Browsing by Author "Liu, Ta-Wei"

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A real world cost effectiveness analysis of interferon-based therapy for HCV naive super-responders
(2018-08-01)
Tsai, Pei-Chien
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Liu, Ta-Wei
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Huang, Chung-Feng
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Yeh, Ming-Lun
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Dai, Chia-Yen
Background: A direct-acting antiviral (DAA) era in hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment is fast approaching; unfortunately, the availability and affordability of DAAs in Asia Pacific areas vary, making it difficult to develop universal HCV practice guidelines appropriate for the all Asian populations. This study aimed to evaluate the real-world cost-effectiveness of IFN-based therapy according to the current strategies with PegIFN/RBV for "easy-to-treat" to provide a reference for application of future DAA development for IFN-eligible, treatment nave HCV patients. Methods: A total of 1032 chronic hepatitis C treatment-naive patients who corresponded to response-guided therapy (RGT) guidelines of PegIFN/RBV regimens were linked to the entire population of expenditures and order in the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. The average total cost per SVR achieved was calculated as the summation of the total cost for all treated patients/number of SVR cases. Results: Current RGT suggested 24 weeks of PegIFN/RBV for GI naive patients with baseline LVL and RVR at treatment week 4 achieved an average treatment cost per SVR of $5090 +/- 2400. This was of superior cost-effectiveness compared with those other subgroups of GI patients. In terms of G2 patients, according to current RGT of 16 weeks of treatment duration, PegIFN/RBV treatment with RVR achieved was of a very competitive cost per SVR ($3237 +/- 488). Conclusion: For a nave patient in the new DAA era, the PegIFN/RBV treatment might be conserved for those with all favorable risk parameters, considering the treatment duration and cost per SVR, in the resource-constrained countries. Copyright (C) 2018, the Chinese Medical Association. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC.
Clusters of Circulating let-7 Family Tumor Suppressors Are Associated with Clinical Characteristics of Chronic Hepatitis C
(2020-07-01)
Tsai, Yi-Shan
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Yeh, Ming-Lun
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Tsai, Pei-Chien
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Huang, Ching-, I
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Huang, Chung-Feng
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections can cause permanent liver-related diseases, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Low mortality and incidence of HCC have been observed in patients with chronic hepatitis C undergoing direct-acting antiviral therapy. Tumor suppressive let-7 family members are down-regulated in HCC. The present study, therefore, aimed to investigate whether expression levels for the full spectrum of let-7 family members (let-7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7i, and miR-98) in the circulatory system are useful as surveillance biomarkers for liver-related diseases to monitor treatment efficacy during HCV infection. To this end, we measured the levels of mature circulating let-7 family members using quantitative reverse transcription-PCR in 236 patients with HCV infection, and 147 age- and sex-matched controls. Using hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis, three clusters were obtained after measuring expression levels of let-7 family members in the patients and controls. Cluster 1 included let-7a/d/e/g, Cluster 2 comprised let-7b and let-7i, and Cluster 3 comprised let-7c/f/miR-98. Let-7b/c/g represented the three clusters and showed the best survival response to liver cancer when analyzed with respect to patient data. Therefore, considering the circulating levels of let7 b/c/g as representatives of the let-7 family may facilitate effective monitoring of liver-related disease.
Fabrication and Characterization of Multiple-Gated Poly-Si Nanowire Thin-Film Transistors and Impacts of Multiple-Gate Structures on Device Fluctuations
(2008-11-01)
Hsu, Hsing-Hui
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Liu, Ta-Wei
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Chan, Leng
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Lin, Chuan-Ding
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Huang, Tiao-Yuan
Several types of poly-Si nanowire (NW) thin-film transistors (TFTs) with multiple-gated (MG) configuration were demonstrated and characterized. These devices were fabricated with simple methods without resorting to costly lithographic tools and processes. The fabricated trigated devices show a low subthreshold swing (SS) of around 100 mV/dec and on/off current ratio higher than 10(8). These results clearly indicate the effectiveness of MG scheme in enhancing the device performance. Furthermore, a multiple-channel scheme was demonstrated to further increase the drive current without compromising device performance. Finally, the impact of MG on the variation of NWTFT characteristics is investigated with a clever method that allows the fabrication of test structures with identical NW channel but different gate configurations. The results,clearly show that the variation could be reduced by increasing the portion of NW channel surface that is modulated by the gate.
Gut microbiome changes in overweight male adults following bowel preparation
(2018-12-31)
Chen, Hui-Mei
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Chen, Chung-Chu
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Chen, Chien-Chi
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Wang, Shen-Chih
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Wang, Chun-Lin
BackgroundHuman gut microbiome has an essential role in human health and disease. Although the major dominant microbiota within individuals have been reported, the change of gut microbiome caused by external factors, such as antibiotic use and bowel cleansing, remains unclear. We conducted this study to investigate the change of gut microbiome in overweight male adults after bowel preparation, where none of the participants had been diagnosed with any systemic diseases.MethodsA total of 20 overweight, male Taiwanese adults were recruited, and all participants were omnivorous. The participants provided fecal samples and blood samples at three time points: prior to bowel preparation, 7days after colonoscopy, and 28days after colonoscopy. The microbiota composition in fecal samples was analyzed using 16S ribosome RNA gene amplicon sequencing.ResultsOur results demonstrated that the relative abundance of the most dominant bacteria hardly changed from prior to bowel preparation to 28days after colonoscopy. Using the ratio of Prevotella to the sum of Prevotella and Bacteroides in the fecal samples at baseline, the participants were separated into two groups. The fecal samples of the Type 1 group was Bacteroides-dominant, and that of the Type 2 group was Prevotella-dominant with a noticeable presence Bacteroides. Bulleidia appears more in the Type 1 fecal samples, while Akkermensia appears more in the Type 2 fecal samples. Of each type, the gut microbial diversity differed slightly among the three collection times. Additionally, the Type 2 fecal microbiota was temporarily susceptible to bowel cleansing. Predictive functional analysis of microbial community reveals that their activities for the mineral absorption metabolism and arachidonic acid metabolism differed significantly between the two types. Depending on their fecal type, the variance of triglycerides and C-reactive protein also differed between the two types of participants.ConclusionsDepending upon the fecal type, the microbial diversity and the predictive functional modules of microbial community differed significantly after bowel preparation. In addition, blood biochemical markers presented somewhat associated with fecal type. Therefore, our results might provide some insights as to how knowledge of the microbial community could be used to promote health through personalized clinical treatment.
Nonlinear Analysis of Movement-related Changes in Human Subthalamic Local Field Potentials
(2010)
Wei, Chun-Shu
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Tsai, Chon-Haw
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Chiou, Shang-Ming
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Hseu, Ya-Ting
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Liu, Ta-Wei
Movement-related changes such as event-related desynchronizationcan (ERD) and event-related synchronization (ERS) can be found in human subthalamic nucleus (STN) with analysis on local field potentials (LFP) recorded from Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Besides traditional time-frequency (TF) analysis, we introduced nonlinear analysis, bispectral and approximate entropy (ApEn), to measure the signal nonlinear correlation and regularity in neural activities. Movement-related changes were found in the beta band, bicoherence and ApEn, and variation during stationary movement is more available by nonlinear methods. Therefore, we suggest nonlinear analysis for further related studies.
Serial serologic changes of hepatitis D virus in chronic hepatitis B patients receiving nucleos(t)ides analogues therapy
(1970-01-01)
Jang, Tyng-Yuan
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Wei, Yu-Ju
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Hsu, Cheng-Ting
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Hsu, Po-Yao
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Liu, Ta-Wei
Background and Aim The serial serologic changes of hepatitis D virus (HDV) infection among chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infected patients who received oral nucleotide/nucleoside analogues are elusive. Methods Serum anti-HDV and HDV RNA among chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients were tested at the time of initiating anti-HBV therapy and subsequently during the follow-up period. Results The seropositive rate of anti-HDV and HDV RNA among 2850 CHB patients, was 2.7% and 0.9%, respectively. Factors associated with anti-HDV seropositivity were platelet counts (odds ratio [OR]/95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.995/0.992-0.999; P = 0.006), HBV DNA levels (OR/CI: 0.81/0.70-0.94; P = 0.005), and hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) seropositivity (OR/CI: 0.22/0.05-0.95; P = 0.04). The only factor associated with HDV RNA positivity among anti-HDV seropositive patients was age (OR/CI: 0.95/0.90-1.00; P = 0.03). The spontaneous clearance rate of serum anti-HDV antibody was 3.0 per 100 person-years with a median follow-up period of 3.5 years (range 2-12 years), whereas the seroclearance rate of HDV RNA was 4.3 per 100 person-years among anti-HDV seropositive patients after a median follow-up period of 6.0 years (range 2-11 years). A baseline anti-HDV titer < 0.5 cut-off index was the only factor predictive of anti-HDV seroclearance (hazard ratio [HR]/CI: 30.11/3.73-242.85; P = 0.001). Conclusions HDV infection was not common among patients treated for HBV in Taiwan. Seroclearance of anti-HDV and HDV RNA did occur over time, albeit the chance is rare.
Tri-gated Poly-Si Nanowire SONOS Devices
(2009)
Hsu, Hsing-Hui
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Liu, Ta-Wei
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Lin, Chuan-Ding
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Chia Kuo-Jung
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Huang, Tiao-Yuan
Si nanowire (NW) SONOS devices have recently been demonstrated as a good candidate for high-density non-volatile memory application [ 1][2]. Owing to the high surface-to-volume ratio of the NW channel, the programming and erasing (P/E) operation of the device could be performed at a lower voltage and much faster speed over the planar counterpart [2]. However, the fabrication of NW devices typically requires advanced lithographic tools and or complicated process flow. These are not compatible with the manufacturing of flat-panel products where the device feature size is generally several microns or larger. In this work, we propose a simple and cost-effective approach to integrate planar poly-Si thin-film transistors (TFTs) and tri-gated poly-Si NW SONOS devices without resorting to advanced lithographic tools. Greatly enhanced P/E speed with the use of NW structure is clearly demonstrated.
Trigated Poly-Si Nanowire SONOS Devices for Flat-Panel Applications
(2010-05-01)
Lin, Horng-Chih
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Liu, Ta-Wei
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Hsu, Hsing-Hui
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Lin, Chuan-Ding
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Huang, Tiao-Yuan
A new method is proposed and demonstrated to fabricate planar thin-film transistors and trigated nanowire (NW) devices simultaneously on the same panel. By using an oxide-nitride oxide stack as the gate dielectric, the NW devices could also serve as nonvolatile Si-oxide-nitride-oxide-Si (SONOS) memory devices. Our results indicate that the combination of trigate and NW channels help to improve the device performance in terms of steppers subthreshold swing and reduced threshold voltage. Improvement in programming and erasing efficiency of the nonvolatile SONOS memory devices is also demonstrated with the trigated NW structure.