The integration of divergent cultures is crucial in maintaining the performance of a merged organization. Prior studies on IT culture in IS departments are mainly on corporate culture and lack of in-depth study. Recently, a practical survey shows that post-merger IT integration is always treated as a technology transformation perspective. To support business strategy, IT architecture, processes and skills should be effectively redesigned after the merger. However, conflicts may emerge within the merged departments due to different cultures and incompatible IT configurations. This dissertation proposed a novel analysis framework based on IT culture conflict perspective and strategic alignment model. We selected three financial holding companies in Taiwan as post-merger cases. They conducted IT integration projects while facing conflicts due to differences in IT culture related to organizational size, IT integration strategies, and characteristics with respect to government-owned versus private banks. Through multiple case study with data analysis based on grounded theory, we have identified three types of IT culture conflict that occurred in IT integration, examined their major effects on IT integration, and discussed how to resolve IT culture conflicts in post-merger IT integration. Propositions are derived to conclude the findings from these cases, which can be validated through empirical studies in future studies.

For managing a city, the role of city marketing becomes more and more important. Modern cities are all hoping through every event to satisfy city residents or marketing the city externally. Therefore increase the approval rating of residents or create the image to boost the tourism or attract investors. City marketing also involved self-identification and uniqueness. Therefore, marketing framework directly impact the identification and perspectives both internally and externally. This research tracked marketing tactics of The World Games in Kaohsiung after the Mayor Chen Chu was elected. This paper also discussed the marketing framework and the reasons behind that, so the future city managers can use it as reference. The research questions as follows: 1. What framework was used in marketing the World Games in Kaohsiung? 2. Is frame alignment used? This research is based on Frame Theory as the core research structure, through newspaper reports analysis data, and concludes the framework that was used by The World Games in Kaohsiung. Also combined the in-depth interviews with the officials who are responsible for marketing The World Games. Understanding the framework and the planning that was used by the organizer to market the World Games, in order to conduct the research of this topic. The result show, the World Games in Kaohsiung existed two main frameworks including the World Games and the elected official politics needs . Under these two main frameworks also have several sub-frameworks, along with diversity tolerance values and people¡¦s affairs, which are two mixed frameworks. Between each framework have certain degree of coalition. The base of mobilization therefore extended through the framework coalition. The organizer successfully marketing the city through the World Games, also help the residents identified themselves with the city and presents the uniqueness of the city. It is also a successful politics public relations and push Mayor Chen Chun to another high point to her career. She later won the 2010 mayor election by a landslide victory, taking over 50% (52.8%) of the votes.

In this study, we want to realize the influence of temperature on the ferroelectric liquid crystal flow and rubbing strength on the surface free energy of the polyimide thin film. The rubbing strength is determined by pile impress and the number of rubbing. The surface energy of the samples is measured. On the other hand the ferroelectric liquid crystal flow on the polyimide thin film was observed using a polarizing microscope. We found that the polyimide film treated by rubbing the surface properties will become non-uniformity. When the number of rubbing increased to a certain extent, polar energy is not changed, white disperse energy is continued to show fluctuations. In liquid crystal flow observation, we found that when the polyimide thin film temperature is low, the flow of ferroelectric liquid crystal is relatively slow, and its flow direction is in rubbing direction. When the polyimide thin film temperature is high, ferroelectric liquid crystal has two-dimensional flow. In addition to the direction of the original rubbing direction, but also increased the flow in the direction of the vertical rubbing.

Reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy is a non-contact technique for surface detection. which means through the optical reflection from surface of the substrate measured. Because of its high sensitivity, RAS is used for in real-time control of semiconductor epitaxy. On our study, RAS is used to study the surface characteristics of liquid crystal alignment layer. We used rubbing for polyimide film to achieve alignment purposes. The rubbing strength is determined by adjusting the pile impress and the number of rubbed. We found that the anisotropy spectroscopy will appear after rubbing. And the strength of RA signals changes with photon energy of the probe beam. The pretile angle of the liquid crystal sandwiched in between rubbed PI show certain degree correlation with RA strength. In addition, using surface free energy measurement to explore the relationship with pretilt angle and try to connect three of them. We also tried to measure the reflection signal from the sample back. We found the signal of sample back would decay in UV region and it may be a result of UV absorption in the substrate.

In this research, the polarization converters were manufactured by impinging intensity-gradient-distribution laser on DDLC (dye-doped liquid crystal) samples, which the gradient distributed light intensity was produced by applying linear variable ND filter. The performances of these polarization converters were demonstrated, which can convert a linear polarized incident light into a circular polarized light or an elliptic polarized light. The influence of cell gap and beam size of probe beam on the DDLC polarization converter has been discussed.

In this study we use PDMS thin films to fabricate of multi-domain surface. PDMS gets the characteristic of good physical properties and chemical, not only low surface free energy, flexible, also has low toxicity, low cost and can protect our environment. We used the DI water that was dropped on the PDMS thin film surface and became stable to explore the wettability of the surface, and we had a discussion about when liquid crystal dropped on the PDMS thin film surface. Then we also observe the phenomenon that was liquid crystal will shift a little distance and we used the optical image to analyze our device.

Rubbing on polyimide thin film surface is an important procedure of alignment in the commercial display industry. Present on the surface of friction anisotropy, there will be corresponding to the pre-tiltangle. Monitoring and quality controlling of rubbing procedure will be the major issue. Reflection Anisotropy Spectroscopy is a powerful monitoring technology. Reflection Anisotropy Spectroscopy is a non-destructive detective system. Through optical method we could get property of our samples without damaging. After our process of survey, samples could be used in next manufactured step. In this thesis, we detected that monomers would occur some changes in a small amount in room temperature. We could find those changes effect the peak region of RA spectra and the feature in pretilt angle.

Recently, interference alignment (IA) has emerged as a promising technique to effectively mitigate interference in wireless communication systems. It has also evolved as a powerful technique to achieve the optimal degrees of freedom of interference channel. IA can be constructed in many domains such as space, time, frequency and codes. Currently, most researches on developing IA assume that channel state information (CSI) is well-known at the transceiver. However, in practice, perfect CSI at the transceiver can¡¦t be obtained due to many factors such as channel estimation error, quantization error, and feedback error. Under our investigation, the performance of IA is very sensitive to imperfect CSI. Therefore, this thesis proposes a spatial domain IA scheme for the three-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) downlink interference channels, and analyzes the effect of channel estimation errors by modeling the estimation error as independent complex Gaussian random variables. The approximated bit error rate (BER) for the system with MIMO Zero-Forcing equalizer using IA is derived.

Research in nanoparticle-reinforced composites is predicated by the promise for exceptional properties. However, to date the performance of nanocomposites has not reached its potential due to processing challenges such as inadequate dispersion and patterning of nanoparticles, and poor bonding and weak interfaces. The main objective of this dissertation is to improve the physical properties of polymer nanocomposites at low nanoparticle loading. The first step towards improving the physical properties is to achieve a good homogenous dispersion of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in the polymer matrix; the second step is to manipulate the well-dispersed CNFs and SWNTs in polymers by using an AC electric field. Different techniques are explored to achieve homogenous dispersion of CNFs and SWNTs in three polymer matrices (epoxy, polyimide and acrylate) without detrimentally affecting the nanoparticle morphology. The three main factors that influence CNF and SWNT dispersion are: use of solvent, sonication time, and type of mixing. Once a dispersion procedure is optimized for each polymer system, the study moves to the next step. Low concentrations of well dispersed CNFs and SWNTs are successfully manipulated by means of an AC electric field in acrylate and epoxy polymer solutions. To monitor the change in microstructure, alignment is observed under an optical microscope, which identifies a two-step process: rotation of CNFs and SWNTs in the direction of electric field and chaining of CNFs and SWNTs. In the final step, the aligned microstructure is preserved by curing the polymer medium, either thermally (epoxy) or chemically (acrylate). The conductivity and dielectric constant in the parallel and perpendicular direction increased with increase in alignment frequency. The values in the parallel direction are greater than the values in the perpendicular direction and anisotropy in conductivity increased with increase in AC electric field frequency. There is an 11 orders magnitude increase in electrical conductivity of 0.1 wt% CNF-epoxy nanocomposite that is aligned at 100 V/mm and 1 kHz frequency for 90 minutes. Electric field magnitude, frequency and time are tuned to improve and achieve desired physical properties at very low nanoparticle loadings.

Alignment of the expectations of engineering faculty and the preparation engineering students receive in first-year mathematics and physics mechanics courses provided the motivation for the work contained in this study. While a number of different aspects of student preparation including intangibles, such as motivation, time management skills, and study skills, affect their performance in the classroom, the goal of this study was to assess the alignment of the mathematics and physics mechanics knowledge and skills addressed in first-year courses with those needed for a sophomore-level statics and dynamics course. Objectives of this study included: (1) development of a set of metrics for measuring alignment appropriate for an engineering program by adapting and refining common notions of alignment used in K-12 studies; (2) study of the degree of alignment between the first-year mathematics and physics mechanics courses and the follow-on sophomore-level statics and dynamics course; (3) identification of first-year mathematics and physics mechanics skills needed for a sophomore-level statics and dynamics course through the development of mathematics and physics instruments based on the inputs from faculty teaching the statics and dynamics courses; (4) analysis of tasks given to the students (in the form of homework and exam problems) and the identification of the mathematics and physics skills required; (5) comparison of the required skills to the skills reported by faculty members to be necessary for a statics and dynamics course; and (6) the comparison of student preparation in the form of grades and credits received in prerequisite courses to performance in statics and dynamics. Differences were identified between the content/skills developed in first-year mathematics and physics mechanics courses and content/skills expected by engineering faculty members in the sophomore year. Furthermore, skills stated by engineering faculty members as being required were not necessarily utilized in homework and exam problems in a sophomore engineering mechanics course. Finally, success in first-year physics mechanics courses provided a better indicator of success in a sophomore-level statics and dynamics course than that of first-year mathematics. Processes used in the study could be applied to any course where proper alignment of material is desired.