Transition to day care for older people in Taiwan : a grounded theory study

Adult day care centres provide a means whereby frail or disabled older people can remain living at home particularly when their family care-givers engage in waged work. In Taiwan, adult day care services appear to meet the cultural needs of both older people and their families for whom filial care is vital. Little research attention has been paid to the use of day care services in Taiwan, the uptake rate of which is low. This grounded theory study explored the ways in which older people and family care-givers construct meanings around the use of day care services in Taiwan. Forty-four semi-structured interviews were undertaken with older people, care-givers and day care centre managers. The findings from grounded theory data analysis bring focus to the assumptions and structures that underpin the process of transition to day care services. A key feature of this process is the reconstruction of personal identity as both the older people and family care-givers work to make sense of the relationship between the self and a changing social structure. Reconstructing identity in a shifting world is the core category of the study and reflects a process of reframing whereby older people came to new definitions of social responsibility and independence within the context of the day care centre. Similarly, the family care-givers actively reformulated the concept of filial piety as they interacted with and interpreted the changes in economic and social conditions in Taiwan.

Concentration and oxidative potential of on-road particle emissions and their relationship with traffic composition : Relevance to exposure assessment

Particles emitted by vehicles are known to cause detrimental health effects, with their size and oxidative potential among the main factors responsible. Therefore, understanding the relationship between traffic composition and both the physical characteristics and oxidative potential of particles is critical. To contribute to the limited knowledge base in this area, we investigated this relationship in a 4.5 km road tunnel in Brisbane, Australia. On-road concentrations of ultrafine particles (<100 nm, UFPs), fine particles (PM2.5), CO, CO2 and particle associated reactive oxygen species (ROS) were measured using vehicle-based mobile sampling. UFPs were measured using a condensation particle counter and PM2.5 with a DustTrak aerosol photometer. A new profluorescent nitroxide probe, BPEAnit, was used to determine ROS levels. Comparative measurements were also performed on an above-ground road to assess the role of emission dilution on the parameters measured. The profile of UFP and PM2.5 concentration with distance through the tunnel was determined, and demonstrated relationships with both road gradient and tunnel ventilation. ROS levels in the tunnel were found to be high compared to an open road with similar traffic characteristics, which was attributed to the substantial difference in estimated emission dilution ratios on the two roadways. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the levels of pollutants and ROS were generally better correlated with total traffic count, rather than the traffic composition (i.e. diesel and gasoline-powered vehicles). A possible reason for the lack of correlation with HDV, which has previously been shown to be strongly associated with UFPs especially, was the low absolute numbers encountered during the sampling. This may have made their contribution to in-tunnel pollution largely indistinguishable from the total vehicle volume. For ROS, the stronger association observed with HDV and gasoline vehicles when combined (total traffic count) compared to when considered individually may signal a role for the interaction of their emissions as a determinant of on-road ROS in this pilot study. If further validated, this should not be overlooked in studies of on- or near-road particle exposure and its potential health effects.

Relationship between the nature of the search task types and query reformulation behaviour

Success of query reformulation and relevant information retrieval depends on many factors, such as users’ prior knowledge, age, gender, and cognitive styles. One of the important factors that affect a user’s query reformulation behaviour is that of the nature of the search tasks. Limited studies have examined the impact of the search task types on query reformulation behaviour while performing Web searches. This paper examines how the nature of the search tasks affects users’ query reformulation behaviour during information searching. The paper reports empirical results from a user study in which 50 participants performed a set of three Web search tasks – exploratory, factorial and abstract. Users’ interactions with search engines were logged by using a monitoring program. 872 unique search queries were classified into five query types – New, Add, Remove, Replace and Repeat. Users submitted fewer queries for the factual task, which accounted for 26%. They completed a higher number of queries (40% of the total queries) while carrying out the exploratory task. A one-way MANOVA test indicated a significant effect of search task types on users’ query reformulation behaviour. In particular, the search task types influenced the manner in which users reformulated the New and Repeat queries.

Traffic and climate change impacts on water quality : measuring build-up and wash-off of heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbons

Understanding the impacts of traffic and climate change on water quality helps decision makers to develop better policy and plans for dealing with unsustainable urban and transport development. This chapter presents detailed methodologies developed for sample collection and testing for heavy metals and total petroleum hydrocarbons, as part of a research study to investigate the impacts of climate change and changes to urban traffic characteristics on pollutant build-up and wash-off from urban road surfaces. Cadmium, chromium, nickel, copper, lead, iron, aluminium, manganese and zinc were the target heavy metals, and selected gasoline and diesel range organics were the target total petroleum hydrocarbons for this study. The study sites were selected to encompass the urban traffic characteristics of the Gold Coast region, Australia. An improved sample collection method referred to as ‘the wet and dry vacuum system’ for the pollutant build-up, and an effective wash-off plan to incorporate predicted changes to rainfall characteristics due to climate change, were implemented. The novel approach to sample collection for pollutant build-up helped to maintain the integrity of collection efficiency. The wash-off plan helped to incorporate the predicted impacts of climate change in the Gold Coast region. The robust experimental methods developed will help in field sample collection and chemical testing of different stormwater pollutants in build-up and wash-off.

Contribution to single-point closure Reynolds-stress modelling of inhomogeneous flow

This paper is concerned with recent advances in the development of near wall-normal-free Reynolds-stress models, whose single point closure formulation, based on the inhomogeneity direction concept, is completely independent of the distance from the wall, and of the normal to the wall direction. In the present approach the direction of the inhomogeneity unit vector is decoupled from the coefficient functions of the inhomogeneous terms. A study of the relative influence of the particular closures used for the rapid redistribution terms and for the turbulent diffusion is undertaken, through comparison with measurements, and with a baseline Reynolds-stress model (RSM) using geometric wall normals. It is shown that wall-normal-free rsms can be reformulated as a projection on a tensorial basis that includes the inhomogeneity direction unit vector, suggesting that the theory of the redistribution tensor closure should be revised by taking into account inhomogeneity effects in the tensorial integrity basis used for its representation.

Study of particulate matter removal mechanism by using non-thermal plasma technology

Numbers of diesel engines in both stationary and mobile applications are increasing nowadays. Diesel engines emit lower Hydrocarbon (HC) and Carbon monoxide (CO) than gasoline engines. However, they can produce more nitrogen oxides (NOx) and have higher particulate matter (PM). On the other hand, emissions standards are getting stringent day by day due to considerable concerns about unregulated pollutants and particularly ultrafine particles deleterious effect on human health. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) treatment of exhaust gas is known as a promising technology for both NOx and PM reduction by introducing plasma inside the exhaust gas. Vehicle exhaust gases undergo chemical changes when exposed to plasma. In this study, the PM removal mechanism using NTP by applying high voltage pulses of up to 20 kVpp with a repetition rate of 10 kHz are investigated. It is found that, voltage increase not necessarily has a positive effect on PM removal in diesel engine emissions.

Better cars or older cars?: Assessing CO2 emission reduction potential of passenger vehicle replacement programs

The primary motivation for the vehicle replacement schemes that were implemented in many countries was to encourage the purchase of new cars. The basic assumption of these schemes was that these acquisitions would benefit both the economy and the environment as older and less fuel-efficient cars were scrapped and replaced with more fuel-efficient models. In this article, we present a new environmental impact assessment method for assessing the effectiveness of scrappage schemes for reducing CO2 emissions taking into account the rebound effect, driving behavior for older versus new cars and entire lifecycle emissions for during the manufacturing processes of new cars. The assessment of the Japanese scrappage scheme shows that CO2 emissions would only decrease if users of the scheme retained their new gasoline passenger vehicles for at least 4.7 years. When vehicle replacements were restricted to hybrid cars, the reduction in CO2 achieved by the scheme would be 6-8.5 times higher than the emissions resulting from a scheme involving standard, gasoline passenger vehicles. Cost-benefit analysis, based on the emission reduction potential, showed that the scheme was very costly. Sensitivity analysis showed that the Japanese government failed to determine the optimum, or target, car age for scrapping old cars in the scheme. Specifically, scrapping cars aged 13 years and over did not maximize the environmental benefits of the scheme. Consequently, modifying this policy to include a reduction in new car subsidies, focused funding for fuel-efficient cars, and modifying the target car age, would increase environmental benefits. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Linkages among the US energy futures markets

This study investigates the price linkage among the US major energy sources, considering structural breaks in time series, to provide information for diversifying the US energy sources. We find that only a weak linkage sustains among crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, coal, natural gas, uranium and ethanol futures prices. This implies that the US major energy source markets are not integrated as one primary energy market. Our tests also reveal that uranium and ethanol futures prices have very weak linkages with other major energy source prices. This indicates that the US energy market is still at a stage where none of the probable alternative energy source markets are playing the role as substitute or complement markets for the fossil fuel energy markets.

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) for electric vehicles (EVs) - present and future trends

100 year old gasoline engine technology vehicles have now become one of the major contributors of greenhouse gases. Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) have been proposed to achieve environmental friendly transportation. Even though the PEV usage is currently increasing, a technology breakthrough would be required to overcome battery related drawbacks. Although battery technology is evolving, drawbacks inherited with batteries such as; cost, size, weight, slower charging characteristic and low energy density would still be dominating constrains for development of EVs. Furthermore, PEVs have not been accepted as preferred choice by many consumers due to charging related issues. To address battery related limitations, the concept of dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) enabled EVs have been proposed in which EV is being charged while it is in motion. WPT enabled infrastructure has to be employed to achieve dynamic EV charging concept. The weight of the battery pack can be reduced as the required energy storage is lower if the vehicle can be powered wirelessly while driving. Stationary WPT charging where EV is charged wirelessly when it is stopped, is simpler than dynamic WPT in terms of design complexity. However, stationary WPT does not increase vehicle range compared to wired-PEVs. State-of-art WPT technology for future transportation is discussed in this chapter. Analysis of the WPT system and its performance indices are introduced. Modelling the WPT system using different methods such as equivalent circuit theory, two port network theory and coupled mode theory is described illustrating their own merits in Sect. 2.3. Both stationary and dynamic WPT for EV applications are illustrated in Sect. 2.4. Design challenges and optimization directions are analysed in Sect. 2.5. Adaptive tuning techniques such as adaptive impedance matching and frequency tuning are also discussed. A case study for optimizing resonator design is presented in Sect. 2.6. Achievements by the research community is introduced highlighting directions for future research.

Influence of traffic characteristics on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon build-up on urban road surfaces

Traffic is one of the prominent sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and road surfaces are the most critical platform for stormwater pollution. Build-up of pollutants on road surfaces was the focus of this research study. The study found that PAHs build-up on road surfaces primarily originate from traffic activities, specifically gasoline powered vehicles. Other sources such as diesel vehicles, industrial oil combustion and incineration were also found to contribute to the PAH build-up. Additionally, the study explored the linkages between concentrations of PAHs and traffic characteristics such as traffic volume, vehicle mix and traffic flow. While traffic congestion was found to be positively correlated with 6- ring and 5- ring PAHs in road build-up, it was negatively correlated with 3-ring and 4 ring PAHs. The absence of positive correlation between 3-ring and 4-ring PAHs and traffic parameters is attributed to the propensity of these relatively volatile PAHs to undergo re-suspension and evaporation. The outcomes of this study are expected to contribute effective transport and land use planning for the prevention of PAH pollution in the urban environment.

A lagrangian formulation for statistical fluid registration

We defined a new statistical fluid registration method with Lagrangian mechanics. Although several authors have suggested that empirical statistics on brain variation should be incorporated into the registration problem, few algorithms have included this information and instead use regularizers that guarantee diffeomorphic mappings. Here we combine the advantages of a large-deformation fluid matching approach with empirical statistics on population variability in anatomy. We reformulated the Riemannian fluid algorithmdeveloped in [4], and used a Lagrangian framework to incorporate 0 th and 1st order statistics in the regularization process. 92 2D midline corpus callosum traces from a twin MRI database were fluidly registered using the non-statistical version of the algorithm (algorithm 0), giving initial vector fields and deformation tensors. Covariance matrices were computed for both distributions and incorporated either separately (algorithm 1 and algorithm 2) or together (algorithm 3) in the registration. We computed heritability maps and two vector and tensorbased distances to compare the power and the robustness of the algorithms.

PCDD and PCDF concentrations in a traffic tunnel environment

In an effort to understand the fundamental aspects of air quality in traffic tunnel environments, field campaigns were conducted to measure polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and other important pollutants within two traffic tunnels in Nam San (NS) and Hong Ji (HJ) in Korea in 2009 and 2010. The mean concentrations of ∑PCDD/Fs (in fg/m(3)) at the two tunnel sites were 1270 (± 880) and 1200 (± 810), respectively. These values were moderately lower than those measured at a non-tunnel urban background site (1350 (± 780) fg/m(3))--selected as a reference in this study. In addition, seasonal patterns of dioxin concentrations were clearly evident at the traffic tunnels like the urban reference site, showing higher levels during the winter (and spring) than the summer (and fall). The observed seasonal variations were driven by changes in the concentrations of ∑PCDF congeners, while ∑PCDD concentrations showed little seasonality. The results of our study suggest that there is no significant difference in source characteristics between the two investigated tunnel sites and urban location, although the role of gasoline and diesel fueled vehicles are considered as the major source in determining the PCDDs and PCDF levels in a tunnel environment. However, given the relative increase in other important ambient pollutant (e.g. PM10) concentrations over ∑PCDD/Fs in tunnel air (compared to urban background air), the balance of sources in tunnels is clearly different from those in urban air overall.

A Jacobian-Based Algorithm for Planning Attitude Maneuvers Using Forward and Reverse Rotations

Algorithms for planning quasistatic attitude maneuvers based on the Jacobian of the forward kinematic mapping of fully-reversed (FR) sequences of rotations are proposed in this paper. An FR sequence of rotations is a series of finite rotations that consists of initial rotations about the axes of a body-fixed coordinate frame and subsequent rotations that undo these initial rotations. Unlike the Jacobian of conventional systems such as a robot manipulator, the Jacobian of the system manipulated through FR rotations is a null matrix at the identity, which leads to a total breakdown of the traditional Jacobian formulation. Therefore, the Jacobian algorithm is reformulated and implemented so as to synthesize an FR sequence for a desired rotational displacement. The Jacobian-based algorithm presented in this paper identifies particular six-rotation FR sequences that synthesize desired orientations. We developed the single-step and the multiple-step Jacobian methods to accomplish a given task using six-rotation FR sequences. The single-step Jacobian method identifies a specific FR sequence for a given desired orientation and the multiple-step Jacobian algorithm synthesizes physically feasible FR rotations on an optimal path. A comparison with existing algorithms verifies the fast convergence ability of the Jacobian-based algorithm. Unlike closed-form solutions to the inverse kinematics problem, the Jacobian-based algorithm determines the most efficient FR sequence that yields a desired rotational displacement through a simple and inexpensive numerical calculation. The procedure presented here is useful for those motion planning problems wherein the Jacobian is singular or null.

Optimal designs for evaluating a series of treatments

Several articles in this journal have studied optimal designs for testing a series of treatments to identify promising ones for further study. These designs formulate testing as an ongoing process until a promising treatment is identified. This formulation is considered to be more realistic but substantially increases the computational complexity. In this article, we show that these new designs, which control the error rates for a series of treatments, can be reformulated as conventional designs that control the error rates for each individual treatment. This reformulation leads to a more meaningful interpretation of the error rates and hence easier specification of the error rates in practice. The reformulation also allows us to use conventional designs from published tables or standard computer programs to design trials for a series of treatments. We illustrate these using a study in soft tissue sarcoma.

Genetic and environmental influences on human responses to odors

Olfaction, the sense of smell, has many important functions in humans. Human responses to odors show substantial individual variation. Olfactory receptor genes have been identified and other genes may also influence olfaction. However, the proportion of phenotypic variation in odor response due to genetic variation remains largely unknown. Little is also known about which genes modify specific responses to odors. This study aimed to elucidate genetic and environmental influences on human responses to odors. Individuals from Finnish families (n=146) and Australian (n=413), British (n=163), Danish (n=336), and Finnish (n=399) twins rated intensity and pleasantness of a set of 12 (families) or 6 (twins) odors and tried to identify the odors. In addition, the participants rated their own sense of smell and annoyance experienced with different environmental odors. The odor stimuli of a commercial smell test (The Brief Smell Identification Test; banana, chocolate, cinnamon, gasoline, lemon, onion, paint thinner, pineapple, rose, smoke, soap, and turpentine) were presented in the family study. Based on the results of the family study and a literature survey, a new set of odor stimuli (androstenone, chocolate, cinnamon, isovaleric acid, lemon, and turpentine) was designed for the twin studies. In the family sample, heritabilities of the traits were estimated and underlying genomic regions were searched using a genome-wide linkage scan. In the pooled twin sample, variation in the measured traits was decomposed into genetic and environmental components using quantitative genetic modeling. In addition, associations between nongenetic factors (e.g., sex, age, and smoking) and olfactory-related traits were explored. Suggestive evidence for a genetic linkage for pleasantness of cinnamon at a locus on chromosome 4q32.3 emerged from the family sample. High heritability for the pleasantness of cinnamon was found in the family but not the twin study. Heritability of perceived intensity of androstenone odor was determined to be ~30% in the twin sample. A strong genetic correlation between perceived intensity and pleasantness of androstenone, in the absence of any environmental correlation, indicated that only the genetic correlation explained the phenotypic correlation between the traits (r=-0.27) and that the traits were influenced by an overlapping set of genes. Self-rated olfactory function appeared to reflect the odor annoyance experienced rather than actual olfactory acuity or genetic involvement. Results from nongenetic analyses supported the speculated superiority of females' olfactory abilities, the age-related diminishing of olfactory acuity, and the influences of experience-dependent factors on odor responses. This was the first study to estimate heritabilities and perform linkage screens for individual odors. A genetic effect was detected for only a few responses to specific odors, suggesting the predominance of environmental effects in odor perceptions.