USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.In addition to increasingly frequent water shortage problems, agricultural water sector is also challenged by environmental issues. The objective of this article is to summarize, as well as propose sustainable strategies for agricultural sector in response to current environmental challenges. For water shortage problems, which are becoming more and more frequent worldwide including Taiwan, measures for irrigation water, such as extending irrigation periods, decreasing number of irrigation application times, or rotational irrigation, are introduced and discussed. When borrowing or transfer of water among sectors is needed in Taiwan, it is usually from agricultural irrigation water to other sectors in almost all cases. The maintenance of water right, and compensation to farmers for their income loss, are the two major issues. As for environmental changes, the impact of the accession of Taiwan to WTO (World Trade Organization) is discussed specifically in this article, and a management scheme in order to save irrigation water, which could be used for other purposes, is suggested in this article

A Study of Classics-Reading Curriculum, Classics-Reading Promotion, and Classics-Reading Effect Modeling Exploration in Elementary Schools

The purposes of this study are to test reliabilities and validities of classics-reading curriculum (CRC) scale, classics-reading promotion (CRP) scale, and classics-reading effect (CRE) scale and to examine the relationships between CRC, CRP, and CRE in elementary schools through applying CORPS framework. The pilot sample and formal sample contain 141 and 500 participants from elementary school faculties and classics-reading volunteers in the north, central, south, and east regions of Taiwan. The findings indicate that Cronbach α coefficients of curriculum cognition (CC), curriculum teaching (CT), inside-school promotion (IP), outside-school promotion (EP), learning effect (LE), and class management effect (CME) subscales are .88, .85, .93, .91, .91, .94, respectively, through exploratory factor analysis and they have good internal reliabilities and construct validities, respectively, through confirmatory factor analysis. Moreover, CC, CT, IP, and EP have positive influences on LE (standardized coefficients .34, .25, .14, and .22) and on CME (standardized coefficients .41, .14, .14, and .20), respectively. CC, CT, IP, and EP can explain 69% of LE and 61% of CME. The model is supported by the data. Lastly, this study proposes some suggestions regarding the classics-reading education for elementary schools

Examining the online reading behavior and performance of fifth-graders: evidence from eye-movement data

Online reading is developing at an increasingly rapid rate, but the debate concerning whether learning is more effective when using hypertexts than when using traditional linear texts is still persistent. In addition, several researchers stated that online reading comprehension always starts with a question, but little empirical evidence has been gathered to investigate this claim. This study used eye-tracking technology and retrospective think aloud technique to examine online reading behaviors of fifth-graders (N = 50). The participants were asked to read four texts on the website. The present study employed a three-way mixed design: 2 (reading ability: high vs. low) 2 (reading goals: with vs. without) 2 (text types: hypertext vs. linear text). The dependent variables were eye-movement indices and the frequencies of using online reading strategy. The results show that fifth-graders, irrespective of their reading ability, found it difficult to navigate the nonlinear structure of hypertexts when searching for and integrating information. When they read with goals, they adjusted their reading speed and the focus of their attention. Their offline reading ability also influenced their online reading performance. These results suggest that online reading skills and strategies have to be taught in order to enhance the online reading abilities of elementary-school students

Chip-Scale Nanophotonic Chemical and Biological Sensors Using CMOS Process

A monolithic integrated chip-scale surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor is demonstrated. The device consists of a pn photodiode covered with a periodic modified thin metal film whose lattice constant is on the order of the wavelength of light. The device performs real-time measurement of resonant wavelengths of enhanced optical transmission due to surface plasmon resonance, which are influenced by the presence of chemical or biological materials at the device’s surface

Therapeutic protein expression platform of microbial system

A number of expression systems have been developed for the production of pharmaceutical products. Pichia pastoris and Escherichia coli expression system operate in our lab and express antibody fragment (scFv), cytokine, protein base adjuvant and vaccine and process enzyme. The expression platform are consisted of three part, first is strain generation , the second is fermentation process development in 250 ml fermentor and the last is process scale-up to 5 litter fermentor. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Lasing on nonlinear localized waves in curved geometry

The use of geometrical constraints opens many new perspectives in photonics and in fundamental studies of nonlinear waves. By implementing surface structures in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers as manifolds for curved space, we experimentally study the impacts of geometrical constraints on nonlinear wave localization. We observe localized waves pinned to the maximal curvature in an elliptical-ring, and confirm the reduction in the localization length of waves by measuring near and far field patterns, as well as the corresponding dispersion relation. Theoretically, analyses based on a dissipative model with a parabola curve give good agreement remarkably to experimental measurement on the transition from delocalized to localized waves. The introduction of curved geometry allows to control and design lasing modes in the nonlinear regime.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Engineering of Escherichia coli protein expression process development

It almost 30% protein drugs are expression by Escherichia coli, because of rapid growth and high production yield. We have developed E.coli base system for recombinant protein expression, scFv, Fab and vaccine. In this study we introduce example about process development for nutrient components selection. Shaker flasks were used for different nitrogen and carbon components screening by DoE. Seven media formulations for E. coli fermentation were used in this study. By changing nitrogen and carbon source ratio, product titer of target protein could be optimized, at least 1.4 folds increased. The best result from shaker flask was used in 250 mL parallel fermenter and pH, dissolved oxygen, feeding/induction strategy were evaluated. The processes from seed culture to harvest only require 64 hours. The optimized time was reduced to 32 hours. The result showed that both target protein expression and cell density value were comparable, but the total process time was significantly reduced by half Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Gram Level scFv expression platform of Pichia pastoris

The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris secretion expression system has been developed for the antibody fragments (scFv) production platform. The platform includes three technology platforms, the first one is strain generation, the second is fermentation process development in 250 ml fermentor and the last is process scale up to 5 L. A recombinant scFv went through clone generation, include signal peptide tool box, normally yield 2.5 mg/L titer in deep well. Through the fermentation process development of induction medium composition and feeding strategy by Eppendorf Dasgip parallel 250 ml mini fermentor. During induction step, feeding 100% methanol as induction medium can only produce less than 50 mg/L scFv while feeding methanol-sorbitol mixture can significant increase the production yield to 306 mg/L in five days, about 6-folds increase in productivity. With the supply of additional nitrogen source during glycerol feeding step or at induction step, higher scFv production with 510 mg/L can be achieved. Thus, following the medium composition optimization, the production titer was improved 10 folds in 250 ml mini-fermentor stage. Moreover, when we switched the induction medium feeding strategy from DO-stat to the stepwise feeding, the titer increased form 510 mg/L to ~1000 mg/L and yielded another 2- folds improvement. During medium composition and feeding strategy optimization at 250 ml mini fermentor scale, the production titer could increase 20 folds. Overall, the production titer increased 400 folds from cell line generation to 250 ml fermentation parameter optimization. Furthermore, the process parameter can be scale-up to 5 L fernentor achieving \u3e 1 g/L. Recent progress to include BIP in the expression vector gave at least 2 fold improvement in scFv titer in shake flask, the new clone will be optimized in our established 250 ml and 5 L fermentation platform. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract