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The Benefits of Financial Technology (Fintech) for Business Operations
No full textThe target of this article is to explore how financial technology help businesses become more efficient in their operations. The article supports this argument through three main topics: the application of blockchain, the application of APIs, and Green Fintech. First, the article analyzes case studies of blockchain integration within a single organization, industry-wide applications, and national-level applications. It also provides a comprehensive framework for blockchain implementation. Next, the article examines the application of APIs in financial technology and highlights how they can enhance system integration, reduce development costs, improve efficiency, and foster innovation. Finally, Green Fintech aims to assist businesses and individuals in transitioning to a greener economy, effectively and with high credibility, to achieve carbon neutrality goals. It specifically focuses on helping Taiwanese small and medium-sized enterprises achieve their decarbonization targets, avoid exclusion from green supply chains, and enhance their competitiveness in the market. The aforementioned case studies demonstrate that financial technology can indeed lower the barriers to financial services, improve their efficiency and convenience, and help small and medium-sized enterprises as well as underserved low-income populations access the financial services they need
The study of the effects of payment modes and perceived risk on consumer behavior
No full textThe emergence of various modes of payment gives consumers a variety of payment choices, and also changes consumers' decision-making on payment, further more it affecting consumer behavior. In the past, research on payment modes included payment transparency, payment pain, and payment convenience or the effect of physical usage of payment tools such as electronic payment and mobile payment, but there are few studies on how payment modes change consumer behavior.
Therefore, this research aims at the study of consumption behavior under the influence of different payment modes and the influence of perceived risk, and verifies the hypothesis experimentally. There are total of 280 valid samples. IBM SPSS 24.0 is used to analyze the data, and the narrative analysis, correlation analysis, One-way ANOVA and regression analysis are used respectively for the effect of payment modes on consumer behavior affected by perceived risk. The research results show that: 1. The modes of stored value payment will make consumers have higher consumption behavior, but there is no difference in perceived risk. 2. When the payment modes of points is increased, consumers will have higher consumption behavior, but the increase of points will not affect the perceived risk. 3. Perceived risk is partially related to the consumption behavior of different payment modes, and only cash has no significant correlation with low value points. Finally, this study concludes that the difference in the modes of payment will affect consumer behavior, but the impact of perceived risk focuses on factors other than the modes of payment
Effects of ocean acidification on physiology and quality of tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) and white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)
No full textResearchers have predicted that by the end of the 21st century, anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions will decrease average ocean pH levels by 0.4 to 0.5, early signs of which have already been detected in coastal waters. Ocean acidification can have a profound impact on the survival, growth, calcification, and immune response of marine calcifying organisms. Recent research has shown that OA can affect the taste of marine shrimp, the underlying reasons for these phenomena have yet to be established. Besides, extreme rainfall events have also been shown to cause disease. However, it is believed that they can be attributed to stress associated with the rapid dilution of pond water with low pH rainwater. This dissertation investigates the impact of ocean acidification on tiger shrimp and white shrimp as well as the effects of feed waste on the acidification of culture pond water.
The first chapter addresses the causes and outcomes of OA. The second and third chapters focus on the effects of OA on tiger shrimp and white shrimp in terms of physiology, immunity, and quality. In the fourth chapter, we investigate the mechanisms underlying the acidification of culture pond water caused by feed waste. Conclusions and future research prospects are presented in the fifth chapter.
In the first year of this project, our research focused the effects of OA on the physiology and quality of tiger shrimp. Tiger shrimp were first moved from an outdoor culture facility to several one-ton tanks to undergo a 28-day experiment involving exposure to OA and non-OA conditions. The non-OA group was raised in tanks in which the average pH level was maintained at close to normal seawater pH levels (8.0~8.1) through the addition of running water. The OA group was raised in tanks in which the average pH level was gradually reduced to 7.5 (i.e., the average pH of most outdoor culture pools) through the addition of carbon dioxide. In the second year of the project, this experiment was repeated using white shrimp. After the 28-day exposure period, we analyzed the immune responses, the carbon composition of the shrimp shells, and amino acid concentrations as indicators of physiological changes triggered by acidification conditions. At the same time, we invited a group of volunteers (n=40) to participate in a blinded test comparing the quality of shrimp meat raised under OA and non-OA conditions.
The first-year results for the tiger shrimp showed obvious trends. The overall 28-day survival rates were as follows: non-OA group (80.8%) and OA group (72.5%). Plots of daily survival revealed an increase in the mortality of tiger shrimp in the OA group after day 18, indicating that tiger shrimp are unable to survive under OA conditions for a prolonged duration. The shell thickness of tiger shrimp was as follows: OA group (0.57\uc2\ub10.28 mm) and non-OA group (0.46\uc2\ub10.28 mm). It appears that the decrease in shell thickness can be attributed to structural changes resulting from a reduced carbonate saturation state. The effects of acidification on immunity were determined in terms of total hemocyte count (THC), as follows: OA group (1.33\uc2\ub10.35\uc3106 cells mL-1) and non-OA group (2.36\uc2\ub10.48\uc3106 cells mL-1). The number of blood cells involved in phagocytosis (Phagocytic rate, PR) was 43% lower in the OA group than in the non-OA group, while the ability to engulf exogenous particles (Phagocytic index, PI) was 28% lower. The expression of hydrolytic amino acid was 7% lower in the OA group than in the non-OA group. We also observed significant discrepancies between the two groups in the expression of some essential amino acids. Thus, it appears that under OA conditions, it was harder for the tiger shrimp to obtain sufficient nutrition from the food. The expression of free amino acids was 7% lower in the OA group than in the non-OA group. Note that the concentration of amino acids associated with an umami taste were significantly lower in the OA group. This finding was confirmed in subsequent taste tests.
The second-year results for the white shrimp also showed obvious trends. The overall 28-day survival rates were as follows: non-OA group (54.0\uc2\ub15.1%) and OA group (47.7\uc2\ub15%). It appears that in this species, acidification had only a slight impact on survival. We did not observe a significant difference between the OA and non-OA groups in the expression of hydrolytic amino acids or in the taste tests. Nonetheless, acidification was shown to reduce the molting frequency by 26% and the inorganic carbon content in shell material by 46%. The total hemocyte count (THC) was as follows: OA group (3.1\uc2\ub10.9\uc3106 cells mL-1) and non-OA group (4.1\uc2\ub11.0\uc3106 cells mL-1). The phagocytic rate (PR) was 28% lower in the OA group than in the non-OA group, and the phagocytic index (PI) was 50% lower. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was 1.3x higher in the OA group than in the non-OA group, while catalase (CAT) activity to resist oxidative stress was 1.2x higher. Taken together, it appears that OA conditions had a negative impact on physiological functions in white shrimp. Note however that white shrimp were less susceptible to the effects of OA than were the tiger shrimp.
For a period of 6-7 months, we continuously monitored the effects of OA conditions on the feeding rate, pH, nitrite concentrations, and nitrogen species composition in three outdoor ponds containing white shrimp. We also conducted feed-soaking experiments to investigate the impact of feed on the eutrophication and acidification of pond water. The pH of the pond water gradually decreased from 8.1 to roughly 7.0 after 200 days (average decrease of 0.0066 day-1). The amount of feed was positively correlated with the nitrite concentration and negatively correlated with pH, indicating that feed was the major factor causing the eutrophication and acidification of the pond water. In this experiment, the feed released dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) into the water at a rate of 0.228 \uce\ubcmol-N/g/min. The major organic carbon species released by the feed was dissolved organic carbon, the concentration of which was reduced by bacterial assimilation. The use of organic carbon in bacterial respiration also increased the pCO2 in the water by 96 \uce\ubcatm, leading to the acidification of the pond water.
In this study, the shrimp were forced to expend additional energy resisting acidification-related stress, which had a corresponding negative effect on survival, immunity, and quality. However, the effects of OA were far more pronounced on the tiger shrimp than on white shrimp. OA was also shown to reduce the quality of tiger shrimp meat, due to a decrease in free amino acids associated with umami flavor. Thus, it appears that in poorly conditioned aquaculture systems or in seawater subject to acidification, white shrimp would be a better choice for cultivation. We also observed that in the later stages of cultivation, excessive feed use can lead to rapid acidification and eutrophication of aquaculture pond water. Nonetheless, this could be mitigated by increasing the feeding frequency and/or introducing a central sewage system for the removal of sediment-laden wastewater
A Study of Integrating 5E Inquiry Teaching into Natural Science Teaching to Improve Elementary Sixth Graders of the Concept of the Three-Elements of Sound
No full textThe purpose of this study is to explore the differences in the learning effects of cookbook inquiry teaching and 5E inquiry teaching on the concept of three elements of sound in 6th grade students and the two groups of students' understanding and application, learning willingness, learning interest and learning activity preference after theme teaching. A quasiexperimental design was used in this study. A total of 105 6th grade students from a primary school in Kaohsiung City were randomly divided into an experimental group (53 students, using 5E inquiry teaching) and a control group (52 students, using recipe inquiry teaching). A four-week theme course on "the concept of three elements of sound" was implemented. Before the beginning of the teaching experiment, all students were given the pretest of the "three elements of sound concept test", the posttest and delayed posttest after the end of the teaching activities, and all students were asked to fill out the "three elements of sound theme teaching opinion questionnaire" to collect relevant research data for analysis and discussion. This study draws the following conclusions:
1. In this study, accepting 5E inquiry teaching has a good learning effect on the students in the middle group.
2. Both the 5E inquiry teaching experiment group and the cookbook inquiry control group showed a higher interest in learning and willingness to learn but did not reach a significant difference.
3. 5E inquiry teaching has certain improvement and help for high-score students to learn the refinement of concepts and the ability to make hands-on works.
4. In the preference of learning activities, both groups of students liked "making simple instruments" and "enjoying music videos and instrument classification" the most, and they did not like "the teacher tells the course part" the most
Examining the Role of Shareholders with the Stakeholder Theory: Impacts from the 2018 revision of Company Act
No full textThe company is the most fundamental economic organization, and the Company Act is the foundation of the economy. The enactment and implementation of the Company Act have a significant impact on the economic state of the country. The current economic model is vastly different from that of the past; the government must modify the legislation in a timely manner to provide laws for the people to follow. On August 1, 2018, 148 articles of the Company Act were extensively changed, constituting a substantial revision of the Company Act. After the 2018 amendment of the Company Act, will the rights and responsibilities of each position be adequately regulated so that the company can operate efficiently? Does the amendment benefit more than it harms? The objective of this study was to clarify the context's contradicting issues.
The study was conducted to examine the current amendment of the Company Act to strengthen the exercise of shareholders' rights and increase the regulation of directors' rights and responsibilities, which primarily involves Article 173, Article 173-1, and Article 220 of the Company Act, where shareholders, independent directors, and supervisors interact in terms of their respective powers and roles.
Under the study of conflict management theory, this study used semi-structured interviews to perform a qualitative examination of the stakes and conflict between stakeholders and shareholders. The following phase was to collect and compile the comments on this amendment, from which the study's thesis and the concerns that required in-depth examination were derived.
For this study, 10 experts were interviewed, including 2 accountants, 2 lawyers, 3 \ue2accountants-lawyers\ue2, 2 independent directors, and 1 \ue2attorney-independent director".
The following are the key results and recommendations of the study:
1. All interviewees stated that independent directors are not truly independent, whether due to the company law's contradictory power structure, ambiguous legal restrictions, or the nomination and election method, which does not permit independent directors to be totally unbiased. The entanglement of interests between independent directors and major shareholders has frequently become a tactic for competing for management rights, and the 2018 amendments to the Company Act are incapable of resolving or ameliorating this situation.
2. Some interviewees agreed with the Company Act's Article 173 and Article 173-1, but others did not. This study has provided support for individuals who did not agree, but those who did agree have also contributed perspectives worthy of consideration.
3. According to the perspectives of the interviewees, there are numerous flaws related with the power-structure inside the corporation in this amendment, and the voice that small and large companies should be managed independently has not been adopted, resulting in a lack of recognition from all parties following the change of the Company Act as a whole.
Lastly, this study suggests that the competent authorities shall review to amend the legislation and related regulations, to redesign the power structure and nomination and election systems in the Company Act, and to make reference to the supporting measures proposed by the interviewees, such as setting the interval between shareholders' meetings to prevent intensive convening and restricting the transfer of shares upon acquiring the operating right. In addition, to shorten the gap between the market and the law, amendments should be made to those parts of the legislation that need to be amended and better regulated, such as limiting the authority of independent directors to a supervisory role and preventing them from participating in operational decisions, specifying the grounds for convening shareholders' meetings, providing clearer regulations, and separating the management of small and large companies
Analysis of Greg Gilpin eleven three-part mixed choral pieces
No full textGreg Gilpin (1964-) is an American contemporary choral educator, choral conductor, composer, and arranger. He is also the editorial director of Shawnee Press and a family space organization specialist. He is an artist with multiple identities. He holds a BA in Vocal Education from Northwest Missouri State University. He was deeply influenced by his family and religious background since childhood, which aroused his interest in art, music, and chorus. He began to try to compose and arrange music in college. After graduation, he started music education. Contact with more repertoires and self-understanding in the process of group practice. The creation and arrangement of chorus music are diverse, which can provide the choir with a variety of repertoire choices.
The three-part mixed voicing is more suitable for the male members in the middle school choir who are going through a period of voice change, through suitable repertoires, teaching materials and the correct way of singing can let them understand their own physical changes, instead of avoiding and fearing the process of change.
Based on the background mentioned above, this thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter \ue2Introduction\ue2 contains three sections, which are the research motivation, research scope and content, and research methods and literature; The first section is about the biography of the composer Gilpin, the second section is about the range and characteristics of the three-part mixed choral pieces; the third chapter is about the background research, musical analysis, and rehearsal of choral works in the past three years. Eleven pieces published by Alfred Music Publishing House between 2019 and 2021: \ue2Ezekiel Saw The Wheel\ue2, \ue2The Water Is Wide\ue2, \ue2Walkin\ue2 Down The Road To Bethlehem\ue2, \ue2Unruly Heart\ue2, \ue2Why Do Bells For Christmas Ring?\ue2 , \ue2Gonna Sing About A Baby\ue2, \ue2One Can Hear the Falling Snow\ue2, \ue2El Vito\ue2, \ue2A Red, Red Rose\ue2, \ue2Rock Island Line\ue2, and \ue2A New Horizon\ue2, which are divided into eleven sections and are listed in the order of publication. Discuss the creative background, lyric meaning and translation, musical form analysis, important melodies and motives, texture, dynamics, harmony, word painting techniques, piano characteristics, and rehearsal suggestions for each piece of music; The final chapter is the conclusion of this thesis.
Keywords: Greg Gilpin, Three-part mixed choral pieces, American contemporary choral education, Middle school choir, American contemporary compose
A Study on the Labor Employment and Management Scheme of Distant Water Fisheries in Other Countries
No full textAbstract
Special characteristics of distant water fisheries include offshore operations, isolation, and transnationality. Such characteristics make it unique and tricky to perform labor management. Especially, after becoming a newly emerging human rights issue, forced labor has caused more international attention and pressure on the management of foreign fishing labor in Taiwanese fisheries greater than before as well as bringing in a lot of impacts. This study is enlighted by the event of a tuna longliner named Da Wang being detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and suspecting that Da Wang engaged in forced labor in its operations. From a management point of view this study intends to explore the factors that put Taiwanese fisheries on the target of international human right issue. To this end, the study takes the Work in Fishing Convention (Convention No. 188) adopted by the International Labour Organizations as an international standard to examine Taiwanese distant water fisheries, as well as comparing these standards and Taiwan\ue2s regulations in this regard with other greater fishing nations such as France, Spain, Japan and Korea.
In this study, Taiwan and those four abovementioned nations were examined by their fisheries scale and labor force composition. Their labor management schemes were compared to the Convention No. 188 including items of fisherman qualifications, contracts, wages and work hours. In addition to these items, additional criteria were used to examine the management scheme of Taiwanese distant water fisheries. The results show that France has the best performance in its overall fishing labor management scheme among these five fishing nations, and Taiwan comes to the third place. But when focusing to the labor management scheme of distant water fisheries, Taiwan has the best performance among these nations. Such a good performance could be arributed form the recently amendments of \ue2Regulations on the Authorization and Management of Overseas Employment of Foreign Crew Members\ue2 and other related domestic fishery laws in Taiwan.
In addition to these items in the Convention No. 188, the performance of Taiwan\ue2s distant water fisheries in those additional criteria used to examine its management scheme was not as good as its performance in those four items. Those that still need to be improved include the coordination among different relvelant authorities, administrative procedures of foreign fishing labors (e.g. immigration regulations, conditions for staying in ports, etc.), as well as medical and safety measures on board, all of which do not meet the requirements in the Convention No. 188.
In summary, none of these four abovementioned nations are able to meet the standards stipulated in the Convention No. 188 completely, aming which there was only one non-compliance in Taiwanese labor management scheme of distant water fisheries. This proves that Taiwanese basic labor management scheme does not have any obvious inconsistences with the Convention No. 188 comparing to other distant water fishing nations. However, comparisons outside of the basic items show that there is still room for the improvement of Taiwan\ue2s scheme (e.g. medical and safety measures on board, etc.). Therefore, this study gives high recognitions to the performance of Taiwan\ue2s current labor policy related to foreign fishing workers, and recommends the government to further strengthen items other than those listed in this study. Lastly, it is suggested that future research should dig into the labor management scheme of other nations or take the policy implementation dilemma as the research objective so as to continue the contributions of Taiwan\ue2s fishermen management scheme
Spatiotemporal Variation and Ecological Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals and Phthalate Esters in Urban River Sediments: A Case Study of the Fengshan River in Southern Taiwan
No full textThe Fengshan River system, one of the major rivers in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, has been suffering a severe pollution from industrial wastewater of surrounding factories and domestic discharge of residential areas. This study investigated the concentration of eight phthalate esters (PAEs) and seven heavy metals in sediments of the river to determine spatial and seasonal variations in PAEs and heavy metals in sediments and assess sediment pollution status and potential ecological risk during the dry and wet seasons. The potential risk assessment of sediment PAEs was evaluated by adopting the total risk quotient (TRQ) method and sediment pollution status and potential ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in sediment were carried out by using multiple sediment pollution indices.
The total concentrations of PAEs (\ue2PAEs) in the sediments of the Fengshan River system ranged from 490 to 40,190 ng/g dw, with an average value of 8,418-11,812 ng/g dw. Diisononyl phthalate (38.1%), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (36.9%) and di-isodecyl phthalate (24.3%) accounted for more than 99.3% of \ue2PAEs. \ue2PAEs in sediments at the river channel stations is higher in the wet season (616\ue215,281 ng/g dw) than those in the dry season (490\ue21,535 ng/g dw). However, the total PAEs concentration in the downstream and estuary stations during the wet season (3,975\ue26,768 ng/g dw) was lower than those in the dry season (20,216\ue240,190 ng/g dw). The PAEs in the Fengshan River sediments may have low to moderate potential risks to aquatic organisms. The TQR of PAEs in the downstream and estuary sediments (TQR = 0.13) was higher than that in the upstream (TQR = 0.04). In addition, during the wet season, rainfall transported a large amount of land-sourced PAEs to rivers, leading to an increase in PAEs concentration and potential ecological risks in the upper reaches of the river.
Heavy metal concentrations showed large spatial variations. Severe pollution of heavy metals, especially Cr, Hg, and Zn in the lower reaches of Fengshan River, may attribute to wastewater discharges from leather processing and metal finishing factories along the river drainage basin. An increase in metal concentrations from upstream to downstream indicated that heavy metals tend to accumulate in tidal reaches, probably as a result of the flocculation effect. Frequent heavy rainfall during the wet season can enhance surface runoff to discharge metal pollutants from non-point sources (scattered factories) into the river. The evaluation results from multiple pollution indices showed moderately polluted (mCd = 3.9, PLI = 2.6) and considerable ecological risk (RI = 540, mERMQ = 0.55), indicating Fengshan River sediments, particularly in the lower reaches, are considered toxic and can cause adverse effects to benthic organisms. There is a good correlation between organic matter and heavy metals, which play an important role in the temporal and spatial variations in heavy metal pollutants in the Fengshan River sediments. This study can provide valuable information for river pollution remediation and urban planning and management
Method Development for Detection of Delta-hemolysin Produced by Staphylococcus Aureus by Liquid Chromatography-tandem Mass Spectrometry
No full textIn the management of infectious diseases, source control, antimicrobial therapy, and life support are discussed thoroughly, whereas the virulence factors are less addressed. The ability in toxin production varies among different strains in a species, thus contributing to the variations in severity of diseases. Delta toxin, one of virulence factors produced by Staphylococcus aureus, is known to cause hemolysis, cytolysis, and associated with inflammation and some allergic skin reactions. However, the relationship between the level of delta toxin and the severity of disease is not well understood, and there is no clinical test available to measure its level. In this study, the protein sequence of delta toxin, its allelic variant, G10S, and 13 housekeeping proteins was determined by high-resolution mass spectrometry, and their characteristic fragments were identified for the development of a targeted assay using LC-MS/MS. The normalization of assay signals was tested by using housekeeping proteins or quality control samples. The former demonstrated triosephosphate isomerase and enolase were the most stable for normalization; the latter reduced variations of delta toxin between runs. Method validation, including instrumental, within-run, and between-run precision, carryover, and stability of sample storage, demonstrated acceptable precision and sample stability. 10 isolates from different individuals were collected, and the level of delta toxin could be grouped into low, medium, and high-level. The length of hospital stays and the days of fever in the high-level group were longer than that of the low-level group. The assay can be used to measure delta toxin and may evaluate the severity of disease
Binding, Breach and Interest\uef\ubcContract standard in \ue2Ching-Ping-Shan-Tang Hua-Pen\ue2
No full text\ue2Ching-Ping-Shan-Tang Hua-Pen\ue2 an collection of Song, Yuan and Ming dynasty\ue2s colloquial short stories, edited by Pian Hong (?-?). Researches and analysis on the date of composition are conducted by scholars on the basis of terminology and folk rituals within the context. However, there are few studies on the contents and plots. The following study will discuss "Ching-Ping-Shan-Tang Hua-Pen\ue2 by focusing on the textual analysis based on the current script with the concept of contract structure, which is developed from the Actantial mode (Algirdas Julien Greimas, 1917-1992). The main plots are put into four categories of contracts: destiny, social, individual and marriage contract. This paper will approach the work by role analysis for exploring conclusion of the contracts and the patterns within, which will provide another interpretation of the story in "Ching-Ping-Shan-Tang Hua-Pen\ue2 by textual analysis