Initial Factors Influencing Duration of Hospital Stay in Adult Patients With Peritonsillar Abscess

Yu-Hsi Liu,Hsing-Hao Su,Yi-Wen Tsai,Yu-Yi Hou,Kuo-Ping Chang,Chao-Chuan Chi,Ming-Yee Lin,Pi-Hsiung Wu 대한이비인후과학회 2017 Clinical and Experimental Otorhinolaryngology Vol.10 No.1

Objectives. To review cases of peritonsillar abscess and investigate the initial clinical factors that may influence the duration of hospitalization. To determine the predictive factors of prolonged hospital stay in adult patients with peritonsillar abscess. Methods. Subjects were adults hospitalized with peritonsillar abscess. We retrospectively reviewed 377 medical records from 1990 to 2013 in a tertiary medical center in southern Taiwan. The association between clinical characteristics and the length of hospital stay was analyzed with independent t-test, univariate linear regression and multiple linear regression analysis. Results. The mean duration of hospitalization was 6.2±6.0 days. With univariate linear regression, a prolonged hospital stay was associated with several variables, including female gender, older ages, nonsmoking status, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, band forms in white blood cell (WBC) counts, and lower hemoglobin levels. With multiple linear regression analysis, four independent predictors of hospital stay were noted: years of age (P<0.001), history of diabetes mellitus (P<0.001), ratio of band form WBC (P<0.001), and hemoglobin levels (P<0.001). Conclusion. In adult patients with peritonsillar abscess, older ages, history of diabetes mellitus, band forms in WBC counts and lower hemoglobin levels were independent predictors of longer hospitalization.

破碎重組 · 讀誤無誤 - 從認知學觀點淺談東方藝術中的歷史誤讀運用

洪郁喜(Hung, Yu-Hsi) 동서미술문화학회 2015 미술문화연구 Vol.6 No.6

History is a huge irregular-shaped collective; there were always a blind spot. We can only see part of the historical information, but couldn’t analyze the details via a single historical perspective. Historical evidence only exist at the time, doesn’t apply to any other time or space. When we use our intuition to explain what we see from historical evidence, it’s easy to fall into the quagmire of misreading. However, reconstruct broken history has become a situation couldn’t be avoided; also, misreading become a potentially inevitable incidence. Misreading in Literary Criticism of Deconstruction can be divided into “reading misunderstanding” and “misreading creation”. From the study of Cognitive Psychology, they divided misread into “arrangement of the wrong sequences”, “subjective bias” and “error-induced”. According to theories of Deconstruction and Cognitive Psychology, one’s based on experienced ink wash painting technique combine with new technology devices, use the quasi-imitation historical data to highlighting the evidence is in a situation of undoubtedly but uncertainly. Started from the rupture of a conventional image, juxtaposed the modern image then transformed. One’s attempts to reflect modern interpretation of vague state through art; also hope that when viewers are enjoying the work, can remind them that we encountered with many misreading situations in our life.

A Hybrid Dynamic Stabilization and Fusion System in Multilevel Lumbar Spondylosis

Li-Yu Fay,Chih-Chang Chang,Hsuan-Kan Chang,Tsung-Hsi Tu,Tzu-Yun Tsai,Ching-Lan Wu,Wen-Cheng Huang,Jau-Ching Wu,Henrich Cheng 대한척추신경외과학회 2018 Neurospine Vol.15 No.3

Objective: The Dynesys-Transition-Optima (DTO) hybrid system was designed to achieve arthrodesis and stabilization in patients with lumbar degeneration. Satisfactory outcomes were demonstrated previously. However, no study has evaluated the effects of using the DTO system in patients with lumbar spondylolisthesis or stenosis. Methods: This retrospective study included 35 consecutive patients with multilevel lumbar degeneration with or without spondylolisthesis who underwent surgery using the DTO system. Imaging studies included pre- and postoperative radiography, magnetic resonance imaging, and computed tomography. The clinical outcomes were measured by Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores, and a visual analogue scale (VAS) for back and leg pain. Results: Thirty patients (85.7%) with a mean age of 61.9 years completed the follow-up, with a mean duration of 35.1 months. There were 21 patients in the spondylolisthesis group and 9 in the stenosis group. The spondylolisthesis group had worse functional scores than the stenosis group preoperatively. After DTO surgery, all patients showed significant improvements in clinical outcomes, including VAS for back and leg pain, ODI, and JOA scores (p<0.05). There were no significant differences in clinical outcomes between the 2 groups. At a 2-year follow-up, lumbar alignment was well maintained in both groups (p=0.116). There were no significant differences in lumbar alignment between the 2 groups. Conclusion: During a follow-up period of over 2 years, both patients with spondylolisthesis and those with stenosis showed improvements and similar disability and pain scores after surgery using the DTO system. Lumbar alignment was also well maintained.

Mesenchymal Stem Cell Secreted-Extracellular Vesicles are Involved in Chondrocyte Production and Reduce Adipogenesis during Stem Cell Differentiation

Tsai Yu-Chen,Cheng Tai-Shan,Liao Hsiu-Jung,Chuang Ming-Hsi,Chen Hui-Ting,Chen Chun-Hung,Zhang Kai-Ling,Chang Chih-Hung,Lin Po-Cheng,Huang Chi-Ying F. 한국조직공학과 재생의학회 2022 조직공학과 재생의학 Vol.19 No.6

BACKGROUND: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are derived from internal cellular compartments, and have potential as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool in degenerative disease associated with aging. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have become a promising tool for functional EVs production. This study investigated the efficacy of EVs and its effect on differentiation capacity. METHODS: The characteristics of MSCs were evaluated by flow cytometry and stem cell differentiation analysis, and a production mode of functional EVs was scaled from MSCs. The concentration and size of EVs were quantitated by Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA). Western blot analysis was used to assess the protein expression of exosomespecific markers. The effects of MSC-derived EVs were assessed by chondrogenic and adipogenic differentiation analyses and histological observation. RESULTS: The range of the particle size of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs)- and Wharton’s jelly -MSCs-derived EVs were from 130 to 150 nm as measured by NTA, which showed positive expression of exosomal markers. The chondrogenic induction ability was weakened in the absence of EVs in vitro. Interestingly, after EV administration, type II collagen, a major component in the cartilage extracellular matrix, was upregulated compared to the EV-free condition. Moreover, EVs decreased the lipid accumulation rate during adipogenic induction. CONCLUSION: The results indicated that the production model could facilitate production of effective EVs and further demonstrated the role of MSC-derived EVs in cell differentiation. MSC-derived EVs could be successfully used in cell-free therapy to guide chondrogenic differentiation of ADSC for future clinical applications in cartilage regeneration.

Towards an Omni-directional Orientation Manipulation of Spherical Piezoelectric Motor: A Torque Vector Composition Method

Tai-Chi Hwang,Yu-Ting Sung,Yu-Hsi Huang,Chi-Ying Lin 제어로봇시스템학회 2021 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집 Vol.2021 No.10

This paper presents the application of a torque vector composition method realizing omni-directional rotor orientations for a novel standing wave spherical piezoelectric motor (SPM). The developed SPM system comprises four stators where each stator can provide three fundamental orientations or torque vectors implemented with the technique of electrode configuration. The concept of vector composition applied to the SPM system is illustrated with two stator actuation configurations: symmetrical and adjacent actuation stator pairs. The proposed method has the advantage of easy generation of new rotor orientations by adjusting the magnitude ratio of the excitation signals given to the stators. Composited vector analysis shows that the use of all stator pairs is able to offer omni-directional rotor orientations in the xy, yz, and xz planes. The estimated orientations in the experiments demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed torque vector composition method and the potentials of expanding omni-directional orientations to the whole 3D space with more than two actuating units.

Optimizing Production of Two Potential Probiotic Lactobacilli Strains Isolated from Piglet Feces as Feed Additives for Weaned Piglets

Chiang, Ming-Lun,Chen, Hsi-Chia,Chen, Kun-Nan,Lin, Yu-Chun,Lin, Ya-Ting,Chen, Ming-Ju Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2015 Animal Bioscience Vol.28 No.8

Two probiotic strains, Lactobacillus johnsonii x-1d-2 and Lactobacillus mucosae x-4w-1, originally isolated from piglet feces, have been demonstrated to possess antimicrobial activities, antibiotic resistances and interleukin-6 induction ability in RAW 267.4 macrophages in our previous study. These characteristics make L. johnsonii x-1d-2 and L. mucosae x-4w-1 good candidates for application in feed probiotics. In this study, soybeal meal, molasses and sodium acetate were selected to optimize the growth medium for cultivation of L. johnsonii x-1d-2 and L. mucosae x-4w-1. These two strains were then freeze-dried and mixed into the basal diet to feed the weaned piglets. The effects of L. johnsonii x-1d-2 and L. mucosae x-4w-1 on the growth performance and fecal microflora of weaned piglets were investigated. The results showed that the bacterial numbers of L. johnsonii x-1d-2 and L. mucosae x-4w-1 reached a maximum of 8.90 and 9.30 log CFU/mL, respectively, when growing in optimal medium consisting of 5.5% (wt/vol) soybean meal, 1.0% (wt/vol) molasses and 1.0% (wt/vol) sodium acetate. The medium cost was 96% lower than the commercial de Man, Rogosa and Sharpe medium. In a further feeding study, the weaned piglets fed basal diet supplemented with freeze-dried probiotic cultures exhibited higher (p<0.05) body weight gain, feed intake, and gain/feed ratio than weaned piglets fed basal diet. Probiotic feeding also increased the numbers of lactobacilli and decreased the numbers of E. coli in the feces of weaned piglets. This study demonstrates that L. johnsonii x-1d-2 and L. mucosae x-4w-1 have high potential to be used as feed additives in the pig industry.

Optimizing Production of Two Potential Probiotic Lactobacilli Strains Isolated from Piglet Feces as Feed Additives for Weaned Piglets

Ming-Lun Chiang,Hsi-Chia Chen,Kun-Nan Chen,Yu-Chun Lin,Ya-Ting Lin,Ming-Ju Chen 아세아·태평양축산학회 2015 Animal Bioscience Vol.28 No.8

Two probiotic strains, Lactobacillus johnsonii x-1d-2 and Lactobacillus mucosae x-4w-1, originally isolated from piglet feces, have been demonstrated to possess antimicrobial activities, antibiotic resistances and interleukin-6 induction ability in RAW 267.4 macrophages in our previous study. These characteristics make L. johnsonii x-1d-2 and L. mucosae x-4w-1 good candidates for application in feed probiotics. In this study, soybeal meal, molasses and sodium acetate were selected to optimize the growth medium for cultivation of L. johnsonii x-1d-2 and L. mucosae x-4w-1. These two strains were then freeze-dried and mixed into the basal diet to feed the weaned piglets. The effects of L. johnsonii x-1d-2 and L. mucosae x-4w-1 on the growth performance and fecal microflora of weaned piglets were investigated. The results showed that the bacterial numbers of L. johnsonii x-1d-2 and L. mucosae x-4w-1 reached a maximum of 8.90 and 9.30 log CFU/mL, respectively, when growing in optimal medium consisting of 5.5% (wt/vol) soybean meal, 1.0% (wt/vol) molasses and 1.0% (wt/vol) sodium acetate. The medium cost was 96% lower than the commercial de Man, Rogosa and Sharpe medium. In a further feeding study, the weaned piglets fed basal diet supplemented with freeze-dried probiotic cultures exhibited higher (p<0.05) body weight gain, feed intake, and gain/feed ratio than weaned piglets fed basal diet. Probiotic feeding also increased the numbers of lactobacilli and decreased the numbers of E. coli in the feces of weaned piglets. This study demonstrates that L. johnsonii x-1d-2 and L. mucosae x-4w-1 have high potential to be used as feed additives in the pig industry.

An Efficient Implementation of Mobile Raspberry Pi Hadoop Clusters for Robust and Augmented Computing Performance

( Kathiravan Srinivasan ),( Chuan-yu Chang ),( Chao-hsi Huang ),( Min-hao Chang ),( Anant Sharma ),( Avinash Ankur ) 한국정보처리학회 2018 Journal of information processing systems Vol.14 No.4

Rapid advances in science and technology with exponential development of smart mobile devices, workstations, supercomputers, smart gadgets and network servers has been witnessed over the past few years. The sudden increase in the Internet population and manifold growth in internet speeds has occasioned the generation of an enormous amount of data, now termed ‘big data’. Given this scenario, storage of data on local servers or a personal computer is an issue, which can be resolved by utilizing cloud computing. At present, there are several cloud computing service providers available to resolve the big data issues. This paper establishes a framework that builds Hadoop clusters on the new single-board computer (SBC) Mobile Raspberry Pi. Moreover, these clusters offer facilities for storage as well as computing. Besides the fact that the regular data centers require large amounts of energy for operation, they also need cooling equipment and occupy prime real estate. However, this energy consumption scenario and the physical space constraints can be solved by employing a Mobile Raspberry Pi with Hadoop clusters that provides a cost-effective, low-power, high-speed solution along with micro-data center support for big data. Hadoop provides the required modules for the distributed processing of big data by deploying map-reduce programming approaches. In this work, the performance of SBC clusters and a single computer were compared. It can be observed from the experimental data that the SBC clusters exemplify superior performance to a single computer, by around 20%. Furthermore, the cluster processing speed for large volumes of data can be enhanced by escalating the number of SBC nodes. Data storage is accomplished by using a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), which offers more flexibility and greater scalability than a single computer system.

An Efficient Implementation of Mobile Raspberry Pi Hadoop Clusters for Robust and Augmented Computing Performance

Srinivasan, Kathiravan,Chang, Chuan-Yu,Huang, Chao-Hsi,Chang, Min-Hao,Sharma, Anant,Ankur, Avinash Korea Information Processing Society 2018 Journal of information processing systems Vol.14 No.4

Rapid advances in science and technology with exponential development of smart mobile devices, workstations, supercomputers, smart gadgets and network servers has been witnessed over the past few years. The sudden increase in the Internet population and manifold growth in internet speeds has occasioned the generation of an enormous amount of data, now termed 'big data'. Given this scenario, storage of data on local servers or a personal computer is an issue, which can be resolved by utilizing cloud computing. At present, there are several cloud computing service providers available to resolve the big data issues. This paper establishes a framework that builds Hadoop clusters on the new single-board computer (SBC) Mobile Raspberry Pi. Moreover, these clusters offer facilities for storage as well as computing. Besides the fact that the regular data centers require large amounts of energy for operation, they also need cooling equipment and occupy prime real estate. However, this energy consumption scenario and the physical space constraints can be solved by employing a Mobile Raspberry Pi with Hadoop clusters that provides a cost-effective, low-power, high-speed solution along with micro-data center support for big data. Hadoop provides the required modules for the distributed processing of big data by deploying map-reduce programming approaches. In this work, the performance of SBC clusters and a single computer were compared. It can be observed from the experimental data that the SBC clusters exemplify superior performance to a single computer, by around 20%. Furthermore, the cluster processing speed for large volumes of data can be enhanced by escalating the number of SBC nodes. Data storage is accomplished by using a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), which offers more flexibility and greater scalability than a single computer system.

The Effect of the First Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis Event on the Mortality of Cirrhotic Patients with Ascites: A Nationwide Population-Based Study in Taiwan

( Tsung-hsing Hung ),( Chen-chi Tsai ),( Yu-hsi Hsieh ),( Chih-chun Tsai ),( Chih-wei Tseng ),( Kuo-chih Tseng ) 대한간학회 2016 Gut and Liver Vol.10 No.5

Background/Aims: Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) contributes to poorer short-term mortality in cirrhotic patients with ascites. However, it is unknown how long the effect of the first SBP event persists in these patients. Methods: The National Health Insurance Database, derived from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Program, was used to identify and enroll 7,892 cirrhotic patients with ascites who were hospitalized between January 1 and December 31, 2007. All patients were free from episodes of SBP from 1996 to 2006. Results: The study included 1,176 patients with SBP. The overall 30-day, 90-day, 1-year, and 3-year mortality rates in this group were 21.8%, 38.9%, 57.5%, and 73.4%, respectively. The overall 30-day, 90-day, 1-year, and 3-year mortality rates in the non-SBP group were 15.7%, 32.5%, 53.3%, and 72.5%, respectively. After adjusting for gender, age, and other medical comorbidities, the adjusted hazard ratios of SBP for 30-day, 30- to 90-day, 90-day to 1-year, and 1- to 3-year mortality were 1.49 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.30 to 1.71), 1.19 (95% CI, 1.02 to 1.38), 1.04 (95% CI, 0.90 to 1.20), and 0.90 (95% CI, 0.77 to 1.05), respectively, compared with the non-SBP group. Conclusions: The effect of SBP on the mortality of cirrhotic patients with ascites disappeared in those surviving more than 90 days after the first SBP event. (Gut Liver 2016;10:803-807)