Science In Taiwan Research Articles

Using a modified argument-driven inquiry to promote elementary school students’ engagement in learning science and argumentation

ABSTRACTThis study explored the effects of a modified argument-driven inquiry approach on Grade 4 students’ engagement in learning science and argumentation in Taiwan. The students were recruited as an experimental group (EG, n = 36) to join a 12-week study, while another 36 Grade 4 students from the same schools were randomly selected to be the comparison group (CG). All participants completed a questionnaire at the beginning and end of this study. In addition, four target students with the highest and the other four students with the lowest pretest engagement in learning science or argumentation to be observed weekly and interviewed following the posttest. Initial results revealed that the EG students’ total engagement in learning science and argumentation and the claim and warrant components were significantly higher than the CG students. In addition, the EG students’ anxiety in learning science significantly decreased during the study; and their posttest total engagement in learning science scores were positively associated with their argumentation scores. Interview and observation results were consistent with the quantitative findings. Instructional implications and research recommendations are discussed.

Preparation, characterization, and blood compatibility of polyurethanes derived from aliphatic diisocyanates and polycarbonate urethane

Event Abstract Back to Event Preparation, characterization, and blood compatibility of polyurethanes derived from aliphatic diisocyanates and polycarbonate urethane Xinyu Wang1, 2, Rong Zhu1, 2, Zongrui Zhang1, 2, Daiwei Ma1, 2 and Mingbei Zhu1, 2* 1 Wuhan University of Technology, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, China 2 Wuhan University ofTechnology, Biomedical Materials and Engineering Research Center of Hubei Province, China Introduction: In this study, to obtain biomedical polyurethane elastomers with good mechanical properties and biocompatibily [1],a series of polycarbonate urethanes were synthesized via a two-step solution of polymerization method using the poly(1,6-hexanediol)carbonate diols (PCDL) as the soft segment, 4,4’-methylenebis(cyclohexyl isocyanate) (H12MDI), 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and 1,4-butanediol (BDO) as the hard segment with dibutyltin dilaurate as the catalyst. In this article, we illustrated the physical behaviors were obviously influenced by synthetic routes. And their chemical and physical structures were investigated by GPC,DSC,FT-IR and mechanical properties tests [2]. The surface wettability were studied by contact angle measurement (CA). A comparative analysis was made between the commercial medical polyurethane materials and the synthesized materials, showing the poly(carbonate-urethane) elastomers were better in mechanical properties [3]. Finally, the results of the hemolysis and platelet adhesive tests were recorded by spectrophotometer and SEM, indicating the materials were in accordance with the standard for biomaterials. Materials and Methods: The polyurethane films can be easily synthesized via a two-step reaction using PCDL and diisocyanate coupled with a chain extender BDO.And all the reagents added to the reacting round-bottomed flask were dissolved in DMAc or DMF. After that, the mixture was cast into a beaker for precipitation, with ether-water solution in it. And then the polymer was placed in Soxhlet extrator using deionized water as extracing agent for removing small molecules for at least 24h. And then, after being dissolved in THF (7.5 wt%) with stirring at 800 r/min for 2 h, the polyurethane solution was placed in a vacuum oven at 45℃. Finally, in order to keep the surface of the polyurethane flat, the prepared polymer solution was put in homemade molds carefully for drying at room temperature. The tests on mechanical properties could be carried out after drying in the vacuum oven at 40 ℃ for at least 5 days. Results and Discussion: The polycarbonate polyurethane films have been successfully synthesized and the results of CA measurement indicated H12MDI-PUs were better in hydrophobic property. As for mechanical properties showed in, the series of polyurethane films were better than Pellethane 2363-80A did, especially for H12MDI 1.5-PU. It displayed tensile strength of less than 10 MPa and showed the best properties in elongation getting about 850% at break. The results of the hemolytic tests indicated the materials were in accordance with the standard for biomaterials and the SEM pictures of platelet adhesion experiment in showed there were little platelet adhering to the polyurethane films. In order to get more advantages as a kind of short-term biomaterial, we’ll concentrated on doing some researches to enhance the hydrophobicity and improve the biocompatibility without reducing the mechanical properties. Conclusion: In this article, the physical properties of our prepared polymers were even better in flexibility and elongation at break after the comparison with a commercial biomedical polyurethane. Our ongoing work have demonstrated that H12MDI 1.5-PU has great potential in biomedical field. In order to get better applications as a candidate for elastic biomedical material, some modifications are still should be made to improve their biocompatibility. The HongKong, Macao and Taiwan Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (No.2015DFH30180); the Key Grant Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (No.313041); the Key Technology Research Plan of Wuhan Municipality (No.2014060202010120); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (WUT:2014-Ⅶ-028)

A Study on the Cognitive Learning Effectiveness of Scenario-Based Concept Mapping in a Neurological Nursing Course

The multiple levels of knowledge related to the neurological system deter many students from pursuing studies on this topic. Thus, in facing complicated and uncertain medical circumstances, nursing students have diffi-culty adjusting and using basic neurological-nursing knowledge and skills. Scenario-based concept-mapping teaching has been shown to promote the integration of complicated data, clarify related concepts, and increase the effectiveness of cognitive learning. To investigate the effect on the neurological-nursing cognition and learning attitude of nursing students of a scenario-based concept-mapping strategy that was integrated into the neurological nursing unit of a medical and surgical nursing course. This quasi-experimental study used experimental and control groups and a pre-test / post-test design. Sopho-more (2nd year) students in a four-year program at a university of science and technology in Taiwan were convenience sampled using cluster randomization that was run under SPSS 17.0. Concept-mapping lessons were used as the intervention for the experimental group. The control group followed traditional lesson plans only. The cognitive learning outcome was measured using the neurological nursing-learning examination. Both concept-mapping and traditional lessons significantly improved post-test neurological nursing learning scores (p < .001), with no significant difference between the two groups (p = .51). The post-test feedback from the control group mentioned that too much content was taught and that difficulties were experienced in understanding mechanisms and in absorbing knowledge. In contrast, the experimental group held a significantly more positive perspective and learning attitude with regard to the teaching material. Furthermore, a significant number in the experimental group expressed the desire to add more lessons on anatomy, physiology, and pathology. These results indicate that this intervention strategy may help change the widespread fear and refusal of nursing students with regard to neurological lessons and may facilitate interest and positively affect learning in this important subject area. Integrating the concept-mapping strategy and traditional clinical-case lessons into neurological nursing lessons holds the potential to increase post-test scores significantly. Concept mapping helped those in the experimental group adopt views and attitudes toward learning the teaching material that were more positive than those held by their control-group peers. In addition, while 59% of the experimental group and 49% of the control group submitted opinions related to learning attitude in the open-ended questions, positive feedback was greater in the experimental group than in the control group.

A STUDY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN OPTOELECTRONICS INDUSTRY USING MULTIPLE CRITERIA DECISION MAKING METHODS

This study assessed the operational efficiency of the optoelectronics industry in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) between 2007 and 2011 by using multiple criteria decision making methods (data envelopment analysis, Malmquist productivity index and Bootstrap). The data analysis showed that during the study period, meaning that the operational efficiency gap among manufacturers in STSP is widening. Among these manufacturers, eight manufacturers exhibited constant returns to scale, which was more than a half of the overall decision making unit (DMU), indicating that the operational scale of these manufacturers was nearing the optimal scale. Based on Malmquist productivity index (MPI) analysis, the factors that affect the operational efficiencies of optoelectronics manufacturers’ were as follow: operational cost, the number of employees, and the amount of fixed assets. The development should be focused on increasing technological efficiency and technological change in the future. Finally, based on Bootstrap, the results showed that the focus should be on the production technology while improving productive efficiency to ensure sustainable development of the entire domestic optoelectronics industry in the future.

Does Holding a Postdoctoral Position Bring Benefits for Advancing to Academia?

Postdoc is a special transitional position for those with a doctoral degree and is usually regarded as an investment to accumulate the additional human and social capital needed to facilitate future job searches or to add to an academic reserve army of unemployed PhDs. Given the prevalence of postdoctoral positions nowadays, it is crucial to explore the role played by postdoctoral participation in the post-PhD labor market. By taking advantage of a comprehensive data set from the National Profiles of Human Resources in Science and Technology in Taiwan, we first explore several characteristics associated with the choice of a postdoctoral position for newly-minted doctoral degree holders, such as age, discipline or the time taken to complete the degree. It is found that older doctorates have a lower probability of taking up a postdoctoral position, and a longer elapsed time to the PhD degree is less likely to result in a postdoctoral position. The postdoctoral engagement also hinges on the field of study, implying that those majoring in Science tend to engage in postdoctoral work more than those majoring in Social Science. The control function approach is utilized to address the possible endogenous decision of postdoctoral experience when estimating the effects of postdoctoral positions on the current career choices between academic and non-academic jobs. The empirical results suggest that engaging in postdoctoral positions could increase the probability of advancing to the academic sector by about 6.1 %. The heterogeneous effects of gender, major and cohort in regard to the postdoctoral experience are also found by splitting the data. In particular, gaining postdoctoral experience does help males engineering majors and older cohorts obtain jobs in academia. Moreover, we experiment with several groupings for the definition of being awarded an academic position and obtain very robust empirical results.

A context-aware knowledge map to support ubiquitous learning activities for a u-Botanical museum

&lt;p&gt;Recent developments in mobile and wireless communication technologies have played a vital role in building the u-learning environment that now combines both real-world and digital learning resources. However, learners still require assistance to control real objects and manage the abundance of available materials; otherwise, their mental workload could become so high that learning becomes less effective. The learner is the priority in every learning situation and is, therefore, a crucial factor in executing u-learning. This study presents a u-learning system that integrates context awareness and ontological technology to design a context-aware knowledge map (CAKM) to improve learning efficiency. A case study of an Orchid Island botanical ecosystem course was conducted in classrooms and at the Botanical Garden of National Museum of Natural Science in Taiwan. Participants were university teachers and students. A questionnaire based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) theory was designed and used to measure the willingness for adoption or usage of the proposed system. The results demonstrate that this innovative approach can enhance learning intention. The results also indicate that this CAKM not only substantially improves the effectiveness of subject learning but also enhances the usability of u-learning systems in the museum environment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;

Anomalous Channel Length Dependence of Hot-Carrier-Induced Saturation Drain Current Degradation in n-Type MOSFETs**Supported by Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China under Grant No 2014DFH10190, the Distinguished Young Scientists Foundation of Jiangsu Province under Grant No BK20130021, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 61204083 and 61306092, and the Qing Lan Project.

The dependencies of hot-carrier-induced degradations on the effective channel length Lch,eff are investigated for n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFETs). Our experiments find that, with decreasing Lch,eff, the saturation drain current (Idsat) degradation is unexpectedly alleviated. The further study demonstrates that the anomalous Lch,eff dependence of Idsat degradation is induced by the increasing influence of the substrate current degradation on the Idsat degradation with Lch,eff reducing.

The Willingness to Pay by Industrial Sectors for Agricultural Water Transfer During Drought Periods in Taiwan

With continuous climatic change, droughts have begun to occur more frequently. In order for industrial sectors to secure a stable supply of water during the time of droughts, or to maintain the normal functions of industrial production lines, transfer of agricultural water has often been utilized. This will happen more frequently as the climates continue to change. There is a high possibility that continuous climatic change will affect the current water management operations. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) thinks that developing the water market by targeting reasonable distribution of scarce water resources is one of the strategies for water resource management under continuous climatic change (IPCC, 2008). Past studies have often discussed the amount of compensation given in exchange for agricultural water transfer, or the costs lost resulting from water transfer. However, few studies have discussed the industrial sector’s willingness to pay for agricultural water transfer from the viewpoint of managing water shortage risks. In general, if the amount of compensation is established based on farmers’ WTA information, there might be situations where the amount of compensation established is inclined to become an exploitation of the surplus from transferring agricultural water. Or, the benefits of the agricultural sectors might be sacrificed or exploited. It could also be that the transaction cost would become higher for agricultural water transfers during droughts when the information of the provider and those in need are asymmetrical, which in turn would affect the benefits of the agricultural sectors and the efficiency of water resource distribution. This study uses the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) to evaluate the amount of money industrial sectors are willing to pay under climatic change to avoid the risk of water shortage in Taiwan. We target the larger industrial areas and science parks as the objects of investigation. Interviews about the amount of willingness to pay (WTP) for transferring agricultural water are conducted in factories in the above mentioned areas, which include the Hsinchu Industrial Park, Chung-Li Industrial Park, Taichung Industrial Park, Lin-Yuan Industrial Park, Hsinchu Science Park, Central Taiwan Science Park, and Tainan Science Park. The results of this study show that the WTP for agricultural water transfer of the abovementioned industrial/science parks are $28NT/ton during drought periods.

Does Holding a Postdoctoral Position Bring Benefits for Advancing to Academia?

Postdoc is a special transitional position for those with a doctoral degree and is usually regarded as an investment to accumulate the additional human and social capital needed to facilitate future job searches or to add to an academic reserve army of unemployed PhDs. Given the prevalence of postdoctoral positions nowadays, it is crucial to explore the role played by postdoctoral participation in the post-PhD labor market. By taking advantage of a comprehensive data set from the National Profiles of Human Resources in Science and Technology in Taiwan, we first explore several characteristics associated with the choice of a postdoctoral position for newly-minted doctoral degree holders, such as age, discipline or the time taken to complete the degree. We then apply the control function approach to address the possible endogenous decision of postdoctoral experience when estimating the effects of postdoctoral positions on the current career choices between academic and non-academic jobs. The empirical results suggest that engaging in postdoctoral positions could increase the probability of advancing to the academic sector by about 6.1%. The heterogeneous effects of gender, major and cohort in regard to the postdoctoral experience are also found by splitting the data. Moreover, we experiment with several groupings for the definition of being awarded an academic position and obtain very robust empirical results.

Particles and Metallic Elements near a High-Tech Industrial Park: Analysis of Size Distributions

To characterize airborne particles near high-tech industrial parks, this case study used an eight-stage micro-orifice uniform deposit impactor sampler to analyze trace metal patterns in different size groups of airborne particles at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP) in Taichung. To rapidly screen out the potential pollution sources according to the analytical results, a novel model based on expected value theory is proposed. The analytical results show that the ambient air near the CTSP is rich in fine and ultrafine particles and V, As, Ga and Cd have significant increases in ultrafine particles between upwind and downwind areas of CTSP. The proposed source screening tool indicates that CTSP is the major contributor to airborne concentrations of Ga and As in the ambient air near the CTSP, especially in fine and ultrafine particles.

The performance indicators for science and technology projects in Taiwan

To help the Taiwanese private sector to compete globally, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) in Taiwan initiated a programme called the 'Science and Technology Project (STP)' in 1982. Through this programme, the government offers over 10 billion NT dollars per year to support technological research and development. Furthermore, the STP is executed by statutory bodies (non–profit research institutes) funded by the MOEA. For the purposes of budget allocation and control, an annual performance evaluation of STP is needed, though it is a difficult task. Although the MOEA has established a system of performance evaluation and has practiced it for years, there is no consensus on the fairness of this system among research institutes and other interested parties competing for funds. A more elegant evaluation system is needed. The purpose of this research is to establish a reliable system of performance indicators for the STP. Our study reviewed the whole performance indicators system of R&D projects and proposed a feasible revision. The system of performance indicators can be further divided into three subsystems: (1) indicators for research results, (2) indicators for industrial co–operation, (3) indicators for technology diffusion.

Technological position in alliances network

The purpose of this research was to examine the interactions between the focal firm (FF) and its technological alliance, and to enquire into the technological alliance network in shaping the firm position from innovative dynamics environment. 2-Mode network analysis was employed to explore the question of how technological position emerged from alliance interaction. Specifically, we looked at the network structure of the sample by examining the interactions of technological alliance. Our empirical data were from the ‘Strategic Alliance Database’ established by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan. We identified technological position of firms from the 2-mode network analysis to resolve the highlighted question. Some results that we found were as follows: (1) The alliance network of IT technology approximated an ideal core/periphery structure. (2) The network structure apparently demonstrated that FF with a higher centrality has better opportunity to locate in the central position of FFs or in the core position in the technological network. (3) Alliance in core with a dense structure can better facilitate the utilisation of existing knowledge in refinement and extension of existing technologies. Alliance in the periphery with a non-dense structure is in a favourable position for matchmaking of experimentation and to serve as a bridge to introduce novel technologies.

A survey of student opinions on ethical design standards in Taiwan.

Design ethics has been offered as a course in undergraduate design programs in Taiwan for over a decade, but research on teaching design ethics and the results of teaching these courses is scant. We conducted two tests to examine (1) the effect of an ethics course, and (2) the differences among the effects of design department, gender, and study year on student opinions regarding ethical design standards (EDSs) at the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (YunTech) in Taiwan. The participants comprised 934 undergraduates (660 women and 274 men) from the five design departments at YunTech's College of Design from Years 1-4. The results confirmed the effect of an ethics course on student EDS opinions. In addition, we observed significant variations among students according to design departments, suggesting that the characteristics of the design departments also affected students' EDS opinions. The results indicated that gender did not significantly affect design students' EDS opinions; however, students in their early years of study produced higher scores than those in their advanced years of study did, based on the six EDS opinions. The implications of these results for teaching design ethics and future research are discussed in this paper.

Taiwan’s science miracle

In the past two decades, a flourishing economy and maturing infrastructure have Taiwanese physicists both staying home more and engaging internationally.

Examining the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect on Students' Self-Concept of Learning Science in Taiwan Based on the TIMSS Databases

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between student self-concept and achievement in science in Taiwan based on the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) model using the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 and 2007 databases. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the effects of the student-level and school-level science achievement on student self-concept of learning science. The results indicated that student science achievement was positively associated with individual self-concept of learning science in both TIMSS 2003 and 2007. On the contrary, while school-average science achievement was negatively related to student self-concept in TIMSS 2003, it had no statistically significant relationship with student self-concept in TIMSS 2007. The findings of this study shed light on possible explanations for the existence of BFLPE and also lead to an international discussion on the generalization of BFLPE.

Assessing effects of information architecture of digital libraries on supporting E-learning: A case study on the Digital Library of Nature & Culture

Modern digital libraries not only contain rich digital resources, they are also required to provide an environment which integrates collection provision, information services, and academic activities to support effective learning. This work chose the Digital Library of Nature and Culture established by the National Museum of Natural Science in Taiwan to investigate whether the design of the information architecture of a digital library influences learning performance and whether learners with different learning styles have different information usage behaviors and learning performance when they use the digital library to support e-learning. This work suggested that e-learning supported by a digital library resulted in excellent learning performance. Regarding the influence of information architecture on learning performance, this work found that the organization system was crucial to learning performance. Further, learners with different learning performance exhibit different behaviors when they use the information architecture of the digital library. Another finding was that the learning performance of global learners was better than that of sequential learners. Global learners and those learners with superior learning performance relied more heavily on the organization system, while sequential learners and those learners with inferior learning performance relied more heavily on the search system.

Can a doctoral degree be completed faster overseas than domestically? Evidence from Taiwanese doctorates

This paper investigates the role that studying overseas or domestically plays in Taiwanese students obtaining a doctoral degree and, in particular, whether doctorates can be completed faster overseas than domestically. This feature is quite different from the literature in the sense that previous studies focus mainly on students with different countries of origin earning their doctoral degrees in a host program/institution/country and could provide a professional reference for main source countries with a great number of students studying abroad. By taking advantage of a large data set compiled by the National Profiles of Human Resources in Science and Technology in Taiwan, we find that Taiwanese students studying in foreign schools (and who will come back to Taiwan) on average take 9.61 months (reflecting approximately a $60,000 opportunity cost) less than those earning PhD degrees domestically after netting out other controls. Other factors such as males, starting a PhD when older, younger cohorts, holding a master’s degree, school types matching, and studying in non-top tier universities, are associated with a shorter elapsed time to a doctoral degree.

Taiwanese life scientists less “medialized” than their Western colleagues

The article presents results from surveys of life scientists in Taiwan (n=270) and in Germany (n=326). Fewer Taiwanese than German researchers have frequent contact with the media and they rate their experiences with journalists less positively. Furthermore, they are less prepared to adapt to journalistic expectations and to a greater extent than German researchers they expect journalists to consider scientific criteria in their reporting. These findings are interpreted in Weingart's "medialization of science" framework as indicators of lower medialization of science in Taiwan than in Germany. However, Taiwanese scientists are more willing than German scientists to accept journalistic simplification at the expense of accuracy. This is explained as an adaptation to the media system and to the perceived scientific literacy of the media audience. We hypothesize that cultural differences regarding the relative priority of relational vs. rational communication goals may also contribute to more tolerance of journalistic simplification in Taiwan.

Effects of office space and colour on knowledge sharing and work stress

With the aid of empirical research, this study aims to verify the effects of the variables Office Space and Colour on Knowledge Sharing and Work Stress. Taking the domestic technology industry as the research sample, purposive sampling was applied in a questionnaire survey. Three hundred and sixty-eight questionnaires were distributed to a total of 14 technology companies in the Hsinchu and Southern Taiwan Science Parks. After 21 invalid responses had been removed, 347 valid copies were retrieved. Reliability analysis, factor analysis and hierarchical regression were used to analyse the data. The research outcomes show the significant effects of Office Space and Colour on Knowledge Sharing and Work Stress among employees. Based on the outcomes, certain conclusions and suggestions are proposed.

Investigation of the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect on Students’ Self-Concept of Learning Mathematics and Science in Taiwan: Results from TIMSS 2011

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between fourth and eighth grade students’ self-concept and achievement in mathematics and science within one educational system based on the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) model. The samples were from the data of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2011, and hierarchical linear modeling was used to differentiate the effects of the student-level and school-level achievement on student self-concept of learning in Taiwan. The results indicated that the self-concept of students of both grade levels is positively associated with individual achievement in mathematics and science. However, there is generally a statistically significant and negative correlation between student self-concept and school mean achievement. At the same time, the results also showed that the correlation was stronger for the eighth than for the fourth grade students, and for mathematics than for science. The findings of this study document the different degree of BFLPE on students of different grades and on different academic subjects.