The Antiproliferation Activity of Ganoderma formosanum Extracts on Prostate Cancer Cells

( Cheng-yen Chiang ),( Kai-di Hsu ),( Yen-yi Lin ),( Chang-wei Hsieh ),( Jui-ming Liu ),( Tze-ying Lu ),( Kuan-chen Cheng ) 한국균학회 2020 Mycobiology Vol.48 No.3

Androgen-independent prostate cancer accounts for mortality in the world. In this study, various extracts of a medical fungus dubbed Ganoderma formosanum were screened for inhibition of DU145 cells, an androgen-independent prostate cancer cell line. Results demonstrated that both hexane (GF-EH) and butanol (GF-EB) fraction of G. formosanum ethanol extract inhibited DU145 cell viability in a dose-dependent manner. GF-EH induced cell-cycle arrest in G1 phase of DU145 cells via downregulation of cyclin E2 protein expression. In addition, GF-EB triggered extrinsic apoptosis of DU145 cells by activating caspase 3 gene expression resulting in programed cell death. Above all, both GF-EH and GF-EB show lower toxicity to normal human fibroblast cell line compared to DU145 cell, implying that they possess specific drug action on cancer cells. This study provides a molecular basis of G. formosanum extract as a potential ingredient for treatment of androgen-independent prostate cancer.

중국의 사상과 디자인 정체성

Kuan, Cheng-Neng 서울대학교 조형연구소 2000 造形 FORM Vol.2000 No.23

Moving from the Modernistic thinking in the beginning of this century to the Post-modern situation of today, and from Post-industrial society to Globalization economics, the meaning and value of product design has become an important issue. How can product design react to the trend? How, then, can the meaning of product design be expanded to a broader horizon? Such discussions usually involve factors of different levels: technology vs. humanity, society vs. economy, production vs. consumption, etc. The common mindset of these factors, however, would be how the richness of traditional resources can be used. If we take a close look at the progress of product design, we may ask ourselves a question. In contrast with the progresses of different cultures, does technology work to break the progresses? Or, it may be playing a positive role in connecting modern and traditional cultures? In fact, it has long been recognized that the meaning and value of Chinese artifacts functioned within Chinese culture differ from that within the western cultures. Therefore, if we limit our search for creativity in product design merely within the parameters of western culture, we may lose the chance to establish a contrast between eastern and western cultures. The time has come for us to trace our cultural origins and to establish contrasts between the east and the west so that we may define a proper attitude for design in the new millennium. This is obviously a meaningful and challenging beginning for all of us. This paper tries to apply the method of contrast in philosophical views through the study on the characteristics of traditional Chinese artifacts. Hopefully, it can stimulate our thoughts in design attitudes, design methods and design strategies. Though this paper provides only the outlines of the issue and suggestions of new directions, I hope it can further serve as a reference and an inspiration far the constructions and realizations of design to the next level. The basic situation of our times could be characterized as the dynamic tensions between, on one hand, the universal and overwhelming influence of modern science and technology; and on the other hand, the awaking historical consciousness leading toward the respect far the uniqueness of each historical tradition and the concern far the meaning of human existence. Under this global situation, the observations of the development in product design in modern times tell us many things. One of them has been, since the inception of industrialization till the 1920's, the common reflections on how design should be defined. Concerns of the role about design came from how countries, geographic regions, groups and individuals choose from and react to the value conflicts between traditional value system and modem technological impact. Aiming at such phenomena, I have brought up my personal views in a paper entitled "Problems and Creativities of Contemporary Product Design." I provided in this discourse with ideas about the creativity, procedure and strategy of contrast. However, if we were to find new directions and methods for product design based on Chinese philosophy and culture, we would need to put in more efforts to go further. For the time being, in conclusion, the above mentioned arguments on the cultural design issues could be summarized in the following steps and propositions. First, to review (Traditional tangibles and intangibles) 1-1. To collect and analyze the expressive elements, structural relationships and conceptual origins of traditional artifacts. 1-2. To compare the practical and social functions of similar artifacts from different dynasties. How and why are they different? What are the reasons behind? Can we adopt the characteristics of traditional artifacts to our lives? 1-3. Do characteristics of traditional tangible objects and Intangible conceptions deserve to be handed down and to be innovated? Second, to relate (From inter-context to re-evaluating & re-identifying values) 2-1. To contrast between traditional artifacts and the social life of their time. 2-2. To contrast between modern and traditional lives-differences and similarities. 2-3. To contrast between the modern lives of other cultures and that of self-culture. 2-4. To combine the contrastive relationships mentioned above to device an appropriate strategy. Third, to create (From contrastive interpretation to cultural design)

Credit Rating Anomaly in Taiwan Stock Market

Kuan-Cheng Ko,Shinn-Juh Lin,Hsiang-Hui Chu,Hsiao-Wei Ho 한국재무학회 2012 한국재무학회 학술대회 Vol.2012 No.09

Rational asset-pricing theory asserts that higher risk should be accompanied by higher expected return. The credit-risk puzzle, however, states a negative cross- sectional relationship between credit risk and future stock returns (Dichev, 1998; Grin and Lemmon, 2002; Campbell et al., 2008; Avramov et al., 2009). This pa- per examines the credit-risk puzzle using an independent dataset from Taiwan's stock market. We document the existence of the credit-risk premium in both portfolios and individual stocks, and demonstrate that it can not be explained by well-known asset-pricing models which include the CAPM, Fama and French's (1993) three-factor model, and Liu's (2006) liquidity-augmented CAPM. Unlike the evidence in the U.S. market, rating downgrades only have limited impact on stock returns in Taiwan. Further analysis indicates that credit rating serves as a better proxy for distress risk, and is thus priced in Taiwan's stock market.

Utilization Model for HCCA EDCA Mixed Mode in IEEE 802.11e

Cheng Kuan,Kaharudin Dimyati 한국전자통신연구원 2007 ETRI Journal Vol.29 No.6

This letter proposes an analytical model to characterize medium utilization in IEEE 802.11e operating in HCCA-EDCA mixed mode (HEMM). In contrast to existing works which model the backoff process in individual stations, we consider the channel occupancy pattern. Additionally, our work considers the operation of HEMM, which is not widely documented. We show that the proposed model accurately characterizes medium utilization with no more than 5% error.

Dynamic Anchoring, 52-Week High, and Return Predictability

Kuan-Cheng Ko,Robin K. Chou,Nien-Tzu Yang 한국재무학회 2024 財務硏究 Vol.37 No.1

Prior studies show that momentum is induced because investors underreact to information when anchored by the 52-week high (52WH). We propose the possibility that investors’ anchoring bias could vary over time. Accordingly, we develop an alternative momentum strategy, namely thedynamic 52WH (denoted as D52WH) momentum,that buys (short sells) stocks with the nearness to the 52WH ranked in the top (bottom) 10% of the historical distribution. We show that the D52WH momentum not only generates significant profitability but also outperforms the 52WH momentum. In addition, amajor advantage of the D52WH momentum is that it experiences considerably weaker momentum crashes. Further evidence shows that the D52WH momentum is more pronounced under limited investor attention and lower shorting activities, thus confirming the underreaction-driven return predictability implied by the anchoring bias.

An Imaging System for Monitoring the Feeding Behavior of Dairy Cows

( Cheng-yu Kuan ),( Yu-chi Tsai ),( Chen-yu Cheng ),( Jih-tay Hsu ),( Shih-torng Dnig ),( Ta-te Lin ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

In sub-tropical countries, dairy cows tend to experience heat stress problems. This phenomenon may lead to declines in feed intake, milk production, and fertility. Under normal conditions, the dairy cows have a regular feeding and drinking time. For this reason, changes in feeding behavior can be a possible indicator to detect heat stress phenomena that can help farm owners monitor dairy cow health. In order to monitor and record the feeding behavior of dairy cows, an imaging system is proposed herein. The imaging system uses Raspberry Pi 3, as the embedded system, and a camera module to acquire images for dairy cow face detection in front of the feeding area to confirm if the dairy cow is eating. The dairy cow faces are detected through cascade-AdaBoost algorithms which can automatically select weak classifiers to form a strong classifier with fast processing speed in an embedded system. The factors affecting the performance of the dairy cow face detection algorithm have been tested and optimized. The system has been tested in a feeding area in National Taiwan University’s dairy farm, which has 25 dairy cows in total. By converting the frequency of dairy cow face detection into feeding time, the feeding behavior of grouped dairy cows can be analyzed. Furthermore, combining the temperature humidity index (THI) and feeding behavior can provide the farm owners with an index to evaluate the level heat stress of dairy cows.

Performance evaluation of soil-embedded plastic optical fiber sensors for geotechnical monitoring

Cheng-Cheng Zhang,Hong-Hu Zhu,Bin Shi,Jun-Kuan She,Dan Zhang 국제구조공학회 2016 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.17 No.2

Based on the distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) technique, plastic optical fibers (POFs) are attractive candidates to measure deformations of geotechnical structures because they can withstand large strains before rupture. Understanding the mechanical interaction between an embedded POF and the surrounding soil or rock is a necessary step towards establishing an effective POF-based sensing system for geotechnical monitoring. This paper describes a first attempt to evaluate the feasibility of POF-based soil deformation monitoring considering the POF–soil interfacial properties. A series of pullout tests were performed under various confining pressures (CPs) on a jacketed polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) POF embedded in soil specimens. The test results were interpreted using a fiber–soil interaction model, and were compared with previous test data of silica optical fibers (SOFs). The results showed that the range of CP in this study did not induce plastic deformation of the POF; therefore, the POF–soil and the SOF–soil interfaces had similar behavior. CP was found to play an important role in controlling the fiber–soil interfacial bond and the fiber measurement range. Moreover, an expression was formulated to determine whether a POF would undergo plastic deformation when measuring soil deformation. The plasticity of POF may influence the reliability of measurements, especially for monitored geo-structures whose deformation would alternately increase and decrease. Taken together, these results indicate that in terms of the interfacial parameters studied here the POF is feasible for monitoring soil deformation as long as the plastic deformation issue is carefully addressed.

Credit Rating Anomaly in the Taiwan Stock Market

Kuan-Cheng Ko,Hsiang-Hui Chu,Shinn-Juh Lin,Hsiao-Wei Ho 한국증권학회 2013 Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies Vol.42 No.3

Rational asset-pricing theory asserts that higher risk should be accompanied by higher expected return. The credit risk puzzle, however, states a negative cross-sectional relationship between credit risk and future stock returns (Journal of Finance, 53, 1998, 1131; Journal of Finance, 57, 2002, 2317; Journal of Finance, 63, 2008, 2899; Journal of Financial Markets, 12, 2009, 469). This paper examines the credit risk puzzle using an independent dataset from Taiwan’s stock market. We document a significantly positive premium between highest- and lowest-rated stocks in both portfolios and individual stocks, and demonstrate that it cannot be explained by well-known asset-pricing models, including the CAPM, Journal of Financial Economics, 33, 1993, 3 three-factor model, and Journal of Financial Economics 82, 2006, 631 liquidity-augmented CAPM. Unlike the evidence collected from the US market, rating downgrades only have limited impact on the cross-sectional variation of stock returns in Taiwan. Further analysis indicates that credit rating serves as a better proxy for distress risk, and is thus priced in Taiwan’s stock market.

The Use of a Multiple Risk Level Model to Tackle the Duration of Risk for Construction Activity

Hsien-Kuan Chang,Wen-der Yu,Shao-Tsai Cheng,Tao-Ming Cheng 대한토목학회 2019 KSCE JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING Vol.23 No.6

The project evaluation and review technique (PERT) is the most well-known method to handle the risk due to uncertain activity durations, previous studies show that the β-distribution-based PERT estimation tends to be over-optimistic and it offers no control of the project in terms of risk duration. This study proposes a multiple risk-level (MRL) model that uses a site spatial constraint, environmental effects and the “5 Ms” of construction management to tackle the duration of risk during a construction project. A Risk-based Critical Path Scheduling Method (R-CPSM) that uses MRL is developed to calculate the duration of the project. A case study using a project selected from a previous study is used to compare the four estimation methods: two traditional PERT methods (3.2σs and 6σs), a Monte Carlo Simulation and the proposed MRL model. The results show that, compared with traditional approaches to estimate durations of uncertain activity, the proposed R-CPSM method is more systematic that can be combined with a cost estimation process and offers a rectification mechanism that dynamically monitors and adjusts the important factors that affect the risk duration. This method gives a more realistic estimate that is in agreement with the results of previous studies.

Application of Recurrence Plots and VGG Deep Learning Model to the Study of Condition Monitoring of Robotic Grinding

Kuan‑Jung Chung,Cheng‑Han Dai,Tung‑Chun Chiang,June‑Jia Xie,Ming-Tzer Lin 한국정밀공학회 2023 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.24 No.9

This study adopted AI to identify the normal and abnormal vibration signals generated during robotic grinding. This study classified four fundamental factors affecting grinding into three levels to obtain a widely used result and designed an L9(34)orthogonal array for the grinding experiment. During experimentation, part of the grinding wheels was added weight to produce abnormal vibration signals, which an accelerometer would measure. The study transformed the collected vibration signals into recurrence plots and conducted model training with VGG16 CNN architecture. Finally, this study tested a model with 89.6% training accuracy. The results showed the model could identify whether the recurrence plots stand for normal or abnormal vibrations, with an accuracy of 85%. This means it could predict normal and abnormal grinding conditions and help avoid problems caused by abnormal vibrations.