Urodynamic and Bladder Diary Factors Predict Overactive Bladderwet in Women: A Comparison With Overactive Bladder-dry

Sheng-Mou Hsiao,Pei-Chi Wu,Ting-Chen Chang,Chi-Hau Chen,Ho-Hsiung Lin 대한배뇨장애요실금학회 2019 International Neurourology Journal Vol.23 No.1

Purpose: To identify factors predicting the presence of overactive bladder syndrome (OAB)-wet, compared with OAB-dry. Methods: Between September 2007 and September 2013, the medical records of 623 women with OAB who completed a 3-day bladder diary and underwent urodynamic studies in a medical center were retrospectively reviewed. OAB-wet was diagnosed in patients who complained of at least one episode of urgency incontinence in the previous month; otherwise, OABdry was diagnosed. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to predict the presence of OAB-wet. Results: Age (odds ratio [OR], 1.05; P<0.001), maximal flow rate (Qmax) (OR,1.06; P<0.001), voided volume (OR, 0.996; P=0.001), detrusor pressure at maximal flow rate (PdetQmax) (OR, 1.02; P=0.003), urgency episodes (OR, 1.04; P<0.001) and urodynamic stress incontinence (OR,1.78; P=0.01) were independent predictors for the presence of OAB-wet vs. OABdry. If we use bladder contractility index as a variable for multivariable logistic regression analysis, bladder contractility index (OR, 1.012; P<0.001) become an independent predictor for OAB-wet. Conclusions: A smaller bladder capacity and more frequent urgency episodes were predictors of OAB-wet, and the above findings indicate that OAB-wet and OAB-dry might be a continuum of OAB. Old age, high Qmax, high PdetQmax and urodynamic stress incontinence were also predictors for OAB-wet, and the above results reveal that OAB-wet and OAB-dry have partially different clinical and urodynamic features. Further studies might be performed to elucidate whether different treatment strategies between OAB-dry and OAB-wet can improve treatment efficacy.

Validation of Pharyngeal Acid Reflux Episodes Using Hypopharyngeal Multichannel Intraluminal Impedance-pH

Yen-Yang Chen,Chen-Chi Wang,Ying-Cheng Lin,John Y Kao,Chun-Yi Chuang,Yung-An Tsou,Ja-Chih Fu,Sheng-Shun Yang,Chi-Sen Chang,Han-Chung Lien 대한소화기 기능성질환∙운동학회 2023 Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility (JNM Vol.29 No.1

Background/AimsHypopharyngeal multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH (HMII-pH) technology incorporating 2 trans-upper esophageal sphincter impedance channels has been developed to detect pharyngeal reflux. We used the HMII-pH technique to validate the candidate pharyngeal acid reflux (PAR) episodes based on the dual-pH tracings and determined the interobserver reproducibility. MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study in tertiary centers in Taiwan. Ninety patients with suspected laryngopharyngeal reflux and 28 healthy volunteers underwent HMII-pH test when off acid suppressants. Candidate PAR episodes were characterized by pharyngeal pH drops of at least 2 units and reaching a nadir pH of 5 within 30 seconds during esophageal acidification. Two experts manually independently identified candidate PAR episodes based on the dual-pH tracings. By reviewing the HMII-pH tracings, HMII-pH-proven PAR episodes were subsequently confirmed. The consensus reviews of HMII-pH-proven PAR episodes were considered to be the reference standard diagnosis. The interobserver reproducibility was assessed. ResultsA total of 105 candidate PAR episodes were identified. Among them 84 (80.0%; 95% CI, 71.0-87.0%) were HMII-pH-proven PAR episodes (82 in 16 patients and 2 in 1 healthy subject). Patients tended to have more HMII-pH-proven PAR episodes than healthy controls (median and percentile values [25th, 75th, and 95th percentiles]: 0 [0, 0, 3] vs 0 [0, 0, 0], P = 0.067). The concordance rate in diagnosing HMII-pH-proven PAR episodes between 2 independent observers was 92.2%. ConclusionOur preliminary data showed that 80.0% (71.0-87.0%) of the proposed candidate PAR episodes were HMII-pH-proven PAR episodes, among which the interobserver reproducibility was good.

The Development of a 20MW PWM Driver for Advanced Fifteen-Phase Propulsion Induction Motors

Chi Sun,Sheng Ai,Liangdeng Hu,Yulin Chen 전력전자학회 2015 JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS Vol.15 No.1

Since the power capacity needed for the propulsion of large ships is very large, a multiphase AC induction propulsion mode is generally adopted to meet the higher requirements of reliability, redundancy and maintainability. This paper gives a detailed description of the development of a 20MW fifteen-phase PWM driver for advanced fifteen-phase propulsion induction motors with a special third-harmonic injection in terms of the main circuit hardware, control system design, experiments, etc. The adoption of the modular design method for the main circuit hardware design can make the enclosed mechanical structure simple and maintainable. It can also avoid the larger switch stresses caused by the multiple turn on of the IGBTs in conventional large-capacity converter systems. The use of the distributed controller design method based on a high-speed fiber-optic ring net for the control system can overcome such disadvantages as the poor reliability and long maintenance times arising from the conventional centralized controller which is designed according to point-to-point communication. Finally, the performance of the 20MW PWM driver is verified by experimentation on a new fifteen-phase induction propulsion motor.

On the direct insulator-quantum Hall transition in two-dimensional electron systems in the vicinity of nanoscaled scatterers

Liang, Chi-Te,Lin, Li-Hung,Kuang Yoa, Chen,Lo, Shun-Tsung,Wang, Yi-Ting,Lou, Dong-Sheng,Kim, Gil-Ho,Yuan-Huei, Chang,Ochiai, Yuichi,Aoki, Nobuyuki,Chen, Jeng-Chung,Lin, Yiping,Chun-Feng, Huang,Lin, Sh Springer 2011 Nanoscale research letters Vol.6 No.1

<P>A direct insulator-quantum Hall (I-QH) transition corresponds to a crossover/transition from the insulating regime to a high Landau level filling factor ν > 2 QH state. Such a transition has been attracting a great deal of both experimental and theoretical interests. In this study, we present three different two-dimensional electron systems (2DESs) which are in the vicinity of nanoscaled scatterers. All these three devices exhibit a direct I-QH transition, and the transport properties under different nanaoscaled scatterers are discussed.</P>

The Development of a 20MW PWM Driver for Advanced Fifteen-Phase Propulsion Induction Motors

Sun, Chi,Ai, Sheng,Hu, Liangdeng,Chen, Yulin The Korean Institute of Power Electronics 2015 JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS Vol.15 No.1

Since the power capacity needed for the propulsion of large ships is very large, a multiphase AC induction propulsion mode is generally adopted to meet the higher requirements of reliability, redundancy and maintainability. This paper gives a detailed description of the development of a 20MW fifteen-phase PWM driver for advanced fifteen-phase propulsion induction motors with a special third-harmonic injection in terms of the main circuit hardware, control system design, experiments, etc. The adoption of the modular design method for the main circuit hardware design can make the enclosed mechanical structure simple and maintainable. It can also avoid the larger switch stresses caused by the multiple turn on of the IGBTs in conventional large-capacity converter systems. The use of the distributed controller design method based on a high-speed fiber-optic ring net for the control system can overcome such disadvantages as the poor reliability and long maintenance times arising from the conventional centralized controller which is designed according to point-to-point communication. Finally, the performance of the 20MW PWM driver is verified by experimentation on a new fifteen-phase induction propulsion motor.

Multimorbidity Pattern and Risk for Mortality Among Patients With Dementia: A Nationwide Cohort Study Using Latent Class Analysis

Che-Sheng Chu,Shu-Li Cheng,Ya-Mei Bai,Tung-Ping Su,Shih-Jen Tsai,Tzeng-Ji Chen,Fu-Chi Yang,Mu-Hong Chen,Chih-Sung Liang 대한신경정신의학회 2023 PSYCHIATRY INVESTIGATION Vol.20 No.9

Objective Individuals with dementia are at a substantially elevated risk for mortality; however, few studies have examined multimorbidity patterns and determined the inter-relationship between these comorbidities in predicting mortality risk.Methods This is a prospective cohort study. Data from 6,556 patients who were diagnosed with dementia between 1997 and 2012 using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database were analyzed. Latent class analysis was performed using 16 common chronic conditions to identify mortality risk among potentially different latent classes. Logistic regression was performed to determine the adjusted association of the determined latent classes with the 5-year mortality rate.Results With adjustment for age, a three-class model was identified, with 42.7% of participants classified as “low comorbidity class (cluster 1)”, 44.2% as “cardiometabolic multimorbidity class (cluster 2)”, and 13.1% as “FRINGED class (cluster 3, characterized by FRacture, Infection, NasoGastric feeding, and bleEDing over upper gastrointestinal tract).” The incidence of 5-year mortality was 17.6% in cluster 1, 26.7% in cluster 2, and 59.6% in cluster 3. Compared with cluster 1, the odds ratio for mortality was 9.828 (95% confidence interval [CI]=6.708–14.401; p<0.001) in cluster 2 and 1.582 (95% CI=1.281–1.953; p<0.001) in cluster 3.Conclusion Among patients with dementia, the risk for 5-year mortality was highest in the subpopulation characterized by fracture, urinary and pulmonary infection, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, and nasogastric intubation, rather than cancer or cardiometabolic comorbidities. These findings may improve decision-making and advance care planning for patients with dementia.

A New Switching Strategy for Field Oriented Control of Motor Driver Using Multi-Dimensional Feedback Quantization Modulation

Jwu-Sheng Hu,Keng-Yuan Chen,Chi-Him Tang,Te-Yang Shen 전력전자학회 2011 ICPE(ISPE)논문집 Vol.2011 No.5

This work proposes a new switching strategy for field oriented control of a motor driver to minimize the power of filtered error induced by finite bit resolution of the gating signal. It is shown that the conventional space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) is a special case of the proposed general switching strategy which has infinite bit resolution within one input period. Another special case, multi-dimensional feedback quantization modulator: MDFQM, is proposed and compared with SVPWM. The experiments in this study compared mean-square-error of motor speed, switching number of the three-phase voltage source inverter, and current waveforms. The experimental results show that MDFQM can reduce the switching number as well as the heat dissipation of the power transistors.

miR-340 Reverses Cisplatin Resistance of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Lines by Targeting Nrf2-dependent Antioxidant Pathway

Shi, Liang,Chen, Zhan-Guo,Wu, Li-li,Zheng, Jian-Jian,Yang, Jian-Rong,Chen, Xiao-Fei,Chen, Zeng-Qiang,Liu, Cun-Li,Chi, Sheng-Ying,Zheng, Jia-Ying,Huang, Hai-Xia,Lin, Xiang-Yang,Zheng, Fang Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.23

Many chemotherapeutic agents have been successfully used to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, the development of chemoresistance in liver cancer cells usually results in a relapse and worsening of prognosis. It has been demonstrated that DNA methylation and histone modification play crucial roles in chemotherapy resistance. Currently, extensive research has shown that there is another potential mechanism of gene expression control, which is mediated through the function of short noncoding RNAs, especially for microRNAs (miRNAs), but little is known about their roles in cancer cell drug resistance. In present study, by taking advantage of miRNA effects on the resistance of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells line to cisplatin, it has been demonstrated that miR-340 were significantly downregulated whereas Nrf2 was upregulated in HepG2/CDDP (cisplatin) cells, compared with parental HepG2 cells. Bioinformatics analysis and luciferase assays of Nrf2-3'-untranslated region-based reporter constructor indicated that Nrf2 was the direct target gene of miR-340, miR-340 mimics suppressing Nrf2-dependent antioxidant pathway and enhancing the sensitivity of HepG2/CDDP cells to cisplatin. Interestingly, transfection with miR-340 mimics combined with miR-340 inhibitors reactivated the Nrf2 related pathway and restored the resistance of HepG2/CDDP cells to CDDP. Collectively, the results first suggested that lower expression of miR-340 is involved in the development of CDDP resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, at least partly due to regulating Nrf2-dependent antioxidant pathway.

Forensic-based investigation-optimized extreme gradient boosting system for predicting compressive strength of ready-mixed concrete

Chou Jui-Sheng,Chen Li-Ying,Liu Chi-Yun 한국CDE학회 2023 Journal of computational design and engineering Vol.10 No.1

Regulations mandate testing concrete’s compressive strength after the concrete has cured for 28 days. In the ideal situation, cured strength equals the target strength. Advanced estimation of concrete’s compressive strength can facilitate quality management, improve safety, and present economic advantages in sustainable use. Basic statistical methods cannot effectively predict concrete’s strength or its non-linear relationships with the proportions of its constituent materials. In this study, a baseline model for predicting concrete’s compressive strength was constructed using a state-of-the-art machine-learning method. Most related studies have used sets of concrete mix design results concerning concrete specimens for laboratory-produced concrete specimens as training sets and have obtained simple models through regression; however, these models have been unsuitable for onsite prediction of the compressive strength of concrete with the various mix designs. Control over mix proportions is high in laboratories, resulting in low variation; onsite manual operation and environmental factors cause significant variations in assessment data. In this study, machine-learning techniques and a newly developed metaheuristic optimization algorithm were applied to big long-term data from 75 concrete plants to construct the optimal machine-learning model. Our self-developed forensic-based investigation algorithm was employed to fine-tune the hyperparameters of the extreme gradient boosting model and to improve the model’s generalizability. The lowest mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) obtained using this model was 9.29%, which was smaller than the lowest MAPE achieved using the conventional simple regression with the water-to-binder (W/B) ratio (12.73%). The traditional method tends to overestimate the actual compressive strength. Finally, a convenient expert system was developed that facilitates the use of the proposed model by onsite engineers for quality management. This system expedites the judgment of whether a mixed design is reasonable, reducing production costs while maintaining the safety of concrete structures. It can be widely applied in practice and function as an effective decision-making tool.

Primary Aldosteronism and Cerebrovascular Diseases

Zheng-Wei Chen,Chi-Sheng Hung,Vin-Cent Wu,Yen-Hung Lin,TAIPAI study group 대한내분비학회 2018 Endocrinology and metabolism Vol.33 No.4

As diagnostic techniques have advanced, primary aldosteronism (PA) has emerged as the most common cause of secondary hypertension. The excess of aldosterone caused by PA resulted in not only cardiovascular complications, including coronary artery disease,myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, and heart failure, but also cerebrovascular complications, such as stroke and transient ischemicattack. Moreover, PA is associated more closely with these conditions than is essential hypertension. In this review, we present up-todate findings on the association between PA and cerebrovascular diseases.