First Experience: Citizens' Perception, Participation, and Evaluation of the New Legislative Electoral System in Taiwan

Yu, Ching-Hsin Center for Asian Public Opinion Research Collabora 2013 Asian journal for public opinion research Vol.1 No.1

In 2008, Taiwan adopted a new mixed member system which is significantly different from the long-implemented SNTV-MMD system for the election of legislators. The new system cuts the number of legislative seats from 225 to 113, extends legislators' terms of office from three years to four, and most importantly, adopts a new mixed-member majoritarian (MMM) electoral system to replace the SNTV system for legislative elections. The election of legislators in 2008 was the first time that this new mixed electoral system was implemented in Taiwan. Mainstream literature continues to discuss the electoral impact on political parties and candidates by the new system while citizens' knowledge of the new system and its concomitant effects on citizens' behavior receive less attention. Worse still, almost all of the literature assumes that voters were fully aware of the operation and impact of the new electoral system and cast their ballots wisely. The purpose of this paper is to explore citizen's perceptions, participation and evaluation of this new system.

Research on the WIP-based Dispatching Rules for Photolithography Area in Wafer Fabrication Industries

( Yu Hsin Lin ),( Chih Hung Tsai ),( Ching En Lee ),( Chung Ching Chiu ) 한국품질경영학회 2007 The Asian Journal on Quality Vol.8 No.2

Constructing an effective production control policy is the most important issue in wafer fabrication factories. Most of researches focus on the input regulations of wafer fabrication. Although many of these policies have been proven to be effective for wafer fabrication manufacturing, in practical, there is a need to help operators decide which lots should be pulled in the right time and to develop a systematic way to alleviate the long queues at the bottleneck workstation. The purpose of this study is to construct a photolithography workstation dispatching rule (PADR). This dispatching rule considers several characteristics of wafer fabrication and influential factors. Then utilize the weights and threshold values to design a hierarchical priority rule. A simulation model is also constructed to demonstrate the effect of the PADR dispatching rule. The PADR performs better in throughput, yield rate, and mean cycle time than FIFO (First-In-First-Out) and SPT (Shortest Process Time).

Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Receptor-α Subunit Targeting Suppresses Metastasis in Advanced Thyroid Cancer In Vitro and In Vivo

( Ching-ling Lin ),( Ming-lin Tsai ),( Yu-hsin Chen ),( Wei-ni Liu ),( Chun-yu Lin ),( Kai-wen Hsu ),( Chien-yu Huang ),( Yu-jia Chang ),( Po-li Wei ),( Shu-huey Chen ),( Li-chi Huang ),( Chia-hwa Lee 한국응용약물학회 2021 Biomolecules & Therapeutics(구 응용약물학회지) Vol.29 No.5

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy. Patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancers, such as papillary and follicular cancers, have a favorable prognosis. However, poorly differentiated thyroid cancers, such as medullary, squamous and anaplastic advanced thyroid cancers, are very aggressive and insensitive to radioiodine treatment. Thus, novel therapies that attenuate metastasis are urgently needed. We found that both PDGFC and PDGFRA are predominantly expressed in thyroid cancers and that the survival rate is significantly lower in patients with high PDGFRA expression. This finding indicates the important role of PDGF/PDGFR signaling in thyroid cancer development. Next, we established a SW579 squamous thyroid cancer cell line with 95.6% PDGFRA gene insertion and deletions (indels) through CRISPR/Cas9. Protein and invasion analysis showed a dramatic loss in EMT marker expression and metastatic ability. Furthermore, xenograft tumors derived from PDGFRA geneedited SW579 cells exhibited a minor decrease in tumor growth. However, distant lung metastasis was completely abolished upon PDGFRA gene editing, implying that PDGFRA could be an effective target to inhibit distant metastasis in advanced thyroid cancers. To translate this finding to the clinic, we used the most relevant multikinase inhibitor, imatinib, to inhibit PDGFRA signaling. The results showed that imatinib significantly suppressed cell growth, induced cell cycle arrest and cell death in SW579 cells. Our developed noninvasive apoptosis detection sensor (NIADS) indicated that imatinib induced cell apoptosis through caspase-3 activation. In conclusion, we believe that developing a specific and selective targeted therapy for PDGFRA would effectively suppress PDGFRA-mediated cancer aggressiveness in advanced thyroid cancers.

Research on the WIP-based Dispatching Rules for Photolithography Area in Wafer Fabrication Industries

Lin, Yu-Hsin,Tsai, Chih-Hung,Lee, Ching-En,Chiu, Chung-Ching The Korean Society for Quality Management 2007 The Asian Journal on Quality Vol.8 No.2

Constructing an effective production control policy is the most important issue in wafer fabrication factories. Most of researches focus on the input regulations of wafer fabrication. Although many of these policies have been proven to be effective for wafer fabrication manufacturing, in practical, there is a need to help operators decide which lots should be pulled in the right time and to develop a systematic way to alleviate the long queues at the bottleneck workstation. The purpose of this study is to construct a photolithography workstation dispatching rule (PADR). This dispatching rule considers several characteristics of wafer fabrication and influential factors. Then utilize the weights and threshold values to design a hierarchical priority rule. A simulation model is also constructed to demonstrate the effect of the PADR dispatching rule. The PADR performs better in throughput, yield rate, and mean cycle time than FIFO (First-In-First-Out) and SPT (Shortest Process Time).

Time-moving Metaphors and Ego-moving Metaphors: Which Is Better Comprehended by Taiwanese?

( Hsin Mei Huang May ),( Ching Yu Hsieh Shelley ) 한국언어정보학회 2007 학술대회 논문집 Vol.2007 No.-

This is a semantic pilot study which concentrates on how people in Taiwan process the temporal metaphors, ego-moving metaphor and time-moving metaphor. Motivated by the research of Gentner, Imai, and Boroditsky (2002) in which the English native speakers comprehend ego-moving metaphors faster than time-moving metaphors, the present study attempts to reexamine whether the faster reaction to ego-moving metaphors is shared by both the Chinese native speakers and EFL learners. To achieve the goals, 25 Chinese/English bilinguals are invited to be examined via the16 Chinese and 16 English test sentences. The recordings of their accuracy on each item are served as the databases used to compare with the study of Gentner, Imai, and Boroditsky (2002). The two finding presented here are: (1) when the subjects tested in their native language, Chinese, they process ego-moving metaphors better. (2) when tested in the foreign language, English, they conceptualize time-moving metaphors much better.

새로운 다수제적 혼합제도에 대한 대만 시민의 인식도 -코호트 분석

( Chi Huang ),( Ching Hsin Yu ),( Yi Ching Hsiao ) 한국선거학회 2011 선거연구 Vol.1 No.2

선거제도는 투표를 의석으로 전환하는 규칙을 제공하며, 그에 따라 선거에서 누가 승리하고 패배하는가를 결정한다. 선거제도가 정치에서 수행하는 역할에 의문을 던지는 사람은 별로 없을 것이다. 그러나 기존 연구는 일반 시민들이 선거제도를 어떻게 인식하고 이해하고 있는가 (특히 선거제도가 근본적 변화를 경험하고 있는 이행기 동안에) 라는 질문에 대해서 이상하게도 침묵을 지키고 있다. 대만의 선거제도 개혁 경험은 이러한 빈 공간을 채울 수 있는 좋은 기회를 제공해 준다. 대만은 2008년에 의원 선거제도를 변화시켰는데, 지난 50년간 지속되어 왔던 단기비이양식(SNTV) 제도에서 다수제적 혼합선거제도 (MMM)로 바꿨다. 새로운 다수제적 혼합선거제도는 전체 의석 수, 선거구 크기, 선거 공식, 그리고 투표 구조 등에 있어서 과거의 단기비이양식 제도와 상당히 달랐다. 이 글은 새로운 선거제도를 소개하고 이 제도전반에 대한 시민들의 인식도를 알아보고자 한다. 또한 이 글에서는 시민들의 선거제도에 대한 지식이 2008년 선거 이전과 이후에 어떻게 변화했는지 살펴본다. 두 선거 제도 사이에 상당한 차이가 존재하기 때문에, 먼저 새로운 제도에 대한 시민들의 전반적 지식을 조사한다. 그 다음 설문조사 자료를 사용하여, 선거 기간과 비선거 기간 사이에 시민들의 지식 변화를 고찰한다. 분석 결과에 따르면, 다수의 시민들이 새로운 다수제적 혼합선거제도의 주요 구성 요인에 대해 완전히 이해하지 못하고 있다. 특히, 최소 조건에 대한 조항이 가장 적은 관심을 받고 있다. 더 나아가, 새로운 선거제도에 대한 시민들의 지식은 선거 모멘텀에 영향을 받아, 선거일이 다가옴에 따라 지식이 올라가고 선거일 이후에는 감소하는 것으로 나타났다. 마지막으로, 보다 구체적인 코호트 분석을 통해 시민들 중에 어떤 집단이 선거제도 변화와 관련된 정보를 가장 잘 획득하는지를 고찰한다. 본 연구 결과는 선거제도 지식에 대한 선거 주기 가설을 부분적으로 지지해준다. Electoral systems provide the rules of translating votes into seats and thus decide who wins and loses in elections. Few would doubt the critical roles that electoral systems play in politics. Yet current literature is curiously silent about how ordinary citizens perceive and understand the electoral system, especially during the transition period when the system is undergoing fundamental changes. The experiences of electoral reform in Taiwan provide an opportune case to fill up this gap. Taiwan transformed its legislative electoral system from a half-century long SNTV (single non-transferable vote) system to a MMM (mixed-member majoritarian) electoral system in 2008. The new MMM system is a sharp departure from the original SNTV system in the total number of legislative seats, the district magnitude, electoral formula, and ballot structure. This essay intends to introduce the new MMM system and explore citizens` awareness of the new MMM system in general. Also, it explores the changes of citizens` knowledge of the new electoral system before and after the 2008 legislative election. Given the significant differences between the SNTV system and the MMM system, it firstly tests of citizens` overall knowledge of the new MMM system. Then, with the help of survey data, it examines the changes of citizens` knowledge in election periods and non-election periods. The findings show a majority of citizens are not fully aware of the institutional components of the new MMM system. In particular, the threshold regulation receives the least attention by citizens. Furthermore, it finds that citizens` knowledge of the new MMM system is a function of electoral momentum, i.e., citizens` knowledge rises as the election date approaches and declines after the election date. Then we proceed with a more detailed cohort analyses to examine which groups of citizens are more likely to pick up information related to the electoral system changes. Our findings partially support our electoral cycle hypothesis of electoral system knowledge.

Design for Control : Temperature Uniformity in Rapid Thermal Processor

Huang, Ian,Liu, Hsin Heng,Yu, Cheng Ching 한국화학공학회 2000 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.17 No.1

It is well known that the design of the heating source imposes an inherent limitation on the performance of the rapid thermal processor (RTP). In this work, the similarities and differences between flat and angled reflectors are studied. The discontinuous characteristic of the angled reflector can be used to compensate for the edge heat loss of the thin wafer and, consequently, a better temperature uniformity can be achieved. A design procedure is proposed to place the lamp ring as well as the angle of the reflectors. For the control system design, the measurement selection criterion of Huang et al. is employed to find candidate measurement sets followed by a structured singular value criterion. Once the control structure is determined, multivariable temperature controllers are designed according to the internal model control (IMC) principle. From process insight, a fairly simple nonlinear compensation is also devised. Simulation results show that, while only half of the thermal budget is used, improved temperature uniformity can be obtained by using the proposed approach.

Ginsenoside compound K reduces the progression of Huntington's disease via the inhibition of oxidative stress and overactivation of the ATM/AMPK pathway

Kuo-Feng Hua,A-Ching Chao,Ting-Yu Lin,Wan-Tze Chen,Yu-Chieh Lee,Wan-Han Hsu,Sheau-Long Lee,Hsin-Min Wang,Ding-I. Yang,Tz-Chuen Ju 고려인삼학회 2022 Journal of Ginseng Research Vol.46 No.4

Background: Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by the expansion oftrinucleotide CAG repeat in the Huntingtin (Htt) gene. The major pathogenic pathways underlying HDinvolve the impairment of cellular energy homeostasis and DNA damage in the brain. The protein kinaseataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) is an important regulator of the DNA damage response. ATM isinvolved in the phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), suggesting that AMPK plays acritical role in response to DNA damage. Herein, we demonstrated that expression of polyQ-expandedmutant Htt (mHtt) enhanced the phosphorylation of ATM. Ginsenoside is the main and most effectivecomponent of Panax ginseng. However, the protective effect of a ginsenoside (compound K, CK) in HDremains unclear and warrants further investigation. Methods: This study used the R6/2 transgenic mouse model of HD and performed behavioral tests,survival rate, histological analyses, and immunoblot assays. Results: The systematic administration of CK into R6/2 mice suppressed the activation of ATM/AMPK andreduced neuronal toxicity and mHTT aggregation. Most importantly, CK increased neuronal density andlifespan and improved motor dysfunction in R6/2 mice. Conversely, CK enhanced the expression of Bcl2protected striatal cells from the toxicity induced by the overactivation of mHtt and AMPK. Conclusions: Thus, the oral administration of CK reduced the disease progression and markedlyenhanced lifespan in the transgenic mouse model (R6/2) of HD.

Quantitative phosphoproteomic analysis identifies the potential therapeutic target EphA2 for overcoming sorafenib resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Chih-Ta Chen,Li-Zhu Liao,Ching-Hui Lu,Yung-Hsuan Huang,Yu-Kie Lin,Jung-Hsin Lin,Lu-Ping Chow 생화학분자생물학회 2020 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.52 No.-

Limited therapeutic options are available for advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinoma owing to its poor diagnosis. Drug resistance to sorafenib, the only available targeted agent, is commonly reported. The comprehensive elucidation of the mechanisms underlying sorafenib resistance may thus aid in the development of more efficacious therapeutic agents. To clarify the signaling changes contributing to resistance, we applied quantitative phosphoproteomics to analyze the differential phosphorylation changes between parental and sorafenib-resistant HuH-7 cells. Consequently, an average of ~1500 differential phosphoproteins were identified and quantified, among which 533 were significantly upregulated in resistant cells. Further bioinformatic integration via functional categorization annotation, pathway enrichment and interaction linkage analysis led to the discovery of alterations in pathways associated with cell adhesion and motility, cell survival and cell growth and the identification of a novel target, EphA2, in resistant HuH-7R cells. In vitro functional analysis indicated that the suppression of EphA2 function impairs cell proliferation and motility and, most importantly, overcomes sorafenib resistance. The attenuation of sorafenib resistance may be achieved prior to its development through the modulation of EphA2 and the subsequent inhibition of Akt activity. Binding analyses and in silico modeling revealed a ligand mimic lead compound, prazosin, that could abate the ligand-independent oncogenic activity of EphA2. Finally, data obtained from in vivo animal models verified that the simultaneous inhibition of EphA2 with sorafenib treatment can effectively overcome sorafenib resistance and extend the projected survival of resistant tumor-bearing mice. Thus our findings regarding the targeting of EphA2 may provide an effective approach for overcoming sorafenib resistance and may contribute to the management of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Clinical Features of Patients with Esophageal and Second Primary Cancers

Tsai, Huang-Wen,Chang, Chih-Chun,Sun, Jen-Tang,Liou, Ching-Biau,Lin, Hsiu-Chen,Lin, I-Hsin,Yu, Yun-Chieh,Weng, Wei-Ling,Leong, Ka-I,Yen, Tzung-Hai,Wu, Jiann-Ming Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.22

Background: The prevalence of esophageal cancer (EC) with second primary cancers (SPC) is increasing worldwide. This study was aimed to understand the clinical features of EC patients with SPC in the Taiwanese population. Materials and Methods: Clinical and laboratory data for 180 EC patients with or without SPC were collected between January 2009 and December 2013. Information on treatment approaches, location of SPCs and ABO blood type were also collected and stratified. Results: The most common SPC in EC patients was hypopharyngeal cancer, followed by laryngeal cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma in our study. Malignancies of colon, prostate and lung were also found. There was a significant higher portion of blood type A in the EC patients with SPC compared with those without (42.4% vs 19.5%, P=0.006). Conclusions: The frequency and SPC site distribution and blood type A should be considered in clinical evaluation of EC patients with a high risk of developing SPC in the Taiwanese population.