Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2018-12-30"

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Impedimetric biosensor for detection of cancer cells employing carbohydrate targeting ability of Concanavalin A
(2018-12-30)
Chowdhury, Ankan Dutta
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Ganganboina, Akhilesh Babu
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Park, Enoch Y.
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Doong, Ruey-an
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環境工程研究所
The successful development of selective detection of cancer cells from normal cells is a highly demanded but challenging task. Herein, we have developed a rapid and label-free impedimetric biosensor for quantitative determination of cancer cells with high glycoprotein expression. Homogenously distributed 2-9 nm graphene quantum dots (GQDs) was anchored on the surface Fe3O4 through covalent bonding. Concovalin A (ConA) was then adhered onto GQDs by physical mixing to fabricate ConA-GQD@Fe3O4 nanosensing probe. A good dynamic range in the cell concentration of 5 x 10(2)-1 x 105 cells mL(-1) with LOD values of 246 and 367 cells mL(-1) for HeLa and MCF-7, respectively, is obtained. The impedimetric responses to the cancerous HeLa and MCF-7 cells are 16.7 and 13.1 times higher than those of their original sensor electrodes. However, the interaction between sensing probe and normal MCF-10 and bEnd.3 cells is negligible, confirming the specific selectivity toward cancer cells. Cellular uptake images as well as in-vitro cytotoxicity corroborates the electrochemical results. In addition, the successful detection of cancer cells in human serum and circulating tumor cells in blood sample envisions the feasibility of using ConA-GQD@Fe3O4 as the nanosensing probe for clinically early diagnosis of cancer cells with high glycoprotein expression.
情挑客家戲榮興新生力
(國立交通大學傳播與科技學系, 2018-12-30)
沈品妤
榮興客家採茶劇團由鄭榮興老師創辦，屢屢榮獲教育部的文化獎項，更多次展開海外巡演。這個1986年重組，1988年正式登記成立的劇團，如今，在新生代的努力下，正訴說著更多不一樣的故事……
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.
Vaginal microbiome variances in sample groups categorized by clinical criteria of bacterial vaginosis
(2018-12-31)
Chen, Hui-Mei
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Chang, Tzu-Hao
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Lin, Feng-Mao
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Liang, Chao
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Chiu, Chih-Min
BackgroundOne of the most common and recurrent vaginal infections is bacterial vaginosis (BV). The diagnosis is based on changes to the normal vaginal microbiome; however, the normal microbiome appears to differ according to reproductive status and ethnicity, and even among individuals within these groups. The Amsel criteria and Nugent score test are widely used for diagnosing BV; however, these tests are based on different criteria, and so may indicate distinct changes in the vaginal microbial community. Nevertheless, few studies have compared the results of these test against metagenomics analysis.MethodsVaginal flora samples from 77 participants were classified according to the Amsel criteria and Nugent score test. The microbiota composition was analyzed using 16S ribosome RNA gene amplicon sequencing. Bioinformatics analysis and multivariate statistical analysis were used to evaluate the microbial diversity and function.ResultsOnly 3 % of the participants diagnosed BV negative using the Amsel criteria (A-) were BV-positive according to the Nugent score test (N+), while over half of the BV-positive patients using the Amsel criteria (A+) were BV-negative according to the Nugent score test (N-). Thirteen genera showed significant differences in distribution among BV status defined by BV tests (e.g., A-N-, A+N- and A+N+). Variations in the four most abundant taxa, Lactobacillus, Gardnerella, Prevotella, and Escherichia, were responsible for most of this dissimilarity. Furthermore, vaginal microbial diversity differed significantly among the three groups classified by the Nugent score test (N-, N+, and intermediate flora), but not between the Amsel criteria groups. Numerous predictive microbial functions, such as bacterial chemotaxis and bacterial invasion of epithelial cells, differed significantly among multiple BV test, but not between the A- and A+ groups.ConclusionsMetagenomics analysis can greatly expand our current understanding of vaginal microbial diversity in health and disease. Metagenomics profiling may also provide more reliable diagnostic criteria for BV testing.
Modeling creativity performance and the psychological contract in technology industry
(交通大學, 2018-12-31)
Yuan-Hui Tsai
本研究預測心理契約為沈浸經驗與創造力績效之主要驅動力，在本研究所提出的架構中，創造力績效受到訓練型契約、交易型契約與關係型契約的直接影響，同時透過沈浸經驗的中介而受到此三種契約的間接影響。本研究透過調查科技產業品管部門的專業人員來進行實證，同時確認沈浸理論對於認識創造力績效的可應用性，最後，本研究提供管理意涵與研究限制。
Trade-off or complement? Choices along ambidextrous paths from resource allocation through performance
(交通大學, 2018-12-31)
Fen-May Liou
為因應變動的產業環境，經理人必須先進行主觀的目標選擇，再以此為基準，分配其有限資源，藉以建構及累積其探索與開發之能量，從而得以達成其長短期績效目標。本研究蒐集Compustat北美資料庫中電腦相關服務業之資料，進行檢定之結果支持資源配置透過探索與開發能力影響績效之假說。本研究實驗結果亦顯示，探索能力與開發能力對資源配置轉換長期與短期績效之過程，同時存在抵換效果與互補效果，雙元能力即為經理人之管理的一個循環的動態過程，以重構探索—開發混合能力的為核心，在長、短期績效目標及資源配置間不斷的重複進行決策。
The influence of mere virtual presence with product experience and social virtual product experience on brand attitude and purchase intention: Conformity and social ties as moderators
(交通大學, 2018-12-31)
Ching-Jui Keng
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Yu-Hsin Chen
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Ying-Hsuan Huang
本研究目的是比較單純虛擬在場產品經驗 (mere virtual presence with product experience, MVPE) 與社交虛擬產品經驗(social virtual product experience, SVPE) 在線上品牌社群效果的差異影響，並以從眾行為和社會連結為干擾變數，評估對各種虛擬產品體驗類型(MVPE、SVPE) 之間的線上品牌社群效果。本研究實驗設計採3 (MVPE、給予式SVPE-C2C、交換式SVPE-B2C) × 2 (從眾行為：高/低) × 2 (社會連結：強連結/弱連結)在Facebook 上的研究假設。研究結果顯示，不同的虛擬產品體驗類型對品牌社群效果具有差異。另外，從眾行為和社會連結在虛擬產品體驗類型(MVPE、SVPE)和品牌社群效果之間具有干擾效果。不論社會連結為高或低，在搭配從眾行為的交互干擾作用下，SVPE 的品牌社群效果皆優於MVPE。雖然虛擬產品經驗的重要性不斷地增加，但在研究上仍然缺乏從人機互動和人際互動相結合的虛擬產品經驗對消費者行為影響的研究。
How the introduction of stock repurchases affects dividend payouts under a full imputation system?
(交通大學, 2018-12-31)
Chin-Horng Chan
;
Ming-Hsun Lin
本研究探討2000 年起，台灣開放實施庫藏股買回制度後，對公司現金股利政策的影響。我們分別以現金股利和總現金發放，透過Lintner (1956)模型驗證完全替代效果以及財務彈性假說。而且，台灣的股票市場被La Portaet al. (2000) 歸類為法令對小股東保護較弱的市場之一，股利政策應該適用股利替代模型，本研究結合股利代理模型與Lintner 模型，進一步驗證公司治理對現金股利政策的影響。本研究發現，在兩稅合一及資本利得免稅的環境下，庫藏股買回制度開放後，台灣上市公司的現金股利與總現金發放同時增加，但是，與總現金發放相較，現金股利較具有僵固性，此一結果不符合現金股利與庫藏股完全替代假說，卻支持現金股利來自持久盈餘的財務彈性假說。最後，本研究發現，公司治理良善的公司，所發放的現金股利與總現金發放金額，比公司治理較弱者高，該結果不支持股利替代效果，而是符合股利結果模型。
經是土地之情，緯是文化之育——水妹手作張秀雲
(國立交通大學傳播與科技學系, 2018-12-31)
簡梵軒
水妹手作的負責人張秀雲與自然比鄰而居，默默於文化延續的農地上耕耘。她毅然決然地重回山上的造紙聚落，希望能將造紙這項扎根當地的珍貴文化引回現今的時代潮流。
Development of a Smart Assistance System for Patients With Blepharoptosis
(2019-01-01)
Lien, Ching-Feng
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Wu, Pei-Jung
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Liao, Lu-Xun
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Jeng, Seng-Feng
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Chang, Li-Ren
Blepharoptosis is defined as an abnormal low-lying upper eyelid margin in primary gaze. Without adequate management, the disease may cause amblyopia, strabismus, and astigmatism in children as well as constriction of the upper visual field, blurred vision, increased tearing, fatigue, and frontal headache in adults. In most cases of blepharoptosis, surgical intervention is the primary treatment. However, the risk of recurrence is high, and some complications may occur after the surgical intervention. Although ptosis crutches and magnetic eyelid devices have been reported to be beneficial for managing the disease, many disadvantages must be overcome. To avoid sequelae from the disease and to mitigate the discomfort and complications, this study proposes a novel assistance system. In this system, a controllable permanent electromagnet and a piece of iron sheet affixed to the paralytic upper eyelid were used for elevating the drooping eyelid according to the degree of the eyelid being opened or closed, as estimated by an optical probe. Finally, the performance of the proposed system in detecting eyelid actions and the effect of eyelid elevation were validated. The experimental results showed that the proposed system could effectively detect eyelid closing events and successfully, symmetrically, and synchronously elevate the drooping upper eyelid with a mean correction of 3.5 +/- 0.4 mm (range, 2.7 - 4.0 mm) in 14 patients with unilateral blepharoptosis. The proposed system therefore may be applied to patients with unilateral blepharoptosis in the future.
Using Exponentially Weighted Moving Average to Improve Buffer Adjustment of Demand-Driven Replenishment Strategies
(2019-01-01)
Chang, Yung-Chia
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Chang, Kuei-Hu
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Lee, Mu-Chien
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Tsao, Kuo-Hao
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工業工程與管理學系
Stock management is a critical issue in supply chain management. Previous studies have shown that the demand-pull inventory replenishment strategy combined with a buffer management mechanism (DPBM) suggested by the theory of constraints (TOC) performs better than traditional replenishment strategies in supply chain stock management. In DPBM, buffer management is applied for controlling the target amount of stock to keep, which is adjusted by some predetermined rules that instruct when and how much to adjust the target level. Previous studies found that when applying DPBM to making replenishment decisions for products with a high-variation demand, long production lead-time, and short product life cycle, the conventional DPBM is not very effective. This article proposes a novel method for improving the conventional buffer management mechanism. Instead of the predetermined rules suggested by TOC, this study borrowed the concept of the exponentially weighted moving average approach that has been successfully applied in statistical quality control to design a new set of rules to assist in making buffer adjustment decisions based on the trends shown in demand. To evaluate the proposed method's feasibility and validity, this article uses both real demand data provided by a wafer foundry factory in Taiwan and simulated data that reveal various demand patterns. As a result, the proposed method performs better than the conventional demand-driven replenishment strategies suggested by TOC, especially when demand has a large variance.
Unravelling the Spatio-Temporal Neurodynamics of Rhythm Encoding-reproduction Networks by a Novel fMRI Autoencoder
(2019-01-01)
Kao, Chia-Hsiang
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Yang, Ching-Ju
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Cheng, Li-Kai
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Yu, Hsin-Yen
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Chen, Yong-Sheng
Visualization of how the external stimuli are processed dynamically in the brain would help understanding the neural mechanisms of functional segregation and integration. The present study proposed a novel temporal autoencoder to estimate the neurodynamics of functional networks involved in rhythm encoding and reproduction. A fully-connected two-layer autoencoder was proposed to estimate the temporal dynamics in functional magnetic resonance image recordings. By minimizing the reconstruction error between the predicted next time sample and the corresponding ground truth next time sample, the system was trained to extract spatial patterns of functional network dynamics without any supervision effort. The results showed that the proposed model was able to extract the spatial patterns of task-related functional dynamics as well as the interactions between them. Our findings suggest that artificial neural networks would provide a useful tool to resolve temporal dynamics of neural processing in the human brain.
Contrastive Feature Learning and Class-Weighted Loss for Facial Action Unit Detection
(2019-01-01)
Wu, Bing-Fei
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Wei, Yin-Tse
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Wu, Bing-Jhang
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Lin, Chun-Hsien
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電控工程研究所
Facial action unit detection (FAUD) is aimed to detect subtle facial motions, known as action units (AUs), induced by the traction or towing of facial muscles. In recent years, FAUD has become an attractive task since these slight changes on face reveal some cues of emotions which can then be utilized to infer people's affective. Many prior works are developed based on physical features of AUs, such as regional occurrence and temporal continuity, but few of them concern the negative impact of individual differences, causing an unrobust result in variant subjects and environments. To deal with the problem, a contrastive feature learning method is proposed to make a convolutional neural network (CNN) learn to extract the contrastive feature which is the difference between the features of a neutral face image and an AU-occurred face image. In this way, the individual information will be mitigated so that it becomes easier to detect AUs according to the features. A great disparity between the number of positive and negative samples, named as data imbalance, makes a serious interference in most detection problems, including FAUD. A lower occurrence rate of an AU leads a more severe data imbalance problem, which results in a biased result for the AU detection. Therefore, the class-weighted loss is proposed to change the weight-ratio between the positive and negative samples so as to encourage the learning of the positive samples and ease that of negative samples. Two widely used databases, BP4D and DISFA, are adopted to be the benchmark of the performance testing. In the experiment, it shows that the proposed method performs well both in accuracy and speed comparing with the state-of-the-art approaches.
Reducing intercity bus crashes through driver rescheduling
(2019-01-01)
Wang, Shuo-Yen
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Wu, Kun-Feng
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運輸與物流管理系註：原交通所+運管所
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Department of Transportation and Logistics Management
Intercity bus crashes often involve driver fatigue, which itself is usually the result of sleep deprivation, long driving hours, a maladjusted circadian rhythm, or some combination of the above. And driver scheduling has long been suspected as the root cause affecting sleepiness and fatigue. As such, a fundamental question for intercity bus carriers is how to reduce crashes associated with driver schedules, while maintaining a nonstop service? This research seeks to develop a paradigm to minimize overall fleet crash risk by rescheduling. In this study, we first identified those driving schedules associated with the highest crash risks, and a rescheduling scheme is then proposed to reduce fleet crashes overall. A case-study approach was employed to identify driver scheduling associated with higher crash risk, and a mathematical program was then formulated to minimize fleet crash risk. Our results showed that several types of driver schedules would lead to higher crash risk; for example: (1) working in the afternoon or early hours in the morning for two consecutive days; and (2) commencing a driving shift in the mornings, the afternoon or the early hours of the morning after being off-duty for more than 24 h. To meet the challenge of maintaining a nonstop service while simultaneously minimizing the crash risk associated with these risk patterns, a mathematical program was developed, and it was found that rescheduling based on our algorithm could reduce the incidence of crashes by approximately 30 percent.
Duckiepond: An Open Education and Research Environment for a Fleet of Autonomous Maritime Vehicles
(2019-01-01)
Lin, Ni-Ching
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Hsiao, Yu-Chieh
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Huang, Yi-Wei
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Hung, Ching-Tung
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Chuang, Tzu-Kuan
Duckiepond is an education and research development environment that includes software systems, educational materials, and of a fleet of autonomous surface vehicles Duck-ieboat. Duckieboats are designed to be easily reproducible with parts from a 3D printer and other commercially available parts, with flexible software that leverages several open source packages. The Duckiepond environment is modeled after Duck-ietown and AI Driving Olympics environments: Duckieboats rely only on one monocular camera, IMU, and GPS, and perform all ML processing using onboard embedded computers. Duckiepond coordinates commonly used middlewares (ROS and MOOS) and containerized software packages in Docker, making it easy to deploy. The combination of learning-based methods together with classic methods enables important maritime missions: track and trail, navigation, and coordinate among Duck-ieboats to avoid collisions. Duckieboats have been operating in a man-made lake, reservoir and river environments. All software, hardware, and educational materials are openly available (https://robotx-nctu.github.io/duckiepond), with the goal of supporting research and education communities across related domains.
Design of Silicon Photonics Based Enhanced Evanescent Coupling Mode-Division Multiplexer and De-multiplexer for Footprint Reduction
(2019-01-01)
Peng, Ching-Wei
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Cheng, Ming-Wei
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Chen, Guan-Hong
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Guo, Pin-Cheng
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Tsai, Jui-Feng
A design of silicon-photonics (SiPh) based 4 x 4 enhanced-evanescent-coupling mode-division-multiplexing (EEC-MDM) multiplexer/de-multiplexer is proposed. Compared with the traditional MDM, our proposed EEC-MDM can significantly reduce the footprint while archiving similar coupling efficiencies.
Solution-processed conductive interconnecting layer for highly-efficient and long-term stable monolithic perovskite tandem solar cells
(2019-01-01)
Chang, Chih-Yu
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Tsai, Bo-Chou
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Hsiao, Yu-Cheng
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Lin, Min-Zhen
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Meng, Hsin-Fei
Although stacking of multiple subcells with complementary bandgaps via an interconnecting layer (ICL) to form multi-junction tandem devices appears to be one of the most promising strategies to increase the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PeSCs), the realization of high efficiency and long-term stable tandem devices based on solution-processed ICL remains highly challenging. In this study, a promising solution-processed ICL consisting of cross-linked p-doped hole transport layer (HTL) and n-doped fullerene electron transport layer for efficient and stable monolithic perovskite tandem solar cells is demonstrated. For the first time, high-performance photo-cross-linkable p-doped HTL material based on poly[bis(4-phenyl)(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)amine] (PTAA) is developed by incorporating 1,2-bis[4-(azido-methyl)phenyl]-1,2-diphenylethene (TPE-MN3) and molybdenum tris-[1-(trifluoroethanoyl)-2-(trifluoromethyl)ethane-1,2-dithiolene] (Mo(tfdCOCF(3))(3)) as the cross-linking agent and p-type dopant, respectively. This HTL exerts multiple positive impact on the device characteristics, including good solvent resistance, appropriate energy level matching, good electrical conductivity, and high compatibility with different perovskite systems. With these desirable characteristics, the series-connected tandem solar cells afford a PCE up to 18.69%, which represents the highest efficiency reported to date for monolithic all-perovskite tandem cells. Additionally, owing to high conductivity of the interfacial layers, a promising PCE up to 16.20% is attained even when the active area is extended to 1.2 cm(2). More encouragingly, the encapsulated tandem cells exhibit remarkable long-term stability, maintaining approximate to 91% of its initial PCE after 9300 h (approximate to 387 days) of air exposure. This work represents an important step forward toward the realization of large-area solution-processed perovskite tandem solar cells with high efficiency and long-term stability.
A Generalized Enhanced Quantum Fuzzy Approach for Efficient Data Clustering
(2019-01-01)
Bharill, Neha
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Patel, Om Prakash
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Tiwari, Aruna
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Mu, Lifeng
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Li, Dong-Lin
Data clustering is a challenging task to gain insights into data in various fields. In this paper, an Enhanced Quantum-Inspired Evolutionary Fuzzy C-Means (EQIE-FCM) algorithm is proposed for data clustering. In the EQIE-FCM, quantum computing concept is utilized in combination with the FCM algorithm to improve the clustering process by evolving the clustering parameters. The improvement in the clustering process leads to improvement in the quality of clustering results. To validate the quality of clustering results achieved by the proposed EQIE-FCM approach, its performance is compared with the other quantum-based fuzzy clustering approaches and also with other evolutionary clustering approaches. To evaluate the performance of these approaches, extensive experiments are being carried out on various benchmark datasets and on the protein database that comprises of four superfamilies. The results indicate that the proposed EQIE-FCM approach finds the optimal value of fitness function and the fuzzifier parameter for the reported datasets. In addition to this, the proposed EQIE-FCM approach also finds the optimal number of clusters and more accurate location of initial cluster centers for these benchmark datasets. Thus, it can be regarded as a more efficient approach for data clustering.
First Demonstration of CMOS Inverter and 6T-SRAM Based on GAA CFETs Structure for 3D-IC Applications
(2019-01-01)
Chang, S. -W.
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Sung, P. -J.
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Chu, T-Y.
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Lu, D. D.
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Wang, C. -J.
For the first time, CMOS inverters and 6T-SRAM cells based on vertically stacked gate-all-around complementary FETs (CFETs) are experimentally demonstrated. Manufacturing difficulties of vertically stacked source and drain electrodes of the CFETs have been overcome by using junctionless transistors, thereby reducing the number of lithographic steps required. Furthermore, with post metallization treatments, both the voltage transfer characteristics (VTCs) of CMOS inverters and butterfly curves of SRAM show significant improvements due to the symmetry of nMOS and pMOS threshold voltages. Simulation shows that 3-dimensional CFET inverters have lower input parasitic capacitance than standard 2-dimensional CMOS, leading to reduced gate delay and lower power consumption.
DISTRIBUTED JOINT TRANSMITTER DESIGN AND SELECTION USING AUGMENTED ADMM
(2019-01-01)
Servetnyk, Mykola
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Fung, Carrson C.
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電子工程學系及電子研究所
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Department of Electronics Engineering and Institute of Electronics
This work considers a design of network in which multiple transmission points (TPs) cooperatively serve users by jointly precoding shared data, Considered problem formulation jointly designs the beamformers and performs TP-UE link selection, which aims in improving overall system rate. Proposed distributed Augmented ADMM algorithm features parallelization among TPs, which has practical importance for computational load distribution and reducing signaling overhead in backhaul. This approach is different from others in literature because it solves a design problem that involves a coupling constraint which no existing algorithm is able to solve, Simulation results are also provided to show that the proposed distributed algorithm performance outperforms previously proposed distributed consensus optimization method and is comparable to its centralized counterpart.