Hsinchu City Research Articles

Biotoxicity Assessment of Incinerator Bottom Ash Leachates Using Daphnia magna

The Hsinchu City incinerator generated 35.6 kilotons of incinerator bottom ash (IBA) annually. Most of the IBA were landfilled, while part of them was reused as construction materials for public works. Although the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) of IBA met the Taiwan's current environmental regulations, either landfilled or reused applications were still subject to public concerns. This study evaluated the biotoxicity of IBA leachates using Daphnia magna. The IBA samples were collected from the bottom ash storage pit, following a modified leaching procedure to prepare the leachates. The total elemental analysis of IBA leachates showed that contents of Cu and Zn were in the range from 0.35 % and 1.05 %, respectively, and were higher than other heavy metals in IBA leachates. In the TCLP testing, all results indicate the metal ions concentrations are well below toxicity standard of the regulation. Daphnia magna was employed to test the static 24-h acute toxicity, and mortality data obtained were further analyzed using the Probit and Spearman-Karber statistical models. Results in the biotoxicity testing indicated that as dilution ratios in 1:10, the toxicity unit (TU) values were in the range from 66.7 to 71.4, and dilution ratios in 1:500, the TU values were in the range from 2.9 to 3.1. The higher the dilution ratios of the leachates, the lower the TU values, indicating that the dilution ratio has a significant effect on the IBA leachates. Experimental results indicated that though the chemical-based TCLP test results were in compliance with regulatory standards, the biological-based toxicity test may reach a certain level of TU value. Accordingly, it is suggested that a biotoxicity program for IBA should be well established in parallel with current TCLP testing to increase the public acceptance for subsequent applications.

Effects of mangrove removal on benthic organisms in the Siangshan Wetland in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

Mangrove degradation is a well-documented trend, but the spread of mangroves within the Siangshan Wetland in Hsinchu, Taiwan, runs contrary to that trend. The spread of mangroves changes the structure and functions of habitats for benthic organisms, causes infilling of estuaries and flooding and creates breeding grounds for small black mosquitoes. A large-scale mangrove-removal project was undertaken by the Hsinchu City Government from October 2015 to March 2016. They also investigated the consequences of mangrove removal on benthic organisms and adjacent habitats from October 2015 to September 2016, and the density, species count, Shannon–Wiener index (H′), and Pielou’s evenness index (J′) of the mangrove and non-mangrove regions were compared. In this study, we used satellite telemetry images to monitor fluctuations in mangrove density from 2006 to 2016. The non-mangrove region exhibited more variations than the mangrove region. After mangrove removal, species returned to their original habitats and noteworthy biological values significantly increased in the mangrove regions. This study presents evidence to argue that mangrove removal benefits benthic organisms. The results indicate that mangrove removal can be an appropriate habitat rehabilitation strategy for benthic organisms. The ecological findings of this study can inform coastal managers or other officials who seek to steward mangrove biomass.

Severe unilateral scissors-bite with a constricted mandibular arch: Bite turbos and extra-alveolar bone screws in the infrazygomatic crests and mandibular buccal shelf

A 33-year-old woman had a chief complaint of difficulty chewing, caused by a constricted mandibular arch and a unilateral full buccal crossbite (scissors-bite or Brodie bite). She requested minimally invasive treatment but agreed to anchorage with extra-alveolar temporary anchorage devices as needed. Her facial form was convex with protrusive but competent lips. Skeletally, the maxilla was protrusive (SNA, 86°) with an ANB angle of 5°. Amounts of crowding were 5mm in the mandibular arch and 3mm in the maxillary arch. The mandibular midline was deviated to the left about 2mm, which was consistent with a medially and inferiorly displaced mandibular right condyle. Ectopic eruption of the maxillary right permanent first molar to the buccal side of the mandibular first molar cusps resulted in a 2-mm functional shift of the mandible to the left, which subsequently developed into a full buccal crossbite on the right side. Treatment was a conservative nonextraction approach with passive self-ligating brackets. Glass ionomer bite turbos were bonded on the occlusal surfaces of the maxillary left molars at 1month into treatment. An extra-alveolar temporary anchorage device, a 2×12-mm OrthoBoneScrew (Newton A, HsinChu City, Taiwan), was inserted in the right mandibular buccal shelf. Elastomeric chains, anchored by the OrthoBoneScrew, extended to lingual buttons bonded on the lingually inclined mandibular right molars. Cross elastics were added as secondary uprighting mechanics. The maxillary right bite turbos were reduced at 4months and removed 1month later. At 11months, bite turbos were bonded on the lingual surfaces of the maxillary central incisors, and an OrthoBoneScrew was inserted in each infrazygomatic crest. The Class II relationship was resolved with bimaxillary retraction of the maxillary arch with infrazygomatic crest anchorage and intermaxillary elastics. Interproximal reduction was performed to correct the black interdental spaces and the anterior flaring of the incisors. The scissors-bite and linguallyinclined mandibular right posterior segment were sufficiently corrected after 3months of treatment to establish adequate intermaxillary occlusion in the right posterior segments to intrude the maxillary right molars. The anterior bite turbos opened space for extrusion of the posterior teeth to level the mandibular arch, and the infrazygomatic crest bone screws anchored the retraction of the maxillary arch. In 27months, this difficult malocclusion, with a Discrepancy Index score of 25, was treated to a Cast-Radiograph Evaluation score of 22 and a pink and white esthetic score of3.

Evolving Obligatory Passage Points to Sustain Service Systems: The Case of Traditional Market Revitalization in Hsinchu City, Taiwan

“City” could be viewed as an integration of various service systems with relocated social, economic, and environmental capitals under urbanization. It was evidential in Hsinchu City, Taiwan, where once the biggest market, Dongmen Market (DMM), declined because the replacement of urban consumption patterns along with the setup of high tech science park bringing new residences. This research took the perspectives of Service-Dominant Logic (S-DL) and Actor Network Theory (ANT) to study the development of new service systems and how they were sustained through the revitalization by a two-year ethnographic study. We explain how stakeholders propose and receive value within and among service systems. A unique actor called obligatory passage point (OPP) was formed in the translation phases of actor networks, delivering the co-created value by stakeholders with different interests. Four identified OPPs indicated that their “evolution process” drove the revitalization of DMM toward a sustainable service system. A framework of open innovation practice was formulated as iterative cycles with four phases: (1) actor interacting; (2) value co-creating; (3) relationship modeling; and (4) OPP transforming, which operationalized the OPP evolution from its destruction to construction. The application of the OPP evolution process to revitalizing urban service systems contributes to practitioners in social innovation to sustain urban service systems in addition to the theoretical formation of OPP evolution.

Preliminary investigation of acaroid mites breeding in commercial food in Hsinchu City, Taiwan Province, China

To investigate the breeding of acaroid mites in the stored food in Taiwan Province, China. The breeding mites from samples selected from the markets in Hsinchu City, Taiwan Province were separated under a microscope. The isolations were used for slide preparation, then observed and identified under a microscope. Among the 39 species samples, 13 species of acaroid mites were isolated from the samples. They belonged to 11 genera of 6 families. They were Acarus siro, Tyrophagus putrescentiae, Tyrophagus longior, Aleuroglyphus ovatus, Caloglyphus berlesei, Suidasia nesbitti, Lardoglyphus konoi, Lepidoglyphus destructor, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, Chortoglyphus arcuatus, Carpoglyphus lactis, Dermatophagoides farina and Gohieria fuscus. There are acaroid mites breeding in the commercial food in Hsinchu City, Taiwan Province, China. Therefore, relevant measures should be taken to control the breeding of acaroid mites.

Assessment of Aquatic Toxicity of River Keya Using Daphnia magna

This study assessed the aquatic toxicity of the River Keya during its passage through the Hsin Chu City, Taiwan. The River Keya receives effluent from the Union Wastewater Treatment Plant of Hsin Chu Science Industrial Park (UWTP-HCSIP) primarily covering more than 500 semiconductors-related high-tech industries. Although the effluent from the UWTP-HCSIP has met the current environmental regulations of Taiwan, the aquatic environment of the River Keya was frequently subjected to unknown interferences. The aim of present study was to assess the acute toxicity of the River Keya using Daphnia magna. Six sampling sites were arranged where four were at downstream from the confluence of the effluent from the UWTP-HCSIP to the River Keya, and the other two were at the upstream to serve as references. Daphnia magna was employed to test the static 24-h acute toxicity, and the data obtained were further analyzed using the Probit and Spearman-Karber statistical models. Results showed a significant increase of the electric conductivity, BOD5, and COD in those sampling sites downstream of the confluence point. The toxicity unit (TU) of the river water showed an increase-then-decrease fashion, and up to a 3-fold increase of TU was found downstream the UWTP-HCSIP effluent convergent to the River Keya. In comparison with the TU of the samples taken at the discharge point of the UWTP-HCSIP and the downstream of the convergence, the former is two times higher than the latter. These comparative results revealed that the aquatic toxicity effect is close related to the effluent from the UWTP-HCSIP, and a carry capacity of River Keya, especially for aquatic toxicity should be established.

Dose estimation for nuclear power plant 4 accident in Taiwan at Fukushima nuclear meltdown emission level

An advanced Gaussian trajectory dispersion model is used to evaluate the evacuation zone due to a nuclear meltdown at the Nuclear Power Plant 4 (NPP4) in Taiwan, with the same emission level as that occurred at Fukushima nuclear meltdown (FNM) in 2011. Our study demonstrates that a FNM emission level would pollute 9% of the island's land area with annual effective dose ≥50 mSv using the meteorological data on 11 March 2011 in Taiwan. This high dose area is also called permanent evacuation zone (denoted as PEZ). The PEZ as well as the emergency-planning zone (EPZ) are found to be sensitive to meteorological conditions on the event. In a sunny day under the dominated NE wind conditions, the EPZ can be as far as 100 km with the first 7-day dose ≥20 mSv. Three hundred sixty-five daily events using the meteorological data from 11 March 2011 to 9 March 2012 are evaluated. It is found that the mean land area of Taiwan in becoming the PEZ is 11%. Especially, the probabilities of the northern counties/cities (Keelung, New Taipei, Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County and Ilan County) to be PEZs are high, ranging from 15% in Ilan County to 51% in Keelung City. Note that the total population of the above cities/counties is as high as 10 million people. Moreover, the western valleys of the Central Mountain Range are also found to be probable being PEZs, where all of the reservoirs in western Taiwan are located. For example, the probability can be as high as 3% in the far southern-most tip of Taiwan Island in Pingtung County. This shows that the entire populations in western Taiwan can be at risk due to the shortage of clean water sources under an event at FNM emission level, especially during the NE monsoon period.

Development of Type Control Guidelines for the Old Town District of Hsinchu City

Development of Type Control Guidelines for the Old Town District of Hsinchu City

To Investigate Successful Factors on Constructing a Smart City – An Explore Case Study of Hsinchu City, Taiwan

To Investigate Successful Factors on Constructing a Smart City – An Explore Case Study of Hsinchu City, Taiwan

Development of Type Control Guidelines for the Old Town District of Hsinchu City

The concept of “Building Type Control” was employed to establish hierarchical design guidelines for the urban regeneration process. GIS was used to manage and map environmental database as visual reference tool. Existing building regulations and urban design policies were reviewed to set out limitation and development vision for the study district, type control zones were set out with control design guidelines respectively to serve as a sufficient reference tool to assist design decision making in the urban regeneration process.

Field Efficacy of Two Commercial Products AgainstSolenopsis Invicta(Hymenoptera: Formicidae), 2014: Table 1

In recent years, Red Imported Fire Ants (RIFA), Solenopsis invicta Buren, is invading around more urban areas of northern Taiwan than ever. Numbers of RIFA colonies are found in East District of Hsinchu City, Taiwan. Two fire ant killing agents are formulated by Chung Hsi Chemical Plant, Hsinchu City, Taiwan and National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan: the Cyper bait (a fast acting toxicant-based (cypermethrin 0.12%) fire ant killing agent and Erasant bait (also called as T-bait) (a slow acting IGR-based (pyriproxyfen 0.5%) fire ant bait). A field study to evaluate the efficacy of Cyper bait and Erasant against RIFA field colonies was conducted in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. The study started on 18 April …

The study on the evaluation of the pollution control situation of the sewage systems in the counties and cities of Taiwan by applying the VIKOR method.

Currently, the pollution control situation of the sewage systems across Taiwan can be divided into the two major sewage systems, namely, industrial area sewage and public community sewage. When the counties and cities of Taiwan cannot effectively control the sewage pollution situation, ecological pollution of the environment and personal health damage would result. Therefore, evaluating the pollution control situation of the sewage systems can help the environmental protection authorities developing strategies for the pollution control of the sewage systems in the future. In this study, the Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method was applied to evaluate the pollution control situation of the sewage systems. The water sample test qualification rate, the emission permit issuance rate, and the staff setting rate of the dedicated wastewater treatment company were used as the pollution control evaluation indexes. According to the results, the use of the VIKOR method to evaluate the pollution control situation of the sewage systems is effective. In cities and counties in Taiwan, public community sewage systems, dedicated to pollution control case, the public community should be actively coached in emission control technology to upgrade sewage capacity, the issuance of discharge permits, and the staff setting rate of the dedicated wastewater treatment, to improve public community sewage pollution control system capabilities. In Taiwan, the industrial area sewage systems, dedicated to pollution control situations, must pay attention to business units in raw materials, spare part inventory, and machine supplier of choice, and we must choose to meet environmental supply chain of green suppliers, which would be effective in reducing effluent produce and improve water sample test qualification rate. The VIKOR value of Yilan County is 1.0000, which is the worst in the pollution control of all the industrial area sewage systems, followed by Taoyuan County (0.2253) and Kaohsiung City (0.1334). Other cities and counties of Taiwan have good performance in the pollution control of the industrial area sewage systems. The VIKOR value of Kinmen County is 1.0000, which is the worst pollution control among the all public community sewage systems, followed by Hsinchu County (0.7458) and New Taipei City (0.5527). Among the cities and counties with good pollution control of the public community sewage systems, the best is Chiayi County (0.0000), followed by Kaohsiung City (0.0159) and Hsinchu City (0.0352). Chiayi County is a good performance compromise between all VIKOR values (0.0000), whether in industrial or public community area pollution control sewage systems. Yilan County industrial pollution control has the poorest performance of all the industrial area sewage systems in Taiwan, but in the public community, it ranked as fourth place of all the public community area sewage systems in Taiwan. The VIKOR method proposed in this study can effectively evaluate the pollution control situation of the sewage systems, and serve as a reference for the environmental protection authorities in developing the strategies for the pollution control of the sewage systems.

Secondary Metabolites Produced by Phomopsis sp. 11F0023, an Endophytic Fungus in Eragrostis amabilis

Chemical investigation of the n-butanol-soluble layer of the MeOH extract of rice fermented with one endophytic fungal strain, Phomopsis sp. 11F0023, led to isolation of one new butenolide compound, namely phomobutenolide (1), together with three known compounds, ergosta-4,6,8(14),22-tetraen-3-one (2), cytochalasin H (3), and cytochalasin J (4). This strain was isolated from leaves of the species Eragrostis amabilis (L.) Wight & Arn., collected in the 19 Hectares Grassland Area, Siangshan District, Hsinchu City, Taiwan. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic analyses, including 1H and 13C NMR, 2D NMR (HSQC, HMBC, COSY, and NOESY), and HR-ESI-MS.

Establishing Systematic Modular Courses for Key Teaching Competencies of Teachers in Hsinchu City

The evolution of the Internet, trends in mobile device usage, and changes in the perceptions of city leaders and residents have gradually transformed cities into smart cities. Through a literature review, survey analysis, and focus group interview, this study explored the educational vision and consensus in developing Smart Hsinchu, and analyzed course requirements for key teaching competencies and contents of digital teaching abilities, all of which facilitate achieving the educational vision. Finally, this study established systemized modular courses for key teaching competencies and relevant strategies to promote these courses.

Effectiveness of a reduced dose of efavirenz plus 2 NRTIs as maintenance antiretroviral therapy with the guidance of therapeutic drug monitoring

Center for Infection Control, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei City, Taiwan. Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei City, Taiwan. Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsinchu Branch, Hsin-Chu city, Taiwan. Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechno, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei City, Taiwan. Graduate Institute of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei City, Taiwan.

Experimental investigation of trace element dissolution in formation water in the presence of supercritical CO2 fluid for a potential geological storage site of CO2 in Taiwan

The Pliocene Yutengping Sandstone (depth 1642–1882 m) and its overlying caprock shale (depth 1395–1642 m) in Hsinchu City, central Taiwan, were intended for a storage site of CO2. Formation water was collected from a gas well located at a depth of 1827–1846 m. This study investigated changes in water chemistry and dissolution of trace elements from the sandstone and shale at 25 MPa and 90 °C in the presence and absence of supercritical CO2 (scCO2) over 7 days. The results showed substantial dissolution of V, Cr, Co, Cu, and Rb from the sandstone and shale into formation water in the presence of scCO2 fluid, while the release of Zn, Se, Mo, and Cd from the sandstone and shale was minimal. Desorption of V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Sr, and Ba was more pronounced from the sandstone than from shale, whereas Co, Ni, Cu, As, and Mo desorbed more from the shale. The concentration of As in formation water increased from 1.4 μg/L to 130 μg/L after in contact with scCO2. Such a high As concentration may present a significant threat to shallow groundwater quality in this region, particularly if leakage along faults and rock fractures in the region occurred.

Advanced Functional Nanomaterials Synthesis and Nanocrystal Growth Technology

1 Instrument Technology Research Center, National Applied Research Laboratories, Hsinchu City, Taiwan 2Department of Photonics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu City 30076, Taiwan 3Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, Saga University, Saga 840-8502, Japan 4Department of Electronic Engineering, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan City 33302, Taiwan 5Department of Photonics Engineering, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan City 32003, Taiwan 6Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TH, UK

FlyDriver: A Connectomic Approach to Find Specific Drivers of Target Neuron in the FlyCircuit

Event Abstract Back to Event FlyDriver: A Connectomic Approach to Find Specific Drivers of Target Neuron in the FlyCircuit Ting-Yuan Wang1, Yen-Jen Lin2, Hsuan-Wen Lin1, Chao-Chun Chuang3, Meng-Hsuan Chiang1 and Ann-Shyn Chiang1, 2, 4, 5* 1 National Tsing Hua University, Institute of Biotechnology, Taiwan 2 National Tsing Hua University, Brain Research Center, Taiwan 3 National Center for High-performance Computing, Taiwan 4 Academia Sinica, Genomics Research Center, Taiwan 5 University of California at San Diego, Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, United States We collected about 4000 driver expression images of Drosophila melanogaster, which included Gal4, LexA, flipase and spilt-Gal4 system for manipulating neuronal circuit function. All confocal microscopy images was archived into a database, named FlyDriver. FlyDriver was followed the same platform of FlyCircuit. Therefore, we can compare single neuron image with driver image. Here, we used image-matching algorithm on both neuron-driver image pairs and driver-driver image pairs between FlyCircuit and FlyDriver, which amount over the 100 million image pairs was been calculated. The overlap information of neuron-driver image pairs could help user to find a specific driver with a target neuron. In addition, user could also find similar driver with overlap information of driver-driver image pairs. We have illustrated the utility of these image-matching data for identifying the putative driver expressed target neuron and finding the specific driver from a set of neuron images. For some expression pattern that did not exist in one single driver, we could use the overlap information to predict expression patterns that comes from the intersection region from two driver images. As a result, FlyDriver provided a web interface that allows users to find the driver with different criterion. This will facilitate finding a specific driver to understanding the function of neuronal circuit. Keywords: neuron image, driver image, image databse, driver database, Image matching algorithm Conference: Neuroinformatics 2015, Cairns, Australia, 20 Aug - 22 Aug, 2015. Presentation Type: Poster, to be considered for oral presentation Topic: Computational neuroscience Citation: Wang T, Lin Y, Lin H, Chuang C, Chiang M and Chiang A (2015). FlyDriver: A Connectomic Approach to Find Specific Drivers of Target Neuron in the FlyCircuit. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Neuroinformatics 2015. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2015.91.00011 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 02 May 2015; Published Online: 05 Aug 2015. * Correspondence: Prof. Ann-Shyn Chiang, National Tsing Hua University, Institute of Biotechnology, Hsinchu city, 300, Taiwan, aschiang@life.nthu.edu.tw Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Ting-Yuan Wang Yen-Jen Lin Hsuan-Wen Lin Chao-Chun Chuang Meng-Hsuan Chiang Ann-Shyn Chiang Google Ting-Yuan Wang Yen-Jen Lin Hsuan-Wen Lin Chao-Chun Chuang Meng-Hsuan Chiang Ann-Shyn Chiang Google Scholar Ting-Yuan Wang Yen-Jen Lin Hsuan-Wen Lin Chao-Chun Chuang Meng-Hsuan Chiang Ann-Shyn Chiang PubMed Ting-Yuan Wang Yen-Jen Lin Hsuan-Wen Lin Chao-Chun Chuang Meng-Hsuan Chiang Ann-Shyn Chiang Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Balance between efficiency and stability in a neural circuit model of the Drosophila brain

Event Abstract Back to Event Balance between efficiency and stability in a neural circuit model of the Drosophila brain Cheng-Te Wang1, Yu-Chi Huang1 and Chung-Chuan Lo1* 1 National Tsing Hua University, Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Taiwan Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is becoming a promising model animal in computational neuroscience for its small brain size, complex cognitive behavior and abundant data from genes to circuits. Although much has being learned about the functions of individual sensory systems, how do they operated and integrated at the brain-wide level in Drosophila remains poorly understood. To provide a platform for studying computation of the fly nervous system, we initiated the Flysim project with a goal to construct a full-brain neural circuit model with a single-neuron resolution based on the data obtained from the flycircuit database. Although containing only ~28,000 neurons (account for 22% of the fly brain) at the current stage, our fly brain model already exhibits unexpectedly rich dynamics. Due to the strongly recurrent excitation, the brain model is inherently unstable and epilepsy-like activity frequently arose from the baseline state. We further found that the epilepsy-like activity cannot be suppressed by solely strengthening the inhibitory synapses but can be eliminated by implementing short-term depression. However, depressed synapses strongly attenuate the propagation of signals and lead to an inefficient neural circuit. Therefore, a functioning nervous system requires fine balance between stability and efficiency. Additional analyses revealed that the epilepsy-like activity originates from a group of specific brain regions that are functionally less understood but seem to play roles in integrating signals from different sensory modules. By a large-scale screening through the inhibitory system of the brain model, we further discovered that the epilepsy-like activity can be suppressed by a small number of inhibitory neurons if they are manually activated. Interestingly, the epilepsy-suppressing ability of these neurons does not come from their inhibitory strength, but from their unique innervating patterns over the excitatory system. In conclusion, despite being in an early stage of the model development, our fly brain model has already shown its strength in providing insights into brain-wide neural dynamics which may not be revealed by analyzing the random or simple small-world neural networks. Acknowledgements This work is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology and by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan. We thank the National Center for High-performance Computing for providing computational resources and Dr. Ann-Shyn Chiang for helpful comments. Keywords: Drosophila, Epilepsy, network stability, fruit fly, balanced networks, Efficiency, short-term depression, short-term synaptic plasticity, Inhibitory Control Conference: Neuroinformatics 2015, Cairns, Australia, 20 Aug - 22 Aug, 2015. Presentation Type: Poster, to be considered for oral presentation Topic: Computational neuroscience Citation: Wang C, Huang Y and Lo C (2015). Balance between efficiency and stability in a neural circuit model of the Drosophila brain. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Neuroinformatics 2015. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2015.91.00035 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 07 Apr 2015; Published Online: 05 Aug 2015. * Correspondence: Dr. Chung-Chuan Lo, National Tsing Hua University, Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Hsinchu city, US & Canada only, 300, Taiwan, cclo@life.nthu.edu.tw Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Cheng-Te Wang Yu-Chi Huang Chung-Chuan Lo Google Cheng-Te Wang Yu-Chi Huang Chung-Chuan Lo Google Scholar Cheng-Te Wang Yu-Chi Huang Chung-Chuan Lo PubMed Cheng-Te Wang Yu-Chi Huang Chung-Chuan Lo Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Carbon Footprint Accounting Practices in Taiwan

By using carbon dioxide emissions in Taiwan, this study attempts to account for total carbon dioxide emissions and per capita emissions at city and county level, based on the household consumption structure in each region. Carbon dioxide emissions are translated into carbon footprint by using the ecological footprint (EF) method, followed by calculation of total and per capita carbon footprint for each city and county. Analysis results indicate that Taiwan's total carbon dioxide emissions in 2011 were 264.66 million tons, of which New Taipei City, Taipei City and Kaohsiung City were the highest. However, according to the EF framework, the per capita carbon footprint for Taiwan was 5.94 global hectares (gha) in 2011. The highest three counties and cities were Taipei City, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County. Future research should incorporate the use of direct measures of carbon dioxide emissions in counties and cities, which would produce a more realistic outcome. Moreover, the feasibility of using the EF method to translate carbon dioxide emissions into carbon footprint should also be examined.