A blog, a shortened form of weblog, is a website where an author shares thoughts in posts or entries. Most blogs permit readers to add comments to posts and thereby be a conversational mechanism. One way that companies have started to use blogs is to monitor their corporate image (in this dissertation, the term image is used in reference to corporate, brand and/or product image). This study focuses on how common socio-psychological processes mediate consumers’ revelation of corporate image in the blogosphere. Centering resonance analysis, a means of measuring similarity between two bodies of text, is used in conjunction with multidimensional scaling to locate text as cognitive objects in a space. Clusters are then detected and measured to quantify diversity in the thoughts expressed. Detected patterns are studied from a social process theory perspective, where complex phenomena are hypothesized to be the result of the interaction of simpler processes. A majority of blog commenters compromise the expression of their thoughts to gain social acceptance. This study identifies the most extreme of such people so companies who monitor blogs can assign less weight to image indications gained from them as they may be merely expressing thoughts that are intended to maintain social acceptance. It was also found that single-theme blogs attract a readership with similarly narrow interests. The boldest and most diverse thinkers among comment writers have the most impact because of their ability to provoke the thinking of others. However, commenters who repeat the same ideas have little effect, suggesting that introducing shills is unlikely to shift the sentiment of a blog’s readership. People participate in blog communities for reasons (e.g., need for community) that may undermine thought diversity. However, there may be value in serving those needs even though no valuable insights are provided into image or directions for product development. Members of homogeneous-thinking communities were observed to more actively participate, with greater longevity. This may increase loyalty to the company hosting the blog.

We propose and analyze new finger assignment/management techniques that are applicable for RAKE receivers when they operate in the soft handover region. Two main criteria are considered: minimum use of additional network resources and minimum call drops. For the schemes minimizing the use of network resources, basic principles are to use the network resources only if necessary while minimum call drop schemes rely on balancing or distributing the signal strength/paths among as many base stations as possible. The analyses of these schemes require us to consider joint microscopic/macroscopic diversity techniques which have seldom been considered before and as such, we tackle the statistics of several correlated generalized selection combining output signal-to-noise ratios in order to obtain closed-form expressions for the statistics of interest. To provide a general comprehensive framework for the assessment of the proposed schemes, we investigate not only the complexity in terms of the average number of required path estimations/comparisons, the average number of combined paths, and the soft handover overhead but also the error performance of the proposed schemes over independent and identically distributed fading channels. We also examine via computer simulations the effect of path unbalance/correlation as well as outdated/imperfect channel estimations. We show through numerical exam ples that the proposed schemes which are designed for the minimum use of network resources can save a certain amount of complexity load and soft handover overhead with a very slight performance loss compared to the conventional generalized selection combining-based diversity systems. For the minimum call drop schemes, by accurately quantifying the average error rate, we show that in comparison to the conventional schemes, the proposed distributed schemes offer the better error performance when there is a considerable chance of loosing the signals from one of the active base stations.

The increasing population diversity in the United States and in public schools signifies a need for principals to promote diversity awareness as mandated by principal standards. A means to quantify and measure the principals’ diversity intentions empirically is required. This study researched the possibility that the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) could provide a theoretical basis for an operation measurement model. The instrument for the study was an electronic survey administered via e-mail to a random sample of 151 principals. This instrument incorporated the Professional Beliefs About Diversity Scale (Pohan & Aguilar, 2001) with the operationalized General Principal’s Diversity Model and the Professional Diversity Intentions sub-models. Three research questions guided the study: 1) Can a theory of planned behavior approach be used to assess school principals’ professional intentions to promote diversity awareness? 2) What are the intentions of Texas principals to promote diversity awareness in general and among the five diversity dimensions of disabilities, gender, language, racial/ethnic, and social class in their campus community? and 3) Do these intentions differ among five demographic characteristics of race/ethnicity, gender, age, degree, and campus type? Findings of the study were: 1. The results of this study provided the scientific validation that the TPB approach can be used to assess public school principals’ professional intentions to promote diversity awareness. 2. At present, Texas principals’ intentions are only slightly more positive than the neutral midpoint, a 3.38 average score out of a possible 5.00 regarding intention to promote diversity awareness. Frequency analysis of the submodels indicated positive intentions for Gender (58 cases or 38.41 percent); Race/Ethnicity (78 cases or 51.66 percent); Social Class (79 cases or 52.32 percent); and Disabilities and Language each had 89 cases (58.95 percent). 3. Principals’ intent to implement diversity decreases with age and higher academic degree held. 4. Hispanic principals are more likely than African American or White principals to promote diversity awareness. This study concluded that a Theory of Planned Behavior approach as operationalized in this study may be used to assess school principals’ professional intentions to promote diversity beyond the level recommended by their district.

In this dissertation, the problem of synchronization for OFDM-based wireless communication systems is studied. In the first part of this dissertation, the sensitivity of both single input single output (SISO) OFDM and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) OFDM receivers to carrier and timing synchronization errors are analyzed. Analytical expressions and numerical results for the power of inter-carrier interference (ICI) are presented. It is shown that the OFDM-based receivers are quite sensitive to residual synchronization errors. In wide-sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS) frequency-selective fading channels, the sampling clock timing offset results in rotation of the subcarrier constellation, while carrier frequency offsets and phase jitter cause inter-carrier interference. The overall system performance in terms of symbol error rate is limited by the inter-carrier interference. For a reliable information reception, compensatory measures must be taken. The second part of this dissertation deals with the impact of spatial diversity (usage of multiple transmit/receive antennas) on synchronization. It is found that with multiple transmit and receive antennas, MIMO-OFDM systems can take advantage of the spatial diversity to combat carrier and timing synchronization imperfections. Diversity can favorably improve the synchronization performance. Data-aided and non-data-aided maximum likelihood symbol timing estimators for MIMO-OFDM systems are introduced. Computer simulations show that, by exploiting the spatial diversity, synchronization performance of MIMO-OFDM systems in terms of mean squared error (MSE) of residual timing offset becomes significantly more reliable when compared to conventional SISO OFDM systems. Therefore, spatial diversity is a useful technique to be exploited in the deployment of MIMO-OFDM communication systems. In MIMO systems with synchronization sequences, timing synchronization is treated as a multiple hypotheses testing problem. Generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) statistics are developed for MIMO systems in frequency flat channels and MIMO-OFDM systems in frequency selective fading environments. The asymptotic performance of the GLRT without nuisance parameters is carried out. It is shown that the asymptotic performance of the GLRT can serve as an upper bound for the detection probability in the presence of a limited number of observations as well as a benchmark for comparing the performances of different timing synchronizers.

Since Appledaily News had been published in Taiwan in 2003, it made a huge impact in news industry in Taiwan. The research studies in confronting Appledaily News which has been published in Taiwan, and what kind of effect has happened in China Times, United Daily News and Liberty Times when they compete with one another. The research uses the content analysis to analyze whether or not this competition will make the front page of a newspaper become more diverse in News industry. Otherwise, the research also wants to find out whether or not the diversity of Appledaily News is better than other Newspapers. According to this research, the competition of newspaper industry is eminent positive correlated with the news subject on the front page of a newspaper, and also with the diversity of the source. So China Times¡BUnited Daily News and Liberty Times in competition period are more diversity in the news subject on the front page of a newspaper and the source than oligopoly period. In addition, Appledaily is more diversity in the same measure than China Times, United Daily News and Liberty Times.

The microbial diversity of branches of Kaoping River at Lao-Nong Basin with altitudes from 100-2204m and Nantzuhien Basin with altitudes from 100-654m were studied. We used combining methods of bacterial, chemical and biotechnological to explore microbial diversity at the two basins to provide a reference for the environmental ecology of Kapoing River. It is the foundation for practicable environmental care. The results show the following: (1) The temperature in Tianchin at Lao-Nong Basin was lower(16.3¢J) than the rest of sampling sites(22-28¢J). (2) The temperature in Minsheng at Nantzuhsien Basin is lower(21.5¢J)than the of sampling sites(24-33¢J); other factors such as pH value, total organic carbon, and total organic nitrogen, varied according to different locations. In the microbacterial composition quantitatively, among all microorganisms, the bacteria content was the highest. Each gram of soil contain about 106~109 CFU at Lao-Nong Basin and 105~109 CFU at Nantzuhsien Basin, where as others such as the contents of actinomycetes and fungi were lower. Using 16s rDNA DGGE (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis)analysis, the soil bacterial community composition at the two basin districts had discoverd that the microbial diversites at Nantzuhsine Basin were more abundant than those at Lao-Nong Basin. In regard to seasonal changes, our data agreed with traditional data. In the warm season, the microbial content is higher, and the community composition is also more abundant. The weather change in a short time period, such as a rainstorm and a quick shift of temperature seriously affected the number of bacteria. When the rain pours steadily down, it caused some degree of drop in bacteria number. However, when the rain stop, the microbacterial content and community composition gradually retured to original forms.

As the component partners of the international joint venture (JV) are from different nationalities of which have the diversities of cultural and concepts and the other factors of societies or the political impact. All these factors not only increased the complexity in organization management, but also reduced efficiency of organization. The case company is an international JV specialized in the field of Environmental protection with professionalism recognition and reputation in Taiwan. The mutual cooperation between both parties mainly based on project execution with the foreign joint venture company providing specialized technique and know-how assistance in project execution. And the case company responsible for internal management mechanism and daily operation under mutual common consensus. However, learning after the execution of few joint venture projects, we found out further improvements could be taken in considering of the diversity of culture, concepts and management from both sides. This research is focused on how to efficiently implement the value of JV and gain competitive advantages via case study, the research conclusion summarized as below. 1.The cultural diversity from both sides mainly displays on ideology as well as the values aspect. Therefore, to enhance understanding with each other is necessary in order to effectively reduce the cultural diversity from both sides. To minimize the cultural diversity will increase harmony in communication and coordination and promote higher chance to avoid the possibility of potential conflicts. 2.Before the cooperation taking place, both parties should align their concepts in company goal as well as strategy, management, operation etc., to ensure the achievement of win-win situation. 3.The experience shares: The knowledge exchange and sharing will be contributive to both sides in the way of more understanding both present situations. In the process of mutual cooperation, the occurrences of miscommunication can be attributable to the foreign joint venture company does not fully understand the local market trend and is doubtful about its potential risks. To optimize the joint venture company to have a comprehension of Taiwan enterprises and to share the experiences gained from previous mutual cooperation to facilitate mutual understanding in view of each other standpoint. 4.Increases own organization wisdom capital: The foreign joint company indeed has more specialized technology and finance resources and always takes trust attitude on mutual cooperation. Nevertheless, the foreign joint company still has the hesitancy on the executive capability of project experiences of the case company. The case company should accelerate to accumulate its own organization wisdom capital on professionalism and the technical knowledge in order to lowering risk appraisal by the foreign joint venture company. In this regard, the case company could create more opportunities of mutual cooperation in future special case cooperation in terms of utilizing its own wisdom capital.

This study uses pitfall traps to collect ground-dwelling invertebrates in Nanjen Forest. The ground-dwelling invertebrates in Gufu Area are mainly contributed by Hymenoptera, Collembola, Coleoptera, Araneida. There is no significant difference between the diversity index of pitfalls with various distances to the edge of forest in Gufu Area. The similarity index between each pitfall is relatively low, it suggests that the heterogeneity of various micro-habitats is high. The sex-ratio of different spider species varied from 0.09 - 1.73, and the habitat preference is specific. The number of the spiders is positive-correlated with the number of the Collembola and the Orthoptera.

Novel broadband designs of planar antenna with an air substrate are proposed in this dissertation, The operating bands considered include the GSM/DCS band and ISM band. Several antenna designs capable of dual- polarized operation, circularly polarized radiation, and diversity operation are also presented.In these antenna designs, prototypes were constructed. The measured input impedance, return loss, radiation pattern, and antenna gain are presented and discussed. The commercially available simulation software are also used in verifying the measured results.As for the broadband planar antenna designs, the impedance bandwidth obtained reaches about 10% (1.5¡G1VSWR). For the circularly polarized designs, we propose a low-cost, broadband circularly polarized patch antenna fed by a coplanar probe feed, and circular polarization (CP) radiation over a wide frequency range (¡Ö10%) can be achieved. High isolation between two feeding ports (S21 less than ¡V30 dB) can be obtained for the constructed prototype of the proposed dual-polarized design. On the other hand, wrapping a planar monopole into a compact box-like structure allows the antenna¡¦s total height less then 5% of the wavelength at 900 MHz. The proposed antennas are suitable for wireless communications applications.

Much of the world's species diversity is located in tropical and sub-tropical ecosystems, and a better understanding of the ecology of these systems is necessary to stem biodiversity loss and assess community- and ecosystem-level responses to anthropogenic impacts. In this dissertation, I endeavored to broaden our understanding of complex ecosystems through research conducted on the Cinaruco River, a floodplain river in Venezuela, with specific emphasis on how a human-induced perturbation, commercial netting activity, may affect food web structure and function. I employed two approaches in this work: (1) comparative analyses based on descriptive food web characteristics, and (2) experimental manipulations within important food web modules. Methodologies included monthly sampling of fish assemblages using a variety of techniques, large-scale field experiments, extensive stomach content and stable isotope analyses. Two themes unite the information presented: (1) substantial spatial and temporal variability in food web structure, and (2) how body-size can be used to generalize species-interactions across this complexity. Spatial variability occurred at various scales, from among small fish assemblages on seemingly homogeneous sand banks, to differences among landscape scale units (e.g. between lagoons and main river channel). Seasonal variability was apparent in predation patterns, with relative prey availability and body size primarily resulting in decreasing prey sizes with falling water levels. Body size was also related to functional outcomes of species interactions, for example, a size-based response of prey fishes to large-bodied piscivore exclusion. This pattern was further substantiated at the landscape-scale, as differences in assemblage structure among netted and un-netted lagoons were largely size-based. Trophic position of fish and body size was not found to be related, likely due to the diversity of prey available to consumers, and may signify that commercial netting activity will not decrease food chain lengths. In sum, by describing human impacts within a food web context, I endeavor to provide predictive power regarding a specific human-induced environmental problem, yet still allowing for generality that will broaden the theoretical foundations and applications of food web ecology.