The Impact on the Brazilian Economy of the Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro in 2016

Purpose: This study aims to examine the influence of channel power and influence strategy, in terms of non-coercive strategies, on sanitary equipment manufacturers' relationships with channel members and channel performance.   Theoretical framework: The study is based on the literature on channel relationships, which suggests that using an influence strategy can contribute to managing the relationship with the channel members and benefit organization performance.   Design/Methodology/Approach:  In this study, we sampled from a sanitary equipment manufacturer's channel strategy. We used survey data to examine the effect of channel management strategies from sanitary equipment manufacturers on distributors.   Findings: The finding indicates that a supplier using economic power tends to adopt non-coercive strategies. In addition, economic power and non-coercive strategies positively affect the continuity of the relationship with distributors. Relationship continuity between manufacturers and distributors positively impacts whole channel performance.   Originality/Value: This study sampled the distributors in the sanitary equipment industry, a market in which the consumers are not knowledgeable about the products. Most consumers base their purchase decisions heavily on the channel member’s recommendations. Therefore, how to manage the relationship with the channel members is critical to understand.   Research, Practical & Social implications: Distributors are regarded as an extension of the company's sales capabilities. Channels have always held an essential position in the industry. Maintaining relationships between distributors and improving channel performance is a critical question in distribution management

A Reinforcement Learning Badminton Environment for Simulating Player Tactics (Student Abstract)

Recent techniques for analyzing sports precisely has stimulated various approaches to improve player performance and fan engagement. However, existing approaches are only able to evaluate offline performance since testing in real-time matches requires exhaustive costs and cannot be replicated. To test in a safe and reproducible simulator, we focus on turn-based sports and introduce a badminton environment by simulating rallies with different angles of view and designing the states, actions, and training procedures. This benefits not only coaches and players by simulating past matches for tactic investigation, but also researchers from rapidly evaluating their novel algorithms.Comment: Accepted by AAAI 2023 Student Abstract, code is available at https://github.com/wywyWang/CoachAI-Projects/tree/main/Strategic%20Environmen

Association of metabolic syndrome with erosive esophagitis and Barrett’s esophagus in a Chinese population

AbstractBackgroundMetabolic syndrome has been highlighted as a risk factor for several gastrointestinal diseases, including gastroesophageal reflux disease and Barrett’s esophagus (BE). The aim of this study was to investigate the association of metabolic syndrome with erosive esophagitis (EE) and BE.MethodsData were retrospectively collected from patients who visited the Medical Screening Center at Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan from January 2006 to December 2009. All patients underwent an open-access transoral upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, and serum laboratory data were collected. The exclusion criteria included prior gastric surgery, or presence of esophageal varices or peptic ulcers. These patients were assigned to groups according to their endoscopic findings as follows: (1) normal group; (2) EE group; and (3) BE group. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed based on the International Diabetes Federation criteria.ResultsThere were 560/6499 (8.6%) patients, 214/1118 (9.6%) patients, and 19/95 (20%) patients with metabolic syndrome in the normal, EE, and BE groups, respectively. There was a significantly higher percentage of cases with hypertriglyceridemia in the EE group (67%) compared with the other groups. The BE group had significantly higher rates of central obesity (33%) and hypertension (29.5%) compared with rates in the normal and EE groups. After adjusting for confounders, the positive association with metabolic syndrome still existed in both the EE group (adjusted odds ratio=2.43; 95% confidence interval=1.02–3.44) and the BE group (adjusted odds ratio=2.82; 95% confidence interval=2.05–3.88).ConclusionOur research indicated that in fact there is a greater risk of concurrent metabolic syndrome in patients with EE or BE

Screening and Molecular Analysis of Single Circulating Tumor Cells Using Micromagnet Array

Immunomagnetic assay has been developed to detect rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which shows clinical significance in cancer diagnosis and prognosis. The generation and fine-tuning of the magnetic field play essential roles in such assay toward effective single-cell-based analyses of target cells. However, the current assay has a limited range of field gradient, potentially leading to aggregation of cells and nanoparticles. Consequently, quenching of the fluorescence signal and mechanical damage to the cells may occur, which lower the system sensitivity and specificity. We develop a micromagnet-integrated microfluidic system for enhanced CTC detection. The ferromagnetic micromagnets, after being magnetized, generate localized magnetic field up to 8-fold stronger than that without the micromagnets, and strengthen the interactions between CTCs and the magnetic field. The system is demonstrated with four cancer cell lines with over 97% capture rate, as well as with clinical samples from breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer patients. The system captures target CTCs from patient blood samples on a standard glass slide that can be examined using the fluorescence in-situ hybridization method for the single-cell profiling. All cells showed clear hybridization signals, indicating the efficacy of the compact system in providing retrievable cells for molecular studies

Improving Success Rates of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Chronic Total Occlusion at a Rural Hospital in East Taiwan

SummaryBackgroundWe aimed to report the results of percutaneous coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion (CTO) in a remote hospital of southeast Taiwan that does not have on-site coronary artery bypass graft support and has insufficient medical resources.MethodsFrom 2006 to 2009, we identified 96 patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention and whose coronary angiogram showed CTO lesions. On-site cardiovascular surgeons were unavailable from 2006 to 2009.ResultsThe success rate (test for trend, p = 0.02) and numbers of guidewires used (test for trend, p = 0.59) significantly increased from 2006 to 2009, and the procedural time reduced significantly (test for trend, p = 0.001). The volume of contrast media injected decreased, although this result was not statistically significant (p = 0.70).ConclusionOur experience in managing CTO lesions substantially improved and the procedural time reduced over 4 years, even when constrained by a relative shortage of medical resources