Knock-out of Glucose Dehydrogenase Gene in Gluconacetobacter xylinus for Bacterial Cellulose Production Enhancement

Chia-Hung Kuo,Hsin-Yin Teng,Cheng-Kang Lee 한국생물공학회 2015 Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering Vol.20 No.1

Glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) locates in thecytoplasmic membrane of Gluconacetobacter xylinus oxidizesglucose to gluconic acid that decreases the conversion ofglucose to bacterial cellulose (BC). In this study, a mutantof G. xylinus was generated by knocking-out the membranebound GDH gene via homologous recombination of adefect GDH gene. The production of BC by G. xylinusmutant (GDH-KO strain) using glucose as a carbon sourcewas investigated. Without the membrane bound GDHactivity, the mutant strain still produces BC and increasesglucose utilization efficiency for cellulose biosynthesis. Incontrast, the wild-type strain oxidized a large fraction ofglucose to gluconic acid that decreased the conversionyield of glucose to BC. Our results showed that the BCproduction from GDH-KO strain was about 40 and 230%higher than that of wild-type strain in static and shakenculture, respectively.

DON’T BE A PASSING FAD: THE SUSTAINED COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF HOTELS’ THEMING STRATEGY IN CHINESE MARKET

Lee, Wen-Yin,Wang, Kuo-Ching,Wu, Ben,Chuang, Wan-Hua,Hsiao, Chia-Lin 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2018 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2018 No.07

Theming has become a powerful strategy in hospitality industry to enhance customer engagement and to serve as a competitive advantage in a saturated market. Based on the resource-based theory (RBT) of sustained competitive advantage (SCA), this qualitative study is an exploratory attempt to investigate 10 hotels in Mainland China and Taiwan that have adopted the theming strategy. Introduction As hospitality industry is facing the increasingly intense competition and saturated markets, theming is continuously gaining importance of hotels strategy to survival and growth. In addition, strategy planning determines the future of firms and discover the method to achieve success (Yong & Oh, 2004). Holjevac (2003) predicted that at the beginning of the 21st century, hotels with themed strategy which characterized by a synthesis of esthetics, quality and functionality would become the future trend. Theming has created the differentiation in hospitality market, using the creation of experience-centric service. Pine & Gilmore (1999) once pointed out that the shaping of experience stems from simple and powerful thematic transmission. Moreover, experience marketing can bring preference to the product and service of the enterprise, which in turn leads to a positive value experience (Milman, 2013). The results of theming strategy will positively influence the satisfaction and return rate (Wu, M. Li, & T. Li, 2018). Theming strategy with the advantage of pursuing innovation and uniqueness was extensively used to firms in the competitive hospitality market, like hotels in Las Vegas and Macao. However, some scholars concerned about the sustainability for the strategy due to the high-capitalized cost and the customers sensitive taste (Wassler, Li, & Hung, 2015). Although hotels with themed strategy has flourished in Chinese market more than decade, market research has lagged behind to support the industry’s growth. Researchers still adopted a rather normative paradigm by either identifying the superficial issue focused on experiential market concept or pointing out problems without providing more sustainability related solutions (Zou & Peng, 2008; Xiao, Zhang, & Huang, 2013). Barney (2007) indicated that internal resources could lead to the competitive. Therefore, this study aims at understanding the factors that lead theming strategy to be sustainable in hotels, based on the resource-based theory of sustained competitive advantage. The article has the following structure. The first section establishes a theoretical foundation through a review of strategy literature on theming. The second section proposes a conceptualization of theming strategy’s sustained competitive advantage (SCA) consisting of firms intrinsic resources based on resource-based theory (RBT), also, describe the assessment of key sustainable factors of theming strategy through interview the superior manager of 10 hotels in Mainland China and Taiwan that have adopted the theming strategy. The final section discusses the study’s findings, implication, and suggests directions for future research. As this research is one of the first studies in the hospitality field that identifies the resources and capabilities of the hotels’ theming strategy from the inside viewpoint, the contribution of this study will, and can conceptualize and discover the key factors to sustain the competitive advantage of themed hotel managing strategy Literature review Theming strategy for hotels Theming is a complete and ubiquitous way of impressing consumers and improving brand awareness (Olson, 2004). From theme parks, casinos, department stores, aviation, restaurants to hotels, thematic construction has the dominant influence on most customer engagement (Mu?oz, Wood, & Solomon, 2006). Hotel theming strategy, based on the theme of cultural material (history, city story, etc.) either from surrounding area or develop within hotel, display the core value of theme from physical resources, as buildings and facilities, to invisible resources, as atmosphere and service, which would, in the end, create a valuable and unforgettable customer stay experience(Zins, 1998). Xiao, Zhang, & Huang (2013) noted that the distinctive consumer experience at the theme hotel can impress customers, and, ultimately enhances brand recognition, customer engagement and repurchase intention. On the other hand, Wassler, Li, and Hung (2015) has indicated the pros and cons for the China themed hotels, which are the uniqueness to create competitive advantages that are difficult to imitate. On the contrary, the gaining of customers’ sense of demand can lead to the difficulties to fulfill customers’ taste and the ingrained capital with the narrow development is hard to recapitalize once invested. Importance of sustainability for theming strategy. Due to the strong specific image of the themed hotels, some cases developed as a passing fad in the hospitality field. Although prior study has indicated the importance of theme selection for themed hotels (Xiao et al., 2013), seldom literature focus on the overall implementation and application within hotels’ ins and outs, also the SCA issue of hotels management. Xiao & O'Neill (2010) pointed out that the analysis of internal resource is enable manger to realize and build sources of competitive advantage, which is emanated from the resource-based view of strategy. In Resource Based Theory (RBT), scholars thought that resources and capabilities from firms could bring lasting competitive advantage to the organization, and companies that have SCA (Wernerfelt, 1984). Organization have SCAs can reach outstanding performance by constantly creating and delivering the core value through price, trust, aesthetics and functionality to its target markets (Barney, 1991). Thus, in order to observe the SCAs for themed hotels management, this research will employ on internal resource view based on RBT to explore the SCAs from the internal aspect of themed hotels. Methodology We illustrate the key factors and analyze the importance of internal resources for the SCA of hotels’ theming strategy by means of a qualitative study in which 10 hotels applied theming strategy in Mainland China and Taiwan were surveyed using semistructured interviews. For the research question, a qualitative approach offers the advantage to allow an adequate, in depth analysis of the complex relations between internal recourses and SCA of theming strategy. These 10 hotels adapted theming strategy are chosen by non-probability snowball sampling method, below Fig.1 is the hotels list for 10 interviews in Taiwan and Mainland China. In addition, because China with a vast territory is limited to cover all area, the research focuses on Zhejiang province and Shanghai city, which have well-developed economy and rich tourist resources. All interviewees of the hotels will be the superior manager who decides the core value and leads the hotel’s future. The interview will be three part to proceed. First, in warm-up period, interviewer will frame an informal and trust environment, first step is to confirm interviewees’ background. The second part will be identify period; there will be a questionnaire, which adopted Chuang (2000), whose survey to prioritize the 5 dimension of internal resources that essential to hotel theming strategy management. Finally, we will confirm the competency, competitive advantage, and the strategy to achieve the sustainability for hotels theming strategy. We present conclusions for research and practice, as well as deriving practical recommendations for hotels’ theming strategy in Chinese market based on our findings. Preliminary findings The preliminary findings of the research will base on the key themes that emerge from in-depth interview to understand perceptions of hotel managers regarding theming. The result will be presented and discussed in three period. First, based on the questionnaire result from the interviewees, we will recognize that what the priority degree about the five dimension of internal resources is regarding perception of theming in hotel strategy. Second, 10 interviews will transcribe from voice recordings to pages of text, then the text will go through the coding technique, in which the raw and efforts data will be identified as the themes and subthemes. All the analyzed process will be carried by expert triangulation. Finally, through the experts examining on the links of themes and quotations, we will create a view of framework that would explore the relationships between theming strategy and SCA, the result will find the formula for hotels adapted theming strategy to possess competitive advantage of being sustainable. Although space limitations of the conference preclude the detailed explanation of this research work, the authors believe this study will broaden the theoretical domains used in understanding internal resources and competency of hotels’ theming strategy and practical information can be observed from the findings.

A Friendly Password Mutual Authentication Scheme for Remote-Login Network Systems

Chin-Chen Chang,Chia-Yin Lee 보안공학연구지원센터 2008 International Journal of Multimedia and Ubiquitous Vol.3 No.1

In 2000, Sun proposed a user authentication scheme without using a password table but the user’s password is assigned by the server. Due to this reason, Wu and Chieu proposed an improved scheme to overcome the drawback in 2003. Their scheme provides users to choose and change passwords freely. However, Yang and Wang has presented the possible attacks on Wu-Chieu scheme in 2004. In this article, we proposed an efficient scheme to avoid the weakness of Wu-Chieu scheme. Besides, our scheme provides the feature of mutual authentication between the user and the server.

Constructing a Conversation Key in Three-Party Communications Environment

Chin-Chen Chang,Yu-Wei Su,Chia-Yin Lee 보안공학연구지원센터 2008 International Journal of Multimedia and Ubiquitous Vol.3 No.1

This article proposes an efficient, less communication rounds, three-party encrypted key exchange protocol to achieve the authentication requirement. The protocol is provided with (1) no asymmetric encryption algorithm which is adopted to reduce the costs (such as any public-key infrastructure); (2) using pre-shared key to prevent adversaries that masquerade as legal users after guessing attacks; (3) avoiding the variant man-in-the-middle attacks on Diffie-Hellman based protocols; (4) achieving mutual authentication. With these four features, the proposed protocol is suitable for being applied for establishing secure channels between two clients, which are supported with the same trusted server.

Impact Deformation Behavior of Duplex and Superaustenitic Stainless Steels Welds by Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar

Shing-Hoa Wang,Chih-Sheng Huang,Woei-Shyan Lee,Tao-Hsing Chen,Chia-Chang Wu,Hung-Yin Tsai,Charles Lien 대한금속·재료학회 2009 METALS AND MATERIALS International Vol.15 No.6

A considerable volume of γ phase increases in the fusion zone (weld metal) for two duplex stainless steels after a high-strain-rate impact. The strain-induced γ phase formation in the fusion zone results in local hardness variation depending on the strain rate. The α phase content in the fusion zone decreases as the impact strain rate increases for SAF 2205 DSS and SAF 2507 DSS. The results of the two-phase content measured by Ferritoscope correspond to that assessed by image analyses. In contrast, superaustenite stainless steel is unaffected by such an impact owing to its fully stable austenization. Impacted welds at a high strain rate of 5 × 10 3 s−1 reveal feather-like surface creases along the solidified curved columnar grain boundaries. The apparent surface creases are formed due to the presence of diffuse Lüders bands, which are caused by heavy plastic deformation in coarse-grain materials. A considerable volume of γ phase increases in the fusion zone (weld metal) for two duplex stainless steels after a high-strain-rate impact. The strain-induced γ phase formation in the fusion zone results in local hardness variation depending on the strain rate. The α phase content in the fusion zone decreases as the impact strain rate increases for SAF 2205 DSS and SAF 2507 DSS. The results of the two-phase content measured by Ferritoscope correspond to that assessed by image analyses. In contrast, superaustenite stainless steel is unaffected by such an impact owing to its fully stable austenization. Impacted welds at a high strain rate of 5 × 10 3 s−1 reveal feather-like surface creases along the solidified curved columnar grain boundaries. The apparent surface creases are formed due to the presence of diffuse Lüders bands, which are caused by heavy plastic deformation in coarse-grain materials.