Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2014-06-30"

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A Novel Private Attitude and Public Opinion Dynamics Model for Simulating Pluralistic Ignorance and Minority Influence
(2014-06-30)
Huang, Chung-Yuan
;
Wen, Tzai-Hung
;
交大名義發表
;
National Chiao Tung University
Pluralistic ignorance, a well-documented socio-psychological conformity phenomenon, involves discrepancies between private attitude and public opinion in certain social contexts. However, continuous opinion dynamics models based on a bounded confidence assumption fail to accurately model pluralistic ignorance because they do not address scenarios in which non-conformists do not need to worry about holding and expressing conflicting opinions. Such scenarios reduce the power of continuous opinion dynamics models to explain why certain groups doubt or change their opinions in response to minority views. To simulate the effects of (a) private acceptance of informational social influence and (b) public compliance with normative social influence on pluralistic ignorance and minority influences, we have created an agent-based simulation model in which attitude and opinion respectively represent an agent\'s private and expressed thoughts. Results from a series of simulation experiments indicate model validity equal to or exceeding those of existing opinion dynamics models that are also based on the bounded confidence assumption, but with different dynamics and outcomes in terms of collective opinion and attitude. The results also support the use of our proposed model for computational social psychology applications.
Cord pilot trial - immediate versus deferred cord clamping for very preterm birth (before 32 weeks gestation): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
(2014-06-30)
Pushpa-Rajah, Angela
;
Bradshaw, Lucy
;
Dorling, Jon
;
Gyte, Gill
;
Mitchell, Eleanor J.
Background: Preterm birth is the most important single determinant of adverse outcome in the United Kingdom; one in every 70 babies (1.4%) is born before 32 weeks (very preterm), yet these births account for over half of infant deaths. Deferring cord clamping allows blood flow between baby and placenta to continue for a short time. This often leads to increased neonatal blood volume at birth and may allow longer for transition to the neonatal circulation. Optimal timing for clamping the cord remains uncertain, however. The Cochrane Review suggests that deferring umbilical cord clamping for preterm births may improve outcome, but larger studies reporting substantive outcomes and with long-term follow-up are needed. Studies of the physiology of placental transfusion suggest that flow in the umbilical cord at very preterm birth may continue for several minutes. This pilot trial aims to assess the feasibility of conducting a large randomised trial comparing immediate and deferred cord clamping in the UK. Methods/Design: Women are eligible for the trial if they are expected to have a live birth before 32 weeks gestation. Exclusion criteria are known monochorionic twins or clinical evidence of twin-twin transfusion syndrome, triplet or higher order multiple pregnancy, and known major congenital malformation. The interventions will be cord clamping within 20 seconds compared with cord clamping after at least two minutes. For births with cord clamping after at least two minutes, initial neonatal care is at the bedside. For the pilot trial, outcomes include measures of recruitment, compliance with the intervention, retention of participants and data quality for the clinical outcomes. Information about the trial is available to women during their antenatal care. Women considered likely to have a very preterm birth are approached for informed consent. Randomisation is close to the time of birth. Follow-up for the women is for one year, and for the children to two years of age (corrected for gestation at birth). The target sample size is 100 to 110 mother-infant pairs recruited over 12 months at eight sites.
ChIPseek, a web-based analysis tool for ChIP data
(2014-06-30)
Chen, Ting-Wen
;
Li, Hsin-Pai
;
Lee, Chi-Ching
;
Gan, Ruei-Chi
;
Huang, Po-Jung
Background: Chromatin is a dynamic but highly regulated structure. DNA-binding proteins such as transcription factors, epigenetic and chromatin modifiers are responsible for regulating specific gene expression pattern and may result in different phenotypes. To reveal the identity of the proteins associated with the specific region on DNA, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is the most widely used technique. ChIP assay followed by next generation sequencing (ChIP-seq) or microarray (ChIP-chip) is often used to study patterns of protein-binding profiles in different cell types and in cancer samples on a genome-wide scale. However, only a limited number of bioinformatics tools are available for ChIP datasets analysis. Results: We present ChIPseek, a web-based tool for ChIP data analysis providing summary statistics in graphs and offering several commonly demanded analyses. ChIPseek can provide statistical summary of the dataset including histogram of peak length distribution, histogram of distances to the nearest transcription start site (TSS), and pie chart (or bar chart) of genomic locations for users to have a comprehensive view on the dataset for further analysis. For examining the potential functions of peaks, ChIPseek provides peak annotation, visualization of peak genomic location, motif identification, sequence extraction, and comparison between datasets. Beyond that, ChIPseek also offers users the flexibility to filter peaks and re-analyze the filtered subset of peaks. ChIPseek supports 20 different genome assemblies for 12 model organisms including human, mouse, rat, worm, fly, frog, zebrafish, chicken, yeast, fission yeast, Arabidopsis, and rice. We use demo datasets to demonstrate the usage and intuitive user interface of ChIPseek. Conclusions: ChIPseek provides a user friendly interface for biologists to analyze large scale ChIP data without requiring any programing skills. All the results and figures produced by ChIPseek can be downloaded for further analysis. The analysis tools built into ChIPseek, especially the ones for selecting and examine a subset of peaks from ChIP data, provides invaluable helps for exploring the high through-put data from either ChIP-seq or ChIP-chip.
Cord pilot trial - immediate versus deferred cord clamping for very preterm birth (before 32 weeks gestation): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
(2014-06-30)
Pushpa-Rajah, Angela
;
Bradshaw, Lucy
;
Dorling, Jon
;
Gyte, Gill
;
Mitchell, Eleanor J.
Background: Preterm birth is the most important single determinant of adverse outcome in the United Kingdom; one in every 70 babies (1.4%) is born before 32 weeks (very preterm), yet these births account for over half of infant deaths. Deferring cord clamping allows blood flow between baby and placenta to continue for a short time. This often leads to increased neonatal blood volume at birth and may allow longer for transition to the neonatal circulation. Optimal timing for clamping the cord remains uncertain, however. The Cochrane Review suggests that deferring umbilical cord clamping for preterm births may improve outcome, but larger studies reporting substantive outcomes and with long-term follow-up are needed. Studies of the physiology of placental transfusion suggest that flow in the umbilical cord at very preterm birth may continue for several minutes. This pilot trial aims to assess the feasibility of conducting a large randomised trial comparing immediate and deferred cord clamping in the UK. Methods/Design: Women are eligible for the trial if they are expected to have a live birth before 32 weeks gestation. Exclusion criteria are known monochorionic twins or clinical evidence of twin-twin transfusion syndrome, triplet or higher order multiple pregnancy, and known major congenital malformation. The interventions will be cord clamping within 20 seconds compared with cord clamping after at least two minutes. For births with cord clamping after at least two minutes, initial neonatal care is at the bedside. For the pilot trial, outcomes include measures of recruitment, compliance with the intervention, retention of participants and data quality for the clinical outcomes. Information about the trial is available to women during their antenatal care. Women considered likely to have a very preterm birth are approached for informed consent. Randomisation is close to the time of birth. Follow-up for the women is for one year, and for the children to two years of age (corrected for gestation at birth). The target sample size is 100 to 110 mother-infant pairs recruited over 12 months at eight sites.
Two-dimensional photo-mapping on CMOS single-photon avalanche diodes
(2014-06-30)
Wu, Jau-Yang
;
Lu, Ping-Keng
;
Lin, Sheng-Di
;
電子工程學系及電子研究所
;
Department of Electronics Engineering and Institute of Electronics
Two-dimensional (2-D) photo-count mapping on CMOS single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) has been demonstrated. Together with the varied incident wavelengths, the depth-dependent electric field distribution in active region has been investigated on two SPADs with different structures. Clear but different non-uniformity of photo-response have been observed for the two studied devices. With the help of simulation tool, the non-uniform photo-counts arising from the electric field non-uniformity have been well explained. As the quasi-3D distribution of electric field in the active region can be mapped, our method is useful for engineering the device structure to improve the photo-response of SPADs. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America
Broadband and omnidirectional antireflection from conductive indium-tin-oxide nanocolumns prepared by glancing-angle deposition with nitrogen (Retraction of vol 94, 051114, 2009)
(2014-06-30)
Chang, C. H.
;
Yu, Peichen
;
Yang, C. S.
;
光電工程學系
;
Department of Photonics
燃料電池系統及其熱回收方法
(2014-07-01)
陳宗麟
;
吳健彰
本發明提供一種燃料電池系統,其至少包含燃料電池、後燃器、熱交換裝置與重組器。其中,後燃器係連接燃料電池以接收燃料電池剩餘之殘料而產生高溫氣體。熱交換裝置至少包含第一熱交換單元及其連接之第二熱交換單元,且第二熱交換單元與燃料輸入管連通以接收燃料。重組器分別連接後燃器、第一熱交換單元與第二熱交換單元,而後燃器輸出之高溫氣體依序傳送至重組器、第一熱交換單元與第二熱交換單元,且高溫氣體提供重組器使第二熱交換單元輸出之燃料重組為富氫氣體所需之熱能。同時,上述燃料電池系統的熱回收方法亦揭露於本發明中。
Biodegradable amphiphilic gelatin/calcium phosphate co-delivery systems with simultaneously encapsulating hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs for enhanced tumor therapy
(2014-07-01)
Chen, S.
;
Li, W.
;
Su, C.
;
Chen, Y.
;
材料科學與工程學系
Benefit Analysis of Knowledge Management System for Engineering Consulting Firms
(2014-07-01)
Yang, Jyh-Bin
;
Yu, Wen-Der
;
Tseng, Judy C. R.
;
Chang, Chia-Shin
;
Chang, Pei-Lun
Engineering consulting (EC) firms in the construction industry are knowledge-intensive and experience-based organizations. As the knowledge accumulated from previous experiences is the essential asset for wining and managing future projects, many EC firms have developed diversified knowledge management systems (KMSs) to accumulate and retain this essential knowledge. However, evaluation methods and results regarding the benefit analysis of KMSs are rarely found in literature. To evaluate the performances of KMSs, most previous studies have adopted qualitative approaches. This paper, on the other hand, presents a ratio-based approach for evaluating the benefits of KMSs. The proposed approach is tested using one of the KMSs from a study EC firm: the proposal preparation assistant (PPA) system. Based on a test of two real cases, this study found that a 48.7% time reduction in data collection and 25.3% staff-hour savings can be achieved when using the PPA system to prepare service proposal drafts. The results revealed in this study not only prove the usability of the proposed ratio-based benefit analysis approach, but also provide convincing and inspiring information for knowledge management practitioners as they plan their future works. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
畫面估測系統及其估測方法
(2014-07-01)
彭文孝
;
陳渏紋
本發明係揭露一種畫面估測系統及其估測方法，其包含初始模組初始化一具有複數個像素之第一畫面區塊。提供模組係提供一第二畫面區塊之第一重心點及第一運動向量。位置查找模組根據第一重心點查找一位置點，並根據各該像素對第一重心點及位置點之關係，各別對應產生第一權重值和第二權重值。向量查找模組根據第一重心點、第一運動向量、位置點、第一權重值及第二權重值，查找該複數個像素於第一畫面區塊中具有最低像素強度誤差值之第二運動向量。處理模組根據該些運動向量及該些權重值，依序運算各該像素之一預測強度值。
A 2.56 Gb/s Soft RS (255,239) Decoder Chip for Optical Communication Systems
(2014-07-01)
Lin, Yi-Min
;
Hsu, Chih-Hsiang
;
Chang, Hsie-Chia
;
Lee, Chen-Yi
;
電子工程學系及電子研究所
Due to high transmission rate requirement for optical communication systems, the growing uncertainty of received signals results in the limited transmission distance. In this paper, a decision-confined soft RS decoder chip is proposed to enhance the error correcting performance with area-efficient architectures. Instead of generating numerous possible candidate codewords and determining the most likely one as output codeword, our approach produces only one codeword by confining the degree of error location polynomial. Therefore, hardware complexity is significantly reduced by eliminating decision making unit. Moreover, an iteration-reduced RiBM algorithm is provided to enlarge the coding gain by using more least reliable positions (LRPs) in the limited operation latency. According to simulation results, our proposed soft RS (255, 239; 8) decoder with 5 LRPs outperforms 0.4 dB at 10(-4) codeword error rate (CER) as compared to hard RS decoders. Implemented in standard CMOS 90 nm technology, the soft decoder chip can achieve 2.56 Gb/s throughput with similar complexity as a hard decoder. It can fit well for 10-40 Gb/s with 16 RS decoders in optical fiber systems and 2.5 Gb/s GPON applications.
應用增強型窗口方法和相互交替型式於純量乘法演算法之橢圓形曲線加密方法
(2014-07-01)
葉宏男
;
王國禎
;
簡榮宏
本發明係一種應用增強型窗口方法和相互交替型式於純量乘法演算法之橢圓形曲線加密方法。首先選定一條橢圓曲線及在其上的基點。接著依選定之窗口大小，計算出必要之預算點。然後隨機產生私鑰，並利用相互交替型式將私鑰之二進位表示式轉換成帶符號二進位表示式。最後利用增強型窗口方法算出公鑰。藉著大量減少預算點，故此方法可以減少公鑰的產生時間(含計算預算點時間)。
Are all of the human exons alternatively spliced?
(2014-07-01)
Chen, Feng-Chi
;
交大名義發表
;
National Chiao Tung University
Alternative mRNA splicing (AS) is a major mechanism for increasing regulatory complexity. A key concept in AS is the distinction between alternatively and constitutively spliced exons (ASEs and CSEs, respectively). ASEs and CSEs have been reported to be differentially regulated, and to have distinct biological properties. However, the recent flood of RNA-sequencing data has obscured the boundary between ASEs and CSEs. Researchers are beginning to question whether 'authentic CSEs' do exist, and whether the ASE/CSE distinction is biologically invalid. Here, I examine the influences of increasing transcriptome data on the human ASE/CSE classification and our past understanding of the properties of these two types of exons. Interestingly, although the percentage of human ASEs has increased dramatically in recent years, the overall distinction between ASEs and CSEs remain valid. For example, CSEs are longer, evolve more slowly, and less frequently correspond to intrinsically disordered protein regions than ASEs. In addition, only a relatively small number of human genes have their transcripts composed entirely of ASEs despite the large amount of high-throughput transcriptome information. Therefore, the 'backbone' concept of AS, in which CSEs constitute the invariant part and ASEs the flexible part of the transcript, appears to be generally true despite the increasing percentage of ASEs in the human exome.
Achieving good bias stress reliability in organic transistor with vertical channel
(2014-07-01)
Lin, Hung-Cheng
;
Zan, Hsiao-Wen
;
Meng, Hsin-Fei
;
物理研究所
;
電機學院
Unlike organic field-effect transistor with accumulated channel at dielectric/semiconductor interface, vertical organic transistor exhibits bulk channel current and hence performs good bias stress reliability. Adding self-assemble-monolayer to treat vertical channel can further modulate the charge-trapping surrounding the base electrode and hence influence the bias stress reliability. During 4300-s positive/negative bias stresses, stable output current and on/off ratio are demonstrated by using octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS)-passivated vertical channel. The good reliability together with the low operation voltage and the high output current make vertical organic transistors capable of driving organic light emitting diode. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Study of chemical pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification for producing fermentable sugars from rice straw
(2014-07-01)
Chen, Wen-Hsing
;
Chen, Yi-Chun
;
Lin, Jih-Gaw
;
環境工程研究所
;
Institute of Environmental Engineering
This study evaluated a cost-effective approach for the conversion of rice straw into fermentable sugars. The composition of rice straw pretreated with 1 % sulfuric acid or 1 % sodium hydroxide solution was compared to rice straw with no chemical pretreatment. Enzymatic saccharification experiments on non-pretreated rice straw (NPRS), pretreated rice straw (PRS), and pretreated rice straw with acid hydrolysate (PRSAH) were conducted in a series of batch reactors. The results indicated that pretreating the rice straw with dilute acid and base increased the cellulose content from 38 % to over 50 %. During enzymatic saccharification, straight aliphatic cellulose was hydrolyzed before branched hemicellulose, and glucose was the major hydrolysis product. The glucose yield was 0.52 g glucose/g for NPRS and was comparable to the yields of 0.50 g glucose/g for PRS and 0.58 g glucose/g for PRSAH. The hydrolysis of rice straw to produce glucose can be described by a first-order reaction with a rate constant of 0.0550 d(-1) for NPRS, 0.0653 d(-1) for PRSAH, and 0.0654 d(-1) for PRS. Overall, the production of fermentable sugars from ground rice straw will be more cost effective if the straw is not pretreated with chemicals.
三維積體電路
(2014-07-01)
陳冠能
;
李世偉
一種三維積體電路，其包括一第一晶圓及一第二晶圓。第一晶圓包括一第一導電圖樣。第二晶圓包括一第二導電圖樣，且電性連接第一導電圖樣。其中第一晶圓與第二晶圓的位移量係根據第一導電圖樣及第二導電圖樣的電阻值來決定。
Electrical characteristics of amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O thin-film transistors prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering with varying oxygen flows
(2014-07-01)
Lee, Yih-Shing
;
Yen, Tung-Wei
;
Lin, Cheng-I
;
Lin, Horng-Chih
;
Yeh, Yun
This study investigates impacts of oxygen flow during the deposition of amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) channel layer with a radio frequency (r.f.) magnetron sputter on the electrical characteristics of the fabricated thin-film transistors (TFTs). Results indicate that as the film was deposited with a higher oxygen flow, the transfer curves are positively shifted while the field-effect mobility (mu(FE)) is significantly decreased. To get more insight about the effects, channel resistance (R-CH) and the parasitic source-to-drain resistance (R-SD) of the fabricated devices are extracted using the total resistance method. The extracted a-IGZO channel resistance per unit length (r(ch)) and R-SD are found to increase while the extracted effective mobility (mu(E)) is decreased with increasing oxygen flow during sputtering. These observations are postulated to be related the decrease in the In/(In + Ga + Zn) ratio and the increase in the Zn/(In + Ga + Zn) ratio of the a-IGZO films with increasing the oxygen flow rate which lead to higher resistivity and lower carrier concentration. The extracted R-SD can be comparable with R-CH for the devices prepared with high oxygen flow, resulting in the roll-off of mu(FE) as the channel length is shorter than 20 mu m. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Performance Enhancement of Flip-Chip Packaged AlGaN/GaN HEMTs Using Active-Region Bumps-Induced Piezoelectric Effect
(2014-07-01)
Tsai, Szu-Ping
;
Hsu, Heng-Tung
;
Chiang, Che-Yang
;
Tu, Yung-Yi
;
Chang, Chia-Hua
We experimentally investigated the impact of different bump patterns on the output electrical characteristics of flip-chip (FC) bonded AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors in this letter. The bump patterns were designed and intended to provide different levels of tensile stress due to the mismatch in the coefficient of thermal expansion between the materials. After FC packaging, a maximum increase of 4.3% in saturation current was achieved compared with the bare die when proper arrangement of the bumps in active region was designed. In other words, a 17% improvement has been observed on the optimized bump pattern over the conventional bump pattern. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first letter that investigates the piezoelectric effect induced by FC bumps leading to the enhancement in device characteristics after packaging.
High-Resolution Mapping of Chromatin Packaging in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells and Sperm
(2014-07-01)
Carone, Benjamin R.
;
Hung, Jui-Hung
;
Hainer, Sarah J.
;
Chou, Min-Te
;
Carone, Dawn M.
Mammalian embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and sperm exhibit unusual chromatin packaging that plays important roles in cellular function. Here, we extend a recently developed technique, based on deep paired-end sequencing of lightly digested chromatin, to assess footprints of nucleosomes and other DNA-binding proteins genome-wide in murine ESCs and sperm. In ESCs, we recover well-characterized features of chromatin such as promoter nucleosome depletion and further identify widespread footprints of sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins such as CTCF, which we validate in knockdown studies. We document global differences in nuclease accessibility between ESCs and sperm, finding that the majority of histone retention in sperm preferentially occurs in large gene-poor genomic regions, with only a small subset of nucleosomes being retained over promoters of developmental regulators. Finally, we describe evidence that CTCF remains associated with the genome in mature sperm, where it could play a role in organizing the sperm genome.
An Asymptotic Limit of a Navier-Stokes System with Capillary Effects
(2014-07-01)
Juengel, Ansgar
;
Lin, Chi-Kun
;
Wu, Kung-Chien
;
應用數學系
;
數學建模與科學計算所(含中心)
A combined incompressible and vanishing capillarity limit in the barotropic compressible Navier-Stokes equations for smooth solutions is proved. The equations are considered on the two-dimensional torus with well prepared initial data. The momentum equation contains a rotational term originating from a Coriolis force, a general Korteweg-type tensor modeling capillary effects, and a density-dependent viscosity. The limiting model is the viscous quasi-geostrophic equation for the "rotated" velocity potential. The proof of the singular limit is based on the modulated energy method with a careful choice of the correction terms.