Abstract Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Board Logistics Division¡¦s response strategies to Taiwan¡¦s entry into the World Trade Organization -from an integrated view of resource-base, resource-dependence, and network theories. The three theories including resource-base, resource-dependence, and network stress how companies obtain competitive advantage from inside to outside of the company. The synergy coming from integrating all three theories should further strengthen a corporation¡¦s competitiveness. After Taiwan¡¦s entry into the World Trade Organization, the tobacco and wine industry in Taiwan have faced fierce competition from new competitors. This poses both as a threat and as an opportunity for Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Board¡¦s Logistics Division. Through the analysis of the aforementioned three theories, this paper hopes to gain insight into how much competitive edge the Board has in terms of its advantages and disadvantages, its interdependence and relationship within the tobacco and wine industry as well as with other industries. Thus this paper hopes to combine and integrate the Division¡¦s external and internal resources and then make response strategies and policy suggestions accordingly. The results of this research include: 1. Products, price, distribution and sales channels, assets, and the competence of Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Board Logistics Division were all greatly affected by Taiwan¡¦s entry into the WTO. 2. Both assets and competences are considered as the company¡¦s internal resources. Advantages should be further made use of where disadvantages should be taken care of. 3. The Board¡¦s Logistics Division is currently most closely related to the tobacco and brewage factories under the same company. However, this relationship will be looser in the future due to the competition and the struggle to survive both entities face. On the other hand, the Logistics Division¡¦s relationship with transport companies, retailers, hypermarkets, convenience stores will be closer through investment, franchise, or partnerships. Its relationship with private sector manufacturers, domestic and oversea agents, cross-industry suppliers, distributors will also become much closer. 4. The Board¡¦s dependence on factories under the same company will decrease from highly dependent to a much lower degree ; its dependence on private sector manufacturers and domestic and oversea agents (who imports products from overseas after entry into the WTO) will grow from nil to highly dependent (dependence on importers already importing products before entry into WTO will decrease from an already meager degree to much less); dependence on cross-industry suppliers and distributors will become higher from a previously low degree; dependence on transport companies, retailers, hypermarkets and convenience stores will also become much higher from an already close relationship. 5. The Logistics Division should, after Taiwan¡¦s entry into the WTO, start from developing its internal advantages and disadvantages and search for ways to establish external links, as well as reducing its dependence on external sources. The three essential elements including resource-base, resource-dependence, and networks should be integrated through complement of resources, natural production, and increased interdependence. This and together with other strategies including diversification, strategic alliances, cooperating within the industry and across industries both domestically and internationally, should all be taken into account in the drawing up of response strategies in order to create competitive advantage for the Division. In view of these findings, this paper proceeds to make the following recommendations: 1. Increase retailer margins and encourage a more diversified range of promotional tactics. 2. Develop high-value products and improve package design. 3. Leverage existing advantages in distribution and sales channels and engage in the agency, distribution, and diversification into non-tobacco and nonalcoholic products. 4. Cut down distribution and sales channels and strengthen direct sales channels. 5. Intensify logistics and distributional functions. 6. Strengthen employees¡¦ professional knowledge and competence and improve information systems. 7. Accelerate the expansion of overseas markets, especially mainland China. 8. Speed up the company¡¦s privatization process. Based on an integrated view of resource-base, resource-dependence, and network theories, this paper presents a brief overview of how Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Board¡¦s Logistics Division¡¦s relationships with other companies in the same industry as well as cross-industry alliances had been affected post Taiwan¡¦s WTO entry. In view of these changes that have taken place, this paper also proceeds to make a few suggestions with regard to how the Logistics Division could respond to the challenges it now faces. Key Words¡G WTO¡AResource-base¡AResource-dependence¡ANetwork Theory¡AIntegrate

This study aims at finding whether reading about a specific topic/genre affects the writing outcome on the same topic/genre and the general writing performance positively in terms of content, organization, grammar, vocabulary and mechanics. This study was conducted with two upper-intermediate level EFL classes. Both groups were given a sample KPDS and a pre-test of writing at the beginning of the study. For five weeks, one of the groups received extra reading instruction with the usual writing instruction while the other group followed usual writing instruction only. Both groups&rsquo / performance was tested with a writing test at the end of each week and a post-test at the end of the treatment. The analyses of the data collected through these tests indicated that there were not significant differences between the mean scores of the two groups (p&amp / #61502 / 0.05). Hence it was found that the different treatments applied to the groups proved no difference in terms of improving students writing ability.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the extent to which a sample of Swedish psychotherapists used techniques and interventions that are not part of the methods that they have been trained in. i.e. to what extent do they have an integrated approach in their professional activities. The hypothesis is that most psychotherapists in Sweden do not work strictly with just one psychotherapeutic orientation, but that they use techniques and methods from other orientations, which would be consistent with international research results in this field. Participants were recruited by mailed letters to a sample of authorized Swedish psychotherapists of all potential orientations. The letters contained an information paper and a questionnaire.

Neurons communicate by action potentials. This process can be described by very detailed biochemical models of neuronal membrane and its channels, or by simpler phenomenological models of membrane potential (integrate-and- fire models) or even by very abstract models when only time of spikes are considered. We took one particular description - stochastic leaky integrate-and-fire model - and compared it with recorded in-vivo intracellular activity of the neuron. We estimated parameters of this model, compared how the model simulation corresponds with a real neuron. It can be concluded that the data are generally consistent with the model. At a more abstract level of description, the spike trains are analyzed without considering exact membrane voltage and one asks how the external stimulus is encoded in the spike train emitted by neurons. There are many neuronal codes described in literature and we focused on the open problem of neural code responsible for spatial hearing in mammals. Several theories explaining the experimental findings have been proposed and we suggest a specific variant of so called slope-encoding model. Neuronal circuit mimick- ing auditory pathway up to the first binaural neuron was constructed and experimental results were reproduced. Finally, we estimated the minimal number of such...

Neurons communicate by action potentials. This process can be described by very detailed biochemical models of neuronal membrane and its channels, or by simpler phenomenological models of membrane potential (integrate-and- fire models) or even by very abstract models when only time of spikes are considered. We took one particular description - stochastic leaky integrate-and-fire model - and compared it with recorded in-vivo intracellular activity of the neuron. We estimated parameters of this model, compared how the model simulation corresponds with a real neuron. It can be concluded that the data are generally consistent with the model. At a more abstract level of description, the spike trains are analyzed without considering exact membrane voltage and one asks how the external stimulus is encoded in the spike train emitted by neurons. There are many neuronal codes described in literature and we focused on the open problem of neural code responsible for spatial hearing in mammals. Several theories explaining the experimental findings have been proposed and we suggest a specific variant of so called slope-encoding model. Neuronal circuit mimick- ing auditory pathway up to the first binaural neuron was constructed and experimental results were reproduced. Finally, we estimated the minimal number of such...

One-dimensional neural networks comprised of large numbers of Integrate-and-Fire neurons have been widely used to model electrical activity propagation in neural slices. Despite these efforts, the vast majority of these computational models have no analytical solutions. Consequently, my Ph.D. research focuses on a specific class of homogeneous Integrate-and-Fire neural network, for which analytical solutions of network dynamics can be derived. One crucial analytical finding is that the traveling wave acceleration quadratically depends on the instantaneous speed of the activity propagation, which means that two speed solutions exist in the activities of wave propagation: one is fast-stable and the other is slow-unstable. Furthermore, via this property, we analytically compute temporal-spatial spiking dynamics to help gain insights into the stability mechanisms of traveling wave propagation. Indeed, the analytical solutions are in perfect agreement with the numerical solutions. This analytical method also can be applied to determine the effects induced by a non-conductive gap of brain tissue and extended to more general synaptic connectivity functions, by converting the evolution equations for network dynamics into a low-dimensional system of ordinary differential equations. Building upon these results, we investigate how periodic inhomogeneities affect the dynamics of activity propagation. In particular, two types of periodic inhomogeneities are studied: alternating regions of additional fixed excitation and inhibition, and cosine form inhomogeneity. Of special interest are the conditions leading to propagation failure. With similar analytical procedures, explicit expressions for critical speeds of activity propagation are obtained under the influence of additional inhibition and excitation. However, an explicit formula for speed modulations is difficult to determine in the case of cosine form inhomogeneity. Instead of exact solutions from the system of equations, a series of speed approximations are constructed, rendering a higher accuracy with a higher order approximation of speed.

Redes complexas têm sido cada vez mais utilizadas para a modelagem e análise dos mais diversos sistemas da natureza. Um dos tópicos mais estudados na área de redes está relacionado com a identificação e caracterização de grupos de nós mais conectados entre si do que com o restante da rede, chamados de comunidades. Neste trabalho, mostramos que comunidades podem ser caracterizadas por quatro classes gerais de propriedades, relacionadas com a topologia interna, dinâmica interna, fronteira topológica, e fronteira dinâmica das comunidades. Verificamos como estas diferentes características influenciam em dinâmicas ocorrendo sobre a rede. Em especial, estudamos o inter-relacionamento entre a topologia e a dinâmica das comunidades para cada uma dessas quatro classes de atributos. Mostramos que certas propriedades provocam a alteração desse inter-relacionamento, dando origem ao que chamamos de comportamento específico de comunidades. De forma a apresentarmos e analisarmos este conceito nos quatro casos considerados, estudamos as seguintes combinações topológicas e dinâmicas. Na primeira, investigamos o passeio aleatório tradicional ocorrendo sobre redes direcionadas, onde mostramos que a direção das conexões entre comunidades é o principal fator de alteração no relacionamento topologia-dinâmica. Aplicamos a metodologia proposta em uma rede real, definida por módulos corticais de animais do gênero Macaca. O segundo caso estudado aborda o passeio aleatório enviesado ocorrendo sobre redes não direcionadas. Mostramos que o viés associado às transições da dinâmica se tornam cada vez mais relevantes com o aumento da modularidade da rede. Verificamos também que a descrição da dinâmica a nível de comunidades possibilita modelarmos com boa acurácia o fluxo de passageiros em aeroportos. A terceira análise realizada envolve a dinâmica neuronal integra-e-dispara ocorrendo sobre comunidades geradas segundo o modelo Watts-Strogatz. Mostramos que as comunidades podem possuir não apenas diferentes níveis de ativação dinâmica, como também apresentar diferentes regularidades de sinal dependendo do parâmetro de reconexão utilizado na criação das comunidades. Por último, estudamos a influência das posições de conexões inibitórias na dinâmica integra-e-dispara, onde mostramos que a inibição entre comunidades dá origem a interessantes variações na ativação global da rede. As análises realizadas revelam a importância de, ao modelarmos sistemas reais utilizando redes complexas, considerarmos alterações de parâmetros do modelo na escala de comunidades. / There has been a growing interest in modeling diverse types of real-world systems through the tools provided by complex network theory. One of the main topics of research in this area is related to the identification and characterization of groups, or communities, of nodes more densely connected between themselves than with the rest of the network. We show that communities can be characterized by four general classes of features, associated with the internal topology, internal dynamics, topological border, and dynamical border of the communities. We verify that these characteristics have direct influence on the dynamics taking place over the network. Particularly, for each considered class we study the interdependence between the topology and the dynamics associated with each network community. We show that some of the studied properties can influence the topology-dynamics interdependence, inducing what we call the communities specific behavior. In order to present and characterize this concept on the four considered classes, we study the following combinations of network topology and dynamics. We first investigate traditional random walks taking place on a directed network. We demonstrate that, for this dynamics, the direction of the edges between communities represents the main method for the modification of the topology-dynamics relationship. We apply the developed approach on a real-world network, defined by the connectivity between cortical regions in primates of the Macaca genus. The second studied case considers the biased random walk on undirected networks. We demonstrate that the transition bias of this dynamics becomes more relevant for higher network modularity. In addition, we show that the biased random walk can be used to model with good accuracy the passenger flow inside the communities of two airport networks. The third analysis is done on a neuronal dynamics, called integrate-and-fire, applied to networks composed of communities generated by the Watts-Strogatz model. We show that the considered communities can not only posses distinct dynamical activation levels, but also yield different signal regularity. Lastly, we study the influence of the positions of inhibitory connections on the integrate-and-fire dynamics. We show that inhibitory connections placed between communities can have a non-trivial influence on the global behavior of the dynamics. The current study reveals the importance of considering parameter variations of network models at the scale of communities.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T16:17:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Renata Gotardo.pdf: 738487 bytes, checksum: 9997736967bb51f1cae66464bf6ab9ac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-10 / This research analysis the concept of knowledge in the educational politics of pertaining to school formation of the working class, specifically that one intended by the politics of curricular integration, that it intend to propagate in High School Integrated and the National Program of Integration of the Professional Education with the Basic Education in the Modality of Education of Young and Adult (PROEJA). The objectives considered in the development of the research are: 1) to analyze the concept of present knowledge in the educational politics directed toward High School Education Integrated and PROEJA, as express in the inherent legislation to such politics; 2) to analyze the joint enters the educational politics directed toward Hight School Integrated and PROEJA and the process of reorganization of the work; 3) to analyze the coherence between the politics proposals for the federal government for High School Integrated and PROEJA, and its implementation as public politics in the state of the Paraná. The inquiry was developed by means of documentary analysis of primary and secondary sources and collects of information. As primary sources we use the legislation that it regulates offers of Integrated High School and PROEJA in national level; documents emanated for the State Secretary of the Education of Paraná - SEED: ―Professional Education in the Paraná: Beddings Pedagogical Politicians‖ and ―Professional Education Integrated to Adult and Young Education - Preliminary Version‖. The collected information had been gotten from the development of the Project of Research ―Demands and Potentialities of the PROEJA in the State of the Paraná‖, financed for the CAPES, of which I am scholarship holder. The secondary sources, we use the bibliography related to the subject, particularly those referring ones to the period of the reform of High Scholl and the Professional Education (1997-2004), to the reorganization of the work and the conception of knowledge in a historical materialistic perspective. In the first chapter we present considerations regarding the form as the human beings, when producing its life through the work, also produce knowledge, as well as the case in the capitalist way of organization of the work and its implications for the education destined to the workers class. In the second chapter we investigate the curriculum concept of knowledge that guides the politics of High School Integrated and PROEJA, in the Federal scope, from the analysis of Decrees and Resolutions. In the third chapter we search to evaluate the process of implantation of the curriculum integrated in the state of the Paraná, its similarities and some differences from the Federal Legislation. In the final consideration, we reconstitute the passage of the developed analyses, looking for to demonstrate that the construction of the curriculum integrated in the perspective of attendance to the aspires of the working class must be together with the fight for a structurally distinct society, therefore under new social relations of production the knowledge will only be able effectively to contribute for the humanization of the human being. / Esse estudo tem como objeto a análise do conceito de conhecimento presente nas políticas educacionais de formação escolar da classe trabalhadora, especificamente aquele pretendido pelas políticas de integração curricular, que se intenciona veicular no Ensino Médio Integrado e no Programa Nacional de Integração da Educação Profissional com a Educação Básica na Modalidade de Educação de Jovens e Adultos (PROEJA). Os objetivos propostos no desenvolvimento da pesquisa são: 1) analisar o conceito de conhecimento presente nas políticas educacionais voltadas para o Ensino Médio Integrado e PROEJA, tal como expressas na legislação inerente a tais políticas; 2) analisar a articulação entre as políticas educacionais voltadas para o Ensino Médio Integrado e PROEJA e o processo de reestruturação do trabalho; 3) analisar a coerência entre as políticas propostas pelo governo federal para o Ensino Médio Integrado e PROEJA, e sua implementação como política pública no estado do Paraná. A investigação foi desenvolvida por meio de análise documental de fontes primárias e secundárias e coleta de dados. Como fontes primárias utilizamos a legislação que regulamenta a oferta do Ensino Médio Integrado e PROEJA em nível nacional; documentos emanados pela Secretaria de Estado da Educação do Paraná SEED: ―Educação Profissional no Paraná: Fundamentos Políticos e Pedagógicos‖ e ―Educação Profissional Integrada à Educação de Jovens e Adultos Versão Preliminar‖. Os dados coletados foram obtidos a partir do desenvolvimento do Projeto de Pesquisa ―Demandas e Potencialidades do PROEJA no Estado do Paraná‖, financiado pela CAPES, do qual sou bolsista. Quanto às fontes secundárias, utilizamos a bibliografia relacionada ao tema, particularmente aquelas referentes ao período da reforma do Ensino Médio e da Educação Profissional (1997-2004), à reestruturação do trabalho e à concepção de conhecimento numa perspectiva materialista histórica. No primeiro capítulo apresentamos considerações a respeito da forma como os seres humanos, ao produzirem sua vida através do trabalho, produzem também conhecimentos, bem como as especificidades do modo capitalista de organização do trabalho e suas implicações para a educação destinada à classe trabalhadora. No segundo capítulo investigamos o conceito de conhecimento que orienta as políticas do Ensino Médio Integrado e PROEJA, no âmbito Federal, a partir da análise dos Decretos, Resoluções, Pareceres e Diretrizes Curriculares que versam sobre a integração da Educação Profissional à Educação Básica. No terceiro capítulo buscamos avaliar o processo de implantação do currículo integrado no estado do Paraná, suas similaridades e distanciamentos em relação à legislação federal. Nas considerações finais, reconstituímos o percurso das análises desenvolvidas, procurando demonstrar que a construção do currículo integrado na perspectiva de atendimento aos anseios da classe trabalhadora deve estar atrelada à luta por uma sociedade estruturalmente distinta, pois somente sob novas relações sociais de produção o conhecimento poderá efetivamente contribuir para a humanização do ser humano.

In current business global society, every food industry company is making efforts to provide high quality of products and satisfaction to customers. Balancing the low cost but with high efficiency when undertaking cold chain logistics becomes competitiveness in business market. This thesis is mainly to study cold chain management in food logistics by a multiple case study on food industry. The purpose of the paper is to advance the understanding of the cold chain management in food industry, aim to find how an efficient way to combine the logistics cost and the effectiveness of cold chain logistics and the challenges of the cold chain logistics in food industry. In this multiple case study, qualitative method was used to describe findings. The data collected can be divided into two types, the primary data and the secondary data. Primary data indicates the face-to-face interview with the managers and employees working for customer service in the selected companies. The secondary data are resources from archives, websites and other printed materials. To improve the validity, related literature were reviewed by authors to find the research questions. The reliability can be guaranteed because the theory part of the thesis abstracted from the publications, which have been approved for many years. The authors give the overview and practice in cold chain logistics of the three case companies, also mention the challenges both in developing and developed countries. The study finds the way to improve the utilization in cold chain logistics, fill the gap of logistics in food industry and give some advices for food industry.

In the past time, I had opportunity to serve as Rear Admiral Executive Officer, Office of Deputy Chief of General Staff for Personnel, Ministry of National Defense ROC. To establish "The National Armed Forces Recruitment Center" was my duty during that time. Under my command and control,the Recruitment Center, Ministry of National Defense, was founded on Jan 1, 1999. Now this center has operated for 7 years. After attending the EMBA Class, marketing and business management are our core courses, I want to use this knowledge to analysis the recruiting situation, market segmentation, target market, marketing strategy and management of this center. I hope to get some useful conclusion to enhance the marketing strategy and management, and make youths obtain the military information of joining the ROC military academies in time, and therefore the National Armed Forces can enhance quality of cadres. The major research findings of this study are summarized as follows: 1. The achievement of Recruitment Center has been excellent for seven years. Especially, in 2000 and 2001, the center got the Excellent Award Of Executive Yuan for two times. 2. In Taiwan, there are 77.7% people to know the activity of Recruitment Center according the issue of Executive Yuan in 2001. 3. The number of female joining the National Armed Forces is adding. The major target market is in the South of Taiwan, the second one is in the North of Taiwan, the third is in the Central Taiwan. 4. Most of student, their family outcome is 20000 to 50000 New Taiwan Dollars and most of them are the middle-low outcome family. 5. Speaking the occupation of student parents, most of them are workers and merchants, and most of them graduated from the high school. 6. Most of student, their motivation of joining the National Armed Forces is to emphasize the requirement of high level, such as Love and Belongingness Needs; Esteem Needs;Self Actualization Needs. 7. People Communication plays a very important role and network marketing also plays a key role according the Metcalfe Law. 8. In 2003, over 25000 young people took part in the entrance examination.But only 5.4% examinee can be elected to go to military academies, this is the lowest record in the history. Their examination score is up to the level of national university. 9. In the near future, the master degree will be the major market requirement. The voluntary officer should get the master degree before promoting to major or lieutenant commander. All of these achievement will enhance the image of National Armed Forces and competitive strength. 10. This study provides marketing strategy and action items in the Chapter 6, Article 2.