Item Order Effects on Attitude Measures

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the effects of altered item order on attitude measures for both computerized adaptive and conventional survey formats. Based on items modified from a dissertation/thesis completion survey (Green & Kluever, 1997) with three scales, three survey versions were generated with items ordered by difficulty as hard-to-easy (H-E), easy-to-hard (E-H), and five medium trait level items presented first followed by randomly ordered items (M-R) for conventional survey format. Significant differences in item difficulty and item discrimination were found for two of the three scales. Differences in scale reliability were detected for the procrastination and responsibility scales. Also, significant correlations between scale total score and scale attitude strength were discovered with each survey version. Further, two computerized adaptive survey version were generated. One began with items at medium and the other at extremely high trait levels. Results showed significant differences in number of items administered to achieve a set level of precision for two scales and significant differences in reaction time were found for one scale between the two versions. The version of item starting at the extreme trait level required more items, and took longer to respond to. Further, significant differences in the estimated person parameter were found for one scale between the two survey versions. Based on the results of both survey formats indicating item order effects pose a problem for assessing attitude

Using Service Design Tool and Qualitative Research Method to Assist the E-Government Service Process Redesign: A Case Study of the Taxation Service Process in Taiwan

Previous studies have determined that information technology dominates numerous e-government projects; information and communications technology has been used mainly as a tool for enhancing the efficiency and service delivery of governments. Electronic government(e-government) should achieve public innovation goals, such as redesigning information relationships among stakeholders, enhancing citizen participation in the policymaking process, and reinforcing policy enforcement to create public value. These goals are more valuable, but also more complex, than the digitization of existing governmental processes. Therefore, this study focused on a crucial e-government service, the Taiwan taxation service, to determine whether, in the current era in which people depend highly on network tools to send and receive information, online services are suitable for taxpayers and how to improve the service process. In this study, service design tools were combined with a qualitative research method, and observation and individual interviews of participants were conducted to record their perceptions of the tax service process. The results of the study facilitate identifying gaps in the seemingly convenient and progressive tax service process of Taiwan, including insufficient information provision, complex website operation, inconsistent information classification with users’ logic, the lack of complete and consistent service for one-stop windows, and difficult document content. The taxation authority should integrate all online taxation services to achieve the expected public service (one-stop e-government window). This research facilitates relevant government agencies to provide effective e-government services, identify problems, and modify service delivery processes

3,6-Dihydr­oxy-2′-[(2-hydr­oxy-1-naphth­yl)methyl­eneamino]xanthene-9-spiro-1′-isoindolin-3′-one acetonitrile solvate

The title compound, C31H20N2O5·C2H3N, was synthesized by the reaction of fluorescein hydrazide and excess 2-hydr­oxy-1-naphthaldehyde in acetonitrile. The spirolactam ring is planar and is nearly at right angles to the two benzene rings of the xanthene system. The dihedral angle between the two benzene rings of the xanthene system is 9.92 (4)°. In the crystal structure, the mol­ecules are linked into extended two-dimensional networks by inter­molecular hydrogen bonding. Acetonitrile mol­ecules are located in the voids between the two-dimensional networks

Designing Public Innovations in Public Sector: The Process and Challenges in Taiwanese E-government

Researchers have found that a one-sided focus on technology dominates many e-government projects; ICT has been used mainly as a tool to enhance the efficiency and service delivery of the government. In fact, e-government should achieve public innovation goals, such as redesigning information relationships among stakeholders, enhancing citizen participation in the policymaking process, and reinforcing policy enforcement to create public value. These goals are more valuable, but also more complex than the digitization of existing governmental processes. Beside, only a few projects could achieve the public innovation diffusion goal among many e-government projects. Therefore, this case study focuses on a very important and successful e-government project in Taiwan – the e-invoicing project, by following the development timeline of this 12-year project to understand the reasons of loosing focus and the turning points to achieve the final success. With the results of this case study, this research address four main factors of success in public innovation diffusion: (a) cooperate with the right stakeholder: e-government projects requires intensive cooperation with both public and private organizations, otherwise the change agency has no complete control over its innovation offering; (b) the selection of the right diffusion mode: centralized innovation-diffusion is difficult to overcome the stereotyped perception that citizens hold toward the government, and thus, it is better to implement by a decentralized fashion; (c) the diversity of services: public innovations have an inherently higher complexity than commercial innovations because they intend to serve a diversity of citizens; and (d) assignment of the right change agent for the project: because the burden on the change agent is tremendous, only a few “policy entrepreneurs” can push through the innovation process, despite few material rewards

Working Memory Capacity as a Factor Influencing the Relationship between Language Outcome and Rehabilitation in Mandarin-Speaking Preschoolers with Congenital Hearing Impairment

Memory processes could account for a significant part of the variance in language performances of hearing-impaired children. However, the circumstance in which the performance of hearing-impaired children can be nearly the same as the performance of hearing children remains relatively little studied. Thus, a group of pre-school children with congenital, bilateral hearing loss and a group of pre-school children with normal hearing were invited to participate in this study. In addition, the hearing-impaired participants were divided into two groups according to their working memory span. A language disorder assessment test for Mandarin-speaking preschoolers was used to measure the outcomes of receptive and expressive language of the two groups of children. The results showed that the high-span group performed as good as the hearing group, while the low-span group showed lower accuracy than the hearing group. A linear mixed-effects analysis showed that not only length of rehabilitation but also the memory span affected the measure of language outcome. Furthermore, the rehabilitation length positively correlated with the measure of expressive language only among the participants of the high-span group. The pattern of the results indicates that working memory capacity is one of the factors that could support the children to acquire age-equivalent language skills

Role of property management in service demands of elderly residents of apartment complexes

An aging population results in an increased demand for services designed to meet the needs of elderly people. To enable elderly individuals to age successfully in their original residence environments, property management companies that provide services to apartment complex residents play an important role as service providers. The purpose of this study was to identify possible services that property management companies can provide to elderly residents of apartment complexes in response to changing demographics. Factor analysis was performed to identify the main areas of service demands or service demand aspects. Cluster analysis and a chi-square test were also used to identify and highlight the varied demographic characteristics and residence conditions of respondents and how they affect the level of importance attributed to each service demand aspect. Results showed seven main service aspects that were of concern to elderly individuals. Specific characteristics of elderly people that led to higher demands for certain other service aspects were also identified. The results of this study can serve as a reference for property management companies to help them provide custom design services for apartment complexes they serve and to expand their business scope and opportunities. First published online 9 October 201

Screening and Identification of Yeasts Antagonistic to Pathogenic Fungi Show a Narrow Optimal pH Range for Antagonistic Activity

Microbes have evolved ways of interference competition to gain advantage over their ecological competitors. The use of secreted antagonistic compounds by yeast cells is one of the prominent examples. Although this killer behavior has been thoroughly studied in laboratory yeast strains, our knowledge of the antagonistic specificity of killer effects in nature remains limited. In this study, yeast strains were collected from various niches and screened for antagonistic activity against one toxin-sensitive strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and three pathogenic fungi. We demonstrate that some strains with antagonistic activity against these pathogenic fungi can be found in antagonist culture tests. These yeasts were identified as members of Trichosporon asahii, Candida stellimalicola, Wickerhamomyces anomalus, Ustilago esculenta, Aureobasidium pullulans, and Pichia kluyveri. The results indicated that the antagonistic activity of these killer yeasts has a narrow optimal pH range. Furthermore, we found that the antagonistic activity of some species is strain-dependent