The Effect of Service Quality, Customer Perceived Value and Satisfaction on Loyalty

The service industry has become more and more important for business activities. Service industry contributes about 60% of the annual GDP and 70% of new jobs in America. According to the statistics of Executive Yuan of Taiwan, the service industry contributes over 70% of the annual GDP in 2008. The ultimate goal for companies is to build customer loyalty. With loyal customers, companies can reduce the operating cost and acquisition expenses. An improvement of 5 percent in customer retention leads to an increase of 25 percent to 75 percent in profit. It costs more than five times as much to obtain a new customer than to keep an existing one. This initial study was from relevant literature, then set up research structure and hypotheses. Survey was employed, and respondents were from the customers of TKEC in Taipei area. There were 199 usable questionnaires to analyze descriptive statistics, reliability, validity, and SEM model. The research found that service quality significantly affects customer perceived value and customer satisfaction, and customer perceived value and customer satisfaction have strong impact on customer loyalty for the sample. Therefore, firms have to specifically focus on these factors in order to build a long-term and mutually profitability relationship with a customer and create loyalty as competitive advantages in the market

An Empirical Study of Corporate Brand Image, Customer Perceived Value and Satisfaction on Loyalty in Shoe Industry

A positive corporate brand image is not only increasing competition but also encourage consumers to repurchase. With loyal customers, companies can reduce the operating cost and acquisition expenses. This initial study was from relevant literature, then set up research structure and hypotheses. Survey was employed, and respondents collected from the customers of ASO in Taiwan. There were 208 usable questionnaires to analyze descriptive statistics, reliability, validity, and SEM model. Based on the research results, corporate brand image significantly affects customer perceived value, customer satisfaction and loyalty; customer perceived value has strong impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty for the sample; and customer satisfaction significantly affects customer loyalty. Therefore, companies should have a positive brand image to customers, and specifically focus on those factors in order to build a long-term and mutually profitability relationships with customers and create loyalty as competitive advantages in the markets. The study focuses on the industry of shoes in Taiwan, and adopts only a quantitative method. Future research could employ a different design to examine the causal relationships posited by the theories, and extension the study to discuss mediation or moderation among dimensions

Therapeutic and Radiosensitizing Effects of Armillaridin on Human Esophageal Cancer Cells

Background. Armillaridin (AM) is isolated from Armillaria mellea. We examined the anticancer activity and radiosensitizing effect on human esophageal cancer cells. Methods. Human squamous cell carcinoma (CE81T/VGH and TE-2) and adenocarcinoma (BE-3 and SKGT-4) cell lines were cultured. The MTT assay was used for cell viability. The cell cycle was analyzed using propidium iodide staining. Mitochondrial transmembrane potential was measured by DiOC6(3) staining. The colony formation assay was performed for estimation of the radiation surviving fraction. Human CE81T/VGH xenografts were established for evaluation of therapeutic activity in vivo. Results. AM inhibited the viability of four human esophageal cancer cell lines with an estimated concentration of 50% inhibition (IC50) which was 3.4–6.9 μM. AM induced a hypoploid cell population and morphological alterations typical of apoptosis in cells. This apoptosis induction was accompanied by a reduction of mitochondrial transmembrane potential. AM accumulated cell cycle at G2/M phase and enhanced the radiosensitivity in CE81T/VGH cells. In vivo, AM inhibited the growth of CE81T/VGH xenografts without significant impact on body weight and white blood cell counts. Conclusion. Armillaridin could inhibit growth and enhance radiosensitivity of human esophageal cancer cells. There might be potential to integrate AM with radiotherapy for esophageal cancer treatment

Ride responses of macpherson suspension systems

The main purpose of this study is to obtain more correct vehicle ride responses by using a nonlinear ride model considering the effect of Macpherson suspension geometry. Traditional ride model applied to analysis and controller design uses a two degree of freedom linear model, which includes sprung mass and unsprung mass and a spring and a damper vertically connect them. In fact, suspension components do not vertically position above the tire. The motions of body and tire are not going straight up and down. Therefore, the analysis results obtained by the simple model are often different from the experimental values of the actual vehicle. Because of the difference between simple model and actual vehicle, the control strategy almost cannot apply to actual vehicle. In order to understand the effect of suspension geometry on the vehicle ride responses and design a more practical control strategy, a nonlinear model including the geometric parameters of the suspension is constructed in this study. To estimate the initial equilibrium position of the suspension assembly under load, the static equilibrium analysis and mechanism motion analysis are synchronous implemented at the same time. The nonlinear model describes not only the relative position and velocity but also the force transmission between body and tire. Furthermore, by linearize this nonlinear model the development of control strategy for subsequent (semi) active suspension system could be expected

Using Hybrid Angle/Distance Information for Distributed Topology Control in Vehicular Sensor Networks

In a vehicular sensor network (VSN), the key design issue is how to organize vehicles effectively, such that the local network topology can be stabilized quickly. In this work, each vehicle with on-board sensors can be considered as a local controller associated with a group of communication members. In order to balance the load among the nodes and govern the local topology change, a group formation scheme using localized criteria is implemented. The proposed distributed topology control method focuses on reducing the rate of group member change and avoiding the unnecessary information exchange. Two major phases are sequentially applied to choose the group members of each vehicle using hybrid angle/distance information. The operation of Phase I is based on the concept of the cone-based method, which can select the desired vehicles quickly. Afterwards, the proposed time-slot method is further applied to stabilize the network topology. Given the network structure in Phase I, a routing scheme is presented in Phase II. The network behaviors are explored through simulation and analysis in a variety of scenarios. The results show that the proposed mechanism is a scalable and effective control framework for VSNs

Conceptual models of dissolved carbon fluxes in a two-layer stratified lake: interannual typhoon responses under extreme climates

Extreme climates affect the seasonal and interannual patterns of carbon (C) distribution in lentic ecosystems due to the regimes of river inflow and thermal stratification. Typhoons rapidly load substantial amounts of terrestrial C into smaller subtropical lakes (i.e., Yuan-Yang Lake in Taiwan, hereafter referred to as YYL), renewing and mixing the water column. We developed a conceptual dissolved C model and hypothesized that allochthonous C loading and river inflow intrusion may affect the dissolved inorganic C (DIC) and dissolved organic C (DOC) distributions in a small subtropical lake under these extreme climates. A two-layer conceptual C model was developed to explore how the DIC and DOC fluxes respond to typhoon disturbances on seasonal and interannual timescales in YYL while simultaneously considering autochthonous processes such as algal photosynthesis, remineralization, and vertical transformation. To compare the temporal patterns of fluxes between typhoon years (2015–2016) and non-typhoon years (2017–2018), monthly field samples were obtained and their DIC, DOC, and chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations measured. The results demonstrated that net ecosystem production was 3.14 times higher in typhoon years than in non-typhoon years. These results suggested that a loading of allochthonous C was the most crucial driver of the temporal variation in C fluxes in typhoon years because of changes in physical and biochemical processes, such as photosynthesis, mineralization, and vertical transportation. However, the lowered vertical transportation rate shaped the seasonal C in non-typhoon years due to thermal stratification within this small subtropical lake.</p

A peroxiredoxin cDNA from Taiwanofungus camphorata: role of Cys31 in dimerization

Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) play important roles in antioxidant defense and redox signaling pathways. A Prx isozyme cDNA (TcPrx2, 745 bp, EF552425) was cloned from Taiwanofungus camphorata and its recombinant protein was overexpressed. The purified protein was shown to exist predominantly as a dimer by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrolysis in the absence of a reducing agent. The protein in its dimeric form showed no detectable Prx activity. However, the protein showed increased Prx activity with increasing dithiothreitol concentration which correlates with dissociation of the dimer into monomer. The TcPrx2 contains two Cys residues. The Cys(60) located in the conserved active site is the putative active peroxidatic Cys. The role of Cys(31) was investigated by site-directed mutagenesis. The C31S mutant (C(31) → S(31)) exists predominantly as a monomer with noticeable Prx activity. The Prx activity of the mutant was higher than that of the corresponding wild-type protein by nearly twofold at 12 μg/mL. The substrate preference of the mutant was H2O2 > cumene peroxide > t-butyl peroxide. The Michaelis constant (K M) value for H2O2 of the mutant was 0.11 mM. The mutant enzyme was active under a broad pH range from 6 to 10. The results suggest a role of Cys(31) in dimerization of the TcPrx2, a role which, at least in part, may be involved in determining the activity of Prx. The C(31) residue does not function as a resolving Cys and therefore the TcPrx2 must follow the reaction mechanism of 1-Cys Prx. This TcPrx2 represents a new isoform of Prx family

Dissociation of Colloidal Silver into Ionic Form through Membrane under Electric Field

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