The Development of a Computer Auditing System Sufficient for Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 - A Study on the Purchasing and Expenditure Cycle of the ERP System

After Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was released, developing an effective computer auditing system became critical for management and auditors. In this study, the researchers used Gowin\u27s Vee, raised as a research strategy by Novak and Gorwin (1984). On the theoretical side, the researchers arranged documents and employed an expert questionnaire to identify 8 operational procedure elements and 34 critical factors for the purchasing and expenditure cycle. The application side was built upon the model. The researchers then developed the computer auditing system based on the developments of this study. To test the suitability of the system, the researchers conducted a case study whose results showed that this system can provide the company owners and their accountants with a simple, continuous, timely, and analytical method which may help them detect promptly any irregular internal control issues, thus identifying measures to improve the condition

Rapid (<5 min) identification of pathogen in human blood by electrokinetic concentration and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

This study reports a novel microfluidic platform for rapid and long-ranged concentration of rare-pathogen from human blood for subsequent on-chip surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) identification/discrimination of bacteria based on their detected fingerprints. Using a hybrid electrokinetic mechanism, bacteria can be concentrated at the stagnation area on the SERS-active roughened electrode, while blood cells were excluded away from this region at the center of concentric circular electrodes. This electrokinetic approach performs isolation and concentration of bacteria in about three minutes; the density factor is increased approximately a thousand fold in a local area of ~5000 μm(2) from a low bacteria concentration of 5 × 10(3) CFU/ml. Besides, three genera of bacteria, S. aureus, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa that are found in most of the isolated infections in bacteremia were successfully identified in less than one minute on-chip without the use of any antibody/chemical immobilization and reaction processes

A Study of the Digital Divide Evaluation Model for Government Agencies - A Taiwanese Local Government\u27s Perspective

This paper examines the Taiwanese government’s ways of constructing a measurement model and an empirical study of digital divide among government agencies. On the basis of Gowin\u27s Vee structure, this paper first refers to the Grounded Theory in the establishment of the draft list for the measurement of the digital divide in local governments. Furthermore, it constructs five dimensions and 42 measurement factors with an expert questionnaire and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for the digital divide evaluation model of government agencies. Finally, this paper measures the actual levels of digital divide in local governments, with the digital divide evaluation model in examining the degrees of digitalization, pros, and cons in association with digital divide. It is hoped that the results would serve as a reference for government agencies of all levels in formulating their digitalization strategies

Measuring The Flow Experience Of Players Playing Online Games

Nowadays, online games have become a highly profitable e-commerce application. Therefore, researchers increasingly believe that understanding online game player behavior is critical to the success of online game practitioners.The factors influencing the flow of online games are of major concern to academic researchers and online games practitioners. Drawing on the theory of flow, this study empirically explores how the interactivity and intrinsic beliefs impact flow experience, and how flow experience is related to replay intention. Then, confirmatory factor analysis is applied to test and the proposed research model is evaluated with partial least squares (SmartPLS 2.0). The results show that flow experience is a significant predictor ofreplay intention. Four antecedents to flow (telepresence, focused attention, skills and challenges) have positive influence on flow experience. Interactivity (social interactivity and human-machine interactivity) and intrinsic beliefs (perceived attractiveness, personal involvement) influence the antecedents of flow experience. Moreover, social interactivity has a stronger impact on the antecedents of flow experience than human-machine interactivity. This study finds that social interactivity is most crucial to online game success

An Overall Purchasing Process Model of Internet Buyers: The Role of Regret in Electronic Commerce

This study focuses on the antecedents and consequences of Internet buyer regret in the overall purchasing process. We examine the roles that search effort, service-attribute evaluations, product-attribute evaluations and post-purchase price perceptions play in determining buyer regret and satisfaction in e-commerce. Furthermore, the study examines the consequences of regret and satisfaction in regard to purchasing intention. Survey data collected from 422 respondents were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS-Graph 3.0) and support provided for the hypothesized links. These results show that greater search effort and lower evaluations of service, product and price lead to greater buyer regret and dissatisfaction; the consequences of regret include reduced satisfaction and less intention to repurchase. Based on the results, implications for online retailers, as well as suggestions for future research relating to Internet buyer regret, are discussed

Effectiveness of influenza vaccination in patients with end-stage renal disease receiving hemodialysis: a population-based study.

BackgroundLittle is known on the effectiveness of influenza vaccine in ESRD patients. This study compared the incidence of hospitalization, morbidity, and mortality in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) between cohorts with and without influenza vaccination.MethodsWe used the insurance claims data from 1998 to 2009 in Taiwan to determine the incidence of these events within one year after influenza vaccination in the vaccine (N = 831) and the non-vaccine (N = 3187) cohorts. The vaccine cohort to the non-vaccine cohort incidence rate ratio and hazard ratio (HR) of morbidities and mortality were measured.ResultsThe age-specific analysis showed that the elderly in the vaccine cohort had lower hospitalization rate (100.8 vs. 133.9 per 100 person-years), contributing to an overall HR of 0.81 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.72-0.90). The vaccine cohort also had an adjusted HR of 0.85 [95% CI 0.75-0.96] for heart disease. The corresponding incidence of pneumonia and influenza was 22.4 versus 17.2 per 100 person-years, but with an adjusted HR of 0.80 (95% CI 0.64-1.02). The vaccine cohort had lowered risks than the non-vaccine cohort for intensive care unit (ICU) admission (adjusted HR 0.20, 95% CI 0.12-0.33) and mortality (adjusted HR 0.50, 95% CI 0.41-0.60). The time-dependent Cox model revealed an overall adjusted HR for mortality of 0.30 (95% CI 0.26-0.35) after counting vaccination for multi-years.ConclusionsESRD patients with HD receiving the influenza vaccination could have reduced risks of pneumonia/influenza and other morbidities, ICU stay, hospitalization and death, particularly for the elderly

P-type tin monoxide thin-film transistors on cellulose nanopaper substrates

Oxide-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) possess advantages such as relatively high mobility, low process temperature and good uniformity, which make them attractive for flexible electronics applications. Most flexible oxide-based TFTs reported today were made on plastic substrates. In this work, flexible inverted-staggered bottom-gate p-type tin monoxide (SnO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) were demonstrated on cellulose nanopaper substrates using a photolithography-compatible direct-fabrication approach. The paper substrate was formed by drop-casting suspension containing cellulose nanofibers and cellulose nanocrystals on a rigid carrier substrate. A buffer layer consisting of parylene, SiNx and SiO2 was then deposited to protect the paper substrate from processing gases and chemicals. The processing temperatures of the TFT were kept ≤ 200°C to ensure the paper substrate remained intact during the process. The channel, gate, source, and drain patterns were defined by using conventional photolithography techniques. Fig. 1(a) shows the micrograph of p-type SnO TFTs made on a cellulose nanopaper substrate. The channel width and length are 60 μm and 30 μm, respectively. Figs. 1(b), (c), and (d) illustrate the transfer characteristics, output characteristics and linear field-effect mobility as a function gate voltage of a p-type SnO TFT fabricated on a cellulose nanopaper substrate. The on-paper SnO TFT exhibits a field-effect mobility of 1.21 cm2V-1s-1, threshold voltage of 3.56 V, subthreshold swing of 2.36 V/dec and on/off current ratio of 2.06×103. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

Electrical performance of amorphous IGZO thin-film transistor on cellulose nanopaper substrate

Plastics are commonly used as substrates for flexible electronics today, but they cause significant impact to the environment. Paper has been considered as an alternative owing to their low cost, flexibility, biodegradability and recyclability. However, paper substrates are vulnerable to high temperature and/or wet processes. Therefore, most reported on-paper electronics were fabricated by using printing processes, transfer processes, and/or shadow-masking deposition techniques. In this work, amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) were demonstrated on cellulose nanopaper substrates via a photolithography-compatible direct-fabrication method. The paper substrate was formed by drop-casting suspension containing cellulose nanofibers and cellulose nanocrystals on a rigid carrier substrate. A buffer layer consisting of parylene, SiNx, SiO2 and Al2O3 was then deposited to protect the paper substrate against processing gases and chemicals. To avoid deterioration of the cellulose nanopaper substrate, a low-temperature process of £ 150°C was developed. Fig. 1(a) shows the micrograph of a-IGZO TFTs made on a cellulose nanopaper substrate. The channel width and length are 60 μm and 30 μm, respectively. Figs. 1(b), (c), and (d) illustrate the transfer characteristics, output characteristics and linear field-effect mobility as a function gate voltage of an a-IGZO TFT fabricated on a cellulose nanopaper substrate. The on-paper TFT exhibits a field-effect mobility mobility of 4.23 cm2V-1s-1, on/off current ratio of 2.17× 107, threshold voltage of 4.35 V and subthreshold swing of 0.695 V/dec. The result paves a way toward large-area-compatible and scalable flexible green electronics productions. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract