Social Change and the Disability Rights Movement in Taiwan 1981-2002

This paper provides a historical overview of the disability rights movement in Taiwan from 1981 to 2002. It shows the major events in Taiwanese disability history, legislation, and development of disability rights organizations, with a focus on two influential advocacy associations: the Parents’ Association for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (PAPID) and the League of Enabling Associations (LEAs). It also demonstrates that the disability movement has developed in concert with Taiwan’s democratic transition

Seeing Through the Veil: Auto-Ethnographic Reflections on Disabilities

This article is an auto-ethnography reflecting the interactions among society, my family and my brother who has Cerebral Palsy. The experiences of me and my family show the visible and invisible veils that segregate people with disabilities and their families from mainstream Taiwanese society

The Influence of Customer’s Sharing Behavior in Social Commerce

All transaction behaviors between enterprises and customers directly take place on social media. Using social media for people to interact with their friends and family become a routine in the daily life. This study aims to figure out the critical factors and relations of brand community and social commerce. Meanwhile, this study is to investigate the influence on consumers’ engagement by considering the building of a brand community for social commerce. This study reviews many key literatures of social commerce and brand community. This study employs a survey base strategy to figure out the proposed research questions

Virtual reality training and assessment in laparoscopic rectum surgery

Background: Virtual-reality (VR) based simulation techniques offer an efficient and low cost alternative to conventional surgery training. This article describes a VR training and assessment system in laparoscopic rectum surgery. Methods: To give a realistic visual performance of interaction between membrane tissue and surgery tools, a generalized cylinder based collision detection and a multi-layer mass-spring model are presented. A dynamic assessment model is also designed for hierarchy training evaluation. Results: With this simulator, trainees can operate on the virtual rectum with both visual and haptic sensation feedback simultaneously. The system also offers surgeons instructions in real time when improper manipulation happens. The simulator has been tested and evaluated by ten subjects. Conclusions: This prototype system has been verified by colorectal surgeons through a pilot study. They believe the visual performance and the tactile feedback are realistic. It exhibits the potential to effectively improve the surgical skills of trainee surgeons and significantly shorten their learning curve. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Influences of Boundary Space Amelioration on Residents' Key Perceptions in Communities

Boundary space amelioration (BSA) aims to eliminate barriers between two sites and activate the grey residual space in-between. School campus in Taiwan is often surrounded by walls, which blocks its connection to communities and often creates security concerns. School campus has become the most popular target for BSA, which tries to turn it into a functional and aesthetic space. This study intends to explore the influences of campus BSA within a community, especially its relationships with neighborhood safety, perceived change and place attachment. The result shows that the improvement of boundary environment has a significant influence on all three perceptions. Keywords: Environmental design; Neighborhood safety; Perceived change; Place attachment eISSN 2398-4279 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ajqol.v4i16.19

Protective Effects of Total Saponins of Panax Notoginseng on Steroid-Induced Avascular Necrosis of the Femoral Head In Vivo and In Vitro

This research was designed to investigate the protective effects of TSPN on steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head (ANFH) and the likely mechanisms of those effects. As an in vivo study, TSPN was shown to be protective against steroid-induced ANFH due to the upregulation of VEGF-A. Furthermore, TSPN attenuated the apoptosis of osteocytes and reduced the expression of Caspase-3 relative to the model group. As an in vitro study, TSPN exerted a concentration-dependent protective effect against apoptosis in MC3T3-E1 cells. Moreover, TSPN (at a dose of 100 μg/mL) significantly reversed the dexamethasone-induced augmentation of Caspase-3 expression and activity. Therefore, our study demonstrated that TSPN had a protective effect against steroid-induced ANFH that was related to the upregulation of VEGF-A and the inhibition of apoptosis and Caspase-3 activation