Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Allen Featherstone / The Company is comprised of retail and w holesale agri-input outlets, toll/contract manufacturing and various departments that aid in three tiers of the supply chain. The Company Department 2’s principal goal is to earn a profit and that is achieved by helping their retail customers succeed across Division M. Therefore, a comprehensible strategy for selecting, positioning and promoting wholesale products and services is fundamental in uncovering actual value. The Company has grown to be one of the nation’s foremost agricultural distributors across the United States. Various geographies across the United States, excluding the region, have moved to a three-tier supply chain by merging retail and wholesale outlets. Currently, value demanded from end-users and retail outlets has been supplied from the wholesale level that has sustained the four-tier supply chain a cross the region of the United States. Even though the Company is vertically integrated, their knowled ge and core offerings originate from the retail segment of the supply chain. Retail firms that provide differentiated products and services with the most value to the end-user are those that fit the Company Department 2’s market. In addition, targeted retail fir ms emphasize a full-service business model by supplying produ cts and services across multip le categories. Company Department 2 provides value internally and externally. The three core areas from Company Department 2 are proprietary products, precision products and services, and other retail services valu able to retail customers. Positioning of these core areas differs based on the depth of the current relationship. A flanking strategy is proposed for prospective customers by bundling prestige goods and distribution innovations specifically in the focused proprietary line of products. A guerilla strategy is proposed for existing customers by highlighting product proliferation and improved services across all three of the core areas. Both strategies emphasize advertising and promotion, but more intensive campaigns are proposed with prospective customers. These positioning strategies and tactics are accomplished through accurate implementation at the field level. By risking a claim for what Company Department 2 stands for, communicating how value is created for a customer and communicating the reliability of these offerings, Company Department 2 will develop a unique identity in the marketplace.

In organometallic chemistry, metal complexes bearing unsaturated hydrocarbon ligands are of extensive interest, especially the C3H3-M system which includes propargyl (HC¡ÝCCH2-M), allenyl (H2C=C=CH-M), and acetylide (H3CC¡ÝC-M) forms. To study the chemistry of these species on metal surfaces, we used proprargyl bromide (HC¡ÝCCH2-Br) as precursor to produce C3H3(ad) on Ag(111) under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions. The thermal reactions pathway was investigated by Temperature-Programmed Desorption (TPD), and Reflection-Absorption Infrared Spectroscopy (RAIRS). In addition, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were conducted to obtain the optimized geometry for the adsorbates, and the computed IR spectra facilitated the vibrational mode assignments. TPD spectra showed that hydrogenation products C3H4 evolved at 310 K and 475 K. However, the desorption peak at 310 K was broad, indicating that more than one species were encompassed. Besides the hydrogenation product, a coupling product C6H6 (2,4-hexadiyne) was also unveiled as part of the desorption feature at 475 K. The identity of the possible C3H4 hydrogenation products (propyne and/or allene) was not discriminable by the mass spectrometry. The problem was circumvented by using £\,£\-dimethyl-substituted propargyl chloride because this dimethyl-substituted species also resulted in hydrogenatioin products around 310 K and 475 K, respectively; and the corresponding allenic and acetylenic end-products are distinguishable by the mass spectrometry. The results indicated that the broad feature at 310 K, in fact, contained both allene (lower temperature) and propyne (higher temperature), whereas the hydrogenation product at 475 K was propyne. The RAIR spectrum at 200 K showed that all C3H3(ad) on Ag(111) readily took on the allenyl form after the C-Br bond scission. It is thus obvious that allene at 310 K was generated by adding one hydrogen to the £\-carbon of the surface allenyl. RAIR spectroscopy revealed a drastic change after annealing the surface to 250 K, where the spectrum was almost identical to that obtained from using propynyl iodide (H3C-C¡ÝC-I) as a direct source for methylacetylide (H3C-C¡ÝC-Ag). Consequently, the products of propyne and 2,4-hexadiyne could be reasoned out.

none

The C54 TiSi2 thin films are widely applied in semiconductor devices due to the low electric resistance and high thermal stability. Through the annealing processing in this study, the metastable C49 TiSi2 with an electric resistivity of 219.3 £g£[-cm transforms to the stable C54 TiSi2 phase at a higher annealing temperature, with a resistivity of 30.5 £g£[-cm. Hence the transformation temperature of C49 ¡÷ C54 is of great concern in metallization of gates and local interconnections. In this thesis, it is found that the oxygen content and Ag addition impose significant influence on the transformation temperature of C49 ¡÷ C54. The as-sputtered TiSi2 thin films are confirmed to be amorphous. After annealing at 600oC or 900oC, the silicides would transform to the metastable C49 TiSi2 or C54 TiSi2 phase, respectively. The current transformation temperatures are much higher than 200oC and 600oC for the normal TiSi2 system, due to high oxygen content in the current films (up to 15-20 at% as a result of our old sputtering system). Nevertheless, the co-sputtered TiSi2 thin films with 5 and 20 at% Ag can decrease the formation temperature of C54 TiSi2 phase to 800oC. Compare with the as-sputtered TiSi2 thin films, the desirable electric resistivity of the C54 phase in the 20 at% Ag thin films is also further reduced to 22.9 £g£[-cm. The time-dependent mechanical responses of the amorphous, crystalline C49, and C54 TiSi2 thin films are investigated by room-temperature nanoindentation at the different loading rates ranging from 0.0125 to 5 mN/s. The anelasticity response plays an important role in the current TiSi2 thin films and is found to be sensitive to the loading rate. The displacement of time-dependent anelasticity recorded during the period of hold time increases with increasing loading rate. The anelasticity behavior can be analyzed by the Kelvin model. The as-deposited amorphous phase, with a lower atomic packing density and higher degree of defects and free volumes, exhibits the higher anelasticity deformation and longer relaxation time.

none

Dissertation--Bamberg--Otto-Friedrich-Universität, 2006. / Bibliogr. p. 265-280.

Universiẗat, Diss.--St. Gallen, 1998.

Zugl.: Jena, Univ., Diss., 2006

Zugl.: Berlin, Humboldt-Univ., Diss., 2009

Zugl.: Mannheim, Universiẗat Diss., 2007.