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Using RFM Model to Justify the Effectiveness of Consumer Segmentation and Marketing Strategies: Taking a Chain Pharmacy as an Example
No full textThe pharmacy market has continued to grow in recent years, with more enterprises and conglomerates entering the industry. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought increased public attention to the management of pharmacies. Apart from community pharmacies that have been deeply rooted in communities, many medium and large-sized stores are now vying for a share of this market. How traditional pharmacies can rise to the challenge to survive amidst fierce competition with beauty stores and e-commerce is a crucial issue at present.
This study takes a certain chain pharmacy as an example. By analyzing cu-stomer purchase dates, consumption frequency, and amounts, an RFM model is established. This model identifies eight different consumer profiles, and distinct marketing strategies are implemented for each. The study observes the concrete effects of these strategies and suggests possible improvements
Research on Differential Leadership and Strive For Favor\uef\ubcDevelopment Obstacles as a Mediator and Perceived Ingroup Status as a Moderator
No full textIn situations with limited resources, individuals tend to compete with each other. A unique phenomenon observed within Chinese organizations is the practice of subordinates vying for the favor of their superiors, referred to as "striving for favor." Previous research has indicated that this behavior is related to the differential leadership prevalent in Chinese culture.
However, the precise mechanism through differential leadership influences behavior of striving for favor to be clarified. In this study, we propose a hypothesis regarding the pathways of influence. Specifically, differential leadership is believed to make subordinates perceive that resource allocation within the organization is heavily influenced by personal discretion, leading them to perceive obstacles to their own development within the organization. Consequently, subordinates feel compelled to engage in favor-striving behaviors to secure additional resources. Subsequently, this study tests this mediating effect and obtains supporting evidence.
Additionally, this study also posits that when employees perceive themselves as favored by their supervisors, their perception of development obstacle within the organization diminishes, reducing the need for favor-seeking behaviors. In other words, self-perceived ingroup status is expected to moderate the relationship between differential leadership and development obstacle. However, the statistical results do not support such a moderating effect.
Finally, this study provides an interpretation of the research findings and offers managerial implications and research recommendations
Exploring the Entrepreneurial Process of an Educational Entrepreneur Engaging Place-Based Education: The Case of the IPOWER Alliance Founder
No full textThis study examines the entrepreneurial process of educational entrepreneurs promoting place-based education through the case study of IPOWER Alliance founded by Yang Xiaowei. It investigates the educational entrepreneurs\ue2s entrepreneurial process, interaction with the community, and the roles played by the community. The qualitative research method, grounded theory, was employed for data collection and analysis. Four stages in the entrepreneurial process within the community are identified : exploration, identity establishment, resource integration, and transformation. Each stage entails distinct tasks and objectives. To effectively achieve these objectives, entrepreneurs gradually develop interaction models with the community, aiming to establish trust and garner support. These models include finding opportunities, building connections, growing mutual benefit, and collaborative creation. The research also reveals that the community assumes various roles throughout different stages of the educational entrepreneurial journey, including beneficiaries, contexts, supports, partners, and opportunity creators. However, these roles are not static; they dynamically adapt to educational entrepreneurship's evolving resource needs and interactions, demonstrating a nuanced overlap to provide requisite support. The study concludes by proposing theoretical contributions, practical implications, and recommendations for future research based on its findings
Beamforming Tracking Design for Downlink LEO Communication Systems
No full textLow earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications presents a promising technique to complement terrestrial communication, garnering significant attention for beyond 5G and future 6G communication systems. In comparison with geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite systems, GEO systems offer benefits such as low latency, faster orbital periods, flexibility in satellite constellations, and higher signal strength and quality. Due to the considerable distance between the satellite and the ground user, the beamforming technique is commonly adopted to enhance received signal quality, and beam tracking is crucial for tracking highly mobile LEO satellites. However, electromagnetic waves received from LEO satellites in fixed orbits encounter disturbances from the troposphere and ionosphere, leading to refraction and deviations in the incident angle of radio waves and thereby degrading the quality of received signals. In this thesis, we consider the orbital trajectory model and refraction disturbances specific to LEO satellites and design beamforming tracking algorithms. Specifically, based on the linear angle of arrival (AoA) variation and nonlinear observed AoA models, we study two variants of the Kalman filter (KF), namely the extended KF (EKF) and the unscented KF (UKF), to conduct beam tracking in uniform linear array (ULA) and uniform planar array (UPA) systems. Moreover, we propose a novel unscented transform for conducting UKF. Numerical results validate that the proposed EKF and UKF are robust to refraction disturbances, and beam tracking with UKF outperforms that with EKF in UPA systems
Trends in Cross-Generational Skin Plasticizer Content
No full textPlasticizers, also known as plasticizing agents or flexibilizers, are additives that can increase the flexibility of materials or render them more liquid-like. Among various types of plasticizers, phthalate esters, PAEs, are the most common. PAEs are derivatives of phthalate acid and are widely used in everyday products such as plastics, clothing, toys, medical equipment, cosmetics, and building materials like flooring and wallpaper, as well as automotive products like seats and seat covers. PAEs are of concern due to their potential health risks, including disruption of the endocrine system, reproductive and developmental issues, and, in some studies, an association with asthma and an increased cancer risk. These substances can enter the human body through various pathways, with skin absorption being the most common, as contaminated air can emit volatile phthalates, which then deposit as aerosols. Given that most PAEs have a molecular weight below 500 Da, they have good solubility with environmental or biological substrates, allowing them to easily penetrate the skin, making skin contact a significant concern.
In this study, we utilized a non-invasive sampling probe method to collect surface skin samples from individuals cross-generations and samples from objects in their living environment. We combined thermal desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry\uef\ubcTD-ESI/MS\uef\ubc and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry \uef\ubcLC/MS/MS\uef\ubc for analysis and verification. Initially, the TD-ESI/MS method was used for rapid qualitative detection of common plasticizers\uef\ubcBBP, DEHP/DONP, DINP, DIDP\uef\ubc on the skin surface. Subsequently, dual verification was carried out through detection using LC/MS/MS.
Preliminary findings indicated the presence of plasticizers in both the surface skin samples of individuals across generations and the objects in their living environment. This suggests that PAEs might be widely present in consumer products and are absorbed through the skin, subsequently released on the skin's surface after metabolism. Furthermore, there were variations in plasticizer levels across generations, indirectly indicating that individuals, even in the same living environment, may exhibit different levels of exposure due to different lifestyles.
This testing platform offers a simple, non-invasive sampling, and time-saving analysis tool that can rapidly detect potential plasticizer exposure in the living environment, providing valuable data to advise individuals on whether to be vigilant or replace objects containing PAEs with items made from different materials to reduce their exposure to these harmful substances
A Study on Integrated Coastal Zone Management: A Case in Sizihwan Bay, Kaohsiung
No full textThe study was conducted at Siziwan Coast, a popular destination in Kaohsiung City known for recreational activities and sightseeing, where lacking integrated management institution till present since varied users of resources and space involved along the coast. The concept of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) has been recognized as an integrated approach that balances need across diverse sectors regarding various aspects of complex coastal management. This study embraced the ICZM framework to assess coastal management at Sizihwan Coast. Literature review and on-site observations were firstly conducted to summarize management problems and issues, while semi-structured interviews with relevant management authorities were then carried out to conclude a collaborate framework for coastal management and sea space use order arrangement.
This study revealed that management problems included improperly zoning design while a mismatch between designated activities and actual usage, and vague management responsibilities, all of which contribute to environmental degradation and public safety concerns. The following stages are suggested for the ICZM implementation. The Initial stage should take temporary measures of hiring lifeguard by NSYSU should be adopted when other coastal management policies are yet complete. Short-term recommendation is to clarify recreational types from present activities and zoning space for every sector with appropriate authorities. Mid-term strategy is to reassessing the potential use of restricted zones and enhancing maritime information dissemination with public water safety education. Long-term goal is to identify unregulated coastal zones and establish management plan according to the integrated coastal zone management plan that under the authority of National Park Service Mintistry of Interior
Constructing a Personalized Electroencephalogram-based Emotion Classification Model with a Transfer Learning-based Cross-Time Consensus Decision-Making Framework
No full textThe development of electroencephalogram (EEG)-based affective brain-computer interface (aBCI) has seen considerable expansion over the last decade. aBCI aims to decode brain correlates of emotional responses and react accordingly by mainly entailing EEG recording, feature extraction, and machine learning phases. It facilitates multidisciplinary applications such as human-computer interaction, neuromarketing, and clinical rehabilitation. However, EEG variability is considered one of critical challenges towards the construction of a robust personalized emotion classification model.
This thesis thus proposes a transfer learning (TL)-based cross-time consensus decision-making framework to exploit primary emotional responses over time. By validating with an eight-day dataset of 27 subjects, the TL-enhanced model improved the subject-dependent counterpart with 9.37% in balanced accuracy (from 55.21% to 64.58%) for binary valence classification while transferring 140 high-transferability source models. It also led to 14.58% enhancement compared to blindly transferring all source models. In contrast, the TL-enhanced arousal model required the transfer with 51 low-transferability source models for the improvement with 14.71% (from 50% to 64.58%) and 8.53% upon the subject-dependent and transfer-all-source counterparts, respectively.
The encouraging results demonstrate the applicability of the proposed TL framework in identifying time-consensus emotional responses under substantial EEG variability, which potentially facilitates aBCI deployment. Future work may incorporate advanced machine-learning classifiers and model transferability assessment to further improve classification accuracy
Evaluation of deep learning model in Badminton movement correction system using LIME algorithm
No full textPreviously our research group has developed a self-learning system for beginners
in badminton, primarily utilizing a Two-Step Generative Adversarial Network to
construct a badminton posture correction system. Currently, the TSGAN model is
evaluated using metrics such as Frechet Inception Distance (FID), Minimal Euclidean
Distance (ED_min), Sliced Wasserstein Distance (SWD), and Averaging Smoothness
Distance (ASD). However, these metrics only the results as a single numerical value,
without providing insights into whether the model has learned what we expected.
Therefore, we used an explainable AI model, Local Interpretable Model Agnostic
Explanation (LIME), to gain a deeper understanding of how the model makes decisions.
LIME is an explainability technique that can be applied to any model to provide
interpretability of prediction results. By applying LIME to the TSGAN model, we can
better understand which feature points the model is learned from and what it learned.
This can also serve as a basis for optimizing the model in the future. LIME is currently
mainly applied to image analysis, and its interpretability for data with temporal features
is limited. Therefore, we designed a LIME framework specifically for this type of data.
This framework was applied to analyze our badminton correction system, and through
the analysis results, we aim to improve the scoring method of the previous system. This
will allow beginners to receive scores from the system that better align with their
current learning progress.
After analyzing through LIME, we can obtain the recognition levels of different
models at various time intervals and for all four limbs. Subsequently, using the results of
the analysis, we perform weight adjustments and compare them with the scores given
by two experts. The results show that, on average, the score for the serve decreased by
about 6 points after the correction. As for the serve, the difference in scores before and
after correction by coach 1 decreased by approximately 9 points on average. Though
Coach 2 did not show a significant decrease, the average error in the adjusted scores was
slightly lower than the original scores. This indicates that the adjusted results are closer
to the scores that the experts intended to give.
In summary, by performing LIME analysis and weight adjustment it, we can get
scores that are closer to the actual scores given by the experts. This indicates that LIME
is an effective model interpretation method which can help us understand the decision
making process of the model and improve the interpretability of the model
Competition and Cooperation between China and ASEAN
No full textAt present, China is the second largest economy in the world, while Southeast Asia is the most economically vibrant region in the world. If we consider the 10 ASEAN member countries as a single economy, it is among the top five economies in the world. The countries along the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" advocated by China in 2013 are all members of ASEAN. For China, cooperation between China and ASEAN members can not only ensure the safety of the maritime transportation corridor, but also expand China's influence in the Asian region through ASEAN members. China is a very attractive market for ASEAN member countries, and cooperation between the two sides can promote the economic development of the Southeast Asian region. Therefore, for both China and the ASEAN member countries, the cooperation between the two sides are of great significance.
Based on this, this thesis focuses on the three major aspects of cooperation between the two sides, namely, economic, socio-cultural, and security, and examines the relationship that has arisen in the course of China's exchanges and competition with ASEAN members, in an attempt to analyze the competition between the two sides and their respective advantages, and to handle the problems and challenges they are facing, so as to serve as a reference to provide the Taiwan government's policy on the promotion of cooperation with ASEAN member countries
An investigation of game expectation and continual intention to play game through the theory of neutralization techniques
No full textContrary to the often-mentioned social purpose of playing online games, players playing competitive online games may engage in hostile behavior towards other players. Using the League of Legends (LOL) as the context, and by considering two scenarios where one of them involves the players not able to meet the achievement goal (achievement scenario) and the other scenario being players not being able to meet the social goal (social scenario), this study considers the extent these players apply the neutralization techniques to justify their hostile behavior, and how such application affect their expectations of the game and intention to continue playing the game. Partial least squares analysis on 333 valid survey returns (167 for social scenario and 166 for achievement scenario) revealed the consequence of neutralization techniques on game expectation is more evident in social scenario than in achievement scenario. Social game expectation affects intention to continue playing the game for both scenarios