Preconcentration-enhanced Immunosensing for Whole Human Cancer Cell Lysate based on a Nanofluidic Preconcentrator

Hsuan Franziska Wu,Tamara G. Amstislavskaya,Pin-Hsuan Chen,Ting-Feng Wu,Yu-Hung Chen,Chun-Ping Jen 한국바이오칩학회 2016 BioChip Journal Vol.10 No.3

Sample preconcentration is an important step that increases the accuracy of subsequent detection, especially for samples with extremely low concentrations. Due to the overlap of electrical double layers in a nanofluidic channel, the concentration polarization effect can be generated by applying an electric field. A nonlinear electrokinetic flow is induced, which results in the fast accumulation of proteins in front of the induced ionic depletion zone, the so-called exclusion- enrichment effect. In this way, a protein sample can be driven by electroosmotic flow and accumulated at a specific location. In the present study, a nanofluidic preconcentrator fabricated with the help of junction gap electric breakdown was integrated with microelectrodes for immunoassay. The preconcentration chip for proteins was fabricated using simple standard soft lithography with a polydimethylsiloxane replica. Human galectin-1 proteins from the cell lysate of T24 cells were concentrated and immunoassayed in the proposed microchip. The capability of the proposed microchip for concentrating multiple proteins from cell lysates and immunoassays after preconcentration was demonstrated. Immunosensing was evaluated by measurements of both fluorescence intensities and impedance, which proved the enhancement of preconcentration for immunoassay.

Dexamethasone regulates the development and connexin43 expression of rat preantral follicles

( Shiao-hsuan Yang ),( Chueh-ko Yang ),( Cheng-hsuan Wu ),( Horng-der Tsai ) 대한산부인과학회 2016 대한산부인과학회 학술대회 Vol.102 No.-

Objectives: Corticorsterone has been shown to inhibit luteinizing hormone production and the receptors had been found in the follicles. Ovarian follicles represent the basic functional unit of the ovary. In the study we had evaluated the effect of synthetic glucocorticoids dexamethasone (DEX) on the growth (the increase in size), differentiation and connexin 43 of intact preantral follicles in a serum-free culture system. Materials and methods: Preantral follicles with two layer granulosa cells and intact membrane were dissected mechanically from the ovaries of 24-day-old rats and cultured for 72 hours with or without recombinant human follicle- stimulating hormone (FSH) in the presence or absence of increasing concentrations of glucocorticoids. To assess growth rates, follicles were cultured for 72 hours and analyzed for follicle diameter and follicle cell numbers changes. After 72 hours, the follicles were collected and their connexin 43 and inhibin-α contents were determined. Results: Follicles cultured in the absence of FSH grew slowly (around 10% in diameter). Treatment of the follicles with FSH induced an increase in both of follicle size, follicular cell number, and follicle cell differentiation based on increased inhibin-α synthesis. When follicles were cultured with a constant dose of FSH (100 mIU/ml) and increasing doses of dexamethasone (DEX) (0.001-1 μg/ml), the growth rate was reduced by 18-83%. The inhibitory effect by DEX was concentration dependent. The addition of DEX (0.1 μg/ml) decreased FSH-induced follicle cell number. This decrease was associated with decreased expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), and inhibin-α, a differential marker of preantral follicle. The DEX-induced decrease in the inhibin-α content was also associated with decreased expression of the connexin 43. Conclusion: These results demonstrated that DEX is able to attenuate the FSH-stimulated preantral follicle development.

Copper recovery via polyelectrolyte enhanced ultrafiltration followed by dithionite based chemical reduction: Effects of solution pH and polyelectrolyte type

Chou, Yi-Hsuan,Choo, Kwang-Ho,Chen, Shiao-Shing,Yu, Jui-Hsuan,Peng, Ching-Yu,Li, Chi-Wang Elsevier 2018 Separation and purification technology Vol.198 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>A chemical reduction process was proposed to recover copper from the retentate of polyelectrolyte enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF). Three polyelectrolytes (PSS, PAA, and PEI) containing various functional groups and molecular weights were studied to explore their effects on the copper removal in PEUF and on the copper recovery by chemical reduction under various pH conditions. With PSS which contains sulfonic group, copper was removed reasonably well (ca. 75%) by PEUF even under acidic pH value of 3. With PAA which contains carboxylic group, copper removal was a bit low (∼60%) under pH 3.0 but increased substantially at pH 4.0. A branched PEI having amine group achieved the highest Cu removal of 94% at pH 3. The copper removal efficiency decreased slightly with increasing pH due to the high permeation of PEI through membrane.</P> <P>Chemical reduction achieved the complete copper recovery for solution containing PSS. The copper recovery efficiencies were more than 95% for PAA solution with pH values ranging from 3 to 9 at reaction time of one hour. For PEI, the recovery efficiencies ranged from 20 to 96% and were pH dependent. Aggregated and settled readily copper particles were produced by chemical reduction in PSS solution. XRD analysis identified cuprous oxide in all of the samples. Dependent of pH and polyelectrolytes, additional peaks matching those of elemental copper were identified. TGA analysis showed that solids produced from PSS and PAA systems contained no polyelectrolytes while solid collected from PEI system contained 32% of polyelectrolyte.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Polyelectrolytes with different functional groups and MW were applied in PEUF. </LI> <LI> Effects of polyelectrolytes and pH on the reduction of copper were studied. </LI> <LI> Both Cu<SUB>2</SUB>O and Cu<SUP>0</SUP> were identified by XRD analysis of solids obtained. </LI> </UL> </P>

Generalized Pustular Eruption in a Patient with Adult-Onset Immunodeficiency Due to Anti-Interferon-Gamma Autoantibodies

Hsuan-An Su,Hong-An Chen,Shu-Hui Wang,Yu-Chia Chen 대한피부과학회 2023 Annals of Dermatology Vol.35 No.-

Revamping the funding formula for special education programs in Taiwan

Hsuan-fu Ho,Pi-Yu Chen 서울대학교 교육연구소 2011 Asia Pacific Education Review Vol.12 No.1

The purpose of this study was to determine the services required by students in special education programs and to estimate the cost of adequately funding special education in Taiwan. Questionnaires were administered to 300 special education teachers at the elementary school level to identify the services required. Thereafter, two focus group interviews were organized to determine the service categories and their cost. The results show that the costs for special education programs vary significantly according to severity of disability, and the weighting for mildly, moderately, and severely disabled students was found to be 3.7, 4.5, and 5.2, respectively. The costs also vary significantly according to the category of disability, and the weighting was found to range from 3.6 for emotionally disabled students and to 5.9 for hearing impaired students. These findings suggest that the current special education funding formula in Taiwan, which ignores these cost differences, should be revamped.

IPO Underwriting and Subsequent Lending

Hsuan-Chi Chen,Li-Ping Chen,Keng-Yu Ho,Pei-Shih Weng 한국재무학회 2012 한국재무학회 학술대회 Vol.2012 No.09

This study investigates the relation between IPO underwriting and subsequent lending. We find that when a bank underwrites a firm’s IPO, the bank is more likely to provide the issuer with future loans at a lower cost, compared to banks without an IPO underwriting relationship. The evidence also suggests that the underwriting banks share information surplus with the IPO firms in the post-IPO loans, supporting the cost-saving hypothesis. Finally, when borrowing firms are more satisfied with the IPO outcomes, they are more likely to retain their underwriting banks as subsequent lenders. We find no evidence that underwriting banks would exploit such satisfaction by charging higher interest rates in the post-IPO loans.

Multi-Response Optimization and Investigations of Al-Steel Lap-Joint Performance Using a Novel MIG Weld-Brazing Technique

Hsuan-Liang Lin,Wei-Hsiang Huang 한국정밀공학회 2022 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.23 No.9

The multiple quality characteristics (QCs) of aluminum (Al) alloy to galvanized (GA) steel lap-joint specimens were optimized in a novel metal inert gas (MIG) weld-brazing process, which using the hybrid shielding gas involve helium (He) and argon (Ar). The MIG weld-brazing technique offer a great potential for dissimilar metal joining such as Al and steel, which combines the advantages of fusion welding and brazing process. The grey-based Taguchi method was employed to solve the multi-response optimization problems in this study, which integrated the grey relational analysis and Taguchi method. It obtains the optimal parameters that considered with multiple QCs such as wettability and tensile strength of Al-steel lap-joint specimens. The experimental results demonstrated that the amount of pores of specimens that produced by adding 3% He gas to Ar-based gas is less than other hybrid shielding gas. Confirmation experiments revealed that the tensile strength of Al-steel lap-joint specimens was up to 208.2 MPa. The experimental procedure proposed by the authors improved the wettability and tensile strength of Al-steel lap-joint specimens simultaneously. The average thickness of intermetallic compounds layer between the Al fusion zone and GA steel surface that used optimal MIG weld-brazing parameters is 6.27 μm proximately.

Three-Level Bi-Directional Half-Bridge CLLC Resonant Converter for DC Micro-Grid

Hsuan-Yu Yueh,Jing-Yuan Lin,Haung-Jen Chiu,Chen-Yen Chu,Yu-Chen Chang,Sih-Yi Lee 전력전자학회 2019 ICPE(ISPE)논문집 Vol.2019 No.5

A Three-Level Bi-Directional Half-Bridge CLLC Resonant DC-DC converter for DC micro-grid application is studied on this paper, which uses dual resonant tanks to achieve wide range voltage regulation and meanwhile employs bi-directional capability. All power switches on this converter can achieve ZVS function at the whole load and the voltage stress on all power switches at both sides can be clamped at half of input voltage and output voltage since the three-level circuit architecture using the proposed synchronous rectifier (SR) control, therefore, the voltage stresses of the transformer, resonant tanks, power switches and other components are only half compared with conventional half-bridge CLLC resonant converter, the downsizing rated of components selection can be more flexible. Finally, the laboratory prototype is built to verify the performance of voltage balancing on input/output capacitor, voltage stress on switches and efficiency, the measured efficiency can be up to 95.6% over different load conditions.

Downlink Interference Mitigation for Multi-user MIMO by utilizing user scheduling and power allocation

HsuanLi Lin,ChingYao Huang 대한전자공학회 2009 ITC-CSCC :International Technical Conference on Ci Vol.2009 No.7

In multi-user cellular multiple-input-multiple -output (MIMO) system, the high capacity achieved by spatial multiplexing scheme may face strong co-channel interference. In order to fulfill stringent spectral efficiency requirement, we exploit multi-user diversity and adaptive power control to approach universal frequency reuse in the interference-limited system. The max-min-eigenchannel-rescue (MmER) methodology is proposed, which composed by a fair multi-user scheduling algorithm and an efficient adaptive power allocation. Analysis shows that MmER methodology extends the cell range of a cellular MIMO system.

Optimization of weld bead geometry in the activated GMA welding process via a grey-based Taguchi method

Hsuan-Liang Lin,Jia-Ching Yan 대한기계학회 2014 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.28 No.8

We optimized the weld bead geometry of 6061 aluminum alloy welds pre-coated with activating flux before gas metal arc (GMA)welding. In this activated GMA welding process, there were five single component fluxes used in the initial experiment to evaluate thepenetration capability of bead-on-plate GMA welds. Based on the higher penetration of weld bead, two single component fluxes wereselected to create mixed component flux in next stage. The grey-based Taguchi method was employed to obtain the optimal weldingparameters that were considered with multiple quality characteristics such as penetration, depth-to-width ratio (DWR) and fusion area ofGMA welds. The experimental procedure of the proposed approach not only increases penetration of 6061 aluminum alloy welds, butalso improves the DWR and fusion area of GMA butt-joint welds simultaneously.