The impact of foreign trading information on emerging futures markets: a study of Taiwan's unique data set

Using a unique dataset from the Taiwan Futures Exchange, this paper investigates whether trading imbalances by foreign investors affect emerging Taiwan futures market in terms of returns and volatility. First, this evidence demonstrates a positive relation between contemporaneous futures returns and net purchases by foreign investors when other market factor effects are controlled. Second, this failure to detect price reversals is inconsistent with the price pressure hypothesis. Third, foreign investors do not exhibit positive feedback trading patterns. Fourth, a bi-directional Granger-causality relationship exists between futures volatility and foreign trading flows. As found for other stock or foreign exchange markets, our empirical results demonstrate that foreign trading flows do have impacts on the return and volatility of developing futures market, suggesting that trading by foreign investors may enhance the information flow of the local futures market.Foreign trading

Kinematic Analysis of a Novel Vibratory Bowl Feeder

This study aims to propose a kinematic analysis approach for a novel vibratory bowl feeder, and verify its feasibility by kinematic simulation. First, the novel design is presented, and its advantages compared with conventional feeders are described. Moreover, the equations for kinematic analysis are derived. Finally, the solid model for the proposed design is established, and then kinematic simulation is performed by ADAMS software. The simulation results indicate that the proposed design can effectively advances the part with high efficiency

Uncertain Associations of Major Bleeding and Concurrent Use of Antiplatelet Agents and Chinese Medications: A Nested Case-Crossover Study

Despite the evidence that some commonly used Chinese medications (CMs) have antiplatelet/anticoagulant effects, many patients still used antiplatelets combined with CMs. We conducted a nested case-crossover study to examine the associations between the concomitant use of antiplatelets and CMs and major bleeding using population-based health database in Taiwan. Among the cohort of 79,463 outpatients prescribed antiplatelets (e.g., aspirin and clopidogrel) continuously, 1,209 patients hospitalized with new occurring bleeding in 2012 and 2013 were included. Those recruited patients served as their own controls to compare different times of exposure to prespecified CMs (e.g., Asian ginseng and dong quai) and antiplatelet agents. The periods of case, control 1, and control 2 were defined as 1–4 weeks, 6–9 weeks, and 13–16 weeks before hospitalization, respectively. Conditional logistic regression analyses found that concurrent use of antiplatelet drugs with any of the prespecified CMs in the case period might not significantly increase the risks of bleeding over that in the control periods (OR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.51 to 1.95 and OR = 1.13, 95% CI 0.65 to 1.97). The study showed no strong relationships between hospitalization for major bleeding events and concurrent use of antiplatelet drugs with the prespecified CMs

Effects of different ceramic and dentin thicknesses on the temperature rise during photocuring

AbstractBackground/purposeThe aims of this investigation were to describe the effect of different ceramic and remaining dentin thicknesses on substrate temperature during photocuring, and investigate whether the temperature increased by >5.5°C for different dentin/ceramic combinations.Materials and methodsThree groups of dentin thicknesses of 1.0 (D1.0), 1.5 (D1.5), and 2.0 mm (D2.0), and three groups of ceramic thicknesses of 1.5 (C1.5), 2.5 (C2.5), and 3.5 mm (C3.5) were examined. Temperature changes and the maximum temperature were observed under a high-intensity halogen light (QTH-Atralis 10 ECS program at 1200mW/cm2 for 30 seconds, Ivoclar Vivadent AG, Schaan, Liechtenstein). Four groups, D1.0–C1.5 (+11°C), D1.5–C1.5 (+7.2°C), D1.0–C2.5 (+6.7°C), and D2–0C1.5 (+5.8°C), demonstrated temperature changes of >5.5°C.Results and ConclusionsA statistical analysis showed that separate individual thicknesses and combinations of dentin and ceramic had significant effects on temperature changes (P<0.01). It was observed that the ceramic exhibited a smaller temperature shielding effect than dentin. Clinically, it would be optimal to preserve the dentin to avoid damaging pulp tissues. Where there is insufficient overall thickness (≤3.5mm), continuous high-energy output photocuring should be avoided to protect pulp tissues from thermal injury

The association between tyrosine kinase inhibitors and fatal arrhythmia in patients with non-small cell lung cancer in Taiwan

ObjectiveAs a standard therapy, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) improved survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation. However, treatment-related cardiotoxicity, particularly arrhythmia, cannot be ignored. With the prevalence of EGFR mutations in Asian populations, the risk of arrhythmia among patients with NSCLC remains unclear.MethodsUsing data from the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database and National Cancer Registry, we identified patients with NSCLC from 2001 to 2014. Using Cox proportional hazards models, we analyzed outcomes of death and arrhythmia, including ventricular arrhythmia (VA), sudden cardiac death (SCD), and atrial fibrillation (AF). The follow-up duration was three years.ResultsIn total, 3876 patients with NSCLC treated with TKIs were matched to 3876 patients treated with platinum analogues. After adjusting for age, sex, comorbidities, and anticancer and cardiovascular therapies, patients receiving TKIs had a significantly lower risk of death (adjusted HR: 0.767; CI: 0.729–0.807, p &lt; 0.001) than those receiving platinum analogues. Given that approximately 80% of the studied population reached the endpoint of mortality, we also adjusted for mortality as a competing risk. Notably, we observed significantly increased risks of both VA (adjusted sHR: 2.328; CI: 1.592–3.404, p &lt; 0.001) and SCD (adjusted sHR: 1.316; CI: 1.041–1.663, p = 0.022) among TKI users compared with platinum analogue users. Conversely, the risk of AF was similar between the two groups. In the subgroup analysis, the increasing risk of VA/SCD persisted regardless of sex and most cardiovascular comorbidities.ConclusionsCollectively, we highlighted a higher risk of VA/SCD in TKI users than in patients receiving platinum analogues. Further research is needed to validate these findings

Differentiation of Foot-and-Mouth Disease-Infected pigs from Vaccinated Pigs Using Antibody-Detecting Sandwich ELISA

The presence of serum antibodies for nonstructural proteins of the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) can differentiate FMDV-infected animals from vaccinated animals. In this study, a sandwich ELISA was developed for rapid detection of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) antibodies; it was based on an Escherichia coli-expressed, highly conserved region of the 3ABC nonstructural protein of the FMDV O/TW/99 strain and a monoclonal antibody derived from the expressed protein. The diagnostic sensitivity of the assay was 98.4%, and the diagnostic specificity was 100% for naïve and vaccinated pigs; the detection ability of the assay was comparable those of the PrioCHECK and UBI kits. There was 97.5, 93.4 and 66.6% agreement between the results obtained from our ELISA and those obtained from the PrioCHECK, UBI and CHEKIT kits, respectively. The kappa statistics were 0.95, 0.87 and 0.37, respectively. Moreover, antibodies for nonstructural proteins of the serotypes A, C, Asia 1, SAT 1, SAT 2 and SAT 3 were also detected in bovine sera. Furthermore, the absence of cross-reactions generated by different antibody titers against the swine vesicular disease virus and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) was also highlighted in this assay's specificit

Reduction in magnetic coercivity of Co nanomagnets by Fe alloying

We measured the magnetic hysteresis and coercivity of individual Co and Co$_{0.8}$Fe$_{0.2}$ bilayer nano-sized island structures formed on Cu (111) substrate using spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. From the hysteresis taken on various sizes of islands, we found that the alloyed islands are ferromagnetic with out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy, same as the pure islands. Coercivity of the alloy islands, which is dependent on their size, was significantly reduced to ≈40% of that of the pure islands. Based on the Stoner–Wohlfarth model, we evaluated the amount of magnetic anisotropic energy and anisotropy constant for both pure and alloy islands. Since tunneling spectra taken on the alloy islands show upward shifts of the valence electronic states as compared to the pure ones, fewer electrons populated in the valence band of the alloy islands are presumably responsible for the reduction in the magnetic anisotropic energy

One-stage reconstruction of large lower lip defect and oral competence with free composite anterolateral thigh-tensor fasciae latae flap

SummaryReconstruction for a large lower lip defect is a challenge to reconstructive surgeons. The most challenging problem is to maintain oral competence and prevent sialorrhea. We present three cases of such a defect reconstructed with composite anterolateral thigh-tensor fascia lata free flaps in one stage. The patients reported in this communication had advanced squamous cell carcinoma in the lower lip. A large lower lip defect (>90%) resulted in each case from wide excision of the tumor. A composite anterolateral thigh-tensor fasciae latae free flap was used to reconstruct the defect and to restore the dynamic oral competence in one stage. A tensor fasciae latae sling was attached by two strips sutured together to the upper orbicularis oris muscle in the first case. The four-strip method, a modification of the method described by Serkan,1 was adopted in the second case. The upper two strips bilaterally sutured to the orbicularis oris muscles in a mode somewhat different from Serkan’s method. The tensor fasciae latae sling was attached by two strips sutured to the periosteum of both zygomatic eminences in the third case. The tensor fasciae latae sling of Case 1 failed with persistent sialorrhea. The second case had good oral competence and comprehensible speech ability without sialorrhea. The third case had an acceptable result before he was lost to follow-up. A composite anterolateral thigh-tensor fasciae latae free flap is a good choice for a large lower lip defect to achieve oral competence reconstruction in one stage. Simultaneous dynamic and static suspensions are suggested to maintain oral competence and prevent sialorrhea