The rising aging population contributes to increased caregiver burden and a greater need for long-term care services, thereby posing stronger financial burden. The current study aimed to examine the effect of income, risk-taking propensity, personality traits, and life experience on the ownership of and intention to own private long-term care insurance (LTCI). Primary data were collected from 1373 registered nurses with a minimum of two years of full-time working experience. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the relationships between ownership of LTCI and personal discretionary income, risk propensity, openness to experience, and life experience. Personal discretionary income was a crucial positive indicator in predicting ownership of LTCI. Higher risk-taking propensity was found to be negatively related to both currently own and future intention to own private LTCI. Participants who currently live with elders and who agree to caregiving responsibilities with government-provided cash allowance showed future intention to purchase LTCI. Little evidence was found for an association between life experience and future intention to own LTCI. Income, risk-taking propensity, and personality traits differ in their impact on ownership of and future intention to own LTCI. Our results provide policy makers with a better understanding of the forces driving demand in the private LTCI market, as well as the accompanying implications for public LTCI.

Servant leadership starts with an individual whose main interests are to serve, inspire and lead followers. Thus, the servant leader is an individual who is always pursuing and looking for better ways to achieve shared goals with fellow workers. The current study investigates the influencing mechanism of servant leadership on job satisfaction based on the social identity theory. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to develop a model of perceived insider status that mediates the relationships between servant leadership and employee job satisfaction. Data were collected from matched 90 leaders and 285 followers from the service industry in Taiwan. To avoid common method variance issue, we collected data across three-time points from two different sources. The statistical analyses included descriptive analysis, correlational approach, confirmatory factor analysis, and multi-level analyses. Using the bootstrapping method, the indirect effects of servant leadership on job satisfaction via perceived insider status were found to be significant. This study underscores the importance of encouraging leaders to engage in servant leader behaviors, thereby enhancing followers' perception as insiders and improving followers' job satisfaction. Since servant leaders focus on employee-oriented tactics, it is essential to train leaders to enhance followers' intrinsic motivation and shape their perceptions of belongingness and effectiveness.

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Nanosized tungsten carbide (nanoWC) has been widely studied and applied in many industries as hard materials since it has good combination of high hardness and strength. Thermal mechanical alloying method consisting of high-energy ball milling and subsequent carbonization is a common synthetic approach to prepare nanoWC. In this paper, a special milling process has been reviewed, in which the dielectric barrier discharge plasma (DBDP) is introduced, for the preparation of nanoWC. The DBDP milling renders the W+C powders with specific flake-like structure possible owing to the cooperative effect of DBDP and mechanical milling. The obtained W+C powders are activated significantly within shortened milling period. Furthermore, pure nanoWC powders can be synthesized after subsequent carbonization at a significantly lowered temperature. DBDP milling is demonstrated to be an efficient way to synthesize nanoWC.

Objectives: This study examined the factors associated with better accreditation outcomes among nursing homes. Method: A total of 538 nursing homes in Taiwan were included in this study. Measures included accreditation scores, external factors (household income, Herfindahl–Hirschman Index, old-age dependency ratio, population density, and number of older adult households), organizational factors (hospital-based status, chain-affiliated status, occupancy rate, the number of registered nurses or nurse aides per bed, and bed size), and internal factors (accountability, deficiencies, person-centered care, nursing skills, quality control, and integrated care). Results: Bed size, hospital-based status, accountability, deficiencies, person-centered care, nursing skills, quality control, and integrated care were found to predict accreditation. Conclusion: Among all variables in this study, the quality indicators contributed to the most variation, followed by organizational factors. External environmental factors played a minor role in predicting accreditation. A focus on quality of care would benefit not only the residents of a nursing home but also facilitate its accreditation.