Development of sun flower technology with a passive solar tracker

As the sun gradually moves east to west daily, one-axis static solar panels are limited in energy harvesting efficiency because the sunlight is not directly towards to the device most of time, while the maximum of the solar energy intensity will occur only when the solar panel is vertical to the sun light. Therefore, inspired by the sunflowers in the nature, which can move toward the sun, through designing and developing a passive solar tracker which can drive the solar energy device towards the sun, the efficiency of the solar harvesting can thus be optimized

Asymmetric Adjustments in the Ethanol and Grains Markets

This paper examines the long- and short-run asymmetric adjustments for nine pairs of spot and futures prices, itemized as three own pairs for three different bio-fuel ethanol types, three own pairs for three related agricultural products, namely corn, soybeans and sugar, and three cross pairs that included hybrids of the spot price of each of the agricultural products and an ethanol futures price. Most of the spreads’ asymmetric adjustments generally happen during narrowing. The three ethanol pairs that contain the eCBOT futures with each of Chicago spot, New York Harbor spot and Western European (Rotterdam) spot show different long-run adjustments, arbitrage profitable opportunities and price risk hedging capabilities. The asymmetric spread adjustments for the three grains are also different, with corn spread showing the strongest long-run widening adjustment, and sugar showing the weakest narrowing adjustment. Among others, the empirical analysis indicates the importance of potentially hedging the spot prices of agricultural commodities with ethanol futures contracts, which sends an important message that the ethanol futures market is capable of hedging price risk in agricultural commodity markets. The short-run asymmetric adjustments for individual prices in the nine pairs (with exception of the corn own pair underscore the importance of futures prices in the price discovery and hedging potential, particularly for ethanol futures.Long-run and short-run asymmetric adjustments; ethanol; agricultural products; arbitrage opportunities; hedging; widening and narrowing adjustment

Intelligibility and comprehensibility of the Filipino English accent to Hong Kong English speakers

Intercultural communication between Hong Kong people and Filipinos is common and crucial in Hong Kong as Filipinos are the largest non-local ethnic group, and Filipino domestic helpers play a significant role in households and childcare. This study investigated the phonological patterns of Filipino English and explored the intelligibility and comprehensibility of the English spoken by Filipino domestic helpers to student teachers of English in Hong Kong. By analysing the speech produced by three Filipino English speakers, features of Filipino-accented English were identified. Moreover, by conducting listening-dictation tasks, it was found that the listeners considered 30% and 80.6% of the isolated words and keywords in a passage respectively to be intelligible, and 74.7% of the speech produced by Filipino English speakers was comprehensible. The major types of features of the Filipino English accent, which are also found to be factors which contribute to problems in intelligibility and comprehensibility such as consonant substitutions, deletion of consonants and consonant clusters, no distinction between long and short vowels, replacement of vowels, and shifting of word stress, are discussed in detail in this research paper along with the pedagogical and social implications

Current Status of Antimicrobial Resistance in Taiwan

While some trends in antimicrobial resistance rates are universal, others appear to be unique for specific regions. In Taiwan, the strikingly high prevalence of resistance to macrolides and streptogramin in clinical isolates of gram-positive bacteria correlates with the widespread use of these agents in the medical and farming communities, respectively. The relatively low rate of enterococci that are resistant to glycopeptide does not parallel the high use of glycopeptides and extended-spectrum beta-lactams in hospitals. The evolving problem of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates is substantial, and some unique enzymes have been found. Recently, some gram-negative bacteria (e.g., Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii) that are resistant to all available antimicrobial agents including carbapenems have emerged

Operational efficiency in Taiwan banks with consideration of nonperforming loans: A dynamic network DEA

Workshop 2013 on Dynamic and Network DEA (January 29-30, 2013)This paper applies a slacks-based measure dynamic data envelopment analysis (SBM-DNDEA) model to simultaneously evaluate overall, deposit, lending, period, deposit-period and lending-period efficiencies for 22 Taiwanese banks over the period from 1999 to 2011. We treat deposit as the intermediate output, and use non-performing loan as undesirable output capturing the effect of carry-over activity. The results indicate that the improvement in individual process has positive effect on banks’ performance, while efficiency in the deposit process may not guarantee efficiency in the lending process, and vice versa. The period efficiency for all banks has the stable variance. Besides, the efficiencies based on operational characteristics are further compared.This workshop is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 22310092 under the title “Theory and Applications of Dynamic DEA with Network Structure.

Efficiency Predictions by Fuzzy Piecewise Auto-regression in Dynamic Network System

Workshop 2015 -Advances in DEA Theory and Applications (December 1-2, 2015)Since efficiency prediction can help managers to monitor future performance and detect potential failures, it is important for production and operation management. Data envelopment analysis is comprehensively applied to evaluate the relative performance in various areas. However, only few studies try to forecast the relative performance estimated by data envelopment analysis. We propose a performance forecasting model that integrates the multi-activity dynamic network data envelopment analysis and fuzzy piecewise auto-regression. The proposed approach constructs a dynamic performance measurement with the network structure to calculate the catching-up efficiency index. The catching-up efficiency index is further decomposed into the technical efficiency change and dynamic efficiency change to capture the effect of carry-over items. The fuzzy piecewise auto-regression is applied to regress the possibility and necessity estimation models by catching-up efficiency index for forecasting efficiency. In this paper, a data from banks in Taiwan from 2006 to 2012 are applied. The results indicate that the proposed approach has highly accuracy rate.The workshop is supported by JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), #25282090, titled “Studies in Theory and Applications of DEA for Forecasting Purpose.本研究はJSPS科研費 基盤研究(B) 25282090の助成を受けたものです

Membrane repair against H. pylori promotes cancer cell proliferation

Membrane repair is a universal response against physical and biological insults and enables cell survival. Helicobacter pylori is one of the most common human pathogens and the first formally recognized bacterial carcinogen associated with gastric cancer. However, little is known about host membrane repair in the context of H. pylori infection. Here we show that H. pylori disrupts the host plasma membrane and induces Ca2+ influx, which triggers the translocation of annexin family members A1 and A4 to the plasma membrane. This in turn activates a membrane repair response through the recruitment of lysosomal membranes and the induction of downstream signaling transduction pathways that promote cell survival and proliferation. Based on our data, we propose a new model by which H. pylori infection activates annexin A1 and A4 for membrane repair and how annexin A4 over-expression induced signaling promotes cell proliferation. Continual activation of this membrane repair response signaling cascade may cause abnormal cellular states leading to carcinogenesis. This study links H. pylori infection to membrane repair, providing insight into potential mechanisms of carcinogenesis resulting from membrane damage

Asymmetric Adjustments in the Ethanol and Grains Markets

This paper examines the long- and short-run asymmetric adjustments for nine pairs of spot and futures prices, itemized as three own pairs for three different bio-fuel ethanol types, three own pairs for three related agricultural products, namely corn, soybeans and sugar, and three cross pairs that included hybrids of the spot price of each of the agricultural products and an ethanol futures price. Most of the spreads' asymmetric adjustments generally happen during narrowing. The three ethanol pairs that contain the eCBOT futures with each of Chicago spot, New York Harbor spot and Western European (Rotterdam) spot show different long- run adjustments, arbitrage profitable opportunities and price risk hedging capabilities. The asymmetric spread adjustments for the three grains are also different, with corn spread showing the strongest long-run widening adjustment, and sugar showing the weakest narrowing adjustment. Among others, the empirical analysis indicates the importance of potentially hedging the spot prices of agricultural commodities with ethanol futures contracts, which sends an important message that the ethanol futures market is capable of hedging price risk in agricultural commodity markets. The short-run asymmetric adjustments for individual prices in the nine pairs (with exception of the corn own pair underscore the importance of futures prices in the price discovery and hedging potential, particularly for ethanol futures.Long-run and short-run asymmetric adjustments, ethanol, agricultural products, arbitrage opportunities, hedging, widening and narrowing adjustment.