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In Taiwan, the incidence and prevalence of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) have risen significantly in recent years. Moreover, data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) show that more than 85% of PsA patients are treated with just non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and/or conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (csDMARDs). Taiwanese clinicians have also expressed concerns regarding uncertainties in the diagnosis of PsA and the delayed, interrupted, and/or tapered use of biologics, as well as differences in therapeutic preferences between and within dermatologists and rheumatologists. To address these issues, the Taiwan Rheumatology Association and the Taiwanese Association for Psoriasis and Skin Immunology jointly convened a committee of 28 clinicians from the fields of rheumatology, dermatology, orthopedics, and rehabilitation, to develop evidence-based consensus recommendations for the practical management of PsA in Taiwan. A total of six overarching principles and 13 recommendations were developed and approved, as well as a treatment algorithm with four separate tracks for axial PsA, peripheral PsA, enthesitis, and dactylitis. Psoriasis (PsO) management was not discussed here, as the Taiwanese Dermatological Association has recently published a comprehensive consensus statement on the management of PsO. Together, these recommendations provide an up-to-date, evidence-based framework for PsA care in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current reliable strategies for information security are all chosen using incomplete information. With standards, problems resulting from incomplete information can be reduced, since with standards, we can decrease the choices and simplify the process for reliable supply and demand decision making. This paper is to study the certification of information security management systems based on specifications promulgated by the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI), Ministry of Economic Affairs in accordance with international standards and their related organizations. And we suggest a certification requirement concept for five different levels of “Information and Communication Security Protection System” in our country, the Republic of China, Taiwan. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Significant ionospheric disturbances during the 2021 Typhoon Chanthu were observed by GPS and GLONASS. • The ionospheric disturbances following the Typhoon are accompanied and propagated with the "N"-type wave. • The propagation velocity and center frequency of ionospheric disturbances are within the range of gravity waves. Severe typhoons often result in substantial economic and human losses. Therefore, near-real-time monitoring and forecasting of severe typhoons have a significant importance. In this paper, characteristics of ionospheric disturbances during the 2021 Typhoon Chanthu are estimated and investigated from GPS and GLONASS measurements. We calculate high-precision de-trended and filtered ionospheric vertical total electron content (VTEC) data based on GPS and GLONASS data from intensive Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations at 30-second intervals in Taiwan. Based on the VTEC values, we analyze the characteristics of ionospheric disturbances caused by Typhoon Chanthu, such as the time of appearance of ionospheric disturbances, changes in the magnitude of these disturbances, alterations in two-dimensional disturbances, fluctuations in the speed of disturbance propagation, and shifts in the frequency spectrum. The results reveal that both GPS-TEC and GLONASS-TEC exhibit noticeable disturbances during the specified timeframe. These disturbances are accompanied by the occurrence of "N"-type anomalies in TEC. Notably, at the occurrence of the disturbance, the elevation angle of GPS PRN32 and GLONASS PRN1 satellites is approximately 50°-55°, and their respective distances from the typhoon eye are roughly 350 km and 150 km. The propagation velocity and center frequency of the ionospheric disturbances are located in the range of gravity waves. Specifically, the disturbances propagation speeds of GPS PRN32 and GLONASS PRN1 are approximately 129.36 m/s and 128.33 m/s, respectively, while the center frequencies are about 1.17 mHz and 1.43 mHz. The ionospheric perturbations observed by GPS and GLONASS exhibit certain similarities, which provide valuable insights into the relationship between typhoons and ionospheric disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientometric analysis is a useful tool that utilizes bibliometric data to measure scientific output of a disease or region in a particular field. In this report, we comprehensively provide bibliometric characteristics of all the papers on betel quid (BQ)-related cancer and precancerous lesions. There are 1403 papers on BQ-related cancer and precancerous lesions published until 2022 in the Scopus database. China (mainland and Taiwan region), India, United States, and United Kingdom contribute 1214 (86.5%) papers and 34,120 (91.9%) citations of all the papers. The number (457), citations (14,573), and h index (60) of the papers originated from Taiwan region stably remain in the first. The most frequent research keyword is arecoline, followed by drug, prevalence, metabolism, carcinogenesis, and pathology. Areca nut and BQ cessation program by Taiwan government has demonstrated a significant positive impact on oral cancer prevention. Collectively, the scientific output of BQ-related cancer and precancerous field represents distinct regional characteristic. BQ-related cancer prevention is still a long way off. Encouragingly, Taiwan region is well ahead in this way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since government-provided annual cervical cytology testing for all Taiwanese women aged 30 years or older became available in 1995, both cervical cancer incidence and death have decreased significantly. However, with the 2018 introduction of the national immunization program for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in all schoolgirls aged 13–15 years old, the positive predictive value of cytology testing is expected to decrease with rising vaccination rates, and therefore a transition to more sensitive HPV-based testing may be needed. This position paper, derived from discussions by a panel of experts in cervical cancer screening, provides short-, medium-, and long-term policy recommendations to manage the transition between cervical screening methods for Taiwan. The recommendations include concrete suggestions regarding testing procedures, standards, accreditation, monitoring, promotion, and implementation. It is hoped that comprehensive preparation and management of this transition will enable Taiwan to repeat the previous successes of the cervical cytology testing program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of information and communication technology, online gambling has flourished in Taiwan and caused severe social problems. Online gambling is often combined with various crimes, such as organized crime, fraud, and money laundering, severely affecting social security. Moreover, as the exponential development of technology has given rise to many high-tech crime tools, the police force has encountered many investigation challenges. This paper intends to understand crime and investigate the patterns of online gambling websites through case studies. It is found that online gambling operators have invented a sophisticated business model to circumvent police investigations and to facilitate their defense in the future. This paper summarizes and analyzes the modus operandi and police investigation model and puts forward recommendations on the current difficulties for the reference of practical criminal justice personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms achieve their competitive advantage quickly through the concept framework of open innovation by integrating external inspiration with internal endowment when facing hyper-competition in the digital era. This paper deploys open innovation into building platform blocks by modular operators. These eight modular operators are splitting, augmenting, deleting, substituting, inversing, porting, configuring, and integrating. By means of case studies of two Taiwan Internet vendors, the results depict the manipulation strategies between eight modular operators to fit seven functional requirements for weaving social media, which are presence, identity, sharing, reputation, groups, conversations, and relationship. Finally, this paper advances propositions about the deployment of modularization strategies to develop a competitive platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Bike repositioning problem with service requirements for rental and return requests was studied. • A mathematical model with the goal of minimizing the travel and unsatisfied costs was developed. • An efficient two-phase heuristic approach based on linear programming was proposed. • The proposed approach performs better than CPLEX optimizer and a genetic algorithm-based method. • The effects of various system parameters on the system were also investigated. An approach to overcome the bike imbalance problem is to transfer excess bikes to branches with bike shortages. This study develops a constrained mathematical model to deal with a multi-vehicle bike-repositioning problem, and aims to minimize the sum of transportation and unmet demand costs over a planning horizon through bike-transfer strategies under a minimum service requirement. A two-phase heuristic based on linear programming was proposed to solve the problem and produce compromising solutions. In the first phase, the paper developed a linear programming model to quickly develop decisions related to bike inventory, unloading, and loading for all stations for each time slot. In the second phase, this paper proposed an iterative approach through two parameter sensitive mathematical models to sequentially reduce the problem scale to develop decisions related to bike transfers. Computational results show that the proposed approach is superior to a CPLEX optimizer and a hybrid heuristic based on a genetic algorithm. The proposed approach was used to analyze the bicycle system in Taiwan. The impacts of various system parameters on the system were also investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bridge structures deteriorate due to various factors, and their maintenance can be made more efficient by utilizing relevant information. This paper describes an algorithm called Self-Organizing Map-based Cluster Merging (SOMCM) using a multi-dimensional matrix composite neural network, and a surface image identification system. The algorithm is designed to investigate the relevance between the main components of bridges and their types of deterioration. 6140 records on bridge maintenance were collected for all bridges in the Taoyuan region of Taiwan in 2021. The SOMCM algorithm involves finding the winner neuron through merging processes. 61 clusters were merged into 8 clusters after a predetermined number of iterations. Clustering analysis of the final 8 clusters revealed 9 major bridge maintenance association rules. Follow-up studies can apply the algorithm to integrate more technologies including GIS coordinates, material availability, real-time traffic conditions, and weather information to be of benefit to engineering practitioners. • The study is to develop a new algorithm, SOM-based Cluster Merging (SOMCM). • The paper is to investigate the relevance for bridge main components and their deterioration types. • The initial result involves 61 clusters being merged to 8 clusters with the predetermined iterations. • The clustering analysis for the final 8 clusters shows 9 major bridge maintenance association rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/purpose: Interfacility transfer (IFT) in Asian communities is seldom discussed. We aimed to describe the characteristics of IFT in Taiwan and to explore the adequacy of care during transfer.Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted using standardized, paper-based interfacility ambulance transfer records between 1 January 2018 and 31 January 2018 from Tainan City, Taiwan. The mode of patient care needed was classified as advanced life support (ALS) or basic life support (BLS) cares based on clinical conditions. ALS providers were defined as physicians and EMT-Paramedics, while BLS providers were defined as nurse practitioners, nurses, EMT-1s and EMT-2s.Results: Of the 377 (227 [60.2%] were >65 years old; 219 [58.1%] were male) IFTs enrolled in the final analysis, 210 (55.7%) patients met the ALS transfer criteria, with poor consciousness (n = 158), tachypnea (n = 17), tachycardia (n = 5), bradycardia (n = 7), hypertension (n = 12), hypotension (n = 13), hypoxia (n = 4), endotracheal intubation (n = 18), a tracheostomy (n = 25), a precipitous labor (n = 1), and after resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (n = 10) or in-hospital cardiac arrest (n = 3). None of the patients who required ALS care had adequate ambulance staffing. Of the 167 BLS IFTs, 9 (5.4%) patients deteriorated and required ALS care during transportation, which included worsened consciousness (n = 2), tachycardia (n = 1), hypertension (n = 2), hypotension (n = 1), and hypoxia (n = 3). The rates of deterioration during BLS-transferals from the emergency departments, general wards, nursing facilities, and unknown areas were 4.8%, 4.7%, 7.7%, and 7.1%, respectively (p = 0.93).Conclusion: The patient care during IFT in Taiwan is inadequate currently and should warrant attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/purpose: Suicide is a huge global health burden. High suicide rates with a low prevalence of major depressive disorder were reported in East Asia. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of suicidal behaviors in relation to the demographic characteristics and major depressive disorder in Taiwan.Methods: This study was based on the Taiwan Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, conducted between 2003 and 2005, a survey of common psychiatric disorders in a nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized civilians aged 18 or above. Demographic data, major depressive disorder, and suicidal behaviors were ascertained by a face-to-face interview using the paper version of the World Mental Health Survey Composite International Diagnostic Interview.Results: According to the total sample of 10,135 participants, the lifetime prevalence of suicidal ideation, plans and attempts was 7.52% (S.E = 0.46%), 1.31% (S.E. = 0.16%) and 1.29% (S.E. = 0.16%), respectively. Among suicide ideators, the conditional probability of making a suicide plan was 17.39% (S.E. = 1.92%), and a suicide attempt 17.16% (S.E. = 2.15%). Age ≤ 40, female sex, and major depressive disorder were related to a higher risk of suicidal behaviors in the general population; the former two were associated with further developing suicide attempts and the latter one developing plans among ideators.Conclusion: Despite low prevalence, major depressive disorder remained a significant risk factor for suicidal behaviors in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In February 2021, the Ministry of Commerce Anti-monopoly Bureau of the People's Republic of China released the Antitrust Guidelines for the Platform Economy Industry. This announcement signaled more governmental supervision and governance with Internet-related business. In practice, tech giants have been suffering administrative penalties one after another. This study presents a review and analysis of the research literature on the monopoly quantitative models, outlining the components and concluding the implications for anti-monopoly. This paper delineates three main research topics relating to the monopoly models within the literature: the oligopoly, monopolistic competition, and Internet platform monopoly. The Cournot model, Bertrand model, Stackelberg model, and Innovational model represent the oligopoly studies when a small group of large sellers dominates the market. We then discuss the monopolistic competition models as the Krugman model, D-S Model, and Lancaster Model. We pay particular attention to the platform economy to reflect the new era of monopoly with Marshall's Dilemma. After the summary and comparison of the literature research trajectory, our analysis culminates in implications for antitrust: why Internet corporations and government meet this monopoly predicament, who are involved by monopoly policy, how consumers and market got impacted, and what countermeasures could be taken to improve the antitrust. This study contributes to overview the development of monopoly models and critically analyze based on the current antitrust situation and trend of platform economy integration. We should scrutinize the feasibility to adopt engrain view of monopoly mechanisms as benefit loss on the information technology economy. Therefore, this research raises the novel question and synergistic effects of monopoly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies primarily suggest that the generation of medical wastes maintains a positive relationship with national incomes. In contrast, higher incomes may lead to improved health status, consequently resulting in lower generation of medical wastes. Under this circumstance, an inverted U-shaped curve may be used to describe the generation of medical wastes along with economic growth. Additionally, illegal disposal is believed to have a high impact on human health. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the presence of the environmental Kuznets curve for both the generation and illegal disposal of medical wastes by using a model of the environmental Kuznets curve. The results find the generation of medical wastes is positively affected by incomes, but this paper identifies the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve phenomenon for illegal disposal. Both the generation and illegal disposal of medical wastes are positively affected by medical capacity but negatively affected by medical policy. The primary contributions of this paper are three-fold. First, this paper is the first to focus on the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve phenomenon for both the generation and the illegal disposal of medical wastes. Second, this paper confirms the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve for the illegal disposal of medical wastes. Illegal disposal may be blocked when national incomes reach a specific level, and thus, the government may focus on the formulation of medical policy to encourage reduced demand for medical care. Third, this paper finds that the implementation of medical policy may have an important effect on inhibiting the generation and illegal disposal of medical wastes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an approach to analyze the economic feasibility of offshore wind energy under influences of government financial subsidies, dynamic weather conditions (including typhoon), taxation, expectation of investor, optimal maintenance schedule, generated electricity under real weather conditions, and benefits from reduction of CO 2 emission. Economic criteria are calculated and used to assess efficiency of the government financial subsidies. This paper further proposes more appropriate subsidies for the government in term of satisfying both of investor’s expectation and the government’s target. In the case of Taiwan, government has been currently adopting Feed-in-tariff (FIT) subsidy and offering subsidy on capital cost to promote the development of offshore wind system. However, the currently applied subsidy on capital cost is not attractive enough for the investors and the current FIT subsidy is applied equally for all regions of Taiwan regardless the distinct conditions of each region. This paper proposes a more appropriate subsidy for capital cost, and suggests establishing regional FIT subsidy to subsidize differently for different regions. The results indicate that the proposed subsidy for capital cost and the proposed regional FIT subsidy are more appropriate to promote the expansion of offshore wind system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper systematically reviews the conditions of energy supply and demand in Taiwan and further investigates the energy issues it has been confronted with as well as its objective of energy policy adjustment. In view of the trend of supply-side reform in mainland China energy sector under the New Normal economy and the background of the “Belt and Road” initiative, the paper points out the significance and development prospects of cross-strait energy cooperation. Main contributions of this paper are: by forecasting the future trend of power demand growth in Taiwan, the power shortage in the future of Taiwan is analyzed. On this basis, the paper analyzes the existing contradictions between Taiwan's energy transition policy and its current problem of power shortage, and the feasibility as well as the significance of electricity transmission to Taiwan for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural integrity analysis for reactor pressure vessel (RPV) nozzles has been a vital issue due to the irradiation embrittlement and especially the discontinuity of geometry in RPV nozzles, which may cause a higher stress concentration and influence the structural integrity of RPV nozzles. For the linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) analysis of the RPV nozzle, a postulated crack with a specific crack depth is presumed to evaluate the stress intensity factors (SIFs) whose crack depth does not grow during LEFM analysis. Thus, this paper would discuss the crack propagation for the postulated crack with a specific crack depth under the different reference temperature of nil-ductility transition (R T N D T ), and the SIFs on the specific crack depth are also calculated. In recent research, the extended finite element method (XFEM) was developed, which is based on the enrichment solution space to simplify the computational fracture mechanics with the crack propagation of various discontinuities, and can be used to evaluate the crack propagation of RPV nozzle with a specific crack depth under R T N D T of −23.89, −10.89, 0.89, 2.69, and 2.89 °C. To investigate the crack propagation and structural integrity of RPV nozzles, the finite element analysis of Taiwan domestic boiling water reactor (BWR) nozzles containing the postulated circular corner crack with depths of one-fourth and one-tenth thickness along the 45° path from the tip of the nozzle corner is engaged. The present result shows that the crack was growing when the R T N D T was 0.89 °C and. In addition, the XFEM calculation of the SIFs for the specific crack depth is similar to the LEFM results. • The RPV nozzles with postulated cracks were established to investigate crack propagation through XFEM. • The differences in RT NDT were used to evaluate the fracture toughness and discuss the crack propagation for RPV nozzles. • The stress intensity factors (SIFs) obtained by XFEM, LEFM, and the ASME BPVC were compared. • The XFEM analysis would overestimate SIFs more than the ASME BPVC and the LEFM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Customer value is an important factor to evaluate the competitive strength for an international express service provider. It is also a key criterion to choose an express service. Hence, the main purpose of this paper was to develop a fuzzy multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) model to assess the customer value for three express service providers in Taiwan based on the shippers’ perspective. Firstly we employed some concepts of fuzzy set theory to develop a fuzzy MCDM model. Subsequently, a hierarchical structure was constructed with four criteria, twenty sub-criteria and three alternatives (i.e. U PS , FedEx and DHL ). Then, this paper conducts an empirical study by means of a survey from the viewpoints of shippers in Taiwan. Finally, the results of this study showed that: (1) the ‘time’ aspect is the most important criterion affecting the customer service based on the viewpoints of exporters and importers in Taiwan; (2) the top six key factors affecting customer value for express service providers are ‘land time between house and airport at both ends,’ ‘administrative processing time,’ ‘pick-up and haul time in warehouse,’ ‘level of accuracy,’ ‘level of safety,’ and ‘rapid turnover,’ respectively; (3) FedEx offers the best customer value in Taiwan based on the proposed fuzzy MCDM model. Furthermore, some discussions are provided for express service companies. The main contribution of this paper is to provide a practical survey for business application on customer value of express service providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taiwan's per capita carbon emissions ranks first in Asia. Whether Taiwan's current "2025 Non-Nuclear Homeland" energy transition policy can achieve the goal of greenhouse gas reduction is an issue that needs to be studied urgently. On the basis of studying the status quo of energy supply and demand and carbon emissions in Taiwan, this paper first uses an econometric model to predict Taiwan's energy demand from 2021 to 2030, and then uses a Markov chain model to predict its energy structure changes and CO 2 emission trends under different scenarios, and evaluates the impact of its energy transition policies on carbon emission reduction goals. On this basis, by comparing the carbon trading markets on both sides of the Taiwan strait, the feasibility of and obstacles to the cross-strait cooperation in the carbon trading market are discussed in depth, and the opportunities for future cross-strait cooperation in the carbon trading market are proposed innovatively. The empirical results of this paper show that the carbon emissions in 2025 under the energy transition policy will be reduced by 59.8–61.1 million tons compared with those without planning constraints, but compared with the carbon reduction target (a reduction of 124.8–133 million tons), there is still a long way to go. The contribution potential of the annual carbon emission reduction target is only 45.9%–47.9%, and the contribution potential in 2030 is 57.2%–60.1%. The current "2025 Non-Nuclear Homeland" policy is not in line with Taiwan's current reality, and it is difficult to achieve the expected carbon reduction goal. In order to realize the energy transition in Taiwan in the future, it is necessary to make overall planning of energy policies, explore the cross-strait power cooperation model, and gradually try to build a cross-strait carbon trading market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We extend the single feature selection model to feature combination selection model. • The accuracy on our selection model based on FDAF-score are obviously optimized. • Our method combined with separate 7 classification models are tested on 10 data sets. Default discrimination of credit card refers to the phenomenon in which banks discriminate against certain groups of customers based on their credit status. The challenges faced by banks and other financial institutions in evaluating borrowers and making lending decisions are inseparable from the discrimination of customers' credit status. Feature selection is a critical step in default discrimination, and the selection of features directly affects the results of default discrimination. Therefore, the identification of a group of optimal features to maximize the ability of default identification is the core problem tackled in this research. The innovation of this paper is that it extends the single feature selection model based on F-score and Fisher discriminant analysis (FDAF-score) to the feature combination selection. Taking the maximum FDAF-score of the combination of the whole features as the standard, an optimal feature combination with the maximum discrimination ability is deduced. It avoids the disadvantage that single feature selection cannot ensure that the combination of selected features still has the maximum default discrimination ability. In this paper, we find that the improved feature combination selection model based on FDAF-score was better than the single feature selection FDAF-score model. The results were confirmed in four credit data sets (binary classification) of Australia, Germany, Taiwan and Japan, and six comparative data sets (five of which are multi-classification data sets). When the feature combination selection method is combined with seven common classification models, except for image and German credit data sets, the classification accuracy of most models is higher than the FDAF-score single feature selection method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taiwan would not develop reusable suborbital launch vehicle (RSLV) for commercial suborbital space tourism (SST) and intercontinental point-to-point (IP2P) transportation industry. As such, although there are many issues need be considered, spaceport becomes one of the major indices for demonstrating Taiwan's infrastructures and readiness to go from aviation tourism to SST and IP2P due to its long leading time requirement (2–3 decades usually). Currently, there are 17 civic (single use) and civic and military (dual use) airports, of which 4 are civic and one is basically civic. In this paper, these 5 airports were studied and discussed on their potential to be extended to either single use spaceport or dual use air and spaceport from the aspects of area, busyness, required extension (minor or major), redesign and reconstruction requirements, and environmental reassessment requirements. For the 5 airports included in the considerations, the 4 airports Taoyuan, Kaohsiung, Songshan and Kinmen all need minor extensions for accommodating horizontal-takeoff-horizontal-landing (HTHL) RSLV. Only the Taoyuan and Kinmen airports are suitable for major extensions to also accommodate vertical-takeoff-vertical-landing (VTVL) RSLV after major extensions. The Hengchun Airport needs environmental reassessment, redesign and reconstruction due to its very local katabatic winds weather condition. However, it is also the only one suitable for extending to become a dedicated spaceport with HTHL and VTVL RSLVs accommodated. For comparison purpose, a new spaceport dedicated to SST and IP2P with the name to be determined (TBD) is proposed as an option. For the case of considering dedicated uses for SST and IP2P, then only Hengchun and TBD are the two remaining spaceport candidates. • Upgrading of the 5 airports to become potential suborbital space tourism (SST) spaceports was studied. • Four airports could become dual use as air and spaceports after minor extension for HTHL RSLV. • All of them need major extension for operating commercial SST using VTVL RSLV. • Hengchun Airport is the only airport in Taiwan which has the potential to become dedicated spaceport. • Comparison made with a new proposed SST spaceport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid industrial developments, air pollution has become a hot issue globally. Accurate prediction of PM2.5 (a category of particulate pollutant with a diameter of less than 2. 5 μ m) has been a critical topic, as it can provide valuable information for government decision-making and policy control in environmental management affairs. In this paper, we propose a deep learning model based on graph neural networks (GNNs) to predict the next 48hr PM2.5 concentration in Taiwan. In this model, monitoring stations are regarded as nodes and edges are the distances between monitoring stations. Hence, the distribution of the stations can be perceived as a graph. GNNs are promising in processing non-grid structure data that can be represented as a graph. By incorporating the GNN and gated recurrent units (GRUs), this model can effectively capture the long-term spatial–temporal features in air quality time-series data. In addition, we also investigated the problem of predicting PM2.5 concentrations in the areas without monitoring stations or at sites far away from the stations. This problem has not captured researchers' attention whose methods are based on GNN. The problem is, however, quite challenging as these areas do not have historical air quality data, leading to low prediction quality. Finally, we performed experiments to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model based on actual data sources obtained in Taiwan. The results show that the proposed model exhibits satisfactory prediction performance compared to existing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short-term electric load forecasting is essential for the operation of power systems and the power market, including economic dispatch, unit commitment, peak load shaving, load management and bidding strategy development. This paper presents a novel method that uses a hybrid convolutional neural network (CNN) that is cascaded with a fully-connected network, to conduct 24h-ahead electric load forecasting in power systems. Spearman's rank-order correlation, which serves as input size information for the CNN, was used to measure the cross-correlation between two sets of observations (chronological loads) of time shifts or lags. Both max and average pooling operations were utilized to extract data features in concatenation while spatial and conventional dropouts were employed to avoid overfitting in the hybrid CNN. The proposed method used two loops to yield the optimal CNN. The outer loop optimizes the structure and hyperparameters (such as kernel size) of the hybrid CNN by a proposed method of enhanced elite-based particle swarm optimization (EEPSO) while the inner loop optimizes the parameters (such as values of a kernel) and weights in neural networks using the Adam optimizer. The EEPSO is based on the mean search and chaotic descending inertia weight. The proposed method was used to study the 2018 and 2019 hourly load data in Taiwan Power Company. Simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms the well-known ARIMA, Radial Basis Function Network, Support Vector Regression, Long Short-term Memory and their hybrid variants. • Structure and hyperparameters of the CNN are optimized by enhanced elite-based PSO. • Both spatial and traditional dropouts are used to avoid overfitting in the CNN model. • Both max and average pooling operations are used to extract data features. • Hourly load data in Taiwan Power Company in 2018 and 2019 are studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A discernible correlation emerged between global bridge disasters and bridge deterioration in recent years. To assist bridge inspectors in conducting deterioration identification, this paper presents a Pilgrimage Walk Optimization (PWO) algorithm inspired by Taiwan's unique Matsu bobee custom. The search behavior of the PWO algorithm simulates the gathering of devotees following Matsu's palanquin and their collective movements based on folk belief activities, including divination block casting, pilgrimage, the leisure ceremony, crawling beneath the palanquin, palanquin robbing, and the return palanquin ceremony. Analysis results show that the PWO outperformed contemporary metaheuristic algorithms on various multidimensional benchmark functions and was effectively applied to image segmentation for multiple types of bridge deterioration collected by an unmanned aerial vehicle. In the increasing number of engineering problems requiring edge computing to process big data, the proposed PWO algorithm is a low-cost and robust method with fault tolerance. • Presenting the innovative Pilgrimage Walk Optimization (PWO) algorithm, a revolutionary metaheuristic approach. • The new algorithm is tested on benchmark functions and applied to optimize image segmentation. • PWO algorithm outperforms contemporary metaheuristic algorithms in terms of achieving optimal solutions. • Exploring diverse bridge deterioration patterns auto-segmented using metaheuristic clustering algorithms. • PWO algorithm holds potential applications in AIoT technology and automation within the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, pre-trained transformer encoders have achieved successful milestones in natural language understanding (NLU). However, they still suffer from the representations with insufficient semantics, the sequences with finite lengths, and the need for a considerable number of parameters. These issues lead to difficulties not only in practical deployment under limited computational resources but also in downstream applications. To address such issues, this paper presents ELICE, a method of embedding language through an informative contrastive-encoder. Through the strategies of unordered composition and dropout-based contrastive learning, ELICE can enhance long documents embedding under the desirable model size and producing generic textual representations by condensing multiple unstructured features, such as titles, metadata, and segments of content. Furthermore, the contrastive learning by the NT-Xent objective is experimentally proven to ameliorate the document-level embedding space for a more isotropic one. ELICE was evaluated on four tasks of the CLUE benchmark (Mandarin NLU tasks). With the basic version, the ELICE-base has 12 million parameters and achieves 99% of the performance of the BERT-base (108 million) on average. Furthermore, on the IMDb sentiment classification (English NLU task), ELICE-base (13 million) achieves 95% of the accuracy of XLNet (110 million). Additionally, we deployed ELICE in a practical system for real-time ad-hoc document retrieval regarding legal compliance in the financial industry, and the fine-tuned ELICE outperformed the pre-trained baseline and the whitening representations. These results demonstrate the effectiveness, the robustness, and the flexibility of ELICE in the field of language understanding. • Achieve desirable model size by unordered composition and contrastive learning. • Adopt normalized temperature-scaled cross-entropy loss in pre-training/fine-tuning. • Redistribute non-smooth anisotropic embedding space about generic textual semantics. • Realize the application of legal compliance in Taiwan's finance industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is related to underground pipeline gas explosions that occurred in the southern region of Taiwan in July 2014. This disaster, which resulted in substantial numbers of fatalities and injuries in addition to about 6 km of damaged roads, was the largest petroleum catastrophe in Taiwan's history. Because pipeline gas explosions of such a large extent are rare, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office and Kaohsiung Fire Department launched an investigation in which an author of this paper participated. The aim of this paper is to explore the causes of the explosions, thereby contributing to the prevention of similar cases in the future. First, the causes of the large explosions are thoroughly investigated. Second, metallographic studies are conducted on the ruptured pipelines. Finally, the results are summarized, and conclusions are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Few studies have explored the field experiences and risk factors related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among disaster rescue workers.Methods: A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Taiwan on February 6, 2016. A standardized, paper-based, self-administered survey questionnaire including demographic information, field experiences and the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL) was conducted among emergency medical technicians (EMTs) one month after the earthquake. A multivariate regression model was used to analyze the associations between risk factors and the PCL. A two-sided p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: The survey response rate was 86.1% (447/519). The respondents who exceeded the cut-off points for the re-experience, avoidance, or hyperarousal domains were 11.8%, 2.7%, or 4.7%, respectively. A proportion of 12.7% of respondents met partial PTSD. The personality characteristics of anxiety (p < 0.001), perfectionism (p = 0.023) and introvert tendency (p = 0.002) were significantly correlated with partial PTSD. Emergency medical services (EMS) were significantly associated with partial PTSD than other main tasks (p < 0.001). The prevalence of partial PTSD was higher but was not significantly different in the groups of lower educational level, longer EMT careers, earlier arrival date, fewer field working hours, or managing dead people. Both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that an anxious personality and EMS as the main task during the missions were significantly associated with PTSD risk.Conclusion: Not only personality characteristics but also the task components could alter the PTSD risks in disasters. A broad realization of these risks may improve the mental outcomes of disaster rescuers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry accounts for nearly half of all industry-related fatalities in Taiwan. Identified as the leading cause of such fatalities for several decades, falls also contribute to almost half of work-related fatalities. Given the strenuous nature of construction work, workers are prone to loss of awareness and balance, increasing the safety risk and number of fall accidents. Previous studies have indicated that loss of awareness may be the major cause of occupational injuries or fatalities, and identified the strong correlation between falls and loss of balance. Thus, real-time monitoring of the mental and balance conditions of workers may help identify fall portents, and thus prevent falls from happening. This paper describes a framework for developing a personal safety monitoring system based on a smartphone, which receives external signals wirelessly from motion sensors and brain wave sensors attached to a vest and inside a helmet, and transmit these signals to a monitoring server for further analysis. This paper also presents an experiment with preliminary findings regarding the detection of fall portents, using the internal motion sensors of a smartphone. In the experiment, participants performed a tiling task on a scaffold under four physiological statuses. We identified the fall portents based on the self-awareness of the participants, hazardous actions performed by the participants, and outsider observations by experiment administrators. An accelerometer-based threshold algorithm was tested, and its performance was evaluated against the identified fall portents. The results indicated that the work-related motions had a limited impact on the detection algorithm. The accuracy for the sleepiness, fatigue, normal, and inebriation statuses were 92.3%, 90.4%, 77.3%, and 68.8%, respectively. The algorithm exhibited an overall accuracy of 86%, thus, we conclude that using a smartphone to detect fall portents in a working scenario is feasible, and deserves further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming arising from climate change can increase the spread of deadly diseases. Effort is needed to develop a set of policies for the government to stem or reduce health risks from global warming. The purpose of this paper is to examine more detail and comprehensively about the relationship among climate and event disease count in Taiwan using the partial least square latent regression model. The results obtained that of the 17 types of diseases in Taiwan, that has the most significant loading factor is Amoebiasis, Malaria and Chikungunya. At the same time, climate variables that have the biggest most significant factor are Number day with max temp more than 30, Number day Temp more than 25, and Rainfall PH. Cronbach's Alpha infectious disease 0.9696 and climate 0.2813. At the same time, the value of Dillon Goldstein's rho infectious disease 0.974 and climate 0.6404, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obtaining the most economic benefits while using the least resources and causing the least environmental damage is an urgent and key problem in achieving sustainable development. The concept of eco-efficiency provides a comprehensive perspective for observing and solving this problem. This paper proposes an extended data envelopment analysis model, named the WIN-US-SBM, as a comprehensive eco-efficiency evaluation method that can accommodate undesirable outputs, all the identification problems of decision-making units (DMUs), possible slacks of variables, and the problems of an insufficient number of available DMUs and intertemporal comparability. China's Western Taiwan Straits Economic Zone (WTS Economic Zone) is an important regional economic growth center. By applying WIN-US-SBM and ArcGIS software, we investigated data on the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of eco-efficiency in the WTS Economic Zone for the years 2009–2016. Later, the global Malmquist–Luenberger index was used to decompose the sources of growth in eco-efficiency. Finally, the main driving factors of eco-efficiency were explored through a Tobit regression analysis. The empirical results show that: (1) The overall eco-efficiency of the WTS Economic Zone had greatly improved, increasing by 11.46% annually, and the cumulative growth rate of eco-efficiency was 110.84% from 2009 to 2016. (2) The eastern area had the highest average eco-efficiency, followed by the western area and the middle area in that order. Also, the growth rate of the middle area ranked first (16.68%), whereas the eastern area had the slowest growth in eco-efficiency (7.22%). (3) On the whole, the growth of eco-efficiency was driven mainly by technological progress and was restricted by the decrease in management level, which implies that policy makers should focus on improving management and technical levels. (4) High levels of economic development, population density, market openness, and industrial structure had positive effects on the eco-efficiency of the WTS Economic Zone, whereas energy intensity and expenditure on science and technology had negative impacts. • An extended DEA model is proposed to measure eco-efficiency more comprehensively. • The proposed model can be widely applied to input-output efficiency evaluations. • The eco-efficiency of the WTS Economic Zone was evaluated based on a novel model. • The growth of eco-efficiency was driven mainly by technological progress. • The eco-efficiency level is negatively related to energy intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a shapelet-based behavioral pattern extraction method (Behavior2Shapelets) is proposed to address the behavior-sparsity issue in credit risk classification. In the proposed method, three steps are involved. First, by introducing the shapelets module, the proposed model can learn the behavioral patterns from the sparse behavioral features. Then, these extracted patterns are combined with a logistic regression model to construct an interpretable classifier. Finally, to enhance the robustness of the model, a dynamic strategy for threshold determination is used, which is based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic. The performance of the Behavior2Shapelets model is validated by using the Taiwan credit dataset and its seven derivative datasets. The empirical results demonstrate that the Behavior2Shapelets model outperforms the baseline methods in terms of classification accuracy and robustness. This highlights the feasibility of the proposed model as a solution to the behavior-sparsity problem in credit risk classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the long-term morphological pattern of the Hsinchu coast in northwestern Taiwan using three different methods: long-term isobath and shoreline change analysis, bathymetric volume change analysis, and the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) method. Our objectives include analyzing and understanding the effects of anthropogenic structures, natural processes, and their combined impacts on coastal morphological change. The shoreline analysis and bathymetric volume analysis briefly reveal that the morphological pattern of Hsinchu coast. Then, EOF analysis is applied to identify the dominant impact factors affecting the coastal morphology near the harbor, determine the weights of the impact factors, and infer the impact range of anthropogenic structures. Moreover, the EOF analysis is divided into two-time segments—namely, the periods 2005–2010 and 2017–2021—based on different bathymetric surveys and the corresponding values of impact factors. The primary and secondary EOF modes are strongly linked to the "interaction between wave and structure" and "interaction between river discharges and structure", respectively. The spatial components of the EOF modes demonstrate that the impact range influenced by river discharges was mainly located in the northern part of the harbor, while the minimum impact range of the structures on coastal morphological interaction changes under natural factors was 3.5 km south of Hsinchu Fishing Harbor. • The morphological patterns of the Hsinchu coast over a span of two decades were characterized in this paper. • The findings of the EOF analysis were utilized to identify the impact factors and determine the corresponding weights. • The findings can inform the development of effective strategies for coastal management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper examines the efficiency of the confinement requirements among three selected specifications (ACI Specification, AISC Seismic Specification, and Taiwan encased composite building code) for designing encased composite columns. • The analysis of this study identifies major parameters that are omitted from the current confinement requirements for encased composite columns. • This paper proposes new confinement equations for encased composite columns. The proposed requirement correlates well with the flexural performance of the encased composite columns, warranting a consistent degree of safety for the range of properties studied. • The proposed confinement equations significantly reduce the amount of required transverse reinforcement, relieving the challenges in detailing seismic hoop reinforcement around the structural steel core. Confinement reinforcement for concrete columns is designed to ensure that the columns can withstand high lateral deformations during strong earthquakes. An accurate determination of the required confinement reinforcement is vital for achieving an efficient design, especially for encased composite columns in which reinforcement congestion can be a potential problem. This paper uses the confinement requirements among three selected specifications as the basis for developing confinement equations for encased composite columns. The specification selected herein are the ACI 318, AISC Seismic Specification, and Taiwan encased composite building code. In this study, new confinement reinforcement design equations are developed and validated against experimental results. The developed confinement provision, providing a means to quantify the confinement effect of I-shaped structural steel members, significantly reduces the required confinement reinforcement for encased composite columns, and consequently alleviates the reinforcement congestion problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Chronic disease has gradually become a major fatality cause in Taiwan. Being afflicted with such illnesses elevate vulnerability to other complications as well. Therefore, this paper adopts a preventative perspective and ascertains the impacts of important physiological indicators and clinical test values for various chronic illnesses. The paper investigates five chronic diseases: hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, disease of the liver, and renal disease. Utilizing chronic diseases risk factors to establish early-warning criteria may reduce the complication occurrence rate. K-nearest neighbor, linear discriminant analysis, and sequential forward selection are utilized, which is divided into two parts. The first part classifies and screens both healthy persons and those affiliated with the abovementioned chronic illnesses for characteristic value determination. The second part determines the critical value of the important risk factors of each chronic illness and builds early-warning criteria to recognition the chronic illnesses. This paper uses data from a medical center in Taiwan to verify the proposed methodology. The results reveal that classifying materials and screening important factors are both positively efficient with a corrected rate of 80%. Additionally, through the important factors of early-warning criteria, not only can help patients understand the risks of suffering diseases, but also effectively offer diagnosis reference criteria for medical personnel. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: More and more construction organizations have adopted Knowledge Management (KM) to enhance their engineering services. However, most of the traditional KM methods suffer from their “reactive mode” of problem solving. To cope with this problem, a newly developed model, the Integrated Proactive Knowledge Management Model (IPKMM), is proposed in this paper. A leading engineering consulting firm in Taiwan was selected as a case study to implement the proposed model. The system implementation of IPKMM, the Integrated Proactive Knowledge Management System (IPKMS), is verified with real world cases. A novel Business Intelligence Index (BII) is also proposed in this paper to evaluate the relative competitiveness of different KM models. It is confirmed from the case study that IPKMM can significantly improve the efficiency of problem-solving and the competitiveness of an engineering consulting firm in the service market. This study demonstrates that IPKMM has great potential in enhancing emergent problem-solving for engineering consultants. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The international trade of Korea and Taiwan has been heavily dependent upon international seatransportation owing to geo-political aspects. Therefore, the two countries have exerted to develop and promote ocean-going shipping industry in order to support their economies. Recent financial crisis in together with the economic slowdown has reduced seaborne trade cargoes, which resulted in remarkably deteriorated revenues of the container shipping sector. Major container shipping companies of both countries such as Evergreen, Yang Ming, Hyundai, and Hanjin under our study are no exception. This paper intends to achieve two-fold aims. The first applies entropy to find the relative weights of financial ratios of the four companies each year. In so doing, we can find the weights variance for the period of 1999–2009 based on the financial performance of the above companies. The second is to rank the companies in the period by grey relation analysis. On the basis of findings in this paper, we suggest business policy implications to mitigate impacts of the financial tsunami in the context of world shipping area. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Seismic resistance of elementary and high school buildings is of great concern due to high earthquake risk in Taiwan. Existing school buildings are often built of similar configurations, and designed based on previous building codes, which are not in compliance with current codes in seismic performance objective. The use of current code procedures on seismic performance assessment of existing typical school buildings may not be applicable in predicting their structural behavior during earthquakes. This paper describes a full-size two-story, three-bay frame structure test of typical school building design in Taiwan, and examines the performance and failure mechanism of the frame structure with current building codes. Results from loading test show good agreement with the code-defined procedures in identifying soft story, weak story, and failure modes of columns, but show different failure mechanism in beam–column joint region, i.e. strong-column–weak-beam is expected by building code procedures, whereas the test specimen exhibits weak-column–strong-beam behavior. Although the joint shear check following current code procedures gives satisfactory results, i.e. is consistent with the experiment, the check on its own is not a reasonable one. Revisions of current checking procedures for failure mechanism in beam column joint and for joint shear are also proposed in this paper for existing non-ductile reinforced concrete school buildings. The revised procedures incorporate the effects of both weak story and weak-column–strong-beam behavior. After adopting the proposed procedures, the predicted structural behavior and failure modes are consistent with those observed from the full-size frame test. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Elementary and junior high school buildings in Taiwan are designed to serve not only as places of education but also as temporary shelters in the aftermath of major earthquakes. Effective evaluation of the seismic resistance of school buildings is a critical issue that deserves further investigation. The National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (in Taiwan) currently employs performance-target ground acceleration (AP ) as the index to evaluate school structure compliance with seismic resistance requirements. However, computational processes are complicated, time consuming, and require the input of many experts. To address this problem, this paper developed an evolutionary support vector machine inference system (ESIS) that integrated two AI techniques, namely, the support vector machine (SVM) and fast messy genetic algorithm (fmGA). Based on training results, the developed system can predict the AP of a school building in a significantly shorter time base, thus increasing evaluation efficiency significantly. The validity of ESIS was tested using the 10-Fold Cross-Validation method. Another aim of this paper is to retain and apply expert knowledge and relevant experience to the solution of similar problems in the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• The distal relationship between Taipei's resource inflows and nonrenewable resource production in Taiwan was investigated. • Cross-scale emergy synthesis revealed the reliance of Taipei's resource inflows on Taiwan. • The demand of construction materials in Taipei's peri-urbanization is the underlying driving force of the development in Taipei's remote areas. Urbanization not only causes environmental changes in metropolitan regions but also influences the ecological and socioeconomic changes of distant land areas due to increasing demands on resource use and waste emissions. Previous studies on the assessment of urban systems have focused on the city or metropolitan areas under study. There is a need to incorporate urban land teleconnections to investigate the relationship between a city and distant land areas during the process of urbanization. This paper analyzes the teleconnection of the energy and material flows associated with Taipei's peri-urbanization and remote areas in Taiwan. The cross-scale emergy synthesis of Taipei and Taiwan was examined first to investigate the relationships of the material and energy flows between Taipei and Taiwan. The exploitation of non-renewable resources in Taiwan during the 1990s was driven mainly by the construction and development taking place in Taipei. Furthermore, compared with Taiwan, the Taipei area relies heavily on external resources. The results of the emergy evaluation of materials flows in Taipei indicated that 85% of the construction materials used were imported from other remote areas during the past 30 years. The use of construction materials in Taipei had a higher intensity in the city center during 1982–1992 and in the peri-urban area during 2002−2014. The results of the emergy synthesis indicated that urban land teleconnections exist between peri-urban areas of Taipei and other distant areas in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyber services record almost people's locations worldwide. Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) can use them to find suspects or witnesses near crime scenes. However, it runs the risk of arresting the innocent in a criminal investigation. This paper takes an intimidation case in Taiwan for example. The crime scene investigation from the viewpoint of Google Maps is explored for supporting or refuting a crime. The proposed PETLO (People-Events-Time-Locations-Objects) model is an investigative approach, which can be applied in clarifying some critical issues and explaining how a crime has happened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study proposes a two-stage approach to perform metafrontier analysis of the pollution efficiency of administrative regions in Taiwan during 2004–2015. The empirical research shows that New Taipei City and Taipei City have the best performances in terms of metafrontier efficiency and the technology gap ratio. In addition, the average score for pollution efficiency in municipalities is higher than that in non-municipalities for three environmental management indices. However, the metropolitan and non-metropolitan regions face different environmental problems in that the former should pay attention to sewage treatment, while the latter should focus attention on preventing air pollution. Finally, Taiwan presents disparity in the environmental technology gap ratio between these two types of regions. Highlights • This paper examines the pollution efficiency of administrative regions in Taiwan during 2004–2015. • New Taipei City and Taipei City have the best performances in terms of metafrontier efficiency and the technology gap ratio. • Taiwan has a disparity in the environmental technology gap ratio between the two types of regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The decision to launch a new route has a huge effect on the outcomes of airlines in the market. In order to find potential destinations for airlines, this paper utilizes a compromise programming method for selecting direct flight routes. The selection framework comprises two objective functions, with one maximizing total revenue and the other minimizing total cost. A case studying Taiwan-European region destinations is interpreted in the analysis. The results indicate that four potential routes, including Madrid, Milan, Munich and Zurich should be added to the airlines' service destinations. Therefore, this research suggested that the airport authority could apply incentives scheme to attract carriers to open new routes and add flight frequencies to strengthen its competitiveness. Highlights • The study utilizes a compromise programming method for selecting direct flight routes. • A case involving Taiwan-European region destinations is applied in the analysis. • The results indicate that potential routes, Madrid, Milan, Munich and Zurich, should be added to the airlines' destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The paper discusses how the intercultural knowledge is enhanced in a technology-enabled learning environment. We developed a comparative reflection approach, for an undergraduate course participated by three groups of students, who were globally distributed in the US, Mainland China, and Taiwan. Made possible by the videoconferencing technology, the approach included two group-based tasks of describing, comparing, analyzing, and reflecting on everyday activities and cultural practices. To evaluate the design effectiveness, we conducted a discourse-based ethnographic study to examine the knowledge construction stimulated by the task design. We identified that, while all the three groups constructed cultural-specific knowledge on the first task, some constructed deep cultural knowledge and insightful cross-cultural interpretations on the second task. As student groups undertook the two progressive tasks, they worked through various levels of understandings, hence moving from surface to deep learning. Highlights • Three globally distributed groups of undergraduate students were connected via the videoconferencing technology. • The three groups participated in two progressive tasks to describe, compare, analyze, and reflect on everyday practices. • All the three groups constructed certain cultural-specific knowledge, while two constructed deep cultural knowledge. • The learning gap highlighted the necessity of task clarity and appropriate scaffolding in the teaching and learning design. • The groups also constructed understandings about the presentation format by learning from the best practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In general, enterprises should pay close attention to sustaining sufficient competitiveness in turbulent global business environments that focus on sustainable operations, especially environmental issues. It is obligated for enterprises to protect the environment, utilize sustainable resources and establish eco-industries. Many large enterprises have joined the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). However, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) pay various degrees of attention to environmental issues and sustainable operations. This paper investigates the sustainable development and innovation of 233 SMEs in Taiwan to find out how to develop a business model that helps them operate in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly way. According to our results, a sustainable business model is a key factor for competitive advantages with straightforward connections to business success. Results also indicate that a sustainable business model is performed with the agreement of colleagues in an organization and it requires comprehensive strategic efforts. This study has limited findings to show the insights of Taiwanese SMEs and should not be generalized in other contexts. Highlights • We investigate the sustainable development and innovation of 233 SMEs in Taiwan. • SMEs pay various degrees of attention to environmental issues and sustainable operations. • A sustainable business model is a key factor for competitive advantages. • To achieve sustainable development requires comprehensive strategic efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Promoting biofuel to replace fossil fuels and alternative utilization schemes to replace conventional measures of biomass waste disposal have been considered a priority to mitigate CO 2 emissions. Despite fewer land resources and higher reliance on imported energy and raw material resources, the potential for bioenergy supply in a place like Taiwan should be fully investigated. This paper presents a case study regarding the utilization of waste biomass derived from an enhanced production of rice paddy and from the forest sector in Taiwan for biofuel production. In this study, the carbon balance for the two aforementioned bioenergy production scenarios was calculated. The amount of biomass waste expected to be derived from rice husk and rice straw produced from currently planted paddy and from reactivated fallow rice paddy was estimated. Forest sector wastes consist of biomass derived from processing domestically harvested and post-consumer harvested wood products. The projection was made up to 2065. The overall annual bioenergy providing potential of the biomass, estimated by this study, to replace gasoline through bioethanol production and residual combustion and to substitute coal for power generation via combustion were approximately 222.37 PJ and 206.77 PJ, respectively. These values represent 332.56% and 323.24% of the current level of bioenergy supplies, compared to the 76.4 PJ from biomass and waste incineration in 2016. This is the first time the bioenergy potential of post-consumer harvested wood products is being identified. Highlights • Potential of bioenergy from forest sector is identified. • Potential of bioenergy supply from reactivated fallow rice paddies is identified. • 254.06 PJ can be converted by bioethanol production and combustion of residue. • 246.92 PJ can be converted by obtained by combustion. • Up to 332.56% of the current level of bioenergy supplies can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Increasing attention to care of patient succumbed to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and evidence for improved survival have resulted in many countries to encourage the use automated external defibrillators (AEDs) by legislation. In Taiwan, the amendment of the Emergency Medical Services Act mandated the installation of AEDs in designated areas in 2013. Since then, 6151 AEDs have been installed and registered in mandated and non-mandated locations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the utilization of AEDs at mandated and non-mandated locations.Methods: This paper analyzed 217 cases in whom AEDs was used between July 11, 2013 and July 31, 2015. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.Results: The highest frequency of AEDs used was in long-term care facilities, accounting for 34 (15.7%) cases. The second and third highest was in schools and commuting stations. The highest utilization rate of registered AED was in long-term care facilities (73.9%), the second was in residential areas, and the third was in hot spring areas. Employees at the designated locations or medical personnel operated the AED in 143 cases (84.6%), and bystanders, relatives, friends or others operated the AEDs in 26 cases (15.4%). On-site Return of Spontaneous Circulation (ROSC) after applying AEDs occurred in 76 cases (45.8%).Conclusion: Long-term care facilities had the highest utilization of AEDs and government should pay more attention to enforce the installing of AEDs in these places. The government also needs to promote the education public on how to search the AEDs locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In 2005, the World Bank issued Natural Disaster Hotspots: A Global Risk Analysis, which indicted that Taiwan, may be the most vulnerable place to natural hazards. This paper aims at landslide points, land use data, socioeconomic indicators integrated with the mapping method to analyze the relation between spatial structural relationships and spatial patterns of disaggregate and aggregate levels in natural hazard areas. First, natural hazard locations are derived from geospatial data and coded into a GIS system. Second, the spatial analysis techniques includes different geospatial scale is derived from spatial autocorrelation analysis (SAA), space syntax. On the other hand, spatial analysis data such as digital terrain model (DTM) combination based on land use type relative significance to the process of landslide occurrence. Finally, this paper organizes a framework integrated with the land use plan and spatial analysis techniques (FILS). Results from 2006 showed that the natural hazard area hot spots include Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Due to the scientific and economic growth of recent years, the on-going innovation in electrical products has enabled people to live more comfortably and conveniently. The standby power function is one such innovation. Unfortunately, as an increasing number of products are equipped with standby power, more energy is wasted and more carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere. This paper combines a two-step proportional stratified sampling technique with systematic random sampling to select representative households in Taiwan. We adopted the measurement method of the International Electro technical Commission (IEC) in measuring the overall use of standby power in Taiwanese households. We then proposed a model for the estimation of standby power consumption, before calculating annual standby power consumption among all households in Taiwan. This paper could serve as a reference for the government and relevant authorities in the establishment of corresponding standards, providing suggestions for the minimization of standby power consumption and the unnecessary waste of energy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Typhoon Mindulle was the most severe typhoon across the Tachia River watershed following the 921 Chi-Chi earthquake, and resulted in extremely high precipitation of 1431mm that induced many landslides, debris flows, and debris floods in affected areas. This paper analyzes the debris flows in the Songhe area induced by Typhoon Mindulle by employing a numerical model for debris flow simulation. The FLO-2D numerical program was adopted to simulate the flow conditions of debris flows in the Songhe area, including flow depths, flow velocities, and sediment depositions. Comparing the field data with simulation results, this paper defines an Index of Accuracy to examine simulation accuracy. Ignoring the influence of houses in the alluvial fans, the simulation accuracy was 79.3% and 61.4%, respectively for the First and Second Branches of the Songhe Stream. Considering the house effect in the Songhe area raised the simulation accuracy to 82.3% and 75.5%, respectively for the First and Second Branches. In addition, the simulation considering the hydraulic structures established after Mindulle was executed. This study also adopted 24h accumulated precipitation at various recurrence intervals (10, 100, and 500years) to perform scenario simulation of debris flows. Based on the method of Swiss Disaster Degree Classification, consisting of influential intensity and occurrence probability parameters, this study classified the risk degree of hazardous debris-flow areas into three categories, including high, medium, and low. The proposed approach generates the risk distribution map that may be used for setting up a disaster mitigation strategy for the Songhe area. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The rapid development of information technology and the emergence of the Internet have created a borderless business environment and intensified market competition. Riding on the globalization trend, high-tech companies have been gradually leveraging information technology in order to shorten their manufacturing processes, enhance productivity with lower costs and prompt delivery to meet the customers’ needs. To achieve these targets and maintain competitive advantages, companies have been introducing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and knowledge management (KM). This paper finds, via literature review, that most scholars focus only on the deployment of ERP systems and improvement of flows. Few have introduced the KM concept into ERP systems. This paper collated the literature relevant to ERP and KM and integrates the findings to introduce the ERP KM concept. The most important thing is to establish a detailed introduction plan and a prior understanding of the critical success factors (CSFs) for ERP KM introduction. This paper summarizes the CSFs for ERP KM introduction via literature review and examines the influence of these CSFs on management performance. A questionnaire survey is conducted to collect the relevant data and SPSS 10.0 (statistics software) is run for statistical and multiple regression analyses. Among these CSFs, support from senior managers, corporate vision, reengineering of corporate flows and project management, selection of appropriate consulting firms and software suppliers, the identification of suitable employees to take part in ERP introduction and the proper training and education programs have positive influences on management performance. In the multiple regression analysis, all of the individual constructs are positively and significantly correlated. The explanatory power of individual variables is high. It is hoped that the research finding can serve as a reference for ERP KM introduction to corporations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Enterprises evaluate customers’ preferences of high-tech products to appropriately adjust product lines when the technologies are ready for commercialization. Conjoint analysis (CA) is usually applied to measure customers’ preferences while the product line design model (PLDM) is used to simulate customers’ purchase decisions based on these preferences. The optimal product line extension scheme (PLES) can then be found. For customers unfamiliar with a new technology, it is difficult to precisely appraise preferences for new products. This paper proposes fuzzy PLDM that combines fuzzy theory with CA to take preference uncertainty into consideration. To precisely apply fuzzy preferences, fuzzy rating is used to simulate customers’ purchase decisions. This paper focuses on the notebook industry in Taiwan. Optimal PLES are obtained under Fuzzy and Crisp scenarios. The results show that customers with high preference uncertainty have different purchase decisions under above scenarios, which leads to a great inconsistency between the optimal PLES obtained from Fuzzy and Crisp scenarios. The Fuzzy scenario takes preference uncertainty into consideration and uses stricter standards to judge whether customers buy products with new technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]