First responders who participate in disaster are at risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Because of nurses’ unique role as professional and volunteer responders, there is a need to know more about risks of PTSD in this group. Using a cross-sectional correlational design, associations between disaster exposure, problem focused coping (PFC), emotion-focused coping (EFC) and PTSD symptoms (Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R) scale) were explored. A random sample (n= 995) was drawn from a list of nurses from the New Orleans region. Each nurse was mailed an invitation to participate in an online survey. Three post-card reminders were sent. The sample was divided into nurses who participated in disaster activities (n=76) and those who did not (n=32). Prevalence of PTSD in the PIDA nurses was 13.2%. Almost half the PIDA nurses (48.7%) reported symptoms of PTSD, and increased use of substances to cope (31.5%). Only 9.2% sought psychological care post-event. Regression analyses, controlling for history of trauma, marital status, and gender found EFC accounted for a significant amount of the variance of symptoms of PTSD (R2 = 0.32, F (1, 67) = 25.09, p < 0.001) (B=0.4, SE=0.01, p Prevalence of PTSD among PIDA nurses was lower than other groups of professional responders (17.4% in firefighters), but greater than the general public (6.8%). Presence of PTSD in PIDA nurses five years after Hurricane Katrina is associated with the increased use of EFC and substances.

I dagens samhälle har många fysiska klädbutiker även öppnat webbshoppar. På en webbshopp kan det vara svårt att framställa känslan man får när man är i en fysisk butik där man har möjligheten att känna på materialet och prova varorna. Detta kan bidra till att det blir svårt att känna sig säker på klädköpet.Syftet med denna undersökning är att få en djupare förståelse över hur två olika klädexponeringsverktyg på webbshoppar kan bidra till att användaren kan känna sig tryggare i sitt köp. Vi vill även undersöka om eller hur konsumenten identifierar sig med modellerna som visas i klädexponeringsverktygen. Verktygen vi valt att undersöka är H&amp;M:s Dressingroom samt Nelly:s Catwalkvideo. Målgruppen för undersökningen är kvinnor mellan 18-30 år.Metoden vi valt för studien är av både kvantitativ och kvalitativ ansats för att få så bred och djupgående information som möjligt av vår målgrupp. Den kvantitativa undersökningen bestod av en webbenkät där syftet var att få en inblick i respondenternas vanor kring verktygen. Den kvalitativa undersökningen bestod av en kontextuell intervju med syftet att kunna fördjupa oss mer i målgruppens åsikter och tankar. Resultatet av vår undersökning är analyserat utifrån tidigare forskning kring ämnet. Studien visar att klädexponeringsverktygen påverkar våra respondenter på ett positivt sätt då majoriteten av respondenterna kände sig säkrare gällande deras köpbeslut genom att använda verktygen. En videofilmad catwalk tenderade att hjälpa fler av våra respondenter än vad en virtuell klippdocka gjorde. Däremot upplevde respondenterna att vissa funktioner som den virtuella klippdockan hade var mer underhållande. / Many physical clothing stores today has also opened web shops. In an online shop it can be difficult to produce the feeling you get when you are in a physical store where you have the opportunity to feel the material and try out the products. This can contribute to a feeling that it is hard to feel safe on the clothing purchase.The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how two different clothing exposure tools on web shops can help the user to feel more secure in their purchase. We also want to examine whether or how the consumer identifies with the models that appear in the clothing exposure tools. The tools we have chosen to examine are H&amp;M’s Dressingroom and Nelly’s Catwalkvideo. The target group for the survey are women between 18-30 years. The method we have chosen for the study is of both quantitative and qualitative approach to obtain a broad and deep information as possible of our target group. The quantitative study consisted a web survey in which the purpose was to gain an insight to the respondents habits of the tools. The qualitative study consisted a contextual interview with the aim to deepen and improve our knowledge of the target group’s opinions and thoughts. The results of our study is analyzed based on previous research on the subject. The study shows that the clothing exposure tools affect our respondents in a positive way since the majority of the respondents felt more secure about their buying decisions by using the tools. A video filmed catwalk tended to help more of our respondents than a virtual clip doll did. However respondents felt that certain features that Dressingroom had were more entertaining.

The county hospital of Dalarna has for the last couple of years carried through a process of digitalization. The result is that within the county it exists image plate systems from two different manufacturers. In an attempt to create a tool for dose optimization and dose surveillance the county of Dalarna would like to investigate if the exposure index from Agfa and Fuji is suitable as a dose indicator. An investigation of the exposure index, S, from Fuji has already been done. This thesis has been continuing the investigation by evaluating the stability of the exposure index, lgM, from Agfa. Simultaneously an observation if there is a simple relation between the exposure indicators from Agfa and Fuji has been performed. The result showed that the average of lgM, for a set of images from the same type of examination, is appropriate as a dose indicator to the image plate for that specific examination type and X-ray equipment. The usefulness is linked to the same tube voltage and Speed Class for a specific examination, and is to a certain degree restricted by the collimating. There is a relation between the exposure index from Agfa and Fuji, and there is in a simple way possible to transform S-values to lgM-values for comparison. The relation turned out to be examination specific.

This paper analyzes the extent of foreign exchange rate exposure in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore in both firm level and industry level in the period of January 1996 to January 2011 by regressing the stock return of a particular industry or firm on exchange rate changes while controlling for overall stock market movements. It is found that exchange rate movements do affect firm and industry value in a manner consistent with expectation and the extract of unexpected exchange rate changes from actual exchange rate changes have little influence on the testing results of exposure. It is also proved that exchange rate regime plays an irreplaceable role in drawing the structure of exchange rate exposure of a country.

<p>Nanomaterials are being increasingly produced and used across a myriad of applications while their novel properties are still in the midst of being designed and explored. Thus the full implications of introducing these materials into the environment cannot be understood, yet the need to assess potential risks is already upon us. This work discusses a comprehensive view of environmental impact with respect to material flows from across the value chain into all compartments of the environment, whereby interactions and potential hazardous effects become possible. A subset of this broad system is then chosen for evaluation; a model is derived to describe the fate of nanomaterials released to wastewater. </p><p>This analysis considers the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) as a complete mixed reactor aerobic secondary clarifier, and predicts whether nanomaterials will associate with effluent or sludge to project potential concentrations in each. The concentration of nanomaterials reaching a WWTP is estimated based on a linear weighting of total production, and the fate of nanomaterials within the WWTP is based on a characteristic inherent to the material, partition coefficient, and on design parameters of the WWTP, such as retention times and suspended solids concentration. </p><p>Due to the uncertainty inherent to this problem, a probabilistic approach is employed. Monte Carlo simulation is used, sampling from probability distributions assigned to each of the input parameters to calculate a distribution for the predicted concentrations in sludge and effluent. Input parameter distributions are estimated from values reported in the literature where possible. Where data do not yet exist, studies are carried out to enable parameter estimation. In particular, nanomaterial production is investigated to provide a basis to estimate the magnitude of potential exposure. Nanomaterial partitioning behavior is also studied in this work, through laboratory experiments for several types of nano-silver. </p><p>The results presented here illustrate the use of nanomaterial inventory data in predicting environmentally relevant concentrations. Estimates of effluent and sludge concentrations for nano-silver with four different types coatings suggest that these surface treatments affect the removal efficiency; the same nanomaterial with different coatings may have different environmental fates. Effluent concentration estimates for C60 and nano-TiO2 suggest that these nanomaterials could already be present at problematic concentrations at current levels of annual production.</p><p>Estimates of environmentally relevant concentrations may aid in interpretation of nanotoxicology studies. These relative estimates are also useful in that they may help inform future decisions regarding where to dedicate resources for future research. Beyond attempting to estimate environmental concentrations of nanomaterials, this type of streamlined model allows the consideration of scenarios, focusing on what happens as various input parameters change. Production quantity and the fraction of this quantity that is released to wastewater are found to greatly influence the model estimates for wastewater effluent concentrations; in the case of wastewater sludge concentrations, the model is sensitive to those parameters in addition to solids retention time.</p> / Dissertation

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Since a few decades ago, world seems flat because of globalization, however, cultural diversity also creates challenges and problems for individuals and organizations. Cultural intelligence (CQ), defined as an individual¡¦s capability to function and manage effectively in culturally diverse settings (Earley & Ang, 2003). CQ can explain why some individuals are more effective than others in culturally diverse situations; therefore, it¡¦s important for everyone. Until now, relatively researches mainly focuses on the influence of CQ. To know antecedents of CQ, this study developing and testing a model including external factor and internal factor, and posits differential relationships among the four CQ dimensions (metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural), employment cross-cultural exposure, and Big Five personality (Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Emotional stability, Extraversion, and Openness to experience). The results demonstrate employment cross-cultural exposure predicted all of the four CQ dimensions; extraversion and openness to experience predicted metacognitive, motivational and behavioural CQ; and employment cross-cultural exposure has stronger effect on behavioural CQ through moderating effect of conscientiousness.

The internet has been proved to be a main media to develop interpersonal relationship, especially for adolescents. Moreover, in terms of three characteristics of internet, which are anonymity, accessibility, and affordability, internet makes sexual friendship popular in the present society. Although this kind of sexual relationship generates many social problems reported by the print media . The thesis bases on the interpersonal relationship theory on the internet; and further, it investigates the development of the intimate relationship among them. The purpose is to realize whether they are different from general internet friend-making clubs in demographic characteristics, motives, self-exposure, and requirement standards. This research uses purposive sampling approach to select objects from BBS, and analyzes 754 messages by content analysis. The results are as following: 1. Demographic characteristics: (1) Males are more than females, but the latter have more power to choose the former. (2) Regional adjacency is also a key requirement. (3) Like realistic situation, appearance, figure, and educational background are main external conditions. 2. Motives: Sexual passion is the main motive, and pressure-releasing and time-killing is in the next place. 3. Self-exposure: The average self-exposure lines of males are 7.55, and females are 10.3. Generally, they use specific demographic data to describe themselves instead of profound profile. Otherwise, there are almost positive and neutral terms to establish self-image. 4. Requirement standards: As same as realistic world, most of them have stereo-type on appearance. They decide whether to have relationship with others or not after seeing each other, and the feeling is also important to them. In short, internet sexual friendship group doesn¡¦t differentiate from general friend-making one, and they are consistent in the requirements of partners. But the main purpose of internet sexual friendship group is having sexual relationship. They just remove the appointment place from realistic world to virtual space.

This dissertation includes three issues, however, they are all adopted the view of firm¡¦s foreign exchange rate exposure to do the research. The main results of three topics as follows: In the first topic, this study uses the example of a Taiwanese firm investing in China and develops an exchange rate exposure model which depends on only four endogenous variables: the percentage of the firm¡¦s revenues denoted in the currency of trade country, the percentage of the firm¡¦s expenses denoted in the currency of trade country and third country, and its profit rate. The main issue in this research attempts to detect whether producing goods in the third country will affect a multinational firm on the exchange rate exposure and whether the currency manipulation will affect the decision of producing goods in the third country. This study finds that if a multinational firm can effectively adjust operational strategy and match foreign currency income with its cost, most of the exposure can be reduced. Besides this reducible effect of operational strategy, it is worth to note that diversified strategy just works under some conditions. For example, whether producing goods in the third country or not, the firm¡¦s exposure will not make changes as long as the currency is equal to its true value. However, under the case of currency manipulation, the firm producing goods in the third country can reduce exchange rate risk further. In the second topic, this paper studies the sensitivity of the cash flows generated by Chinese and Taiwanese firms to the movements in a trade-weighted exchange rate index, as well as to the currencies of their major trading partners. To overcome the deficiencies in previous researches using variations of the market-based model, this paper adopts the polynomial distributed lag (PDL) model to investigate the relative importance of transaction exposure versus economic exposure by decomposing exchange risk into short-term and long-term components. In contrast to the market-based model, we find that PDL model is better in detecting exposures with evidence confirmed both in China and Taiwan markets. Furthermore, our empirical results also verify past findings in Taiwan market that firms with higher foreign involvement have larger exchange rate exposure, firms with larger size have less exchange rate exposure, firms with larger exporting business are less exposed to the currency of primary exporting country, and firms with larger importing business are less exposed to the currency of primary importing country. However, these results are seldom agreed in China market. These findings imply that the exchange rate under the pegging regime and the floating system significantly affects firms in managing their exchange risk. In the third topic, it is generally argued that the choice of an appropriate exchange rate regime depends on which regime minimizes fluctuations in output, consumption, domestic price level, or some other macroeconomic variables. However, our study provides alternative analytic evidences on the firm-specific behavior. Using the real performance of operating income, this paper attempts to investigate the impact of fluctuating currencies on the values of U.S., Chinese, and Taiwanese companies. We find that the Chinese companies have more short-term exposures under the pegged regime, and the U.S. companies have more long-term exposures under the floating regime. Under the managed floating system, optimal lag length for Taiwanese companies is close to that of U.S. companies. However, the magnitude of exposure for Taiwanese companies is close to that of Chinese companies. These findings imply that the exchange rate under different exchange rate regimes significantly affects firms in managing their exchange risk.

The motive of this is to treat [The study on the correlation between the media exposure rate and the ways of interpellation of the representatives and their interactions with the press.---The case of The Kaohsiung City Council]¡CAccording to Yuon-Mau Chao(1988), through practicing the interpellation by the representatives, the city council is able to oversee and to check and balance the administrative department, to reveal the administration deficiency and abuse, make people understand the problems of the their township and reflect the opinions of the citizen; The interpellation is not just the right but also the obligation of the representatives, but not all the topics concerned by the representatives are favored by the press. Therefore, this thesis is to study how would the ways of interpellation of the representatives and their interaction with the press correlated with the media exposure rate¡D According to the historical documents of Kaohsiung City Council, After Taiwan was recovered from Japan, a bill named "the Plans for Establishing Representative Organizations at Different Levels" was implemented on December 26,1945 to carry out local autonomy. According to the promulgated regulations of "Organization Act of City People's Political Councils" and "Election Act of City Councilors", Kaohsiung City People's Political Council was founded on April 13, 1946. It was renamed as Kaohsiung City Council on January 11, 1951 and was subjected to Taiwan Provincial Assembly. On July 1, 1979, Kaohsiung City was elevated to a special municipality under the direct supervision of Executive Yuan and The City Council shifted to Kaohsiung City Provisional Council. On December 25, 1981, the councilors of the first term of the City Council of Kaohsiung special municipality were inaugurated¡CNowadays, the 7th term of the City Council of Kaohsiung has 44 councilors, including the KMT¡BPFT¡BDPP¡BTSU and NPA et al but they can be grouped into two main factions : the Blue faction(KMT¡BPFT) and the Green faction(DPP¡BTSU); No matter which faction the councilors are belonged to, most of them would strive for more government resources through official or nonofficial to be denoted to local constructions in order to consolidate his influence and votes¡D The councilors directly elected by the people are responsible for speaking for the people and have the right to canvass the bills and the budget for the city government¡CTherefore, the action of the councilor is going to affect some people, and become one of the resources of important news¡CBut not all representatives¡¦ speeches and actions are going to be favored by the press and gain a positive report, the correlation between the media exposure rate and the ways of interpellation of the representatives and their interaction with the press is the key theme of this research¡D This study takes the 7th term councilors of the City Council of Kaohsiung as the research population, and apply the [case study method] to study the correlations between the interpellation of the councilors in the parliament¡Bthe public hearing outside the parliament¡Bsymposium¡Bmediation council¡Bpress conference¡Bprotest led by the councilor et al and the councilors¡¦ interactions with the press and the media exposure rate. We hope to find out some valuable conclusions and concrete advises on the councilors shooting for media exposure and the presentations of the news by the reporters¡D