A Performance Evaluation of Introducing Balanced Scorecard to High-tech Related Industries in Taiwan

Balanced Scorecard (BSC) has become the most desirable performance evaluation tool for industries in Taiwan; however, difficulty or bad performance of system introduction has occurred due to an incomplete understanding of the implementation approaches and correct objectives of the BSC system, causing the risk of cost loss. Two domestic high-tech companies in the high-tech related industry were served as the object of study in this research. The contents of four perspectives of the BSC were converted to twenty key performance evaluation indicators in terms of modern business administration as the variables in the research. Based on the DMAIC model, the importance and satisfaction of BSC implementation factors in high-tech related industry are defined first. The performance indices of satisfaction and importance of implementing BSC are standardized by fuzzy methods for evaluation and a performance matrix with the target line and upper and lower performance control lines are established. Management can analyze the performance level and compare the performance indices and matrixes of two companies after introducing BSC according to the coordinates of satisfaction and importance of implementation factors in the matrixes. These two-dimension matrices will then be converted to one-dimension coordinates for cross performance matrices of four quadrants. Next, performance improvement strategies will be devised in accordance with the aspects of the theory of constraints. After carrying out improvement strategies, the cross performance matrix will be constructed to verify the effect and ascertain the factors of bad performance. In this way, improvement strategies can be re-devised and the most appropriate distribution of resources will be made to sustain the optimum state of ability and cost during the process of introducing the BSC system. Requirements for a short period of time and low cost to evaluate the performance of BSC introduction can be met via this simple and convenient evaluation model presented in this research. Resources will be invested to enhance satisfaction for the implementation factors of high importance and low satisfaction. Likewise, resources will be adjusted to reduce the cost of system introduction for the implementation factors of low importance and high satisfaction. As a result, the time efficiency of introducing the BSC system will be promoted effectively

Radioactivity measurements using storage phosphor technology

We propose to apply a recently developed charged particle radiation imaging concept in bio-medical research for fast, cost-effective characterization of radionuclides in contaminated sites and environmental samples. This concept utilizes sensors with storage photostimulable phosphor (SPP) technology as radiation detectors. They exhibit high sensitivity for all types of radiation and the response is linear over a wide dynamic range (>10{sup 5}), essential for quantitative analysis. These new sensors have an active area of up to 35 cm x 43 cm in size and a spatial resolution as fine as 50 {mu}m. They offer considerable promise as large area detectors for fast characterization of radionuclides with an added ability to locate and identify hot spots

Cohomological characterizations of projective spaces and hyperquadrics

We confirm Beauville's conjecture that claims that if the p-th exterior power of the tangent bundle of a smooth projective variety contains the p-th power of an ample line bundle, then the variety is either the projective space or the p-dimensional quadric hypersurface.Comment: Added Lemma 2.8 and slightly changed proof of Lemma 6.2 to make them apply for torsion-free sheaves and not only to vector bundle

SHON expression predicts response and relapse risk of breast cancer patients after anthracycline-based combination chemotherapy or tamoxifen treatment

BACKGROUND: SHON nuclear expression (SHON-Nuc+) was previously reported to predict clinical outcomes to tamoxifen therapy in ERα+ breast cancer (BC). Herein we determined if SHON expression detected by specific monoclonal antibodies could provide a more accurate prediction and serve as a biomarker for anthracycline-based combination chemotherapy (ACT).METHODS: SHON expression was determined by immunohistochemistry in the Nottingham early-stage-BC cohort (n=1,650) who, if eligible, received adjuvant tamoxifen; the Nottingham ERα- early-stage-BC (n=697) patients who received adjuvant ACT; and the Nottingham locally advanced-BC cohort who received pre- operative ACT with/without taxanes (Neo-ACT, n=120) and if eligible, 5-year adjuvant tamoxifen treatment. Prognostic significance of SHON and its relationship with the clinical outcome of treatments were analysed.RESULTS: As previously reported, SHON-Nuc+ in high risk/ERα+ patients was significantly associated with a 48% death risk reduction after exclusive adjuvant tamoxifen treatment compared with SHON-Nuc- [HR(95%CI)=0.52(0.34-0.78), p=0.002]. Meanwhile, in ERα- patients treated with adjuvant ACT, SHON cytoplasmic expression (SHON-Cyto+) was significantly associated with a 50% death risk reduction compared with SHON-Cyto- [HR(95%CI)=0.50(0.34-0.73), p=0.0003]. Moreover, in patients received Neo-ACT, SHON-Nuc- or SHON-Cyto+ was associated with an increased pathological complete response (pCR) compared with SHON-Nuc+ [21% vs 4%; OR(95%CI)=5.88(1.28-27.03), p=0.012], or SHON-Cyto- [20.5% vs 4.5%; OR(95%CI)=5.43(1.18-25.03), p=0.017], respectively. After receiving Neo-ACT, patients with SHON-Nuc+ had a significantly lower distant relapse risk compared to those with SHON-Nuc- [HR(95%CI)=0.41(0.19-0.87), p=0.038], whereas SHON-Cyto+ patients had a significantly higher distant relapse risk compared to SHON-Cyto- patients [HR(95%CI)=4.63(1.05-20.39), p=0.043]. Furthermore, multivariate Cox regression analyses revealed that SHON-Cyto+ was independently associated with a higher risk of distant relapse after Neo-ACT and 5- year tamoxifen treatment [HR(95%CI)=5.08(1.13-44.52), p=0.037]. The interaction term between ERα status and SHON-Nuc+ (p=0.005), and between SHON-Nuc+ and tamoxifen therapy (p=0.007), were both statistically significant.CONCLUSION: SHON-Nuc+ in tumours predicts response to tamoxifen in ERα+ BC while SHON-Cyto+ predicts response to ACT

Stochastic particle packing with specified granulometry and porosity

This work presents a technique for particle size generation and placement in arbitrary closed domains. Its main application is the simulation of granular media described by disks. Particle size generation is based on the statistical analysis of granulometric curves which are used as empirical cumulative distribution functions to sample from mixtures of uniform distributions. The desired porosity is attained by selecting a certain number of particles, and their placement is performed by a stochastic point process. We present an application analyzing different types of sand and clay, where we model the grain size with the gamma, lognormal, Weibull and hyperbolic distributions. The parameters from the resulting best fit are used to generate samples from the theoretical distribution, which are used for filling a finite-size area with non-overlapping disks deployed by a Simple Sequential Inhibition stochastic point process. Such filled areas are relevant as plausible inputs for assessing Discrete Element Method and similar techniques

Prunella vulgaris: A comprehensive review of chemical constituents, pharmacological effects and clinical applications.

Prunella vulgaris (PV) is a perennial herb belonging to the Labiate family and is widely distributed in northeastern Asian countries such as Korea, Japan, and China. It is reported to display diverse biological activities including anti-microbial, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammation as determined by in vitro or in vivo studies. So far, about 200 compounds have been isolated from PV plant and majority of these have been characterized mainly as triterpenoids, sterols and flavonoids, followed by coumarins, phenylpropanoids, polysaccharides and volatile oils. This review summarizes and analyzes the current knowledge on the chemical constituents, pharmacological activities, mechanisms of action and clinical applications of the PV plant including its potential as a future medicinal plant. Although some of the chemical constituents of the PV plant and their mechanism of action have been investigated the biological activities of many of these remain unknown and further clinical trials are required to further enhance its reputation as a medicinal plant

Trans-ancestry genome-wide association study identifies 12 genetic loci influencing blood pressure and implicates a role for DNA methylation

We carried out a trans-ancestry genome-wide association and replication study of blood pressure phenotypes among up to 320,251 individuals of East Asian, European and South Asian ancestry. We find genetic variants at 12 new loci to be associated with blood pressure (P = 3.9 × 10-11 to 5.0 × 10-21). The sentinel blood pressure SNPs are enriched for association with DNA methylation at multiple nearby CpG sites, suggesting that, at some of the loci identified, DNA methylation may lie on the regulatory pathway linking sequence variation to blood pressure. The sentinel SNPs at the 12 new loci point to genes involved in vascular smooth muscle (IGFBP3, KCNK3, PDE3A and PRDM6) and renal (ARHGAP24, OSR1, SLC22A7 and TBX2) function. The new and known genetic variants predict increased left ventricular mass, circulating levels of NT-proBNP, and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality (P = 0.04 to 8.6 × 10-6). Our results provide new evidence for the role of DNA methylation in blood pressure regulation