China has experienced the rapid socioeconomic change that leads to the evolution of social and physical environment in urban neighborhoods. In recently built neighborhoods, residents lack mutual trust and a sense of community; the neighborhood open spaces have been improved but still do not function well for developing resident social capital. Social capital is a comprehensive concept for evaluating community development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate residents’ social capital in China’s urban context and to examine the relationships between social capital and neighborhood open spaces. The review of literature identified five interpersonal factors of social capital: social network, trust, security and safety, belongingness, and engagement, which were related to neighborhood physical environment. In the city of Guangzhou, two neighborhoods were selected as study fields and two hundred and fifty subjects were randomly selected in each neighborhood to participate in a questionnaire survey. More than 75% subjects returned questionnaires. Ten residents of them then participated in semi-structured interviews. Observation recorded residents’ activities in open spaces. Data were analyzed by statistical methods and domain analysis strategy. The results of statistical examinations demonstrated that residents living with a large number of neighborhood open spaces had higher degrees of social capital than residents lacking open spaces; residents using open spaces frequently developed higher degrees of social capital than residents using open spaces less; residents who were satisfied with their open spaces held higher degrees of social capital than those who were not satisfied with open spaces. Semi-structured interviews explained that well-designed open spaces attracted inhabitants to participate in outdoor activities, which encouraged social interaction among residents, enhanced their mutual trust, expanded social network, and strengthened belongingness to neighborhood. However, open spaces were found not to obviously improve resident engagement. Observations unveiled that a highly versatile and flexible outdoor space was the favorite place for residents of all ages.

Lack of accurate data for epidemiological studies of low dose radiation effects necessitates development of dosimetric models allowing prediction of cancer risks for different organs. The objective of this work is to develop a model of the radiation response of human bronchiolar tissue with single cell resolution. The computer model describes epithelial tissue as an ensemble of individual cells, with the geometry of a human bronchiole and the properties of different cell types are taken into account. The model simulates the tissue kinetics and radiation exposure in four dimensions: three spatial dimensions and a temporal dimension. The bronchiole is modeled as a regular hollow cylinder with the epithelial cells of three different types (basal, secretory, and ciliated) lining its interior. For the purposes of assessment of radiation damage to the cells only the nuclei of the cells have been modeled. Subroutines describing cellular kinetics have been developed to simulate cell turnover in a normal epithelial tissue. Monte Carlo subroutines have been developed to simulate exposure to alpha particles; the GEANT4 toolkit has been used to simulate exposure to low LET radiation. Each hit cell is provided with a record of energy deposition, and this record is passed to the progeny if the cell survives. The model output provides data on the number of basal progenitor cells in different phases of a cell life-cycle and secretory to ciliated cell ratio after several generations of cell proliferation. The model calculates labeling and mitotic indices and estimates the average cell turnover time for the bronchiolar tissue. Microdosimetric calculations are performed for cells traversed by ionizing particles. The model will be used to assess the accumulation of damage in cells due to protracted low level radiation exposure. The model output may provide directions for the future experimental design.

An interface-preserving level set method is incorporated into the Reynolds- Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) numerical method for the time-domain simulation of green water effects. This generalized method can be used to evaluate two- and three-dimensional, laminar and turbulent, free surface flows in moving non-orthogonal grids. In the method, free surface flows are modeled as immiscible two-phase (air and water) flows. A level set function is used to mark the individual fluids and the free surface itself is represented by the zero level set function. The level set evolution equation is coupled with the conservation equations for mass and momentum, and solved in the transformed plane. Chimera domain decomposition technique is employed to handle embedding, overlapping, or matching grids. To demonstrate the feasibility of the method, calculations are performed in several bench mark free surface flows including dam break flows, free jets, solitary wave propagations and the impingement of dam break flow on a fixed structure. The comparisons between the simulations and the experimental data provide a thorough validation of the present method. The results also show the potential capability of level-set RANS method in much more complicated free surface flow simulations. After validations, the method is applied to simulate sloshing flows in LNG tank and green water over the platform. In sloshing flows, the level-set RANS method captures the large impact pressure accurately on LNG tank walls. It also generates a plunging breaker successfully in front of a platform in the numerical wave tank. The good agreements between numerical and experimental results prove the level set RANS method is a powerful and accurate CFD methodology in free surface flow simulations.

Harold Lasswell (1936) defined politics as the exploration of "who gets what, when, and how." As such, one of the central concerns of democratic governance is the role that affected interests play not only in politics, but in the implementation of adopted policies as well. In this dissertation, I use both comparative method case studies, as well as pooled-time series statistical techniques, to examine the effects of political, economic and market forces, and competition between the affected interests on implementation of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. The findings of this, as well as previous, research shows that state-level implementing agencies have some discretion in enforcement activities; however, closer examination shows that this discretion is rarely used. This lack of use of regulatory discretion by the state-level implementing agencies suggests that in most states, there is either sufficient competition between the affected interests to neutralize the excessive use of discretion in enforcement activity, or that there is insufficient pressure placed on the implementing agencies by the affected interests to warrant the use of discretion.

Abstract From the multi-level marketing industry in Taiwan, this study chooses a multi-level marketing company which comprises the characteristics of the niche-based industry in Taiwan and has been established for more than a decade as its subject, aiming to analyze the key to the success of the said company. After the literature review and in-depth interviews with the industry in question, the findings are as follows: I. This study finds out that honesty, kindness and positive marketing concepts are the moral standards salespeople should possess; and the characteristic of being gregarious is regarded as special for the multi-level marketing industry. The operation of the multi-level marketing is based on the cooperation between the upper- and lower-level salespeople on a team basis, and those salespeople support, service, and help one another to accomplish everything, while the conventional business places emphasis on individual performances. Against the backdrop, the characteristics of the multi-level marketing salespeople are somewhat different from those of the conventional salespeople. II. The making of the multi-level marketing industry is that multi-level marketing salespeople have a better capability of providing services. Also, the capabilities of making recommendations, arranging organizational action competence, and drawing up plans for the organization are the factors used to evaluate the success of a multi-level marketing company. III. The interview with the case company done by this study proves the idea proposed by Porter (1985): the innovation of products or services contributes to the differentiation between an enterprise and its competitors, and the enterprise can acquire a better selling price; and the innovation of important techniques or approaches enables an enterprise to enhance efficiency, lower costs, and even form a differentiation. The said principle is applicable to other industries, and likewise to the multi-level marketing industry. Keywords: multi-level marketing, morals, service capability,

ABSTRACT The manpower dispatch development in US, Japan and European country, all become mature industrial stage, in Taiwan also gradually develops under this tidal current, and gradually becomes one of frequently strategies adopt by the enterprise human resources department for human flexible scheduling. The manpower dispatch not only may provide the enterprise human resource in response to peak time or obtains the support of special specialized talented person, simultaneously can outside of administration responsibility, exempt from related cost for the employment of permanent staff, lets the enterprise have the extra mental effort to concentrates in its core specialty, therefore the enterprise get much attention and use it, further enhance its development of the enormous potential. The manpower dispatch already is one of 12 prioritizes service industries in "service industry development guiding principle and the course of action" by the Economic Construction Committee of Executive Yuan, according to the industry and commerce general survey that held by DGBAS (Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics) in 2001, there are approximately 790 manpower supplies industry, from the experiences of US, the manpower dispatch will be very important in the future duty field. According to the estimates of Economic Construction Committee, the average labor force are 9,900 thousand people in Taiwan, the dispatch laborer population might reach 300 thousand people in the future. But recently, the type of knowledge worker change the manpower dispatch level (Yang Ch'aoan, 2004). Perhaps the dispatches worker's image impression of most people is still the image of low-end manual worker, the administration worker or the sanitation worker, but the nowadays enterprise's demand gradually transformed to technical role in specialist, high-level white-color worker as well as telecommunication ,marketing specialist. At present in practice, some company runs the dispatch of tradition low level affairs or the labor work, some runs the recommendation or dispatch of the high step personnel (commonly knows as¡Ghead hunting) ,as for the high-level manpower dispatch that different from the dispatch of traditional dispatch and head hunting, in Europe/America and Japan had the explicit law definition and business volume, but in Taiwan is whether feasible? In the limit of not having enough literature for reference, this research attempts from the demand of enterprise, the supplies of high-level manpower, the barrier in practical and the economical scale of market, to analyze its feasibility, provides some reference for the dispatch industry. This research discovered that¡G (1) the high-level manpower dispatch truly has its demand in Taiwan, and increases day by day. (2) the supplies of the high-level manpower due to lack of protection of the law, presents recruits difficult and high turnover. (3) the high-level manpower dispatches will match the expectation for both supply and demand sides (for example, the cognition of the employer, the trust, authorization and support to high-level dispatch manpower, and whether is willing to give reasonable service fee for which provides dispatch service) the challenge still many, was the key point of high-level manpower dispatch management. (4) the business volume of high-level manpower dispatch at present in Taiwan is not enough, and is insufficient to support the dispatch industry to run this service only. (5) the high-level manpower dispatch is feasible, and will be supposed to the mainstream of manpower dispatch market for the future. Keyword: the manpower dispatch, the human resources, high-level manpower, dispatch demand enterprise

Objective: Globally, about 50 to 100 million patients are infected with dengue fever per year and the average mortality rate is about 3.5 to 5% in Asia. Because of appropriate geographic location and cultural factors, dengue fever has been the important subject of infectious disease that Taiwan faces. In order to control and prevent the spread of dengue fever effectively, how to diagnose the suspected case correctly by the clinical symptoms and to improve the early reporting rates become critical research questions. The purpose of this study is to explore the correlation between clinical symptoms and diagnosis of dengue fever, and the factors associated with being reported at the first outpatient visit among confirmed case by using Dengue Fever Survey Form, which including demographics, clinical symptoms, level of the first outpatient visit and whether the patient is reported at the first outpatient visit. Design: 593 virologically confirmed cases during 2006 Dengue endemics in Kaohsiung city were studied. The data were from Dengue Fever Survey Form, which were collected from January 1 to December 31,2006. Result: The mean age of cases was 46.45¡Ó19.06 years (range 2 years to 89 years). The most common symptoms were fever (97.3%), pain (75.2%), GI symptoms (74.7%), skin rash (49.2%), and thirsty/dry mouth (49.1%). Chi-square tests showed gender, age in group, viral type, whether dengue hemorrhagic fever or not, level of the first outpatient visit, pain and gastrointestinal symptoms were significantly associated with being reported at the first outpatient visit. The result of the analysis of logistic regression indicated that the significant predictors of being reported at the first outpatient visit were gender, age in group, viral type, level of the first outpatient visit, gastrointestinal symptoms and fatigue. Conclusion: Reporting of infectious disease is essential to detection of outbreaks, planning of control program and provision of appropriate treatment. Clinical symptoms of dengue fever and the level of the first outpatient visit will influence rates of being reported at the first outpatient visit. All medical providers involved in diagnosis and treatment of dengue fever should strengthen their knowledge by continuing learning in order to improve early identification rates. In addition, health department could try to improve the detection and reporting systems to make the reporting steps more convenient and advance early reporting rates.

No description available.

Abstract Safety assessment relating to the presence of impurities, residual materials and contaminants in vaccines is a focus area of research at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Sponsors who submit Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for new vaccine products must report the results of safety assessments to the Division of Vaccines and Related Products Applications (DVRPA). Scientifically defining thresholds of toxicological concern (TTCs) as they apply to vaccine constituents will provide a useful aid to the sponsors and public regarding safety assessments of compounds for which there is little or no toxicity data. TTCs are mathematically modeled and extrapolated levels, below which adverse human health effects are not expected to occur (Kroes, 2004). In this project, we accessed DVRPA's submission databases and open source data to yield an initial chemical test set. Using INCHEM, RepDose, RTECS and TOXNET, we gathered LD50 and TDLo data. Using a structure-based decision tree, provided in the ToxTree software package, (3) different algorithms (The Cramer extended, the In vivo rodent micronucleus assay, and the Benigni-Bossa rule base for carcinogenicity by ISS) were applied to assign the initial test set (n= 197) of chemicals into structural families based on structural alerts (SAs). This resulted in six (6) potential methods for elucidating TTCs: In vivo rodent micronucleus assay/ LD50, Benigni-Bossa/ LD50, Cramer extended/ LD50, In vivo rodent micronucleus assay/ TDLo, Benigni-Bossa/ TDLo, and the Cramer extended/ TDLo. After each algorithm designated two structural families each, the distribution of TDLo's and LD50's for each structural family was subjected to a preliminary data analysis using JMP statistical software version 9. Based on an analysis of quantiles, skew, and kurtosis, it was concluded that the TDLo dataset was of poor quality and was dropped from further analysis, and that the In vivo rodent micronucleus assay algorithm failed to partition the initial test set in a meaningful way, so it too was culled from further consideration. This resulted in (2) remaining TTC methods for further consideration: Benigni-Bossa/ LD50 and the Cramer extended/ LD50. The remaining methods were subjected to internal validation based on Gene-Tox, CCRIS, CPDB, IARC, and EPA classaifications for genotoxic mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. Validation parameters were calculated for both methods and it was determined that the Benigni-Bossa/ LD50 method outperformed the Cramer extended/ LD50 method in terms of specificity (87.2 vs. 48.1%#37;), accuracy (65.2 vs. 52.94%#37;), positive predictivity (66.6 vs. 50%#37;), negative predictivity (64.8 vs. 56.5%#37;), ROC+ (2 vs. 1) and ROC- (1.84 vs. 1.3). These results indicated that the Benigni-Bossa/ LD50 was the most appropriate for calculating TTCs for vaccine constituents. For each class, the lower 2.5th percentile LD50 was extrapolated to a TTC value using safety estimates derived using uncertainty factors (UF) and adjusting for adult human weight. Final TTCs were designated as 18.06 μg/ person and 20.616 μg/ person for the Benigni-Bossa positive and negative structural families.

Ett globalt paradigmskifte sker från traditionella värderingar till självuppfyllande värderingar, vilket får konsekvenser för individer och organisationer. Skiftet kräver högre nivåer av medvetenhet. Högre medvetenhetsnivå har visats ge effekt på förmågan att operera med förhöjd komplexitet, för individer och hela organisationer. Studien jämförde chefers värderingar med medarbetare och studenter genom värderingskartläggning. Syftet var att, utifrån kartläggningen, dra slutsatser om gruppernas medvetenhetsnivå enligt Halls (1995) teori. Hypotesen var att cheferna skulle visa på högre nivå av medvetenhet. Data insamlades genom webverktyget ValuesOnline där deltagarna rangordnade 125 värderingar. Värderingarna delades in i tre utvecklingscykler som kopplas till olika nivåer av medvetenhet. Interaktionen för gruppernas fördelning mellan cyklerna var signifikant men ingen signifikant skillnad för gruppernas fördelning in om varje cykel. Utifrån resultatet kunde inget antagande om att cheferna befann sig på en högre medvetenhetsnivå göras. Slutsatsen var, i enlighet med tidigare forskning, att ledarskapsutbildningar med fördel fokuseras på arbetet med personliga värderingar.