A Study on the Forms and User's Behaviors of the Public Seats in National Taipei University of Technology

AbstractTo the students, school is the main living and activity space in the school semester, however, it was found that students only stay in the classroom to communicate with others using 3C hardware, students rarely go to outdoor space to have exchange with peers or teachers. In this study, starting from student's point of view, appropriateness and form of user's experience are used to investigate the form and user's demand and interactive behavior of outdoor public seat in the campus of National Taipei University of Technology. The implementation way can be divided into three stages: (1) Analyze the present public seats in the campus. (2) Questionnaire is used to investigate the form of the public seats in the campus and user's experience. (3) Through workshop, QFD method is used to investigate important design factors of user's demand and seat function. The main issuance targets of the questionnaires are students teaching staff of National Taipei University of Technology, and it comes to a total of 30 copies. The participating targets of the workshop are mainly five graduate students of the graduate institute of innovative design. Finally, the following research results are achieved: (1) Seat surrounding a tree is the most popular type of seat, people is willing to use it, the next is seat of single-person form. (2) Seat of multi-person form is the most comfort type of seat. It is including table and seats, people able to work comfortably and hands are gotten supporting. (3) User's demand perspective: Currently, important demand factors recognized by users are easy-to-clean, changeable user's scenario and easy-to-move, the next are appearance, shape, color, fun and interactivity, etc. (4) Product's function perspective: Currently, the first priority considering design factors in functionality are lighting function, easy-to-maintain, can-be-assembled and light weight material, the next is charging function and weather resistant material

catena-Poly[4,4′-bipyridinium [[diaqua­disulfatocadmium(II)]-μ-4,4′-bipyridine-κ2 N:N′] dihydrate]

The title compound, {(C10H10N2)[Cd(SO4)2(C10H8N2)(H2O)2]·2H2O}n, consists of anionic chains of the Cd complex, diprotonated 4,4′-bipyridinium cations and uncoordinated water mol­ecules. In the anionic chain, the Cd atom lies on a center of inversion in an octa­hedral geometry. The midpoint of the coordinated bipyridine also resides on a center of inversion, as does the non-coordinated bipyridinium counterion. O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonding inter­actions and π–π stacking inter­actions in the structure are responsible for the supra­molecular assembly

A new regime for mechanical annealing and strong sample-size strengthening in body centred cubic molybdenum

Because of crystal symmetry, body centred cubic (BCC) metals have large differences in lattice friction between screw and edge dislocations, and manifest generally different mechanical behaviours from face centred cubic (FCC) metals. Although mechanical annealing (significant drop in stored dislocation density in response to applied stress) has been observed in FCC metals, it has not been observed in BCC metals so far. Here we show that significant mechanical annealing does occur in BCC Mo pillars, when their diameters decrease to hundreds of nanometers. In addition, there exists a critical diameter for focused ion beam milled pillars, below which the strengthening exponent increases dramatically, from ~0.3 to ~1. Thus, a new regime of size effects in BCC metals is discovered that converges to that of FCC metals, revealing deep connection in the dislocation dynamics of the two systems.National Natural Science Foundation (China) (Grant 50925104)National Natural Science Foundation (China) (Grant 50720145101)National Natural Science Foundation (China) (Grant 50831004)National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Grant 2010CB631003)National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Grant 2012CB619402)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CMMI-0728069)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (DMR-1008104)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (DMR-1120901)United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-08-1-0325

Transcutaneous medial fixation sutures for free flap inset after robot-assisted nipple-sparing mastectomy

The application of minimal invasive mastectomy has allowed surgeons to perform nipplesparing mastectomy via a shorter, inconspicuous incision under clear vision and with more precise hemostasis. However, it poses new challenges in microsurgical breast reconstruction, such as vascular anastomosis and flap insetting, which are considerably more difficult to perform through the shorter incision on the lateral breast border. We propose an innovative technique of transcutaneous medial fixation sutures to help in flap insetting and creating and maintaining the medial breast border. The sutures are placed after mastectomy and before flap transfer. Three 4-0 nylon suture loops are placed transcutaneously and into the pocket at the markings of the preferred lower medial border of the reconstructed breast. After microvascular anastomosis and temporary shaping of the flap on top of the mastectomy skin, the three corresponding points for the sutures are identified. The three nylon loops are then sutured to the dermis of the corresponding medial point of the flap. The flap is placed into the pocket by a simultaneous gentle pull on the three sutures and a combined lateral push. The stitches are then tied and buried after completion of flap inset

PHYSIOLOGICAL AND ELECTROMYOGRAPHIC RESPONSES AT THREE LEVELS OF BICYCLE SEAT HEIGHT

Recently, bicycle riding has become one of the most popular exercises. As the use time increased, the risk of pedalling injury raised. Holmes (1994) indicated that inappropriate bicycle saddle height could result in lower limbs injuries. The motivation of this study was to find out the best riding position that could effectively use energy from the physiology and electromyography measures. The oxygen consumption (VO2), heart rate (HR), respiratory exchange ratio (RER) and the muscle activity (electromyography, EMG) from rectus femoris (RF) and biceps femoris (BF) of lower limb were collected during a 6 min cycling trail in three different heights of bicycle saddle. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of three different types of bicycle seat heights and different perspectives of muscle activity and physiology’s parameters

Innovation Management in Services Industries: The Impacts of Innovative Capacity and Transformative Learning

This study highlights the innovation management and learning perspective of a firm’s innovative capability. The model proposed in this study examines the relationships among competence exploitation, competence exploration, transformative learning, innovation, and performance. This study presents empirical results from 225 service industry in Taiwan. First, the innovative capability factors positively affect transformative learning include competence exploitation and competence exploration. Transformative learning in turn has positive effects both on innovation and performance. Secondly, the rank order effects on innovation are competence exploitation, competence exploration, and transformative learning, respectively. The rank order effects on performance are competence exploration, competence exploitation, and transformative learning, respectively. Finally, transformative learning is the mediating effect of competence exploitation and competence exploration on innovation and performance

Modified Weekly Cisplatin-Based Chemotherapy Is Acceptable in Postoperative Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy for Locally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer

Background. Triweekly cisplatin-based postoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) has high intolerance and toxicities in locally advanced head and neck cancer (LAHNC). We evaluated the effect of a modified weekly cisplatin-based chemotherapy in postoperative CCRT. Methods. A total of 117 patients with LAHNC were enrolled between December 2007 and December 2012. Survival, compliance/adverse events, and independent prognostic factors were analyzed. Results. Median follow-up time was 30.0 (3.1–73.0) months. Most patients completed the entire course of postoperative CCRT (radiotherapy ≥ 60 Gy, 94.9%; ≥6 times weekly chemotherapy, 75.2%). Only 17.1% patients required hospital admission. The most common adverse effect was grade 3/4 mucositis (28.2%). No patient died due to protocol-related adverse effects. Multivariate analysis revealed the following independent prognostic factors: oropharyngeal cancer, extracapsular spread, and total radiation dose. Two-year progression-free survival and overall survival rates were 70.9% and 79.5%, respectively. Conclusion. Modified weekly cisplatin-based chemotherapy is an acceptable regimen in postoperative CCRT for LAHNC

The thermodynamic and kinetic properties of hydrogen dimers on graphene

The thermodynamic and kinetic properties of hydrogen adatoms on graphene are important to the materials and devices based on hydrogenated graphene. Hydrogen dimers on graphene with coverages varying from 0.040 to 0.111 ML (1.0 ML $= 3.8\times10^{15}$cm$^{-2}$) were considered in this report. The thermodynamic and kinetic properties of H, D and T dimers were studied by ab initio simulations. The vibrational zero-point energy corrections were found to be not negligible in kinetics, varying from 0.038 (0.028, 0.017) to 0.257 (0.187, 0.157) eV for H (D, T) dimers. The isotope effect exhibits as that the kinetic mobility of a hydrogen dimer decreases with increasing the hydrogen mass. The simulated thermal desorption spectra with the heating rate $\alpha = 1.0$ K/s were quite close to experimental measurements. The effect of the interaction between hydrogen dimers on their thermodynamic and kinetic properties were analyzed in detail.Comment: submitted to Surface Scienc

Difference in imipenem, meropenem, sulbactam, and colistin nonsusceptibility trends among three phenotypically undifferentiated Acinetobacter baumannii complex in a medical center in Taiwan, 1997–2007

BackgroundTo determine whether the susceptibilities and the trends of nonsusceptibility of imipenem, meropenem, sulbactam, and colistin differed among Acinetobacter baumannii, Acinetobacter genomic species 3 (AGS 3), and Acinetobacter genomic species 13TU (AGS 13TU) over 11 years.MethodsA total of 1,039 nonduplicate blood isolates of A baumannii complex from bacteremic patients between 1997 and 2007 were collected at Taipei Veterans General Hospital and were identified to the species level using a multiplex polymerase chain reaction method and sequence analysis of 16S–23S intergenic spacer. The minimal inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics were determined by the agar dilution method.ResultsThe nonsusceptibility rates of carbepenems and sulbactam were highest in A baumannii, which also showed a trend toward increasing rate of carbapenems nonsusceptibility over the 11-year period of the study. AGS 13TU had the highest nonsusceptible rate to colistin, comparably increasing trend of carbapenem nonsusceptiblity as that of A baumannii, and is the only species with increasing sulbactam nonsusceptibility. AGS 3 had the lowest rate of nonsusceptibility to all four antimicrobial agents.ConclusionAlthough A baumannii had the highest nonsusceptibility rate to imipenem, meropenem, and sulbactam over the years, the higher rate of colistin nonsusceptibility and the emergence of nonsusceptibility of carbapenems and sulbactam in AGS 13TU suggested that this species might cause a great problem in the near future