Tainan University of Technology

About: Tainan University of Technology is a education organization based out in Tainan City, Taiwan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Password & Authentication. The organization has 311 authors who have published 641 publications receiving 10826 citations.

Payback period for residential solar water heaters in Taiwan

Abstract: Taiwan is a leaf-shaped island straddling the Tropic of Cancer with abundant and reliable supply of solar energy. Under the individual circumstances (solar radiation, ambient temperature and hot water consumption pattern), solar heating could be economically competitive with conventional heating fuels (electricity, natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas). In this context, the market of residential solar water heaters (SWHs) in Taiwan has been highly developed with subsidy programs offered by the government of Taiwan so far. Next, the economic viability of residential SWHs is determined by the life-cycle savings. This study develops a procedure for estimating the payback period of residential SWHs in terms of operation cost and effective energy savings over conventional heating fuels. A case study in southern Taiwan indicates that the increase in daily load volume per area of solar collector installed has a beneficial effect. An end user should determine the economically optimal solar collector area of an SWH according to the hot water consumption pattern of each household. Payback period is shorter when the substituted conventional fuel is electricity. With the subsidy program, an SWH is in a favorable situation when compared with an electrical water heater. Findings of the present study would assist partially system design of residential SWHs and help accrue more monetary benefit to the end users.

Questioning techniques for promoting language learning with students of limited L2 oral proficiency in a drama-oriented language classroom

Abstract: In drama-oriented English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, teachers often ask questions to shape the story, unveil the details, sequence the scenes, create a beneficial linguistic environment to elicit student output and promote meaning negotiation in the target language. This study investigates how instructional goals were achieved in an intensive summer course with a group of Taiwanese college students. The course aimed to help students with beginning to low-intermediate oral proficiency improve their overall English competence through various drama activities. Eight question functions were used to analyse the classroom data. The analyses show that the teachers raised inform questions extensively to seek new information and content contribution from the students to build up drama scenes. To help students cope with linguistic insufficiency, the teachers also used pseudo, confirming, and clarifying questions to remodel the students’ segmental, inaudible or ungrammatical utterances. Different questi...

Career decision self-efficacy plays a crucial role in hospitality undergraduates' internship efficacy and career preparation.

Abstract: Efficient student internships are essential for appropriate career preparations to ensure a smooth transition to their professions after graduation. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship among the students’ learning motivation, off-campus internship efficacy, career decision self-efficacy, and career preparations. Stratified sampling was used to recruit graduating university students from Taiwan as participants and 613 valid questionnaires were returned. The results indicate that students’ learning motivation positively and significantly influenced internship efficacy, and that career decision self-efficacy exerts a complete mediating effect between internship efficacy and career preparation. Practical implementations and suggestions are also addressed at the end of the article.

Hypercholesterolemia is correlated with an increased risk of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss: a historical prospective cohort study.

Abstract: Objective Despite the many studies on the associated risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in patients with hypercholesterolemia (HCh), an association between HCh and the development of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) has been examined in only a few case-control studies. We tested the hypothesis that HCh is a risk factor for developing ISSNHL. Design Using the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database, we conducted a historical prospective cohort study to compare patients diagnosed with HCh from January 1, 2001, through to December 31, 2006 (N = 73,957) with age-matched controls (N = 73,957). We followed each patient until the end of 2009 and evaluated the incidence of ISSNHL for a minimum of 3 years after the initial HCh diagnosis. Results The incidence of ISSNHL was 1.62 times higher in the HCh cohort than in the non-HCh cohort (10.67 versus 6.61 per 10,000 person-years). Using Cox proportional hazard regressions, the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.60 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.39-1.85). An increased risk of developing ISSNHL, with adjusted hazard ratios of 1.48 (95% CI = 1.08-2.04) and 1.69 (95% CI = 1.18-2.43), was observed in HCh patients with newly diagnosed comorbidities of stroke or stroke combined with coronary artery diseases, which are both expected to reflect the severity of HCh. Conclusions A diagnosis of HCh may indicate an independent risk for ISSNHL. This finding suggests that an underlying vascular mechanism contributes to the development of ISSNHL. We suggest that physicians counsel patients with HCh to seek medical attention if they have hearing impairments, because they may also have an increased risk of developing ISSNHL.