3,322 research outputs found
Productivity Change in Taiwan's Farmers' Credit Unions: A Nonparametric Risk-Adjusted Malmquist Approach
This article proposes an extended three-stage DEA methodology similar to Fried et al. (2002) to improve the measurement of productivity growth then the assumption of free disposability of undesirable outpu t does not apply. A directional distance function is used to construct adjusted Malmquist-Luenberger productivity indexes which simultaneously account for the impacts of undesirable outputs, environmental variables, and statistical noise. Panel data for 264 farmers' credit unions (FCUs) in Taiwan covering the 1998-2000 period are employed to illustrate the advantages of this method. On average, the productivity of Taiwan's FCUs is found to have deteriorated over the 1998-2000 period. Although an improvement in efficiency has been observed, the major reason for the deterioration is found to be due to the regression of techno logy.Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index, three-stage DEA, undesirable outputs, directional distance function, Agricultural Finance, Productivity Analysis,
Q-enhanced fold-and-bond MEMS inductors
This work presents a novel coil fabrication technology
to enhance quality factor (Q factor) of microfabricated inductors
for implanted medical wireless sensing and data/power transfer
applications. Using parylene as a flexible thin-film device
substrate, a post-microfabrication substrate folding-and-bonding
method is developed to effectively increase the metal thickness of
the surface-micromachined inductors, resulting in their lower
self-resistance so their higher quality factor. One-fold-and-bond
coils are successfully demonstrated as an example to verify the
feasibility of the fabrication technology with measurement results
in good agreements with device simulation. Depending on target
specifications, multiple substrate folding-and-bonding can be
extensively implemented to facilitate further improved electrical
characteristics of the coils from single fabrication batch. Such Q-enhanced
inductors can be broadly utilized with great potentials
in flexible integrated wireless devices/systems for intraocular
prostheses and other biomedical implants
Phenotype-based and Self-learning Inter-individual Sleep Apnea Screening with a Level IV Monitoring System
Purpose: We propose a phenotype-based artificial intelligence system that can
self-learn and is accurate for screening purposes, and test it on a Level IV
monitoring system. Methods: Based on the physiological knowledge, we
hypothesize that the phenotype information will allow us to find subjects from
a well-annotated database that share similar sleep apnea patterns. Therefore,
for a new-arriving subject, we can establish a prediction model from the
existing database that is adaptive to the subject. We test the proposed
algorithm on a database consisting of 62 subjects with the signals recorded
from a Level IV wearable device measuring the thoracic and abdominal movements
and the SpO2. Results: With the leave-one cross validation, the accuracy of the
proposed algorithm to screen subjects with an apnea-hypopnea index greater or
equal to 15 is 93.6%, the positive likelihood ratio is 6.8, and the negative
likelihood ratio is 0.03. Conclusion: The results confirm the hypothesis and
show that the proposed algorithm has great potential to screen patients with
SAS
Case Report: Rare percutaneous coronary intervention for “right” main bifurcation
We presented the case of a patient with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction with coronary arteries of an anomalous origin, an interarterial course of the LMCA, a unique wide-angle “right” main bifurcation lesion, and a high SYNTAX score. Management with contemporary PCI and imaging may be an alternative to surgery
An All Deep System for Badminton Game Analysis
The CoachAI Badminton 2023 Track1 initiative aim to automatically detect
events within badminton match videos. Detecting small objects, especially the
shuttlecock, is of quite importance and demands high precision within the
challenge. Such detection is crucial for tasks like hit count, hitting time,
and hitting location. However, even after revising the well-regarded
shuttlecock detecting model, TrackNet, our object detection models still fall
short of the desired accuracy. To address this issue, we've implemented various
deep learning methods to tackle the problems arising from noisy detectied data,
leveraging diverse data types to improve precision. In this report, we detail
the detection model modifications we've made and our approach to the 11 tasks.
Notably, our system garnered a score of 0.78 out of 1.0 in the challenge.Comment: Golden Award for IJCAI CoachAI Challenge 2023: Team NTNUEE AIoTLa
ANALYSIS OF GRIP FORCE DURING GOLF PUTTING AT DIFFERENT DISTANCES - PILOT STUDY
The purpose of this study was to explore the grip force performance at different distances during putting stroke. Four golfers (2 professionals and 2 novices) as accurately as possible executed a putt to reach 1, 2 and 3 m target distance, respectively. Putting motions were recorded by JVC video and grip pressure measurement sensor placed on two hands, allowing the force output of all regions of the hands to be measured. The grip force trace among 1 to 3 m distance was repeatable across putting strokes for each golfer but between golfers was inconsistent. Dominant forces appear to arise primarily from the left hand. In this study, the grip force and force distribution were preliminarily discovered during putting stroke at different distances. This research has suggested a potentially important influence of grip force on the golf putting performance in long distance
Factors Affecting Aluminum Dissolve from Acidified Water Purification Sludge
Recovering resources from water purification sludge (WPS) have been gradually stipulated in environmental protection laws and regulations in many nations. Hence, reusing the WPS is becoming an important topic, and recovering alum from WPS is one of the many practical alternatives. Most previous research efforts have been conducted on studying the amphoteric characteristic of aluminum hydroxide for investigating the optimum pH range to dissolve the Al(III) species from WPS, but it has been lack of reaction kinetics or mechanisms related discussion. Therefore, in this investigation, water purification sludge (WPS) solution was broken by ultrasound to make particle size of reactants smaller, specific surface area larger. According to the reaction kinetics, these phenomena let the dissolved aluminum salt quantity increased and the reaction rate go faster
Antibodies Elicited by Inactivated Propionibacterium acnes-Based Vaccines Exert Protective Immunity and Attenuate the IL-8 Production in Human Sebocytes: Relevance to Therapy for Acne Vulgaris
Propionibacterium acnes is a key pathogen involved in the progression of inflammation in acne vulgaris. We examined whether vaccination against P. acnes suppressed P. acnes-induced skin inflammation. Inactivation of P. acnes with heat was employed to create a P. acnes-based vaccine. Intranasal immunization in mice with this inactivated vaccine provoked specific antibodies against P. acnes. Most notably, immunization with inactivated vaccines generated in vivo protective immunity against P. acnes challenge and facilitated the resolution of ear inflammation in mice. In addition, antibodies elicited by inactivated vaccines effectively neutralized the cytotoxicity of P. acnes and attenuated the production of proinflammatory cytokine IL-8 in human sebocyte SZ95 cells. Intranasal immunization using heat-inactivated P. acnes-based vaccines provided a simple modality to develop acne vaccines. These observations highlight the concept that development of vaccines targeting microbial products may represent an alternative strategy to conventional antibiotic therapy
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