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Pregnancy is an important stage in life for many women. Humans are complex organisms that are prone to exhibiting gradual alterations in their constitutions that fluctuate with age, diet, and living environment. This is particularly true during the pre- and postnatal periods, in which qi and blood are required to ensure foetal growth.To examine women's constitutional transformation of pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and postpartum.A prospective, longitudinal study was conducted, and structural questionnaires were used to collect data. The participants were healthy pregnant women 21-49 years of age. Data were collected at six times: during the first (weeks 6-13), second (weeks 14-27), and third (weeks 28-40) trimesters and during the postnatal admission (1-week postnatal) and home self-care (6-week and 6-month postnatal) periods, yielding 86 valid questionnaires. A cubic polynomial regression analyses with generalised estimation equations (GEEs) method was used to reveal the trend of constitution score by different constitutions.Significant differences (p.0001) for the scores of Yang-Xu (yang-deficiency), Yin-Xu (yin-deficiency), and Tan-Shi-Yu-Zhi (phlegm-dampness and blood-stasis) constitutions were observed at pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and 6 months postpartum. A least significant difference test showed that the scores obtained in the pregnancy period and at 6 months postpartum were higher than those of pre-pregnancy, indicating mitigated constitutional imbalance during postpartum. The highest scores of the Yang-Xu and Tan-Shi-Yu-Zhi constitutions occurred in the first trimester (36.02 ± 8.00 vs. 30.00 ± 7.21), and the highest scores of Yin-Xu constitution occurred in the third trimester (32.95 ± 7.48). The lowest scores of the Yang-Xu constitution were obtained at 6 months postpartum (25.24 ± 5.63) and during pre-pregnancy (25.26 ± 4.82), and those of the Yin-Xu and Tan-Shi-Yu-Zhi constitutions were observed in the pre-pregnancy (25.48 ± 4.46 vs. 19.94 ± 3.09). The 6-month postnatal scores of the Yang-Xu constitution nearly recovered to the prenatal level, whereas those of the other two constitutions did not.The results indicate that women's constitutions underwent changes throughout the perinatal stages. These findings provide a valuable reference for healthcare professionals in administering perinatal care and demonstrate empirical evidence for use in future intervention-based research.

Quality of Experience (QoE) is a measure of a customer's experiences with a service (web browsing, TV broadcast, call to a Call Center). QoE focuses on the entire service experience, and is a more holistic evaluation than the more narrowly focused UX (user experience, focused on a software interface) and CX (customer experience, support focused). Measuring the bottleneck link bandwidth along a path is important for understanding the performance of many services. Existing tools to measure QoE are using distributed network probes to collect network information. It is a very costly monitoring architecture. This paper proposes a cost-effective QoE measurement architecture based on Software Defined Network (SDN) [1], adopting centralized control mechanism to measure multiple clients simultaneously. Experiments on Wi-Fi environment show great reducing of CAPEX and OPEX.

Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are the principle source of added sugar in diets. Cardiometabolic disturbances can occur from early childhood to adulthood. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the gender-specific association of SSB intake with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components among adolescents in Taiwan. A total of 2727 adolescents aged 12 to 16 years randomly selected from three diverse economic areas in Southern Taiwan by using a multistage-sampling strategy participated in this study. Demographic, dietary, physical and anthropometric parameters were measured, and serum lipid profiles and glucose levels were determined. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) specifies that MetS requires abdominal obesity and ≥2 abnormal components, and Cook criteria for MetS require ≥3 abnormal components. We applied survey-data modules to data analyses, and used multiple regression and logistic models to adjust for covariates. An increased SSB intake was linked to a greater waist circumference in both sexes and to systolic blood pressure in boys (P for trend: ≤0.043). Male moderate and high consuming SSB drinkers exhibited triglyceride levels that were 8.0 and 8.2 mg/dL significantly higher, respectively, than those of nondrinkers. Compared with nondrinkers, boys who consumed >500 mL/day (high quantity) of SSBs exhibited 10.3-fold (95% confidence intervals (CIs): 1.2-90.2) and 5.1-fold (95% CIs: 1.01-25.5) risks of contracting MetS, as defined by the IDF and Cook criteria for MetS, respectively. In girls, the risk estimates for the same comparison were not significant by the IDF criteria (6.5-fold risk, 95% CIs: 0.9-∞) or Cook criteria (5.9-fold risk, 95% CIs: 0.8-43.8) for MetS. High SSB consumption was also linked to 1.9-fold (95% CIs: 1.1-3.1) and 2.7-fold (95% CIs: 1.3-5.7) higher risks of being at a greater overall metabolic risk in girls and boys, respectively. In conclusion, a high SSB intake is associated with adolescent MetS among boys but not girls in Taiwan.

We conducted a study of the clinical manifestations and outcomes of empyema thoracis caused by Candida spp. in hospitalized patients.We identified patients who from January 2010 to June 2012 had signs of inflammation, such as fever and leukocytosis, and concomitant positive cultures of Candida spp. from specimens of pleural fluid. We reviewed retrospectively the medical records of all such patients.Eight of the patients in whom we identified fever and leukocytosis with concomitant positive pleural fluid cultures of Candida spp. were found to have Candida empyema thoracis. Candida albicans was the most common species causing empyema (n=4), followed by C. glabrata (n=3) and C. tropicalis (n=1). Among the eight patients with Candida empyema thoracis, malignant disease was the most common underlying disease. Seven of the eight patients' episodes of Candida empyema thoracis (87.5%) were classified as health care-associated infections. One patient had a mixed infection with Candida spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. None of the patients had concomitant candidemia. Fluconazole was the antifungal agent used most commonly in treating the patients, and all of the patients had drainage of pleural effusions, including tube thoracostomy in five patients and drainage through a pigtail catheter in three patients. One patient underwent video-assisted thoracic surgery for the management of empyema thoracis, and the patients' overall in-hospital mortality was 62.5%.Although Candida empyema thoracis is encountered rarely, it can develop in immunocompromised patients and can be associated with a high mortality rate.

Dynamically choosing the time-division duplex (TDD) configuration in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) results in intercell interference. Among various interference types, the downlink-to-uplink interference is the strongest due to the much larger downlink (DL) transmission power from a base station than the uplink (UL) transmission power from a user equipment (UE). Although coordinating the neighboring base stations to operate in the same UL/DL configuration is a way to mitigate the interference, the flexibility of TDD is sacrificed. In this paper, we discuss an interference cancellation method exploiting the cloud radio access network (C-RAN) architecture. The downlink- to-uplink interference is cancelled by utilizing the knowledge of the downlink signal available at the cloud server. Simulation results show the effectiveness of this method, which maintains the flexibility of dynamically choosing the UL/DL configuration according to the traffic demand in the TDD system.

Chi-Chou Tseng1, Huan-Tee Chan1, Kin-Weng Wong2, Shih-Hau Fu3, Wei-Ting Lin3,4* and Chung-Da Wu4 1Department of Orthopaedics, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Liouying. Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China 2Department of Orthopaedics, Chi Mei Medical Center, Chiali, Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China 3Department of Physical Therapy, Shu Zen College of Medicine and Management, Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China 4Department of Orthopaedics, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China *Correspondence author: Dr. Wei-Ting Lin, Department of Orthopaedics, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan, Tel: +062812811; E-mail: aapriliaa@gmail.com

In this study, the CuIn(Ga)Se2(CIGS) crystalline quality and MoSe2thickness of films produced by the rapid thermal selenization process under various selenization pressures were investigated. When the selenization pressure increased from 48 Pa to 1.45 × 104 Pa, the CIGS films were smooth and uniform with large crystals of varying sizes. However, the MoSe2thicknesses increased from 50 nm to 2,109 nm, which created increased contact resistivity for the CIGS/MoSe2/Mo structures. The efficiency of CIGS solar cells could be increased from 1.43% to 4.62% due to improvement in the CIGS crystalline quality with increasing selenization pressure from 48 Pa to 1.02 × 103 Pa. In addition, the CIGS crystalline quality and MoSe2thickness were modified by the pressure released valve (PRV) selenization process method. The crystalline qualities of the CIGS films were similarly affected by the selenization pressure at 1.02 × 103 Pa in the PRV selenization method and the MoSe2thicknesses were reduced from 1,219 nm to 703 nm. A higher efficiency of 5.2% was achieved with the thinner MoSe2obtained by using the PRV selenization method.

In this research, a method for a heterojunction solar cell fabricated by using radio frequency magnetron sputtering has been described. The conversion efficiency of proto-type solar cell was achieved to 10.86%.

Due to the emergence of mmWave systems that provide multi-Gbps data rate over 60GHz band, uncompressed video transmission has been considered as a commonly used feature for wireless multimedia transmission over the wireless personal area networks (WPANs). However, mmWaves signals usually have higher attenuation than the conventional low-frequency wireless signals, and therefore supporting transmission in a low SNR condition becomes a challenging problem for such systems. In this paper, we propose a iterative decoding method for the wireless transmission of uncompressed video. With our proposed iterative decoding structure, the video decoder utilizes the temporal redundancy among the video frames to jointly decode the received coded bits from different video frames with the aid of correlation noise model. The simulation results show that the proposed method can significantly enhanced the video quality in terms of PSNR, even while operating in an extremely low SNR condition.

This study was conducted to investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with Aeromonas peritonitis, particularly secondary peritonitis.Patients with Aeromonas peritonitis treated between July 2004 and December 2011 were identified from the computerized database of a regional hospital in southern Taiwan. The medical records of these patients were retrospectively reviewed.A total of 50 patients with Aeromonas peritonitis were identified. Nine cases were classified as spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, and 41 cases were classified as secondary peritonitis. The most common etiology of secondary peritonitis was acute appendicitis (n=26), followed by small bowel perforation (n=7) and colon perforation (n=6). The patients with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis were more likely to be immunocompromised (p=0.0013) and more frequently had an initial presentation of shock (p=0.0129), an abnormal liver function (p0.05) and concomitant bacteremia (p=0.0024) than the patients with secondary peritonitis. Although the patients with secondary peritonitis had higher levels of inflammatory parameters, including leukocytes and C-reactive protein, and more frequent polymicrobial infections, their survival outcome rates, such as in-hospital mortality, were significantly lower (p=0.0007). The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 20%, and initial shock was the only independent prognostic factor for mortality (p=0.012).The clinical characteristics, including outcomes, of patients with spontaneous and secondary Aeromonas peritonitis differ. In-hospital mortality is significantly associated with the initial presentation of shock.

Plasma-assisted thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) was carried out to synthesize high-quality graphene film at a low temperature of 600°C. Monolayer graphene films were thus synthesized on Cu foil using various ratios of hydrogen and methane in a gaseous mixture. The in situ plasma emission spectrum was measured to elucidate the mechanism of graphene growth in a plasma-assisted thermal CVD system. According to this process, a distance must be maintained between the plasma initial stage and the deposition stage to allow the plasma to diffuse to the substrate. Raman spectra revealed that a higher hydrogen concentration promoted the synthesis of a high-quality graphene film. The results demonstrate that plasma-assisted thermal CVD is a low-cost and effective way to synthesis high-quality graphene films at low temperature for graphene-based applications.

Leaching of calcium ions increases the porosity of cement-based materials, consequently resulting in a negative effect on durability since it provides an entry for aggressive harmful ions, causing reinforcing steel corrosion. This study investigates the effects of leaching behavior of calcium ions on the compression and durability of cement-based materials. Since the parameters influencing the leaching behavior of cement-based materials are unclear and diverse, this paper focuses on the influence of added mineral admixtures (fly ash, slag and silica fume) on the leaching behavior of calcium ions regarding compression and durability of cemented-based materials. Ammonium nitrate solution was used to accelerate the leaching process in this study. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis were employed to analyze and compare the cement-based material compositions prior to and after calcium ion leaching. The experimental results show that the mineral admixtures reduce calcium hydroxide quantity and refine pore structure through pozzolanic reaction, thus enhancing the compressive strength and durability of cement-based materials.

This study investigated the basic mechanical and microscopic properties of cement produced with metakaolin and quantified the production of residual white efflorescence. Cement mortar was produced at various replacement ratios of metakaolin (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25% by weight of cement) and exposed to various environments. Compressive strength and efflorescence quantify (using Matrix Laboratory image analysis and the curettage method), scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis were reported in this study. Specimens with metakaolin as a replacement for Portland cement present higher compressive strength and greater resistance to efflorescence; however, the addition of more than 20% metakaolin has a detrimental effect on strength and efflorescence. This may be explained by the microstructure and hydration products. The quantity of efflorescence determined using MATLAB image analysis is close to the result obtained using the curettage method. The results demonstrate the best effectiveness of replacing Portland cement with metakaolin at a 15% replacement ratio by weight.

Uniformly distributed graphene domains were synthesized on standing copper foil by a low-pressure chemical vapor deposition system. This method improved the distribution of the graphene domains at different positions on the same piece of copper foil along the forward direction of the gas flow. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed the average size of the graphene domains to be about ~20 m. This results show that the sheet resistance of monolayer graphene on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate is about ~359 /□ whereas that of the four-layer graphene films is about ~178 /□, with a transmittance value of 88.86% at the 550 nm wavelength. Furthermore, the sheet resistance can be reduced with the addition of HNO3 resulting in a value of 84 /□. These values meet the absolute standard for touch sensor applications, so we believe that this method can be a candidate for some transparent conductive electrode applications.

Organ size and numbers are vital issues in bioengineering for hair follicle (HF) regeneration. Murine HF dermal papilla (DP) cells are able to induce HF neogenesis when transplanted as aggregates. However, how the preparation of murine and human DP aggregates affects HF inductivity and the size of regenerated HF is yet to be determined. Here we report a scalable method for production of controllable human and rat DP spheroids in general labs for reproducible experiments. Compared with more hydrophobic polyethylene and poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol), DP cells are poorly adhesive to hydrophilic polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). Seeded in PVA-coated 96-welled commercial PCR tube arrays, DP cells quickly aggregate into single spheroids with progressive compaction. Varying seeded cell numbers and culture periods enables us to control the size and cell number of the spheroids. The spheroids obtained have high viability and preserve DP characters. A proof of principle experiment was conducted to examine the size effect on the efficiency and efficacy of HF regeneration. We found that both human and rat DP spheroids are able to induce HF neogenesis and larger DP spheroids exhibit higher HF inductivity. However, the average diameter of regenerated hair fiber did not significantly change with the increasing size of transplanted DP spheroids. The result suggests that an appropriate size of DP spheroid is essential for HF inductivity, but its size cannot be directly translated to a thicker regenerated hair. Our results also have implications on the efficiency and efficacy in the regeneration of other epithelial organs.

Indium Tin Oxide/Polyethylene Terephthalate(ITO/PET) thin film/flexible substrate have found many applications in dye sensitized solar cells, touch screens, energy efficient windows, etc. In this study, application of the digital image correlation method (DIC) for determining the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of (ITO/PET) thin film was proposed and the effects of thickness variations of ITO and PET, respectively, on the CTE of the specimens were discussed. The observation range of experimental temperature was chosen from room temperature to the glass transition temperature of PET, 70°C. A novel DIC experimental process for reducing the errors caused from the variations of the refractive index of the surrounding heated air was proposed. As a result, the experimental error of CTE measurement was reduced from 15% ~ 23% to less than 4%. The experimental results showed that the CTE of ITO/PET specimen is anisotropic. Furthermore, the CTE of an ITO/PET specimen will be increased by decreasing the thickness of PET flexible substrate, and increased by increasing the thickness of ITO film – which means decreasing the surface resistance of ITO film.

Sludge reduction treatment by NaOH/sludge homogenization can be affected by a different parameter such as rotational speed, NaOH dosage and temperature. In this experiment, treatment of sludge with NaOH followed by Homogenizer mixing will be carried out to test the efficiency of NaOH in rapid processing of sludge to disintegrate froc molecules into smaller particles which can then finally be converted to water and carbon dioxide. The results show that the best result of 71.8% sludge reduction rate was obtained when the processing time was 20 minutes, the processing temperature was 70 oC, the alkali dosage was 0.25 g / g MLSS and the homogenizer set at 9000 rpm.

Cement-based composites are among the most widely-used construction materials due to their low cost, high compressive strength, high durability, versatility, and easy-handling. Unfortunately, cement-based composites are intrinsically porous and may deteriorate as a result of exposure to harsh environments or poor construction quality. Over the last few decades, most research has focused on the strength characteristics of concrete, with far less attention paid to material parameters influencing durability. The deterioration of these materials often results in severe damage to concrete structures such as cracking, delaminating, spalling, and even fractures. This kind of damage is generally not detected until it has reached a critical level, at which point, rust is visible on the rebar and evidence of cover concrete deterioration can be found throughout the entire structure, as shown in Fig. 1-1. The degradation of cement-based composites is considered a key factor in the durability of structures and a major concern for civil engineers.

Economic development has led to increased demand for energy; however, energy consumption has also led to continued worsening of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. After the Kyoto Protocol came into effect, advanced nations worldwide pledged to actively expand national strategies in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. On June 5, 2008, the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China passed a Sustainable Energy Policy, which proposed the construction of a “high-efficiency”, “high-value”, “low-emission” and “low-dependency” energy consumption model and supply system. Based on this premise, businesses that wish to enhance their competitive abilities should respond as soon as possible to the interim goals of energy conservation and carbon reduction. Using high efficiency LED (light emitting diode) lighting fixtures is an easy, low cost, and effective method of reaching the goal of energy conservation and carbon reduction. This has also led to the emergence of the LED lighting industry as a technology industry with great potential. Using a developer in the LED corporate market as a research target, this study utilized case study methods to investigate the innovation model and sales strategy of this company. This study found that the subject company used long tail strategy and blue ocean strategy, in combination with niche marketing strategy, to satisfy market demands with the customized smart LED green lighting products. Based on the results of this study, our conclusions are as follows: 1. when a company’s brand awareness and economic scale cannot match those of well-known front-line companies in the mainstream market, such a company can use leading technology, R and D, and innovation to produce products that are differentiated from those of large manufacturers. 2. Based on the long tail strategy, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can utilize the blue ocean strategy to select a niche market according to their unique advantages and develop high-margin products through product customization strategies. Key words: Green energy industry, blue ocean strategy, niche marketing, LED industry.

Article-at-a-Glance Background An evidence-based teamwork system, TeamSTEPPS®, was implemented in an academic medical center's pediatric and surgical ICUs. Methods A multidisciplinary change team of unit- and department-based leaders was formed to champion the initiative; develop a customized action plan for implementation; train frontline staff; and identify process, team outcome, and clinical outcome objectives for the intervention. The evaluation consisted of interviews with key staff, teamwork observations, staff surveys, and clinical outcome data. Results All PICU, SICU, and respiratory therapy staff received TeamSTEPPS training. Staff reported improved experience of teamwork posttraining and evaluated the implementation as effective. Observed team performance significantly improved for all core areas of competency at 1 month postimplementation and remained significantly improved for most of the core areas of competency at 6 and 12 months postimplementation. Survey data indicated improvements in staff perceptions of teamwork and communication openness in both units. From pre- to posttraining, the average time for placing patients on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) decreased significantly. The average duration of adult surgery rapid response team events was 33% longer at postimplementation versus pre-implementation. The rate of nosocomial infections at postimplementation was below the upper control limit for seven out of eight months in both the PICU and the SICU. Conclusions The implementation of a customized 2.5-hour version of the TeamSTEPPS training program in two areas—the PICU and SICU—that had demonstrated successful ability to innovate suggests that the training was successful.

This study is aimed to evaluate the engineered properties of cement-based composites which comprise polyolefin fibers and silica fume in the mixes. Material variables include water-cementitious ratio, dosage of silica fume, polyolefin fiber length and dosage. Compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, direct tensile strength, resistivity, rapid chloride penetration test and microscopic observation were conducted. Test results indicate that the specimens containing silica fume have higher compressive strength than fiber and control specimens. The specimens with polyolefin fiber and silica fume have much higher tensile strength and ductility than the control and silica fume specimens. The specimens containing silica fume and polyolefin fiber demonstrate better resistance in chloride penetration than polyolefin fiber composites or silica fume composites. For a given volume fraction, short polyolefin fiber performs better than long polyolefin fiber in improving concrete properties. The specimen containing silica fume significantly increases in resistivity and decreases in total charge passed. SEM microscopy illustrates that the polyolefin fiber acts as the crack arresters in concrete, which can inhibit internal crack propagation.

The present study examined nurse reports of relational coordination between nurses and other providers and the impact of relational coordination on patient care quality.While communication between providers has been traditionally considered important to improve quality, relational coordination extends this view, emphasising the value of high-quality relationships exemplified by shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect; and high-quality communication that is timely, frequent, accurate and problem-solving.Direct care registered nurses (RNs) (n=747) completed surveys to assess relational coordination across five provider functions and six types of patient care units. Nurses also reported perceptions about patient care quality.In all analyses, relational coordination between nurses and other providers was significantly related to overall quality, in the expected directions. As relational coordination increased, nurses reported decreases in adverse events such as hospital-acquired infections and medication errors.Enhancing relational coordination between nurses and other providers is central to improving the quality of patient care. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSE MANAGERS AND NEW KNOWLEDGE: The emerging theory of relational coordination provides a useful new research-based framework for managers to use to improve provider relationships, communication and the quality of care.

Gluten sensitivity (GS) is related to the pathogenesis of sporadic or hereditary ataxia.Total of 194 healthy controls and patients with either hereditary ataxia (n=207) or sporadic ataxia (n=361) were tested for the circulating gluten-related autoantibodies which serve as biomarkers to interpret the existence of GS.The incidences of GS in each population were 1% in normal subjects, 2% in hereditary ataxia patients and 9% in sporadic ataxia patients. High serum level of anti-gliadin IgG/IgA and t-transglutaminase IgA were disclosed at the sporadic ataxia patients compared with normal subjects. However, the anti-gliadin IgG is more specific to the disease of sporadic ataxia.Relatively higher incidence of GS was found in the population of sporadic ataxia patients but not in either normal subjects or hereditary ataxia patients in Taiwan. Anti-gliadin IgG still is a very powerful indicator to implicate the immune-related sporadic ataxia and we conclude that GS-related sporadic ataxia exists in Taiwan with linkage to autoimmune events.

Mitochondrial physiology and biogenesis play a crucial role in the initiation and progression of cardiovascular disease following oxidative stress-induced damage such as atherosclerosis (AST). Dysfunctional mitochondria caused by an increase in mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, accumulation of mitochondrial DNA damage, and respiratory chain deficiency induces death of endothelial/smooth muscle cells and favors plaque formation/rupture via the regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis-related genes such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator (PGC-1), although more detailed mechanisms still need further study. Based on the effect of healthy mitochondria produced by mitochondrial biogenesis on decreasing ROS-mediated cell death and the recent finding that the regulation of PGC-1 involves mitochondrial fusion-related protein (mitofusin), we thus infer the regulatory role of mitochondrial fusion/fission balance in AST pathophysiology. In this review, the first section discusses the possible association between AST-inducing factors and the molecular regulatory mechanisms of mitochondrial biogenesis and dynamics, and explains the role of mitochondria-dependent regulation in cell apoptosis during AST development. Furthermore, nitric oxide has the Janus-faced effect by protecting vascular damage caused by AST while being a reactive nitrogen species (RNS) which act together with ROS to damage cells. Therefore, in the second section we discuss mitochondrial ATP-sensitive K(+) channels, which regulate mitochondrial ion transport to maintain mitochondrial physiology, involved in the regulation of ROS/RNS production and their influence on AST/cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Through this review, we can further appreciate the multi-regulatory functions of the mitochondria involved in AST development. The understanding of these related mechanisms will benefit drug development in treating AST/CVD through targeted biofunctions of mitochondria.

Classification, searching, monitoring, and analyzing of patent are time consumption tasks and they will significantly influence the decision-making of intellectual property on optimizing resource allocation in knowledge or technology-intensive enterprises. In the age of fundamental change, the rapidly growth of patent documents has become one of the difficult problems in developing an efficient patent classification system. A well-trained patent classification system usually needs the cross-validation procedures to improve its performance before it can be applied to the real-world applications. However, researchers lack an efficient way to perform the cross-validation procedure of huge dataset in a short time. Therefore, this study proposes a novel approach that integrates loop level parallelism (LLP) and hybrid genetic-based support vector machine (HGA-SVM) to increase the generalization ability (external validity) of support vector machine patent classification system without the problem of accompanying huge time consuming. Compared with previous approaches, in our approach, the patent calculation/classification tasks are randomly distributed into cluster computers simultaneously by parallel computing technique for greatly reducing their calculation time. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach can improve the stability of patent classification system and spend less cross-validation time than traditional methods. We believe that our proposed approach is able to help decision-makers in identifying/classifying/monitoring critical patents for assisting their strategic intellectual property decision-making process.

In this article, we report the fabrication and characterization of molybdenum (Mo) thin films on soda-lime glass substrate grown by reactive RF magnetron sputtering for Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 thin film solar cells. It was found that the growth parameters, such as argon flow rate, RF power, bi-layer of Mo thin films and substrate temperature, have significant influences on properties of Mo films. As the argon flow rate was increased, the sheet resistance of Mo films increase, and the strain were changed from tensile to compressive. Higher RF power leads to a decrease on sheet resistance, and the optimal thickness and sheet resistance are 1 µm and 0.2 Ω/□. In addition, our experimental results proved that the increase of substrate temperature will lead to better adhesion of Mo thin film with glass substrate, and lower sheet resistance (0.11∼0.14 Ω/□).

In this paper, we proposed a novel house prediction model that integrated hybrid genetic-based support vector regression (HGA-SVR) model and Feng Shui theories for developing a high accuracy appraising real estate price system in Taiwan. In Taiwan, Feng Shui theory applies in choosing good days, divination and house selection. From the past researches, many factors might affect the real estate price which are the announced land values, the building room age, building total number of floor, the transportation condition and surrounding environment of house etc. However, few studies have been considered the Feng Shui effects in appraising real estate price. Therefore, the present study pioneers in applying Feng Shui theories for developing a high accuracy real estate price prediction system with back-propagation neural network(BPN), fuzzy neural network (FNN) and Hybrid Genetic-based SVR (HGA-SVR) to compare.Our results obtained from the comparison between two house price models with various artificial neural network models. By comparing the accuracy with various network architectures, the result demonstrates that HGA-SVR is the best network architecture and the Feng Shui model has a better performance in BPN, FNN and HGA-SVR. Our house price prediction system discovers some real estate price much higher than the reasonable prices. This result shows these unreasonable price needs adjusting to become more reasonable to conform the housing market.

Recently, the herbal extract of Hibiscus sabdariffa was shown to have multiple bioactive effects, including anti-atherosclerosis. On the basis of this, we aimed to examine whether the polyphenolic isolate of H. sabdariffa (HPI) could protect high-glucose-treated vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) and its putative transduction signals. Results showed that HPI dose- and time-dependently reduced the high-glucose-stimulated cell proliferation and migration. HPI suppressed the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) level and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 activation. In addition, the expressions of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and receptor of advanced glycation end product (RAGE) enhanced by high glucose were prominently suppressed by HPI. The proliferation signal mediated by high glucose was demonstrated via CTGF/RAGE, while MMP-2 was regulated by CTGF but not RAGE. Conclusively, the results suggest that HPI potentially can be a promising adjuvant herbal therapy for diabetic patients.

500 nm-thick aluminum-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) thin film is usually used as a front transparent conductive oxide (TCO) contact on photovoltaic devices, and for this application is often deposited by a reactive radio-frequency (r.f.) magnetron sputtering system from a ceramic target. This work reports on the preparation and characterization of AZO thin films on Corning 1737 glass substrates grown by reactive r.f.-magnetron sputtering from a ZnO ceramic target with 2 wt% Al content. It was found that the growth parameters, such as chamber pressure, working power, and deposition temperature, have significant influences on the properties of AZO films. According to the experimental results: (1) Films were polycrystalline showing a strong preferred c-axis orientation. (2) With increasing working power, the resistivity decreased, and mobility and the carrier concentration increased. (3) Lower deposition temperature leads to a decrease in resistivity, with 2.5×10-4 Ω-cm representing the lowest resistivity reached.

An experimental program was carried out to evaluate the mechanical properties of cement-based composites. Test variables included water to cementitious ratio, dosage of silica fume and volume fraction of steel fiber. Compressive strength test, direct tensile strength test, splitting tensile strength test, abrasion resistance test and drop weight test were performed and the results were analyzed statistically. According to the results of this study, the designed direct tensile testing method was a suitable method to estimate the tensile strength of fiber cement-based composites. Addition of fibers provided better performance for the cement-based composites, while silica fume in the composites would help obtaining uniform fiber dispersion in the matrix and improve strength and the bonding between fiber and matrix resulting from extra dense calciumsilicate-hydrate gel. The combination of steel fibers and silica fume can greatly increase the mechanical properties of cement-based composites. Besides, a multiple regression analysis was conducted to correlate compressive strength, direct tensile strength, abrasion coefficient and impact number with w/cm ratio, silica fume content and steel fiber content and a fairly agreement between test data and estimated values was found.

This work reports on the fabrication and characterization of Mo thin films on soda-lime glass substrate grown by reactive RF magnetron sputtering. Film thickness was measured by x-ray step surface profiler. The structural properties and surface morphology were analyzed by x-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Electrical properties were measured by four-point probe. It was found that the growth parameters, such as argon flow rate, RF power, film thickness, have significant influences on properties of Mo films. The strain on films revealed the complicated relationship with the working pressure, which might be associated with micro structures and impurities. In order to improve the adhesion and electricity, we adopted a two-pressure deposition scheme. The optimal thickness and sheet resistance are νm and 0.12 ω The mechanisms therein will be discussed in detail. Furthermore, we also investigated the diffusion property of Na ion of double Mo films sputtered on soda-lime glass. Our experimental results could lead to better understanding for improving further CIGS-based photovoltaic devices.

Dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI is a potential technique to monitor the temporal evolution of signal change for the specific tissue microcirculation or tumor angiogenesis. In this study, we implemented high-temperature superconducting (HTS) RF coil system on DCE application of in-vivo mice kidney metabolism. Compared to a conventional copper coil, the improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of approximately 2.7 folds and average signal change (DeltaS) of 4 folds was shown in the preliminary results. The capability of HTS coil on DCE MRI was demonstrated and further investigation of tumor cancer model is expected.

We show that the family of the Smale–Williams solenoid attractors parameterized by its contraction rate can be characterized as solutions of a set of differential equations. The exact formula describing the attractor can be obtained by solving the differential equations subject to explicitly given initial conditions. Using the formula, we present in this note a simple and explicit proof of the result that the dynamics on the solenoid is topologically conjugate to the shift on the inverse limit space of the expanding map t ↦ mt mod 1 for some integer m ≥ 2 and to a suspension over the adding machine.

We investigated the dispersion state of pyridine-modified magnetic nanorods in poly(2 vinylpyridine) (P2VP) homopolymers and poly(styrene-b-2 vinylpyridine) (PS-P2VP) diblock copolymers. In the P2VP/nanorod mixtures, the dispersion of nanorods was enhanced in systems in which the molecular weight of P2VP was increased because the long P2VP chains provided steric hindrance and thus screened the attractive interparticle interactions, inhibiting the rod aggregation. When nanorods were mixed with PS-P2VP, the phase stability of the mixtures varied considerably according to changes in the lamellar period of PS-P2VP (D). When D was large, nanorods were sequestered into the P2VP domains through enthalpically driven self-assembly, and the nanorods became spatially organized. By contrast, when D was small, the introduction of nanorods caused substantial distortion of chain conformations. This entropically unfavorable condition can be offset by excluding nanorods from the ordered phases, causing particle aggregation. At a high particle loading, the attractive interparticle interactions outweighed the particle-polymer interaction and entropic contribution of polymers. Consequently, nanorods underwent extensive aggregation.

Stabilization of the relative carrier-envelope (CE) phase for hybridly synchronized two-color fs Yb and Er fiber-laser systems is demonstrated for the first time by utilizing the feed-forward scheme based on an acousto-optic frequency shifter. The slow drift issues arising from the feed-forward scheme are solved by adding the in-loop relative CE frequency coarse stabilization via modulating the laser pump current. Sub-fs timing locking between the two-color pulses is still maintained due to the fast response and large locking range of hybrid synchronization. The approach provides an alternative way to obtain phase-stable synchronized two-color pulses with higher pulse energies.

A recombinant vaccine strain SL3261/pLT105 of attenuated aroA Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium SL3261 strain expressing a secreted dengue virus type 2 non-structural NS1 and Yersinia pestis F1 (Caf1) fusion protein, rNS1:Caf1, was generated. Immunological evaluation was performed by prime-boost vaccine regimen. Oral immunization of mice with 1 × 109 cfu of SL3261/pLT105 only induced low levels of NS1-specific antibody response and protective immunity following dengue virus challenge. The parenteral NS1 protein priming-oral Salmonella boosting protocol enhanced both NS1-specific serum IgG response and protective efficacy as compared to mice immunized with each type vaccine alone. Addition of an antifungal antibiotic amphotericin B (AmB) to Salmonella vaccine further enhanced the synergic effects of prime-boost vaccine regimen on the elicited NS1-specific serum IgG response and the protective efficacy. Together, the results demonstrated that the rNS1:Caf1 producing Salmonella SL3261/pLT105 strain fails to provide effective protection as an oral vaccine alone despite co-administration of AmB as an adjuvant capable of enhancing the immune responses, and moreover, the protein priming-oral Salmonella vaccine boosting approach in combination with AmB as an immunization regimen may have the potential to be further explored as an alternative approach for dengue vaccine development.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a rare complication following blunt trauma, which is difficult to diagnose early and manage promptly. We describe a 30-year-old man who developed ventricular tachycardia caused by AMI after blunt chest trauma.

In conclusion, Aeromonas species are important pathogens causing posttraumatic wound infections complicated open fracture. Most of the infections during the study period were polymicrobial and enterococcus was the most common co-pathogen. The overall outcome is poor, especially for patients who did not receive initial appropriate antibiotic or presented with septic shock.

Background The metabolic effect of fructose in sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) has been linked to de novo lipogenesis and uric acid (UA) production. Objectives This study investigated the biological effects of SSB consumption on serum lipid profiles and retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) among Taiwanese adolescents. Methods We evaluated the anthropometric parameters and biochemical outcomes of 200 representative adolescents (98 boys and 102 girls) who were randomly selected from a large-scale cross-sectional study. Data were analyzed using multiple regression models adjusted for covariates. Results Increased SSB consumption was associated with increased waist and hip circumferences, body mass index (BMI) values and serum UA, triglyceride (TG) and RBP4 levels. Adolescents who consumed >500 ml/day of beverages half-to-heavily sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) exhibited TG and RBP4 levels 22.7 mg/dl and 13.92 ng/ml higher than non-drinkers, respectively. HFCS drinkers with hyperuricemia had higher TG levels than HFCS drinkers with normal UA levels (98.6 vs. 81.6 mg/dl). The intake of HFCS-rich SSBs and high value of BMI (≥24) interactively reinforced RBP4 levels among overweight/obese adolescents. Circulating RBP4 levels were significantly correlated with weight-related outcomes and TG and UA concentration among HFCS drinkers (r = 0.253 to 0.404), but not among non-drinkers. Conclusions High-quantity HFCS-rich beverage consumption is associated with higher TG and RBP4 levels. Hyperuricemia is likely to intensify the influence of HFCS-rich SSB intake on elevated TG levels, and in overweight and obese adolescents, high BMI may modify the action of fructose on higher circulating levels of RBP4.