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In this article, a performance evaluation of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) was conducted from a human resources (HR) perspective. Two important aspects were included: (1) a comprehensive evaluation of the competition performance of the professional baseball teams in international games and regular season games; and (2) the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and “two-stage” methodologies, which were employed to process truncated data to resolve the factors that affect the efficiency of the decision-making unit (DMU). By applying DEA and truncated regression analysis with bootstrapping, the performances of CPBL teams in games of different intensities were investigated. The number of foreign coaches and native players both were the key factors to affect the competitive efficiency of CPBL teams, and the Uni President 7-ELEVEN Lions had the best performance efficiency team. This interdisciplinary investigation provided the most appropriate references and recommendations for professional baseball teams on HR management so that baseball fans' expectations are met.

Offensive or defensive? Which approach has the greater impact on winning professional baseball league games? Because the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) has only four teams, it offered a limited sample size for relevant studies. In this study, a window analysis was coupled with the sports team performance management model of the network data envelopment analysis (DEA) method to solve the problems of offense efficiency, defense efficiency and integrated efficiency of each of the CPBL teams from 2007 to 2014. Truncated regression was coupled with a bootstrapping method to perform a 2000 times repeated sampling, reduce the sampling error and determine the effect of environmental variables on the value of the efficiencies of the CPBL teams. The results show that the Lamigo Monkeys led in both offense performance and defense performance, whereas the United 7-ELEVEn led in integrated performance. The “total number of players” had a significantly positive impact on the efficiency of the teams. The 7-ELEVEn Lions and the Lamigo Monkeys showed superior performance with regard to the investment in the players and the long-term management of the depth of bench players, which verifies the importance of the depth of bench players in the CPBL. The “total bases gained” also had a significantly positive impact on the efficiency of the teams, which indicates the importance of the offensive capability for winning in the CPBL.

This paper presents an E-learning web site of technician certificate setting up. With the rapid development of education informationization in Taiwan and the wide spread of specialization of teachers, educational technology ability is becoming a basic requirement. In this case, the traditional educational technology training model can no longer meet the demand for professional development of teachers. To increase the on-line learning interactivities and real time feedbacks, Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) could be used to implement web pages. E-learning web site can combine multimedia technology and allow users to review and practice the material at any place. Consequently, we build an E-learning web site of technician certificate for electronic elements soldering and taking apart. The proposed web site not only can provide the students to enhance their abilities by using the tool web site as a remedial teaching aid after school, but also can encourage them to have more interest in learning the questions’ answer for certificate exam.

Due to the increasing consumption of energy, the improvement of the cooling system efficiency has become very important. We use programmable system-on-chip (PSoC) to fabricate a temperature control system. These chips include a CPU and mixed-signal arrays of configurable integrated analog and digital peripherals. This system controls the cooling fan speed by temperature detecting. This system uses buzzer and liquid crystal display (LCD) to remind the users. The user can start emergency protection means at once. However, we have designed a controller to control fan speed in according with the difference of measured temperature. This research has the function of power saving and elements protection by reducing to turn on and off a cooling fan. With a simple modification, we can turn any control fan by PSoC control. Today, everybody must use electric appliance. We will use PSoC with temperature-controlled method together to control the cooling device.

In general, the conventional sliding mode control design is assumed that the upper boundary of parameter variations and external disturbances is known, it causes high frequency chattering and high gain phenomenon by using sign function, else steady-state error by using sat function. Immune-Fuzzy theorem simplifies the complexity of humor system, as well as introducing fuzzy control. This paper presents an Immune-Fuzzy sliding mode controller (FISMC) not only eliminate the system uncertainty but also overcomes the drawback of sign function and sat function. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is verified by simulation. The proposed FISMC shows the robustness for the motor parameters variation and the improvement of chattering phenomenon.

The paper presents the research of chaotic phenomenon for the synchronous reluctance motor. Chaotic phenomenon looks like confused but regular. Nonlinear characteristic of the system causes chaos happened. System parameters and initial value variations cause the result dramatically. We establish the synchronous reluctance motor chaos model, the equilibrium points and characteristic equation by motor model. We utilize the Routh-Hurwitz stability criterion to obtain speed controller parameters,and to calculate the initial value by computtation of Lyapunov exponent to determine whether the system is in chaos behavior. We simulate it by using Matlab/Simulink software.Hardware achieved by using DS1104 processor board, which is the product of the dspace. Simulation and experiment results confirm the proposed theory is correct.

Selection of a qualified pitcher has relied previously on qualitative indices; here, both quantitative and qualitative indices including pitching statistics, defense, mental skills, experience, and managers' recognition were collected, and an analytic hierarchy process was used to rank baseball pitchers. The participants were 8 experts who ranked characteristics and statistics of 15 baseball pitchers who comprised the first round of potential representatives for the Chinese Taipei National Baseball team. The results indicated a selection rate that was 91% consistent with the official national team roster, as 11 pitchers with the highest scores who were recommended as optimal choices to be official members of the Chinese Taipei National Baseball team actually participated in the 2009 Baseball World Cup. An analytic hierarchy can aid in selection of qualified pitchers, depending on situational and practical needs; the method could be extended to other sports and team-selection situations.

In this study, the MITSUBISHI PLC (FX2n-32MR) is used to achieve the lead-acid battery monitoring system. The battery is by way of rater and FX-2AD used in charging state. The analog and digital data are transmitted to PLC to get the real-time monitoring and control. During charging, time and voltage keep constant to reach charging optimization condition. In addition, AD590 is used as reference measurement and battery protection in temperature control.

Combretastatin A4 (CA4) is a drug that targets tumor vasculature to inhibit angiogenesis. Whether CA4 has a direct effect on gastric cancer is not known. We herein investigated the effect of CA4 on growth and metastasis of gastric cancer cells at clinically achievable concentration and explored the associated antitumor mechanisms. Nine human gastric cancer cell lines, including two metastatic gastric cancer cell lines (AGS-GFPM1/2), constitutively expressing green fluorescence protein (GFP) were used. These metastatic AGS-GFPM1/2 cells expressed a higher level of phosphorylated serine 473 on AKT (p-AKT). Our results showed that CA4 (0.02-20 microM) has significant in vitro effects on reducing cell attachment, migration, invasiveness, as well as cell cycle G2/M disturbance on p-AKT-positive gastric cancer cells. In addition, a phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor, LY294002 [2-(4-morpholinyl)-8-phenyl-1(4H)-benzopyran-4-one hydrochloride], a specific AKT inhibitor, and 0.2 to 20 microM CA4 displayed a similar response profile on p-AKT-positive cells, suggesting that CA4-induced effect was mediated by inhibition of the PI3 kinase/AKT pathway. The results from in vivo GFP monitoring system indicated that CA4 phosphate (CA4-P; 200 mg/kg) significantly inhibited the s.c. and intra-abdominal growth of xenotransplanted AGS-GFPM2 cells in nude mice. Furthermore, CA4-P treatment showed a remarkable ability to inhibit gastric tumor metastasis as well as attenuate p-AKT expression. In conclusion, our study is the first to find that CA4 inhibited AKT activity in human gastric cancer cells. The decreased AKT activity correlated well with the CA4 antitumor growth response and decrease of metastasis. Further investigation on drugs targeting the PI3 kinase-AKT pathway may provide a new approach for the treatment of human gastric cancer.

Abstract The compound N, N'-di(6-methyl-2-pyridyl)formamidine (HDMepyF) has been exploited in preparation of porous materials of divalent metal complexes of the formulae M(HDMepyF)2(NO3)2 (M=Cd, 1; Co, 2; Ni, 3) and M(HDMepyF)2X2 (M=Mn, X=Cl, 4; M=Mn, X=Br, 5; M=Ni, X=Cl, 6; M=Ni, X=Br, 7). Their structures have been determined by X-ray crystallography. Each metal center of these complexes is approximately octahedrally coordinated by four nitrogen and two halogen or oxygen donor atoms. Complexes 1– 5 and 7 self-assemble through similar hydrogen bonding motifs which involve the C–H·sX (X=Cl, Br or O) hydrogen bondings and p–p stacking interactions between the HDMepyF ligand and the X atoms to form porous structures.

Reactions of Cd(NO 3 ) 2 ·4H 2 O with bis(2-pyridyl)formamidine (HDpyF) and bis(6-methyl-2-pyridyl)formamidine (HDMepyF) in CH 3 OH afforded the dinuclear products, [Cd 2 (DpyF) 3 ][Cd(NO 3 ) 4 ] 0.5 ( 1 ), and [Cd 2 (DMepyF) 3 ](NO 3 ) ( 2 ), respectively. Their structures were determined by X-ray crystallography. Complex 1 crystallized in two different space groups with different packing solvents. Both the DpyF and DMepyF ligands are coordinated to the Cd atoms in new tetradentate fashions, forming two chelating and four bridging bonding modes. Each cadmium metal center of the cations is tris-chelated and strongly distorted from octahedral coordination due to the small bite of the DpyF and DMepyF ligands. The molecules of the cations are chiral due to the ligand constraints. They are the first dicadmium complexes bearing formamidinate ligands with triple helical structures.

Catalytic synthesis of propionitrile from methanol and acetonitrile was achieved by using activated-carbon-supported sodium catalysts. The activity of catalysts is determined by the precursor of the sodium; the catalysts prepared from sodium hydrogen carbonate show the highest activity. At high conversion of acetonitrile (70%), a propionitrile yield selectively exceeding 80% is achieved with a minor amount of methacrylonitrile as a secondary product. The order of catalytic activity of catalysts correlates well with the adsorption capacities for methanol and acetonitrile measured by the TPD method.

We demonstrate that the thickness and the dielectric constants of thin gold films deposited on the surface of a fiber core can be quantitatively determined as a single set of solutions by the simple measurement of the fiber-optic surface-plasmon resonance responses. This method is capable of directly characterizing metal films with curved surfaces: this is very hard to perform by use of the conventional optical techniques of reflectometry and ellipsometry. The theoretical errors for the experimental fiber are estimated to be within d ± 2%, ∊_r ± 1%, and ∊_i ± 15%.

Based on the statistics of the peaks in the random Gaussian field, we put forward a method to model the evolution of quasars, which are assumed to be a phenomenon of the early stages for some massive galaxies. Our calculations show that the cold-hot mixed dark matter model with Οh= 0.3 cannot match the observed quasar abundance at redshift z = 4.5, and other prevailing CDM models, such as the mixed dark matter model with Οh= 0.2, the tilted CDM models with n = 0.7 or 0.8, and the flat ΛCDM models with ΟΛ= 0.6 or 0.7, are compatible with the observation of the abundance of QSOs on the range of z = 2-5.

Currently, the intrinsic fiber-optic immunosensors in common use are usually based on polychromatic light excitation of the surface plasmon resonance, such as the BIACORE Probe developed by Biacore company (Sweden). We propose in this paper a novel fiber-optic immunosensor, simpler and cheaper, which is illuminated by a monochromatic light at 658 nm wavelength emitted from a commercially available laser diode. The application of detecting the rabbit IgG affinity reaction proves its feasibility. This work provides a starting step towards the development of a portable immunoprobe for non-labeling immunoassay.