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Objective Diabetes increases the risk for cancers. However, whether it is associated with hematologic malignancies is not clear. The present study investigated the association between diabetes and acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (ML), non-Hopkin lymphoma (NHL), and multiple myeloma (MM). Methods Newly diagnosed adult cancer patients were recruited consecutively from our clinical database. Peoples from a local enterprise were recruited to create a small-scale population-based dataset. We compared the diabetes prevalence between the cancer patients and the local people; an increase in diabetes prevalence in the cancer patients suggests an association between diabetes and the cancer(s). Results We found that the prevalence of diabetes was 19.7%, 21.3%, 12.5%, and 12.0% in ALL, AML, NHL, and MM, respectively, which was higher than that (9.1%) in the local people. Despite that there were more male than female cancer patients, there were more female than male diabetic patients. The increase in diabetes prevalence occurred in ALL and NHL patients aged 18 to 39 years old as well as in AML patients over 40. In MM patients, the increase in diabetes prevalence (18.6%) occurred only in females. Approximately 70% of the diabetic patients were undiagnosed before the diagnosis of the blood cancer. Approximately half of the pre-existing diabetic patients had anti-diabetic treatment, with over 70% of them still had poor glycemic control. Conclusions Our results suggest that diabetes is associated with ALL, AML, NHL, and MM, at least in adult patients.

Professional sport is one of the essential core industries for the development of the sports industry, divided into two categories: team and individual sports. The main development feature of professional basketball is to compete through the home-and-away system’s operation and establish a good emotional foundation with the residents through the home operation, which in turn creates recognition and support for the team and enhances the profits of the basketball organization. In recent years, Southeast Asia has developed a multinational professional basketball league, which covers nine countries. The “Formosa Dreamers” professional basketball team, a joint venture of Chinese entrepreneurs and has become the first professional basketball team in Taiwan, has chosen Changhua County as the home court. This report’s objective was to explore the localization and home business strategies of professional basketball games and to summarize further and analyze the characteristics of the home business strategy of Formosa Dreamers to establish the foundation for the future development of home business sports events in Taiwan.

Purpose: In advanced or high-grade prostate cancer (PCa), prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is usually elevated, however, some patients may present with low initial PSA (iPSA) levels. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether different iPSA levels were associated with dissimilar clinical outcomes among men with high-grade PCa and advanced disease after robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RaLRP). Methods: This study enrolled 69 PCa patients with initial Gleason score ≥8 and pathologic T-stage ≥3a from April 2012 to December 2018. Patients were stratified into 3 groups based on iPSA levels at diagnosis

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE:Mineralcorticoid receptor antagonist was the first-line treatment in bilateral adrenal hyperplasia (BAH) with primary aldosteronism (PA). Some patients were refractory to...

// Chan-Chi Chang 1, 2, * , Wei-Ting Lee 1, 2, * , Yao-Chou Lee 2, 3 , Cheng-Chih Huang 1 , Chun-Yen Ou 1 , Yu-Hsuan Lin 1 , Jehn-Shyun Huang 4 , Tung-Yiu Wong 4 , Ken-Chung Chen 4 , Jenn-Ren Hsiao 1, 2 , Yu-Cheng Lu 1 , Sen-Tien Tsai 1 , Yu-Hsuan Lai 2, 5 , Yuan-Hua Wu 5 , Wei-Ting Hsueh 5 , Chia-Jui Yen 6 , Shang-Yin Wu 2, 6 , Jang-Yang Chang 6, 7 , Sheen-Yie Fang 1 , Jiunn-Liang Wu 1 , Chen-Lin Lin 8 , Ya-Ling Weng 7 , Han-Chien Yang 7 , Yu-Shan Chen 1 and Jeffrey S. Chang 7 1 Department of Otolaryngology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70456, Taiwan 2 Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70456, Taiwan 3 Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70456, Taiwan 4 Department of Stomatology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70456, Taiwan 5 Department of Radiation Oncology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70456, Taiwan 6 Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70456, Taiwan 7 National Institute of Cancer Research, National Health Research Institutes, Tainan 70456, Taiwan 8 Department of Nursing, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70456, Taiwan * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Jeffrey S. Chang, email: jeffreychang@nhri.org.tw Keywords: head and neck cancer, diet, vegetables and fruits, risk factor, Taiwan Abbreviations: confidence interval (CI); head and neck cancer (HNC); Nutrition and Heath Surveys in Taiwan (NAHSIT); OR (odds ratio); upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) Received: July 23, 2017 Accepted: September 30, 2017 Published: October 24, 2017 ABSTRACT Most studies reporting an inverse association between the consumption of vegetables and fruits and head and neck cancer (HNC) risk were conducted in Western populations and only a few included East Asians. The current case-control study investigated the association between diet and HNC risk using data of 838 HNC cases and 998 controls from a case-control study of HNC conducted in Taiwan. Each participant was asked about their consumption of fresh vegetables, pickled vegetables, fresh fruits, citrus fruits, meat, processed meat, fish, egg, and dairy products. Unconditional logistic regression was performed to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of HNC risk associated with each food category, adjusted for sex, age, education, and use of alcohol, betel quid and cigarette. An inverse association was observed between HNC risk and daily intake of fresh vegetables (OR = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.20-0.95, p -trend = 0.002) or fruits (OR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.43-0.72, p -trend = 0.00001). Individuals who did not consume fresh fruits and vegetables daily had more than double the risk of HNC compared to those with daily intake of vegetables and fruits (OR= 2.24, 95% CI: 1.54-3.25). The results of the current study supported an inverse association between the consumption of fresh vegetables and fruits and HNC risk. In addition to cessation of cigarette smoking and betel quid chewing and reduction of alcohol drinking, a public health campaign for preventing the occurrence of HNC should promote a healthy diet that contains plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits.

Introduction This study aimed to investigate the differences in ureterorenal stone appearance after gouty arthropathy between Taiwanese aboriginal and non-aboriginal patients. Methods Between 2007 and 2015, patients with first diagnoses of ureterorenal stones after diagnosis of gouty arthropathy at Puli Christian Hospital were enrolled in this study. Characteristics, underlying diseases and laboratory data for aboriginal and non-aboriginal patients were recorded. All categorical variables were analysed by χ2 test and continuous variables were compared by t-test. Results A total of 201 patients (66 aboriginal and 135 non-aboriginal) were enrolled in the study. Serum uric acid levels did not differ significantly between aboriginal and non-aboriginal groups. There was a significant difference in the time until ureterorenal stone appearance after gouty arthropathy between aboriginal and non-aboriginal patients (38.0 v 29.3 months, p=0.015). Among males, aboriginal patients exhibited gouty arthropathy at a younger age than non-aboriginal patients (46.0 v 50.2 years, p=0.035). Furthermore, male aboriginal patients exhibited a higher rate of alcoholic hepatitis (26.7% v 12.2%, p=0.046). Conclusion Among males, aboriginal Taiwanese patients exhibited gouty arthropathy at younger ages than did non-aboriginal Taiwanese because of a higher rate of alcoholic hepatitis. The longer time until stone appearance after gouty arthropathy was attributed to alcoholic diuresis. Decreasing alcohol consumption may postpone or halt the development of gouty arthropathy.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES:In the literature, the percentage of bacterial etiology in pediatric acute epididymitis is around 16-31%. However, more than 80% of patients received antibiotic treatmen...

Objective International institutes have developed their own clinical performance indicators for ambulance services. It is unknown whether these process measures are related to survival of patients after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). We aimed to determine whether Emergency Medical Service (EMS)-related ambulance team process measures correlate with patient survival. Methods Four years of observational data were collected from an urban EMS OHCA registry. The two process measures were achieving an EMS response time ≤4 min and prehospital ROSC (return of spontaneous circulation). The outcome measure was survival to discharge. We used the GLMM (generalised linear mixed model) with stepwise selection to examine this process-outcome link at the patient and EMS team levels, respectively. Results We analyzed 3856 OHCA patients distributed across forty-three EMS ambulance teams. Survival to discharge was observed in 193 (5%) patients. The two EMS team process measures were positively associated with an improvement in survival at the patient level after case-mix adjustment. However, they were not associated with improvement in the risk-adjusted survival rate. Conclusions The EMS team-level process measures proposed by international institutes may not predict the risk-adjusted survival rate. Using these measures to motivate EMS teams to improve their quality performance would be questionable. Increased efforts should be devoted to constructing more pivotal EMS team-level process measures that are tightly linked to survival.

Background Frey syndrome is a common complication after parotidectomy. This study aimed to investigate the potential predictors for developing severe Frey syndrome after parotidectomy and to identify patients who may benefit from additional preventive maneuvers. Methods A total of 485 patients received parotidectomy because of parotid tumors at the Otolaryngology Department of the National Cheng Kung University Hospital, from July 2009 to November 2015. Only 115 of 485 patients were included in this study and to fill in a questionnaire to determine the occurrence and severity of Frey syndrome. Results A total of 115 parotidectomies were identified. 84 (73%, 84/115) patients were aware of the discomfort and were thus considered symptomatic. 39 (34%, 39/115) patients considered the symptoms apparently affected their quality of life. MSI tests showed that 56 (49%, 56/115) patients had a positive MSI test. By combining the results from symptom questionnaire and MSI test, 23 patients (20%, 23/115) had a severe form of Frey syndrome. Among all clinicopathological variables, the resected specimen size was the only significant predictor of the severe Frey syndrome group (P = 0.04). Disease pathology, tumor size, and adjuvant radiotherapy did not correlate with the severe Frey syndrome. Using receiver operating curve analysis, the best cutoff value of the resected specimen size (in largest dimension) for predicting severe Frey syndrome was 40 mm(sensitivity: 71.7%, specificity: 42.0%; area under the curve = 0.6483). The odds ratio of severe Frey syndrome with every 10 mm increase in the largest diameter of resected specimen was 1.30 (95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.68; P = 0.04). Conclusions Resected specimen size is the only significant predictor of developing severe Frey syndrome after parotidectomy. Preventive interventions may have to be considered in high-risk patients whose resected specimen size (in largest dimension) is greater than 40 mm.

Although alcohol is an established risk factor of head and neck cancer (HNC), insufficiencies exist in the literature in several aspects. We analyzed detailed alcohol consumption data (amount and type of alcoholic beverage) of 811 HNC patients and 940 controls to evaluate the association between alcohol and HNC by HNC sites and by genotypes of ADH1B and ALDH2. Alcohol was associated with an increased HNC risk in a dose-response relationship, with the highest risk observed for hypopharyngeal cancer, followed by oropharyngeal and laryngeal cancers. Liquor showed a stronger positive association with HNC than beer and wine. The highest HNC risk occurred in individuals with the slow ADH1B and slow/non-functional ALDH2 genotype combination. In our study population, 21.8% of HNCs, 55.7% of oropharyngeal cancers, and 89.1% of hypopharyngeal cancers could be attributed to alcohol. Alcohol accounted for 47.3% of HNCs among individuals with the slow ADH1B and slow/non-functional ALDH2 genotype combination. The HNC risk associated with alcohol became comparable to that of never/occasional drinkers after ten or more years of cessation from regular alcohol drinking. In conclusion, alcohol use is associated with an increased HNC risk, particularly for individuals with slow ethanol metabolism. HNC incidence may be reduced by alcohol cessation.

A low power digital signed array multiplier based on a 2-dimensional (2-D) bypassing technique is proposed in this work. When the horizontally (row) or the vertically (column) operand is zero, the corresponding bypassing cells skip redundant signal transitions to avoid unnecessary calculation to reduce power dissipation. An 8×8 signed multiplier using the 2-D bypassing technique is implemented on silicon using a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process to verify power reduction performance. The power-delay product of the proposed 8×8 signed array multiplier is measured to be 31.74 pJ at 166 MHz, which is significantly reduced in comparison with prior works.

This brief presents an all-digital frequency synthesizer based on the flying adder (FA) architecture. The FA is a fascinating architecture for frequency synthesizer designs due to its simplicity and effectiveness. The FA-based frequency synthesizer can simply use a set of multiple phase reference signals to generate a desired frequency to achieve fast frequency switching. In the proposed work, the frequency synthesizer adopts an all-digital phase-locked loop to provide a steady reference signal for the FA. The proposed frequency synthesizer is implemented in a standard 0.18-μm CMOS cell-based technology, and the core area is 0.16 mm2. The output frequency range is 39.38-226 MHz, and the peak-to-peak jitter is less than 130 ps.

The impact of organizational crises is getting stronger as the risk and uncertainty in business environments are increasing due to today's uncertain economic conditions. The threat of organizational crises to organizations can be lessened if critical knowledge is transferred to the individuals who will need it during such events. Nevertheless, there have been very few studies specifically investigating the use of knowledge transfer channels during organizational crises. Consequently, we conducted an in-depth case study of a product recall at a motorcycle manufacturer in order to explore what knowledge transfer channels were applied during the organizational crisis in order to transfer critical knowledge, and what the corresponding results were. The research findings indicate that multiple knowledge transfer channels were used and that they had a significantly positive influence on organizational performance when dealing with the crisis. The relationships between the knowledge transfer channels used and crisis characteristics are depicted in six theoretical propositions. The findings of this study can help organizations examine their abilities to circulate critical knowledge, and, in turn, develop effective methods to transfer it to where it is truly needed when dealing with crises. Future research that specifically examines the interrelationships between the knowledge transfer channels used during organizational crises are encouraged.

Employing the theorem that matching impedance produces maximum power transfer, the current study develops a low-cost and highly efficient “maximum power point tracker for a solar cell unit,” for the purpose of allowing a solar cell to achieve optimal power transfer under different solar intensities and temperatures. Circuit control takes a single-chip microprocessor as the core and the booster circuit design undergoes the solar cell charging operation even though the solar cell output voltage is lower than the rated storage battery voltage. Experiments conducted in this study prove that the tracker this study develops effectively enhances the utilization efficiency of a solar cell. When a solar cell is at an output voltage above 30% of the rated voltage, it can charge a storage battery. When it reaches above 80% of the rated voltage, its power conversion efficiency can reach above 85%. The charge and discharge management mechanism of the device also avoids excessive charge and discharge of the storage battery, and extends storage battery longevity.

A novel microstrip antenna applicable for multiband use is proposed in this work. The design was evolved from a conventional parallel stripline dipole with modifications in the dipole geometry and feeding structure. Those measures help introduce new resonant modes and increase bandwidths in the radiation spectrum. Fundamental antenna parameters including reflection coefficients, antenna gains, radiation patterns, and efficiency are measured. The results suggest that the proposed dipole provides roughly omni directional patterns at 1.8 to 2.4, 3.6, and 5.8 GHz bands with ∼0 dBi gain on the H-plane of the dipole. Such a planar antenna is of low cost and can be used on personal portable communication devices such as the smart phones to fulfill the multiband need of integrated mobile, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and WiMAX systems. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 49: 237–241, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.22081

The effects of honokiol and magnolol extracted from the Magnolia officinalis on muscular contractile responses and intracellular Ca(2+) mobilization were investigated in the non-pregnant rat uterus. Honokiol and magnolol (1-100 micromol/l) were observed to inhibit spontaneous and uterotonic agonists (carbachol, PGF(2alpha), and oxytocin)-, high K(+)-, and Ca(2+) channel activator (Bay K 8644)-induced uterine contractions in a concentration-dependent manner. The inhibition rate of honokiol on spontaneous contractions appeared to be slower than that of magnolol-induced response. The time periods that were required for honokiol and magnolol, at 100 micromol/l, to abolish 50% spontaneous contractions were approximately 6 min. Furthermore, honokiol and magnolol at 10 micromol/l also blocked the Ca(2+)-dependent oscillatory contractions. Consistently, the increases in intracellular Ca(2+) concentrations ([Ca(2+)](i)) induced by PGF(2alpha) and high K(+) were suppressed by both honokiol and magnolol at 10 micromol/l. After washout of these treatments, the rise in [Ca(2+)](i) induced by PGF(2alpha) and high K(+) was still partially abolished. In conclusion, the inhibitory effects of honokiol and magnolol on uterine contraction may be mediated by blockade of external Ca(2+) influx, leading to a decrease in [Ca(2+)](i). Honokiol and magnolol may be considered as putative Ca(2+) channel blockers and be of potential value in the treatment of gynecological dysfunctions associated with uterine muscular spasm and dysmenorrhea.

The paper analyzed the influence of external airflow on natural smoke ventilation in large space by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and engineering calculation. The purpose of the paper is Terminal 1 of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after renovation. In the renovation project, the separate departure and arrival halls will be connected to create a large atrium; natural smoke ventilation will be adopted as the smoke control strategy for the new space. As external airflow may directly impact natural smoke ventilation, the study means to investigate the extent to which external airflow influences natural smoke ventilation by analyzing scales of fire and presence of external airflow. Conclusions of the study are as follows: 1) when directly affected by headwind, entrances and exits on the first floor pose danger to the safety of certain parts of the floor; 2) when directly affected by headwind, natural smoke ventilation becomes weaker than when unaffected; 3) in the case study, natural smoke ventilation proves effective under the premise that the scale of fire is less than 2000 kW. Key words: Airport terminal, natural smoke ventilation, external airflow, evacuation safety, FDS.

This paper presents the design and implementation of a simple AC chopper with one driving signal for induction motor system. The new driving circuit of the proposed AC chopper is designed and implemented by Lenz's law with one PWM signal and two transformers. Thus, the current of the motor is operated in continuous mode. The switching spike, switching loss and cost of the proposed AC chopper are better than the conventional PWM AC chopper. Finally, the measured results show the flexibility and accuracy of the proposed method with a 70W induction motor.

This paper presents a power-aware signed digital multiplier design by taking advantage of a 2-dimensional bypassing method dedicated for local multiplications widely used in FFT/IFFT operations of video/image processing. The proposed low power multiplier is carried out by Baugh-Wooley algorithm using novel 2-dimensional bypassing cells. The proposed bypassing cells constituting the multiplier skip redundant signal transitions when the horizontally (row) partial product or the vertically (column) operand is zero.