Transcultural Diabetes Nutrition Algorithm: A Malaysian Application

Glycemic control among patients with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) in Malaysia is suboptimal, especially after the continuous worsening over the past decade. Improved glycemic control may be achieved through a comprehensive management strategy that includes medical nutrition therapy (MNT). Evidence-based recommendations for diabetes-specific therapeutic diets are available internationally. However, Asian patients with T2D, including Malaysians, have unique disease characteristics and risk factors, as well as cultural and lifestyle dissimilarities, which may render international guidelines and recommendations less applicable and/or difficult to implement. With these thoughts in mind, a transcultural Diabetes Nutrition Algorithm (tDNA) was developed by an international task force of diabetes and nutrition experts through the restructuring of international guidelines for the nutritional management of prediabetes and T2D to account for cultural differences in lifestyle, diet, and genetic factors. The initial evidence-based global tDNA template was designed for simplicity, flexibility, and cultural modification. This paper reports the Malaysian adaptation of the tDNA, which takes into account the epidemiologic, physiologic, cultural, and lifestyle factors unique to Malaysia, as well as the local guidelines recommendations

Preserved glucagon-like peptide-1 responses to oral glucose, but reduced incretin effect, insulin secretion and sensitivity in young Asians with type 2 diabetes mellitus

OBJECTIVE: Youth onset type 2 diabetes mellitus (YT2DM) is a globally rising phenomenon with substantial Asians representation. The understanding of its pathophysiology is derived largely from studies in the obese African-American and Caucasian populations, while studies on incretin effect are scarce. We examined the insulin resistance, β-cell function (BC), glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 hormone and incretin effect in Asian YT2DM. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This case–control study recruited 25 Asian YT2DM and 15 healthy controls, matched for gender, ethnicity and body mass index. Serum glucose, insulin, C peptide and GLP-1 were sampled during 2-hour oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs) and 1-hour intravenous glucose tolerance tests (IVGTTs). Insulin sensitivity was derived from the Quantitative Insulin Sensitivity Check Index (QUICKI), Oral Glucose Insulin Sensitivity Index (OGIS) in OGTT and surrogate index of SI from the minimal model (calculated SI, CSI). Acute insulin response (AIR) was obtained from IVGTT. Total BC was computed as incremental area under the curve of insulin/incremental area under the curve of glucose, during OGTT (BC(OG)) and IVGTT (BC(IV)), respectively. Disposition index (DI) was calculated using the product of insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion. GLP-1 response to oral glucose was calculated as incremental area under the curve of GLP-1 (ΔAUC(GLP-1)). Per cent incretin effect was estimated as 100×(BC(OG)−BC(IV))/BC(OG)). RESULTS: The YT2DM had marked impairment in BC (>80% reduction in AIR and BC(OG), p<0.001) and lower QUICKI (p<0.001), OGIS (p<0.001) and CSI (p=0.015) compared with controls. There was no difference in GLP-1 at all time points and ΔAUC(GLP-1) but the per cent incretin effect was reduced in the YT2DM compared with controls (12.1±8.93 vs 70.0±4.03, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Asian YT2DM showed similar GLP-1 response to oral glucose as controls but reduced incretin effect, BC and insulin sensitivity. The lack of compensatory mechanisms, as shown by the DI may be partly ascribed to the impaired incretin effect, similar to that of adult T2DM. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NMRR-12-1042-13254

The Relationship between Customers’ Switching Cost and Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Satisfaction

Past researches suggest that switching cost could retain customers and increase their repurchase intention; however, this study does not completely agree with this statement. By treating custom-ers ’ satisfaction as the moderating variable, this study attempts to identify the relationship be-tween switching cost and customers ’ repurchase intention. The research subjects of this study were consumers of mobile phone communication service in Taiwan; the customer satisfaction was divided into high, medium and low degrees. The results indicated that upon different degrees of customer satisfaction, there are different relationships between switching cost and customers’ repurchase intention. Specifically, with high or low customer satisfaction, there is no significant relationship between switching cost and customers ’ repurchase intention. Only with medium cus-tomer satisfaction, there is a significant and positive relationship between switching cost and cus-tomers ’ repurchase intention. Therefore, the enterprises should take care that customer satisfac-tion can not be too low; otherwise, only relying on switching cost, they will not be able to keep the customers

The studies of microstructures and magnetic properties in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic bilayers and [Cu/Co] thin films

The exchange bias of CoFe/(Co,Fe)O and Mn-oxide/FePt bilayers, and the magnetic properties of Cu/Co thin films are studied in this thesis. In Part I, we investigate the effects of ion-beam bombardment on the exchange bias in CoFe/(Co,Fe)O bilayers using single crystalline MgO substrates. Results show that the ion-beam bombardment altered the magnitude of the effective anisotropy field for bilayers grown on an MgO(110) substrate and shifted the easy-plane direction for bilayers grown on an MgO(100) substrate. Our results reflect that the choice of substrate and bombardment conditions provide an efficient route for tuning both the effective unidirectional and uniaxial magnetic anisotropies in magnetic thin films. In Part II, we investigate the exchange coupling between the bottom FePt layer and the different structures of capped Mn-oxide layers in Mn-oxide/FePt bilayers. Results show that the magnetization reversal of the soft FePt layer is strongly influenced by the capped Mn-oxide layer (Mn, MnO, and Mn3O4), as revealed by the enhanced coercivities in the Mn-oxide/FePt bilayers. The typical temperature dependence of magnetization between the zero-field-cooling (ZFC) and field-cooling (FC) curves is observed in an Mn-oxide (8% O2/Ar)/FePt bilayer exhibiting a blocking temperature (TB ≈ 120 K) close to the TN of MnO. However, the Mn/FePt bilayer exhibited unusual the temperature dependence of M on T, implying an intermixing between the Mn and FePt interfaces. This in turn resulted in the formation of interfacial antiferromagnetic FeMn and may give rise to a high irreversibility temperature (Tirr ≈ 400 K), compared to the almost identical ZFC and FC curves in Mn-oxide (21% and 30% O2/Ar)/FePt bilayers that are attributed to the weaker exchange coupling with FePt. In Part III, we examine Cu/Co thin films are grown on SiO2 substrates using a reactive ion-beam deposition technique. The polycrystalline Cu/Co thin films formed as a result of intermixing. The Cu/Co thin films consisted of metallic Cu, Co, CuCo, and the oxides Cu2O and CoO. Magnetometry results show that the ferromagnetic and superparamagnetic behaviors strongly depend on the measuring temperature and the amount of cobalt. However, a much reduced magnetization onset temperature, Ton., which depended on the amount of cobalt in the film, is observed.本論文利用雙離子束濺鍍系統製備(1)CoFe/(Co,Fe)-oxide長在MgO(100)，(110)單晶基板上經由離子束轟擊(VEH= 130V)；(2)藉由不同氧含量改變Mn-oxide/FePt與 (3)[Cu/Co]薄膜之微結構與磁性質的研究。研究結果顯示(1) CoFe/(Co,Fe)-oxide底層經由21% O2/Ar氧含量轟擊下(Co,Fe)O為岩鹽結構，磁性質方面，藉由離子束轟擊過後，室溫下明顯發現矯頑磁力(Hc)的下降與磁滯曲線形狀的改變。經由場冷卻降至低溫(180K和50K)，低溫下有明顯交換偏壓(Hex)產生，並且交換偏壓大小與轟擊跟單晶基板相關。MvsT曲線結果顯示，不同的單晶基板導致MvsT曲線的改變，並且離子束轟擊過後造成不可逆溫度(Tirr)的下降，可以得知單晶基板與適當的轟擊能量可以改變CoFe/(Co,Fe)O磁晶異相性和上層鈷鐵的磁矩排列並導致交換偏壓的變化。(2)Mn-oxide/FePt雙層薄膜結果顯示，軟磁FePt的磁化翻轉強烈受到上層Mn-oxide(Mn,MnO,Mn3O4)的影響，典型的MvsT曲線可以從Mn-oxide(8%)發現，並且阻隔溫度(T¬B)~120K接近MnO的尼爾溫度(TN)。然而Mn(0%)/FePt雙層薄膜異常的MvsT曲線意味著Mn與FePt之間的界面相互混合(intermixing)產生部分的FeMn結構。(3) [Cu/Co]多層薄膜研究結果顯示，從TEM橫結面結果判斷Cu/Co薄膜為相互混合的情況，並且與XRD，TEM繞射環與XPS可以發現有Co，Cu，CuCo，Cu2O與少量的CoO存在，這意味著輔助離子槍在轟擊薄膜的過程中有少量的氧含量導致薄膜有部分的氧化物存在。磁性質結果顯示，隨著不同的Co含量的改變，會有超順磁與鐵磁的現象轉換。低溫180K下，部分超順磁受到熱震動的影響降低轉變成鐵磁性，MvsT行為可以發現隨著Co含量的提高而導致上升了磁化起始溫度(Ton.)，這可能是隨著不同的Co含量導致CuCo量的改變進而影響到Ton.，然而TB~ 50K並無隨任何Co含量有任何變化。此外XacvsT曲線更可以印證出多種不同的相存在導致的變化。Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Possible applications based on the exchange bias phenomenon 2 1.2.1 GMR and TMR 2 1.2.2 Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) 4 1.3 Motivation 5 1.4 Review of earlier work on the exchange bias phenomenon 6 1.4.1 M vs T behavior 6 1.4.2 Ion-beam bombardment effect 8 1.4.3 Interfacial uncompensated antiferromagnetic spins 9 1.4.4 Diluted antiferromagnets in exchange bias 10 1.5 Related work by our research group 11 1.6 Material selection 12 1.7 References for the first chapter 16 Chapter 2 Basic Concepts 19 2.1 Magnetic anisotropy 19 2.2 Theoretical models of the exchange bias phenomenon 21 2.2.1 Ideal interface 24 2.2.2 Random interface 26 2.2.3 Planar AF domain wall 27 2.2.4 Perpendicular interfacial coupling 28 2.2.5 Frozen interface 29 2.2.6 Domain state 30 2.2.7 Thermally induced spontaneous magnetization reversal 32 2.3 References for the second chapter 33 Chapter 3 Experimental equipment 35 3.1 Experimental flowchart 35 3.2 Dual ion-beam deposition (DIBD) technique 35 3.3 Characterizations 39 3.3.1 X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD) 39 3.3.2 Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) 41 3.3.3 X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) 43 3.3.4 Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) 45 3.4 References for the third chapter 46 Chapter 4 Results and discussion 47 4-1 The exchange bias field in CoFe/(Co,Fe)O bilayers using ion-beam bombardment and single crystalline substrates 47 4.1.1 XRD spectra 47 4.1.2 TEM 49 4.1.3 XPS 52 4.1.4 Magnetic hysteresis loop results at room temperature and low temperature 56 4.1.5 Magnetothermal behavior (Magnetization vs Temperature) 64 4-2 Exchange coupling effects in FePt/Mn-oxide bilayers with different O2/Ar ratios 70 4.2.1 XRD spectra 70 4.1.2 TEM 73 4.2.3 Magnetic hysteresis loops at room temperature and low temperature 75 4.2.4 Magnetothermal behavior (Magnetization vs Temperature) 83 4-3 The microstructure and magnetism of Cu-Co thin films modified by deposition processes 85 4.3.1 XRD spectra 85 4.3.2 TEM 87 4.3.3 XPS 94 4.3.4 Magnetic hysteresis loop results at 298 K and 180 K and magnetothermal behavior. 96 4.4 References for the fourth chapter 105 Chapter 5 Conclusions 106 Curriculum Vitae 10

Unusual Exchange Bias Effects Induced in NiFe/Mn Thin Films via Ion-beam Bombardment: Superlattice vs. Nanocomposite

The interplay between interlayer coupling and exchange bias coupling in [NiFe/Mn] multilayerbasedthin films was investigated by using ion-beam bombardment during deposition to control theconfigurations from superlattice to nanocomposite or hybrid-structured thin films. Results showedthat well-defined interfaces in the superlattice [NiFe/Mn] thin film exhibited an interlayer couplingbehavior. In contrast, an enhanced coercivity was observed in the nanocomposite [NiFe-Mn] thinfilm. However, the hybrid [NiFe-Mn]/[NiFe/Mn] thin film with an intermixed NiFeMn alloyed filmcomponent gave rise to unusual positive exchange bias coupling

Probing exchange bias effects in CoO/Co Bilayers with Pillar-Like CoO structures

Exchange bias effects in CoO/Co bilayers fabricated by ion-assisted deposition were studied as a function of CoO thickness. During the deposition of the top CoO layer, pillar-like CoO structures were embedded in the underlying Co layer due to implantation of oxygen ions. The enhanced coercivity was attributed to the changes in the magnetic reversal mechanism in the ferromagnetic Co layer due to the penetration of pillar-like structures of antiferromagnetic CoO. At low temperature, we found a strong exchange bias field. Our measurements indicate that the exchange bias effect can exist in a nanocomposite system that has a disordered mixture of columnar and planar Co/CoO interfaces

影響國中階段貧窮學生學業表現之因素探析―以臺灣兒童暨家庭扶助基金會扶助對象為例 Factors Affecting the Academic Achievement of Financially Disadvantaged Junior High School Students: A Case Study of Beneficiaries of the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families

本研究是以財團法人臺灣兒童暨家庭扶助基金會執行並釋出的「臺灣兒童及少年長期追蹤調查計畫」，共有1402位國中學生進行分析，以瞭解親子關係、師生關係、教育期望及學習狀況等因素對學業表現的影響。相關資料經由結構方程模式統計檢定後，整體效果的分析顯示：1.親子關係對學業表現有負向顯著性影響；2.師生關係對學業表現有負向顯著性影響；3.師生關係對學習狀況會產生顯著正向影響；4.教育期望對學習狀況會產生顯著正向影響；5.學習狀況會對學業表現產生顯著正向影響；6.親子關係、師生關係、教育期望對學業表現的影響路徑亦可透過學習狀況的中介效果進而影 響。最後根據研究結果，提出相關建議供學校參考。 This research aimed to explore the effects of parent-child relationships, teacher-student relationships, educational expectations, learning situations, and academic achievement on academic performance. The sample was comprised of 1402 junior high school students, and was drawn from the “Taiwan panel study of children and youth”. After analysis, the major conclusions of the study were as follows: 1. parent-child relationships have a negative influence on academic achievement; 2. teacher-student relationships have a negative influence on academic achievement; 3. teacher-student relationships have a positive influence on learning situations; 4. educational expectations have a positive influence on learning situations; 5. learning situations have a positive influence on academic achievement; 6. learning situations have a significant mediating effect on the relationships among parent-child relationships, teacher-student relationships, and educational expectations. Finally, a number of suggestions based on the findings are offered as a reference for school administrators

Correlating uncompensated antiferromagnetic moments and exchange coupling interactions in interface ion-beam bombarded Co90Fe 10/CoFe-oxide bilayers

The coercivity and exchange bias field of ferro-/antiferromagnetic Co 90Fe10/CoFe-oxide bilayers were studied as function of the surface morphology of the bottom CoFe-oxide layer. The CoFe-oxide surface structure was varied systematically by low energy (0-70 V) Argon ion-beam bombardment before subsequent deposition of the Co90Fe10 layer. Transmission electron microscopy results showed that the bilayer consisted of hcp Co90Fe10 and rock-salt CoFe-oxide. At low temperatures, enhanced coercivities and exchange bias fields with increasing ion-beam bombardment energy were observed, which are attributed to defects and uncompensated moments created near the CoFe-oxide surface in increasing amounts with larger ion-beam bombardment energies. Magnetometry results also showed an increasing divergence of the low field temperature dependent magnetization [ΔM(T)] between field-cooling and zero-field-cooling processes, and an increasing blocking temperature with increasing ion-beam bombardment energy. © 2012 The Japan Society of Applied Physics