A preliminary examination of the relationship between consumer attitude towards space travel and the development of innovative space tourism technology

With increasing global competition in service sectors, innovative technologies have radically changed the tourism industry, and to be successful innovative products/services must have clear, significant points of difference that are related to needs in the market place. Furthermore, changes in consumer perceptions that emanate from an innovation are central to its effective product and service design. Although for most of us space travel is still a faraway dream, it is in fact a future probability that will increasingly attract travellers who seek new vacation experiences, and as a result, sustain academic interest. Thus, in initiating space tourism for the purposes of recreation, leisure and knowledge enhancement, a preliminary estimation of potential global demand characteristics that are specific to consumer innovators for space travel needs to be undertaken prior to promotion of research and development. In this context, this paper investigates both consumer attitudes towards space travel by analysing the components of motivated consumer innovativeness and the interest that potential consumers have in developing space tourism technology innovations within Taiwan. Consumer innovativeness is complex and comprised four innovativeness types, namely, social, functional, hedonic and cognitive. As product/service innovation development has been relatively unexplored in the mature industry of tourism, many business managers would welcome an understanding of which vacation travellers are most likely to be the earliest buyers of such an exciting new product. With data collected from a sample of 354 Taiwanese, this research uses mediated regression to examine the influence of the four types of consumer innovativeness on consumer's attitudes and acceptance of a space tourism technology innovation, and the mediating role perceived novelty plays in the relationship. The findings indicate that only hedonic and social innovativeness are associated with improved consumer attitude and that novelty partially mediates the relationship for those two types of consumer innovativeness. The implications for theory and practice are discussed. Limitations and directions for future research are also addressed.     

中国崛起的认识论及其叙事衍生

从自我认同与群体归属两种需要的分析视角,作者得出了四种观察中国与非中国之间关系的视野:国家、亚洲、文明与天下。其中,从中国的角度出发,观察非中国的视野主要是国家与天下。如果继续按照自我认同与群体归属两种需要的区分,我们可得出国家权力、霸道、主权身份以及中心-边陲四种叙事的文本。简言之,看待中国崛起不是一件纯粹的客观之事,而是涉及观察者的群我关系之深层需要。中国研究不仅是一个应该适应国情并随之调整的方法论问题,而且它还涉及知识形成的前提,亦即中国与非中国关系所涉及的群我关系。群我关系的形成与认知须靠文化形塑,进而使行为主体形成对中国崛起的认识角度与文本选择。     

Critical factors associated with relationship conflicts and group atmosphere among Taiwanese adolescents

This paper investigates relationship conflict amongst Taiwanese adolescents. The data was taken on Taiwanese adolescents aged 15–17 who attended 16 high schools which are located in north, middle, south, and the east of Taiwan. They were invited to participate in the study during the 2010 school year. This paper explores the patterns among relationship conflict including its impact, the social dimensions, the time aspects, the psychological implications, the physical dimensions, and the performance and overall risks involved in group atmospheres. The ways relationship conflict handling styles correlate with the group atmosphere were also explored. Each one of the risk variables’ correlations and relationship conflict were explored. As part of this study upon correlating each one of the risk variables and relationship conflict, the researchers studied the correlations between the risk variables and the group atmosphere.     

证明函数零点问题的研究

证明函数有且只有一个零点,通过构造方程,转化成方程有且仅有一个实根的问题,然后利用闭区间上连续函数的性质以及微分中值定理或函数单调性即可证明。     

浅论两汉时期河湟羌人的种姓家支制度

两汉时期的羌乱给汉王朝带来了巨大的灾祸,是促使东汉灭亡的因素之一。除了共同的政治经济利益使河湟各羌落凝聚起来反对汉王朝对羌民的歧视和苛政外,其本身存在已久的种姓家支制度亦使河湟羌落间始终有种潜在的联系,也正是这种制度使得徙入塞内上百年的羌人仍与塞外的羌落间有着相同的认知,促进羌落间的聚合。因此种姓家支制度是种潜在的凝聚机制。汉王朝亦认识到羌人家支制度对其统治产生的威胁,也有意识的予以破坏。     

应用ANSYS建立再生混凝土随机骨料模型的方法研究

通过对再生混凝土粗骨料成份的分析,初步提出将再生粗骨料大致分为以附着砂浆石子为主要成分并含有少量砂浆块和砖块杂质,并确定某批次再生粗骨料中各类骨料的百分含量。应用ANSYS的APDL参数化编程,结合蒙特卡罗方法和富勒级配理论,从细观层次上生成再生混凝土各类骨料的二维圆形与三维球形随机骨料模型,并赋予各类骨料的材料属性。然后根据选定的单元类型进行有限元网格的划分,通过判断各单元与骨料形心的位置关系来识别砂浆基质与骨料之间的界面单元,并赋予它相应的材料属性。从而建立起再生混凝土的数值模拟试件,为今后在ANSYS中直接对其进行加载求解,以此来模拟各种力学性能试验提供了必要的基础。     

Revisiting the relationship between suicide and unemployment: Evidence from linear and nonlinear cointegration

This study employs the linear and nonlinear ARDL cointegration methodologies to examine the potential symmetric and asymmetric responses of suicide rates to unemployment rates in the US from 1928 to 2013. Our results suggest that suicide rates are pro-cyclical with respect to the business cycle (measured by changes in the unemployment rate) after extensively controlling for divorce and fertility rates. Unemployment has symmetric long-run effects on the age-adjusted suicide rate and four age-specific (from ages 25–34 to 55–64) suicide rates, while the effect of an economic expansion on suicide rates for those aged over 45 is greater than the effect of an economic recession. These findings imply that the effect of an economic expansion on the decrease of the suicide rate is higher than the effect of an economic recession on the increase of the suicide rate for individuals aged over 45. Therefore, intervention designed to reduce suicidal behaviors should emphasize periods of economic recession more than periods of economic expansion for those of middle age and beyond.     

儒家始祖形象的三种形态及其意义

传统儒家从未停止对事物根源与本质的探索。所谓物有本末,事有终始,始之字义常常兼具逻辑上的原初性与价值上的根本性。始祖作为生民存续之始和人道的开端,其形象隐含着重要的理论意义,更关联着儒家思想与制度的核心。本文分别从感生之祖、始封之祖、生民之祖三种形态出发,追溯始祖形象的特点,并试图通过这一讨论来理解儒家家国建构的不同模式及其基础。     

State dependence,serial correlation and heterogeneity in the union membership dynamics

In order to distinguish the true and spurious state dependence from the complicated dynamics of union membership, the simulation estimators incorporating the lagged dependent variables, unobserved individual heterogeneity and correlations among the errors are implemented in this article to study union membership dynamics. It is found that the true state dependence of union membership under multivariate t assumption is much higher than the standard dynamic panel probit estimators which are under multivariate normal assumptions. On the other hand, the spurious state dependence (the variance of the unobserved individual heterogeneity) is estimated to be higher when using the standard dynamic panel probit estimators than under multivariate t assumption. Moreover, blacks and married men are found to have higher union membership true state dependence than whites and unmarried men.     

Resolving the innovation puzzle of latecomers: the case of Taiwan

In the currently rapidly changing business world, innovation has not only become the key to survival and success, but also the defining challenge of organisations. For latecomer firms, however, because of their inherent resource constraints, innovation has become a far more complex undertaking, similar to a multidimensional puzzle. Although there have been an increasing number of practitioner-based surveys, a discrepancy still remains between academia and industry concerning the role and importance of R&D in innovation. Therefore, this study carried out an industry–university–institution survey of Taiwan, based on a multidimensional framework of the innovation puzzle: human, R&D, flow and connection. The results reveal several interesting clues and provide a better understanding of the innovation puzzle for latecomers, and more importantly, resolves the puzzle that could help latecomers identify where new opportunities lie and what weaknesses they must strengthen.