Economic and trade exchanges have become more and more frequent between China and Taiwan in recent years. After decades of confrontation, it is finally evident that a tighter ice-breaking relationship exists now between the two governments reinforced by an inseparable historical relationship between the two peoples. Accordingly, both governments have established responsible organizations - the Mainland Affairs Council and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits ¡V to coordinate and solve the demands of the people. As a result of positive changes in policy, one of the main expected benefits amongst more commercial opportunities are the cross-strait direct flights. In recent years, difficult times have hit Taiwan's airline industry coming initially from a highly competitive domestic airline environment, followed by the establishment of the High-Speed Rail system and further dragged down from the Financial Crisis. The result was a reduction in market share and revenues far below the levels in its boom years forcing players to reduce the number of flights and routes to various parts within Taiwan and shutdown of one of the major domestic airlines. However, after the announcement and release of the new cross-strait direct-flight policy, Taiwan's airline industry is expected to recover from this depression and come to life. Nevertheless, the most significant issue is how the Taiwanese airlines will implement their marketing strategies to establish a strong position for themselves within the Taiwan market. Therefore, this study aims Therefore, this study aims to use a case study approach to analyze cross-strait direct-flight strategies, and it is hoped that this research can be used as a reference for airlines to establish their strategic planning and an appropriate business model for the future. The process and abstract of this research are as follows: 1) Gain a clear understanding of direct-flight policy and analyze the current status of the airlines industry 2) Analyze market potential and business opportunities for the airline industry arising from the direct-flight policy 3) Evaluate prevailing growth strategies for the airline industry moving forward 4) Case Study of China Airlines: Operating Performance and Industry Environmental Analysis 5) Study and provide recommendations on cross-strait direct-flight strategies for China Airlines

To ran a DMFC without methanol crossover is the aim of this study.It is done by supplying fuel no more than what the anode can consume. The first is to explore the factors that may affect the time constant of vapor feed DMFC. In order to reduce the time constant of current decline, first, we decrease store tank¡¦s space of methanol with different structure of unipolar plate. Second, we reduce the thickness of anode stack and the space above the air bleed valve. Using slide plate instead of air bleed valve can shorten the diffuse distance effectively and reduce the time constant of current rise curve. The second is to explore the impact of supply of methanol on steady-state current of system. Using air bleed valve, because of its high gas tightness, the utilization rate of methanol can exceed 94% without crossover. It was found that in the slide plant experiment, steady-state current value depends mainly on the pore size of slide plate, and resistance value has nothing to do. However, the resistance value is lower, the time required to reach steady-state current is shorter. The third is to explore if the performance decay after long time test of steady-state current. It was found that the performance of MEA will decay while the water content of membrane decreased.

Regarding the development of leadership theory, for long, mostly it starts from the Western point of view. However, owing to the different cultural background perspectives, the leadership in Western society is vividly different from that within Chinese society which is so called Paternalistic Leadership. In Chinese society, the relationship between supervisors and subordinates emphasizes their different roles¡¦ regulations and behaviors¡¦ forecasting, not only their dyadic relationships. Meanwhile, the power distance between supervisors and subordinates is huge. These factors are different from the Western society in which their rights between supervisors and subordinates are equivalent. Subsequently, the Paternalist Leadership has three vital categories, each having subordinate responses which all imply that the Paternalist Leadership is based on the followership of subordinates. Furthermore, ¡§trust¡¨ is a vital discussed issue in the field of organizational behavior, no matter in sociology, social psychology, marketing theory, etc. Trust relationship between supervisors and subordinates enhances the coordination and efficiency of their jobs and likewise, because people trust each other¡¦s goodwill the cost of monitoring will be decreased. Thus, this study, collecting 194 dyadic data, tries to discuss the employees¡¦ effectiveness while subordinates¡¦ trust in their direct leader¡¦s Paternalistic leadership behaviors. The findings of this study show that while subordinates trust in their direct leaders, there is no moderate effect in organizational citizenship behaviors and job performance. However, trust in leadership has partial moderate effects on subordinates to supervisors¡¦ satisfaction and turn-over rate, and further, it has stronger effects on subordinates to organizational commitment. In other words, while subordinates trust in their direct leaders, it transforms the subordinate¡¦s attitude in indirect behaviors. If subordinates can trust their direct supervisors, it will influence the attitude of subordinates¡¦ psychological level, and this psychological effect enhances the attitude of organizational identification and commitment. That is, subordinates¡¦ trust in their direct leaders is a vital factor to influence their inner minds. Finally a concrete brief on the limitations of the study, further research direction in the future and how the study is related to management in the real world is presented.

A theoretical model and numerical simulation of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is developed to simulate the reaction mechanisms and the cell voltage under several different designing parameters and operational conditions. The results of a numerical simulation include the distributions of the proton current density, the concentration of methanol, the electrochemical reaction rates, the overpotential losses, and the pressures within proton exchange membrane layer, catalyst layer and diffusion layer. In addition, the influence of aforementioned operational conditions on methanol crossover in a direct methanol fuel cell is also investigated. Finally, the results of the model are compared to the results from the experimental work. The results show that increasing of temperature, pressure and anode catalyst loading can enhance the performance of a direct methanol fuel cell, and the concentration of methanol plays an important role in its performance. The optimal concentration of methanol for a direct methanol fuel cell is about 2M. Methanol crossover can be suppressed by decreasing methanol concentration and increasing thickness of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM). However, under operating condition of high current density, thick PEM and low methanol concentration will cause large concentration overpotential and ohmic losses, respectively.

A widely respected consultancy firm predicts that the amount of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into the petrochemical sector in China will reach USD 30 billion between 2000 and 2005. If we consider the huge investments in China announced by several renowned petrochemical MNCs (multinationals) such as BP, Exxon Mobil and Shell, we can quickly conclude that the chemical market in China has become one of the most attractive for investments. In a similar way, Company X has also followed this trend and increased its investment more than 250 Million USD in China. An interesting question arises, namely, why is China able to attract such huge investments from so many well-known MNCs including Company X ? What kind of operation risks are entailed when entering this attractive market still under communist rule? Further, why by contrast, is there so much less investment by this multinational company X in Taiwan ? My research has two objectives which can be summarized as follows : • To verify if the entry mode chosen by Company X accords with the academic theory about which I have learned in the IEMBA course. • To provide some clues about the entry modes for new entrants who are interested in investing in the chemical market either in Taiwan or in China. In principle, companies who want to go international can choose from a wide range of alternatives when deciding how to participate markets in the world. Firms use basically six different modes to enter foreign markets: (1) exporting, (2) turnkey projects, (3) licensing, (4) franchising, (5) establishing joint ventures with a host country firm and (6) setting up a whole owned subsidiary in the host country. Each entry mode is accompanied with respective advantages and disadvantages of which has to be evaluated by the concerned company to meet its needs in a specific business/ market environment. Traditionally, it has been usually the core competence and the extent of market openness for MNCs to drive the choices of entry mode into a new market. Key words: Entry Modes, Multinationals, Foreign Direct Investment

Endohedral metallofullerenes have special structures, therefore we are interested in. High-temperature laser vaporization method and direct current arc discharge method, which are the two methods for preparing endohedral metallofullerenes. Here we study the preparation of endohedral metallofullerenes by direct current arc discharge method, which uses two graphite rods as electrode and vaporizes the one which infill metal complex in high temperature and low helium gas pressure environment. We study in some metal complexes such as Mo(C5Ph5)2, Fe(CO)9, Ag and Au. After reaction, we collect the soot produced in reaction and choose different solvents to separate the products from it with Soxhlet extraction.

Cosmetic market has evolved and becomes a fashion trend in this abundance of material modern society. It is a smooth transition from ¡§for woman¡¨ in the old-fashioned society to today¡¦s new breed ¡§for man¡¨ outburst. It is also the revolution from the ¡§external care products¡¨ to ¡§internal care products.¡¨ The marketing channel has even involved into multi-diversified channels to reach the variety of consumers. As the result, the current global ¡§in-take¡¨ cosmetic market has reached to 46.7 billion USD. Under the advocate of this new concept, Taiwan¡¦s food market is also growing quietly and steadily. When a consumer is considering a cosmetic product in this rapid changing market, their buying desire often depends on their knowledge of the product¡¦s value through self-recognition. This dissertation will conduct a detail examination on the consumers¡¦ cognitions, affect and conation regarding the different channels of the product information source. From this study¡¦s objects in the ¡§drinkable cosmetic¡¨ market, we can concentrate on: 1.Consumers who possess the direct experience with the drinkable cosmetic has a significant affect than those who do not possess the same experience. 2.In comparison with advertisement affect, the consumers who had direct experience has had a greater impression regarding the product. 3.The cross functional between ¡§direct experience¡¨ and ¡§product involvement¡¨ does not consist affect on the studied result. Therefore, despite the different levels of product involveness from the consumers, it will not affect their direct experience nor advertisement affect. It will also not affect the consumers¡¦ buying desire. This research is focusing on the cosmetic market¡¦s new concept on care product, which is the drinking product. Even though the study is concentrating on this later developed market, there are still many aspects of the research that can be further discussed.

Direct RF modulation on semiconductor lasers of wavelength 1310 nm has been widely applied to amplitude modulation vestigial side-band(AM-VSB)lightwave cable television (CATV) systems. The channel capacity is limited mainly by the nonlinear distortion of laser diode, which induces system performance degradation of composite second order (CSO) and composite triple beats (CTB). Though the linearity of laser diode has been improved during the fabrication process, carrier to noise ratio (CNR), CSO, and CTB were still degraded by increasing either RF output power level or the channel loading. Thus, some linearization techniques were proposed to extend the channel capacity. The predistortion approach is the simplest and the lowest cost one among the techniques. This paper describes a distortion compensation method with an electrical ¡§branch¡¨ circuit configuration, which is designed to reduce the nonlinear distortion induced by the laser diode. In this architecture, we utilize the method of impedance non-matching and the reflection of signals. According to the experiment results, we have found that before predistortion compensation, CNR / CSO / CTB are 51.6 dB / 62 dBc / 70 dBc, respectively. After compensation, CNR / CSO / CTB are 51.5 dB / 70 dBc / 71 dBc, respectively. Comparing with and without the distortion compensation, we found that CSO has an improvement with 8 dB, which reveals that the predistorion circuit improves the linearity of laser obviously. This study may give a guideline of predistortion technique and help to design optical transmitter.

Whole sorghum kernels were directly processed into whole grain snacks with acceptable texture. Extrudates made from whole sorghum had a harder gritty texture than those made from decorticated materials. Extrusion of whole sorghum provides significant savings in processing: there are no dry matter losses; no equipment or energy is required for decortication or milling; the extruder consumes less power and processes more material per time unit. In addition, the extruder utilized is a simple adiabiatic, friction extruder of relatively low cost. Grinding whole sorghum and removing fines did not improve product expansion during extrusion but altered the gritty pieces in the extrudates. The best products were obtained when whole sorghum (ground or un-ground) was extruded at 14% moisture. The whole sorghum extrudates had larger bubbles with thick cell walls, which made extrudates more crunchy. Decortication of sorghum improved extrusion performance and products by allowing adequate formation and retention of air cells. Decortication to remove 20% of the original sorghum weight was enough to produce extrudates with characteristics comparable to those made from commercial yellow corn meal. Sorghum milled fractions with composition and particle size distribution similar to corn meal produced extrudates with higher expansion, lower bulk density and similar texture. In addition, sorghum extrudates were rated equal to corn meal extrudates by a taste panel for appearance, flavor, texture and overall characteristics. Extrudates made from polished rice were less expanded and whiter than extrudates made from sorghum. When processed under similar conditions, sorghum extrusion required more energy than corn meal extrusion. However, whole sorghum extrusion required less energy than corn meal extrusion. Unground sorghum samples (decorticated or non-decorticated) produced harder extrudates compared to those made from ground raw material. White sorghum is a feasible option for snack extrusion because of its versatility, product characteristics, cost and processing properties.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a debilitating condition that afflicts 4.8 million Americans with an increasing incidence. Each year, there are an estimated 400,000 new cases. The incidence is on the rise as the age of the population is increasing and because most people are surviving their first heart attack. Pharmacological therapies are improving, yet many patients still reach end-stage heart failure and there are too few donor hearts available. This thesis is presented as a first small step in a long process in the design and development of a novel cardiac assist device that would ultimately heal a diseased heart by the process of ventricular recovery. The device acts to restore the kinematics of a diseased heart by modulating the extra ventricular displacements. The first surgery / trial were conducted on a bovine at the Veterinary School at Texas A&M University. Main objectives of the surgery were to test the method of attachment of the device and power requirements of the device. Details regarding the design and construction of the device have been presented in the thesis.