A CMMI-based approach for medical software project life cycle study

In terms of medical techniques, Taiwan has gained international recognition in recent years. However, the medical information system industry in Taiwan is still at a developing stage compared with the software industries in other nations. In addition, systematic development processes are indispensable elements of software development. They can help developers increase their productivity and efficiency and also avoid unnecessary risks arising during the development process. Thus, this paper presents an application of Light-Weight Capability Maturity Model Integration (LW-CMMI) to Chang Gung Medical Research Project (CMRP) in the Nuclear medicine field. This application was intended to integrate user requirements, system design and testing of software development processes into three layers (Domain, Concept and Instance) model. Then, expressing in structural System Modeling Language (SysML) diagrams and converts part of the manual effort necessary for project management maintenance into computational effort, for example: (semi-) automatic delivery of traceability management. In this application, it supports establishing artifacts of “requirement specification document”, “project execution plan document”, “system design document” and “system test document”, and can deliver a prototype of lightweight project management tool on the Nuclear Medicine software project. The results of this application can be a reference for other medical institutions in developing medical information systems and support of project management to achieve the aim of patient safety. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-2-266) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Improvement of n-butanol tolerance in Escherichia coli by membrane-targeted tilapia metallothionein

Background: Though n-butanol has been proposed as a potential transportation biofuel, its toxicity oftencauses oxidative stress in the host microorganism and is considered one of the bottlenecks preventing itsefficient mass production.Results: To relieve the oxidative stress in the host cell, metallothioneins (MTs), which are known as scavengersfor reactive oxygen species (ROS), were engineered in E. coli hosts for both cytosolic and outer-membrane-targeted (osmoregulatory membrane protein OmpC fused) expression. Metallothioneins from human (HMT),mouse (MMT), and tilapia fish (TMT) were tested. The host strain expressing membrane-targeted TMT showed thegreatest ability to reduce oxidative stresses induced by n-butanol, ethanol, furfural, hydroxymethylfurfural, andnickel. The same strain also allowed for an increased growth rate of recombinant E. coli under n-butanol stress.Further experiments indicated that the TMT-fused OmpC protein could not only function in ROS scavenging butalso regulate either glycine betaine (GB) or glucose uptake via osmosis, and the dual functional fusion proteincould contribute in an enhancement of the host microorganism’s growth rate.Conclusions: The abilities of scavenging intracellular or extracellular ROS by these engineering E. coli wereexamined, and TMT show the best ability among three MTs. Additionally, the membrane-targeted fusion protein,OmpC-TMT, improved host tolerance up to 1.5% n-butanol above that of TMT which is only 1%. These resultspresented indicate potential novel approaches for engineering stress tolerant microorganism strains

Broadband energy-efficient optical modulation by hybrid integration of silicon nanophotonics and organic electro-optic polymer

Silicon-organic hybrid integrated devices have emerging applications ranging from high-speed optical interconnects to photonic electromagnetic-field sensors. Silicon slot photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs) filled with electro-optic (EO) polymers combine the slow-light effect in PCWs with the high polarizability of EO polymers, which promises the realization of high-performance optical modulators. In this paper, a broadband, power-efficient, low-dispersion, and compact optical modulator based on an EO polymer filled silicon slot PCW is presented. A small voltage-length product of V{\pi}*L=0.282Vmm is achieved, corresponding to an unprecedented record-high effective in-device EO coefficient (r33) of 1230pm/V. Assisted by a backside gate voltage, the modulation response up to 50GHz is observed, with a 3-dB bandwidth of 15GHz, and the estimated energy consumption is 94.4fJ/bit at 10Gbit/s. Furthermore, lattice-shifted PCWs are utilized to enhance the optical bandwidth by a factor of ~10X over other modulators based on non-band-engineered PCWs and ring-resonators.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, SPIE Photonics West Conference 201

Clustering Heart Rate Dynamics Is Associated with β-Adrenergic Receptor Polymorphisms: Analysis by Information-Based Similarity Index

Background: Genetic polymorphisms in the gene encoding the β-adrenergic receptors (β -AR) have a pivotal role in the functions of the autonomic nervous system. Using heart rate variability (HRV) as an indicator of autonomic function, we present a bottom-up genotype–phenotype analysis to investigate the association between β -AR gene polymorphisms and heart rate dynamics. Methods: A total of 221 healthy Han Chinese adults (59 males and 162 females, aged 33.6610.8 years, range 19 to 63 years) were recruited and genotyped for three common β-AR polymorphisms: β$_1$-AR Ser49Gly, β$_2$-AR Arg16Gly and β$_2$-AR Gln27Glu. Each subject underwent two hours of electrocardiogram monitoring at rest. We applied an information-based similarity (IBS) index to measure the pairwise dissimilarity of heart rate dynamics among study subjects. Results: With the aid of agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis, we categorized subjects into major clusters, which were found to have significantly different distributions of β$_2$-AR Arg16Gly genotype. Furthermore, the non-randomness index, a nonlinear HRV measure derived from the IBS method, was significantly lower in Arg16 homozygotes than in Gly16 carriers. The non-randomness index was negatively correlated with parasympathetic-related HRV variables and positively correlated with those HRV indices reflecting a sympathovagal shift toward sympathetic activity. Conclusions: We demonstrate a bottom-up categorization approach combining the IBS method and hierarchical cluster analysis to detect subgroups of subjects with HRV phenotypes associated with β-AR polymorphisms. Our results provide evidence that β$_2$-AR polymorphisms are significantly associated with the acceleration/deceleration pattern of heart rate oscillation, reflecting the underlying mode of autonomic nervous system control

Assembling a cellulase cocktail and a cellodextrin transporter into a yeast host for CBP ethanol production

Background: Many microorganisms possess enzymes that can efficiently degrade lignocellulosic materials, but donot have the capability to produce a large amount of ethanol. Thus, attempts have been made to transform suchenzymes into fermentative microbes to serve as hosts for ethanol production. However, an efficient host for aconsolidated bioprocess (CBP) remains to be found. For this purpose, a synthetic biology technique that cantransform multiple genes into a genome is instrumental. Moreover, a strategy to select cellulases that interactsynergistically is needed.Results: To engineer a yeast for CBP bio-ethanol production, a synthetic biology technique, called “promoter-basedgene assembly and simultaneous overexpression” (PGASO), that can simultaneously transform and express multiplegenes in a kefir yeast, Kluyveromyces marxianus KY3, was recently developed. To formulate an efficient cellulasecocktail, a filter-paper-activity assay for selecting heterologous cellulolytic enzymes was established in this study andused to select five cellulase genes, including two cellobiohydrolases, two endo-β-1,4-glucanases and onebeta-glucosidase genes from different fungi. In addition, a fungal cellodextrin transporter gene was chosen totransport cellodextrin into the cytoplasm. These six genes plus a selection marker gene were one-step assembledinto the KY3 genome using PGASO. Our experimental data showed that the recombinant strain KR7 could expressthe five heterologous cellulase genes and that KR7 could convert crystalline cellulose into ethanol.Conclusion: Seven heterologous genes, including five cellulases, a cellodextrin transporter and a selection marker,were simultaneously transformed into the KY3 genome to derive a new strain, KR7, which could directly convertcellulose to ethanol. The present study demonstrates the potential of our strategy of combining a cocktailformulation protocol and a synthetic biology technique to develop a designer yeast host

Taiwan Oscillation Network

The Taiwan Oscillation Network (TON) is a ground-based network to measure solar intensity oscillations to study the internal structure of the Sun. K-line full-disk images of 1000 pixels diameter are taken at a rate of one image per minute. Such data would provide information onp-modes withl as high as 1000. The TON will consist of six identical telescope systems at proper longitudes around the world. Three telescope systems have been installed at Teide Observatory (Tenerife), Huairou Solar Observing Station (near Beijing), and Big Bear Solar Observatory (California). The telescopes at these three sites have been taking data simultaneously since October of 1994. Anl – v diagram derived from 512 images is included to show the quality of the data

Outcomes of patients with rodenticide poisoning at a far east poison center

BACKGROUND: Rodenticide poisoning remains a major public health problem in Asian countries. Nevertheless, very few data are available in world literature regarding the outcomes of these patients. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical outcomes of rodenticide poisonings in our hospital and to compare these data with published reports from other international poison centers. FINDINGS: We retrospectively examined the records of 20 patients with rodenticide poisoning (8 brodifacoum, 12 bromadiolone) who were referred to Chang Gung Memorial Hospital between 2000 and 2011. It was found that most of the rodenticide patients were middle-aged adults. Both genders were equally affected and many patients had a past history of major depressive disorder or schizophrenia. Nevertheless, patients with bromadiolone were referred significantly sooner than patients with brodifacoum poisoning (0.1 ± 0.1 versus 5.5 ± 10.5, P < 0.001). Furthermore, it was found that patients with brodifacoum suffered higher incidences of ecchymosis (50.0% versus 0%, P = 0.006) and hematuria (50.0% versus 0%, P = 0.006) than patients with bromadiolone poisoning. Laboratory analysis also demonstrated a poorer hemostatic profile of patients with brodifacoum [prothrombin time (PT), international normalized ratio (INR), 4.3 ± 4.8 versus 1.0 ± 0.1, P = 0.032; PT prolongation, 50.0% versus 0%, P = 0.006; activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) prolongation, 50.0% versus 0%, P = 0.006] than patients with bromadiolone poisoning. At the end of analysis, no patient died of the poisoning. CONCLUSION: The favorable outcome (zero mortality rate) is comparable to the published reports from other international poison centers. Further studies are warranted

Experimental Study on Minimum Depth of Interior Joints for Special Moment Frames with High-Strength Reinforcement and Concrete

ACI 318-19 permits the use of Grade 690 bars for primary reinforcement of special structural walls, but not for special moment frames because of insufficient experimental evidence of frame joints. Where Grade 690 bars are used for longitudinal reinforcement, the bond and anchorage at beam-column joints become crucial in the design of special moment frames. Due to paucity of experimental evidence, ACI 318 set a minimum joint depth that is proportional to bar diameter and grade without accounting for effects of high-strength concrete and other parameters. In practice, higher-grade reinforcement may be used together with high-strength concrete, particularly for columns with limited architectural dimensions and high axial load at the lower levels of high-rise buildings. Therefore, the authors designed and conducted an experimental program of four interior beam-column joints reinforced with Grade 420 or 690 bars to investigate the beneficial effect of concrete strength on the bond of beam longitudinal bars passing through an interior joint. Cyclic test results show that the minimum joint depth could be reduced with the use of high-strength concrete for Grade 690 bars

Single-image driven 3d viewpoint training data augmentation for effective wine label recognition

Confronting the critical challenge of insufficient training data in the field of complex image recognition, this paper introduces a novel 3D viewpoint augmentation technique specifically tailored for wine label recognition. This method enhances deep learning model performance by generating visually realistic training samples from a single real-world wine label image, overcoming the challenges posed by the intricate combinations of text and logos. Classical Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) methods fall short in synthesizing such intricate content combination. Our proposed solution leverages time-tested computer vision and image processing strategies to expand our training dataset, thereby broadening the range of training samples for deep learning applications. This innovative approach to data augmentation circumvents the constraints of limited training resources. Using the augmented training images through batch-all triplet metric learning on a Vision Transformer (ViT) architecture, we can get the most discriminative embedding features for every wine label, enabling us to perform one-shot recognition of existing wine labels in the training classes or future newly collected wine labels unavailable in the training. Experimental results show a significant increase in recognition accuracy over conventional 2D data augmentation techniques

Cyclosporine A Eye Drop-Induced Elongated Eyelashes: A Case Report

Purpose: The most common ocular adverse event following the use of cyclosporine A (CsA) 0.05% ophthalmic emulsion is ocular burning (17%). Other adverse effects that have been reported include conjunctival hyperemia (1–5%), discharge, epiphora, eye pain, foreign body sensation, pruritus, stinging and blurred vision. Here, we report a specific side effect of CsA, namely eye drop-induced eyelash elongation in a patient with refractory giant papillary conjunctivitis. Design: Observational case report. Methods: Case report and review of the literature. Results: A 32-year-old female with giant papillary conjunctivitis on the left eye, who had undergone papillectomy 3 years previously and was refractory to topical steroid therapy, was treated with CsA 0.05% ophthalmic emulsion (Restasis) 4 times a day, preservative-free artificial tears and gentamicin ophthalmic solution in the left eye. After 5 months of topical CsA treatment, elongated eyelashes of her left eye were observed without other adverse effects. Conclusion: Although hypertrichosis and trichomegaly have been documented in the literature as side effects of systemic CsA, topical CsA 0.05% eye drop-induced elongated eyelashes have not been reported, and we believe ophthalmologists should be mindful and inform patients about this specific side effect