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BACKGROUND: The study aims to investigate the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after earthquakes among the elderly. METHODS: Data from cross-sectional studies focusing on the prevalence of PTSD after earthquakes among the elderly were collected from PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure in December 2019. The search terms included post-traumatic stress disorder, earthquake, and elderly. This study used Review Manager 5.0 to evaluate the impact of the results. In addition, forest plots, sensitivity analysis, and bias analysis were carried out on the included articles. The combined estimate of the risk ratio and the standard deviation of the 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were measurements of the size of the effect. RESULTS: There were 4,834 patients included from 10 eligible studies. The sample sizes of PTSD group and non-PTSD group were 1,277 and 3,557, respectively. The meta-analysis showed that the overall occurrence of PTSD after earthquakes among the elderly was 0.25; the occurrence in females was higher than that in males, and the occurrence in the same province indicated little difference (Wenchuan city 0.25 and Ya'an city 0.24). CONCLUSIONS: After earthquakes, the occurrence of PTSD is higher among the elderly than among other age groups, and higher among the females than among the males, while there is little difference among different areas within the same province. This indicated that prioritized specific psychological interventions should be provided to the aged and the females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of climate change on the coastal zones of Taiwan not only affects the marine environment, ecology, and human communities whose economies rely heavily on marine activities, but also the sustainable development of national economics. The southwest coast is known as the area most vulnerable to climate change; therefore, this study aims to develop indicators to assess social vulnerability in this area of Taiwan using the three dimensions of susceptibility, resistance, and resilience. The modified Delphi method was used to develop nine criteria and 26 indexes in the evaluation, and the analytic hierarchy process method was employed to evaluate the weight of each indicator based on the perspectives of experts collected through questionnaire surveys. The results provide important information pertaining to the vulnerability of the most susceptive regions, the lowest-resistance areas, and the least resilient townships on the southwest coast. The most socially vulnerable areas are plotted based on the present analysis. Experts can consider the vulnerability map provided here when developing adaptation policies. It should be kept in mind that improving the capacities of resistance and resilience is more important than reducing susceptibility in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to investigate the effect of a trans-disciplinary design of curricula, deemed a powerful tool for teaching and research on complex environmental problems, with a goal to help solve the real problems that climate change has brought to the coastal environment in Taiwan. Three major real-life problems in southern Taiwan--declining mullet fisheries, flooding, and coral bleaching--were integrated into four courses. Adopting a qualitative case study method, the researchers investigated the student perceptions of the trans-disciplinary learning experiences, their attitudes toward marine and coastal environmental protection, and their capability of solving the problems related to marine and coastal environments. The researchers employed various methods to analyze the student reflection reports, student self-evaluation forms, and the tape-recorded class meetings. The findings suggest the following: the trans-disciplinary curriculum stands to be an innovative yet indispensable design for coastal management education; such a curriculum benefits students by equipping them with essential knowledge and skills to succeed in future marine conservation; action learning for marine and coastal sustainability serves as the final goal of trans-disciplinary learning project; a trans-disciplinary case study on the design of curricula provides effective knowledge integration of marine and coastal sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to population growth, rapid economic development and inadequate marine control, the use of ocean and coastal regions in Taiwan has become more frequent and intense in recent years. However, the lack of comprehensive marine and coastal planning in this island nation has led to many conflicts over space and resources and limited its ability to prepare for and respond to environmental hazards, thus threatening national security as well as the safety and property of its citizens. This study proposes a marine zoning scheme for southern Taiwan. The results show that many important habitats in the southern sea areas have not been properly protected due to the extremely small size of the marine protected area. Furthermore, the majority of the conflicts derive from the exclusive fishing right vs. other uses such as marine conservation. Therefore, it is crucial to establish the marine spatial planning (MSP) for the Southern Taiwan to deal with the conflicts of use seas and uncertainties associated with complex, heterogeneous, and dynamic marine system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new clerodane-based furanoid diterpenoids, tinosagittones A and B (1and 2, resp.), were isolated from the roots of Tinospora sagittata, together with five known diterpenoids, i.e., columbin (3), its glucoside palmatoside C (4), isocolumbin (5), 6-hydroxycolumbin (6), and tinophylloloside (7). Their structures were established by mass spectrometry and spectroscopic methods, especially 2D-NMR techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cage aquaculture is increasing in importance in fisheries. However, in past studies the relationship between drag force and volume coefficient of the cage bag, and four key factors affecting its efficiency, i.e. flow velocity, ratio of depth to width of the cage, twine diameter to bar length of netting ( d/l), and weight of the cage has been limited to partial regression and qualitative discussion. This paper establishes two non-linear regressions of the drag force and volume coefficient of a cage bag with seven flow velocities, five ratios of depth to width of the cage, four d/l, and five weights of the cage. The experimental data are processed using the forward selection method in the stepwise regression selection procedure in order to prioritize each factor, and then establish non-linear regressions of the drag force and volume coefficient using multiregression analysis. The results show that factors affecting the drag force are, in order of importance, flow velocity, ratio of depth to width of the cage, d/l and weight. With respect to the volume coefficient, factors in order of importance are flow velocity, weight, ratio of depth to width of the cage, and d/L. The two regressions can predict drag force and volume coefficient more comprehensively than those in previous studies. Finally, the regressions are applied to the full-scale structure of the cage by Tauti's modeling rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nation, an ionomer composed of perfluorocarbon backbone and vinyl ether side chains terminated with -SO3- groups, has dual solubility parameters, i.e. δ=1 9.7 (cal/cm³)½ relating to perfluorocarbon backbones and δ2= 17.3 (cal/cm³)½ relating to sulfonated vinyl ether side chains. It had been reported that Nation molecules aggregated in dilute and semi-dilute water and alcohol solutions. In this study, we report static light scattering (SLS) measurements of dilute Nation in N,N′- dimethyl formamide (DMF, solubility parameter δ=12.2 (cal/cm³)½, dielectric constant ε=-36.7) and N,N′-dimethyl acetamide (DMAc, δ=10.8 (cal/cm³)½ ε=-37.8) solutions with Nafion concentrations ranging from 0.2 mg/ml to 1.0 mg/ml. The DMF and DMAc solvents have δ closing to δ1 of Nafion perfluorocarbon backbones and δ much lower than water (ε=78). Thus DMF and DMAc are compatible with Nafion perfluorocarbon and few Nafion molecules aggregate in DMF and DMAc solvents when [Nafion]≤ 1.0 mg/ml. The lower ε of DMF and DMAc led to low polyelectrolyte effect of Nation in these two solvents. The obtained Mws of present work were in good agreement with the Mw obtained from Nafion in dilute dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO, δ=12.0 (cal/cm³)½ δ= - 46.6) solutions, reported by Lousenberg, using size exclusion chromatography incorporating static light scattering detection. The G> data obtained from SLS measurements were compared with the particles sizes of transmission electron microscope (TEM) observations of freeze dried Nation thin films prepared on copper grids with 0.6 mg/ml Nation solutions. Comparable results were obtained from these two observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flame retardancy and mechanical properties of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) polymer nanocomposite based on magnesium hydroxide (MH) nanoparticles with lamellar‐shape morphological structures and synergistic agent microcapsulated red phosphorus (MRP) have been studied by limiting oxygen index (LOI), cone calorimeter test (CCT), UL‐94 test, tensile strength (TS), and elongation at break (EB). Results showed that LOI values of lamellar‐like nanosized MH (50 × 350 nm2) samples were 1–7 vol. % higher than those of the common micrometer grade MH (1–2 μm) in all additive levels. When 1–3 phr MRP substituted for nanosized MH filler, LOI value increased greatly from original 37 to 55, and met the V‐0 rating in the UL‐94 test. The values of TS for MH nanoparticles composites increased from 10.4 to 17.0 MPa as additive loading levels increased from 80 to 150 phr, respectively, while the corresponding values for common micrometer MH composites decreased steadily from 9.7 to 7.1 MPa. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and dynamic Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results revealed two‐step flame‐retardant mechanism. First, MH particles decompose endothermically with the release of 30.1% hydration water in the 320–370°C temperature range. Second, MRP promote the formation of compact charred layers slowly in the condensed phase in the 450–550°C temperature range. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper comparatively analyzes the systems in Australia and Canada from the perspective of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation's Technical Guidelines for Responsible Fisheries No. 8. The results show that the key factors in the success of the Australian system are public participation, selecting an indicator with its objectives and improving management performance by the evaluation of the system. Further, the boundaries of the SFDIS should be the same as the boundaries of the management units and fisheries should be examined independently. The framework chosen by the Canadian system is more all-round, and can be combined with the PSR framework to maximize the management effects. Finally, techniques and specialist software such as fuzzy AHP etc. are ‘well-suited to measuring weights and have the potential to be applied elsewhere’. Visual presentation is the best way to promote communication with the public. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation's kite diagram and the Sustainable Development Committee's dashboard of sustainability are two excellent visualizations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]