Respiratory symptoms among schoolchildren of Taiwan: Environmental, dietary and lifestyle risk factors

Tsai, Hsin-Jen University of Michigan 2006 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

The goal of this study was to assess the prevalence of asthma and respiratory symptoms among children in metropolitan Taipei, Taiwan, and the associated effects of residential, dietary, and lifestyle factors. Fifth grade schoolchildren in two school districts with the highest and lowest yearly concentration of particulate matter (< 10 mum diameter) in ambient air were used in the study. A structured child questionnaire was used to elicit the pupils' experiences of asthma and respiratory symptoms and to gather information on the characteristics of their residential environment, dietary pattern, and lifestyle. A parental questionnaire was used to confirm the children's responses. Among the 2218 schoolchildren, 9.8% reported having physician-diagnosed asthma. The prevalence of respiratory symptoms ranged from 9.8% for wheezing with cold to 40.5% for exercise-induced cough. The residential factors, including chemical vapors, gas leaks, dampness, cockroaches, and pets increased the risk of respiratory symptoms and asthma (all P<0.05). Frequent consumption of sweetened beverages, eggs, and meat were positively associated with the occurrence of respiratory symptoms and suspected asthma, whereas frequent consumption of soy products, fruits, seafood, and dairy were negatively associated with respiratory symptoms (all P<0.05). Overweight and extended TV-watching time were associated with increased risk of respiratory symptoms, while frequent physical exercise was associated with lower risk of respiratory symptoms (all P<0.05). Schoolchildren with doctor-diagnosed asthma had higher percentages of absenteeism and poor quality of life (all P<0.05). Parents reported fewer experiences of respiratory symptoms among their children compared to the children's reports. In general, the children's reports showed more sensitivity to the respiratory symptoms, but the parents' reports were better reflector of measures of symptoms specificity. The results suggest that in addition to residential factors, dietary and lifestyle factor significantly play a role in respiratory health of children. Consumption of food, such as sweetened beverages and eggs, increase the risk of respiratory illness, which may be due to food allergens or the stimulating effect of cold beverage. In contrast, the beneficial effects of soy products and fruit may be due to isoflavone or antioxidant components. Overweight increases the risk of respiratory symptoms partly due to physiological changes, whereas appropriate physical exercise raises the threshold for diseases. The study further suggests that weight status, sedentary life, and frequency of physical exercise together have a strong moderating influence on the respiratory health of children.

Family social networks: Taiwanese immigrant parents' homeschooling experiences

Tsai, Tsai Fu The University of Oklahoma 2008 해외공개박사

Probing the home school experiences of immigrant families in western society yielded valuable information regarding root causes of decisions about education and how the families obtained educational information, via social interaction, to support home schooling efforts. Very few empirical studies were found that explored the experiences of home schooling, immigrant families. This study explored, in-depth, how Taiwanese immigrant parents who home schooled their children, specifically in the Southwestern United States, interacted with others to access information and acquire resources essential for their home schooling efforts. How the parents determined curricula and fostered the development of their children's mother tongue was also explored. A snowball technique was employed in order to locate five Taiwanese immigrant families to take part in the study. Social capital and sociocultural theory were utilized as conceptual frameworks and rigorous qualitative analytical techniques employed a case study approach to collect, interpret and analyze data. Data were created and gathered from three different data sets. Each participant's home school experiences were recorded from semi-structured telephone interviews. Additional sources included demographic questionnaires, teaching artifacts, students' work samples, and documents that were collected to triangulate trustworthiness. Once interview data were text-coded, all participants were requested to review their answers to ascertain accuracy of the information. Data were analyzed qualitatively. As overarching themes emerged, inter-coder reliability was assessed to validate the coding. There are several reasons behind the parents' decisions to home school ranging from instructional self-efficacy to wanting their children to be more competitive academically. Findings suggest that these families actively joined home school associations, attended conferences and meetings to socialize with others, built social networks, and accessed social capital. Children interviewed were fluent in both English and Chinese, and they believed that they could concentrate on their academics and compete in this relatively foreign culture with parental assistance. Implications and recommendations are made for educators and policy makers. Furthermore, this record of these immigrants' home school experiences detailing how they successfully garnered social capital for social and instructional needs and some perceived difficulties are offered for current and prospective immigrant home schoolers to use as a reference.

Determinants of consumer confidence: Am I sure what I want as a consumer?

Tsai, I-Wen The University of Chicago 2007 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

My dissertation research investigates the causes and effects of confidence judgments. I refer to confidence as people's impression of the accuracy of their judgment or choice. This research is based on the insight that confidence in a choice or an estimate is based on an ensemble of cues that are imperfectly correlated with the accuracy of the original, primary judgment. This means that, under some conditions, accuracy and confidence will become dissociated and this can lead to poor decisions and maladaptive choices. Two important classes of cues that determine people's confidence are properties of the information available in making a judgment and metacognitive cues, that is, the judge's subjective evaluation of the mental processing that goes into forming the judgment or decision. In Part I and Part III of my dissertation, I focus on how the properties of information affect confidence and accuracy, including the amount of information available and the judges' impression of its usefulness. Results show that when judges acquire additional information, they feel more confident only if they perceive the new information to be diagnostic (Tsai, Klayman, and Hastie, 2006). In Part II, I generalize the findings in Part I by systematically replicating the studies in Part I using a consumer domain (DVD purchase) and explore the differences in confidence between factual judgments and preference predictions. In Part III, I also describe future research questions on other major determinants of confidence-accuracy divergence and outline possibilities for further investigation for the effects of metacognitive judgments, including the amount of mental processing that goes into a decision, the ease or fluency of processing the available information, and how effective the processing is.

Three-dimensional behavior of remolded overconsolidated clay

Tsai, Jaime Irong University Microfilms International 1985 국내박사

Integrated CO2 absorption and mineralization by calcinated-oyster shell waste

Tsai, Hsiang En Graduate School, Yonsei University 2023 국내석사

The recent west coast of South Korea is also designated as one of the environmental jurisdictions by the Korean Environmental Protection Agency due to the excessive discharge of oyster shell waste due to a large number of aquaculture products. In many research fields, the regeneration of waste clams into high-quality calcium carbonate has recently been considered a renewable energy source. It is the heat generated by the incineration of waste citrus shells (CaCO3), which can be converted into renewable energy for use. Simultaneously, the combustion process can cause air pollution due to carbon dioxide production to prevent this problem from happening. CO2 produced during the process can be captured using CCUS technology and stored in calcium carbonate as the final product. In this study, calcined shell CaO was hydrated and prepared as a Ca(OH) 2 liquid absorbent. Calcium carbonate is produced by the mineral carbonation process plus CO2, and the best conditions for producing high-purity light calcium carbonate are obtained. Therefore, in this study, NaOH was used as an additive to promote the CO2 absorption reaction, and the initial CO2 absorption rate was compared. It confirms that NaOH reagent is more effective in fixing CO2. Therefore, this study aimed to improve the quality of precipitated calcium carbonate. A comparative analysis of NaOH concentration evaluates the relationship between carbonated aqueous solutions and pH. At this point, the sample added with 0.75M NaOH showed the highest CO2 capture capacity (1.7909 Ca(OH) 2 mol/mol absorbent). It effectively improves the CO2 absorption performance because the pH value increases with NaOH. SEM or XRD confirmed calcium carbonate crystals. Finally, we report an increase in CO2 absorption from 85% to 95%.

Constitution and corruption : semi-presidentialism in Taiwan and South Korea

Tsai, Jung-Hsiang UMI 2006 국내박사

Chinese settlement of Mongolian lands : Manchu policy in inner Mongolia / a case study of Chinese migration in Jerim league

Tsai, Sheng Luen UMI 1983 국내박사

A comparative analysis of two taiwanese documentaries : unlucky number and twelve nights

Tsai Pei Hsuan Hongik University, Graduate School 2019 국내석사

In 2015, Taiwan amended a law in Animal Protection Act, trying to halt the law that permitted euthanasia to be applied if stray animals remained in animal shelters over 12 days; it had still not been adopted by 2017. The amendment was promoted by a Taiwanese documentary Twelve Nights, which was released in 2013 and struck a chord with Taiwanese society, even indirectly affecting the amendment of the Animal Protection Act. A new Taiwanese documentary lists many outstanding ecocinemas; Green Team produced several documentaries dealing with the environmental movement in the 1980s. T.V. Reed classified ecocinema ecocriticism into five categories: Conservationist ecocriticism, Ecological ecocriticism, Biocentric / Deep ecocriticism, Ecofeminism ecocriticism and Environmental justice ecocriticism. Based on the article The development of Taiwanese documentaries on environmental issues, written by Taiwanese ecocinema director Ko Chin-Yuan and published in his blog in 2013, ecocinema can be classified into: Record of environment, Environmental movement, Protests against nuisance, and Custom and tradition. The two documentaries analyzed in this study focus on the stray animal issue in Taiwan, therefore they fall under Record of environment documentary in accordance with Ko’s classification. The two documentaries analyzed in this study: Unlucky Number (2011) and Twelve Nights (2013) were produced in the same social background, and deal with the same issues: stray animals and animal shelters, along with the techniques and aesthetic elements applied in the documentaries. The similarities and differences are also the focus of analysis. The point of view in the documentary is another subject of analysis, including techniques applied to support it. The kinds of aesthetic elements used in the films are still another point to be focused on. To take Unlucky Number as an example, director Liao Ching-Yiao tries to tell the story from the aspect of stray animals instead of humans. The aesthetic techniques he applied in order to make the audience think from another perspective are also a concern in this study.

Biographies of the most influential twentieth century trumpet players in Asia

Tsai, Shao-Chun ProQuest LLC 2016 국내박사

OPTIMAL DIFFERENTIATION OF TAX RATES AND OPTIMAL BASE DEFINITION IN NONPOINT POLLUTION CONTROL (POLICY INSTRUMENTS)

TSAI, KUO-PING THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY 1997 해외박사