Browsing by Author "Huang C.-S."

Background We investigated the impact of serum cholesterol levels on 30-day mortality after ischemic stroke in dialysis patients. Methods From the Taiwan Stroke Registry data, we identified 46,770 ischemic stroke cases, including 1101 dialysis patients and 45,669 nondialysis patients from 2006 to 2013. Results Overall, the 30-day mortality was 1.46-fold greater in the dialysis group than in the nondialysis group (1.75 versus 1.20 per 1000 person-days). The mortality rates were 1.64, .62, 2.82, and 2.23 per 1000 person-days in dialysis patients with serum total cholesterol levels of?<120?mg/dL, 120-159?mg/dL, 160-199?mg/dL, and ?200?mg/dL, respectively. Compared to dialysis patients with serum total cholesterol levels of 120-159?mg/dL, the corresponding adjusted hazard ratios of mortality were 4.20 (95% confidence interval [CI]?=?1.01-17.4), 8.06 (95% CI?=?2.02-32.2), and 6.89 (95% CI?=?1.59-29.8) for those with cholesterol levels of?<120?mg/dL, 160-199?mg/dL, and??200?mg/dL, respectively. Conclusions Dialysis patients with serum total cholesterol levels of??160?mg/dL or?<120?mg/dL on admission are at an elevated hazard of 30-day mortality after ischemic stroke. ? 2017 National Stroke Association

Genotyping of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is crucial for determining the most efficient anti-viral therapy. The clinical sensitivity and specificity of the IntelliPlexTM HCV Genotyping Kit was determined by comparing the assay results of 307 specimens with the results obtained by Sanger sequencing. Out of 202 HCV-positive specimens tested, 8 samples yielded discrepant results between the IntelliPlex HCV Genotyping Kit and Sanger sequencing. For 5 of these discrepant samples, the IntelliPlex HCV Genotyping Kit classified the correct genotype but failed to show the same single or dual infected status as determined by Sanger sequencing. A total of 105 samples which tested negative for HCV by In-Vitro-Diagnostics (IVD)-approved viral load assay tested negative for HCV by the IntelliPlex HCV Genotyping Kit. The IntelliPlex HCV Genotyping Kit has a clinical specificity of 100% and a clinical sensitivity of 96.9% and is suited to be used in clinical laboratories to genotype HCV. ? 2019 Elsevier Inc.

For many years, the understanding of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), which are the most common mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, has been very limited. However, it is now possible to provide a more precise definition through the use of pathology classification and molecular techniques. Coupled with the advancement of clinical practice, especially the development of targeted therapy, there is now a much better insight into its treatment. At present, organizations such as the National Comprehensive Cancer Network in the USA and the European Society for Medical Oncology in Europe have established a consensus and drawn up guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of GISTs.With experts coming from various districts in Taiwan and combining the most recent clinical data and experiences, the Taiwan Surgical Society of Gastroenterology drafted the first national GIST treatment guidelines after a consensus meeting in 2007. Following subsequent advances in GIST diagnosis and treatment, further revisions and modifications have been made to the original guidelines. We present here the updated consensus and recommendations of the Taiwan Surgical Society of Gastroenterology for the diagnosis and treatment of GIST. We hope these guidelines can help enhance the quality of diagnosis, treatment, and care of patients with GIST in Taiwan. ? 2012 Yeh et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Computer aided surgery (CAS) had been an important research topic in recent years. 3D navigation is the crucial technique in the CAS applications. In this paper, a sound-guided 3D navigation system used for the retained auricular prosthesis surgery wad developed. This system consists of a 3D digitizer arm, a 3D space coordinate transformation module and a sound-guided navigation module. A 3D digitizer is a 5 degree-of-freedom passive robotic arm, and it is used to measure the coordinates of the registration and implant landmarks of the patient. The measured coordinates of landmarks are further compared with the patient's 3D reconstruction computer model that is constructed in terms of the computed tomography (CT) images to calculate the coordinate transformation matrix. The transformed implant coordinates are desired for the real-time navigations. In addition, the proposed sound-guided navigation module provides the real-time surgical guidance based on different audio tones and intermittence frequencies to improve the surgical accuracy. Finally, a clinical study of the retained auricular prosthesis surgery is introduced in this paper. Based on the results of the clinical validation, the proposed system effectively assistants the surgeon to increase the surgical quality and reduce the surgical time as well.

The fast growing computer technology had been successfully applied to the industry and medical applications. The operation efficiency, system accuracy, and quality consistency can be significantly improved by introducing the computer techniques. In recent years, several works combine the techniques of the computer software, machine vision and image processing to assist the surgeons to improve the surgical quality. Especially, the surgery navigation system is more emphasized than ever. In this paper, we propose a computer assisted retained auricular prosthesis surgery system. In this work, a 3D digitizer is used to measure the coordinate and posture of the patient. The patient's coordinate is further transformed to the coordinate of the computer model. In addition, a sound-based navigation system is developed to guide the surgeon to reach the registration position that was identified at the pre-surgery stage. Finally, a clinical case of the retained auricular prosthesis surgery of the microtia children was proposed and successfully validated.

The semiconductor manufacturing system has become one of the most important manufacturing systems in recent years. Intrabay automation for wafer transport is in high demand in a 300? mm foundry fab. The control of the transport system plays an important roles in manufacturing efficiency and the satisfaction of production strategy. In general, efficiency is the most important issue that has appeared in most research of automated transport systems. However, how to dynamically adjust the transport policy to meet the production strategy and to increase the transport efficiency as well seems to be more crucial to modern semiconductor manufacturing systems. In this paper, a fuzzy-logic-based multimission-oriented overhead vehicle dispatcher is developed. The vehicle dispatching rule is assigned in real-time according to the statistics of the manufacturing performance. In this manner, the dispatching rules can be adjusted according to possible high-risk lots so that most of the production strategies can be satisfied. If all of the lots meet the prescribed production strategies, then the nearest-job-first rule can be used to offer higher transport efficiency. In addition, the proposed vehicle dispatcher is also capable of deadlock-free operation, collision avoidance, and blockage prevention. Finally, this paper uses AutoMod simulation software to construct and evaluate the manufacturing models. By evaluating the simulation results, the proposed intelligent multimission-oriented vehicle dispatcher performs better performance than the others, and all of the production strategies are satisfied.

In a 300 mm IC foundry fab, the intrabay automation systems are more important than a 200 mm one. In general, the intrabay automation systems include the automated controls of the process tools, overhead hoist transports (OHTs), stockers, and rail shortcuts. These control systems are operated concurrently. They must be cooperated seamlessly to increase the system performance and to avoid deadlocks. In this paper, the behaviors of the intrabay automation systems are modeled using the distributed agent oriented Petri net (DAOPN). The fab intrabay DAOPN models are categorized into the new order generation, OHT vehicle dispatching, zone control, path decision, and tool processing models. Finally, the DAOPN is defined, and the models of the intrabay automation systems are illustrated. Consequently, a simple intrabay system with one stocker, five tool stations, one OHT loop, and two rail shortcuts are modeled and simulated using the proposed DAOPN. The simulation results are evaluated based upon the conditions of changing the number of OHT vehicles and the dispatching rules.

Background: Chronic infection and inflammation, including periodontitis, is linked to an increased risk for atherosclerosis. To investigate the possible adverse effects of periodontitis in maintenance hemodialysis patients, we compared periodontal severity with malnutrition and inflammation, which are associated with poor atherosclerotic outcome in hemodialysis patients. Methods: Two hundred fifty-three hemodialysis patients were included in this study to evaluate clinical periodontal status by using the Plaque Index, Gingival Index, and Periodontal Disease Index. Geographic, hematologic, biochemical, and dialysis-related data also were collected. Values for nutritional and inflammatory markers, such as albumin, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, transferrin, absolute lymphocyte count, normalized protein catabolic rate, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and ferritin, were included for analysis with the Periodontal Index. Results: Poor oral health status was shown by 80.6% of hemodialysis patients with periodontal disease. In an analysis of geographic and disease-related parameters, we found that aging, smoking, diabetes, and longer dialysis duration were associated with severity of periodontitis. Parameters of malnutrition and inflammation also were associated with poor periodontal status. We next conducted multiple regression analysis and found that age, diabetes, smoking, albumin level, and dialysis duration were associated independently with periodontitis severity in hemodialysis patients. According to the severity of periodontitis, there were higher percentiles of patients with malnutrition (chi-square = 13.055; P = 0.005) and inflammation (chi-square = 10.046; P = 0.018) in the severe group. Conclusion: Periodontal health is poor in hemodialysis patients and correlates with markers of malnutrition and inflammation. Its diagnosis and treatment deserve better awareness. ? 2006 National Kidney Foundation, Inc.

Parkinson’s disease (PD), or paralysis agitans, is a common neurodegenerative disease characterized by dopaminergic deprivation in the basal ganglia because of neuronal loss in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Clinically, PD apparently involves both hypokinetic (e.g. akinetic rigidity) and hyperkinetic (e.g. tremor/propulsion) symptoms. The symptomatic pathogenesis, however, has remained elusive. The recent success of deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy applied to the subthalamic nucleus (STN) or the globus pallidus pars internus indicates that there are essential electrophysiological abnormalities in PD. Consistently, dopamine-deprived STN shows excessive burst discharges. This proves to be a central pathophysiological element causally linked to the locomotor deficits in PD, as maneuvers (such as DBS of different polarities) decreasing and increasing STN burst discharges would decrease and increase the locomotor deficits, respectively. STN bursts are not so autonomous but show a “relay” feature, requiring glutamatergic synaptic inputs from the motor cortex (MC) to develop. In PD,?there is an increase in overall MC activities and the corticosubthalamic input is?enhanced and contributory to excessive burst discharges in STN. The increase in MC activities may be relevant to the enhanced beta power in local field potentials (LFP) as well as the deranged motor programming at the cortical level in PD. Moreover, MC could not only drive erroneous STN bursts, but also be driven by STN discharges at specific LFP frequencies (~ 4 to 6?Hz) to produce coherent tremulous muscle contractions. In essence, PD may be viewed as a disorder with deranged rhythms in the cortico-subcortical re-entrant loops, manifestly including STN, the major component of the oscillating core, and MC, the origin of the final common descending motor pathways. The configurations of the deranged rhythms may play a determinant role in the symptomatic pathogenesis of PD, and provide insight into the mechanism underlying normal motor control. Therapeutic brain stimulation for PD and relevant disorders should be adaptively exercised with in-depth pathophysiological considerations for each individual patient, and aim at a final normalization of cortical discharge patterns for the best ameliorating effect on the locomotor and even non-motor symptoms. ? 2021, The Author(s).

The aim of the study is to evaluate gene component analysis for microarray studies. Three dimensional reduction strategies, Principle Component Regression (PCR), Partial Least Square (PLS) and Reduced Rank Regression (RRR) were applied to publicly available breast cancer microarray dataset and the derived gene components were used for tumor classification by Logistic Regression (LR) and Linear Discriminative Analysis (LDA). The impact of gene selection/filtration was evaluated as well. We demonstrated that gene component classifiers could reduce the high-dimensionality of gene expression data and the collinearity problem inherited in most modern microarray experiments. In our study gene component analysis could discriminate Estrogen Receptor (ER) positive breast cancers from negative cancers and the proposed classifiers were successfully reproduced and projected into independent microarray dataset with high predictive accuracy.Copyright ? 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.