The Research of Online Service Recovery Based on Kano’s Model

To identify customer requirements regarding e-retailing service failures, this study applied Kano’s model to sort the e-retailing compensation elements into various categories for identifying the key elements, maximizing customer satisfaction and minimizing customer dissatisfaction based on investigation of the sample of 167 e-retailing customers. The result indicates that a psychological compensation is the basic requirement of e-retailing customer and a refund can improve customer satisfaction when any service failure is occurred. Moreover, an economic compensation is indifferent for a dissatisfied customer. The result can help the e-retailer to understand what different compensations would have diverse effects on customers and provide effective guidelines to reduce customer’s dissatisfaction caused by the service failure

Astrophysical applications of the Einstein ring gravitational lens, MG1131+0456

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 1995.Includes bibliographical references.by Grace Hsiu-Ling Chen.Ph.D

Intelligent E-Learning System with Personalized Misconception Diagnose and Learning Path Guidance

In recent years, to advances network technology, IT-enabled learning and support learning are important in on-line education. More learners obtain knowledge by the Web-Learning Instruction (WBI). Learners usually induce the problem of misconception and cognitive overload when they use Web-based learning system. At present, most of the studies in the on-line education either concentrate on the technological aspect (e.g. personalization technology development) or focus on adapting learner’s interests or browsing behaviors, while, learner’s ability and level of knowledge is neglected. Therefore, it is important to consider learner’s ability while designing web-based learning system. This study developed an On-line Knowledge Diagnose System (OKDS) to diagnose learner’s misconception and provide personalized remedial guidance that based on a graphic organizer technology - concept map. The results indicate that the OKDS can effectiveness enhance learners learner’s learning performance and learner also has positive perception of OKDS

Relationships between serum HER2 ECD, TIMP-1 and clinical outcomes in Taiwanese breast cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Serum levels of the extracellular domain of HER2/neu (HER2 ECD) have been demonstrated to be associated with clinical outcomes. A disintegrin and metalloproteinase-10, a sheddase of HER2/neu, can drive cancer progression and its activity is inhibited by tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1). However, elevated TIMP-1 expression has been associated with a poor prognosis of breast cancer. Therefore, this study was performed to explore the relationships between serum HER2 ECD, TIMP-1 and clinical outcomes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>One hundred and eighty-five female breast cancer patients, who received curative mastectomy without neo-adjuvant chemotherapy at Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, were recruited with informed consent for this study. Pre-operative serum levels of HER2 ECD and TIMP-1 were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty-three cases (12.4%) were classified HER2 ECD positive. HER2 ECD positivity was significantly associated with age, lymph node involvement, histological grade, estrogen receptor status, progesterone receptor status, tissue HER2/neu overexpression, and disease-free survival (DFS). In an age, stage, ER and HER2/neu status matched subgroup (N = 41), the serum level of TIMP-1 was significantly associated with HER2 ECD positivity and DFS.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A high serum TIMP-1 was significantly associated with HER2 ECD positivity and a poorer DFS among Taiwanese primary breast cancer patients with HER2 overexpression.</p

EBV-encoded small RNA1 and nonresolving inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis

AbstractRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by perpetuated inflammation in multiple joints. To date, there is no cure for RA, and the causal factor for non-resolving inflammation in RA remains unclear. In this study, we initially observed expression of Epstein–Barr virus-encoded small RNA1 (EBER1) in the synovial tissue of all five patients who showed nonresolving RA inflammation. By contrast, EBER1 was detected in the synovial tissue of only one out of seven patients with advanced osteoarthritis (OA; p < 0.01, Fisher’s exact test). To confirm this finding, we conducted a second study on synovial tissue samples taken from 23 patients with nonresolving RA inflammation and 13 patients with OA. All synovial samples from patients with nonresolving inflammation of RA showed positive expression of EBER1 (23/23, 100%), whereas none of the synovial samples from patients with OA showed expression of EBER1 (0/13, 0%; p < 0.001, by Fisher’s exact test). In vitro, transfection of RA synovial fibroblasts with EBER1 induced the production of interleukin-6. Taken together, these data strongly suggest that nonresolving RA inflammation is strongly related to the presence of EBER1, which might be, at least partially, responsible for synovial fibroblast interleukin-6 production

Mycotoxin Decontamination of Foods Using Nonthermal Plasma and Plasma-Activated Water

Mycotoxins are food safety and public health concerns due to their widespread contamination in agricultural products and adverse health effects on humans. Several decontamination techniques, including physical-, chemical-, and thermal-based treatments, are employed to minimize the levels of mycotoxins in food. However, these treatments present disadvantages, such as negative impacts on the quality and leftover chemical residues on the treated food after physical- and chemical-based treatments. Furthermore, mycotoxins are resistant to heat, thus contributing to the insufficiency of thermal treatments for complete mycotoxin degradation. The use of alternative nonthermal-based treatments, such as nonthermal plasma (NTP) and plasma-activated water (PAW) for mycotoxin degradation in food, have been recently explored to overcome these limitations. NTP and PAW treatments are known to minimize the unfavorable changes in food quality while ensuring safety from food contaminants. The basics of NTP and PAW technologies, their mycotoxin decontamination efficiencies, their underlying mechanisms of action, effects on food quality, and the safety of mycotoxin degradation byproducts and treated food are hereby discussed in this chapter