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Asia has been experiencing rapid industrialization, urbanization, and economic growth in recent decades. Taiwan was one of the 4 Asian dragons, regions that experienced rapid industrialization and exceptionally high growth rates between the early 1960s and 1990s, but at a high cost to the environment, and thus, it was heavily polluted. Estuaries are highly dynamic and diverse ecosystems that provide multiple ecosystem services that maintain marine ecosystem health and benefit humankind. However, estuaries and the ecosystem services they provide are rapidly degrading due to increasing pressures and changes, especially those in populous, urban areas. Social–environmental analysis integrates scientific information and social activities and thereby provides a comprehensive understanding for the multiparty, joint decision-making processes necessary for successful, sustainable management. In this study, 60 years of economic data and 26 years of water quality data are examined using social–environmental frameworks, the driver-pressurestate-impact-response framework, and the systems approach framework to analyze the management of water quality for an estuary in a populous urban area, the Tamsui River estuary, in Taiwan. Potential societal responses and management measures are identified that can be implemented to reduce human activities, diminish pressure, ameliorate water quality, and enhance the state of the estuarine systems in the Tamsui River and its estuary. The recommended societal responses are increased education, the establishment of community-based river rangers, wetland and mangrove conservation, the development of a circular economy, the implementation of governance measures, and improvements in monitoring and assessments. Improvement of the water quality in the Tamsui River estuary increases the hedonic value of property for people who live near the riverside. Currently, the number of tourists and tourism-based businesses have increased. Nevertheless, improvements in water quality in the Tamsui River estuary bring well-being and benefits that could be further enhanced to increase the cost/benefit relation of the management measures. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

High Q-factor (quality factor) 3D solenoid inductor formed by RDL (redistribution layer) and copper via in the molding compound on InFO package was fabricated. The effect of the turns and cross sectional area on Q-factor is discussed. The 3D solenoid inductor with 3 turns achieves the Q-factor of 59 at 3GHz and 0.68× lower of resistance and 1.6× higher of Q-factor than 2D spiral inductor at the same inductance. The coupling between two closely placed inductors is also investigated and it is found that the coupling in orthogonal placement is 12 dB lower than that of in parallel placement. The sample was fabricated and measured. The measurement results agree with the simulation, indicating the feasibility of the 3D inductor on InFO package.

Background: Obesity has been associated with worse outcomes in patients with clinically localized urothelial cancer. However, this impact has not been evaluated in metastatic disease. Objective: To assess the impact of obesity on outcomes of patients with metastatic urothelial cancer. Methods: Data from 537 patients were aggregated from eight phase II and phase III clinical trials investigating first-line cisplatin-based combination therapy in metastatic urothelial cancer. Chemotherapy regimen, adverse events, treatment response, and survival outcomes were compared across body mass index (BMI) and body surface area (BSA) categories. Results: BMI was classified according to WHO criteria (30 obese). BSA was classified as either below or greater than or equal to (average for this cohort (1.87 m2 for males and 1.66 m2 for females). There was no significant difference in number of chemotherapy cycles, adverse events, and response rate or survival outcomes (overall and progression-free) across BMI and BSA categories. There was no significant difference in adverse events across BMI categories, but the incidences of embolic events and renal failure were higher in patients with an average or higher BSA than those with a lower than average BSA (6.6% vs. 3.1% for renal failure p = 0.06; 5.9% vs. 2.7% for renal failure, p = 0.07). There was no significant difference in response rate or survival outcomes (overall and progression-free) amongst BMI and BSA categories. Conclusions: Obese patients with metastatic urothelial cancer on cisplatin-based therapies have similar response rates, survival outcomes, and tolerability of cisplatin-based therapy to non-obese patients.

This paper proposes a tunable filter made of T-coil design with its tuning range as large as 50%. There are three sets of external capacitors to get wider tuning range so that the center frequency, external quality factor and bandwidth can be suitably tuned. The T-coil tunable filter is fabricated in 20mil Ro4003 board and SMD MLCC capacitors. It demonstrates tenability over 1.25 to 2.5 GHz with 5% FBW. The measurement results show a −15dB return loss and 1.7-2.66 dB insertion loss over the entire tuning range. The circuit size is $\pmb{16.4}\mathbf{mm}\times \pmb{11.8}\mathbf{mm}$.

The purpose of this paper is to exploit student preference and propose, discuss and experimentally validate a strategy that aims to reduce time necessary to introduce tutoring of mind mapping to environment engineering students. A survey instrument was designed and used to collect student preferences about mind mapping. Preferences were linked to alternative scenarios of mind mapping deployment. Survey responses from a 60 second-year students from the Department of Environment Engineering and Management were analyzed using conjoint analysis. The findings of this paper provide a well documented framework in addressing mind mapping technique to engineering students. The proposed framework tries to make the best use of the available time for creativity development programs, in environment engineering departments. This framework may also be applied to other creativity enhancing techniques, providing solutions for incorporating creativity in environment engineering curricula.

Existing E-Learning courses are designed to guide users acquire information or to help users undertake specific tasks. User is expected to increase proficiency about the context via the stationary computer. However, such design cannot allow multiple users to access the system simultaneously, thus leading inefficiency and lack of expandability. A framework to support M-learning in RFID system is therefore proposed. A mobile user first can use a mobile computer to communicate with home agent to acquire the related server information he may be interested in. The framework can navigate mobile agents to the mobile computer when the tag is detected within the coverage of the reader. The framework enables a mobile user to directly access his/her personalized services from the mobile computer. The experimental simulation demonstrates its efficiency.

Even though the ubiquity of technology can make many aspects of life more convenient, it may simultaneously raise some concerns about the privacy issues related to personal information. This research focused on the individual's behavior toward self-disclosure online and his or her cognition on personal privacy that was affected by not only the personal psychological factors but also the individual's computer knowledge and associated skills. To study how technological and psychological factors can simultaneously affect one's privacy concern and restrain behavior on disclosure, this study applied both perceived privacy and privacy concern to assess such factors as personal subjective attitude, computer self-efficacy, and perceived behavioral control to investigate the technological influence. A hypothesized model was proposed to describe the relationships among these constructs. After structural equation modeling is utilized to analyze the proposed hypotheses, the research findings showed that, although the...

It is proved by many studies that it is more costly to acquire than to retain customers. Consequently, evaluating current customers to keep high value customers and enhance their lifetime value becomes a critical factor to decide the success or failure of a business. This study applies data from customer and transaction databases of a department store, based on RFM model to do clustering analysis to recognize high value customer groups for cross-selling promotions.

The Internet is filled with opportunities for learning, communicating, and sharing information. It is a valuable resource for children and adults alike. Like any large community, however, the online world presents some underlying risks, especially for children. Parents need to be aware of some of the potential problems their children could encounter, and try to take adequate measures to protect their children from injury. In this paper, research will try to explore the relationship between parent’s information literary, the confidence in child’s ability of self-defense on the internet, and adequate measures to promote child using the internet more effectively. Association rules, a kind of data mining strategies, will be the main tool to manipulate the dataset. Apriori, a classic algorithm for learning association rules, is designed to operate on databases containing transactions.

Cinnamomum kanehirae Hayata (Lauraceae), the most valuable subtropical and temperate broadleaf timber tree in Taiwan, is rapidly disappearing from the wild. Taking advantage of a scion garden established by the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, we examined patterns of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) variations in 19 populations including 94 individuals. By sequencing two cpDNA fragments using universal primers (the trnL-trnF and petG-trnP intergenic spacers), we found eight polymorphic sites, six haplotypes, and extremely low nucleotide diversity (π = 0.00016) from 792 bp aligned sequences. The ancestral haplotype is widely distributed. Among the populations studied, three separated populations, at Yungfeng, Fuli, and Tahu have high nucleotide diversity. No phylogeographical structures of haplotypes were revealed because the tests of NST−GST for populations did not differ from zero in any situations; a ‘star-like’ genealogy is characteristic when all haplotypes rapidly coalesce and is a general outcome of population expansion. The neutrality test also suggested demographic expansion. The genetic divergence and diversity analyses suggested that two potential refugia existed during the last glaciation with a major one located in southeastern Taiwan and a minor one located in Tahu in north-central Taiwan in the Hsuehshan Range, west of the Central Mountain Range.

This chapter attempts to develop a curriculum and instructional model for life education as the basis of suicide prevention. Suicide has become an urgent problem in Taiwanese society as well as in the international community. The "Life education" model is proposed as the foundation for suicide prevention. By integrating the theories of the experiential learning circle, affective education, life skills, shared experience, and traditional Confucianism, a curriculum and teaching model known as the Shared-experience Life education and life skills Instruction Model (SLIM) has been developed. The SLIM model is anticipated to serve as a reference for basic education in suicide prevention.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the resort hotel tourists' attitude toward green consumption. Questionnaires were used in this survey research and were distributed to subjects derived from non-probability convenience sampling. 240 tourists in resort hotels of Alishan area were surveyed, 182 questionnaires were given back with return rate of 76%. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test and One-way ANOVA are furthered used to analyze collected data. The results showed that no significant difference exists between different genders regarding green consumption attitude. However, the significant difference did exist among different age and martial status groups(P

Background Species in the varied geographic topology of Taiwan underwent obvious demographic changes during glacial periods. Cinnamomum kanehirae has been exploited for timber and to obtain medicinal fungi for the past 100 years. Understanding anthropogenic factors influencing the demography of this species after the last glacial maximum (LGM) is critically important for the conservation of this species. Results Populations of C. kanehirae were classified into four geographic regions: northwestern (NW), west-central (WC), southwestern (SW), and southeastern (SE). In total, 113 individuals from 19 localities were sampled, and variations in the chalcone synthase gene (Chs) intron and leafy (Lfy) intron-2 sequences of nuclear DNA were examined in order to assess phylogeographic patterns, the timescales of demographic and evolutionary events, and recent anthropogenic effects. In total, 210 Chs and 170 Lfy sequences, which respectively constituted 36 and 35 haplotypes, were used for the analyses. Estimates of the migration rate (M) through time revealed a pattern of frequent gene flow during previous and the present interglacials. The isolation-by-distance test showed that there generally was no significant correlation between genetic and geographic distances. The level of among-region genetic differentiation was significant when comparing eastern to western populations. However, no significant among-region genetic differentiation was found in comparisons among the four geographic regions. Moreover, essentially no genetic structuring was found for the three regions west of the CMR. A fit of spatial range expansion was found for pooled and regional samples according to the non-significant values of the sum of squared deviations. Using the Bayesian skyline plot (BSP) method, a recent bottleneck after the LGM expansion was detected in both regional and pooled samples. Conclusions Common haplotype distributions among geographic regions and the relatively shallow genetic structuring displayed are the result of historical gene flows. Southward dispersals in an earlier time frame from the NW region and in a later time frame from the SE region were inferred. The BSP analysis suggested a postglacial expansion event. Recent trends, however, refer to a bottleneck due to human interventions observed for both pooled and regional C. kanehirae samples.

In the process of introducing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, in order to enhance the chance of success and speed of the introduction process, the firm should efficiently utilize its existing information. How to efficiently use existing information in transforming a corporation’s information system is an important subject in information system reengineering. This paper intends to investigate how to integrate information system reengineering technology in the process of introducing ERP system. In addition, to avoid possible problems of database transfer and conflicts of new and old processes, this paper further investigates on both the subjects of data and process in information system reengineering technology.

Existing e-learning courses are designed to guide users acquire information or to help users undertake specific tasks. User is expected to increase proficiency about the context via the stationary computer. However, such design cannot allow multiple users to access the system simultaneously, thus leading inefficiency and lack of expandability. A framework to support M-learning in RFID system is therefore proposed. A mobile user first can use a mobile computer to communicate with home agent to acquire the related server information the may be interested in. The framework can navigate mobile agents to the mobile computer when the tag is detected within the coverage of the reader. The framework enables a mobile user to directly access his/her personalized services from the mobile computer. The experimental simulation demonstrates its efficiency.

The Internet is filled with opportunities for learning, communicating, and sharing information. It is a valuable resource for children and adults alike. Like any large community, however, the online world presents some underlying risks, especially for children. Parents need to be aware of some of the potential problems their children could encounter, and try to take adequate measures to protect their children from injury. In this paper, research will try to explore the relationship between parent's information literary, the confidence in child's ability of self-defense on the internet, and adequate measures to promote child using the internet more effectively. Association rules, a kind of data mining strategies, will be the main tool to manipulate the dataset. Apriori, a classic algorithm for learning association rules, is designed to operate on databases containing transactions.

The advancement of information technology has caused the cost of information equipments to decrease substantially. Consolidation of corporate information into a complete system is a trend for businesses to adapt to the electronic era. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) has contributed to greater efficiency for businesses around the world. Corporations in Taiwan are beginning to introduce ERP to satisfy customers' needs. Upon introduction of ERP, data entry occurs at the time of transaction. The collection, calculation, and analysis of data are processed according to handling structure of ERP. Therefore, many routine works are replaced by ERP. Employees should reconsider their position and role under ERP working environment so that they can enhance their value-added contribution. This paper intends to investigate how to integrate information system reengineering technology in the process of introducing ERP system. In addition, to avoid possible problems of database transfer and conflicts of new and old processes, this paper further investigates on both the subjects of data and process in information system reengineering technology.