A new model for cross-cultural web design

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.People from different cultures use web interface in different ways, expect different visual representation, navigation, interaction, mental model, and layouts etc., and have different communication patterns and expectation. In the context of globalisation, web localisation becomes a powerful strategy to acquire an audience in a global market. Therefore, web developers and designers have to make adaptations to fit the needs of people from different cultures, and the way cultural factors are integrated into web interface design needs to be improved. Most previous research lacks an appropriate way to apply cultural factors into web development. No empirical study of the web interface has been carried out to support the cross-cultural web design model. It is noted that no single model can support all cross-cultural web communication but a new model is needed to bridge the gap and improve the limitations. Thus the research aim was to build a new model of cross-cultural web design to contribute to effective communication. Following an extensive literature review, a local web audit was conducted, then a series of experiments with users to gather and evaluate data and build and validate the new model. A new model, based on a study of British and Taiwanese users, was formulated and validated demonstrating that content and message remain the core of web design but the performance of the selected users is influenced by the cultural dimension and cultural preferences and this, in turn impacts on the effectiveness of the web communication. For the British user sample, ease of using the website was seen to be strongly related to desirability. Taiwanese users showed preference for visual pleasure but no relationship between efficient performance and desirability. The resultant model contributes to the knowledge of how to design effective web interfaces for British and Taiwanese cultures and is replicable for the purpose of comparing approaches to designing for other cultures

A new model for cross-cultural web design

People from different cultures use web interface in different ways, expect different visual representation, navigation, interaction, mental model, and layouts etc., and have different communication patterns and expectation. In the context of globalisation, web localisation becomes a powerful strategy to acquire an audience in a global market. Therefore, web developers and designers have to make adaptations to fit the needs of people from different cultures, and the way cultural factors are integrated into web interface design needs to be improved. Most previous research lacks an appropriate way to apply cultural factors into web development. No empirical study of the web interface has been carried out to support the cross-cultural web design model. It is noted that no single model can support all cross-cultural web communication but a new model is needed to bridge the gap and improve the limitations. Thus the research aim was to build a new model of cross-cultural web design to contribute to effective communication. Following an extensive literature review, a local web audit was conducted, then a series of experiments with users to gather and evaluate data and build and validate the new model. A new model, based on a study of British and Taiwanese users, was formulated and validated demonstrating that content and message remain the core of web design but the performance of the selected users is influenced by the cultural dimension and cultural preferences and this, in turn impacts on the effectiveness of the web communication. For the British user sample, ease of using the website was seen to be strongly related to desirability. Taiwanese users showed preference for visual pleasure but no relationship between efficient performance and desirability. The resultant model contributes to the knowledge of how to design effective web interfaces for British and Taiwanese cultures and is replicable for the purpose of comparing approaches to designing for other cultures.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

PGT-Net: Progressive Guided Multi-task Neural Network for Small-area Wet Fingerprint Denoising and Recognition

Fingerprint recognition on mobile devices is an important method for identity verification. However, real fingerprints usually contain sweat and moisture which leads to poor recognition performance. In addition, for rolling out slimmer and thinner phones, technology companies reduce the size of recognition sensors by embedding them with the power button. Therefore, the limited size of fingerprint data also increases the difficulty of recognition. Denoising the small-area wet fingerprint images to clean ones becomes crucial to improve recognition performance. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end trainable progressive guided multi-task neural network (PGT-Net). The PGT-Net includes a shared stage and specific multi-task stages, enabling the network to train binary and non-binary fingerprints sequentially. The binary information is regarded as guidance for output enhancement which is enriched with the ridge and valley details. Moreover, a novel residual scaling mechanism is introduced to stabilize the training process. Experiment results on the FW9395 and FT-lightnoised dataset provided by FocalTech shows that PGT-Net has promising performance on the wet-fingerprint denoising and significantly improves the fingerprint recognition rate (FRR). On the FT-lightnoised dataset, the FRR of fingerprint recognition can be declined from 17.75% to 4.47%. On the FW9395 dataset, the FRR of fingerprint recognition can be declined from 9.45% to 1.09%

Hepatitis B virus infection among pregnant women in Taiwan: Comparison between women born in Taiwan and other southeast countries

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Taiwan's national vaccination program has successfully decreased the prevalence of hepatitis B infection after twenty years of implementation and might be indirectly beneficial to the second generation. In this study, we compared the hepatitis B infection status of two groups: pregnant Taiwanese women and other Southeast Asian women, who because they had immigrated later in life to Taiwan by marriage to a Taiwanese man, had not been exposed to that vaccination program to evaluate the effect of hepatitis vaccination program on women of child-bearing age and further explored the potential impact of immigration on the hepatitis B public health policy in Taiwan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data was collected from 10,327 women born in Taiwan and 1,418 women born in other Southeast Asian countries, both groups receiving prenatal examinations at Fooyin University Hospital between 1996 and 2005. The results of serum hepatitis B s-Antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B e-Antigen (HBeAg) tests and other demographic data were obtained by medical chart review.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The pregnant women from Taiwan had a higher HBsAg positive rate (15.5%) but lower HBeAg(+)/HBsAg(+) ratio (32.1%) than the women from other countries (8.9% and 52.4%). For those born before July, 1984, the period of no national vaccination program, Taiwanese women had a higher HBsAg positive rate than other Southeast Asian women (15.7% vs. 8.4%), but for women born after that day and before June 1986, the period of vaccination for high risk newborns, the HBsAg positive rates found to be slightly lower for Taiwanese women than for other Southeast Asian women (11.4% vs. 12.3%) and the difference was more significant (3.1% vs. 28.6%) after June 1986, the period of vaccination for all newborns. While the HBeAg(+)/HBsAg(+) ratios decreased with age in both groups, they were consistently higher in women from other Southeast Asian countries than in women born in Taiwan after age 20.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In Taiwan, the neonatal vaccination program that was implemented in 1984 has successfully reduced hepatitis B infection among pregnant women in present day, and is likely to indirectly prevent hepatitis B infection in the next generation. However, the increasing number of pregnant women from other Southeast Asian countries without a national neonatal vaccination program or with a program that was introduced later than the one in Taiwan will likely lessen the positive impact of this program and should be further assessed.</p

A 64-week, multicenter, open-label study of aripiprazole effectiveness in the management of patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder in a general psychiatric outpatient setting

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>To evaluate the overall long-term effectiveness of aripiprazole in patients with schizophrenia in a general psychiatric practice setting in Taiwan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a prospective, open-label, multicenter, post-market surveillance study in Taiwanese patients with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder requiring a switch in antipsychotic medication because current medication was not well tolerated and/or clinical symptoms were not well controlled. Eligible patients were titrated to aripiprazole (5-30 mg/day) over a 12-week switching phase, during which their previous medication was discontinued. Patients could then enter a 52-week, long-term treatment phase. Aripiprazole was flexibly dosed (5-30 mg/day) at the discretion of the treating physicians. Efficacy was assessed using the Clinical Global Impression scale Improvement (CGI-I) score, the Clinical Global Impression scale Severity (CGI-S) score, The Brief Psychiatry Rating Scale (BPRS), and the Quality of Life (QOL) scale, as well as Preference of Medicine (POM) ratings by patients and caregivers. Safety and tolerability were also assessed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 245 patients were enrolled and switched from their prior antipsychotic medications, and 153 patients entered the 52-week extension phase. In all, 79 patients (32.2%) completed the study. At week 64, the mean CGI-I score was 3.10 and 64.6% of patients who showed response. Compared to baseline, scores of CGI-S, QOL, and BPRS after 64 weeks of treatment also showed significant improvements. At week 12, 65.4% of subjects and 58.9% of caregivers rated aripiprazole as better than the prestudy medication on the POM. The most frequently reported adverse events (AEs) were headache, auditory hallucinations and insomnia. A total of 13 patients (5.3%) discontinued treatment due to AEs. No statistically significant changes were noted with respect to fasting plasma glucose, lipid profile, body weight, and body mass index after long-term treatment with aripiprazole.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Although the discontinuation rate was high, aripiprazole was found to be effective, safe and well tolerated in the long-term treatment of Taiwanese patients with schizophrenia who continued to receive treatment for 64 weeks.</p

A Wide and Deep Exploration of Radio Galaxies with Subaru HSC (WERGS). II. Physical Properties derived from the SED Fitting with Optical, Infrared, and Radio Data

We present physical properties of radio galaxies (RGs) with $f_{\rm 1.4 GHz} >$ 1 mJy discovered by Subaru Hyper Supreme-Cam (HSC) and VLA Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters (FIRST) survey. For 1056 FIRST RGs at $0 < z \leq 1.7$ with HSC counterparts in about 100 deg$^2$, we compiled multi-wavelength data of optical, near-infrared (IR), mid-IR, far-IR, and radio (150 MHz). We derived their color excess ($E (B-V)_{*}$), stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR), IR luminosity, the ratio of IR and radio luminosity ($q_{\rm IR}$), and radio spectral index ($\alpha_{\rm radio}$) that are derived from the SED fitting with CIGALE. We also estimated Eddington ratio based on stellar mass and integration of the best-fit SEDs of AGN component. We found that $E (B-V)_{*}$, SFR, and IR luminosity clearly depend on redshift while stellar mass, $q_{\rm IR}$, and $\alpha_{\rm radio}$ do not significantly depend on redshift. Since optically-faint ($i_{\rm AB} \geq 21.3$) RGs that are newly discovered by our RG survey tend to be high redshift, they tend to not only have a large dust extinction and low stellar mass but also have high SFR and AGN luminosity, high IR luminosity, and high Eddington ratio compared to optically-bright ones. The physical properties of a fraction of RGs in our sample seem to differ from a classical view of RGs with massive stellar mass, low SFR, and low Eddington ratio, demonstrating that our RG survey with HSC and FIRST provides us curious RGs among entire RG population.Comment: 30 pages, 20 figures, and 4 tables, accepted for publication in ApJS. The catalog and SED template of radio galaxies will be accessible through an online servic

Pioglitazone retrieves hepatic antioxidant DNA repair in a mice model of high fat diet

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pioglitazone was reported to improve hepatic steatosis and necroinflammation in human studies. To investigate whether the hepato-protective effect of pioglitazone was associated with an improvement of antioxidant defense mechanism, oxidative DNA damage and repair activity were determined in a high fat diet model. Male C57BL/6 mice were respectively fed with a 30% fat diet, the same diet with pioglitazone 100 mg/kg/day, or a chow diet as control for 8 weeks. Tissue oxidative stress was indicated by malondialdehyde concentration. Oxidative DNA damage was detected by immunohistochemical 8-oxoG staining. Enzymatic antioxidant defense was detected by the real-time PCR of superoxide dismutase (<it>Sod1, Sod2</it>) and DNA glycosylase (<it>Ogg1, MutY</it>). Oxidative DNA repair was detected by immunohistochemical staining and western blotting of OGG1 expression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our results show that hepatic steatosis was induced by a high-fat diet and improved by adding pioglitazone. Malondialdehyde concentration and 8-oxoG staining were strongly increased in the high-fat diet group, but attenuated by pioglitazone. Gene expressions of antioxidant defense mechanism: <it>Sod1, Sod2, Ogg1 </it>and <it>MutY </it>significantly decreased in the high-fat diet group but reversed by pioglitazone co-administration.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The attenuation of hepatic oxidative DNA damage by pioglitazone in a high-fat diet may be mediated by up-regulation of the antioxidant defense mechanism and oxidative DNA repair activity. The diminution of oxidative damage may explain the clinical benefit of pioglitazone treatment in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.</p

The Tiehchanshan structure of NW Taiwan: A potential geological reservoir for CO2 sequestration

The Tiehchanshan structure is the largest gas-field in the outer foothills of northwestern Taiwan and has been regarded as the best site for CO2 sequestration. This study used a grid of seismic sections and wellbore data to establish a new 3-D geometry of subsurface structure, which was combined with lithofacies characters of the target reservoir rock, the Yutengping Sandstone, to build a geological model for CO2 sequestration. On the surface, the Tiehchanshan structure is characterized by two segmented anticlines offset by a tear fault. The subsurface geometry of the Tiehchanshan structure is, however, composed of two thrust-related anticlines with opposite vergence and laterally increasing fold symmetry toward each other. The folds are softly linked via the transfer zone in the subsurface, implying that the suspected tear fault in the surface transfer zone may not exist in the subsurface. The Yutengping Sandstone is composed of several sandstone units characterized by coarsening-upward cycles. The sandstone member can be further divided into four well-defined sandstone layers, separated by laterally continuous shale layers. In view of the structural and stratigraphic characteristics, the optimum area for CO2 injection and storage is in the structurally high in the northern part of the Tiehchanshan structure. The integrity of the closure and the overlying seal are not disrupted by the pre-orogenic high-angle faults. On the other hand, a thick continuous shale layer within the Yutengping Sandstone isolates the topmost sandy layer from the underlying ones and gives another important factor to the CO2 injection simulation

Effects of and satisfaction with short message service reminders for patient medication adherence: a randomized controlled study

BACKGROUND: Medication adherence is critical for patient treatment. This study involved evaluating how implementing Short Message Service (SMS) reminders affected patient medication adherence and related factors. METHODS: We used a structured questionnaire to survey outpatients at three medical centers. Patients aged 20 years and older who were prescribed more than 7 days of a prescription medication were randomized into SMS intervention or control groups. The intervention group received daily messages reminding them of aspects regarding taking their medication; the control group received no messages. A phone follow-up was performed to assess outcomes after 8 days. Data were collected from 763 participants in the intervention group and 435 participants in the control group. RESULTS: After participants in the intervention group received SMS reminders to take medication or those in the control group received no messages, incidences of delayed doses were decreased by 46.4 and 78.8% for those in the control and intervention groups, respectively. The rate of missed doses was decreased by 90.1% for participants in the intervention group and 61.1% for those in the control group. We applied logistic regression analysis and determined that participants in the intervention group had a 3.2-fold higher probability of having a decrease in delayed doses compared with participants in the control group. Participants in the intervention group also showed a 2.2-fold higher probability of having a decrease in missed doses compared with participants in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Use of SMS significantly affected the rates of taking medicine on schedule. Therefore, daily SMS could be useful for reminding patients to take their medicine on schedule