Identification of the Key Factors in Building Destination Brand Using Events: Lessons for Taiwan

This dissertation considers the implication of special events in destinations and focuses on the effect of co-branding in relation to the image transfer between events and destinations. Researches regarding the effects of special events and the factors contributing to co-branding have been carried out through qualitative interviewing. The research design undertaken allows the study to gain an insight from potential tourists’ attitudes and perception of event related tourism. A number of critical factors which reinforce the relationship between events and destination brand are identified. It is concluded that media promotion and differentiation are of the top priorities when using events as a marketing approach. In addition, a marketing framework is proposed to fill in the research gap regarding the strategic use of events in destination branding process. The critical factors that help building destination brand image are highlighted to further apply in Taiwan’s event tourism development. This may be of interest to destination marketers, event organisers, especially in developing destinations which intend to differentiate themselves from the competitive market

Examining Public-Public and Public-Private Partnership of Information Systems in Taiwan

Government agencies have spent lots of money on information system (IS) deployment. However, the partnerships, i.e. public-public partnership (PUP) and public-private partnership (PPP), are less explored in IS domain. Under the concept of social exchange, this study used electronic document management systems (EDMS) in Taiwan government as the target IS for examining the PUP and PPP among agencies and vendors. This study develops a theoretical model that is informed by the literature on partnership and by social exchange theory to explain the aggregated implementation of EDMS. Based on previous literature, this study suggests that the performance expectation is the incentive and affects the support from top-management, trust to others and regulation power from National Archives Administration (NAA) that shape the PUP and PPP in government agencies. To propose the empirical findings, this study collects data from agencies with digital signature used in EDMS. This study establishes the adaption of EDMS in agencies, infers the managerial implication, and compares the findings with other researches to enhance its contribution. Support from top manages and trust to others positively affect the PUP and PPP. The results of the mapping can help identify the research direction of PUP and PPP research

Exploring Online Repeat Purchase Intentions: The Role of Habit

By focusing on online stores, this study investigates the repeat purchase intention of experienced online buyers. Prior research on online behavior continuance models perceived usefulness, trust, satisfaction, and perceived value as the major determinants of continued adoption or loyalty, overlooking the important role of habit. Building on previous work in other disciplines, we define habit in the context of online shopping as the extent to which buyers tend to shop online automatically because of learning. Using recent work on the continued usage of IS (IS continuance) and repeat purchase, we have developed a model suggesting that repeat purchase intention is not only a consequence of trust and switching cost, but also of habit. In particular, in our research model, we propose that online shopping habit moderate the influence of trust such that its importance in determining repeat purchase intention decreases as the online shopping behavior takes on a more habitual nature. Integrating prior research on habit, IS continuance, and repeat purchase further, we suggest how antecedents of repeat purchase intention relate to drivers of habitualization. Data collected from 462 of Yahoo!Kimo shopping center’s customers provide strong support for the research model. Results indicate that higher level of habit deflated trust’s effect on repeat purchase intention. The data also show that satisfaction and familiarity are key to habit formation and thus relevant in the context of online repeat purchase

Diffusion Model-Augmented Behavioral Cloning

Imitation learning addresses the challenge of learning by observing an expert's demonstrations without access to reward signals from environments. Most existing imitation learning methods that do not require interacting with environments either model the expert distribution as the conditional probability p(a|s) (e.g., behavioral cloning, BC) or the joint probability p(s, a) (e.g., implicit behavioral cloning). Despite its simplicity, modeling the conditional probability with BC usually struggles with generalization. While modeling the joint probability can lead to improved generalization performance, the inference procedure can be time-consuming and it often suffers from manifold overfitting. This work proposes an imitation learning framework that benefits from modeling both the conditional and joint probability of the expert distribution. Our proposed diffusion model-augmented behavioral cloning (DBC) employs a diffusion model trained to model expert behaviors and learns a policy to optimize both the BC loss (conditional) and our proposed diffusion model loss (joint). DBC outperforms baselines in various continuous control tasks in navigation, robot arm manipulation, dexterous manipulation, and locomotion. We design additional experiments to verify the limitations of modeling either the conditional probability or the joint probability of the expert distribution as well as compare different generative models

A Study on Aluminum Pad Large Deformation during Copper Wirebonding for High Power IC Package

In this paper, a 3-D finite element prediction on aluminum pad squeeze during copper wirebonding process for high power IC package is presented. ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL) has been implemented on modelling, mesh density, boundary condition (BC), impact stage and contact mode for first bond process. The ANSYS/LS-DYNA solver is applied to solve dynamics and LS-PREPOST is used to observe the predicted large plastic deformation on bond pad and stress on microstructure under pad. In view of high power IC package, larger diameter of copper wire is required for electric loading for its low cost. In this research, a large diameter of 2 mil (50 um) uncoated pure copper (4N) wire is applied to simulate first bond impact-contact process. As the scale double enlarged, the problems encountered in simulation are usually evident. Preliminary results on impact stage demonstrate that negative volume/hourglass on large distortion can be solved by tune-up inertial contact settings and mesh density. However, sever hourglass defect would occur on ultrasonic stage and remain a pending problem. A series of prediction has been conducted on first bond process during impact stage and the results can then be applied to the dynamic wirebonding assembly process

The Non-linear Relationship between Muscle Voluntary Activation Level and Voluntary Force Measured by the Interpolated Twitch Technique

Interpolated twitch technique (ITT) is a non-invasive method for assessing the completeness of muscle activation in clinical settings. Voluntary activation level (VA), measured by ITT and estimated by a conventional linear model, was reported to have a non-linear relationship with true voluntary contraction force at higher activation levels. The relationship needs to be further clarified for the correct use by clinicians and researchers. This study was to established a modified voluntary activation (modified VA) and define a valid range by fitting a non-linear logistic growth model. Eight healthy male adults participated in this study. Each subject performed three sets of voluntary isometric ankle plantar flexions at 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100% maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) with real-time feedback on a computer screen. A supramaximal electrical stimulation was applied on tibia nerve at rest and during contractions. The estimated VA was calculated for each contraction. The relationship between the estimated VA and the actual voluntary contraction force was fitted by a logistic growth model. The result showed that according to the upper and lower limit points of the logistic curve, the valid range was between the 95.16% and 10.55% MVC. The modified VA estimated by this logistic growth model demonstrated less error than the conventional model. This study provided a transfer function for the voluntary activation level and defined the valid range which would provide useful information in clinical applications

Use of electroporation and reverse iontophoresis for extraction of transdermal multibiomarkers

Congo Tak-Shing Ching1,2, Lin-Shien Fu3-5, Tai-Ping Sun1, Tzu-Hsiang Hsu1, Kang-Ming Chang21Department of Electrical Engineering, National Chi Nan University, Puli, Nantou County, 2Department of Photonics and Communication Engineering, Asia University, Wufeng, Taichung, 3Department of Pediatrics, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, 4Institute of Technology, National Chi Nan University, Puli, 5Department of Pediatrics, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung City, TaiwanBackground: Monitoring of biomarkers, like urea, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and osteopontin, is very important because they are related to kidney disease, prostate cancer, and ovarian cancer, respectively. It is well known that reverse iontophoresis can enhance transdermal extraction of small molecules, and even large molecules if reverse iontophoresis is used together with electroporation. Electroporation is the use of a high-voltage electrical pulse to create nanochannels within the stratum corneum, temporarily and reversibly. Reverse iontophoresis is the use of a small current to facilitate both charged and uncharged molecule transportation across the skin. The objectives of this in vitro study were to determine whether PSA and osteopontin are extractable transdermally and noninvasively and whether urea, PSA, and osteopontin can be extracted simultaneously by electroporation and reverse iontophoresis.Methods: All in vitro experiments were conducted using a diffusion cell assembled with the stratum corneum of porcine skin. Three different symmetrical biphasic direct currents (SBdc), five various electroporations, and a combination of the two techniques were applied to the diffusion cell via Ag/AgCl electrodes. The three different SBdc had the same current density of 0.3 mA/cm2, but different phase durations of 0 (ie, no current, control group), 30, and 180 seconds. The five different electroporations had the same pulse width of 1 msec and number of pulses per second of 10, but different electric field strengths of 0 (ie, no voltage, control group), 74, 148, 296, and 592 V/cm. Before and after each extraction experiment, skin impedance was measured at 20 Hz.Results: It was found that urea could be extracted transdermally using reverse iontophoresis alone, and further enhancement of extraction could be achieved by combined use of electroporation and reverse iontophoresis. Conversely, PSA and osteopontin were found to be extracted transdermally only by use of reverse iontophoresis and electroporation with a high electrical field strength (>296 V/cm). After application of reverse iontophoresis, electroporation, or a combination of the two techniques, a reduction in skin impedance was observed.Conclusion: Simultaneous transdermal extraction of urea, PSA, and osteopontin is possible only for the condition of applying reverse iontophoresis in conjunction with high electroporation.Keywords: electroporation, reverse iontophoresis, nanochannels, noninvasive, urea, prostate-specific antigen, osteoponti