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The purpose of the research is to explore the veteran¡¦s perceptions in living Taiwan, back to settle in hometown, the status quo of long stay in mainland China, and why they gave up staying there for long term living but went back Taiwan. It is expected that the research results would be references for relevant authorities when they take measures to take care of the veteran¡¦s livelihood. The study is mainly a qualitative research with in-dept interview and literature review, while the research scope is limited only to those senior veterans in long-term care at certain nursing home of Veterans Affairs Commission, Executive Yuan in certain area who have given up long-time living in mainland China but went back to settle in Kaohsiung area, which totally are 9 persons. The research results found that (1) though the unmarried and lonely veterans have taken the army as their homes since they retreated to Taiwan and missed their hometown, they all deeply disposed to Taiwan; (2) the senior veterans went back to their hometown only for the reason as ¡§falling leaves return to roots¡¨, ¡§happily reunion with family¡¨, but the connection of family feeling was based on money; (3) when back to hometown, the livelihood of those senior veterans were mostly out of question, part of them get married and built houses, or even supported their relatives and inferiors with money; (4) the main reasons they gave up living there were the cold weather, inadequate medical care and so on. There are 3 dimensions in the research¡¦s suggestions: 1. the mental health network for veterans (including case management etc.) should be built up; 2. the business of veterans¡¦ long stay in mainland China should be forwarded (so as the mechanism positively assisting veterans in long term care to go back Taiwan should be established); 3. the practice of long-term care institution for veterans (providing the second time holistic care service and so on for the senior veterans) should be developed.

A modern democratic nation is responsible to taking care its people¡¦s basic needs. This is not only the essential reason for the existence of a nation, but also its responsibility and obligation. The right to life is an important issue in international treaties and constitutions of variable nations. People are entitled to claim care from their countries to maintain a reasonable living standard. Countries are obliged to safeguard its people¡¦s right to life through legislation, to provide basic living needs which meet human nature dignity. A nation has many obligations include the maintaining of individual health, ensuring sound environment, social relief and social insurance. Financial operation is a key issue in managing a nation. Therefore, in fulfilling the obligations, a nation must consider its financial affordability seriously so as not to deteriorate its finance for overly taking care of its people. Due to rapid aging of population and low fertility, Japan implemented Long Term Care Insurance in 2000; however, many a relative legal issue was encountered while conducting such system. For instance, for the purposes of convenience and efficiency in collecting premiums, a special levy is applied to 90% of No. 1 insurees whose age were over 65, the premiums were pre-deducted from their perpetual pensions, which may cause the qualms about trenching on the capability of people to maintain a lowest living standards and the abuse of the power of administrative decision. Eyed on financial consideration, Japanese government carried out the Law for Long Term Care Insurance, refuses its service to those whose premiums were over due, and suppresses the accessibility for the poor. The group that was supposed to be taken care of by the government is totally neglected while the middle class taking advantages from the system and waste more public fund. This is completely opposite to the objectives of the long term care system legislation. This also caused the disputes that the right to life regulated in the article 25 of Japanese Constitution is violated by administrative power. Our nation is confronted with population aging and low fertility as well lately. The total fertility rate has declined to 0.895, which is the lowest in the world. In the aging society, the long term care need of the elders and the disabled, and related heavy financial burdens are already far beyond the capacities of individuals or families and become a ¡§Social Risk.¡¨ Such a risk will need a coercive risk managing technique enforced by the nation, to organize a social insurance structure so as to share the risk and reduce individuals¡¦ burdens. Our government is engaging in planning a long term care system. The flaws of Japan¡¦s Law for Long Term Care Insurance, both in legislation and enforcement, can be valuable lessons for us. This essay discussed the legalization of the long term care system of our nation, reviewed its jurisprudence and raised integrated long term care concept. Some suggestions concerned with operation subject, insurance objects and financial plans were provided in hope with a comprehensive guideline on policy making, legislation and enforcement and system construction can be established.

Addiction is a chronic disease that characterize as habitual or compulsive involvement in an activity despite it¡¦s bring negative consequences. Some of psystimulants such as cocaine or amphetamine cause a strong reinforcing effects even after prolonged abstinence periods. Such illegal drugs not only hurt on the adult health but also result in fetal physiological damage. For example, that babies born to mothers who abuse with cocaine bring prematurely delivered, low birth weights, smaller head circumferences and increased heart disease in adult offspring. Mesolimbic dopamine system include nucleus accumbens (NAc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) are critical regions for the neural adaptations that contribute to addiction. VTA that receives inputs from a large number of brain regions. For example, it receives glutamatergic inputs from prefrontal cortex, or GABAergic inputs from NAc. It has been known that VTA play a major role in the acquisition and expression of learned addictive behaviors. Results from many neuropharmacological studies in animal models indicate that exposure to cocaine or some other drugs of abuse seems to induce long-term potentiation (LTP) ¢w like changes of synaptic plasticity among neurons in VTA region. LTP was first described in hippocampus, a region that associated with memory formation, and were found widespread events in many mammalian brain sites. In the present time, theories and investigation indicated that memory and addiction might shared the similar neural circuitry and signal pathways. In general, LTP can be separate into two main phases : induction and maintenance phases. Many of molecules participate in induction phase such as calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), cyclic AMP (cAMP), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3K) and protein kinase C (PKC). However, until now there was only one molecule has been found associated with LTP maintenance¡Xprotein kinase M£a (PKM£a). PKM£a is a brain specific, constitutively active form of PKC that does not need Ca2+ or diacylglycerol (DAG) for its activation. Molecular evidences showed that PKM£a is translated uniquely by PKM£a mRNA which is generated under the control of an internal promoter in the PKC£a gene. Recently, investigators introduced a PKM£a selective inhibitor¡XZIP, to hippocampus or insular cortex both successful to eliminate long-term spatial memory or conditioned taste aversion (CTA) behavior, respectively, on rat. Therefore, exclude PKM£a by specific inhibitors and then result in abolish long-term synaptic potentiation which had already established seem to be a leading candidate for cure addiction. Here we showed that blocked of PKM£a activity in VTA dopaminergic neuron eliminated mEPSCs or AMPAR/NMDAR ratio increment elicited by cocaine. Otherwise, our results also presented that myristoylatedinhibitory peptide¢wZIP had no effect on spike timing-dependent long-term potentiation in rats previously injected with saline but remarkably restored spike timing-dependent long-term potentiation in VTA dopamine neurons in slices prepared from rats that received single or multiple cocaine exposure. Furthermore, our western blot analyses showed that both single and five consecutive cocaine injections induced a significant increase in PKM£a level in VTA or NAc. Moreover, our ex vivo cocaine incubation results indicated that multiple kinases activation or de novo protein synthesis was required for PKM£a increment. The most important, our data provided the first physiological evidence between PKM£a and drug addiction when intracranial administered specific PKM£a inhibitors to VTA reversed cocaine-induced conditioned-place preference (CPP) behavior. Finally, we investigated the behavioral effect of cocaine-induced locomotor sensitization in an open field apparatus. Our data showed that peri-adolescent (P21) rats exhibited prominently increased in either acute or repeated cocaine-induced locomotor activity than mid-adolescent (P28) and post-adolescent (P41). Interestingly, applied to high dosage cocaine (30 mg/kg) rescued the acute locomotor response in P28 rats but not behavioral sensitization. We further examined the locomotion on rats that were exposed to cocaine in utero after single or multiple cocaine injection. However, cocaine-induced increase in locomotor activity was lower in P21 rats which exposed to cocaine during pregnancy but no significantly difference in P28 rats. Surprisingly, single high dose cocaine treatment caused a marked reduction in locomotor activity on P21 rats prenatally exposed to cocaine. Otherwise, we also provided the first evidences that repeated cocaine injection in pregnant rats induced a significant decreased to KCC2 level in PFC regions prepared from P20 rat. In conclusion, results from our current studies demonstrate for the first time that persistently active PKM£a is necessary in (1) mEPSC facilitation induced by single cocaine exposure; (2) cocaine-induced enhancement in AMPAR/NMDAR ratio; (3) single or repeated cocaine-induced LTP but not in LTP induced by spike-timing stimulation; and (4) cocaine conditioned place preference in the VTA. In addition, our results also present evidence that the expression of PKM£a is increased by either single or repeated cocaine exposure. Furthermore, our behavioral or Western blotting consequence of cocaine treatment in utero was reflected by the diminishion in the sensitivity of locomotor activity in postnatal rats to cocaine and KCC2 level in PFC regions.

Regular walking has several physical and psychological benefits for frail older people. However, many residents in long-term care facilities are too sedentary to achieve these benefits. Indoor walking appears to be a feasible way to promote active living among these residents and yet, there is little research that has been done in this regard. The researcher conducted two studies in Central Texas to explore how corridor design features influenced indoor walking behaviors among assisted living residents. In the first study, the researcher carried out six focus groups with 50 assisted living residents, discussing how they perceived the indoor corridor as "walkable." Residents reported that a walkable corridor should be safe, comfortable, and having beautiful/interesting things to see. In the second study, the researcher further examined the relationship between the built environment and walking behaviors among 326 residents from 18 facilities in a major city of Texas. The results indicated that 'perceived looped corridor' and 'number of stories' were significantly associated with residents' frequencies of indoor recreational walking. In addition, the availability and quality of sitting space around mailbox areas influenced the number of "walking to mailbox" trips. This research provides empirical evidence to develop activity-friendly facility design guidelines, and to create environmental interventions to facilitate active lifestyles among long-term care residents.

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This thesis begins with the economic globalization, and uses secondary data analysis to explore the labor structural change and employment conditions in Taiwan under globalization. Then, using the social exclusion theory, through qualitative in-depth interview methods, this study explores the unemployment and re-employment experiences of the long-term unemployed and the marginally employed, as well as the economic, psychological, and social network exclusion in the process of employment to unemployment. This study also discusses the roles of government employment policies, familial and social relationship networks. Finally, policy suggestions are proposed according to related research discoveries. The study finds that: first, in terms of unemployment and re-employment experience, most laborers regard unemployment with a passive and external attribution attitude; this negatively influences emotions, interpersonal relationships, and later re-employment. While unable to return to the original career, unemployed laborers develop different life choices. Those who return to the labor market the earliest return because they succumb to economic pressure, becoming marginal workers who are willing to do any work, and the other kind are those who are continuously accumulate capital and convert it into employment resource; these are the active workers. On the other hand, there are two types of people who remain unemployed. One is the type that becomes waiting unemployed because they are unwilling to budge on employment conditions, and the other is the type that is limited by their own employment abilities and become helplessly unemployed. Additionally, unemployed people with different identities also have different life choices at their inability to return to their original careers. Secondly, from labor market exclusion to social exclusion: 1.Labor market exclusion and economic exclusion: unemployment results in decreased income, which further impairs daily living needs, basic medical care, and educational services, as well as stops one from participating in entertainment and leisure activities; these impact basic life opportunities and makes one feel more and more exclusion. 2. Labor market exclusion and psychological exclusion: emotional changes during unemployment are primarily affected by decreased income, but it is also affected by personal expectations of future re-employment. For the involuntarily unemployed, they feel a greater sense of lack of control and impotence over their lives. 3. Labor market exclusion and social relationship exclusion: as a result of lack of self esteem or economic considerations, the unemployed have significantly less social interaction, in a singularized network structure, which would provide relatively smaller economic or re-employment support. 4. Social networks have a positive influence on alleviating the multifaceted exclusion caused by unemployment, but the majority of unemployment laborers have significantly insufficient social network functions. Those who are unemployed with weak formal and informal social networks would fall into social exclusion, have a bleak outlook on the future and believe that there is no chance to extricate oneself from the various unfavorable situations caused by unemployment. ¡@¡@The end of the thesis also discusses some related issues, such as the unemployment issue (unemployment conceptualization? Who are the unemployed? Work or retire?), social exclusion issues (applicability of social exclusion theories? what is the role of the country in labor market exclusion? Does the employment policy cause social cohesion or social exclusion?), social structures, and individual action interactions. Finally, from labor market intervention, construction to social network, and proposes related policy suggestions to reverse social exclusion.

Today when computing technology is developed rapidly, the use of the computer has already been a quite general tool. To explore the determinants of the success in applying computing technology to computer-related work, this study proposed a theoretical model that adopts individual satisfaction as a surrogate for the success of computer learning. Based on social cognitive theory (SCT) and competence-related literature, this study considered computer self-efficacy, computer competence and near-term and long-term consequences as the determinants of individual satisfaction with computer use. The study took the junior high school students at eight school in Fong Shan city, Kaohsiung County, total 14,145 students, and sent out 560 questionnaires. As a result, 506 questionnaires were returned, achieving a return rate of 90.4%. After deducting 16 invalid questionnaires from the total, achieving an effective return rate of 87.5%. The study was processed data by the SPSS-for-window software with statistical method, T-test, One-way ANOVA, Pearson Product-moment Correlation, Structural equation model analysis and so on. The research result show as followings: 1.¡¨Computer self-efficacy¡¨ was the effects of ¡§computer competence¡¨. Computer self-efficacy was a strong and positive antecedent of computer competence. However, between computer self-efficacy and perceived consequences, showed¡¨ computer self-efficacy¡¨ had significant effect on ¡§Near-term consequence¡¨, but had no correlation with ¡§Long-term consequence¡¨. 2. ¡§Computer competence¡¨ had significant differences in perceived consequences (those were ¡§Near-term consequence¡¨ and ¡§Long-term consequence¡¨.). ¡§Computer competence¡¨ also had significant effect on ¡§computer satisfaction¡¨. Therefore, ¡§Computer competence¡¨ affected individual satisfaction with computer use directly and indirectly. 3. Between perceived consequences and ¡§computer satisfaction¡¨, ¡§Near-term consequence¡¨ had significant difference to ¡§computer satisfaction¡¨ , but ¡§Long-term consequence¡¨ had no significant difference. According to research result, some recommendations were suggested for the educational agencies, junior high schools, junior high school teachers and further studies.

THESIS ABSTRACT For the past few years, the development of social welfare has a tendency of leading the managing concept of business administration, which emphasizes the connection between service and cost, and the requirement of efficiency. However, in spite of the increasing demand of long-term care, the nursing system has come across many difficulties. The competition from the related occupations, the increasing pressure, and the higher demand of nursing quality have seriously affected the maintenance of nursing organization, which also have obliged the manager of nursing organization to consider the possibility of cooperation of the same line. The intention of Strategic Alliance between the aged long-term care organization and some medical organizations has been promoted. In the near future, the manager of medical and long-term care enterprises will be up against the challenges and competitions from these organizations. And they are forced to unite and share their resources by Strategic Alliance. The manager must realize the changes inside and outside of their organizations. And it is the most important to adopt the prompt policy, management and control of their resources. Through this research, I hope there will be better understanding for the main managers on their long-term care services and evaluation of satisfaction. Also, I wish to study the elements that influence the quality of service. Therefore, the resources of long-term care might be efficiently used, and the quality will be improved as well. In experimental research, I make use of contrast of Strategic Alliance which influences the quality of service by analysis of 84 questionnaires investigation reports from Won-An and Won-Tai Nursing Centers. The experiments are independent and circuitous. . The result of this study indicates that Strategic-Alliance makes influence on either service quality or customers¡¦ satisfaction. Customers gave Won-An Nursing Center a higher appreciation because which practice Strategic-Alliance. At the end, this study offers concrete suggestions for management. Hopefully this will provide the government authorities a consultation of policy as well as a new direction of the long-term care organizations.

The mechanical property of polymeric materials changes over time, especially when they are subjected to long-term loading scenarios. To predict the time-dependent viscoelastic behaviors of epoxy-based adhesive materials, it is imperative that reliable accelerated tests be developed to determine their long-term performances under different exposed environments. A neat epoxy resin system and a commercial structural adhesive system for bonding aluminum substrates are investigated. A series of moisture diffusion tests have been performed for more than three months in order to understand the influence of the absorbed moisture on creep behavior. The material properties, such as elastic modulus and glass transition temperature, are also studied under different environmental conditions. The time-temperature superposition method produces a master curve allowing the long-term creep compliance to be estimated. The physics-based Coupling model is found to fit well the long-term creep master curve. The equivalence of the temperature and moisture effect on the creep compliance of the epoxy adhesives is also addressed. Finally, a methodology for predicting the long-term creep behavior of epoxy adhesives is proposed.