A fracture, which mostly results from a fall, is fatal for the elderly. A fall occurred when a person cannot maintain the
body position. Most falls occurred when a person walks on a slippery surface or trips over an object on the ground during
a gait. Most people try to avoid falls instinctively and fall when their attempt fails. As such, this study investigated the
difference between two movements- a movement to avoid falls and a forward-falling movement without a fall-avoiding
movement- by analyzing the body movements of the subjects. A fast-moving fall-guiding device with a pneumatic actuator
was used to guide falls. The movement of the device could simulate a foot slip that may happen during daily activities.
A three-axis acceleration sensor and a Bluetooth module were used to avoid disturbing the body movement during a fall
as a wire sensor or a movement analysis system does.
γ-linolenic acid is an essential omega-6 unsaturated fatty acid made in the human body from linoleic acid. It can be
metabolized to various important eicosanoids and it is also a precursor of prostaglandin E and several other active
substances that are associated with anti-inflammatory properties. Arthrospira platensis is known to contain relatively
large quantities of γ-linolenic acid. The aim of this study was to investigate the optimal parameters under a continuous
preparation method of γ-linolenic acid from A. platensis using supercritical carbon dioxide technology. A Box-Behnken
experimental design and response surface methodology were used to optimize combinations among pressure (10, 20
and 30 MPa), temperature (40, 50 and 60°C) and flow rate of A. platensis extract liquor (1, 2 and 3 mL/min) for yield
of γ-linolenic acid. The results showed that the extraction of γ-linolenic acid from A. platensis was optimized at a
temperature of 60°C, a pressure of 30 MPa and a flow rate of 3 mL/min. These parameters could be used as a basis for
facilitating future scale-up industrial applications.
Cervical cancer afflicts women worldwide. The patients’ mortality with cancer has been increased by changing to
westernized dietary habit and lifestyle. In order to detect early cervical cancer, a liquid-based cytology (LBC) was used
to examine the exfoliated cells collected from the cervix. This procedure helps to decrease the mortality rate. However,
this test mostly involves manual examination by the pathologists. This procedure needs to develop more efficient tool
in detecting cervical cancer which rate kept increasing. As such, this study was designed to develop some methods to
increase the effectiveness of LBC. The diagnosis algorithm was also established to diagnose the processed cell images
via an imaging process algorithm based on the diagnosis criteria. A cell diagnosis program based on GUI, combined
with the imaging process and the diagnosis algorithms were developed to automate the test process. The results of this
studies showed that this new program can be used for effective diagnosis of cervical cancer. Moreover, it was deemed
to increase the precision and accuracy of diagnosis and save patient time.
In this paper, an interactively recurrent functional neural fuzzy network (IRFNFN) with fuzzy differential evolution (FDE)
learning method was proposed for solving the control and the prediction problems. The traditional differential evolution
(DE) method easily gets trapped in a local optimum during the learning process, but the proposed fuzzy differential
evolution algorithm can overcome this shortcoming. Through the information sharing of nodes in the interactive layer,
the proposed IRFNFN can effectively reduce the number of required rule nodes and improve the overall performance of
the network. Finally, the IRFNFN model and associated FDE learning algorithm were applied to the control system of the
water bath temperature and the forecast of the sunspot number. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness
of the proposed method.
MeSH terms: Algorithms; Baths; Forecasting; Temperature; Neural Networks (Computer); Solar Activity; Information Dissemination
Sewage treatment is an important issue in a country for public health and environmental protection. The treatment
process not only consumes energy but also emits CO2
. In this research, the idea of streamlined life cycle assessment was
applied. The CO2
emission from sewage treatment was assessed from direct energy consumption of four major sewage
treatment plants in Taiwan. The results showed that the CO2
emission at in-plant sewage treatment stage takes more
than 95% of total CO2
emission for most plants. The results suggested that CO2
emission of sewage treatment can be
calculated from energy consumption at in-plant sewage treatment stage to simplify the calculation. The CO2
emission
of sewage treatment was then assessed from sewage plants in Taiwan using in-plant electricity consumption. The unit
CO2
emission of sewage treatment in Taiwan is 0.216 kg-CO2
/m3
. This database will be an important reference for water
resource research and future government environmental policies.
MeSH terms: Carbon Dioxide; Conservation of Natural Resources; Electricity; Government; Public Health; Research; Sewage; Taiwan; Water; Environmental Policy
Tropical or subtropical countries are very suitable for the development of solar and heat pump technology. This paper
proposed the integration of air conditioners that exhaust heat with solar energy to enhance the overall efficiency of thermal
energy conversion. The analysis of thermal storage tanks of different volumes showed that a two-ton air conditioner
operating for an hour produced double energy than normal sunshine for a day. With thermal storage tanks of fixed
volume, the integration of air conditioners of different tons with solar energy indicated that air conditioners of less tons
produced faster and more efficient energy conversion. Therefore, this paper proposed that the modification of condenser
in domestic air conditioner into water-cooled condenser not only enhance the energy efficiency of air conditioners but
also increased hot water supplies since hot water from air conditioners could be integrated into solar water heaters. By
doing so, energy conservation and carbon reduction could be achieved.
MeSH terms: Carbon; Hot Temperature; Household Articles; Solar Energy; Sunlight; Technology; Water; Water Supply
Wind turbines are massive electrical structures. They produce large returns when illuminated by radar waves. These
scatterings have a great impact on the operation of surveillance, air traffic control and weather radars. This paper presents
two geometric modelling methods for reshaping wind turbine towers so that the Radar Cross Section (RCS) of wind turbines
is reduced. In the proposed reshaping methods, bump structures are created on the surface of the conventional cylinder
wind turbine tower. When a reshaped tower is illuminated by radar waves, the bump structures scatter incident radar
waves into insignificant directions so that the strength of back-scattering is declined and the RCS of the wind turbine is
decreased. The test results confirmed that the proposed methodssignificantly reduce bi-static RCS values of wind turbines.
The proposed reshaping methods are practical, flexible and effective in alleviating the scatterings of wind turbines.
This paper presents a low-cost method of constructing the compact UV illuminator, which is considered as an important
component of a gel documentation system. The procedure involves using a smallest-possible UV lamp and a motor which
moves the UV lamp in the UV illuminator instead of conventional 4 UV lamps. A comparative analysis of images produced
by using the commercial gel documentation system and our prototype was carried out. These comparisons were done
in real DNA gel as well as a reference plate made of quantum dot. The plate was composed of the chambers filled with
various densities of the quantum dot instead of the Agarose gel containing the ETBR in order to increase the accuracy of
comparison and the convenience of experiments. Despite the use of only 1 UV lamp, the proposed system demonstrated
a similar imaging performance compared with the conventional gel documentation system equipped with 4 UV lamps,
resulting in the great reduction of the system cost.
Ganoderma lucidum has been recognized as a precious fungus in both Chinese and Japanese traditional medicine for
centuries. It contains many bioactive ingredients such as triterpenoids and polysaccharides. The present study used
supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2
) fractionation to fractionate Ganoderma lucidum extract into four fractions (R,
F1, F2, & F3) and evaluate the correlation between the content of functional components and their antioxidant ability.
Relatively high concentrations of the three types of bioactive constituents were simultaneously partitioned into different
fractionation collecting vessels. The free radical scavenging ability was greatest in F1. The IC50 of DPPH scavenging ability
was 0.90 mg/mL and that of ABTS radicals scavenging activity was 0.45 mg/mL. The correlation analysis of antioxidant
ability with total triterpenoids and total polyphenols showed a positive relationship. In conclusion, this study showed
that fractionation of Ganoderma lucidum extract using SC-CO2 fractionation technology was able to effectively partition
its bioactive components including triterpenoids, polysaccharides and phenolic compounds and also to increase the
antioxidant activities of the fractions.
Countering the dangers associated the present extreme climate not only requires continuous improvement of local disaster
prevention engineering infrastructure but also needs an enhanced understanding of the causes of the disasters. This study
investigates the geologic hazard risk of 53 slopeland villages in Pingtung county of southern Taiwan. First, remote sensing
(RS) techniques were utilized to interpret environmental geology and geologic hazard zonation, including dip slope, fault,
landslide and debris flow. GIS map overlay analysis was used to further identify the extent of the geologic hazard zonation.
As a final step, field investigation is used to comprehend geologic, topographic conditions and the geologic hazard risk
specific to each locality. Based on data analysis and field investigation results, this study successfully integrates RS, GIS
and GPS techniques to construct a geologic hazard risk assessment method of slopeland village. The results of this study
can be used to promote support for future disaster prevention and disaster mitigation efforts.
This study compares the diagnostic performance of urine and serum multiple biomarkers for early diagnosis of ovarian
cancer. The sample population includes 119 benign and 101 ovarian cancer patients. The marker combinations used
to compare performance include 16 markers whose concentration values were obtained using the Luminex assay. In
order to identify an optimal marker combination that could classify ovarian cancer and benign patients, the area under
the curve (AUC) is used to evaluate 2-, 3-, and 4-marker combinations and the classification is performed by using
logistic regression. In the case of urine samples, the best AUC values are 87.89% for the 2 protein markers combination,
90.22% for the 3 markers combination, and 92.43% for the 4 marker combination. In contrast, the best AUC values
for serum sample are 92.4% for the 2 marker combination, 93.63% for the 3 marker combination and 94.63% for the
4 marker combination. This study confirmed that combining multiple biomarkers could improve diagnostic accuracy.
Even though the urine sample shows relatively lower performance than serum, urine could be utilized more widely for
its simple usability.
MeSH terms: Female; Humans; Ovarian Neoplasms; Proteins; Biomarkers; Logistic Models; Area Under Curve; Early Detection of Cancer
A scalable tracking human model was proposed for recognizing human jogging and walking activities. The model aims to detect and track a particular subject by using wearable sensor. Data collected are in accelerometer readings in three axes and gyroscope readings in three axes. The development of proposed human model is based on the moderating effects on human movements. Two moderators were proposed as the moderating factors of human motion and they are angular velocity and elevation angle. Linear regression is used to investigate the relationship among inputs, moderators and outputs of the model. The result of this study showed that the angular velocity and elevation angle moderators are affecting the relation of research output. Acceleration in x-axis (Ax) and angular velocity in y-axis (Gy) are the two main components in directing
a motion. Classification between jogging and walking motions was done by measuring the magnitude of angular velocity and elevation angle. Jogging motion was classified and identified with larger angular velocity and elevation angle. The two proposed hypotheses were supported and proved by research output. The result is expected to be beneficial and able to assist researcher in investigating human motions.
MeSH terms: Acceleration; Humans; Jogging; Motion; Movement; Research Personnel; Linear Models; Walking; Accelerometry
Anemia of chronic disease (ACD) frequently occurred in patients with chronic inflammatory diseases and can be treated
by treating the underlying disease. On the other hand, iron-deficiency anemia (IDA), the most common type of anemia,
occurred with iron loss or when the iron requirement of the body was increased. Since the treatment methods for ACD
and IDA differ, it is important to clinically distinguish between the two types of anemia. In this study, we investigated and
evaluated the performance of a number of biomarkers, including ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), hepcidin,
C-reactive protein (CRP) and combination markers containing ferritin for the diagnosis of IDA using serum samples from
Korean patients (80 ACD and 48 IDA Korean patients). Among the single markers, ferritin exhibited the best performance
with 98.58% AUC and 97.50% sensitivity. In this study, a combination of two biomarkers was used to differentially
diagnose IDA and ACD. Among the combination markers, ferritin + sTfR showed the best performance with 99.51% AUC
and 98.75% sensitivity. We found that the ferritin + sTfR combination showed the best diagnostic performance with
1.25% higher SN than ferritin alone. Moreover, it also showed 10% better diagnostic performance than the single ferritin
marker within the data range where the distinction between ACD and IDA is unclear. We propose that using combination
markers containing ferritin may diagnose IDA more accurately and facilitate the determination of the appropriate anemia
treatment to expedite patient recovery.
MeSH terms: Anemia; C-Reactive Protein; Chronic Disease; Ferritins; Humans; Iron; Receptors, Transferrin; Biomarkers; Anemia, Iron-Deficiency; Area Under Curve; Hepcidins
Phylogenetic inference refers to the reconstruction of evolutionary relationships among various species that is usually
presented in the form of a tree. This study constructs the phylogenetic tree by using a novel distance-based method known
as Modified one step M-estimator (MOM) method. The branches of the phylogenetic tree constructed were then evaluated
to see their reliability. The performance of the reliability was then compared between the p-value of multiscale bootstrap
(AU value) and bootstrap p-value (BP value). The aim of this study was to compare the performance between the AU value
and BP value for assessing phylogenetic tree of RNA polymerase. The results have shown that multiscale bootstrap analysis
can detect high sampling errors but not in bootstrap analysis. To overcome this problem, the multiscale bootstrap analysis
has reduced the sampling error by increasing the number of replications. The clusters were indicated as significant if AU
values or BP values were 95% or higher. From the analysis, the results showed that the BP and AU values differ at 11th
and 15th branch of the phylogenetic tree. The BP values at both branches were 72 and 85%, respectively, thereby making
the cluster not significant but by looking at the AU values, the two branches were more than 95% and the clusters were
significant. This was due to the biasness in calculation of the probability of bootstrap analysis, therefore, the multiscale
bootstrap analysis has improved the calculation of the probability value compared to the bootstrap analysis.
MeSH terms: DNA Replication; Biological Evolution; Phylogeny; Probability; DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases; Reproducibility of Results; Selection Bias
In this study, cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) were produced using acid hydrolysis method. Kenaf core was pretreated with 4
wt. % sodium hydroxide (NaOH), followed by bleaching using 1.7 wt. % sodium chlorite (NaClO2
) in acetate buffer. The
bleached fiber was acid hydrolyzed for 45 and 55 min using 64 wt. % sulfuric acid (H2
SO4
). The size distribution of the
CNC segregated via differential centrifugation with different speed was also investigated. The CNC suspension obtained
was centrifuged at 3000, 6000, 9000 and 12000 rpm. The resultant CNC suspension collected was characterized using
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). FTIR
results showed the progressive removal of non-cellulosic constituents for each subsequent treatment. It also showed that
the CNC produced after hydrolysing for 55 min has the highest degree of crystallinity (81.15%). CNC produced from acid
hydrolysis process of 45 min have lengths between 50 and 270 nm while CNC produced from acid hydrolysis process of
55 min have length around 40 to 370 nm.
Microbial communities of two oil reservoirs from Malaysia, denoted as Platform Bo and Platform Pe were studied using
culture-independent approach. Environmental DNA was extracted and the universal amplified ribosomal region (UARR)
was target amplified for both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The amplified products were purified and cloned into pTZ57R/T
vector to construct the 16S/18S rDNA library. Restriction endocucleases HhaI and MspI were used to screen the library.
From that, 125 and 253 recombinant plasmid representative clones from Platform Bo and Platform Pe, respectively, were
sent for DNA sequencing. Twenty-six operational taxonomic units (OTUs) consist of 20 genera detected at Platform Bo
and 17 OTUs consist of 13 genera detected at Platform Pe. Marinobacter and Acinetobacter species co-occurred in both
platforms whereas the rest are site-specific. Gammaproteobacteria accounted for 86.0% of the microbial community in
Platform Bo, where OTUs affiliated to Marinobacter, Pseudomonas and Marinobacterium that were the most abundant. The
major OTUs in the Platform Pe were with affinities to Achromobacter, followed by Stenotrophomonas and Serratia. The
only archaeal isolates were detected in Platform Pe, which affiliated to Thermocladium. The singletons and doubletons
accounted for about 50.0% of the OTU abundance in both platforms, which considerably significant despite their rare
occurrence.
MeSH terms: Acinetobacter; Archaea; Base Sequence; DNA, Recombinant; DNA, Ribosomal; Malaysia; Plasmids; Pseudomonas; Serratia; Gene Library; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Gammaproteobacteria; Stenotrophomonas; Achromobacter; Marinobacter; Eukaryota; Oil and Gas Fields
Polylactic acid (PLA)/Epoxidized natural rubber (ENR-50) blends were prepared by melt extrusion followed by injection
molding to fabricate the test samples. The effect of ENR-50 loadings on the morphological, mechanical, chemical
resistance and water absorption properties of the blends were studied using standard methods. The toughness of the
blend improved with ENR loading up to 20 wt. % but flexural and tensile strength decreased. The balanced mechanical
properties were obtained at 20 wt. % ENR-50 loading. SEM showed good distribution and increased ENR particle size
as ENR content increased from 10 to 30 wt. %. The differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) showed a steady drop in
crystallization temperature (Tc
) as ENR content increases while the glass transition temperature (Tg
) remained unchanged.
Water absorption was observed to increase with ENR loadings. Increase in ENR content was also observed to reduce the
chemical resistance of the blends.
Cement industries globally produced about 2.282 billion ton/year and 25 billion tons of concrete are produced yearly
all over the world, necessary measures are to be taken to reduce energy use along with the prevention of environmental
degradation, depletion of the limited resources and contribute 7% to global warming effects due to the release of carbon
dioxide to the atmosphere. Cement additives quality improver polymer (CAQIP) was developed from synthesized polymer,
waste materials derived from petro-chemical and palm oil waste for production of sustainable cement. Industrial scale
trial in a local cement plants by dosing 0.009%-0.690% CAQIP significant improved productivity, 8.3-27.5% efficiency in
saving, 24.73-86.36% clinkering energy and 7.7-21.57% grinding energy in the production of Ordinary Portland Cement
and sustainable cement. Strength quality improved 7.31-34.8% (2 day) and 3.85-57.58% (28 day). Carbon dioxide and
others toxic gases emission was reduced 21.90-90.0% by replacing clinker with waste material such as fly ash (25-
35%), out-spec clinker (50-100%) and limestone waste (5-25%). The developed CAQIP significant improved productivity,
quality strength, reduced CO2
emission, grinding & clinkering energy and enhanced production of sustainable cement
and concrete in Malaysia.
MeSH terms: Atmosphere; Calcium Carbonate; Carbon; Carbon Dioxide; Construction Materials; Environment; Gases; Malaysia; Polymers; Waste Products; Global Warming; Coal Ash
The performance of pipeline system used in petroleum industry is crucially declined by natural microbial activities and
demanding extra operational cost. Requirement on high capability of functional substances is attracting worldwide
research interest. The aim of this paper was to study the effectiveness of benzyltriethylammonium chloride (BTC) on
reducing the activity of a consortium bacteria consisting of sulfate-reducing bacteria (C-SRB). C-SRB was isolated from
tropical crude oil and enumeration of this consortium was measured by viable cell count technique. The effectiveness of
BTC was calculated from potentiodynamic polarization method and biofilm analysis was performed by scanning electron
microscope. The viable cell count technique indicated that the maximum growth of C-SRB was approximately 160 trillion
CFU/mL at 7 days incubation period. BTC was capable of reducing biocorrosion activity due to adsorption process and
mitigating SRB species. Biofilm analysis has proven that C-SRB activity is minimized due to less presence of bacterial
growth, extracellular polymeric substances and corrosion product. In conclusion, BTC is capable to inhibit C-SRB activity
on biocorrosion of carbon steel pipeline.
The efficiency of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) to reduce the activity of consortium bacteria consisting of
sulphate-reducing bacteria (C-SRB) has been investigated on variable concentration by weight loss test, potentiodynamic
polarization and diffusion disk methods. C-SRB was isolated from tropical crude oil of Malaysian offshore. Biofilm analysis
was also evaluated by variable pressure scanning electron microscopy (VPSEM). Weight loss and potentiodynamic
polarization analyses showed that CTAB is able to inhibit the biocorrosion process and their inhibition efficiency had
reached to 85 and 65% at 300 ppm CTAB, respectively. Increasing of CTAB efficiency as a function of concentration was
also supported by diffusion disk analysis. Biofilm analysis showed that less of C-SRB and their metabolic by-product had
been observed. It was concluded that CTAB was able to reduce the C-SRB activity and prevent biocorrosion process on
carbon steel surface.