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Ching-Hsiung Liu,1,2 Yen-Ying Kung,2–4 Chun-Liang Lin,1 Jen-Lin Yang,2–4 Ta-Peng Wu,3 Hong-Chun Lin,3 Yang-Kai Chang,3 Ching-Mao Chang,2–4 Fang-Pey Chen2,3 1Department of Neurology, Lotung Poh-Ai Hospital, Ilan, Taiwan, Republic of China; 2Institute of Traditional Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China; 3Center for Traditional Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China; 4Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Fang-Pey ChenInstitute of Traditional Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, and Director, Center for Traditional Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Number 155, Section 2, Linong Street, Taipei 112, Taiwan, Republic of ChinaTel +8862-2875-7454Fax +8862-2875-7452Email fpchen@vghtpe.gov.twPurpose: To investigate the required sample size for and feasibility of a full-scale randomized controlled trial examining the impact of the “dose” effect of acupuncture in treating sciatica.Patients and methods: Fifty-seven patients with sciatica, aged 35–70 years, were recruited and screened. Thirty-one participants were randomly assigned to receive “low-dose” manual acupuncture (MAL) (n= 15) or “high-dose” manual acupuncture (MAH) (n=16). The acupuncture treatment was administered twice weekly for 4 weeks. The primary outcome was the visual analog scale (VAS) score at baseline and after 4 weeks of acupuncture treatment. Secondary outcomes included the Roland Disability Questionnaire for Sciatica (RDQS), the Sciatica Bothersomeness Index (SBI), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life in the Brief Edition (WHOQOL-BREF) scores at baseline and after 4 weeks of acupuncture treatment.Results: Thirty patients completed the study. For all patients, acupuncture achieved significant improvement in the VAS (5.48±2.0, p

The study applied a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera to send video signals to 4 DaVinciTM development boards (TMS320DM6446) of Texas Instruments (TI) to carry out H.264 Baseline Profile video coding. One of the development boards coded in the Variable Bit Rate (VBR) mode, and the other three development boards coded in the Constant Bit Rate (CBR) mode. In addition, the constant rates are 2 Mbps, 1.5 Mbps and 1 Mbps respectively. The H.264 video compression files produced by the boards were analyzed via video analysis software (CodecVisa) in the study. This software can analyze and present the compression data characteristics of the video files under each video frame, i.e., bits/MB, QP, and PSNR. In this research, the characteristics of data of each frame under four different compression conditions were compared. Their differences were calculated and averaged, and the standard deviation was evaluated. It was further connected with the values of quality characteristics and the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) of each frame to analyze the relation among the frame quality, the compression rate of CBR, as well as the quantitative granularity. The preliminary conclusion of the study is that the compression behaviors of CBRs in different coding sources are adjusted in a specific proportion in order to cope with the change in frame complexity. The frame will be severely damaged by a critical value during the process of network transmission while the source rate is less than the value of the characteristic.