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Purchasing Sequence Analysis based on Unsupervised Representation Learning
No full textThis study utilizes statistical data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, R.O.C., to address the shift in consumer shopping channels over the past decade. It highlights the necessity for businesses to evolve to survive in the market. The focus is on effectively analyzing consumer purchase behavior, aiming to enhance market competitiveness through unsupervised representation learning methods.
The research comprises two parts: first, identifying diverse consumer groups and their preferences using Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF); second, forecasting sales trends of product categories using the Holt-Winters time series analysis method.
Results show that NMF successfully segments ten consumer groups, offering insights into their purchase patterns. Additionally, the Holt-Winters method predicts sales trends and seasonal changes in product categories, which are crucial for inventory management and marketing strategies. However, its practical application requires consideration of the market environment and other real-world factors.
Overall, the study demonstrates the effectiveness of unsupervised representation learning in analyzing retail consumer purchase sequences, providing valuable empirical evidence for academic and industrial applications. The integration of NMF and the Holt-Winters methods offers deep insights into consumer behavior and market trends, supporting data-driven decisions in retail
Risks in Project Financing Offshore Wind Farm Developers in Taiwan
No full textIn recent years, Taiwan government has incorporated the development of offshore wind farm into its primary energy transformation policies to align with the global trend of green finance. Taiwan's offshore wind farm policy involves three stages: demonstrating and rewarding wind farms, choosing and bidding for selecting potential sites, and planning block development. However, as of now, only the wind power Formosa 2 project has achieved commercial operation in September 2023 within the second stage. Due to the substantial capital required for a single offshore wind farm, project financing, typically through Project Finance, is commonly sought to raise funds for construction and operation by involving financial institutions in investment and financing.
This study was aimed to address the increasing importance of credit financing scale and market share derived from offshore wind power, and the complex considerations faced by financial institutions when making credit decisions targeted at offshore wind power developers. In this study, I made financial analysis on a simulated offshore wind farm\ue2s expected construction costs and estimated operating income to evaluate its cash flow. Metrics including " Cash Flow Available for Debt Service\uef\ubcCFADS " and " Annual Debt Service Coverage Ratio\uef\ubcADSCR " were used to assess the project's financing repayment ability.
Additionally, I assessed the case wind farm's resilience and risk tolerance by hypothetically analyzing three scenarios (namely, "20% increase in operating costs," "1% increase in financing interest rate," and "1% further increase in the consumer price index") while holding other conditions constant. Furthermore, to be conservative, a fourth scenario that assumes the simultaneous occurrence of the aforementioned three scenarios was added. This study also explored financial institutions' credit decision-making models for offshore wind power project financing. Results found that the operation model of the offshore wind farm entails substantial upfront planning and construction costs, with relatively stable operational revenues in later periods. Therefore, financial institutions should consider whether the project involves external guarantees or credit guarantee to mitigate credit risks. Additionally, factors like sustainability of government energy policies, insurance contracts, and legal jurisdiction risks should be included in the assessment scope
Research on UK Tilt Indo-Pacific, from Anglo-Saxon Perspective
No full textThe expansion of China and South China Sea issue made the Indo-Pacific Region becoming important topic among the international society, different countries like United States, Australia, Canada, even France as its oversea territories located in the Pacific Ocean, tried to show Indo-Pacific Region greatly affected their national security and interest, by announcing their own country Indo-Pacific Strategy, and show their concern on the area. As country located in Euro-Atlantic, United Kingdom sees the importance of Indo-Pacific Region, and hoping to find chances for United Kingdom in the area.
The past history showed the linkage between the United Kingdom and the Indo-Pacific Region. Among the countries located in the region, like Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, India, were the former British overseas colonies and territories, and United Kingdom had once establish the military alliance with Japan. Since the retreat from the Suez Canal East, United Kingdom seldom showed concern on Asia affairs, which made their focus turned to Europe. Moreover, after Hong Kong return to China, United Kingdom lost the final post in the area, and its armed forces nearly disappeared from Asia.
Coming to the early 21st century, United Kingdom followed the footstep of USA after the 911 Incident, striking terrorism and sending troops participated in War on Terror, made it became the core aim of the government national security strategy at that time. Following the ease of the terrorism, UK try to find the new strategic target. Although UK would like to go forward, come to Asia area again, like sending Royal Navy towards Suez area and Japan for mission. UK still not foresee the Indo-Pacific Region may once bring great influence towards its national interest.
After government changing from Labor to Conservative and the Brexit referendum, United Kingdom kept on advocate the Idea of \ue2Global Britain\ue2, among former Prime Minister Teresa May, Boris Johnson, they all hoping that UK can escape from the dilemma from the European Union. The rising of the Indo-Pacific Region topics, made United Kingdom saw the dawn, and believe that rooting Indo-Pacific regions will bring United Kingdom back to the sight of international society.
In 2021, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the newly Integrated Review, saying that United Kingdom will tilt Indo-Pacific in future, and Indo-Pacific Region will becoming United Kingdom prior national interest and prosperity.
The thesis hopefully through the thinking and factors which affects the United Kingdom foreign policy, changing of the reviews, along with the politics, military security issues, economic factors added Anglo-Saxon perspective, take a look why United Kingdom decided tilt Indo-Pacific
Examining the Relationship between Banking Application and Customer Loyalty from the Perspective of Customer Experience
No full text\ue3\ue3Technological advancements drive the development of digital transformation. This study explores the evolution of financial technology (fintech) within the digitalization trend, emphasizing the significance of banking applications (APPs) in contemporary society. From the perspective of customer experience, the research aims to understand the influence of banking APPs on customer willingness to continue usage. Past research literature reveals the critical role of customer experience in shaping customer loyalty. With the widespread adoption of smartphones, the study examines whether the transition from physical to digital customer experiences leads to noticeable changes.
\ue3\ue3Focusing on banking APPs users, the paper investigates their impact on customer willingness to continue usage. Different dimensions of customer experience, including cognitive, emotional, sensory, social, and technological aspects, are analyzed to assess their respective influences. Furthermore, the study explores whether customer experience serves as a factor in enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty intentions.
\ue3\ue3Empirical research analysis yields the following results: (1) Customer experience positively influences customer satisfaction; (2) Customer satisfaction has a positive impact on customer willingness to continue usage; (3) Customer satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between customer experience and willingness to continue usage. The study asserts that in the era of digitalization, understanding customer needs, reinforcing customer experience elements, and enhancing satisfaction and loyalty to banking APPs are crucial for the digital transformation of the financial industry
Investigation on the role of indoxyl sulfate in platelet and its mechanism
No full textChronic Kidney Disease \uef\ubcCKD\uef\ubc is a serious health issue, with Taiwan ranking first globally in both the prevalence and incidence rates of kidney disease. The substantial associated healthcare expenses have become a significant burden on health insurance.
As the renal function of CKD patients deteriorates, impacting the body's metabolism, fluid, and electrolyte balance, all organs in the body are affected. Not only does kidney function become impaired, but it also gives rise to various complications. The elevated concentration of indoxyl sulfate \uef\ubcIS\uef\ubc in the serum of CKD patients is closely associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular complications. It is known that IS damages endothelial cells, leading to platelet aggregation and causing cardiovascular-related complications. IS-induced oxidative stress damages kidney cells and adversely affects other tissues. However, the specific impact of IS on platelet activity and its role in the pathogenesis of CKD-related thrombosis are still poorly understood.
This study utilized platelets isolated through leukocyte depletion provided by the Kaohsiung Blood Center for in vitro experiments, simulating conditions without endothelial cells. Different concentrations of IS \uef\ubc0.001 mg/L, 0.01 mg/L, 0.1 mg/L, 1 mg/L, 10 mg/L\uef\ubc were tested to observe their impact on platelet granules, revealing that IS activates the release of CD62P and CD63 from platelet granules. Additionally, the study investigated whether IS induces oxidative stress in platelets and confirmed the association of IS-activated platelet granules with Protein kinase C. The aim is to delve deeper into the changes in platelet activity due to IS concentration, with the hope of further exploring the association between IS, kidney diseases, and cardiovascular complications, providing new perspectives for research and clinical treatment
Using Data Visualization to Improve the Explainability of Movie Recommendation System
No full textIn recent years, e-commerce has gradually changed the way of life of human beings, with online movie streaming services emerging as one of the applications most intimately connected to our daily lives within the e-commerce domain. These services employ recommendation systems that utilize personal data, such as gender, age, location, and browsing history to provide users with personalized movie recommendations. However, the utilization of personal data in these systems has led to privacy concerns among customers. To alleviate this problem, we proposed a visual explanation method for an e-commerce movie recommendation system. Our research aims to design a visualization-based explanation method to show what user data are used in movie recommendations. This method not only enhances transparency but also reinforces user trust in the recommendation systems. Through a system evaluation, we demonstrate how our visualization design aids users in understanding the use of their data in the recommendation system, ultimately fostering a more trusting relationship with the system
Reflections on Place Branding: A Local Perspective
No full textThe term "place branding" has gained attention recently due to the promotion of Regional Revitalization policies. This policy encourages local areas to identify their unique characteristics, develop locally adaptive industrial capacities, and establish place brands to attract population inflow. This helps in seeking sustainable opportunities for relatively resource-scarce rural areas. However, such policies often overlook the essence of the "place" itself as the brand and focus solely on branding as a strategic tool for local development.
Traditional research on place branding emphasizes design aspects and management methods, focusing on marketing tools and its instrumental role in local economic development. This approach views the locality as a resource or product to be packaged through marketing to attract external resources but neglects the relationship between residents and the locality. It ignores the sense of place, which is the important essence of place branding construction.
This study examines the relationship between place and brand concepts and takes the original meaning of branding as "identification". It delves into the discussion of the concept of place and how repeated local actions of residents construct the resulting sense of place and local identity. This process of constructing place identification provides the possibility for continuous production and innovation of the place. The accumulated momentum of local development provides an opportunity for external recognition of the place and serves as the basis for the identification of place branding.
This study focuses on the Qishan District of Kaohsiung as the research area, selecting three aspects of local operations: community management, cultural promotion, and ecological agriculture. Through participatory observation of their local operations and action approaches, it interprets how these individual local life experiences demonstrate their unique sense of place. This helps in polishing the potential for achieving place branding and provides readers with another perspective on place branding that is rooted in the local context. The study aims to foster attention to the actions of every local worker and encourage a new outlook on place branding
The Effect of Multitasking Context on Podcast Use and Gratification
No full textPodcasts, with audio as the primary medium and features like on-demand listening and diverse listening channels, have rapidly gained prominence in the realm of digital audio media. Previous studies investigating podcast consumption and satisfaction, particularly in multitasking scenarios, have often overlooked the exploration of users' perceived cognitive load in relation to primary tasks and the impact of simultaneous podcast listening on satisfaction. Through this research, we aim to validate results and provide insights into how podcast programs can be designed to enhance the satisfaction desired by listeners, ultimately increasing program loyalty.
This study reveals that users who are more accustomed to multitasking and frequently engage in podcast listening during multitasking situations subjectively perceive a higher level of ease in handling primary tasks. Additionally, users who find primary tasks monotonous in multitasking scenarios are more likely to handle primary tasks effortlessly, motivating them to listen to podcasts. This ease of handling tasks often leads to the enjoyment of educational content and immersion in the podcast's narrative, resulting in a positive impact on the intention to continue using podcasts and the quality of task completion
Study on Reading Motivation and Behavior of Students in Remote Areas \ue2 A Case Study of an Aboriginal Secondary School in Taitung
No full textThis study has three main objectives: firstly, to investigate the current status of reading motivation and behavior among rural junior high school aboriginal students; secondly, to compare the differences in reading motivation and behavior among students of different grades and genders, as well as the exploration of correlations between reading motivation and behavior among rural junior high school students; and finally, to analyze and discuss the current situation of reading motivation and behavior among these students based on the results. The study concludes by proposing teaching recommendations and implementation strategies in response to the analyzed findings.
To achieve these goals, the researcher utilized the "High School Students' Reading Motivation Scale" and the "High School Students' Reading Behavior Scale." In the pilot study(N=58) phase, students from key indigenous schools along the Taitung South Link Line were selected through convenient sampling for a questionnaire survey to collect and analyze data. Exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency reliability analysis were employed to confirm the reliability and validity of the research tools. After modifications, the formal research tools were used in the official survey, with 110 questionnaires distributed and 100 valid responses obtained, resulting in a utilization rate of 97.1%.
The research findings indicate that overall reading motivation among indigenous third-grade students in eastern rural areas is significantly higher than that of first-grade students. The study also reveals specific patterns in the "Reading Motivation of High School Students" scale, with the "self-perception" item scoring the highest and the "learning factors" item scoring the lowest. Additionally, the research highlights distinctions between genders in reading behavior, where female students outperform male counterparts. The study concludes with practical recommendations and strategies for enhancing reading motivation and behavior among rural junior high school students, serving as a reference for teachers and educational administrators
Research on Integer and Fractional Phase and Self-Injection Locked Radar
No full textThis thesis focuses on the development of an injection-locked oscillator and both integer and fractional-phase self-injection-locked radar for the 2.4 GHz ISM band. Utilizing a phase-locked loop mechanism, our approach introduces a decoding method distinct from traditional SIL radar, addressing hardware limitations. The designed integer-phase self-injection-locked radar exhibits slightly superior sensing performance to SIL radar, suitable for miniaturization. The phase-locked loop ensures a single operating frequency, suppressing phase noise for enhanced target detection. The fractional-phase self-injection-locked radar retains advantages, achieving a smaller operating frequency adjustment interval, facilitating simultaneous operation of multiple radars. In experiments, both radars successfully sensed a metallic plate with 0.5 mm amplitude movements at a distance of 5 meters. Comparative analysis showed the superiority of the integer-phase self-injection-locked radar over the fractional-phase counterpart, SIL radar, and continuous wave radar. Leveraging the SIL phenomenon resulted in consistently superior signal-to-noise ratios exceeding 20 dB compared to continuous wave radar. Physiological signal sensing using the fractional-phase self-injection-locked radar achieved non-contact sensing, aligning consistently with synchronous measurements from a respiratory belt, PPG, and fingertip pulse oximeter