An Empirical Study Of It Development In The Banking Industry Of Taiwan

The focal point adopted in the present study is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and its adoption in Taiwan’s banking industry. Since the current challenge banks are facing is in implementing and supporting new technological solutions that will enable them to be more responsive and flexible to their clients, a quantitative research methodology was employed in the present study in an attempt to answer the following research question: What are the critical factors that explain the degree of success in the deployment of CRM systems in Taiwan’s banking industry? First, based on the findings from the previous studies, an exploratory study consisting of focus-group interviews was conducted to uncover the nature of the problems confronting the banks in adopting CRM. Second, based on the findings from this preliminary investigation, a quantitative analysis using survey and statistical methods was conducted to identify possible answers to the research question. The research done with the present study has uncovered a number of factors which can be used to guide companies for a successful CRM deployment. These factors include primacy of customer service, customizing CRM functions/modules, discovering customers’ needs, maintaining employee’s moral, conducting a decision support system. If the major goal of implementing a CRM system is to improve the overall CRM deployment, the management in Taiwan’s banking industry should then emphasize three of two factors: primacy of customer service and customizing CRM functions/modules

Photometric Survey of Neptune's Trojan Asteroids I: The Color Distribution

In 2018, Jewitt identified the "The Trojan Color Conundrum", namely that Neptune's Trojan asteroids (NTs) had no ultra-red members, unlike the the nearby Kuiper Belt. Since then, numerous ultra-red NTs have been discovered, seemingly resolving this conundrum (Lin et al. 2019; Bolin et al.12 2023). However, it is still unclear whether or not the Kuiper Belt has a color distribution consistent with the NT population, as would be expected if it were the source population. In this work, we present a new photometric survey of 15 out of 31 NTs. We utilized the Sloan g'r'i'z' filters on the IMACS f/4 instrument which is mounted on the 6.5m Baade telescope. In this survey, we identify four NTs as being ultra-red using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). This result brings the ratio of red to ultra-red NTs to 7.75:1, more consistent with the corresponding Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO) ratio of 4-11:1. We also identify three targets as being blue (nearly Solar) in color. Such objects may be C-type surfaces, but we see more of these blue NTs than has been observed in the Kuiper Belt (Seccull et al. 2018). Finally, we show that there are hints of a color-absolute magnitude (H) correlation, with larger H (smaller sized, lower albedo) tending to be more red, but more data is needed to confirm this result. The origin of such a correlation remains an open question which will be addressed by future observations of the surface composition of these targets and their rotational properties.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted to PS

Detection of Diatomic Carbon in 2I/Borisov

2I/Borisov is the first-ever observed interstellar comet (and the second detected interstellar object (ISO)). It was discovered on 2019 August 30 and has a heliocentric orbital eccentricity of ~3.35, corresponding to a hyperbolic orbit that is unbound to the Sun. Given that it is an ISO, it is of interest to compare its properties—such as composition and activity—with the comets in our solar system. This study reports low-resolution optical spectra of 2I/Borisov. The spectra were obtained by the MDM Observatory Hiltner 2.4 m telescope/Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph (on 2019 October 31.5 and November 4.5, UT). The wavelength coverage spanned from 3700 to 9200 Å. The dust continuum reflectance spectra of 2I/Borisov show that the spectral slope is steeper in the blue end of the spectrum (compared to the red). The spectra of 2I/Borisov clearly show CN emission at 3880 Å, as well as C2 emission at both 4750 and 5150 Å. Using a Haser model to covert the observed fluxes into estimates for the molecular production rates, we find Q(CN) = 2.4 ± 0.2 × 10²⁴ s⁻¹, and Q(C₂) = (5.5 ± 0.4) × 10²³ s⁻¹ at the heliocentric distance of 2.145 au. Our Q(CN) estimate is consistent with contemporaneous observations, and the Q(C₂) estimate is generally below the upper limits of previous studies. We derived the ratio Q(C₂)/Q(CN) = 0.2 ± 0.1, which indicates that 2I/Borisov is depleted in carbon-chain species, but is not empty. This feature is not rare for the comets in our solar system, especially in the class of Jupiter-family comets

Pancreatic Tail Cancer with Sole Manifestation of Left Flank Pain: A Very Rare Presentation

Pancreatic cancer is sometimes called a “silent disease” because it often causes no symptoms in the early stage. The symptoms can be quite vague and various depending on the location of cancer in the pancreas. The anatomic site distribution is 78% in the head of the pancreas, 11% in the body, and 11% in the tail. Pancreatic cancer is rarely detected in the early stage, and it is very uncommon to diagnose pancreatic tail cancer during an emergency department visit. The manifestation of pancreatic tail cancer as left flank pain is very rare and has seldom been identified in the literature. We present a case of pancreatic tail cancer with the sole manifestation of dull left flank pain. Having negative findings on an ultrasound study initially, this female patient was misdiagnosed as having possible acute gastritis, urolithiasis or muscle strain after she received gastroendoscopy and colonofiberscopy. Her symptoms persisted for several months and she visited our emergency department due to an acute exacerbation of a persistent dull pain in the left flank area. Radiographic evaluation with computed tomography was performed, and pancreatic tail tumor with multiple metastases was found unexpectedly. We review the literature and discuss this rare presentation of pancreatic tail cancer

Dynamic Mechanical Response of Biomedical 316L Stainless Steel as Function of Strain Rate and Temperature

A split Hopkinson pressure bar is used to investigate the dynamic mechanical properties of biomedical 316L stainless steel under strain rates ranging from 1 × 103 s−1 to 5 × 103 s−1 and temperatures between 25°C and 800°C. The results indicate that the flow stress, work-hardening rate, strain rate sensitivity, and thermal activation energy are all significantly dependent on the strain, strain rate, and temperature. For a constant temperature, the flow stress, work-hardening rate, and strain rate sensitivity increase with increasing strain rate, while the thermal activation energy decreases. Catastrophic failure occurs only for the specimens deformed at a strain rate of 5 × 103 s−1 and temperatures of 25°C or 200°C. Scanning electron microscopy observations show that the specimens fracture in a ductile shear mode. Optical microscopy analyses reveal that the number of slip bands within the grains increases with an increasing strain rate. Moreover, a dynamic recrystallisation of the deformed microstructure is observed in the specimens tested at the highest temperature of 800°C