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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has claimed the lives of millions of people around the world. Severe vitamin D deficiency can increase the risk of death in people with COVID-19. There is growing evidence that acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in COVID-19 patients and is associated with poorer clinical outcomes. The kidney effects of SARS-CoV-2 are directly mediated by angiotensin 2-converting enzyme (ACE2) receptors. AKI is also caused by indirect causes such as the hypercoagulable state and microvascular thrombosis. The increased release of soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) from immature myeloid cells reduces plasminogen activation by the competitive inhibition of urokinase-type plasminogen activator, which results in low plasmin levels and a fibrinolytic state in COVID-19. Frequent hypercoagulability in critically ill patients with COVID-19 may exacerbate the severity of thrombosis. Versican expression in proximal tubular cells leads to the proliferation of interstitial fibroblasts through the C3a and suPAR pathways. Vitamin D attenuates the local expression of podocyte uPAR and decreases elevated circulating suPAR levels caused by systemic inflammation. This decrease preserves the function and structure of the glomerular barrier, thereby maintaining renal function. The attenuated hyperinflammatory state reduces complement activation, resulting in lower serum C3a levels. Vitamin D can also protect against COVID-19 by modulating innate and adaptive immunity, increasing ACE2 expression, and inhibiting the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system. We hypothesized that by reducing suPAR levels, appropriate vitamin D supplementation could prevent the progression and reduce the severity of AKI in COVID-19 patients, although the data available require further elucidation.

SUMMARY This paper examines the effect of knowledge sharing in audit firms on audit quality and efficiency. We analyze data from a survey of audit professionals from 22 audit firms in Taiwan matched to publicly available data on individual audits conducted by those firms. The results indicate that knowledge sharing within an audit firm is positively associated with audit quality as manifested in lower absolute discretionary accruals and the issuance of more unfavorable audit opinions. We also find that knowledge sharing within audit firms is associated with higher audit efficiency as represented by shorter audit lags. More importantly, we find that both higher audit quality and audit efficiency are simultaneously associated with higher levels of knowledge sharing, suggesting that effective knowledge sharing may help to improve both audit quality and audit efficiency. Given the regulatory changes to enhance both audit quality and audit timeliness, these findings have implications for audit firms. Data Availability: Data used in this study are available from public sources. Survey data are available upon request.

The FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (RO) satellite constellation was launched on June 2019 as a successor of the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission. The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) of Taiwan has received FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 GNSS RO data in real time from Taiwan Analysis Center for COSMIC. With the global numerical prediction system at CWB, a parallel semi-operational experiment assimilating the FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 bending angle data with all other operational observation data has been conducted to evaluate the impact of the FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 data. The first seven-month results show that the quality of the early FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 data has been satisfactory for assimilation. Consistent and significant positive impacts on global forecast skills have been observed since the start of the parallel experiment, with the most significant impact found in the tropical region, reflecting the low-inclination orbital design of the satellites. The impact of the FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 RO data is also estimated using the Ensemble Forecast Sensitivity to Observation Impact (EFSOI) method, showing an average positive impact per observation similar to other existing GNSS RO datasets, while the total impact is impressive by virtue of its large amount. Sensitivity experiments suggest that the quality control processes built in the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) system for RO data work well to achieve a positive impact by the low-level FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 RO data, while more effort on observation error tuning should be focused to obtain an optimal assimilation performance. This study demonstrates the usefulness of the FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 RO data in global numerical weather prediction during the calibration/validation period and leads to the operational use of the data at CWB.

Algae-derived biofuels are increasingly seen as an alternative source of energy with potential to supplement the world's ever increasing demand. A great challenge exists today in energy input and costs to procure algal lipid from a cultivated suspension, which generally requires steps such as concentration, filtration, dewatering, grinding, and solvent extraction. Using well practiced sand filtration and ozonation processes, we sought to reduce processing steps and streamline the operations in one vessel. The specific Chlorococcum aquaticum suspension was acidified to pH 3.3 to promote agglomeration prior to biomass collection by sand filtration. The algae-loaded filter bed was drained of free water and added with methanol and ozonated for 2 min to rupture the cell membrane to accelerate release of cellular contents. The methanol solution containing the dissolved lipid product was collected by draining, while the filter bed was regenerated by further ozonation when needed. The results showed 95% collection of the algal biomass from the suspension and a 16% yield of lipid from the algae, as well as restoration of filtration velocity of the sand bed via ozonation. GCMS identification of the extract showed primary products in the forms of long-chain largely saturated hydrocarbons of 16 to 20 carbons. The new technique streamlines individual steps in the procurement of algal lipid from the suspension that is potentially an improvement over existing energy-intensive methods.

Agricultural practice and improper waste disposal in developing regions have resulted in environmental degradation in land and waters, for which low-cost, proven solutions are needed. We demonstrate in the laboratory the applications of composting and trickling filter techniques to treat olive mill wastes that can be implemented in the West Bank and other regions of the world. To a pomace waste sample from a California mill, we amended with saw dust (wood carbon source) and baking soda (NaHCO3 alkalinity) at weight ratios of waste/wood/NaHCO3 at 70:27:1 and composted it for periods of 11 and 48 days; the compost was used as an additive to potting soil for transplanting. The pomace sample was also blended into slurry and introduced to a water-circulating pond and trickling filter system (P/TF) to examine any inhibitive effect of the pomace on biological removal of the organic waste. The results showed the compost-amended potting soil supported plant growth without noticeable stress over 34 days and the P/TF system removed BOD and COD by >90% from the waste liquid within 2 days, with a first-order rate constant of 1.9 d-1 in the pond. An onsite treatment design is proposed that promises implementation for agricultural waste disposal in developing regions.

Taiwan’s financial accounting regulatory amendment directions shift the framework from the U.S. GAAP-based to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)-based to accelerate the pace of progress towards convergence with IFRS. In the amendment process, the converge outcomes of earnings quality become an important and urgent issue. The purpose of this study is to investigate the converge impacts on reporting quality over 1999 to 2009, which divided into three timeframes: the U.S. GAAP-based era ranging from 1999-2005, the IFRS convergence era ranging from 2006-2007, and the preparation period of IFRS adoption ranging from 2008-2009. Two criteria of reporting quality is included: value relevance and the magnitude of earnings management. The empirical results show that the financial reporting quality got improvement under the amendment towards IFRS adoption.

We report a 50-year-old man was brought to our Emergency Department due to fever and dyspnea for 2 days. The patient had difficulty in walking and was bed-ridden in the past 5 days due to massive right inguinoscrotal hernia. He had difficulty in micturition in the past 2 days. He was febrile with a body temperature of 39.5°C, a blood pressure of 82/50 mmHg, a pulse rate of 122 beats/minute, and a respiratory rate of 22 breaths/min. Physical examination showed left-sided costovertebral angle knocking tenderness and a large right-sided irreducible inguinoscrotal hernia. Initial laboratory examination revealed abnormalities as follows : l0 eukocyte counts 28.8 × 10 [3] /μL; procalcitonin >200 ng/mL; blood urea nitrogen 77.7 mg/dL; and creatinine 10.6 mg/dL. Computed tomography (CT) of abdomen displayed a large right inguinal hernia containing small and large intestine with compression on junction of bulbous and pendulous urethra. Coronal view of CT reviewed swelling and fat stranding of left kidney which indicated acute pyelonephritis.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the policy consequences of expensing stock‐based compensation in Taiwan.Design/methodology/approachData were collected on listed firms from 2006 to 2008 and a goodness‐of‐fit of accounting earnings valuation model was used to investigate the incremental information content of expensing stock‐based compensation. In addition, two sensitivity indexes were used to investigate the sensitivity between compensation and firm performance before and after income statement recognition of stock‐based compensation.FindingsIt was found that the association between earnings and abnormal returns is stronger after expensing compensation. In addition, the relationship between compensation variables, especially stock compensation, and firm performance is stronger after 2008, indicating that expensing compensation reinforces the relationship between compensation and performance.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that disclosure and recognition are not substitutes. The findings also have implications for standard setters and for investors attempting to mitigate managers' self‐interested behavior.Originality/valueThe accounting treatment of employee stock‐based compensation is a controversial issue among academics, regulators, managers, auditors, and investors. This paper investigates the incremental information content of the new accounting standard and explores whether the relationship between compensation and firm performance has become more transparent than before.

Taiwan passed the Robust Financial Administrative System in 2014. Regarding the imputation tax system, the tax credit of imputation was reduced from 100% to 50%, effective in 2015. In other words, contrary to the year 2014, only the half of tax paid by companies can be used by individuals to offset personal income taxes under the new system. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether dividend payouts are influenced by this tax reform. In addition, whether the companies known for stable dividends have changed their dividend payout ratios. Results show that the dividend payout ratios decreased after the tax reform was reduced, indicating that companies used this tax reform to enact tax planning for stockholders. This study also finds that companies offering stable dividends maintain similar dividend policies in the dividend payout ratios.

Poultry litter is widely used as a fertilizer for lowland rice in Taiwan and China. However, the organic-arsenic compound roxarsone (additive of poultry feed) in poultry litter can be absorbed by the plants and the resulting arsenic (As) contamination may pose a serious threat to human health. This study used various amounts of poultry litter contaminated with roxarsone in pot experiments to evaluate the effect of roxarsone on rice agronomic parameters and the bioaccumulation of total and inorganic As in rice-plant tissues. Rice-grain yield decreased significantly with increasing As content of the soil, and the critical threshold that killed rice was 200 mg roxarsone (kg soil)–1. The As concentrations in root, straw, leaf, husk, and grain increased with increasing soil As (p stem > leaf > husk > grain. Arsenite was the predominant species in root, straw, and grain, while arsenate was the predominant species in leaf and husk. No significant difference existed between the amounts of arsenite and arsenate when various amounts of poultry litter were applied. This result illustrates that large amounts of added roxarsone are not only toxic to rice but also accumulate in grains in the inorganic As forms, potentially posing a threat to human health via the food chain.

This paper demonstrates the experimental result of changeable pitch propellers in composite material. The use of this composite material is to apply its characteristic of bend-twist coupling; this characteristic is applied to better performance design requirements of the propeller. Two stacking sequences are considered: the first one is a quasi isotropic sequence, while the second one is an optimum sequence obtained using a genetic algorithm. Experiments are designed considering two original propellers manufactured by the first and the second stacking sequence, respectively, and a pre-deformed propeller with the second sequence. Experimental results correspond to the same trend as the calculations and confirm the method of optimization.

This paper examines whether the reversal of a previously recognized impairment loss provides an opportunity for earnings management, and whether such behavior is associated with managers' incentives. It also examines whether a corporate-governance mechanism can mitigate this behavior. Since 2005, listed companies in Taiwan have been required to comply with accounting standards, equivalent to International Accounting Standards (IAS) No. 36 “Impairment of Assets,” which allow reversals of asset-impairment losses. Data on a sample of 55 firms that reversed impairment losses between 2005 and the first quarter of 2007 were matched by industry and size with 55 control firms. Empirical results show that firms recognizing more impairment losses are more likely to reverse impairment losses when doing so would avoid an earnings decline in a subsequent period, which is consistent with the “cookie jar” reserve hypothesis. We also show that such behavior is more pronounced for firms with higher debt ratios, consistent with earnings management being associated with the incentive to avoid violation of debt covenants. However, an effective corporate governance mechanism could mitigate such behavior. Our study may contribute to the debate on global convergence with IFRS, especially convergence between IFRS and U.S. GAAP with respect to the “Impairment of Assets,” by providing a rationale for the latter's prohibition of reversals. It may also contribute to the corporate-governance literature by showing the effect of governance mechanisms on deterring earnings management.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether asset impairment loss as stipulated in International Accounting Standards (IAS) No. 36 provides an opportunity for finance industry to engage in earnings management, and whether corporate governance mechanism can deter such behavior. Using a sample of Taiwan finance industry, our results show that the amounts of asset impairment losses are related to “income smoothing” incentive rather than “big bath” motive. We also find that directors/managers recognize asset impairment losses basing on self-interest consideration and corporate governance mechanism have significant effect on asset impairment decision. The result also shows that financial holding company recognizes less asset impairment losses than non-financial-holding financial institution. Our conclusions are robust to different model specification, and are free from multicollinearity and outliers effects. This study contributes to understand the asset impairment behavior of finance industry and the behavior differences between financial holding company and non-financial-holding financial institution.

Gold nanorods were successfully fabricated by using polycarbonate membranes and anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes as growing templates under electrochemical deposition. The as-synthesized gold nanorods were polycrystalline with unidirectional direction along [111], having a uniform diameter around 100–200 nm and length of 5–6 µm. These gold nanorods were deposited on the gold-coated working electrode of cyclic voltammetry, where an enhanced current-voltage voltammograms were obtained. The enhanced sensitivity is achieved with the large electrocatalytic signals at amplified surface area using nanorod-modified working electrodes. Current-voltage voltammograms using ordered gold nanorod arrays are enhanced more than those using disordered gold nanorods. The results strongly suggested that the 1-D nanorods facilitated the electrocatalytic reactions due to enhanced diffusion occurring around these nano-structures.

This work determined scopes of arsenic(As)-contaminated groundwater using risk-based indicator classification approaches in blackfoot disease hyperendemic areas of southern Taiwan. Indicator kriging was first used to establish a conditional cumulative distribution function at each cell. Three approaches--the p-quantile estimate, the E-type estimate and the minimization of the expected loss--were then adopted to delimit contaminated regions for a regulated standard of As concentrations in groundwater. According to a risk assessment model established in our previous research, the standard was set to 250 microg/l for aquacultural use, corresponding to the 77.1th percentile of observed concentrations. Misclassification risks and uncertainty were examined for the classification approaches. The analyzed results reveal that contaminated areas are the largest using the 0.771-quantile estimate, whereas they are the smallest using the minimization of the expected loss. Proportions of credible polluted areas with low risks to false positives maintain a constant, 12.9-13.2%, for the classification approaches. To reduce a great impact on human health, As-polluted groundwater should be strictly prohibited to cultivate fish in credible polluted zones and monitored persistently in polluted zones with high risks to false positives.

The material and ply angles of a fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) rotor blade of a helicopter are optimized using a genetic algorithm (GA) with local search. The variation of the structural stiffness with material and ply angle is investigated. The aim of the optimization is to find an optimal stacking sequence that minimizes twist deformation. An optimum rotor blade is obtained using the ply angles as variables; failure, natural frequency, and minimum moment of inertia are used to constrain the optimization. The GA is employed as an optimization tool. A simplified local search is implemented in the final stage of optimization to reduce the searching time.

Interest in the application of genetic algorithms (GA) to the stacking sequence of composite laminates has grown in recent years. However, the huge calculation time of GA is a major problem for designers. In this study, a local improvement is inserted into a standard GA, and the real calculation, by finite element analysis (FEA) for example, required in the local search is replaced by a regression model. Accordingly, the improved GA converges much sooner than a standard GA and the calculation time is greatly reduced. The regression analysis applies chosen trigonometric functions as base functions, and estimates objective function values accurately using only few sample points. The GA with local improvement is then applied to a sandwich plate and composite propeller, the amount of calculation is reduced by over half.

Traditional propellers are made of high-stiffness metal material. They deform only slightly and are usually designed to work at a constant speed, operating at reduced efficiency at other speeds. This research designs a composite propeller that operates over a wider range of speeds. The deformation of propeller is determined by orientating fibers to produce propellers that are more efficient than those made of metal. First, structural and fluid dynamic calculations are performed to determine the deformation, the fluid pressure, and the performance of the propeller. An optimizing genetic algorithm is then used to determine the best stacking sequence of the propeller; however, if the optimal stacking sequence does not outperform a metal propeller, a predeformed design is then used to solve this problem. A smallest pitch stacking sequence is obtained using a genetic algorithm first, and then the propeller is displaced in the opposite direction to form a predeformed propeller. The predeformed propelle...

Some optimization methods have recently been developed to deal with discrete variable problems such as that involving the ply angles and stacking sequence of composite laminates. However, much calculation is still required for the algorithms. A regression equation of the response surface would allow the finite element analysis to be replaced with the regression equation, saving much time in optimization design. The response surface of composite laminated structures is estimated using regression analysis in this study. The information of the surface can be obtained quickly and accurately. Usually, simple polynomials are used as base functions in regression, but the results obtained unsatisfactory in this work. Considering the periodic and directional property of the design variables (ply angles), trigonometric functions are used as base functions in regression and they fit the surface very well. According to the characteristics of ply angle and trigonometric function, the value of variable can be chosen to smoothen the response surface, greatly increasing the accuracy of the regression. This study first establishes the regression procedure, and then applies it to examples of a marine propeller and a rotor wing. The regression is used with a genetic algorithm to search for optimum ply angles in the examples, saving much time while maintaining accuracy.

The present study employs a numerical approach to investigate the post-buckling behavior of laminates connected by rivets. In order to reduce the calculation time, the rivets are replaced with springs, while the stiffness of the springs is induced from the study that analyzes the bending behavior and the interaction between the rivet and the laminate. The finite element software ABAQUS is used to inspect the post-buckling behavior of composite laminates connected by rivets. Several parameters are considered like the stacking sequence, the arrangement of the rivets, and the span between the stiffener. In all these cases, springs can fully present the behavior around the rivets. Finally, the validity of this method is verified by experiment.

A planar triple-layer model describing ion association to micelles composed of the anionic surfactant dodecylsulfate (DS-) was developed and evaluated. The governing Poisson−Boltzmann equation was ...

An unexpected POR (Power-on Reset) may lead to system unstable or hanging-up during the booting. This paper proposed a new reset IC structure to monitor system power during power ramp-up. For system design, this chip contains hysteresis input voltage, power delay control, output enable, power good signal, and LVRC (Low Voltage Reset Circuit). Finally, the proposed IC is designed with TSMC 0.35µm 2P4M process. The chip specifications are listed below: 3.3V +/− 10% as input power, 1.5∼5V as analog input signal, 15∼30mV as hysteresis input voltage, 2.7∼2.8V as startup voltage of LVRC, and 40mW as chip power consumption. It can be applied to most current mobile device.

This paper presents low-complexity digital sample rate conversion (SRC) circuit architecture with arbitrary factor conversion ratio. The strategy in deciding SRC system parameters is given to guarantee that both the anti-imaging and the anti-aliasing requirements can be satisfied. The significant reduction in the complexity of the proposed structure allows simple VLSI implementation without affecting the performance. A parallel cascaded integrator comb (CIC) filter circuit without high intermediate sample rate and a multiplier-less linear interpolator are also developed to obtain a cost-effective and high-speed SRC circuit.