A new era for studies on cross-Strait relations: introduction

After more than half a century’s separation, interaction between China and Taiwan has increased and has progressively changed from a politico-economic interaction to a more civic interaction. Scholars working on cross-Strait relations have recently begun to pay attention to the civic influence of Taiwanese businesses on the relationship. Some emphasize the importance of sub-governmental interactions in the process of cross-Strait integration. Others assert that Taiwanese businesses can exercise economic leverage to constrain the Chinese government in cross-Strait policymaking. These scholars stress bottom–up processes by observing current phenomena, then deducing the emerging pattern of cross-Strait relations that may be influenced by business activities. Taking account of changing trends in scholarly discussions of the cross-Strait relationship, this special issue of China Information presents current research in this field. Unlike studies on top–down processes that affect political and economic interactions between China and Taiwan, several contributions in the special issue highlight bottom–up mechanisms affecting such interactions by examining the identity of Taiwanese businesspeople and migrants, as well as the activities and implications of Taiwanese charitable organizations operating in China. This issue focuses not only on the impact of China on Taiwan, but also the impact of Taiwanese investments, migrants, and exports on Chinese society

Look, the World is Watching How We Treat Migrants! The Making of the Anti-Trafficking Legislation during the Ma Administration

Employing the spiral model, this research analyses how anti-human trafficking legislation was promulgated during the Ma Ying-jeou (Ma Yingjiu) presidency. This research found that the gov- ernment of Taiwan was just as accountable for the violation of mi- grants’ human rights as the exploitive placement agencies and abusive employers. This research argues that, given its reliance on the United States for political and security support, Taiwan has made great ef- forts to improve its human rights records and meet US standards for protecting human rights. The reform was a result of multilevel inputs, including US pressure and collaboration between transnational and domestic advocacy groups. A major contribution of this research is to challenge the belief that human rights protection is intrinsic to dem- ocracy. In the same light, this research also cautions against Taiwan’s subscription to US norms since the reform was achieved at the cost of stereotyping trafficking victimhood, legitimising state surveillance, and further marginalising sex workers

Harnessing Solid-State Ionic Transport for Nanomanufacturing and Nanodevices

156 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009.Through this work a new all-solid, ambient processing condition direct metal patterning technique has been developed and characterized. This ionic-transport-based patterning technique is capable of sub-50nm feature resolution under ambient conditions. It generates features with a rate that is comparable to conventional dry-etching techniques. A numerical model has also been developed to understand the mixed electronic-ionic transport characteristics as well as the metal-solid electrolyte interface kinetics. This model can also benefit the study and design of batteries in the field of renew-able energy. With the nanopatterning technique developed, plasmonic features with resonance in the optical range have been fabricated to study their effect on the Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering as well as Metal Enhanced Fluorescence of an adsorbate. New insight into whether farfield scattering of such structures or the nearfield EM-field is more important to the enhancement to Raman scattering was gained from comparing the experimental results with the numerical one. A systematic way of characterizing the electromagnetic enhancement part of metal enhanced fluorescence has also been developed that can be utilized to design plasmonic features for fluorescence-based applications.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

LSPR effects of Au nanoparticles/ZnO nano-composite films

11 This article was presented at IMCS 2016.In this study, the Au nanoparticle-modified ZnO composite films deposited on ITO glass were presented. First of all, ZnO nanorods film was prepared by using chemical bath deposition (CBD). Au nanoparticles solutions were prepared by a non-toxic photochemical method, which was characterized by using an UV–Visible spectrophotometer. The LSPR (Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance) effect of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) solutions shows an obvious peak of absorbance which is located at 519nm. The AuNPs/ZnO NRs film prepared by self-assembly method was investigated by using an UV–Visible spectrophotometer. The LSPR effects of AuNPs/ZnO NRs composite film show obvious peaks of absorbance located at 371nm and 524nm. The results show that AuNPs/ZnO NRs composite films have demonstrated the characteristics and the effects of AuNPs and ZnO NRs. Finally, AuNPs/ZnO NRs is used to detect the refractive index of different environments. The LSPR effects show obvious peaks of absorbance accompanying with a red shift in the wavelengths, where the peaks are located at 524nm, 534.5nm, 535.5nm and 539nm respectively for the environments in air (R.I.=1.00), water (R.I.=1.33), ethanol (R.I.=1.36) and methanol (R.I.=1.44). Keywords: AuNPs, ZnO, APTES, Localized surface plasmon resonanc

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Symptoms after Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy: A Retrospective Study

(1) Background: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is widely performed in bariatric surgery. However, the prevalence and risk factors of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms after LSG remain unclear to date. This study aimed to identify risk factors of GERD after LSG. (2) Methods: We conducted a retrospective study at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and reviewed 296 patients who underwent LSG from 2016 to 2019. A total of 143 patients who underwent preoperative esophagogastroduodenoscopy and completed the 12-month postoperative follow-up were enrolled. Patients’ demographic data, comorbidities, and postoperative weight loss results were recorded for analysis. The GerdQ questionnaire was used to assess GERD after LSG. (3) Results: There were eight surgical complications (5.6%) among the 143 studied patients (median age, 36 years; 56 (39.2%) men; median body weight 105.5 kg; median body mass index [BMI], 38.5 kg/m2). Twenty-three patients (16.1%) developed de novo GERD symptoms. GERD was significantly associated with older age (p = 0.022) and lower BMI (2, p = 0.028). In multiple logistic regression analysis, age and BMI were significantly associated with GERD. (4) Conclusions: LSG is a safe and effective weight loss surgery. In our study, it led to 16.1% of de novo GERD symptoms, which were significantly related to older age and lower BMI (2)