Modeling of maximum endurance time for static pulling tasks.

Background: Pallet truck pulling is one of the common manual materials handling tasks which could result in musculoskeletal injuries. The endurance time for sustained truck pulling tasks has been rarely discussed in the literature.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to measure the muscular fatigue after performing a pulling task and to establish models to predict the maximum endurance time for truck pulling tasks.

JOURNAL CLUB: The Warthin Tumor Score: A Simple and Reliable Method to Distinguish Warthin Tumors From Pleomorphic Adenomas and Carcinomas.

Objective: The objective of this article is to propose a Warthin tumor (WT) score to distinguish WTs from other parotid tumors.

Materials And Methods: The study included 78 patients with 92 histologically proven parotid tumors, including 42 WTs, 30 pleomorphic adenomas (PMAs), and 20 carcinomas. Echo-planar DW images were acquired.

Constructing a consumption model of fine dining from the perspective of behavioral economics.

Numerous factors affect how people choose a fine dining restaurant, including food quality, service quality, food safety, and hedonic value. A conceptual framework for evaluating restaurant selection behavior has not yet been developed. This study surveyed 150 individuals with fine dining experience and proposed the use of mental accounting and axiomatic design to construct a consumer economic behavior model.

Application of iron-loaded activated carbon electrodes for electrokinetic remediation of chromium-contaminated soil in a three-dimensional electrode system.

Hexavalent chromium from industrial residues is highly mobile in soil and can lead to the contamination of groundwater through runoff and leaching after rainfall. This paper focuses on the three-dimensional (3D) electrokinetic remediation (EKR) of chromium-contaminated soil from an industrial site. Activated carbon particles coupled with Fe ions (AC-Fe) were used as the third electrode.

Investigation of Gate-Stacked In-Ga-Zn-O TFTs with Ga-Zn-O Source/Drain Electrodes by Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition.

Atmospheric pressure plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (AP-PECVD) was employed for the fabrication of indium gallium zinc oxide thin-film transistors (IGZO TFTs) with high transparent gallium zinc oxide (GZO) source/drain electrodes. The influence of post-deposition annealing (PDA) temperature on GZO source/drain and device performance was studied. Device with a 300 °C annealing demonstrated excellent electrical characteristics with on/off current ratio of 2.

Using KrF ELA to Improve Gate-Stacked LaAlO₃/ZrO₂ Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide Thin-Film Transistors with Novel Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Technique.

Atmospheric pressure plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (AP-PECVD) technique and KrF excimer laser annealing (ELA) were employed for the fabrication of indium gallium zinc oxide thin-film transistors (IGZO-TFTs). Device with a 150 mJ/cm2 laser annealing densities demonstrated excellent electrical characteristics with improved on/off current ratio of 4.7×107, high channel mobility of 10 cm2/V-s, and low subthreshold swing of 0.

Proton change of parotid glands after gustatory stimulation examined by magnetic resonance imaging.

The aim of this study was to investigate proton changes of the parotid gland after gustatory stimulation by semi-quantitative parameters and an empirical mathematical model (EMM) using high-temporal-resolution, double-echo, echo-planar imaging (EPI). Approved by a local institutional review board, this study examined 20 parotid glands from 10 healthy volunteers (male:female = 6: 4; age ± standard deviation =35.1 ± 14.

Functional Characterization of Lacking the RNA Chaperone Hfq.

The RNA chaperone Hfq is involved in the riboregulation of diverse genes via small RNAs. Recent studies have demonstrated that Hfq contributes to the stress response and the virulence of several pathogens, and the roles of Hfq vary among bacterial species. Here, we attempted to elucidate the role of Hfq in ATCC 17978.

Resistance characteristics of innovative eco-fitness equipment: a water buoyancy muscular machine.

This paper propose innovative eco-fitness equipment-a water buoyancy muscular machine (WBM machine) in which resistance is generated by buoyancy and fluid resistance. The resistance characteristics during resistance adjustment and under isometric, concentric, eccentric and isokinetic conditions were investigated and compared to a conventional machine with metal weight plates. The results indicated that the isometric, concentric and eccentric resistances could be adjusted by varying the water volume; the maximum resistances under isometric, concentric and eccentric conditions were 163.

Empirical research on Kano's model and customer satisfaction.

Products are now developed based on what customers desire, and thus attractive quality creation has become crucial. In studies on customer satisfaction, methods for analyzing quality attributes and enhancing customer satisfaction have been proposed to facilitate product development. Although substantial studies have performed to assess the impact of the attributes on customer satisfaction, little research has been conducted that quantitatively calculate the odds of customer satisfaction for the Kano classification, fitting a nonlinear relationship between attribute-level performance and customer satisfaction.

Prevalence and comparative analysis of the type IV secretion system in Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitan.

Backgroud/purpose: Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans has emerged as one of the aetiological agents in periodontal disease. Although Type IV secretion systems (T4SSs) are widely distributed in many bacteria, the genetic features and distribution of T4SSs in A. actinomycetemcomitans remain unclear.

Predicting human protein subcellular localization by heterogeneous and comprehensive approaches.

Drug development and investigation of protein function both require an understanding of protein subcellular localization. We developed a system, REALoc, that can predict the subcellular localization of singleplex and multiplex proteins in humans. This system, based on comprehensive strategy, consists of two heterogeneous systematic frameworks that integrate one-to-one and many-to-many machine learning methods and use sequence-based features, including amino acid composition, surface accessibility, weighted sign aa index, and sequence similarity profile, as well as gene ontology function-based features.

Applying spatial analysis techniques to assess the suitability of multipurpose uses of spring water in the Jiaosi Hot Spring Region, Taiwan.

The Jiaosi Hot Spring Region is one of the most famous tourism destinations in Taiwan. The spring water is processed for various uses, including irrigation, aquaculture, swimming, bathing, foot spas, and recreational tourism. Moreover, the multipurpose uses of spring water can be dictated by the temperature of the water.

Phylogeography and genetic structure of the oriental river prawn Macrobrachium nipponense (Crustacea: Decapoda: Palaemonidae) in East Asia.

The oriental river prawn (Macrobrachium nipponense) is mainly distributed in East Asia. The phylogeography, population genetic structure and historical demography of this species in the East Asia were examined by using partial sequences of the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) and 16S rRNA in mitochondrial DNA. Ten populations that included 239 individuals were collected from Taiwan (Shihmen Reservoir, SMR, Mingte Reservoir, MTR and Chengching Lake Reservoir, CLR), mainland China (Taihu Lake, TLC, Min River, MRC, Jiulong River, JRC and Shenzhen Reservoir, SRC), Japan (Biwa Lake, BLJ and Kasumigaura Lake, KLJ) and Korea (Han River, HRK).

Synthesis and biological evaluation of chalcone, dihydrochalcone, and 1,3-diarylpropane analogs as anti-inflammatory agents.

Twenty-one chalcones were prepared via aldol condensation and subsequent reduction of these compound led to the corresponding dihydrochalcone and 1,3-diphenylpropane derivatives. The synthetic products were examined for their effects on NO inhibition in LPS-activated mouse peritoneal macrophages. Among the tested compounds, a 1,3-diarylpropane analog, 2-(3-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)propyl)-5-methoxyphenol (3p), displayed the most significant inhibitory effects against NO production.

Targeting the pathway of GSK-3β/nerve growth factor to attenuate post-infarction arrhythmias by preconditioned adipose-derived stem cells.

Adipose-derived stem cell (ADSC) transplantation is a promising new therapy to improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction. However, its low efficacy of transdifferentiation hampers its usefulness. Glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) signal has been shown to play a role in preconditioning-induced cardioprotection.

Subjective assessments of floor slipperiness before and after walk under two lighting conditions.

A gait experiment was performed. The participants were tested under shoes, floors, surface and lighting conditions. They gave floor slipperiness ratings before and after a gait trial.

Solidification/stabilization of chromite ore processing residue using alkali-activated composite cementitious materials.

Chromite Ore Processing Residue (COPR) produced in chromium salt production process causes a great health and environmental risk with Cr(VI) leaching. The solidification/stabilization (S/S) of COPR using alkali-activated blast furnace slag (BFS) and fly ash (FA) based cementitious material was investigated in this study. The optimum percentage of BFS and FA for preparing the alkali-activated BFS-FA binder had been studied.

Tourism guide cloud service quality: What actually delights customers?

Background: The emergence of advanced IT and cloud services has beneficially supported the information-intensive tourism industry, simultaneously caused extreme competitions in attracting customers through building efficient service platforms. On response, numerous nations have implemented cloud platforms to provide value-added sightseeing information and personal intelligent service experiences. Despite these efforts, customers' actual perspectives have yet been sufficiently understood.

An empirical research on customer satisfaction study: a consideration of different levels of performance.

Customer satisfaction is the key factor for successful and depends highly on the behaviors of frontline service providers. Customers should be managed as assets, and that customers vary in their needs, preferences, and buying behavior. This study applied the Taiwan Customer Satisfaction Index model to a tourism factory to analyze customer satisfaction and loyalty.

To Explore Intracerebral Hematoma with a Hybrid Approach and Combination of Discriminative Factors.

Objectives: To find discriminative combination of influential factors of Intracerebral hematoma (ICH) to cluster ICH patients with similar features to explore relationship among influential factors and 30-day mortality of ICH.

Methods: The data of ICH patients are collected. We use a decision tree to find discriminative combination of the influential factors.

A CMAC-based scheme for determining membership with classification of text strings.

Membership determination of text strings has been an important procedure for analyzing textual data of a tremendous amount, especially when time is a crucial factor. Bloom filter has been a well-known approach for dealing with such a problem because of its succinct structure and simple determination procedure. As determination of membership with classification is becoming increasingly desirable, parallel Bloom filters are often implemented for facilitating the additional classification requirement.

QuaBingo: A Prediction System for Protein Quaternary Structure Attributes Using Block Composition.

Background. Quaternary structures of proteins are closely relevant to gene regulation, signal transduction, and many other biological functions of proteins. In the current study, a new method based on protein-conserved motif composition in block format for feature extraction is proposed, which is termed block composition.

Rebuilding DEMATEL threshold value: an example of a food and beverage information system.

This study demonstrates how a decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) threshold value can be quickly and reasonably determined in the process of combining DEMATEL and decomposed theory of planned behavior (DTPB) models. Models are combined to identify the key factors of a complex problem. This paper presents a case study of a food and beverage information system as an example.

A comprehensive survey of government auditors' self-efficacy and professional development for improving audit quality.

Introduction: Government audit authorities supervise the implementation of government budgets and evaluate the use of administrative resources to ensure that funding is used wisely, economically, and effectively. A quality audit involves reviewing policies according to international standards and perspectives, and provides insight, predictions, and warnings to related organizations. Such practice can reflect the effectiveness of a government.