Suchergebnisse

Renewable energy development is a key pathway for mitigating climate change. The Taiwan government has been actively developing low carbon green energy with solar photovoltaic technology and wind power as their primary development projects. Cigu Taiwan provides an ideal research site to examine tradeoffs between ecological conservation, marine fisheries, and green power development, and the factors affect commitments to ecological conservation in the face of these tradeoffs. This research investigates the fishery and electricity symbiosis project in Cigu through a novel combination of the theory of planned behavior and the contingent valuation method to analyze the factors influencing the local residents' behavioral intentions to safeguard ecological achievements in ecologically fragile areas through conservation trust funds. Analysis of survey responses from a convenience sample of 715 residents and resource users in the Cigu area reports that attitudes (ATT), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), environmental concern (EC), and environmental risk (ER) significantly influence the behavioral intention to pay eco-compensation fees; the local residents' willingness to pay for the conservation trust funds was NTD 621.4/year (USD 21.9/year), and decreased to NTD 545.9/year (USD 19.2/year) after the implementation of fishery and electricity symbiosis. The discussion section argues that the drivers of ATT, SN, PBC, EC, and ER can be used by policy makers to direct local residents' intentions and behavior toward conserving ecological achievements in fragile eco-environmental areas through payments for ecosystem services. Thus, this strategy can improve the sustainability of ecological and environmental restoration programs.

To achieve the 2025 Non-Nuclear Homeland goal and carbon emission mitigation target, the Taiwan government has been developing actively green and renewable energy with low carbon emissions. This study assessed the FSPS development project in the Cigu region of Tainan City to provide a thorough analysis toward making tradeoffs among ecosystem conservation, aquaculture, fisheries, and green power generation development. This study employs the choice experiment method and designs different attributes and levels to discuss the preferences of stakeholders in the policy development choices for ecosystem conservation and FSPS. The hope is that it can balance economic development and ecological conservation. The findings demonstrate that the tourists' marginal willingness to pay is low. The respondents then give importance to improving biodiversity. Finally, they prefer minimal changes to the status quo with the FSPS policy implementation. These findings can serve as a reference for decision making for regional sustainable development, aquaculture and fishery upgradation, and green power generation and exploitation.

This study is aimed at exploring how teacher preparation programs in Taiwan—both traditional and alternative— prepare teachers for teaching controversial public issues specific to Taiwan (e. g., national identity, sovereignty, and ethnic issues). Using a case study design, this study documents six social studies teachers' readiness and attitudes about whether to teach controversial public issues or not. Findings illuminate that 1) teachers' attitudes and readiness have been influenced by their teacher preparation programs (both traditional and alternative); 2) teachers from different teacher education programs contribute to their curricular-instructional decision making for teaching controversial public issues differently.

This study explores teachers' personal practical knowledge and curricular-instructional gatekeeping as they relate to the teaching of controversial issues in public elementary school settings, particularly the issue of immigration. The study took place in the urban setting of Houston and, using a case study design, documented how three elementary school teachers made curricular-instructional decisions by making use of their personal practical knowledge. Findings illuminate that personal practical knowledge plays a role in teacher's curricular-instructional gate keeping in socially divisive contexts. And, the findings indicate that these three elementary school teachers make curricular-instructional decisions to effectively address controversial public issues in their classrooms through curriculum choosing, assignments creating, and conflict dialogue building.

This study explores how history teachers in Taiwan make curricular decisions while engaging controversial public issues. The main political controversies discussed in Taiwanese society center on the relationship between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. This study documents how four social studies teachers formulate their curricular decisions through the intersecting lenses of professional knowledge and personal beliefs. Findings illuminate the role of personal experience and belief in teacher's curricular-instructional gatekeeping in socially divisive contexts. In sum, this study helps as understand the relationship between a teacher's own imaginative worldview, sense of personal and professional identity, and their classroom teaching practices.

American immigration reform, global economic rearrangement, and international migration inaugurated a new era of Chinese American immigration. The post-1960s immigration was characterized by various countries of origin, diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, and residential suburban settlements pattern. The San Gabriel Valley, a vast suburban area of Los Angeles County, is the representative of a new type of Chinese immigration community. Creating an ethnic community in Monterey Park in the 1970s, the Chinese utilized a strategy of northward and eastward migration in the following decades. They expand multiple settlements in the San Gabriel Valley, which was divided geographically and chronologically into three sections¯ the ethnoburban core in the west, two later-formed ethnic communities in the north and east districts, each populated by various Chinese groups with different residency lengths, socioeconomic backgrounds and distinctive assimilation patterns. The latest Chinese community in east San Gabriel Valley was formed in the late 1980s in four towns, Diamond Bar, Walnut and two unincorporated towns of Hacienda Heights and Rowland Heights. This eastside Chinese society was composed of established middle to upper class Chinese mainly re-migrated from west and north territory of the San Gabriel Valley. As an extension of Chinese suburbanization, the evolution of Chinese community in east San Gabriel Valley was intertwined with the transformation of ethnicity-exclusivity and transnational ties, interracial conflict and reconciliation, ethnic intergenerational accommodation, and Americanization. Their residential assimilation and development of social and cultural organizations enhanced this ethnic community with dual features; ethnic solidarity and awareness, as well as highly incorporated link to the local community. This influenced their local civic activities and political participation. The combination of cultural diversity and ethnic uniqueness in the development of the Chinese community in east San Gabriel Valley provides an ongoing example of modified spatial assimilation and a way to measure interracial tensions and ethnic intergenerational incorporation.

Kinmen Island was in a state of combat readiness during the 1950s–1980s. It opened for tourism in 1992, when all troops withdrew from the island. Most military installations, such as bunkers, anti airborne piles, and underground tunnels, became deserted and disordered. The entries to numerous underground bunkers are closed or covered with weeds, creating dangerous spaces on the island. This study evaluates the feasibility of using Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) to detect and discuss the location, size, and depth of underground tunnels. In order to discuss the reliability of the 2D-ERT result, this study built a numerical model to validate the correctness of in situ measured data. In addition, this study employed the artificial intelligence deep learning technique for reprocessing and predicting the ERT image and discussed using an artificial intelligence deep learning algorithm to enhance the image resolution and interpretation. A total of three 2D-ERT survey lines were implemented in this study. The results indicate that the three survey lines clearly show the tunnel location and shape. The numerical simulation results also indicate that using 2D-ERT to survey underground tunnels is highly feasible. Moreover, according to a series of studies in Multilayer Perceptron of deep learning, using deep learning can clearly show the tunnel location and path and effectively enhance the interpretation ability and resolution for 2D-ERT measurement results.

Abstract

Aims
Patients with liver cirrhosis are more susceptible to bacteremia and more likely to have a poor prognosis in comparison to healthy individuals. Studies on the role of alcohol in cirrhotic patients with bacteremia are limited. Our study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics and prognostic differences between the patients with alcohol and non-alcohol-associated cirrhosis with bacteremia.


Methods
A single-center, retrospective cohort study was conducted among adult patients who presented to the emergency department from January 2015 to December 2018. All patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and bacteremia were enrolled and divided into alcohol-associated and non-alcohol-associated groups according to the etiology of their cirrhosis. We compared their clinical characteristics, laboratory results, microbiological data, and infection source as well as outcome measurements between the two groups.


Results
A total of 112 cirrhotic patients with bacteremia (alcohol-associated: 67; non-alcohol-associated: 45) were eligible for this study. In comparison with the non-alcohol-associated group, patients in the alcohol-associated group had a significantly higher rate of intensive care unit transfer (41.8% vs. 22.2%, P = 0.04), septic shock occurrence (56.7% vs. 35.6%, P = 0.04) and 30-day mortality risk (37.3% vs. 15.6%, P = 0.02). Moreover, alcohol-associated cirrhosis and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score were independent predictors of 30-day mortality in cirrhotic patients with bacteremia.


Conclusions
The etiology of liver cirrhosis influences the outcomes of patients with bacteremia as well as the severity of their cirrhosis.