Professionals’ experiences and attitudes toward use of Traditional Chinese Medicine in hospice palliative inpatient care units: A multicenter survey in Taiwan

Yu-Jia Lin,Hsiao-Ting Chang,Ming-Hwai Lin,Ru-Yih Chen,Ping-Jen Chen,Wen-Yuan Lin,Jyh-Gang Hsieh,Ying-Wei Wang,Chung-Chieh Hu,Yi-Sheng Liou,Tai-Yuan Chiu,Chun-Yi Tu,Yi-Jen Wang,Bo-Ren Cheng,Tzeng-Ji Ch 한국한의학연구원 2021 Integrative Medicine Research Vol.10 No.2

Background: Medical staff may have difficulties in using conventional medicine to manage symptoms among terminally ill patients, including adverse effects of the treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is regarded as a complementary or alternative medicine, and has been increasingly used in the field of palliative medicine in recent years. This study aimed to investigate the experiences of and attitudes toward using TCM among palliative care professionals, and to provide preliminary information about its use in palliative care. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey study conducted in eight inpatient hospice wards in Taiwan between December 2014 and February 2016. The questionnaire was self-administered, and was analyzed with descriptive statistics including Pearson’s Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test. Results: A total of 251 palliative care professionals responded to the questionnaire, of whom 89.7% and 88.9% believed that the use of TCM could improve the physical symptoms and quality of life in terminally ill patients, respectively. Overall, 59.8%, of respondents suggested that TCM had rare side effects, and 58.2% were worried that TCM could affect the liver and kidney function of patients. In total, 89.7% and 88.0% of professionals agreed there were no suitable clinical practice guidelines and educational programs, respectively, for TCM use in palliative care. Conclusions: Most of the respondents agreed there was insufficient knowledge, skills-training, and continuing education on the use of TCM in terminally ill patients in Taiwan. These results show that to address patient safety considerations, guidelines about use of TCM in palliative care should be established.

A Multimodal Application Device of Clinical Tubing: Innovative Research and Development Focused on Healthcare Provider Perspectives and Patient Safety

Hsiao-Chuen Chen,Ya-Wen Li,Hao-Wen Chang,Malcolm Koo,Zu-Chun Lin 한국간호과학회 2023 한국간호과학회 학술대회 Vol.2023 No.11

The Mechanism of WEEE Recycling and Treatment in Taiwan

( Hsiao-kang Ma ),( Chun-lin Liu ) 한국폐기물자원순환학회 2011 ISWA Vol.2011 No.0

The Attractive Factors Analysis of Taiwanese Bed&Breakfast on Travel Web sites

Hsiao-li Lin,Kuohsiang Chen,Meng-dar Shieh,Chun-Heng Ho 세계문화관광학회 2010 Conference Proceedings Vol.11 No.0

Due to raising population of tourism and popular experiential tour, more and more people have invested in building their dreamlike Bed & Breakfast (B&Bs). However, B&B industry faces a tight situation because of the growth of B&Bs, especially on competitive travel website. In particular, we can find out a variety of B&Bs‘ images at the same page of travel websites At limited web space and a variety of competitors, how to attract consumers to click it is the primary issue. What kind of image, information, or keywords may influence customers’ decision? This study discusses the attractive factors of Taiwanese B&B on travel websites and the result information can help B&B hosts develop effective advertising and promotional plans. In this study, we chose 127 B&B images which show the first sight of B&Bs from travel websites. The research was divided into three steps. In the first step, Evaluation Grid Method (EGM) was applied to construct attractive factors of B&Bs from interviews. In the second st ep, the hierarchical diagram of EGM was further adopted to organize a questionnaire. A nd then, quantitative type I method was applied to analyze the data collected from the questionnaires. A total of 37 valid samples were collected in this experiment. The main impact factors of four attractiveness aspects of B&Bs information were obtained: "theme style" for " distinguishing characters " aspect, "reunion" for " leisure atmosphere ", "uni que style" for " style of B&B ", and " word of mouth‖. for "satisfaction" aspect. In the third step, cluster analysis was employed to identify the visitor groups as following: peo ple who like characteristic things and relax environment, people who enjoy interacting w ith their friends, family and B&B hosts, and people who are interesting in making com parison of B&Bs and book B&Bs online habitually. The findings of this study may assi st B&B host in promotion and advertising on travel websites more efficiency.

Effect of Free-range Rearing on Meat Composition, Physical Properties and Sensory Evaluation in Taiwan Game Hens

Lin, Cheng-Yung,Kuo, Hsiao-Yun,Wan, Tien-Chun Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2014 Animal Bioscience Vol.27 No.6

Experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of an outdoor-grazed raising model on meat composition, physical properties and sensory attributes of Taiwan game hens. Six hundred 1-d old female chicks were raised on a floor for 8 weeks. On day 57, 600 healthy birds, with similar body weight, were selected and randomly assigned to three treatment groups (cage, floor-pen and free-range). The results showed that different feeding models had no effect on drip loss, cooking loss, moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude ash, zinc and calorie contents in breast meat and moisture content in thigh meat. The free-range group had the lowest fat content in both breast and thigh meat, and the lowest calorie content in thigh meat. The firmness and toughness in both thigh and breast of the free-range group were the highest values (p<0.05). The crude protein, total collagen, zinc and iron contents in thigh meat and total collagen content in breast meat of the free-range group were significantly higher than those of the cage-feeding group (p<0.05). The meat sensory scores of flavor, chewiness and overall acceptability of both thigh and breast meat of the free-range group were significantly (p<0.05) better than those of the other two groups. Moreover, the current findings also indicate that the Taiwan game hens of the free-range feeding model displayed well-received carcass traits and meat quality, with higher scores for flavor, chewiness and overall acceptability for greater sensory satisfaction in both breast and thigh meat. In addition, the thigh meat contained high protein and total collage but low fat, offering a healthier diet choice.

A Systematic Review on the Use of Bundle Care to Reduce the Incidence of Ventilator- Associated Pneumonia

Hsiao-Chuen Chen,Malcolm Koo,Zu-Chun Lin 한국간호과학회 2023 한국간호과학회 학술대회 Vol.2023 No.11

Duration of Antimuscarinic Administration for Treatment of Overactive Bladder Before Which One Can Assess Efficacy: An Analysis of Predictive Factors

Sheng-Mou Hsiao,Chun-Hou Liao,Ho-Hsiung Lin,Hann-Chorng Kuo 대한배뇨장애요실금학회 2015 International Neurourology Journal Vol.19 No.3

Purpose: To determine the duration of antimuscarinic therapy for overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) appropriate for assessment of the efficacy of treatment, and to evaluate the possible predictive factors for response to therapy. Methods: All OAB patients who visited a urology outpatient clinic of a tertiary referral center and who were prescribed 5 mg of solifenacin or 4 mg of tolterodine extended release capsules daily were enrolled in the study. Patients were asked to continue therapy for 6 months. All enrolled patients completed the patient perception of bladder condition, overactive bladder symptom score (OABSS), and the modified Indevus Urgency Severity Scale questionnaires. All patients underwent uroflowmetry. Results: A total of 164 patients were enrolled and 125 patients (76%) had at least one follow-up visit. The mean follow-up interval was 1 month (range, 0.5–6 months). Sixty-two patients (49.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 40.7–58.5) responded to antimuscarinic treatment. The median time for the onset of response was 3 months (95% CI, 1–6). Multivariate Cox proportional- hazards model revealed that elevated baseline OABSS was an independent predictor of responsiveness to therapy. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed an optimal OABSS cutoff value of ≥7, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.79 (95% CI, 0.70–0.88; sensitivity, 91.9%; specificity, 60.7%). Conclusions: The median time for a therapeutic response was 3 months, and OABSS was the only predictor for responsiveness. These findings may serve as a guideline when prescribing antimuscarinic treatment for OAB patients.

Political Feasibility Analysis of the New Financing Scheme for the National Health Insurance Reform in Taiwan: An Application of Stakeholder Analysis

Chao-Yin Lin,Don-Yun Chen,I-Chun Liu,Naiyi Hsiao 한국사회복지학회 2010 Asian Social Work and Policy Review Vol.4 No.3

This study carries out in-depth political feasibility analysis of the prospective health financingreform currently taking place in Taiwan. The National Health Insurance (NHI) Program, whichwas established in Taiwan in 1995, covers virtually all of the island’s citizens. Between the years2001 and 2004, the Taiwanese Government organized a taskforce to carry out the wholesale reformof the NHI program into the so-called ‘Second Generation NHI Program’. This study is part of thecomprehensive review, focusing on the preferences and positions of key policy stakeholders withregard to the financial reform proposals, as well as their network relationships. The approach ofstakeholder analysis was employed to conduct this empirical study. The results reveal that the newfinancing scheme has a certain degree of support from the policy stakeholders participating in thisstudy, and that in particular, the measures concerning equity and sustainability were most welcome. However, controversy remains with regard to the issue of the equitable sharing of contributions. It is clear that there is much strong support for the new scheme amongst the administrativeand legislative elite, although the same level of support is not evident amongst the social eliteaffiliated with employees’ associations and welfare groups.

Implementation of the Land Surface Processes into a Vector Vorticity Equation Model (VVM) to Study its Impact on Afternoon Thunderstorms over Complex Topography in Taiwan

Chien-Ming Wu,Hsiao-Chun Lin,Fang-Yi Cheng,Mu-Hua Chien 한국기상학회 2019 Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences Vol.55 No.4

In this study, we aim to evaluate the impact of fast land-atmosphere interactions on the afternoon thunderstorm in Taiwan through high-resolution meteorological simulations. For this purpose, the Noah land surface model (LSM) is implemented into the vector vorticity equation cloud-resolving model (VVM) with corresponding realistic land surface data of Taiwan into the coupling system, called TaiwanVVM. Two idealized experiments are conducted by giving the same surface forcing but one with direct land-atmosphere coupling from Noah LSM (called Coupled experiment) and the other with prescribed surface fluxes (called Prescribed experiment). Our results show that the fast land-atmosphere interaction over complex topography has a significant influence on rainfall intensity, especially in the heavy precipitating region where the interaction is strong.Without direct coupling between the land surface and the atmosphere in the Prescribed experiment, the diurnal intensity is suppressed by 50%over whole Taiwan and 70% for East Taiwan. Our findings demonstrate that the intensity of the afternoon thunderstorm is sensitive to fast land-atmosphere interactions by modifying local circulation in the mountainous region of Taiwan.

Integration of in-situ load experiments and numerical modeling in a long-term bridge monitoring system on a newly-constructed widened section of freeway in Taiwan

Chiu, Yi-Tsung,Lin, Tzu-Kang,Hung, Hsiao-Hui,Sung, Yu-Chi,Chang, Kuo-Chun Techno-Press 2014 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.13 No.6

The widening project on Freeway No.1 in Taiwan has a total length of roughly 14 kilometers, and includes three special bridges, namely a 216 m long-span bridge crossing the original freeway, an F-bent double decked bridge in a co-constructed section, and a steel and prestressed concrete composite bridge. This study employed in-situ monitoring in conjunction with numerical modeling to establish a real-time monitoring system for the three bridges. In order to determine the initial static and dynamic behavior of the real bridges, forced vibration experiments, in-situ static load experiments, and dynamic load experiments were first carried out on the newly-constructed bridges before they went into use. Structural models of the bridges were then established using the finite element method, and in-situ vehicle load weight, arrangement, and speed were taken into consideration when performing comparisons employing data obtained from experimental measurements. The results showed consistency between the analytical simulations and experimental data. After determining a bridge's initial state, the proposed in-situ monitoring system, which is employed in conjunction with the established finite element model, can be utilized to assess the safety of a bridge's members, providing useful reference information to bridge management agencies.