Publications by authors named "Yu Hsiang Wang"
Due to a lack of water resources, people are starting to use treated wastewater to irrigate crops and vegetables. However, the risk of micropollutant exposure from vegetables cultivated with treated wastewater has been largely underestimated. To elucidate this underestimation, a hydroponic system for lettuce cultivation using a nutrient solution spiked with three pharmaceuticals with different log K values (acetaminophen (0.
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- This study investigates illicit drug use by analyzing wastewater from sewer networks in both suburban (Tamsui) and urban (Zhongshan and Wanhua) areas, comparing findings with traditional wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) influents.
- Methamphetamine was found to be the most prevalent drug in the sewage samples, with more types of drugs detected in suburban areas, while methamphetamine and ketamine were the most consumed in both settings.
- Sewer-network wastewater analysis identified key hotspots for drug use and peak usage times throughout the day, providing crucial insights for law enforcement despite being costlier and challenging to sample than WWTP influents.
Article Synopsis
- A hybrid operating room technique for pulmonary nodule localization offers a promising alternative to traditional two-stage methods, allowing for lesion localization during positive ventilation rather than in response to respiratory motion.
- A retrospective analysis of 176 patients compared localization accuracy between standard and lung-protective ventilator settings, with findings showing a significant improvement in accuracy using the higher tidal volume setting (8-10 mL/kg).
- The study identified tidal volume, nodule count, and localization depth as key factors affecting accuracy, suggesting that further randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm these results and set future clinical guidelines.
Background: Vitamin D supplementation may prevent acute respiratory infections (ARIs). This study aimed to identify the optimal methods of vitamin D supplementation.
Methods: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and the ClinicalTrials.
Background: A bronchopleural fistula (BPF) occurs when an abnormal connection forms between the bronchial tubes and pleural cavity, often due to surgery, infection, trauma, radiation, or chemotherapy. The outcomes of both surgical and bronchoscopic treatments frequently prove to be unsatisfactory.
Case Presentation: Here, we report a case of successful bronchoscopic free fat pad transplantation combined with platelet-rich plasma, effectively addressing a post-lobectomy BPF.
Article Synopsis
- - Workplace friendships enhance employee well-being by fostering trust and support, leading to increased job satisfaction and a stronger sense of belonging within the organization.
- - The study used advanced modeling techniques to analyze the impact of these friendships on organizational commitment, finding a significant link mediated by employee well-being.
- - Results showed that workplace friendships have a total effect size of 0.549 on organizational commitment, highlighting the importance of positive social interactions in the workplace for overall employee engagement.
Article Synopsis
- Taiwan is facing an increase in drug trafficking and usage, prompting a study that utilizes wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) to assess the actual consumption of illicit drugs in the Taipei area.
- The research involved analyzing wastewater from four treatment plants, revealing a high correlation between the amount of drugs seized and the concentrations found in the wastewater.
- Findings indicated that methamphetamine, ketamine, and 4-MEC were the most prevalent drugs consumed, with significant differences in usage patterns observed between urban and suburban regions.
During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, reports of vaccine-induced myocarditis, particularly messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based myocarditis, were widely spread. This case series describes various cases of COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis confirmed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including those who were administered rare protein-based vaccines. Eleven patients comprising eight males and three females with suspected myocarditis underwent cardiac MRI at Taichung Veterans General Hospital between October 2021 and May 2022.
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- This study is the first to use a solar-driven persulfate process to break down cephradine and caffeine in synthetic urine, achieving better degradation than other methods.
- Factors like pH and the presence of substances like chloride and ammonia affect the degradation efficiency, while bicarbonate can enhance the breakdown of cephradine, and no toxicity was observed after treatment.
In centrally located lung tumors, salvage pulmonary resections pose challenges due to adhesions between the pulmonary parenchyma, chest wall, and hilum. This study aimed to investigate the surgical outcomes associated with Cavitron Ultrasonic Surgical Aspirator (CUSA) usage in thoracoscopic salvage pulmonary resections. Patients with centrally located advanced-stage lung tumors who underwent salvage anatomic resections following systemic or radiotherapy were included.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe standard treatment for early-stage lung cancer is complete tumor excision by limited resection of the lung. Preoperative localization is used before video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) to improve the accuracy of pulmonary nodule excision. However, lung atelectasis and hypoxia resulting from controlling apnea during the localization procedure may affect the localization accuracy.
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- The reaction starts with hydroxyl radicals (•OH) but shifts to molecular oxygen (O) dominating ketamine degradation as chlorine levels decrease, resulting in faster removal rates than sunlight alone.
- A kinetic model was created to track concentration changes, revealing that oxygen significantly contributes to ketamine removal, while chlorine has a minor role, and similar processes were observed for other pharmaceuticals like atenolol and metoprolol.
Article Synopsis
- Image dehazing has become a significant focus in computer vision due to the negative impact of haze from particles in the air, which can severely degrade image quality and hinder systems like object detection and driver assistance.
- Existing dehazing techniques have limitations such as issues with brightness, color distortion, and the introduction of halos and blurriness.
- The study introduces a new method called SEGDNet, which uses a combination of subnetworks to separately address low-frequency structures and high-frequency edges to produce clearer, sharper images that surpass previous methods.
In this study, the morphology and sorption behavior of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) microplastics during the aging process are investigated. To clarify the sorption mechanism of aged PET microplastics, the common sunblock 4-methylbenzylidene camphor (4-MBC) was chosen as the target contaminant, and UV irradiation was used for the laboratory aging simulation. The results show that oxygen-containing functional groups (carboxylic, carbonyl, ketone and hydroxyl groups) increase on the surface of aged PET microplastics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIncorporating Patient Preferences into a Decision-Making Model of Hand Trauma Reconstruction.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
October 2021
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates patient preferences in surgical decisions for hand trauma reconstruction, focusing on three treatment options: cross-finger flap (CFF), dorsal metacarpal artery perforator flap (DMAPF), and arterialized venous flap (AVF).
- A survey with 197 participants revealed that the most important attributes for patients were complication risk (42.87%) and scar condition (21.55%), leading to classifications of participants into "conservative," "practical," and "dual-concern" groups.
- The study emphasizes the need to include patient preferences in surgical planning to enhance patient-centered care and suggests continued research on implementing these findings in clinical settings.
Article Synopsis
- This study explores how artificial intelligence can predict lung cancer risk by analyzing electronic medical records, potentially reducing unnecessary tests and costs.* -
- Researchers selected 2 million participants from Taiwan's health database between 1999 and 2013 and created a neural network model to screen for lung cancer, validating its performance with pre- and post-2012 data.* -
- The model showed high accuracy (AUCs of 0.90 overall and 0.87 for individuals 55+) in identifying those at risk, suggesting it could be effectively used for early digital screening of lung cancer.*
Article Synopsis
- * The model achieved a high accuracy, with an area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) of 0.94.
- * The sensitivity and specificity of our Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) were 0.87 and 0.88, indicating it effectively identifies true PCA cases and minimizes false positives.
A one-step sputtering process using a quaternary target has been demonstrated to be a simple route to form Cu(In,Ga)Se (CIGSe) absorber without post-selenization; however, the lack of a Ga-grading structure in the CIGSe absorber confines its efficiency. Here, we demonstrate a one-step cosputtering process to control the Ga profile in the CIGSe absorber on flexible stainless steel substrates. Special attention was paid to the formation of second phases and their effects on the cell performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStatins have been shown to be a beneficial treatment as chemotherapy and target therapy for lung cancer. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of statins in combination with epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy for the resistance and mortality of lung cancer patients. A population-based cohort study was conducted using the Taiwan Cancer Registry database.
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- A prediction model for nonmelanoma skin cancer, developed through machine learning, aims to improve early prevention strategies by analyzing extensive patient data.
- The study analyzed data from 1829 patients diagnosed with nonmelanoma skin cancer and 7665 controls using advanced deep learning techniques to predict future skin cancer risk within one year.
- The resulting model demonstrated a high performance with an AUROC score of 0.89, indicating good accuracy in identifying at-risk patients based on their medical history and diagnostic information.
Development of Deep Learning Algorithm for Detection of Colorectal Cancer in EHR Data.
Stud Health Technol Inform
August 2019
Article Synopsis
- * The model incorporated patients' comorbidities, medication history, and three years of medical data prior to their colorectal cancer diagnosis.
- * Performance metrics were impressive, with a mean area under the curve (AUC) of 0.922, sensitivity of 0.837, and specificity of 0.867, demonstrating the model's effectiveness in predicting colorectal cancer risk.
Amphiphilic zwitterionic copolymers have a severe problem of solubility, which restricts the feasibility and development of antifouling coatings. In this work, zwitterionic polymers were grafted via a novel modification method, namely, in situ self-assembling coating (ISC), which consists of synthesizing and simultaneously coating a copolymer onto a surface. This resolves the dissolution problem of amphiphilic zwitterionic copolymers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcotoxicological effect of ketamine: Evidence of acute, chronic and photolysis toxicity to Daphnia magna.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf
September 2017
Article Synopsis
- - Ketamine and its metabolite norketamine are increasingly found in aquatic environments due to their resistance to conventional wastewater treatment, raising concerns about their potential ecological impact.
- - The study demonstrated that both ketamine and norketamine are acutely toxic to Daphnia magna, with significant mortality rates observed after exposure, especially under sunlight irradiation, which intensified the toxicity.
- - Additionally, environmentally relevant concentrations of ketamine were linked to significant reproductive toxicity in Daphnia magna, leading to a 33.6-49.8% reduction in live offspring, highlighting a need for further research on ketamine's environmental risks.
Removal of disinfection by-products from contaminated water using a synthetic goethite catalyst via catalytic ozonation and a biofiltration system.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
September 2014
The effects of synthetic goethite (α-FeOOH) used as the catalyst in catalytic ozonation for the degradation of disinfection by-product (DBP) precursors are investigated. A biofiltration column applied following the catalytic ozonation process is used to evaluate the efficiency of removing DBP precursors via biotreatment. Ozone can rapidly react with aromatic compounds and oxidize organic compounds, resulting in a decrease in the fluorescence intensity of dissolved organic matter (DOM).
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