Examining The Factors That Affect ERP Assimilation

The aim of this study is to identify the factors that influence the assimilation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the post-implementation stage. Building on organizational information processing theory (OIPT) and absorptive capacity (AC), we propose an integrated model, which examines the relationship among organizational fit, absorptive capacity, environmental uncertainty, and ERP assimilation. Based on the survey data from 98 firms that have implemented ERP, most of the proposed hypotheses were supported, showing that initial fit, potential AC, realized AC, and heterogeneity jointly affect ERP assimilation. Task uncertainty (hostility and heterogeneity) negatively moderates the relationship between initial fit and ERP assimilation. The implications for both theory and practice are discussed

UNDERSTANDING COMPETITIVE PERFORMANCE OF SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE (SAAS)—THE COMPETITIVE DYNAMICS PERSPECTIVE

Understanding the antecedents and consequences of a firm’s agility in cloud software applications is important. This papers draws on the competitive dynamics perspective to develop a model that explains the relationships between collaboration with vendors, agility, and competitive performance in software-as-a-service (SaaS) context. Collaboration reflects a firm’s ability to leverage interfirm resources, characterized as knowledge sharing and process alignment. Agility is measured by a firm’s strategy-oriented agility and service-oriented agility. This study also investigates the moderating effect of environmental turbulence. The proposed hypotheses are supported by the empirical data. The results show that competitive performance is affected by ability, which, in turn, is impacted by collaboration. Environmental turbulence positively moderates the relationship between agility and performance. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results

Occupational hand dermatitis among cement workers in Taiwan

Background/PurposeOccupational dermatitis among cement workers is a major occupational health concern. The two most important occupational hazards for cement workers are irritant and allergic cement contact dermatitis. The objective of this study was to investigate the severity of occupational cement contact dermatitis and the common allergens among cement workers in Taiwan.MethodsA total of 97 cement workers from the Cement Workers’ Association of Tainan City and County participated in this study. A structured questionnaire was used to evaluate the demographic data and work-related activities of these cement workers. A complete skin examination was conducted, and skin manifestations were assessed by a dermatologist. Allergens from European Standard Tray (Chemotechnique Diagnostic AB, Sweden) with a total of 25 substances were used for patch testing.ResultsOur results showed that 65 out of 97 cement workers were suffering from occupational cement hand contact dermatitis. The most affected skin area was the hand. Thickening of the dorsal surface of the hand, especially around the metacarpophalangeal joint area, and hyperkeratosis of the palm were the major skin manifestations. The results of the patch test showed that 24 out of 97 were allergic to potassium dichromate, nine were allergic to thiuram mix, nine were allergic to fragrance mix and seven were allergic to cobalt chloride. The final diagnosis, based on the results of the skin examination and the patch test, showed that 43 of 97 cement workers had irritant cement contact dermatitis and 22 had allergic cement contact dermatitis.ConclusionWe conclude that occupational cement hand dermatitis among cement workers is an important and severe issue in Taiwan, and the most common allergens among cement workers are potassium dichromate, thiuram mix, fragrance mix and cobalt chloride. The high positive rate of chromium hypersensitivity among cement workers reflects the urgency to regulate the addition of ferrous sulfate to cement in Taiwan

Trypsin-induced proteome alteration during cell subculture in mammalian cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It is essential to subculture the cells once cultured cells reach confluence. For this, trypsin is frequently applied to dissociate adhesive cells from the substratum. However, due to the proteolytic activity of trypsin, cell surface proteins are often cleaved, which leads to dysregulation of the cell functions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study, a triplicate 2D-DIGE strategy has been performed to monitor trypsin-induced proteome alterations. The differentially expressed spots were identified by MALDI-TOF MS and validated by immunoblotting.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>36 proteins are found to be differentially expressed in cells treated with trypsin, and proteins that are known to regulate cell metabolism, growth regulation, mitochondrial electron transportation and cell adhesion are down-regulated and proteins that regulate cell apoptosis are up-regulated after trypsin treatment. Further study shows that bcl-2 is down-regulated, p53 and p21 are both up-regulated after trypsinization.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In summary, this is the first report that uses the proteomic approach to thoroughly study trypsin-induced cell physiological changes and provides researchers in carrying out their experimental design.</p

Adjuvant chemotherapy and survival outcomes in rectal cancer patients with good response (ypT0-2N0) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and surgery: A retrospective nationwide analysis

BackgroundFor rectal cancer, it remains unclear how to incorporate tumor response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) when deciding whether to give adjuvant chemotherapy. In this study, we aim to determinate the survival benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy for rectal cancer patients with good response (ypT0-2N0) after nCRT and surgery.MethodsThe study cohort included 720 rectal cancer patients who had good response (ypT0-2N0) after nCRT and surgery, who did or did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy between January 2007 and December 2017, from the Taiwan Cancer Registry and National Health Insurance Research database. The Kaplan–Meier method, log-rank tests, and Cox regression analysis were performed to investigate the effect of adjuvant chemotherapy on 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS).ResultsOf 720 patients, 368 (51.1%) received adjuvant chemotherapy and 352 (48.9%) did not. Patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy were more likely to be female, younger (≤ 65), with advanced clinical T (3-4)/N (1-2) classification and ypT2 classification. No significant difference in 5-year OS (p=0.681) or DFS (p=0.942) were observed by receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy or not. Multivariable analysis revealed adjuvant chemotherapy was not associated with better OS (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.03; 95% Confidence Interval [CI], 0.88-1.21) or DFS (aHR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.89-1.24). Stratified analysis for OS and DFS found no significant protective effect in the use of adjuvant chemotherapy, even for those with advanced clinical T or N classification.ConclusionAdjuvant chemotherapy may be omitted in rectal cancer patients with good response (ypT0-2N0) after nCRT and surgery

REG3A overexpression functions as a negative predictive and prognostic biomarker in rectal cancer patients receiving CCRT

Background. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is suggested before resection surgery in the control of rectal cancer. Unfortunately, treatment outcomes are widely variable and highly patientspecific. Notably, rectal cancer patients with distant metastasis generally have a much lower survival rate. Accordingly, a better understanding of the genetic background of patient cohorts can aid in predicting CCRT efficacy and clinical outcomes for rectal cancer before distant metastasis. Methods. A published transcriptome dataset (GSE35452) (n=46) was utilized to distinguish prospective genes concerning the response to CCRT. We recruited 172 rectal cancer patients, and the samples were collected during surgical resection after CCRT. Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining was performed to evaluate the expression level of regenerating family member 3 alpha (REG3A). Pearson's chi-squared test appraised the relevance of REG3A protein expression to clinicopathological parameters. The Kaplan-Meier method was utilized to generate survival curves, and the log-rank test was performed to compare the survival distributions between two given groups. Results. Employing a transcriptome dataset (GSE35452) and focusing on the inflammatory response (GO: 0006954), we recognized that REG3A is the most significantly upregulated gene among CCRT nonresponders (log2 ratio=1.2472, p=0.0079). Following IHC validation, high immunoexpression of REG3A was considerably linked to advanced post-CCRT tumor status (p<0.001), post-CCRT lymph node metastasis (p=0.042), vascular invasion (p=0.028), and low-grade tumor regression (p=0.009). In the multivariate analysis, high immunoexpression of REG3A was independently correlated with poor disease-specific survival (DSS) (p=0.004) and metastasis-free survival (MeFS) (p=0.045). The results of the bioinformatic analysis also supported the idea that REG3A overexpression is implicated in rectal carcinogenesis. Conclusion. In the current study, we demonstrated that REG3A overexpression is correlated with poor CCRT effectiveness and inferior patient survival in rectal cancer. The predictive and prognostic utility of REG3A expression may direct patient stratification and decisionmaking more accurately for those patients

A Rapid Capillary-Pressure Driven Micro-Channel to Demonstrate Newtonian Fluid Behavior of Zebrafish Blood at High Shear Rates

Blood viscosity provides the rheological basis to elucidate shear stress underlying developmental cardiac mechanics and physiology. Zebrafish is a high throughput model for developmental biology, forward-genetics, and drug discovery. The micro-scale posed an experimental challenge to measure blood viscosity. To address this challenge, a microfluidic viscometer driven by surface tension was developed to reduce the sample volume required (3μL) for rapid (500 s^(−1)), at which the power law exponent (n) of zebrafish blood was nearly 1 behaving as a Newtonian fluid. The measured values of whole blood from the micro-channel (4.17cP) and the vacuum method (4.22cP) at 500 s^(−1) were closely correlated at 27 °C. A calibration curve was established for viscosity as a function of hematocrits to predict a rise and fall in viscosity during embryonic development. Thus, our rapid capillary pressure-driven micro-channel revealed the Newtonian fluid behavior of zebrafish blood at high shear rates and the dynamic viscosity during development