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Although healthcare is always changing, the inpatient rehabilitation facility has indispensable and enduring roles in patient care, medical education, and research. For patients with complex medical and functional limitations, inpatient rehabilitation facility-level care fosters recovery and community reintegration and plays a strategic role in optimizing healthcare transitions from acute and to postacute settings. It is an incomparable and distinct zone for interprofessional education: the healthcare system is dependent on the inpatient rehabilitation facility as the epicenter for instruction to healthcare professionals on how to care for patients with complex rehabilitation needs. As healthcare evolves, patients' increasing medical complexity requires ongoing research focused on patients' evolving healthcare needs. The inpatient rehabilitation facility alone offers the requisite infrastructure to support such discovery. In this Association of Academic Physiatrists Position Paper, we provide a fresh perspective on the value proposition of the inpatient rehabilitation facility and advocate for this unique clinical environment as a critical component of contemporary healthcare.

Health care reform is upon us, including changes in models of care delivery and physician and institution compensation. The resulting tsunami of uncertainty offers physiatrists the opportunity to relocate to higher ground and help the specialty thrive as well as to identify the possible quagmires into which practices could sink. For this reason, it is prudent for physiatrists to more carefully consider how their professional lives may be altered in the aftermath of reform. We believe that understanding and preparation will facilitate opportunities and mitigate challenges. In this essay, we will discuss various alternative scenarios that represent population health and health care delivery in the year 2032, the real-world opportunities and challenges for the physiatrist in the present and in the next 2 decades, along with ideas as to how physiatry can thrive in the post-health care reform world.

A gas monitoring system based on broadband absorption spectroscopic techniques in the ultraviolet region is described and tested. The system was employed in real-time continuous concentration measurements of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitric oxide (NO) from a 220-ton h−1 circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler in Shandong province, China. The emission coefficients (per kg of coal and per kWh of electricity) and the total emission of the two pollutant gases were evaluated. The measurement results showed that the emission concentrations of SO2 and NO from the CFB boiler fluctuated in the range of 750–1300 mg m−3 and 100–220 mg m−3, respectively. Compared with the specified emission standards of air pollutants from thermal power plants in China, the values were generally higher for SO2 and lower for NO. The relatively high emission concentrations of SO2 were found to mainly depend on the sulfur content of the fuel and the poor desulfurization efficiency. This study indicates that the broadband UV spectroscopy system is suitable for industrial emission monitoring and pollution control.

A visible-blind ultraviolet (VB-UV) photo-detector (PD) was demonstrated by using tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) gadolinium (Gdq) as the electron acceptor (A), 1,3,5-tris(3-methylphenyl-phenylamino) triphenyamine (m-MTDATA) as the donor (D). For the comparison the PD diodes were also fabricated using other rare earth (RE)-q (REq) complexes (RE = Y, La, Eu, or Lu) as the acceptors. It is found that Gdq-PD diode with 1:1 ratio of m-MTDATA:Gdq offers a maximum photo-responsivity of 230 mA/W at −7.5 V bias. This result is markedly higher than inorganic counterparts and previously organic PD diode (30 mA/W) reported by Ray and Narasimhan [Appl. Phys. Lett. 91 (2007) 093516]. Moreover, the spectral response does not cover visible region. So high responsivity of Gdq-PD was attributed to the presence of dominant dissociation of the geminate carrier pairs at D:A intermolecular contacts. The improvement is the results of the lowest exciplex- and bulk-emissions among the REq-PD diodes and in the various ratio of D:A blend, more detail mechanism was also discussed. Besides degradation tests of the Gdq-PD diode under UV and fluorescent lamp show that the UV detector can suffer from the application conditions.

Purpose To provide the wound care practitioner with a review of the assessment, prevention, and management of pressure ulcers in pediatric patients with spinal cord injury. Target audience This continuing education activity is intended for physicians and nurses with an interest in skin and wound care. Objectives After reading this article and taking this test, the reader should be able to

The use of the international franchise system on a global scale provides impetus for academic interests investigating such an issue. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research regarding its stage development. In this research, a stage model, termed the “stage model of the international franchise system development” is proposed, to provide insight into the process of implementing the international franchise system successfully. The development of the proposed model refers to related literature and is based on case studies from five international franchisors in Taiwan. Firms' objectives, key organizational issues and characterization at each stage were documented during the research.

To achieve fast nano-positioning control in a large traveling distance with a single motion stage and without a waiting time, this paper presents a micro-dynamic model together with a simple switching rule and two controllers, one for macro-dynamics and the other for micro-dynamics, such that the moving stage can smoothly travel from macro-dynamic range into micro-dynamic range. First, a micro-dynamic model is proposed to capture the complicated hysteresis behavior of the nonlinear micro-dynamics. Next, two controllers of simple structures are designed for the micro-dynamic traveling range and the macro-dynamic traveling range, respectively, based on the previous model. Finally, a simple switching law is proposed to complete a design. Experiments show that the resultant control system has a fast response speed without a sluggish response in the conjunction of the macro-dynamic range and the micro-dynamic range. Furthermore, it can sustain large disturbances while holding the motion stage at the set point.

With the fast development of the world economy, distributed virtual manufacturing is becoming increasingly important since it can respond rapidly to market changes and make resource sharing more efficient among manufacturing partners. In this environment, partners may be located at different geographical locations, and co-operation among partners is a vital task and thus concurrent planning and scheduling has become a challenging research topic. This paper presents a computerized model that can integrate these manufacturing functions and resolve some of the critical problems in distributed virtual manufacturing, such as virtual co-operation, optimal partner selection, etc. This integration model is realized through a multi-agent approach that provides a practical approach for software integration in a distributed environment. A cost function is proposed and adopted for optimal partner selection in a virtual enterprise, which not only considers a partner's manufacturing capability and process requirements, but also the processing time, partner's location and product due date. Through establishing a virtual manufacturing model in a simulated environment, the proposal was validated with a case study. It shows that the proposed methodology can satisfy the distribution and agility requirements. This approach is able to contribute to the reduction of product cost, improving product quality and shortening lead time, compared to the sequential approach in the normal engineering and production practice.

Precise-positioning technique is relatively well developed. However, it is still difficult to avoid an overshoot or to limit the overshoot within a submicrometer in a rapid and precise positioning. Inspired by recent studies on microdynamics, a control algorithm based on the variable structure control (VSC) method is proposed to achieve an overshoot smaller than 0.2 μm and rapid, precise positioning (a 0.5 mm ∼ 1 cm positioning with a steady-state error smaller than 30 nanometer in 0.5 s) with a linear motor drive stage. The stage is guided by a rolling ball guide and with a 10 nm resolution laser interferometer as its position sensor. Some characteristic values in the friction model of microdynamics are included to design the controller. Therefore, we found a way to achieve rapid, precise, and Small overshoot positioning by combining mechanism design system identification, lubrication, and controller design techniques.

The present survey aimed to assess the prevalence and nature of physical disabilities among medical school graduates and to investigate the academic performance of these new physicians with disabilities. A questionnaire was sent to the deans of student affairs of each of the then existing 128 United States and Puerto Rican medical schools, addressing the profiles of students with physical disabilities in the 1987 through 1990 graduating classes. Seventy-seven (60%) United States and Puerto Rican medical schools responded to the questionnaire, of which 67 were able to complete it. A total of 67 students with physical disabilities (40 males and 27 females) were reported. Three of the 67 students were excluded from the study because their conditions did not match our definition of physical disability. The remaining 64 students (38 males and 26 females), ranging from 0 to 10 per school, comprised 0.19% of the 33,138 students who graduated from the 67 medical schools during these 4 academic yr. The disabilities represented by the 64 students encompassed a wide spectrum of etiologies, including neurologic (39%), musculoskeletal (20%), medical-surgical (13%), visual (13%), and auditory (9%) problems. The majority of students with disabilities had above average (36%) to average (48%) academic standings. The actual prevalence of medical students with disabilities might be higher than reported because of the underreporting of the less noticeable types of disabilities.

As mainstream processing technology advances into 65 nm and beyond, many factors that were previously considered secondary or insignificant, can now have an impact on chip timing. One of these factor is inversed temperature dependence (ITD). As supply voltage continues scaling into sub-IV territory, delay-temperature relationship can be reversed on some cells, meaning that device switching time may decrease as temperature increases. ITD posts a new challenge for timing sign-off because the highest and lowest sign-off temperatures may no longer be the worst-case and best-case timing corners. This work discuss the effect of ITD and its implication on timing sign-off, based on a standard cell library used in a typical design flow.

We show that rising and falling delays in gates can differ considerably. Simulation data, using 40 nm and 65 nm process technology, shows an increasing trend and that the slow transition delay could be two times of the faster transition delay. This translates to an asymmetry between the rise and fall delays along a path. Based on this we propose refinements to the following delay test methodology: (i) selection of robust path delay tests for delay characterization; (ii) refinements to small delay defects coverage metric; and (iii) an alternative to the inline resistance fault (IRF) model for selecting TDF tests.

RD the second core is the R&D cooperations within industry (competitors, suppliers, customers). This may indicate the vitality of industrial network of Taiwanese firms, and only part of the industry has close linkages with universities and institutions in Taiwan Innovation System.

Owing to their excellent electrical properties, mechanical strength and processability, epoxy resins are widely adapted in the field of electronics. Epoxy in the nature of thermosetting, however, would produce intractable polymeric materials after being cured. Intractability is considered disadvantageous in terms of reworkability. To achieve reworkability, two types of epoxy resins with built-in thermally cleavable functionalities, namely thermally degradable and thermally reversible groups, were designed and synthesized. The thermally degradable type resin (TDR) was formulated into an underfill formulation for flip-chip technology. The thermally reversible type resin (TRR) was put in the adhesive formulation for potential optoelectronic applications. Experiments showed the easiness of chip removal and the cleanability of the residue.

In recent years, the volume of cross strait investment and trade between China and Taiwan has considerably increased after the accession to the WTO. During 2007 to 2008, Taiwanese enterprises in China began to face the challenges from Chinese government’s policy change. In order to remain competitive, Taiwanese enterprises took some measures to cope with the challenges. In order to comprehend the Chinese policy change effects on Taiwanese enterprises, this paper made the depth interviews and applied the text mining analysis to the interviews responses. Through applying the text mining analysis, the study found the policy change of the Labour Contract Law and the increased cost had larger effect on Taiwanese enterprises.

In recent years, much research has been devoted to the exploration of the application of RFID to the supply chain management; however, few have deployed the study of the trend of RFID application. In fact, grasping the trend of the RFID application in the supply chain management is imperative for enterprises and researchers. The study aims at exploring the trend change of the RFID application from the year of 2009 to 2010. The contribution of the study includes the following two points. First, the study has found the shift of the RFID application from the technological focus to the topics of system and companies usage. Second, the study finds a new way of literature survey by using the text mining method in order to explore the trend change.

Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of computerized infrared imaging (CII) in the diagnosis of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) in chronic pain patients with a clinical suspicion of CRPS. Design: Case series. Setting: Tertiary care center. Participants: 4 patients with complaints of pain of >3 months in duration who were clinically suspected of having CRPS. Intervention: Each patient underwent CII, which is a sensitive and noninvasive test that objectively documents cutaneous temperature patterns as a reflection of the underlying physiologic state of the sympathetic nervous system. Pain fibers are closely associated with the sympathetic nervous system. Main Outcome Measures: Analysis of CII to assess the degree of asymmetry in cutaneous temperature by comparing 1 area of the body to its corresponding location on the contralateral body area. Significant asymmetry was considered to be greater than a 1.0°C. Results: In each patient, CII demonstrated significant asymmetry in cutaneous temperature of at least 1.64°C in a minimum of 1 symptomatic area. The referring physicians were able to use these results to make a definitive diagnosis of CRPS in these patients. Conclusions: These cases demonstrated that CII could be a valuable and objective tool in confirming the diagnosis of CRPS in patients with chronic pain who were clinically suspected of having CRPS.

The static electrical characteristics below current saturation of MOSFET's with degenerate source and drain regions are calculated for operation at 0°K. The expression for current takes the same form as at room temperature although the flat-band voltage and the voltage across the depletion region at threshold are altered slightly. Potential hills occur in the channel if the gate does not overlap source and drain or if the oxide thickness is increased in the overlap regions. Although these barriers do not affect operation appreciably at room temperature, at 0°K a finite drain voltage (source-drain threshold voltage) is required to initiate conduction. This threshold voltage is included in the theory and the theory is compared with experimental results on p -channel enhancement mode MOSFET's at 4·2°K using hole mobility in the channel as a matching parameter. The channel hole mobility (assumed constant along the channel) is found to be relatively independent of gate voltage but to increase with increasing (negative) drain voltage. Values ranging between 500 and 1000 cm 2 /V-sec are deduced for drain voltages ranging from −1·2 V to −7 V. This compares to channel hole mobility values of 200–300 cm 2 /V-sec at room temperature. It is found that the channel width is on the order of 30–50 A—appreciably less than that at room temperature.

We have demonstrated a 1.55 /spl mu/m fiber grating laser (FGL) for single-longitudinal mode operation from a non-antireflection (AR) coated Fabry-Perot (FP) laser and a lensed fiber grating. A side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of up to 40 dB has been achieved. The FGL single-longitudinal mode diminishes as the angular tilt of the fiber alignment approach about 5/spl deg/ away from the facet normal of the FP laser.