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Taiwan is a Confucian society where intergenerational transmission of educational advantages has been assumed to be limited. Hence, we empirically examined the effects of family economic and cultural resources on student academic achievement in Taiwan. We analyzed secondary data (n = 12,527) in the Taiwan Educational Panel Survey (TEPS). Our findings indicate that parental cultural capital is strongly associated with parent’s economic status and has a strong effect on student's cultural capital, and their academic achievement. Parent’s economic status is correlated with student's academic achievement, but the correlation is weaker than in a number of western societies.

To ascertain whether acid inhibition or Helicobacter pylori (HP) colonization is the decisive factor in the healing of duodenal ulcer, we treated 54 patients with famotidine and carried out long-term follow-up. Helicobacter pylori colonization was found in 70.4% of patients before treatment. There were no differences in the pre-treatment characteristics between patients with HP positive or HP negative ulcers. The 4-week and 8-week healing rates after famotidine treatment were 72.5% and 82.4% respectively. No difference in HP colonization was found between patients with ulcer healed and those with ulcer not healed (78.4% vs 64.3% at 4th week and 77.3% vs 71.4% at 8th week, P greater than 0.05). In patients with ulcer healed at 4th week, the intragastric pH was raised significantly and the antral acute inflammation was less severe than those with ulcer not healed. Ulcer recurrence was found in 76.9% of patients within 1 year, but there was no difference in ulcer recurrence between the patients with positive or negative HP colonization at the time of ulcer healing. Our results suggest that duodenal ulcer healing and recurrence are closely related to acid inhibition rather than to HP colonization.