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Posterior capsule opacification (PCO) is the most common complication after cataract surgery and is likely to cause the second loss of vision. Pharmacological PCO prophylaxis has been proved to be effective, yet no clinical option is available due to the lack of a suitable mode of administration. In this work, we propose a unique concept of NIR dual-triggered drug release from black phosphorus (BP)-based implantable intraocular lens (IOL) for controlled drug release and chemo-photothermal combination therapy of PCO. Here, IOL is used as a “reservoir” of doxorubicin-loaded black phosphorus (BP-DOX), and BP is used as NIR activation agent for controlled drug release and photothermal therapy. This BP-DOX integrated IOL, namely BP-DOX@IOL, shows the characteristics of good transmittance, good mechanical property, NIR dual-triggered drug release behaviors, and excellent photothermal efficacy. In vivo studies reveal that there is no PCO occurrence in rabbits' model by using BP-DOX@IOL combined NIR irradiation, which exhibits distinct superiority on inhibiting PCO than the control group (100% PCO occurrence) 28 days post-surgery. This novel IOL drug delivery system would be a promising strategy for the future clinical application for PCO prophylaxis and treatment.

Increased heart rate (HR) is a reaction to head-to-toe gravito-inertial (G) force. The anti-G straining manoeuvre (AGSM) is the crucial technique for withstanding a high-G load. Previous studies reported the main effects of HR only or AGSM only on G tolerance. We assessed the combined effect of HR and AGSM on the outcome of 9G profile exposure. A total of 530 attempts for the 9G profile were extracted to clarify the association of interest. Subjects with an AGSM effectiveness of less than 2.5G had a 2.14-fold higher likelihood of failing in the 9G profile. Trainees with HR increases of less than 20% in the first five seconds also had higher odds of 9G profile intolerance (adjusted OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.09–3.07). The adjusted OR of 9G profile disqualification was 2.93 (95% CI 1.19–7.20) for participants with smaller HR increases and lower AGSM effectiveness. The negative effect of a smaller HR increase on the outcome was likely to be affected by improved AGSM effectiveness (adjusted OR 1.26, 95% CI 0.65–2.42). We speculate that low AGSM effectiveness and a small HR increase were separately associated with failure of high-G challenge. Nonetheless, good AGSM performance seemed to reduce the negative effect of weak HR responses on the dependent variable.

Cyclophilin A (CypA), secreted from vascular smooth muscle cells and inflammatory cells in response to oxidative stress, promotes vascular atherosclerosis and development of carotid stenosis. Increased concentration of plasma CypA in acute cerebral infarction was demonstrated clinically. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic impact between CypA level and outcome in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Admission serum CypA concentrations were detected in 66 acute cerebral infarction patients and in 52 healthy individuals. Inflammatory biomarkers, including high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein, adhesion molecules, interleukins, and matrix‐metalloproteases, were also assessed. We also examined the relationship between plasma biomarkers, blood pressure (BP), pulse pressure, the carotid artery velocity, the prognostic assessment with modified Rankin scale, and stroke recurrence. Plasma CypA concentration was higher on the first day of hospitalization in the high BP stroke group than in normal BP stroke group, which was statistically significant, which was observed even in the third month and sixth month follow‐up outpatient periods. For stroke recurrence prediction, there was an important association between the higher (>60) pulse pressure on the seventh day of hospitalization and CypA level on the third month and sixth month follow‐up outpatient periods. Our study revealed higher circulating serum levels of CypA in the hypertensive stroke group than in the non‐hypertensive stroke group. We expect that elevated plasma CypA level and raised pulse pressure during hospitalization to become valuable biomarkers in predicting stroke recurrence in the sixth month assessment of acute cerebral infarction.

Objective Diabetes-related cerebral microangiopathy can manifest as cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) and exhibit cognitive decline. To find the early change of function in advance, this study examined the spatiotemporal dynamics of cerebral permeability (Ktrans) in the progression of diabetes-related CSVD. Methods Cerebral vascular permeability was crossectional measured in diabetic patients with or without CSVD, and non-diabetic patients with or without CSVD by using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI). Results In all diabetic patients, the Ktrans of white matter (WM) was increased. However, the Ktrans of gray matter (GM) was only increased in those with CSVD. This suggested the earlier involvement of WM than GM and indicated the development of diabetes-related cerebral microangiopathy was prior to it could be visualized as features of CSVD on MRI. To broaden the application of cerebral permeability and overcome the limitations of DCE-MRI, the commonly available CSVD items of MRI were used to indicate the increase in Ktrans. Among all CSVD items, the presence of microbleeds was most correlated with the increased permeability in all patients. In contrast to non-diabetic patients, increased Ktrans in diabetes was more associated with moderate WM hyperintensity but less with the presence of lacunae or multiple perivascular spaces. The differential correlation suggested distinct mechanisms underlying diabetes-related CSVD and other CSVDs. Conclusions This study highlights the early development of cerebral microangiopathy in diabetes and broadens the applicability of cerebral permeability. The results may increase the proactivity of clinicians in recognizing the subsequent neurological comorbidities.

Many nations have successfully implemented their own e-Government systems in response to changes in many subjective and objective environments. However, different government agencies now hold a tremendous quantity of client data and have encountered the challenge of how to effectively manage, analyze, and apply that data in order to improve service quality and customer satisfaction levels. In Taiwan, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) is a state-run national health insurance agency and a nonprofit organization (NPO) responsible for managing health insurance affairs and improving healthcare quality for all people in Taiwan. In this study, we apply an integration of the Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) process to analyze the call center data of the NHIA. We take the major processes of processing, selection, data mining, and, evaluation as our foundation for two types of data mining analyses: data sorting and data association. Furthermore, we generalize the analysis results and consult professionals in NHIA for their professional opinion about those results and existing health insurance policies. We also present, interpret, and draw conclusions from these results via data visualization. This visualized analysis can help NHIA decision makers quickly understand and reflect the public's needs and discover deeper client requirements to achieve the goal of upgraded public service quality and performance.

Risk factors vary in terms of the pattern of lung cancer metastasis and specific metastatic organs. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical risk factors of tumor metastasis in lung cancer patients and used second‐generation gene sequencing to characterize relevant gene mutations. The risk factors of different metastatic sites of real‐world lung cancer were explored to find the differentially expressed genes and risk factors in different metastatic organs, which laid a foundation for further study on the metastasis patterns and mechanisms of lung cancer. The clinical risk factors of tumor metastasis in 137 lung cancer patients who attended our department from May 2017 to March 2019 were retrospectively analyzed and grouped based on bone metastasis, brain metastasis, other distant metastasis, and no metastasis. Single‐ or multi‐factor logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the effect of neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio/platelet/lymphocyte ratio/lymphocyte to monocyte ratio on platelets (PLTs) and bone metastasis by combining PLT values, age, pathology type, gender, and smoking history. Based on the presence or absence of bone metastasis, distal metastasis, and PLT values of lung cancer, 39 tissue specimens of primary lung cancer were taken for 773 gene grouping and gene mutation characterization. The tumor mutation load, gene copy number instability, microsatellite instability, and tumor heterogeneity among different groups were analyzed. Age and PLT level were independent risk factors for bone metastasis and distal metastasis, but not for brain metastasis. The RB1 gene was mutated during bone metastasis, and tumor heterogeneity was less in the elevated PLT group. PLT values were an independent risk factor for distant metastases from lung cancer other than the brain. Age has a significant effect on bone metastasis formation. RB1 gene mutation was significantly associated with bone metastasis., Age and platelet level were independent risk factors for bone metastasis and distal bone metastasis, but age and platelet level were not risk factors for brain metastasis. The RB1 gene was mutated during bone metastasis, and tumor heterogeneity was less in the elevated platelet group. Platelet values are an independent risk factor for distant metastases from lung cancer other than the brain. Age has a significant effect on bone metastasis formation. Mutations in the RB1 gene are significantly associated with bone metastasis.

To improve in-tube evaporation heat transfer at low quality, a novel evaporator based on efficient flow pattern global construction heat transfer enhancement mechanism is built, called the efficient flow pattern global construction evaporator (EFGE). The numerical analysis and experimental study of the thermodynamic performance of the EFGE are performed. Results show that the evaporation heat transfer coefficient (HTC) of the EFGE is 0.34–1.04 times that of a common parallel flow evaporator (PFE) and the pressure drop of the EFGE is only 80–116% of that of a common PFE at quality 0.9. The theoretical nonuniformity of the evaporation HTC between low- and high-quality flow is approximately 12–67%, which 55–72% of the pressure drop. The numerical analysis results are in good agreement with the finding that the EFGE has better thermodynamic performance than the PFE in terms of friction power reduction and minimum entropy generation number.

The incidence of deep fungal infection due to non-albicans Candida species (especially Candida glabrata) has significantly increased in recent decades. Candida glabrata is an opportunistic pathogen of low virulence which mainly invades the gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and respiratory tracts, but has rarely been reported as complication of articular surgery in the literature. We present a case of knee fungal arthritis caused by C. glabrata after a minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery. In this case, the patient's knee got infected after arthroscopic treatment for a recurrent popliteal cyst, and she was unable to be cured by either debridement or antifungal drugs. Mycological and molecular identification of the necrotic tissues isolate revealed C. glabrata as etiologic agent. We originally planned to conduct a debridement once again, but it was found that the articular cartilage was extensively damaged during the operation. Besides, the magnetic resonance imaging of the affected knee also showed that the infection had invaded the subchondral bone. So we treated this case with a two-stage primary total knee arthroplasty with an antibiotic-laden cement spacer block. After a 10-month follow-up, the patient had completely recovered and has not experienced any recurrence to date. In addition, we review 21 cases of C. glabrata-induced infectious arthritis described to date in the literature.

Reversible solid oxide fuel cell (rSOFC) is able to both generate and store energy in a single device under dual-mode operation conditions, i.e., fuel cell and electrolysis, which is favorable for intermittent energy supply and storage in application of renewable energies. The dynamic behaviors such as quick startup, short response time and good stabilization performance are highly required to optimize the performance in the dual-mode conditions, which has not been investigated well in consideration of the co-redox reactions with syngas. In this work, a 2D unsteady planar rSOFC cell model is developed with the experimental validation performed, to evaluate the dynamic behaviors in terms of multi-physics transport processes coupled with the co-redox reactions occurring in the rSOFC. The dynamic characteristics such as the long term performance, quick response and good stabilization are investigated by changing the working conditions including the starting-up and mode-switching procedures. It is concluded that the diffusion of the gases is the major limitation on the dynamic performance. The response and stabilization performance when the syngas is applied is not as good as that of H2/H2O fueled. It takes long time for the water-gas shift reaction to response and stabilize when the mode is switched in dual-mode work. The dynamic performance of the electrochemical reaction with responding current density is obviously affected with the fluctuant variation of the operating voltage for the case with syngas under dual-mode work. High temperature condition is beneficial to improve the quick response performance in dual-mode operation.

The short text in the online learning community is an important source of data in learning analysis. Therefore, the quality of the short text has a significant impact on the study of learning analysis. Due to the large amount of text data in the learning community, manual detection and repair will cost too much. This paper proposes a text detection and repair framework based on an online learning community. It aims to automatically detect and repair various types of semantic errors and grammatical errors that exist in online learning community short texts. The framework utilizes existing text error detection and repair algorithms and integrates them effectively to form a comprehensive detection and repair algorithm. In this paper, the validity of the framework is verified through experiments on the constructed data set. The experimental results show that the framework has high accuracy in automatically detecting and repairing text errors.

The star image suffers inevitably from degradation due to the high-speed motion of the space target and the long exposure time of the camera, therefore the attitude information of the star is hard to accurately obtain. This paper proposes a blind deblurring algorithm that combines shape features of space targets. First, the astronomical image is preprocessed using saliency detection. Then, considering the shape characteristics of space targets, the Minimum Bounding Rectangle (MBR) is introduced to describe the space targets. Next, the parameters of the MBR are used to estimate the point spread function (PSF). Finally, a regularization method is employed to recover the astronomical images. Experimental results on both simulation and real star images demonstrate that the proposed method reduces the error of point spread function estimation and decreases the error rate of identified space targets. At the same time, the accuracy of the star centroid extraction improves 0.2786 on average and the error of the star centroid location extraction reduces 0.059 comparing to the state-of-art method. The proposed method is of great significance for positioning, recognition and attitude determination of space targets.

Purpose: Early application of protease inhibitors through the intestinal lumen could increase survival following experimental shock by blocking the pancreatic digestive enzymes. Hence, it was hypothesized that two-route injection (intraintestinal + intravenous) of ulinastatin (UTI), a broad-spectrum protease inhibitor, could better alleviate intestinal injury than single-route injection (either intravenous or intraintestinal). Methods: A sepsis model induced by lipopolysaccharide on rats was established. The rats were randomly divided into five groups: sham, sepsis, UTI intravenous injection (Uiv), UTI intraintestinal injection (Uii), and UTI intraintestinal + intravenous injection (Uii + Uiv) groups. The mucosal barrier function, enzyme-blocking effect, levels of systemic inflammatory cytokines, and 5-day survival rate were compared among groups. The small intestinal villus height (VH), crypt depth (CD), and two components of mucosal barrier (E-cadherin and mucin-2) were measured to evaluate the mucosal barrier function. The levels of trypsin and neutrophil elastase (NE) in the intestine, serum, and vital organs were measured to determine the enzyme-blocking effect. Results: Compared with the single-route injection group (Uiv or Uii), the two-route injection (Uii + Uiv) group displayed: (1) significantly higher levels of VH, VH/CD, E-cadherin, and mucin-2; (2) decreased trypsin and NE levels in intestine, plasma, and vital organs; (3) reduced systemic inflammatory cytokine levels; and (4) improved survival of septic rats. Conclusion: Two-route UTI injection was superior to single-route injection in terms of alleviating intestinal injury, which might be explained by extensive blockade of proteases through different ways. Keywords: Sepsis, Ulinastatin, Intestines, Trypsin, Elastase

Gravity in the head-to-toe direction, known as +Gz (G force), forces blood to pool in the lower body. Fighter pilots experience decreases in blood pressure when exposed to hypergravity in flight. Human centrifuge has been used to examine the G tolerance and anti-G straining maneuver (AGSM) techniques of military pilots. Some factors that may affect G tolerance have been reported but are still debated. The aim of this study was to investigate the physiological responses and anthropometric factors correlated with G tolerance. We retrospectively reviewed the training records of student pilots who underwent high G training. Variables were collected to examine their correlations with the outcome of 7.5G sustained for 15 s (7.5G profile). There were 873 trainees who underwent 7.5G profile training, 44 trainees (5.04%) could not sustain the test for 15 s. The group with a small heart rate (HR) increase (less than 10%) during the first 1&ndash, 5 s of the 7.5G profile had a nearly ten-fold higher failing chance compared with the large HR increase group (adjusted odds ratio: 9.91, 95% confidence interval: 4.11&ndash, 23.88). The chances of failure were inversely related to the HR increase percentage (p for trend &lt, 0.001). Factors, including body mass index, relaxed and straining G tolerance, and AGSM, were found to be negatively correlated with the outcome.

A LED full parallax integrated imaging display system is presented, which consists of a led display, a lens array, a shielding plate, and a diffusion screen. In order to solve the problem of light overlapping and cross-talk between adjacent lenses in traditional integrated imaging display system,through theoretical analysis and simulation experiments, we design and make a shielding plate based on theoretical analysis. The holes of the shielding plate are arranged in odd and even patterns. Using the diffusion screen to recover the occluded light field information to achieve a continuous and clear stereoscopic display effect. The experimental results show that the display method proposed in this paper is superior to the traditional integrated imaging display method, and the viewer can obtain evident stereoscopic sense and a clearer image at the optimal distance.

To solve the problems of traditional integral imaging, such as poor visual quality, the ray-crosstalk in display, and grainy obvious, a display method based on discrete glued lens array and holographic diffuser is proposed. The proposed method replaces the continuous single lens array in the traditional display method of integral imaging with a discrete glued lens array and a holographic diffuser. In this paper, the structure and imaging quality of single lens and glued lens are designed, analyzed and compared. And the diffusion effect of the holographic diffuser is theoretically analyzed. We have designed two display system based on the ultra-high-density small-pitch LED display plane. The experimental results show that the visual quality of the proposed method is significantly improved compared with the traditional integral imaging display method. Compared with the traditional integral imaging display method based on a continuous single lens array, the proposed method can effectively reduce the influence of ray-crosstalk on the 3D images, smooth the discontinuous light field distribution, and reduce graininess to improve visual quality. In addition, since the traditional continuous single lens array needs to manufacture an abrasive tool with the same size as the display platform during processing, and the discrete glued lens array only needs to process the unit lens and then assemble them. If a large-scale integral imaging display system is to be manufactured, discrete lens array is more suitable, because the discrete glued lens array is cheaper and easier to be manufactured. In order to meet the experimental expectations and improve the display visual quality, we used a glued lens array in the experiment. Compared with aspheric lens that is difficult to process, the glued lens is easier to design and process and has good display visual quality.

A high accuracy rate of street objects detection is significant in realizing intelligent vehicles. Algorithms based on convolution neural network (CNN) currently exhibit reasonable performance in general object detection. For example SSD and YOLO can detect a wide variety of objects in 2D images in real time; however the performance is not sufficient for street objects detection, especially in complex urban street environments. In this study, instead of proposing and training a new CNN model, we use transfer learning methods to enable our specific model to learn from a generic CNN model to achieve good performance. The transfer learning methods include fine-tuning the pretrained CNN model with a self-made dataset, and adjusting the CNN model structure. We analyze the transfer learning results based on fine-tuning SSD with self-made datasets. The experimental results based on the transfer learning method show that the proposed method is effective.

The development of a relevant model for measuring user enjoyment of video game play has received a great deal of attention in game-based and flow-based literature. EGameFlow, a self-report scale instrument created from the original game enjoyment framework proposed by Sweetser and Wyeth, provides a necessary and potentially useful tool for game enjoyment researchers. However, the scale itself is quite new. The utility of EGameFlow cannot be determined until its rigorousness has been verified. The purpose of this study was to test the validity, reliability, and applicability of EGameFlow for measuring players’ experiences in video game play. A total of 167 participants played an interactive video game and then evaluated their game playing experiences via the refined 27-item EGameFlow scale, which included the following seven dimensions: concentration, goal clarity, feedback, challenge, autonomy, immersion, and social interaction. Confirmatory factor analysis, reliability testing, and discriminant validity checks were administered. Empirical results indicated that the refined scale was both valid and reliable. Implications of these findings and direction for future research were also discussed.

A double-row liquid–vapor separation condenser (DLSC) is presented, and its optimal pass scheme is obtained by numerical calculation and is applied to an air conditioning unit. The thermodynamic performance of the air conditioning unit with the DLSC is tested experimentally. The pressure drop and the heat transfer uniformity of the DLSC and the cooling capacity and energy efficiency ratio (EER) of the air conditioning unit are analyzed. Results indicate that the pressure drop of the DLSC is much smaller than that of the original condenser, and the two-phase heat transfer uniformity of the DLSC is better than that of the original condenser. Overall, the DLSC can improve the cooling capacity and the EER of the air conditioning system.

Background Hepatic dysfunction and coagulopathy are common in acute dengue illness. We analyzed the trajectories of the above parameters in the survivors and fatal patients in the outbreak in Tainan, 2015. Methods A retrospective study was conducted using data from a tertiary hospital between January and December 2015. Multilevel modeling (MLM) was used to identify the changes in aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and platelet counts from Day 0 to Day 7 of the onset of dengue infection. The machine-learning algorithm was used by purity measure assumption to calculate the accuracy of serum transaminases and coagulation variables to discriminate between the fatal and survival groups. Results There were 4,069 dengue patients, of which 0.9% died in one week after illness onset (i.e., early mortality). Case fatality rate was the highest for those aged ≥70 years. Both AST and ALT values of the fatal group were significantly higher than those of the survivor group from Day 3 (AST median, 624 U/L vs. 60 U/L, p < 0.001; ALT median, 116 U/L vs. 29 U/L, p = 0.01) of illness onset and peaked on Day 6 (AST median, 9805 U/L vs. 90 U/L, p < 0.001; ALT median, 1504 U/L vs. 49 U/L, p < 0.001). AST ≥ 203 U/L, ALT ≥ 55 U/L, AST2/ALT criteria ≥337.35, or AST/platelet count ratio index (APRI) ≥ 19.18 on Day 3 of dengue infection had a high true positive rate, 90%, 78%, 100%, or 100%, respectively, of early mortality. The platelet counts of the fatal group declined significantly than those of the survivor group since Day 3 of illness onset (median, 19 x103/μl vs. 91 x103/μl, p < 0.01), and aPTT values of the fatal group significantly prolonged longer since Day 5 (median, 68.7 seconds vs. 40.1 seconds, p < 0.001). Conclusions AST, ALT, and platelet counts should be monitored closely from Day 0 to Day 3 of dengue infection, and aPTT be followed up on Day 5 of infection to identify the individuals at risk for early mortality., Author summary Dengue fever (DF) is currently one of the most severe public health problems. Clinical presentations of dengue are diverse and non-specific, often with unpredictable clinical progression and outcome. Hepatic dysfunction and abnormal coagulation factors are common in acute dengue illness, reflected by abnormal alanine aminotransferase (AST), aspartate aminotransferase (ALT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and platelet counts. However, there is no information available about the monitoring frequency required, which could help identify those dengue patients who are likely to die, especially during epidemic outbreaks with limited healthcare resources. We examined all the laboratory-confirmed dengue patients who admitted to the major tertiary hospital in Tainan during the 2015 dengue outbreak, and the different trajectories of hepatic function and coagulation factors between survivors and rapidly fatal dengue patients were analyzed. Although there were no differences in AST, ALT, aPTT, and platelet counts between the survivor and fatal groups on the day DF symptoms first appeared, the differences increased from the early stages of infection and became more prominent during the early stages of the illness. The necessity of monitoring the AST, ALT, aPTT, and platelet count frequently during the febrile phase is emphasized by this study.

BACKGROUND Cyclophilin A plays a pathogenic role in the development and progression of atherosclerosis, which can be assessed by measuring carotid intima-media thickness. The primary aim of this study was to examine the interaction between plasma Cyclophilin A level and carotid intima-media thickness in patients with acute ischemic stroke. METHOD Plasma concentration of Cyclophilin A was measured on admission in 66 consecutive patients who had been hospitalized for acute cerebral stroke and in 52 case-control subjects without a history of acute stroke. Subjects in both groups also underwent ultrasound B-mode imaging to measure the mean and maximum intima-media thickness of the carotid artery. Inflammatory biomarkers including high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and fibrinogen were also assessed. RESULTS We found that the plasma concentration of Cyclophilin A was significantly higher in patients with acute ischemic stroke (p = 0.042). Increased Cyclophilin A was also correlated with carotid intima-media thickness in the patient group (p < 0.001). Among the risk factors for cerebral stroke examined in this study, only hypertension was significantly associated with plasma Cyclophilin A level. CONCLUSION Increased plasma Cyclophilin A levels might be involved in the pathophysiology of acute ischemic stroke and Cyclophilin A might serve as a biomarker in risk assessment of acute stroke patients.

Background and aims Renal dysfunction is a potent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, including stroke. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of admission estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) levels on short-term (1-month) and long-term (1-year) mortality in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods From the Taiwan Stroke Registry data, we classified ischemic stroke patients, identified from April 2006 to December 2015, into 5 groups by eGFR at admission: ≥ 90, 60–89, 30–59, 15–29, and Results Among 52,732 ischemic stroke patients, 1480 died within one month. The 1-month mortality rate was over 5-fold greater in patients with eGFR Conclusions After acute ischemic stroke, patients with reduced eGFR are at elevated risks of short-term and long-term deaths in a graded relationship.

Purpose: Bilateral vocal fold immobility (BVFI) presents a challenging endeavor to surgeons and a suture lateralization (SL) procedure under endoscopy has been proposed to treat BVFI. The goal of this study is to introduce an adaptable method to calibrate an appropriate entrance on the thyroid lamina for the stitch canal to precisely reach an appropriate endolaryngeal site for the suture loop placement and minimize the endolaryngeal soft-tissue (ELT) damage. Materials and Methods: From 2007–2015, a total of 38 patients with BVFI due to various causes had undergone 40 exo-endolaryngeal SL (exoeSL) procedures in our hospital. The former 20 patients had undergone so-called blind suture loop placement procedures. The latter 18 patients had been treated with a refined suture placement technique. Results: The suture placement in former 20 patients had undergone one to three episodes of needle entrances into the ELT with average of 1.7 episodes each patient and caused one paraglottic hematoma. The latter 18 of the 38 patients had obtained one episode of ELT damage each patient and produced no vascular events. Conclusions: The topographic relationship of the pyriform recess on the thyroid lamina can serve as a consistent and surgically useful landmark for avoiding the paraglottic dead space infection from the stitching canal during the SL procedure. With this suture placement refinement, the exoeSL procedure can really obtain a relatively appropriate endolaryngeal site to place the suture loop and decrease the ELT damage.

Environmental pollution becomes aggravated as human beings enjoy high-tech products without being fully aware of the consequences of excessive resource consumption. In the literature, few studies focus on people’s recycling behavior. How to characterize recycling behavior appropriately poses a critical challenge in the study of electronic waste recycling. This paper develops a computer recycling model using system dynamics to predict electronic waste in Taiwan. The model is constructed and validated for “real” recycling data from the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration. The constructed model is well qualified for the computer recycling data with only 2 percent forecast error. The three decision variables of holding duration, recycling refund and innovative technology were tested through dynamic hypotheses and found significant to be included in the proposed system dynamics model. A moving average forecast method is employed to predict future recycling quantities. The research outcomes can help the Government gain an understanding of the recycling behavior of electronic waste. Therefore, practical and feasible policies can be proposed to improve electronic waste recycling.

BACKGROUND Southern Taiwan experienced a severe dengue epidemic in 2015. Adult asymptomatic cases would raise concerns on transfusion-transmitted dengue virus (DENV) infection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the magnitude of such a risk in Tainan City during this epidemic. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS The daily prevalence of asymptomatic dengue viremia in blood donors in Tainan City and in selected high-incidence districts during the 2015 dengue epidemic was estimated by an established mathematical model. Duration of viremia, duration of viremia before symptom onset, apparent-to-inapparent infection ratio, and reporting-to-underreporting ratio were four main parameters used in the model. RESULTS The estimated maximal and mean daily prevalence of asymptomatic dengue viremia in blood donors in Tainan during this dengue epidemic was 74.4 (95% confidence interval [CI], 60.8-88.0) and 15.0 (95% CI, 12.3-17.7) per 10,000, respectively. In the district with the highest incidence, the maximal and mean daily prevalence of asymptomatic viremia was 328.8 (95% CI, 271.1-386.2) and 55.3 (95% CI, 43.4-63.3) per 10,000, respectively. Approximately 234 (95% CI, 191-276) blood components containing DENV were produced during the epidemic. CONCLUSION Although dengue is currently not endemic in Taiwan, physicians need to be aware of the risk of transfusion-transmitted DENV infection. Our results suggest that screening measures to ensure blood safety should be evaluated and implemented during dengue epidemics even in nonendemic areas. Timely estimation of daily asymptomatic viremia prevalence by districts can help to select high-risk areas for such measures and to evaluate cost-effectiveness.

Background Little is known about the effects of Kinesio taping and therapeutic exercise on correcting forward head posture. Objective To compare Kinesio taping versus therapeutic exercise for forward head posture on static posture, dynamic mobility and functional outcomes. Methods Sixty subjects (31 women, 29 men) with forward head postures participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to either one of the three groups: (1) exercise group (n = 20), (2) taping group (n = 20), and (3) control groups (n = 20). The horizontal forward displacement (HFD) between ear lobe and acromion process, upper cervical and lower cervical angle (UCA, LCA), active range of motion (AROM) of cervical spine, and neck disability index (NDI) were measured before and after a 5-week intervention, and a 2-week follow-up. Data were analyzed by means of a mixed design repeated-measures ANOVA. Results Both taping and exercise groups showed significant improvements in HFD compared with the control group at post-treatment and follow-up. Compared with the control group, the exercise group exhibited significant improvements in the LCA and the side bending AROM at post-treatment. Conclusions Both Kinesio taping and therapeutic exercise improve forward head posture after intervention and a 2-week follow-up. The effectiveness of therapeutic exercise is better than taping.

We investigated the impact of serum cholesterol levels on 30-day mortality after ischemic stroke in dialysis patients.From the Taiwan Stroke Registry data, we identified 46,770 ischemic stroke cases, including 1101 dialysis patients and 45,669 nondialysis patients from 2006 to 2013.Overall, the 30-day mortality was 1.46-fold greater in the dialysis group than in the nondialysis group (1.75 versus 1.20 per 1000 person-days). The mortality rates were 1.64, .62, 2.82, and 2.23 per 1000 person-days in dialysis patients with serum total cholesterol levels of 120 mg/dL, 120-159 mg/dL, 160-199 mg/dL, and ≥200 mg/dL, respectively. Compared to dialysis patients with serum total cholesterol levels of 120-159 mg/dL, the corresponding adjusted hazard ratios of mortality were 4.20 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.01-17.4), 8.06 (95% CI = 2.02-32.2), and 6.89 (95% CI = 1.59-29.8) for those with cholesterol levels of 120 mg/dL, 160-199 mg/dL, and ≥200 mg/dL, respectively.Dialysis patients with serum total cholesterol levels of ≥160 mg/dL or 120 mg/dL on admission are at an elevated hazard of 30-day mortality after ischemic stroke.

Inter-basin water transfer projects are usually considered as one of the most effective facilities to balance the non-uniform temporal and spatial distribution of water resources and water demands by diverting water from surplus to deficient area. However, the operation of these projects are always daunting, especially for projects with multi-donor reservoirs but only one recipient reservoir. In this study, a set of water transfer rule curves are firstly proposed to determine when, where and how much water should be diverted from each donor reservoir. In addition, a simulation-optimization model with the objective to minimize both water shortage risk and vulnerability is established to derive the optimal operation rule curves. Following that, the new transfer rules are applied to provide guidelines for the operation of a water transfer-supply project with two donor reservoirs in central China. The effects of water diversion on each reservoir are evaluated under different scenarios including no diversion, diversion from the donor reservoir with relatively sufficient water, diversion from the donor reservoir with relatively limited water, and diversion from both donor reservoirs. The results show the advantages of improving the performance of whole water diversion system and demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Internet of Things technology improves the state awareness level of power grid equipment through large-scale sensor collaboration and information communication network. In this paper, the application of LoRa low power wide area interconnection of things communication technology in overhead line state perception is studied. LoRa-based three-tier network architecture of low-power wide-area interconnection of things for overhead lines is proposed.This paper analyzed the communication and encryption between sensors and communication modules, communication modules and base stations, base stations and base stations. A design scheme of miniaturized state-aware device for overhead line based on LoRa is proposed. Two scenarios of application of LoRa-based state-aware technology for overhead line are listed, which can provide guidance for the popularization and application of the technology of Internet of Things for power equipment.

In order to fast and accurately extract the star centroid from high-resolution satellite imageries, this paper presents an algorithm-hardware design of real-time star centroid for deep space exploration missions. First, a block threshold segmentation method is proposed to eliminate the stray light effects in different regions. Then, an optimized one-scan centroid extraction algorithm with label combination is proposed for detecting complex star patterns and extracting its centroid. Moreover, we present an FPGA-based hardware architecture for the proposed algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm-hardware design enables accurate and real-time star centroid extraction.

This project designs a reflective oxygen saturation measurement system based on microprocessor STM32F103, which controls peripheral module circuit. It is portable and reliable. The sensor MAX30100 collects the signal and converts it into data for processing. The algorithms are developed with Keil platform. This reflective oxygen saturation measurement system uses red (600–750 nm) and infrared (850–1000 nm) wavelength of light to meet the requirements for accurate measurement.

Transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement (TPVR) is a new, less invasive alternative to surgical valve replacement for residual pulmonary regurgitation (PR) after initial repair of tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) [(1,2)][1]. We report the first-in-man implantations of a novel transcatheter pulmonary valve

In this research, we aim to solve the luminaire allocation and configuration problem. Additionally, considering the difficult of movement or adjustment of fixed luminaire, the luminaire failure issue is also taken consideration in the proposed model. To verify the proposed lighting configuration based on the GA, the athletic fields is taken as an example. According to two experiments results, compare to the lighting simulation software DIALux, in scenes with average illuminance of 750 lux and 350 lux, the error rate was less than 5%. In scenes with average illuminance of 150, the error rate was relatively high. The disparity value of illuminance between each point was between 0.9 lux and 37.4 lux, and the average disparity value of illuminance was 16.6 lux. In the two experiments, it is notable that the lighting configuration proposed based on the GA in this research has extraordinary effects. The traditional method based on experience can be replaced. The result can be verified by the DIALux software recognized in the industry, proving the feasibility of the model.

Pedestrian attribute recognition has many applications in surveillance and attribute based query, tracking, and person re-identification. The recent trend in deep-learning based pedestrian attribute recognition is to use a shared CNN backbone for feature extraction and multiple subsequent branches for the individual branches. While this allows the end-to-end learning to simultaneously recognize multiple attributes, the data imbalance problem of most attributes becomes a challenge that has not been studied sufficiently for this application. This paper presents studies on how the cost adjustment method affects several common evaluation metrics. We also propose a two-stage training procedure, where an additional fine-tuning stage on the classifier layers only with class-balanced data is shown to improve recognition performances.

the computing network based on cloud computing is becoming more and more complex. How to effectively unload the computing tasks is the key problem to improve the service ability of the computing network. In this paper, a mathematical model of task unloading problem in computing network is established, and an optimal solution based on improved greedy algorithm is proposed, which can quickly find the way of resource chain task dynamic unloading and realize task fast allocation and calculation. In this paper, the search space for greedy algorithms is too large and there is a lack of support for HPC LAN. Therefore, the greedy algorithm search is improved from one layer to two layers, which are respectively searched by the strongly connected graph and strongly connected graph of the virtual graph, which can adapt to the computing network with complex structure, and has friendly characteristics for high-performance computing LAN.

A considerable amount of information is quickly disseminated worldwide and users struggled to survive on such data tsunami. Context-recommender-aware systems (CAR) are then developed which enabling users to locate valuable and useful information from a large amount of disordered data. However, human decision-making contains multiple steps and a recursive loop, most users tend to adjust their decision many times instead of achieving the final decision-making immediately. Therefore, to replicate such a recursive process among multiple steps, the traditional CAR system should be altered as an interactive CAR (iCAR) system for improving the recommendation accuracy. In view of the deficiency in the present CAR, this study leads the concept of human-computer interaction in tradition CAR and establishes an interactive context-aware recommender System (iCAR). To validate the feasibility and applicability of the proposed iCAR system, a car rental website which is designed based on iCAR is shown as a demonstration. According to the car rental case shown, after couples of iterations, the decision criteria can be gradually clarified by the proposed algorithm of inferring engine. Also, iCAR can find users a car that most satisfies their requirements by using the contexts information. iCAR can improve the accuracy of traditional CAR system and provide user more precise recommendation results according to 3-dimensions information, including: user, item and context information. The iCAR system can be further expected to apply to various fields, such as online shopping or travel packages recommendations, to optimize recommendations results.

In recent year, mobile devices have become an indispensable product in our daily life. Extensive amount of mobile applications (Apps) have been developed and used on these devices. Restated, in terms of the Apps future development and popularization, to understand why people have willingness to pay for use certain Apps has apparently became an important issue. However, there are various homogeneity Apps, which people can easily find some free succedaneum for use. Consequently, it would be an interesting issue to realize individual's intention to pay for use the Apps. In this study, the authors conducted a survey in Taiwan to realize individuals' willingness to pay for Cloud Storage Service (CSS), since CSS is one of the frequently adopted App for most mobile device users. The results show that both the perceived service quality and conformity positively affect the perceived value and then increases the user's willingness to pay indirectly. In addition, the findings also support that the users' product knowledge about CSS produce negative moderating effects on the perceived value and the willingness of pay.

SummaryObjectives: To find discriminative combination of influential factors of Intracerebral hematoma (ICH) to cluster ICH patients with similar features to explore relationship among influential factors and 30-day mortality of ICH. Methods: The data of ICH patients are collected. We use a decision tree to find discriminative combination of the influential factors. We cluster ICH patients with similar features using Fuzzy C-means algorithm (FCM) to construct a support vector machine (SVM) for each cluster to build a multi-SVM classifier. Finally, we designate each testing data into its appropriate cluster and apply the corresponding SVM classifier of the cluster to explore the relationship among impact factors and 30-day mortality. Results: The two influential factors chosen to split the decision tree are Glasgow coma scale (GCS) score and Hematoma size. FCM algorithm finds three centroids, one for high danger group, one for middle danger group, and the other for low danger group. The proposed approach outperforms benchmark experiments without FCM algorithm to cluster training data. Conclusions: It is appropriate to construct a classifier for each cluster with similar features. The combination of factors with significant discrimination as input variables should outperform that with only single discriminative factor as input variable.

This paper proposes a model predictive control (MPC) method to tackle the power flow control of the modular multilevel converter based unified power flow controller (MMC-UPFC) under unbalanced grid conditions. The predictive models corresponding to the discrete-time models of MMC-UPFC are derived. For the shunt MMC, the d-axis and q-axis current references for the MPC are deduced to maintain the dc-link voltage constant according to the energy balance on the dc-link side. The series MMC utilizes a cost function with the voltage constraints to suppress the faulted current and make the power flow controllable, and thus avoid the spread of the fault. Moreover, it makes full use of the capacity of MMC by operating it on the voltage boundary defined by the maximum output voltage of the converter. The model is established using the parameters from a 500 kV MMC-UPFC practical project in Jiangsu, China. Simulation results demonstrate a favorable response of the MMC-UPFC based on the proposed MPC strategy under different unbalanced grid conditions.

In this study, through orthogonal experiments design, the influences of ultrasonic pretreatment (frequency, power and treatment time) on co-pyrolysis and catalytic pyrolysis of municipal solid waste and paper mill sludge were explored. The differential thermogravimetry curves became steeper and the peak values were larger after pretreatment, which made the pyrolysis reaction rapidly and the volatile separated out timely. However, the change of pyrolysis characteristics was not obvious after adding MgO. The catalytic effect of MgO increased with the increase of sludge ratio. After pretreatment, the average activation energy of the samples had an overall increasing trend, but the change was small. MgO had a decreasing effect on activation energy, and with the increasing proportion of sludge the degree of reduction became significant. In addition, high ultrasonic frequency had a negative effect on reducing activation energy.

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect of metal nanoparticles (MNs) has been widely applied in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) to improve the radiation of excitons. The LSPR wavelength and intensity of MNs and the coupling between MNs and excitons greatly affect the LSPR effect on exciton radiation. In this work, silica coated silver nanocubes (Ag@SiO2 NCs) were doped in the electron transport layer (ETL) of a solution-processed multilayered white OLED (WOLED). Due to the sharp edges and corners, Ag NCs have strong LSPR effect and can effectively enhance the radiation of nearby excitons. With an appropriate concentration of Ag@SiO2 NCs, the WOLED achieved two fold improvement in the current efficiency comparing with the control device without Ag@SiO2 NCs incorporated. The working mechanism of the Ag@SiO2 NCs based WOLED was investigated in detail. For the solution-processed OLED, excitons usually form and recombine near the interface of emission layer and electron transport layer (EML/ETL) because the commonly used host material (such as polyvinylcarbazole, PVK) has the unipolar hole transport property. So the Ag@SiO2 NCs in ETL greatly enhanced the radiation of the excitons located near the EML/ETL interface, which mostly contributed to the performance enhancement of the Ag@SiO2 NCs based WOLED. Study on a group of devices with Ag@SiO2 NCs doped in different locations indicated that Ag@SiO2 NCs in ETL showed more effective LSPR effect than those in hole injection layer. Electroluminescence and photoluminescence spectra of the WOLEDs declared that the Ag@SiO2 NCs simultaneously improved the radiation intensities of the blue and yellow excitons and helped the WOLED maintain the good chromaticity stability, which was mainly attributed to the wide LSPR wavelength range (450–650 nm) of the Ag@SiO2 NCs. The SiO2 coating layer of the Ag@SiO2 NCs played the important role in the LSPR enhanced emission. On the one hand, it formed an appropriated distance between the Ag NCs and the extions, helping to generate the strong coupling between them. On the other hand, it suppressed the effect of Ag NCs on charge trapping, keeping the stability of the carrier transport in the device. Our research demonstrate MNs can effectively improve the performance of OLEDs by carefully designing the device structure.