This thesis formulates a conceptual framework developed from field observations that describes the influence of surface depressions or potholes on runoff generation in the prairie pothole region of the North American prairies. The fill-and-spill of potholes results in intermittent surface water connectivity between potholes within the basin. The extent of connectivity between potholes is dependent on antecedent water levels. Dynamic connectivity between potholes results in dynamic contributing areas for runoff. The concept of connectivity is manifested in the conceptual curves presented in this thesis. These conceptual curves model the response of runoff events for landscape types found in the prairie pothole region, and capture the influence of the spatial distribution and extent of surface storage on contributing area. The conceptual curves differ due to variations in the spatial distribution and extent of surface storage volume.<p> An algorithm based on the conceptual framework proposed is presented. The algorithm, which uses the the D-8 drainage direction method, automates a methodology for identifying and quantifying runoff contributing area. The algorithm is applied in prairie pothole basins both to demonstrate its efficacy and to test the potential for using conceptual curves to describe the relationship between decreasing potential surface storage in the landscape and contributing area. The algorithm was applied to two digital elevation models (DEM) representative of the prairie pothole region. The first DEM was created using LiDAR elevation points at a 1 m resolution for the St. Denis watershed, and the second was created from orthophotos for the Smith Creek watershed at a 25 m resolution.<p> Fieldwork in the St. Denis watershed was carried out to both provide a basis for the conceptual framework proposed and to validate the results of the algorithm. The fieldwork involved gathering snow survey data, identifying and describing surface water conditions during a snow melt runoff event in 2006, and measuring pond levels from 2004 2007.<p> Results indicate that the proposed conceptual curves represent the non-linear relationship between potential surface storage and contributing area generated by the algorithm in the test basins. To test whether the underlying concepts of the algorithm were valid, the algorithm was used to model pond level depths measured in the St. Denis drainage basin after spring runoff in 2006 and 2007. An r2 value over 0.9 was calculated for the relationship between measured and modeled pond levels in both years. Based on this work, it is clear that any hydrologic study or model applied in the prairie pothole region should consider the effect of dynamic contributing areas on runoff generation.

No description available.

We study the supply chain with two manufacturers producing competing products and selling them through a common retailer. The two manufacturers must decide on the wholesale price and the level of service they plan to provide to the consumer. Each firm are assumed to optimize only its own profit (uncoordinated). The consumer demand depends on two factors: (1) retail price, and (2) service level provided by the manufacturer. We extend the study on this basic model in three directions. First, we explore the role of bargaining power in supply chain strategic interactions. We derive and compare equilibrium solutions for the supply chain under three different scenarios (e.g., Manufacturer Stackelberg, Retailer Stackelberg, and Vertical Nash). Second, we extend the framework to study multi-period model. In this model, demand also depends on the past period retail prices and service levels, as well as current prices and service levels. Game-theoretic approaches and dynamic system and control theory are used as tools to model the problem. Finally, we examine a single period problem with stochastic demand. When demand is uncertain, the retailer faces a newsvendor-type problem. In our model, the newsvendor must manage two competing products against a price-dependent demand. We derive an expression for the newsvendor's optimal retail prices. Next, we provide an algorithm to search for the equilibrium wholesale price and service level, given that the manufacturers know the retailer's reaction function. Some numerical examples are provided.

China has been heavily investing in new energy. With the Chinese government encouragement as well as huge demand from domestic, a lot of MNCs set up subsidiaries in China to enter Chinese market. The new energy industry in China is under rapid and prosperous development. This study adopts qualitative approach, through interviewing with three new energy companies as well as secondary data collection to understand in such changing environment, how MNC¡¦s subsidiary in China can manage the dynamics and build up capability to achieve initiative is the objective this study attempt to understand. The findings show that under different strategies, exploitation and exploration, of developing dynamic capability in China, there will be corresponding HR, R&D, and marketing practices in subsidiary. And these practices will lead to different result of subsidiary initiatives - local and global initiative.

Wetland, one of the three major ecosystems on earth, can prevent flood, purify water quality and provide habitat for wildlife; also protects the shore line from erosion, and has many other functions and values. Owing to the economic development and the rapid population growth, the land resource has being inadequate to meet all demands. Thus, coastal wetlands have become the target of development. This tendency causes reduction and fragmentary of wetlands, degradation of ecosystem and depletion of ecological resources. To avoid the improper development on the wetland, it is necessary to integrate considerations over the social economy, ecosystem, and management strategy. Based on the unique feature of the wetland, it is therefore possible to effectively manage the wetland resources for achieving the goal of sustainable development. This study explores the group model building approach which design for the discussion of the various potential effects of the yacht industry park may have on Cheting Wetland. Participants of stakeholders in Cheting had met several times and the structured debates had been organized with them in order to promote the emergence of a consensual view of the main issues and their implications. And then, a system dynamic model was built to evaluate the development in the wetlands zone. The authentic results of the policies and scenario analyses inspected the effectiveness of the designate plans for Cheting Wetland development. Particular Wetland Zone, Artificial Floating Island and In Lieu Fee were adopted as management strategies in Cheting Wetland Zone case. The study concludes that: under single-policy condition, implementation of Particular Wetland Zone is the best management strategy; while under the multi-policy conditions, the combination of Wetland Zone and Artificial Floating Island would have the best managerial performance. Additional benefits of the GMB study include: (1) providing stakeholders with information and knowledge to understand the behavior of wetland environment system; (2) A revealing gap between system behavior patterns and participants¡¦ mental model. Both achievements will further promote the participants to introspect and to improve their mental model, eventually help the whole community to reach consensus about wetland management.

Abstract With the trend of globalization and the pricing competition caused by China¡¦s manufacturing business, the quality of products is not the only issue that companies are facing now. There are some external as well as internal challenges that companies must face. External challenges include the competitive trend caused by the dynamic environmental movements and the operation pressure caused by facing competitors; internal operation issues concern the integration of the value chain and the continuous improvements in innovative managing skills. The case of research is the largest company professionally specialized in manufacturing drain cleaners in Taiwan. The company¡¦s sales are entirely dedicated to exporting to the international market; and OEM and ODM are its main type of business. Since drain cleaners are categorized as part of the hand tools industry, we must study the trends and activities in such industry. The business opportunities in the hand tools industry mainly depend on consumer¡¦s demand, providing different services to different individual buyers, and the opportunities derived from the rise of the home improvement market. Therefore, in the hand tools market, drain cleaner manufacturers should take into consideration that products which suit the new generation¡¦s need better and are with high economic values are more likely to satisfy the consumer needs. For the main thesis of this paper, we will be looking at discussions about the innovative and competitive strategies from literatures related, and the research will be based on J. Barney¡¦s resource base theory. Through the individual case analysis and roots study in grounded theory, I hope to achieve the following research purposes in this paper: 1. To analyze the operating state and the competitive advantages in the drain cleaner market in hand tools industry in Taiwan. 2. How the company in case study responds to the external challenges and which competitive advantages and strategies the company should take when facing such challenges. The conclusions to the company competitiveness in the case study based on relevant researches are as follows: 1. Regarding the case company¡¦s competitiveness against foreign markets, cost competitiveness is not recommended as the main business strategy, but rather to develop and strengthen the high-price, high quality markets as the recommended strategy. 2. Facing the competitions that the rise of the Asian market and the emergence of the Chinese consumer market brought, I suggest that the company in the case study, with its regional economic advantage, should consider a strategic alliance with European or American buyers or strategically to consider a joint venture with them. 3. Regarding providing useful information about the competitive market for the company, cost accounting standard procedures and other statistics related forms are strongly recommended to be established within the company in the case study, in order to provide critical information for managing department. 4. With the coming of the era of internationalization, the company in the case study should design an international personnel training system as well as a strategic human resource department to face the related incoming issues that internationalization may bring. Keyword¡Gstrategy, core competence, dynamic competition, internationalization

High globalization of economy has led companies into a business environment in which the changes are increasingly complex and faster. In order to survive even succeed over the long term, the modern enterprises must confront reality in real time and predict possibility. In the 1990s, the theory of dynamic capability arose for responding the rapid changes in market conditions. Many scholars¡¦ researches found that the learning of organization, management models and organizational ambidexterity are the factors to affect the dynamic capability of enterprise. And the organizational ambidexterity can enhance organizational strength of controlling new knowledge and informational diversity. The purpose of this research is to explore the relationships among self-directed learning, organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capability of enterprise. Research is conducted using survey data collection. Samples are from engineers, administrators, specialists, first-line and midlevel managers in enterprises. Via electronic and paper questionnaires, the numbers of distributed questionnaire is 557, effective questionnaire is 230, and the rate of effective questionnaire is 41.3%. The analysis results show that there are significantly parallel relationships among self-directed learning, organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capability of enterprise. For enterprise management, strengthening employees¡¦ self-directed learning and building up a high organizational ambidexterity are useful to enhance the dynamic capability of enterprise.

The problem itself is not an issue¡A it¡¦s up how you see it! With the wave of capital movement as well as the rapid conversion of industrial development¡A if the business operation cannot cope with it in the giant surge of the century¡A it would be doomed and be swallow up. Traditionally¡A the engineering industry in general is passive¡A be inseparable from the old framework while performing the execution works. However with the flow of capital investment¡A it is announced formally that an internationalized project is coming. Especially we cannot foresee the disasters and avoid it in time. The post-disaster reconstruction projects will push to weed through the old to bring forth the new. Facing the radical change of industry¡A the Taiwan engineering company¡A just start involving the international project¡A would not be only a turning point¡A but also a good timing of self-development and enhancing the constitution strength. It is probably that an International Contractor for EPC project located in Taiwan will be well positioned and reputable in the next decade. The execution of an international EPC contractor has become to an internationalized mode¡F and this study will explore the description of qualitative research methods and Grounded theory study and Dunning theory¡A then through the managing science of engineering management in a compact way¡A to derive step by step how a regional engineering company¡A engaging international engineering contract for ten years¡A to establish and plan their long-term competitiveness and the ability of sustainable growth. This study will collect and interview long-term cooperation in the work of international engineering business partners. Through their different views and opinions¡A and also by the dynamic strategic interaction and new 7S model and the basis of Resource-based theory¡A comment how to adjust the old thinking¡A plan an updated strategy of implementing an international engineering industry strategy pattern that is a project organization oriented for contract execution then¡A lead to the establishment of long-term competitive advantage The study also assert that a successful international EPC Contractor with goal of long-term operation¡A can thrive in the world with base in Taiwan¡A by technical upgrading¡A defining positive organization orientation¡A setting up specific operation target in mid-term and long term respectively.

In this paper, we study on the stock indexes return¡¦s dependence structure of the U.S. versus other G5 members during the 2008 subprime mortgage financial crisis. The sample series are weekly returns of the MSCI stock price indexes from 2003 to 2011. The model structure is combined with marginal model and copula model. We model the marginal distributions of our returns using the univariate skewed Student t AR¡]1¡^-GARCH model of Hansen¡]1994¡^, and we model the time-varying copula of Patton¡]2006¡^to measure the dependence structure between stock indexes returns. By analyzing the time series behavior of the dynamic copula parameters, we find that,¡]1¡^the dependence of stock indexes returns increased significantly between U.S. and other G5 members in early subprime mortgage financial crisis, which means the dependence structure has contagion effect.¡]2¡^Except the dependence structure between U.S. and Japan, the other dependence structure between U.S. and other G5 members in later subprime mortgage financial crisis have the phenomenon of interdependence, and their average tail dependence increased significantly.¡]3¡^By the above, international portfolio constructed by correlation coefficient will failed to diversify the downside risk and the systematic risk will be increased in financial crisis period, which is similar with the 2008 subprime mortgage financial crisis. Therefore, the construction of an international portfolio must consider the asymmetric dependence structure between the stock indexes returns.

Mathematica 8 introduces a free-form language input as the new method of calculation. Enter everyday English - no syntax, you can get results. It is a new entry point of the mma workflow, including the world's most advanced statistical computing power and the most advanced image processing. In this paper, we investigate the applications of Mathematica 8.0 in probability and statistics including dynamic module, descriptive statistics and data visualization, probability distribution and hypothesis testing. Moreover, we provide related examples by retrieving the data of built-in system or textbooks.