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By reviewing regulative documents and extant literature, this paper explores the realities and trends of international students in East and Southeast Asia (ESA). It also shows motivation and strategies of four new players in the international higher education sector in East and Southeast Asia i.e., China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia. Apart from showing that intraregional students have not predominated the overall international student population in the region anymore, the paper highlights that ESA region has become an established hub of international students rather than a new emerging destination as it was in previous years. The overall net flow of international students in this region was still deficit prior to 2010s, but the deficit in 2017 is still less than that of 2010?s. This is probably the first study of its kind to examine the trends of international students as well as of higher education policies of countries in the ESA region. The findings of this study shall provide an insight into international higher education trends among the ESA countries for stakeholders, including policymakers, university managers, faculty, students, and parents.

Background: Syndromic surveillance provides public health intelligence to aid in early warning and monitoring of public health impacts (e.g. seasonal influenza), or reassurance when an impact has not occurred. Using information collected during routine patient care, syndromic surveillance can be based on signs/symptoms/preliminary diagnoses. This approach makes syndromic surveillance much timelier than surveillance requiring laboratory confirmed diagnoses. The provision of healthcare services and patient access to them varies globally. However, emergency departments (EDs) exist worldwide, providing unscheduled urgent care to people in acute need. This provision of care makes ED syndromic surveillance (EDSyS) a potentially valuable tool for public health surveillance internationally. The objective of this study was to identify and describe the key characteristics of EDSyS systems that have been established and used globally.Methods: We systematically reviewed studies published in peer review journals and presented at International Society of Infectious Disease Surveillance conferences (up to and including 2017) to identify EDSyS systems which have been created and used for public health purposes. Search criteria developed to identify "emergency department" and "syndromic surveillance" were applied to NICE healthcare, Global Health and Scopus databases.Results: In total, 559 studies were identified as eligible for inclusion in the review, comprising 136 journal articles and 423 conference abstracts/papers. From these studies we identified 115 EDSyS systems in 15 different countries/territories across North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia. Systems ranged from local surveillance based on a single ED, to comprehensive national systems. National EDSyS systems were identified in 8 countries/territories: 2 reported inclusion of ≥85% of ED visits nationally (France and Taiwan).Conclusions: EDSyS provides a valuable tool for the identification and monitoring of trends in severe illness. Technological advances, particularly in the emergency care patient record, have enabled the evolution of EDSyS over time. EDSyS reporting has become closer to 'real-time', with automated, secure electronic extraction and analysis possible on a daily, or more frequent basis. The dissemination of methods employed and evidence of successful application to public health practice should be encouraged to support learning from best practice, enabling future improvement, harmonisation and collaboration between systems in future.Prospero Number: CRD42017069150 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer on 392 Scopus database documents published from 2003 to 2022, aiming to understand the global landscape of the e-learning field and to identify the most prominent authors, institutions, countries and reference publications, as well as the research topics that have recently received the most attention in students' readiness for e-learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The findings indicate that there has been an upward trend in e-learning readiness among students in HEIs over time. Among the countries studied, the United States, Taiwan, Australia, and Malaysia were found to have the most effective approaches to addressing students' readiness for e-learning. The most highly cited author in this field is M-L. Hung. Based on the citations, the most recognised journal in this field was "Computers and Education" and the universities that were most persuasive were two Taiwan universities in the first position. The data also revealed relatively low levels of collaboration among authors, institutions and nations regarding students' readiness for e-learning.

Structurally inert firms suffer elevated failure risks in the face of environmental change because inertia makes it difficult to keep pace with the speed of such change. Traditionally, this ecology theory based outlook focuses on the risks of mortality, treating the make-up of an organization's architecture as uniform and thus relatively inconsequential for understanding this hazard. Renewing recent debates on inertia and on structure, in this paper we examine the specifics of the make-up of structural inertia in the context of failure hazards—the measurable survival risks associated with failure. Developing a classification of structural inertia, we test a sample of 755 firms listed on the Taiwanese Security Exchange across 52 industries to develop a convention on organizational structure, ratifying that structural inertia differs by type in incorporating failure hazards. Findings differentiate between and elaborate the validating environmental and resource conditions for these different categories, detailing the extent to which failure hazards are related to the specifics of each type. This variation is helpful in explaining better why, despite conditions leading to failure, inert organizations continue to thrive over time. Discussing this logic addresses the narrow representation of structural inertia and limitations to its theoretical development over several decades. It also shows that traditional organizational ecology measures can be legitimately underplayed in organizations dealing with increased failure hazards in favor of the characteristics of different structural inertia types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long been interested in understanding organizational slack. Peng et al. (2010) is a landmark study examining the effect of slack on firm performance. We seek to advance our understanding of the topic in three ways. First, we replicate the core findings of Peng et al. (2010) by drawing on a major and yet less investigated economy in Asia—Taiwan. Second, we differentiate the effect of slack by investigating both short- and long–term performance. Third, in addition to CEO duality, our study also examines the moderating effects of business groups and family firms as two widespread governance factors in Asia. Our results suggest that the effect of organizational slack on firm performance is contingent on the short– versus long–term perspective. Furthermore, we find that the slack–performance relationship is shaped by boundary conditions. Overall, our findings contribute to the literatures on organizational slack, corporate governance, and research in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the meteotsunami behavior in response to different storm types in the coasts of southern Asia-Pacific Ocean from 16 years water level records. Through the size-frequency analysis, the dangerous meteotsunami, wave height exceeding 0.3 m, can occur up to 44 events per year. Notably, during the extreme waves of the 2007 event, wave heights reached approximately 0.9-1.5 m in the Taiwan Strait and the western coastal areas of Taiwan. We have classified storms into six types by radar reflectivity images and satellite-derived precipitation. Findings indicate that predicted wave heights caused by bows and typhoons could reach hazardous magnitude of exceeding 2 m in a 100-yr interval. Spatial and temporal analysis reveals that meteotsunami occurrences are most frequent in the western regions during the winter to early spring months (December to April). Of all meteotsunami occurrences, cluster storms are identified as the most prevalent atmospheric forcing, accounting for 60% of meteostunamis. Typhoons have a 20% association with meteotsunamis along the east coasts of Taiwan during late summer to autumn. On the east coasts, typhoon type-induced events may be attributed to the combination effect of meteotsunamis and infra-gravity waves. Overall, this study provides the first comprehensive examination of meteotsunami-storm characteristics and their associated hazard risks in the coastal areas of the southern Asia-Pacific Ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rare diseases, also referred to as orphan diseases, are characterised by their low prevalence with majority of them are chronically debilitating and life threatening. Given the low prevalence and the widely dispersed but very small patient base for each disease, there may often be a disproportion in the availability of treatments and resources to manage patients, spur research and train experts. This is especially true in Southeast Asian countries that are currently in the process of implementing or revising their universal health coverage schemes. This paper aims to examine the status of rare disease management in Southeast Asian countries. It will serve as the basis for a more active discussion on how countries in the region can address an under-recognised rare disease burden and enhance national and regional capacities.Methods: The study consists of literature reviews and key stakeholders interviews in six focus countries, including the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand and five countries as best practice, comprising of France, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, and South Korea. Rare disease management initiatives across each country were examined based on the World Health Organization's framework for action in strengthening health systems.Results: The results suggest rare disease management remains challenging across Southeast Asia, as many of the focus countries face fundamental issues from basic healthcare systems to funding. Nonetheless, there are substantial improvement opportunities, including leveraging best practices from around the world and organising a multi-stakeholder and regional approach and strategy.Conclusions: Southeast Asian countries have made significant progress in the management of rare disease, but there remain key areas for substantial development opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently there has been an increase in the number of students learning Mandarin Chinese (in mainland China and internationally). This increase has led to speculation that Mandarin Chinese is becoming a mainstream global language to the point of becoming a "lingua franca." This paper utilizes research findings from different regions and focal points and argues that Mandarin Chinese could be accepted as a "lingua franca" within some contexts, but is unlikely to do so in others. It argues that Mandarin Chinese is generally accepted as the "lingua franca" of China and a possible "lingua franca" within the East Asian region, while unlikely to become a "lingua franca" globally. The paper compares a number of different reasons for studying Mandarin Chinese by different stakeholders (i.e. governments, school boards, individual students) as well as comparative numbers of language learners. This paper also examines if Mandarin is the dominant and undisputed form of global Chinese. It concludes by demonstrating that there is a greater need for further research into Mandarin Chinese as a "lingua franca."

In many Asian countries the ratio of male to female population is higher than in the West: as high as 1.07 in China and India, and even higher in Pakistan. A number of authors (most notably Amartya Sen) have suggested that this imbalance reflects excess female mortality and have argued that as many as 100 million women are "missing." This paper proposes an explanation for some of the observed overrepresentation of men: the hepatitis B virus. I present new evidence, consistent with an existing scientific literature, that carriers of the hepatitis B virus have offspring sex ratios around 1.50 boys for each girl. This evidence includes both cross-country analyses and a natural experiment based on recent vaccination campaigns. Hepatitis B is common in many Asian countries, especially China, where some 10-15 percent of the population is infected. Using data on prevalence of the virus by country and estimates of the effect of hepatitis on the sex ratio, I argue that hepatitis B can account for about 45 percent of the "missing women": around 75 percent in China, between 20 and 50 percent in Egypt and western Asia, and under 20 percent in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal. (Contains 29 notes, 12 tables, and 3 appendixes.)

Precarity among low-skilled temporary migrant workers in Asia is well documented, particularly concerning migrant women in domestic work in countries of the Gulf region and in East Asia. In this paper, we first examine the intersection of gender and type of work by comparing men and women, but also by comparing women engaged in domestic work and those working in manufacturing. Second, we analyse indicators of precarity through the entire migration process: pre-departure, time abroad, and return. Based on descriptive analyses from survey data collected in 2009 from 499 former Vietnamese migrant workers who worked in Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan between 2000 and 2009, our results indicate differences in (1) moments of precarity, (2) types of precarity, and (3) levels of precarity. This paper unpacks how gender is central to an understanding of precariousness in migration but also how it may intersect with other important variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Survey Research Data Archive (SRDA) is the largest data archive in Taiwan and in Asia. It collects not only survey data in social sciences but also raw data of major government statistics. These archived data have made significant contributions to research. Data and remote access service are provided without charge. In addition, an English website along with the English version of the data and their metadata will be available by mid-2013. To improve the search efficiency and promote itself among domestic researchers, SRDA began to launch a series of projects around June of 2011. These include the revision of abstracts, the construction of new search functions, and the compiling and circulating of a power point concerning the use of SRDA. This paper documents the endeavors, reports the current progress, and reflects on the experiences learned from the developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reconciles diverse efficiency measures to characterize the operating performance of the National Innovation System (NIS) in 33 Asian and European countries. NIS efficiency rating should be considered as a key element for achieving greater innovation and competitive advantages. This study applies the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach with the traditional DEA models, bilateral models, and critical performance measures, respectively, combing multiple outputs and inputs to measure the magnitude of performance difference between the countries. Empirical results indicate that the overall technical inefficiencies of the NIS activities in these countries are primarily due to the pure technical inefficiencies rather than the scale inefficiencies. Korea and Taiwan perform very well on their NISs and rank numbers 1 and 2 respectively on the Asian list, while Romania ranks number 1 among the European countries. In addition, the Asian countries are generally better performers than the European countries in production activities. Finally, the key input/output influencing the countries' NIS performance have been identified. The innovative features of Korea, Taiwan and Romania are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how Taiwanese overseas investment creates an ethnic Chinese skilled labor market in Asia. Low costs, no language barrier, and the cultural "lived Taiwan experience" are the benefits. Through three different channels--internal corporate transfer, social networks, and placement agencies--skilled labor from the People's Republic is mobilized to work overseas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyses the role of public policy and the state in science and technology industries in Asia. The research is based on field studies undertaken at the Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park (HSIP) in Taiwan. The state has been seen as crucial to the phenomenal economic success of capitalism and the business systems in Asian countries such as Korea and Taiwan (Wade (1990) Governing the Market, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA). On the other hand, entrepreneurship has been seen to flourish in countries where the state's role has been minor (in Hong Kong for example), and as concluded in the paper, the state has played a major role in nurturing entrepreneurship in Taiwan. The contributions of this paper are twofold: first, to better understand Taiwan's success and lessons for R&D management, and secondly, to raise the potential role of public policy for entrepreneurship and its close relationship with Asian business systems (Phan (2004) 'Entrepreneurship theory: possibilities and future directions', Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 19, No. 5, pp.617-620). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The feasibility of using the SF-36 in non-Western cultures is important for researchers seeking to understand cultural influences upon health status perceptions. This paper reports on the performance of the Taiwan version of the SF-36, including the implications of cultural influences. Methods: A total of 1191 volunteered subjects from the general population answered the translated SF-36 Taiwan version, which was developed following IQOLA project protocols. Results: Results from tests of scaling assumptions and reliability generally were satisfactory. Convergent validity, as assessed by comparing the SF-36 to a mental health oriented inventory, was acceptable. Results of principal components analysis were similar to US results for many scales. However, differences were seen for the Vitality scale which was a stronger measure of mental health than physical health in Taiwan. Results are compared to those from other Asian studies and the U.S. Conclusion: The results raise important questions regarding cultural influences in international studies of health status assessment. Further research into the conceptualization and components of mental health in Asian countries is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the appealing ability of combining both mobility and manipulability, mobile robot manipulators have been applied to factory automation, telemedicine, warehousing, etc. Due to the high density of convenience stores in Taiwan, Asia, and other countries, we make further use of mobile robot manipulators to develop an autonomous replenishment system. The replenishment task for a convenience store poses challenges given its narrow aisles and the occasional presence of customers. It thus demands thorough consideration of the planning, navigation, and control of the robot, in addition to customer safety. Correspondingly, we propose strategies for task and path planning, in addition to control and sensor fusion. Specifically, a new collision-free path planning algorithm (the DWA-PS) that consider both customer safety and comfort is developed, along with replenishment and control strategies that utilize the flexibility of the mobile robot manipulator to raise working efficiency. For the performance evaluation, we apply the proposed system to conduct a series of replenishment experiments, including in a convenience store near our university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread use of the Internet in 21st century society is not risk-free. This paper studies the comorbidity of some problematic uses of Internet with depression in order to assess their correlation. With that aim, a meta-analysis of 19 samples obtained from 13 different studies (n=33,458) was carried out. The subjects of these studies are adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years ([mu]=15.68) from different cultures and continents (Europe, Euro-Asia, America and Asia). The effect size obtained from the use of a random-effects model (r=0.3, p<0.000) is significant, moderate and positive, thus confirming the relation between pathologic uses of the Internet and depression. Moreover, meta-regression test results showed that 9% of the variance (R2=0.09) is associated with the male gender, while age and culture are not significant variables. The variability rate of the studies is high (I2=87.085%), as a consequence of heterogeneity rather than publication bias, as Egger's regression test shows (1-tailed p-value=0.25; 2-tailed p-value=0.50, and [sigma]=1.57). Therefore, the need for specific interventions in secondary education dealing with this issue is evident to ensure that it does not extend into adult life.

This phase 4 study evaluated the efficacy and safety of azilsartan medoxomil (AZL-M) in patients with essential hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand. This was a prospective, multicenter, single-arm, open-label study with patients aged 18–75 years with T2DM and essential hypertension and on stable treatment for T2DM. Patients with uncontrolled hypertension were treated with AZL-M 40 mg daily, with the option to uptitrate to 80 mg at 6 weeks. In all, 380 of the 478 patients screened in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand were enrolled. At week 6, 97 patients (25.5%) were titrated up to AZL-M 80 mg based on BP readings. At 12 weeks, 54.8% of patients reached the blood pressure (BP) goal of <140/85 mm Hg by trough sitting clinic BP (primary endpoint), and 62.8% and 27.0% achieved a BP of <140/90 mm Hg and <130/80 mm Hg, respectively. The efficacy of AZL-M over 12 weeks was also seen in different age and body mass index groups. The incidence of treatment emergent adverse events (TEAEs) was 12.9% before 6 weeks and 16.1% after 6 weeks, and they were mostly mild in severity. The most frequent TEAE was dizziness (4.7%). The incidence of TEAEs leading to study drug discontinuation (4.5%) and drug-related TEAEs (5.0% before 6 weeks; 3.9% after 6 weeks) was low. In patients with essential hypertension and T2DM in Asia, treatment with AZL-M indicated a favorable efficacy and safety profile in achieving target BP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Head-to-head comparison of clinical effectiveness between dulaglutide and liraglutide in Asia is limited. This study was aimed to assess the real-world comparative effectiveness of dulaglutide versus liraglutide. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study by utilizing multi-institutional electronic medical records to identify real-world type 2 diabetes patients treated with dulaglutide or liraglutide during 2016–2018 in Taiwan and followed up until 2019. Effectiveness outcomes were assessed at every 3 months in the 1-year follow-up. Propensity score techniques were applied to enhance between-group comparability. Significant differences in changes of effectiveness outcomes between treatment groups during the follow-up were examined and further analyzed using mixed-model repeated-measures approaches. Results: A total of 1512 subjects receiving dulaglutide and 1513 subjects receiving liraglutide were identified. At 12 months, significant HbA1c changes from baseline were found in both treatments (dulaglutide: − 1.06%, p < 0.001; liraglutide: − 0.83%, p < 0.001), with a significant between-group difference (− 0.23%, 95% confidence interval − 0.38 to − 0.08%, p < 0.01). Both treatments yielded significant declines in weight, alanine aminotransferase level, and estimated glomerular filtration rate from baseline (dulaglutide: − 1.14 kg, − 3.08 U/L and − 2.08 mL/min/1.73 m2, p < 0.01; liraglutide: − 1.64 kg, − 3.65 U/L and − 2.33 mL/min/1.73 m2, p < 0.001), whereas only dulaglutide yielded a significant systolic blood pressure reduction (− 2.47 mmHg, p < 0.001). Between-group differences in changes of weight, blood pressure, and liver and renal functions at 12 months were not statistically significant. Conclusions: In real-world T2D patients, dulaglutide versus liraglutide was associated with better glycemic control and comparable effects on changes of weight, blood pressure, and liver and renal functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tilapia (Oreochromis spp.), a prominent warm water food fish, is one of the major fish species grown in the aquaculture industry in south-east Asia. Tilapia can tolerate adverse water quality and other stressors, like diverse salinity and fluctuation of pH value, better than most other commercial aquaculture species. Environmental fluctuations are one of the main factors that affect the outbreak of infectious diseases in cultured tilapia. Cultured tilapia in Taiwan appears to be more susceptible to infections caused by Streptococci during the summer season. The present study emphasizes the Streptococcus spp. infection in tilapia in Taiwan and is the first study on the analysis of the potential impact of climate change on streptococcal infection in cultured tilapia in Asia. The data collected from the treatment and diagnosis system (TDS) of the aquatic animal diseases database from 2006 to 2015 were used to analyze the endemic streptococcal infection and the effect of climatic factors. Based on the results, the factor, average atmospheric pressure, is negatively correlated to streptococcal infection, while the other three, including average temperature, ultraviolet (UV) index, and rainfall, are positively correlated to streptococcal infection. A multivariate logistic regression model with these four factors was also built. When the average temperature is above 27.0 °C, the average atmospheric pressure is lower than 1005.1 hPa, or the UV index is above 7.2, the percentage of cumulated positive farms from all submitted tilapia cases was more than 50%. In addition, within 3 days of rain, rainfall is relevant to the occurrence of Streptococcus in tilapia. Using TDS to alert the occurrence of streptococcal infection in tilapia can be a very useful tool for veterinary aquatic animal inspection stations, and reducing economic losses and labour costs in aquatic agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As obesity is becoming pandemic, morbid obesity (MO), an extreme type of obesity, is an emerging issue worldwide. It is imperative to understand the factors responsible for huge weight gain in certain populations in the modern society. Very few genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been conducted on MO patients. This study is the first MO-GWAS study in the Han-Chinese population in Asia. Methods: We conducted a two-stage GWAS with 1110 MO bariatric patients (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 35 kg/m2) from Min-Sheng General Hospital, Taiwan. The first stage involved 575 patients, and 1729 sex- and age-matched controls from the Taiwan Han Chinese Cell and Genome Bank. In the second stage, another 535 patients from the same hospital were genotyped for 52 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) discovered in the first stage, and 9145 matched controls from Taiwan Biobank were matched for confirmation analysis. Results: The results of the joint analysis for the second stage revealed six top ranking SNPs, including rs8050136 (p-value = 7.80 × 10− 10), rs9939609 (p-value = 1.32 × 10− 9), rs1421085 (p-value = 1.54 × 10− 8), rs9941349 (p-value = 9.05 × 10− 8), rs1121980 (p-value = 7.27 × 10− 7), and rs9937354 (p-value = 6.65 × 10− 7), which were all located in FTO gene. Significant associations were also observed between MO and RBFOX1, RP11-638 L3.1, TMTC1, CBLN4, CSMD3, and ERBB4, respectively, using the Bonferroni correction criteria for 52 SNPs (p < 9.6 × 10− 4). Conclusion: The most significantly associated locus of MO in the Han-Chinese population was the well-known FTO gene. These SNPs located in intron 1, may include the leptin receptor modulator. Other significant loci, showing weak associations with MO, also suggested the potential mechanism underlying the disorders with eating behaviors or brain/neural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Numerous studies have demonstrated that different weight change patterns from adolescence to adulthood may exert different effects on opportunities from which individuals subsequently benefit. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the association of weight change patterns from late adolescence to young adulthood with monthly wage in young adulthood for both genders in Taiwan. Methods: A nationally representative retrospective panel of 3730 young people (1707 men and 2023 women) from the Taiwan Educational Panel Survey (2001–2014) was included. Individuals were divided into four weight-change-pattern categories based on changes in their body mass index at two time points that were 7 years apart, between late adolescence (aged 18–19 years) and young adulthood (aged 25–26 years). These categories were (1) no obesity, (2) obesity reversal, (3) developing obesity, and (4) persistent obesity. Cross-classified, hierarchical linear regression modeling analysis was performed to explore the association of weight change patterns with monthly wage in young adulthood, after adjustment for both individual- and contextual-level variables. Results: Of the weight-change-pattern categories for both genders, individuals with persistent obesity had the lowest monthly wage. For women, the mean monthly wage decreased progressively for the categories of no obesity, obesity reversal, developing obesity, and persistent obesity (test for difference, P = 0.016; test for trend, P = 0.026). Women with persistent obesity earned 20% less per month than did those who were never obese (P = 0.024), after controlling for individual and contextual factors. For men, no association was found between weight change patterns and monthly wage. Conclusion: Persistent obesity from late adolescence to young adulthood is associated with low monthly wage in young adulthood in women but not in men. These findings highlight the urgency of addressing persistent obesity early in life, especially for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Fecal carriage of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-EC) is common in Asia, especially in China and Southeast Asia. There are no data about fecal carriage of ESBL-EC and mcr-1-positive E. coli in Taiwan, and few studies focusing on the risk factors of asymptomatic fecal carriage of epidemic ST131 E. coli have been published. Patients and methods: From healthy inhabitants attending health examinations at a medical center in southern Taiwan in 2017, we collected 724 stool samples, which were examined for ESBL-EC fecal carriage using chromogenic medium. ST131 and mcr1-positive E. coli were also investigated using multiplex PCR. Clinical data from all participating adults were collected to analyze the risk factors for fecal ESBL-EC or ST131 E. coli carriage. Results: The prevalence rate of asymptomatic ESBL-EC fecal carriage in adults was 1.9% (14/724). ST131 was found in 22 (3.0%) adults and mcr-1-positive E. coli was found in three (0.4%) adults. A multivariate analysis showed that the risk factors associated with ESBL-EC carriage were diabetes mellitus (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 5.5, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.3–22.7), a history of colonic polyps (aOR: 6.4, 95% CI: 1.6–24.9), and chronic renal insufficiency (aOR: 20.7, 95% CI: 1.4–305.7). Underlying cancer (aOR: 4.8, 95% CI: 1.0–22.5) and stroke (aOR: 18.0, 95% CI: 1.6–207.5) were associated with ST131 E. coli fecal carriage. In our cohort, travel to Asian countries and food habit were not associated with ST131 or ESBL-EC fecal carriage. Conclusions: The ESBL-EC or ST131 E. coli fecal carriage rate is low among asymptomatic adults in Taiwan. Certain underlying medical conditions were associated with their fecal carriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Albeit school teachers' traditional concepts are believed one of the obstacles of fostering children's creativity, their voices and demands were not heard among the attempts of promoting creativity education in Taiwan. This study aims to gain an in-depth understanding of primary school teachers' responses of adopting creative pedagogy in an Asian context. Ten-week lessons based on the framework of creative pedagogy were designed and taught to two six-grade classes by the researcher. During the lessons, the classroom teachers acted as non-participant observers; their views concerning the pedagogy and ethos were collected through individual interviews in the end of the project. Strategies employed in the lessons were considered useful in developing creative qualities. Tensions of adopting creative pedagogy were also indicated. Their concerns revealed certain misconceptions of as well as the support they need in adopting creative pedagogy. A need to contextualise creative pedagogy is urged in this paper.

Background: Media education is the study of the media with the aim of cultivating people's media literacy. In the past four decades, media education has rapidly developed in school systems and communities all over the world. Each country has its own developmental trajectory. With the rise of the interactive new media, media education is going to have a paradigm shift, bringing media education study into a new era. Goals: This paper discusses the rationales, definitions and approaches of media education. It also provides an overview about the global development of media literacy training. Results: Although different countries define media education in different ways, they share the common goal of training media literate people to deal with the media in an intelligent and responsible way. Media education has been well developed in the West but in recent years Asia regions such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China and Japan are gaining their momentum. With the emergence of various new media devices, media education is regarded as playing a more important role in cultivating wise prosumers in the 21st century.

We propose an approach to imaging earthquake source rupture process by direct back-projection of local high-frequency (0.1–2.5 Hz) P-wave displacements from strong-motion records. A series of synthetic experiments are performed which demonstrate that our approach is capable of recovering the spatial-temporal distribution of the source slip with a good station coverage and a high average coherence value between the target and template waveforms. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by applying it to image the slip distribution of an earthquake occurred on 2010 March 4, in Jiasian (Mw = 6.0 and ML = 6.4) in southern Taiwan. The resulting moment-rate amplitude images show that the source rupture initiated at the vicinity of the hypocentre, followed by a moderate moment-rate release to the southeast of the hypocentre and a subsequent upward propagation, and finally propagated in the northwest direction, in agreement with the distribution of aftershocks. The majority of the slip at 17–20 km depth occurred to the west of the hypocentre, in a general agreement with the slip distributions obtained from dislocation model and finite-fault inversions. Our modified back-projection approach relies on seismic waveforms with the considerations of a recent 3-D structure model, high average coherence value, station correction factor and simplified amplitude correction. It is computationally efficient and allows for near real-time determinations of source slip distributions after earthquakes using strong-motion records. A quick result for the rupture model can be used in the calculation of strong ground-motion, providing important, useful and timely information for seismic hazard mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Genotype I (GI) Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) that replaced GIII virus has become the dominant circulating virus in Asia. Currently, all registered live and inactivated JEV vaccines are derived from genotype III viruses. In Taiwan, the compulsory JEV vaccination policy recommends that children receives four doses of formalin-inactivated Nakayama (GIII) JEV vaccine. Methodology/Principal Findings: To evaluate the influence of genotype replacement on the post-vaccination viral neutralizing ability by GIII and GI viruses, the small panel of vaccinated-children serum specimens was assembled, and the reciprocal 50% plaque-reduction neutralizing antibody titers (PRNT50) were measured against Nakayama vaccine strain, CJN GIII human brain isolate and TC2009-1 GI mosquito isolate. The seropositivity rate (PRNT50≥1∶10) and geometric mean titers (GMT) against the TC2009-1 virus were the lowest among the three viruses. The protective threshold against the CJN and TC2009-1 viruses could only be achieved when the GMT against Nakayama virus was ≥1∶20 or ≥1∶80, respectively. Using undiluted vaccinees' sera, the enhancement of JEV infection in K562 cells was observed in some low or non-neutralizing serum specimens. Conclusions/Significance: Our preliminary study has shown that neutralizing antibodies, elicited by the mouse brain-derived and formalin-inactivated JEV Nakayama vaccine among a limited number of vaccinees, have reduced neutralizing capacity against circulating GI virus, but more detailed studies are needed to address the potential impact on the future vaccine policy. Author Summary: Genotype I (GI) Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) that replaced GIII virus has become the dominant circulating virus in Asia; however, all available JEV vaccines are derived from genotype III viruses, and no study has been conducted on the cross-neutralization and protection elicited by GIII JEV vaccines against GI viruses using vaccinated children's serum specimens collected from the general population. Genotype I virus was first detected in Taiwan in 2008, and became the dominant circulating JEV, and was island-wide within a year. In the present study, the small panel of GIII virus vaccinated-children serum specimens were not only showed lower strain-specific neutralization against GI virus as compared to the GIII vaccine and human isolates but also observed the enhancement of GI virus infection in K562 cells in some low or non-neutralizing serum specimens. These preliminary results indicated the reduced neutralization potency due to genotype replacement should be closely monitored in the JE epidemic/endemic regions in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been observed that Asians and Caucasians possess considerably different craniofacial features, which may affect the anatomical structure of the upper respiratory tract and, consequently, the characteristics of particle deposition. Most deposition studies on the human respiratory tract were primarily based on a limited number of Caucasian subjects. Therefore, data of the particle deposition efficiency in the upper respiratory tract of Asians are needed to supplement the understanding of the deposition characteristics in the human respiratory tract. This study measured the nasal deposition efficiency of particles ranging from 0.5 to 20 μm in five Taiwanese male and four Taiwanese female adults under different inspiratory flow rates. The measured deposition efficiency showed a very large intersubject variability in the inertial parameters, ranging between 103 to 5 × 104 μm2 cm3/s, and the deposition efficiency of the subjects with similar values of the minimum nasal cross-sectional area approaches to each other. This study showed that Taiwanese adults have lower nasal deposition efficiency than Caucasians, and that the differences in the nostril shape, inclination of nostrils, and nasal hair density between the two ethnic groups are likely the causes. In addition, this study suggested that up to 15% of overestimation in the nasal deposition efficiency for larger particles may occur if the inhalation efficiency is not considered. An empirical equation adopting inspiratory flow rate and the minimum nasal cross-sectional area was developed to predict the nasal particle deposition in the upper airway of Taiwanese adults. Copyright 2012 American Association for Aerosol Research [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Vibrant constitutional democracies have taken hold in East Asia. Scant attention, however, has been paid to the ways in which constitutionalism has emerged and developed into distinctive forms in that region. This Article seeks to analyze and to present an overview of constitutional developments in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan after World War II. By comparing the three countries, the authors identify a number of common features which their constitutional environments share. These include an instrumental approach to constitutional state building, institutional continuity, a reactive and cautious style of judicial review, and adoption of a wide range of rights in line with social and political progress. These features do not merely mirror standard (Western) constitutionalism, nor do they fit neatly into the so-called Asian values discourse. They also do not merely indicate global transitional constitutionalism. Instead, the emergence of an East Asian style sheds a new light on contemporary constitutionalism more generally and deserves a central place in comparative constitutional studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past two decades have witnessed the exponential growth of stock markets and the significant market orientation of financial systems in Malaysia and Taiwan. These changes were well underway prior to the Asian crisis of 1997-98 but have been consolidated and accelerated by post-crisis reforms that have further institutionalized market-oriented practices. However, the changing patterns of financial markets have not preordained convergence towards the Anglo-American model of capitalism and have shown significant divergences from financial liberalism. Challenging the market-driven convergence and historical institutionalist models, this article locates the political sources of changing financial structures within the interaction between international structural forces and domestic interest alliances of private and public actors. This interactive process has not only oriented the national financial architecture towards securities markets but also made market-oriented changes different from the neo-liberal paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Few studies have been published regarding the practice of breast cancer screening in Asian countries. Aims: The present study illustrates how the health policy for breast cancer screening has evolved in Taiwan from selective mammographic screening within a high-risk group, firstly to a programme of physical examination by public health nurses, and finally to a two-stage breast cancer screening programme, with a risk assessment followed by mammography for those at moderate to high risk. Data sources: Breast cancer screening has evolved from 1995 to 2004 in Taiwan in three stages: (1) selective screening for breast cancer with mammography, ultrasound and physical examination only in first-degree relatives of breast cancer cases (1995–1998); (2) a programme of mass screening (1999–2001) with physical examination by public health nurses; and (3) two-stage breast cancer screening with a risk factor questionnaire and mammography for those deemed at moderate-to-high risk (2002–2004). The questionnaire was based on significant risk factors in a previous epidemiological study, in conjunction with the physical examination programme, a risk score was constructed from the logistic regression coefficients from the previous study, and women with a score above the median in the previous epidemiological study were assigned to mammography. Results: Two-stage mammography screening had the most favourable results compared with the two previous screening regimes. It had a positive predictive value of recall after mammography of 14%, compared with 8% for selective screening and 2% for physical examination. Of screen-detected cancers in the two-stage programme, 71% were either ductal carcinoma in situ or stage T1, compared with 61% for selective screening and 60% for physical examination. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 71% for the two-stage programme. Conclusions: For a low- to medium-risk country such as Taiwan, two-stage screening has acceptable parameters of recall and cancer detection, and compares well with other screening strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the ingredients of the affinity between Japan and Taiwan. Implication of the multifaceted relationship for regional stability in East Asia; Discussion of the Japanese colonial legacy; Reasons for the reluctance of Taiwan to criticize Japan on historical issues.

Deals with an interpretation of the Asian financial crisis. Cause of the financial crisis; Comparison of the economic performance of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan; Similarities between the Japanese and the Korean innovation systems.