Blog Advertising Effectiveness – An Ad Endorser Perspective

Many consumers routinely gather product information and appraisals via the Internet before making purchase decisions. For them, blogs are an important information source. Therefore, enterprises have begun using blogs as a new and effective instrument of product marketing. However, selecting the blog type that optimizes advertising effectiveness is now an important issue in corporate advertising. This study classifies blogs into three types (celebrity blog, expert blog, and typical consumer blog) and defines product type (experience product and search product) and brand awareness (high and low) as two product constructs. The aim is to help enterprises evaluate the type and brand awareness of a product to be promoted and to select the blog type that maximizes advertising effectiveness (perceived risk, ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intention) in diffusing product information. A quasi-experiment design was adopted, and twelve experimental contexts were designed. A valid sample of over 2,000 responses was collected to study between-group differences in advertising effectiveness. The analytical results showed between-group difference in advertising effectiveness, which indicated that blog advertising effectiveness varies with different combinations of product constructs and blog types

A Case Study of Remote Monitoring of Health Status of the Elderly at Home in Taiwan

This case is a B2B2C model (service provider vs. community vs. the elderly) of innovative tele-care service provision. The service provider under study is the Chu-Shan Show-Chwan Hospital, a district hospital. The community consists of the social welfare institutions such as temples, community care centers, and nursing homes. The elderly are either residents of the community or the nursing homes. The community, as a service promoter, contributes to the increased acceptance compared to the traditional B2C model. Many communities under study and some social welfare organizations are highly interested in providing health care service to the elderly, and will support future operations if the results are satisfactory. Through this project, the district hospital can extend its primary care function to communities, build up trust among people, and improve the physician-patient relationshi

Factors of Employee’s E-Learning Effectiveness: A Multi-Level Study Based on Socio-Technical Systems Theory

Application of e-learning in enterprises provides the advantages of lower training cost, richer learning content, higher information consistency, and easier update of content. Despite the fact that enterprises have the intention to introduce e-learning, there is not a complete framework to which they can refer to ensure the benefits of e-learning for employee training or learning and understand which important factors affect employee’s e-learning effectiveness. Relative to the difficulties of introducing e-learning in management practice, the academic achievements in this aspect also seem very limited. Most the existing papers are focused on discussion and survey of e-learning in school, and very few of them are dedicated to empirical research of e-learning in corporate environment. Besides, these studies discuss e-learning only at the technical or the individual level without a comprehensive investigation into the factors affecting e-learning effectiveness with multi-level theoretic framework. This paper applies the socio-technical systems theory to review and integrate theories about employee e-learning from a macro view. To make up the insufficiency of related research, literature review and case research are conducted first. Based on the interview results, an analysis model is constructed to thoroughly explore factors affecting employee’s e-learning effectiveness. Later, through a questionnaire survey on employees’ adoption of e-learning and subsequent multi-level data analysis, hypotheses on the relationship of the influencing factors and the research model are verified. Results show that e-learning effectiveness (usefulness of e-learning, continuance intention to use, and e-learning performance) is simultaneously or alternately affected by direct or moderating factors of the technical system and the social system at the work environment level and the individual level. Compared with the existing research, this paper uses a more comprehensive system view to construct the theoretical model and empirically verify it. The results can be a reference for future researchers and managers of e-learning in enterprises

Social housing residents\u27 community participation under the impact of lease period restrictions

Community participation is the foundation of a community’s healthy environment and sustainable development. Social housing can provide people without their own homes and underprivileged groups with more secure conditions to live and work and thereby realize housing justice and reduce social vulnerability. In terms of community management, residents’ engagement in community affairs can dramatically reduce the subsequent burden of environmental maintenance and community management, which encourage residents in the community to actively pass on the habit of maintenance and to collectively create resilient and sustainable communities. However, lease term restrictions in Taiwan’s social housing policy stipulates that ordinary tenants can only rent the house for 6 years at a maximum and tenants with special conditions for 12. This study attempts to understand whether lease term restrictions affect residents’ willingness to participate in community affairs. In addition, we also try to find out how to motivate residents to participate in community construction under the existence of lease term restrictions. The scope of this study focuses on citizens who qualified to rent social housing in the Greater Taipei area (including Taipei City and New Taipei). We designed a questionnaire for our target audience, tested its reliability and validity and picked random-selected samples to finish the questionnaire. Analyzing from the perspective of Egoism, we find out that the result of this research shows that residents do not commonly avoid participation in community affairs. Although lease term restrictions do have some effects on residents\u27 willingness to participate, they are still willing to participate since issues of safety and environmental quality have a direct impact on their lives. However, the residents’ chief consideration is how time spent in participation affects one’s time. Also, though substantial returning benefit is not the main consideration when deciding whether to participate, it does effectively boost residents’ willingness. Furthermore, community member relations is found to have a positive correlation with their willingness to participate

The role of autologous bone graft in surgical treatment of hypertrophic nonunion of midshaft clavicle fractures

AbstractBackgroundThis study was conducted to evaluate the results of treating hypertrophic nonunion of mid-shaft clavicle fracture with a limited contact dynamic compression plate (LC-DCP) without autologous cancellous bone graft.MethodsFrom 1995 to 2008, 51 cases of hypertrophic nonunion of mid-shaft clavicle fracture were managed with open reduction and internal fixation by LC-DCP without bone graft involvement. Of these 51 cases, 30 had nonunion after failure of initial surgical treatment (Group 1), and 21 had nonunion after failure of conservative treatment (Group 2). Preoperative and postoperative case management were the same for both groups, with the average follow-up period being 20.4 months (range 18–36). Our study evaluated the radiographic results and functional outcomes of these cases according to the quick disability of arm, shoulder, and hand score.ResultsAll 51 cases resulted in uneventful unions. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding patient demography, cause of injury, preoperative and postoperative functional scores, length of operation, union time, and duration of hospitalization (p>0.05).ConclusionLC-DCP fixation is an effective method for treating hypertrophic nonunion of mid-shaft clavicle fracture. Local bone graft is sufficient to achieve necessary union, and autologous bone graft from other sites of the body appears unnecessary

Induction of Antinuclear Antibodies by De Novo Autoimmune Hepatitis Regulates Alloimmune Responses in Rat Liver Transplantation

Concanavalin A (Con A) is a lectin originating from the jack-bean and well known for its ability to stimulate T cells and induce autoimmune hepatitis. We previously demonstrated the induction of immunosuppressive antinuclear autoantibody in the course of Con A-induced transient autoimmune hepatitis. This study aimed to clarify the effects of Con A-induced hepatitis on liver allograft rejection and acceptance. In this study, we observed the unique phenomenon that the induction of transient de novo autoimmune hepatitis by Con A injection paradoxically overcomes the rejection without any immunosuppressive drug and exhibits significantly prolonged survival after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Significantly increased titers of anti-nuclear Abs against histone H1 and high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) and reduced donor specific alloantibody response were observed in Con A-injected recipients. Induction of Foxp3 and IL-10 in OLT livers of Con A-injected recipients suggested the involvement of regulatory T cells in this unique phenomenon. Our present data suggest the significance of autoimmune responses against nuclear histone H1 and HMGB1 for competing allogeneic immune responses, resulting in the acceptance of liver allografts in experimental liver transplantation

Adaptor protein Shc acts as an immune-regulator for the LPS-stimulated maturation of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Shc isoforms is known to mediate immune responses and has been indicated as a negative regulator of autoimmunity and lymphocyte activation. We aimed to evaluate the immune-regulatory role of Shc in rat bone marrow-derived DCs in the maturation process triggered by LPS.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that, in response to LPS, expression of Shc proteins was induced and that neutralization of Shc inhibited the LPS-induced transient phosphorylation of p52Shc on pTyr239/240 in DCs of Lewis (LEW; RT1^l) rats. Moreover, the significantly enhanced expression of IL-10 and the surface level of costimulatory molecule CD80, as well as suppressed expression of IL-6 and IL-12 in the Shc-silenced DCs were also observed. Similar IκB phosphorylation occurred in Shc-silenced DCs primed by LPS, indicating Shc is not associated with NF-κB pathway. We further demonstrate that Shc blockade on LPS-treated DCs results in significant increase of the overall STAT3 phosphorylation and the relative levels of phospho-STAT3 in the nuclear fraction. STAT3 activation by LPS with or without Shc blockade was totally abolished by SU6656, a selective Src family kinases inhibitor, underscoring the critical role of Src-mediated activation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We conclude that Shc blockade in LPS-primed DC leads to the development of tolerogenic DC via Src-dependent STAT3 activation and that adaptor protein Shc might play a pivotal role in mediating immunogenic and tolerogenic properties of DCs.</p

Induction of Antinuclear Antibodies by De Novo Autoimmune Hepatitis Regulates Alloimmune Responses in Rat Liver Transplantation

Concanavalin A (Con A) is a lectin originating from the jack-bean and well known for its ability to stimulate T cells and induce autoimmune hepatitis. We previously demonstrated the induction of immunosuppressive antinuclear autoantibody in the course of Con A-induced transient autoimmune hepatitis. This study aimed to clarify the effects of Con A-induced hepatitis on liver allograft rejection and acceptance. In this study, we observed the unique phenomenon that the induction of transient de novo autoimmune hepatitis by Con A injection paradoxically overcomes the rejection without any immunosuppressive drug and exhibits significantly prolonged survival after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Significantly increased titers of anti-nuclear Abs against histone H1 and high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) and reduced donor specific alloantibody response were observed in Con A-injected recipients. Induction of Foxp3 and IL-10 in OLT livers of Con A-injected recipients suggested the involvement of regulatory T cells in this unique phenomenon. Our present data suggest the significance of autoimmune responses against nuclear histone H1 and HMGB1 for competing allogeneic immune responses, resulting in the acceptance of liver allografts in experimental liver transplantation