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The reduction of the agricultural workforce due to the rapid development of technology has resulted in labor shortages. Agricultural mechanization, such as drone use for pesticide spraying, can solve this problem. However, the terrain, culture, and operational limitations in mountainous orchards in Taiwan make pesticide spraying challenging. By combining reinforcement learning with deep neural networks, we propose to train drones to avoid obstacles and find optimal paths for pesticide spraying that reduce operational difficulties, pesticide costs, and battery consumption. We experimented with different reward mechanisms, neural network depths, flight direction granularities, and environments to devise a plan suitable for sloping orchards. Reinforcement learning is more effective than traditional algorithms for solving path planning in complex environments. &nbsp

Shan-Ho Chan,1 Ya-Yu Huang,2 Shu-Huei Tsai,2 Jui-Chu Wang,3 Yi-Ren Chen,2 Chen-Lin Kang1,2 1Department of Medical Imaging and Radiology, Shu-Zen Junior College of Medicine and Management, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 2Department of Radiation Oncology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 3Department of Anatomical Pathology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, TaiwanCorrespondence: Chen-Lin Kang, Department of Radiation Oncology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, No. 123, Dapi Road, Niaosong Dist, Kaohsiung, 833, Taiwan, Tel +886 7 7317123&num;7115, Fax +886 7 7322813, Email k1074.kang@gmail.comPurpose: Wearing a mask during the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic (COVID-19) is a preventive way to reduce droplet and aerosol transmission. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the position error of wearing a surgical mask during radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients.Patients and Methods: We collected and analyzed 2351 kV X-ray image records of 81 patients with head and neck cancer who underwent image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). Patients with/without a surgical mask were divided into the head-neck (HN) mask group and head-neck-shoulder (HNS) mask group. The position error in the X (left-right), Y (superior-inferior), Z (anterior-posterior), 3D (three dimensional) vectors, as well as the pitch and yaw axes were compared between the four groups.Results: We found that patients wearing surgical masks in the HN mask group showed no significant differences in the mean position error of the different types of headrest (p> 0.05). In the HNS mask group, only the type C headrest group showed significant differences (P < 0.05). The X axis values were − 0.05± 0.07 and − 0.11± 0.01 cm (P = 0.04), and the pitch axis values were 0.34± 0.29° and 0.83± 0.08° (P = 0.01).Conclusion: The mean position error of most patients wearing surgical masks was not greater than patients without a surgical mask. Patients wearing while receiving treatment is a low-cost and easy-to-implement prevention method.Keywords: COVID-19, head and neck cancer, image-guided radiotherapy, setup error

Tessaratoma papillosa (Drury) first invaded Taiwan in 2009. Every year, T. papillosa causes severe damage to the longan crops. Novel applications for edge intelligence are applied in this study to establish an intelligent pest recognition system to manage this pest problem. We used a detecting drone to photograph the pest and employed a Tiny-YOLOv3 neural network model built on an embedded system NVIDIA Jetson TX2 to recognize T. papillosa in the orchard to determine the position of the pests in real-time. The pests’ positions are then used to plan the optimal pesticide spraying route for the agricultural drone. Apart from planning the optimized spraying of pesticide for the spraying drone, the TX2 embedded platform also transmits the position and generation of pests to the cloud to record and analyze the growth of longan with a computer or mobile device. This study enables farmers to understand the pest distribution and take appropriate precautions in real-time. The agricultural drone sprays pesticides only where needed, which reduces pesticide use, decreases damage to the environment, and increases crop yield.

Incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease caused by antimicrobial-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae types not included in pneumococcal conjugate vaccines has increased, including a penicillin- and meropenem-resistant serotype 15A-ST63 clone in Japan. During 2013-2017, we collected 206 invasive pneumococcal isolates in Taiwan for penicillin and meropenem susceptibility testing. We found serotypes 15B/C-ST83 and 15A-ST63 were the most prevalent penicillin- and meropenem-resistant clones. A transformation study confirmed that penicillin-binding protein (PBP) 2b was the primary meropenem resistance determinant, and PBP1a was essential for high-level resistance. The rate of serotype 15B/C-ST83 increased during the study. All 15B/C-ST83 isolates showed an ermB macrolide resistance genotype. Prediction analysis of recombination sites revealed 12 recombination regions in 15B/C-ST83 compared with the S. pneumoniae Spain23F-ST81 genome. Pneumococcal clones rapidly recombine to acquire survival advantages and undergo local expansion under the selective pressure exerted by vaccines and antimicrobial drugs. The spread of 15B/C-ST83 is alarming for countries with high antimicrobial pressure.

Deep learning is currently quite prevalent and is often used in image classification or object detection. This article adds emerging research on the use of explainable AI (XAI) in Tessaratoma papillosa pest identification and investigates the connotation and importance of XAI, interpretability classification standards, and neural network interpretation methods and compares the quality of interpretations between different approaches and various trade-offs. The experimental results include the data processing in the research, the establishment of training models, a comparison of the results and feature visualization methods, and the consequences of improving the training models. First, we analyzed the data processing methods of the dataset, trained the VGG16 model, and finally added a visual interpretation method to the model to visualize and explain the model identification results. The experimental results indicated that the best visual discrimination effect was obtained through eXplanation with Ranked Area Integrals (XRAI). In this study, XAI was used to obtain the factors contributing to incorrect predictions based on post-hoc explanations. Based on the inferenced result, we proposed an adjustment method for improving the model accuracy as a basis for future research to subsequently adjust and improve the model. It is hoped that the experimental results of this study can provide researchers in artificial intelligence useful information so that they can use XAI to acquire appropriate interpretations to correct recognition accuracy and drive the development of XAI.

BackgroundStreptococcus pneumoniaeis a common cause of post-influenza secondary bacterial infection, which results in excessive morbidity and mortality. Although 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) vaccination programs have decreased the incidence of pneumococcal pneumonia, PCV13 failed to prevent serotype 3 pneumococcal disease as effectively as other vaccine serotypes. We aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying the co-pathogenesis of influenza virus and serotype 3 pneumococci.MethodsWe carried out a genome-wide screening of a serotype 3S. pneumoniaetransposon insertion mutant library in a mouse model of coinfection with influenza A virus (IAV) to identify the bacterial factors required for this synergism.ResultsDirect, high-throughput sequencing of transposon insertion sites identified 24 genes required for both coinfection and bacterial infection alone. Targeted deletion of the putative aminotransferase (PA) gene decreased bacterial growth, which was restored by supplementation with methionine. The bacterial burden in a coinfection with thePAgene deletion mutant and IAV in the lung was lower than that in a coinfection with wild-type pneumococcus and IAV, but was significantly higher than that in an infection with thePAgene deletion mutant alone. These data suggest that IAV infection alters host metabolism to benefit pneumococcal fitness and confer higher susceptibility to pneumococcal infection. We further demonstrated that bacterial growth was increased by supplementation with methionine or IAV-infected mouse lung homogenates.ConclusionsThe data indicates that modulation of host metabolism during IAV infection may serve as a potential therapeutic intervention against secondary bacterial infections caused by serotype 3 pneumococci during IAV outbreaks in the future.

The abnormal expression of ubiquitin-specific protease 11 (USP11) is thought to be related to tumor development and progression; however, few studies have reported the biological function and clinical importance of USP11 in colorectal cancer (CRC). Therefore, it is necessary to further explore the role of USP11 in CRC. Immunohistochemical staining was used to explore the association between prognosis and USP11 expression in CRC. Cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK-8), colony formation, transwell, and animal assays were used to study the abilities of proliferation, migration, and invasion in CRC cells. Co-immunoprecipitation assays, Western blotting, ubiquitination assays, and rescue experiments were performed to elucidate the interaction between USP11 and insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3). We verified that USP11 was overexpressed in CRC tissues and was associated with the depth of tumor invasion and metastasis. USP11 knockdown or overexpression could weaken or reinforce the abilities of proliferation, migration, and invasion in CRC cells in vivo or in vitro. IGF2BP3 was protected by USP11 from degradation via deubiquitination. The rescue experiments revealed that IGF2BP3 overexpression could effectively reverse the decrease in cell proliferation, migration, and invasion caused by USP11 knockdown. Therefore, USP11 might be involved in CRC tumorigenesis and development through a USP11-IGF2BP3 axis pathway, and USP11 overexpression might be a novel indicator for poor prognosis and a potential therapeutic target in CRC patients.

Objectives Mycoplasma pneumoniae is currently the most commonly detected bacterial cause of childhood community-acquired pneumonia in several countries. Of note, clonal expansion of macrolide-resistant ST3 occurred in Japan and South Korea. An alarming surge in macrolide resistance complicates the treatment of pneumonia. We aimed to evaluate the clinical manifestation and clonal relatedness of M. pneumoniae circulating among children in Taiwan. Methods We prospectively enrolled 626 children with radiologically confirmed pneumonia between 2017 and 2019. An M. pneumoniae infection was suspected on clinical grounds, and tested by real-time PCR and oropharyngeal swab cultures. We used multilocus sequence typing and whole-genome sequencing to characterize the genetic features of M. pneumoniae. Results A total of 226 children with M. pneumoniae pneumonia were enrolled. Macrolide resistance was found in 77% (174/226) of patients. Multi-locus sequence typing revealed that ST3 (n = 93) and its single-locus variant ST17 (n = 84) were the predominant clones among macrolide-resistant strains. ST17 presented clinical characteristics comparable to its ancestor ST3. On multivariate analysis, macrolide resistance (OR 3.5; 95% CI 1.4–8.5; p 0.007) was independently associated with fever >72 hours after macrolide treatment. By whole-genome sequencing, prediction analysis of recombination sites revealed one recombination site in ST3 and ST17 compared with M29 (a macrolide-sensitive ST3 strain isolated from China in 2005) containing cytadhesin MgpC-like protein, RepMP4 and RepMP5. ST17 had another recombination site containing an adhesin and RepMP2/3. Conclusions In addition to macrolide resistance, ST3 and its ST17 variant might evolve through recombination between repetitive sequences and non-P1 cytadhesins for persistent circulation in Taiwan.

The techniques of feature extraction and representation on image data have been significantly progressed in recent years due to the development of deep learning. With a large number of representative image features being extracted from ImageNet by convolutional neural networks, many object recognizing applications were successfully accomplished effectively. In this paper, two supervised image retrieval models for retrieving images with similar hierarchical concept are investigated and compared. First, image features are extracted by pre-trained VGG convolutional networks. Then, the supervised retrieval models are learned from a set of images with hierarchical concept labels. The experimental results show that the hash-based model generally is superior to classifier-based model both in F1 measure and MAP no matter what in coarse level or fine level of concept hierarchy.

Streptococcus pneumoniae 19A ST320, a multidrug-resistant strain with high disease severity that notoriously spread before the use of expanded pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, was derived from a capsular switching event between an international strain Taiwan 19F-14 (ST236) and a serotype 19A strain. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the adaptive evolution of 19F ST236 to 19A ST320 are unknown. In this study, we compared 19A ST320 to its ancestral clone, 19F ST236, in terms of adherence to respiratory epithelial cells, whole transcriptome, and ability to colonize a young mouse model. Serotype 19A ST320 showed five-fold higher adherence to A549 cells than serotype 19F ST236. High-throughput mRNA sequencing identified a prophage region located between dnaN and ychF in both strains; however, the genes in this region were expressed at significantly higher levels in 19A ST320 than in 19F ST236. Analysis by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) showed that the prophage is able to spontaneously excise from the chromosome and form a circular episome in 19A ST320, but not in 19F ST236. Deletion of the integrase in the prophage of 19A ST320 decreased spontaneous excision and cell adherence, which were restored by complementation. Competition experiments in mice showed that the integrase mutant was six-fold less competitive than the 19A ST320 parent (competitive index [CI]: 0.16; p = 0.02). The 19A ST320 prophage-deleted strain did not change cell adherence capacity, whereas prophage integration strains (integrase mutant and 19F) had decreased expression of the down-stream ychF gene compared to that of 19A ST320. Further deletion of ychF significantly reduced cell adherence. In conclusions, these findings suggest that spontaneous prophage induction confers a competitive advantage to virulent pneumococci.

The objective of this study is to investigate the correlation between the sense of touch when gripping a blow dryer and the emotional response based on the Kansei engineering theory. The relevant studies of the perception by hand grip are reviewed for the understanding of the consumers' emotional responses to a product. Meanwhile, this type of perception is also the key factor that determines whether they are going to buy or not. Various adjective vocabularies are reviewed in order to determine the emotional adjectives that are related to the sense of touch. A total of 35 vocabularies of this type are kept for the experiment of screening out the dryer handle specimens. After that, these emotional vocabularies are analyzed by the method of semantic differential. The resulting parameters that are obtained from real measurement serve as a reference for the design of new blow dryer styles. Furthermore, they are compared with the blow dryers that are commercially available. The correlation between the sense of touch by hand grip and the resulting emotions is a useful resource for determining the optimal blow dryer handle design. A new type of dryer handle with the unique sense of touch is created. It provides users with a new approach of interactions between the scenarios with the sense of touch by hand grip and the resulting emotions. For the past decade, user experience (UX) has developed into the core concept of human-computer interaction (HCI). It is an approach of describing the resulting emotions and responses that are generated by a user when using a product under particular operating conditions. 20 males and 20 females participated in the experiment and they are asked to carry out the tasks that are selected for the experiment in this study. The results indicated that for the one-handed operation of the new blow dryer design, its reachable range of operation is more average and it includes more types of sense of touch within its most comfortable range. It performs better than those commercially available products from the aspect of the sense of touch. By comparing the rate of improvement, a designer can perform detailed modifications on a product or obtain a better reference when making a design decisions.

Mondrian serve as the case study for verification in this study. Based on the color encoding principle of DIC, the color codes have been applied to the modular development of color products. There are four product series established from the results of the case study and the capability of solving factors of common color schemes and individual color schemes between their color series. This approach can increase the variety of color schemes, reduce the time spent on the selection of a certain amount of color schemes and the management of color developments, and effectively enhance the modularization of product colors.

The numerical simulation calculation of air-assisted atomizer internal gas flow field is done, the distribution and changes of the nozzle inside flow field total pressure, velocity, and dynamic and static pressure are analyzed. The analysis shows that the total pressure loss is less; due to the effect of gas viscous, the high-speed air flow is formed vortex flow near the outlet nozzle and the mutual influence between the dynamic and static pressure. A new way is supported for optimizing the nozzle structure according to these studies.

Railway ballast dynamic stability operations is an important work in the line maintenance and repair operations, the selection of dynamic parameter is usually dependent on field trials and practical experience, for lack of theoretical basis. This paper creates discrete element analysis model of railway ballast using the discrete element method, the numerical simulations are carried out to study the lateral ballast resistance during dynamic stability process. We focus on the influence of vibration frequency during dynamic stability process; an optimal vibration frequency of the simulation analysis is obtained and compared with the recommended vibration frequency of a product of a China Railway Large Maintenance Machinery Company, it is found that the two vibration frequencies are basically consistent. This result verifies the correct validity of the discrete element analysis model of railway ballast during dynamic stability process.

Establishing bias and central entity model of slider-crank mechanism in this paper, then the bias model is imported into the ADAMS for kinematics simulation, and we can get the sliders law of motion. Then using ANSYS and ADAMS jointly to establish the multiple rigid body and the coupled model of slider-crank mechanism, and carrying on kinematics and dynamics simulation analysis to compare the two simulation results. Through build simulation of the coupled model with UG, ANSYS and ADAMS, the result of this calculation is better to reflect the true movement of the mechanism.

In order to accurately study a tracked vehicle movement on the ground in hard and soft features, this paper uses multi-body dynamics simulation software RecurDyn tracked vehicle subsystems Track (LM), establishing a three-dimensional multi-body vehicle dynamics model. For tracked vehicles at an inclination of 10 degrees slope, through the soft and hard ground steering process dynamics simulation and comparative analysis. This paper provides an accurate basis for the future in-depth research on Tracked vehicle.

Being established and assembled in UG, the model file of spur gears was imported to ANSYS workbench, where the contact between gears was built, meshing completed later. Then support and loads was imposed on the finite element model to obtain characteristics of modal and stress distribution on the teeth. After that they each were compared with working frequency and theoretically maximum contact stress and we found the fact was they fit well. By doing this, it is sound to say finite element analysis of spur gears on modal and stress is effective, feasible and reliable.

This paper outlined the basic working principle of flip-flow Screen and and then established the screen surface kinetic equation of simplified geometric model. The midpoint motion law of the flip-flow Screen surface, the screen surface-particle trajectory and the inclination of the particle trajectory were studied. The characteristic curve made by Matlab showed unique dynamic characteristics of the screen surface, which provided a theoretical basis for its design and application.

This paper is based on the kinetic theory of ore and steel balls in the SAG Mill and theoretical research of power consumption. Orthogonal method is taken to design experimental plan while effective power of the SAG Mill, collision times between steel balls and the SAG Mill and collision times between steel balls and ore are designed as optimal objectives. Model with 9 experimental points is simulated by EDEM and experimental data are disposed Range Method in order to get the optimal combination of operating parameters of the SAG Mill.

Through CUDA-C to make parallel operation for generating small balls’ datas and render for balls combined with OpenGL interoperating. Compared with the experiment which generates balls only by OpenGL, the experimental results show that the CUDA has considerable advantages in parallel operation and the speed increased 6 to 7 times than simply using OpenGL.

When using Large-scale semi-opened copper mould die-casting machine, it can reduce the shrinkage cavity and porosity, improve the surface roughness and the mechanical properties of the copper mould. But its process parameters are selected by experience, which result in unstable quality of the anode plate copper mould. In this paper, the temperature and stress fields of the copper mould were simulated using finite element method. And the effects of the initial temperature on the copper mould quality were studied further. The preliminary optimization scheme of the die-casting initial temperature was gained, which can provide the foundation for the further process parameters optimization of the copper mould die-casting.

Nowadays, many scholars attach importance to how sieving parameters of vibration screen influence sieving efficiency. The traditional research of screening theory and technology depended on the screening test that consumed a lot of human labour, material resources and money.DEM software EDEM was used to establish the simulation model of screening in this paper. Five simulation particle shapes were built base on real shapes of stone particle. After completing 20 groups simulation, sieving efficiency were calculated based on ratio of undersize in feeding and undersize. The formula of sieving parameters and sieving efficiency was fitted with the method of multielement non-linear regression by Matlab based on simulation data. This paper provide a new method for vibrating screen designing and research of screening theory.

In the process of screening, the screening efficiency and sieving rate calculations are traditional and based on the probability and statistics method in the past. Using CUDA technology which has characteristics of high degree of parallelism, multithreading, powerful computing capability and high memory bandwidth and discrete element method, it is convenience to simulate the movement of massive particles in the process of screening. On the basis of previous works, the feasible way of discrete element numerical calculation methods can be found and efficient simulation of particle movement could be designed in order to provide a basis for the future transformation.

With the large-scale speed-up of the railway, the dynamic track stabilizer will play an important role on the track overhauling and railroading of new line in our country. Bogie is one of the major critical components of the dynamic track stabilizer; its vibrating characteristic will affect the vibrating characteristic of the dynamic track stabilizer directly. The method of numerical simulate was used, based on ADAMS simulation, the horizontal exciting forces of the vibration exciter under working conditions were gained. Then the exciting forces were loaded on the bogie, and the dynamic characteristics of the dynamic track stabilizer bogie under the working conditions were obtained on the bases of the ANSYS/LS-DYNA. The analysis results show that the lateral and nod vibrating characteristics of the bogie under working conditions were strong. The analysis results of this paper will provide foundation for the research on the dynamic characteristics and working security of the dynamic track stabilizer.

In order to accurately locate the changing demands and objects of customers, a novel mining algorithm was presented to predict the Optimum Customer Demand (OCD) in the uncertain front end, which can be formulated as a dynamic nonlinear optimization problem. The improved Particle Swarm Optimization involves accurately detecting the changes all of the search space and reliably updating obsolete particle memories, which has been shown to be effective in locating the changing plentiful innovative thinking. Finally, the algorithm is applied into the prediction of customer demands in car’s appearance feature, which effectively guide the implementation of product innovation and greatly improve the front end performance.

With the large-scale speed-up of the railway, the dynamic track stabilizer will play an important role on the track overhauling and railroading of new line in our country. Bogie is one of the major critical components of the dynamic track stabilizer; its vibrating characteristic will affect the vibrating characteristic of the dynamic track stabilizer directly. The method of numerical simulate was used, based on the spectral density of the track irregularities, the time domain loads of the track irregularities were gained. Then the vibrating characteristics of the dynamic track stabilizer bogie under the excitation of the track irregularities were analyzed on the bases of the ANSYS/LS-DYNA. And the lateral, dilation, ups and downs, nod, swing and anti-rolling vibrating characteristics of the bogie on the six degree of freedom were obtained. The analysis results of this paper will provide foundation for the research on the stationarity and security of the dynamic track stabilizer.

When designing the cylindrical helical compression spring, many designers use high- strength materials or various strengthening technology approaches in order to improve the reliability of spring. These approaches increase the costs and reduce economy. With the help of MATLAB software, this paper analyzes how the chosen design parameters of the cylindrical helical compression spring influence its reliability based on stress-strength interference model with the way of controlling variables method when the fatigue life of spring is longer than one million cycles. It is shown that changing the spring design parameters, instead of using valuable or rare materials, can achieve high reliable level especially when the reliability of spring can't reach the requirement and hence can get a better economic benefit.

High speed milling of hard alloy steels utilized in dies and molds is a highly demanding operation. The finite element model was developed to investigate the high speed machining of alloy cast iron which is used in auto panel dies. The modified Johnson-cook constitutive model was used to model the complex dynamic material behavior, a damage evaluation law based on Cockroft and Latham model was used to simulate the ductile fracture of alloy cast iron. The crack initiation and propagation was simulated explicitly using an explicit FEM code. Simulation results showed that the chip morphology transited from continuous to saw-tooth chip with increasing cutting speed, cutting force decreased when increasing the cutting speed, which provide a useful understanding of chip formation process in high speed machining of alloy cast iron.

Fracture mechanics analysis of the Dynamic Stress Intensity Factor of a pre-cracked 3-Point Bending Specimen suffering cyclic loads has been studied. Using the theoretical equivalent system of the pre-cracked 3-Point Bending Specimen, the Dynamic Stress Intensity Factor could be obtained theoretically. The finite element method was then applied to study the dynamic behaviors of the Dynamic Stress Intensity Factor under different cyclic loads' conditions using the standard software ABAQUS. The results have also been analyzed and discussed, which provided a deeper view for the fracture characteristics of the materials and could be used to guide further researches and practical engineering design.

The finite element modeling and simulation of extremely high speed machining of Ti6Al4V alloy are presented in the paper. The Johnson-Cook’s constitutive model is used to describe the material behavior. The Johnson-Cook damage initiation criterion is used to predict the onset of damage due to void nucleation in ductile fracture. A damage evaluation law based on plastic strain energy and a fracture criterion combining the effect of different fracture mechanisms are proposed to model the progressive damage and fracture, respectively. Simulation results show that the predicted chip morphology agrees well with the experimental one. The distribution of temperature and specific cutting force are discussed later.

Bogie is one of the major critical components of the dynamic track stabilizer, and its vibration characteristics will affect the dynamic characteristics of the dynamic track stabilizer directly. It is very important to improve the running safety by analyzing the lateral vibration characteristics of the bogie. The time domain loads of the track irregularities were gained based on the U.S. spectral density of the track irregularities using the method of numerical simulate. Then the lateral vibration characteristics of the dynamic track stabilizer bogie under the excitation of the track irregularities were analyzed on the bases of the ANSYS/LS-DYNA. The results of numerical simulation and the associated experiment are basically consistent, and the analysis results can provide foundation for research on the running stationarity and safety of the dynamic track stabilizer. This research method also can provide a new effective method for further researching on the dynamic characteristics of the bogie and the dynamic track stabilizer.

Distinct element method (DEM) is based on Newton's second law of motion and the basic law of particles between elements colliding. It's an effective numerical method which widely used in many engineering fields by using dynamic relaxation method on Iterative calculation. By comparing the linear contact model and nonlinear contact model of DEM, Cundall spring-damp-sliding contact model had been selected as our major studying model. Then the coordinate of the contact point, “composite quantity” of each contact unit and the relative velocity between units in this system had been calculated. And finally the numerical simulation on the motion state of single granule and granule group had be done.

To select the MHC-I-binding epitope-rich sequence of mice telomerase reverse transcriptase (mTERT) and study the antitumor immune response induced by truncated TERT through mRNA-transfected dendritic cells (DCs) immunization in mice. The MHC-I-binding epitopes of TERT were predicted using bioinformatics software. The selected sequence of TERT (Truncated mTERT, TERT(t), mTERT cDNA 1776 bp-2942 bp encoding 584 aa-969 aa) was cloned from B16 mouse melanoma cells and inserted into pBluescriptIIKS(+) plasmid downstream of the T7 promoter. TERT(t) RNA was prepared through in vitro transcription. Bone marrow-derived DCs were electroporated with TERT(t) RNA and used to immunize syngeneic naïve mice. The quantity and cytotoxic activity of TERT-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) in mice spleen were evaluated using IFN-gamma enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) and Lactate dehydrogenase release assay. The immunoprophylactic effects against TERT positive tumor induced by TERT(t) RNA transfected DC in vivo were evaluated through an immunized-challenged mouse model. TERT(t) was cloned and in vitro transcribed into TERT(t) mRNA. As shown in FCM analysis, the efficiency of DC electroporation is 35.1% (29.7-41.2%). After electroporation, a subtle increase of costimulator and MHC-II molecules were expressed on the cell surface. Immunization of TERT(t) mRNA transfected DCs induced IFN-gamma-secreting CTLs which manifested specific cytotoxic activity against TERT-positive target cells. In a cancer mouse model, vaccination of TERT(t) mRNA-transfected DCs suppressed the growth of TERT positive tumors (p=0.001) and prolong the survival time of tumor-bearing animals (p=0.029). TERT(t) evokes an antitumor immune response in vivo which is targeted to TERT. TERT(t) can be used as an antigeneic sequence to produce anti-TERT tumor vaccine.

Silica xerogel films with good uniformity and various thicknesses were successfully prepared by a two-step acid-base catalyst procedure and spin coating. After the addition of ammonia catalyst, the sol changes gradually from a Newtonian fluid to a shearthinning one due to the progress of polymerization reactions. An empirical equation using the relative ratio of reaction time to gel time can give successful prediction of sol viscosity. Our systematic study of the coating process indicates the existence of a process window in terms of t/tgel and spin speed can be defined for obtaining uniform and defect-free films. It is difficult to obtain films with good quality when the viscosity of the sol is either too high or too low. Another parameter that also exhibits strong influence on film thickness is the concentration of TEOS in the starting solution. Finally, the film thickness was found to correlate well with sol viscosity and spin speed as h=A � 0.45 $ � 0.62 . # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd and Techna S.r.l. All rights reserved.

PurposeThe aim of this study was to develop a multivariate logistic regression model with least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) to make valid predictions about the incidence of moderate-to-severe patient-rated xerostomia among head and neck cancer (HNC) patients treated with IMRT.Methods and materialsQuality of life questionnaire datasets from 206 patients with HNC were analyzed. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-H&N35 and QLQ-C30 questionnaires were used as the endpoint evaluation. The primary endpoint (grade 3(+) xerostomia) was defined as moderate-to-severe xerostomia at 3 (XER3m) and 12 months (XER12m) after the completion of IMRT. Normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) models were developed. The optimal and suboptimal numbers of prognostic factors for a multivariate logistic regression model were determined using the LASSO with bootstrapping technique. Statistical analysis was performed using the scaled Brier score, Nagelkerke R(2), chi-squared test, Omnibus, Hosmer-Lemeshow test, and the AUC.ResultsEight prognostic factors were selected by LASSO for the 3-month time point: Dmean-c, Dmean-i, age, financial status, T stage, AJCC stage, smoking, and education. Nine prognostic factors were selected for the 12-month time point: Dmean-i, education, Dmean-c, smoking, T stage, baseline xerostomia, alcohol abuse, family history, and node classification. In the selection of the suboptimal number of prognostic factors by LASSO, three suboptimal prognostic factors were fine-tuned by Hosmer-Lemeshow test and AUC, i.e., Dmean-c, Dmean-i, and age for the 3-month time point. Five suboptimal prognostic factors were also selected for the 12-month time point, i.e., Dmean-i, education, Dmean-c, smoking, and T stage. The overall performance for both time points of the NTCP model in terms of scaled Brier score, Omnibus, and Nagelkerke R(2) was satisfactory and corresponded well with the expected values.ConclusionsMultivariate NTCP models with LASSO can be used to predict patient-rated xerostomia after IMRT.

Dysmenorrhea is a major problem in the general gynecology clinic. It causes discomfort among healthcare staffs and significant losses in terms of time and finances.The purpose of this study was to determine the affected factors of dysmenorrhea and evaluate the self-perceived efficacy of relief methods.A cross-sectional research design was used to collect data. Participants included 586 female students enrolled at a college in southern Taiwan. Data was analyzed using a t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Scheffe test.Traditional Chinese medicine pattern identifications related significantly to dysmenorrhea frequency perception. Lifestyle characteristics related significantly to dysmenorrhea level perception. Using shenghua decoction, siwu and pig blood decoction, Angelica drink, ginger, ziziphus jujube, brown sugar tea, and analgesics all related significantly to dysmenorrhea relief efficacy.Strategies found to help relieve dysmenorrhea level perception include increasing the duration and regularity of sleep and avoiding the consumption of pungent foods. Seeking and adhering to physician recommendations can also increase dysmenorrhea self-care efficacy. Dysmenorrhea-relief courses should be improved in hospitals and schools to assist women to self-manage dysmenorrhea more effectively.女性痛經影響因素與舒緩方法之研究—以南部某專科學校為例痛經是一般婦科門診中最常見的問題之一，除了因為痛經引發身體不適之外，亦造成巨大的時間與經濟損失。針對影響婦女生理期痛經的因素進行分析，並了解女性在採用坊間各種疏緩痛經的方式之後，其自我感覺痛經之舒緩情形，以作為避免痛經困擾及痛經舒緩，擁有較為安適的生理期的參考。研究對象為台灣南部地區某專科學校586位女性學生，參考相關文獻及訪談相關專家發展研究問卷。問卷資料以t檢定、單因子變異數分析、Scheffe事後檢定等進行分析。體質屬性不同會影響痛經感受頻率；生活習慣特性的不同對痛經感受程度有顯著差異；使用「生化湯」、「四物豬血湯」、「當歸飲」、「薑棗紅糖茶」或「注射止痛劑」對於痛經舒緩感覺顯著。建議有痛經症狀者應積極尋求個人壓力的紓解，以降低痛經發生的頻率；婦女養成正常且充足睡眠的習慣以降低痛經之感受程度；亦應避免或減少刺激性食物的攝取，以降低對痛經症狀發生時之疼痛感受程度；另痛經患者必須先在醫師指導下瞭解自身體質屬性，再配合生活習慣的調整選擇合適的痛經舒緩方法；建議醫院門診及學校單位應進行系統性的痛經舒緩護理指導，以協助增加痛經者對於減少痛經發生頻率及痛經症狀舒緩的知識，並進而自我照護，使痛經的發生及症狀獲得改善。