What Drives Consumers' Choice of Organic Products in the Taiwanese Market

[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencedate]]20140715~20140718[[iscallforpapers]]Y[[conferencelocation]]Singapor

Single-step growth of graphene and graphene-based nanostructures by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition

The realization of many promising technological applications of graphene and graphene-based nanostructures depends on the availability of reliable, scalable, high-yield and low-cost synthesis methods. Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) has been a versatile technique for synthesizing many carbon-based materials, because PECVD provides a rich chemical environment, including a mixture of radicals, molecules and ions from hydrocarbon precursors, which enables graphene growth on a variety of material surfaces at lower temperatures and faster growth than typical thermal chemical vapor deposition. Here we review recent advances in the PECVD techniques for synthesis of various graphene and graphene-based nanostructures, including horizontal growth of monolayer and multilayer graphene sheets, vertical growth of graphene nanostructures such as graphene nanostripes with large aspect ratios, direct and selective deposition of monolayer and multi-layer graphene on nanostructured substrates, and growth of multi-wall carbon nanotubes. By properly controlling the gas environment of the plasma, it is found that no active heating is necessary for the PECVD growth processes, and that high-yield growth can take place in a single step on a variety of surfaces, including metallic, semiconducting and insulating materials. Phenomenological understanding of the growth mechanisms are described. Finally, challenges and promising outlook for further development in the PECVD techniques for graphene-based applications are discussed

Integrin-mediated membrane blebbing is dependent on the NHE1 and NCX1 activities.

Integrin-mediated signal transduction and membrane blebbing have been well studied to modulate cell adhesion, spreading and migration^1-6^. However, the relationship between membrane blebbing and integrin signaling has not been explored. Here we show that integrin-ligand interaction induces membrane blebbing and membrane permeability change. We found that sodium-proton exchanger 1 (NHE1) and sodium-calcium exchanger 1 (NCX1) are located in the membrane blebbing sites and inhibition of NHE1 disrupts membrane blebbing and decreases membrane permeability change. However, inhibition of NCX1 enhances cell blebbing to cause cell swelling which is correlated with an intracellular sodium accumulation induced by NHE17. These data suggest that sodium influx induced by NHE1 is a driving force for membrane blebbing growth, while sodium efflux induced by NCX1 in a reverse mode causes membrane blebbing retraction. Together, these data reveal a novel function of NHE1 and NCX1 in membrane permeability change and blebbing and provide the link for integrin signaling and membrane blebbing

Effects of manual lymphatic drainage on breast cancer-related lymphedema: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND: Lymphedema is a common complication of axillary dissection for breast cancer. We investigated whether manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) could prevent or manage limb edema in women after breast-cancer surgery. METHODS: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate the effectiveness of MLD in the prevention and treatment of breast-cancer-related lymphedema. The PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), SCOPUS, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials electronic databases were searched for articles on MLD published before December 2012, with no language restrictions. The primary outcome for prevention was the incidence of postoperative lymphedema. The outcome for management of lymphedema was a reduction in edema volume. RESULTS: In total, 10 RCTs with 566 patients were identified. Two studies evaluating the preventive outcome of MLD found no significant difference in the incidence of lymphedema between the MLD and standard treatment groups, with a risk ratio of 0.63 and a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.14 to 2.82. Seven studies assessed the reduction in arm volume, and found no significant difference between the MLD and standard treatment groups, with a weighted mean difference of 75.12 (95% CI, −9.34 to 159.58). CONCLUSIONS: The current evidence from RCTs does not support the use of MLD in preventing or treating lymphedema. However, clinical and statistical inconsistencies between the various studies confounded our evaluation of the effect of MLD on breast-cancer-related lymphedema

A preliminary study on the dynamic friction behavior of a one-third scale-down vertical cylindrical cask

In Taiwan, the capacities of spent fuel pools for temporary storage in nuclear power plant will reach depletion soon, and the site of final disposal facility is still to be decided. Therefore, the installation of dry-type interim storage facilities is urgent. The dry storage systems in Taiwan utilize a freestanding cask and design to non-anchored to the foundation pad. It is necessary to establish the simulation techniques for the non-anchored structure, such as the dry storage cask, for the reasonable assessment of its seismic behavior when the earthquake hit. This study is cast a 1/3 scale-down pedestal specimen of the INER-dry storage cask system, which were conducted to acquire the actual friction coefficient at the cask/pad interface as well as the effect of normal stress and sliding rate on it. Based on the results of cyclic loading testing, the cyclic frequency almost had no influence on the friction coefficient but the friction coefficient increased with the normal stress increased. Apparent rocking of the cask was induced at a higher friction coefficient, while sliding dominated the cask motion at a lower one. In addition, the cast motions were almost purely sliding and the range of the friction coefficient was between 0.60 and 0.73 under various compositions of dry storage cask system

A cusp-capturing PINN for elliptic interface problems

In this paper, we propose a cusp-capturing physics-informed neural network (PINN) to solve discontinuous-coefficient elliptic interface problems whose solution is continuous but has discontinuous first derivatives on the interface. To find such a solution using neural network representation, we introduce a cusp-enforced level set function as an additional feature input to the network to retain the inherent solution properties; that is, capturing the solution cusps (where the derivatives are discontinuous) sharply. In addition, the proposed neural network has the advantage of being mesh-free, so it can easily handle problems in irregular domains. We train the network using the physics-informed framework in which the loss function comprises the residual of the differential equation together with certain interface and boundary conditions. We conduct a series of numerical experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the cusp-capturing technique and the accuracy of the present network model. Numerical results show that even using a one-hidden-layer (shallow) network with a moderate number of neurons and sufficient training data points, the present network model can achieve prediction accuracy comparable with traditional methods. Besides, if the solution is discontinuous across the interface, we can simply incorporate an additional supervised learning task for solution jump approximation into the present network without much difficulty

BN-embedded monolayer graphene with tunable electronic and topological properties

Finding an effective and controllable way to create a sizable energy gap in graphene-based systems has been a challenging topic of intensive research. We propose that the hybrid of boron nitride and graphene (h-BNC) at low BN doping serves as an ideal platform for band-gap engineering and valleytronic applications. We report a systematic first-principles study of the atomic configurations and band gap opening for energetically favorable BN patches embedded in graphene. Based on first-principles calculations, we construct a tight-binding model to simulate general doping configurations in large supercells. Unexpectedly, the calculations find a linear dependence of the band gap on the effective BN concentration at low doping, arising from an induced effective on-site energy difference at the two C sublattices as they are substituted by B and N dopants alternately. The significant and tunable band gap of a few hundred meVs, with preserved topological properties of graphene and feasible sample preparation in the laboratory, presents great opportunities to realize valley physics applications in graphene systems at room temperature