Mooring observed intraseasonal oscillations in the central South China Sea during summer monsoon season.

The South China Sea (SCS) is a high biodiversity region in the world ocean, supports abundant marine resources to the peripheral nations, and affects weather/climate in southeast Asia. A better understanding of its circulation is important to better prediction and management of the SCS. Here we reveal sizable intraseasonal oscillations at period ~ 50 days between May and November 2017 in the acoustic Doppler current profiler observed velocity in the central SCS. Satellite observed wind and sea level data together with a process-oriented numerical experiment suggest that the oscillations were caused by locally-generated and remotely-penetrated westward-propagating Rossby waves. The summer southwesterly monsoon strengthening/weakening and the resultant Ekman pumping velocity and shoreward Ekman transport increase/decrease and consequent coastal sea level rise/fall off the west coast of Palawan create westward-propagating Rossby waves causing velocity oscillations in the central SCS. Besides the local generation, Rossby waves with sea level anomaly > 0.2 m propagating from the Pacific through the Sulu Sea into the SCS could contribute to the intraseasonal velocity oscillations in the central SCS.

COVID-19: a primer for healthcare providers.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the China office was first notified of cases of atypical pneumonia in Wuhan City on 31 December 2019. A viral genome sequence of a novel coronavirus, currently termed SARS-CoV­2, with a disease process called COVID-19 was released 1 week later via online resources to obtain public health support in control of spread. Since then, the virus rapidly evolved into a global pandemic. Therefore, healthcare providers need to be familiar with the clinical presentation of infected patients and measures to quickly isolate them. The prevention of nosocomial spread is paramount to proper control of COVID-19 and is reviewed. Currently, treatment is supportive. Researchers are working to develop vaccines and identify effective antiviral interventions. Those recently discussed in the literature are briefly reviewed.

Stockpile Model of Personal Protective Equipment in Taiwan.

The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) has established a 3-tier personal protective equipment (PPE) stockpiling framework that could maintain a minimum stockpile for the surge demand of PPE in the early stage of a pandemic. However, PPE stockpiling efforts must contend with increasing storage fees and expiration problems. In 2011, the Taiwan CDC initiated a stockpile replacement model in order to optimize the PPE stockpiling efficiency, ensure a minimum stockpile, use the government's limited funds more effectively, and achieve the goal of sustainable management. This stockpile replacement model employs a first-in-first-out principle in which the oldest stock in the central government stockpile is regularly replaced and replenished with the same amount of new and qualified products, ensuring the availability and maintenance of the minimum stockpiles. In addition, a joint electronic procurement platform has been established for merchandising the replaced PPE to local health authorities and medical and other institutions for their routine or epidemic use. In this article, we describe the PPE stockpile model in Taiwan, including the 3-tier stockpiling framework, the operational model, the components of the replacement system, implementation outcomes, epidemic supports, and the challenges and prospects of this model.

[Exploring the Care Needs of Primary Caregivers of Patients Awaiting Brain Tumor Surgery and Related Factors].

BACKGROUND: The prognosis of patients with brain tumor diagnoses is often uncertain. Therefore, the primary caregivers of these patients must not only adjust their lives to patient care but also often deal with patient anxiety and depression, which may significantly increase patient-care needs. PURPOSE: The present study explores the care needs of primary caregivers of patients awaiting brain tumor surgery and the factors that are associated with these needs. METHODS: A correlational research design was used. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 80 pre-brain-tumor operation patient/caregiver pairs. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey, which included Supportive Care Needs Survey-Partners & Caregivers 45 (SCNS-P&C45) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales (HADS). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. RESULTS: The information-needs and healthcare-service-needs subscales earned the highest subscale scores on the SCNS-P&C45. Higher anxiety perception (r = .37, p < .01) and higher depression status (r = .27, p < .05) were significantly correlated with increased care needs. In addition, decreased patient functional status was significantly associated with increased depression in the primary caregiver. Anxiety perception was the only significant predictor of care needs that was identified (R(2) = 12.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare providers should provide patient education on the disease and disease-related care information soon after a diagnosis of brain tumor in order to decrease the anxiety and depression perceptions of caregivers and to reduce the care needs of caregivers.

The use of neural networks in identifying error sources in satellite-derived tropical SST estimates.

An neural network model of data mining is used to identify error sources in satellite-derived tropical sea surface temperature (SST) estimates from thermal infrared sensors onboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES). By using the Back Propagation Network (BPN) algorithm, it is found that air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed variation are the major factors causing the errors of GOES SST products in the tropical Pacific. The accuracy of SST estimates is also improved by the model. The root mean square error (RMSE) for the daily SST estimate is reduced from 0.58 K to 0.38 K and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) is 1.03%. For the hourly mean SST estimate, its RMSE is also reduced from 0.66 K to 0.44 K and the MAPE is 1.3%.

Crystalline conjugated polymer containing fused 2,5-di(thiophen-2-yl)thieno[2,3-b]thiophene and thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione units for bulk heterojunction solar cells.

A new conjugated polymer, PDTTTPD, comprising 2,5-di(thiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene and thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione units, exhibits high crystallinity and excellent thermal stability. A device incorporating PDTTTPD and [6,6]-phenyl-C(71)-butyric acid methyl ester (1:1, w/w) exhibited a power conversion efficiency of 5.1%.

Unusual exophytic neurocytoma of thoracic spine mimicking meningioma: a case report and review of the literature.

Extraventricular neurocytoma (EVN) in the spinal cord is extremely rare and only 15 cases have been reported in the English literature. Fourteen cases presented as an intramedullary lesion with spinal cord enlargement in cervico-thoracic segment and one case presented as an extramedullary lesion originating from cauda equina. Herein, we report an unusual spinal neurocytoma with exophytic growth from the thoracic spinal cord with cord compression mimicking meningioma. To our knowledge, this is the first case of exophytic spinal neurocytoma recorded in the English literature.

Kocuria varians infection associated with brain abscess: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Kocuria, established by Stackebrandt et al., previously was classified into Micrococcus. Only two species, K. rosea and K. kristinae are reported to be associated as pathogenic and found with catheter-related bacteremia and acute cholecystitis. CASE PRESENTATION: We herein report the first case of brain abscess caused by Kocuria varians, a gram-positive microorganism, in a 52-year-old man. Hematogenous spread is the probable pathogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: This report presents a case of Kocuria varians brain abscess successfully treated with surgical excision combined with antimicrobial therapy. In addition, Vitek 2 system has been used to identify and differentiate between coagulase-negative staphylococcus.

An Algorithm for Cold Patch Detection in the Sea off Northeast Taiwan Using Multi-Sensor Data.

Multi-sensor data from different satellites are used to identify an upwelling area in the sea off northeast Taiwan. Sea surface temperature (SST) data derived from infrared and microwave, as well as sea surface height anomaly (SSHA) data derived from satellite altimeters are used for this study. An integration filtering algorithm based on SST data is developed for detecting the cold patch induced by the upwelling. The center of the cold patch is identified by the maximum negative deviation relative to the spatial mean of a SST image within the study area and its climatological mean of each pixel. The boundary of the cold patch is found by the largest SST gradient. The along track SSHA data derived from satellite altimeters are then used to verify the detected cold patch. Applying the detecting algorithm, spatial and temporal characteristics and variations of the cold patch are revealed. The cold patch has an average area of 1.92 × 10(4) km(2). Its occurrence frequencies are high from June to October and reach a peak in July. The mean SST of the cold patch is 23.8 °C. In addition to the annual and the intraseasonal fluctuation with main peak centered at 60 days, the cold patch also has a variation period of about 4.7 years in the interannual timescale. This implies that the Kuroshio variations and long-term and large scale processes playing roles in modifying the cold patch occurrence frequency.