Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the trends of global automobile industry toward energy saving and smart application. The automobile industry has its own special supply, safety and ...reliability system. It combined with the legislations that progressive safety driving leads to increase automobile electronic (AE) facilities and enlarges the proportion of the electronic control for vehicles. Based on matured communication and semiconductor industries in Taiwan, the government assists these hi-tech industries in entering the AE domain by clustering relevant enterprises with assembly supply chains. Flagship IC packaging and LCD panels enterprises are located in the Kaohsiung Industrial Park which possesses advantages for the clustering of AE industry.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, a systematic investigation on establishing AE industry cluster in Kaohsiung Industry Park (KIP) is presented. First, 42 electrical and electronics enterprises are site visited and interviewed for operation and management preferential demands. Second, problems encountered in enterprises’ operation are identified through expert weight method. Third, the main factors involved in the operational management are then analyzed based on five flagship enterprises in KIP. The integration of industrial–university–government resources and assistance is demonstrated. Finally, the establishment of an innovative talents cultivation model is illustrated.
Findings
The developed systematic talent program is proposed to resolve the urgent demands in recruiting talents, operational costs and new products development.
Originality/value
This paper satisfies needs of research enterprise management. The establishment of an innovative talents cultivation model is illustrated.
Fetal chylothorax (FC) is a rare condition characterized by lymphocyte-rich pleural effusion. Although its pathogenesis remains elusive, it may involve inflammation, since there are increased ...concentrations of proinflammatory mediators in pleural fluids. Only a few hereditary lymphedema-associated gene loci, e.g. VEGFR3, ITGA9 and PTPN11, were detected in human fetuses with this condition; these cases had a poorer prognosis, due to defective lymphangiogenesis. In the present study, genome-wide gene expression analysis was conducted, comparing pleural and ascitic fluids in three hydropic fetuses, one with and two without the ITGA9 mutation. One fetus (the index case), from a dizygotic pregnancy (the cotwin was unaffected), received antenatal OK-432 pleurodesis and survived beyond the neonatal stage, despite having the ITGA9 mutation. Genes and pathways involved in the immune response were universally up-regulated in fetal pleural fluids compared to those in ascitic fluids. Furthermore, genes involved in the lymphangiogenesis pathway were down-regulated in fetal pleural fluids (compared to ascitic fluid), but following OK-432 pleurodesis, they were up-regulated. Expression of ITGA9 was concordant with overall trends of lymphangiogenesis. In conclusion, we inferred that both the immune response and lymphangiogenesis were implicated in the pathogenesis of fetal chylothorax. Furthermore, genome-wide gene expression microarray analysis may facilitate personalized medicine by selecting the most appropriate treatment, according to the specific circumstances of the patient, for this rare, but heterogeneous disease.
Proteinuria is a manifestation of renal dysfunction and it has been demonstrated to be a significant prognostic factor in various clinical situations. The study was designed to analyze prognosis of ...patients receiving liver transplantation as well as to determine predictive performance of perioperative proteinuria.
We retrospectively reviewed data of patients who had received a liver transplant in a medical center between 2002 and 2010. Demographic information and clinical characteristic parameters were recorded on the day of intensive care unit admission before operation and on postoperative days 1, 7, and 14.
Among a total of 323 patients, in-hospital mortality and 90-day mortality rates were 13.0 % (42/323) and 14.2 % (46/323), respectively. Patients with proteinuria on admission had higher rates of acute kidney injury (26.8 % vs. 8.8 %, p < 0.001), severe infection episodes (48.8 % vs. 30.7 %, p = 0.023), hospital death (31.1 % vs. 10.1 %, p < 0.001), and 90-day mortality (37.7 % vs. 10.9 %, p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that proteinuria on admission and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score were independent predictors of in-hospital mortality. The discriminatory ability of proteinuria plus SOFA was even better than that of SOFA alone, especially on postoperative day 1.
The presence of proteinuria before liver transplantation is supposed to be recognized as a negative predictor for in-hospital survival. Moreover, the presence of proteinuria after liver transplantation can assist in the early prediction of poor short-term prognosis for patients receiving liver transplantation.
Diabetic nephropathy is a critical complication of patients with type 1 diabetes, while epidemiological studies were scarce among Asian countries. We conducted a cross-sectional study to identify ...factors associated with diabetic nephropathy by questionnaires, using student's t-test, chi-square test, and multivariable logistic regression. Among 898 participants, 16.7% had diabetic nephropathy. Compared with non-diabetic nephropathy patients, the patients with diabetic nephropathy had significantly higher percentage with onset age of type 1 diabetes between puberty and under 30 years old (female ≥ 12 or male ≥ 13 years old to 29 years old), longer diabetes duration, having family history of diabetes and diabetic nephropathy, accompanied with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or coronary artery disease (CAD). Compared with patients with onset age before puberty, the odds of diabetic nephropathy occurrence increased to 1.61 times in patients with onset age between puberty and under 30 years old (p = 0.012) after adjusting diabetes duration. Age of diabetes onset between puberty and under 30 years old, diabetes duration, HbA1c, hospital admission within 3 years, diabetic retinopathy, hypertension, systolic blood pressure (SBP), triglyceride levels, and use of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) and/or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) were independent factors associated with diabetic nephropathy Screening for proteinuria is important in daily clinical practice and should be part of diabetes self-management education for patients with type 1 diabetes.
Background and Aim: Renal insufficiency (RI) can coexist in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study analyzed the prognostic impact of RI on patients with HCC and determined the ...optimal staging strategy for these patients.
Methods: RI was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m2. A total of 502 and 1701 HCC patients with and without RI, respectively, were enrolled. One‐to‐one matched patient cohorts according to treatments were built by using the propensity model. The prognostic ability of the Cancer of the Liver Italian Program, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer, Japan Integrated Scoring, and Taipei Integrated Scoring (TIS) systems in HCC patients with RI was compared by using the Akaike information criterion (AIC).
Results: For patients undergoing percutaneous ablation and transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), RI was significantly associated with decreased long‐term survival (P = 0.001 and 0.004, respectively). In patients receiving resection and other treatments, there were no significant survival differences between patients with and without RI. With similar demographics generated in the propensity model, significantly decreased survival was found in patients with RI in the TACE group (P = 0.018), but not in the resection, percutaneous ablation, and other treatment groups. Among HCC patients with RI, the TIS system had the lowest AIC value.
Conclusions: RI is often present in patients with HCC and predicts a poor outcome in patients undergoing TACE. The survival of HCC patients receiving resection, percutaneous ablation, and other treatments is not affected by RI. The TIS staging system is a more feasible prognostic model for HCC patients with RI.
Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is widely used in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Post-TACE liver failure may occur, especially in patients with poor hepatic reserve. Ascites is ...often present in patients with HCC with coexisting cirrhosis. This study investigated the incidence, risk factors, and prognostic predictors in patients with HCC and ascites receiving TACE.
A total of 614 patients with HCC were enrolled and analyzed. Liver failure was defined as an increase of serum bilirubin level (≥2.0 mg/dL), increasing or newly developed ascites, or hepatic encephalopathy within 2 weeks of TACE.
Ascites that were present in 100 (16.2%) patients at study entry, independently predicted a poor prognosis in the Cox proportional hazard model relative risk (RR)=1.75, P=0.004. Post-TACE liver failure occurred in 17 (17.3%) of 98 patients with HCC who had ascites and long-term follow-up. Child-Turcotte-Pugh class B (odds ratio=10.1, P=0.038) and post-TACE gastrointestinal bleeding (odds ratio=10.86, P=0.006) were independent risk factors associated with liver failure in the multivariate analysis. Of the 17 patients with post-TACE liver failure, 16 (94%) died within the first year of treatment. Liver failure (RR: 2.13, P=0.029), serum α-fetoprotein level >51 ng/mL (RR=2.0, P=0.013) and poor performance status (RR: 2.17, P=0.003) independently predicted a poor prognosis in patients with ascites receiving TACE.
Preexisting ascites increases the mortality in patients with HCC receiving TACE. In patients with HCC and ascites, Child-Turcotte-Pugh class B and gastrointestinal bleeding are associated with liver failure after TACE. Post-TACE liver failure is a common event and predicts a decreased survival in patients with HCC and ascites.
The effect of the doping ratio (B2H6/GeH4) on the structural and electrical properties of boron doped hydrogenated germanium films deposited by the electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor ...deposition process has been investigated. By increasing the flow rate of B2H6/GeH4 from 0.025 to 0.125, more boron related radicals are available to desorb hydrogen atoms from the growing surface. This leads to degradation of the structure of the amorphous phase identified by Raman and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. The incorporation of boron enhances the carrier concentration from 1.65×1019cm−3 to 2.25×1020cm−3 and reduces the resistivity from 0.131Ω·cm to 0.018Ω·cm as measured by Hall measurement. These highly conductive boron-doped hydrogenated Ge films can be useful as low resistance doped layer in devices to achieve better performance. Moreover, we are able to deposit highly conductive boron-doped Ge films at a low growth temperature (180°C) and low hydrogen dilution ratio (H2/GeH4=33), in this study. Such a low temperature process can overcome some problems with high temperature deposition process that limit application in devices. Furthermore, the low hydrogen dilution ratio can minimize an ion bombardment effect on the films.
•We investigated the effect of the doping ratio (B2H6/GeH4) on growth of germanium.•The structural and electrical properties have been studied.•The highly conductive boron-doped Ge:H can be obtained.•The high crystallinity of Ge:H can be obtained at low hydrogen dilution ratio.•The low resistivity of Ge:H film makes it useful as the doped layer in devices.
We present a dual-chiplet interposer-based system-in-package (SiP) octo-core processor using Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) technology. Each of the two identical chiplets is implemented in 7-nm ...CMOS with 15 metal layers and has four Arm Cortex-A72 processor cores operating at 4.0 GHz. A bidirectional mesh bus with 2-mm flop-to-flop distance is distributed throughout the chiplet for high-speed on-die data transport above 4.0 GHz. The chiplets communicate with each other through ultrashort reach (0.5 mm long) interposer channels using a Low-voltage-In-Package-INterCONnect (LIPINCON) clock-forwarded parallel interface. The scalable link module offers 320 GB/s of aggregate bandwidth, operating at 8.0 Gb/s/pin and 0.3-V transmitter swing without receiver termination to achieve 0.56-pJ/bit energy efficiency and 1.6-Tb/s/mm² bandwidth density. Measurements of the fabricated SiP validate the functionality and performance of the cores, on-die data bus, and inter-chiplet link. The built-in LIPINCON eye-scan feature validates inter-chiplet connectivity at 8.0 Gb/s with an eye opening of 244 mV and 0.69 UI.
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