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.

Comorbidities and complications influence the diagnosis and management of geriatric supraglottitis

Abstract: Introduction This study aimed to assess the differences in the clinical characteristics, management, and outcomes of supraglottitis between geriatric and nongeriatric adults over a 30-month period. Methods All adult patients admitted to the emergency department with suspected supraglottitis and who underwent laryngoscopy for confirmation were included. We collected the clinical characteristics, management, and outcomes of these patients and compared geriatric (≥60 years old) and nongeriatric (12-59 years old) groups in terms of these data. Results Eighty-one geriatric patients and 205 nongeriatric patients were reviewed during the study period. The accuracies of the clinical suspicions of supraglottitis were lower in the geriatric group (geriatric vs nongeriatric, 29.4% vs 47.3%, P = .008). The geriatric group constituted 19.8% of all supraglottitis patients. Comorbidities were discovered in 74.1% of the geriatric group and 25.4% of the nongeriatric group ( P = .000). The complication rate in the geriatric patients was almost twice that of the nongeriatric patients (20.8% vs 10.8%). Additionally, the geriatric patients exhibited tendencies toward longer periods of intubation, hospitalization, and stay in the intensive care unit. Conclusions The clinical characteristics and management were similar between the geriatric and nongeriatric supraglottitis patients. Nevertheless, the comorbidities altered the clinical presentations of the geriatric patients and resulted in lower diagnostic accuracy. Additionally, the elevated complication rates of the geriatric patient might have negatively affected their outcomes.

Ideation from poetry & songs for cultural creative product design

Abstract: In this article making an attempt to interpret the words and lyrics of poem and song as the cultural element extraction source, through the deep understanding and unearth of the content, to establish a new approach on cultural creative design. In the case of Taiwan's well-known lyricist and writer, Mr. Vincent Fang (Fang Wen Shan) and mandopop (Mandarin popular music) singer Jay Chou's (Chou JieLun) song “Lan-ting Xu”, which the song and lyric was inspired from the original poem of “The Orchid Pavilion” (Lantingji Xu) by Wang Xizhi (Chinese: 王羲之, AD303-361). The author draws elements from the original background of the song, the content of the lyrics and the performance of the genre, making the whole new designs for cultural creative products meaningfully and consumer finds familiar with.

Effectiveness of Integrating AR and IoT technologies into Environmental Education for Elementary School Students

Abstract: Suspended particles are a major component of outdoor air pollution, and cause great harm to human health. Children should be aware of environmental pollution issues and know how to protect themselves. This study developed two kinds of learning aids, augmented reality (AR) and the Internet of things (IoT), for environmental education. A total of 90 students participated in this experiment. The experiment time was 120 minutes. The results of the study showed that all two learning approaches can significantly improve students’ knowledge of air pollution. In terms of learning satisfaction, there was no significant difference between the VR and IoT groups.

Undergraduates’ intentions to take examinations for professional certification: examinations of four competing models

Abstract: Previous research on professional certification has primarily focused on graduate certificates in intensive care nursing, writing certificates for practitioners, maintenance of certification in radiation oncology, and the certification of teachers and surgeons. Research on certification in the domain of business and management from an attitudinal–behavioral approach has been lacking. Social psychological theories provide potentially useful tools for explaining how attitudes, intentions, and behaviors are changed. The current study compared four intention-based models—the theory of planned behavior, the theory of self-regulation (TSR), the revised TSR (in which desire is a partial mediator), and the other revised TSR (in which desire is a full mediator)—in terms of their ability to predict the intentions of business and management students to obtain certification in their fields. Participants were drawn from the southern, middle, and northern areas of Taiwan. A structural equation model applied to a sample of 273 undergraduates demonstrated that attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral controls, desires, intentions, and behaviors were associated with certification in business and management domains. The explanatory power of the revised TSR in which desire was a full mediator was superior to that of the competing models. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Homotopy method of fundamental solutions for solving nonlinear heat conduction problems

Abstract: In this study, we propose a meshless and boundary-type numerical method, namely the homotopy method of fundamental solutions (HMFS), to solve the steady-state nonlinear heat conduction problems in two dimensions. The HMFS is composed by the homotopy analysis method (HAM) and the method of fundamental solutions (MFS). In the solution procedure, the Kirchhoff transformation is employed to transform the nonlinear governing partial differential equation into the Laplace equation with nonlinear boundary conditions. Sequentially, the HAM is applied to convert the Laplace equation with nonlinear boundary conditions into a sequence of the Laplace equation with linear boundary conditions, which can be solved by the MFS. In order to solve strongly nonlinear problems, a convergence control parameter is introduced to ensure the solution convergence of the prescribed sequence of problems. Several numerical experiments were carried out to validate the proposed method. In addition, a multiple-precision computing is performed to demonstrate the exponential convergence of the HMFS in both the spatial and homotopy coordinates for solving nonlinear heat conduction problems. Finally, bi-material and irregular-domain problems are also considered.