An Empirical Study on Consumption Intention of Virtual Tour Streaming

This study employs the social interaction motivation of the audience to explore the social capital dual-model relationship generated by the audience of “Virtual Tour Streaming,” a term that describes virtual tour streaming’s nascent digital economy. This is situated in a virtual tour streaming platform to ascertain how it influences the intention of the audience and to use “Swift Guanxi” as the interaction variable to actual intention behavior. This is done to understand the contributions of virtual tour streaming adoption in a direct dial platform of different audience levels and their consumption behavior. The remaining sections discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the study

The Selection Strategy for Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) Isolation and Enumeration: Technical Features, Methods, and Clinical Applications

The key aim of the proposed chapter is to provide readers a brief description for the most important parts of the field of circulating tumor cells (CTCs): the core techniques, including negative and positive selection‐based CTC isolation, and the differences between them. Most importantly, we will also review the clinical applications and important findings in clinical trials. The evidence‐based review will not only help clinicians use CTCs to predict recurrence and foresee the disease‐related outcomes but also to inspire the researchers in this field to conduct further investigations

Knowledge-Based Clubhouse Adoption Intention in the Post-COVID-19 Era in the Hospitality Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the digital transformation of the hospitality industry and triggered Clubhouse knowledge adoption behavior. Clubhouse engagement in the COVID-19 era has gradually changed the forms of communication. Hospitality industry owners can communicate about their interactions and trades through Clubhouse, and members can share their operating and management experiences. Therefore, hospitality industry owners can learn from and support each other. This study aims to bridge the gap between professional knowledge and management adoption in the community of hospitality industry owners. We treat members’ self-regulated and socially regulated learning styles as variables in our analysis of members’ behaviors after acquiring knowledge from the community. This study contributes to our understanding of knowledge-based digital transformation processes in the hospitality industry in the post-COVID-19 era. It has implications for both Clubhouse users and hosts

A model for investigation of survival of tracheal graft

A method to facilitate circulatory restoration of a long tracheal graft is remained to be developed to apply in reconstruction for an extended tracheal resection. An abdominal tracheal stoma model was devised to simplify the investigation and allow frequent bronchoscopy in conscious animal. In this model, a tracheal graft was wrapped with omentum ; with one end of graft opened and stitched to a round defect created at abdominal wall to make an abdominal tracheal stoma. This model allowed daily bronchoscopy without general anesthesia and negative factors affecting blood supply into omental flap can be excluded to simplify investigation and analysis

A close association of body cell mass loss with disease activity and disability in Chinese patients with rheumatoid arthritis

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association of body cell mass loss with disease activity and disability in rheumatoid arthritis patients. INTRODUCTION: Rheumatoid cachexia, defined as the loss of body cell mass, is important but under-recognized and contributes to morbidity and mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS: One hundred forty-nine rheumatoid arthritis patients and 53 healthy, non-rheumatoid arthritis control subjects underwent anthropometric measurements of body mass index and waist and hip circumferences. Bioelectrical impedance analysis was used to determine the subjects' body compositions, including fat mass, skeletal lean mass, and body cell mass. The disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis was assessed using C-reactive protein serum, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate and the 28-joint disease activity score, while disability was evaluated using a health assessment questionnaire. RESULTS: Rheumatoid arthritis patients had lower waist-to-hip ratio (0.86 ± 0.07 vs. 0.95 ± 0.06; p<0.001) and lower skeletal lean mass indexes (14.44 ±1.52 vs. 15.18 ± 1.35; p = 0.002) than those in the healthy control group. Compared with rheumatoid arthritis patients with higher body cell masses, those with body cell masses lower than median had higher erythrocyte sedimentation rates (40.10 ± 27.33 vs. 25.09 ± 14.85; p<0.001), higher disease activity scores (5.36 ± 3.79 vs. 4.23 ± 1.21; p = 0.022) and greater disability as measured by health assessment questionnaire scores (1.26 ± 0.79 vs. 0.87 ± 0.79; p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: The loss of body cell mass is associated with higher disease activity and greater disability in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Body composition determined by bioelectrical impedance analysis can provide valuable information for a rheumatologist to more rapidly recognize rheumatoid cachexia in rheumatoid arthritis patients

The Influence of Type 2 Diabetes and Glucose-Lowering Therapies on Cancer Risk in the Taiwanese

Objective. To investigate the association between type 2 diabetes, glucose-lowering therapies (monotherapy with either metformin, sulphonylurea or insulin) and cancer risk in Taiwan. Methods. Using Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes database of 1,000,000 random subjects from 2000–2008, we found 61777 patients with type 2 diabetes (age ≥20 years) and 677378 enrollees with no record of diabetes. Results. After adjusting for age and sex, we found patients with diabetes to have significantly higher risk of all cancers (OR: 1.176; 95% CI: 1.149–1.204, P < 0.001). Diabetic patients treated with insulin or sulfonylureas had significantly higher risk of all cancers, compared to those treated with metformin (OR: 1.583; 95% CI: 1.389–1.805, P < 0.001 and OR: 1.784; 95% CI: 1.406–2.262, P < 0.001). Metformin treatment was associated with a decreased risk of colon and liver cancer compared to sulphonylureas or insulin treatment. Sulfonylureas treatment was associated with an increased risk of breast and lung cancer compared to metformin therapy. Conclusions. Taiwanese with type 2 diabetes are at a high risk of breast, prostate, colon, lung, liver and pancreatic cancer. Those treated with insulin or sulfonylureas monotherapy are more likely to develop colon and liver cancer than those treated with metformin

Development of a Kinesthetic Learning System for Schoolchildren’s Baseball Learning Based on Competence Motivation Theory: Its Effect on Students’ Skill and Motivation

The traditional baseball instruction strategies were mainly conducted by the instructors with oral explanation and exemplification while students had to improve their performance in athletic activities through continuous practice. During the learning process of athletic skills, students oftentimes posed less confidence due to unskilled body movement resulting in lower achievement sense. Finally, they started to reject the engagement in relevant athletic activities and even never practice anymore. Therefore, this research aimed to explore the influence on the learning motivation and the performance of athletic skills made by students in the conventionally instructive mode by introducing the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) instruction strategies of the kinect baseball learning system. Research results indicated: (1) after the kinect baseball learning system was introduced into instruction, it positively affected the learning motivation of students; (2) after the kinect baseball learning system was introduced into instruction, it positively affected the performance of athletic skills of students

Endogenous technological change in medicine and its impact on healthcare costs: evidence from the pharmaceutical market in Taiwan

Although the technological change in medicine has been widely recognized as the major driver of rising healthcare costs, there is very little research that directly estimates this effect. This paper uses both a single-equation and a simultaneous equations approach to empirically investigate the interactive relationship between technological innovation and the growth of health expenditure in the context of the pharmaceutical market in Taiwan. Based on observing 182 therapeutic groups between 1997 and 2006, we find evidence to support the argument that technological innovation and health expenditure are simultaneously determined as technological innovation and the growth of health expenditure are endogenous rather than exogenous. Specifically, we find that therapeutic groups associated with higher pharmaceutical expenditure are likely to attract more new products to the market. Meanwhile, therapeutic groups with more new products are associated with higher pharmaceutical expenditures. An important implication of the paper is that the cost containment policy will not only affect the growth of health expenditure, but will also affect the progress of technological innovation in the health sector