Agarwood has the mixed scent of ambergris and sandalwood, and cannot be artificially synthesized. Due to massive logging, agarwood is now listed as an endangered plant. Agarwood tissue culture can save provenance for ...Agarwood has the mixed scent of ambergris and sandalwood, and cannot be artificially synthesized. Due to massive logging, agarwood is now listed as an endangered plant. Agarwood tissue culture can save provenance for breeding. For different combinations of TDZ (Thidiazuron), BA (6-Benzylaminopurine), and activated carbon of different concentrations, this study used the six sigma, as well as design of experiment (DOE) and response surface methodology (RSM) to optimize agarwood adventitious buds induced incidences and growth numbers. The results showed that, the combination of 4.0 ppm TDZ and 0.5 ppm BA, without activated carbon, had the best effect of adventitious bud induced incidence up to 21.75%, and adventitious bud growth number up to 24.8, improvements of 35.29% and 42.78%, respectively. The results verified that using the six sigma methodology could effectively enhance the induction of agarwood tissue culture adventitious buds, promote the blooming of agarwood in large numbers, and further realize agarwood restoration.展开更多
Company experts and academicianshave paid significant attention to issues of new product/service development. However, few studies have been carried outtodiscuss innovative product/service development mindful of the c...Company experts and academicianshave paid significant attention to issues of new product/service development. However, few studies have been carried outtodiscuss innovative product/service development mindful of the competitive positions between competitors. This study introduces a hybrid method of positioning analysis, conjoint analysis and rough set theory to understand the competition positions and facilitate innovative product/service development from the customers’ perspective. The hybrid method is also supported by in-depth interviewing, factor analysis, preference regression, ideas simulation, ideas selection, and specific weight valuation methods. We choose the automobile maintenance industry in Taiwan, whose objective is to improve product/service qualities and enhance customers’ satisfaction and loyalty.This is also the subject of our empirical study. The results show that the proposed hybrid method is effective for innovative product/service development. Moreover, the empirical findings provide useful information for automobile maintenance providers so that they may be better able to pay attention to their competitive positions and their customers’ preferences, and better able to facilitate their innovative automobile maintenance service development, in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantages.展开更多
Input congestion very likely existed in rail transport. However, early works measuring the rail transport efficiencies rarely took the input congestion into account;hence, the proposed strategies for enhancing efficie...Input congestion very likely existed in rail transport. However, early works measuring the rail transport efficiencies rarely took the input congestion into account;hence, the proposed strategies for enhancing efficiencies can be misleading. This study revisited the rail transport efficiencies with consideration of input congestion. We employed data envelopment analysis extension method to investigate the input congestion for some selected 24 European Union (EU) railways in 2006. The results indicated that there is no strong congestion in these 24 railways. However, 12 railways have been diagnosed with weak congestion in the available capacity of freight transport as well as the number of locomotives, 7 railways in the available capacity of passenger transport, and 4 railways in the number of employees. Based on our findings, the managerial implication is to contract the available capacity of freight transport (tonnages) as the most critical strategy, rather than laying-off the excess number of employees suggested by most previous studies, which did not consider the input congestion effects while measuring the rail transport efficiencies.展开更多
文摘Agarwood has the mixed scent of ambergris and sandalwood, and cannot be artificially synthesized. Due to massive logging, agarwood is now listed as an endangered plant. Agarwood tissue culture can save provenance for breeding. For different combinations of TDZ (Thidiazuron), BA (6-Benzylaminopurine), and activated carbon of different concentrations, this study used the six sigma, as well as design of experiment (DOE) and response surface methodology (RSM) to optimize agarwood adventitious buds induced incidences and growth numbers. The results showed that, the combination of 4.0 ppm TDZ and 0.5 ppm BA, without activated carbon, had the best effect of adventitious bud induced incidence up to 21.75%, and adventitious bud growth number up to 24.8, improvements of 35.29% and 42.78%, respectively. The results verified that using the six sigma methodology could effectively enhance the induction of agarwood tissue culture adventitious buds, promote the blooming of agarwood in large numbers, and further realize agarwood restoration.
文摘Company experts and academicianshave paid significant attention to issues of new product/service development. However, few studies have been carried outtodiscuss innovative product/service development mindful of the competitive positions between competitors. This study introduces a hybrid method of positioning analysis, conjoint analysis and rough set theory to understand the competition positions and facilitate innovative product/service development from the customers’ perspective. The hybrid method is also supported by in-depth interviewing, factor analysis, preference regression, ideas simulation, ideas selection, and specific weight valuation methods. We choose the automobile maintenance industry in Taiwan, whose objective is to improve product/service qualities and enhance customers’ satisfaction and loyalty.This is also the subject of our empirical study. The results show that the proposed hybrid method is effective for innovative product/service development. Moreover, the empirical findings provide useful information for automobile maintenance providers so that they may be better able to pay attention to their competitive positions and their customers’ preferences, and better able to facilitate their innovative automobile maintenance service development, in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantages.
文摘Input congestion very likely existed in rail transport. However, early works measuring the rail transport efficiencies rarely took the input congestion into account;hence, the proposed strategies for enhancing efficiencies can be misleading. This study revisited the rail transport efficiencies with consideration of input congestion. We employed data envelopment analysis extension method to investigate the input congestion for some selected 24 European Union (EU) railways in 2006. The results indicated that there is no strong congestion in these 24 railways. However, 12 railways have been diagnosed with weak congestion in the available capacity of freight transport as well as the number of locomotives, 7 railways in the available capacity of passenger transport, and 4 railways in the number of employees. Based on our findings, the managerial implication is to contract the available capacity of freight transport (tonnages) as the most critical strategy, rather than laying-off the excess number of employees suggested by most previous studies, which did not consider the input congestion effects while measuring the rail transport efficiencies.
