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Using an array of sensors with well calibrated but different tuning curves, it is possible to appreciate a wide range of stimuli. In this work, we first revisit the statistical estimation of the stimuli concentrations given the responses of a sensor array, discussed in Sanchez-Montanes & Pearce [18]. Since it is not a typical regression problem, the Bayesian concept is adopted to develop an estimation method by elucidating the dynamic and uncertain nature of the environment-dependent stimuli with a proper choice of the probability distribution. Other studies confirm that the proposed method can demonstrate a superior performance in terms of accuracy and precision when compared to the popular frequentist methods in addition to the theoretical soundness it enjoys as a statistical estimation problem. Under the proposed framework, the design optimization of an artificial sensory system is also formulated using the expected Bayes risk as an objective function to minimize. The same approach may be equally applied to any sensory system in order to optimize its performance within a population of sensors. Finally, illustrative examples are provided to describe how the proposed method can be applied for the optimal configuration of a sensory system for a given sensing task.

Educators, administrators, and policy makers' interest in the concept of corporate reputation is growing. However, no researcher examines causal recipes for the value relevance of corporate reputation. This study therefore uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the value relevance of corporate reputation for Taiwan listed companies over the period 2010–2013. The results show that corporate reputation adds to market value, even after controlling for earnings performance. These findings inform the affective component of corporate reputation is, at least, as important as the cognitive component. Furthermore, the findings extend previous research by showing that more than one casual combination of corporate reputation measurements is value-relevant. This study provides useful insights into the nature of corporate reputation.

Over the last decade, educators, administrators, and policy makers increasingly focus on corporate social responsibility. However, no studies examine the relationships among corporate social responsibility, brand equity, and firm performance. This study uses quantile regression and structural equation modeling to explore the causal linkages among these factors in Taiwanese high-tech companies over the period 2010–2013. The results of quantile regression analysis show that the economic dimension of corporate social responsibility and the prestige driver of brand equity are positive and significant for all the quantiles. The brand extension driver provides a significant positive effect at the higher quantiles of firm performance. However, the findings indicate a significant negative effect on firm performance for the brand loyalty driver. The findings of structural equation modeling suggest that corporate social responsibility and brand equity positively affect firm performance. This study provides useful insights on brand equity and corporate social responsibility.

By running life tests at higher stress levels than normal operating conditions, accelerated life testing quickly yields information on the lifetime distribution of a test unit. The lifetime at the design stress is then estimated through extrapolation using a regression model. To conduct an accelerated life test efficiently with constrained resources in practice, several decision variables such as the sample allocation proportions and the stress durations should be determined carefully at the design stage. These decision variables affect not only the experimental cost but also the estimate precision of the lifetime parameters of interest. In this work, under the constraint that the total experimental cost does not exceed a pre-specified budget, the optimal decision variables are determined based on C / D / A -optimality criteria. In particular, the constant-stress and step-stress accelerated life tests are considered with the exponential failure data under time constraint as well. We illustrate the proposed methods using two real case studies, and under the identical budget constraint, the efficiencies of these two stress loading schemes are compared in terms of the ratio of optimal objective functions based on the information matrix.

Considerable prior research argues that time to death, not population aging, explains the growth of healthcare expenditures. The objective of this study is to shed light on this debate by presenting new evidence on the red herring hypothesis. This study adopts quantile regression analysis to reexamine variations of the red herring effect on healthcare expenditures in Taiwan over the period 2005–2009. Findings show that population aging estimates decrease from positive to negative along quantiles for the whole sample and become insignificant across most quantiles for the subsample of people aged 65 and over. For whole sample and subsample of people aged 65 and over, proximity-to-death coefficients are significantly positive in most quantiles. Moreover, time-to-death estimates show a substantial upward trend towards date of death. In particular, quarters one and two prior to death produce a significant positive impact on healthcare expenditures at the highest healthcare expenditure quantiles. The new empirical evidence from this study provides a more complete picture of the red herring effect on healthcare expenditures.

In accelerated step-stress life tests, the stress levels are allowed to increase at some pre-determined time points such that information on the lifetime parameters can be obtained more quickly than under normal operating conditions. Because there are often multiple causes for the failure of a test unit, such as mechanical or electrical failures, in this article, a step-stress model under time constraint is studied when the lifetimes of different complementary risk factors are independent from exponentiated distributions. Although the baseline distributions can belong to a general class of distributions, including Weibull, Pareto, and Gompertz distributions, particular attention is paid to the case of an exponentiated exponential distribution. Under this setup, the maximum likelihood estimators of the unknown scale and shape parameters of the different causes are derived with the assumption of cumulative damage. Using the asymptotic distributions and the parametric bootstrap method, the confidence intervals for the parameters are then constructed. The precision of the estimates and the performance of the confidence intervals are also assessed through extensive Monte Carlo simulations, and finally, the inference methods discussed here are illustrated with motivating examples.

Empirical evidence has suggested that R&D investment is positively related to economic growth. This paper extends prior research by further examining the heterogeneous effects of R&D expenditures in the high-tech sector on economic growth. This study adopts a quantile regression approach to explore the marginal effect of R&D expenditures in the high-tech sector across different quantiles of the conditional GDP distribution for 23 OECD countries and Taiwan during 1991–2006. Empirical evidences show that the impacts of R&D expenditures in the high-tech sector are heterogeneous across levels of per capita income. High-tech industrial R&D spending has a strong positive effect on GDP per capita at the highest quantile of the distribution. However, all sectors' R&D spending relative to GDP is subject to significant negative returns only when considering the middle income countries. The study provides a more comprehensive understanding of the correlation between R&D investment and economic growth.

This paper examines the asymmetric response of the underground economy (UE) in Taiwan to an effective tax rate change. The UE size in Taiwan from 1962 to 2003 is estimated using a cash deposit ratio (CDR) approach and a currency demand approach. The impact of an increase in the effective tax rate on UE is greater than that of a decrease. In addition, the impact on the UE is stronger for direct than for indirect taxes. The difference between upward and downward movements is significant for both indirect and direct taxes in the CDR approach. However, the difference is only significant for indirect taxes in the currency demand approach.

The agency theory, transactional cost economics, and traditional strategic management perspectives have provided several key corporate financial policies. However, these policies have generally been discussed and established separately. This study explores the causal structure of corporate financial strategies for the high-tech firms in Taiwan and China. By employing path analysis and directed graphs model, this paper explores the causal relationships among investment, financing, dividend policies, and corporate performance. The results show that the investment expenditures by Taiwan's firms positively affect financial performance and the increased borrowings jeopardize company's profits. However, the financing decisions of China's firms have a positively effect on their capital expenditures. The findings suggest that firms across the Strait adopt different strategies in financial decision environments.

The size of underground economy (UE) expansion usually increases the tax gap, impose a burden on the economy, and results in tax distortions. This study uses the MIMIC approach to model the causal variables and indicating variables to estimate the UE in Taiwan. We also focus on testing the data for non-stationarity and perform diagnostic tests. By using annual time-series data for Taiwan from 1961 to 2003, it is found that the estimated size of the UE varies from 11.0% to 13.1% before 1988, and from 10.6% to 11.8% from 1989 onwards. That the size of the UE experienced a substantial downward shift in 1989 indicates that there was a structural break. The UE is significantly and positively affected by such casual variables as the logarithm of real government consumption and currency inflation, but is negatively affected by the tax burden at 5% significant level. Unemployment rate and crime rate are not significantly correlated with the UE in this study.

The size of the ‘underground economy’ (UE) is valuable information in the formulation of macroeconomic and fiscal policy. This study applies fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic to model Taiwan's UE over the period from 1960 to 2003. Two major factors affecting the size of the UE, the effective tax rate and the degree of government regulation, are used. The size of Taiwan's UE is scaled and compared with those of other models. Although our approach yields different estimates, similar patterns and leading are exhibited throughout the period. The advantage of applying fuzzy logic is twofold. First, it can avoid the complex calculations in conventional econometric models. Second, fuzzy rules with linguistic terms are easy for human to understand.

Human DOC-1/CDK2AP1 gene encodes a growth suppressor protein of 12 kDa (p12 DOC-1/CDK2AP1 ). Recently, p12 DOC-1/CDK2AP1 has been shown to associate with cell cycle proteins including CDK2 and DNA polymerase α/primase. It negatively regulates CDK2 activities and suppresses DNA replication. Therefore, identification of other p12 DOC-1/CDK2AP1 interacting proteins might clarify its role in the cell cycle regulation and carcinogenesis. The purpose of this study was to identify additional p12 DOC-1/CDK2AP1 interacting proteins using the yeast two-hybrid system. Using human p12 DOC-1/CDK2AP1 as a bait in a liver cDNA library screening, cDNA clones identical to human DOC-1R transcript were identified. The interaction between p12 DOC-1/CDK2AP1 and p14 DOC-1R was verified in vitro and in cells. GST pull-down assay and immunoprecipitation experiments confirmed the interaction between the two proteins. The critical region for p12 DOC-1/CDK2AP1 ’s interaction with p14 DOC-1R was defined to amino acids 20–25 by using a series of deletion mutants as baits in the yeast two-hybrid system. Our data indicated that p12 DOC-1/CDK2AP1 could associate with its homologous protein, p14 DOC-1R .

The client/server model for application development is becoming popular with Australian organisations. While the literature suggests that issues such as task partitioning and task allocation are important in distributed application design, no prior research has been reported on the relative importance of these issues and the adequacy with which current traditional and object-oriented methodologies support distributed application design. The reported research involved a multiple case study of Australian organisations undertaking client/server development. While the same issues appear to be important for both OO and non-OO client/server development, the developers of the OO projects placed greater emphasis on task partitioning, intermodule communications, interprocess communications, and application topology. Current methodologies were found to provide little or no support for these important issues in client/server development. In fact there was no significant difference in the support offered by all methodologies.