Design of a Fuzzy Logic-based Plant Quality Estimation System base on Morphological Features

( Chung-liang Chang ),( Wei-lun Fu ),( Jun-yong Tian ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

Automatic growth monitoring of plants technique is crucial for the development of biodiversity and innovative agriculture. Traditional manual recording mode is more complicated and time-consuming, which requires professional skills and expertise background, which is comparatively difficult for non-expert users. In this paper, the fuzzy logic inference method is adopted to estimate the growth quality of plant based on leaf area, leaf number, and the contour area of plant. The image processing technique is employed to conduct plant morphological measurement, including hue of transformation, edge detection, and color histogram. The proposed system has been tested and evaluated successfully in a plant growth chamber. The results show that the estimation error of proposed system is in the range of acceptance for plant quality modeling.

Fuzzy Time Series Model Based on Fitting Function for Forecasting TAIEX Index

Chung-Ho Su,Ching-Hsue Cheng,Wei-Lun Tsai 보안공학연구지원센터 2013 International Journal of Hybrid Information Techno Vol.6 No.1

An Empirical Investigation on Customer Dissatisfaction toward using Mobile Applications

Chien-Ta Ho,Chung-Lun Wei,Kai-Ting Lin 보안공학연구지원센터 2015 International Journal of Database Theory and Appli Vol.8 No.4

As technology advances, mobile phones have changed significantly with devices and operating systems becoming more sophisticated. Mobile Applications (Apps) have been increasingly popular in the recent years and are changing the people’s daily lives in leisure and businesses. The Booming industry of Apps makes great profit and the awareness to prevent customers or users from feeling dissatisfied is, accordingly, an important issue. Customer dissatisfaction may cause switching behavior, decreasing loyalty, and negative word-of-mouth among customers which may be the potential problem of business losses. Scarce researches have been done in discussing the effects of dissatisfaction among mobile products especially in applications issues. The purpose of this research is to propose a conceptual model and make an empirical investigation about the elements influencing customer dissatisfaction on using mobile applications. The sample consists of 200 respondents by using online questionnaires to collect data. The analysis employing structural equation modeling (SEM) shows that functionality, perceived usefulness and content have significant impacts on customer dissatisfaction. Implications for managerial perception and future research are discussed.

Significant down-regulation of growth hormone receptor expression revealed as a new unfavorable prognostic factor in hepatitis C virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma

( Ching-chih Lin ),( Ta-wei Liu ),( Ming-lun Yeh ),( Yi-shan Tsai ),( Pei-chien Tsai ),( Chung-feng Huang ),( Jee-fu Huang ),( Wan-long Chuang ),( Chia-yen Dai ),( Ming-lung Yu ) 대한간학회 2021 Clinical and Molecular Hepatology(대한간학회지) Vol.27 No.2

Background/Aims: Growth hormone (GH) is the main regulator of somatic growth, metabolism, and gender dimorphism in the liver. GH receptor (GHR) signaling in cancer is derived from a large body of evidence, although the GHR signaling pathway involved in the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related HCC, remains unclear. We aimed to explore the expression of GHR and analyze its association with clinicopathologic features and prognosis of patients with chronic hepatitis C and HCC. Methods: The expression of GHR mRNA was investigated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in paired tumors and adjacent non-tumorous (ANT) liver tissues of 200 patients with chronic hepatitis C and HCC. Western blotting and immunofluorescence assays using the HCV-infected Huh7.5.1 cell model was performed. Results: GHR mRNA was significantly lower in HCV-HCC tissues than in corresponding ANT liver tissues. GHR mRNA and protein levels also decreased in the HCV-infected Huh7.5.1 cell model. Notably, lower GHR expression was associated with age of >60 years (P=0.0111) and worse clinicopathologic characteristics, including alpha-fetoprotein >100 ng/mL (P=0.0403), cirrhosis (P=0.0075), vascular invasion (P=0.0052), pathological stage II-IV (P=0.0002), and albumin ≤4.0 g/dL (P=0.0055), which were linked with poor prognosis of HCC. Most importantly, the high incidence of recurrence and poor survival rates in patients with a low ratio of tumor/ANT GHR (≤0.1) were observed, indicating that low expression levels of GHR had great risk for development of HCC in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates a significant down-regulation of GHR expression as a new unfavorable independent prognostic factor in patients with chronic hepatitis C and HCC. (Clin Mol Hepatol 2021;27:313-328)

Treatment Response Evaluation by Computed Tomography Pulmonary Vasculature Analysis in Patients With Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension

Yu-Sen Huang,Zheng-Wei Chen,Wen-Jeng Lee,Cho-Kai Wu,Ping-Hung Kuo,Hsao-Hsun Hsu,Shu-Yu Tang,Cheng-Hsuan Tsai,Mao-Yuan Su,Chi-Lun Ko,Juey-Jen Hwang,Yen-Hung Lin,Yeun-Chung Chang The Korean Society of Radiology 2023 Korean Journal of Radiology Vol.24 No.4

Objective: To quantitatively assess the pulmonary vasculature using non-contrast computed tomography (CT) in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) pre- and post-treatment and correlate CT-based parameters with right heart catheterization (RHC) hemodynamic and clinical parameters. Materials and Methods: A total of 30 patients with CTEPH (mean age, 57.9 years; 53% female) who received multimodal treatment, including riociguat for ≥ 16 weeks with or without balloon pulmonary angioplasty and underwent both non-contrast CT for pulmonary vasculature analysis and RHC pre- and post-treatment were included. The radiographic analysis included subpleural perfusion parameters, including blood volume in small vessels with a cross-sectional area ≤ 5 mm² (BV5) and total blood vessel volume (TBV) in the lungs. The RHC parameters included mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP), pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR), and cardiac index (CI). Clinical parameters included the World Health Organization (WHO) functional class and 6-minute walking distance (6MWD). Results: The number, area, and density of the subpleural small vessels increased after treatment by 35.7% (P < 0.001), 13.3% (P = 0.028), and 39.3% (P < 0.001), respectively. The blood volume shifted from larger to smaller vessels, as indicated by an 11.3% increase in the BV5/TBV ratio (P = 0.042). The BV5/TBV ratio was negatively correlated with PVR (r = -0.26; P = 0.035) and positively correlated with CI (r = 0.33; P = 0.009). The percent change across treatment in the BV5/TBV ratio correlated with the percent change in mPAP (r = -0.56; P = 0.001), PVR (r = -0.64; P < 0.001), and CI (r = 0.28; P = 0.049). Furthermore, the BV5/TBV ratio was inversely associated with the WHO functional classes I-IV (P = 0.004) and positively associated with 6MWD (P = 0.013). Conclusion: Non-contrast CT measures could quantitatively assess changes in the pulmonary vasculature in response to treatment and were correlated with hemodynamic and clinical parameters.

A superior dye adsorbent towards the hydrogen evolution reaction combining active sites and phase-engineering of (1T/2H) MoS₂/α-MoO₃ hybrid heterostructured nanoflowers

Manikandan, Arumugam,Ilango, P. Robert,Chen, Chia-Wei,Wang, Yi-Chung,Shih, Yu-Chuan,Lee, Ling,Wang, Zhiming M.,Ko, Hyunhyub,Chueh, Yu-Lun The Royal Society of Chemistry 2018 Journal of Materials Chemistry A Vol.6 No.31

<P>Here, we demonstrate the successful synthesis of (1T/2H) MoS2/α-MoO3 heterostructured nanoflowers at a low temperature of 200 °C by a one-step hydrothermal method. By tuning the reaction time under the influence of thiourea and hydrazine hydrate, we established a complete phase-engineered MoS2 with 1T and 2H phases on the surface of α-MoO3. Active sites associated with the phase-engineered (1T/2H) MoS2/α-MoO3 hybrid nanoflowers enable them to exhibit dual roles as a superior dye adsorbent and an electrocatalyst towards the hydrogen evolution reaction. The 2H-rich (1T/2H) MoS2/α-MoO3 hybrid heterostructured nanoflowers prepared at 16 h achieved a high surface area of 37.97 m<SUP>2</SUP> g<SUP>−1</SUP>, and 97% of the RhB dye with an initial concentration of 47.9 mg L<SUP>−1</SUP> was removed within 10 min through the adsorption process, which is the highest known removal efficiency reported in the literature. As a hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst in acidic solution, the 1T-rich (1T/2H) MoS2/α-MoO3 hybrid heterostructured nanoflowers prepared at 12 h exhibited a highly efficient catalytic activity by achieving a low overpotential of 232 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm<SUP>−2</SUP>, which is comparable to those of previously reported HER catalysts based on MoS2. Moreover, this sample reached a low Tafel slope of 81 mV dec<SUP>−1</SUP> and was stable when operated for more than 1000 cycles.</P>