Showing papers by "Chung Yuan Christian University published in 2009"
TL;DR: Synthesis of ultrasmall water-soluble fluorescent gold nanoclusters has a decent quantum yield, high colloidal stability, and can be readily conjugated with biological molecules.
Abstract: Synthesis of ultrasmall water-soluble fluorescent gold nanoclusters is reported. The clusters have a decent quantum yield, high colloidal stability, and can be readily conjugated with biological molecules. Specific staining of cells and nonspecific uptake by living cells is demonstrated.
683 citations
TL;DR: An integrated theoretical framework to study users' acceptance of streaming media for e-learning is presented and perceived ease of use was a predictor of perceived usefulness; both the perceived usefulness and the attitude of the user were predictors of intention to use.
Abstract: Advances in e-learning technologies parallels a general increase in sophistication by computer users. The use of just one theory or model, such as the technology acceptance model, is no longer sufficient to study the intended use of e-learning systems. Rather, a combination of theories must be integrated in order to fully capture the complexity of e-learners, who are both system users and learners. The current research presents an integrated theoretical framework to study users' acceptance of streaming media for e-learning. Three streams of research provide the basis for this integrated framework: the technology acceptance model, flow theory and media richness theory. Students enrolled in an online section of an information systems course used one of three different combinations of text, streamed audio and streamed video. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses in this field experiment. Perceived ease of use was a predictor of perceived usefulness; both the perceived usefulness and the attitude of the user were predictors of intention to use. Richer content-presentation types were positively correlated with higher concentration levels but showed mixed results when correlated with perceived usefulness. Results from this study have practical implications for those interested in integrating streaming media into e-learning.
529 citations
TL;DR: The results of antibacterial study showed that the composite PVDF/TiO(2) membrane removes E. Coli at a very faster rate than neat PVDF membrane and membrane with 4% TiO( 2) possess highest antibacterial property.
435 citations
TL;DR: A nonlinear mathematical model to consider production scheduling and vehicle routing with time windows for perishable food products in the same framework to maximize the expected total profit of the supplier is proposed.
281 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the tribological properties of liquid paraffin to which diamond and SiO 2 nanoparticles, which were prepared by the surface modification method using oleic acid, had been added and observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and infrared spectroscopy.
244 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a case-based approach is used to describe a lean supply chain through value stream mapping (VSM) using a case study from the Ford Motor Company in Chung Li, Taiwan.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address “how Toyota can continuously and consistently achieve its dramatic success through its competences ‐ continuous waste elimination and the objective of long term philosophy”; the paper aims to summarize some solid suggestions and comprehensive ideas for those industries planning to implement lean production.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology used is the case based approach (CBA), which described lean supply chain (LSC) through value stream mapping (VSM) using a case study from the Ford Motor Company in Chung Li, Taiwan. The paper follows a four‐step problem solving process to demonstrate how lean supply chain affects product cost and quality.Findings – Using VSM case study to demonstrate LSC, all the measurable indices helpful for cost reduction, quality enhancement and lead time reduction are shown. The paper also provides some recommendations and basic principles to implement VSM successfully through P‐D‐C‐A improving cycle.Research limitations...
226 citations
TL;DR: The results indicate that extremely low‐frequency PEMF stimulation may play a modulating role in hMSC osteogenesis, and provide insights on the development of PEMFs as an effective technology for regenerative medicine.
203 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the effect of oil price volatility on the stock market and concluded that high fluctuations in oil prices have asymmetric unexpected impacts on S&P 500 returns, from which they implemented the ARJI model with structure changes.
185 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that all disordered regions are also capable of binding to RNA, and the important roles of multisite nucleic acid binding and intrinsic disorder in N protein function and RNP packaging are underscore.
Abstract: The nucleocapsid protein (N) of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) packages the viral genomic RNA and is crucial for viability. However, the RNA-binding mechanism is poorly understood. We have shown previously that the N protein contains two structural domains—the N-terminal domain (NTD; residues 45 to 181) and the C-terminal dimerization domain (CTD; residues 248 to 365)—flanked by long stretches of disordered regions accounting for almost half of the entire sequence. Small-angle X-ray scattering data show that the protein is in an extended conformation and that the two structural domains of the SARS-CoV N protein are far apart. Both the NTD and the CTD have been shown to bind RNA. Here we show that all disordered regions are also capable of binding to RNA. Constructs containing multiple RNA-binding regions showed Hill coefficients greater than 1, suggesting that the N protein binds to RNA cooperatively. The effect can be explained by the “coupled-allostery” model, devised to explain the allosteric effect in a multidomain regulatory system. Although the N proteins of different coronaviruses share very low sequence homology, the physicochemical features described above may be conserved across different groups of Coronaviridae. The current results underscore the important roles of multisite nucleic acid binding and intrinsic disorder in N protein function and RNP packaging. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is the first pandemic of the 21st century that spread to multiple nations, with a fatality rate of ca. 8%. The disease is caused by a novel SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) closely related to the group II coronaviruses, which include the human coronavirus OC43 and murine hepatitis virus (6, 18). Traditional antiviral treatments have had little success against SARS dur
172 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the chemical linkages between chitosan and carbon nanotubes form in the nanocomposites through the reaction between the sulfuric acid groups of CNT-PSSA and the amino groups of chitosa, to warrant the homogenous dispersion of the CNTs.
171 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the relationship between density and refractive index of pure systems of ionic liquids was examined in the presence of atmospheric pressure and temperature up to 353.2 K. The results of this study can add to the newly organized database for ionic liquid and can also be used for various process design calculations.
TL;DR: In this article, a new set of financial and non-financial performance indicators that can be used by high-tech manufacturing companies and have developed a business performance evaluation model are used in the model.
Abstract: The nature of competition in the high-technology manufacturing industry has changed dramatically over the last two decades, and any of the traditional indicators of business performance are insufficient today. We have identified a new set of financial and non-financial performance indicators that can be used by high-tech manufacturing companies and have developed a business performance evaluation model. A data envelopment analysis (DEA), an analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approach are used in the model. Data from large-sized thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display panel companies in Taiwan were collected via a field survey and from various published databases and were fed into the model to determine the relative business performance of the companies. We hope that our findings will help high-tech manufacturing executives determine their companies’ strengths and weaknesses and lead to future improvements in business operations.
TL;DR: In this paper, the densities of reline with different varying mole fractions of water at temperatures of (303, 308, and 313) K were reported, and the logarithms of Henry's law constants were correlated using the two-suffix Margules model.
Abstract: In this study, the densities of (aminomethanamide + 2-hydroxy-N,N,N-trimethylethanaminium chloride + water) and the solubilities of CO2 in (aminomethanamide + 2-hydroxy-N,N,N-trimethylethanaminium chloride) with different varying mole fractions of water at temperatures of (303, 308, and 313) K are reported. The common name for (aminomethanamide + 2-hydroxy-N,N,N-trimethylethanaminium chloride) is reline. The densities are linear (AAD % is 0.22 %) with respect to reline mass fraction at each temperature. The logarithms of Henry’s law constants were correlated using the two-suffix Margules model as a function of reline mole fraction with an AAD of 3.44 %. The results showed that CO2 solubility in reline decrease with an increase water content. Hence water can serve as an antisolvent to strip CO2 dissolved in reline. The absorption of CO2 in (aminomethanamide + 2-hydroxy-N,N,N-trimethylethanaminium chloride + water) at low pressures is found to be endothermic at water content. However, the absorption becomes...
TL;DR: A review of the literature on recent development and understanding of colloidal systems of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in thermotropic nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) is presented in this article.
Abstract: With an emphasis on the rectified device performance and related liquid-crystal (LC) properties, this paper presents a timely review of the literature on recent development and understanding of colloidal systems of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in thermotropic nematic liquid crystals (NLCs). The dispersion and stability of CNTs in a LC hydrosol are discussed. The effect of CNT inclusion on the physical properties of NLCs is addressed. It is clear that the effect of adding nanotubes to the LC host and the extent of improvement in LC device performance by doping CNTs, if any, depend strongly on the details of the interaction between the nanotubes and the host molecules. It shows that the combination of CNTs and NLCs is not only of scientific interest but also of technical significance.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the effect of sub-leading power corrections to the penguin annihilation topology and color-suppressed tree amplitudes in the context of QCD factorization.
Abstract: Branching fractions and $CP$-violating asymmetries of charmless ${\overline{B}}_{s}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}PP$, $VP$, $VV$ decays ($P$ and $V$ denoting pseudoscalar and vector mesons, respectively) are reexamined in the framework of QCD factorization (QCDF). We take into account subleading power corrections to the penguin annihilation topology and to color-suppressed tree amplitudes that are crucial for resolving the $CP$ puzzles and rate deficit problems with penguin-dominated two-body decays and color-suppressed tree-dominated ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ and ${\ensuremath{\rho}}^{0}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ modes in the ${B}_{u,d}$ sector. Many of the ${B}_{s}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{h}_{1}{h}_{2}$ decays can be related to ${B}_{d}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{h}_{1}{h}_{2}$ ones via $U$-spin or SU(3) symmetry. Some useful model-independent relations can be derived and tested. Mixing-induced $CP$ asymmetries for many of the penguin-dominated decays are predicted to be very small in the standard model. They are sensitive to new physics and offer rich possibilities of new discoveries. Measurements of direct $CP$-violating asymmetries can be used to discriminate QCDF from other competing approaches such as pQCD and soft-collinear effective theory.
TL;DR: A selective ensemble of three classifiers, i.e. the decision tree, the back propagation neural network and the support vector machine is proposed, which provides an approach which inherits advantages and avoids disadvantages of different classification techniques.
Abstract: Bankruptcy prediction is one of the major business classification topics. Both statistical approaches and artificial intelligence techniques have been explored for this topic. Most researchers compare the prediction performance using different techniques for a specific data set. However, there are no consistent results to show that one technique is better than the other. Different techniques have different advantages and disadvantages on different data sets. Recent studies suggest combining multiple classifiers may have a better performance. However, such an ensemble is usually not only to inherit advantages from the different classifiers but also suffers from disadvantages of those classifiers. In this paper, we propose a selective ensemble of three classifiers, i.e. the decision tree, the back propagation neural network and the support vector machine. Based on the expected probabilities of both bankruptcy and non-bankruptcy, this ensemble provides an approach which inherits advantages and avoids disadvantages of different classification techniques. Consequently, our selective ensemble performs better than other weighting or voting ensembles for bankruptcy prediction.
TL;DR: An analytic network process (ANP) based assessment model was constructed to assess the effectiveness of BI systems and reveals that 24% improvement in effectiveness has been reached, which consists with the perception of the management level.
Abstract: In order to compete in the rigorous environment, the electronization has enabled business to deploy business intelligence (BI) systems for the purpose of decision-making However, to avoid the ineffective experiences during the deployment, it is important to clarify the impact factors of a BI system and find out a suitable assessment method to evaluate the performance of BI systems In this paper, an analytic network process (ANP) based assessment model was constructed to assess the effectiveness of BI systems Furthermore, an expert questionnaire was used to filter out useful performance matrices, used as the sub-criteria of the ANP model Finally, a real case was analyzed using the constructed ANP-based effectiveness assessment model for Business Intelligence systems The results indicate that the most critical factors that impact the effectiveness of a BI system are: output information accuracy, conformity to the requirements, and support of organizational efficiency Utilizing this model to assess the BI performance of the studied case, it reveals that 24% improvement in effectiveness has been reached, which consists with the perception of the management level Therefore, this effectiveness assessment model can be used to evaluate the performances of a BI system It can also provide performance indices and improvement directions for BI users and vendors, respectively, for the total succession in system effectiveness and satisfaction
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented the heat capacities and electrical conductivities of five [Emim] 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium-based ionic liquids (BF4, Tetrafluoroborate, CF3SO3, trifluoromethanesulfonate, Dicyanamide, C2H5SO4, and MDEGSO4) over the temperature ranging from (303.2 to 358.2) K using a commercial conductivity meter.
TL;DR: The tunable and switchable thermoresponsive phase behavior of poly(SBMA-co-NIPAAm), as well as its high plasma protein adsorption resistance and anticoagulant activity, suggests a potential for blood-contacting applications.
TL;DR: In this paper, sulfonated silica nanoparticles (SA-SNP) are utilized as a functional additive to prepare polybenzimidazole (PBI)/SA-snp nanocomposite membranes.
01 Dec 2009
TL;DR: In this review, a new class of fluorescent labels by biocognition molecules to fluorescent noble-metal nanoclusters such as Au and Ag are produced, which are more biocompatible and stable against photobleaching compared with organic dyes and are ideal fluorophores for multicolor and multiplexing applications in biomedical engineering and molecular biotechnology.
Abstract: Recent advances in nanomaterials have produced a new class of fluorescent labels by biocognition molecules to fluorescent noble-metal nanoclusters such as Au and Ag. In particular, the emission wavelength of metallic nanoclusters can be tuned by changing the capping molecules, and a single light source is needed for simultaneous excitation of all different-emissive nanoclusters, which is similar to semiconductor quantum dots. In this review, we highlight the recent advances in synthesis approaches, biomolecular conjugation and its biomedical application. Fabricating the color-emitting metal nanoclusters using the template-based synthesis (i.e., dendrimer, oligonucleotide, proteins, polyelectrolyte, and polymer) and monolayer-protected nanocluster (MPC) synthesis (i.e., dihydrogen lipoic acid and mercaptoundecanoic acid) are described. High-quality nanoclusters are also more biocompatible and stable against photobleaching compared with organic dyes. These novel optical properties render the fluorescent noble-metal nanoclusters ideal fluorophores for multicolor and multiplexing applications in biomedical engineering and molecular biotechnology.
TL;DR: Positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) coupled with a slow positron beam was used to characterize in situ the layer structure and depth profile of the cavity size in thin film composite polyamide nanofiltration (NF) membranes prepared by the interfacial polymerization method as discussed by the authors.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the effect that exposure to various sources of teacher efficacy has on pre-service teachers in Taiwan and found that teachers demonstrated a higher level of PTE after the classroom experience and group discussions.
TL;DR: In this paper, the Diels-Alder reaction was applied to incorporate polymer chains onto MWCNT surfaces, using a polyamide with maleimide pendent groups, which showed the presence of a polymer layer of about 2-5nm around the polymer modified MWCTs.
TL;DR: This paper defines similarity and inclusion measures between type-2 fuzzy sets, discusses their properties and also considers the relationships between them, and combines the proposed similarity measures with Yang and Shih's clustering method.
Abstract: In this paper we define similarity and inclusion measures between type-2 fuzzy sets. We then discuss their properties and also consider the relationships between them. Several examples are used to present the calculation of these similarity and inclusion measures between type-2 fuzzy sets. We finally combine the proposed similarity measures with Yang and Shih's [M.S. Yang, H.M. Shih, Cluster analysis based on fuzzy relations, Fuzzy Sets and Systems 120 (2001) 197-212] algorithm as a clustering method for type-2 fuzzy data. These clustering results are compared with Hung and Yang's [W.L. Hung, M.S. Yang, Similarity measures between type-2 fuzzy sets, International Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness and Knowledge-Based Systems 12 (2004) 827-841] results. According to different @a-level, these clustering results consist of a better hierarchical tree.
TL;DR: This paper tries to establish a new inventory model with two warehouses and imperfect quality simultaneously by maximizing the annual total profit and the solution procedure, and numerical examples are provided to illustrate them.
01 Sep 2009
TL;DR: This paper proposes a method that combines the JPEG-LS and an interframe coding with motion vectors to enhance the compression performance of using JPEG- LS alone, and achieves average compression gains of 13.3% and 26.3 % over the methods of using Photoshop and JPEG2000 alone, respectively.
Abstract: Hospitals and medical centers produce an enormous amount of digital medical images every day, especially in the form of image sequences, which requires considerable storage space. One solution could be the application of lossless compression. Among available methods, JPEG-LS has excellent coding performance. However, it only compresses a single picture with intracoding and does not utilize the interframe correlation among pictures. Therefore, this paper proposes a method that combines the JPEG-LS and an interframe coding with motion vectors to enhance the compression performance of using JPEG-LS alone. Since the interframe correlation between two adjacent images in a medical image sequence is usually not as high as that in a general video image sequence, the interframe coding is activated only when the interframe correlation is high enough. With six capsule endoscope image sequences under test, the proposed method achieves average compression gains of 13.3% and 26.3 % over the methods of using JPEG-LS and JPEG2000 alone, respectively. Similarly, for an MRI image sequence, coding gains of 77.5% and 86.5% are correspondingly obtained.
TL;DR: An expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactor was adopted to incubate bio-granules that could simultaneously convert sulfide to nitrate and nitrite via autotrophic denitrification pathway, and mass balance calculation of sulfur, nitrogen, and carbon over the EGSB reactor confirmed the performance results.
TL;DR: A theoretical study of the steady stagnation point flow over a flat stretching surface in the presence of species concentration and mass diffusion under Soret and Dufour's effects has been obtained by solving the governing equations of continuity, momentum, energy and concentration using similarity analysis and numerical technique.
TL;DR: An online corrective feedback and error analysis system called Online Annotator for EFL Writing and results were encouraging in that the analysis of students’ corrective feedback revealed significantly better performance in the experimental group on recognizing writing errors.
Abstract: Giving feedback on second language (L2) writing is a challenging task. This research proposed an interactive environment for error correction and corrective feedback. First, we developed an online corrective feedback and error analysis system called Online Annotator for EFL Writing . The system consisted of five facilities: Document Maker, Annotation Editor, Composer, Error Analyzer, and Viewer. With this system, teachers can mark error corrections on online documents and students can receive corrective feedback accordingly. The system also classifies and displays error types based on user query. Second, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this system. Fifty EFL (English as a Foreign Language) college freshmen were randomly assigned to two groups. The experimental group received corrective feedback with the developed system whereas the control group used the paper-based error correction method. After the treatment, students in both groups conducted corrective feedback activities by correcting the same document written by an EFL student. The experimental results were encouraging in that the analysis of students’ corrective feedback revealed significantly better performance in the experimental group on recognizing writing errors. Implications for further research are discussed.