Search results

Learning power is crucial in today's rapidly changing world, yet its application to teachers is under-explored. This study delved into the investigation of teacher learning power and examined how it matters in the relationship between teachers' experiences in lesson study and the adoption of constructivist pedagogy.

A cross-sectional survey of 226 elementary, junior high, and senior high school teachers in Taiwan was conducted, and the results were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The findings suggest that both participation in lesson study and teacher learning power were positively associated with the practice of constructivist pedagogy. Moreover, teacher learning power partially mediated the relationship between lesson study and constructivist pedagogy.

By incorporating the concept of teacher learning power and performing a mediation analysis to understand how it matters, this study has added to the expanding collection of works on lesson study explored from different perspectives and in various contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a proportional-integral-derivative-based fuzzy neural network (PIDFNN) with elitist bacterial foraging optimization (EBFO)-based optimal membership functions (PIDFNN-EBFO) position controller to control the voice coil motor (VCM) for tracking reference trajectory accurately.

Because the control characteristics of the VCM are highly nonlinear and time varying, a PIDFNN, which integrates adaptive PID control with fuzzy rules, is proposed to control the mover position of the VCM. Moreover, an EBFO algorithm is further proposed to find the initial optimal fuzzy membership functions for the PIDFNN controller.

Due to the gradient descent method used in back propagation (BP) to derive the on-line learning algorithm for the PIDFNN, it may reach the local optimal solution due to the inappropriate initial values. Hence, a hybrid learning method, which includes BP and EBFO algorithms, is proposed to improve the learning performance of the PIDFNN controller.

Future work will consider reducing the computational burden of bacterial foraging optimization algorithm for on-line parameters optimization.

The real-time control system is implemented on a 32-bit floating-point digital signal processor (DSP). The experimental results demonstrate the favorable effectiveness of the proposed PIDFNN-EBFO controlled VCM system.

A new PIDFNN-EBFO control scheme is proposed and implemented via DSP for real-time VCM position control. The experimental results show the superior control performance of the proposed PIDFNN-EBFO compared with the other control systems.

This study explores the extent of undergraduate students' engagement in interdisciplinary learning experiences across their academic journey and its potential correlation with elevated levels of self-efficacy in learning. Furthermore, the research investigates how the clarity of career decisions and future goals contributes to the perception of relevance, value and alignment of interdisciplinary learning experiences among undergraduate students.

Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire in a longitudinal survey administered annually to undergraduate students at a university in northern Taiwan over four waves from 2018 to 2021. The sample analyzed for this study consisted of 123 undergraduate students who willingly and continuously participated in the research throughout the specified period.

The results showed that self-efficacy within interdisciplinary learning experiences could be classified into three clusters: high efficacy, moderate efficacy and fluctuating efficacy. The determinants influencing these clusters include career decisions and years spent in university. Undergraduate students who have determined their career decisions and are in their latter two years of undergraduate studies demonstrate higher self-efficacy in interdisciplinary learning. Conversely, students who have yet to determine their career decisions exhibit a fluctuating pattern of self-efficacy across the three interdisciplinary learning categories.

Two key limitations of this research include a small sample size and a confined university-specific context, potentially constraining the applicability of the results to a broader population.

This study contributes to the interdisciplinary learning experience in higher education by explaining the significance of undergraduates' self-efficacy and career-related factors. Whereas most research has focused on the effects of self-efficacy, this study investigated the factors that influence undergraduates' self-efficacy.

The purpose of this paper is to discover strategic implications and successful factors leading to the development of an attractive model for other firms to follow based on a typical case study.

This paper used a case study methodology to examine the case of a business‐to‐business (B2B) collaborative information system based on the first textile company in Taiwan to implement a RosettaNet‐like for B2B process integration.

The results showed that some key success factors included: support and understanding from the entire team, simple process redesign, standard process development, government support, distinctive operation collaboration model, total support from top management, and an effective and experienced team.

Managerial implications are as follows: employ vertical process integration to quickly exchange data, establish a platform to share information, establish vendor‐managed inventory (VMI) to lower costs, and a cross‐organization centre to effectively operate the platform.

The complete information structure provided in this case, the distinctive collaborative and the proposed implementation models can all serve as a reference for other enterprises whose size, scope and information technology level are similar to the focal firm in this case.

A typical photovoltaic grid-connection power system usually consists of multi-stage converters to perform multiple functions simultaneously. To simplify system configuration, reduce cost and improve conversion efficiency, this paper aims to develop a buck–boost-type inverter. The proposed inverter has both step-up and step-down functions, so that it is suitable for applications with wide voltage variation. As only one power switch operates with high frequency at one time, switching losses can significantly be reduced.

A step-up/down inverter is developed by adopting a buck-interleaved buck–boost (BuIBB) DC-DC converter and connecting with an H-bridge unfolding circuit with line-commutated operation.

The proposed circuit can work functionally as either a buck-type or boost-type inverter, so that partial energy can be directly delivered to output to improve efficiency. The input current is shared by two inductors, leading to the reduction of current stresses.

To apply the proposed inverter to micro-inverter applications in the future, developing a step-up/down inverter with a higher conversion ratio will be considered.

A laboratory prototype is built accordingly to verify the feasibility of the proposed inverter. The experimental results are presented to show the effectiveness.

This paper proposes a step-up/down inverter by using the BuIBB converter, which is innovatively studied.

Medical staff's emotional exhaustion increases cynical attitudes and behaviors about work and patients and leads medical staff to become detached from work. This may decrease patients' trust and satisfaction and even endanger patients' lives. There is a need to examine the critical factors affecting the medical staff's emotional exhaustion by investigating its relationship with the patient-safety dimensions based on the safety attitudes questionnaire (SAQ).

A case study is conducted from the viewpoints of physicians and nurses to examine the relationship between emotional exhaustion and six dimensions of the SAQ from 2016 to 2020 from a regional teaching hospital in Taiwan. Linear regression with forward selection is employed. Six dimensions of the SAQ are the independent variables, whereas emotional exhaustion is the dependent variable for each year.

Stress recognition is the most important variable to influence emotional exhaustion negatively, while job satisfaction is the second important variable to affect emotional exhaustion positively from 2016 to 2020. On the contrary, working conditions do not influence emotional exhaustion in this hospital from medical staff's viewpoints.

This study uses longitudinal data to find that both stress recognition and job satisfaction consistently influence emotional exhaustion negatively and positively, respectively, in this five-year period. The third dimension to impact emotional exhaustion varies from time to time. Thus, the findings from a cross-sectional study might be limited. The authors' findings show that reducing stress recognition and enhancing job satisfaction can lead to the improvement of emotional exhaustion from medical staff's viewpoints, which should be monitored by hospital management.

The rapid changes that the healthcare services industry is undergoing pose a challenge to obtaining accurate measurements of the delivery of medical services to patients. Current Chinese measures of patient safety culture may not adequately capture how medical staff perceives the promotion of patient safety. This study aims to construct a valid and applicable patient safety culture instrument by re-estimating the Chinese version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) with medical staff in Taiwan.

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on data collected from a sample of 448 medical workers at a regional teaching hospital in Taiwan, and data from 804 participants at a medical center were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The distribution of the questions among the dimensions was different from that in the Chinese version of the SAQ.

The authors' results confirm that 3 correlated first-order factors, including 11 items, can be used to measure collaboration and safety, stress recognition and emotional exhaustion (EE). The authors' data suggest that the cooperation mechanism, patient safety promotion, stress management and emotional management are drivers of patient safety and should be prioritized when seeking to evaluate the perceptions of hospital staff toward patient safety culture in hospitals in Taiwan.

To improve the quality and safety of patient care, the measurement scale should be revisited and modified as the industry changes over time and to take account of cultural variation. The authors restructured the current Chinese version of the SAQ developed by the Joint Commission of Taiwan (JCT) to offer more precise measures that increase the sensitivity of the measurement of the level of care in items of patient safety and that serve as a diagnostic instrument to review patient safety management.

The aims of this study are to (1) evaluate physicians and nurses' perspectives on patient safety culture amid the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) integrate the emotional exhaustion of physicians and nurses into an evaluation of patient safety culture to provide insights into appropriate implications for medical care.

Patient safety culture was assessed with the Chinese version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate the structure of the data (i.e. reliability and validity), and Pearson's correlation analysis was performed to identify relationships between safety-related dimensions.

Safety climate was strongly associated with working conditions and teamwork climate. In addition, working conditions was highly correlated with perceptions of management and job satisfaction, respectively. It is worth noting that the stress and emotional exhaustion of the physicians and nurses during this epidemic were high and needed attention.

For healthcare managers and practitioners, team-building activities, power of public opinions, IoT-focused service, and Employee Assistance Programs are important implications for inspiring the patient safety-oriented culture during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper considers the role of emotional state into patient safety instrument, a much less understood but equally important dimension in the field of patient safety.

Safety activities have been initiated in healthcare organizations in Taiwan, but little is known about the performance and trends of safety culture on a timely basis. This study aims to comprehensively review the articles that have conducted two worldwide patient safety culture instruments (HSPSC and SAQ) in Taiwan to provide the extent of existing knowledge about healthcare professionals' perception related to patient safety.

The Web of Science, Medline (Pubmed) and Embas were used as the database to search papers related to the patient safety culture in Taiwan from 2008 to June 30, 2019.

Twenty-four relative articles in total were found and further investigations confirmed that the regular assessment of patient safety culture among hospital staff is essentially important for healthcare organizations to reduce the rates of medical errors and malpractice. Moreover, the elements influencing patient safety culture may vary due to the difference in job positions, age, experience in organization and cultural settings.

The summary of findings enables healthcare administrators and practitioners to understand key components of patient safety culture for continuous improvement in medical quality.

Assessing the safety culture in healthcare organizations is a foundation to achieve excellent medical quality and service. The implications of this study could be useful for hospitals to establish a safer environment for patients.

This study aims to make government usage of technology research grants more efficient and to evaluate how to use university–industry–research cooperation to promote industrial innovation in Taiwan.

This case study aims to use the triple helix model and other references to develop indicators which can estimate the performance of university–industry–research cooperation in Taiwan. The study selects three facets: “(prior) mechanisms,” “(in-progress) regulations” and “(post-hoc) operations” to find out the critical indicators contributing the final outcome. The study found that a successful university–industry–research cooperation requires the following factors: strengthening review methods for the mechanisms; its relationships of rights and obligations; policy needs in regulations; and plan incentives in operations.

It is recommended that, to promote university–industry–research cooperation in Taiwan, resource distributors and program management units should not only continue program application incentives and strengthen interdepartmental resource integration, they should also consider the establishment of a fair, just and open review mechanisms, and they should enhance the relationship between the rights and obligations of university–industry–research cooperation.

The study of this program includes application review before, during and after the program, management examination and performance evaluation to formulate recommendations as reference points for resource distributors and grant recipients. And because of industry–university cooperation being the main way of research and technology development, the findings and suggestions of this study may also be helpful for other grant systems in the world.