Taiwan Shoufu University

The knowledge of the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) approach implies Health in All Policies and thorough cultural and social transformations, as well as whole-of-government, whole-of-society policies and governance to address health inequities. Nonetheless, this article argues that in the currently dominant rational decision-making model in health policymaking, these policy implications from the knowledge of the SDH approach would lead to an intrinsic contradiction with the logic of modern bureaucracy based on the legal authority as suggested by Max Weber. Using two examples of social determinants of health - universal health coverage and housing issues - this article demonstrates the potential of the polis model proposed by Deborah Stone to take advantage of the knowledge of the SDH approach to pursue structural policy interventions.

Hyperscanning has emerged as a prominent technique in social neuroscience, enabling the simultaneous recording of neural activity from multiple individuals engaged in interactive tasks. Despite its potential, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) hyperscanning remains underutilized due to technical and logistical challenges in synchronizing data across scanners. To address these barriers, we developed an internet-based fMRI hyperscanning platform in southern Taiwan, enabling synchronized acquisition between two sites located 305 km apart. The present study involving 33 dyads examined social and economic decision-making tasks under cooperative and competitive conditions, using a Sender–Receiver paradigm where monetary outcomes hinged on the Receiver’s choices and their alignment with the Sender’s suggestions. This design elucidated neural mechanisms underlying cooperation, competition, deception, and strategic interactions. The resulting dataset enables analyses of neural synchrony, temporal dynamics of functional connectivity, and condition-specific network interactions. By introducing a novel methodological framework, this work provides a valuable dataset to advance research on social decision-making and interactive neural processes.

We investigated the unique passive behaviour of Hybrid steel in de-aerated sulfuric acid and aqueous sodium chloride solutions through corrosion tests, surface analysis, and thermochemical modelling. Electrochemical measurements confirmed that Hybrid steel possesses stainless steel characteristics, including passivity, breakdown, and pitting, akin to low-alloyed stainless steel. Synchrotron hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed a dynamically protective nanoscale passive film composed of Fe, Cr, Ni, and Al oxides, contributing to its stainless nature. The presence of Al and Ni enhances Cr’s role in forming a spontaneously passive and protective surface, resulting in exceptional corrosion resistance in acidic and chloride-containing solutions. Hybrid steel’s surface oxides remain robust even beyond the Cr(III)-to-Cr(VI) redox potential, distinguishing it from other stainless steels. This work demonstrates the potential for designing sustainable stainless steel with high-strength properties without requiring the conventional Cr threshold concentration of 10.5 per cent.

The real-world benefits of direct-acting antiviral (DAA)-induced sustained virologic response (SVR) on the de novo occurrence and progression of esophageal varices (EV) remain unclear in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related liver cirrhosis (LC). This is a retrospective cohort study evaluating all patients with Child-Pugh class A HCV-related LC during 2013 to 2020 in the Chang Gung Medical System. A total of 215 patients fit the inclusion criteria and were enrolled. Of them, 132 (61.4%) patients achieved DAA induced-SVR and 83 (38.6%) did not receive anti-viral treatment. During a median follow-up of 18.4 (interquartile range, 10.1–30.9) months, the 2-year incidence of de novo EV occurrence was 8 (7.0%) in the SVR group and 7 (12.7%) in the treatment-naïve group. Compared to the treatment-naïve group, the SVR group was associated with a significantly lower incidence of EV occurrence (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 0.47, p = 0.030) and a significantly lower incidence of EV progression (aHR: 0.55, p = 0.033). The risk of EV progression was strongly correlated with the presence of baseline EV (p < 0.001). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that DAA-induced SVR is associated with decreased risk of de novo EV occurrence and progression in the real world.

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors which may cause the increase of students’ stress in dance class in elementary school. In this study, students’ demographic variables, psychological capital (which includes four sub-constructs), and self-concept (which includes five sub-constructs) were used as predicting variables to estimate their influences on dance class students’ stress level. A structured questionnaire was distributed to 450 elementary art talent class students with 412 valid responses. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships proposed by the study. As for demographic variables, the results show that the grade, gender, and the dance class hours per week had no significant influences on stress, while the seniority level had a negative influence, which indicated that junior dance students had more stress than senior students. As for psychological capital, self-efficacy and optimism had negative influences on stress, while the other two sub-constructs, hope and resilience, did not have a significant influence on stress. As for physical self-concept, the worry of overweight had positive influences on their stress, while appearance, physical ability performance, health status, and satisfaction of body parts had no significant influence on stress. Based on the research findings, suggestions were made to reduce students’ pressure in learning dance.

Air pollution is one of the most severe global challenges. In particular, particulate matter (PM) is carcinogenic and is known for deteriorating the air quality. Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) have been widely used to reduce PM emissions from their source. To meet the increasingly strict emission standards and to address global concerns, researchers have aimed to achieve higher PM removal efficiencies, remove ultrafine particles, and operate under a wider variety of operating conditions (e.g., high particle concentration, wide temperature range, presence of complex particle/atmosphere components). Improving the particle removal efficiency requires understanding the fundamentals of PM control. Therefore, in this chapter, particle characterization and PM removal processes are discussed in detail. Primary influencing factors are summarized, key sub-processes (e.g., particle condensation and growth, particle charging, and particle migration) are detailed, and typical PM2.5 removal enhancement technologies are introduced. Recently developed technologies applied in a variety of industries can maintain a PM emission level of below 5 mg/m3. Furthermore, energy injection increases within the electrostatic field may allow simultaneous control of multiple pollutants, thus increasing the applicability of ESP technology in meeting stricter emission requirements.

In this paper, a intelligent RBF neural network (RBFNN) tracking control system with reinforcement learning (RL) compensation methods control technique is proposed for a class of chaos systems. The proposed adaptive control scheme is developed for a class of chaotic systems with unknown bounded uncertainties. The adaptation laws are derived using a gradient descent, so that both system tracking stability and error convergence can be guaranteed in the closed-loop system. It are used to demonstrate the effectiveness and performance of proposed hybrid control technique.

Quantification of the nonlinearities between ambient ozone (O3) and the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compound (VOC) is a prerequisite for an effective O3 control strategy. An Enhanced polynomial functions Response Surface Model (Epf-RSM) with the capability to analyze O3-NOx-VOC sensitivities in real time was developed by integrating the hill-climbing adaptive method into the optimized Extended Response Surface Model (ERSM) system. The Epf-RSM could single out the best suited polynomial function for each grid cell to quantify the responses of O3 concentrations to precursor emission changes. Several comparisons between Epf-RSM and pf-ERSM (polynomial functions based ERSM) were performed using out-of-sample validation, together with comparisons of the spatial distribution and the Empirical Kinetic Modeling Approach diagrams. The comparison results showed that Epf-RSM effectively addressed the drawbacks of pf-ERSM with respect to over-fitting in the margin areas and high biases in the transition areas. The O3 concentrations predicted by Epf-RSM agreed well with Community Multi-scale Air Quality simulation results. The case study results in the Pearl River Delta and the north-western area of the Shandong province indicated that the O3 formations in the central areas of both the regions were more sensitive to anthropogenic VOC in January, April, and October, while more NOx-sensitive in July.

Background: Adaption for school life is important for all students. As for athletic students, since they need to cope with schoolwork and extensive training, adaption for school life could be very challenging. Taking this into consideration, the purpose of this study was to explore the factors which may help high school athletic students’ adaption of school life. Owing to this, the study explored previous researches and proposed four hypotheses: the first two hypotheses proposed that athletes’ positive emotion will have positive impacts on both their interpersonal relationships and adaption of school life; the third hypothesis suggests that athletes’ interpersonal relationships will have positive impacts on their adaption of school life and the fourth hypothesis suggested that interpersonal relationships play a mediating role among the positive emotion’s effect on adaption of school life. Methods: A total of 800 structured questionnaires were distributed to eleven high schools with athletic class students for data collection with a valid return rate of 90.6%. Structural equation modelling was used to test the relationship among them. Results: The result showed that positive emotion (β = 0.72, p < 0.05) and interpersonal relationships (β = 0.34, p < 0.05) had positive impacts on students’ adaption of school life with a predictive power of 68%. In addition, positive emotion also affected students’ school life adaption through interpersonal relationships. Conclusion: The study confirmed the positive emotion can have significant influences on student athletes’ interpersonal relationships and school life adaption. Implications: According to our findings, we suggest to encourage and promote athletes’ positive emotions so to help them have better interpersonal relationships and school life adaption.

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of transmigration community regarding the importance of informal education especially in economy. This research is a descriptive qualitative research, considering that the object under study is the natural state of community perceptions, to describe the state of the population and to obtain data by using the method of observation, interviews and documentations. The data collection data is then compiled and analyzed by data reduction, data compilation, and drawing conclusions. From the results of the study it was found that, the transmigration community's perception of informal economic education starts from the family, namely parents as teachers who teach how children able to manages their finances wisely and responsibly so that, when a child getting adult they can be independent and able to manage finances as well apart from that Responsible for their own finances, the experiences gained from parents so that children can successfully manage their finances, through the values that must be possessed by a child to be able to improve the economy that is able to working hard, be brave, willing to developing, never give up, focus, save, live simply, move on, be able to read opportunities and save money by saving.