OBJECTIVE To explore the feasibility of using four-dimensional echocardiography with B-flow and spatiotemporal image correlation (4DBF-STIC) imaging technology to detect fetal ductus venosus (DV), and establish the normal reference range for the ductus venosus diameter at 18-40 weeks gestation. METHODS This was a prospective observational study to detect the DV in 354 normal fetuses at 18-40 ...

INTRODUCTION To explore the correlation between domestic violence during pregnancy and glutamate (Glu), r-aminobutyric acid (GABA), plasma cortisol levels and catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) gene polymorphism (rs4818) in neonates. METHODS Using the Abuse Assessment Survey, 64 abused pregnant women (DV) and 117 non-abused pregnant women (non-DV) were screened for two study groups. Blood in...

This paper presents a designing an optimal adaptive controller for tracking down the control of robot manipulators based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. PSO algorithm has been used to optimize parameters of the controller and hence to minimize the integral square of errors (ISE) as a performance criteria. In this paper, an improved PSO using a logic is proposed to increase the c...

Upregulation of the procoagulant activity of monocytes by antibodies to beta2- glycoprotein I (β2GPI) is one of the mechanisms contributing to thrombosis in antiphospholipid syndrome. Current knowledge about receptors responsible for the upregulation of procoagulant activity by β2GPI/anti-β2GPI complexes and their binding sites on β2GPI is far from complete. We quantified the procoagulant activ...

The prevention of domestic violence (DV) have aroused serious concerns in Taiwan because of the disparity between the increasing amount of reported DV cases that doubled over the past decade and the scarcity of social workers. Additionally, a large amount of data was collected when social workers use the predominant case management approach to document case reports information. However, these d...

We studied the effects of quinidine and lidocaine on the steady-state relationship between membrane potential and the maximum rate of rise of the action potential, (dV/dt)max, and on the recovery kinetics of (dV/dt)max in guinea pig papillary muscles. The steady-state relationships were determined in fibers stimulated at 0.2/sec and depolarized with KCl. Recovery kinetics were determined at var...

Research is lacking on differing perspectives regarding custody cases involving domestic violence (DV). In a survey of judges, legal aid attorneys, private attorneys, DV program workers, and child custody evaluators (n = 1,187), judges, private attorneys, and evaluators were more likely to believe that mothers make false DV allegations and alienate their children. In response to a vignette, eva...

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a biologically inspired computational search and optimization method developed in 1995 by Eberhart and Kennedy based on the social behaviors of birds flocking or fish schooling. A number of basic variations have been developed due to improve speed of convergence and quality of solution found by the PSO. On the other hand, basic PSO is more appropriate to pro...

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE Dysfunctional voiding (DV) is an abnormality of bladder emptying in neurologically normal individuals where the external sphincter activity increases during voiding. This study investigated the clinical presentations and videourodynamic characteristics of adult women with DV. METHODS A total of 1605 women with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) were investigated with video...

“IV” stands for “independent variable” (also called the “treatment”), “DV” for “dependent variable,” and “EV” for “extraneous variable.” In experimental research we manipulate the IV and observe any resulting change in the DV. Because we are manipulating it experimentally, the IV will probably assume only a very few values, maybe as few as two. The DV may be categorical or may be continuous. Th...