Due to the comprehensive correlation among steel industry itself and up and down stream¡Aand it often be compared as the national power index and is also the strategic fundamental industry of a country .Besides it can change a whole industial structure and economy of a country. So no matter modern and develop- ing countries all pay a great attention in steel industry. After the rise of the giant¡XChina,it had had a great influence on world economy,at the same time it also led the globe steel industry to another golden age.But just because the wake of China,it had also had a great impact on world steel industry,in addition to the global industry itself had suffered a decade¡¦s depression led to the structural change. In Europe and America area,steel companies prefer using accquisition ,whereas asia companies prefer using strategic alliance. Besides,Taiwan steel industry had suffered some invisible crisis due to the wake of China ,the movement of the downstream industry, and the insufficient of upstream crude steel. Moreover,the No.1 steel industry of Taiwan,CSC(China Steel Company),also had suffered some decline on the major international competitence. So this thesis had already reviewed large amount of articeles,news,reports and concluded ten future trends of global steel industry.Using this ten trends to check the recent actions from CSC to see if it matched the future trends or not.Finally,this thesis use these ten trends to give some strategic advices for CSC company.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an important issue that every company should pay more attention and resource on it. Especially for companies with large operation scale like CSC Group, whether CSR is a huge challenge or a great opportunity depends on its CSR strategy. A good CSR strategy is established on the basis of a transparent and complete information platform: CSR report. The most widely-applied CSR reporting framework in the world, developed by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), guides a company to handle CSR issue by comprehensive viewpoints from economics, environment, supply chain, human rights to corporate governance and so on. CSC Group should implement an internationally-recognized reporting framework to make sure its internal and external stakeholders are clear about the company’s CSR strategy and plan. Dedicated team and resource can then be concentrated on CSR fulfillment.

An experimental investigation was carried out to examine the jet impingement and spray cooling. There are three parts in this study. The first part was investigated the effects of jet impinging positions on heat transfer from rib-roughened (square and semi-circular) channels with rotational speeds of up to 600 rpm. Results were presented for rotating number (Ro), jet impinging position, surface roughness and jet Reynolds number effects on local Nusselt numbers. The second part was studied instantaneous velocity fields for a single slot liquid microjet using MPIV. The streamwise mean velocity fields and flow evolutions with six nozzle-to-target spacing ratios of 0.86, 1, 1.2, 1.5, 2 and 3 and for eight jet Reynolds numbers Re of 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350 and 400 were measured and calculated. The third part was investigated the flow field and heat transfer mechanism for water spray and cryogen (R-134a) spray cooling. An optical image system was used to quantify the droplet size and distribution and Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) measurements to obtain the local velocity distributions. The effects of mass flow rate and average droplet velocity, and spray exit-to-target distance on the surface heat flux including the corresponding critical heat flux (CHF) were explored for R-134a which may enhance the current cryogen spray cooling (CSC) technique that assists laser therapy of dermatoses.

High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) technology has never before been used to connect a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) directly to the National Electricity Transmission System (NETS). There are both technical and economic factors which need to be considered and understood before such a technology is adopted for an NPP connection. In this thesis, both technical and economic factors surrounding the suitability of Current Source Converter (CSC) and Voltage Source Converter (VSC) HVDC technology for NPP connections are investigated. Power system models of both HVDC technologies, connected to an NPP, are studied in Power System Computer Aided Design (PSCAD) software. The studies highlight the susceptibility of CSC-HVDC technology to commutation failure during a three-phase fault condition at the inverter, and simulations demonstrate some key benefits of adopting VSC-HVDC technology for NPP connections: provision of independent reactive power support to both the NPP and AC system; black-start capability; fast current reversal for dynamic conditions; and the ability to connect to a weak High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) system. The simulations show the vulnerability of VSC-HVDC vector current control when the short circuit ratio of the AC system is very low (<1); in such cases, the Phase Locked Loop (PLL) is affected and power transfer through the VSC-HVDC link may drop to 50% of nominal rating. An economic analysis of HVDC technology development, cost and converter station size is presented. The size of a CSC-HVDC converter station can be much larger than an equivalent-rated VSC due to the additional filters required for reactive power compensation and harmonic mitigation. With the fast evolution of VSC-HVDC technology, the ratings required for an NPP connection are now available. The cost difference between the two technologies can vary from project to project and hence neither one can be ruled out for an NPP connection based only on price.

The globalization become a current tendency, and China as one of the biggest parts in the international market, plays the important role. Considering the SMEs in China occupy the main amount, Chinese SMEs are the key factors in Chinese economy. At the same time, they are also faced with fierce competition from global company that compared with other developed countries’ SMEs, Chinese SMEs are not competitive enough. One of the reasons is that their brands are lack of competitiveness. It is known to all, brand is a key strategic asset to long-term performance and it should be managed. Therefore this study is focused on how Chinese SMEs perceive brand as crucial factor for establishing competitiveness. This study is based on qualitative research, and case study research design is chosen. The semi-structured interview is conducted in the Chinese SME called CSC, and two managers and three employees were interviewed. In conclusion, it can be found that the CSC pays attention to the brand, but their brand still need to be improved to be more powerful, unique and positiveness then to reach the loyalty of consumers, and the media channels should be paid more attention

Cannabis social clubs (CSCs) in Spain are non-profit organizations that associate cannabis users. According to the Spanish criminal law drug consumption itself, as well as possession of a drug, is not considered a crime but rather an administrative offence. Yet, social club activities could possibly lower the health risk of cannabis among its users, mainly because they are avoiding the black market and they can control the drug quality as well as the amount of drug intake relating to the fixed consumption limit (Barriuso, 2005; Barriuso, 2011). The aim of the research conducted for this thesis was to reveal how Spanish CSCs function on daily basis from their members'perspective and how the cannabis cultivation and distribution is carried out. Although this is an explorative research, in addition it could indicate the possible weaknesses and strengths of this model as well as possible risks and benefits for its members. The open explorative qualitative study design was used. For data gathering qualitative data was chosen in a semi-structured focus group method (Miovský, 2006; Morgan 2001). One of the important joint activities of the social club members is cultivation of cannabis plants and sparing of the harvest just for their own consumption. As such, it's members can avoid the black market and...

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:55:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo2267_1.pdf: 3921351 bytes, checksum: e41bb7565ab8ea4825759082c478c58b (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Scaffoldings são apoios a aprendizes novatos através de uma simplificação do contexto de aprendizagem. Estes apoios são gradualmente removidos à medida que os alunos desenvolvem estratégias autônomas de aprendizagem (processo conhecido como fading ). Em ambientes de aprendizagem online, os scaffoldings podem ser implementados através de um conjunto de funcionalidades que promovam o planejamento de objetivos, auto-monitoramento, auto-avaliação, estratégias de aprendizado, procura de ajuda, e planejamento e gerenciamento do tempo. Enquanto scaffoldings do Aprendizado Auto- Regulado (AAR) têm sido discutidos em ambientes tradicionais de aprendizagem, as redes sociais online têm pouca ou nenhuma atenção neste domínio. O presente estudo é focado em scaffoldings do AAR em redes sociais, pois acreditamos que as redes sociais têm estilos de interação que influenciam mais notadamente as habilidades individuais e coletivas do AAR. Nós coletamos itens do AAR no estado-da-arte sobre metacognição e aprendizagem, definimos suas metas e sugerimos scaffoldings para o AAR em redes sociais. Cada item foi extraído a partir de vários estudos na literatura sobre Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) e o AAR; dados quantitativos e qualitativos a partir de relatórios; estudos de caso; questionários AAR e outros recursos mencionados ao longo deste trabalho. Nós implementamos os mecanismos de scaffoldings na rede social Rede Social Educacional (Redu). Redu oferece um espaço de trabalho compartilhado, onde os alunos são incentivados a publicar os seus documentos e notas de aula, enquanto o professor fornece documentos e faz comentários para a classe. Os mecanismos de scaffoldings sugeridos incluem: 1) Blogs, comentários e fórum; 2) Instruções sobre tarefas, 3) Ajuda contextual e políticas de uso; 4) Perguntas para reflexão; 5) Fluxo de atividades; 6) Criação e compartilhamento de recursos; 7) Perfil de aprendizagem, 8) Notas de aula; 9) Discussões e assitência par-a-par; 10) Exames formativos; 11) Feedback de desempenho e orientação; 12) Mecanismos de recompensa e; 13) Visualização de informação. Em resumo, este trabalho sugere que uma rede social de aprendizagem pode ser concebida para melhorar o aprendizado auto-regulado através de mecanismos de scaffoldings apropriados

Le cancer spinocellulaire (CSC) est le cancer de la peau le plus fréquent chez l’homme. Son étiologie est liée à l'exposition aux rayonnements ultraviolets (UV). Le xeroderma pigmentosum C (XP-C) est une maladie génétique caractérisée par l’absence de la protéine XPC entrainant une déficience dans la réparation des lésions dans l’ADN induites par les UV. La persistance de ces lésions chez ces patients entraine l’apparition précoce de CSC particulièrement agressifs. Les fibroblastes cutanés XP-C présentent un phénotype ressemblant à celui des fibroblastes associés aux cellules cancéreuses, suggérant un rôle promoteur dans le développement précoce des CSC XP-C. Nous avons étudié les effets des fibroblastes XP-C sur l’invasion de cellules de carcinomes. Dans des cultures organotypiques de peau, les fibroblastes XP-C favorisent l'invasion des cellules de CSC. De plus, ex vivo, la cicatrisation des cellules CSC est plus rapide en présence de surnageants de culture de fibroblastes XP-C et est due à un effet mitogénique des fibroblastes XP-C qui augmente la proportion des cellules de CSC dans la phase G2-M du cycle. Les fibroblastes XP-C surexpriment le facteur de croissance HGF qui active le récepteur c-Met et les voies de signalisation p38 et JNK dans les cellules de CSC. Le blocage de HGF entraîne l’inactivation de c-Met, p38 et JNK et bloque l'invasion des cellules CSC. De plus, nous montrons que les fibroblastes XP-C jouent un rôle de cellules « leader » dans l’invasion des CSC. Les fibroblastes XP-C créent un microenvironnement permissif à l'invasion des CSC. Des thérapies ciblant les fibroblastes XP-C pourraient permettre le contrôle de l’invasion des CSC chez les XP. / Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most frequent metastatic skin cancer. His etiology is linked to exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Xeroderma pigmentosum C (XP-C) is a genetic disorder characterized by a severe susceptibility to aggressive SCCs following minimal exposure to UVR. XP-C cells are deficient in nucleotide excision repair (NER) of UV-induced DNA lesions. XP-C dermal fibroblasts expresse a phenotype resembling that of stromal fibroblasts associated to cancer cells with accumulation of reactive oxygen species and over expression of matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP1). We explored the effects of XP-C fibroblasts on migration and invasion of SCC cells. In organotypic skin cultures, XP-C fibroblasts promote the invasion of SCC cells. Also, scratch healing of SCC cells is enhanced with culture supernatants of XP-C fibroblasts through a mitogenic effect connected to increased ratio of SCC cells in the G2-M phase of the cell cycle. We show that XP-C fibroblasts overexpress the hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF) and activate the c-Met receptor and the p38 and JNK pathways in SCC cells. Blockage of HGF inhibits c-Met, p38 and JNK activation and prevented invasiveness of SCC cells within dermal equivalents. Spheroid assays show that XP-C fibroblasts lead SCC invasions. Our data indicate for the first time that XP-C fibroblasts are responsible for the formation of a permissive microenvironment towards SCC cells proliferation and invasion. Therapies targeting XP-C fibroblasts may be considered as a way to control aggressive cancer in XP-C patients.

Most of the microelectronic circuits fabricated today are synchronous, i.e. they are driven by one or several clock signals. Synchronous circuit design faces several fundamental challenges such as high-speed clock distribution, integration of multiple cores operating at different clock rates, reduction of power consumption and dealing with voltage, temperature, manufacturing and runtime variations. Asynchronous or clockless design plays a key role in alleviating these challenges, however the design and test of asynchronous circuits is much more difficult in comparison to their synchronous counterparts. A driving force for a widespread use of asynchronous technology is the availability of mature EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools which provide an entire automated design flow starting from an HDL (Hardware Description Language) specification yielding the final circuit layout. Even though there was much progress in developing such EDA tools for asynchronous circuit design during the last two decades, the maturity level as well as the acceptance of them is still not comparable with tools for synchronous circuit design. In particular, logic synthesis (which implies the application of Boolean minimisation techniques) for the entire system's control path can significantly improve the efficiency of the resulting asynchronous implementation, e.g. in terms of chip area and performance. However, logic synthesis, in particular for asynchronous circuits, suffers from complexity problems. Signal Transitions Graphs (STGs) are labelled Petri nets which are a widely used to specify the interface behaviour of speed independent (SI) circuits - a robust subclass of asynchronous circuits. STG decomposition is a promising approach to tackle complexity problems like state space explosion in logic synthesis of SI circuits. The (structural) decomposition of STGs is guided by a partition of the output signals and generates a usually much smaller component STG for each partition member, i.e. a component STG with a much smaller state space than the initial specification. However, decomposition can result in component STGs that in isolation have so-called irreducible CSC conflicts (i.e. these components are not SI synthesisable anymore) even if the specification has none of them. A new approach is presented to avoid such conflicts by introducing internal communication between the components. So far, STG decompositions are guided by the finest output partitions, i.e. one output per component. However, this might not yield optimal circuit implementations. Efficient heuristics are presented to determine coarser partitions leading to improved circuits in terms of chip area. For the new algorithms correctness proofs are given and their implementations are incorporated into the decomposition tool DESIJ. The presented techniques are successfully applied to some benchmarks - including 'real-life' specifications arising in the context of control resynthesis - which delivered promising results. / Moderner Schaltungsentwurf fokussiert hauptsächlich synchrone Schaltungstechnik mit allen inhärenten Problemen. Asynchone (d.h. ungetaktete) Schaltungen zeichnen sich jedoch nicht nur durch das Fehlen der Taktversatzproblematik gegenüber ihren synchronen Pendents aus, sondern auch insbesondere durch geringeren Energieverbrauch, günstigere EMV-Eigenschaften, hohe Performance, Modularität und Robustheit gegenüber Schwankungen in der Spannungsversorgung, im Herstellungsprozess sowie Temperaturunterschieden. Diese Vorteile werden mit höherer Integration sowie höheren Taktraten signifikanter. Jedoch ist der Entwurf und auch der Test asynchroner Schaltungen erheblich schwieriger verglichen mit synchronen Schaltungen. Entwurfswerkzeuge zur Synthese asynchroner Schaltungen aus Hochsprachen-Spezifikationen sind zwar inzwischen verfügbar, sie sind jedoch noch nicht so ausgereift und bei weitem noch nicht so akzeptiert in der Industrie, wie ihre Äquivalente für den synchronen Schaltungsentwurf. Insbesondere fehlt es an Werkzeugunterstützung im Bereich der Logiksynthese komplexer Steuerungen („Controller“), welche kritisch für die Effizienz – z.B. in Bezug auf Chipfläche und Geschwindigkeit – der resultierenden Schaltungen oder Systeme ist. Zur Spezifikation von Steuerungen haben sich Signalflankengraphen („signal transition graphs“, STGs) bewährt, die auch als Entwurfseinstieg für eine Logiksynthese von SI-Schaltungen („speed independent“) verwendet werden. (SI-Schaltungen gelten als sehr robuste asynchrone Schaltungen.) Aus den STGs werden zwecks Logiksynthese Automaten abgeleitet werden, deren Zustandszahl aber oft prohibitiv groß werden kann. Durch sogenannte STG-Dekomposition wird die Logiksynthese einer komplexen Schaltung ermöglicht, was bislang aufgrund von Zustandsexplosion oft nicht möglich war. Dabei wird der Spezifikations-STG laut einer gegebenen Partition von Ausgangssignalen in viele kleinere Teilnetze dekomponiert, wobei zu jedem Partitionsblock ein Teilnetz – mit normalerweise signifikant kleinerem Zustandsraum im Vergleich zur Spezifikation – erzeugt wird. Zu jedem Teilnetz wird dann eine Teilschaltung (Komponente) mittels Logiksynthese generiert. Durch die Anwendung von STG-Dekomposition können jedoch Teilnetze erzeugt werden, die sogenannte irreduzible CSC-Konflikte aufweisen (d.h. zu diesen Teilnetzen kann keine SI-Schaltung erzeugt werden), obwohl die Spezifikation keine solchen Konflikte hatte. Diese Arbeit präsentiert einen neuen Ansatz, welcher die Entstehung solcher irreduziblen Konflikte vermeidet, und zwar durch die Einführung interner Kommunikation zwischen den (zu den Teilnetzen gehörenden) Schaltungskomponenten. Bisher werden STG-Dekompositionen total durchgeführt, d.h. pro resultierender Komponente wird ein Ausgangssignal erzeugt. Das führt gewöhnlich nicht zu optimalen Schaltungsimplementierungen. In dieser Arbeit werden Heuristiken zur Bestimmung gröberer Ausgabepartitionen (d.h. Partitionsblöcke mit mehreren Ausgangssignalen) vorgestellt, die zu kleineren Schaltungen führen. Die vorgestellten Algorithmen werden formal abgesichert und wurden in das bereits vorhandene Dekompositionswerkzeug DESIJ integriert. An praxisrelevanten Beispielen konnten die vorgestellten Verfahren erfolgreich erprobt werden.

La forme la plus agressive des gliomes, tumeurs cérébrales primitives, est l'astrocytome de grade IV appelé aussi glioblastome (GBM). Le pronostic des patients atteints d'un GBM est très sombre du fait de la nature infiltrante de ces cancers et de la présence de cellules souches cancéreuses (CSC) peu sensibles aux thérapies actuelles. Il est donc primordial d'étudier ces deux caractéristiques des GBM. Mes travaux de thèse ont porté sur ces deux aspects.La connaissance de l'implication de la voie de signalisation Hedgehog (Hh) dans le maintien du pool de CSC permet d'envisager de nouvelles stratégies thérapeutiques visant à les éliminer. La voie Hh joue un rôle important dans le développement embryonnaire. L'activation de cette voie a été mise en évidence dans de nombreux cancers dont les GBM. La cyclopamine est une substance alcaloïde inhibitrice de la voie Hh. L'inconvénient de l'utilisation de la cyclopamine pour une thérapie anticancéreuse est que cette voie est aussi active dans les cellules souches somatiques adultes. Pour cibler la tumeur, une prodrogue glucuronylée de la cyclopamine a été synthétisée. La partie glucuronide peut être hydrolysée par la β-glucuronidase, une enzyme présente dans la zone nécrotique des GBM, conduisant à la libération de la cyclopamine active de façon ciblée, dans le microenvironnement tumoral. Des tests de viabilité indiquent que cette prodrogue ne présente pas latoxicité de la cyclopamine envers les cellules C6 de GBM de rat, leur population de cellule souches (C6-GSC) ainsi que dans des coupes de cerveau de rat adulte. En revanche, l'hydrolyse par la β-glucuronidase de cette prodrogue permet de restaurer la toxicité de la cyclopamine sur les cellules de GBM. L'analyse par RT-qPCR de l'expression d'un gène cible de la voie Hh, le facteur de transcription GLI1, permet de vérifier l'inhibition spécifique de la voie Hh par la cyclopamine dans les cellules C6 et les C6-GSC. Ainsi, la prodrogue en libérant la cyclopamine dans l'environnement tumoral devrait permettre de limiter l'étendue des effets de la drogue sur les cellules saines du cerveau.La voie Hh joue un rôle dans la régulation de la migration et de l'invasion des cellules de GBM. Mon équipe d'accueil a montré que le vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) régule la migration et l'invasion de deux lignées cellulaires M059K et M059J. Dans ce travail de thèse, les effets du VIP et de son analogue le pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide(PACAP) sur la migration et l'invasion des cellules C6 de rat et U87 humaines ont été étudiés. Les résultats obtenus indiquent que les agonistes VIP, PACAP-38 et l'antagoniste synthétique VIP10-28 des récepteurs de ces peptides contrôlent la migration et l'invasion dans les deux lignées de GBM. Le VIP et le PACAP-38 inhibent l'invasion ex vivodes cellules C6 dans des coupes de cerveau. De plus, le VIP10-28 augmente la migration et l'invasion de ces cellules de façon PKA-, Akt- et Hh-dépendante. L'étude des voies detransduction impliquées dans l'action des neuropeptides sur la migration et l'invasion des GBM a ensuite été approfondie. Les données obtenues indiquent que le VIP et le PACAP diminuent le taux de la forme active nucléaire de la protéine GLI1 dans les cellules C6 et U87 de façon PKA-dépendante. Inversement, le VIP10-28 augmente l'expression de GLI1 dans les cellules C6 de façon Akt-dépendante. Enfin, nous avons constaté que le PACAP diminue la phosphorylation d'Akt dans les cellules C6 etaugmente celle de la protéine PTEN, en accord avec le rôle de ces kinases dans la régulation de la migration cellulaire et de l'activité GLI1. L'ensemble de ces résultats indique que le système VIP-récepteurs régule la migration et l'invasion par des interactions entre les voies PKA, Hh et Akt/PTEN dans les cellules de GBM. / The most aggressive form of glioma, primary brain tumors, is grade IV astrocytoma also called glioblastoma (GBM)...