The demand for lottery expenditure in Taiwan: a quantile regression approach

This paper is a pioneering attempt to apply the quantile regression method (QRM) to the demand for lottery expenditure in order to consider the extreme behavior of lottery expenditure as well as clarify the diverse results obtained from previous studies on lottery expenditure. The results of this study reveal that there exists a complementary correlation both between benevolent donations and lottery expenditure, and between entertainment expenditure and lottery expenditure. By contrast, the results from using OLS reveal that benevolent donations do not have a significant impact on lottery expenditure and that entertainment expenditure does not have a negative impact on lottery expenditure. Besides, expenditure on cigarettes and alcohol is found to have a positive impact on lottery expenditure, which coincides with the results of Balabanis (2002).

Stock Market Interdependence and Trade Relations: A Correlation Test for the U.S. and Its Trading Partners

Based on the well-established trade relations between the U.S. and its major trading partners, this paper examines the robustness of the trade relation hypothesis which, in some recent studies, argues that difference in trade relations among countries can significantly explain difference in the stock market interdependence. The generalized VDC analysis is employed to measure the stock market interdependence, and the correlation test with bootstrap procedure is applied to test the hypothesis. The results indicate that the hypothesis is hardly as a general rule.

Influence of Y-doped induced defects on the optical and magnetic properties of ZnO nanorod arrays prepared by low-temperature hydrothermal process

One-dimensional pure zinc oxide (ZnO) and Y-doped ZnO nanorod arrays have been successfully fabricated on the silicon substrate for comparison by a simple hydrothermal process at the low temperature of 90°C. The Y-doped nanorods exhibit the same c-axis-oriented wurtzite hexagonal structure as pure ZnO nanorods. Based on the results of photoluminescence, an enhancement of defect-induced green-yellow visible emission is observed for the Y-doped ZnO nanorods. The decrease of E(2)(H) mode intensity and increase of E(1)(LO) mode intensity examined by the Raman spectrum also indicate the increase of defects for the Y-doped ZnO nanorods. As compared to pure ZnO nanorods, Y-doped ZnO nanorods show a remarked increase of saturation magnetization. The combination of visible photoluminescence and ferromagnetism measurement results indicates the increase of oxygen defects due to the Y doping which plays a crucial role in the optical and magnetic performances of the ZnO nanorods

Light-Independent Inactivation of Dengue-2 Virus by Carboxyfullerene C3 Isomer

AbstractCarboxyfullerene (C60) is known as a photosensitizer for virus inactivation. Its regioisomer with C3 symmetry, named the C3 isomer, could also inactivate the dengue-2 virus without light when the dose of C3 isomer was increased to 40 μM, indicating the possible involvement of a light-independent mechanism. Further analysis showed that the C3 isomer blocked viral replication at the attachment and penetration stages, suggesting that a direct interaction between the C3 isomer and the virion is required for inactivation. The C3 isomer with a bipolar structure showed better lipid interaction and dengue-2 virus suppression than D3, another isomer that contains evenly distributed hydrophilic side chains. Moreover, the C3 isomer selectively inactivated enveloped viruses (viz., dengue-2 virus and Japanese encephalitis virus) instead of nonenveloped viruses (viz., enterovirus 71 and coxsackievirus B3). Collectively, these findings support the hypothesis that C3 isomer suppression of enveloped viruses is effected through its hydrophobic interaction with the viral lipid envelope. Our report, which demonstrates the light-dependent and -independent mechanisms of C60 on viral inactivation, will aid in the development of novel anti-viral agents for use against enveloped viruses

Evaluations of the BGA Solder Ball Shape by Using Energy Method

Presented herein are the evaluation results of the BGA solder ball shape using energy method, two types of solder, viz. Sn37Pb and Sn80Pb, are selected .The geometry of the solder bump is firstly estimated using free computer software, the Surface Evolver, an interactive program which is an energy-based approach for the study of liquid droplet surfaces shaped by surface tension and other energies. The solder bump is then numerically constructed in a finite element model that simulates a BGA package. The influences of both upper and bottom solder pad radii, the surface tension on the balls, and the external load axially applied to the reflow solders on the stand-off height and the contact angle for both solder materials are investigated. The results show that for both solder materials, the stand-off height remains at a height under some pad radius. The height decreases as both upper and bottom pad radii increase. On the other hand, the contact angle presents a nearly inverse trend with respect to the pad radii. The study of the effect of surface tension reveals that at a constant pad radius, the solder ball stand-off height increases with surface tension; however, the trend becomes saturated eventually. The contact angle decreases as the surface tension becomes large. The trend also tends to be saturated. The results of the effects of axially applied load on the stand-off height and the contact angle show that as the applied load is increased so is the contact angle; nevertheless, the stand-off height becomes shorter

A Neural Network Decision Method for Software Maintenance Life Cycle Identification

The software maintenance life cycle concept is a powerful model in helping software maintenance planning. The operationalization of the life cycle concept requires a heuristic decision method. Although the heuristic decision method works most of the time, the method requires integration of different tools and sometimes leads to errors. In this paper, we propose a neural network decision method, which combines data smoothing and maintenance stage identification into one unit