Confidence intervals for the mean function of the true proportion score (μζ|x), where ζ and x respectively denote the true proportion and observed test scores, can be approximated by the Efron, Bayesian, and parametric empirical Bayes (PEB) bootstrap procedures. The similarity of results yielded by all the bootstrap methods suggests the following: the unidentifiability problem of the prior distribution g(ζ) can be bypassed with respect to the construction of confidence intervals for the mean function, and a beta distribution for g(ζ) is a reasonable assumption for the test scores in compliance with a negative hypergeometric distribution. The PEB bootstrap, which reflects the construction of Morris intervals, is introduced for computing predictive confidence bands for ζ|x. It is noted that the effect of test reliability on the precision of interval estimates varies with the two types of confidence statements concerned.

We introduce two simple empirical approximate Bayes estimators (EABEs)— \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde{d}_N (x)$$\end{document} and \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde\delta _N (x)$$\end{document}—for estimating domain scores under binomial and hypergeometric distributions, respectively. Both EABEs (derived from corresponding marginal distributions of observed test score x without relying on knowledge of prior domain score distributions) have been proven to hold Δ-asymptotic optimality in Robbins' sense of convergence in mean. We found that, where \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde{d}^* _N$$\end{document} and \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde\delta ^* _N$$\end{document} are the monotonized versions of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde{d}_N$$\end{document} and \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde\delta _N$$\end{document} under Van Houwelingen's monotonization method, respectively, the convergence rate of the overall expected loss of Bayes risk in either \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde{d}^* _N$$\end{document} or \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde\delta ^* _N$$\end{document} depends on test length, sample size, and ratio of test length to size of domain items. In terms of conditional Bayes risk, \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde{d}^* _N$$\end{document} and \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde\delta ^* _N$$\end{document} outperform their maximum likelihood counterparts over the middle range of domain scales. In terms of mean-squared error, we also found that: (a) given a unimodal prior distribution of domain scores, \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde\delta ^* _N$$\end{document} performs better than both \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde{d}^* _N$$\end{document} and a linear EBE of the beta-binomial model when domain item size is small or when test items reflect a high degree of heterogeneity; (b) \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde{d}^* _N$$\end{document} performs as well as \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\widetilde\delta ^* _N$$\end{document} when prior distribution is bimodal and test items are homogeneous; and (c) the linear EBE is extremely robust when a large pool of homogeneous items plus a unimodal prior distribution exists.

The shape memory properties of Ni–Al alloy are investigated using molecular dynamics simulation. The phase transformation behaviors for various Ni composition ratios are studied under quasistatic cooling and heating process. Various loadings, i.e., uniaxial, shear, and biaxial, are applied on a 68% Ni–Al alloy till plasticity takes place. The atomic configurations are inspected and analyzed using a common neighbor parameter. The shape recovery capability of the plastically deformed alloy is examined after heating above the phase transformation temperature. It is found that there would be shape recovery if the twinning plane reorientation or moving was the major yielding mechanism. For those loadings in which stacking faults or dislocations nucleate, the deformed model would not restore to its original shape after heating and the corresponding maximum shear stress is noticeably higher. There is no direct dependence between the yield strain and the shape recovery capability. Our findings could provide a possible explanation for the functional fatigue of the polycrystalline shape memory alloy.

We investigated the effect of focused ion beam (FIB) imaging on the crystallinity of InAs using Raman scattering. A spatial correlation model was used to fit the broad band induced by FIB imaging. The fitting gives a correlation length of ~42 Å for the noisiest image condition (with an ion fluence of 7.4×1010 cm−2), implying severe damage in the surface layer of InAs. However, further increasing the fluence by several orders of magnitude only decreases the correlation length from 42 to 35 Å. We attribute the severe damage to the high beam current density and the low scanning speed of the FIB imaging process. These process conditions, along with low InAs thermal conductivity, also leads to a high local temperature in the exposed region that largely annihilated the defects and resulted in the nearly fluence-independent behavior.

Several previous cross-sectional studies have shown that vegetarians have a better metabolic profile than non-vegetarians, suggesting that a vegetarian dietary pattern may help prevent chronic degenerative diseases. However, longitudinal studies on the impact of vegetarian diets on metabolic traits are scarce. We studied how several sub-types of vegetarian diets affect metabolic traits, including waist circumference, BMI, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol (TC), HDL, LDL, TAG and TC:HDL ratio, through both cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs. The study used the MJ Health Screening database, with data collected from 1994 to 2008 in Taiwan, which included 4415 lacto-ovo-vegetarians, 1855 lacto-vegetarians and 1913 vegans; each vegetarian was matched with five non-vegetarians based on age, sex and study site. In the longitudinal follow-up, each additional year of vegan diet lowered the risk of obesity by 7 % (95 % CI 0·88, 0·99), whereas each additional year of lacto-vegetarian diet lowered the risk of elevated SBP by 8 % (95 % CI 0·85, 0·99) and elevated glucose by 7 % (95 % CI 0·87, 0·99), and each additional year of ovo-lacto-vegetarian diet increased abnormal HDL by 7 % (95 % CI 1·03, 1·12), compared with non-vegetarians. In the cross-sectional comparisons, all sub-types of vegetarians had lower likelihoods of abnormalities compared with non-vegetarians on all metabolic traits (P<0·001 for all comparisons), except for HDL and TAG. The better metabolic profile in vegetarians is partially attributable to lower BMI. With proper management of TAG and HDL, along with caution about the intake of refined carbohydrates and fructose, a plant-based diet may benefit all aspects of the metabolic profile.

In the current research, we successfully prepared TiO2/Ni–Cu–Zn ferrite composite powder for magnetic photocatalyst. The core Ni–Cu–Zn ferrite powder was synthesized using the steel pickling liquor and the waste solution of electroplating as the starting materials. The shell TiO2 nanocrystal was prepared by sol-gel hydrolysis precipitation of titanium isopropoxide [Ti(OC3H7)4] on the Ni–Cu–Zn ferrite powder followed by heat treatment. From transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image, the thickness of the titania shell was found to be approximately 5 nm. The core of Ni–Cu–Zn ferrite is spherical or elliptical shape, and the particle size of the core is in the range of 70–110 nm. The magnetic Ni–Cu–Zn ferrite nanopowder is uniformly encapsulated in a titania layer forming core-shell structure of TiO2/Ni–Cu–Zn ferrite powder. The degradation efficiency for methylene blue (MB) increases with magnetic photocatalyst (TiO2/Ni–Cu–Zn ferrite powder) content. When the magnetic photocatalyst content is 0.40 g in 150 mL of MB, the photocatalytic activity reached the largest value. With a further increase in the content of magnetic photocatalyst, the degradation efficiency slightly decreased. This occurs because the ultraviolet (UV) illumination is covered by catalysts, which were suspended in the methylene blue solution and resulted in the inhibition in the photocatalytic reaction. The photocatalytic degradation result for the relationship between MB concentration and illumination revealed a pseudo first-order kinetic model of the degradation with the limiting rate constant of 1.717 mg/L·min and equilibrium adsorption constant 0.0627 L/mg. Furthermore, the Langmuir–Hinshelwood model can be used to describe the degradation reaction, which suggests that the rate-determining step is surface reaction rather than adsorption is in photocatalytic degradation.

Because the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Taiwan in 2003 was worsened by hospital infections, we analyzed 229 questionnaires (84.8% of 270 sent) completed by surveyed healthcare workers who cared for patients with SARS in 3 types of hospitals, to identify surveillance problems. Atypical clinical presentation was the most often reported problem, regardless of hospital type, which strongly indicates that more timely syndromic surveillance was needed.