Spatial trends of noncollinear exchange coupling mediated by itinerant carriers with different Fermi surfaces

We study the exchange coupling mediated by itinerant carriers with spin-orbit interaction by both analytic and numeric approaches. The mediated exchange coupling is noncollinear and its spatial trends depend on the Fermi-surface topology of the itinerant carriers. Taking Rashba interaction as an example, the exchange coupling is similar to the conventional Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida type in weak coupling. On the other hand, in the strong coupling, the spiral interaction dominates. In addition, inclusion of finite spin relaxation always makes the noncollinear spiral exchange interaction dominant. Potential applications of our findings are explained and discussed

Exploring the commercial value of social networks: enhancing consumers’ brand experience through Facebook pages

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors which impact upon the consumers’ willingness to utilise company Facebook pages and e-word-of mouth by proposing and testing a conceptual framework which is inspired by theories in marketing and information systems fields. The authors believe that only by applying both theories will provide a more complete understanding of the relationship between brand experience and Facebook. The research model attempts to illustrate the factors according to customers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and their impact on brand experience, brand Facebook page loyalty and e-word-of-mouth (E-WOM). Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopted an online survey method for data collection. The subjects the authors used were Facebook users. The data were collected in Taiwan over spring 2011. The authors then used the structural equation model to analyse the data collected. Findings – The findings suggest that users are influenced by the technical characterises of a brand Facebook page, such as ease of use and usefulness, which might be combated by attempting to reduce customer effort when accessing Facebook pages. The authors conclude that customer effort influenced brand experience and consequently loyalty to brand Facebook pages and E-WOM. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this study relate to the investigation of consumer perspectives in a specific geographical context and time frame. Originality/value – The study’s contributions are both theoretical and practical, as it offers new insights into brand experience attitudes in an online environment and useful insights to companies willing to market themselves on Facebook. Keywords Marketing, Facebook, Virtual community, Extrinsic motivations, Intrinsic motivations Paper type Research pape

The Study Of Order Decisions Under Indirect Selling Model Of An Electronic Component Distributor－Taking ABC

Electronic component distributors play a mediate role in the electronic component industry. They need to coordinate upstream suppliers and downstream customers to decrease the gap of market demand and supply. ABC company, a leading electronic component distributor in Asia, plays a role of distribution among companies and be a buffer for its supply chain members. ABC company has two different selling models: indirect and direct. The difference between them is the actors involved in the order management process. The former one has two essential actors: sales and product managers. Sales need to carry the duty of selling the product, and product managers are responsible for the order fulfillment. The later one only has product managers who handle every affair related to selling and ordering. Under the indirect selling model, sales need to get the order requests approved by product managers. The conflicts may occur while the order requests are rejected. The reason is due to that sales tend to sell products as more as possible to attain the targeted amount whereas product managers might concern the increased stock ratio from obsolete or surplus goods. This situation is common in order fulfillment problems. In general, firms should consider the fulfillment budget in determining how much is acceptable to spend on fulfilling the order such as extra shipping cost, and the sales would usually adapt the “sell what you have” policy which they are encouraged to sell products avoiding the extra stocks generated (Keely L., 2003). In this paper, we would like to understand how order decisions are made in an electronic component distributor company under indirect selling model. We would like to identify its ordering process and further examine its effectiveness in terms of reaching high ordering fulfillment rate and low inventory level. This study will take case approach as the primary researching method. Through interviews with product managers and sales in the case company, we expect to obtain the knowledge regarding with ordering processes and different fulfillment policies under indirect selling model

A Preliminary Study of a Health-Promoting Lifestyle Among Southeast Asian Women in Taiwan

The purpose of this study was to determine and understand the predicting factors of a health-promoting lifestyle (HPL) in Southeast Asian women in Taiwan. One hundred and five Southeast Asian women in Tainan were recruited. Face-to-face interviews with structured questionnaires were used for data collection. The findings showed that, among the six dimensions of HPL, subjects scored highest in self-actualization and lowest in health responsibility. Subjects who could read and write Chinese had a more positive HPL; stepwise regression analysis revealed that the ability to read Chinese could explain 26.2% of the total variance of HPL in Southeast Asian women. The results of this study can help health care professionals understand the HPL and to design appropriate health-promoting educational programs to improve the well-being and overall quality of life of Southeast Asian women in Taiwan

Interval Estimation for the Difference in Paired Areas under the ROC Curves in the Absence of a Gold Standard Test

Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves can be used to assess the accuracy of tests measured on ordinal or continuous scales. The most commonly used measure for the overall diagnostic accuracy of diagnostic tests is the area under the ROC curve (AUC). A gold standard test on the true disease status is required to estimate the AUC. However, a gold standard test may sometimes be too expensive or infeasible. Therefore, in many medical research studies, the true disease status of the subjects may remain unknown. Under the normality assumption on test results from each disease group of subjects, using the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm in conjunction with a bootstrap method, we propose a maximum likelihood based procedure for construction of confidence intervals for the difference in paired areas under ROC curves in the absence of a gold standard test. Simulation results show that the proposed interval estimation procedure yields satisfactory coverage probabilities and interval lengths. The proposed method is illustrated with two examples

Regulation of axon repulsion by MAX-1 SUMOylation and AP-3.

During neural development, growing axons express specific surface receptors in response to various environmental guidance cues. These axon guidance receptors are regulated through intracellular trafficking and degradation to enable navigating axons to reach their targets. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the UNC-5 receptor is necessary for dorsal migration of developing motor axons. We previously found that MAX-1 is required for UNC-5-mediated axon repulsion, but its mechanism of action remained unclear. Here, we demonstrate that UNC-5-mediated axon repulsion in C. elegans motor axons requires both max-1 SUMOylation and the AP-3 complex β subunit gene, apb-3 Genetic interaction studies show that max-1 is SUMOylated by gei-17/PIAS1 and acts upstream of apb-3 Biochemical analysis suggests that constitutive interaction of MAX-1 and UNC-5 receptor is weakened by MAX-1 SUMOylation and by the presence of APB-3, a competitive interactor with UNC-5. Overexpression of APB-3 reroutes the trafficking of UNC-5 receptor into the lysosome for protein degradation. In vivo fluorescence recovery after photobleaching experiments shows that MAX-1 SUMOylation and APB-3 are required for proper trafficking of UNC-5 receptor in the axon. Our results demonstrate that SUMOylation of MAX-1 plays an important role in regulating AP-3-mediated trafficking and degradation of UNC-5 receptors during axon guidance

Assessing the Effects of Acupuncture by Comparing Needling the Hegu Acupoint and Needling Nearby Nonacupoints by Spectral Analysis of Microcirculatory Laser Doppler Signals

We aimed to assess the effects of acupuncture by analyzing the frequency content of skin blood-flow signals simultaneously recorded at the Hegu acupoint and two nearby nonacupoints following acupuncture stimulation (AS). Laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) signals were measured in male healthy volunteers in two groups of experiments: needling the Hegu acupoint (n = 13) and needling a nearby nonacupoint (control experiment; n = 10). Each experiment involved recording a 20 min baseline-data sequence and two sets of effects data recorded 0–20 and 50–70 min after stopping AS. Wavelet transform with Morlet mother wavelet was applied to the measured LDF signals. Needling the Hegu acupoint significantly increased the blood flow, significantly decreased the relative energy contribution at 0.02–0.06 Hz and significantly increased the relative energy contribution at 0.4–1.6 Hz at Hegu, but induced no significant changes at the nonacupoints. Also, needling a nearby nonacupoint had no effect in any band at any site. This is the first time that spectral analysis has been used to investigate the microcirculatory blood-flow responses induced by AS, and has revealed possible differences in sympathetic nerve activities between needling the Hegu acupoint and its nearby nonacupoint. One possible weakness of the present design is that different De-Qi feelings following AS could lead to nonblind experimental setup, which may bias the comparison between needling Hegu and its nearby nonacupoint. Our results suggest that the described noninvasive method can be used to evaluate sympathetic control of peripheral vascular activity, which might be useful for studying the therapeutic effects of AS

The Impact of Product innovation on Performance: The Influence of Uncertainty and Managerial Accounting Information Systems

This paper reports on a survey of Taiwanese high-tech firms, using a path analysis to examine the effects of managerial accounting information systems (MAIS) on the relationship between product innovation and organizational performance. Two of the major characteristics suggested by Chenhall and Morris (1986), broad scope and timeliness, are systematically related to the subject matter of this study, thus, employing these two characteristics to explore the connection between MAIS, product innovation and organizational performance. We find that product innovation has a positive effect on organizational performance through the use of MAIS, and find the extent of this positive effect is more significant in business environments marked by high levels of uncertainty. This study provides evidence to understand whether product innovation requires more extensive use of MAIS in highly uncertain environments and whether the use of MAIS can improve organizational performance. The results also help practicing managers realize the importance of MAIS in modern organizations and the benefits of using MAIS to the organization. Finally, we remind managers engaging in product innovation practices that they should place importance on the use of MAIS, because traditional cost control systems no longer help in solving the problems that are specific to the current, modern business environment