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Background The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a mandibular advancement device (MAD) for increasing patient safety during sedated total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip replacement (THR). Methods Forty patients undergoing TKA or THR surgery in the supine or lateral recumbent positions under spinal anesthesia were enrolled. Sedation and oxygenation were administered. The MAD (Sweet Sleep Anti-Snoring Device®) was then placed after 15 min of observation. SpO2, PetCO2, blood pressure, and respiratory rate were recorded. Results Sedated patients in the decubitus position had higher saturation nadirs, shorter desaturation durations, shorter airway obstruction durations, and fewer rescue events than those in the supine position. In patients at a high risk of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), desaturation duration, obstruction duration, apnea duration, desaturation duration, and rescue events were significantly lower after MAD placement. However, the saturation nadir did not improve after MAD placement. Conclusion The MAD may shorten the duration of desaturation events during spontaneous breathing sedative procedures in the lateral recumbent position but not in the supine position. Breathing patterns did not change from nasal breathing to oral breathing or vice versa between pre- and post-placement of the MAD. Sedation score evaluation affects breathing pattern changes from oral breathing to nasal breathing and vice versa.

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system can be a cost-effective alternative to foster public transportation. However, the delay in signalized intersections is critical to the stable progression of BRT o...

Purpose. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of low-intensity electrical stimulation on the voluntary activation level (VA) and the cortical facilitation/inhibition of quadriceps in people with chronic anterior cruciate ligament lesion. Methods. Twenty former athletes with unilateral ACL deficiencies (ACL group) and 20 healthy subjects (healthy control group) participated in the study. The quadriceps VA level, motor-evoked potential (MEP), short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI), and intracortical facilitation (ICF) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation were tested before and after 30 minutes of low-intensity electrical stimulation (ES). Results. Before ES, the quadriceps VA in the ACL lesion legs of the ACL group was lower compared to the legs of the healthy control group (P<0.05). The MEP sizes in the ACL lesion legs and the healthy control were not significantly different. The ACL lesion legs showed lower SICI and higher ICF compared to the healthy control group (P<0.05). After ES, the quadriceps VA level increased and the SICI-ICF was modulated only in the ACL lesion legs (P<0.05) but not in the healthy controls. Conclusions. Low-intensity ES can normalize the modulation of intracortical inhibition and facilitation, thereby ameliorating the activation failure in individuals with ACL lesion.

Background. Increasing attention has been paid to the predictive power of different prognostic scoring systems for decades. In this study, we compared the abilities of three commonly used scoring systems to predict short-term and long-term mortalities, with the intention of building a better prediction model for critically ill patients. We used the data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan, which included information on patient age, comorbidities, and presence of organ failure to build a new prediction model for short-term and long-term mortalities.Methods. We retrospectively collected the medical records of patients in the intensive care unit of a regional hospital in 2012 and linked them to the claims data from the NHIRD. The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, Elixhauser Comorbidity Index (ECI), and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) were compared for their predictive abilities. Multiple logistic regression tests were performed, and the results were presented as receiver operating characteristic curves and C-statistic.Results. The APACHE II score has the best predictive power for inhospital mortality (0.79;C−statistic=0.77−0.83) and 1-year mortality (0.77;C−statistic=0.74−0.79). The ECI and CCI alone have poorer predictive power and need to be combined with other variables to be comparable to the APACHE II score, as predictive tools. Using CCI together with age, sex, and whether or not the patient required mechanical ventilation is estimated to have a C-statistic of 0.773 (95% CI 0.744-0.803) for inhospital mortality, 0.782 (95% CI 0.76-0.81) for 30-day mortality, and 0.78 (95% CI 0.75-0.80) for 1-year mortality.Conclusions. We present a new prognostic model that combines CCI with age, sex, and mechanical ventilation status and can predict mortality, comparable to the APACHE II score.

Background Pectus excavatum (PE) negatively impacts psychological function, but its effect on autonomic nervous system (ANS) function has not been investigated. We evaluated ANS function following postural changes in patients with PE. Methods The participants were 14 healthy men (control group) and 20 men with PE (study group). Psychological function was assessed using the visual analog scale for pain, Brief Symptom Rating Scale-5, and Beck Depression Inventory-II. Sleep quality was evaluated using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). ANS regulation in response to postural change was measured in the supine position and immediately after sitting. All measurements were compared between the control and study groups at baseline and between the study groups before and after Nuss surgery. Results At baseline, upon postural change, symptomatic activity increased in the control group (50.3–67.4%, p = 0.035) but not in the study group (55.0–54.9%, p = 0.654); parasympathetic activity decreased in the control group (49.7–32.6%, p = 0.035) but not in the study group (45.1–45.1%, p = 0.654); and overall ANS regulation increased in the control group (1.02–2.08, p = 0.030) but not in the study group (1.22–1.22, p = 0.322). In response to postural change after Nuss surgery in the study group, sympathetic activity increased (48.7–70.2%, p = 0.005), parasympathetic activity decreased (51.3–29.8%, p = 0.005), and overall ANS regulation increased (0.95–2.36, p = 0.012). Conclusion ANS function in response to postural change is dysregulated in patients with PE, which improved after Nuss surgery. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT03346876, November 15, 2017, retrospectively registered, https://register.clinicaltrials.gov/prs/app/action/SelectProtocol?sid=S0007KGI&selectaction=Edit&uid=U0003JZU&ts=2&cx=cstxeg

Facing the rapidly growing popularity of bike-sharing systems worldwide, this study explores the trip characteristics of using public bikes at the level of zonal Origin-Destination (O-D) pairs, particularly with respect to the effect of pricing scheme change. Based on the transaction records of Youbike, a bike-sharing system in Taipei, Taiwan, which contain data before and after an increase of the rental fee (as the cancellation of a free-usage period for the first 30-minute), the associated demand-side responses are studied in the context of multivariate analysis. Two regression models are developed thereupon to investigate the effect of the change on the O-D demand associated various land-use patterns. A multiple linear regression model is developed for direct before-after analysis on the variation of zonal O-D demand. A finite mixture model is further constructed, which identifies three usage groups with different levels of sensitivity toward the price change. Both models suggest that the pricing scheme change have greater impact on short-distance trips and O-D pairs where alternative transit services are provided; these affected trips can be generally related to frequent users. Such research findings enable better understanding of the usage pattern of bike-sharing systems, which can benefit the associated planning and operation. They also imply the trade-off between the perspective of encouraging greener mobility and other managerial principles regarding public transportation and government subsidy. Keywords: Bike sharing system, Pricing scheme, Land use pattern, User-pays principle, Before-after analysis

Background Pectus excavatum (PE) reduces the dynamics of the thoracic cage, with a negative impact on exercise capacity. We aimed to evaluate the effects of Nuss repair for PE on the dynamics of the thoracic cage and exercise capacity in adults. Methods This was a prospective observational study of 46 adults (mean age, 26.2 years) who underwent PE correction using the Nuss procedure between September 2016 and August 2017. Cirtometry was used to obtain measures of thoracic cage circumference at two levels (axillary level [AL] and xyphoid level [XL]), at the end points of inspiration and expiration. Circumference measures were obtained before surgery and at 1, 3, and 6 months after surgery. Exercise capacity was also evaluated using the 6-minute walk test (6MWT). The association between the 6MWT data and cirtometry measures was evaluated using Pearson's correlation. Results The circumference at maximum inspiration increased from baseline to 3 months after surgery (p Conclusion Improved dynamics of the thoracic cage were achieved after Nuss repair for PE in adults. This increase in thoracic circumference at maximum inspiration was associated with an improvement in exercise capacity at 3 months after surgery.

This paper proposed a vehicle monitoring system for low-emission zone application based on OBD (on-board diagnostics) technology. The proposed system is composed of OBD, GPS, 4G mobile communication, and Internet cloud computing technologies. The proposed system could implement in real time the function of vehicle status surveillance and could be applied to low-emission zone (LEZ) application. The monitored features cover vehicle identification number (VIN), malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) status, and number of diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs). These vehicle information, i.e., VIN, MIL, and DTC, as well as GPS data will be sent to the Internet cloud computing server using 4G mobile network for LEZ application. Once the system discovers the vehicle does not meet the LEZ standards and drives into LEZ, the proposed system could inform the user and management department to deal with this violation situation. The system presented in this paper provides a new way to control the LEZ and has high potential for the applications of vehicle monitoring management.

Multiagent System (MAS) is a self-learning intelligent system formed by many single agents. Each agent in the MAS works independently of the other, and they have all the characteristics of an agent system. It can respond to changes and countermeasures based on its own external environmental conditions. When solving a complex problem, multiple agents can form a group to solve the problem together. In this paper, the agent’s evolutionary algorithm is integrated into the actual problem—multi-issue autonegotiation of law. According to this problem, the autonegotiation solution process and corresponding model are designed. In addition, a new type of solution is proposed for multiple legal issues. Compared with traditional solutions, the applicability has great advantages. Among them, the autonegotiation result of all the agent’s total utility can be quickly found. In the changing environment, this article focuses on the multiagent system negotiation problem. According to the distributed information sharing of multiple agents, even if the case reveals incomplete information, the multiagent can be generated while ignoring the incomplete information. Optimal solution is proposed. The experimental results show that the success rate of the system in analyzing multiple legal issues and autonegotiations reached 67.56% under the condition of incomplete information from the outside world.

After the Fukushima Daichii accidents, Taiwan Power Company developed a strategy to cope with such extended SBO (Station Blackout) cases at nuclear power plants, which called URG. The MAAP and PCTRAN were used to perform the study for Kuosheng BWR/6 nuclear power plant (NPP) ultimate response guideline (URG). The main actions of URG are the depressurization and low pressure water injection of the reactor and the venting of the containment. This study focuses to confirm the URG efficiency. The analysis results depict that following the URG, the fuel can be covered by the coolant, no exposure. It can also prevent the radiation release and the large evacuation. It indicated that Kuosheng NPP was at the safe situation. It shows that the two-step depressurizations can extend the time of the preparation of alternate water source. The minimum injection rate to prevent the fuel to expose is 192 gpm in MAAP.

Patients with kidney failure rely on life-saving peritoneal dialysis to facilitate waste exchange and maintain homeostasis of physical conditions. However, peritoneal dialysis often results in peritoneal fibrosis and organ adhesion that subsequently compromise the efficiency of peritoneal dialysis and normal functions of visceral organs. Despite rodent models provide clues on the pathogenesis of peritoneal fibrosis, no current large animal model which shares high degree of physiological and anatomical similarities to human is available, limiting their applications on the evaluation of pre-clinical therapeutic efficacy. Here we established for the first time, hypochlorite-induced porcine model of peritoneal fibrosis in 5-week-old piglets. We showed that administration 15–30 mM hypochlorite, a dose- and time-dependent severity of peritoneal fibrosis characterized by mesothelium fragmentation, αSMA+ myofibroblasts accumulation, organ surface thickening and type I collagen deposition were observed. We also demonstrated in vitro using human mesothelial cells that hypochlorite-induced fibrosis was likely due to necrosis, but not programmed apoptosis; besides, overexpression of IL1β, CX3CL1 and TGFβ on the peritoneal mesothelium in current model was detected, similar to observations from peritoneal dialysis-induced peritoneal fibrosis in human patients and earlier reported mouse model. Moreover, our novel antemortem evaluation using laparoscopy provided instant feedback on the progression of organ fibrosis/adhesion which allows immediate adjustments on treatment protocols and strategies in alive individuals that can not and never be performed in other animal models.

Household chores service is one of the desirable functions for a service robot. Object classification is the most important function when searching for objects. We consider that the major concern is that the robot should not misclassify the object. If the robot misclassifies household object images, it will then perform the household tasks with the wrong object. This may cause serious damages to a service robot and to the user. This concept gives us the insight that the precision of the classification must be very high by setting a confidence threshold so that it then can claim a reliable service robot. By exploring this concept, we develop a more convincing indicator, Classification Reliability, to reveal the reliability of deep learning model. Moreover, we develop a fine-tune rule base to continuously regenerate more proper training dataset for the CNN model to increase reliability. Experimental results demonstrate that the CNN model fine-tuned by our closed-loop system achieves the reliability which is higher than the other similar effects such as DenseNet on the CIFAR-10 dataset.

Image caption generation is a task that generates a sentence from a raw image, which is mimicking the intelligence of human that can acquire knowledge from the view. The difficulty of this task is the combination of multimodal knowledge learning, i.e. recognition of objects, actions, scenes, human, etc. In order to perform semantic understanding for service robotics or other industrial applications, the caption must be enhanced for recognition of the objects in the confined environment. We propose a template-based augmentation method for improving the capability of object recognition while retaining the other capability of the image caption model. This work opens a new era of image caption generation training procedure that the caption dataset and the classification dataset can be combined to train the deep captioning model. We show in our experiments that our improved model outperforms the original model in SPICE metrics by 4 times.

Summary This study seeks to online calibrate the parameters of aggregate evacuee behavior models used in a behavior-consistent information-based control module for determining information strategies for real-time evacuation operations. It enables the deployment of an operational framework for mass evacuation that integrates three aspects underlying an evacuation operation: demand (evacuee behavior), supply (network management), and disaster characteristics. To attain behavior-consistency, the control module factors evacuees' likely responses to the disseminated information in determining information-based control strategies. Hence, the ability of the behavior models to predict evacuees' likely responses is critical to the effectiveness of traffic routing by information strategies. The mixed logit structure is used for the aggregate behavior models to accommodate the behavioral heterogeneity across the population. An online calibration problem is proposed to calibrate the random parameters in the behavior models by using the least square estimator to minimize the gap between the predicted network flows and unfolding traffic dynamics. Background traffic, an important but rarely studied issue for modeling evacuation traffic, is also accounted for in the proposed problem. Numerical experiments are conducted to illustrate the importance of the calibration problem for addressing the system consistency issues and integrating the demand, supply, and disaster characteristics for more efficient evacuation operations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Travel time prediction has been the fundamental brick for developing both Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS) and Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS). The problem of travel time prediction is primarily shaped by the data available for model development and the needs from the perspectives of both travelers and operators. A distance-based Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system over the freeway system in Taiwan has been fully implemented since December 2013, which provides more comprehensive online data acquisition of freeway traffic conditions, thereby enabling the capability to more reliably predict of travel time over freeway segments. Based on the data from both the ETC system and traditional Vehicle Detectors (VDs), this research proposes a travel time prediction approach whose core technique of data fusion seeks to seamlessly capture the spatio-temporal pattern of freeway traffic flows by matching traffic dynamics revealed from the ETC and VD data. Further, prediction models are constructed thereupon, where the Kalman filter is employed for short-term prediction and the Fourier transform for long-term prediction based on the continuous parameterized modeling of spot travel speed. The proposed approach is implemented as an online deployable system using Java, together with real-world data collected from the freeway in Taiwan, for the numerical experiments. The prediction errors are no greater than 10% in most cases, which illustrates the high accuracy of prediction capability of the model. The encouraging results also highlight the benefits of the pre-processing of data and data fusion in improving data quality and applicability.

Bikesharing systems have been expanding rapidly. They are recognized as a strategic tool to integrate transit and to foster sustainable transportation in urban areas. A critical problem that arises in the planning and deployment of a bikesharing system lies in demand–supply imbalance as the result of the spatiotemporal dynamics of demand patterns. The problem manifests itself in situations in which no bikes are available to rent and no docks are available for bike return at certain popular stations. This study developed a framework for modeling user behavior in response to such situations. Particular emphasis was placed on user on-site choice behavior and the behavioral aspect related to wait time if a decision to wait for the next bike or dock was made. These behaviors were approached with the use of a discrete choice model and a duration model, respectively. Further, a discrete-continuous process was proposed to address the potential interrelation that existed between the choice to wait and the length of waiting time to be endured. Within the developed framework, the models were estimated on the basis of the data from a revealed preference–stated preference survey conducted on the YouBike system in Taipei, Taiwan. The estimation results provided insights into user familiarity and uncertainty toward the system, travel situation, or environment and the associated effects on user behavior of a bikesharing system under a demand–supply imbalance.

Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET), containing access points free for wireless transmission, is now developed for V2V and V2I communication, in order to improve traffic safety, provide services and further support the implementation of the automated driving mode. However, the most important issue is how to develop an efficient VANET protocol, particularly corresponding to reduce transmission latency when routing. This paper proposes a novel multi-hop routing algorithm to accomplish message transmission via the nodes participating in the given vehicular ad-hoc network. According to the testing result, the proposed protocol is acceptable.

Background Enterobius vermicularis (pinworm) is one of the most common human parasitic helminths, and children are the most susceptible group. Some behavioral and environmental factors may facilitate pinworm infection. In the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), the status of pinworm infections among children remains unknown. Methods In Majuro City, there are 14 kindergartens with a total of 635 preschool children (PSC) whose age range of 5~6 years. The present investigation attempted to determine the pinworm prevalence and associated risk factors as well as investigate whether eggs contaminated the clothes of PSC or the ground and tables in classrooms of 14 kindergartens. Informed consent form and a self-administered questionnaire were given to parents prior to pinworm screening. Perianal specimens were collected by an adhesive scotch tape method, and clothing of belly and hip sites and the ground and tables of the classrooms were inspected using a cellophane tape method to detect any eggs contamination. Results In total, 392 PSC (5.28 ± 0.56 yrs. old) participated in this project. The overall prevalence of pinworm infection was 22.4% (88/392). Boys (24.5%) had higher prevalence than girls (20.31%) (p = 0.32). PSC aged > 5 years (32.77%) showed a significantly higher prevalence than those aged ≤5 years (17.95%) (p = 0.01). A univariate analysis indicated that PSC who lived in urban areas (22.95%) had a higher prevalence than those who lived in rural areas (20.69%) (p = 0.69). The employment status of the parents showed no association with the pinworm infection rate (p > 0.05). A logistic regression analysis indicated that “having an older sister” produced a higher risk of acquiring pinworm infection for PSC compared to those who did not have an older sister (OR = 2.02; 95%CI = 1.05~3.88; p = 0.04). No significant association between various other risk factors and pinworm infection was found (p > 0.05). Also, no eggs contamination was found on the clothes of the belly and hip sites or on the ground and tables in the 14 kindergartens. Conclusions Mass screening and treatment of infected PSC are important measures in pinworm control in the RMI. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12879-019-4159-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The color bleeding problem remains a challenging issue in image colorization. That is, different objects share the same color when they are nearby, leading to the boundary between objects looks unnatural. In this paper, we study how to combine depth information into a neural network and achieve better image colorization. The reasons to integrate depth information are twofold: (1) Depth information clearly provides boundary information between objects, and (2) depth information is commonly available as the development of RGB-D cameras. To the best of our knowledge, depth information was not considered in image colorization before. We evaluate the proposed method from both objective and subjective perspectives, and demonstrate that better colorization results can be obtained when depth information is further considered.

A series of diiridium complexes 13–16 bridged by diarylhydrazine ligands and cyclometalated by phenylpyridine or phenylpyrazole ligands was synthesized. In all cases the ΛΔ meso and ΛΛ/ΔΔ rac diastereomers were separated and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, revealing intramolecular π–π stacking between arenes of the bridging and cyclometalating ligands. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that in general the HOMOs are mainly localized on the iridium centers, the cyclometalating phenyl moieties, and the central hydrazide components of the bridging ligands, while the LUMOs are primarily localized on the N-heterocycles (pyridine or pyrazole) of the cyclometalating ligands. This series of complexes, especially with the separated diastereomers, provides an ideal opportunity to study the effects of subtle structural changes on the optoelectronic properties of diiridium systems: significant differences are observed between the rac and meso isomers in some cases. A cyclic voltammetric study of the electrochemical properties of the eight complexes reveals strong intramolecular interactions between the iridium centers. The photophysical properties are reported in solution and in rigid poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MeTHF) (at 77 K) matrices, where some of the complexes are strongly emissive in the turquoise and green regions (ΦPL = 42–68 ± 10%) due to matrix-induced restricted intramolecular motion (RIM).

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are deemed a serious threat to Internet services. A common solution to mitigate the attacks is to redirect traffic to scrubbing centers (SCs) for traffic classification and DDoS filtering. However, the capacity and locations of SCs should be pre-determined, and traffic redirection to SCs also give rise to extra network footprint and long latency. In this work, we present a solution based on network function virtualization (NFV) to launch scrubbing functions on demand and software-defined networking (SDN) to redirect traffic to these functions. We propose a lightweight probing strategy to identify anomalous traffic and the victim, and allocate virtual scrubbing functions close to the victim to minimize network footprint and network latency. We simulate a proof-of-concept design in Mininet to demonstrate its operation. The evaluation shows 96.6% of DDoS packets can be mitigated with the response time of one second.

The evacuation operations problem aims to avoid or mitigate the potential loss of life in a region threatened or affected by a disaster. It is shaped to a large extent by the evolution of evacuation traffic resulting from the demand–supply interactions of the associated transportation network. Information-based control is a strategic tool for evacuation traffic operations as it can enable greater access to the affected population and more effective response. However, comparatively few studies have focused on the implementation of information-based control in evacuation operations. This study develops a control module for evacuation operations centered on addressing the demand–supply interactions by using behavior-consistent information strategies. These strategies incorporate the likely responses of evacuees to the information provided in the determination of route guidance information. The control module works as an iterative computational process involving an evacuee route choice model and a control model of information strategies to determine the route guidance information to direct evacuation traffic so as to approach a desired network traffic flow pattern. The problem is formulated as a fuzzy logic based optimization framework to explicitly incorporate practical concerns related to information dissemination characteristics and social equity in evacuation operations. Numerical experiments highlight the importance of accounting for the demand–supply interactions, as the use of behavior-consistent information strategies can lead evacuee route choices to approach the operator-desired proportions corresponding to the desired traffic pattern. The results also indicate that while a behavior-consistent information strategy can be effective, gaps with the desired route proportions can exist due to the discrete nature of the linguistic messages and the real-world difficulty in accurately modeling evacuees’ actual route choice behavior.

This study seeks to determine risk-based evacuation subzones for stage-based evacuation operations in a region threatened/affected by a disaster so that information-based evacuation strategies can be implemented in real-time for the subzone currently with highest evacuation risk to achieve some system-level performance objectives. Labeled the evacuation risk zone (ERZ), this subzone encompasses the spatial locations containing the population with highest evacuation risk which is a measure based on whether the population at a location can be safely evacuated before the disaster impacts it. The ERZ for a stage is calculated based on the evolving disaster characteristics, traffic demand pattern, and network supply conditions over the region in real-time subject to the resource limitations (personnel, equipment, etc.) of the disaster response operators related to implementing the evacuation strategies. Thereby, the estimated time-dependent lead time to disaster impact at a location and the estimated time-dependent clearance time based on evolving traffic conditions are used to compute evacuation risk. This time-unit measure of evacuation risk enables the ERZ concept to be seamlessly applied to different types of disasters, providing a generalized framework for mass evacuation operations in relation to disaster characteristics. Numerical experiments conducted to analyze the performance of the ERZ-based paradigm highlight its benefits in terms of better adapting to the dynamics of disaster impact and ensuring a certain level of operational performance effectiveness benchmarked against the idealized system optimal traffic pattern for the evacuation operation, while efficiently utilizing available disaster response resources.

This study seeks to develop an approximate but efficient approach for estimating evacuation clearance time which is defined as the time required to evacuate the population of a location to areas of safety. Elsewhere, this estimate of the clearance time is used as input to infer evacuation risk for a location which reflects whether the population of that location can be safely evacuated before the disaster impacts it. As the computed evacuation risk is used in a real-time stage-based framework for evacuation operations, the approach for clearance time estimation needs to be computationally efficient while being capable of approximating traffic flow dynamics reasonably. To address these needs, a dynamic routing policy labeled the location-priority routing is proposed, and the associated clearance time estimation problem is formulated as a dynamic network flow problem. The location-priority is based on the lead time that a location has until it is impacted by the disaster, and designates that the population at a location with a shorter lead time has higher priority in using roadway capacity for evacuation. By combining the location-priority routing with the consideration of a super sink, the routing problem for the evacuation network is transformed into sequential single-origin single-destination dynamic routing problems. It avoids expensive iterative search processes, enabling computational efficiency for real-time evacuation operations. The solution approach approximately captures the evolution of traffic dynamics across the stages of the operational framework. Results from numerical experiments illustrate that the proposed approach can address the aforementioned needs related to clearance time estimation.

Employing the vapor cooling condensation system and the distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs), an intrinsic zinc-oxide ( i -ZnO) film and Fabry–Perot cavity were deposited and used as the structure of the ZnO-based resonant cavity enhanced metal–semiconductor-metal ultraviolet photodetectors (RCE MSM UV PDs). The reflection of the DBRs with 18.5 and 2.5 HfO 2 /SiO 2 pairs at a wavelength of 305 nm was 98.9% and 33.7%, respectively. Owing to the RCE structure, the 50 nm-thick ZnO-based RCE MSM UV PDs exhibited a UV–visible ratio of 265, a photoresponsivity of 0.268 A/W, and a detectivity of 1.19 × 10 10 cm Hz 0.5 W −1 at a wavelength of 305 nm.

This study proposes an aggregate approach to model evacuee behavior in the context of no-notice evacuation operations. It develops aggregate behavior models for evacuation decision and evacuation route choice to support information-based control for the real-time stage-based routing of individuals in the affected areas. The models employ the mixed logit structure to account for the heterogeneity across the evacuees. In addition, due to the subjectivity involved in the perception and interpretation of the ambient situation and the information received, relevant fuzzy logic variables are incorporated within the mixed logit structure to capture these characteristics. Evacuation can entail emergent behavioral processes as the problem is characterized by a potential threat from the extreme event, time pressure, and herding mentality. Simulation experiments are conducted for a hypothetical terror attack to analyze the models’ ability to capture the evacuation-related behavior at an aggregate level. The results illustrate the value of using a mixed logit structure when heterogeneity is pronounced. They further highlight the benefits of incorporating fuzzy logic to enhance the prediction accuracy in the presence of subjective and linguistic elements in the problem.

Nitride-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on different convex-patterned sapphire substrates are proposed and fabricated. The electrical and optical properties of these LEDs are discussed in detail. It is found that the LED with a ball-shape patterned sapphire substrate has the best crystalline quality and I-V characteristic. On the other hand, on reducing total internal reflection, the LED with hexagonal-shape patterned sapphire substrate (HPSS) has the best performance on output power and external quantum efficiency. In comparison to the LED without patterned substrate, the LED with HPSS has 175% and 165% enhancement on output power and external quantum efficiency, respectively.

The association of L- myc polymorphism with cancer susceptibility and prognosis has produced conflicting results. This may have been due to racial/ethnic differences and methodological variations in the studies, such as, control selection and case stratification. Therefore, we investigated the genotype distribution of the L- myc polymorphism in 169 lung cancer patients and 169 non-cancer controls, and analyzed the association of this polymorphism with cancer susceptibility and prognosis in relation to age-specific controls as well as stratified cases. The genotype frequencies in the Taiwanese non-cancer controls were 0.56 (L) and 0.44 (S). Chi-square ( χ 2 ) analysis indicated a significant difference in the Taiwanese genotype distribution of L -myc compared with that of African-Americans ( P= 0.001). Logistic regression analysis of cases/controls, adjusted for both age and sex, indicated that an increased frequency of the LL genotype was observed in early-staged patients compared with the non-cancer controls (OR=0.43, 95% CI, 0.20–0.94, P= 0.03). In addition, the frequency of the LL genotype was significantly higher in stages I+II patients (47.4%) than in stages III+IV patients (28.4%) ( P =0.05). Furthermore, the S allele frequency was significantly increased in stages III+IV patients ( P =0.005). As both L- myc and p53 polymorphisms were analyzed for their prognostic value, the patients with an S allele of the L- myc gene and a Pro/Pro variant genotype of the p53 gene had significantly poorer prognoses compared with other patients ( P= 0.004, by the log rank test). These data suggest that the S allele of the L- myc polymorphism may be associated with lung cancer progression.

Until now, there is no optimal technique for repairing oronasal fistula in patients with prior head and neck radiotherapy and trismus. Use of the silicone button is a safe, office-based, and validated method in this situation. The indications of this procedure are also clarified in this study. This is a retrospective study of four patients who underwent a newly designed endoscopic repair of oronasal fistula with silicone button under local anesthesia from July 2012 to August 2012. Data on the size of the defect, length of operation, symptom relief, and post-operative complications were collected. Four patients underwent endoscopic repair of oronasal fistula with silicone button under local anesthesia. The diagnoses were benign palate lesion s/p operation, oral cancer s/p operation and radiotherapy. The defect diameter varied from 1 to 1.5 cm. The operation durations were between 20 and 30 min. In all cases, nasal regurgitation symptoms were relieved. The hypernasality of one case improved, while another had decreased nasal crusting and foul odors. No major complications were noted. There was a minor complication in one case, which exhibited frequent crusting around the silicone button. Silicon button can act as a temporary obturator to improve quality of life of patients. The indications for this procedure include patient undergone head and neck radiotherapy with (1) chronic fistula (>6 months); (2) small defect (1–2 cm); and (3) trismus. Level of evidence: 4.

Epitaxies of AlGaN/AlN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structures with different thickness of nano-scale AlN interlayers have been realized by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technology. After epitaxy, high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD), temperature-dependent Hall Effect and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements were used to characterize the properties of these samples. First, it was found that the Al composition of AlGaN layer increases from 21.6 to 34.2% with increasing the thickness of AlN interlayer from 0 to 5 nm under the same AlGaN growth conditions. This result may due to the influences of compressive stress and Al incorporation induced by the AlN interlayer. Then, we also found that the room-temperature (RT) electron mobility stays higher than 1500 cm 2 /Vs in the samples within AlN interlayer thickness range of 1.5 nm, on the other hand, the low-temperature (80K) electron mobility drops dramatically from 8180 to 5720 cm 2 /Vs in the samples with AlN interlayer thickness increasing from 1 to 1.5 nm. Furthermore, it was found that the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) density increases from 1.15×10 13 to 1.58×10 13 cm -2 beyond the AlN interlayer thickness of 1 nm. It was also found that the temperature independent 2DEG densities are observed in the samples with AlN interlayer thickness of 0.5 and 1 nm. The degenerated characteristics of the samples with AlN thickness thicker than 1.5 nm show the degraded crystalline quality which matched the observation of surface defects and small cracks formations from their AFM images. Finally, the 2DEG mobilities of the proposed structures can be achieved as high as 1705 and 8180 cm 2 /Vs at RT and 80K, respectively.

Objective: 1) To review the incidence of intubation-related vocal cord palsy. 2) To analyze the risk factors of intubation-related vocal cord palsy and review literature.Method: Prospective study o...

This study addresses the problem of dynamic routing operations in the emergency response context, primarily in terms of the routing of response vehicles and evacuees. The study focuses on identifying the paths used for routing response vehicles and the evacuees in disaster situations. In this context, two application modules are developed: module for K-shortest paths routing and module for multiple-stop routing. The K-shortest paths module allows more flexible options for routing response vehicles under the dynamic network conditions due to a disaster. It provides multiple routes for evacuation and response operations. The multiple-stop routing module enables the delivery of relief resources to several locations using a single response vehicle. It has the ability to impose time window constraints for relief operations and the reordering of the routing to the delivery locations, capabilities which are critical to disaster operations. For ease of operability, these modules are developed on a Geographic Information System (GIS) platform used by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) and Indiana Department of Homeland Security (IDHS). Based on dynamic field conditions, color-coded flags on the GIS map are used to characterize links in terms of their availability and functionality in the context of the response operations. These link characteristics are dynamically updated as new information on the network conditions becomes available over time. The proposed modules can be integrated into the current web-based traffic information system called TrafficWise supported by INDOT and disaster management system Web Emergency Operation Center (WebEOC) supported by IDHS for seamless practical implementation.