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Teicoplanin is an antibiotic drug prescribed for the treatment of multidrug-resistant Gram-positive infections. However, there is currently no consensus as to the optimal teicoplanin loading dose. The objective of this study was to compare plasma concentrations of teicoplanin in patients with multidrug-resistant Gram-positive infections after the administration of two different loading doses. Two groups of patients were infused intravenously with four loading doses of 6 mg/kg body-weight (group A, n = 12) or 12 mg/kg body-weight (group B, n = 11). The first three loading doses were administered at 12-hr intervals, and the fourth was given 24 hr after the third dose. Maintenance doses of 6 mg/kg were administered every day, every other day or every third day depending on the individual's creatinine clearance, and teicoplanin trough plasma concentrations were monitored. Only samples obtained on the same day for both groups were compared statistically. A higher percentage of group B patients achieved the desired therapeutic concentration of teicoplanin (C(min.) ≥ 10 mg/L) on days 2 and 3 (90.0% and 100%, respectively) compared with patients in group A (18.2% and 16.7%, respectively) (p 0.001). In addition, more patients in group B achieved therapeutic concentrations from days 2 through 12. In conclusion, despite limitations in drawing definitive conclusions because of a relatively small sample size and variability in renal impairment among patients, our findings suggest that a teicoplanin loading dose of 12 mg/kg body-weight results in a safe and rapid attainment of therapeutic trough plasma concentrations. This regimen may enhance treatment efficacy.

SUMMARY Damage of expensive equipment installed in the raised floor system of high-tech fabs was often observed during past earthquakes in Taiwan. This resulted in a huge loss of manufacturing functions and properties for the high-tech industry. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand the dynamic characteristics of the raised floor system for future seismic protection. This paper explores the seismic performance of a raised floor system under shake-table excitations. The raised floor used was a pedestal–stringer frame structure supporting the simulated equipment. This raised floor system was the typical system frequently used in semi-conductor fabs of Taiwan. The input motions for the shake-table tests were the waffle-slab floor accelerations of a typical semi-conductor fab to simulated ground motions. The ground motions were simulated according to the phase spectrum and the maximum potential earthquake of the site located at Hsin-Chu Science Park, Taiwan. The dynamic characteristics of the raised floor system were studied and discussed. This study also employed the finite element package to carry out numerical simulation on seismic responses of raised floor systems. Comparison with the experimental data showed that the proposed simulation model achieved excellent performance. Finally, the effectiveness of base isolation for reducing the acceleration of the system was also studied. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study achieved catalytic growth of gallium nitride nanowires (GaN-NWs) and indium gallium nitride nanowires (InxGa1-xN-NWs) by the horizontal furnace chemical vapour deposition (HF-CVD) method at the temperature of 900 °C and 550 °C, respectively. The morphologies and structures of III-nitride nanowires depended on the gas flow rates were studied. Comparing the growth mechanisms of GaN-NWs and InxGa1-xN-NWs, the vapour-solid (VS) mechanism is dominant in GaN nanowires, except with a low ammonium flow rate, and the vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism is dominant in InxGa1-xN nanowires. (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

This paper presents results from an international research project devoted to evaluating the seismic performance of a three-storey steel frame structure equipped with a friction-damping device (FDD) recently developed at the Technical University of Denmark. Experimental results indicate that the FDD performed very well in reducing the lateral storey drifts of the test frame. Numerical simulation of the seismic response of the primary and friction-damped frame was also conducted. This paper also compares the predictions of the displacement demand from the test results with those obtained by the capacity spectrum method. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper summarizes the results of a study that is to evaluate the structural response attributes of near-fault ground motion. Ground motion recordings from the Chi-Chi earthquake are used as inputs to the structural system. An improved nonlinear hysteretic model, based on the experimental study, was used to calculate the response of the single degree-of-freedom inelastic system. Comparison of the results of analysis with traditional elastic–perfect plastic mode calculations was made. Discussions on the inelastic design spectrum, particularly the code-specified base shear coefficients, using the improved nonlinear hysteretic model incorporated with the near-fault input ground motion are made. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.