Student Number : 9900280X - MSc (Eng) dissertation - School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering - Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment / The flow characteristics of an on-line analyser were measured using a stimulus – response technique. The analyser was developed for monitoring homogeneous catalyst concentrations in a non-aqueous solution and it was considered important to limit dispersion effects between sample injection and measuring points. Various tube lengths between these points were used and the system was operated over a range of flow rates. The detectors employed were electrochemical in nature and of two different designs. The residence time distributions of the system were determined experimentally and analysed by the method of moments and frequency techniques. As expected dispersion of the sample decreased as tube length decreased and flow rate increased. An attempt was made to fit the experimental results to the axially dispersed plug flow model. This was only successful over a limited range of the variables.

This thesis deals with the cognitive process of cinematic character construal and explores the question of how narrative film viewers presumably understand characters and make impressions about them as a result of the interplay of different types of schema. Based on the cognitive concept of schema (Barlett [1932] 1995), Speech Act Theory (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969) and cognitivist film theory (Bordwell,1985), a cognitive framework, which is inscribed within the cognitive stylistics theories and analytical frameworks, is proposed for character impression formation. The model posits that viewers understand characters in terms of the interactions between three planes of background knowledge: 1. Social knowledge (knowledge of real-life people, social roles, and interpersonal relations), 2. Narrative film knowledge (knowledge of film narrative, style and techniques), 3. Pragmalinguistic knowledge (knowledge of linguistic and pragmatic norms. The focus of the linguistic plane is on Speech Act Theory). This research argues that film draws on medium-specific, multimodal devices to tell the story and create characters. With regard to the multimodality of film discourse, this thesis suggests a toolkit for character creation and comprehension. The three planes of social, film and pragmalinguistic schemas and also the marked aspects of the suggested cinematic character creation toolkit are all applied to three art auteur films: The Piano Teacher (2001), Autumn Sonata (1987), and Ten (2001), whose comprehension is challenging for viewers Pragmalinguistic because of their deviations from the conventional norms of Hollywood cinema in terms of narrative, characterization, cinematic style and techniques. Methodologically, this analysis is informed by multimodal analysis (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996), and multimodal transcription (Baldry and Thibault, 2006) in particular, which consider text as an ensemble of different communication modes all of which contribute to meaningmaking. Thus, this analysis presents a detailed account of viewers' plausible understanding trajectory, and an explanation of linguistic and visual/cinematic strategies to narrative (as the context in which characters are created and developed), and particularly character creation within the scope of the films mentioned above.

Television permeates our daily lives. Ninety seven per cent of New Zealand households have a television set and the average watching time is estimated at 20 hours per week (Grimes and Tyndall, 1999). This exposure to television has been recognised as an important factor in the way we see and identify ourselves as a nation - how we seek to find signs and symbols that construct a shared identity and culture that make us New Zealanders and distinguish us from other nations.Using narrative theory combined with critical discourse analysis this thesis aims to show that, even in factual programmes, stories can be constructed that convey messages of nationhood and belonging, creating and recreating a national identity that present New Zealanders in a positive way and seek to bind them as a nation.Three episodes of the television series Heartland, a popular documentary in the mid-1990s that explored the people and lifestyles in different locations around New Zealand, were selected for analysis focusing on narrative structure, the social actors and the role of the narrator. Critical discourse analysis was employed to look at the connection between language, image and text, and discursive practices as well as the relationship the text has in a socio-cultural context.The analysis found that the programmes followed a similar narrative structure to that of a fictional story involving changes in states of equilibrium that created a sense of concern or anxiety associated with what it means to be a New Zealander. However the subsequent resolution of these anxieties combined with the entertaining role of the programme presenter Gary McCormick and the involvement of social actors, resulted in a version of New Zealand's national identity being represented as a reality through a positive discourse of the population working towards a socially and culturally harmonious society.

By integrating an electrochemical deposition process and a silicon chip manufacturing process, a chemical sensor based on a floating gate field-effect transistor was developed. The sensor was fabricated using the standard 0.35μm CMOS process with minimal post-processing. A pH-sensitive organic polymer was electrochemically deposited on the “pseudo” floating gate extension. This “pseudo” floating gate extension was an external area connected to the floating gate of the testing device. By monitoring the change of the current-voltage characteristics during exposure to the gas phase of the chemical aqueous solution, the sensor was shown to be feasible with a reasonable sensitivity. / May 2007

The enterprises of cable TV have to face much more pressure than ever; the reason is not only the rapid development of information technology but also the changes of market demand and the competition of the same business in Taiwan. In order to strengthen the competitive force in the radical market, cable TV companies have started to make plans and financial investments of adopting Information Systems (IS). Even though the cable TV firms have recognized the benefits of IS adoption, but they are still looking for the more efficient way of using IS to improve the business. Based on the significance of IS adoption and the lack of related empirical studies, this research endeavors to examine the factors which affect the cable TV enterprises on their tendency to adopt IS. The factors are selected from four dimensions¡G Characteristics of IS, characteristics of IS supplier, characteristics of environment, characteristics of organization. The important discoveries of this research as follows: 1. The operating structures of IS will affect the effectiveness of the cable TV companies. 2. The frequency of IS replacement will affect the measurement of cost by their cognition in cable TV firms. 3. The distinct style of leadership will affect the training time and cost of the new IS adoption. 4. The most of investigated firms are satisfied with the IS they adopted. 5. The capability of consultants fitted with the awareness of the Cable TV enterprises. 6. The group cable TV firms value the marketing share of IS suppliers more than the independent ones. 7. The group cable TV firms have less competitive pressure than the independent ones. 8. The large scale of cable TV firms have much more investment of IS than the small ones. 9. The smaller cable TV firms value the support of executive managers more than the bigger ones.

Abstract According to the studies about testing the timing abilities of funds, they used only one kind of index as a benchmark to test the timing abilities of funds, but it¡¦s not fair. Each kind of funds form its owned portfolio based on its unique goals. So if we test the timing abilities of funds by using the same benchmark, we will neglect the difference between different kinds of funds. Therefore, I use three rate of return of indices (index of price of small corporations, index of price of electron industry and Y9999) as benchmarks for three kinds of funds (funds investing in small corporations, funds investing in tech-related industries, funds investing other industries). I find that testing the timing abilities of funds by using suitable index as benchmark for different funds can get more funds with significant timing abilities. Since the funds are managed by professional fund-managers, they must know how to analysis macro-information well known in public and get some helpful information to decide when to invest. In this study, I test the timing abilities of funds under macro-information facts, and find that some macro-information facts will significantly affect the performance of funds and the model will be more significant. The timing ability of each fund is different, and there must be something making it different. According to the past studies, there were several characters of funds significantly affecting the performance of the funds. That means the characters of funds may affect the strategies of investments, so they may also affect the timing abilities of funds. In this study, I find that the scale of fund and the age of the fund can affect the timing ability of a fund significantly.

This thesis studies the nonlinear characteristics of microwave devices by Volterra series because it can analyze the nonlinear devices with memory. And a nonlinear model was established by measurement data for Volterra series analysis. This content is composed of three parts. The first part devote to introduce the nonlinear phenomenon and theories of nonlinear analysis. The difference between power series and Volterra series could be realized by deriving them. The second part is to introduce the physical characteristics of pHEMTs and demonstrate the procedure of establishing small signal model and fitting nonlinear equations of currents and capacitances, and a process of nonlinear model analysis by Volterra series is shown. The third part is to describe the experimental arrangements and analyze nonlinear characteristics of pHEMTs actually with above methods. And the relationship among nonlinear sources was discussed. The device was fabricated by WIN 0.15£gm InGaAs process and measured by on wafer measurements.

Originally presented as the author's thesis, Zürich. / Bibliography: p. 318-324.

Diss.--Göttingen. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 153-164.

A revision of the author's thesis, Australian National University. / DatabaseACLS Humanities E-Book. With a new introduction by John Hirst. Includes bibliography (p. 262-275) and index.