Search

This work concentrates on differential-linear distinguishing attacks on the prominent ARX-based permutation ChaCha. Here, we significantly improve the 7-round differential-linear distinguisher for ChaCha permutation by introducing a new path of linear approximation. We first introduce a new single-bit differential distinguisher for the 3.5th round of the permutation that assists us in inventing a new path for the differential-linear distinguisher. We show that one can distinguish a 7-round ChaCha permutation with time complexity of 2 207 . This improves the recent work of Coutinho et al. (in: Advances in Cryptology—ASIACRYPT 2022—28nd International Conference on the Theory and Application of Cryptology and Information Security, Taipei, Taiwan, December 5–9, 2012, Springer, 2022), which achieved time complexity 2 214 . We also propose a distinguisher for the 7.25-round of ChaCha permutation and this is the first distinguishing attack for more than 7-round of ChaCha permutation. We provide theoretical proofs and the corresponding experimental results for the linear approximations that we use for differential-linear distinguisher. We point out that the existing multibit distinguishing attacks on the cipher ChaCha are invalid. These attacks are worked only for the ChaCha permutation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Facultad de Ingeniería Universidad de Antioquia is the property of Universidad de Antioquia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• 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]

This paper presents selected results measured from a monitoring system with 30 accelerometers installed at six floor levels in 508-m high Taipei 101 Tower located in Taipei City, Taiwan where earthquakes and strong typhoons are common occurrences. Emphasis is placed on analyzing the data recorded during three typhoons (Matsa, Talim, and Krosa) and a seismic event (Wenchuan earthquake occurred on May 12, 2008 in Shichuan, China) to investigate the effects of wind and seismic on the supertall building. Dynamic characteristics of the tall building such as natural frequencies, mode shapes, and damping ratios determined from the measured data are presented and compared with those calculated from the finite-element model of the high-rise structure. The seismic performance of this supertall building to a long distance earthquake (Wenchuan earthquake) is assessed based on the field measurements and numerical analysis. The findings of this study are expected to be of considerable interest and practical use to professionals and researchers involved in the design of supertall buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Geotechnical Journal is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study presents a land-use design model for transit-oriented development planning at the regional level. The proposed model allocates a city's residential, employment and recreational activities according to four objectives and six groups of constraints. In order to handle adequately the presence of uncertainty and the flexibility needed in practical planning, the inputs and outputs of the model can be grey numbers. To solve the proposed model and other grey multi-objective programming models, the Grey TOPSIS approach can be adopted. The model is applied to Taipei City. Recommendations are made regarding the case study and a sensitivity analysis informs policy formulation and parameters setting. Este estudio presenta un modelo de diseño de uso del suelo para la planificación de desarrollo regional orientado al tránsito de ámbito regional. El modelo propuesto asigna las actividades residenciales, laborales y de recreo de acuerdo con cuatro objetivos y seis grupos de restricciones. Para poder manejar adecuadamente la presencia de incertidumbre y la flexibilidad necesaria en la planificación práctica, los inputs y outputs del modelo pueden ser números grey. Para resolver el modelo propuesto y otros modelos de programación multiobjetivo grey, se puede adoptar el método Grey TOPSIS. El modelo se aplica para Taipei City. Se ofrecen recomendaciones sobre el estudio de caso y un análisis de sensitividad asesora en la formulación de políticas y el establecimiento de parámetros. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various articles related to optimization and optimal control with applications which were discussed in the 9th International Conference on Optimization: Techniques and Applications that was held in Taipei, Taiwan from December 12â€16, 2013.

The paper explores the relationships between Taipei's nodal status, strategic planning and mode of governance. A conceptual framework is constructed to illustrate how Taipei's mode of governance sets the context that enables and constrains the city's strategic planning actions and responses for managing globalising forces. The conceptual framework represents a bottom-up approach in contrast to the topdown one prevalent in research on the world-city system. This framework could be used to conduct comparative analyses of other cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taipei Metro adopted the diode-grounded scheme for stray current collection in construction of its cross rail network. During operation of the network, a high rail-to-earth potential (Vrail) has been observed at the east end of the Blue Line (i.e., stations BL13-BL16). To find effective countermeasures, a series of field tests in a step-by-step development nature was conducted from 1999-2000, which led to the decision of disconnecting the impedance bond at Gil of the tie line so that the negative return current of the Blue Line cannot flow to the rails of the Red-Green Line, and vice versa (detailed in Sections 111-A and V-C). This decision was implemented through contract-out work in 2003. Since then, the Vrail has been lowered by almost half before disconnection. To gain the insight characteristic before the contract-out, numerical simulations were also conducted by simulating the multi-train and multisection features of the cross transportation network. The simulation results (for Vrail and stray current, or Istray) were consistent with the field-test results. This paper presents the design of these field tests and their test results in comparison with the simulation results, based on which the countermeasures for reducing Vrail and the present status after Vrail reduction at Taipei Metro are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a practical case for safety assessment of bulk supply substations (BSS) and traction supply substations (TSS) in Taipei Rail Transit Systems (TRTS). For a substation grounding system to be safe, the maximum touch-and-step voltages should not exceed postulated safety criteria. The safety criterion in IEEE Standard 80 is defined in terms of permissible body current. The permissible body current is then translated into the permissible touch-and-step voltages. Since the mesh voltage is usually the worst possible touch voltage inside the substation (excluding transferred potentials), the mesh voltage is used as the safety criteria. In other words, safety assessment of an ac substation grounding system in TRTS is referred to a procedure by which the mesh and step voltages are computed and compared to the maximum permissible (safe) touch-and-step voltages. Computation results for the orange line at 019 station are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing a sound urban green infrastructure system is critical for addressing climate change. Green infrastructure (GI) also plays an essential role in the urban system by providing ecosystem services for urban residents. Although some research on GI has been published in Taiwan, there is a lack of understanding of how changes in land use and GI affect the landscape patterns in urban fringe areas. This study explores the impact of changes in GI on the landscape pattern of the urban fringe and urban core areas in the Taipei metropolitan area (TMA). We used intensity analysis to investigate changes in land area and land use intensity between 1981 and 2015 at three levels: interval, category, and transition. Landscape metrics were employed to analyze changes in GI patterns. We found, firstly, that although the rate of change in the urban core area of the TMA was faster than the rate of change in the urban fringe area during 1981–1995 and 1995–2006, changes in the urban fringe area nevertheless maintained a state of rapid change in 1995–2006 and 2006–2015. Secondly, forest and agricultural lands in urban fringe areas were the GI categories with the greatest changes in area from 1981 to 2015. Thirdly, transition areas among forest, agricultural, and built-up areas in urban fringe areas were larger during 1995–2015 than 1981–1995. Finally, the results of landscape pattern analysis indicate that the urban fringe area of the TMA is experiencing landscape fragmentation. Although forest land remained the main category in the urban fringe from 1981 to 2015, the integrity of its patch area decreased over time, and the prevalence of small and complex patches of built-up and agricultural land increased. Spatial planning should therefore consider how to build a GI system to promote ecosystem services in urban fringe areas so as to enhance the ability to respond to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article borrows Heri Lefebvre's space production theory to discuss the cultural governance of East Asian cities and how culture is used as a means of spatial organization in a structured way. Text analysis, field investigation, and comparative analysis are used as the main research methods to explore the specific social production process of Taipei's Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Hong Kong's The Mills. The social production processes of these cultural spaces took place in the same period, having some similarities, and they mostly involved transformation from old factories and old buildings in urban areas. However, the cultural governance strategies in Taipei and Hong Kong are different. On the one hand, the Taipei government's continuous cultural policy has spawned diverse cultural spaces rooted in factory renovations and unified under the authorities' imagination of "Creative Taiwan". A benign model of cultural heritage protection has been formed in terms of community participation, industrial development, and ecological conservation in Taipei. On the other hand, Hong Kong's cultural governance pays more attention to landmark cultural projects from the perspective of tourism development. Mainly driven by private capital, The Mills completed the transformation from a factory to a cultural space. The Mills' transformation process is also the epitome of the decline of Hong Kong's textile industry. In addition, different cultural governance strategies and cultural policies in Taipei and Hong Kong affect the dominant forces in the social production process of cultural spaces. The main driving force of cultural spaces in Taipei is the local government, while the production of cultural spaces in Hong Kong involves more stakeholders, such as private developers, non-profit organizations, etc., and presents the characteristics of a multi-path and multi-participant historic building activation process. Moreover, at the regional level, the abandonment and reuse of industrial buildings in Hong Kong and Taipei are rooted in the migration of local traditional manufacturing to mainland China with cheaper labor and the upgrading and transformation of local industries. This comparative study complements the global picture of cultural space production and also provides references for other areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Research in Education Sciences is the property of National Taiwan Normal University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Scholars have long sought to identify key city locations that have a pronounced effect on the flow of people under various conditions. Identifying key locations makes it possible for government and/or enterprises to obtain accurate estimates as to the flow of people and thereby formulate reasonable management strategies. Note however that much of the previous research based on professional knowledge or machine learning fails to provide accurate results. Some researchers have employed CNN-based models to predict the flow of people, claiming that those models can extract freatures from multiple locations to improve prediction accuracy. Theoretically, the features extracted using CNN-based models could be used themselves as key locations for specific problems; however, the fact that the features are consolidated via multiple operations often renders interpretation difficult when applied to a real-world setting. In the current study, we developed a novel approach to the identification of key locations based on the results of a CNN-based model and the Grad-Cam kit. The structure of a CNN-based models can have a profound effect on the results of the Grad-Cam kit; therefore, we compared the results obtained using three state-of-art models as well as our CNN-LSTM. Actual flow patterns based on telecommunication data in Taipei were used to verify the efficacy of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under weak geological conditions, soil deformation and surface settlement are the key factors affecting the success of shallow-buried rectangular excavation. To investigate this issue, an underpass of Zhongxiao East Road in Taipei City was used as a case study. The surface settlement and lateral deformation of an underground diaphragm wall caused by the excavation of a rectangular pedestrian underpass using the pipe-roof preconstruction method (PPM) were investigated by 3D finite element analysis. The numerical analysis results showed that the constructed numerical analysis model had considerable accuracy. The use of PPM combined with a box culvert structure to form a pedestrian underpass could effectively control the surface displacement above the box culvert. Under the condition of the same sectional area, the smaller the width of the pipe-roof structure, the more the impact on the ground surface was reduced. The maximum positive bending moment and maximum negative bending moment on the pipe roof produced by excavation at each stage were roughly inversely related to the height per the width of the cross-section of the pipe diaphragm structure. The results showed that the pipe-roof structure was suitable for underground excavation with shallow-buried depth in the soft soil of the Taipei Basin. Moreover, the shallow-buried box culvert was more sensitive to the subsidence caused by construction than the deep-buried box culvert. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 40 years ago, I was fortunate enough to step into the field of diabetes. When I had my fellowship training in the USA, I learned how to ask a good scientific question and conduct clinical research. With collaboration with my mentors, Prof. Gerald R Reaven and Prof. Ida Chen, we participated in many clinical trials. We established the Taiwan Diabetes Registry (TDR) to track long‐term changes in diabetes profiles. The ultimate purpose of medical research is to provide benefits to patients. Using electronic medical records and point‐of‐care glucometers, we reduced inpatients' hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia greatly, which was also reflected by the reduction in hospital stays and readmission rates. With the advent of new technology and medications, we have to ponder where we are on the journey toward better diabetes care. We rigorously advocate diabetes care, hold many symposia and publish updated guidelines. We successfully hosted the congress of the 11th International Diabetes Federation Western Pacific Region & 8th Asian Association for the Study of Diabetes Scientific Meeting 2016 at Taipei, Taiwan. As the era of precision medicine is coming, Taiwan could be considered as one of the best places to run precision medicine. The Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative has enrolled more than half a million residents, and is currently conducting genotyping and data analysis. In conclusion. I witnessed the early days of simple and few choices for diabetes management to the current various modalities in diabetes care. As these new technologies have become available, patients will always remain at the center of the care model with warmth and humility. In this review, I had addressed the issues how to advance better diabetes care via exploration and implementation, both of which I had spend my efforts in past 4 decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategies to reduce energy consumption are presently experiencing vigorous development. Phase change materials (PCMs) are novel materials that can reduce indoor temperatures via the change in material phase. Regarding the situation in Taiwan, there is no practical utilization of PCMs in school buildings at present, especially in combination with rooftops. In this paper, we discuss the feasibility and utilization potential of installing PCMs in the rooftops of school buildings. School buildings located in northern and southern Taiwan (Taipei and Kaohsiung) were selected to analyze the energy-saving potential and optimization of indoor thermal comfort by installing PCMs with different properties in rooftops over two time periods, including the air conditioning (AC) and natural ventilation (NV) seasons. Based on the simulation results, the feasible patterns of PCM simultaneity are found to be appropriate for improved indoor comfort and energy saving during the different seasons. Specifically, the efficient phase change temperature (PCT) for different PCM thicknesses is clarified to be 29 °C. The economic thickness of PCM was clarified to be 20 mm for Taipei and Kaohsiung. Through the recommendations proposed in this study, it is expected that the PCMs may be efficiently implemented in school buildings to realize the goal of energy conservation and improve thermal comfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boiling failure that results from drilling for installation of a new pneumatic piezometer in the final grade of a deep excavation in Taipei, Taiwan, is presented in this case study. The extent of the damage includes the boils of a mixture of soil and water entering the bottom of the excavation, heave of the center posts, inclination of internally horizontal struts, subsidence and excessive lateral inward deformation of the diaphragm wall, and significant ground settlement. The corresponding emergency efforts to minimize the loss are addressed. In addition, the paper focuses on two remedial schemes to resume excavation following the incident. One is the grouting measure adopted by the contractor, and the other is a dewatering scheme proposed by the writers. Constructibility, safety, schedule, and cost of the two schemes are compared. It is demonstrated that a dewatering scheme should be considered where applicable to mitigate against similar incidents in the Taipei metropolitan area in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern industrial heritage in East Asia shares the social and historical background of industrial and cultural products shaped during the colonial times around the 20th century—a period of political upheaval and rapid social transformation. Gunsan (Korea) and Taipei (Taiwan) share the historical characteristics of modern industrial facilities built during the Japanese colonial period. Moreover, these facilities are controversial and complex objects regarding which the notions of conservation of historical heritage and liquidation of colonial heritage coexist and are subjects of mediating the creation of modern cities in East Asia and transition to creative modern urbanization. The complexity surrounding these modern industrial facilities warrants an in-depth analysis of the methods of utilizing them as cultural heritage sites for cultural mediation, and Gunsan and Taipei are good examples for comparison. Here, we examined cultural urban regeneration utilizing modern industrial facilities formed from similar historical and social backgrounds in Taiwan and Korea. This is a comparative study of historical and cultural belts utilizing industrial buildings in Gunsan's original city centre and Songshan Cultural and Creation Park in Taipei. Finally, we proposed implications for local residents, cultural communities rooted in the region, and user-centered cultural content for sustainable cultural urban regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an experimentally validated, dynamic model of a hybrid liquid desiccant system. For this purpose, we developed new components for the air-solution contactors, which are of the non-adiabatic falling-film type with horizontal tubes (made of improved polypropylene) and the solution tanks. We also provide new experimental correlations for both the tube-solution heat transfer coefficient and the mass transfer coefficient on the airside as a function of the air velocity. To validate the model, the results obtained from the dynamic simulations were compared with those obtained by monitoring a demonstration unit installed in a sports center in Taipei (Taiwan). Once validated, the model was used to perform a sensitivity analysis at different operational conditions, such as the inlet water temperatures in the air-solution contactors and the LiCl mass fraction at which the system operates. The results of the sensitivity analysis were used to optimize the seasonal performance in terms of comfort and energy required by the system. Compared with a conventional air-handling unit that controls air temperature and humidity, the annual energy savings of the liquid desiccant systems are 17%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how optimistic bias, consumption cognition, news attention, information credibility, and social trust affect the purchase intention of food consumption. Data used in this study came from a questionnaire survey conducted in college students in Taipei and Beijing. Respondents in the two cities returned 258 and 268 questionnaires, respectively. Samples were analyzed through structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the model. Results showed that Taiwanese college students did not have optimistic bias but Chinese students did. The models showed that both Taiwanese and Chinese students' consumption cognition significantly influenced their purchase intention, and news attention significantly influenced only Chinese students' purchase intention. Model comparison analysis suggested significant differences between the models for Taiwan and mainland China. The results revealed that optimistic bias can be reduced in different social contexts as that of the Taiwan model and the mainland Chinese model found in this study were indeed different. This study also confirmed that people had optimistic bias on food safety issues, based on which recommendations were made to increase public awareness of food safety as well as to improve government's certification system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dr Chien-Yu Chen is a Professor at the Department of Biomechatronics Engineering at National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei. She received a PhD degree in Computer Science and Information Engineering from NTU and has been leading her lab since 2005. Dr Chen develops machine learning and deep learning models to study multi-omics data, including genomes, transcriptomes, epigenomes, and proteomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims. Suicidal acts may cluster in time and space and lead to community concerns about further imitative suicidal episodes. Although suicide clusters have been researched in previous studies, less is known about the clustering of non-fatal suicidal behaviour (self-harm). Furthermore, most previous studies used crude temporal and spatial information, e.g., numbers aggregated by month and residence area, for cluster detection analysis. This study aimed to (i) identify space-time clusters of self-harm and suicide using daily incidence data and exact address and (ii) investigate the characteristics of cluster-related suicidal acts. Methods. Data on emergency department presentations for self-harm and suicide deaths in Taipei City and New Taipei City, Taiwan, were used in this study. In all-age and age-specific analyses, self-harm and suicide clusters were identified using space-time permutation scan statistics. A cut-off of 0.10 for the p value was used to identify possible clusters. Logistic regression was used to investigate the characteristics associated with cluster-related episodes. Results. A total of 5,291 self-harm episodes and 1,406 suicides in Taipei City (2004-2006) and 20,531 self-harm episodes and 2,329 suicides in New Taipei City (2012-2016) were included in the analysis. In the two cities, two self-harm clusters (n [number of self-harm episodes or suicide deaths in the cluster] = 4 and 8 in Taipei City), four suicide clusters (n = 3 in Taipei City and n = 4, 11 and 4 in New Taipei City) and two self-harm and suicide combined clusters (n = 4 in Taipei City and n = 8 in New Taipei City) were identified. Space-time clusters of self-harm, suicide, and self-harm and suicide combined accounted for 0.05%, 0.59%, and 0.08% of the respective groups of suicidal acts. Cluster-related episodes of self-harm and suicide were more likely to be male (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.22, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.26, 3.89) and young people aged 10-29 years (aOR = 2.72, 95% CI 1.43, 5.21) than their cluster-unrelated counterparts. Conclusions. Space-time clusters of self-harm, suicide, and self-harm and suicide combined accounted for a relatively small proportion of suicidal acts and were associated with some sex/age characteristics. Focusing on suicide deaths alone may underestimate the size of some clusters and/or lead to some clusters being overlooked. Future research could consider combining self-harm and suicide data and use social connection information to investigate possible clusters of suicidal acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A synthesis of the complex relationships, including synergies and trade-offs, between urban development projects and climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives can ensure that all these relationships are taken into consideration. We used a systems approach and applied an impact matrix and chain effect analysis methods to projects in the highly urbanized Taipei metropolitan region to identify the influences and effects between urban development projects and climate change objectives. Three types of urban plans and projects were analyzed: flood control, transportation, and urban planning. The magnitudes of the influences and effects between these projects and plans were derived through interviews with experts familiar with Taipei's urban development. This pilot study found no synergy in the response to climate change mitigation and adaptation for the urban development projects analyzed. The current standalone policies and plans related to urbanization in Taipei have resulted in trade-offs for flood control and public transit projects because they contribute positively toward one climate objective but negatively impact another. A high-level policymaking mechanism that ensures coordination and collaboration between different sectors is needed to supervise sectoral policies. Prior to the approval and implementation of a plan, policymakers should request the assessment of synergies and trade-offs between plans and projects to ensure a synergistic effect to climate change issues. This study confirms that the strategy from individual sector in a metropolitan region will result in trade-off between climate change issues is a global problem. This paper also strengthens the concept that the assessment of synergy/trade-offs between policy and plans should be conducted using systemic approach. • A systems approach can assess synergy/trade-offs between mitigation and adaptation. • Synergy doesn't exist due to a lack of comprehensive urban climate policy in Taipei. • There are trade-offs between analyzed mitigation and adaptation projects. • Minimizing trade-offs is an immediate concern for urban climate policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The six articles in this special issue were originally presented at the 2009 International Conference on Electromagnetic Near-Field Characterization and Imaging (ICONIC'09), held at the Oriental Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, on June 24-26, 2009. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Toxoplasma is an obligate intracellular protozoan that causes an important zoonotic disease with a worldwide distribution. Felids are the definitive hosts of this parasite, while virtually all warm-blooded animals, including birds, serve as intermediate hosts. Four ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) in the Taipei Zoo died of acute Toxoplasma infection in June 2019. Since then, Toxoplasma has occasionally been identified in this Zoo during necropsy of dead animals and PCR of animal blood samples. Therefore, a general survey of Toxoplasma infection in animals in the Zoo seems to be needed. Methods and results: An indirect multispecies ELISA was used for the first time to screen for Toxoplasma infection in 326 serum samples collected from 75 species of animals. The infection rate of Toxoplasma was 27% (88/326). A commercial latex agglutination (LAT) assay was used to re-examine the samples with doubtful and uncertain ELISA results (151 samples from 42 species). The infection rate increased to 36.2% (118/326), and the indirect multispecies ELISA appeared to be applicable to 31 of 75 species animals included in this study. Nested PCR assays targeting the dense granule protein 7 (GRA7) gene and B1 gene were also used to detect Toxoplasma in DNA samples extracted from 10 liver or blood specimens from 8 animals. GRA7 gene fragments were amplified from 8 samples from 7 animals, while B1 gene fragments were amplified from only 4 samples from 4 animals. From the B1 nested PCR and the sequence data of GRA7 fragments amplified from infectious specimens, the animals in the Zoo were speculated to have been infected by at least three different Toxoplasma variants. Conclusions: According to the serological investigation, we speculated that over one-third (36.2%) of animals in Taipei Zoo presented the infection of Toxoplasma, and the indirect multispecies ELISA we used can be applied to detect Toxoplasma infection in 31 animal species included in this study. Sequence analysis revealed that at least three Toxoplasma variants were infecting the animals of Taipei Zoo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates ethical considerations associated with forecasting urban climate risks, focusing on extreme heat. Following the session aim, the paper considers negative societal effects which could arise from well-intentioned attempts to measure, communicate and respond to spatial differences in heat risk within cities. Assessing urban thermal environments and socio-economic vulnerability, and providing decision-makers with information to act (e.g. through strategic built environment actions, green infrastructure etc), can reduce harm to citizens from intensifying urban heat risks. However, critical social science suggests there is a need to reflect on the deeper and longer-term implications of urban resilience initiatives, which can if managed inappropriately inadvertently make the communities they are intended to benefit even more susceptible to harm. This contribution evaluates this tension through interview- and field observation-based assessment of heat risk management practices in Glasgow, Scotland (which has emerging interest in heat risk across space, and publicly-available socio-economic data), Taipei, Taiwan (which has no heat vulnerability information available to public yet) and Fukuoka, Japan (which has specific targeted heat risk reduction strategies); as well as the authors' own experiences of assessing heat risk in Taipei.Drawing on our data and insights, we suggest areas of ethical consideration which geoscientists and decision-makers (planners, city governors, developers, community leaders) ought to be aware of when engaging in spatial assessment of heat and indeed other risks e.g. flooding. First is the potential psychological or stigmatising effects for inhabitants which can come with marking out an area as 'vulnerable'. Whilst hazard maps are produced in each of the case study cities for flooding, these are usually based on physical exposure and do not necessarily include socio-economic data. Particularly in Fukuoka, participants suggested inclusion of socio-economic vulnerability indicators on publicly-available risk maps could be a source of embarrassment for communities. Second is the danger that identifying areas as 'high-risk' through spatial assessment could lead to certain areas or communities being targeted by city-level planners or governments for interventions, which although well-meaning may come across as patronising or unwanted. Third is the challenge of ensuring that risk reduction strategies based on data and 'hard science' are respectful of local traditional knowledges of how to manage environmental risk, such as uchimizu street-watering practices in Japan. Fourth and final is the bigger danger of focusing on short-term and/or emergency 'solutions' targeted at vulnerable populations during periods of extreme heat, to the detriment of considering how to address longer-term social and political processes such as urban governance and social policy which can make some people and areas more susceptible to harm in the first place.These recommendations of course do not mean scientists and decision-makers should not strive to produce spatial assessments of cities' climate risks and communicate these to citizens and decision-makers. Rather, the point of our paper is to argue that when assessing heat and other risks across space, geoscientists may benefit from collaborating with people who have good local contextual knowledge, to ensure outputs and recommendations are developed in a format sensitive to the local context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exemplifies a framework for systematically evaluating social justice dimensions within evidence-based decision-making processes for nature-based solutions in cities. There is increasing awareness that social justice – that is, reaching outcomes which are fair across society - needs to be an integral component to resilient cities, and that nature-based solutions may disproportionately benefit affluent or empowered communities. Yet it is also arguably true that effective deployment of nature-based solutions requires consideration of technical and scientific processes at a city-wide scale, and hence that equitable reduction of climate risk via nature-based solutions may be more complex than simply targeting discrete interventions towards more vulnerable areas.The purpose of this paper is therefore to illustrate challenges and opportunities in supporting geoscientists and urban policy-makers, who produce and rely on spatial environmental data as an evidence base for decisions, to consider social justice dimensions in urban governance for nature-based solutions. The aim is to reach outcomes that are both socially equitable and scientifically appropriate. We assess these issues through empirical stakeholder interview- and policy-analysis data collected for the current status of nature-based solutions development in Glasgow (Scotland) and Taipei (Taiwan), giving one European and one Asian case study and one oceanic and one subtropical city. For each, we assess (a) data availability and competences for understanding spatial distribution of benefits from nature-based solutions relative to vulnerable populations; (b) processes for making decisions about nature-based solutions, and opportunities for participation and learning within these; and (c) how well different groups and knowledge systems are recognised within decision-making forums for nature-based solutions. Our results indicate that finding ways to connect nature-based solutions – particularly their role in reducing climate risk – to overarching social issues such as health and wellbeing may build political traction for deployment. Attaining this, however, requires rigorous and appropriate data – such as flood disadvantage work undertaken in Glasgow integrating physical exposure with socio-economic data – and strong city-level leadership to balance competing pressures and identify areas where nature-based solutions benefits are needed the most. Moreover, whilst governance of nature-based solutions ought to be guided by data and techno-scientific evidence from the city-wide level, community engagement initiatives can help to ensure nature-based solutions are appropriate to communities' resilience-building requirements, perceived as legitimate, and not viewed as being imposed from on high and/or unwanted. Whilst not explicitly geared towards nature-based solutions, initiatives such as disaster resistant community in Taiwan, Taipei Open Green and Taipei's wider turn towards citizen participation can provide a pathway to more inclusive governance processes. Lastly, we reflect on the challenge in both cities of recognising techno-scientific expertise and data (e.g. land use and heat exposure, flooding risk, and vulnerability within different societies) alongside citizen and practitioner knowledge.Finally, from Glasgow and Taipei we offer insights on the role geoscientists can play in the complex governance of nature-based solutions. This includes early engagement with policy-makers to understand knowledge gaps and data requirements, and collaboration with knowledge-brokers to identify where and how they can inform urban governance with appropriate evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 4 June 2021, short-duration extreme precipitation occurred in Taipei. Within 2 h, over 200 mm of rainfall accumulated in the Xinyi district. In this study, advanced data assimilation technology (e.g., hybrid data and 3D variations) was incorporated to develop a high-resolution, small-scale (e.g., northern Taiwan) data assimilation forecast system, namely the weather research and forecast-grid statistical interpolation (WRF-GSI) model. The 3D wind field data recorded by the Doppler wind lidar system of Taipei Songshan Airport were assimilated for effective simulation of the extreme precipitation. The results revealed that the extreme rainfall was caused by the interaction between the northeast wind incurred by a front to the north of Taiwan, a humid southerly wind generated by Typhoon Choi-wan, and the regional sea–land breeze circulation. For the Xinyi district, the WRF-GSI_lidar model reported accumulated rainfall 30 mm higher than that in the non-assimilated experiment (WRF-GSI_noDA), indicating that the WRF-GSI model with lidar observation was improved 15% more than the nonassimilated run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous research has demonstrated a correlation between hand grip strength (HGS) and muscle strength. This study aims to determine the relationship between HGS and muscle mass in older Asian adults.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) records of 907 older adults (239 (26.4%) men and 668 (73.6%) women) at one medical institution in Taipei, Taiwan, from January 2019, to December 2020. Average age was 74.80 ± 9.43 and 72.93 ± 9.09 for the males and females respectively. The inclusion criteria were: 1) aged 60 and older, 2) underwent a full-body DXA scan, and 3) performed hand grip measurements. Patients with duplicate results, incomplete records, stroke history, and other neurological diseases were excluded. Regional skeletal muscle mass was measured using DXA. HGS was measured using a Jamar handheld dynamometer.Results: Total lean muscle mass (kg) averaged 43.63 ± 5.81 and 33.16 ± 4.32 for the males and females respectively. Average HGS (kg) was 28.81 ± 9.87 and 19.19 ± 6.17 for the males and females respectively. In both sexes, HGS and regional muscle mass consistently declined after 60 years of age. The rates of decline per decade in upper and lower extremity muscle mass and HGS were 7.06, 4.95, and 12.30%, respectively, for the males, and 3.36, 4.44, and 12.48%, respectively, for the females. In men, HGS significantly correlated with upper (r = 0.576, p < 0.001) and lower extremity muscle mass (r = 0.532, p < 0.001). In women, the correlations between HGS and upper extremity muscle mass (r = 0.262, p < 0.001) and lower extremity muscle mass (r = 0.364, p < 0.001) were less strong, though also statistically significant.Conclusion: Muscle mass and HGS decline with advancing age in both sexes, though the correlation is stronger in men. HGS measurements are an accurate proxy for muscle mass in older Asian adults, particularly in males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a public health issue, and an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG) plays an important role in the cardiovascular system. Previous studies have examined one important exon polymorphism, Pro12Ala, in PPARG with respect to mortality of CKD patients, but the results were inconsistent and current evidence is insufficient to support a strong conclusion. This study aimed to examine the correlation between Pro12Ala gene polymorphism and mortality among Asians with CKD by trial sequential analysis (TSA). Methods: The research was divided into observational research and meta-analysis. For the cohort study, 767 subjects from dialysis centers in Taipei were selected as samples, and tracked from December 2015 to February 2017. For the meta-analysis, relevant literature from "PubMed" and "Embase" databases (until December 2016), was searched and TSA was used to verify the results. In order to achieve the best evidence hierarchies, our retrospective cohort study was added to the meta-analysis and the TSA. Results: The combined sample size for Asian was 1,685 after adding our cohort study, and there was no significant correlation between PPARG Pro12Ala and mortality by the allele model (RR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.39–1.83, I2 = 79.3%). Under the parameter setting with the RR value of 1.5, TSA estimation presented that the cumulative sample size entered into the futility area, and it confirmed the conclusion in this study. Conclusion: We found that PPARG Pro12Ala gene polymorphism was not related to mortality in CKD Asians patients, and validated our conclusion using TSA after adding our sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Taipei City Government takes into consideration of the influence of urban environmental safety on tourism and government stability through the implementation of check mechanism to control the building safety. Additionally, the mayor carries out joint checking at non- residential occupancies by forming the Joint Committee of Public Safety in an attempt to warn building users about strict prohibition of illegal behaviors. Despite these efforts, the City Government still detects the need on the regulatory instruments due to the review on fire incidents taken place at non-residential occupancies over the last three years as well as the “fire risks of existing legal buildings under human behaviors on specific time and in specific space.” This paper explores into the fire safety management mechanism for government agencies at all levels and discovers that the assessment on the “total fire safety” can in fact reduce fire risks. Hence the concept of total fire safety should be carried out through different measures of fact-oriented thinking. The Joint Committee of Public Safety serves as the highest management agency for coordinating the fire safety within the city and actively carrying out fire safety work using the concept of “total fire safety” to help bring the fire safety methods for non-residential occupancies into full play [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the highlights of the Asian Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology (ASOMP) 3rd Meeting held at the Howard International House in Taipei, Taiwan on November 17-18, 2008. It includes 5 paper and 60 poster presentations. Speakers were Indian Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathologists (IAOMP) members Nirmala N. Rao, Pankaj Aggarwal and Simarpreet Virk Sandhu. Topics discussed were the use of tenascin in oral submucous fibrosis and the prevalence of tobacco related oral lesions in Indian truck drivers and helpers.

Abstract: This paper presents an approach which combines the orthogonal array experiment technique and an ant direction hybrid differential evolution algorithm (ADHDEOA) in determining the tilt angle for photovoltaic (PV) modules. In this study, an orthogonal array (OA) is first conducted to obtain the initial solution. Next, an ant direction hybrid differential evolution (ADHDE) is applied to search for a near optimum solution. The purpose of this research is to maximize the output power of the module. The sun’s position at any time and location was predicted by the mathematical procedure of Julian dating; then, the solar irradiation was obtained at each site under a clear sky. The searching for global optimal solution is applied to a practical experimental system. The results show that the annual optimal angle for the Taipei area is 23.18°; for Taichung, 22.32°; for Tainan, 21.62°; for Kaosiung, 20.83°; for Hengchung, 20.27°; for Hualian, 22.18°; and for Taitung, 20.89° in seven Taiwanese areas, and the actual best annual tilt angles are close to the computer simulation results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents results of a case study on cliff recession mechanism and progressive development of talus deposits around Xiangshan of the Sishou Hills in the southeast of the Taipei Basin. Based on photogrammetric analysis and physical modeling, the geomorphologic changes of talus deposits are carefully examined and the cliff recession rates from 1904 to 2005 are thus measured and tabulated. Our study identified the fundamental control factors on mechanisms of cliff recession and proposed a possible scenario of cliff recession and progressive development of talus deposits around the Xiangshan region from 1904 to 2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a real-time traffic surveillance system for the detection, recognition, and tracking of multiple vehicles in roadway images. Moving vehicles can be automatically separated from the image sequences by a moving object segmentation method. Since CCD surveillance cameras are typically mounted at some distance from roadways, occlusion is a common and vexing problem for traffic surveillance systems. The segmentation and recognition method uses the length, width, and roof size to classify vehicles as vans, utility vehicles, sedans, mini trucks, or large vehicles, even when occlusive vehicles are continuously merging from one frame to the next. The segmented objects can be recognized and counted in accordance with their varying features, via the proposed recognition and tracking methods. The system has undergone roadside tests in Hsinchu and Taipei, Taiwan. Experiments using complex road scenes under various weather conditions are discussed and demonstrate the robustness, accuracy, and responsiveness of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article details a mixed methods study conducted during the 2007–2008 academic year at the National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taipei Taiwan. It contributes to discourse examining the opportunities and challenges of international student enrollments in institutions of higher learning around the globe. In scope it details an empirical study exploring the dispositions of NCCU international students in terms of their academic and social spheres. Trends in Taiwan reflect traditional East Asian patterns; substantial numbers of university students from Taiwan studied in the United States and Britain while very few incoming international students chose the island nation as a host destination. In recent years the influx of international students to Taiwan has increased significantly, rising from 6,380 in 2001 to 21,005 in 2007 (Ko, , 2008). The use of both quantitative and qualitative methods provided clarity and extended critical interpretations of the issues and dilemmas surrounding the international student experience in Taiwan. Results indicate that the capability of the NCCU as a host institution to sustain and attract increasing numbers of incoming international students is linked to factors such as the unique opportunity to study traditional as opposed to simplified Chinese characters, the availability and accessibility of Taiwan government sponsored scholarships, and the high standard of the NCCU Mandarin Studies program. Implications suggest that universities committed to internationalization are called to address the realities—both positive and negative—of operating as globally competitive institutions. As such, attracting the right kind of international students at the NCCU and determining standards for their contribution to campus life are more important goals than the total number of international students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1016 strong-motion records at 527 free-field stations and 131 records at 42 strong-motion arrays at buildings and bridges were obtained for the Pingtung earthquake doublet from the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau's dense, digital strong-motion network. We carried out standard processing of these strong-motion records at free-field stations. A data set, including the originally recorded files, processed data files, and supporting software and information, is archived online http://tecdc.earth.sinica.edu.tw/data/EQ2006Pingtung/. We have not yet completed the processing of the strong-motion array data at buildings and bridges. However, some preliminary results and the strong-motion array data recorded at the second nearest instrumented building to the Pingtung earthquake doublet are shown. This paper is intended to document our data processing procedures and the online archived data files, so that researchers can efficiently use the data. We also include two preliminary analyses: (1) a comparison of ground motions recorded by multiple accelerographs at a common site, the TAP117 station in Taipei, and (2) attenuation of the horizontal ground motions (peak acceleration and response spectra at periods of 0.2, 1.0, and 3.0 s) with respect to distance. Our comparison study of multiple recordings at TAP117 indicates that waveform coherence among 20- and 24-bit accelerograph records is much higher as compared to records from 16-bit or 12-bit accelerographs, suggesting that the former are of better quality. For the 20- and 24-bit accelerographs, waveform coherence is nearly 1 over the frequency range 1 to 8 Hz for all components, and is greater than about 0.9 from 8 to 20 Hz for the horizontal component, but only from 8 to 12 Hz for the vertical component. Plots of pseudo-acceleration response spectra (PSA) as a function of distance, however, show no clear indication for a difference related to the performance level of the accelerographs. The ground-motions of the first event (MW = 7.0) are comparable, or even somewhat lower, than those from the smaller second event (MW = 6.9), consistent with the relative difference of the local magnitudes (ML = 6.96 and 6.99 for the first and second events, respectively). The ground motions from the first event are generally lower than those predicted from equations based on other in-slab subduction earthquakes, whereas the ground motions from the second event are closer to the predictions. Ground-motions for soil sites are generally larger than those from rock sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's comments on the articles about planning practices in different regions of Asia, published within the issue. From an essay over the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China he concludes that the planning in the region is suffering due to the influence of bureaucracy over the city's government. The politics in Taipei, Taiwan, he explains, is hampering the national development. The planning system is still under construction in Beijing, China.

Natural disasters and man-made incidents have many negative impacts on major cities, including casualties, economic losses, disruption of social order, and environmental contamination. Cities need to be resilient in order to protect people's lives and property. Although research on urban resilience has been rapidly emerging in recent years, there are still some research gaps. The interplay of attributes for assessing urban resilience has not been explored, and the Multiple Attribute Decision Making- (MADM-) based framework for evaluating urban resilience is rarely studied. Therefore, this study proposes a novel model to evaluate urban resilience, the Z number-based Decision-Making Trial, and Evaluation Laboratory (Z-DEMATEL), to identify the mutual influential relationships and the weights of the attributes. In addition, the Z number-based Reference Ideal Method (Z-RIM) is used to determine the resilience capacity of cities and to suggest improvements for decision makers to develop appropriate strategies. In this study, we not only use trapezoidal fuzzy numbers to reflect the uncertainty of information but also measure the reliability/confidence of experts in the assessment. The integrated methodology is presented for the first time in this study, and we use the firmness data of six major metropolitan cities in Taiwan as an example of model demonstration. The results of the study show that population density, value of business activity, healthcare facilities, electricity supply, and number of business registrations are the most important attributes influencing the resilience of cities. Taipei City and Taichung City are the two major cities with better resilience in Taiwan based on the analysis of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that globalization has led first- and second-tier cities' urban restructuring trajectories, excreted pressures, and caused tremendous socioeconomic volatility. This resulted in marginalized communities in dire of social empowerment, employment structure variance, and industry sectoral adjustment. Moreover, recent successive climate and health crisis unfolded and affirmed the state of our urban incompetence to sustain socioeconomic resilience or otherwise; lacking swift responses in providing critical management and services, cites are facing multifaceted challenges. Urban well-being and resilience are at stake. Although the environmental and health dimensional effects are apparent, this study ascertains that the transept multi-scalar analysis within the urban socioeconomic structure is crucial in sustaining core resilience to foster health and well-being of the community. As an integral part of the investigation, the revised DPSIR assessment framework is applied to evaluate the sectoral shift; spatial structure disarray and urban codependence degree are examined within the Taipei metropolitan area (TMA), a medium size but densely populated metropolitan area in Taiwan. The place-based DPSIR analysis ascertained the states and impacts in TMA: (1) A population decline speeded the restructuring of the urban core, while the impact of demographic aging and shrinkage rate mandates proper management and planning responses to the decline process; (2) the socioeconomic state effect is determined but does not critically affect the periphery zone, while an uneven demographic shift within the urban core necessitates dynamic adjustment responses to appropriately provide intergenerational services; (3) the uneven sector redistribution stimulated the core's spatial and structural inter-dependency with peripheral zones, requiring governance with tighter cross-administration cooperation among respective public sectors; and (4) facing the sector/temporal and demographic pressure, urban cohesiveness in the TMA is greatly affected, which in turn disrupts the resilience pathway toward a cohesion. The study ascertained that the revised DPSIR framework could provide cities facing pressing socioeconomic drivers with effective analysis to allocate pressures, states, and impacts and formulate the necessary responses. To assure the socioeconomic resilience and urban cohesiveness, planning policy should carefully monitor and evaluate socio-demographic and sector redistribution factors to promote the urban resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Taipei Biennial, with its attentiveness to systemically re-forming the categorically 'natural' within the museological, names the museum as the metonym and metaphor of natural systems, but also reformulates and redresses what these systems could be. In the Biennial's language of 'reciprocal dependency', if the museum is an ecosystem, then perhaps nature post-nature is already a museum. This review seeks to examine these formulations, especially as strands of post-disaster survivalism, with the biennale's strategies to 'keep alive' humans and their art, and to 'preserve longevity'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asian Hong Kong Youth Internet Literacy Survey shows that as high as 48.1% of Hong Kong middle school students read news, they have never found that the information they read or forwarded is false (Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, 2016). In Taiwan, which is also a Chinese-speaking region, a youth media literacy survey also found that 76% of youths do not verify and criticize the news they read (Golden Car Foundation, 2020). A large number and various types of fake information and fake news will cause harm to society (Dell, 2019). According to the 2020 News Literacy Survey of Taiwan's Parent-Child World Magazine, 14% of students said they had never doubted when they saw questionable news or messages, and 25% of students said they doubted but never verified it. The main channel for students to check the news is to check on the Internet, and 31% of students choose this channel. (Yahui, C., 2020). Taipei City is an extremely advanced city in the development of digital networks and traditional media in Asia. It has a free news environment, and there are more than ten television stations with 24-hour television news media. Therefore, in the past two decades, domestic media educators and the Ministry of Education have been committed to Promoting news literacy, Taipei City became one of the first international cities to promote media literacy. The mission of media literacy is to: specula1te on media and its practical purpose, cultivate students and citizens to learn independently, and critical thinking and problem-solving abilities (Ministry of Education, 2002). However, with the continuous increase of news information, it is very important to improve news literacy skills. At present, in addition to a complete media literacy framework, Taiwan still needs more comprehensive journalism education and reading skills courses. This article will use qualitative research to analyze and discuss the global media literacy education and Taiwan news literacy education-related materials, to achieve the two goals of exploration and discovery, redefine the core definition of Taiwanese news literacy, and apply it to Taiwan's youth news. Suggestions for rethinking the literacy course will help improve Taiwan's youth journalism literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sentinel physician surveillance in communities has played an important role in detecting early signs of epidemics. The traditional approach is to let the primary care physician voluntarily and actively report diseases to the health department on a weekly basis. However, this is labor-intensive work, and the spatio-temporal resolution of the surveillance data is not precise at all. In this study, we built up a clinic-based enhanced sentinel surveillance system named "Sentinel plus" which was designed for sentinel clinics and community hospitals to monitor 23 kinds of syndromic groups in Taipei City, Taiwan. The definitions of those syndromic groups were based on ICD-10 diagnoses from physicians. Methods: Daily ICD-10 counts of two syndromic groups including ILI and EV-like syndromes in Taipei City were extracted from Sentinel plus. A negative binomial regression model was used to couple with lag structure functions to examine the short-term association between ICD counts and meteorological variables. After fitting the negative binomial regression model, residuals were further rescaled to Pearson residuals. We then monitored these daily standardized Pearson residuals for any aberrations from July 2018 to October 2019. Results: The results showed that daily average temperature was significantly negatively associated with numbers of ILI syndromes. The ozone and PM2.5 concentrations were significantly positively associated with ILI syndromes. In addition, daily minimum temperature, and the ozone and PM2.5 concentrations were significantly negatively associated with the EV-like syndromes. The aberrational signals detected from clinics for ILI and EV-like syndromes were earlier than the epidemic period based on outpatient surveillance defined by the Taiwan CDC. Conclusions: This system not only provides warning signals to the local health department for managing the risks but also reminds medical practitioners to be vigilant toward susceptible patients. The near real-time surveillance can help decision makers evaluate their policy on a timely basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the complexity of socio-economic-related issues, people thought of housing market as a chaotic nucleus situated at the intersection of neighboring sciences. It has been known that the dependence of house features on the residential property value can be estimated employing the well-established hedonic regression analysis method in teams of location characteristic, neighborhood characteristic and structure characteristic. However, to further assess the roles of urban infrastructures in housing markets, we proposed a new kind of volatility measure for house prices utilizing the Lie symmetry analysis of quantum theory based on Schrödinger equation, mainly focusing on the effects of transportation systems and public parks on residential property values. Based on the municipal open government data regularly collected for four cities, including Boston, Milwaukee, Taipei and Tokyo, and all spatial sampling sites were featured by United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Map, transportation and park were modelled as perturbations to the quantum states generated by the feature space in response to the environmental amenities with different spatial extents. In an attempt to ascertain the intrinsic impact of the location-dependent price information obtained, the similarity functions associated with the Schrödinger equation were considered to facilitate revealing the city amenities capitalizing into house prices. By examining the spatial spillover phenomena of house prices in the four cities investigated, it was found that the mass transit systems and the public green lands possessed the infinitesimal generators of Lie point symmetries Y2 and Y5, respectively. Compared statistically with the common performance criteria, including mean absolute error (MAE), mean squared error (MSE) and, root mean squared error (RMSE) obtained by hedonic pricing model, the Lie symmetry analysis of the Schrödinger equation approach developed herein was successfully carried out. The invariant-theoretical characterizations of economics-related phenomena are consonant with the observed residential property values of the cities internationally, ultimately leading to develop a new perspective in the global financial architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Comparison of nature-based climate adaptation across subtropical Asian cities; • Dense urban form and diverse governance structures in Asian cities compared to West; • Competences as organising framework to assess policy and skills for adaptation; • Capability to link government departments and sectors of society vital; • Further research needed for normative competence under different governance forms. Interest in nature-based approaches for climate change adaptation in cities is growing. Whilst there is a growing field of scholarship in a European and North America setting, research on the policy and governance of urban greenspace for climate adaptation in subtropical Asia is limited. Given the different development patterns, environmental characteristics and governance arrangements in subtropical cities, plus their comparatively large population and high climate risk, this is a significant knowledge gap. In response, this paper evaluates competences – skill sets, capabilities, and supporting policy and legislation – to enact adaptation through greenspace across different governance contexts; and assesses how international rhetoric on nature-based adaptation becomes localised to subtropical Asian city settings. We conduct interviews with stakeholders, plus review of relevant policy and city-specific research, for three cities with different governance and development contexts: Hanoi (Vietnam); Taipei (Taiwan); and Fukuoka (Japan). Across all three cases, we find that institutional structures and processes for connecting different remits and knowledge systems are a bigger challenge than a lack of appropriate policy or individuals with the required technical knowledge. However, opportunities for civil society participation and consideration of justice issues vary between the cities according to the socio-political context. These findings illustrate the value of individuals and organisations able to work across institutional boundaries in linking greenspace and adaptation agendas for subtropical Asian cities; and the importance of competence in collaboration with developers and civil society so that the rapid development or regeneration seen in subtropical Asian contexts does not tend towards green climate gentrification. More broadly, our findings show that the diverse nature of subtropical Asian cities means the role of greenspace in climate adaptation is likely to be context-specific, and thus that caution must be exercised against uncritically importing best practices from exemplar cases elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) play important roles in various atmospheric processes and health effects. Predicting carbonaceous aerosols and identifying source contributions are important steps for further epidemiological study and formulating effective emission control policies. However, we are not aware of any study that examined predictions of OC and EC, and this work is also the first study that attempted to use machine learning and hyperparameter optimization method to predict concentrations of specific aerosol contaminants. This paper describes an investigation of the characteristics and sources of OC and EC in fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) from 2005 to 2010 in the City of Taipei. Respective hourly average concentrations of OC and EC were 5.2 μg/m3 and 1.6 μg/m3. We observed obvious seasonal variation in OC but not in EC. Hourly and daily OC and EC concentrations were predicted using generalized additive model and grey wolf optimized multilayer perceptron model, which could explain up to about 80% of the total variation. Subsequent clustering suggests that traffic emission was the major contribution to OC, accounting for about 80% in the spring, 65% in the summer, and 90% in the fall and winter. In the Taipei area, local emissions were the dominant sources of OC and EC in all seasons, and long-range transport had a significant contribution to OC and in PM 2.5 in spring. Image 1 • Machine learning and hyperparameter optimization method were used. • SOC contributed to OC in a range of 33–56% annually. • Local emissions were the dominant sources of OC and EC in all seasons. • Traffic emission was the major contribution to OC. • Long-range transport had a significant contribution to OC in the spring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a proliferation of contemporary art biennials in the past 20 years, especially in cities outside of North America and Europe. What biennials represent to their host cities and what is represented at these events reveal a great deal about the significance of this proliferation. The biennial platform entails formalistic notions of representation with regards to place branding or the selection of artists as emissaries of countries where they were been born, reside, or to which they have some kind of affinity. This notion of representation is obscured considering the instability of center and periphery, artists' biographies, practices, and references. In contradistinction to the colonial world fair, the biennial thwarts the notion or possibility of "authentic" representation. The analysis incorporates works shown at the 2018 biennials in Dakar and Taipei, interviews with artists, curators, and stakeholders, and materials collected during fieldwork in both cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]