Dimensions of Culture: A Literature Review of Cross-Cultural Competencies for Music Therapists

With the rise in diversity of the population worldwide, mental health professionals are more likely to work with clients with a different culture. Owing to the uneven distribution of accessibility of music therapy, music therapists, especially, have a higher possibility to work cross-culturally. Cross-cultural music therapy is an intricate and sensitive practice involving multicultural issues and different levels of sentiments of the therapists. The existing research is not enough for supporting music therapists working under cross-cultural contexts. This literature review integrates studies in various cross-cultural settings including domestically cross-cultural work, international work, international student context, and cross-cultural supervision context. Findings were analyzed and organized by researchers all over the world, which revealed a group of coherent themes including cross-cultural working challenges, how music can serve as an instrumental role, and how a music therapist can experience personal growth in the clinical work. A cross-cultural competence framework is provided as an aerial view of cross-cultural music therapy process, which therapists can refer to when implementing cross-cultural practices

Water Resources Management in Practices at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology Campus

NPUST was the top Taiwan university for the 9th consecutive year on the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking, and placed 27th out of 1,050 schools from 85 countries. This achievement is the result of our commitments to sustainable development. NPUST has been building green transportation for carbon and air pollution reduction, green energy system for effective use of electricity generated by renewable energy, and campus waste water recycling system for the goal of zero discharge. We also implement policies on waste reduction and waste sorting and recycling, as well as encourage planting in school campus. The practice of water resources management is crucial in various aspects that contribute to this sustainable campus. The sustainable management strategies include water consumption management, water conservation and water saving, and water recycling management. In this paper, we are going to share our practical experience in waste water treatment, recycling system set-up, waste water reuse, sustainable development for water resources and how we implement the policies on water saving at campus and spread water resources knowledge. The information is prov

Framework and Use Case for a Web-Based Interactive Analysis Tool to Investigate Urban Expansion and Sustainable Development Goal Indicators

Land cover changes have been mapped for decades to investigate urban expansion patterns. Under the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), several indices are employed to interpret urban growth trends quantitatively and comprehensively. However, landowners and the interested public usually have limited insights into these types of information as access to data and software is limited. Static maps and the inability to access special file formats increase the difficulty of viewing and investigating the data. This contribution presents a dedicated, interactive, web-based analysis tool for integrating land cover and land use maps as well as urban expansion indices. The tool’s concept, development and functionality are presented, and its general design is reviewed based on an actual implementation case. The setup allows integrating land use and land cover (LULC) change data alongside SDG indicators. The tool’s design aims to enhance user accessibility to information on urban expansion indices and LULC. We demonstrate that such a tool can be used to help disseminate results and to improve communication with the public in the context of other use cases

The Effects of Green Energy Production on Farmland: A Case Study in Yunlin County, Taiwan

Taiwan enacted the Act of Renewable Energy in the year 2009 which promotes energy safety, green economy, and a sustainable environment, and with that the government envisages a contribution of photovoltaic energy of up to 20% by the year 2025. In this study we look into the motivation and background of this energy policy, plans for implementation and associated challenges, and its actual consequences for farmland use and farmers. In addition, we take a look into the implementation of mixed-use farmland in which agricultural activity and photovoltaic installations are planned to coexist in order to increase land value and productivity. We furthermore report on some of our findings related to a field survey conducted in Taiwan’s corn chamber of Yunlin County which has been facing a number of socioeconomic challenges

Open lung biopsy in early-stage acute respiratory distress syndrome

INTRODUCTION: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has heterogeneous etiologies, rapid progressive change and a high mortality rate. To improve the outcome of ARDS, accurate diagnosis is essential to the application of effective early treatment. The present study investigated the clinical effects and safety of open lung biopsy (OLB) in patients with early-stage ARDS of suspected non-infectious origin. METHODS: We undertook a retrospective study of 41 patients with early-stage ARDS (defined as one week or less after intubation) who underwent OLB in two medical intensive care units of a tertiary care hospital from 1999 to 2005. Data analyzed included baseline characteristics, complication rate, pathological diagnoses, treatment alterations, and hospital survival. RESULTS: The age of patients was 55 ± 17 years (mean ± SD). The average ratio of arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO(2)) to fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO(2)) was 116 ± 43 mmHg (mean ± SD) at biopsy. Seventeen patients (41%) were immunocompromised. Postoperative complications occurred in 20% of patients (8/41). All biopsies provided a pathological diagnosis with a diagnostic yield of 100%. Specific pathological diagnoses were made for 44% of patients (18/41). Biopsy findings led to an alteration of treatment modality in 73% of patients (30/41). The treatment alteration rate was higher in patients with nonspecific diagnoses than in patients with specific diagnoses (p = 0.0024). Overall mortality was 50% (21/41) and was not influenced by age, gender, pre-OLB oxygenation, complication rate, pathological results, and alteration of treatment. There was no surgery-related mortality. The survival rate for immunocompromised patients was better than that for immunocompetent patients (71% versus 33%; p = 0.0187) in this study. CONCLUSION: Our retrospective study suggests that OLB was a useful and acceptably safe diagnostic procedure in some selected patients with early-stage ARDS

Preparation and Evaluation of 6-Gingerol Derivatives as Novel Antioxidants and Antiplatelet Agents

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is widely used as a spice and a traditional medicine. Many bioactivities have been reported for its extracts and the isolated compounds, including cardiovascular protective effects. Different pathways were suggested to contribute to these effects, like the inhibition of platelet aggregation. In this study, we synthesised fourteen 6-gingerol derivatives, including eight new compounds, and studied their antiplatelet, COX-1 inhibitor, and antioxidant activities. In silico docking of selected compounds to h-COX-1 enzyme revealed favourable interactions. The investigated 6-gingerol derivatives were also characterised by in silico and experimental physicochemical and blood–brain barrier-related parameters for lead and preclinical candidate selection. 6-Shogaol (2) was identified as the best overall antiplatelet lead, along with compounds 3 and 11 and the new compound 17, which require formulation to optimize their water solubility. Compound 5 was identified as the most potent antioxidant that is also promising for use in the central nervous system (CNS)