Taiwan's perspective on electronic medical records' security and privacy protection: lessons learned from HIPAA

The protection of patients' health information is a very important concern in the information age. The purpose of this study is to ascertain what constitutes an effective legal framework in protecting both the security and privacy of health information, especially electronic medical records. All sorts of bills regarding electronic medical data protection have been proposed around the world including Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of the U.S. The trend of a centralized bill that focuses on managing computerized health information is the part that needs our further attention. Under the sponsor of Taiwan's Department of Health (DOH), our expert panel drafted the "Medical Information Security and Privacy Protection Guidelines", which identifies nine principles and entails 12 articles, in the hope that medical organizations will have an effective reference in how to manage their medical information in a confidential and secured fashion especially in electronic transactions.     

MEMS-based formaldehyde gas sensor integrated with a micro-hotplate

This paper presents a novel micro-fabricated formaldehyde gas sensor with enhanced sensitivity and detection resolution capabilities. The device comprises a quartz substrate with Pt heaters as a micro-hotplate and deposited formaldehyde-sensing layer on it. A sputtered NiO thin film is used as the formaldehyde-sensing layer. A specific orientation of NiO becomes more apparent as the substrate temperature increases in the sputtering process, which helps the formation of NiO material with a correct stoichiometric ratio. The gas sensor incorporates Pt heating resistors integrated with a micro-hotplate to provide a heating function and utilizes Au inter-digitated electrodes. When formaldehyde is present in the atmosphere, oxydation happens near the sensing layer with a high temperature caused by the micro-hotplate and causes a change in the electrical conductivity of the NiO film. Therefore, the measured resistance between the inter-digitated electrodes changes correspondingly. The application of a voltage to the Pt heaters causes the temperature of the micro-hotplate to increase, which in turn enhances the sensitivity of the sensor. The nanometer scale grain size of the sputtered oxide thin film is conducive to improving the sensitivity of the gas sensor. The experimental results indicate that the developed device has a high stability (0.23%), a low hysteresis value (0.18%), a quick response time (13.0 s), a high degree of sensitivity (0.14 Ω ppm⁻¹), and a detection capability of less than 1.2 ppm.

     

Speed sensorless vector control of induction motor usingKalman-filter-assisted adaptive observer

This letter presents a new method of estimating rotor speed of an induction motor. The new method is based on an adaptive flux observer. A second-order Kalman filter is then employed to modify the estimated rotor flux. Experimental results show that the new method has better accuracy in following the speed command under heavy loads     

Carbothermic reduction of zinc sulfide in the presence of calcium carbonate

Carbothermic reduction of zinc sulfide in the presence of calcium carbonate was investigated by employing an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), a carbon and sulfur determinator, a scanning electron microscope (SEM), an energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), and a surface area analyzer. Experimental results revealed that calcium carbonate was completely decomposed to CaO in the initial stage and CaO was then involved in the carbothermic reduction of zinc sulfide to scavenge sulfur content as CaS remained in the solid. Only carbothermic reduction of zinc sulfide occurred after the initial stage. Most β-ZnS transformed to α-ZnS in the initial stage. Sintering became severe after long reaction time or at high reaction temperature. The surface area of a sample decreased drastically in the initial stage and then increased with the reaction time; the pore volume of the solid sample was also reduced more quickly initially and then kept constant; the average pore diameter, however, reduced slightly in the initial stage and then leveled off. The effect of temperature on the changes of pore surface area, pore volume, and average pore diameter was found to be similar to that of time, except in the initial stage. A reaction mechanism and a reaction model were proposed to interpret the overall reaction.     

Optimal sun-shading design for enhanced daylight illumination of subtropical classrooms

This study investigates the feasibility of fitting windows with sun-shadings in order to minimize the lighting power costs in daylight-illuminated classrooms lit from a single side in subtropical regions. An IES-CPC model is created of a representative classroom in Taiwan, and a series of simulations is performed to determine the average illuminance value and the uniformity of the illuminance distribution in the classroom under various lighting conditions with no sun-shadings fitted to the window. The numerical results are found to be in good agreement with the experimental measurements obtained using an array of nine-channel photometers. Having confirmed the validity of the simulation scheme, the illumination properties of four different sun-shading designs are considered. The results show that a double-layered sun-shading represents the optimal sun-shading design in terms of achieving a uniform illumination distribution within the classroom. Given appropriate physical dimensions, this daylight access device achieves the minimum illuminance requirement of 500 lx and improves the lighting uniformity ratio from 0.25–0.35 to 0.40–0.42. Furthermore, using this sun-shading device, the required illuminance ratio of 0.5 can be obtained simply by switching on one of the three rows of lights in the classroom. Accordingly, the daylight access device not only improves the illuminance conditions within the classroom, but also reduces the lighting power cost by 71.5% compared to the case where all of the lights are turned on.     

Self-Power Consumption Research with the Thermal Effects and Optical Properties of the HCRI-BIPV Window System

The building integrated photovoltaics(BIPV) application is one of the main study topics in the sustainable building field.In this paper,the high color rendering index(HCRI)-BIPV window system is developed to be used in the indoor environmental control,whose module material has appeared to be effective in improving the visible transmittance and reducing the absorption.This paper describes the performance of grid-connected HCRI-BIPV window system with 0.75 kWp capacity installed in an office building for a natural ventilation solution.The experimental results indicate that accumulative power generation of the HCRI-BIPV window system is 157.60 WKh during the 7-month experiment period.For consideration of each evaluated factors,the HCRI-BIPV window system not only offers the passive energy situation for its power loading but also improves the indoor thermal environment by natural ventilation.     

DYZ-2-90, a novel neo-tanshinlactone ring-opened compound, induces ERK-mediated mitotic arrest and subsequent apoptosis by activating JNK in human colorectal cancer cells

Over the past several decades, there has been a considerable and still growing interest in discovering natural products with anticancer potential from traditional Chinese medicine and increasing their anticancer selectivity by chemical modification. In addition, total synthesis of active compounds from natural products can overcome problems related to poor resource availability. DYZ-2-90 is a novel ring-opened compound modified from neo-tanshinlactone, which is isolated from Chinese medicinal herb tanshen. Both in vitro and in vivo tubulin polymerization assays showed that DYZ-2-90 directly bound to microtubules and rapidly induced tubulin depolymerization, inducing ERK-mediated mitotic arrest and subsequent apoptosis by JNK activation in cancer cells, respectively. These results suggest that the fate of cells that undergo mitotic arrest is dictated by two competing networks activated by DYZ-2-90: the cytoprotective ERK pathway and the stress-related JNK pathway. DYZ-2-90 is therefore a novel microtubule-destabilizing agent and a new drug candidate for cancer therapy. This paper provides a new insight into the model of mitotic cell death, which was proposed in order to elucidate how cancer cells respond to microtubule-interfering agents and prolonged cell cycle delay.     

A novel simplified space-vector-modulated control scheme forthree-phase switch-mode rectifier

A novel simplified control scheme for a three-phase switch-mode rectifier is proposed in this paper. The proposed control scheme is based upon a load-conductance rectifier controller, in which reference current signals are obtained. The goal to follow the reference current is converted to follow a reference voltage. A simplified control scheme utilizing space-vector modulation is developed to calculate the duty ratio required to synthesize the reference voltage. The proposed scheme has the advantage of space-vector modulation with fast dynamic response and is simple enough to be implemented in a single-chip microprocessor 80196MC     

Development and preliminary evaluation of double roof prototypes incorporating RBS (radiant barrier system)

Double-skin roof is known as a very effective way to reduce both the conduction and convection heat transfers from roof to the ceiling of building, on the other hand, RBS (radiant barrier system) is very effective in blocking the radiation heat transfer between roof and ceiling. In this study, prototypical double roofs inspired by the concepts of both double-skin structure and RBS technique was specifically designed to cut down the solar heat gain from roof. The effect of energy saving was experimentally measured. A double roof structure, formed by a roof plate and an aluminum foil-PP (polypropylene) board-RC slab, can achieve good performance of heat barrier and is highly recommended.     

High-performance MEMS-based gas chromatography column with integrated micro heater

A high-performance MEMS-based gas chromatography (GC) device is proposed comprising a miniature serpentine column with dimensions of 3.2 m × 200 μm × 250 μm (length × width × depth) and with an integrated Pt micro heater. The column is fabricated on a Si die measuring 3.5 × 1.8 mm² using a wet etching process and is bonded to a Pyrex cover plate incorporating the Pt micro heater via a thermal fusion process. The experimental results reveal that an applied voltage of 9.7 V is sufficient to maintain a constant temperature of 85°C for elution purposes. In addition, it is shown that the proposed device successfully detects the concentrations of both pure and mixed samples of four volatile organic compound gases, namely acetone, toluene, methanol, and benzene. Finally, the theoretical plate number obtained by the proposed MEMS-based GC device is shown to be 2–3 times higher than that obtained from a conventional capillary-based GC system under the same injection conditions.