Investigations of the miscibility, crystallization, melting, and deformation behavior of poly(ether ether ketone)/poly(ether imide) blends/

This dissertation reports the studies of the blends of poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK) and poly(ether imide) (PEI). The investigations reported encompass both the thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of this binary blend. The phase behavior of PEEK/PEI blends in the amorphous states was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), density measurement, and Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Amorphous PEEK/PEI blends were miscible over the whole composition range. The specific volume measurement and the equilibrium melting point depression analysis showed the existence of favorable interaction between PEEK and PEI. The FTIR study suggested that the oxygen lone-pair electrons of the ether groups in PEEK interact favorably with the electron-deficient imide rings in PEI. The coplanarity of the two nearest imide rings in PEI was changed by blending to accommodate the favorable interaction with PEEK. The two-stage crystallization behavior of PEEK and PEEK/PEI blends was studied by thermal mechanical analysis (TMA) and DSC. The two crystallization stages of PEEK were first time distinguished clearly by measuring the thickness change of PEEK films during isothermal crystallization. A crystallization kinetics model considering both primary and secondary crystallization was applied to extract the respective rate constants of the two crystallization stages. The results were discussed in terms of the diffusion mechanisms during PEEK crystallization. The growth of PEEK spherulites from the pure melt and from the blends with PEI was studied by hot stage optical microscopy. The spherulite growth kinetics was analyzed using a modified Lauritzen-Hoffman theory which considers the diluent effect of PEI. The regime III-II transition was observed for PEEK and PEEK/PEI blends. The side surface free energy, fold surface free energy, and the work of chain folding were calculated, and were discussed in terms of the stiffness and bulkiness of PEEK molecules. The semicrystalline morphology and the melting behavior of PEEK/PEI blends were studied by optical microscopy and DSC, respectively. The optical micrographs of PEEK spherulites grown from the blends showed that a significant amount of PEI was rejected to the interfibrillar regions of the PEEK spherulites. The melting study indicated that PEEK crystal reorganization on heating was hindered by blending with PEI, and this was attributed to the incorporation of PEI in the PEEK crystalline interlamellar regions. The amorphous and the crystalline PEEK/PEI blend films were drawn uniaxially by solid-state coextrusion. The glass transition, density, crystallization behavior, and the respective orientations were studied. The T\sb{\rm g}s of amorphous PEEK/PEI blends were depressed by drawing. The kinetics of crystallization of drawn PEEK/PEI blends was also reported. The orientation studies by IR dichroism showed that the orientations of both PEEK and PEI were decreased by increasing PEI content in the blends

A Moral Education Lesson to Enhance Self-Affirmative Consciousness in Japan and Taiwan

This paper addresses clinical research on moral education lessons to enhance the self-affirmative consciousness of students in Japan and Taiwan. We conducted four lessons for fifth and sixth graders under the same conditions. The lesson was about the natural environment and was organized as a cooperative learning experience. The Association Method was employed as an assessment. 　Prompted by the image of , response words such as “water,” “air,” and “environment” appeared in four classes after the lesson. Through the 60-minute lesson, more than half of the response words changed. This indicates that the children concentrated deeply on the lesson, and that it made an impression on them. 　The results from the Japanese A and B and Taiwanese C and D schools were diverse. We compared the response words before andafter the lesson, using the Association Method by cue word , which shows self-affirmative consciousness. In class A, words that recognize the importance of nature appeared even in self-consciousness, and in class B, positive words increased and negative words decreased significantly (p < .05). In class C, consciousness of “oneself” and “family” increased, and in class D, “life” and “friend” increased. We interpreted these differences as a result of the children’s reflections on their own inner character and the historical background they have learned and not learned

Genetic algorithm integrated with artificial chromosomes for multi-objective flowshop scheduling problems

a b s t r a c t Recently, a wealthy of research works has been dedicated to the design of effective and efficient genetic algorithms in dealing with multi-objective scheduling problems. In this paper, an artificial chromosome generating mechanism is designed to reserve patterns of genes in elite chromosomes and to find possible better solutions. The artificial chromosome generating mechanism is embedded in simple genetic algorithm (SGA) and the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) to solve single-objective and multiobjective flowshop-scheduling problems, respectively. The single-objective problems are to minimize the makespan while the multi-objective scheduling problems are to minimize the makespan and the maximum tardiness. Extensive numerical studies are conducted and the results indicate that artificial chromosomes embedded with SGA and NSGAII are able to further speed up the convergence of the genetic algorithm and improve the solution quality. This promising result may be of interests to industrial practitioners and academic researchers in the field of evolutionary algorithm or machine scheduling

Integrating Chinese Herbal Medicine into Conventional Care Was Related to Lower Risk of Sarcopenia Among Rheumatid Arthritis Patients: A Retrospective, Population-Based Study

Objective: Sarcopenia is a frequently observed comorbidity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) due to the chronic activation of the innate immune system. Accumulating evidence has indicated that Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) safely suppresses proinflammatory pathways and controls inflammation-associated disease, but its effect in reducing the risk of developing sarcopenia among RA subjects has not been established. We conducted a population-level cohort study to compare the sarcopenia risk in patients with RA who use or do not use CHM. Methods: Using claims from a nationwide insurance database, we recruited patients with newly diagnosed RA and without sarcopenia between 2002 and 2010. Propensity score matching was applied to randomly select sets of CHM users and non-CHM users to compare the sarcopenia risk until the end of 2013. The risk of new-onset sarcopenia was assessed using the Cox proportional hazards model. Results: As compared to non-CHM users, those receiving CHM treatment had a lower incidence of sarcopenia (7.69 vs 9.83 per 1000 person-years). CHM was correlated with a decreased chance of sarcopenia after controlling for potential covariates. Notably, use of CHM for more than two years may diminish the risk of getting sarcopenia by about 47% when taken as prescribed. Prescriptions of several herbal formulae may benefit the reduction of sarcopenia risk, such as Yan-Hu-Suo, Bei-Mu, Da-Huang, Huang Qin, Ping-Wei- San (PWS), Shu-Jing-Huo-Xue-Tang (SJHXT) and Chuan-Xiong-Cha-Tiao-San (CXCTS). Conclusion: This study produced new evidence as it is the first to show that the longer duration of CHM use was correlated to reduced risk of sarcopenia in a dose-dependent manner, implying that CHM treatment could be embraced as a routine care strategy for preventing sarcopenia

Does the Nurse-Led Case Management Benefit Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients in Reducing Distressing Symptoms and C-Reactive Protein: a 2-Year Follow-Up Study in Taiwan

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease and may worsen over time. Today, nurse-led case management (NLCM) has been recommended to improve clinical outcomes for chronic disease patients, yet little is known regarding its impact on pain, fatigue, and C-reactive protein (CRP) among RA patients. We aimed to explore this issue among such groups via a two-group pre- and post-test approach. Methods: All subjects were recruited from one hospital in Taiwan from January 2017 to June 2018 and assigned to either a 6-month NLCM program in addition to usual care or to a control group that received usual care only. All of them were followed for 2 years. Outcomes of interests were compared at four time points: baseline, the third day after NLCM completion, and at 6 and 24 months after NLCM. Effects between them were tested using the generalized estimating equations (GEE) model after adjusting for differences at baseline.ResultsA total of 50 patients in the NLCM group and 46 in the control group were recruited for data analysis. Results from the GEE model indicated that integrating NLCM into conventional care benefited patients in decreasing levels of pain and fatigue, as well as CRP value. These improvements were still observed for 2 years after NLCM.ConclusionNLCM was shown to be helpful in lowering pain, fatigue, and CRP, which implies that NLCM may be a reference in the provision of tailored care for those affected by rheumatism

Robust Design of SAW Gas Sensors by Taguchi Dynamic Method

This paper adopts Taguchi’s signal-to-noise ratio analysis to optimize the dynamic characteristics of a SAW gas sensor system whose output response is linearly related to the input signal. The goal of the present dynamic characteristics study is to increase the sensitivity of the measurement system while simultaneously reducing its variability. A time- and cost-efficient finite element analysis method is utilized to investigate the effects of the deposited mass upon the resonant frequency output of the SAW biosensor. The results show that the proposed methodology not only reduces the design cost but also promotes the performance of the sensors