Application of Assistive Technology

Shih-Ching Chen 한국재활복지공학회 2015 한국재활복지공학회 학술대회논문집 Vol.2015 No.11

Grasping the Pseudo-Cleft in the Case of a Small, Severely Tethered Posterior Mitral Leaflet

Ching-Wei Lee,Shih-Hsien Sung,Ting-Yung Chang,I-Lin Tsai,Chih-Po Hsu,Chun-Che Shih 대한심장학회 2017 Korean Circulation Journal Vol.47 No.4

Effects of Flipped Classroom on High- and Low-achievers’ English Vocabulary Learning

Shih-Ching Yang,Yeu-Ting Liu,Andrew Graeme Todd 아시아테플 2019 The Journal of Asia TEFL Vol.16 No.4

The flipped classroom, an approach that extends learning beyond the classroom, has been extensively and empirically researched in the science and math disciplines. However, whether the flipped classroom is feasible in senior high school education—where variation in student performance is of particular concern—has yet to be examined. In this light, this study set out to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the flipped classroom in high school education, and to compare its effects with conventional lecture-based instruction on high school students with different levels of foreign language (English) vocabulary knowledge. After six weekly sessions, it was found that both methods of instruction were effective in promoting vocabulary gains. However, the flipped classroom was better able to reduce variation among students in a multi-level class. Importantly, although both high and low achievers benefited from the flipped classroom instruction and were left with a positive attitude toward the additional workload it entailed, the effect of the flipped classroom seems to be more manifest in low achievers. Based on the above findings and the results of questionnaire data, the pedagogical implications are discussed.

Can Elderly Patients with Severe Mitral Regurgitation Benefit from Trans-catheter Mitral Valve Repair?

Ching-Wei Lee,Shih-Hsien Sung,Wei-Ming Huang,Yi-Lin Tsai,Hsiang-Yao Chen,Chiao-Po Hsu,Chun-Che Shih,Kuo-Piao Chung 대한심장학회 2019 Korean Circulation Journal Vol.49 No.6

Background and ObjectivesAge is a traditional risk factor for open-heart surgery. The efficacy and safety of transcatheter edge-to-edge mitral valve repair, using MitraClip (Abbott Vascular), has been demonstrated in patients with severe mitral regurgitation (MR). Since octogenarians or older patients are usually deferred to receive open-heart surgery, the main interest of this study is to elucidate the procedural safety and long-term clinical impact of MitraClip in elderly patients. MethodsPatients with symptomatic severe MR were evaluated by the heart team. For those with high or prohibitive surgical risks, transcatheter mitral valve repair was performed in hybrid operation room. Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), blood tests, and six-minute walk test (6MWT) were performed before, 1-month, 6-months, and 1 year after index procedure. ResultsA total of 46 consecutive patients receiving MitraClip procedure were enrolled. Nineteen patients (84.2±4.0 years) were over 80-year-old and 27 (73.4±11.1 years) were younger than 80. Compare to baseline, the significant reduction in MR severity was achieved after the procedure and sustained. All the patients benefited from significant improvement in New York Heart Association functional class. The 6-minute walk test (6MWT) increased from 259±114 to 319±92 meters (p=0.03) at 1 year. The overall 1-year survival rate was 80% in the elderly and 88% in those <80 years, p=0.590. Baseline 6MWT was a predictor for all-cause mortality (odds ratio, 0.99; 95% confidence interval, 0.982–0.999; p=0.026) after the MitraClip procedure. ConclusionsTrans-catheter edge-to-edge mitral valve repairs are safe and have positive clinical impact in subjects with severe MR, even in advanced age.

Efficiency Assessment of Road Project Delivery Models by Grey System Theory

Shih-Ching Lo KINFORMS 2009 Management Review Vol.4 No.1

In this study, four road project delivery models are analyzed by the grey relational analysis (GRA). The four models are design-bid-build (DBB), design-build (DB), construction management (CM) and designbuild-maintenance (DBM). Evaluating road project delivery models is difficult because the projects differ from road to road, state to state and country to country. Thus, the evaluation data of project delivery systems are poor and lacking. Therefore, grey relational analysis and grey entropy weighting method are considered to compare the efficiency of the four road project delivery models. Grey system theory is a multidisciplinary and generic theory dealing with systems characterized by poor information and/or for which information is lacking. According to the result, DBM is the best model. DBB is the worst one and DB is better than CM. The results may provide public sectors to employ an adequate model so as to proceed with road construction project.

Characterization of nanosized hydroxyapatite prepared by an aqueous precipitation method using eggshells and mulberry leaf extract

Wu Shih-Ching,Hsu Hsueh-Chuan,Liu Mei-Yi,Ho Wen-Fu 한국세라믹학회 2021 한국세라믹학회지 Vol.58 No.1

Hydroxyapatite (HA) has been vigorously studied for orthopedic and dental applications due to its excellent bioactivity, osteoconductivity, and osteoinductivity. This study aims to present a simple room-temperature aqueous precipitation method for obtaining carbonated HA nanoparticles of high purity from biowaste chicken eggshells. Biowaste chicken eggshells were used for preparing HA through aqueous precipitation method. Moreover, mulberry leaf extract was used as a template to regulate the morphology, size, and crystallinity of HA. All produced nanocrystalline HA powders exhibited rod-like particle agglomerates of a size below 100 nm. The HA particles synthesized with the mulberry leaf extract showed higher crystallinity and slightly decreased crystallite sizes compared to the samples prepared without adding the extract. Carbonate peaks observed for the specimens closely matched those of A- and B-type carbonates, which can contribute to the low crystallinity. Notably, the HA synthesized from the eggshell powders contains several important trace elements such as Mg and Sr, which are benefi cial to the overall biological performance as biomaterials. The morphology, size, structure, and composition of the obtained HA products are similar to those of natural bones, and consequently, the products show potential as a material for biomedical applications.

Survive the climate variability?

I-Ching Chen,Sheng-Feng Shen,Shih-Fan Chan 한국응용곤충학회 2013 한국응용곤충학회 학술대회논문집 Vol.2013 No.10

Climate and its variability characterize abiotic environment for species on the earth. Increased seasonality in higher latitude and/or pronounced diurnal temperate range in higher ground as well as decreasing mean temperature are major climate gradients to which organisms must adapt through physiological and behavioral plasticity. IPCC AR5 pointed out that climate variability and its regional behavior remain top concerns, which may well pose great challenges to climate change biology. We use Nicrophorus nepalensis (Coleoptera: Silphidae) a wide-distributed burying beetle in low latitude Asia as model species to investigate possible impacts of climate variability on species performance. N. nepalensis is a scavenging species exploring carcasses for feeding and reproduction. To consider their breeding performance, we baited N. nepalensis by small mouse carcasses and measured the rate at which they successfully buried the carcasses into soil. We look at climate variability along elevational gradients of intact forest and open habitats exposure to agricultural activities. The probability of successful breeding is higher in intact forest than that in open habitat with unimodal fashion of peak at 1800m. We found that local climate variability, more specifically, the diurnal temperature range (DTR), impedes successful breeding of N. nepalensis. Despite variable environmental conditions associated with habitat opening, such as increased soil density, reduced leaf litter amount and relative humidity, enlarged DTR seems to be the principal cause of failure. The negative effects of greater DTR on breeding success were confirmed by laboratory experiments. DTR remains stable in primary forests, in contrast to its increase in more disrupted habitats along the same transect. Reducing vegetation cover exposes mountains to radiant heating, a trend with significant elevational effect, resulting in large DTR in high lands. Although N. nepalensis is widely distributed in the mountain areas, non-forest patches support only part of their life cycle, different function groups to support decomposition process at open habitats are expected. Climate change and habitat degradation are among the major drivers of biodiversity loss. Our study highlights land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) in altering local temperature variability and reinforces the concern of its interplay with climate change.

Hydroxyapatite prepared from eggshell and mulberry leaf extract by precipitation method

Wu, Shih-Ching,Hsu, Hsueh-Chuan,Hsu, Shih-Kuang,Liu, Mei-Yi,Ho, Wen-Fu Techno-Press 2019 Biomaterials and Biomechanics in Bioengineering Vol.4 No.1

Eggshell is a waste material after the usage of egg. In this work, biowaste chicken eggshells were used for preparing carbonated hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles of high purity through aqueous precipitation method at room temperature. The eggshell-derived HA will be a cost-effective bioceramics for biomedical applications and an effective material-recycling technology. Additionally, mulberry leaf extract was used as a template to regulate the morphology, size and crystallinity of HA, and the effects of pH value were also examined. Characterization of the samples was performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to determine the size, shape and morphology of HA. The results indicate that only one phase of HA were synthesized in the both absence and presence of mulberry leaf extract at pH of 7 and above, while DCPD or DCPA/DCPD phase was observed at pH 4 condition. The crystallite sizes of the HA samples obviously decreased when adding mulberry leaf extract as a template, while they decreased gradually as the solution pH levels increased. With increasing pH level from 7 to 14, the rod-like HA nanoparticles gradually changed to spherical shape at pH 14. Note that, the obtained product is Mg and Sr containing A- and B-type carbonate HA at alkaline pH and it can be a potential material for biomedical applications.

A Real-Time Fuzzy Reasoning Based Control System for Catching a Moving Goldfish

Chao-Ching Ho,Ching-Long Shih 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2009 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.7 No.5

Designing a real-time visual tracking system to catch a goldfish is a complex task because of the large amount of streaming video data that must be transmitted and processed immediately when tracking the goldfish. Usually, building such visual servoing systems requires the application of high-cost specialized hardware and the development of complicated visual control software. In this paper, a novel low-cost, real-time visual servo control system is presented. The system uses stereo vision consisting of two calibrated cameras to acquire images of the goldfish, and applies the continuously adaptive mean shift (CAMSHIFT) vision-tracking algorithm to provide feedback of a fish’s real-time position at a high frame rate. It then employs a 5-axis robot manipulator controlled by a fuzzy reasoning system to catch the fish. This visual tracking and servoing system is less sensitive to lighting influences and thus performs more efficiently. Experiments with the proposed method yielded very good results, as the system’s real-time 3D vision successfully tracked two fish and guided the manipulator, which has a net attached to its end effector, to catch one of them.

Harm Avoidance is Correlated with the Reward System in Adult Patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Tsung-Hua Lu(Tsung-Hua Lu),Shih-Hsien Lin(Shih-Hsien Lin),Mei Hung Chi(Mei Hung Chi),Ching-Lin Chu(Ching-Lin Chu),Dong-Yu Yang(Dong-Yu Yang),Wei Hung Chang(Wei Hung Chang),Po See Chen(Po See Chen),Yen 대한정신약물학회 2023 CLINICAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE Vol.21 No.1

Objective: Hypoactivity in the reward system among patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a well-known phenomenon. Whether the activity in the reward pathway is related to harm avoidance, such as in sensitivity to punishment, is unclear. Evidence regarding the potential difference between ADHD patients and controls in terms of this association is scarce. Methods: Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was conducted on subjects performing the Iowa gambling test. Fourteen adults with ADHD and 14 controls were enrolled in the study. Results: Harm avoidance was found to be positively correlated with the activities of the bilateral orbitofrontal cortex and right insula in individuals with ADHD. A group difference was also confirmed. Conclusion: Understanding the roles of harm avoidance and brain activation during risk tasks is important.