A study on the formation of a measurement scale for the environmental quality of Taiwan’s long-term care institutions by the Delphi method

This study used a two-round modified Delphi technique with a questionnaire survey in order to reach a consensus for the questionnaire; the survey was conducted from September to December 2009. The six indicators for the environmental quality of long-term care institutions in Taiwan are (1) indoor environmental quality, (2) safety equipment for the prevention and management of disasters occurring in residents?? daily lives, (3) provision for assistive devices for residents?? daily use, (4) provision for privacy and individualized space, (5) provision for comfortable and decorated indoor environments, and (6) provision for social interaction space. The scale included 34 items with an acceptable number of panel members and acceptable construct validity. Panel members all highly approved of Indicators 1, 2, and 6. Although they approved of Indicator 3, they suggested that caregivers at institutions should replace the functions of living assistive devices. They approved of Indicator 5; however, they questioned the method for providing comfortable and decorated environments. They approved of Indicator 4; however, they suggested that private space need not be provided in the living room of the institution. In terms of long-term care institution environments in Taiwan, Indicators 1, 2, and 6 were important for protecting residents?? physical and psychological well-being and improving their social interactions. Indicator 3, although important, could be directly replaced by caregivers. Indicator 5 required more implementation methods, while Indicator 4, the living room of the institution, was considered unnecessary.     

Catalyst‐Free GaN Nanorods Synthesized by Selective Area Growth

GaN nanorod formation on Ga‐polar GaN by continuous mode metalorganic chemical vapor deposition selective area growth (MOCVD SAG) is achieved under a relatively Ga‐rich condition. The Ga‐rich condition, provided by applying a very low V/III ratio, alters the growth rates of various planes of the defined nanostructure by increasing relative growth rate of the semi‐polar tilted m‐plane {1–101} that usually is the slowest growing plane under continuous growth conditions. This increased growth rate relative to the non‐polar m‐plane {1–100} and even the c‐plane (0001), permits the formation of GaN nanorods with nonpolar sidewalls. In addition, a new growth mode, called the NH₃‐pulsed mode, is introduced, utilizing the advantages of both the continuous mode and the lower growth rate pulsed mode to form nanorods. Finally, nanorods grown under the different growth modes are compared and discussed.     

Rejection of Surface Background in Thermal Detectors

A challenging aspect of the next generation detector for rare events searches (i.e. neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter searches) is the reduction of the background in the region of interest that can mimic the expected signals. In the field of thermal detectors, which have a leading role in rare events searches thanks to their excellent energy resolution and to the wide choice of absorber materials, the background coming from surface contaminations is frequently dominant. A background surface rejection detector is a scintillation-based approach for tagging this type of background. We discuss the innovative application of this technique in non-scintillating thermal detectors. We will report on the performances of the prototype bolometric detector, realized to prove the feasibility of this new technique.     

Computation Controllable Mode Decision and Motion Estimation for Scalable Video Coding

This paper proposes an efficient computation‐aware mode decision and search point (SP) allocation algorithm for spatial and quality scalabilities in Scalable Video Coding. In our proposal, a linear model is derived to allocate the computation for macroblocks in enhancement layers by using the rate distortion costs of the base layer. In addition, an adaptive SP decision algorithm is proposed to decide the number of SPs for motion estimation under the constraint of the allocated computation. Experiment results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm allocates the computation resource efficiently and outperforms other works in rate distortion performance under the same computational availability constraint.     

Polarity Effect in a Sn3Ag0.5Cu/Bismuth Telluride Thermoelectric System

This study investigates electromigration in Bi₂Te₃ thermoelectric (TE) material systems and the effectiveness of the diffusion barrier under current. The Peltier effect on the interfacial reaction was decoupled from the effect of electromigration. After connecting p- and n-type Bi₂Te₃ to Sn3Ag0.5Cu (SAC305) solders, different current densities were applied at varying temperatures. The Bi₂Te₃ samples were fabricated by the spark plasma sintering technique, and an electroless nickel-phosphorous (Ni-P) layer was deposited at the solder/TE interfaces. The experimental results confirm the importance of the Ni diffusion barrier in joint reliability. Intermetallic compound layers (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ and NiTe formed at the solder/Ni-P and Ni-P/substrate interfaces, respectively. The experimental results indicate that the mechanism of NiTe and (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ compound growth was dominated by the Peltier effect at high current density. When the current density was low, the growth of NiTe was affected by electromigration but the changes of thickness for (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ were not obvious.     

Estimation of deuterium recovery from the separation of water isotopes in thermal-diffusion columns of a countercurrent-flow frazier scheme with optimal plate aspect ratio

The effect of plate aspect ratio on the performance of deuterium recovery from the separation of water–isotope mixture in thermal-diffusion columns of a countercurrent-flow Frazier scheme was investigated. The equations for the optimal plate aspect ratios and the corresponding maximum recovery and maximum production rate were derived. Considerable improvement in performance is obtained when thermal-diffusion columns are operated at the optimal plate aspect ratio. Further improvement can be achieved if the scheme is connected and operated in countercurrent flow, instead of concurrent flow.     

Adjustment behaviour of capital structure over the business cycles: evidence from the construction industry of Taiwan

Prior studies have found that firms may deviate from the target capital structure in the short run and adjust towards the target in the long run. However, little attention has been given to the adjustment behaviour of capital structure in the construction industry over the business cycles, in particular within the context of emerging markets. The partial adjustment model with the GMM (i.e. generalized method of moments) estimation is used to examine the adjustment behaviour of capital structure in the construction industry within the context of Taiwan during the period 1982 to 2007. The results suggest that, first, the average rate of adjustment is 26.3% of the adjustment gap between the target debt ratios and the previous debt ratios for firms in the construction industry of Taiwan. However, the average rate of adjustment towards the target debt ratios has slowed down after the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Secondly, firms with the financial constraint of over‐leverage relative to the target debt ratios have lower debt ratios than those firms with the financial constraint of under‐leverage. In addition, the difference in debt ratios between firms with the financial constraint of over‐leverage and under‐leverage has become narrower after the Asian financial crisis. Lastly, the findings suggest that macroeconomic conditions do not have a significant, negative effect on debt ratios.     

Structural color of polymeric physical gels

In this study, the coloration mechanism of isotactic poly(1-butene) (iPB) in o-xylene and o-xylene/ethyl alcohol mixture gels were carried out. iPB gel becomes yellow because of transmitted light or blue because of reflected light. Changing the temperature, solvent composition, or even the thickness of samples of this gel continuously changes its color to blue, violet, purple, red, and yellow. Structural characterization, electron microscopy, and transmittance measurements were carried out for iPB dissolved in o-xylene to form a three-dimensional sponge-like network with different mesh sizes under various conditions. Subsequently, the relative refractive index between the solvent and gel network produces incoherent Tyndall blue scattering. Finally, color change due to variations in solvent composition or temperature contributes to the interplay between the refractive index of network structure n_network and solvent n_s. For a Tyndall medium with n_s/n_network >1, normal reflection creates a blue gel; when n_s/n_network ≒1, strong transmittance of light passing through the medium leads to a yellowish gel. This is the first report on the concept of structural color for polymeric physical gel systems.     

Oxygen depletion properties of glucose-grafted polyethylene resins filled with sodium ascorbate/modified iron compounds

Oxygen scavenging plastic can react with oxygen that was trapped in the packaging materials or permeated into the packages, and then, extend the shelf life of food contained in packages. Sodium ascorbate (SA) and modified iron (MFe) compounds were chosen as the main components of oxygen scavengers to prepare the oxygen scavenging LDPE plastics. However, the widely used hydrophobic LDPE packaging material will slow down the oxygen depletion rate of these oxygen scavenger compounds. So glucose was used to modify the hydrophobic property of LDPE to improve the oxygen depletion properties of LDPE oxygen scavenging plastic. The oxygen depletion efficiency of L₉₅[SA_x(MFe)_y]₅ series samples improved initially as the weight ratios of SA/MFe increase, and reached the best as the weight ratios of SA/MFe approach 7/3. After modifying LDPE with glucoses, the oxygen depletion efficiency of each ML₉₅[SA_x(MFe)_y]₅ specimen improved even better than that of the corresponding L₉₅[SA_x(MFe)_y]₅ specimen with the same loading of oxygen scavenger compound, wherein the oxygen depletion efficiency of ML₉₅[SA_x(MFe)_y]₅ series specimens reached the best as the weight ratios of SA/MFe approach 1/9. In consistent with the oxygen depletion properties found in the previous section, the peroxide values of modeled food samples tested in the airtight flask with L₉₅[SA_x(MFe)_y]₅ and ML₉₅[SA_x(MFe)_y]₅ series samples reduce consistently as their oxygen depletion properties improve. In order to understand the interesting oxygen depletion properties of L₉₅[SA_x(MFe)_y]₅ and ML₉₅[SA_x(MFe)_y]₅ series samples, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-rays analysis of these samples were performed.