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This study mainly investigates language anxiety and its relationship to the use of learning strategies and multiple intelligences among young learners in an EFL educational context. The participants were composed of 212 fifth- and sixth-graders from elementary schools in central Taiwan. Findings indicated that most participants generally experienced a mild level of anxiety in the EFL classroom. However, at least a quarter of the full sample experienced an above-average level of anxiety when learning the target language. These students tended to be most anxious when (1) feeling that other students had better English performance, (2) being called on to speak in the English class, and (3) feeling afraid of being left behind in the English class. Overall, students were most likely to feel anxious due to worry over inadequate language performance and fear of being evaluated negatively by others. Furthermore, the current findings indicated a significant negative correlation between language anxiety and strategy use among the young EFL children. Students who had greater strategy use were less likely to feel anxiety. Interestingly, the use of social strategies had the strongest relationship with language anxiety among the young learners. Another learner variable, multiple intelligences, was found to be significantly related to both strategy use and anxiety; its relationship with strategy use seemed to be much stronger than that with anxiety. All six strategy categories were found to have significant correlations with multiple intelligences. Implications derived from the results are discussed in the paper.

Background Saffold cardiovirus (SAFV) belongs to the Cardiovirus genus of Picornaviridae family, and may be a relevant new human pathogen; Thus far, eleven genotypes have been identified. The SAFV type 3 (SAFV-3) is thought to be the major genotype and is detected relatively frequently in children with acute gastroenteritis and respiratory illness. The epidemiology and pathogenicity of SAFV-3 remain unclear. Objectives To investigate the genomic and epidemiologic profiles of SAFV-3 infection in Taiwan. Study design Virus was detected in respiratory samples from children suffering for URI. SAFV-3 isolates were detected by isolation on cell culture and IF assay. The molecular typing was performed by RT-PCR and was sequenced to compare with reference strains available in the NCBI GeneBank. Serum samples were collected from 2005 to 2013 in Taiwan for seroprevalence investigation. Results A total of 226 specimens collected from children with URIs, 22 (9.73%) were positive for SAFV-3. The majority of SAFV-3 infections were found in children less than 6 years of age (14 of 22, 63.6%). Genetic analysis of VP1 coding region of Taiwanese isolates shown an 83.2–97.7% difference from other available SAFV-3 sequences in NCBI GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis revealed there is three genetic groups of SAFV-3 co-circulated in Taiwan during the study period. In addition, seroprevalence investigation results indicated that SAFV-3 infection occurs early in life and 43.7–77.8% of children aged between 6 months to 9 years old, had neutralizing antibodies against SAFV-3. Conclusion SAFV-3 may have circulated in Taiwan for some time and it appears to be one of the etiological agents responsible for URIs in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Deep learning-based schemes for event identification and signal reconstruction in nuclear power plants with sensor faults. • Valid event identification is achieved without the need for handcrafted feature extraction. • Readings of faulty sensors are reconstructed without the need for deterministic trend removal. • The efficacy of the proposed approaches is demonstrated using the data generated by a simulator of Taiwan's Maanshan NPP. An initiating event (IE) is an event that may lead to core damage in a nuclear power plant (NPP), and being able to identify an IE is crucial in determining what actions to take. This process requires examining the data from the widespread NPP sensors. Any fault in these sensors can be a severe issue that may defer the mitigation action that would bring the NPP back into safe shutdown conditions. In this study, we focus on addressing two issues in this regard: (1) event identification with sensor faults, and (2) faulty sensor signal reconstruction under an IE with the help of two deep learning (DL)-based schemes. Through the superior capability of DL in feature extraction, discriminant information can be extracted to enable valid event identification even when the faulty sensors have been discarded. Owing to the nonlinear nature of the DL network model, the process information for sensor reading generation and the interrelations among the sensors in the event recordings can be used to reconstruct faulty sensor readings without the need for deterministic trend removal. Results from detailed experiments using data generated by a simulator of the Maanshan NPP in Taiwan are provided to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different subgenogroups of enterovirus 71 (EV-71) have caused numerous outbreaks of hand, foot, and mouth disease worldwide, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. During the development of a vaccine against EV-71, the genetic and antigenic diversities of EV-71 isolates from Taiwan were analyzed by phylogenetic analyses and neutralization tests. The results showed that the dominant genogroups had changed twice, from B to C and from C to B, between 2009 and 2012. The subgenogroup B5 (B5b cluster) was dominant in 2008-2009 but was replaced by subgenogroup C4 in 2010-2011. From the end of 2011 to 2012, the re-emerging subgenogroup B5 (B5c cluster) was identified as the dominant subgenogroup of EV-71 outbreaks, and subgenogroups C2 and C4 were detected in sporadic cases. Interestingly, the amino acid substitution at position 145 in the VP1 gene was observed in some strains isolated from patients with acute flaccid paralysis. Furthermore, thirty-five strains and their corresponding serum samples were used to analyze the cross-protections and antigenic diversities among different subgenogroups (C4a, C5, B4, B5b, B5c, and C2-like) of EV-71. Evident antigenic diversity existed only for the C2-like subgenogroup, which was not effectively neutralized by other serum samples. In contrast, the anti-C2-like serum sample showed broad cross-reactivity against all other subgenogroups. Therefore, these results may provide valuable information for the selection of EV-71 vaccine candidates and the evolution of EV-71 subgenogroups in Taiwan from 2009 to 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 22 July 2009 solar eclipse with an obscuration of > 83% at Chung-Li (24.9°N, 121.2°E, Dip 35°N) in Taiwan during noon hours has provided a unique opportunity for us to examine its impact on E-region irregularities which were observed simultaneously by the 52 MHz coherent radar and a co-located ionosonde. Significant observations revealed that the daytime E-region strong backscatter echoes at multiple heights and a sudden intensification of the weak sporadic E-layer during the 22 July 2009 solar eclipse. These results follow the research findings of Patra et al. (2009). As the incident solar radiation suddenly blocked by intruding Moon during solar eclipse events that would generally create night-like ionospheric conditions, it is surmised that the E-region irregularities were indeed induced by the eclipse associated effects. The induced effects resulted in faster recombination of molecular ions, generation of gravity waves and electric fields that could have created a conducive environment to excite plasma irregularities through a gradient-drift instability mechanism. The vertical shears of radar Doppler velocity and the peak radar backscatter at the node of Doppler velocity shear, as resolved by the coherent scatter radar with interferometer technique, were possibly due to the upward propagating gravity waves and wave-induced polarization electric fields. The present observational results should not only be highly useful to ascertain plausible mechanisms responsible for nighttime E-region irregularities, but also provided evidence that a solar eclipse could generate E-region plasma irregularities over temperate mid-latitudes for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/purpose: As an immunofluorescence assay for enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) is not available in the enteroviruses surveillance network in Taiwan, EV-D68 may be the actual pathogen of untypeable enterovirus-suspected isolates., Methods: The untypeable isolates collected from 2007 through 2014 were identified by nucleic acid amplification-based methods and sequencing of the VP1 region to analyze the phylogeny and epidemiology of EV-D68 in Taiwan., Results: Twenty-nine EV-D68 isolates were sequenced, including 15 Cluster 3 and 14 Cluster 1 viruses. Approximately 41% of the patients were children under 5 years of age and their infections peaked in August. The ratio of male to female patients was 1.5 and 3.67 for Cluster 3 and Cluster 1, respectively. Fever and respiratory symptoms were commonly reported in EV-D68-infected patients. The results of phylogenetic analyses showed that EV-D68 isolates between 2007 and 2014 belonged to different clusters and existed for years, indicating that endemic circulation of EV-D68 existed in Taiwan., Conclusion: This study showed that EV-D68 has been endemic in Taiwan for some years despite a small number of positive cases. The continuous monitoring and efforts towards the improvement of diagnostic techniques are required to complete the surveillance system. This study provided the genetic and epidemiological information which could contribute to understanding the etiology and epidemiology of EV-D68., (Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background/purpose: In recent years, coxsackievirus B3 (CV-B3) has been determined as a dominant enterovirus serotype that may cause severe complications in patients. Since 2008 in Taiwan, some enterovirus isolates have been regarded as untypeable [by employing commercial immunofluorescence assay (IFA) kits]. In 2012, the number of isolates increased. Genetic sequence analysis further confirmed that CV-B3 was present in most of the untypeable viruses., Methods: Isolates of CV-B3 were collected for basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) analysis and for phylogenetic analyses, based on VP1 gene sequences. In addition, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) developed an in-house indirect IFA using polyclonal antibodies (e.g., rabbit antisera) for diagnosis. The sensitivity and specificity were both evaluated by testing 61 reference enteroviruses and 307 local enteroviruses that were isolated between 1998 and 2010., Results: Based on the results of the BLAST and phylogenetic analyses, five main genogroups (i.e., GI-GV) were classified and the reference strains in Taiwan in previous years were primarily clustered in the GV-A subgenogroup. However, the 15 CV-B3 isolates recently analyzed in this study were classified in four different groups: GIII, GIV, GV-A, and GV-B. Among these 15 isolates, all 10 isolates in the GV-B group were initially reported as untypeable nonpolio enteroviruses when using commercial kits. The conditions of the in-house indirect IFA were optimized by checkerboard titration, thereby resulting in a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 98.5%., Conclusion: This is the first report describing the phylogenetic relatedness of recent CV-B3 strains in Taiwan. An indirect IFA kit was developed by the Taiwan CDC for detecting CV-B3 viruses that are untypeable by commercial IFA kits., (Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Objectives: Osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) is a potential side effect of bisphosphonate therapy. This Taiwanese national-scale cohort study aimed to investigate its incidence and risk of development by using a qualified control group with different demographic factors (age/gender), dental (tooth extraction/periodontal therapy) and medical (jaw radiotherapy) treatments, delivery routes (oral/intravenous), and diseases (diabetes/osteoporosis/cancer)., Methods: Data (n=958,136) from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2008 were sourced from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005 of Taiwan. Cases of BRONJ were identified by three criteria modified from the definition proposed by the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. The Cox proportional-hazards regression model and Kaplan-Meier estimates were used to analyse the results., Results: The incidence densities of ONJ in the unexposed and bisphosphonate-exposed cohorts were estimated as 4.4 and 73.5 per 100,000 person-years, respectively (relative risk=16.8; 95% CI=6.0-37.5; P<0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed strong associations of delivery route, tooth extraction, and oral cancer with ONJ (hazard ratios=51.4 for oral bisphosphonates, 153.3 for intravenous bisphosphonates, 5.3 for tooth extraction, and 278.1 for oral cancer)., Conclusions: These results not only demonstrate the incidence and relative risk of bisphosphonate-related ONJ in Taiwan but also indicate that tooth extraction and oral cancer may have a major impact on its development., Clinical Significance: Physicians should be aware of individual patient risk factors before prescribing bisphosphonates. Bisphosphonate treatment is justified in the amelioration of life-threatening conditions in patients in whom ONJ would only affect quality of life., (Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)