Investigation into the Development of Process Plans from Solid Geometric Modeling Representation

This research addresses the integration of ComputerAided Design and Computer-Aided Process Planning. A prototype system named FREXPP (Feature Recognition and Expert Process Planning system) is presented. This system extracts and orders the form features of a part that is represented by a solid geometrical modeler and automatically selects the manufacturing process for each recognized form feature. Chapter I describes the proposed system and the assumptions made in this research. An introduction to Artifical Intelligence and expert systems is given in Chapter II. Chapter III presents the literature review of theprocess planning systems. The development of FREXPP is described in Chapters IV and V. Chapter IV describes the procedure for feature recognition. Chapter V describes the expert process planni.ng system that is based on the EXPERT system developed at Rutgers University [77]. The conclusion and the suggestion for future study are presented in Chapter VI.Industrial Engineering and Managemen

A Local Diagnosis Algorithm for Hypercube-like Networks under the BGM Diagnosis Model

System diagnosis is process of identifying faulty nodes in a system. An efficient diagnosis is crucial for a multiprocessor system. The BGM diagnosis model is a modification of the PMC diagnosis model, which is a test-based diagnosis. In this paper, we present a specific structure and propose an algorithm for diagnosing a node in a system under the BGM model. We also give a polynomial-time algorithm that a node in a hypercube-like network can be diagnosed correctly in three test rounds under the BGM diagnosis model

Women with endometriosis have higher comorbidities: Analysis of domestic data in Taiwan

AbstractEndometriosis, defined by the presence of viable extrauterine endometrial glands and stroma, can grow or bleed cyclically, and possesses characteristics including a destructive, invasive, and metastatic nature. Since endometriosis may result in pelvic inflammation, adhesion, chronic pain, and infertility, and can progress to biologically malignant tumors, it is a long-term major health issue in women of reproductive age. In this review, we analyze the Taiwan domestic research addressing associations between endometriosis and other diseases. Concerning malignant tumors, we identified four studies on the links between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, one on breast cancer, two on endometrial cancer, one on colorectal cancer, and one on other malignancies, as well as one on associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome, one on links with migraine headache, three on links with pelvic inflammatory diseases, four on links with infertility, four on links with obesity, four on links with chronic liver disease, four on links with rheumatoid arthritis, four on links with chronic renal disease, five on links with diabetes mellitus, and five on links with cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc.). The data available to date support that women with endometriosis might be at risk of some chronic illnesses and certain malignancies, although we consider the evidence for some comorbidities to be of low quality, for example, the association between colon cancer and adenomyosis/endometriosis. We still believe that the risk of comorbidity might be higher in women with endometriosis than that we supposed before. More research is needed to determine whether women with endometriosis are really at risk of these comorbidities

The Impact of Comorbid Diabetes on Short-Term Postoperative Outcomes in Stage I/II Colon Cancer Patients Undergoing Open Colectomy

Purpose. This study aimed at evaluating the impact of comorbid diabetes on short-term postoperative outcomes in patients with stage I/II colon cancer after open colectomy. Methods. The data were extracted from the National Inpatient Sample database (2005-2010). Short-term surgical outcomes included in-hospital mortality, postoperative complications, and hospital length of stay. Results. A total of 49,064 stage I/II colon cancer patients undergoing open surgery were included, with a mean age of 70.35 years. Of them, 21.94% had comorbid diabetes. Multivariable analyses revealed that comorbid diabetes was significantly associated with a lower risk of in-hospital mortality and postoperative complications. Compared to patients without diabetes, patients with uncomplicated diabetes had lower percentages of in-hospital mortality and postoperative complications, but patients with complicated diabetes had a higher percentage of postoperative complications. In addition, patients with diabetes only, but not patients with diabetes and hypertension only, had a lower percentage of in-hospital mortality than patients without any comorbidity. Conclusion. The present results suggested the protective effects of uncomplicated diabetes on short-term surgical outcomes in stage I/II colon cancer patients after open colectomy. Further studies are warranted to confirm these unexpected findings and investigate the possible underlying mechanisms

Hormone therapy for patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer

The “gold standard” treatment for endometrial cancer is completely staged surgery, followed by radiation or chemotherapy, based on the final pathological surgical stage and requirements. In the primary treatment of endometrial cancers, hormones are rarely taken into consideration after primary surgery. Primary treatment with hormones to preserve fertility in younger women with endometrial cancer is an attractive option, and many successful cases have been reported, although the majority of them finally received definite therapy, including total hysterectomy. The role of hormone therapy is often delayed in recurrent disease; response rates to progestins and tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors in advanced/recurrent endometrial cancers are approximately 15–20% and nearly ≤10%, respectively. This review is focused on updated information and recent knowledge on the use of hormones in the management of women with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancers

Epidemiology of Chronic Hepatitis B Infection in the Cohort of College Students with Vaccination in Taiwan

After the mass vaccination project in Taiwan, the prevalence of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection for the college-aged population of 18 to 21 years is uncertain. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of hepatitis B markers in different birth cohorts. A total of 38,075 students in universities in Kaohsiung area undergoing entrance examinations between July 2006 to September 2020 were included. Seroprevalence of the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B surface antibody (anti-HBs) status and laboratory data were collected. The seropositive rate of HBsAg was less than 1% for students born after 1991. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), were significantly higher, and body mass index (BMI) was significantly lower in HBV carriers compared to those who were not carriers (all p < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression showed that age, male, higher BMI, and positive HBsAg were risk factors of abnormal ALT value. A decrease in the positive rate of anti-HBs which was significantly higher in the cohort of plasma-derived vaccines than recombinant vaccines was found. We concluded that there were decreasing trends in seropositive rates of HBsAg and anti-HBs for students of the college-aged population in the Kaohsiung area. The status of HBsAg was a predictive factor of abnormal ALT levels. The period effect on anti-HBs seropositivity for DNA recombinant vaccine somehow existed

The Efficacy of Anthropometric Indicators in Predicting Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Using FibroScan^® CAP Values among the Taiwanese Population

The controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) measurement obtained from FibroScan® is a low-risk method of assessing fatty liver. This study investigated the association between the FibroScan® CAP values and nine anthropometric indicators, including the abdominal volume index (AVI), body fat percentage (BFP), body mass index (BMI), conicity index (CI), ponderal index (PI), relative fat mass (RFM), waist circumference (WC), waist–hip ratio (WHR), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), and risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (fatty liver). We analyzed the medical records of adult patients who had FibroScan® CAP results. CAP values 2 to 34.9 kg/m2. Class 2 obesity is defined by a BMI ranging from 35 kg/m2 to 39.9 kg/m2, while class 3 obesity is designated by a BMI of 40 kg/m2 or higher. Out of 1763 subjects, 908 (51.5%) had fatty liver. The BMI, WHtR, and PI were found to be more strongly correlated with the CAP by the cluster dendrogram with correlation coefficients of 0.58, 0.54, and 0.54, respectively (all p < 0.0001). We found that 28.3% of the individuals without obesity had fatty liver, and 28.2% of the individuals with obesity did not have fatty liver. The BMI, CI, and PI were significant predictors of fatty liver. The BMI, PI, and WHtR demonstrated better predictive ability, indicated by AUC values of 0.72, 0.68, and 0.68, respectively, a finding that was echoed in our cluster group analysis that showed interconnected clustering with the CAP. Therefore, of the nine anthropometric indicators we studied, the BMI, CI, PI, and WHtR were found to be more effective in predicting the CAP score, i.e., fatty liver