Eighteen of 56 (32.1%) wild Rana limnocharis from central and south Taiwan were found to contain plerocercoids of Spirometra erinaceieuropaei. This is the first report of S. erinaceieuropaei infections in frogs in Taiwan, with the plerocercoids being recovered from the thigh and back muscles or under the skin. Other species of frogs examined, including nine wild R. latouchii, one wild Buergeria robustus and 110 cultured R. rugulosa were free of infection. The plerocercoids were orally inoculated into four cats; three of which were each given a single plerocercoid and one a dose of three plerocercoids. Daily faecal examination showed that two cats started shedding eggs of S. erinaceieuropaei on day 8 postinfection (PI) and the other two on day 10 PI. The highest eggs per gram and eggs per day for a single worm was found to be 428,000 and 14,416,000 respectively. Only the cat inoculated with three plerocercoids shed proglottids in its faeces during the 2 month observation period.

We investigated risk factors for severe acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) among hospitalised children <2 years, with a focus on the interactions between virus and age. Statistical interactions between age and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, adenovirus (ADV) and rhinovirus on the risk of ALRI outcomes were investigated. Of 1780 hospitalisations, 228 (12.8%) were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). The median (range) length of stay (LOS) in hospital was 3 (1–27) days. An increase of 1 month of age was associated with a decreased risk of ICU admission (rate ratio (RR) 0.94; 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.91–0.98) and with a decrease in LOS (RR 0.96; 95% CI 0.95–0.97). Associations between RSV, influenza, ADV positivity and ICU admission and LOS were significantly modified by age. Children <5 months old were at the highest risk from RSV-associated severe outcomes, while children >8 months were at greater risk from influenza-associated ICU admissions and long hospital stay. Children with ADV had increased LOS across all ages. In the first 2 years of life, the effects of different viruses on ALRI severity varies with age. Our findings help to identify specific ages that would most benefit from virus-specific interventions such as vaccines and antivirals.

Recurrent glioblastoma (GBM) has an unmet need for effective therapies. Toca 511 (vocimagene amiretrorepvec), a retroviral replicating vector with the transgene cytosine deaminase, selectively infects, persists and spreads in tumor. Subsequent oral administration of 5-fluorocytosine (Toca FC) produces 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) within infected cells. 5-FU kills cancer cells and myeloid derived suppressor cells, inducing robust antitumor immune responses in animal models. In 2 Phase 1 studies, Toca 511 was administered into the cavity wall after surgical resection (NCT01470794) or intratumoral injection by biopsy needle (NCT01156584). To provide context to the results observed, subjects were compared to an external lomustine treated control (Courtesy Denovo Biopharma; Wick 2010). Treatment with Toca 511/Toca FC from 2 Phase I studies showed significant improvement in OS HR equals to 0.48, p less than 0.001, with similar effect in the surgical resection (OS HR 0.45, p equals to 0.003) and intratumoral injection (OS HR 0.56, p equals to 0.060). Fewer related greater or equal to Grade 3 adverse events (AEs) were reported for Toca 511/Toca FC (2.5 percent) vs. lomustine (36.9 percent). There was a virtual absence of hematologic toxicity for Toca 511/Toca FC vs. lomustine (Grade greater or equal to 3 thrombocytopenia 23.8 percent). Discontinuations for AEs occurred in 0percent for Toca 511/Toca FC vs. 4.8 percent for lomustine. Toca 511 is surgically delivered and treatment-emergent AEs regardless of attribution included incision site pain (20 percent), procedural pain (12.5 percent), and wound infection (5 percent) vs. 0percent, 1.2 percent, 1.2 percent respectively for lomustine. Toca 511/Toca FC significantly improved survival and safety relative to lomustine. A Phase 2/3 trial has launched (NCT02414165).

Ion-beam irradiation shows enhancement or degradation of magnetic properties on L10 phase of FePt and PtMn films. A highly ordered L10 FePt phase was directly achieved by using 2 MeV He-ion irradiation without conventional postannealing. The in-plane coercivity greater than 5700 Oe can be obtained after disordered FePt films were irradiated at the beam current of several μA/cm2 with the ion does of 2.4×1016 ions/cm2. The high beam-current-density results in direct beam heating on samples. In addition, the irradiation-induced heating process provides efficient microscopic energy transfer and creates excess point defects, which significantly enhances the diffusion and promotes the formation of the ordered phase. Consequently, the direct ordering of FePt took place by using ion-irradiation heating at temperature as low as 230°C. The comparison has been made on the [Fe/Pt]10/C films by RTA and high current-density He irradiation. Although RTA and ion irradiation both reach high coercivity, ion irradiation seems to suppress the (001) texture, leading to isotropic Hc. Ion-beam irradiation can also be applied to the transformation of PtMn. An ordered PtMn phase, a large exchange field and a high GMR ratio (11%) were obtained in PtMn-based spin valves by using 1.25 μA/cm2 He-ions. On the other hand, Ge-ion and O-ion irradiation completely destroyed the ferromagnetism of FePt and GMR of PtMn-based spin valves, respectively. We propose a novel approach to achieve magnetic patterning by using ion irradiation, which can be applied for patterned media and magnetic sensors.

For most composite structures, because of the uncertainty in some design variables, it is not possible to predict precisely the stresses during design stage. Therefore, monitoring the structural responses in service becomes crucial for structure with concerns, e.g., the composite panels on an airplane, etc. In this study, the strains at neighboring points of the interested location on surfaces of the laminate, along with the classical laminate theory and the higher-order shear deformation theory, are used to predict the interlaminar shear stresses in the cross-ply laminate. Several numerical examples using the simulated surface strains are employed to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed technique. It is found that the approach using the higher-order shear deformation theory has improved accuracy for the analysis of thick symmetric laminate over the approach using the classical laminate theory.

The structural transformation of polycrystalline Si induced by high energy ball milling has been studied. The structure and property characteristics of the milled powder have been investigated by x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, Raman scattering, and infrared absorption spectroscopy. Two phase amorphous and nanocrystalline Si has been produced by ball milling of polycrystalline elemental Si. The nanocrystalline components contain some defects such as dislocations, twins, and stacking faults which are typical of defects existing in conventional coarse-grained polycrystalline materials. The volume fraction of amorphous Si is about 15% while the average size of nanocrystalline grains is about 8 nm. Amorphous elemental Si without combined oxygen can be obtained by ball milling. The distribution of amorphous Si and the size of nanocrystalline Si crystallites is not homogeneous in the milled powder. The amorphous Si formed is concentrated near the surface of milled particles while the grain size of nanocrystalline Si ranges from 3 to 20 nm. Structurally, the amorphous silicon component prepared by ball milling is similar to that obtained by ion implantation or chemical vapor deposition. The amorphous Si formed exhibits a crystallization temperature of about 660 °C at a heating rate of 40 K/min and crystallization activation energy of about 268 kJ/mol. Two possible amorphization mechanisms, i.e., pressure-induced amorphization and crystallite-refinement-induced amorphization, are proposed for the amorphization of Si induced by ball milling.

The behavior of screw dislocations dynamically emitted from the tip of a surface crack during loading and unloading has been investigated using a discrete dislocation model. The critical stress intensity factor at the crack tip for dislocation emission is a function of friction stress, core radius of dislocation, and dislocations near the crack tip. During motion, the velocity of dislocation is assumed to be proportional to the effective shear stress to the third power. The effect of crack length and friction stress on dislocation distributions, plastic zone, and dislocation-free zone during loading and unloading was examined.

Vacuum plasma spray is a melt spray process capable of producing coatings or near-net shaped deposits with ultra-fine grained structures. Mechanofusion is a novel technique for processing powdered materials. In this study, mixtures of elemental Ni and Al powders, either blended or mechanofused, were vacuum plasma sprayed, yielding a series of Ni-Al intermetallic phases. Mechanofusion resulted in significant effects on the phase distribution in subsequently as-sprayed deposits. After heat treatment at 1100 °C, single phase NiAl was obtained for both the mechanofused and blended samples. The microhardness of the NiAl is comparable to that produced by other methods. These preliminary experiments indicate that mechanofusion and vacuum plasma spraying can be employed to produce various compounds using mixed elemental powders.

In order to examine the chronologic changes in genetic variance and heritability of anthropometric characteristics of Chinese infants in Taiwan, a total of 521 pairs of same-sexed twin neonates given birth in four major general teaching hospitals in Taipei City were studied. Based on the placental pattern and 12 red blood cell antigens, 428 MZ and 93 DZ twin pairs were identified and followed up to the age of one year. There was no significant genetic variance for all anthropometric characteristics adjusted for sex and gestational week before the age of six months. After adjusting for sex and gestational week, a significant genetic variance was observed at the age of six months, with heritability values of 0.51 (weight), 0.63 (head circumference), 0.77 (chest circumference), and 0.53 (arm circumference), as well as at one year, although with considerably lower heritability values. This implies that growth is dynamically determined by both genetic and environmental factors during infancy.

In order to examine the genetic variance and heritability of temperament among Chinese infants in Taiwan, a total of 62 pairs of same-sexed twin infants given birth in four major general teaching hospitals in Taipei City were studied. Based on placentation and 12 red blood cell antigens, 44 MZ and 18 DZ pairs were identified. Temperament was assessed at the age of six months by the Chinese edition of Carey's Temperament scale. Significant genetic variance was observed for activity level, approach or withdrawal, intensity of reaction, quality of mood, and threshold of responsiveness, with a heritability of 0.64, 0.56, 0.74, 0.39, and 0.45, respectively. There was no significant intrapair difference in temperamental characteristics between monochorionic and dichorionic MZ twins.

After a long quiet phase AG Dra underwent an outstandingly active phase with two outbursts in 1980 Nov. and 1981 Nov.(Viotti et al, 1984). Since then a new quiet phase has followed. In this work we analyse two spectra of AG Dra, of which, one was taken in 1981 by C.C. Huang at the Haute-Provence Observatory using the Marly spectrograph with a dispersion of 80 A/mm at the 1.2 m telescope, the other was obtained by Dr Y.Andrillat in 1985 with the same instrument.

Figure 1 shows the spectral variations of AG Dra between 1981 and 1985. The main features of the emission line spectrum are not much different between the two spectra, except that in 1985 there was a new wide weak emission line at 3488 A possibly due to FeII. There were a lot of strong emission lines due to H, HeI, HeII and 0III in both spectra. The spectrum of the late-type component was much more obvious in 1985 than in 1981. In 1985 the lines of CaII K, CaIλ4227 and the G-band of CH were quite strong. In addition we measured a lot of absorption lines due to FeI, SrII and TiII on the 1985 plate. The Balmer continuum emission and the blue contiuum were enhanced in 1981. On the 1981 plate the stellar spectrum in ultraviolet can be traced beyond 3200 A and the blue continuum heavily veiled the spectrum of the cool component. In 1985 they were much weaker.