AIM To investigate the association of chronic hepatitis B and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis with physical fitness in a Taiwan Residents military male cohort.METHODS We made a cross-sectional examination of this associa...AIM To investigate the association of chronic hepatitis B and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis with physical fitness in a Taiwan Residents military male cohort.METHODS We made a cross-sectional examination of this association using 3669 young adult military males according to cardiorespiratory fitness and hospitalization events recorded in the Taiwan Armed Forces study.Cases of chronic hepatitis B(n=121)were defined by personal history and positive detection of hepatitis B surface antigen.Cases of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis(n=129)were defined by alanine transaminase level>60 U/L,liver ultrasound finding of steatosis,and absence of viral hepatitis A,B or C infection.All other study participants were defined as unaffected(n=3419).Physical fitness was evaluated by performance in 3000-m run,2-min sit-ups,and 2-min push-ups exercises,with all the procedures standardized by a computerized scoring system.Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the relationship.RESULTS Chronic hepatitis B negatively correlated with 2-min push-up numbers(β=-2.49,P=0.019)after adjusting for age,service specialty,body mass index,systolic and diastolic blood pressures,current cigarette smoking,alcohol intake status,serum hemoglobin,and average weekly exercise times.Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis was borderline positively correlated with 3000-m running time(β=11.96,P=0.084)and negatively correlated with 2-min sit-up numbers(β=-1.47,P=0.040).CONCLUSION Chronic hepatitis B viral infection and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis affects different physical performances in young adult military males,and future study should determine the underlying mechanism.展开更多
AIM To investigate the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and hospitalization events in a cohort of large voluntary arm forces in Taiwan. METHODS The cardiorespiratory fitness and hospitalization events in ...AIM To investigate the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and hospitalization events in a cohort of large voluntary arm forces in Taiwan. METHODS The cardiorespiratory fitness and hospitalization events in armed forces(CHIEF) is a retrospective cohort consisting of more than 4000 professional military members aged 18-50 years in Eastern Taiwan. All participants received history taking, physical examination, chest radiography, 12-lead electrocardiography, blood tests for cell counts and fasting glucose, lipid profiles, uric acid, renal function and liver function in the Hualien Armed Forces General Hospital during 2014. In addition, participants were required to undergo two indoor resistant exercise tests including 2-min push-up and 2-min sit-up, both scored by infrared sensing, and one outdoor endurance 3000-m none weight-bearing running test, the main indicator of cardiorespiratory fitness in the Military Physical Training and Testing Center in Eastern Taiwan in 2014. RESULTS Hospitalization events for cardiovascular disease, acute kidney injury, rhabdomyolysis, severe infectious disease, acute psychiatric illness, diabetes, orthopedic surgery and mortality will be identified in the National Insurance Research Database for 10 years. CONCLUSION CHIEF will be among the largest Eastern Asian armed forces cohort, in which physical status was strictly evaluated to follow up the hospitalization events for severe illness.展开更多
Suppliers play the vital role of ensuring the continuous supply of goods to themarket for businesses.If businesses do not maintain a strong bond with their suppliers,they may not be able to secure a steady supply of g...Suppliers play the vital role of ensuring the continuous supply of goods to themarket for businesses.If businesses do not maintain a strong bond with their suppliers,they may not be able to secure a steady supply of goods and products for their customers.As a result of failure to deliver products,the production and business activities of the business can be delayed which leads to the loss of customers.Normally,each trading enterprise will have a variety of commodity supply chains withmultiple suppliers.Suppliers play an important role and contribute to the value of the entire supply chain.Should any supplier encounters a problem,the whole supply chain of businesses will be affected and could lead to not guaranteeing the stable supply to the market.Thus,suppliers can be seen as a threat to businesses where they have the ability to increase input prices or decrease the quality of the required products and services they provide.The quantity of the business,and the supply lead time directly affect the operations and reduce the profitability of the business.The paper mainly focuses on the supplier selection problemunder a variety of price level and product families when using a two-phase fuzzy multi-objective linear programming.The objectives of the proposed model are to minimize the total purchasing and ordering cost in order to reduce the quantity of defective materials and the late-delivery components from suppliers.Moreover,the piecewise linear membership function is applied in themodel to determine an optimal solution which is based on the requirement of decision makers under their fuzzy environment.The results of this study can be applied in various business environment and provide a reliable decision tool for choosing potential suppliers relating to these objectives.Based on the results,the company canmake a good decision on supplier selection;therefore,the company can improve the quality and quantity of their final product.This is because,the best supplier can supply raw material using just-in-time application and reduce production risk on the manufacturing process.展开更多
Optically induced electroporation(OIE)is a promising microfluidic-based approach for the electroporation of cell membranes.However,previously proposed microfluidic cell-electroporation devices required tedious sample ...Optically induced electroporation(OIE)is a promising microfluidic-based approach for the electroporation of cell membranes.However,previously proposed microfluidic cell-electroporation devices required tedious sample pre-treatment steps,specifically,periodic media exchange.To enable the use of this OIE process in a practical protocol,we developed a new design for a microfluidic device that can perform continuous OIE;i.e.,it is capable of automatically replacing the culture medium with electroporation buffers.Integrating medium exchanges on-chip with OIE minimises critical issues such as cell loss and damage,both of which are common in traditional,centrifuge-based approaches.Most importantly,our new system is suitable for handling small or rare cell populations.Two medium exchange modules,including a micropost array railing structure and a deterministic lateral displacement structure,were first adopted and optimised for medium exchange and then integrated with the OIE module.The efficacy of these integrated microfluidic systems was demonstrated by transfecting an enhanced green fluorescent protein(EGFP)plasmid into human embryonic kidney 293T cells,with an efficiency of 8.3%.This result is the highest efficiency reported for any existing OIE-based microfluidic system.In addition,successful co-transfections of three distinct plasmids(EGFP,DsRed and ECFP)into cells were successfully achieved.Hence,we demonstrated that this system is capable of automatically performing multiple gene transfections into mammalian cells.展开更多
基金Supported by research grants from the Hualien-Armed Forces General Hospital,No.805-C105-10the Ministry of National Defense-Medical Affairs Bureau,No.MAB-106-124
文摘AIM To investigate the association of chronic hepatitis B and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis with physical fitness in a Taiwan Residents military male cohort.METHODS We made a cross-sectional examination of this association using 3669 young adult military males according to cardiorespiratory fitness and hospitalization events recorded in the Taiwan Armed Forces study.Cases of chronic hepatitis B(n=121)were defined by personal history and positive detection of hepatitis B surface antigen.Cases of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis(n=129)were defined by alanine transaminase level>60 U/L,liver ultrasound finding of steatosis,and absence of viral hepatitis A,B or C infection.All other study participants were defined as unaffected(n=3419).Physical fitness was evaluated by performance in 3000-m run,2-min sit-ups,and 2-min push-ups exercises,with all the procedures standardized by a computerized scoring system.Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the relationship.RESULTS Chronic hepatitis B negatively correlated with 2-min push-up numbers(β=-2.49,P=0.019)after adjusting for age,service specialty,body mass index,systolic and diastolic blood pressures,current cigarette smoking,alcohol intake status,serum hemoglobin,and average weekly exercise times.Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis was borderline positively correlated with 3000-m running time(β=11.96,P=0.084)and negatively correlated with 2-min sit-up numbers(β=-1.47,P=0.040).CONCLUSION Chronic hepatitis B viral infection and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis affects different physical performances in young adult military males,and future study should determine the underlying mechanism.
基金Supported by The Research Grants from the Hualien-Armed Forces General Hospital,No.805-C105-10the Ministry of National Defense-Medical Affairs Bureau,No.MAB-106-124
文摘AIM To investigate the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and hospitalization events in a cohort of large voluntary arm forces in Taiwan. METHODS The cardiorespiratory fitness and hospitalization events in armed forces(CHIEF) is a retrospective cohort consisting of more than 4000 professional military members aged 18-50 years in Eastern Taiwan. All participants received history taking, physical examination, chest radiography, 12-lead electrocardiography, blood tests for cell counts and fasting glucose, lipid profiles, uric acid, renal function and liver function in the Hualien Armed Forces General Hospital during 2014. In addition, participants were required to undergo two indoor resistant exercise tests including 2-min push-up and 2-min sit-up, both scored by infrared sensing, and one outdoor endurance 3000-m none weight-bearing running test, the main indicator of cardiorespiratory fitness in the Military Physical Training and Testing Center in Eastern Taiwan in 2014. RESULTS Hospitalization events for cardiovascular disease, acute kidney injury, rhabdomyolysis, severe infectious disease, acute psychiatric illness, diabetes, orthopedic surgery and mortality will be identified in the National Insurance Research Database for 10 years. CONCLUSION CHIEF will be among the largest Eastern Asian armed forces cohort, in which physical status was strictly evaluated to follow up the hospitalization events for severe illness.
文摘Suppliers play the vital role of ensuring the continuous supply of goods to themarket for businesses.If businesses do not maintain a strong bond with their suppliers,they may not be able to secure a steady supply of goods and products for their customers.As a result of failure to deliver products,the production and business activities of the business can be delayed which leads to the loss of customers.Normally,each trading enterprise will have a variety of commodity supply chains withmultiple suppliers.Suppliers play an important role and contribute to the value of the entire supply chain.Should any supplier encounters a problem,the whole supply chain of businesses will be affected and could lead to not guaranteeing the stable supply to the market.Thus,suppliers can be seen as a threat to businesses where they have the ability to increase input prices or decrease the quality of the required products and services they provide.The quantity of the business,and the supply lead time directly affect the operations and reduce the profitability of the business.The paper mainly focuses on the supplier selection problemunder a variety of price level and product families when using a two-phase fuzzy multi-objective linear programming.The objectives of the proposed model are to minimize the total purchasing and ordering cost in order to reduce the quantity of defective materials and the late-delivery components from suppliers.Moreover,the piecewise linear membership function is applied in themodel to determine an optimal solution which is based on the requirement of decision makers under their fuzzy environment.The results of this study can be applied in various business environment and provide a reliable decision tool for choosing potential suppliers relating to these objectives.Based on the results,the company canmake a good decision on supplier selection;therefore,the company can improve the quality and quantity of their final product.This is because,the best supplier can supply raw material using just-in-time application and reduce production risk on the manufacturing process.
基金The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided to this study by“the National Science Council in Taiwan(NSC102-2218-E-007-001)”.
文摘Optically induced electroporation(OIE)is a promising microfluidic-based approach for the electroporation of cell membranes.However,previously proposed microfluidic cell-electroporation devices required tedious sample pre-treatment steps,specifically,periodic media exchange.To enable the use of this OIE process in a practical protocol,we developed a new design for a microfluidic device that can perform continuous OIE;i.e.,it is capable of automatically replacing the culture medium with electroporation buffers.Integrating medium exchanges on-chip with OIE minimises critical issues such as cell loss and damage,both of which are common in traditional,centrifuge-based approaches.Most importantly,our new system is suitable for handling small or rare cell populations.Two medium exchange modules,including a micropost array railing structure and a deterministic lateral displacement structure,were first adopted and optimised for medium exchange and then integrated with the OIE module.The efficacy of these integrated microfluidic systems was demonstrated by transfecting an enhanced green fluorescent protein(EGFP)plasmid into human embryonic kidney 293T cells,with an efficiency of 8.3%.This result is the highest efficiency reported for any existing OIE-based microfluidic system.In addition,successful co-transfections of three distinct plasmids(EGFP,DsRed and ECFP)into cells were successfully achieved.Hence,we demonstrated that this system is capable of automatically performing multiple gene transfections into mammalian cells.
