This research incorporated virtual currency development factors into the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and interpreted the effects of bitcoin and fin-tech on the capital market through a deduction of the portfolio theory and innovation diffusion theory (IDT) on changes to financial stocks' value. This paper examined a total of 67,166 panel data of financial stocks in the two emerging markets of Taiwan and China between July 2016 and April 2019, presenting the following significant findings. (1) Financial stocks in Taiwan's market are more greatly shocked by the bitcoin and interaction effect between bitcoin and fin-tech than those in China's market. (2) Even after changing proxy variable or autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity are considered, the asymmetric shocks on financial stocks in Taiwan's market are still great. (3) The effects of the two variables of bitcoin and interaction with fin-tech on financial stocks are consistently important as the three-factor CAPM model. (4) Transmitted by the changes in currency supply and demand as well as exchange rate volatilities, the spillover effects of virtual currencies and financial innovation indirectly change the currency multiplier of the home country, investors' sensibility to interest rates, and balance of import and export trades and may eventually impact the gross outputs and inflation of individual economies.

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Objective: This article aims to explore the development of scholarly articles relating to couple therapy in Greater China in academic journals in the past four decades between 1976 and 2016. Method: This review analyzes 278 couple therapy articles with a focus on the question of “who are the authors?” and “what kinds of articles published?” Results: The volume of Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau articles are 90, 88, 64, and 0, respectively; 190 of them are group authorship, and the first research was published in 1984. Women are 3 times more likely than men to be the key target group, and almost two third of the works are identified as academic-led research. Conclusions: Indigenization of couple therapy research in Greater China with reference to its social and political context is addressed. The motto is, “think global but act local and promote the local to inform the global.”

This paper adopted the Boone Indicator, developed by Boone et al. (2008) and Van Leuvensteijn et al. (2011; 2013), to investigate the influence of different pass-through spread models in the competition among banks in emerging markets. With the market share of banks as a dependent variable and marginal cost as an independent variable, this paper probed into the competition among banks regarding the loan market to determine whether competition on the loan interest rates of banks affected the pass-through of monetary policy-related interest rates. After analyzing approximately 5,657 entries of records of the banking industries in Taiwan and mainland China, this paper reached three significant conclusions: 1) the Boone Indicator Model pointed out that, competition in the banking market of mainland China was more intense than that of Taiwan; 2) empirical research based on the Interest Rate Spread Model indicated that the spread of mainland China was lower than that of Taiwan; 3) the Passthrough Speed Model implied that, the interest rate sensitivity of the market of mainland China was higher than that of the Taiwan market. The above results indicate that the influence of monetary policy pass-through on the interest rate of the market in mainland China is faster than in Taiwan.

This study attempted to apply the variation theory to teach Chinese communicative writing. The aim of the study was to exhibit the students' capability of experiencing the phenomena in different ways and so showed qualitative difference in their approach to writing. It was hoped that the result would shed a new light on reducing the problem of students' writing in monotonous ways and lack of focus in the future. 38 students in a Primary 5 class took part in the study. Three learning tasks were designed and systematically structured to help to facilitate students' discernment of the critical features of Chinese communicative writing, i.e., the communicative purpose, communicative targets and communicative messages. A comparison between students' writings before and after the study revealed qualitative difference in their writings. In the post-study writing, students showed clearer purpose of communication.

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Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is currently the recommended treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, long-term chemoembolization triggers the inflammatory response and may lead to postembolization syndrome (PES). Although several types of degradable microspheres have been developed to reduce drug toxicity and PES incidence, the clinical outcomes remain unsatisfactory. Previously, we have developed a new type of spherical, calibrated, biodegradable, radiopaque microspheres (SCBRM) and demonstrated their safety and efficacy in a pig model. Thus, the goal of this feasibility study was to determine the clinical safety and efficacy of the new SCBRM in intermediate-stage HCC patients. In this study, 12 intermediate-stage HCC patients underwent TACE using SCBRM with a calibrated size of 100–250 μm. The disease control rates at 1 month and 3 months after TACE-SCBRM treatment were 100% and 75.0%, respectively. The objective response rates at 1 month and 3 months after treatment were 66.7% and 58.3%, respectively. Very few adverse events were observed with one patient developing nausea. One day after the treatment, alanine aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and total bilirubin levels were slightly elevated in the patients, but all returned to baseline on day 7. The median and mean overall survival times were 33 months (interquartile range, 12.8–42.0) and 29.2 ± 14.3 months, respectively. The 1-year and 2-year survival rates were 91.7% and 58.3%, respectively. In conclusion, TACE with the new SCBRM microspheres is clinically safe and effective, and it represents a promising approach in the management of intermediate-stage HCC.