COMPETITIVENESS AND CONSUMER PREFERENCES OF US FRUITS IN TAIWAN

Taiwan is a major importing country of US fruits. This study examines the market competitiveness and consumer preferences of US fruits in Taiwan using cross-sectional data. Results indicate that for either retailers or consumers, imported US fruits compete favorably with domestic grown fruits in the Taiwanese fruit markets.Consumer/Household Economics,

Western powers in China between 1920 and 1930: Focus on the Minutes of Meetings of the Shanghai Municipal Council

The 1920s were a pivotal decade in the modern history of China and particularly of Shanghai, which steadily increased its power on the international arena, from politics through finance to communication. Shanghai gradually became the focal point of many activities that would eventually shape modern China. Such privileged role was also due to the fact that the city held a special status since, unlike other Chinese territories, its Municipality witnessed the presence of foreigners as rulers but not as owners of the land. This led to a situation where foreigners and locals coexisted with their own cultures and styles. It is against this socio-historical background that we need to view the Municipality of Shanghai between 1920 and 1930, whose Council’s Minutes of Meetings (henceforth MoMs) are analyzed in the present paper. MoMs are a text type which has long been ignored by scholarly research, at least from the linguistic point of view, possibly due to its ‘hybrid’ status that places it halfway between legal documents and (press) reports. Bearing this in mind, the present study has a twofold aim; in the first place, by focussing on Shanghai MoMs from the early 20th century, we delve into the evolution of the Western (largely British) management of municipal affairs on Chinese territory, paying special attention to the relations between such Western powers and local Chinese citizens at the time. Secondly, we shed more light on MoMs as a textual type, with special reference to their structural and linguistic distinctiveness. Specifically, first we overview the Shanghai International Settlement and its Municipal Council at the time under scrutiny; then, we illustrate the corpus exploited for this study; finally, we focus on the linguistic analysis of the corpus, to detect possible structural changes that may have occurred over the last century to MoMs as a textual type. The present study intends to place itself at the crossroads between linguistic analysis, on the one hand, and socio-historical research on the other, viewing both as two sides of the same coin, under the conviction that historical-linguistic research cannot do without an adequate socio-historical contextualization, especially when intercultural aspects come into place, and that the study of historical documents for linguistic purposes can—and needs to—be of help to other disciplines like History and Sociology, but also International Relations and Public Diplomacy, in a fruitful interdisciplinary way

Consumer Awareness of the Avian Influenza Threat in Taiwan

Replaced with revised version of paper 06/19/07.consumer awareness, risk perceptions, avian influenza, Taiwan, Consumer/Household Economics, Livestock Production/Industries, M30,

Avian Influenza Threat and its Potential Impact on Demand for Chicken and Eggs

A highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza (AI) has been confirmed in 420 human cases and has caused 257 deaths in the world starting from 2003. Using face-to-face interviews, our data were collected by utilizing a stratified sampling scheme following the distribution of gender and age in three major metropolitan areas in Taiwan, including Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. The questionnaire was designed to retrieve information including AI knowledge, risk perceptions, and behavioral changes of two types of consumers, primary shoppers and general consumers. In total, 501 primary shoppers and 505 general consumers completed the survey in June 2007 and were recorded for analysis. The empirical results show several interesting findings, especially, that risk perception and some socioeconomic characteristics such as age are the key factor which determines changes in purchasing behavior.avian influenza, knowledge, risk perception, Tobit model, Taiwan, Consumer/Household Economics, Livestock Production/Industries, M30,

Subsequent Reaction to Online Advertisement Disturbance

The objective of this study is to examine subsequent reaction to online advertisements in information searching prior to product purchase. Total valid samples were 283, out of 300 surveyed respondents. The mobile phone is used in this study as objects. The informativeness of online advertisements including dimensions of price/promotion, service, design, and function are what respondents intend to view. For respondents in the ad-neutral cluster, price/promotion and service are factors valued more importantly. On the contrary, for respondents in the ad-annoyed cluster, design and function are more important factors than price/promotion and service in terms of information upon seeing online advertisements. The results indicate internet users are aware of online advertisements and understand the disturbance caused by online advertisements is unavoidable. When internet users are disturbed and the annoyance can be tolerated, the information searching behavior goes on. When internet users are disturbed and the annoyance cannot be tolerated, the information searching behavior is terminated. The effort of designing online advertisements ended up with users' ignorance or termination can be wasted and useless. Marketers and advertisers not only try to attract attentions of online users with advertisements, but also need to restrict the annoyance or disturbance of online advertisements to an acceptable level to reduce the opportunities of being ignored or terminated

Toona sinensis

Toona sinensis is one of the most popular vegetarian cuisines in Taiwan and it has been shown to possess antioxidant, antiangiogenic, and anticancer properties. In this study, we investigated the antiatherosclerotic potential of aqueous leaf extracts from Toona sinensis (TS; 25–100 μg/mL) and its major bioactive compound, gallic acid (GA; 5 μg/mL), in LPS-treated rat aortic smooth muscle (A7r5) cells. We found that pretreatment with noncytotoxic concentrations of TS and GA significantly inhibited inflammatory NO and PGE2 production by downregulating their precursors, iNOS and COX-2, respectively, in LPS-treated A7r5 cells. Furthermore, TS and GA inhibited LPS-induced intracellular ROS and their corresponding mediator, p47phox. Notably, TS and GA pretreatment significantly inhibited LPS-induced migration in transwell assays. Gelatin zymography and western blotting demonstrated that treatment with TS and GA suppressed the activity or expression of MMP-9, MMP-2, and t-PA. Additionally, TS and GA significantly inhibited LPS-induced VEGF, PDGF, and VCAM-1 expression. Further investigation revealed that the inhibition of iNOS/COX-2, MMPs, growth factors, and adhesion molecules was associated with the suppression of NF-κB activation and MAPK (ERK1/2, JNK1/2, and p38) phosphorylation. Thus, Toona sinensis may be useful for the prevention of atherosclerosis

Phyto-oestrogens and breast cancer chemoprevention

Phytoestrogens are polyphenol compounds of plant origin that exhibit a structural similarity to the mammalian steroid hormone 17β-oestradiol. In Asian nations the staple consumption of phyto-oestrogen-rich foodstuffs correlates with a reduced incidence of breast cancer. Human dietary intervention trials have noted a direct relationship between phyto-oestrogen ingestion and a favourable hormonal profile associated with decreased breast cancer risk. However, these studies failed to ascertain the precise effect of dietary phyto-oestrogens on the proliferation of mammary tissue. Epidemiological and rodent studies crucially suggest that breast cancer chemoprevention by dietary phyto-oestrogen compounds is dependent on ingestion before puberty, when the mammary gland is relatively immature. Phyto-oestrogen supplements are commercially marketed for use by postmenopausal women as natural and safe alternatives to hormone replacement therapy. Of current concern is the effect of phyto-oestrogen compounds on the growth of pre-existing breast tumours. Data are contradictory, with cell culture studies reporting both the oestrogenic stimulation of oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cell lines and the antagonism of tamoxifen activity at physiological phyto-oestrogen concentrations. Conversely, phyto-oestrogen ingestion by rodents is associated with the development of less aggressive breast tumours with reduced metastatic potential. Despite the present ambiguity, current data do suggest a potential benefit from use of phyto-oestrogens in breast cancer chemoprevention and therapy. These aspects are discussed

Deciphering colorectal cancer genetics through multi-omic analysis of 100,204 cases and 154,587 controls of European and east Asian ancestries

In the version of this article initially published, the author affiliations incorrectly listed “Candiolo Cancer Institute FPO-IRCCS, Candiolo (TO), Italy” as “Candiolo Cancer Institute, Candiolo, Italy.” The change has been made to the HTML and PDF versions of the article

Novel Common Genetic Susceptibility Loci for Colorectal Cancer

BACKGROUND: Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 42 loci (P < 5 × 10-8) associated with risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). Expanded consortium efforts facilitating the discovery of additional susceptibility loci may capture unexplained familial risk. METHODS: We conducted a GWAS in European descent CRC cases and control subjects using a discovery-replication design, followed by examination of novel findings in a multiethnic sample (cumulative n = 163 315). In the discovery stage (36 948 case subjects/30 864 control subjects), we identified genetic variants with a minor allele frequency of 1% or greater associated with risk of CRC using logistic regression followed by a fixed-effects inverse variance weighted meta-analysis. All novel independent variants reaching genome-wide statistical significance (two-sided P < 5 × 10-8) were tested for replication in separate European ancestry samples (12 952 case subjects/48 383 control subjects). Next, we examined the generalizability of discovered variants in East Asians, African Americans, and Hispanics (12 085 case subjects/22 083 control subjects). Finally, we examined the contributions of novel risk variants to familial relative risk and examined the prediction capabilities of a polygenic risk score. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS: The discovery GWAS identified 11 variants associated with CRC at P < 5 × 10-8, of which nine (at 4q22.2/5p15.33/5p13.1/6p21.31/6p12.1/10q11.23/12q24.21/16q24.1/20q13.13) independently replicated at a P value of less than .05. Multiethnic follow-up supported the generalizability of discovery findings. These results demonstrated a 14.7% increase in familial relative risk explained by common risk alleles from 10.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 7.9% to 13.7%; known variants) to 11.9% (95% CI = 9.2% to 15.5%; known and novel variants). A polygenic risk score identified 4.3% of the population at an odds ratio for developing CRC of at least 2.0. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insight into the architecture of common genetic variation contributing to CRC etiology and improves risk prediction for individualized screenin

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead