P. H. Chen

To evaluate the association of intimate partner violence (IPV) with breast and cervical cancer screening rates.We conducted retrospective chart audits of 382 adult women at 4 urban family medicine practices. Inclusion criteria were not being pregnant, no cancer history, and having a partner. Victims were defined as those who screened positive on at least one of 2 brief IPV screening tools: the HITS (Hurt, Insult, Threat, Scream) tool or Women Abuse Screening Tool (short). Logistic regression models were used to examine whether nonvictims, victims of emotional abuse, and victims of physical and/or sexual abuse were up to date for mammograms and Papanicolaou smears.Prevalence of IPV was 16.5%. Compared with victims of emotional abuse only, victims of physical and/or sexual abuse aged 40 to 74 were associated with 87% decreased odds of being up to date on Papanicolaou smears (odds ratio, 0.13; 95% CI, 0.02-0.86) and 84% decreased odds of being up to date in mammography (odds ratio, 0.16; 95% CI, 0.03-0.99). There was no difference in Papanicolaou smear rates among female victims and nonvictims younger than 40.Because of the high prevalence of IPV, screening is essential among all women. Clinicians should ensure that victims of physical and/or sexual abuse are screened for cervical cancer and breast cancer, particularly women aged 40 or older. Cancer screening promotion programs are needed for victims of abuse.

Cu and Al nanoparticles were prepared using a simple chemical etching method followed by a chemical reduction method. The synthesized metal nanoparticles were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, UV–visible spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), electron-dispersive (EDX) spectrum and water contact angle (WCA) measurements. The application of Cu and Al nanoparticles was tested towards the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (NiP), hexavalent chromium {Cr(VI)} and rhodamine 6G (R6G) dye in the presence sodiumborohydride (NaBH4) as a reducing agent. From the UV–visible spectrum, the reduction rate constant (kapp) and the induction time (Ti) were determined and compared critically. The HRTEM analysis confirmed the nanosize of Cu and Al prepared by a simple chemical etching process followed by the chemical reduction method.

This study presents a new thermal cycler using infrared (IR) heating and water impingement cooling for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of 10 μl samples in thin glass capillary tubes. The thermal cycling system can achieve a temperature ramping-up rate of 65 °C/s and a ramping-down rate of 80 °C/s. Two other cooling mechanisms, natural convection and forced air convection, can also be used in the present system to obtain a ramping-down rate of 2 °C/s and 6 °C/s, respectively. The amplification of the 439 fragment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA was successful. The PCR amplified products were analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis with ethidium bromide staining for visualization. A comparison of results of the amplification products at three different ramping-down rates was made and the rapid thermal cycling of the present system can run DNA required amplification in 29 min for 20 thermal cycles that is only 1/3 the time spent in the conventional PCR machine used in comparison.

Copper is the most widely used material in heat pipe manufacturing. Since the capability of wick structures inside a heat pipe will dominate its thermal performance, in this study, we introduce a hybrid surface modification method on the copper wire braids being inserted as wick structure into an ultra-thin heat pipe. The hybrid method is the combination of a chemical-oxidation-based method and a sol-gel method with nanoparticles being dip-coated onto the braid. The experimental data show that braids under hybrid treatment perform higher water rising speed than the oxidized braids while owning higher water net weight than those braids being only dip-coated with nanoparticle.

This paper reports the high light extraction efficiency will be obtained by considering the systematic design of two-dimensional sub-wavelength photonic crystals, which is created on the p-side of InGaN-based light emitting diodes.

The objective of this work is to process a high performance flat miniature heat pipes (FMHP). The FMHP is fabricated by ultra-deep LIGA (UD-LIGA) process developed by SRRC. Moreover, the performance of the FMHP is theoretically estimated. The dimensions of microgrooves on the FMHP are 1 mm in depth, 100 μm in width, and 60 mm in length. The theoretically predicted results show that the dissipated heat flux can reach to 391 W at a working temperature of 100 °C.

According to the increasing complexity of diagnosis, the current real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) platforms are equipped with highly developed analyzing capability. However, the sight biological signals are always hard to extract from the detected information. On the other hand, the current signal processing scheme makes the optical loss worse if there are more than four DNA labeling dyes. The proposed computational algorithm for the fluorescence detection system composes of a strong noise reduction mechanism to enhance the detection sensitivity. The whole system includes an ultra-sensitive spectrometer providing continuous wavelength detection and can be employed for multiple DNA quantification. The results show that this prototype provides comparable sensitivity and amplification efficiency as Roche Light-Cycler for DNA quantification and similar reproducibility within five intra assay samples with the DNA quantification method proposed in this study.

The mixing of the ferrofluid in microfluidic chips was investigated in this study. Mixing processes of the ferrofluid in the presence of a permanent magnet are highly different from that of pure diffusion. The magnetic field re-distributes the ferrofluid and the mixing efficiencies vary with the positions of the magnet and the volumetric flow rates of the fluids. With the suitable setup of the magnet, the mixing efficiencies can reach more than 90% within one characterisitic width of the channel. By the suitable design of the microfluidic chips and the proper position of the magnet, the efficient mixing of the ferrofluid in PDMS microfluidic chips can be performed.

This study investigated the magnetic effects on the nano-ferrofluid within a closed loop heat pipe (LHP) without any micro-structure. The results show the enhancement of the thermal performance of the LHP can be achieved by setting the magnets properly.

A novel multi-channel detection system for real-time PCR machine is proposed in this study. The prototype in this article is equipped with a spectrometer which has the bandwidth of visible light, hence there are more than 6 channels can be detected simultaneously. In contrast to the traditional Real-Time PCR machine with discrete fluorescence wavelength detection channels, the prototype is equipped with continuous fluorescence wavelength detecting ability to multiplex Real-Time PCR. In this study, a HBV DNA template with LC-Red 640 dye and the Internal Control DNA template with LC-Red 705 dye were employed for DNA quantification experiments. The results show that this prototype provides comparable accuracy and reproducibility as the commercial system for DNA quantification with the DNA quantification and detection method proposed in this study.