Mobile Business: Characteristics, Advantages and Strategies

The introduction of Internet technology has led to the business revolution, the so-called e-business. As a consequence, the e-business led the surprising economy booming for certain years. However, in the last few years, e-business also led to a global economy recession. The rises and falls of e-business raise curiosity to researchers for further investigation on the impacts of Internet technology on the business operations. What goes wrong with e-business becomes an interesting question, and deserves in-depth investigation. In this paper, we give the definition of mobile business and construct its advantages. We analyze why e-business did not perform well in the last few years by showing how traditional Internet users were blocked by corporate firewalls from interactions with e-business. Based upon transaction cost theory, we decompose transaction cost into analytical components: transportation cost, information cost, telecommunications cost and management cost, and therefore, derive the profit realization equation. We then use this profit realization equation to analyze how mobile technology impacts business operations. As a result, this paper provides an analytical framework for enterprises implement mobile business and reengineer business operations. The enterprises can therefore set up corporate strategy to restructure the enterprise resources to build superior core competence and enhance corporate competitive advantage

A Global Packet-Phone Network for Global Enterprises-Theory and Practice-

In the last decay, there has been many information and Internet technologies advances. Due to the advances, enterprises are now easier to be scattered throughout the world to closely reach their customers. However, the distributed global enterprises have to pay the high cost for telecommunications among the globally distributed sites. In this paper, we propose a global packet-phone network that could be built efficiently with low cost for global enterprises to provide international telecommunications, fax, video conferences, and other value added services. The proposed system has been experimented and used by many global enterprises. This paper describes the theory of the global packet-phone network, and discusses how the system is built in practice

An Analysis of Consuming Behavior Model for Adopting Knowledge Intensive Technological Product: The Case of MDA

The objective of this research is to analyze the correlation between consumers’ adoption of MDA and some of its influential variables, namely innovativeness, procurement types, involvement, the degree of Internet used and the basic characteristics of consumers. This paper provides a new model to explain the influent effects between consumers’ adoption of MDA and its influential factors mentioned above. The conclusions of this study are: (1) the curves of consumers’ basic characteristics versus adoption of MDA are convex-type. (2) The consumers’ age, name-list size, innovation adoption, goal-oriented and Internet usage frequency attributes have direct and positive effects on PDA adoption. (3) The innovativeness of consumers may be used to explain the reason of Consumers’ procurement style. (4) The innovativeness of consumers may be used to exploit and design the product differentiation strategy. (5) The basic characteristics of consumers may be used to exploit and design the promotion and market segmentation strategies

Temperature-dependent evolutions of excitonic superfluid plasma frequency in a srong excitonic insulator candidate, Ta2_2NiSe5_5

We investigate an interesting anisotropic van der Waals material, Ta$_{2}$NiSe$_{5}$, using optical spectroscopy. Ta$_{2}$NiSe$_{5}$ has been known as one of the few excitonic insulators proposed over 50 years ago. Ta$_{2}$NiSe$_{5}$ has quasi-one dimensional chains along the $a$-axis. We have obtained anisotropic optical properties of a single crystal Ta$_{2}$NiSe$_{5}$ along the $a$- and $c$-axes. The measured $a$- and $c$-axis optical conductivities exhibit large anisotropic electronic and phononic properties. With regard to the $a$-axis optical conductivity, a sharp peak near 3050 cm$^{-1}$ at 9 K, with a well-defined optical gap ($\Delta^{EI} \simeq$ 1800 cm$^{-1}$) and a strong temperature-dependence, is observed. With an increase in temperature, this peak broadens and the optical energy gap closes around $\sim$325 K($T_c^{EI}$). The spectral weight redistribution with respect to the frequency and temperature indicates that the normalized optical energy gap ($\Delta^{EI}(T)/\Delta^{EI}(0)$) is $1-(T/T_c^{EI})^2$. The temperature-dependent superfluid plasma frequency of the excitonic condensation in Ta$_{2}$NiSe$_{5}$ has been determined from measured optical data. Our findings may be useful for future research on excitonic insulators.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

Bioinformatic discovery of microRNA precursors from human ESTs and introns

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) function in many physiological processes, and their discovery is beneficial for further studying their physiological functions. However, many of the miRNAs predicted from genomic sequences have not been experimentally validated to be authentic expressed RNA transcripts, thereby decreasing the reliability of miRNA discovery. To overcome this problem, we examined expressed transcripts – ESTs and intronic sequences – to identify novel miRNAs as well as their target genes. RESULTS: To facilitate our approach, we developed our scanning method using criteria based on the features of 207 known human pre-miRNAs to discriminate miRNAs from random sequences. We identified 208 candidate hairpins in human ESTs and human reference gene intronic sequences, 52 of which are known pre-miRNAs. The discovery pipeline performance was further assessed using 130 newly updated pre-miRNA and randomly selected sequences. We achieved sensitivity of 85% (110/130) and overall specificity of 49.7% using this method. Because miRNAs are evolutionarily conserved regulators of gene expression, it is expected that their host genes and target genes should have respective phylogenetic orthologs. Our results confirmed that, in certain mammals, the host genes carrying the same miRNAs are orthologs, as previously reported. Moreover, this observation is also the case for some of the miRNA target genes. CONCLUSION: We have predicted 208 human pre-miRNA candidates and over 10,000 putative human target genes. Using sequence information from ESTs and introns ensures that the predicted pre-miRNA candidates are expressed and the combined expression transcription information from ESTs and introns makes our prediction results more decisive with regard to expressed pre-miRNAs

Outcomes of Palivizumab Prophylaxis for Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection in Preterm Children with Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia at a Single Hospital in Korea from 2005 to 2009

This study was performed to evaluate the utilization and outcomes of palivizumab in high risk children born prematurely with chronic lung disease (CLD). A retrospective review of 128 patients was conducted from September 2004 to March 2009 at the Ajou University Hospital. All patients were diagnosed with CLD, were born at ≤35 weeks of gestation, were <2 yr old at the onset of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season, and had received medical therapy within six months prior to the RSV season. Fifty-three patients did not receive palivizumab prophylaxis and 75 patients received at least one dose of palivizumab. There were no statistically significant differences between the patients with and without palivizumab prophylaxis with regard to demographic characteristics and risk factors for RSV infection. There were no systemic adverse responses. Compliance with the course of prophylaxis was 92.2%. Hospitalization associated with RSV occurred in 12 cases (22.6%) in the group without prophylaxis and in three cases (4.0%) with prophylaxis. Palivizumab prophylaxis significantly reduced the frequency of RSV-related hospitalization in preterm children with CLD. This is the first retrospective review of palivizumab prophylaxis in Korea. Palivizumab is effective and well tolerated in high risk prematurely born children

A mobile-device-supported peer-assisted learning system for collaborative early EFL reading

Collaborative learning methods which emphasize peer interaction have been widely applied to increase the intensity and effectiveness of EFL reading programs. However, simply grouping students heterogeneously and assigning them group goals does not guarantee that effective collaborative learning will ensue. The present research includes two studies. In Study One, the weaknesses of collaborative learning in a traditional EFL setting were observed. Then, in Study Two, a mobile-device-supported peer-assisted learning (MPAL) system was developed for the purpose of addressing the identified weaknesses. Two classes of twenty-six third grade students participated in the present research to examine the unique contribution of MPAL to collaborative EFL reading activities. The collaborative behavior of elementary EFL learners was videotaped and analyzed. Detailed analysis of the videotaped behavior indicated that MPAL helped improve collaboration in elementary school level EFL learners and promotes their reading motivation