The Emergency Medical Services Sleep Health Study: A cluster-randomized trial.

Background: Greater than half of emergency medical services (EMS) clinician shift workers report poor sleep, fatigue, and inadequate recovery between shifts. We hypothesized that EMS clinicians randomized to receive tailored sleep health education would have improved sleep quality and less fatigue compared to wait-list controls after 3 months.

Methods: We used a cluster-randomized, 2-arm, wait-list control study design (clinicaltrials.

Exploring Risk Factors of Unexpected Death, Using Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) Measures, among Terminal Patients Receiving Palliative Care in Taiwan.

Palliative care has the ability to relieve both physical discomfort and psychological distress in terminally ill patients. However, unexpected death may still occur in palliative care settings. This study aimed to utilize Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) data to better determine any associated factors which may surround unexpected death in palliative care settings.

The Preliminary Efficacy of a Sleep Self-management Intervention Using a Personalized Health Monitoring Device during Pregnancy.

: Sleep disturbances are common during pregnancy and are associated with the development of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Personal health monitors (PHM) can facilitate change in health behaviors, though few studies have examined their use in improving sleep during pregnancy. This pilot study aimed to characterize sleep changes during pregnancy in women participating in a self-management intervention using a PHM.

Effect of Silver Dopants on the ZnO Thin Films Prepared by a Radio Frequency Magnetron Co-Sputtering System.

Ag-ZnO co-sputtered films at various atomic ratios of Ag (Ag/(Ag + Zn) at.%) were prepared by a radio frequency magnetron cosputtering system, using the co-sputtered targets of Ag and ZnO. The activation of the Ag acceptors (Ag) and the formation of the Ag aggregations (Ag⁰) in the ZnO matrix were investigated from XRD, Raman scattering, and XPS measurements.

Origin of the Electroluminescence from Annealed-ZnO/GaN Heterojunction Light-Emitting Diodes.

This paper addressed the effect of post-annealed treatment on the electroluminescence (EL) of an -ZnO/-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diode (LED). The bluish light emitted from the 450 °C-annealed LED became reddish as the LED annealed at a temperature of 800 °C under vacuum atmosphere. The origins of the light emission for these LEDs annealed at various temperatures were studied using measurements of electrical property, photoluminescence, and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) depth profiles.

Cultural ergonomics in interactional and experiential design: conceptual framework and case study of the Taiwanese twin cup.

Cultural ergonomics is an approach that considers interaction- and experience-based variations among cultures. Designers need to develop a better understanding of cultural ergonomics not just to participate in cultural contexts but also to develop interactive experiences for users. Cultural ergonomics extends our understanding of cultural meaning and our ability to utilize such understanding for design and evaluate everyday products.

Selection and Characterization of DNA Aptamers Targeting All Four Serotypes of Dengue Viruses.

Dengue viruses (DENVs) are members of Flaviviridae family, which are associated with human disease. The envelope (E) protein plays an important role in viral infection. However, there is no effective antibody for clinical treatment due to antibody dependent enhancement of infection.

Genomic single nucleotide polymorphisms in the offspring of gastric cancer patients predispose to spasmolytic polypeptide-expressing metaplasia after H. pylori infection.

Background: Gastric cancer exhibits familial clustering, and gastric cancer familial relatives (GCF) tend to present with corpus-predominant gastritis and precancerous lesions as SPEM or IM after H. pylori infection. The study determined whether the children of gastric cancer patients (GCA) had genomic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) predisposed to the gastric precancerous lesions as spasmolytic polypeptide-expressing metaplasia (SPEM) or intestinal metaplasia (IM).

The corpus-predominant gastritis index may serve as an early marker of Helicobacter pylori-infected patients at risk of gastric cancer.

Background: To eradicate Helicobacter pylori before the occurrence of precancerous changes is important to prevent gastric carcinogenesis.

Aim: To validate whether the corpus-predominant gastritis index (CGI) can serve as an early marker to identify the H. pylori-infected patients at risk of gastric carcinogenesis.

Factors influencing intentions to use social recommender systems: a social exchange perspective.

This study employs the perspective of social exchange theory and seeks to understand users' intentions to use social recommender systems (SRS) through three psychological factors: trust, shared values, and reputation. We use structural equation modeling to analyze 221 valid questionnaires. The results show that trust has a direct positive influence on the intention to use SRS, followed by shared values, whereas reputation has an indirect influence on SRS use.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering imaging of a single molecule on urchin-like silver nanowires.

Urchin-like silver nanowires are prepared by reacting AgNO(3)(aq) with copper metal in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium chloride and HNO(3)(aq) on a screen-printed carbon electrode at room temperature. The diameters of the nanowires are about 100 nm, and their lengths are up to 10 μm. Using Raman spectroscopy, the detection limit of Rhodamine 6G (R6G) on the urchin-like silver nanowire substrate can be as low as 10(-16) M, while the analytical enhancement factor is about 10(13).

The basis of phase dominance.

Phase dominance is a phenomenon that has been widely observed in imaging, visual perception, and other technical areas. Here we show for general images that phase dominance, in terms of exchanging the spectral amplitude and phase of two images, is simply explained by the expected mean square error.

Effects of Fourier-plane amplitude and phase errors on image reconstruction. I. Small amplitude errors.

The effects of Fourier-plane, or spectral, amplitude and phase errors on reconstructed images are studied in terms of the expected mean square error in the image. The relationship between the variance of amplitude and phase errors and the expected mean square error is derived for small amplitude errors and arbitrarily large phase errors. This allows "equivalent" amplitude and phase errors to be defined.

Growth of Cu nanobelt and Ag belt-like materials by surfactant-assisted galvanic reductions.

We demonstrate the syntheses of single crystalline Cu nanobelt and Ag belt-like materials via CTAC-assisted (CTAC, cetyltrimethylammonium chloride) galvanic reductions. The single crystalline face-centered cubic phase Cu nanobelt was prepared by reacting CuCl2(aq) with Al(s) in an aqueous solution of CTAC and HNO3. The Cu nanobelt exhibited a high-quality ribbon-like nanostructure with a thickness less than 15 nm, a width of 30-150 nm, and a length up to 10 microm.

Prevalence of intestinal infection due to Cryptosporidium species among Taiwanese patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Background/purpose: Cryptosporidiosis causes significant morbidity and mortality in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients who do not receive highly active antiretroviral therapy. Related data on cryptosporidiosis in Taiwanese HIV-infected patients are very limited. This study assessed the prevalence of intestinal infection due to Cryptosporidium spp.

Image spectral amplitude distributions.

Models for the probability density functions of the Fourier amplitude of images are derived. The densities are based on a simple model of an image made up of independent objects and incorporates the observed behavior of the circularly averaged power spectrum versus spatial frequency. The density function over all spatial frequencies gives a good fit to spectral amplitude data from a variety of images.

Electrical and mechanical fully coupled theory and experimental verification of Rosen-type piezoelectric transformers.

A piezoelectric transformer is a power transfer device that converts its input and output voltage as well as current by effectively using electrical and mechanical coupling effects of piezoelectric materials. Equivalent-circuit models, which are traditionally used to analyze piezoelectric transformers, merge each mechanical resonance effect into a series of ordinary differential equations. Because of using ordinary differential equations, equivalent circuit models are insufficient to reflect the mechanical behavior of piezoelectric plates.

Effects of occlusion, edges, and scaling on the power spectra of natural images.

The circularly averaged power spectra of natural image ensembles tend to have a power-law dependence on spatial frequency with an exponent of approximately -2. This phenomenon has been attributed to object occlusion, the presence of edges, and scaling of object sizes (self-similarity) in natural scenes, although the relative importance of these properties is still unclear. A detailed examination of the effects of occlusion, edges, and self-similarity on the behavior of the power spectrum is conducted using a simple model of natural images.

Invasive amebiasis as an emerging parasitic disease in patients with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection in Taiwan.

Background: Whether risk of invasive amebiasis due to Entamoeba histolytica is higher among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected persons than uninfected persons remains unclear, although intestinal colonization by Entamoeba dispar is common among men who have sex with men. Our objective was to determine the prevalence of invasive amebiasis and intestinal colonization by E histolytica and E dispar in HIV-infected persons and uninfected controls.

Methods: We assessed the prevalence of invasive amebiasis by case review of 951 HIV-infected persons and by serologic studies of 634 of the 951 HIV-infected persons, 429 uninfected controls with gastrointestinal symptoms, and 178 uninfected healthy controls using indirect hemagglutination antibody assay.

On apparent counterexamples to phase dominance.

Phase dominance refers to the observation that the phase of the Fourier transform of an image carries more information than does the amplitude. We show that apparent counterexamples to phase dominance are not in fact counterexamples since the phase functions used are not independent of the true phase function. Phase dominance appears to be a general phenomenon.

Newly identified missense mutation reduces lipoprotein lipase activity in Taiwanese patients with hypertriglyceridemia.

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) plays a crucial role in the regulation of lipoprotein metabolism by hydrolyzing the core triglycerides of circulating chylomicrons and very low-density lipoprotein. Deficiency in this enzyme usually results in disturbances in lipid levels. To understand the molecular defect that leads to a functional deficiency of LPL in patients with hypertriglyceridemia, we looked for mutations of the LPL gene by means of single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis and direct DNA sequencing in 24 patients.

Molecular variant M235T of the angiotensinogen gene is associated with essential hypertension in Taiwanese.

Objective: To examine the association of the molecular variants of the angiotensinogen (AGT) gene with essential hypertension in Taiwanese.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study concerning 151 subjects, 102 hypertensives and 49 normotensives. We created a rapid mini-sequencing method based on dye-terminator cycle sequencing to simultaneously detect the M235T and T174M variants of the AGT gene for each subject.