Association between PM2.5 exposure and risk of Parkinson’s disease in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Taiwan: a nested case-control study

Ci-Wen Luo(Ci-Wen Luo),Yu-Hsiang Kuan(Yu-Hsiang Kuan),Wen-Ying Chen(Wen-Ying Chen),Chun-Jung Chen(Chun-Jung Chen),Frank Cheau-Feng Lin(Frank Cheau-Feng Lin ),Stella Chin-Shaw Tsai(Stella Chin-Shaw Tsa 한국역학회 2023 Epidemiology and Health Vol.45 No.-

OBJECTIVES: This cohort study investigated the correlation between Parkinson’s disease (PD) risk and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) risk under particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5) exposure. METHODS: Data from the National Health Research Institutes of Taiwan were used in this study. The Environmental Protection Administration of Taiwan established an air quality monitoring network for monitoring Taiwan’s general air quality. COPD was indicated by at least 3 outpatient records and 1 hospitalization for COPD. After the implementation of age, sex, and endpoint matching at a 1:4 ratio, 137 patients and 548 patients were included in the case group and control group, respectively. Based on the 2005 World Health Organization (WHO) standards, monthly air particle concentration data were classified into the following 4 groups in analyses of exposure–response relationships: normal level, and 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 times the WHO level ([concentration ≥2]×25 μg/m3×number of exposure months). RESULTS: A multivariate logistic regression revealed that the 1.0 and 1.5 WHO level groups did not significantly differ from the normal level group, but the 2.0 WHO level did (odds ratio, 4.091; 95% confidence interval, 1.180 to 14.188; p=0.038). CONCLUSIONS: Elevated PM2.5 concentrations were significantly correlated with an increased risk of PD among patients with COPD. Furthermore, exposure to high PM2.5 levels can further increase the risk of PD.

Developments of DNA oligonucleotides with site-specific methyl-phosphotriester linkages for molecular detections and precision medicine

Wen-Yih CHEN,Meng-Wei WU,Chih-Chin TSAI,Tsai-Ling LI,Yu-Hsuan CHANG,Wei-Chen LIN,Wei-Cheng CHOU 한국생물공학회 2019 한국생물공학회 학술대회 Vol.2019 No.4

The association of ambient air pollution with airway inflammation in schoolchildren.

Chen, Bing-Yu,Chan, Chang-Chuan,Lee, Chung-Te,Cheng, Tsun-Jen,Huang, Wen-Chuan,Jhou, Ji-Ci,Han, Yueh-Ying,Chen, Chu-Chih,Guo, Yue Leon School of Hygiene and Public Health of the Johns H 2012 American Journal of Epidemiology Vol.175 No.8

<P>The biologic mechanisms involved in airway inflammatory response to air pollution are not clearly understood. The authors conducted a longitudinal study to investigate whether exposure to ambient air pollutants affected inflammatory cells and mediators from nasal lavage in schoolchildren. Study participants were 100 elementary and middle-school students in New Taipei City, Taiwan. A structured respiratory health questionnaire was administered in September 2007, followed by monthly measurement of nasal inflammation from October 2007 to November 2009. During the study period, daily concentrations of air pollutants were obtained from the Environmental Protection Administration monitoring station and the Aerosol Supersite. Mixed-effects models were applied to examine the association between air pollution and nasal inflammatory cells and mediators, including percentages of neutrophils, eosinophils, and monocytes in lavaged cells and interleukin-8. A total of 824 measurements were obtained from 100 participants over a period of 10 months. The level of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM(2.5)) was found to be associated with percentage of neutrophils (β = 3.45%, 95% confidence interval: 0.89, 6.01) and interleukin-8 level (β = 29.98 pg/mL, 95% confidence interval: 3.26, 56.69) in the nasal lavage on the day of exposure. In this longitudinal cohort study of schoolchildren, results indicated that exposure to PM(2.5) might induce nasal inflammation.</P>

Probability-based Tamper Detection Scheme for BTC-compressed Images Based on Quantization Levels Modification

Yu-Chen Hu,Chun-Chi Lo,Chang-Ming Wu,Wu-Lin Chen,Chia-Hsien Wen 보안공학연구지원센터 2013 International Journal of Security and Its Applicat Vol.7 No.3

A Self-adaptive Packet Scheduling Algorithm for Hybrid-traffic in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Wen Chen,Haixiang Yu,Wenbing Feng 보안공학연구지원센터 2014 International Journal of Future Generation Communi Vol.7 No.6

An integrate information technology model during earthquake dynamics

Chen-Yuan Chen,Ying-Hsiu Chen,Shang-En Yu,Yi-Wen Chen,Chien-Chung Li 국제구조공학회 2012 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.44 No.5

Applying Information Technology (IT) in practical engineering has become one of the most important issues in the past few decades, especially on internal solitary wave, intelligent robot interaction, artificial intelligence, fuzzy Lyapunov, tension leg platform (TLP), consumer and service quality. Other than affecting the traditional teaching mode or increasing the inter-relation with users, IT can also be connected with the current society by collecting the latest information from the internet. It is apparently a fashion-catching-up technology. Therefore, the learning of how to use IT facilities is becoming one of engineers’ skills nowadays. In addition to studying how well engineers learn to operate IT facilities and apply them into teaching, how engineers’ general capacity of information effects the results of learning IT are also discussed. This research introduces the “Combined TAM and TPB mode,” to understand the situation of engineers using IT facilities.

WHO IS THE MORE INFLUENTIAL DECISION-MAKER? : SPA TRAVEL IN BALI AIMING AT TAIWANESE AND MAINLAND CHINESE COUPLE TOURISTS

Wen-Yu Chen,Chia-Yuan Hsu,Magdalena Samidjen 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2014 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2014 No.5

Spa tourism is part of wellness tourism, which has been prosperously booming over the past decade. In accordance to the aforesaid, the spa-tourism-oriented marketing strategy is exceedingly significant for businesses akin to hotel, resort and even governments which aim at appealing to more tourists. For the future success, spa tourism needs to appreciate the changing demands of the spa market while providing enough capacity to satisfy them (Henderson, 2004). The worldwide spa industry revenue is growing up from US 60 billion in 2007 to US 73 billion in 2012 (Global Spa & Wellness Summit, 2012). Spa market is one of the fastest growing leisure markets both on the supply and demand sides. Nevertheless, spa industry is utterly fragmented with each segment catering for different customer needs (Harmsworth, 2004). Bali is a popular tourist destination renown for its nature beauty, which attracts both domestic and international tourists. Over the years, it has been dubbed as “the morning of the world”, “the last paradise” and “island with a thousand temples”. According to Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS, 2013), it was chosen as the most favorite tourist destination worldwide with a number of tourists totaled at 2,756,579. Among the foreign spa tourism patrons, Mainland Chinese tourists ranked the second while Taiwanese tourists being the fifth in ranking. CNN Travel (2012) reported that the Indonesian government estimated one million Mainland Chinese tourists would patronize the spa tourism in Bali by 2014. Regardless Mainland China and Taiwan are dual sovereignties which identically possess similar culture, there are still some aspects such as gender issue that distinguishes one from another. Furthermore, age, occupation, education, family structure, and life experience are some other aspects that differentiate Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese. In summation, the main objectives of this paper is threefold: (1) to compare the decision making process between Taiwanese and Chinese tourists, specifically, amid the wedded/unwedded couples; (2) to identify the most influential decision maker among the wedded-couple tourists/unwedded-couple tourists in Taiwan and Mainland China; (3) to assist travel agencies which aim at luring couple tourists to concoct the customized package tours. This research develops a quantitative survey for data collection, inference and the resulting data. The first part of questionnaire evaluates the influence regarding wedded / unwedded couples over how much influence each other have (problem recognition, information search, and a final decision) (Davis & Rigaux, 1974). The second part consists of fourteen sub-decisions: the destination (Bali), budget (how much money to spend), days (how much time to spend), accommodation (where to stay), and departure time (when to go) (Belch, Belch, & Ceresino, 1985; Szybillo & Sosanie, 1977); airline, restaurant, local transportation, shopping, travel agency, tour leader, tour guide, optional tour, and spa activities (Wang, Hsieh, & Huan, 2000; Heung & Chu, 2000) and the other kinds of activities (Jenkins, 1979) complete with five-point Likert scale, ranging from “no influence at all” to “all of the influence”. The third part provides some questions asking respondents regarding where they receive the information about Bali. The fourth part asking the respondents provide information such as frequency of visiting destination; how long have the couples been together and how the package tour was booked. Eventually, this questionnaire provides information related to socio-demographic variables, including gender, respondents’ age, occupation, monthly income, and the highest education level (Howard & Madrigal, 1990; Darley & Lim, 1986; Fodness, 1992). The ultimate version of the questionnaire items are refined through the purification process. Above all, this study invites three experts to examine the validity and reliability concerning the questionnaire. 350 valid questionnaires were collected (consists of 171 Taiwanese tourists and 179 Chinese tourists) which was adequate to questions only one spouse in summer period. There is merely one significant discrepancy exists between the wedded and unwedded couples in the decision-making stages, that is, “Information search” conducted under the joint decision making. The nature beauty and wellness services combined with evening entertainment are relatively satisfactory in Bali. During the check-in process, wellness tourists are supposed to be notified of all the spa-oriented services in the spa area. Overall, the satisfaction level of spa in Bali is exceedingly-high. With hindsight, customer service seems to be the greatest asset in Bali. The presented study is an unprecedented research focusing on the behavioral disparity between Taiwanese and Chinese spa tourists when it comes to decision-making stages. The results of this study unfurls the different decision making process between Taiwanese and Chinese couples; according to the research result, the unwedded couples possess more influence than the wedded couples in decision making stages. Moreover, the findings of this research do not entirely support earlier statement given by Tourism Queensland (2013), which mentioned considerable spa customers are female, married, and age approximately 34 to 52 year olds. According to our research, actually, men accounts for a quarter of spa users. The research result indicates the mini-tour is a niche business in the tourism industry that can both benefit Taiwan and Mainland China; mini-tour is a novel concept mentioned in a previous research, which focuses on seniors’ GPT (Wang et al., 2013). This study provides information concerning customer satisfaction level in Bali spa business and travel agency services. The sub-decisions regarding couple tourists are thoroughly researched. Therefore, this presented study can potentially bring benefits to all parties (spa prov

Design and Implementation of Multi-Level LLC Maximum Power Tracking PV System under Partial Shading Condition

Yu-Kai Chen,Yi-Chen Lai,Hong-Wen Hsu,Jui-Yang Chiu 전력전자학회 2019 ICPE(ISPE)논문집 Vol.2019 No.5

This paper presents the design and implementation of multi-level LLC DC/DC PV system with MPPT. The multi-level LLC converters include six LLC modules to supply  380V output voltage. LLC converter is adopted to achieve high efficiency because the low switching loss. The perturb in frequency is proposed to implement the global MPPT control algorithm for the PV system under partial shading condition. A 6kW MPPT prototype is implemented and verified the proposed control method for multi-level LLC DC/DC PV system.

The seasonal detection of AcSBV (Apis cerana sacbrood virus) prevalence in Taiwan

Yu-Shin Nai,Chong-Yu Ko,Pei-Shou Hsu,Wen-Shi Tsai,Yue-Wen Chen,Meng-Hao Hsu,I-Hsin Sung 한국응용곤충학회 2018 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.21 No.1

The epizootic disease caused by Apis cerana sacbrood virus (AcSBV) occurred in Eastern hive bee, A. cerana, since2015 in Taiwan. A large-scale survey of this disease from September and December 2016 in Taiwan was performedincluding symptom check and molecular identification in honey bees of A. cerana hives and several A. mellifera hives, which were co-cultured with A. cerana. Based on the nucleotide sequences of partial VP1, thephylogenetic analysis with those of the known AcSBV isolates revealed that most of AcSBV isolates from Taiwanwere closely relative to SBV-FZ and -JL isolates from China, whereas only one sample (N15-5-1) was in a distinctcluster, which was closely relative to SBV-LN from China too. The AcSBV prevalence was occurring in A. ceranahives in most areas of Taiwan except for those in Hualien and Pingtung Counties in Taiwan. Notably, the AcSBVprevalence rate showed the temporal increase from 47.1% to 69.6% within 4 months. In addition, 37.5% ofAcSBV prevalence rate was found in A. mellifera hives. It showed that A. mellifera was also susceptible to AcSBVinfection. The present results would provide the information on the epidemiology and for prospective research.

Competitive Hydrogen-Bonding-Induced Microphase Separation in Thermosets with Triblock Copolymer

Chen-Yu LIAO,Wen-Hua CHEN,Yeo-Wan CHIANG,Chih-Feng HUANG 한국고분자학회 2016 한국고분자학회 학술대회 연구논문 초록집 Vol.41 No.2