Chin-Hui Lee

Escherichia coli is one of many bacterial inhabitants found in human intestines and any adaptation as a result of mutations may affect its host. A commonly used technique employed to study these mutations is Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) and is proceeded with a suitable distance coefficient to quantify genetic differences between 2 samples. Dice is considered a suitable distance coefficient in RFLP analyses, while others were left unstudied in its suitability for use. Hence, this study aims to identify substitutes for Dice. Experimental data was obtained by subculturing E. coli for 72 passages in 8 different adaptation media and RFLP profiles analyzed using 20 distance coefficients. Our results suggest that Dennis, Fossum, Matching and Russel and Rao to work as well or better than Dice. Dennis, Matching and Fossum coefficients had highest discriminatory abilities but are limited by the lack of upper or lower boundaries. Russel and Rao coefficient is highly correlated with Dice coefficient (r2 = 0.998), with both higher and lower boundaries, suggesting that Russel and Rao coefficient can be used to substitute Dice coefficient in studying genetic distances in E. coli.

Lycium chinense fruits if Known to have the function of healing eye disease, enforcing liver and kidney function, and anti-aging. It is one of the most common herbal medicines in China, and has believed to have similar effect to ginseng radix. Lycium fruit is normally dried for storage and distribution, and it is boiled in water to consume as tea or extract juice. In this study, the drying conditions of lycium fruit in hot-air drier and freeze drier were investigated and the rehydration characteristics and extraction rate of functioanl substances of the dried products were analyzed.

Nuclear reactors that rely upon the fission reaction have two modes of thermal energy deposition in the reactor system: neutron absorption and gamma absorption. The gamma rays are typically generated by neutron capture reactions or during the fission process which means the primary driver of energy production is of course the neutron interaction. In conventional reactor physics methods, the gamma heating component is ignored such that the gamma absorption is forced to occur at the gamma emission site. For experimental reactor systems like EBR-II and FFTF, the placement of structural pins and assemblies internal to the core leads to problems with power heating predictions because there is no fission power source internal to the assembly to dictate a spatial distribution of the power.

A marking assembly includes a hollow cannula having a wall extending from a proximal end to a distal end. The wall defines a lumen of the cannula. The wall includes at least one opening at a distal portion of the cannula. A stylet is configured to be received in the lumen of the cannula. The stylet has a wall extending from a proximal end to a distal end. When the stylet is received in the lumen of the cannula, a circumferential space is defined between the wall of the stylet and the wall of the cannula such that fluid entering the circumferential space will exit the cannula through the at least one opening of the cannula.

Glutamic acid-co-poly(acrylic acid) (GAcPAAc) hydrogels were prepared by the free radical polymerization technique using glutamic acid (GA) as a polymer, acrylic acid (AAc) as a monomer, ethylene glycol dimethylacrylate (EGDMA) as a cross-linker, and ammonium persulfate (APS) as an initiator. Increase in gel fraction was observed with the increasing concentration of glutamic acid, acrylic acid, and ethylene glycol dimethylacrylate. High percent porosity was indicated by developed hydrogels with the increase in the concentration of glutamic acid and acrylic acid, while a decrease was seen with the increasing concentration of EGDMA, respectively. Maximum swelling and drug release was exhibited at high pH 7.4 compared to low pH 1.2 by the newly synthesized hydrogels. Similarly, both swelling and drug release increased with the increasing concentration of glutamic acid and acrylic acid and decreased with the increase in ethylene glycol dimethylacrylate concentration. The drug release was considered as non-Fickian transport and partially controlled by viscoelastic relaxation of hydrogel. In-vivo study revealed that the AUC0–∞ of fabricated hydrogels significantly increased compared to the drug solution and commercial product Keten. Hence, the results indicated that the developed hydrogels could be used as a suitable carrier for controlled drug delivery.

Provided is a composition for enhancing effects of an anticancer agent using an oriental medicine, jaeumganghwa-tang, bojungikgi-tang, or yukmijihwang-tang. More particularly, provided is a composition for treating a neoplastic disease by administering an anticancer agent into an individual, and administering an oriental medicine into the individual within 30 minutes. The composition remarkably reduces side effects occurring when the anticancer agent is administered alone by co-administration of the oriental medicine, reduces cytotoxicity, and has higher anticancer activity than that when the anticancer agent is administered alone.

Trans-scaphoid perilunate fracture dislocations, which account for more than half of total cases of perilunate injuries, are common in young patients and occur as a result of high-energy injuries, and improper management can impair wrist alignment and function. Understanding the related wrist anatomy and pathomechanics may help surgeons evaluate and diagnose patients. Early operation to reduce and fix the injuries should be considered to achieve optimal clinical and radiological outcomes. In this review article, we present an overview of wrist pathoanatomy, the pathomechanics of trans-scaphoid perilunate fracture dislocations, operative treatment options including an arthroscopic procedure, and reported clinical and radiological outcomes.

In this chapter, the author considers some of the threads which make up the shawl of Muslim Banaras through an analysis of two Urdu poems about the city, the first by Nazir Banarsi and the second by Rashid Banarsi, both of whom are Banaras-born Muslims from the Ansari community. Banaras is made up of more than 350 muhallas, or neighborhoods, many of which are primarily or partly Muslim. Varanasi is justifiably known as the city of temples — the “idol house of idol houses” according to one local poet — yet there are over 1,400 mosques and shrines frequented by Muslims. Some Banarsi Muslims claim ancestry from these, or other emigrants to Banaras, while others tell of Banarsi ancestors who converted to Islam centuries ago. Rashid’s poetic vision of communal harmony is one in which each of the various religious communities is distinct and separate, with its own histories and religious traditions.

(57) ABSTRACT A capsule endoscopic system is disclosed, where the system comprises a capsule device and a docking device. The capsule device comprises a battery, a secondary coil, and a capsule housing to enclose the battery and the secondary coil in a sealed environment, where the capsule device consists of a first end and a second end in a longitudinal direction of the capsule device, and the battery is located in proximity to the first end and the secondary coil is located in proximity to the second end. The docking device comprises an opening on the docking device, a primary coil to generate an alter nating magnetic field, and a primary core. The capsule endoscopic system is arranged so that at least a portion of the secondary coil is enclosed by the primary coil and the battery is outside the primary coil when the capsule device is at the docked position.

Superconducting-nanowire single-photon detectors promise efficient (approximately 100%) and fast (approximately 10 9 counts/s) detection of light at the single-photon level. They constitute one of the building blocks to realize integrated quantum optical circuits in a waveguide architecture. The optical response of single-photon detectors, however, is limited to measure only the presence of photons. It lacks the capability to resolve the spectrum of a possible broadband illumination. In this work, we propose the optical design for a superconducting-nanowire single-photon spectrometer in an integrated optical platform. We use a cascade of cavities with different resonance wavelengths side-coupled to a photonic crystal bus waveguide. This allows us to demultiplex different wavelengths into different spatial regions, where individual superconducting nanowires that measure the presence of single photons are placed …

In recent years, the deep learning-based approaches are popular in the field of singe-channel speech enhancement. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are a standard component of many current speech enhancement system. In this study, we design a new Fully CNN (FCNN)-based regression model, which can directly achieve the 2-dimensional (2D) noisy lpg-power spectra (LPS) input to 2dimensional (2D) time-frequency mask output mapping, denoted as 2D-RFCNN. First, the whole 2D noisy LPS of one utterance is directly used as network input to make sure each convolutional filter can see more contextual information. Second, we only use the pooling operation on the frequency bin to ensure that the final dimension of frequency bin has a value of 1 and make the number of feature mapping same to frequency dimension, simultaneously. Finally, we also use the deep convolutional layers with a small size of …

Abiotrophia defectiva as a cause of gram-positive coccobacilli-associated infective endocarditis Abiotrophia defectiva as a cause of gram-positive coccobacilli-associated infective endocarditis J Microbiol Immunol Infect. 2020 Dec;53(6):1044-1046. doi: 10.1016/j.jmii.2019.07.005. Epub 2019 Sep 12. Authors Yi-Chin Chang 1 , Shu-Fang Kuo 2 , Chen-Hsiang Lee 3 Affiliations 1 Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. 2 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. 3 Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Electronic address: lee900@cgmh.org.tw. PMID: 31542227 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmii.2019.07.005 No abstract available …

MethodsWe searched PubMed, MEDLINE and EMBASE from database inception until June 30, 2018, to retrieve phase 2 and 3 randomized studies comparing ICI alone versus chemotherapy alone in advanced cancers. The search terms were ‘Atezolizumab’or ‘Durvalumab’or ‘Ipilimumab’or ‘Nivolumab’or ‘Pembrolizumab’or ‘Tremelimumab’and ‘randomized’. Articles were limited to ‘English language’and ‘Human’studies. To identify unpublished trials and updated data for published trials, we hand-searched proceedings from international oncology conferences including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the European Society of Medical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research, and International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer from January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2018. Two investigators (KL and LK) independently performed the literature search, and extracted data from all studies. All …

A spinal implant configured for positioning within a space between adjacent vertebral bodies includes an upper end plate including an outer surface extending between first and second end surfaces and opposed side surfaces. The outer surface includes a first convex profile extending between the first and second end surfaces and a second convex profile extending between the opposed side surfaces. The first convex profile and the second convex profile have different curvatures. The spinal implant further includes a lower end plate and a core disposed between the upper and lower end plates and coupled thereto. A method of assembling a spinal implant and a method of performing spinal surgery are also disclosed.

A medical instrument assembly including a handle assembly having a first handle portion and a second handle portion proximate the second end, wherein the second handle portion is slidably engaged with the first handle portion. A first localization element is attached to the first handle portion and a second localization element is attached to the second handle portion. A medical instrument is mechanically coupled to the second handle portion and a translation of the second handle portion with respect to the first handle portion causes a coincident and coextensive translation of the medical instrument. The amount of translation of the medical instrument is adapted to be determined by calculating the distance between the first localization element and the second localization element. The first and second localization elements may be electromagnetic sensors which positions may be determined by a navigation system.

Background: An elevated neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is associated with poor prognosis in advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). We examined whether the addition of NLR improves the risk reclassification of advanced RCC using current prognostic tools from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC).Methods: Using randomised data from the COMPARZ trial of first-line pazopanib vs. sunitinib in advanced RCC, we constructed multivariable models containing MSKCC and IMDC predictor variables with and without NLR. We evaluated model discrimination using the concordance index (C-index). We computed net reclassification improvement to quantify patient reclassification into low/intermediate/poor risk groups with the addition of NLR.Results: Of 1102 patients, NLR ≥ 5 (16%) was associated with shorter …

A capsule endoscopic system is disclosed, where the system comprises a capsule device and a docking device. The capsule device comprises a battery, a secondary coil, an optical transmitter all enclosed in a capsule housing. The docking device comprises a primary coil to generate an alternating magnetic field, a primary core and optical receiver to receive an optical signal. The alternating magnetic field is coupled to the secondary coil to supply power to the capsule device when the capsule device is at a docked position in the docking device. The primary core is arranged to concentrate the alternating magnetic field on the secondary coil when the capsule device is at the docked position. Furthermore, the capsule endoscopic system is arranged so that an optical path is formed between the optical transmitter and the optical receiver when the capsule device is at the docked position.

Background and Aims Colonoscopic polypectomy in end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) patients are at risks of post‐polypectomy bleeding and perforation, but evidences are limited. This study aimed to determine the incident polypectomy complications among ESRD patients. Methods In the nationwide ESRD cohort, a propensity score matched case–control study design was conducted to assess risk associated with post‐polypectomy bleeding and perforation using the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database from 1997 to 2013 for adults aged 40 years and older; 7011 ESRD and 19 118 non‐ESRD patients met the study criteria. A total of 5302 patients in each group were matched for further analyses. The primary endpoint was post‐polypectomy bleeding or bowel perforation in 30 days. The secondary endpoint was mortality and length of hospital stay for the bleeding complications requiring …

This chapter reviews the microwave complex ratio measuring (MCRM) circuits which are used for complex reflection coefficient measurement. This MCRM circuit is relatively simple and cost-effective. There are various structures for the MCRM circuit, such as multi-probe transmission line circuits, five-port ring circuits, six-port hybrid coupler-based circuits, switched-reflector circuits, dual-generator circuits, and Wheatstone bridge-based circuits. Each structure of the circuits has its own advantages and disadvantages. In this chapter, the MCRM circuit calibration process has been described in detail.

Background Thyroidectomy transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy vestibular approach (TOETVA) is a safe and cosmetically appealing alternative for well‐selected patients undergoing thyroidectomy. However, during TOETVA, placement of the two lateral trocars and/or manipulation of the surgical instruments through the trocars may potentially injure and/or compress the mental nerve (MN) because the actual location of the nerve foramen may vary among individuals. The MN injury rate was reported to be as high as 75% in the initial period of robotic‐assisted TOETVA. To reduce the potential risk of MN injury, we implemented a three‐dimensional printing technology to develop a safety device for TOETVA. Methods The patient‐specific safety device (PSSD) was a brace with an exact fit to the lower teeth and two safety markers on each side to indicate the location of the mental foramen. For patient in whom the brace …

This paper deals with the construction of an optimal quadrature formula for approximation of Fourier integrals in the Sobolev space L 2 (1)[a, b] of non-periodic, complex valued functions which are square integrable with first order derivative. Here the quadrature sum consists of linear combination of the given function values in a uniform grid. The difference between the integral and the quadrature sum is estimated by the norm of the error functional. The optimal quadrature formula is obtained by minimizing the norm of the error functional with respect to coefficients. Analytic formulas for optimal coefficients can also be obtained using discrete analogue of the differential operator d 2∕ d x 2. In addition, the convergence order of the optimal quadrature formula is studied. It is proved that the obtained formula is exact for all linear polynomials. Thus, it is shown that the convergence order of the optimal quadrature formula …

This book chapter mainly focuses on analytical analysis for the branch-line coupler in which this method provides an explicit solution in the coupler design. Generally, the directional coupler is one of the fundamental components for Microwave Integrated Circuit (MIC), especially the equal power-split coupler that is used for signal monitoring, power measurement, power division, and balanced-type components such as balanced mixers. In this chapter, several applications of the branch-line coupler are also described. The analytical and design formulations of the coupler are derived based on ABCD matrix, transmission line principle, and even-odd mode decomposition. Although the simple analytical analysis is not sufficiently implemented in complex coupler structure, it is capable of providing an initial design guideline for the coupler dimensions. The initial design of the coupler dimensions based on analytical …

WHICH QUESTIONNAIRE IS BEST? THE RELIABILITY, VALIDITY AND EASE OF USE OF THE PATIENT EVALUATION MEASURE, THE DISABILITIES OF THE ARM, SHOULDER AND HAND AND THE MICHIGAN HAND OUTCOME MEASURE

The multi-objective learning using minimum mean squared error criterion for DNN-based speech enhancement (MMSE-MOL-DNN) has been demonstrated to achieve better performance than single output DNN. However, one problem of MMSE-MOL-DNN is that the prediction error values on different targets have a very broad dynamic range, causing difficulty in DNN training. In this paper, we extend the maximum likelihood approach proposed in our previous work [1] to the multi-objective learning for DNN-based speech enhancement (ML-MOL-DNN) to achieve the automatic adjustment of the dynamic range of prediction error values on different targets. The conditional likelihood function to be maximized is derived under the generalized Gaussian distribution (GGD) error model. Moreover, the control of the dynamic range of the prediction error values on different targets is achieved by the scale factors in GGD …

Publications University of Ottawa Godin Laboratory Home About ProjectsPublicationsCleanroom AccessDept. of PhysicsuOttawa Members Current MembersPast MembersPhoto Gallery Join the lab Contact Papers Papers Mechanotransduction of Strain Regulates an Invasive Phenotype in Newly Transformed Epithelial Cells. Chagnon-Lessard, S.; Jean-Ruel, H.; Godin, M.; Pelling, AE Front. Phys. 2021, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2021.654613 Digital Counting of Nucleic Acid Targets Using Solid-State Nanopores. Beamish, E.; Tabard-Cossa, V.; Godin, M. Nanoscale 2020, 12 (34), 17833–17840. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0NR03878D Time Dependent Stress Relaxation and Recovery in Mechanically Strained 3D Microtissues. Walker, M.; Godin, M.; Harden, JL; Pelling, AE APL Bioengineering 2020, 4 (3), 036107. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0002898 Mechanical Stretch Sustains Myofibroblast Phenotype and Function …