Neutron depolarization studies of Pd-Ni-Fe-P alloy

Bulk metallic glasses based on the quaternary alloy Pd-Ni-Fe-P exhibit interesting phase behavior depending on temperature and applied magnetic field. Previous work has suggested that a range of magnetic phases including paramagnetic, superparamagnetic, ferromagnetic and spin glass can be observed in this system. We have applied one dimensional neutron depolarization to explore the correlation of magnetic moments in Pd40Ni22.5Fe17.5P20 alloy as a function of temperature and applied magnetic field. The results provided evidence for correlation lengths of ~ 200 Å. The nature of the correlations and the formation mechanism of the induced ferromagnetic phase are discusse

Time-Selective RNN for Device-Free Multi-Room Human Presence Detection Using WiFi CSI

Human presence detection is a crucial technology for various applications, including home automation, security, and healthcare. While camera-based systems have traditionally been used for this purpose, they raise privacy concerns. To address this issue, recent research has explored the use of channel state information (CSI) approaches that can be extracted from commercial WiFi access points (APs) and provide detailed channel characteristics. In this thesis, we propose a device-free human presence detection system for multi-room scenarios using a time-selective conditional dual feature extract recurrent Network (TCD-FERN). Our system is designed to capture significant time features with the condition on current human features using a dynamic and static (DaS) data preprocessing technique to extract moving and spatial features of people and differentiate between line-of-sight (LoS) path blocking and non-blocking cases. To mitigate the feature attenuation problem caused by room partitions, we employ a voting scheme. We conduct evaluation and real-time experiments to demonstrate that our proposed TCD-FERN system can achieve human presence detection for multi-room scenarios using fewer commodity WiFi APs

Attention-based Learning for Sleep Apnea and Limb Movement Detection using Wi-Fi CSI Signals

Wi-Fi channel state information (CSI) has become a promising solution for non-invasive breathing and body motion monitoring during sleep. Sleep disorders of apnea and periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD) are often unconscious and fatal. The existing researches detect abnormal sleep disorders in impractically controlled environments. Moreover, it leads to compelling challenges to classify complex macro- and micro-scales of sleep movements as well as entangled similar waveforms of cases of apnea and PLMD. In this paper, we propose the attention-based learning for sleep apnea and limb movement detection (ALESAL) system that can jointly detect sleep apnea and PLMD under different sleep postures across a variety of patients. ALESAL contains antenna-pair and time attention mechanisms for mitigating the impact of modest antenna pairs and emphasizing the duration of interest, respectively. Performance results show that our proposed ALESAL system can achieve a weighted F1-score of 84.33, outperforming the other existing non-attention based methods of support vector machine and deep multilayer perceptron

Zonal and Meridional Ocean Currents at TOPEX/Poseidon and JASON-1 Crossovers around Taiwan: Error Analysis and Limitation

A crossover method for determining zonal and meridional ocean current components is examined using data at three crossovers of TOPEX/Poseidon and JASON-1 ground tracks over 2002 - 2006. To implement this method, a geoid model around Taiwan is constructed using surface and airborne gravity data. The modeled and observed geoidal heights at coastal benchmarks are consistent to 5 cm RMS with the means removed. The error and limitation of this method are discussed, concluding that, in order to obtain current velocities at a 10 cm s-1 accuracy and a 6-km resolution, the dynamic ocean topography (DOT) at a mm-level accuracy is needed, which is not possible to achieve today. By filtering DOT to a spatial scale of 100 km or coarser, a 10 cm s-1 accuracy of velocity may be obtained. One crossover (A) is situated south of Taiwan and near the Kuroshio, the second (B) is at the axis of the Kuroshio and the third is located in the northern Taiwan Strait. These three crossovers feature different ocean current patterns. At a spatial scale of 120 km, the agreement among the altimeter, the Princeton Ocean Model (POM), and the drifter-derived velocities is the best at B, followed by that at A, and then C. In fact, at C the altimeter-derived velocities contradict the POM-derived values, and the tide model error is to be blamed. Further improvement on geoid modeling is suggested

Formation of an SIR-Nucleosome Filament in vitro and Its Modulation by O-Acetyl-ADP-Ribose

It is not possible to clearly visualize how chromatin condenses to heterochromatin in vivo. However, in an in vitro system for Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the requirements for heterochromatin filament formation mirror those found in vivo. Here we report that the nucleosomes and the Sir2, Sir3 and Sir4 proteins, which are required for in vitro filament assembly, are also components of these filaments, confirming that the filaments are SIR-nucleosome filaments. We show the individual localization patterns of the Sir proteins on this SIR-nucleosome filament, and demonstrate that the metabolite, AAR, plays a specific and essential role in promoting the formation of this SIR-nucleosome filament

Associations between child maltreatment, PTSD, and internet addiction among Taiwanese students

AbstractThis study examines (1) the associations between multiple types of child maltreatment and Internet addiction, and (2) the mediating effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on these associations. We collected data from a national proportionately stratified random sample of 6233 fourth-grade students in Taiwan in 2014. We conducted bivariate correlations and sets of multiple regression analyses to examine the associations between multiple types of maltreatment (5 types in total) and Internet addiction, and to identify the mediating role of PTSD. The results reveal that being male and experiencing abuse (psychological neglect, physical neglect, paternal physical violence, sexual violence) were associated with increased risk among children of developing PTSD and Internet addiction. Moreover, PTSD mediated the associations between multiple types of maltreatment (except maternal physical violence) and Internet addiction. This study demonstrates (1) the effects of multiple types of maltreatment on the PTSD and Internet addiction of children and (2) the importance of early prevention and intervention in addressing related public-health concerns

Bathymetry Estimation Using the Gravity-Geologic Method: An Investigation of Density Contrast Predicted by the Downward Continuation Method

The downward continuation (DWC) method was used to determine the density contrast between the seawater and the ocean bottom topographic mass to estimate accurate bathymetry using the gravity-geologic method (GGM) in two study areas, which are located south of Greenland (Test Area #1: 40 - 50¢XW and 50 - 60¢XN) and south of Alaska (Test Area #2: 140 - 150¢XW and 45 - 55¢XN). The data used in this study include altimetry-derived gravity anomalies, shipborne depths and gravity anomalies. Density contrasts of 1.47 and 1.30 g cm-3 were estimated by DWC for the two test areas. The considerations of predicted density contrasts can enhance the accuracy of 3 ~ 4 m for GGM

Concurrent image-guided intensity modulated radiotherapy and chemotherapy following neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To evaluate the experience of induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiationwith helical tomotherapy (HT) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Between August 2006 and December 2009, 28 patients with pathological proven nonmetastatic NPC were enrolled. All patients were staged as IIB-IVB. Patients were first treated with 2 to 3 cycles of induction chemotherapy with EP-HDFL (Epirubicin, Cisplatin, 5-FU, and Leucovorin). After induction chemotherapy, weekly based PFL was administered concurrent with HT. Radiation consisted of 70 Gy to the planning target volumes of the primary tumor plus any positive nodal disease using 2 Gy per fraction.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After completion of induction chemotherapy, the response rates for primary and nodal disease were 96.4% and 80.8%, respectively. With a median follow-up after 33 months (Range, 13-53 months), there have been 2 primary and 1 nodal relapse after completion of radiotherapy. The estimated 3-year progression-free rates for local, regional, locoregional and distant metastasis survival rate were 92.4%, 95.7%, 88.4%, and 78.0%, respectively. The estimated 3-year overall survival was 83.5%. Acute grade 3, 4 toxicities for xerostomia and dermatitis were only 3.6% and 10.7%, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>HT for locoregionally advanced NPC is feasible and effective in regard to locoregional control with high compliance, even after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. None of out-field or marginal failure noted in the current study confirms the potential benefits of treating NPC patients by image-guided radiation modality. A long-term follow-up study is needed to confirm these preliminary findings.</p

Relationships between Parent-Reported Parenting, Child-Perceived Parenting, and Children’s Mental Health in Taiwanese Children

The current study examines the relationship between parents’ and children’s reports of parenting and their effects on children’s mental health symptoms. Six hundred and sixty-six parent-child dyads in Taiwan participated in this study. The parents and the children filled out the parenting questionnaires, and the children also reported their general mental health. The results demonstrated that parental-reported and child-perceived parenting were positively correlated, but parents tended to report lower scores on authoritarian parenting and higher scores on Chinese parenting than did their children. There were also significant gender differences: The mothers reported higher authoritative parenting than did the fathers; and the boys perceived higher authoritarian and Chinese-culture specific parenting than did the girls. Moreover, the Chinese parenting had a negative effect on children’s mental health outcomes. Finally, our results showed that children’s perception of parenting had a stronger effect on children’s mental health symptoms than did parental reports on parenting, urging future research to include the children’s report when investigating the effects of parenting on children’s mental health outcomes

Patients with chronic periodontitis are more likely to develop upper urinary tract stone: a nation-wide population-based eight-year follow up study

Background The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between chronic periodontitis (CP) and upper urinary tract stone (UUTS) in Taiwan by using a population-based data set. Methods A total of 16,292 CP patients and 48,876 randomly-selected controls without chronic periodontitis were selected from the National research database and studied retrospectively. Subjects selected have not been diagnosed with UUTS previously. These subjects were prospectively followed for at least eight years. Cox regression models were used to explore the connection between risk factors and the development of UUTS. Results The CP patients have a greater chance of developing UUTS compared to controls (1761/16292, 10.8% vs. 4775/48876, 9.8%, p-values < 0.001). Conditioned logistic regression suggested CP increases the risk of UUTS development (HR 1.14, 95% CI [1.08–1.20], p < 0.001). After respective adjustment for age, gender, hypertension and diabetes, results showed that CP still increases the risk of developing UUTS (HR 1.14, 95% CI [1.08–1.20], p < 0.001). Conclusion By using a population-based database with a minimum eight 8 follow-up of CP in Taiwan, we discovered patients with CP are more likely to develop UUTS