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The maturity of honey has a great impact on its quality and contents. Additionally, stingless bee honey contains high moisture, which allows microorganisms to survive and ferment, contributing to honey's variable flavor and physicochemical properties. Therefore, there is a need for better quality control of the honey process, especially the harvest time of honey.We gathered honey from the nest of stingless bees Heterotrigona itama and Tetrigona binghami over different time periods, i.e. 15, 30, and 45 days. The results show harvest time considerably affects the physicochemical properties, antioxidant activity, and antimicrobial activity of honey. Good antioxidant activity and antimicrobial activity can be found in honey produced from a longer harvest time. Compared with 15-day harvest time, at 30- or 45-day harvest time water, trehalulose, and protein content and total acidity increased, and the content of reducing sugars, fructose and glucose, and pH values, decreased in both types of honey. Moreover, compared with 15-day harvest time, the sum of six organic acids in the 45-day honey of H. itama fluctuated between 2.78 to 4.12 g 100 gHoney harvest time had a significant effect on the physicochemical properties, antioxidant activity, and antimicrobial activity of stingless bee honey (H. itama or T. binghami). This study provides a reference for beekeepers to adjust harvest time to obtain honey with suitable physicochemical parameters. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

We designed a cage that can maintain adult bees for 21 days with about 90% survival rate, in addition to facilitating the changing of sucrose syrup and beebread, and collection of live and dead bees without disturbing or releasing bees. The consumption rates of bee pollen diet and sucrose syrup for groups of 50–200 honey bees were recorded for 21 days after emergence. The bees consumed the bee pollen diet mainly at the age of 1–9 days. Regular consumption of sucrose syrup was observed among all bee groups throughout the 21 days. Furthermore, the nutritional responses of nurse bees—specifically, the expressions of major royal jelly protein 1 (mrjp1) in the head and vitellogenin (vg) in the abdomen—upon the provision of five single-supplemental diets were evaluated. We aimed to improve the usability of bee cages by elucidating the food consumption of bees and the relationship between nutritional gene expression and the ingestion of each single-protein diet.

The occurrence of multidrug-resistant pathogenic bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDRAB), extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, has become a serious problem in animals and public. The objective of this study was to identify and isolate lactic acid bacterial (LAB) strains from the intestinal tracts of pigs and feces of dogs and then characterize them as potential probiotics with antimicrobial activity against multidrug-resistant pathogenic bacteria. In a preliminary isolation screening, 45 of 1167 isolated LAB strains were found to have anti-S. aureus ATCC 27,735 activity. Using 16S rDNA and 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacer region (ISR) sequences, five of these isolates were further identified as Lactobacillus animalis 30a-2, Lactobacillus reuteri 4-12E, Weissella cibaria C34, Lactococcus lactis 5-12H, and Lactococcus lactis 6-3H. Antimicrobial substance assays suggest that the L. lactis 5-12H, L. lactis 6-3H, L. animalis 30a-2, L. reuteri 4-12E, and W. cibaria C34 strains might produce bacteriocins and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as antimicrobial substances. The L. animalis 30a-2 and W. cibaria C34 strains were further characterized for probiotic properties and shown to have high acid and bile salt tolerance. Additionally, they have broad antimicrobial spectra, and can significantly repress the growth of all of the tested strains of MRSA isolates, some MDRAB, ESBL E. coli, and P. aeruginosa isolates, along with food-borne pathogenic bacteria such as Bacillus cereus ATCC 11778, Listeria monocytogens ATCC 19111, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., and Yersinia enterocolitica BCRC 12986. This is the first report of H2O2-producing L. animalis 30a-2 and W. cibaria C34 isolated from the intestinal tracts of pigs and feces of dogs that have good antimicrobial activity against multidrug-resistant and food-borne pathogenic bacteria and have excellent probiotic properties.

A panel smooth transition regression model was adopted to analyse the non-linear impact of oil prices on oil demand. Data for 42 countries was obtained from the International Energy Agency for the ...

Human-computer interaction, VR and other fields have raised higher requirements on haptic feedback. Due to good expressiveness, low cost and low technical complexity, the current researchers focused on applying the principle of apparent tactile motion to generate linear or pattern tactile motion feedback. However, there still exist limitations because these applications cannot restore the high-fidelity tactile experience that can characterize the tactile texture and fail to take the matching of real application scenarios into account. Flowing-Haptic-Sleeve was developed to combine apparent tactile motion and tactile texture to generate a situation-based high-fidelity sense of flow on the arms. This research adopted a multi-factor experiment design and conducted psychophysical experiments on tactile stimulus with 11 participants to explore the feasibility and control space of generating such tactile motion feedback. The results are useful to complement current researches on apparent tactile motion by integrating tactile motion with tactile texture.

Data mining has become a hot research topic, and how to mine valuable knowledge from such huge volumes of data remains an open problem. Processing huge volumes of data presents a challenge to existing computation software and hardware. This study proposes a model using association rule mining (ARM) which is a kind of data-mining technique for discovering association rules of chronic diseases from the enormous data that are collected continuously through health examination and medical treatment. This study makes three critical contributions: (1) It suggests a systematical model of exploring huge volumes of data using ARM, (2) it shows that helpful implicit rules are discovered through data-mining techniques, and (3) the results proved that the proposed model can act as an expert system for discovering useful knowledge from huge volumes of data for the references of doctors and patients to the specific chronic diseases prognosis and treatments.

In order to reconsider the changes of adjustment speed caused by the recapitalization cost, this research adopted dynamic capital structure theory with adjustment speed as one of the independent variables to analyze the relationship between capital structure and company performance. Instead of applying the commonly used regression models, this research used the decision tree C4.5 algorithm and association rules of priori algorithm. Taking the predictive models created by the decision tree as the main result and supporting it with association rules which help to explain the relationships between capital structure and company performance, this research shows how capital structure influences company performance. As the result presents, a company tends to have better performance when its debt ratio is low, and Tobin’s Q and ROA will turn worse as the ratio gets higher. However, maybe because of the financial leverage, ROE will not decrease when the ratio is high but will increase instead. In addition, this research found out that adjustment speed is negatively related to company performance, meaning that even though a company is more flexible in adjusting itself, it might still perform badly since it is deviating from its optimum leverage. This research found that not only capital structure, but other variables such as price-earnings ratio, research and development expense ratio, and dividend payout ratio also determine a company’s performance.

An isolated bacterium TBE-8, was identified as Leuconostoc mesenteroides according to the sequences of 16S rDNA and the 16S–23S rDNA intergenic spacer region. The probiotic properties of the L. mesenteroides TBE-8 strain were characterized and revealed that TBE-8 could utilize various carbohydrates, exhibited high tolerance to sucrose’s osmotic pressure and acidic conditions, and could mitigate the impact of the bee pathogen Paenibacillus larvae. In addition, we found that the TBE-8 broth increased the expression of the nutrition-related genes major royal jelly protein 1 and vitellogenin in bees by approximately 1400- and 20-fold, respectively. The expression of genes encoding two antibacterial peptides, hymenoptaecin and apidaecin, in the bee abdomen was significantly increased by 17- and 7-fold in bees fed with the TBE-8 fermented broth. Furthermore, we fed four-frame bee colonies with 50% sucrose syrup containing TBE-8 and can detect the presence of approximately 2 × 106 16S rDNA copies of TBE-8 in the guts of all bees in 24 h, and the retention of TBE-8 in the bee gut for at least 5 days. These findings indicate that the L. mesenteroides TBE-8 has high potential as a bee probiotic and could enhance the health of bee colonies.

Honey is widely consumed by humans, due to its multiple applications as a food constituent and its therapeutic effects. This study reports on the discrimination of honey products from different geographical and botanical sources, as well as honey products containing distinct forms of syrup used in honey adulteration. Sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion spectra mass spectrometry (SWATH-MS)-based proteomic analysis combined with chemometrics was successfully applied in identifying characteristic proteins that can be used as biomarkers of the original source of honey. Honey samples from different producing regions (Tainan, Changhua, and Taichung), countries (Taiwan and Thailand), and distinct botanical sources (longan and litchi) were clearly distinguished by the developed orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) model with good fitness and prediction ability. Furthermore, we successfully discriminated the adulteration of honey with syrup in different proportions (even with honey content as low as 20%) with this proteomic SWATH-MS platform.

Background There is a major paradigm shift for intraoperative mechanical ventilator support by the introduction of lung protective ventilation strategies to reduce postoperative pulmonary complications and improve overall clinical outcomes in non-thoracic surgeries. However, there is currently a lack of standardized practice guideline for lung protection during thoracic surgeries that require one-lung ventilation (OLV). This study aimed to collect the expert opinions of the thoracic anesthesiologists in perioperative care for OLV surgery in Taiwan. Methods This prospective cross-sectional study was undertaken in 16 tertiary hospitals in Taiwan from January to February 2019. A structured survey form was distributed across the participating hospitals and the thoracic anesthesiologists were invited to complete the form voluntarily. The survey form consisted of three parts, including the basic information of the institutional anesthesia care standards, ventilatory settings for a proposed patient receiving OLV surgery and expert opinions on OLV. Results A total of 71 thoracic anesthesiologists responded to the survey. Double-lumen tubes are the most commonly used (93.8%) airway devices for OLV. The most commonly recommended ventilator setting during OLV is a tidal volume of 6–7 ml/kg PBW (67.6%) and a PEEP level of 4–6 cmH2O (73.5%). Dual controlled ventilator modes are used by 44.1% of the anesthesiologists. During OLV, high oxygen fraction (FiO2 > 0.8) is more commonly supplemented to achieve an oxygen saturation higher than 94%. The consensus of anesthesiologists on the indices for lung protection in thoracic surgery is considerably low. Large majority of the anesthesiologists (91.5%) highly recommend that an international clinical practice guideline on the protective lung ventilation strategy for thoracic anesthesia should be established. Conclusions This study found that the thoracic anesthesiologists in Taiwan share certain common practices in ventilator support during OLV. However, they are concerned about the lack of fundamental clinical evidences to support the beneficial outcomes of the current lung protective strategies applicable to OLV. Large-scale trials are needed to form an evidence-based clinical practice guideline for thoracic anesthesia.

Honey bee larvae exposed to sublethal doses of imidacloprid show behavioural abnormalities as adult insects. Previous studies have demonstrated that this phenomenon originates from abnormal neural development in response to imidacloprid exposure. Here, we further investigated the global gene expression changes in the heads of newly emerged adults and observed that 578 genes showed more than 2-fold changes in gene expression after imidacloprid exposure. This information might aid in understanding the effects of pesticides on the health of pollinators. For example, the genes encoding major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs), a group of multifunctional proteins with significant roles in the sustainable development of bee colonies, were strongly downregulated. These downregulation patterns were further confirmed through analyses using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction on the heads of 6-day-old nurse bees. To our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate that sublethal doses of imidacloprid affect mrjp expression and likely weaken bee colonies.

Beekeeping has been a highly valued industry in Taiwan. As a result, many subspecies of Apis mellifera have been introduced to Taiwan since 1911, leading to the hybridization of different subspecies. In order to know the matrilineal origins of Taiwan A. mellifera, a total of 280 samples collected from 33 apiaries throughout the island were examined. Using PCR-RFLP of four mitochondrial gene fragments, i.e., the non-coding region between tRNAleu and cytochrome c oxidase subunit II (intergenic tRNAleu-COII), cytochrome b (Cyt b), large subunit rRNA (Ls rRNA) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI), we only found two haplotypes exist in 280 samples. Haplotypes ababa and bbbaa account for 87% of these Western bees belonged to the Eastern European (C) lineage and 13% belonged to the Middle East (Z) lineage, respectively, with the latter being totally absent in northern Taiwan. African (A) and Mellifera (M) lineages, officially imported once in 1990s and 1930s respectively, were not detected. The identification of subspecies of A. mellifera and survey of their distribution on the island are expected to facilitate efficient breeding programs and establish a more booming beekeeping industry.

Owing to special characteristics, classic option pricing models are not well suited to the valuation of employee stock options (ESOs). This paper attempts to conduct a more general fair value estimation based on attaching performance targets to option vesting. Considering a setting that includes factors such as options that may be exercised early at employee discretion, employee exit rates and firm default risk, this paper presents a sensitivity analysis and empirical tests of option value. The results highlight the importance of considering the characteristics of ESOs in the design of performance-vested option plans so as to provide the most attractive incentives for employees.

Background: There is a major paradigm shift for intraoperative mechanical ventilator support by the introduction of lung protective ventilation strategies to reduce postoperative pulmonary complications and improve overall clinical outcomes in non-thoracic surgeries. However, there is currently a lack of standardized practice guideline for lung protection during thoracic surgeries that require one-lung ventilation (OLV). This study aimed to collect the expert opinions of the thoracic anesthesiologists in perioperative care for OLV surgery in Taiwan.Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study was undertaken in 16 tertiary hospitals in Taiwan from January to February 2019. A structured survey form was distributed across the participating hospitals and the thoracic anesthesiologists were invited to complete the form voluntarily. The survey form consisted of three parts, including the basic information of the institutional anesthesia care standards, ventilatory settings for a proposed patient receiving OLV surgery and expert opinions on OLV.Results: A total of 71 thoracic anesthesiologists responded to the survey. Double-lumen tubes are the most commonly used (93.8%) airway devices for OLV. The most commonly recommended ventilator setting during OLV is a tidal volume of 6-7 ml/kg PBW (67.6%) and a PEEP level of 4-6 cmH2O (73.5%). Dual controlled ventilator modes are used by 44.1% of the anesthesiologists. During OLV, high oxygen fraction (FiO2 >0.8) is more commonly supplemented to achieve an oxygen saturation higher than 94%. The consensus of anesthesiologists on the indices for lung protection in thoracic surgery is considerably low. Large majority of the anesthesiologists (91.5%) highly recommend that an international clinical practice guideline on the protective lung ventilation strategy for thoracic anesthesia should be established.Conclusions: This study found that the thoracic anesthesiologists in Taiwan share certain common practices in ventilator support during OLV. However, they are concerned about the lack of fundamental clinical evidences to support the beneficial outcomes of the current lung protective strategies applicable to OLV. Large-scale trials are needed to form an evidence-based clinical practice guideline for thoracic anesthesia.

The p143 gene from Autographa californica multinucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus ( Ac MNPV) has been found to increase the expression of luciferase, which is driven by the polyhedrin gene promoter, in a plasmid with virus coinfection. Further study indicated that this is due to the presence of a replication origin ( ori ) in the coding region of this gene. Transient DNA replication assays showed that a specific fragment of the p143 coding sequence, p143 -3, underwent virus-dependent DNA replication in Spodoptera frugiperda IPLB-Sf-21 (Sf-21) cells. Deletion analysis of the p143 -3 fragment showed that subfragment p143 -3.2a contained the essential sequence of this putative ori . Sequence analysis of this region revealed a unique distribution of imperfect palindromes with high AT contents. No sequence homology or similarity between p143 -3.2a and any other known ori was detected, suggesting that it is a novel baculovirus ori . Further study showed that the p143 -3.2a ori can replicate more efficiently in infected Sf-21 cells than baculovirus homologous regions ( hr s), the major baculovirus ori , or non- hr ori s during virus replication. Previously, hr on its own was unable to replicate in mammalian cells, and for mammalian viral ori s, viral proteins are generally required for their proper replication in host cells. However, the p143 -3.2a ori was, surprisingly, found to function as an efficient ori in mammalian cells without the need for any viral proteins. We conclude that p143 contains a unique sequence that can function as an ori to enhance gene expression in not only insect cells but also mammalian cells. IMPORTANCE Baculovirus DNA replication relies on both hr and non- hr ori s; however, so far very little is known about the latter ori s. Here we have identified a new non- hr ori , the p143 ori , which resides in the coding region of p143 . By developing a novel DNA replication-enhanced reporter system, we have identified and located the core region required for the p143 ori . This ori contains a large number of imperfect inverted repeats and is the most active ori in the viral genome during virus infection in insect cells. We also found that it is a unique ori that can replicate in mammalian cells without the assistance of baculovirus gene products. The identification of this ori should contribute to a better understanding of baculovirus DNA replication. Also, this ori is very useful in assisting with gene expression in mammalian cells.

The juvenile hormone titer during the last instar is a crucial determining switch for metamorphosis in lepidopterans. We previously observed that the induction of glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity by a juvenile hormone analog (JHA) is reversely proportional to the occurrence of JHA-induced supernumerary instars following topical application of JHA to Spodoptera litura during the last instar period. In this paper, at least five JHA-induced GSTs were purified by glutathione-affinity chromatography, and one was further isolated for determination of the N-terminal sequence. The corresponding cDNA was cloned and named SlGST1 (GenBank accession no. AY506545). SlGST1 was classified into the epsilon class of GSTs by phylogenetic analysis. Northern blot analyses further showed that the SlGST1 in fat bodies can be induced by JHA, particularly in 0-day-old sixth-instar larvae, in which induction was much higher than that in 1- and 2-day-old sixth-instar larvae. To our knowledge, this is the first JHA-inducible GST to have been identified, and we believe that it will provide new insight into the role of GST in insect development, particularly during metamorphosis.

Ligand-dependent control of gene expression is essential for gene functional analysis, target validation, protein production, and metabolic engineering. However, the expression tools currently available are difficult to transfer between species and exhibit limited mechanistic diversity. Here we demonstrate how the modular architecture of purine riboswitches can be exploited to develop orthogonal and chimeric switches that are transferable across diverse bacterial species, modulating either transcription or translation, to provide tunable activation or repression of target gene expression, in response to synthetic non-natural effector molecules. Our novel riboswitch-ligand pairings are shown to regulate physiologically important genes required for bacterial motility in Escherichia coli and cell morphology in Bacillus subtilis. These findings are relevant for future gene function studies and antimicrobial target validation, while providing new modular and orthogonal regulatory components for deployment in synthetic biology regimes.

This study examines the factors that determine the adoption of stock option plans by Chinese listed firms. The results show that adoption of executive stock option plans is positively related to return on assets, market-to-book ratio, and chief executive officer duality structures, but negatively related to debt ratio and state ownership. In addition, the adoption of a stock option plan results in significantly positive cumulative abnormal returns during the three-day period following the adoption announcement date.

The authors analyze the impact of equity-based compensation on managerial risk-taking behavior in Chinese listed firms from January 2006 to July 2011. They find that greater risk-taking incentives lead executives to invest more in research and development (R&D) projects and less in capital expenditures. Greater managerial risk-taking incentive increases firm focus. Managerial risk-taking incentives have positive effects on firms' leverage. Overall, increasing the sensitivity of chief executive officers' portfolio value to stock return volatility helps incentivize executives to work harder, as sharing gains and losses with shareholders aligns the interests of executives and shareholders. In addition, the results indicate that state control of firms has a negative effect on R&D investment, and this suggests that state-controlled firms should take more initiative to innovate.

With the advent of next-generation DNA sequencing technologies, the number of microbial genome sequences has increased dramatically, revealing a vast array of new biosynthetic gene clusters. Genomics data provide a tremendous opportunity to discover new natural products, and also to guide the bioengineering of new and existing natural product scaffolds for therapeutic applications. Notably, it is apparent that the vast majority of biosynthetic gene clusters are either silent or produce very low quantities of the corresponding natural products. It is imperative therefore to devise methods for activating unproductive biosynthetic pathways to provide the quantities of natural products needed for further development. Moreover, on the basis of our expanding mechanistic and structural knowledge of biosynthetic assembly-line enzymes, new strategies for re-programming biosynthetic pathways have emerged, resulting in focused libraries of modified products with potentially improved biological properties. In this review we will focus on the latest bioengineering approaches that have been utilised to optimise yields and increase the structural diversity of natural product scaffolds for future clinical applications.

This study provides a new approach to determine the fair value of ESOs by extending the performance-vested option pricing model. The model developed in this study takes both vesting period and forfeiture rate into consideration to capture characteristics of ESOs. Empirical and sensitivity analyses give evidence for the importance of these two elements. Empirical results also support that the derived model can be employed to increase the accuracy of ESOs’ fair value.

Executive stock options (ESOs), serving as a compensation mechanism, are widely used in business administration. ESOs link managerial wealth to firm performance and shareholder wealth. The intrinsic value of ESOs is determined by the difference between the stock price and the strike price. Executives, as a result of self-interested incentives, would therefore manipulate firms’ reported earnings for influencing stock prices. Such conduct may boost the value of ESOs and then benefit managers greatly. This study attempts to explore if earnings had been manipulated before the ESO award date to satisfy some self-interested managers. In addition, the paper attempts to reveal the cause and effect relationship between executive incentives and earnings management when compensations are linked to stock prices. The empirical results show that there is a significant downward earnings management phenomenon before the ESO award date. Furthermore, quarterly earnings management occurs frequently around the ESO grant date.

This study focuses on how the business type and technological learning mode, which a high-tech firm chooses based on its core competence, influence the firm's R&D strategies, which in turn affect firm performance. This study also explores how the interaction between a firm's business type and industry value chain stage affects the relationship between R&D investments and operating performance. We suggest that the linkage of R&D investments and operating performance will increase gradually, when firms move from contract manufacturing to own brand business. R&D investments can contribute more to performance when firms adopt the hybrid business type. Furthermore, R&D investments generate more significant benefits for the own brand companies than the contract manufacturers at the same stage of the industry value chain. R&D investments of the downstream contract manufacturers have a negative impact on firm performance. Regardless of business type, firms in the upstream (midstream) stage of the industry value chain outperform downstream stage firms in deriving benefits from R&D activities. Finally, the lagged effects of R&D investments on operating performance are affected by the interaction between business type and industry value chain.

Nano-scale copper oxide with various morphologies is synthesized via the thermal oxide method and growth in a 5 wt% NaCl solution of spray fog environment. The nano-scale copper oxide is grown on copper metal sheets via the thermal oxide method at 650℃ for 60 minutes. Nano-scale copper oxide grains and nanowires are induced on copper metal sheets then placed in 5 wt% NaCl solution of salt spray fog environment. Significant changes in particle size and mor-phology are observed with increasing salt spray fog treatement time. The morphology of nano-scale copper oxide varies from nanograins to nanowires, Ctahedron, and icositetrahedron. The morphologies and structures of the obtained nano-scale copper oxide are investigated by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. Possible growth mechanisms are discussed.

Examining Taiwanese firms from 2002 to 2008, this paper investigates the motivations behind backdating the exercising of executive stock options. The probability of suspect exercises (backdating) is positively related to the firm’s stock return, the value of the option, tax savings, institutional ownership and the extent of CEO equity ownership and negatively related to firm-specific risk and the use of Big Four accounting firms. Tax incentives motivate executives to backdate the exercise date, implying that the greater the potential for larger tax savings, the greater the likelihood of backdating. Backdating usually occurs in firms that have heavy ownership by the CEO, have more claims to executive stock options and are not family-run, confirming the presence of the agency cost problem.

This paper examines the patent impact factor by an empirical study using panel data. To investigate the impact factor of patent value, this study conducts a sensitivity analysis of a patent evaluation model within the framework of a real option, while considering the uncertainties associated with both patent counts and the amount of R&D per patent, and develops an empirical analysis method for examining the impact factor of a patent using an unbalanced two-way fixed effects model. The empirical results indicate that the increase of patent value accords with the increase in the patent counts, volatility and patent lifetime. Although patent value declines with the amount of R&D per patent, the impact is not significant. However, reducing cost, raising patent counts and enhancing innovation efficiency offer a feasible method for a firm to increase patent value.

Growing V 2 O 5 nanowires (NWs) on a conducting glass substrate combines gaseous transport and pyrolytic deposition of vanadium polyoxometalate anions, and yields vertically aligned vanadium-oxide nanowires. Scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy, selected-area electron diffraction, Raman spectra and powder X-ray analyses indicate that V 2 O 5 nanowires as synthesized were single-crystalline and grew anisotropically among direction [010]. NH 2 OH·HCl served not only as a reducing agent to produce vanadium polyoxometalate clusters but also as a source of NH 3 gas to facilitate the vapor pyrolysis and deposition. The optical properties of V 2 O 5 nanowires exhibit a character dependent on structure. Field emission (FE) measurements show a small turn-on field voltage ~8.3 V/μm, maximum current density 1.8 mA/cm 2 , and a linear Fowler–Nordheim behavior.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to link founding team and start‐up competitive advantage in the context of the Taiwanese technology‐based ventures.Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyzes 211 start‐ups in the technology‐based sector and verifies the relationship between entrepreneur resources, trust, founding team partners' commitments, and start‐up competitive advantage.Findings – In technology‐based start‐ups, the competitive advantage of a start‐up is determined by the founding team partners' commitments and the resources that an entrepreneur possesses.Research limitations/implications – The study is retrospective, which relies on technology‐based founding team members as the primary research subjects. Some respondents may observe the performance of their start‐ups today and then make attributions about the past to explain that performance.Practical implications – Utilization of personal networks is important in the early stage of technology‐based start‐ups; throug...

A procedure to grow α-MoO3 nanocrystals of rod and belt forms under mild conditions involved deposition onto a glass substrate via vapor transport with a water-soluble precursor. Scanning electron and transmission electron microscopic studies, selected-area electron diffraction and powder X-ray analyses indicate that these α-MoO3 nanocrystals exhibit rod or belt forms that grow along [0 0 1] and became vertically aligned on the glass substrate. Such deposition is effective to form thin films of controllable size and density of coverage on varying the precursor concentration and the duration of deposition.

In(OH)3 and In2O3 nanocrystals of rectangular shape and incorporating Au were synthesized with a hydrothermal process and thermal decomposition. Powder X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy (SEM, TEM), and energy-dispersive spectroscopy studies reveal that elemental Au nanoparticles are dispersed on the surface of In(OH)3 rectangular nanocrystals and incorporated into In2O3 nanoporous particles. UV–vis spectral measurements reveal a surface-enchanced plasma band near λ ~532 nm for both Au-incorporating nanomaterials. The BET surface areas of Au-incorporating In(OH)3 and In2O3 are 26.2 and 35.5 m2/g, respectively. The incorporation of elemental Au in In(OH)3 and In2O3 nanomaterials is attractive for sensor, catalyst and solar-cell applications.

With the proliferation of mobile computing technology, mobile learning (m-learning) will play a vital role in the rapidly growing electronic learning market. M-learning is the delivery of learning to students anytime and anywhere through the use of wireless Internet and mobile devices. However, acceptance of m-learning by individuals is critical to the successful implementation of m-learning systems.Thus, there is a need to research the factors that affect user intention to use m-learning. Based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), which integrates elements across eight models of information technology use, this study was to investigate the determinants of m-learning acceptance and to discover if there exist either age or gender differences in the acceptance of m-learning, or both. Data collected from 330 respondents inTaiwan were tested against the research model using the structural equation modelling approach. The results indicate that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, perceived playfulness, and self-management of learning were all significant determinants of behavioural intention to use m-learning. We also found that age differences moderate the effects of effort expectancy and social influence on m-learning use intention, and that gender differences moderate the effects of social influence and self-management of learning on m-learning use intention.These findings provide several important implications for m-learning acceptance, in terms of both research and practice.

This study used a sample of 1035 Taiwanese firms to examine the impact of dividend protected employee stock options on stock repurchase and cash dividend policies from 2000 to 2005. This study finds a positive relationship between cash dividends and executive options, implying that executives holding stock options might prefer to distribute cash dividends to boost the stock price. This result, unlike in earlier studies, arises from the dividend protected characteristic of Taiwanese employee stock options. Finally, free cash flow, firm profitability, level of debt, investment opportunities and firm size are found to considerably influence payout decisions.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to link founding team and start‐up competitive advantage in the context of the Taiwanese technology‐based ventures.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyzes 211 start‐ups of the technology‐based sector and verifies the relationship between entrepreneur resources, trust, founding team partners' commitments, and start‐up competitive advantage.FindingsIn technology‐based start‐ups, the competitive advantage of a start‐up is determined by the founding team partners' commitments and the resources an entrepreneur has.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is retrospective which relies on technology‐based founding team members as the primary research subjects, some respondents may observe the performance of their start‐ups today and then make attributions about the past to explain that performance.Practical implicationsUtilizations of personal networks are important in the early stage of technology‐based start‐ups; through networking and using trust, an entrepreneur can gain the critical resources and competitive advantage required in the development of a business.Originality/valueIn technology‐based start‐ups, trust, not the resources an entrepreneur has, is an effective way by which entrepreneurs can win founding team partners' commitments.

Numerous previous studies have demonstrated that research and development (R&D) investments can be evaluated by a real growth options approach. However, few studies have constructed evaluating models which consider the important R&D characteristics, including uncertainty regarding the project value, investment cost, and jump diffusion processes. The contribution of this study is not only to derive a model for evaluating R&D investments to conform to these key characteristics of R&D activities but also to build a real option pricing method that is more general than comparative important models, such as the theoretical papers of Black and Scholes (1973), Merton (1976), and Fischer (1978), and the application paper of Brach and Paxson (2001). This study also presents sensitivity analyses which illustrate the dynamic relationship between the real growth option value and the project value, investment cost, and main jump parameters. Hopefully, the results of this study can provide a useful reference for managers, and help them make better evaluations of R&D investments.

Theoretical and empirical works have emphasized that executive stock option plans play an important role in compensation management and corporate governance owing to the incentives to increase firm stock price and volatility levels. This study not only proposes models of executive stock options and constructs value-matched financial variables for comparing the incentive effects towards these options, but also develops an empirical study exploring the characteristics of executive stock options and suitable compensation management for companies. This investigation examines the daily value and compares incentive effects of six kinds of executive stock options with the empirical data of TSMC, the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, which is listed on the TSE and NYSE. Empirical results indicate that purchased options would be the best choice for companies that are unsuitable to undertake risky investments, while the relative indexed options are appropriate for bear markets and good for companies ...

Much previous research has shown that the R&D investments can be evaluated by real growth options approach. But few studies have been done on real abandonment options for R&D projects which may not succeed. The contribution of this paper is not only to derive a more general closed-form solution for evaluating real abandonment options, but to put backup project consideration into our model for reality. We show that both Black-Scholes’s and Stulz’s models are special cases of our model under some specifications of parameters. From the simulation results, we explore that the higher the percentage of recovering salvage value, the more investment projects should be carried out. We hope that the results in this study could provide a useful reference for the manager, to make better decisions regarding backup projects.