• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.713-716
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• 2013

Social and behavioral scientists have proposed that a person's belief system crucially influences his or her behaviour, and therefore may affect outcomes of pain management. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between analgesic beliefs, analgesic adherence and pain experience amongst Taiwanese cancer outpatients. The cross-sectional study included 92 oncology outpatients in two teaching hospitals in the Taipei area of Taiwan. The research instruments included the Pain Opioid Analgesic Beliefs Scale-Cancer (POABS-CA), opioid adherence, and the Brief Pain Inventory-Chinese (BPI-Chinese). Beliefs about pain and opioids demonstrated a significant relationship with patients' opioid adherence (r = -0.30, p < 0.01). The more negative beliefs regarding opioids and pain the patient had, the worse their adherence to around the clock (ATC) analgesic regimen. However, there was no significant correlation between opioid belief and pain experience. As well, there were no significant relationships between adherence to opioid regimen and any of the measures of pain experience. The study highlights the potential importance of a patient's pain and opioid beliefs in adherence to pain medication.

• Journal of mucopolysaccharidosis and rare diseases
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.2-4
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• 2015

Though the rate of incidence of each rare disease, including mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS), is low, this is not the case if they are taken as a whole. Rare diseases often have genetic causes and vary in type. However, the signs and symptoms vary greatly by disease, making it difficult to make accurate diagnoses and conduct necessary research, which is why we believe it is a field that deserves more attention and research. It is important to establish an infrastructure of experts in each country and promote cooperation within the Asia-Pacific region in order to improve specialist training and communication. Given the need for a system of cooperation, the Asia Pacific MPS Network (APMN) was established by several MPS experts in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan in January 2013. Thereafter, the Asia Pacific MPS Registry (APMR), an electronic remote data system, was established by the APMN. Then, the Association for Research of MPS & Rare Diseases (ARMRD), an academic society that supports research on MPS and other rare diseases, was established by President Dong-Kyu Jin in April in 2015. The main task of the ARMRD is to support APMN-related work. The ARMRD published a uniform guideline that reflects the characteristics and circumstances of local patients through the Korean MPS Expert Council. Now, the APMN, APMR, and the annual Korean MPS Symposium are supported by ARMRD. Organizations like the APMN and APMR are necessary because international cooperation and collaboration are needed to conduct clinical trials on those diseases. ARMRD members hope to encourage the interest of experts and researchers of MPS & rare diseases as well as active participation in the research and treatment of patients suffering from rare diseases, including MPS, to ultimately improve the quality of life of the patients as well as their families.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.298-312
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• 2020

Purpose: This study had two objectives: 1) to develop a scale for the process of exercise engagement (SPEE) for prediabetic individuals (PDIs); 2) to validate a structural model for the process of exercise engagement for PDIs. Methods: A cross-sectional survey with simple random sampling was conducted from September 2013 to December 2015 (in Taiwan). A total of 310 PDIs were enrolled for scale development and model validation via item analysis, factor analyses, and structural equation modeling. The Kuo model was used as the basis for developing the Chinese version of the SPEE for PDIs. Results: The SPEE contains five subscales with a total of twenty-one items that account for 54.9% to 65.9% of the total variance explained for assessing participants' process of engagement during exercise. For Kuo model validation, the model measures indicated goodness of fit between the Kuo model and sample data. Analysis further revealed a direct effect between the creating health blueprints (CHB) stage and the spontaneous regular exercise (SRE) stage (β=.60). Conclusion: The SPEE includes five subscales for assessing the psychological transition and behavioral expression at each stage of the process of exercise engagement for PDIs. The SPEE for people with prediabetes provides deeper insights into the factors of behavioral change stages that are required to initiate long-term health care outcomes and avoid developing diabetes. These insights are significant as they allow for patient-specific mapping and behavior modification to effect exercise.

• Strategy21
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• s.36
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• pp.5-32
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• 2015

Geopolitics or Political Geography is an essential academic field that should be studied carefully for a more comprehensive analysis of international security relations. However, because of its tarnished image as an ideology that supported the NAZI German expansion and aggression, geopolitics has not been regarded as a pure academic field and was rejected and expelled from the academic communities starting from the Cold War years in 1945. During the Cold War, ideology, rather than geography, was considered more important in conducting and analyzing international relations. However, after the end of the Cold War and with the beginning of a new era in which territorial and religious confrontations are taking place among nations - including sub national tribal political organizations such as the Al Quaeda and other terrorist organizations - geopolitical analysis again is in vogue among the scholars and analysts on international security affairs. Most of the conflicts in international relations that is occurring now in the post-Cold War years can be explained more effectively with geopolitical concepts. The post - Cold War international relations among East Asian countries are especially better explained with geopolitical concepts. Unlike Europe, where peaceful development took place after the Cold War, China, Japan, Korea, the United States, Taiwan and Vietnam are feeling more insecure in the post-Cold War years. Most of the East Asian nations' economies have burgeoned during the Cold War years under the protection of the international security structure provided by the two superpowers. However, after the Cold War years, the international security structure has not been stable in East Asia and thus most of the East Asian nations began to build up stronger military forces of their own. Because most of the East Asian nations' national security and economy depend on the oceans, these nations desire to obtain more powerful navies and try to occupy islands, islets, or even rocks that may seem like a strategic asset for their economy and security. In this regard, the western Pacific Ocean is becoming a place of confrontation among the East Asian nations. As Robert Kaplan, an eminent international analyst, mentioned, East Asia is a Seascape while Europe is a Landscape. The possibility of international conflict on the waters of East Asia is higher than in any other period in East Asia's international history.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.309-316
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• 2014

A large particle accelerator requires an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) system of average pressure under $1{\times}10^{-7}$ Pa for mitigating the impact of beam scattering from the residual gas molecules. The surface inside the beam ducts should be controlled with an extremely low thermal outgassing rate under $1{\times}10^{-9}Pa{\cdot}m^3/(s{\cdot}m^2)$ for the sake of the insufficient pumping speed. To fulfil the requirements, the aluminum alloys were adopted as the materials of the beam ducts for large accelerator that thanks to the good features of higher thermal conductivity, non-radioactivity, non-magnetism, precise machining capability, et al. To put the aluminum into the large accelerator vacuum systems, several key technologies have been developed will be introduced. The concepts contain the precise computer numerical control (CNC) machining process for the large aluminum ducts and parts in pure alcohol and in an oil-free environment, surface cleaning with ozonized water, stringent welding process control manually or automatically to form a large sector of aluminum ducts, ex-situ baking process to reach UHV and sealed for transportation and installation, UHV pumping with the sputtering ion pumps and the non-evaporable getters (NEG), et al. The developed UHV technologies have been applied to the 3 GeV Taiwan Photon Source (TPS) and revealed good results as the expectation. The problems of leakage encountered during the assembling were most associated with the vacuum baking which result in the consequent trouble shootings and more times of baking. Then the installation of the well-sealed UHV systems is recommended.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.403-410
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• 2011

Scartelaos gigas is an amphibious mudskipper species that inhabits mud flats in Korea, China, and Taiwan. This fish is at risk of extinction because of its very restricted habitat and overexploitation. Information about this fish's reproductive characteristics is needed for species conservation. The sexual maturity and early life history of S. gigas were investigated through histological methods and direct observation of eggs in the wild, respectively. In total, 560 individuals of S. gigas were collected with the aid of fishermen from March 2003 to October 2003 at Jung-do Island, southwest Korea. Through microscopic observations of gonadal development, it was determined that S. gigas of both sexes were immature in April, but began to reach maturity in May, and were then fully mature by June, which was maintained until July. In August, some female fish developed early oocytes, but by September oocytes were observed to have degenerated and had been absorbed. Spawned eggs were elliptical and had an average size of 1.37 mm (long axis) by 0.69 mm (short axis). The newly hatched larvae (3.03 mm total length, TL) had an open mouth and anus, two melanophores near the anus, and one large melanophore between the 18th and 19th myomeres. The larvae (3.18 mm TL) showed absorption of the yolk and oil globule within 5 days after hatching and became prelarvae. This species should be considered vulnerable or conservation-dependent, and thus parental fish need to be protected from fishermen during the main spawning season (June).

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.85-92
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• 2013

To determine the relative importance of two main factors, diet or culture environment, that affect the proximate composition and main nutritive ingredients (vitamin A, vitamin E, cholesterol, fatty acid composition) in cultured eels, we analyzed the composition of eels fed diets of formula feed (FF) produced by four different companies and of eels cultured at five different eel farms that provided only one of the four different FFs. The four commercial eel FFs did not markedly differ in proximate composition or major nutritive compounds, and consequently, these variables did not significantly differ in cultured eels fed the different FFs. The FF imported from Japan was marginally superior to the two domestic commercial FFs and the FF imported from Taiwan in terms of the proximate composition and main nutritive ingredients of both the FF itself and the eels cultured on it. However, proximate composition and main nutritive ingredients significantly differed among eels cultured at the five farms that used a different FF and among eels fed the four different FFs at the same farm. In conclusion, the difference in quality between domestic and Japanese FFs in terms of eel culture was small, whereas physical or chemical environmental differences among farms during eel culture may more strongly affect the proximate composition and levels of the main nutritive ingredients in cultured eels.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.14-22
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• 2013

GPS radio occultation is a remote sensing technique probing atmospheric properties based on the fact that GPS signal is refracted and delayed by atmosphere. The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission jointly developed by the USA and Taiwan is providing about 2500 occultation soundings a day on the near real-time basis. The Korean KOMPSAT-5/AOPOD system is preparing to launch for monitoring troposphere and ionosphere using a dual frequency GPS receiver and the antenna for occultation data acquisition. In this paper, we examine the methods for signal processing and the geometry analysis for GPS radio occultation, and look into the retrieval techniques for the temperature and humidity of troposphere and the electron density and scintillation of ionosphere. Using these atmospheric properties, we aim to derive the strategies for applying GPS radio occultation to space weather, for example, ionospheric TEC(total electron content) analysis for earthquake monitoring and the Open API(application programming interface) development for more effective data service.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.615-629
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• 2014

This study analyzed existing patents related to real-time monitoring and detection technology for landslides on natural terrain. The purpose of patent analysis is to understand landslide hazard technology trends and to develop new advanced technology. This study searched patent data using key words related to landslide monitoring and detection in Korea, the USA, Japan, China (Hong Kong), Europe, and Taiwan. The patents were divided into five main categories and five to seven subcategories in each main category and analyzed by year, country, and applicants. The results were utilized to derive a portfolio of promising technologies for each country. The analysis results will also contribute to the development of more effective research strategies and to categorize research findings from previous studies on landslide hazards.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.154-159
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• 2002

Satellite remote sensing technology for ocean observation has evolved considerably in these last twenty years. Ocean color is one of the most important parameters of ocean satellite measurements. This paper describes a remote sensing of ocean color data project - Asian I-Lac Project; it also introduces several case studies using satellite images in the Asian waters. The Asian waters are related to about 30 Asian countries, representing about 60% of the world population. The project aims at generating long-term time series images (planned for 10 years from 1996 to 2006) by combining several ocean color satellite data, i.e., ADEOS-I OCTS and SeaWiFS, and some other sensors. Some typical parameters that could be measured include Chlorophyll- a (Chl-a), Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM), and Suspended Material (SSM). Reprocessed OCTS images display spatial variation of Chl-a, CDOM, and SSM in the Asian waters; a short term variability of phytoplankton blooms was observed in the Gulf of Oman in November 1996 by analyzing OCTS and NOAA sea surface temperature (SST)； Chl-a concentrations derived from OCTS and SeaWiFS have also been evaluated in coastal areas of the Taiwan Strait, the Gulf of Thailand, the northeast Arabian Sea, and the Japan Sea. The data system provides scientists with capability of testing or developing ocean color algorithms, and transferring images for their research. We have also analyzed availability of OCTS images. The results demonstrate the potential of long-term time series of satellite ocean color data for research in marine biology, and ocean studies. The case studies show multiple applications of satellite images on monitoring of coastal environments in the Asian Waters.