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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the FDI decision on domestic investment in the case of Taiwanese manufacturing firms. In addition, we also consider the deferral effect of the FDI decision and the role of firm size. To this end, this paper takes advantage of an endogenous switching model from which consistent estimators are obtained after correcting for the self-selection problem. The empirical results show that the effect of these manufacturing firms’ FDI decisions on domestic investment is significant within the firms. Furthermore, a crowding-out effect of FDI on domestic investment is found when Taiwanese firms engage in defensive FDI. Finally, FDI is found to have a positive influence on the domestic investment of the larger firms, while the influence is negative in the case of the smaller firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of cultural and creative industries, cultural creativity has gradually become an important factor to promote the value of design in the future, and it is also a trend to integrate "cultural elements" into the design of products. At present, the cultural and creative industries in Western countries and Taiwan are the mainstay of their economic development. We should actively absorb their successful experiences and, with the support of national policies, carry out effective and lasting development of them, as well as continuously improve the quality of cultural and creative products. In today's steady economic development, the emotionalization of cultural and creative consumption has gradually formed a new consumption trend. When cultural and creative consumers buy stationery, they will inevitably have three situations: purchasing instinct, purchasing behavior, and reflection. Therefore, this paper adopts the method based on machine learning to conduct in-depth research on the users of cultural and creative products of "Forbidden Day and Night Set Gift Box." Through the research on the cultural and creative consumption intention of "Forbidden Day and Night Set Gift Box," it can effectively promote the development of domestic cultural and creative enterprises, and then promote the customer satisfaction of cultural and creative enterprises. This paper makes a detailed analysis of it from the perspectives of data processing, feature engineering, classification prediction models, and future development directions. By studying the cultural and creative behavior of users, a deep learning model based on neural network is established. The feature extraction, feature preprocessing, feature selection, and asymmetric data collection in the process of data processing are discussed in depth. In order to further improve the prediction accuracy and conduct more in-depth research, this paper establishes a deep learning prediction model based on depth. This model is experimentally validated and it can be observed that the model is 10% more efficient than the traditional model, so the model can learn data better from the user's behavior in several aspects, and the proposed and practice of this model has good practical significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal Impact Statement: Multiple cropping, the cultivation of several crops on the same land in a year, occupied an important part of Taiwan's agricultural research from 1950 to 1970. This research originated in the context of Taiwan's land reform and diversification programs and their connections to the government's political ambition to maximize food production. The study of how multiple cropping was politicized and depoliticized by different actors helps to expand the narratives of the Green Revolution in Asia, analyze their legacies, and highlight Taiwan's role in the international exchange of visions of agricultural development during the Cold War. Summary: Scholars have recently expanded the history of the Green Revolution to move beyond the narrative of North–South technological diffusion. This article enriches the scholarship with the case of multiple cropping in Taiwan and its connection to Cold War geopolitics.Rice productivity in postwar Taiwan was boosted through a land reform launched by the Sino‐American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction (JCRR) in the 1950s. Backed by American aid and staffed by scientists from the Republic of China (ROC) government, the JCRR envisioned to turn tenant farmers into landowners so as to encourage labor input and adoption of seeds and fertilizers.By 1960, the JCRR presented its reform as a "bloodless social revolution" and extended its focus to multiple cropping through a diversification program. The JCRR further created the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC) in 1971 to spread Taiwan's breeding and cropping techniques. The ROC's diplomatic isolation in the 1970s, however, prompted the center to reinterpret Taiwan's success in multiple cropping from a political achievement to a technological triumph, thus reinforcing the technology‐driven narrative used by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).Through Taiwan's influences on IRRI's rice breeding and multiple cropping research, this paper illustrates that the history of the Green Revolution requires more complex narratives. In addition, with Taiwan's political and economic transition since the 1980s, farmers began to reclaim their voice and influence agricultural policies. The case thus highlights the need of democratic participation in agricultural research, a concern that remains relevant today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a probabilistic hazard assessment model for debris flows considering the uncertainties of multiple influencing factors based on copula approaches. Fifty-nine rainfall-induced debris flows occurred between 2001 and 2009 in Taiwan are taken as an illustrative example to validate the proposed approaches. A copula-based probabilistic model is developed to model the joint probability distribution of debris-flow volume V and its influencing factors (e.g., rainfall intensity, RI and landslide area, AL). The developed model is then used to make probabilistic prediction of debris-flow volume for a specific hazard level, and compared with the empirical approaches. The proposed probabilistic model is also used to develop the exceedance probability charts of quantities for a specific debris-flow basin. Results show that the developed V–RI–AL probabilistic model can provide reasonable estimates of debris-flow volume in Taiwan for a specific probability level of 0.94, and show better predictive performance than the empirical relationships by using an independent debris-flow dataset in Taiwan for validation. The developed multivariate joint probabilistic model can also provide the exceedance probability of debris flows through considering the uncertainties of debris flow and its influencing factors, providing a preliminary reference for hazard assessment of the debris flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storm‐flood‐dominated deltas are sedimentary systems in which a complex interplay of hydrodynamic processes occurs during storms (e.g. tropical cyclones) due to the coeval action of continental and oceanic processes. This paper reports on a superbly exposed, 135.5 m thick stratigraphic succession of the Pleistocene Cholan Formation exposed along the Da'an River, Taiwan. The sedimentary succession comprises alternating mudstone and sandstone, is mostly fine‐grained, and exhibits multiple event beds that record deposition during tropical cyclones and post‐depositional deformation features produced during earthquakes. Detailed facies analyses reveal that deposition towards the base of the succession occurred in the palaeo‐Taiwan Strait in storm‐flood‐dominated prodelta and delta‐front environments passing upwards into delta‐plain environments. Tropical cyclone beds are encountered throughout the subaqueous storm‐flood delta successions, and are identified by (i) trough cross‐stratified sandstone bedsets with erosive bases that contain both mud clasts and mudstone beds, (ii) sandstone with aggrading wave ripples and (iii) hummocky cross‐stratified sandstone with rare gutter casts filled with coal fragments and shell remains. Tropical cyclone deposits are either top‐down burrowed or capped by massive or laminated mudstone. Seismites are rare and are mainly recognised through soft‐sediment deformation of beds; they do not show evidence of slope failure. Compared to storm‐flood delta successions described elsewhere, the Cholan Formation shows significantly fewer oscillatory‐generated sedimentary structures and gutter casts. This difference is attributed to the Cholan Formation being deposited in and along the margin of a strait characterised by strong shore‐parallel currents and relatively small storm waves due to its position between Taiwan and mainland China. This study refines depositional process interpretations of the Cholan Formation, provides criteria for recognising storm‐flood delta deposits in tectonically active straits with multiple sediment sources fed by steep drainages and short river catchments, and provides additional criteria for recognising tropical cyclone deposits in shallow‐marine settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries of the world have implemented subsidy programs to maintain a minimum amount of farm production especially for rice. Agricultural support programs usually cause significant fiscal burdens on government budgets. These programs can be generally categorized into decoupled and coupled programs, and one longstanding research interest of previous literature is whether these programs are decoupled or coupled with farm production practices. In Taiwan, a unique land direct payment (LDP) program to rice farms was implemented to ease severe financial burden of the price support program with government purchase. In contrast to production control programs imposing quantity restrictions on farm production, this program is voluntary for rice farms, and participants are paid at a fixed rate per hectare of farmland. This paper examines the impacts of this program on farm income and farm production practices in Taiwan. The causal effect of the program is identified based on the exogenous rollout of the policy across multiple times and areas. We construct a dataset linking nationally representative rice farm surveys over several years and administrative records on program recipients to estimate the local average treatment effect of the program. We find that the effect is 4% of farm income. In addition, program participants rely less on price support programs and produce less rice and use less fertilizer, pesticide, and machinery. Although the LDP reduces rice production, we find that it causes overall government spending on the price support and direct payment programs to increase by 8.7% after the LDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of the 2008 financial crisis on Taiwan's fertility by exploiting a natural experiment in which public‐sector workers are unaffected due to job security. The financial crisis reduces the number of children by increasing the first‐birth interval, which leads to a lower probability of first birth. Women aged 33–38 experienced the largest decline in the probability of first birth, increasing the risks of permanent childlessness. Low‐income households and those with less‐educated spouses have a greater increase in the first‐birth interval. The number of children and the probability of first birth remain significantly lower 9 years after 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To provide passengers with a better flight experience and make their journey more comfortable, airlines are diversifying their services to attract more customers. One of these services includes the development of a sleeper seat. A sleeper seat, also known as family couch in Taiwan, mainly provides a row of 3–4 economy class seats that allow passengers to lie down. Although Taiwan's China Airlines originally offered this service, it stopped due to poor sales; however, other international airlines continue to implement similar services. Regarding previous research exploring air service issues, almost no research has focused on sleeper seats. Accordingly, this article focuses on exploring Taiwanese passengers' willingness to pay (WTP) for the sleeper seat service and the influencing factors. The contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to construct the price scenario of passengers' WTP. To avoid estimation bias and thus provide more reliable results, the spike model was used to estimate passengers' WTP for the sleeper seat service and the influencing factors. According to the results, when considering multiple variables, people were willing to increase the price paid to use parent-child cabins by NTD 11,194, which was about 75% of the original price but lower than the preferential price offered by the airlines, indicating a gap between the amount people were willing to pay and the airlines' pricing. In addition, if passengers were traveling with children or if the passengers had higher flight frequencies and personal incomes, they were willing to purchase the sleeper seat service. However, people who had not experienced the sleeper seat service were unwilling to purchase it. This paper is practical to reflect current aviation industry marketing, and the research results contribute to the existing literature and provide a reference for Taiwan's civil aviation industry when relaunching the sleeper seat service in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the transportation industry, crew management is typically decomposed into two phases: crew scheduling and crew rostering. Due to the complexity of scheduling and rostering, bus transportation is not an exception and many relevant studies do not consider both procedures simultaneously. However, such a decomposition can yield inferior schedules/rosters. To address this issue, this paper proposes an integrated scheduling and rostering model for bus drivers and devises a branch-and-price-and-cut (BPC) algorithm to solve the complex problem. The proposed solution framework is empirically applied to real-world instances with various problem sizes whose data is collected from H Bus Company located in southern Taiwan. To validate the effectiveness and evaluate the efficiency of the proposed solution framework, this paper compares the solution obtained from the BPC algorithm with that of a benchmark optimization package. The results show that the proposed BPC algorithm can solve problems with large real-world instances within a reasonable computational time. Moreover, in the numerical experiments, this paper finds that the scheduling and rostering results of the bus drivers are more sensitive to the rostering constraints. Also, the proposed integrated framework can yield a better solution than the solution from a conventional two-phase approach, which demonstrates the advantage of the integration in this paper. The proposed method provided can be employed to deal with the challenges in driver planning for bus companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's highly competitive air transportation environment, the quality of airport service is an important issue. In this paper, we present a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method for the evaluation of the quality of airport service. The data are collected from the passengers who depart from two international airports in Taiwan. The fuzzy MCDM model is defuzzied using the inverse function arithmetic representation method. The results show that the average quality of the Taoyuan International Airport service is better than that of the Kaohsiung International Airport service. This paper also analyses the quality of airport service using the fuzzy expert system to improve the performance of airport service. The analysis results show that the Kaohsiung International Airport and the Taoyuan International Airports' improvement efforts should be concentrated on seven and five specific service items, respectively. The findings of this paper are to help the decision-makers and the managers of airports improve the quality of airport service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using monthly trade data from January 2018 to December 2019, we empirically examine the effects of the US‐China trade war on Taiwan's exports as well as imports. On the export side, the tariff hike in the US against imports from China may increase Taiwan's exports to the US, (i.e., the substitution effect). To investigate this hypothesis, we examine how US tariffs on goods from China affect Taiwan's exports to the US. More directly, we also explore how China's exports to the US change Taiwanese exports to the US. On the import side, decline of China's export to the US may boost Taiwan's export while increasing its demand on Chinese intermediate inputs. Our empirical analyses confirmed the validity of these hypotheses. By contrast, we did not find a substitution effect in exports from neighboring countries—that is, Japan and South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies document the importance of food outlet accessibility on household food expenditures. However, the role of market competition between commercial food outlets garners little attention in these studies. This paper provides the first evidence distinguishing between the association between food outlet accessibility and market competition among commercial food outlets on household food expenditures. Using administrative profiles on convenience stores and nationally representative repeated cross‐sectional household surveys from 2003 to 2016, we find that inter‐brand competition between convenience store chain brands is associated with total food, food at home, and food away from home expenditures in Taiwan. In contrast, food outlet accessibility has no significant correlation with household food expenditures after controlling for inter‐brand competition. [EconLit citations: Q13, L22]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends the cushion hypothesis to examine cultural differences in the role of willingness to take financial risk in an individual's objective financial outcomes (e.g., the experience of material hardship) and in an individual's assessment of their financial well‐being. Using data collected in South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States, we find support for a cushion (i.e., weaker relationship) in the association between material hardship and present and future financial well‐being. A cushion was also observed in a weaker association between willingness to take financial risk and expectations for future financial security but not in the experience of material hardship or current money management stress. Our results suggest that cultural context influences an individual's objective situation as well as their subjective assessment of that situation. This paper adds to existing literature by documenting a cushion effect beyond risk taking to include a person's objective financial situation and financial well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although cell‐based therapy has become a promising treatment, its practice and evaluation process remain unstandardized. Therefore, Japan initiated a dual‐track regulatory framework for cell‐based therapy aiming to promote and regulate the therapies to ensure that patients can access safe and effective treatments. Influenced by such pathway, Taiwan adopted the framework and initiated its own cell‐based therapy regulation in 2018. This paper discusses how Japan has influenced Taiwan in developing regulations for cell‐based therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to articles published within the issue is presented, including one by Rui Antonio Rodrigues Ramos et al on multiple-criteria procedure to evaluate passengers' sustainable mobility in urban areas, another by Kyoung Seok Shin et al on a novel two-leveled multi-objective symbiotic evolutionary (TMSEA) algorithm to solve the hub and spoke location problem (HSLP) under multiple scenarios and Yueh-Tzu Wu et al on traffic-adaptive arterial signal control model for specific Taiwan conditions.

When passing by Taiwan, Typhoon Meranti (2016) was deflected northwards and shrank on infrared images, while its intensity maintained above 50 m⋅s–1 with the radius of maximum wind (RMW) smaller than 30 km. In this paper, satellite and ground‐based dual‐Doppler data were adopted to document Meranti's inner core evolution after its interaction with Taiwan's topography. It was found that the eyewall of Meranti was highly asymmetric on radar reflectivity with maximum on the down motion left side during its landfalling stage in Taiwan Strait, whereas the environmental vertical shear (about 3 m⋅s–1) was not favorable for asymmetry of this strength. As Meranti was very close to Taiwan's southern tip when passing by, its deep convection distribution, especially part on the down motion right side, was impaired by the topography of Central Mountain Range, thus contributed to this asymmetry. The eyewall at 1645 UTC was examined in detail, and it was found that the primary circulation with weaker azimuth perturbations remained intact at this time, while vertical circulation differed with direction. Besides, there was a low level northeast‐southwest flow through the eye, same as the direction of Taiwan Strait. Perhaps this radial inflow, along with the primary circulation, had contributed to the maintenance of asymmetry in reflectivity, so the eyewall did not recover in the Strait despite the weak wind shear. In addition, stronger storm‐relative wind asymmetry in the mid‐troposphere was observed. This wind asymmetry was in favor of track deflection, so was the diabatic heating associated the rainfall asymmetry. The channel wind, along with downslope wind from Taiwan, may help to maintain the intensity of Meranti and the smaller RMW, which needed further investigation with high resolution numerical models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines pedestrian anatomical injuries and crash characteristics in back-to-traffic and facing-traffic crashes. Pedestrian crashes involving pedestrians walking along streets (i.e. with their backs to traffic or facing traffic) have been overlooked in literature. Although this is not the most frequent type of crash, the crash consequence to pedestrians is a safety concern. Combining Taiwan A1A2 police-reported accident data and data from the National Health Insurance Database from years 2003-2013, this paper examines anatomical injuries and crash characteristics in back-to-traffic and facing-traffic crashes. There were a total of 830 and 2267 pedestrian casualties in back-to-traffic and facing-traffic crashes respectively. The injuries sustained by pedestrians and crash characteristics of these two crash types were compared with those of other crossing types of crashes (nearside crash, nearside dart-out crash, offside crash, and offside dart-out crash). Odds of various injuries to body regions were estimated using logistic regressions. Key findings include that the percentage of fatalities in back-to-traffic crashes is the highest; logistic models reveal that pedestrians in back-to-traffic crashes sustained more head, neck, and spinal injuries than did pedestrians in other crash types, and unlit darkness and non-built-up roadways were associated with an increased risk of pedestrian head injuries. Several crash features (e.g. unlit darkness, overtaking manoeuvres, phone use by pedestrians and drivers, and intoxicated drivers) are more frequently evident in back-to-traffic crashes than in other types of crashes. The current research suggests that in terms of crash consequence, facing traffic is safer than back to traffic. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apocrine osmidrosis (AO) is a chronic, recurrent, and disturbing disease characterized by malodorous secretion from apocrine glands. Despite various conservative and nonsurgical treatments, surgical removal of apocrine glands remains the cornerstone for AO treatment. Conventional suction-assisted cartilage shaver is effective; however, there are several risks and complications. Hence, we modified the conventional method to achieve better effectiveness and reduce complications. This paper aims to evaluate the clinical effectiveness and the complications arising from the modified suction-assisted cartilage shaver for AO. Thirty-nine patients (M/F=11/28, average age 26.3 years) received this surgical treatment for AO from 2013 to 2017 in the Department of Dermatology at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan. A suction-assisted cartilage shaver was introduced for the ultimate removal of the subcutaneous tissue containing the apocrine glands. A 0.5 cm incision was made in the center of the identified elliptical surgical area at each axilla. After defatting, the incision was closed primarily. The defatting skin was anchored to the axillary fascia by using 4-0 sutures without drains. We then evaluated the clinical efficacy and complications. The mean duration of follow-up was 31.8 months (12–68 months). Among patients receiving the modified cartilage shaving for AO, 92.3% achieved excellent-to-good results, 5.1% had acceptable results, and 2.6% had fair results. None of them experienced poor clinical efficacy. There was no skin necrosis, hematoma, nor wound infection after the surgery. There were no recurrences in all these patients 2 years after the surgery. This modified suction-assisted cartilage shaver for AO results in good efficacy, a low complication rate, and a low recurrence rate. The method is superior to the conventional one due to tissue glue-free procedure, greater comfort in postoperative care, minimal wounds, less hematoma, and less skin necrosis. The clinical study registration number of this study is NCT03793374. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines two multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) tools to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) that impact the performance of personnel training course projects in the semiconductor industry in Taiwan. The study collected the factors that influence performance by interviewing experts and constructed a hierarchical factor table. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process was used to determine the weight of each factor, and the acceptance advantage concept of VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje was used to objectively identify the CSFs. The study found four CSFs that affect project performance and proposed five practical implications. This paper verified that combining two MCDM tools can help training institutions to allocate their resources appropriately by focusing on the CSFs, identified by their weights, and thus, promote their training courses at lower cost and with greater efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daily peak load forecasting is crucial for the operation of bulk power systems, including economic dispatch and unit commitment. It is also essential for peak load shaving and load management in distribution systems. In power markets, peak load forecasting helps participants develop bidding strategies. This paper proposes a new method, using a hybrid convolutional neural network (CNN) that is cascaded with a fully-connected network, for making week-ahead daily peak load forecasts. The proposed method uses three loops to obtain the optimal CNN: The outer loop performs crossover/mutation operations and tournament selection to produce chromosomes to optimize the network topology and hyperparameters (such as kernel size) of the hybrid CNN by genetic algorithms; the middle loop deals with the order of chromosomes; the inner loop optimizes the synaptic weights and parameters (e.g. values of a kernel) using Adam optimizer. Daily peak load data and corresponding meteorological data for Taiwan are explored. Simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms the traditional CNN, multi-layer neural network, recurrent neural network, support vector regression and vector autoregressive moving average model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Organizational turnover exacerbates the shortage of nurses in the global workforce. However, no study has yet explored how deep structure usage—nurses' integration of electronic patient records into nursing practice delivery—reduces their turnover intention and moderates the impact of affective, continuance, and normative professional commitment on their turnover intention. Aims: To ascertain (1) the linkage between the deep structure usage of electronic patient records and nurses' organizational turnover intention and (2) the moderating role of deep structure usage on the associations between elements of commitment (affective, continuance, and normative) and turnover intention. Methods: Using a cross‐sectional survey and proportionate random sampling by ward unit, we collected data from 417 full‐time nurses via a self‐administered questionnaire. We performed hierarchical regression analyses to test the study hypotheses. Results: Deep structure usage was not directly related to organizational turnover intention (β = −0.07, p = 0.06). However, the results suggested that deep structure usage may enhance the effect of high affective commitment on nurses' organizational turnover intention (β = −0.09, p = 0.04), while potentially mitigating the effect of low continuance commitment on organizational turnover intention (β = 0.10, p = 0.01). Conclusions: Deep structure usage of electronic patient records helps to ease nurses' workload and facilitates their retention, which is particularly due to their affective commitment (attachment) but not their continuance commitment (switching costs). Implications for Nursing Management: Nursing management may advise hospital management that medical records systems need to be improved and fully embedded for nursing care delivery, as a more in‐depth use of these systems can help to retain nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:​ Empathy is a fundamental component of the therapeutic relationship between healthcare providers and patients and has the potential to yield significant benefits, including heightened care satisfaction, enhanced care quality, and improved mental well‐being for patients. As nursing assistants (NAs) are primary direct care providers in long‐term care facilities (LTCFs), it is necessary to understand NAs' views on empathy in their care provision for residents, but a gap exists in the literature regarding NAs' perspectives on empathy in this context. Aim: In this study, we aimed to explore perceptions of empathy among NAs in LTCFs. Research Design: A qualitative approach was applied in this study. Participants and Research Context: Through purposive and snowball sampling, 18 NAs who provided care for residents in six LTCFs in Taiwan were recruited. Face‐to‐face in‐depth interviews were conducted using a semistructured interview guide, and data were analyzed using a content analysis. Ethical Considerations: Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board. All participants signed a written informed consent form prior to the interview. Results: Four themes encompassing 11 categories were generated including "being fundamental to caregiving to establish trust and enhance quality care," "practicing altruistic behavior in the pursuit of ethical caregiving," "cycling empathic flow in care," and "facing challenges in delivering empathetic care." Conclusions: NAs in LTCFs viewed empathy as an essential element of the caregiving process. They saw empathy as selfless care, assistance to others, and alleviation of residents' suffering. Understanding residents' emotions, thoughts, and needs, active listening and compassionate engagement were vital to expressing empathy. However, NAs faced challenges in expressing empathy due to demanding tasks, time limitations, and insufficient knowledge and communication skills. In addition, emotional desensitization further complicated the provision of empathic care. The findings of this study can provide information for nurse managers and directors to understand NAs' perspectives on empathy and difficulties when providing empathic care in the long‐term care context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess a quality improvement project using alternating pressure air mattresses' impact on reducing full‐thickness pressure injuries by enhancing setting accuracy and device utilization. We retrospectively evaluated adult acute care unit patients with inclusion criteria (Braden scores ≤12 or existing full‐thickness pressure injuries) between May 2020 and August 2023. A wound team attempted to enhance the accuracy, utilization and effectiveness of alternating pressure air mattress implementation. The implementation outcomes were setting accuracy and accurate utilization rates. The clinical outcome was the full‐thickness pressure injury proportion. Utilization and allocation gaps were also calculated. The setting accuracy and accurate utilization rates increased (0.59 to 0.88 and 0.15 to 0.37, respectively). The full‐thickness pressure injury proportion decreased (0.17 to 0.06), with a strong negative correlation coefficient (−0.789) (p < 0.001) with accurate utilization rates. The full‐thickness pressure injury proportion declined faster during the project's complete phase than the partial phase (−0.0046 vs. −0.0016; p < 0.05). The utilization gap narrowed (99 to 60); however, the allocation gap increased (1 to 13), suggesting increased alternating pressure air mattress usage among ineligible patients. Targeting high‐risk patients for alternating pressure air mattress utilization and ensuring correct settings, both performed by a dedicated team, substantially reduces the full‐thickness pressure injury incidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports the results of analyzing the effects of technological change and job risk on wage premiums in Taiwan. Using unique individual data combined with industry-level indices of technological change and fatality rates across industries, the empirical results show that, overall, industries characterized by a higher rate of technological change or fatality pay a higher wage. However, these positive correlations are attributed to the sorting effect in which workers with some specific features choose to find jobs in industries with rapid technological change and higher job risk. Furthermore, this paper reports a positive relationship between education and wages after controlling for individual heterogeneity, showing the existence of education premium in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper empirically examines the dynamic stock return-volume relations for six emerging Asian markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. Evidence is found that trading volume Granger causes stock return in quantiles and the causal effects of volume are heterogeneous across quantiles. This shows that volume carries some information to the return and could be interpreted in light of theoretical models. In addition, we find that there is bi-directional causality between stock return and trading volume in most of the markets. The finding indicates that those Asian emerging markets with different institutions and information flows than more mature markets have present similar causal effects on the stock return-volume relation. Furthermore, the cross-country evidence shows that the US market helps to predict the returns of the emerging Asian markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the first nationally representative birth cohort study in Taiwan, this paper examines the role that maternity leave policy in Taiwan plays in the timing of mothers returning to work after giving birth, as well as the extent to which this timing is linked to the amount of time mothers spend with their children and their use of breast milk versus formula. We found that the time when mothers returned to work coincided with the duration of guaranteed leave. In particular, mothers with a labor pension plan resumed work significantly earlier than mothers with no pension plan, and mothers with no pension plan returned to work significantly later than those with pension plans. The short leave of absence guaranteed under existing policies translated into mothers spending less time with their children and being more likely to exclusively use formula by 6 months after birth. In contrast, mothers who resumed work later than 6 months after birth were more likely to have not worked before birth or to have quit their jobs during pregnancy. Implications and recommendations for parental leave policy in Taiwan are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examines the impact of exchange rate movements on foreign direct investment (FDI). We first employ a real options model to show that while the depreciation of a host country's currency tends to stimulate FDI activity of cost-oriented firms, the depreciation tends to deter FDI activity for market-oriented firms. With industry panel data on Taiwan's outward FDI into China over the period 1991–2002, our empirical findings indicate that the exchange rate level and its volatility in addition to the relative wage rate have had a significant impact on Taiwanese firms’ outward FDI into China. In general, the empirical results are consistent with the prediction of the theory. Our results reveal that the relationship between exchange rates and FDI is crucially dependent on the motives of the investing firms. Without considering this fact in an empirical model, the testing results might suffer from aggregations bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an alternative data envelopment analysis (DEA) method for assessing the performance of joint maintenance shops (JMSs) in the Taiwanese Army over two 6-month periods in 2000. It further examines the possibility of using DEA over time as a basis for continuous improvement. To help productivity improvements, the DEA results for the first time period were implemented at the five selected JMSs located in Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Chaiyi, and Kaoshiung. The findings show that most of previously inefficient JMSs, on average, have become relative more efficient through DEA recommendation remedial actions. Three JMSs increased their technical and pure technical efficiencies; and one JMS increased its scale efficiency. Few JMSs were operating at increasing returns to scale, indicating a potential to expand. As such, it can be a valuable benchmarking tool for the JMS managers and assist in efficiently using scare resources to produce productivity. Finally, the Army has accepted DEA as a performance measurement tool for JMSs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Investigation of the key indicators of health promotion policies for an aging society can shed light on the priority of the government's health promotion efforts. This study applied the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method in an empirical analysis of the key indicators of the health promotion policies for Taiwan's aging society. Based on a review of the literature and expert interviews, this paper first conducted a preliminary study and evaluation of major factors affecting health promotion policies and found 4 major evaluation aspects and 16 evaluation indicators. After employing an AHP expert questionnaire in an empirical investigation, the following findings were made: (1) "healthy living" was the most important evaluation aspect for Taiwan's health promotion policies for its aging society. (2) The six leading key indicators of health promotion policies were "promotion of personal health awareness and behavior," "promotion of home medical services," "guaranteeing the economic security of the elderly," "planning a family caregiver support service system," "well-planned health promotion plans for the elderly," and "training long-term care service personnel and providing professional medical care." Following discussion, recommendations concerning these six key indicators are made as a reference for future evaluation of health promotion policies for an aging society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method for applying HOV lanes to the Taiwan freeway system. The purpose is to develop guidelines for designating alternative HOV lanes on existing freeways. Simulation results suggest that introducing HOV facilities would significantly improve traffic delays for short and long term steady states, especially during peak hour traffic flow. To ensure the success of the proposed HOV facilities, special attention should be devoted to public awareness and communication, as well as to related planning, education and enforcement issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the ability of a sarcopenia screening test to predict mortality among cancer inpatients. We conducted a prospective study of patients admitted to the oncology ward of a teaching hospital in southern Taiwan. Over a 5‐month period, 82 patients were enrolled for evaluation and were followed for 3 years. All participants received a comprehensive assessment at the time of admission, including Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status, cognitive ability, nutrition index, body mass index, and short physical performance battery (SPPB). Age, ECOG performance status, dementia, SPPB score, and albumin level were associated with sarcopenia. Of the enrolled participants, 53 (64.6%) were diagnosed with sarcopenia. Patients with sarcopenia were associated with worse overall survival (OS) than patients without sarcopenia (28.8% vs. 82%, p = 0.01). Metastasis (hazard ratio [HR]: 5.166; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.358–19.656) and albumin level (HR: 4.346; 95% CI: 1.493–12.654) were independent and significant predictors of OS for the whole study population. Age was a predictor of 2‐year all‐cause mortality among patients aged ≥65 years but not among those aged <65 years (OS: 25.6% vs. 100%, p = 0.04). To summarize, the sarcopenia screening results were found to predict OS and all‐cause mortality and may be helpful for patient stratification during in‐hospital care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Most frontline nurses lack sufficient readiness for effective disaster response. Therefore, designing a disaster management training program (DMTP) to promote nurses' readiness for disaster response is imperative. Aim. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured DMTP on nurses' readiness for response to disasters. Methods. A randomized controlled trial was conducted. One hundred eligible nurses, recruited using convenience sampling from a medical centre in northern Taiwan, were randomly assigned to either the experimental (EG, n = 50) or control (CG, n = 50) group. Both groups received regular continuous nursing education. The EG received an extra two‐day (16 h) structured DMTP delivered by transdisciplinary collaborations through multiple teaching strategies (lectures, simulations, problem‐solving lessons, demonstrations, tabletop exercises, discussions, group presentations, and reflections). Readiness for disaster response, consisting of four subscales (emergency response, clinical management, self‐protection, and personal preparation), was assessed at baseline and 12 weeks after the intervention. Generalized estimating equations were used as the primary method of data analyses to evaluate the intervention effects. Results. Ninety‐four nurses (94%) completed the study, and 100 nurses were included in the intention‐to‐treat analysis. While participants in the EG had increased readiness for disaster response after training and at the 12‐week follow‐up, those in the CG exhibited no differences between baseline and 12‐week follow‐up. When the group × time interaction was examined, the EG had a greater increase in readiness for disaster response and its four domains, including emergency response, clinical management, self‐protection, and personal preparedness after 12 weeks, than the CG. Conclusion. A two‐day structured DMTP utilizing multiple teaching strategies through transdisciplinary collaborations is recommended to enhance hospital nurses' readiness for disaster response. Implications for Nursing Management. Nursing leaders should consider incorporating such a structured DMTP into ongoing nursing training as a critical component of professional development programs, thereby strengthening nurses' disaster readiness in hospital settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes is a leading cause of death, according to statistics published by the Department of Health, Executive Yuan of Taiwan. In modern medicine, diabetes can be controlled using various medications; however, some drugs often have undesirable side effects. It therefore became a goal to find plant‐based material that can reduce glucose concentration in the blood while reducing the incidence of complications and not causing side effects. Alpha‐glucosidase inhibitors (AGIs) are effective glucose‐lowering medicines and are enzymes essential to carbohydrate digestion. Inhibition of α‐glucosidase leads to a delayed and reduced rise in postprandial blood glucose levels. This study evaluates the inhibitory effect of mixed extracts of Psidium guajava L. and Morus alba L. leaves on α‐glucosidase activity and postprandial hyperglycemia in normal and diabetic rats. The inhibition of α‐glucosidase activity was assayed in vitro. Half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of Psidium guajava L. and Morus alba L. were 2.25 and 0.1 mg/mL, respectively. The IC50 value of a commercial anti‐hyperglycemic agent (Glucobay) is 6.41 mg/mL. The IC50 value of a mixture of extracts of Psidium guajava L. and Morus alba L. was 0.07 mg/mL. In cytotoxicity tests, survival percentages and shape did not significantly affect the murine embryonic liver cell line (BNL CL.2) when treated with varying concentrations of mixture extracts for varying periods of time. In summary, Psidium guajava L. and Morus alba L. showed positive anti‐diabetes activity and suggested promising potential for alternative functional foods for diabetes mellitus (DM) patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic detection of tomato leaf spot disease is essential for control and loss reduction. Traditional algorithms face challenges such as large amount of data, multiple training and heavy computation. In this study, a lightweight shared Siamese neural network method was proposed for tomato leaf disease identification, which is suitable for resource‐limited environments. Experiments on Plant‐Village, Taiwan and Taiwan ++ datasets show that the accuracy fluctuates very little even when trained with only 60% of the data, which confirms the effectiveness of the proposed method in the small data environment. In addition, compared with the mainstream algorithms, it improves the accuracy by up to 35.3%on Plant‐Village and two Taiwan datasets respectively. The experimental results also show that the proposed method still performs well when the data is imbalanced and the sample size is small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The East China Sea Kuroshio (ECS‐Kuroshio) and the Ryukyu Current are the major poleward heat carriers in the North Pacific. Anomalous changes of ECS‐Kuroshio and Ryukyu Current could exert substantial influence on the climate in mid‐latitude regions. However, owing to limited observations and coarse resolution of climate models, how they might change under anthropogenic warming remains unknown. Here, we find an accelerating ECS‐Kuroshio (1.5 Sv) and a decelerating (−2.2 Sv) Ryukyu Current using in‐situ observation during 1958–2022, equivalent to 7% strengthening and 20% weakening in the 65 years. The trend is also simulated by four high‐resolution climate models, with multi‐model ensemble‐mean acceleration (deceleration) of the ECS‐Kuroshio (Ryukyu Current) of 1.2 ± 0.6 Sv (−6.2 ± 2.5 Sv) over 1950–2050. The weakening subtropical wind field reduces their summed transport o. Enhanced stratification, which induces uplift of current system and weaker topography‐flow interaction, leads to the intensifying ECS‐Kuroshio and disappearing Ryukyu Current. Plain Language Summary: The East China Sea Kuroshio (ECS‐Kuroshio) and the Ryukyu Current are the major components of western boundary current (WBC) system in the North Pacific. They transport large amount of heat poleward, maintaining the mid‐latitude region warm and habitable. In this study, we find that in both observation and high‐resolution numerical models, the ECS‐Kuroshio is intensifying and the Ryukyu Current is rapidly declining. Particularly, in climate models, the Ryukyu Current is predicted to experience a 45% weakening during 1950–2050. Weakening wind field in the North Pacific tends to reduce the total transport of WBC system. The rapid weakening of the Ryukyu Current is credit to the enhanced stratification under global warming, which induces uplift of the Kuroshio east of Taiwan. Hence, less water will be blocked by bottom topography (Ilan Ridge) and bifurcates into the Ryukyu Current. Our finding highlights the needs for comprehensive studies on the local and climate effects of the evolution of the WBC system in the North Pacific. Key Points: The East China Sea Kuroshio is intensifying while the Ryukyu Current is rapidly declining in a warming climateThe change is mainly caused by enhanced stratification which induces uplift of current system and weaker topography‐flow interaction [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We aimed to examine the factors associated with treatment outcomes in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) after 1 year of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEI) treatment. Method: We obtained electronic medical records from a medical center in Southern Taiwan between January 2015 and September 2021. Participants aged ≥60 who were newly diagnosed with AD and had been prescribed AChEIs were included. Cognitive assessments were performed before the AChEIs were prescribed and at the 1 year follow‐up. Cognition progressors were defined as a Mini‐Mental State Examination decline of >3 or a Clinical Dementia Rating decline of ≥1 after 1 year of AChEI treatment. The relationship between the baseline characteristics and cognitive status after follow‐up was investigated using logistic regression analysis after adjusting for potential confounders. Results: A total of 1370 patients were included in our study (mean age, 79.86 ± 8.14 years). After adjustment, the body mass index (BMI) was found to be significantly lower in the progressor group [adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 0.970, 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs): 0.943 to 0.997, P = 0.033]. The usage of antipsychotics was significantly higher in the progressor group (AOR: 1.599, 95% CIs: 1.202 to 2.202, P = 0.001). The usage of benzodiazepine receptor agonists also tended to be significantly higher in the progressor group (AOR: 1.290, 95% CIs: 0.996 to 1.697, p = 0.054). Conclusion: These results suggest that patients with AD who receive 1 year of AChEI treatment and have a lower BMI or concurrent treatment with antipsychotics and benzodiazepine receptor agonists are more likely to suffer from cognitive decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical cyclones are often accompanied by large amount of precipitation potentially impacting stream hydrochemistry. Global warming is altering typhoon disturbance regime. Little is known about how cyclone changes, especially cyclone‐frequency reduction may affect stream hydrochemistry. In this study, we compared water and nutrient input via precipitation and output via streamflow between a frequent‐typhoon period (2013–2017), with 1.2 typhoon yr−1, and a no‐typhoon period (2018–2022) at a long‐term monitoring site, the Fushan Experimental Forest of Taiwan. Precipitation and streamflow quantities were not different between the two periods because typhoons increased the fluctuation but not the mean of monthly precipitation in the major typhoon months (July–September). Inputs of Mg2+, NO3−, and SO42− via precipitation were greater in the frequent‐typhoon period than the no‐typhoon period while inputs of other ions were not different between the two periods. Only the output of Mg2+ was different between the two periods, greater in the frequent‐typhoon period. Output/input ratio of NO3− was greater in the no‐typhoon period than the frequent‐typhoon period despite the greater input in the frequent‐typhoon period, while no differences were found for others. Increases in mineralization rates due to warming is suggested to be the cause of the greater NO3− output/input ratio during the no‐typhoon period. Relationships between stream discharge and ion export were similar between the two periods both with and without removing typhoon events. The limited variation in hydrochemistry between periods of contrasting cyclone activities suggests high resilience of the undisturbed subtropical forests to changes in cyclone frequency at the decadal scale. Plain Language Summary: Tropical cyclones often bring large quantity of rainfall through which affect stream water quantity and quality. The frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones is changing because of climate change. We examined how reduction in typhoon frequency affects nutrient cycling in a forest watershed by comparing streamwater quality and quantity between a frequent (six) typhoon period (2013–2017) and a no‐typhoon period (2018–2022) in a forest watershed in Taiwan. Surprisingly, although the typhoons brought substantial rainfall, the annual and typhoon season rainfall and streamwater were similar between the two periods. Input and output of most ions were also similar between the two periods. However, NO3− export was higher in the no‐typhoon period, possibly resulting from greater mineralization associated with warmer temperatures. Patterns of ion export in relation to streamwater were also similar between the two periods. Thus, the hydrochemistry of the undisturbed forest was resilent to changes in typhoon frequency. Key Points: A no‐typhoon period (2018–2022) was observed in Taiwan despite an average of two typhoons per year in 1958–2017Relationships between stream discharge and ion export were similar between the two periodsOutput/input ratio of NO3− was greater in the no‐typhoon period despite the greater input in the frequent‐typhoon period [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variety of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics is known to vary consistently along the rural-urban continuum in highly developed nations such as the United States. Relatively little is known, however, about such variations in underdeveloped countries. In an effort to throw further light on this subject, the present paper examines the relationship of selected socio-demographic variables defining "urbanism" to a rural-urban continuum constructed for Taiwan. The results of the analysis suggest (1) that the theoretical applicability of the continuum concept is just as valid for under-developed areas as it is for countries such as the United States, and (2) that from a methodological point of view, a more realistic approach to the construction of a rural-urban continuum is one that utilizes both population size and administrative type in the classification of communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we adopt the exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) method to develop the residual modification EWMA grey forecasting model REGM(1,1) and combines it with fuzzy theory to derive the fuzzy REGM or the FREGM(1,1) model. The proposed model is used to forecast annual petroleum demand in Taiwan. The experimental results show that the mean absolute percentage errors, median absolute percentage error, and symmetric mean absolute percentage error of FREGM(1,1) model are higher by 23.71, 12.26, and 23.06% respectively, compared with those obtained using the traditional GM(1,1) model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of an effective quality management system has always been considered a principal method for a manufacturer to maintain and improve its product and service quality. Globally many regulatory authorities incorporate quality management system as one of the mandatory requirements for the regulatory control of high-risk medical devices. The present study aims to analyze the GMP enforcement experience in Taiwan between 1998 and 2013. It describes the regulatory implementation of medical device GMP requirement and initiatives taken to assist small and medium-sized enterprises in compliance with the regulatory requirement. Based on statistical data collected by the competent authority and industry research institutes, the present paper reports the growth of Taiwan local medical device industry after the enforcement of GMP regulation. Transition in the production, technologies, and number of employees of Taiwan medical device industry between 1998 and 2013 provides the competent authorities around the world with an empirical foundation for further policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Korea was the first to administer the Indoor Air Quality Control Act in 1996, followed by Taiwan's implementation in 2012. This study investigated indoor air quality (IAQ) in public facilities before and after the enactment of Taiwan's Indoor Air Quality Management (IAQM) Act in 2012 to assess the effectiveness of the Act. The study also calculates health risks for employers, and consumers/visitors separately. The mean concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) after the IAQM Act's enactment was higher than before, except for government offices. The lowest attainment rates for CO2, below 80%, were 73% in hospitals and 78% in libraries. As for formaldehyde, average concentrations were higher after the IAQM Act's implementation, except for the exhibition room and library. Notably, improvements in particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) levels were evident in hospitals and libraries compared to other environments (attainment rates increased from 85% to 100% and 89% to 94%, respectively). However, in schools, preschools, and public transport spaces, unattainment rates worsened. Regarding cancer risk from formaldehyde exposure in the public, the 95% of upper risk limits ranged from 3.44 × 10 − 5 in the public transport system to 8.80 × 10 − 4 in preschools. Our findings highlight the necessity of integrating more measurement data after IAQM Act implementation and formulating management strategies based on risk assessments for future investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the well-being of older adults has been highlighted as a significant public health concern. In this study, we investigated the role of psychological resilience in mediating the relationship between positive self-perceptions of aging (SPA) and the subjective well-being (SWB) of community-dwelling older adults in Taiwan during the pandemic. We collected data through face-to-face interviews conducted from October 2021 to February 2022, involving 1,095 participants aged 50 years or above residing in a southern city in Taiwan. More than half of the study participants were female, aged 65 or older, and had less than a high school education. More than two thirds were married and/or living with partners. More than a third had two or more noncommunicable diseases. We calculated scores for SWB, positive SPA, and psychological resilience and examined correlations among the outcome and predictor variables. Our findings indicated that higher positive SPA was significantly associated with better SWB among community-dwelling older adults in Taiwan and that this association was mediated by psychological resilience. Specifically, after controlling for covariates, structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed a significant main effect of positive SPA on SWB (b = 0.412, β = 0187, and p < 0.001), while bootstrap mediation analysis showed a statistically significant indirect mediating effect from positive SPA on SWB via psychological resilience (0.597, 95% bootstrap CIs = [0.445, 0.749], and p < 0.001). These findings highlight the potential importance of cultivating positive self-perceptions of aging and implementing resilience-centered interventions to promote well-being among Chinese older adults in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hierarchical unmanned aircraft system (UAS) traffic management (UTM) system has deployed 45 ground transceiver stations (GTS) for UAS services in Taiwan. This UTM system covers most areas for UAV-dependent surveillance using ADS-B Like technology. UTM Controller can monitor all UAV flights under transparent surveillance in low airspace. Controller-initiated UAV "detect and avoid" (DAA) mechanism assists UAV separation to ensure flight safety on UTM for small multirotor UAVs. From similar concept to traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) for the manned aircraft system, the UTM software executes DAA functions to generate approach alerts to UTM Controller. Conflict is detected by heading arrow extrapolation from multiple approaching UAVs by their time to conflict (TTC) on icons. Traffic advisory (TA) and resolution advisory (RA) are pronounced on UTM console to controllers. The less priority UAV pilot will receive the controller-pilot communication (CPC) to perform avoidance resolution. In UTM, the surveillance data period is broadcasting at 5~8 seconds on LoRa (long-range wide-area network) chip. Referring to TA = 48 seconds and RA = 24 seconds, the signal delay in ADS-B Like system to UTM server is about 0.5 seconds and CPC response is measured about 3~5 seconds. From real flight tests, the RA is enough for the less priority pilot to maneuver UAV for avoidance. From real flight tests, the proposed DAA mechanism based on UTM-dependent surveillance is feasible to resolve multiple approaches. The developing UTM system using ADS-B Like technology is also examined of high availability with redundant reliability and performance stability for flight safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Rare species make substantial contributions to coastal ecosystem functions. Functional rarity (FR) and phylogenetic rarity (PR) are important features for biodiversity conservation. This work aimed to discuss the necessity and reasonableness of conserving fish FR and PR in coastal seas. Location: China. Methods: By compiling historical fish investigation data, joint species distribution modelling (JSDM) was applied to model fish communities in coastal China Seas. Biogeographic patterns of FR and PR were explored, and the effectiveness of current MPA networks in terms of match/mismatch with the hotspots of rarity was assessed. Results: A total of 44 functionally rare species and 22 phylogenetically rare species were identified. Six of these species were both functionally and phylogenetically rare, and only one was listed as endangered on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Functional rarity hotspots covered 10.27% of the coastal areas, which geographically converged in the southern and eastern coast of Taiwan, the Yangtze River Estuary and the Yellow River Estuary. Phylogenetic rarity hotspots only covered 3.06% of the coastal areas, which were sporadically distributed in the coastal East China Sea, the Bohai Sea and the northern Yellow Sea. Current marine‐protected areas (MPAs) only represented 16.16% of the FR hotspots and 20.48% of the PR hotspots, indicating substantial mismatched areas between the MPAs and the hotspots of FR and PR. Main Conclusions: Only considering threatened species in conservation practices will omit functionally and phylogenetically rare species because FR and PR are not necessarily correlated with species threat status on the IUCN Red List. Functional rarity hotspots do not necessarily overlap with PR hotspots, and current MPAs mismatch the majority of these areas. We therefore advocate that conservation prioritization and expansion of MPA networks should account for FR and PR both at the species and site levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B5G/6G networks are facing challenges in the deployment of additional base stations. However, Taiwan's four major operators have launched VoWi‐Fi calling services to maintain signal quality and coverage for customers. These services pose potential threats when users connect to untrusted Wi‐Fi networks. Therefore, the authors utilised commercial equipment to study the security of VoWi‐Fi calling services offered by Taiwan's four major telecom companies. The authors employed address resolution protocol attack methods to develop two verification attacks that bypass existing security measures: one for dropping session initiation protocol packets and the other for dropping voice call packets, both capable of circumventing current security defences. Through real‐world experiments, the authors confirmed their feasibility and assessed their potential harm. Consequently, two defence methods are proposed. The first is an anti‐attack algorithm for app and device manufacturers to detect the security of the user's calling environment. The second is a recommendation for telecom operators to implement new detection mechanisms to safeguard user rights. The cover image is based on the Case Study VoWi‐Fi security threats: Address resolution protocol attack and countermeasures by Kuan‐Chu Lu et al., https://doi.org/10.1049/ntw2.12113 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim This paper describes a 1-year follow-up of post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD) symptomatology and depression in an elderly minority population who experienced Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan. Methods The PTSD Symptom Scale - Interview and the 10-item short form Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale were used to examine PTSD symptomatology and depression in 120 victims at 3-6 months and in 88 victims (73.3% reinterview rate) at 11-12 months after the disaster. Further, we looked for associations between stress, prognosis, and development of PTSD symptomatology and depression. Results The prevalence of PTSD symptomatology decreased from 29.2% (35/120) at 3-6 months to 15.9% (14/88) at 11-12 months. The prevalence of depression, however, increased from 43.3% (52/120) to 46.6% (41/88). No factor was associated with follow-up PTSD symptomatology, and only the level of education was related to follow-up depression. Generally, the risk factors of age, sex, symptomatology of PTSD and depression at baseline, and stressor of unemployment predicted new-onset or chronic PTSD symptomatology and depression. Delayed-onset depression 48.0% (24/50) was more common than delayed-onset PTSD symptomatology 11.3% (7/62). Chronic and delayed-onset PTSD symptomatology were more easily developed with depression. Conclusion Although PTSD and depression were separate consequences of trauma, they emerged and affected mental health together. We documented the courses of PTSD and depression among elderly aboriginal people, and the possible effects of demographic, symptomatology, and adverse life stressors were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper extends previous environmental management research by building and empirically testing a model of the contingency effects of green advertising on the relationships between environmental management practices in terms of environmentally conscious manufacturing and product stewardship, environmental reputation and financial performance. We examine the value of green advertising in sharing and publicizing information about organizational achievements in environmental preservation in a business-to business context with the Taiwanese electronics manufacturing industry. The theoretical propositions are largely confirmed by structural path analyses of survey responses collected from 122 Taiwanese electronics manufacturers. Green advertising delivers financial benefits only for those manufacturers that do not have an established environmental reputation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers world news briefs related to synchrotron radiation as of November 2013. The National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC) held its users meeting on September 4-5, 2013 in Taiwan. Developments of new molecular tools studied by Monach University researchers William Gee and Stuart Batten have become the 1000th paper entered into the Australian Synchrotron database. The constructed beamline satellite building of the Soft Inelastic X-ray Scattering (SIX) has been opened.

This article presents a list of announcements, position listings, and advertisements that pertain to financial management. Some of the items listed include the following: announcements for the Addison-Wesley Prize for Best Paper in Financial Management, 2008 Financial Management Association (FMA) Conferences, 2008 Doctoral Student Consortiums, 2007 FMA Competitive Paper Awards, 2007 FMA Student Chapter Award Recipients. Position listings included positions at MIT Sloan School of Management, Messiah College, and National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan.