Leisure Agricultural Park Selection for Traveler Groups Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

With the widespread vaccination against COVID-19, people began to resume regional tourism. Outdoor attractions, such as leisure agricultural parks, are particularly attractive because they are well ventilated and can prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the considerations around choosing a leisure agricultural park are different from usual, and will be affected by uncertainty. Therefore, this research proposes a fuzzy collaborative intelligence (FCI) approach to help select leisure agricultural parks suitable for traveler groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed FCI approach combines asymmetrically calibrated fuzzy geometric mean (acFGM), fuzzy weighted intersection (FWI), and fuzzy Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (fuzzy VIKOR), which is a novel attempt in this field. The effectiveness of the proposed FCI approach has been verified by a case study in Taichung City, Taiwan. The results of the case study showed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, travelers (especially traveler groups) were very willing to go to leisure agricultural parks. In addition, the most important criterion for choosing a suitable leisure agricultural park was the ease of maintaining social distance, while the least important criterion was the distance from a leisure agricultural park. Further, the successful recommendation rate using the proposed methodology was as high as 90%.

Innovations on Dementia Advocacy among Students of a Medical University in Taiwan

In 2017, Taiwan established Dementia Action Plans 2.0 to respond to the World Health Organization's call to increase dementia awareness and support for dementia carers. However, efforts have not yet been made to educate and increase dementia literacy on the younger generations. This paper addressed the outcomes to increase knowledge and information about dementia and caregiver resources to university students. 93 students participated in a two-day workshop on dementia literacy, followed by two months of advocacy in Taichung City, Taiwan. Students were divided into 14 advocacy groups and the outcome reports were categorized qualitatively using content analysis. The results showed that students were from nine departments and over one-quarter having a dementia loved one in the family. Four innovative categories were developed, including (1) dementia literacy for students and the public; (2) dementia friendly action plans; (3) dementia caregiver’s advocacy and (4) reducing dementia stereotypes. Highlights included students using social media to promote dementia literacy, face-to-face experiences to inform public education, dementia education on early onset dementia and using diverse bio-psycho-social angels to evaluate dementia. Students expanded advocacy to many social media, innovations and target areas, including Facebook, Instagram, Google spreadsheet, stickers, postcards, illustration of children’s books and public announcement. This paper revealed that younger generations used many advocacy methods that were thinking outside of the box. In conclusion, dementia is no longer an elder’s business but young adults can bring technological, inter-generational and cultural innovations into fulfilling the goals of Dementia Global Action Plans.

Study of Caregivers, Job Stress and Burnout of Long Term Care Institution in Taichung City

The purpose of this study was to analyze the job stress and burnout of long-term caregiver (LTC), and the relationship between them. A total of 250 valid questionnaires were collected from caregivers of LTC in Taichung, Taiwan. After statistical analysis, the results show that: 1. LTC feel the highest job stress is “having to make a decision immediately in case of emergency.” 2. LTC feel highest job burnout is the “when they felt tired after work every day”. 3. The LTC with junior college education level felt more pressure on “work and family balance” than those with other education levels. 4. In terms of emotional exhaustion, unmarried caregivers are higher than others. 5. LTC feel highest job stress is related to burnout. Based on the above results, this study not only proposes management implications, and but also suggestions for future research.

Analyzing Service Quality and Satisfaction by Multivariate Analysis of Variance

Due to the market openness for the competitive tobacco and liquor market, Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation has to pay attention to service quality and customer satisfaction more than before for its retailers in order to maintain its marketplace and even increase its sales. In this research, a case study at South Branch Office in Taichung City, Taiwan is conducted with the effective sample of size of 178 retailing customers through phone purchase by multivariate analysis of variance. The results show that Item 20 has the lowest satisfaction and is the only item less than the value of 3 in a 5-point Likert scale. A platform for retailers to order goods from the internet should be placed in the highest priority. In addition, the age group of 36-45 years old perceived the lowest satisfaction on Item 16, which should be the focal point. Moreover, the other focal point is that the retailers purchasing tobacco through phone purchase has the second lowest satisfaction on Item 17. The management needs to address these two issues in order to provide better service for its retailers.

A Hybrid Z-Based MADM Model for the Evaluation of Urban Resilience

Natural disasters and man-made incidents have many negative impacts on major cities, including casualties, economic losses, disruption of social order, and environmental contamination. Cities need to be resilient in order to protect people’s lives and property. Although research on urban resilience has been rapidly emerging in recent years, there are still some research gaps. The interplay of attributes for assessing urban resilience has not been explored, and the Multiple Attribute Decision Making- (MADM-) based framework for evaluating urban resilience is rarely studied. Therefore, this study proposes a novel model to evaluate urban resilience, the Z number-based Decision-Making Trial, and Evaluation Laboratory (Z-DEMATEL), to identify the mutual influential relationships and the weights of the attributes. In addition, the Z number-based Reference Ideal Method (Z-RIM) is used to determine the resilience capacity of cities and to suggest improvements for decision makers to develop appropriate strategies. In this study, we not only use trapezoidal fuzzy numbers to reflect the uncertainty of information but also measure the reliability/confidence of experts in the assessment. The integrated methodology is presented for the first time in this study, and we use the firmness data of six major metropolitan cities in Taiwan as an example of model demonstration. The results of the study show that population density, value of business activity, healthcare facilities, electricity supply, and number of business registrations are the most important attributes influencing the resilience of cities. Taipei City and Taichung City are the two major cities with better resilience in Taiwan based on the analysis of this study.

CITY-COUNTY CONSOLIDATION AND THE (RE)CONCEPTUALISATION OF URBAN-RURAL PLANNING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TAICHUNG CITY AND TAINAN CITY, TAIWAN

The Taiwanese central government views city-county consolidations as an effective method to strengthen national competitiveness and to balance regional development. But for local governments, consolidation presents a series of planning challenges, especially in relation to the reconstruction of planning concepts and discourses in their new territories. Aiming to understand the process, this study first proposes a typology of regional planning concepts as a conceptual tool to explore whether and how the consolidated governments (re)construct their urban-rural planning concepts, and then it examines the factors that may influence (re)conceptualisation through a comparative study of Taichung City and Tainan City. The research results show that overemphasis on using the concept of competitive city regionalism to balance regional development at the national level may lead to a widening of rural-urban disparities at regional and local levels.

Importance Performance Analysis of Service quality for Locals and Expats in Indian Restaurants in Taiwan: Case Study

In the recent era, service quality has played a key role in each organization. This study aims to evaluate the service quality performance of ChilliesineIndian restaurants located in Taichung city of Taiwan. In this context, we have adopted the DINERSERV questionnaire after reviewing various literature. Importance performance analysis methodology has been used to understand the service performance of each service item. The study will evaluate and analyze the service quality desired as per the customer in Taichung city under the context of the service quality. IPA being a marketing tool to give a vivid picture for managers to make decision and understand their competitive advantage and improve on the rest.

Genetic differentiation of Xylella fastidiosa following the introduction into Taiwan

The economically important plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa has been reported in multiple regions of the globe during the last two decades, threatening a growing list of crops and industries. Xylella fastidiosa subspecies fastidiosa causes disease in grapevines (Pierce's disease of grapevines, PD), a current problem in the United States (US), Spain, and Taiwan. We studied PD-causing subsp. fastidiosa populations and compared the genome sequences of 33 isolates found in Central Taiwan with 171 isolates from the US and two from Spain. Phylogenetic relationships, haplotype network, and genetic diversity analyses confirm that subsp. fastidiosa was recently introduced into Taiwan from the Southeast US (i.e., the PD-I lineage in Georgia based on available data). Recent core genome recombination events were detected among introduced subsp. fastidiosa isolates in Taiwan and contributed to the development of genetic diversity, particularly in the Houli District of Taichung City in Central Taiwan. Unexpectedly, despite comprehensive sampling of all regions with high PD incidences in Taiwan, the genetic diversity observed include contributions through recombination from unknown donors, suggesting that higher diversity exists in the region. Nevertheless, no recombination event was detected between X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa and the endemic sister species Xylella taiwanensis. In summary, this study improved our understanding of the genetic diversity of PD-causing subsp. fastidiosa after invasion to a new region.