How to Manage Knowledge Well? Evidence from the Life Insurance Industry

[[abstract]]As using knowledge management and performance effectively to gain competitive advantage is becoming critical in today’s knowledge-based economy, an increasing number of industries are trying to explore optimal methods of managing knowledge-based assets, so-called intellectual capital (IC) in both visible and invisible forms and evaluate their performance in this regard. In Taiwan, the life insurance industry includes two crucial factors: first, it is one of main mechanisms that could significantly influence Taiwanese economic growth; and second, knowledge needed for high performance itself. However, not only is difficulty in professions growing, high flow rate of talent and an increase in, and extension of, diversity services, but the recent global economic depression is a drawback that is seriously damaging competitive advantage domestically and internationally. This phenomenon also obviously affects Taiwanese economic growth. Since the renaissance and auspicious future of Taiwanese life insurance industry might be expected by senior life insurance experts, the aim of this study is on the basis of its development nature, profit generation by effective knowledge management, to overcome the highlighted difficulties by developing the critical criteria of IC and utilizing the developed IC criteria to explore the benchmark company. This is accomplished through a hybrid multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach based on a decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), the analytic network process (ANP), and VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR). Companies in the life insurance industry are encouraged to successfully evaluate and improve knowledge management performance based on the research findings, to bring about radical change in the existing state of affairs and to develop future strategies efficiently and solidly.[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]SSCI[[booktype]]電子版[[countrycodes]]NG

Disparities between Services Demanded and Services Received in Taiwanese Restaurants

[[abstract]]The aim of this study is to evaluate the service quality performance of Taiwanese foreign restaurants. After a review of the literature on service quality and discussions with managers of Taiwanese foreign restaurants, we decided to use the DINERSERV questionnaire. The methodology, an Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), is used to categorize whole service items into four dimensions: 1) “keep up the good work,” 2) “possible overkill,” 3) “low priority,” and 4) “concentrate here,” all in accordance with the service performance of each service item. The critical findings indicate that Taiwanese foreign restaurants should improve upon the following seven service items: the parking lot around the restaurant (I2), regular updates to the menu (I8), comfortable seating (I11), fast service (I18), waiters’ problem-solving ability (I20), waiters’ understanding of customers (I27), and always putting the customer first (I28). The results of the study are discussed, along with the implications for managers of Taiwanese foreign restaurants.[[ispeerreviewed]]Y[[booktype]]紙本[[booktype]]電子版[[countrycodes]]US

Suppressed star formation in circumnuclear regions in Seyfert galaxies

Feedback from black hole activity is widely believed to play a key role in regulating star formation and black hole growth. A long-standing issue is the relation between the star formation and fueling the supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We compile a sample of 57 Seyfert galaxies to tackle this issue. We estimate the surface densities of gas and star formation rates in circumnuclear regions (CNRs). Comparing with the well-known Kennicutt-Schmidt (K-S) law, we find that the star formation rates in CNRs of most Seyfert galaxies are suppressed in this sample. Feedback is suggested to explain the suppressed star formation rates.Comment: 1 color figure and 1 table. ApJ Letters in pres

Toward better intelligent learning (iLearning) performance:what makes iLearning work for students in a university setting?

We explored the critical factors associated with iLearning that impact students’ learning performance and identified the factors with a notable influence to help managers in higher education institutions increase the effectiveness of iLearning for students. We initially synthesised 4 main dimensions (including 26 criteria): performance expectancy, lecturers’ influence, quality of service, and personal innovativeness. Subsequently, we conducted surveys in two stages. First, by studying a group of students with experience using iLearning at Taiwanese universities, we extracted 5 critical dimensions (including 18 criteria) through a factor analysis. Second, by studying a group of senior educators and practitioners in Taiwan, we prioritised the dimensions and criteria through the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). We found that performance expectancy is the top critical dimension, and the top five critical criteria pertain to enhancing the learning performance, increasing the learning participation, altering learning habits, ensuring access at all times, and enabling prompt use of learning resources. Moreover, we recommend several suggestions for the relevant managers to enhance the students’ iLearning performance

PmoB subunit of particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO) in Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath): The Cu^I sponge and its function

In this study, we describe efforts to clarify the role of the copper cofactors associated with subunit B (PmoB) of the particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO) from Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath) (M. capsulatus). This subunit exhibits strong affinity toward Cu^I ions. To elucidate the high copper affinity of the subunit, the full-length PmoB, and the N-terminal truncated mutants PmoB_(33–414) and PmoB_(55–414), each fused to the maltose-binding protein (MBP), are cloned and over-expressed into Escherichia coli (E. coli) K12 TB1 cells. The Y374F, Y374S and M300L mutants of these protein constructs are also studied. When this E. coli is grown with the pmoB gene in 1.0 mM Cu^(II), it behaves like M. capsulatus (Bath) cultured under high copper stresswith abundant membrane accumulation and high CuI content. The recombinantPmoB proteins are verified by Western blotting of antibodies directed against the MBP sub-domain in each of the copper-enriched PmoB proteins. Cu K-edge X-rayabsorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) of the copper ions confirms that all the PmoB recombinants are Cu^I proteins. All the PmoB proteins show evidence of a “dicopper site” according to analysis of the Cu extended X-ray absorption edge fine structure (EXAFS) of the membranes. No specific activities toward methane and propene oxidation are observed with the recombinant membrane-bound PmoB proteins. However, significant production of hydrogen peroxide is observed in the case of the PmoB_(33–414) mutant. Reaction of the dicopper site with dioxygenproduces hydrogen peroxide and leads to oxidation of the CuI ions residing in the C-terminal sub-domain of the PmoB subunit