Integrated or segmented? a wavelet transform analysis on relationship between stock and real estate markets

The goal of this paper is to investigate the relationship between stock and real estate markets via wavelet analysis. Based on wavelet transform, stock price index and REITs index are firstly decomposed into “volatility componentsâ€, that is, the wavelet coefficients. Secondly, we test the causality relationship between stock price index and REITs index of each subband under the concept of multi-resolution representation. The result revealed that the relationship between stock and real estates markets is neither simply segmented nor purely integrated; the behaviors would vary not only over various observation time scales but also with different REITs.REITS markets, stock markets, causality, wavelet transform

Is Contract Farming More Profitable and Efficient Than Non-Contract Farming-A Survey Study of Rice Farms In Taiwan

Trade liberalization and globalization has modernized the food retail sector in Taiwan, affecting consumers, producers and trade patterns. These changes have placed significant pressures on farmers and processors including more stringent quality control and product varieties. The government has launched a rice production-marketing contract program in 2005 to assist rice farmers and the agro-business sector to work together as partners. The minimum scale for each contract is 50 hectares of adjacent rice paddies with 50 participants including rice farmers, seedling providers, millers and marketing agents. In order to evaluate the outcome of this program, a survey is conducted in the summer of 2005 after the first (spring) crop is harvested. Information of price and value of output and major variable and fixed inputs are collected along with characteristics of the farmers and farms. The survey results show that the average revenue of a contract farm is about 11 percent higher than an average non-contract farm. The per hectare cost of production in a contract farm is about 13 percent lower and as a result the average profit margin under contract is more than 50 percent above those without contract. A swtiching regression profit frontier model is adopted to further investigate their efficiency performance. The result indicates that an average contract farms is 20 percent more efficient than an average non-contract farm in a comparable operating environment. The result also suggests that although contract farming has potential to improve the profit of smallholders, it is not a sufficient condition for such improvement.Land Economics/Use,

Healthcare Information and the Utilization of Pap-smear Testing amongst Taiwanese Women

This study is to investigate the determinants of healthcare information amongst women in Taiwan aged between 25 and 69 years, and the association with cervical cancer screening.A two-stage estimation model was adopted for this investigation. In the first stage, the determinants of healthcare information were estimated by the OLS method, with the predicted values of the healthcare information then being linked to the decision to undergo Pap-smear testing. The nationwide survey dataset was obtained from the 2002‘Health Promotion of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice' (HPKAP) in Taiwan, provided by the Bureau of Health Promotion. A total of 9,106 individuals were included in the analysis. The results reveal that the variations in the level of healthcare information are an important contributory factor to the utilization of cervical cancer screening in Taiwan. Therefore, in addition to providing free screening under the NHI, it is important for the healthcare authorities to place greater effort into strengthening the knowledge and information on cervical cancer screening and Pap-smear testing, for those who are currently less informed, so as to enhance the overall efficiency of the screening program.Health information; Pap-smear testing; Cervical cancer; National Health Insurance; Taiwan

Towards An Integrated Effort For Managing IT Process Standards Implementation

Adopting IT process standards seems to be a trend for IT organizations to meet ad-hoc informational needs and to provide better business value. Due to the changing environments of IT organizations themselves, one key to IT success lies in not only the establishment, but also the sustainability of ad-hoc professional IT functions. As IT organizations face many kinds of process standards to implement for various IT functions and although the implementations may be different due to various IT domains, from the management point of view, these implementations may not exist individually. This article attempts to highlight a possibility of an integrated effort to effectively manage the implementations of IT standards in an IT organization. Such a shared management refers to the integrated institutionalization design, which provides a road map for all IT functions to systematically improve and sustain the implementation results. A case example is provided for demonstrating the proposed attempt

A method for computing Lucas sequences

AbstractMost of public-key cryptosystems rely on one-way functions, which can be used to encrypt and sign messages. Their encryption and signature operations are based on the computation of exponentiation. Recently, some public-key cryptosystems are proposed and based on Lucas functions, and the Lucas sequences are performed as S = V(d)modN. In this paper, we will transform the concept of addition chains for computing the exponentiation evaluations to the Lucas chains for computing the Lucas sequences. Theoretically, the shorter Lucas chain for d is generated, the less computation time for evaluating the value V(d) is required. Therefore, we proposed a heuristic algorithm for evaluating a shorter Lucas chain and then use it to compute the Lucas sequence with less modular multiplications

The Association between Virus Prevalence and Intercolonial Aggression Levels in the Yellow Crazy Ant, Anoplolepis Gracilipes (Jerdon).

The recent discovery of multiple viruses in ants, along with the widespread infection of their hosts across geographic ranges, provides an excellent opportunity to test whether viral prevalence in the field is associated with the complexity of social interactions in the ant population. In this study, we examined whether the association exists between the field prevalence of a virus and the intercolonial aggression of its ant host, using the yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) and its natural viral pathogen (TR44839 virus) as a model system. We delimitated the colony boundary and composition of A. gracilipes in a total of 12 study sites in Japan (Okinawa), Taiwan, and Malaysia (Penang), through intercolonial aggression assay. The spatial distribution and prevalence level of the virus was then mapped for each site. The virus occurred at a high prevalence in the surveyed colonies of Okinawa and Taiwan (100% infection rate across all sites), whereas virus prevalence was variable (30%-100%) or none (0%) at the sites in Penang. Coincidentally, colonies in Okinawa and Taiwan displayed a weak intercolonial boundary, as aggression between colonies is generally low or moderate. Contrastingly, sites in Penang were found to harbor a high proportion of mutually aggressive colonies, a pattern potentially indicative of complex colony composition. Our statistical analyses further confirmed the observed correlation, implying that intercolonial interactions likely contribute as one of the effective facilitators of/barriers to virus prevalence in the field population of this ant species

The Impacts of Liberalization and Privatization in Taiwanese Electric Industry

Taiwanese electric industry with liberalization has been a rapid change in the management style and the working environment. The change of the working environment has made a notable impact on the working conditions and the job security of the employees. This paper presents a brief literature review of the influences of liberalization and privatization on workers attitudes and proposes six overarching factors of importance to workers. These factors are: (1) the safeguarding of workers’ rights and interests (2) compensation of potential loss (3) communication (4) leadership trusts and employee consultation (5) participation of employees and the labor union (6) encouragement to learn and to cultivate a second specialty. These factors are developed as a framework which could serve to help decision-makers and leaders with useful strategies in the privatization process

A Study Of Travel Agency Collaboration And Co-Creation In The Tourism Industry

This study explores the dynamics of collaboration between travel agencies and their suppliers in co-creating value with their customers. It examines the relationship among six collaboration elements (co-creation dynamics), service innovation, competitive advantage, technology adoption and environmental change, and the moderating effect of trust on the co-creation elements and service innovation. The effects of technology adoption and environmental changes on the six elements were also examined. Results indicate that all the above effects are significant, and trust enhances the effect of the elements on innovation for Taiwan travel agencies. However, technology adoption and trust differed for the Malaysian travel agencies

From Teachers’ Views to Explore the Implementation of Energy Education in Taiwan’s Elementary Schools

This study intended to explore the implementation of promoting “energy education” in Taiwan’s elementary schools. The research adopted a questionnaire (Likert five-point scale) from teachers’ view in three dimensions to construct examination. The 45 participants come from 10 different primary schools distributed across Taiwan, which participate in energy education program in the second period (2015-2017). The data was analyzed by ANOVA, mean and standard deviations of the viewpoints of the participants in the energy education learning achievement of the primary schools. The first findings in this research is, the program of energy education was most effective in “energy attitude” (M=4.282, SD=0.814), followed by “energy awareness” (M=4.049, SD=0.720) and “energy behavior” (M=3.983, SD=0.875). It shows that students have positive energy attitude, but they were relatively weak at energy saving behavior. Secondly, there is statistically significant difference in overall students learning performance with urban areas are higher than rural areas. Finally, it is suggested that in addition to strengthen energy attitudes and energy awareness, we should encourage students to take action in save energy in their daily life. Furthermore, we should invest more resources to rural areas to balance the students’ performances between urban and rural areas