Analysis and Development of Emergency Management Information System for Railway Systems in Taiwan

Railway is one of the most efficient, convenient, and comfortable ways with maximum mobility to meet people. Railway accidents or disasters often cause delays and service interruptions, resulting in operational and other loss. Despite many railway systems in Taiwan having a variety of monitoring systems for natural disasters, they still need an efficient platform for the emergency management of disasters and accidents since time and efficiency are the keys to emergency management. This study aims to fill in this gap by developing an emergency management information system for Railway Systems in Taiwan, i.e. “Railway Emergency Management Information System”, to support railway emergency management center and its sub-divisions in resource management, communication, messaging, and information sharing among different groups. The system includes many features that will improve communications between emergency management center and the mobile emergency management center to facilitate the progress of the disaster control units and dispatching at the disaster site. The study’s information system has been designated by local railway administration as the core system and starts trial since February 2012. Information requirement analysis, framework and design of the aforementioned information system will be discussed in this paper. It is hoped that the present study's information system research will help improve the emergency response of railway administration and provide safer rail transport service for the passengers

SNP rs1533428 at 2p16.3 as a marker for late-onset primary open-angle glaucoma

Purpose: To investigate the associations between gene variants in cholesterol 24S-hydroxylase (CYP46A1), LIM homeobox transcription factor 1-beta (LMX1B), plexin domain containing 2 (PLXDC2), toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), transmembrane and tetratricopeptide repeat containing 2 (TMTC2), zona pellucida glycoprotein 4 (ZP4), chromosome 2p16.3, and primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). Methods: We studied 462 POAG patients and 577 controls from three cohorts (Hong Kong, Shantou, and Beijing, China). Twelve single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped in the Hong Kong cohort using TaqMan genotyping assay. Significant associations were validated in the Shantou and Beijing cohorts. Results: Association of POAG with TLR4 rs7037117, in a recessive model, was identified in the Hong Kong and Shantou cohorts (both southern Chinese, $p_{rec}$=0.0019) but not the Beijing cohort (northern Chinese). rs1533428 at chromosome 2p16.3 showed a consistent trend of age-specific association in all three cohorts. Genotypes TT + CT conferred a 2.16 fold of significantly increased risk to late-onset POAG ($p_{dom}$=0.00025), but no significant risk to POAG of younger ages of onset in the combined cohort. A joint effect was found between rs7037117 and rs1533428, with carriers of both higher-risk genotypes having a 4.53 fold of increased disease risk (p=0.00028). Conclusions: Our study reveals discrepant association patterns of 12 candidate SNPs in 7 genes/loci with POAG in Chinese, provides positive replications for POAG markers rs1533428 at 2p16.3 and TLR4 rs7037117, and suggests that rs1533428 is a putative risk variant for late-onset POAG. The identification of an age-specific association between rs1533428 and late-onset POAG highlights a new genotype-phenotype association in POAG. Further studies are warranted to confirm the age-specific association

Wind power in China - Dream or reality?

After tremendous growth of wind power generation capacity in recent years, China now has 44.7 GW of wind-derived power. Despite the recent growth rates and promises of a bright future, two important issues - the capability of the grid infrastructure and the availability of backup systems - must be critically discussed and tackled in the medium term. The study shows that only a relatively small share of investment goes towards improving and extending the electricity infrastructure which is a precondition for transmitting clean wind energy to the end users. In addition, the backup systems are either geographically too remote from the potential wind power sites or currently financially infeasible. Finally, the introduction of wind power to the coal-dominated energy production system is not problem-free. Frequent ramp ups and downs of coal-fired plants lead to lower energy efficiency and higher emissions, which are likely to negate some of the emission savings from wind power. The current power system is heavily reliant on independently acting but state-owned energy companies optimizing their part of the system, and this is partly incompatible with building a robust system supporting renewable energy technologies. Hence, strategic, top-down co-ordination and incentives to improve the overall electricity infrastructure is recommended

Search for the Rare Decays J/Psi --> Ds- e+ nu_e, J/Psi --> D- e+ nu_e, and J/Psi --> D0bar e+ e-

We report on a search for the decays J/Psi --> Ds- e+ nu_e + c.c., J/Psi --> D- e+ nu_e + c.c., and J/Psi --> D0bar e+ e- + c.c. in a sample of 5.8 * 10^7 J/Psi events collected with the BESII detector at the BEPC. No excess of signal above background is observed, and 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions are set: B(J/Psi --> Ds- e+ nu_e + c.c.)<4.8*10^-5, B(J/Psi --> D- e+ nu_e + c.c.) D0bar e+ e- + c.c.)<1.1*10^-5Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Study of J/psi decays to Lambda Lambdabar and Sigma0 Sigma0bar

The branching ratios and Angular distributions for J/psi decays to Lambda Lambdabar and Sigma0 Sigma0bar are measured using BESII 58 million J/psi.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Measurements of J/psi Decays into 2(pi+pi-)eta and 3(pi+pi-)eta

Based on a sample of 5.8X 10^7 J/psi events taken with the BESII detector, the branching fractions of J/psi--> 2(pi+pi-)eta and J/psi-->3(pi+pi-)eta are measured for the first time to be (2.26+-0.08+-0.27)X10^{-3} and (7.24+-0.96+-1.11)X10^{-4}, respectively.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

BESII Detector Simulation

A Monte Carlo program based on Geant3 has been developed for BESII detector simulation. The organization of the program is outlined, and the digitization procedure for simulating the response of various sub-detectors is described. Comparisons with data show that the performance of the program is generally satisfactory.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, uses elsart.cls, to be submitted to NIM

Measurement of branching fractions for the inclusive Cabibbo-favored ~K*0(892) and Cabibbo-suppressed K*0(892) decays of neutral and charged D mesons

The branching fractions for the inclusive Cabibbo-favored ~K*0 and Cabibbo-suppressed K*0 decays of D mesons are measured based on a data sample of 33 pb-1 collected at and around the center-of-mass energy of 3.773 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC collider. The branching fractions for the decays D+(0) -> ~K*0(892)X and D0 -> K*0(892)X are determined to be BF(D0 -> \~K*0X) = (8.7 +/- 4.0 +/- 1.2)%, BF(D+ -> ~K*0X) = (23.2 +/- 4.5 +/- 3.0)% and BF(D0 -> K*0X) = (2.8 +/- 1.2 +/- 0.4)%. An upper limit on the branching fraction at 90% C.L. for the decay D+ -> K*0(892)X is set to be BF(D+ -> K*0X) < 6.6%