Constructing a evaluating model for Smartphone Green Design by VAHPand QFD

Industry and high-tech industries flourish in the current era. In addition to enhancing quality of life, they have caused plentiful harm to human beings and the environment. Some man-made pollution has destroyed the ecological balance. Environmental protection has thus become everybody’s social responsibility. Many enterprises are beginning to actively concern themselves with sustainable business models and environmental protection issues. After continuous technological development in recent years, many new products have emerged to make human life more convenient. The smartphone is among the most popular of these products. The main aims of this study are to (1) analyze green smartphone requirements of consumers and designers; and (2) construct an assessment framework and checklist for smartphone green design. This study adopts voting analytic hierarchy process (VAHP) and quality function deployment (QFD) and constructs green design criteria through expert interviews

Relationship among Role Stress, Emotional Labor and Physical and Mental Health for Grassroots Police Officers in Northern Taiwan Government Police Stations

Police duties involve highly complex and cumbersome tasks. Officers have to work night shifts, which may result in sleep displacement and circadian misalignment, and moreover, they must deal with the public on a daily basis. To fulfill their role as public servants and social security defenders, grassroots police officers are often under greater pressure than individuals working in general occupations are or at other administrative agencies are. Over time, the sustained pressure may have devastating impacts on their psychosomatic health. The present study, taking grassroots police officers at the police stations in the Northern Taiwan region as research subjects, aims to investigate the relationship between the role stress, emotional labor, and psychosomatic health of grassroots police officers. Through the investigation, this study seeks to contribute toward improving the physical and mental well-being of police officers. In this study, 453 valid questionnaires were recovered. The collected data were subjected to descriptive statistics, reliability and validity analysis, t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Scheffé’s test, correlation analysis, and regression analysis, among other research methods, with the use of SPSS statistics software. The findings of this study are as follows. First, role conflict in role stress has a significant effect on the psychosomatic health of police officers. Second, role stress has a significant effect on emotional labor among police officers. Third, emotional labor has a significant effect on psychosomatic health among police officers

Modelling the performance of EPB shield tunnelling using machine and deep learning algorithms

This paper introduces an intelligent framework for predicting the advancing speed during earth pressure balance (EPB) shield tunnelling. Five artificial intelligence (AI) models based on machine and deep learning techniques—back-propagation neural network (BPNN), extreme learning machine (ELM), support vector machine (SVM), long-short term memory (LSTM), and gated recurrent unit (GRU)—are used. Five geological and nine operational parameters that influence the advancing speed are considered. A field case of shield tunnelling in Shenzhen City, China is analyzed using the developed models. A total of 1000 field datasets are adopted to establish intelligent models. The prediction performance of the five models is ranked as GRU > LSTM > SVM > ELM > BPNN. Moreover, the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) is adopted for sensitivity analysis. The results reveal that the main thrust (MT), penetration (P), foam volume (FV), and grouting volume (GV) have strong correlations with advancing speed (AS). An empirical formula is constructed based on the high-correlation influential factors and their corresponding field datasets. Finally, the prediction performances of the intelligent models and the empirical method are compared. The results reveal that all the intelligent models perform better than the empirical method

Potential Clinical Risk of Inflammation and Toxicity from Rare-Earth Nanoparticles in Mice

Background: Nanotechnology is emerging as a promising tool to perform noninvasive therapy and optical imaging. However, nanomedicine may pose a potential risk of toxicity during in vivo applications. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential toxicity of rare-earth nanoparticles (RENPs) using mice as models. Methods: We synthesized RENPs through a typical co-precipitation method. Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice were randomly divided into seven groups including a control group and six experimental groups (10 mice per group). ICR mice were intravenously injected with bare RENPs at a daily dose of 0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 mg/kg for 7 days. To evaluate the toxicity of these nanoparticles in mice, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed to assess their uptake in mice. In addition, hematological and biochemical analyses were conducted to evaluate any impairment in the organ functions of ICR mice. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by a one-way ANOVA test was used in this study. A repeated measures' analysis was used to determine any significant differences in white blood cell (WBC), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and creatinine (CREA) levels at different evaluation times in each group. Results: We demonstrated the successful synthesis of two different sizes (10 nm and 100 nm) of RENPs. Their physical properties were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and a 980 nm laser diode. Results of MRI study revealed the distribution and circulation of the RENPs in the liver. In addition, the hematological analysis found an increase of WBCs to (8.69 ± 0.85) × 109/L at the 28th day, which is indicative of inflammation in the mouse treated with 1.5 mg/kg NaYbF4:Er nanoparticles. Furthermore, the biochemical analysis indicated increased levels of ALT ([64.20 ± 15.50] U/L) and CREA ([27.80 ± 3.56] μmol/L) at the 28th day, particularly those injected with 1.5 mg/kg NaYbF4:Er nanoparticles. These results suggested the physiological and pathological damage caused by these nanoparticles to the organs and tissues of mice, especially to liver and kidney. Conclusion: The use of bare RENPs may cause possible hepatotoxicity and nephritictoxicity in mice

En Bloc Resection for Lung Cancer with Chest Wall Invasion

The aim of this study was to retrospectively assess the results of en bloc chest wall plus lung resection for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) invading the chest wall. Methods: From January 1986 to December 2000, of 1,820 patients having surgery for NSCLC, 42 (2.3%) patients with neoplasms involving the chest wall underwent en bloc chest wall and lung resection. Patient demographics, preoperative symptoms, operative procedures, tumor cell type and size, removed nodal status, and pathologic stage were summarized. The 5-year survival rates of the groups were compared. Results: Postoperative staging revealed 28 were T3N0M0, 4 were T3N1M0, and 10 were T3N2M0. The in-hospital mortality rate was 11.9% (5/42). The mean age was 79.0 ± 2.8 years in the patients who died of complications, which was significantly older than the mean age of 67.9 ± 8.1 years in the patients who survived the surgery (p = 0.005). The overall 5-year survival was 28.4%. The 5-year survival was significantly longer in the patients with negative (N0) nodal metastasis than in those with N1 and/or N2 nodal metastasis (39.6% versus 7.1%, p = 0.01). Eleven patients had tumor involvement of the parietal pleura. Thirty-one patients had tumor involvement of the soft tissue and/or bone. There was no significant difference of 5-year survival rate between the patients with involvement of the parietal pleura only and the patients with involvement of the parietal pleura and the soft tissue and/or bone (10.9% versus 33.5%, p = 0.94). Conclusion: En bloc resection for bronchogenic carcinoma invading the chest wall provides a favorable prognosis in cases without nodal metastasis. Significant postoperative mortality is associated with old age (> 80 years). The 5-year survival rate is not significantly different between the patients with involvement of the parietal pleura only and the patients with involvement of the parietal pleura and the soft tissue and/or bone

Head-to-head comparisons of enhanced CT, 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT and 18F-FDG PET/CT in identifying adverse pathology of clear-cell renal cell carcinoma: a prospective study

ABSTRACT Objectives: Accurate preoperative prediction of adverse pathology is crucial for treatment planning of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Previous studies have emphasized the potential of prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography / computed tomography (PSMA PET/CT) in differentiating between benign and malignant localized renal tumors. However, there is a scarcity of case reports elucidating the identification of aggressive pathological features using PET/CT. Our study was designed to prospectively compare the diagnostic value of enhanced CT, 68Ga-PSMA-11 and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) PET/CT in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) with necrosis or sarcomatoid or rhabdoid differentiation. Materials and Methods: A prospective case series of patients with a newly diagnosed renal mass who underwent enhanced CT, 68Ga-PSMA-11 and 18F-FDG PET/CT within 30 days prior to nephrectomy was included. Complete preoperative and postoperative clinicopathological data were recorded. Patients who received neoadjuvant targeted therapy, declined enhanced CT or PET/CT scanning, refused surgical treatment or had non-ccRCC pathological indications were excluded. Radiological parameters were compared within subgroups of pathological characteristics. Bonferroni corrections were used to adjust for multiple testing and statistical significance was set at a p-value less than 0.017. Results: Seventy-two patients were available for the final analysis. Enhanced CT demonstrated poor performance in identifying necrosis, sarcomatoid or rhabdoid differentiation and adverse pathology (all P > 0.05). The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT was more effective than 18F-FDG PET/CT in identifying tumor necrosis and adverse pathology, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.85 (cutoff value=25.26, p 0.80], indicating a robust correlation. Conclusions: 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT demonstrates distinct advantages in identifying aggressive pathological features of primary ccRCC when compared to enhanced CT and 18F-FDG PET/CT. Further research and assessment are warranted to fully establish the clinical utility of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT in ccRCC

Hinokitiol inhibited oral bacterial growth.

<p>Bacterial growth curves after hinokitiol treatment for 24<i>A. actinomycetemcomitans</i> (Aa), and <i>S. mutans</i> (Sm). The y-axis is OD 600, and the x-axis is time (secs). Vehicle (0.1% DMSO) and 20 µg/mL hinokitiol (20 µg/mL H) were tested. Three independent experiments were performed in triplicate.</p

Combined hinokitiol and ZnO treatment created strong synergism.

<p>(A) MTT test analysis of the cytotoxicity of hinokitiol (H), CaCl₂, and ZnO treated to MG-63 for 24 h. Vehicle (0.1% DMSO) and test compounds (6.25 µM-400 µM) were tested. Three independent experiments were performed in triplicate. (B) MTT test analysis of the cytotoxicity of combined various dosages of H:CaCl₂, and H:ZnO to MG-63. Column, mean of more than triplicate analysis; bars, SE. (C) Logarithmic combination index plot for combo of H+CaCl₂, and H+ZnO. Unpaired <i>t</i> test. *, <i>P</i><0.05; ***, <i>P</i><0.001.</p