Our study investigated the potential for a combination of diabetes and nicotine treatment to affect blood pressure in the rat. We used streptozotocin injection and oral nicotine feeding as models of type-1 diabetes and smoking respectively. Blood pressure was assessed using the indirect tail-cuff technique. In an attempt to further characterize our experimental model, we also observed body weight, plasma glucose and the contractility of aortic segments in various treatment groups. Our data was expressed as mean ± SEM, and significance was regarded as P < 0.05. We found that a combination of streptozotocin and nicotine treatment resulted in a significant elevation of systolic blood pressure compared with either treatment alone, or control. Furthermore, assessment of aortic contractility showed alteration of reactivity to both phenylephrine and sodium nitroprusside as a result of the combination treatment. We also observed a trend for our combination treatment to exacerbate the elevation of plasma glucose level seen in streptozotocin induced diabetic rat models. This study serves as an experimental basis to underline the importance of cessation of tobacco use for individuals with diabetes mellitus.

Abstract Taiwan is a potential area for selling super sport cars. In 2008, the year of financial crisis, the volume of sales in Taiwan is not only didn¡¦t descend but also rose 20~30%, even present multiple growth. It shows that the purchasing power of Taiwanese rich is astonishing, besides it can also be attributed to many brands which establish sole agent in Taiwan for the last few years, the sale and the after-sales service would be a guarantee to Taiwanese customers, so that it attract many potential consumers appear and purchase. This research focus on comparing the differences of sales strategy of the two super sport cars brands- Ferrari and Bentley in Taiwan. The product price of these two brands is over NT ten millions dollars, but their brand images are different, so their target market and sale strategies are different, either. The goal of this research is that comparing the target markets and sale combination to know these two brands how to operate and plan their sale strategy. The research analysis shows that their sales strategies are similar (especially pricing strategy, channel strategy), except for the promotion strategies, that is because of their different brand images. Key words: Ferrari, Bentley, sale strategy, target market, sale combination.

Abstract Recently, the proliferating needs of high data rate communication systems are increasing the demand for higher frequency bands with broader bandwidth. The K-band (18~26.5 GHz), which include point to point communications (18~23 GHz), ISM band (24 GHz), and automotive radar applications (24 GHz and 22~29 GHz) is one of the most important frequency bands in modern wireless communication systems. This thesis mainly includes three parts. The first part of the thesis is the introduction to the principles and characteristics for active and passive components of CMOS process and the description of common transistors , such as BJT, CMOSFET, HBT and pHEMT. The principles of resistors, capacitors and inductors in simulations is shown. It is useful for the microwave circuit design to understand the structure and characteristics of active components and passive components in CMOS process. The second part describes the design principles and characteristics of power amplifier. The third part is the design and simulation of the 2 stages cascode configuration Class A power amplifier and the 3 stages cascode configuration Class A power amplifier with power combination. There are two important scaling trends that are making CMOS increasingly attractive for RF applications. One is the well known dramatic shrinkage of device size, so that transistors in the advanced process generation of CMOS have peak fT values in excess of 55 GHz.The other is the reverse scaling of interconnect. The thicker metal layer and more layers of wiring are enabling the realization of high-quality passive components which are critical for RF circuits. CMOS is the most attractive technology for its low cost, high yield and high level of integration. However, It is challenging to design a power amplifier with high output power. In the sub-micron CMOS technology, the challenges of CMOS power amplifier design include the low breakdown voltage, low transconductance (gm), and high substrate loss as compared with SiGe HBTs GaAs HBTs and InP-GaAs HBTs technologies. We made efforts in implementing a power amplifier at K-band. The design and simulation of two power amplifier is present. One is the 2 stages power amplifier, the other is the 3 stages power amplifier with power combination. In order to realize the inductive element and capacitive element in sub-milimeter wave or millimeter wave circuit design, the short stub microstrip line and open stub mircrostrip line are used in matching networks between all stages. The cascade configuration is effective structure to minimize Miller effect in high frequency. The peak gain of 2 stages power amplifier is 17 dB at 24 GHz and the saturation output power is 20 dBm. The OP1dB is over 16 dBm. The peak gain of 3 stages power amplifier with power combination is 20 dB at 24 GHz and the saturation output power is 20.5 dBm. The OP1dB is over 15 dBm.The power amplifier with the cascode configuration and power combination techniques is designed and simulated in TSMC 0.18 um CMOS process, which provides deep n-well, and MiM capacitors.

Taiwan electron industry was development, brand of management and original equipment manufacturer is each to have the dissimilarity develop the mode, how organize the arrangement with whole combine, carry on organizational change and design to let to operate maximization, support high to grow up and high the market share is all executives must the depth consider of important subject. This research case A computer company in 2004, which won the world's motherboard market share of companies with the highest. From 2005 to 2009, enterprise merger & acquisitions brand and original equipment manufacturer to divide inheritance of organizational activity, inquire into the whole process in the business activity and fluctuating of the business organization. Also, this research case takes the A computer company-enterprise and government department as an example, in the organizational change, how to expand a business market, and anticipate with the interview, through from interview to northern, central, southern dealer and A computer company representative sales, tidy up the current conditions and problems that closed path operates, inquire into more organization design according to current market condition and organization construction.

This thesis presents and discusses research associated with locating wireless devices. Several algorithms have been developed to determine the physical location of the wireless device and a subset of these algorithms only rely on received signal strength (RSS). Two of the most promising RSS-based algorithms are the LC and dwMDS algorithms; however each algorithm has only been tested via computer simulations with different environmental parameters. To determine which algorithm performs better (i.e., produces estimates that are closer to the true location of the wireless device), a fair comparison needs to be made using the same set of data. The goal of this research is to compare the performance of these two algorithms using not only the same set of data, but data that is collected from the field. An extensive measurement campaign at different environments provided a vast amount of data as input to these algorithms. Both of these algorithms are evaluated in a onedimensional (straight line) and two-dimensional (grid) setting. In total, six environments were used to test these algorithms; three environments for each setting. The results show that on average, the LC algorithm outperforms dwMDS in most of the environments. Since the same data was inputted for each algorithm, a fair comparison can be made and doesn’t give any unfair advantage to any particular algorithm. In addition, since the data was taken directly from the field as opposed to computer simulations, this provides a better degree of confidence for a successful realworld implementation.

A mixture experiment is an experiments in which the q-ingredients are nonnegative and subject to the simplex restriction on the (q-1)-dimentional probability simplex. In this work , we investigate the robust A-optimal designs for mixture experiments with uncertainty on the linear, quadratic models considered by Scheffe' (1958). In Chan (2000), a review on the optimal designs including A-optimal designs are presented for each of the Scheffe's linear and quadratic models. We will use these results to find the robust A-optimal design for the linear and quadratic models under some robust A-criteria. It is shown with the two types of robust A-criteria defined here, there exists a convex combination of the individual A-optimal designs for linear and quadratic models respectively to be robust A-optimal. In the end, we compare efficiencies of these optimal designs with respect to different A-criteria.

Purpose¡G Many single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been found to be associated with breast cancer but their SNP interactions are seldom addressed. In this study, we focused on the joint effect for SNP combinations of seven CXCL12-related genes involved in major cancer related pathways. Patients and Methods¡G SNP genotyping was determined by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) in this study (case = 220, control = 334). Different numbers of combinational SNPs with genotypes called the pseudo-haplotypes from different chromosomes were used to evaluate their joint effect on breast cancer risk. Results¡G Except for VEGF rs3025039-CT, none of these SNPs was found to individually contribute to breast cancer risk. However, for two combined SNPs, the proportion of subjects with breast cancer was significantly low in the pseudo-haplotype with CC-GG genotypes in rs2228014-1801157 (CXCR4-CXCL12) compared to those with non-CC-GG genotypes. Similarly, the pseudo-haplotype of rs12812942-rs2228014-rs3025039 (CD4-CXCR4-CXCL12) And rs12812942-rs3136685-rs2228014 -rs1801157(CD4-CCR7-CXCR4-CXCL12)with specific genotype pattern (AT-CC-CC and AT-AG-CC-GG) among three and four combinational SNPs were significantly low in breast cancer occurrence. More SNP combinations larger than five SNPs were also addressed and shown the similar effect. After controlling for age, comparing to their corresponding non-pseudo-haplotypes, the estimated odds ratios for breast cancer ranged between 0.20 and 0.71 for specific pseudo-haplotypes with two to seven SNPs. Conclusion¡G We have identified the potential combined CXCL12-related SNPs with genotypes that were protective against breast cancer and may have an impact on identification of a low risk population for the development of breast cancer.

<p>Gene-finding programs available over the Internet today are shown to be nothing more than guides to possible coding regions in the DNA. The programs often do incorrect predictions. The idea of combining a number of different gene-finding programs arised a couple of years ago. Murakami and Takagi (1998) published one of the first attempts to combine results from gene-finding programs built on different techniques (e.g. artificial neural networks and hidden Markov models). The simple combinations methods used by Murakami and Takagi (1998) indicated that the prediction accuracy could be improved by a combination of programs.</p><p>In this project artificial neural networks are used to combine the results of the three well-known gene-finding programs GRAILII, FEXH, and GENSCAN. The results show a considerable increase in prediction accuracy compared to the best performing single program GENSCAN</p>

Road transportation grew by 3.3 % per year over the past ten years which is faster than the economic growth of 2.3 % per year. European Commission plans for an increase of 55 % for road transportation between 2000 and 2020. This growth puts pressure on current trucking industry considering fuel consumption, emissions of green house gases, and traffic congestion.  High demand logistics industry and current pressure creates trends towards flexibility and longer vehicle combinations for efficiency and to reduce the number of engines on roads, challenging the current coupling methods of the trailers.  Primary method called 5th wheel coupling comes from a similar coupling used on 4 wheel horse-drawn carriages of the 19th century which is reliable in terms of attaching truck and trailer but has significant safety, efficiency and comfort issues for driver and the vehicles-people around.  So what if hauling setup could be safer and smarter?

This study aims to explore the experiences of teaching foundation phase multi-grade classes in rural settings. I am interested in understanding how teachers teach multi-grade classes so that I am able to make sense of the challenges and opportunities that they encounter. This is a qualitative case study and is guided by the interpretive paradigm. Purposeful sampling was used to select participants. I collected data by using qualitative research methods including interviews and observations. Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed and interpreted through an open coding process. Data was synthesised and resulted in the formulation of five themes. The findings show that teachers were faced with challenges which include lack of proper training, insufficient support from stakeholders, no workshops organised for multi-grade teachers, lack of resources at school which makes teaching and learning difficult, conditions of the school and the community that are not conducive to effective teaching and learning. Recommendations include that multi-grade teachers need to receive ongoing support from stakeholders. They also need to be given pre- and in-service training so that they are aware of strategies they can use to overcome challenges that they encounter when teaching. The Department of Education needs to provide relevant support for the benefit of the learners and the community. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2011.