The Sources of Taiwan's Regional Unemployment : A Cross-Region Panel Analysis

In recent years under the trendof a global recession andd omestic structural change, the unemployment rate in Taiwan has reacheda recordhigh of above 5% which in turn has generateda series of social problems. Unemployment has now become the core issue in the government's agenda. From historical regional data, we findthat there are distinct variations of the unemployment rate among 23 cities andprefectures; moreover, this differentiation seems to persist over time. We analyze this regional unemployment trendby equilibrium and disequilibrium factors controlling for the macro environment using 23 cities' andprefectures' cross section and time series data pertaining to the 1995 to 2004 period. A cross-region panel study shows that the major factors that explain the persistent but divergent regional unemployment rates (aside from the aggregate macro environment which explains about one quarter) are demographic composition, family characteristics, industrial structure, population density, migration costs, and labor mobility. Understanding the sources of regional unemployment will help us to determine the appropriate policies to mitigate the unemployment rate across regions.Unemployment Rate, Demographic Composition, Compensating Wage Differentials, Urbanization, Labor Mobility, Migration

A Framework of Cloud and AI based Intelligent Hotel

In the past 10 years, the hospitality industry\u27s discussions on cloud technology have been ongoing to rise, but they had been stuck in the stage of paper talks, and there were no substantive action. In view of the huge potential of the intelligent hospitality industry market, and the related academic research literatures about the virtualized cloud architecture, AI technology application and intelligent virtual housekeeper system among in this industry is still relatively few. Therefore, I selected the industry success case led by Taiwan\u27s Ministry of Science and Technology as a case study for this research, besides, quantified the system\u27s trial operation phase, relevant operational performance results, as the focus of this intelligent hotel case implementation effectiveness evaluation

Constructing the Smart Hotel Architecture – A Case Study in Taiwan

A smart hotel is an intelligent hotel with a range of information technologies working together to let the customers have an honorable and convenient vacation environment. It allows customers to have a profound image about not only the hotel, but also the city and the country. Furthermore, it can increase the customer loyalty and repurchase rate as well. Thus, developing a smart hotel is critical for the hospitality industry in practice. This research presents a case study of a new five star intelligent hotel- Fleur de Chine Hotel at Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan. It describes how they built their digital hotel and virtual housekeeper service platform. Through the networked facilities and integrated information systems, people could get relevant information easily and efficiently. In addition, this smart system could provide hotel customers with the housekeeper service similar to a very important person (VIP) room or a presidential suite

The Malaysian Medication Adherence Scale (MALMAS): Concurrent Validity Using a Clinical Measure among People with Type 2 Diabetes in Malaysia.

Medication non-adherence is a prevalent problem worldwide but up to today, no gold standard is available to assess such behavior. This study was to evaluate the psychometric properties, particularly the concurrent validity of the English version of the Malaysian Medication Adherence Scale (MALMAS) among people with type 2 diabetes in Malaysia. Individuals with type 2 diabetes, aged 21 years and above, using at least one anti-diabetes agent and could communicate in English were recruited. The MALMAS was compared with the 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) to assess its convergent validity while concurrent validity was evaluated based on the levels of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C). Participants answered the MALMAS twice: at baseline and 4 weeks later. The study involved 136 participants. The MALMAS achieved acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.565) and stable reliability as the test-retest scores showed fair correlation (Spearman's rho=0.412). The MALMAS has good correlation with the MMAS-8 (Spearman's rho=0.715). Participants who were adherent to their anti-diabetes medications had significantly lower median HbA1C values than those who were non-adherence (7.90 versus 8.55%, p=0.032). The odds of participants who were adherent to their medications achieving good glycemic control was 3.36 times (95% confidence interval: 1.09-10.37) of those who were non-adherence. This confirms the concurrent validity of the MALMAS. The sensitivity of the MALMAS was 88.9% while its specificity was 29.6%. The findings of this study further substantiates the reliability and validity of the MALMAS, in particular its concurrent validity and sensitivity for assessing medication adherence of people with type 2 diabetes in Malaysia

Controlled Heterogeneous Nucleation and Growth of Germanium Quantum Dots on Nanopatterned Silicon Dioxide and Silicon Nitride Substrates

Controlled heterogeneous nucleation and growth of Ge quantum dots (QDs) are demonstrated on SiO_2/Si_3N_4 substrates by means of a novel fabrication process of thermally oxidizing nanopatterned SiGe layers. The otherwise random self-assembly process for QDs is shown to be strongly influenced by the nanopatterning in determining both the location and size of the QDs. Ostwald ripening processes are observed under further annealing at the oxidation temperature. Both nanopattern oxidation and Ostwald ripening offer additional mechanisms for lithography for controlling the size and placement of the QDs

Multi-wavelength Stellar Polarimetry of the Filamentary Cloud IC5146: I. Dust Properties

We present optical and near-infrared stellar polarization observations toward the dark filamentary clouds associated with IC5146. The data allow us to investigate the dust properties (this paper) and the magnetic field structure (Paper II). A total of 2022 background stars were detected in $R_{c}$-, $i'$-, $H$-, and/or $K$-bands to $A_V \lesssim 25$ mag. The ratio of the polarization percentage at different wavelengths provides an estimate of $\lambda_{max}$, the wavelength of peak polarization, which is an indicator of the small-size cutoff of the grain size distribution. The grain size distribution seems to significantly change at $A_V \sim$ 3 mag, where both the average and dispersion of $P_{R_c}/P_{H}$ decrease. In addition, we found $\lambda_{max}$ $\sim$ 0.6-0.9 $\mu$m for $A_V>2.5$ mag, which is larger than the $\sim$ 0.55 $\mu$m in the general ISM, suggesting that grain growth has already started in low $A_V$ regions. Our data also reveal that polarization efficiency (PE $\equiv P_{\lambda}/A_V$) decreases with $A_V$ as a power-law in $R_c$-, $i'$-, and $K$-bands with indices of -0.71$\pm$0.10, -1.23$\pm$0.10 and -0.53$\pm$0.09. However, $H$-band data show a power index change; the PE varies with $A_V$ steeply (index of -0.95$\pm$0.30) when $A_V < 2.88\pm0.67$ mag but softly (index of -0.25$\pm$0.06) for greater $A_V$ values. The soft decay of PE in high $A_V$ regions is consistent with the Radiative Aligned Torque model, suggesting that our data trace the magnetic field to $A_V \sim 20$ mag. Furthermore, the breakpoint found in $H$-band is similar to the $A_V$ where we found the $P_{R_c}/P_{H}$ dispersion significantly decreased. Therefore, the flat PE-$A_V$ in high $A_V$ regions implies that the power index changes result from additional grain growth.Comment: 31 pages, 17 figures, and 3 tables; accepted for publication in Ap

Cultural and clinical factors associated with antihypertensive medication adherence in Vietnamese policemen

The purpose of this study is to characterize Vietnamese policemen with hypertension, to report the proportion of hypertension control and medication adherence in Vietnamese policemen, and to explore cultural and clinical factors related to antihypertensive medication adherence. A cross-sectional study design was used. A convenience sample of 100 policemen with hypertension was recruited in Vietnam. A total score of 80% or more on the Medication Adherence scale was defined as medication adherence. Medication adherence was reported in 64% of the participants, but hypertension control was found in only 53%. Medication adherence was higher in the participants with higher perceived susceptibility to hypertension-related complications, higher perceived benefit of Western anti-hypertensive medications, longer duration of time since diagnosis, and fewer prescribed blood pressure lowering medications. Vietnamese policemen are at high risk for poor medication adherence and hypertension management. Culturally and clinically appropriate nursing interventions for hypertension management in Vietnamese policemen are needed

Glue-on AdS holography for TTˉT\bar T-deformed CFTs

The $T\bar T$ deformation is a solvable irrelevant deformation whose properties depend on the sign of the deformation parameter $\mu$. In particular, $T\bar T$-deformed CFTs with $\mu<0$ have been proposed to be holographically dual to Einstein gravity where the metric satisfies Dirichlet boundary conditions at a finite cutoff surface. In this paper, we put forward a holographic proposal for $T\bar T$-deformed CFTs with $\mu>0$, in which case the bulk geometry is constructed by gluing a patch of AdS$_3$ to the original spacetime. As evidence, we show that the $T\bar T$ trace flow equation, the spectrum on the cylinder, and the partition function on the torus and the sphere, among other results, can all be reproduced from bulk calculations in glue-on AdS$_3$.Comment: 33 pages, 1 figure; v2: clarifications and references added, matches published versio

Extremal surfaces in glue-on AdS/TTˉT\bar T holography

$T\bar T$ deformed CFTs with positive deformation parameter have been proposed to be holographically dual to Einstein gravity in a glue-on $\mathrm{AdS}_3$ spacetime. The latter is constructed from AdS$_3$ by gluing a patch of an auxiliary AdS$_3^*$ spacetime to its asymptotic boundary. In this work, we propose a glue-on version of the Ryu-Takayanagi formula, which is given by the signed area of an extremal surface. The extremal surface is anchored at the endpoints of an interval on a cutoff surface in the glue-on geometry. It consists of an RT surface lying in the AdS$_3$ part of the spacetime and its extension to the AdS$_3^*$ region. The signed area is the length of the RT surface minus the length of the segments in AdS$_3^*$. We find that the Ryu-Takayanagi formula with the signed area reproduces the entanglement entropy of a half interval for $T\bar T$-deformed CFTs on the sphere. We then study the properties of extremal surfaces on various glue-on geometries, including Poincar\'e $\mathrm{AdS}_3$, global $\mathrm{AdS}_3$, and the BTZ black hole. When anchored on multiple intervals at the boundary, the signed area of the minimal surfaces undergoes phase transitions with novel properties. In all of these examples, we find that the glue-on extremal surfaces exhibit a minimum length related to the deformation parameter of $T\bar T$-deformed CFTs.Comment: 39 pages, 9 figures; v2: added references; v3: fixed typos, matches published versio