全國中小學科展

2020年

Using EEG Neuro-Feedback technology to control a prosthetic hand

Unaffordable healthcare and excessive plastic waste are both alarming issues that are plaguing modern society. Recent studies conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) report that about 15% of the world's population suffer from a form of disability, of which 50% of the demographic cannot afford adequate health care. Furthermore, 8 million metric tons of plastic annually enter our oceans (apart from the 150 metric tons that currently circulate our oceans!). In conjunction to the global plastic pollution crisis, unnecessary invasive surgery is currently being done on amputees. Many of these desperate patients are forced to pay exorbitant prices in order to live a normal life with bionic prosthetics. The solution… Project Limbs - an EEG, 3D printed prosthetic printed from recycled plastic. Signal processors will be implemented to build an affordable and easy-to-use ‘mind controlled prosthetic hand’, that requires no invasive surgery.

高電場下含界面活性劑二氧化矽-矽油液體之機械力學特性 與結構探討

本研究以添加界面活性劑、二氧化矽及矽油的電流變液作為研究對象,探討矽油的黏度以及添加界面活性劑對電流變液的影響。並希望引入此現象於以高電壓驅動動態摺紙的DLZ(dielectrorphoetic liquid zipping)結構中,增進其性能。 研究發現不同黏度的矽油會對電流變效果造成影響。以低黏度(10cst)的矽油製成的電流變液,黏度變化於6kV時可達原本黏度的2.4倍,而以高黏度(350cst)的矽油製成的電流變液,黏度變化則可達原本黏度的9.7倍。在實驗時也發現,穿透裝有電流變液比色管的光線在施加電壓後減少,黏度越大,減少的幅度越大,並與界面活性劑的存在有關。因此推論: 黏度大的矽油因分子長度較長,藉由界面活性劑作用,更容易和二氧化矽粒子形成整齊結構,因為單一矽油分子可連接更多二氧化矽顆粒。這讓電流變液的黏度改變;同時整齊的結構會使電流變液的散射能力減弱,使接收到的散射光減少。 未來將以顯微鏡直接觀察電流變液的內部結構,並以水及酒精取代界面活性劑,以了解在矽油分子長度改變以及有無添加界面活性劑下電流變液黏度變化的機制,並應用在DLZ結構中,完善原本在單純液體中只有考慮介電常數的理論,增加黏度與液體內部結構的討論。

Lighting Up The Brain

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease in which current diagnostic tools are invasive and lack the ability to diagnose early-onset dementia. Current antibody-based diagnostic tests for neurodegenerative diseases require invasive measures such as a lumbar puncture, and lack specificity to biomarkers that are found in both healthy individuals and patients with AD. In this project, a design for a carbon dot(CD)-bound bispecific antibody is developed for the minimally- invasive diagnosis of AD. The molecular probe can be easily synthesized with a specificity to amyloid- beta (Aβ) oligomers as it distribution and abundance in the brain suggest they are better predictors of disease progression and are present in the early-onset of the dementia. The bispecific antibody conjugated to the CD displays a low affinity to transferrin receptors (TfRs) which allows the probe to cross the blood-brain barrier via receptor mediated transcytosis leading to a minimally invasive diagnosis. A synthesis technique was developed to conjugate the bispecific antibody to the CD. As a proof of concept, this technique was used to couple bovine serum albumin (BSA) to CDs. The structural and optical properties of the CDs were observed. By synthesizing a novel carbon dot conjugated specific antibody that emits light at a specific wavelength in the near-infra red region, the molecular probe displays optical properties suitable for the minimally-invasive diagnosis using fNIR- spectroscopy.

三槽式微生物燃料電池及不同尿液中微生物產電效率影響之探討

為尋找綠色替代能源,科學家早在1970年就發明出微生物燃料電池(microbial fuel cells, MFCs),將微生物當作催化劑應用在燃料電池中(Suzuki,1976)。人體每天都會大量排出含有有機物質的尿液,容易取得且適合用來作為MFC的基質,若同時能在尿斗中找到具有較高產電效率的微生物,即可達到廁所能源自給化的效益。在本實驗中,我們取用尿斗底部尿液做離心,並圖盤培養,挑選出四種微生物與陰溝腸桿菌(Enterobacter cloacae),將其分別定量並移植至對應體積液態LB,並待其OD值成長至0.5,再透過簡易MFC進行電壓比較。經數據比較,我們發現a菌與b有最高及次高的平均電壓。近幾年微生物燃料電池研究大部分以混菌為主,所以最後篩選出其中這兩種微生物,作為往後自創三槽MFC實驗的菌種。而自創三槽MFC是透過改良傳統反應槽的結構來克服電子傳遞效率的問題,希望能設計出實際應用於廁所中的微生物燃料電池。

Process of making a new environmental friendly straw

本研究首先製作「蔬菜紙吸管」,其耐水性及吸飲功能不佳,改以海藻膠製作吸管,經歷多次改良後的「第三代海藻膠吸管」其質地近似塑膠吸管,但吸飲功能仍然不佳。接著,以海藻膠為膠著劑;紅茶粉為骨材,成功製作出耐水性、吸飲功能較佳且可散發紅茶香氣的「紅茶吸管」。提高添加紅茶粉之比例,能有效提升吸管硬度,可應用在飲料封口膜之戳入,在冰水、熱水中均可長時間維持吸飲功能,製作大口徑「紅茶吸管」,可輕易吸飲波霸珍珠,徹底解決吸飲波霸珍珠之難題。自製擠出成型機械,可控制出料速度維持穩定,在滑軌上以直線移動,可製作出粗細一致且筆直的吸管,最後試製綠茶、咖啡、檸檬等調味吸管,均會飄出天然原料之香氣,頗具商品化之潛力。

Synthesis of Mesoporous Carbons and Their Application for EDLC

The quick increasing energy consumption arouses the interest in the development of power storages. Electrochemical supercapacitor is one of clean and sustainable candidates of energy storage system, and porous carbons are the most potential candidate as electrode materials for electrochemical supercapacitor because of their large surface areas, high chemical and physical stability, good conductivity, as well as low cost. In this work, we synthesized the mesoporous carbons by using ZnO nanoparticles as sacrificing template via nano-casting synthetic process and natural porous carbon materials. The synthesized porous carbon has a mesoporous structure. Because the surface area and pore size of the synthesized mesoporous carbon are larger than that of the coconuts fiber-derived carbon, the CV plots show that the synthesized mesoporous carbon has a good rectangular shape and a much better performance than that of the coconuts fiber-derived carbon. We also develop an easy way to discriminate how well a supercapacitor works. We applied these porous carbon-based electrodes on both handmade as well as the commercial capacitors and measured their electrical performances. The handmade EDLC is less efficient than the commercial capacitor.

銠金屬催化劑應用於優化不對稱加成反應

本研究是以台灣學者開發之銠金屬催化劑與Benzocyclobutenol和Cyclodienenone進行不對稱加成反應作為實驗目標,利用不同的溶劑在不同溫度下進行反應,探討產物的衍生物產率和鏡像超越值的差異。 首先,尋找出一個最佳反應條件,改變濃度、溫度、比例等變因並優化反應。接著嘗試改變Cyclodienenone上的官能基組合,觀察其對反應造成的影響並探討,及測試此銠金屬催化劑對不同官能基的容忍性,增加其官能基廣度。 實驗結果顯示,大部分反應條件產率可達60%以上,光學選擇性e.e.超過 90%。未來希望能將此銠金屬催化反應應用於不對稱藥物合成,成為一個合成高光學選擇性和高光學活性產物的方法,達到省時、省錢及高效之目的。

Machine-learning assisted antibiotic detection and categorization using bacterial arrays

隨著抗生素的廣泛使用,抗生素殘留的問題日益嚴重。為此,本研究建立了一個稱作細菌陣列固相分析(BacSPA)的方法來檢測和分類樣品中的抗生素。本研究將15個在質體中植入生物冷光的大腸桿菌液,點在與11種不同的抗生素混合的固相培養基上,濃度為1.5 ppm。不同的抗生素會刺激細菌,使其產生特定的生物冷光變化圖形。將圖形以延時攝影紀錄,並以機器學習演算法中的多重決策樹系訓練抗生素分類模型。得到的最佳模型能在三小時內,以90%分類抗生素的類別。再對該方法進一步測試,以區分不同濃度的抗生素。最終模型能將濃度從125 到1000 ppb的八種抗生素進行分類,其準確率大多高於70%。在未來,我們希望能建立更多不同濃度、不同組合的抗生素發光圖形資料庫,以擴大此方法的應用範圍。這無疑為人們檢測與分類食品與環境樣品中的抗生素殘留,提供了一個很好的方法。

文化與數學文本:眼動技術下不同民族學生的解題行為之探究(Culture meet mathematics in the context: Exploring different national students’ problem-solving behavior by eye tracking technology)

臺灣通過《實驗教育三法》後,許多原住民族實驗教育學校如雨後春筍般成立。鑑於世界美國、加拿大、紐西蘭等國,對於原住民族教育政策提倡「文化回應課程與教學」之理念,本研究以「等差數列與級數」為核心概念,設計「鄒族文化內涵數學文本」與「漢民族文化內涵數學文本」,透過眼動儀技術及數學解題,邀請「都市原住民族學生」、「偏鄉原住民族學生」、「都市漢民族學生」、「偏鄉漢民族學生」等四群學生進行受試。實驗中,每一群學生均須完成「鄒族文化內涵數學文本」與「漢民族文化內涵數學文本」閱讀與解題。受試完畢後,本研究再針對學生所撰寫的數學解題文本與眼動儀相關數據,進行「整體之眼動指標」、「歷程分析之眼動指標」以及「數學問題的解題情形」等三類面向之分析。期望本研究所獲得的結果,也能夠回饋給未來原住民族實驗教育政策的制定或後續原住民族的相關研究上。

以農業廢棄物芝麻稈做為紡織業常用染劑吸附材質之探討

本研究的重點是使用芝麻稈作為高效的吸附材,進而從水溶液中去除在染紡工業上常用的亞甲藍、剛果紅及雅里西安藍。在研究中,我們分別以吸附時間、pH值、吸附起始濃度作為操作變因,研究其物理、化學參數如吸附率、移除量、反應級數、吸附模式等等之變化[1][5]。使用UV-Vis光譜儀製作檢量線,推算各條件下所得之剩餘濃度,並由此計算其他所需之參數。本研究使用pseudo-first-order及pseudo-second-order進行動力學之分析,我們可以發現芝麻稈對於亞甲藍[3][4][5]、剛果紅[2]及雅里西安藍之吸附均符合pseudo-second-order模型;最佳吸附pH分析則可得知,亞甲藍於pH=5、剛果紅於pH=7,雅里西安藍於pH=8下可得最佳吸附效果;如使用恆溫吸附模型分析其吸附行為,則由實驗結果我們可以得知:亞甲藍符合Langmuir Isotherm及Freundlich Isotherm、剛果紅符合Langmuir Isotherm、雅里西安藍則符合Freundlich Isotherm;而其最大吸附量分別高達每克吸附材可吸附6624.75毫克亞甲藍、10815.74毫克剛果紅或18574.4毫克雅里西安藍。