DLC exhibits an extreme hardness, chemical stability and optical transparency properties, which are, to a certain extent, similar to those of diamond and thus of technological importance. In the case of amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) films they can be interpreted as intermediate between diamond, graphite, and polymer-like carbon sites. The most important intrinsic hardness is protection of tools or machine parts against wear. Most modifications have been used on DLC to enhanced mechanical properties, such as reducing its internal compressive stress (N, Si, and metal incorporation), or to reduce its surface energy for further lowering of its already low friction coefficient with 0.1. Among various deposition techniques, microwave generated discharges, especially electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasmas, develop excellent a high degree of ionization, high ions densities. In this work, a novel hybrid technique for diamond-like carbon (DLC) film deposition has been developed, which combines the microwave ECR plasma discharging C2H2 and metallic magnetron sputtering. The effects of negative bias voltage and hydrocarbon flow rate for the deposition of a-C:H films on high speed steel were examined by Raman spectra, and their hardness was investigated by the Rockwell method. The Raman spectra show that at different hydrocarbon flow rate, the variation of the G line peak and width, and the integrated intensity ratio ID/IG of DLC and graphic, correlate well with the film hardness. Consequently, we suggest a deposition mechanism of DLC for this combined method.

Abstract In the few years, because of so many incentives, such as low-paid but high-quality workers and the huge demands of the people, the Mainland China attracts a lot of international corporations to invest. Of course, the minor enterprises of Taiwan, the center people of Taiwan and the pioneers to be internationalized, won¡¦t be absent in this tide of investing. However, in the past reports those used the minor enterprises of Taiwan as the projects, they did more researches about the internationalization procession, or just made some discussions from the view of the internet about the extent of their internationalization or the performance of their operation; but less about the elements and the strategies of their operation in the strange places. Besides, it¡¦s still hard to have the whole understandings, if we only discussed the international investing of the minor enterprises of Taiwan just from the view of the internet. The reason is that the minor enterprises faced some problems of themselves internally, such as small organization and the lack of resources; so it¡¦s hard to talk about competing with someone in some place externally. Therefore, I combined the Network Relation with the Resource-base View, and refer to the Diamond Model, to discuss the internal and the external elements and the strategies in the procession of the growth and the operation of the minor enterprises of Taiwan. I hope those elements and the strategies can be the references for the following minor enterprises of Taiwan when they decide to invest in the Mainland Chain. Because the territory of the Mainland Chain is so huge that the main areas in this research will focus on the Taiwan enterprises those weren¡¦t mentioned too much in the past reports and are presently growing vigorously in the Zhejiang Province. Besides, the elements and the strategies found from the Taiwan enterprises in Zhejiang will be more valuable, because these enterprises faced more fierce competition caused the local private enterprises of Zhejiang also growing very vigorously. After deeply discussing with four enterprises, it came to the conclusion as follows: Because the minor enterprises have some disadvantages congenitally, when they are going to do the international investment, they should pay more attention to the invisible resources; especially the construction of the Core competence. In other words, they should gather the limited resourced in the niche and professional market to make their construction sound and sane step by step. Moreover, it¡¦s really necessary to establish the thick and fast network relationship rapidly in the procession of the accumulation. In addition, the business ambition of the leader is the key point for the continuous growth of the minor enterprises of Taiwan.

The cashmere industry is an important sector in Mongolia, and it has the potential to contribute to the growth of the economy and poverty alleviation. It provides income and employment for over a third of the population, and raw cashmere and cashmere products are the Mongolia¡¦s third largest official export products after copper and gold. Mongolia is the world¡¦s second largest producer of raw cashmere, producing over 20 percent of world supply next to the neighboring country China. Nevertheless, 55.9% of the raw cashmere is used for manufacturing finished and semi-finished products, the capacity utilization rate remains low at all stages of processing, and processing firms are losing their competitiveness. Firstly, through the review of related literature, this study finds out the key issues of cashmere industry in Mongolia. Then, based on Michael Porter¡¦s Diamond Model with AHP method, this study develops a hierarchical framework including a goal, criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives affecting the competitiveness of cashmere industry. Secondly, this study intended to develop questionnaires for experts including CEOs and managers from cashmere industry, government organizations, and research institutions. The main purpose is to find out the relations among the factors, and give them their weights of importance, and it points out its further competitive advantages of Cashmere Industry. As a result, 25 responses were received at the end of the survey. The collected data from the survey was analyzed through the AHP approach. We have calculated a composite weight to each factor and put the factors in order based on the weight that each factor has got. Our study suggests that the cashmere industry in Mongolia should further upgrade its working efficiency in order to create a more sustainable advantage. In addition, our results further confirm that a government can play a significant role in creating competitive advantages. Finally, on the basis of the above results, we proposed several policy recommendations for relevant organizations in order to help cashmere industry upgrade their competitiveness by increasing the capacity of producing more value added products.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-108). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-108). Also available on the Internet.

Diamond thin films on Fe based materials (ferrous alloys) for the purpose of improving their surface properties such as wear and corrosion resistance have been investigated. There are main barriers restricting the quality and adhesion of diamond coatings on Fe based materials. Firstly, the incubation time of diamond nucleation is long due to the high solubility of carbon in Fe. Secondly, graphite soot forms before diamond nucleation due to the catalytic effect of Fe for formation of graphitic carbon. Thirdly, high internal stress remains at the interface which is induced by the large difference in the thermal expansion coefficients of diamond and most of the Fe based materials. Surface modification and interlayers are two important approaches to overcome these problems. In this work, the effect of Cr content in Fe-Cr alloys on diamond nucleation and growth is being studied in order to clarify the mechanisms of Cr in diamond deposition. Furthermore, in order to enhance the adhesion and quality of diamond coatings, Al based interlayers are being investigated on ferrous alloys. Fe-Cr alloys (with 20~80 wt.% Cr) were exposed to a CH4-H2 mixture in a microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) reactor. Severe metal dusting and carburization were observed on the alloys with low Cr content and diamond did not nucleate on those alloys until a graphite intermediate layer had been formed, which takes a long incubation time. Increasing Cr concentration in the Fe-Cr alloys promotes the formation of a Cr carbide buffer layer, which inhibits metal dusting and the formation of graphite soot. Consequently, diamond nucleation and growth can be greatly enhanced, and continuous diamond films with enhanced adhesion have been deposited on the Fe-80Cr alloys. Al based interlayers including Al and Al/AlN interlayers were deposited on ferrous alloys (SS316 and Kovar: FeNiCo) to enhance diamond deposition. The deposition was carried out in a microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) reactor using a CH4-H2 mixture. The obtained samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and indentation testing. The results show that a single Al layer can effectively suppress the formation of graphite at the interface and the inward diffusion of carbon into Fe based substrates, and thereby enhances diamond nucleation and growth. The dual layers of Al/AlN can further enhance the adhesion of diamond coatings comparing with the single Al interlayer.

The focus of this thesis is the role of ribosomal proteins in hematopoiesis and development. Ribosomal proteins are mutated in patients with Diamond Blackfan anemia (DBA). These mutations primarily affect blood tissues, as DBA patients have a macrocytic anemia. We have identified hematopoietic defects in zebrafish with a mutation in ribosomal protein S29 (rps29). \(Rps29^{-/-}\) embryos have defects in hematopoietic stem cell formation, aorta specification, and hemoglobinization. Embryos also have increased numbers of apoptotic cells, and microarray analysis reveals up-regulation of a p53 gene signature. All of the hematopoietic phenotypes are rescued by p53 mutation, demonstrating that p53 activation induced by ribosomal protein knockdown is mediating the \(rps29^{-/-}\) mutant phenotype. In addition, polysome profiles of mutant embryos identify a decrease in 80s monosome and polysome fractions. Preliminary RNA sequencing analysis of the polysome fractions suggested a shift in genes being translated in the mutant. We performed a chemical screen on rps29 embryos. Using embryo morphology and vascular expression patterns as read-outs, 600 compounds of known bioactivity were screened. One compound, A-3, improves embryo morphology, and a structurally related compound, W-7, rescues the vasculature defect. These compounds are calmodulin inhibitors, and A-3 can also rescue the hemoglobin defect in \(rps29^{-/-}\) embryos. To elucidate the compounds’ mechanism of action, A549 and \(CD34^+\) cells with RPS19 knocked down by shRNA were treated with chemical hits. In these cells, calmodulin inhibitors cause a decrease of p21 even with p53 induction. These data support a model where calmodulin inhibition can inhibit the p53 pathway upon ribosomal protein knockdown. In parallel to our zebrafish studies, we generated induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from DBA patient fibroblasts as a part of a large-scale collaboration. Three iPS lines are validated, and a total of 27 lines will be generated from patients with mutations in RPS19, RPL5, and RPL11. Testing for defects in blood differentiation and determining the role of p53 in these lines will enable validation of this system as a model of DBA. The iPS lines can subsequently be used for chemical and genetic screening to identify novel DBA pathways and potential therapies.

Diamond interchanges and their associated ramps are where the surface street arterial system and the freeway system interface. Historically, these two elements of the system have been operated with little or no coordination between the two. Therefore, there is a lack of both analysis tools and operational strategies for considering them as an integrated system. One drawback of operating the ramp-metering system and the diamond interchange system in isolation is that traffic from the ramp, particularly if it is metered, can spill back into the diamond interchange, causing both congestion and safety concerns at the diamond interchange. While flushing the ramp queues by temporarily suspending ramp metering has been the primary strategy for preventing queue spillback, it can result in freeway system breakdown, which would affect the entire system's efficiency. The aim of this research was to develop operational strategies for managing an integrated diamond interchange ramp-metering system (IDIRMS). Enhanced modeling methodologies were developed for an IDIRMS. A computer model named DRIVE (Diamond Interchange and Ramp Metering Integration Via Evaluation) was developed, which was characterized as a mesoscopic simulation and analysis model. DRIVE incorporated the enhanced modeling methodologies developed in this study and could be used to perform system analysis for an IDIRMS given a set of system input parameters and variables. DRIVE was validated against a VISSIM microscopic simulation model, and general agreement was found between the two models. System operational characteristics were investigated using DRIVE to gain a better understanding of the system features. Integrated control strategies (ICS) were developed based on the two commonly used diamond interchange phasing schemes, basic three-phase and TTI four-phase. The ICS were evaluated using VISSIM microscopic simulation under three general traffic demand scenarios: low, medium, and high, as characterized by the volume-to-capacity ratios at the metered ramps. The results of the evaluation indicate that the integrated operations through an adaptive signal control system were most effective under the medium traffic demand scenario by preventing or delaying the onset of ramp-metering queue flush, thereby minimizing freeway breakdown and system delays.

Šio darbo tikslas buvo ištirti deimantų, apšaudytų 9 MeV galios protonais, ir nanodeimantų, paveiktų 40 keV galios helio jonais, elektrinį laidumą, bei jų Ramano sklaidos savybes. Gauti eksperimentiniai duomenys pavaizduoti diagramose ir palyginti su Frenkelio, šuolinio laidumo teorijomis. Palyginus eksperimentinius duomenis su teoriniais, priėjome išvados, kad nagrinėjant tūrinius deimantus geriausiai tinka Frenkelio laidumo mechanizmas, o nanodeimantus - šuolinio laidumo mechanizmas. Nustatytos terminės aktyvacijos energijos turiniame deimante ir nanodeimante. / The aim of this paper is to research diamonds and diamonds influenced by 9 MeV power protons. The impact of helium jones on nanodiamonds and nanodiamonds has also been investigated by studying both their electrical properties as well as the spread of Ramans spectroscopy. The received data have been showed on the diagrams. The data have been compared with the following theories of electrical conduction: Poole Frenkel‘s theory, Shottky‘s theory and hopping conduction theory. According to the research results, diamonds are better compared to Frenkel‘s theory, whereas nanodiamonds are better compared to hopping conduction theory. Activation energy is determined by received dependency parts.

Diamond interchange design has been commonly utilized in United States to facilitate traffic exchange between freeway and frontage roads. Another less common interchange design is X-ramp interchange, which is the reversed version of diamond. The major benefit of X-ramp interchange is that it can keep travelers on the freeway until the downstream exit ramp to avoid going through the intersection. It also has drawbacks such as travelers with cross street destinations will experience more delay. This study focuses on when the ramp reversal is desirable. To compare the diamond and X-ramp design, an experimental design is conducted using Latin Hypercube Design method. Four varying factors include interchange design type, traffic volume on the frontage road, through movement percentage and saturation rate of the intersection. 40 scenarios are generated for simulation study using Synchro and VISSIM. Based on the simulation study, optimal signal timing strategies are recommended for each type of interchange design under various traffic conditions. Also, ramp reversal is found closely related to the following factors such as interchange frequency, upstream interchange design, traffic volume on frontage road, through movement percentage and intersection saturation rate. Conclusions are made on when X-ramp is better than diamond interchange design. At last, future research directions are recommended.