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Fipronil, a broad-spectrum insecticide, is widely used in agriculture and veterinary practices. Fipronil-induced neurotoxicity and potential adverse effects on humans and aquatic organisms have raised health concerns. Monitoring programs have been implemented globally to assess fipronil residues in food, including fruits, vegetables, and animal products. However, previous exposure assessments have often focused on specific food categories or subsets of items, resulting in limited insights into the overall health risks. Additionally, the large number of non-detect fipronil residues in food has introduced uncertainties in exposure assessment. To address these issues, a probabilistic exposure assessment and dose-response analysis were adopted in this study, considering the sample distribution below the detection limit to better characterize uncertainties and population variability in health risk assessments. The estimated fipronil exposure to the general public ranges from 6.38 × 10−6 ± 0.00017 mg/kg/day to 9.83 × 10−6 ± 0.00034 mg/kg/day. Only one out of 200,000 simulated individuals had a fipronil dose exceeding the probabilistic reference dose (0.048 mg/kg/day, pRfD), which aims to protect 99% of the population with effects less than 10% extra risk. By incorporating uncertainties in exposure and dose-response data, a more comprehensive understanding of the health risks associated with fipronil exposure in the Taiwanese population has been achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how perceived exercise benefit affects the relationship between cellphone usage and physical activity level. This cross-sectional study performed a survey of Taiwanese university students selected using cluster sampling. A total of 975 students were recruited (male = 367, female = 608, average age = 20.10 ± 1.42). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression. The results show that cellphone usage was negatively correlated with physical activity level, whereas perceived exercise benefit was negatively correlated with cellphone usage and positively correlated with physical activity level. In hierarchical regression, the main effects of cellphone usage and perceived exercise benefit explained 22% of the variance in physical activity level. After controlling for the main effect, the interaction term accounted for an additional 1% of the variance. Cellphone usage and perceived exercise benefit thus had significant power to explain physical activity level. The results of this study reveal a novel phenomenon—that students who perceived the benefits of exercise to be greater are more physically active. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers the most detailed brain structure image available today; it can identify tiny lesions or cerebral cortical abnormalities. The primary purpose of the procedure is to confirm whether there is structural variation that causes epilepsy, such as hippocampal sclerotherapy, local cerebral cortical dysplasia, and cavernous hemangioma. Cerebrovascular disease, the second most common factor of death in the world, is also the fourth leading cause of death in Taiwan, with cerebrovascular disease having the highest rate of stroke. Among the most common are large vascular atherosclerotic lesions, small vascular lesions, and cardiac emboli. The purpose of this thesis is to establish a computer-aided diagnosis system based on small blood vessel lesions in MRI images, using the method of Convolutional Neural Network and deep learning to analyze brain vascular occlusion by analyzing brain MRI images. Blocks can help clinicians more quickly determine the probability and severity of stroke in patients. We analyzed MRI data from 50 patients, including 30 patients with stroke, 17 patients with occlusion but no stroke, and 3 patients with dementia. This system mainly helps doctors find out whether there are cerebral small vessel lesions in the brain MRI images, and to output the found results into labeled images. The marked contents include the position coordinates of the small blood vessel blockage, the block range, the area size, and if it may cause a stroke. Finally, all the MRI images of the patient are synthesized, showing a 3D display of the small blood vessels in the brain to assist the doctor in making a diagnosis or to provide accurate lesion location for the patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic globalization and the internet economy have resulted in a dramatic increase in freight transportation. Traffic crashes involving trucks usually result in severe losses and casualties. The fatality and injury rates for heavy truck accidents have been 10 times higher than for sedans in Taiwan in recent years. Thus, understanding driving behavior and risk are important for freight carriers. Since personality traits may result in different driving behaviors, the main objective of this study is to apply artificial neural network (ANN) models to predict the frequency of aberrant driving behavior and the risk level of each driver according to drivers' personality traits. In this case study, relevant information on truck drivers' personality traits and their tendency to engage in aberrant driving behavior are collected by using respectively a questionnaire and a fleet surveillance system from a truck company. A relative risk level evaluation mechanism is developed considering the frequency and distribution of aberrant driving behavior. The Jenks natural breaks optimization method and the elbow method are adopted to optimally classify 40 truck drivers into 4 aberrant driving behavior levels and 5 driving risk levels. It was found that 5% of drivers were at the highest aberrant driving behavior level, and 7.5% of drivers were at the highest driving risk level. Based on the results, the proposed models show good and stable predictive performance, especially for the class of drivers with excessive rotation speed, hard acceleration, excessive rotation speed, hard deceleration, and driving risk. With the proposed models, the predictive class for aberrant driving behavior and driving risk can be determined by plugging in a driver's personality traits before or after employment. Based on the prediction results, the manager of a transportation company could plan the training program for each driver to reduce the aberrant driving behavior occurrence.