper, combing both scattering and absorption, such a bendable and trim-able LCD exhibits∼55% reflectance, ∼450:1 contrast ratio in reflective mode, ∼20:1 contrast ratio in transmisive mode, and 15 ms response time. A single pixel flexible reflective display using such dye-doped LC gels is also demonstrated under bending and cutting. The minimal bending radius of curvature is ∼21mm.

We have developed a novel encapsulation method capable of producing single substrate multi-color cholesteric liquid crystal displays patterned by ink-jet printing. The top electrode can be printed onto thin excellent dielectric polymer layer covering Ch-LC. A 10.4 inch bi-stable display is successfully driven to demonstrate this proposed technique.

A large size panel manufacturing process for electrowetting display (EWD) by using surface treatment and ink-jet printing (IJP) techniques had been developed. for hydrophilic rib fabrication, surface treatment technique was adopted to reinforce the adhesion of hydrophilic material on hydrophobic layer to achieve large-Sized panel manufacturing. Also, for dosing of non-polar liquid, IJP technique was used to dose the liquid into the unit pixel individually. By using IJP technique to dose the red, green, and blue oils, full color of EWD can be achieved without adopting color filter in the future. Here, a 6-inch monochrome EWD prototype was successfully fabricated by using our proposed techniques.

Effects of character size under ambient illuminance and light source on legibility of electronic papers were studied. Legibility was evaluated by a letter-search task. The results showed that search speed increased with illuminance level and character size. However, the effect of illuminance and light source on search accuracy was not statistically significant.

The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is applied to investigate the Bragg reflection of cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) devices, and a multi-dimensional structure of CLC for achieving broadband Bragg reflection and wide viewing angle is introduced.

We have developed two kinds of ultra-flexible film-like liquid crystal display, pixel-isolated twist nematic and polymer encapsulated liquid crystal displays. By the aids of polymer wall in the thin display, the variation of the cell gap in the bending condition is greatly reduced. They are good candidates for the rollable flexible display due to the excellent flexibility. In this work, this is the first time that the electro-optical properties and reliability of a film-like liquid crystal display after bending test are investigated, and the application limit is investigated.

In this paper we will outline our progress towards developing flexible electronics. The basic function of this flexible device is timepiece. The ultra thin flexible electronic device (e-skin IT device).with TFTs made by CMOS type low temperature poly-Silicon thin film process, bear the characteristics of high mobility and low power consumption. The display part of device is made by plastic top substrate, VA mode LC and 50 μm of glass bottom substrate. In order to fit the flexible requirement, we use 4 μm of photo spacer to replace ball spacer. 3 rechargeable polymer Li-ions batteries are bonded on this cell module via a FPC to make a complete, independent electronic device. The weight of e-skin IT device is merely 6g with ultra-thin, ultra-light, flexible character.

— Several leading technologies for flexible liquid-crystal displays have been developed recently at ERSO. The roll-to-roll compatible techniques, polymer-added liquid crystal, have been applied on a film-like substrate. A flexible black-and-white cholesteric liquid-crystal display was also implemented by photo-induced phase separation. Color filters placed on a plastic substrate by a low-temperature manufacturing process was successfully fabricated. A novel design of a wide-viewing-angle color plastic LCD was also proposed.

We have developed a high contrast micro-cell liquid crystal display by microstructure replication technology. This novel flexible LCD technology comprises micro-cell replication process, alignment treatments, and cell assembly process. Compared with photopolymerisation-induced phase separation, the micro-cell LCD has higher contrast ratio, and reliable manufacturing process. This technology can be a good solution for high performance flexible LCD.

Anion exchange method for the mutual separation of rare earth was studied in methanol-nitric acid mixed solutions. For each of rare earth element, the distribution coefficients in different concentrations of nitric acid and also in various compositions of methanol solution were studied with the batch equilibrium method. From these distribution coefficients, elution of rare earth by gradient variation in the compositions of methonal was devised. That is, by keeping constant nitric acid at 2 N acidity and gradiently diluting methanol from its original 80% by volume. Results were satisfactory for the mutual separation of the lighter rare earths, but only fairly for the heavier earths. The secondary metal effect for this anion exchange was also studied in 80% by volume of methanol solution by keeping total concentration of nitrate at 0.8 N. Distribution coefficients were larger than nitric acid with LiNO3 but smaller in the case of NH4NO3 and NaNO3. Despite of these difference in distribution coefficients, no remarkable differences were observed for the separation factors of adjacent pairs.