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Traffic information estimation and forecasting methods based on cellular floating vehicle data (CFVD) are proposed to analyze the signals (e.g., handovers (HOs), call arrivals (CAs), normal location updates (NLUs) and periodic location updates (PLUs)) from cellular networks. For traffic information estimation, analytic models are proposed to estimate the traffic flow in accordance with the amounts of HOs and NLUs and to estimate the traffic density in accordance with the amounts of CAs and PLUs. Then, the vehicle speeds can be estimated in accordance with the estimated traffic flows and estimated traffic densities. For vehicle speed forecasting, a back-propagation neural network algorithm is considered to predict the future vehicle speed in accordance with the current traffic information (i.e., the estimated vehicle speeds from CFVD). In the experimental environment, this study adopted the practical traffic information (i.e., traffic flow and vehicle speed) from Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau as the input characteristics of the traffic simulation program and referred to the mobile station (MS) communication behaviors from Chunghwa Telecom to simulate the traffic information and communication records. The experimental results illustrated that the average accuracy of the vehicle speed forecasting method is 95.72%. Therefore, the proposed methods based on CFVD are suitable for an intelligent transportation system.

Lactic acid bacteria have functions in immunoregulation, antagonism, and pathogen inhibition. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in countering oral pathogens and develop related products. After a series of assays to 450 LAB strains, 8 heat-inactivated strains showed a strong inhibitory effect on a caries pathogen, Streptococcus mutans, and 308 heat-inactivated LAB strains showed a strong inhibitory effect on a periodontal pathogen, Porphyromonas gingivalis. The key reasons for inhibiting oral pathogens were bacteriocins produced by LAB and the coaggregation effect of the inactivated cells. We selected Lacticaseibacillus (Lb) paracasei 111 and Lb.paracasei 141, which had the strongest inhibitory effects on the above pathogens, was the main oral health food source. The optimal cultural conditions of Lb. paracasei 111 and Lb. paracasei 141 were studied. An oral tablet with a shelf life of 446 days made of the above strains was developed. A 40 volunteers’ clinical study (CSMUH IRB number: CS05065) was conducted with this tablet in the Periodontological Department of the Stomatology Research Center, Affiliated Hospital of Chung Shan Medical University (Taiwan). After 8 weeks of testing, 95% and 78.9% of patients showed an effect on reducing periodontal pathogens and improving probing pocket depth, respectively, in the oral tablet group.

Information and communication technologies have improved the quality of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The real-time traffic information has traditionally been collected via stationary vehicle detectors or GPS-based probe cars. Compared to the traditional ways, estimating traffic information from Cellular Floating Vehicle Data (CFVD) is more cost-effective, and easier to acquire. In this paper, this study proposes a novel approach to evaluate the relation of call arrival, handover, traffic flow, and traffic density. Moreover, the traffic speed is estimated by the proposed approach according to CFVD. Through the analytical analysis, this study analyzes the effects of traffic information (e.g. traffic flow and vehicle speed) and communication behaviors (e.g. call arrival rate and call holding time) on handovers and call arrivals. In the simulation, this study compares the estimated traffic information with the real traffic information. The experiment results show that the accuracy of traffic speed estimation is 89.75%. Therefore, the proposed approach can be used to estimate traffic speed from CFVD for ITS.