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The occurrence of typhoon Herb in 1996 caused massive landslides in the Shenmu area of Taiwan. Many people died and stream and river beds were covered by meters of debris. Debris flows almost always take place in the Shenmu area during the flood season, especially in the catchment areas around Tsushui river and Aiyuzih river. Anthropogenic and natural factors that cause debris flow occurrences are complex and numerous. The precise conditions of initiation are difficult to be identified, but three factors are generally considered to be the most important ones, i.e. rainfall characteristics, geologic conditions and topography. This study proposes a simple and feasible process that combines remote sensing technology and multi-stage high-precision DTMs from aerial orthoimages and airborne LiDAR with field surveys to establish a connection between three major occurrence factors that trigger debris flows in the Shenmu area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulphuric acid vapour has been suspected of being an industrial carcinogen. In this study, a cluster is presented of three patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) who worked in the same building of a telecommunications conveyance station in southern Taiwan with long term exposure to sulphuric acid vapour concentrations as high as 0.18 mg/m3. All three workers were diagnosed with NPC within a 5 month period between September 1992, and March 1993. Compared with 19 other healthy workers from the same building, these three workers with NPC had worked significantly longer in this building than had the others (mean (SD) (years): 12.7 (0.6) v 7.4 (4.4); p = 0.01). With an in situ nucleic acid hybridisation and immunostaining method for colocalised Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and secretory component (SC) protein among biopsy specimens of these three patients with NPCs, it was found that some tumour cells did not contain EBV and SC protein staining signals. These results indicate that EBV infection is not the only risk factor for NPC and long term exposure to relatively low concentrations of sulphuric acid vapour may be associated with the development of NPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is an endemic disease in Taiwan. Prognostic factors the anatomical TNM stage are important for its prognostic stratification. An elevated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been reported to be associated with poor prognosis in various solid tumours. In this study, we analysed the prognostic impact of the NLR in NPC in Taiwan., Design: Single-institution retrospective study., Setting: Medical centre., Participants: One hundred and eighty patients with NPC treated at the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taiwan, from January 2007 to December 2013., Main Outcome Measures: The association between the clinical or haematological presentations and the prognosis., Results: The majority of the 180 patients included in this study were men (80%) and were <65 years old (91.7%). A neck mass (55.6%) was the most common clinical presentation, followed by nasal (39.4%) and aural (30.6%) symptoms. In addition, the majority (75.4%) of patients had advanced stage (III and IV) disease. Patients with a high NLR (≧3.6) had significantly lower progression-free survival, overall survival and disease-specific survival rates. The association between high NLR and poor prognosis was more pronounced in patients with advanced disease than in those with early-stage NPC. The results of a multivariate analysis revealed that advanced age, clinical symptoms including headache, diplopia and facial numbness, advanced disease stage, and high NLR were independent prognostic factors., Conclusion: A high NLR is an independent poor prognostic factor of NPC in Taiwan., (© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)