Productivity Change in Taiwan's Farmers' Credit Unions: A Nonparametric Risk-Adjusted Malmquist Approach

This article proposes an extended three-stage DEA methodology similar to Fried et al. (2002) to improve the measurement of productivity growth then the assumption of free disposability of undesirable outpu t does not apply. A directional distance function is used to construct adjusted Malmquist-Luenberger productivity indexes which simultaneously account for the impacts of undesirable outputs, environmental variables, and statistical noise. Panel data for 264 farmers' credit unions (FCUs) in Taiwan covering the 1998-2000 period are employed to illustrate the advantages of this method. On average, the productivity of Taiwan's FCUs is found to have deteriorated over the 1998-2000 period. Although an improvement in efficiency has been observed, the major reason for the deterioration is found to be due to the regression of techno logy.Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index, three-stage DEA, undesirable outputs, directional distance function, Agricultural Finance, Productivity Analysis,

NERVE CONDUCTION VELOCITY INVESTIGATION IN ATHLETES WITH TRAINED LOWER EXTRAMITY FOR WELL·CONTROLLlNG MOVEMENT

Reaction, coordination and speed ability are essential for success in a variety of sports. Nerve conduction velocity (NCV) is related to all of these abilities. Previous studies had investigated power and endurance type athletes, but there is less research in athletes who are skilled in coordinated lower extremity movements requiring more neural adaptation for nerve conduction velocity after specific exercise training. The purpose of this study is to investigate nerve conduction velocity of soccer, sanshou players and untrained subjects. Results show that NCV was significantly different among the 3 groups (p < .05) for the femoral and tibal nerves. For both femoral and tibial nerve.§, results showed that the soccer players had significantly faster NCV than the other groups (p < .05). According to the results, faster NCV adaptation from long term training in soccer players may be relate to their movement requirement of changing their movement direction quickly and skillfully

Wealth Effects of Dividend Announcements on Bondholders: The Case of Taiwan Bond Market

Although bonds play an important role in U.S. capital markets, this financial instrument is less common in the emerging markets. Taiwan is a typical case. In fact, both bond issuances and bond transactions in Taiwan have been declining in the past years. Consistent with the previous studies, this research documents that wealth transfer effects exist between bondholders and stockholders. We hypothesize that this wealth transfer discourages investors from investing in bond markets because companies in Taiwan seem to care less about the interest of bondholders. Using the event study methodology, we examine the price change of bonds and stocks in Taiwan capital market around cash dividend announcements. We find that there are significant abnormal returns before cash dividend announcements from 30 days to 60 days and that there is insignificant price change of bonds during the three-day period around the announcement. Possible explanations of the results include low bond trading volumes, insider trading before announcements, and mixing signaling and wealth transfer effects. Although this study cannot prove that the results are directly related to management holdings, we tend to believe that insider trading somehow matters

Pneumocystis jiroveci Pneumonia in Patients with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Receiving Chemotherapy Containing Rituximab

AbstractRituximab enhances treatment efficacy of B-lineage lymphoma by targeting CD20+ B-cells. Such target therapies may compromise the immune system and render patients susceptible to opportunistic infections. We report 2 cases of lymphoma complicated with Pneumocystis jiroveci (previously known as P. carinii) pneumonia (PCP) while being treated with rituximab-containing chemotherapy regimens. In both cases, PCP developed during the neutropenic period. With timely diagnosis and proper management, both were treated successfully. We searched the literature and found that such opportunistic infection occurred only infrequently in lymphoma patients, and it has not been reported in the large-scale clinical trials of rituximab. Such cases demonstrate the importance of taking PCP into diagnostic consideration in lymphoma patients receiving similar therapies

POOR FORCE CONTROL PERFORMANCE AND UNVARIED EMG PATTERN AFTER AGONIST MUSCLE FATIGUE IN HUMANS

Ballistic and accurately control of a targeted fast contraction relies on phasic activations of the agonist and antagonist muscles. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of tibialis anterior (TA) fatigue on the systematic bias and the consistence of the net dorsiflexion torque generation and the controlling pattern of the agonist-antagonist muscles. Ten subjects were tested twice with a week apart. Fast and slow dorsiflexion at 40%-MVG were measured before and after fatigue of the TA by voluntary isometric dorsiflexions. The EMG of the TA and soleus (Sol) were recorded. The results revealed that more post-fatigue increment of the systematic error was in the fast dorsiflexions, random error increment were similar in both speeds of isometric dorsiflexions, the cocontraction ratio increased after fatigue only in the slow dorsiflexions. Our results suggested that precision of the fast targeted isometric contractions was reduced after fatigue because of unvaried agonist-antagonist control strategy

Application of Hydrodynamic Model for Sedimentary Management in Alishan River

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

Foam Properties and Detergent Abilities of the Saponins from Camellia oleifera

The defatted seed meal of Camellia oleifera has been used as a natural detergent and its extract is commercially utilized as a foam-stabilizing and emulsifying agent. The goal of this study was to investigate the foam properties and detergent ability of the saponins from the defatted seed meal of C. oleifera. The crude saponin content in the defatted seed meal of C. oleifera was 8.34 and the total saponins content in the crude saponins extract was 39.5% (w/w). The foaming power of the 0.5 crude saponins extract solution from defatted seed meal of C. oleifera was 37.1 of 0.5 SLS solution and 51.3% to that of 0.5% Tween 80 solution. The R5 value of 86.0% represents good foam stability of the crude saponins extracted from the defatted seed meal of the plant. With the reduction of water surface tension from 72 mN/m to 50.0 mN/m, the 0.5% crude saponins extract solution has wetting ability. The sebum-removal experiment indicated that the crude saponins extract has moderate detergency. The detergent abilities of the saponins from C. oleifera and Sapindus mukorossi were also compared

Modeling Typhoon Event-Induced Landslides Using GIS-Based Logistic Regression: A Case Study of Alishan Forestry Railway, Taiwan

This study develops a model for evaluating the hazard level of landslides at Alishan Forestry Railway, Taiwan, by using logistic regression with the assistance of a geographical information system (GIS). A typhoon event-induced landslide inventory, independent variables, and a triggering factor were used to build the model. The environmental factors such as bedrock lithology from the geology database; topographic aspect, terrain roughness, profile curvature, and distance to river, from the topographic database; and the vegetation index value from SPOT 4 satellite images were used as variables that influence landslide occurrence. The area under curve (AUC) of a receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was used to validate the model. Effects of parameters on landslide occurrence were assessed from the corresponding coefficient that appears in the logistic regression function. Thereafter, the model was applied to predict the probability of landslides for rainfall data of different return periods. Using a predicted map of probability, the study area was classified into four ranks of landslide susceptibility: low, medium, high, and very high. As a result, most high susceptibility areas are located on the western portion of the study area. Several train stations and railways are located on sites with a high susceptibility ranking

Inhibitory Effects of Resveratrol on PDGF-BB-Induced Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cell Migration via PDGFRβ, PI3K/Akt and MAPK Pathways

Purpose: In diseases such as proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration, retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells proliferate and migrate. Moreover, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) has been shown to enhance proliferation and migration of RPE cells in PVR. Even resveratrol can suppress the migration and adhesion of many cell types, its effects on RPE cell migration and adhesion remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effects of resveratrol on RPE cell migration induced by PDGF-BB, an isoform of PDGF, and adhesion to fibronectin, a major ECM component of PVR tissue. Methods: The migration of RPE cells was assessed by an electric cell-substrate impedance sensing migration assay and a Transwell migration assay. A cell viability assay was used to determine the viability of resveratrol treated-cells. The cell adhesion to fibronectin was examined by an adhesion assay. The interactions of resveratrol with PDGF-BB were analyzed by a dot binding assay. The PDGF-BB-induced signaling pathways were determined by western blotting and scratch wound healing assay. Results: Resveratrol inhibited PDGF-BB-induced RPE cell migration in a dose-dependent manner, but showed no effects on ARPE19 cell adhesion to fibronectin. The cell viability assay showed no cytotoxicity of resveratrol on RPE cells and the dot binding assay revealed no direct interactions of resveratrol with PDGF-BB. Inhibitory effects of resveratrol on PDGF-BB-induced platelet-derived growth factor receptor β (PDGFRβ) and tyrosine phosphorylation and the underlying pathways of PI3K/Akt, ERK and p38 activation were found; however, resveratrol and PDGF-BB showed no effects on PDGFRα and JNK activation. Scratch wound healing assay demonstrated resveratrol and the specific inhibitors of PDGFR, PI3K, MEK or p38 suppressed PDGF-BB-induced cell migration. Conclusions: These results indicate that resveratrol is an effective inhibitor of PDGF-BB-induced RPE cell migration via PDGFRβ, PI3K/Akt and MAPK pathways, but has no effects on the RPE cell adhesion to fibronectin