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The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is an important brain area for executive functions. The OFC projects to both the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA). These two pathways share some similar behavioral functions, but their anatomical and physiological properties have not been compared before. In this study, we first explored the connection of the lateral OFC (lOFC) to NAc core (NAcc) and/or BLA, especially the collateral projections (

All individuals face different challenges every day. Under threats, the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA) is engaged to initiate proper physiological and behavioral responses. In this study, we pharmacologically activated the BLA in rats with no stress history to examine how animals regulated their anxiety- and despair-like behaviors in face of different task demands, as well as their dopamine (DA) activity in ventral tegmental area (VTA). The number of spontaneously firing VTA DA neurons, defined as "population activity", decides the amplitude of DA response to external stimuli, which can be assessed by the behavioral responses of the animals to amphetamine (AMPH) administration; several studies have shown that the level is positively correlated with the AMPH-induced increase in locomotor activity. Our results showed that for anxiety-like behaviors, rats displayed lower anxiety levels in elevated plus maze (EPM) and marble burying test, but increased anxiety level in social interaction test. For despair-like behaviors, there was no difference in performance in the forced swim test (FST) we conducted. Finally, systemic injection of AMPH increased locomotor activity, which was dampened with BLA activation. The inconsistency in anxiety levels in different tasks demonstrated that rats adapted their behavioral strategies to different experimental settings. Together, our results suggested that BLA activation prepared the animals towards different modality of challenges and down-regulated their DA reward system.

Background Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a condition involving several molecular mechanisms related to the intestinal microbiota for its development. Intestinal fatty acid‐binding protein (I‐FABP) is a sensitive marker to study enterocyte damage. A prebiotic is a non‐digestible food ingredient that improves host health by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activities of bacteria in the colon. We aimed to clarify the currently described effects of prebiotics in the prevention and management of T2DM. Methods In this case‐control study, we chose 68 participants with T2DM and 52 healthy participants. Both groups were further divided based on consumption of prebiotics. Forty participants with T2DM consumed prebiotics, and 28 did not; 30 healthy volunteers consumed prebiotics, and 22 did not. We used the analysis of variance to compare the inflammation levels between the case and control groups. Multiple linear regression was performed for the significantly correlated groups to estimate the influence of prebiotics on inflammation level. Results Age was a significant factor for difference in I‐FABP levels (standardized coefficient: 0.06; P = .047). The analysis of eating habits showed that vegetarian diets produced lower I‐FABP levels than non‐vegetarian diets (standardized coefficient: −2.55; P = .022). Results showed that patients with T2DM who consumed prebiotics expressed lower I‐FABP levels, reflecting an improvement in inflammation level, than the healthy volunteers who did not consume prebiotics (standardized coefficient: −3.20; P = .019). Conclusions For patients with T2DM, prebiotics supplemented produced no significant impact on serum I‐FABP levels., To evaluate effects of prebiotics in the prevention and management T2DM, totally 120 patients were recruited for the initial screening with I‐FABP. The participants in this study had no history of gastrointestinal disease and had not been treated with antibiotics or laxatives within 3 months before the experiment; all T2DM patients received dietary advice to control and treat diabetes. Blood or urine samples were collected at baseline and at 1, 3, and 6 months, followed by proper statistical analysis.

This paper presents the development of active noise control (ANC) for light-weight earphones, and proposes using music or natural sound to estimate the critical secondary path model instead of extra random noise. Three types of light-weight ANC earphones including in-ear, earbud, and clip phones are developed. Real-time experiments are conducted to evaluate their performance using the built-in microphone inside KEMAR&rsquo, s ear and to compare with commercially-available ANC headphones and earphones. Experimental results show that the developed light-weight ANC earphones achieve higher noise reduction than the commercial ANC headphones and earphones, and the in-ear ANC earphone has the best noise reduction performance.

In this paper, an image based approach of the water flow information measurement is proposed. Applying the image based measurement is a safely and efficiently non-contact method. The image based flow discharge estimation method is proposed in this paper. The multi virtual water level probes (MVWLP) method is proposed to estimate water level. This approach mainly applies the color space adjustable technique to reduce noises and uses the adaptive edge detection to extract the water line. Then, the velocity area method (VAM) is applied to estimate flow discharge in this study. The depth-averaged velocity of sampling verticals of the designed transection can be obtained by the image-based surface velocity estimation method denoted large-scale particle image velocimetry (LS-PIV). We convince that the proposed methods are accurate, robust and adaptable enough to overcome multiple conditions.

Real-time in situ ellipsometry was used to investigate the etching of SiO2/silicon wafers with a high concentration of Cl2. We monitored the temporal trajectory of the ellipsometric parameter Δ and then selected several points for ex situ study using atomic force microscopy (AFM). There was a clearly observable transition period in the trajectory near the endpoint of the SiO2/Si interface. We studied the relationship between the ellipsometric parameter Δ and the same point in the AFM ex situ measurements. Three stages, thin film, the interface layer, and the substrate, were analyzed in this work.

Taiwanese National Park Headquarters employ advanced information technologies to attract travellers, researchers, and other visitors, but it is likely that not all Headquarters have clear knowledge about how successful their websites are. This study proposes an effective model for evaluating national park websites. The model first applies the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to cope with the interdependencies between evaluation criteria. Next, it uses the Analytic Network Process (ANP) to compute weights for each criterion. Finally, it uses the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) to rank Taiwanese national park websites. Overall, the results show that each national park website must be improved in order to become a high quality website. Furthermore, the weight-variance analysis suggests managerial actions based on two-dimensional maps for improving website quality. Therefore, this study not only provides a comprehensive and systematic approach that quantitatively measures a website's overall performance, but also contributes to practical applications in terms of providing worthwhile recommendations for building an ideal website.

Impulsive buying behavior has been the subject of a large amount of empirical research, but little research exists that actually examines the significant predictors of impulsive buying behaviors in adolescents. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of adolescents towards credit and money and the personal financial planning practices they follow, and to examine how these attitudes and practices influenced their impulsive buying behavior. Data were collected from 906 adolescent Taiwanese college and university students. A logistic regression model was used to identify which students were more likely and which were less likely to make impulsive purchases. The significant predictors were the following 8 variables: gender, age, having taken a course in personal finance, use of money as a reward, family of origin, affective credit attitude, cognitive credit attitude, behavioral credit attitude, and money attitude.

The opioid receptor, mu 1 (OPRM1) is a gene that encodes for the mu opioid receptor (MOR). The role of the MOR has been well characterized in both physiological and pharmacological animal studies. Its role in heroin-dependent patients under treatment with the synthetic opioid methadone, however, is unclear. Using a Taiwan methadone maintenance treatment cohort, we have discovered that the genetic polymorphisms on the OPRM1 genetic regions were significantly associated with the severity of smoking. We did this by using the plasma nicotine metabolite cotinine concentrations as indicator, self-reports of methadone-induced insomnia, and change-in-libido side effects, as rated by the treatment emergent symptom scale and the plasma concentrations of macrophage-derived chemokine (MDC). Our results suggest that the OPRM1 genetic variants may be indicators for the severity of smoking, the severity of methadone-induced insomnia and change-in-libido side effects, and the plasma levels of MDC-related immune responses.

Optical proximity correction is the technique of pre-distorting mask layouts so that the printed patterns are as close to the desired shapes as possible. For model-based optical proximity correction, a lithographic model to predict the edge position (contour) of patterns on the wafer after lithographic processing is needed. Generally, segmentation of edges is performed prior to the correction. Pattern edges are dissected into several small segments with corresponding target points. During the correction, the edges are moved back and forth from the initial drawn position, assisted by the lithographic model, to finally settle on the proper positions. When the correction converges, the intensity predicted by the model in every target points hits the model-specific threshold value. Several iterations are required to achieve the convergence and the computation time increases with the increase of the required iterations. An artificial neural network is an information-processing paradigm inspired by biological nervous systems, such as how the brain processes information. It is composed of a large number of highly interconnected processing elements (neurons) working in unison to solve specific problems. A neural network can be a powerful data-modeling tool that is able to capture and represent complex input/output relationships. The network can accurately predict the behavior of a system via the learning procedure. A radial basis function network, a variant of artificial neural network, is an efficient function approximator. In this paper, a radial basis function network was used to build a mapping from the segment characteristics to the edge shift from the drawn position. This network can provide a good initial guess for each segment that OPC has carried out. The good initial guess reduces the required iterations. Consequently, cycle time can be shortened effectively. The optimization of the radial basis function network for this system was practiced by genetic algorithm, which is an artificially intelligent optimization method with a high probability to obtain global optimization. From preliminary results, the required iterations were reduced from 5 to 2 for a simple dumbbell-shape layout.

Companies declare that quality or customer satisfaction is their top priority in order to keep and attract more business in an increasingly competitive marketplace. The cost of quality (COQ) is a tool which can help determine the optimal level of quality investment. COQ analysis enables organizations to identify measure and control the consequences of poor quality. This study attempts to identify the COQ elements across the enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation phases for the ERP implementation services of consultancy companies. The findings provide guidance to project managers on how best to utilize their limited resources. In summary, we suggest that project teams should focus on “value-added” activities and minimize the cost of “non-value-added” activities at each phase of the ERP implementation project. Key words: Services, ERP implementation services, quality standard, service quality standard, cost of quality, project management, project quality management, project financial management.

Design rules and the design rule check (DRC) utility are conventional approaches to design for manufacturability (DFM). The DRC utility is based on unsophisticated rules to check the design layout in a simple environment. As the design dimension shrinks drastically, the introduction of a more powerful DFM utility with model-based layout patterning check (LPC) becomes mandatory for designers to filter process weak-points before taping out layouts. In this paper, a system of integrated hotspot scores consisting of three lithography sensitive indexes is proposed to assist designers to circumvent risky layout patterns in lithography. With the hotspot fixing guideline and the hotspot severity classification deduced from the scoring system provided in this paper, designers can deliver much more manufacturable designs.

The ripple patterns induced by the lithography process will lead to unpredictable necking or bridging risks on circuit patterns. This phenomenon is particularly severe while using the attenuated-phase-shifting mask combined with the strong off-axis illumination. The CD variation induced by the ripple effect is difficult to be accurately corrected by conventional OPC approaches. In this paper, ripples on patterning for the 65nm node have been studied and their problems solved. One of the dominant root causes of ripples is the optical side-lobes from the surrounding patterns. On the L-shape patterns for example, the ripples that occur on the horizontal lines are induced by the side-lobes of the vertical lines. Based on this study of the ripple effect, the layout types resulting in ripple patterns can be classified and predicted. An advanced OPC approach by the segmentation analysis on polygons as well as the correction algorithm optimization has been developed and applied to solve this ripple problem.

We have developed an 80nm poly gate patterning process for 0.13 micrometers VLSI manufacturing using 248nm lithography with double-exposure phase-shifting technique. We show that: Systematic intra-field line width variation can be controlled within 6nm (3(sigma) ), and total wafer variation across the wafer held to within 10nm (3(sigma) ), with good line-end shortening control for gate endcaps. The k1 factor is < 0.2 (80nm target gate length in 320nm pitch).

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are used to provide companies with integrated information for operations management and decision-making. An ERP implementation project may become a troubled project at any stage during the life cycle of the project. We must detect and correct the causes of a project’s problems before it fails. This study investigated troubled ERP implementation projects, sought the root causes of the troubled projects and determined what actions could be taken to turn around the troubled projects. We used case study methodology. The purpose of this study was to help determine whether a project is troubled and summarise possible management methods for saving a project, while it is still possible or cancelling it with minimal negative impact.

The 21st century is an era of globalisation. With the rapid changes in the global economic environment, many companies are aware that they need to promote their competitiveness by adopting more information technology, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP). Implementing ERP into a company is difficult, let alone implementing a global ERP system. The purpose of this paper was to demonstrate how to successfully implement a global ERP rollout by using the case study method. The lessons learned from this effort should help to support further academic and practitioner literature, especially in the area of global ERP rollout.