Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2011-07-15"

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Detection of autoantibodies against Rabphilin-3A-like protein as a potential biomarker in patient's sera of colorectal cancer
(2011-07-15)
Chen, Jinn-Shiun
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Kuo, Yung-Bin
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Chou, Yeh-Pin
;
Chan, Chung-Chuan
;
Fan, Chung-Wei
Background: Rabphilin-3A-like (RPH3AL) protein functions in the regulation of hormone exocytosis, and mutations in the RPHA3L gene have been associated with tumorigenesis in colorectal cancer (CRC). We evaluated the potential use of anti-RPH3AL autoantibodies as a marker for CRC detection. Methods: Sera from 84 patients with CRC and 63 healthy controls were analysed for the presence of RPH3AL autoantibodies with a Western blotting assay. Results: The frequencies of RPH3AL autoantibodies in the early stage, advanced stage and all CRC patients were 64.7%, 78.0% and 72.6%, respectively. These values are significantly higher than the frequency of RPH3AL autoantibodies in healthy controls (15.9%, P<0.001). Although the presence of RPH3AL autoantibodies did not correlate with clinical parameters, RPH3AL autoantibodies were found in 69.4% (34/49) of CRC patients who were negative for carcinoembryonic antigen. The value of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of RPH3AL autoantibody was 0.84, which suggests that screening for these autoantibodies could potentially be used for CRC diagnosis. Conclusion: Circulating RPH3AL autoantibodies are prevalent in patients with CRC, and detection of these autoantibodies might provide a novel non-invasive approach for CRC diagnosis. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Numerical ranges of weighted shift matrices
(2011-07-15)
Tsai, Ming Cheng
;
Wu, Pei Yuan
;
應用數學系
;
Department of Applied Mathematics
We show that if A is an n-by-n (n >= 3) matrix of the form (sic) then the boundary of its numerical range contains a line segment if and only if the a(j)'s are nonzero and the numerical ranges of the (n - 1)-by-(n - 1) principal submatrices of A are all equal. For n = 3, this is the case if and only if vertical bar a(1)vertical bar = vertical bar a(2)vertical bar = vertical bar a(3)vertical bar not equal 0, in which case W (A), the numerical range of A, is the equilateral triangular region with vertices the three cubic roots of aia2a3. For n = 4, the condition becomes vertical bar a(1)vertical bar = vertical bar a(3)vertical bar not equal 0 and vertical bar a(2)vertical bar = vertical bar a(4)vertical bar not equal 0, in which case W (A) is the convex hull of two (degenerate or otherwise) ellipses. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
SNOSite: Exploiting Maximal Dependence Decomposition to Identify Cysteine S-Nitrosylation with Substrate Site Specificity
(2011-07-15)
Lee, Tzong-Yi
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Chen, Yi-Ju
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Lu, Tsung-Cheng
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Huang, Hsien-Da
;
Chen, Yu-Ju
S-nitrosylation, the covalent attachment of a nitric oxide to (NO) the sulfur atom of cysteine, is a selective and reversible protein post-translational modification (PTM) that regulates protein activity, localization, and stability. Despite its implication in the regulation of protein functions and cell signaling, the substrate specificity of cysteine S-nitrosylation remains unknown. Based on a total of 586 experimentally identified S-nitrosylation sites from SNAP/L-cysteine-stimulated mouse endothelial cells, this work presents an informatics investigation on S-nitrosylation sites including structural factors such as the flanking amino acids composition, the accessible surface area (ASA) and physicochemical properties, i.e. positive charge and side chain interaction parameter. Due to the difficulty to obtain the conserved motifs by conventional motif analysis, maximal dependence decomposition (MDD) has been applied to obtain statistically significant conserved motifs. Support vector machine (SVM) is applied to generate predictive model for each MDD-clustered motif. According to five-fold cross-validation, the MDD-clustered SVMs could achieve an accuracy of 0.902, and provides a promising performance in an independent test set. The effectiveness of the model was demonstrated on the correct identification of previously reported S-nitrosylation sites of Bos taurus dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase 1 (DDAH1) and human hemoglobin subunit beta (HBB). Finally, the MDD-clustered model was adopted to construct an effective web-based tool, named SNOSite (http://csb.cse.yzu.edu.tw/SNOSite/), for identifying S-nitrosylation sites on the uncharacterized protein sequences.
A bio-inspired two-layer multiple-walled carbon nanotube-polymer composite sensor array and a bio-inspired fast-adaptive readout circuit for a portable electronic nose
(2011-07-15)
Wang, L. C.
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Tang, K. T.
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Chiu, S. W.
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Yang, S. R.
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Kuo, C. T.
We report a fully integrated, portable, battery-operated electronic nose system comprising a bio-inspired two-layer multiple-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT)-polymer composite sensor array, a bio-inspired fast-adaptive readout circuit, and a microprocessor embedded with a pattern recognition algorithm. The two-layer MWNT-polymer composite sensor is simple to operate, and the membrane quality can be easily controlled. These two-layer membranes have improved sensitivity and stability. The fast-adaptive readout circuit responds to the sensor response, while tuning out the long-term constant background humidity, temperature, and odors. This portable electronic nose system successfully classified four complex alcohol samples 40 times for each sample; these samples were sake, sorghum liquor, medical liquor, and whisky. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
有機發光元件及其製法
(2011-07-16)
孟心飛
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洪勝富
;
曾信榮
;
游佳達
;
葉重麟
提供一種有機發光元件，包括：第一電極；第二電極；介於該第一電極和第二電極之間的發光層，其中，該發光層包含本發明之式(I)化合物及式(II)化合物，其中，各取代基之定義係如說明書所界定；形成於該發光層與第一電極之間的第一載子傳輸層；以及形成於該發光層與第二電極之間的第二載子傳輸層。此外，用以製作本發明有機發光元件之全溶液製程可避免層間互溶，而獲致製作大面積元件及降低成本之優點。
電阻式隨存記憶體之製作方法
(2011-07-16)
曾俊元
;
王聖裕
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蔡承翰
本發明提供一種電阻式隨存記憶體之製作方法，包含：(a)於一基材上形成一第一電極；(b)於該第一電極上以一175℃至225℃的製程溫度形成一氧化鋯之可變電阻層；及(c)於該可變電阻層上形成一Ti的第二電極。
壓電揚聲器及其之最佳化設計方法
(2011-07-16)
白明憲
;
蔡耀坤
本發明係揭露一種壓電揚聲器及其之最佳化設計方法，其中揚聲器結構係由框架固定至少一片壓電片，以壓電片來固定支撐振膜於框架內，而在壓電片與振膜之間設有一墊塊連接二者，此種揚聲器由於以穩定的框架固定壓電片，可加強平面揚聲器在低頻方面的頻率響應表現；另外，本發明之最佳化設計之方法以有限元素法建立壓電揚聲器之數學模型，進而模擬出揚聲器的聲壓負載，再利用模擬退火法來取得壓電揚聲器的結構最佳化之設計參數。
有機發光材料、使用該有機發光材料之有機發光元件及其製法
(2011-07-16)
孟心飛
;
洪勝富
;
曾信榮
;
游佳達
;
葉重麟
提供一種具有下式(I)之化合物：其中，各取代基之定義係如說明書所界定。該化合物可與其他有機發光材料合併用於有機發光元件發光層。本發明亦提供一種有機發光元件，係包括第一電極、第二電極、以及具有至少三層介於該第一電極與第二電極之間的有機材料層，其中，作為發光層的該層含有該式(I)化合物。此外，用以製作本發明有機發光元件之全溶液製程可避免層間互溶，而獲致製作大面積元件及降低成本之優點。
可參數化管線式快速傅利葉轉換硬體產生器
(2011-07-16)
黃俊達
;
王毓翔
;
林步青
;
周景揚
一種可參數化管線式快速傅利葉轉換硬體產生器，包括複數個包含第一蝶型運算的第一蝶型裝置，複數個包含該第一蝶型運算及一乘-i的複數乘法運算的第二蝶型裝置，複數個暫存器以及複數個連線陣列，其中，該連線陣列In之定義為、
A cross-strait comparative study of efficiency of life insurance companies: An application of the input slack adjustment approach
(2011-07-18)
Zhi, Yan
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Hu, Jin-Li
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經營管理研究所
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Institute of Business and Management
This paper applies the three-stage approach proposed by Fried et al. (2002) to analyze the efficiency of life insurance companies in the Mainland and Taiwan areas. This approach adjusts the input slacks obtained by data envelopment analysis (DEA) via the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Our major empirical findings are: (1) Efficiency scores of life insurance companies in both areas are significantly affected by both environmental factors and statistical noises. After input slack adjustments, the average efficiency score drops for 72.17%; (2) Compared to those companies in the Taiwan area, the life companies in the Mainland area have a large diversion in efficiency scores which range from less than 10 to 78.3%; (3) Debt equity has a significant effect to increase efficiency, indicating that increases in the market share and financial leverage ratio help promote efficiency; (4) Ownership types have different advantageous effects on different inputs. (5) The years since establishment have no significant effects on efficiency, indicating that the younger mainland Chinese life insurance companies do not have disadvantages because it is in an open and competitive market environment; (6) Under a similar environment, Taiwan-based life insurance companies are more efficient than mainland-based ones. The input slacks and managerial efficiency of life insurance companies in Taiwan and mainland China are significantly affected by environmental factors, showing that institutional reform does matter for improving the efficiency of financial institutions.
Inductively coupled plasma grown semiconductor films for low cost solar cells with improved light-soaking stability
(2011-07-18)
Shen, Chang-Hong
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Shieh, Jia-Min
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Huang, Jung Y.
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Kuo, Hao-Chung
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Hsu, Chih-Wei
We investigate the performance of a single-junction amorphous Si (a-Si) solar cell fabricated with inductively coupled plasma (ICP) deposition technique. The high-density plasma resulting from high dissociation capacity of ICP enables good-quality hydrogenated Si films to be synthesized at low temperatures. High-density ICP also promotes the diffusion of reactive radicals on substrates and forms a-Si:H films with low defect density (similar to 3 x 10(15) cm(-3)). We demonstrate single-junction a-Si solar cells with a conversion efficiency of 9.6% and improved light-soaking stability. This low thermal-budget thin-film technique could open up the feasibility of efficient thin film solar cells on flexible substrates. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3615650]
Biomimetic nanostructured antireflection coating and its application on crystalline silicon solar cells
(2011-07-18)
Chen, J. Y.
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Chang, W. -L.
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Huang, C. K.
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Sun, K. W.
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應用化學系
In this report, we demonstrate the implementation of biomimetic nanostructured antireflection coatings with polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) layer on the micro-textured surface of silicon crystalline solar cells. To reduce cost, the process combines colloidal lithography, cast molding method, and reversal nanoimprint lithography. The technique is simple, low cost, and does not cause damage to the thin and brittle conventional crystalline solar cells. The antireflection properties of this biomimetic nanostructure coating are considered as effective as those of a conventional single-layer SiN(x) thin film. The resultant structures alone could reduce the average reflectance of solar cell from 13.2% to 7.8% and enhance power conversion efficiency from 12.85% to 14.2%. (C)2011 Optical Society of America
Luminescence Investigation on Ultraviolet-Emitting Rare-Earth-Doped Phosphors Using Synchrotron Radiation
(2011-07-18)
Huang, Chien-Hao
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Chen, Teng-Ming
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Cheng, Bing-Ming
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應用化學系
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Department of Applied Chemistry
Three series of new ultraviolet-emitting Ca(9)Y(PO(4))(7):Ln(3+) (Ln = Ce, Gd, Pr) phosphors were synthesized, and their luminescence was investigated. Under vacuum ultraviolet excitation Ca(9)Y(PO(4))(7):Ce(3+) phosphors emit UVA light with one broad emission centered at 346 nm, on account of the 5d(1)-> 4f(1) transition of Ce(3+) ions; the optimal doping concentration of these phosphors is 0.2 mol. Ca(9)Y(PO(4))(7):G(3+) phosphors show a strong 4f(7)-> 4f(7) transition and a sharp UVB, emission band at 312 nm; the optimal doping concentration of these phosphors is 0.7 mol. The PL spectra of Ca(9)Y(PO(4))(7):Pr(3+) show two broad UVC emission bands centered between 230 and 340 nm, owing to the 4f(1)5d(1)-> 4f(2) transition of Pr(3+) ions; the optimal, doping concentration of these phosphors is 0.2 mol. Under 172 nm excitation, we found that the luminescence intensity of the UVA-emitting Ca(9)Y(PO(4))(7):0.2Ce(3+) is 0.3675 times that of BaSi(2)O(5):0.05Pb(2+), that of the UVB-emitting Ca(9)Y(PO(4))(7):0.7Gd(3+) is 1.7 times that of YAl(3)(BO(3))(4):0.25Gd(3+), and that of the UVC-emitting Ca(9)Y(PO(4))(7):0.2Pr(3+) is 1.5 times that of LaPO(4):0.1Pr(3+). The thermal stability investigation indicated that the luminescence decay was only 9.2%, 18.2%, and 10.3% for Ca(9)Y(PO(4))(7):0.2Ce(3+); Ca(9)Y(PO(4))(7):0.7Gd(3+), and Ca(9)Y(PO(4))(7):0.2Pr(3+) at 250 degrees C relative to that at ambient temperature, respectively. The Ca(9)Y(PO(4))(7):Ln(3+) (Ln = Ce, Gd, Pr) phosphors exhibit high emission efficiency and excellent thermal stability.
Exploring the influence of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation on corporate performance using a modified data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach
(2011-07-18)
Tsai, Bi-Huei
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管理學院
;
College of Management
The benefit of enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for corporate performance is almost ignored at earlier works. To advance earlier researches, this work employs financial data to explore factors of performance advance by illustrating the association between operation management and ERP installation. A two-stage analysis is made to achieve the aim. Firstly, input-output efficiency of a firm is evaluated based on a modified data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach, which controls the variations of macroeconomic prosperity among sample years. Secondly, exactly how the embedded modules of ERP systems enhance the input-output efficiency of a firm is then explored by performing Tobin regression analysis. Comparing the input-output efficiency between the pre-ERP and post-ERP periods, the input-output efficiency is proved to be higher in the post-ERP period since firms benefit from shorter turnover days of account receivable and inventories, as well as longer unpaid accounts turnover days after installing ERP. In addition, Tobit regression results indicate that acceleration of account collections, reduction of inventory levels and consulting support of leading vendors improve the input-output efficiency of the firms. This finding suggests that operational improvement owing to implementation of ERP systems increases the corporate performance.
Routing method and routing path recovery mechanism in wireless sensor network environment
(2011-07-19)
Lai Jun-Yu
;
Huang Kuei-Li
;
Wang Jui-Tang
;
Tseng Chien-Chao
;
Wu Chao-Nan
The present invention discloses an asymmetric routing method and routing path recovery mechanism. The wireless sensor network environment includes at least a management unit, at least a gateway, and mobile nodes. When joining, each mobile node obtains an unique ID code and, additionally, a depth as the gradient to the management unit. Accordingly, a mobile node sends an uplink packet via a nearby node with lower depth to the management unit; while the management unit transmits a downlink packet to a mobile node by utilizing the source route method. When the parent node of a mobile node is damaged or moves to another position or said mobile node with its sub-tree descendants changes their position together, the uplink routing path is recovered via selecting a nearby node of the sub-tree as relay node and the downlink routing path is recovered via sending a control message to the management unit.
Manufacture method of a multilayer structure having non-polar a-plane {11-20} III-nitride layer
(2011-07-19)
Lee Wei-I
;
Chen Jenn-Fang
;
Chiang Chen-Hao
A manufacture method of a multilayer structure having a non-polar a-plane {11-22} III-nitride layer includes forming a nucleation layer on a r-plane substrate, wherein the nucleation layer is composed of multiple nitride layers; and forming a non-polar a-plane {11-20} III-nitride layer on the nucleation layer. The nucleation layer features reduced stress, reduced phase difference of lattice, blocked elongation of dislocation, and reduced density of dislocation. Thus, the non-polar a-plane {11-20} III-nitride layer with flat surface can be formed.
Reply to Guedj et al.: Early transient increase of hepatitis C virus viral load in genotype 1 and 2 infections, and the use of mathematical modeling
(2011-07-19)
Hsu, Ching-Sheng
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Chen, Hung-Chia
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Jeng, Jenher
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Kao, Jia-Horng
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Chen, Ding-Shinn
交大e-News第098期
(2011-07-20)
Secretariat
;
國立交通大學秘書室
Signature of the Schwinger pair creation rate via radiation generated in graphene by a strong electric current
(2011-07-20)
Lewkowicz, M.
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Kao, H. C.
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Rosenstein, B.
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電子物理學系
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Department of Electrophysics
Electron-hole pairs are copiously created by an applied electric field near the Dirac point in graphene or similar two-dimensional electronic systems. It was shown recently that for sufficiently large electric fields E and ballistic times the I-V characteristics become strongly nonlinear due to Schwinger's pair creation rate, proportional to E(3/2). Since there is no energy gap the radiation from the pairs' annihilation is enhanced. The spectrum of radiation is calculated and exhibits a maximum at omega = root eEv(g)/h. The angular and polarization dependence of the emitted photons with respect to the graphene sheet is quite distinctive. For very large currents the recombination rate becomes so large that it leads to the second Ohmic regime due to radiation friction.
High-accuracy thickness measurement of a transparent plate with the heterodyne central fringe identification technique
(2011-07-20)
Wu, Wang-Tsung
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Hsieh, Hung-Chih
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Chang, Wei-Yao
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Chen, Yen-Liang
;
Su, Der-Chin
In a modified Twyman-Green interferometer, the optical path variation is measured with the heterodyne central fringe identification technique, as the light beam is focused by a displaced microscopic objective on the front/rear surface of the test transparent plate. The optical path length variation is then measured similarly after the test plate is removed. The geometrical thickness of the test plate can be calculated under the consideration of dispersion effect. This method has a wide measurable range and a high accuracy in the measurable range. (c) 2011 Optical Society of America