Floodplains forests are productive and diverse ecosystems characterized by frequent riverine flooding. Levees and dams have eliminated or altered riverine flooding which can potentially affect floodplain tree recruitment and growth. Increased light availability from canopy disturbances may increase photosynthesis given sufficient soil moisture, but information on the combined effect of canopy disturbances and hydrologic modifications on tree recruitment and growth is lacking. I used dendrochronological techniques to reconstruct tree recruitment, growth (Quercus lyrata, Fraxinus pennsylvanica), and canopy disturbance patterns over a 90-year period at several floodplains in the Mississippi River Alluvial Valley, USA: an unleveed site below dams and two sites within a ring levee. At the site below dams, flood frequency increased in the late non-growing season during the post-dam period, but decreased in the late growing season, although stage may have kept water in the root zone. Mean flood duration of pre-dam and post-dam periods was similar. Interannual variability in flooding may have resulted in recruitment of tree species of varying flood tolerances. Recruitment of shade-tolerant species (Celtis laevigata, Ulmus americana) was common during periods of infrequent canopy disturbances, but recruitment and growth of moderately shade-tolerant species such as F. pennsylvanica increased following widespread canopy disturbances. Unlike Q. lyrata, F. pennsylvanica had positive relationships with river stage during the late growing season in the post-dam period, suggesting riverine influence via groundwater links. At sites within a ring levee, flooding was short duration with longer duration flooding at lower elevations due to ponding of precipitation. Recruitment of flood-intolerant species such as C. laevigata expanded after levee construction except at lower elevations where recruitment of flood-tolerant species such as Q. lyrata followed canopy disturbances. In the post-levee period, growth of Q. lyrata and F. pennsylvanica was closely correlated with surface soil moisture and increased following canopy disturbances. Growth maintained strong relationships with spring stage at low elevations despite the elimination of overbank flooding, suggesting riverine influence via groundwater links. Results of my study indicate that broad-scale hydrologic modifications affected floodplain forest recruitment and growth but local-scale factors such as topography, canopy disturbances, surface soil moisture, and groundwater mediated these effects.

The effect of inorganic fillers including precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC), glass fiber (GF), and nano-clay on properties of structured WPCs was investigated. In PCC-bamboo-polymer hybrid composites, tensile and flexural moduli were improved with increasing PCC content. After silane treatment of bamboo, RBF-filled hybrid composites showed better mechanical properties compared to those of GBP-filled hybrid composites. The hybrid composites showed 3-4 times higher modulus than those of PCC-filled composites at high PCC levels. Various property differences were observed between weak- and strong-core coextruded systems with shell composition changes. While the weak-core systems showed improved flexural strengths compared to their core-only control, the strong-core systems had lowered flexural strengths. In both systems, impact strengths increased at low shell filling levels but decreased at high shell filling levels. Impact fracture types varied with core quality and shell filling composition. Coextruded composites with treated PCC-filled shell showed better water absorption (WA) property compared to core-only controls and coextruded composites with high WF-filled shell. Plastic-only shell increased overall coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of coextruded composites, but filled shells led to the CTE decreases of coextruded composites. GF in shell behaved as an effective reinforcement for coextruded composites. The comparisons of flexural property among different core systems show that GF reinforcements were optimized at high GF loadings in a shell layer and GF alignments in the shell layer also played an important role. In coextruded composites with different shell thicknesses, the flexural property enhanced with the increase of shell bending modulus and strength at a given shell thickness. When the flexural property of shell was less than that of core, the increase of shell thickness led to reduced flexural property. On the other hand, when the flexural property of shell was higher than that of core, the opposite was true. In sound transmission loss (TL) testing, the stiffness and surface density were major factors influencing the sound insulation property of materials. The experimental TL results showed that the addition of clay or PCC and/or wood fiber (WF) fillers led to the increases of general resonance frequencies and TL in filled composites. However, at high filling levels, composite stiffness decreases led to TL reduction. The experimental TL curves of filled HDPE and WPCs were well approximated with the combined TL predictions from their corresponding stiffness-1 and stiffness-2 TL for S-region and mass law TL for M-region.

Though it bears favorable natural environment, the development of Taiwan coastal fishery is blocked by many factors. Among which, the exhausted fishery resources stays at the top, resulting from the various pollution, over-fishing and illegal fishing etc.. In addition, subject to the WTO regulations, the fiercer competition facing fishing products is another factor. To improve this situation, the Fisheries Administration takes many measures, in order to protect the fishery resources, realize the sustained development and increase the income of fishermen. This research is to, by the method of policy analysis and the principle of the fisheries economics, discuss the protection measures on Taiwan coastal fishery resources in recent years. Taking the policy planning into consideration, other than restoring the cultivation and re-productivity of the fishery resources, the diverse development is also concerned. While the analysis of the fish output, production value, unit fishing effort and the income of the fishermen presents a well performance. This research is designed to discusses, with the method of cost-benefit-analysis, the executive benefits of the measures in 2000, 2001 and 2002, with the results showing the proportion of the profits to the cost over 1 and the net profits also speaking for the well performance. Suggestions: 1. The policies for the coastal fisheries should be pertinence of the concrete targets, in order to avoid the decrease in profits resulting form the conflict regulations. The harmony among regulations is important for realization of the diverse development. 2. More detailed statistics is necessary for objective assessment of the executive performance. 3. The results attained always lag the policy application, so that the timing and the durative of the execution cannot be neglected or all efforts may be in vain. And experts are necessary to supervise and assess if the running cost of the policy enforcement is regarded as the scale economy, and such performance should survive the changes in personnel and the decrease in outlay.

Taiwan had natural advantage of geographical conditions plus adopting the strategy of developing container center in 1970 and also was developed and operated achievement very well in past 20 years for prevailing in containerization. As global business environment and information technology grow rapidly, Enterprise Resources Planning¡]ERP¡^system develops quickly under enterprise demand. ERP provides management information that fits enterprise demand and enhances enterprise competition ability .With this methodology, the ERP adopting organizations can more easily and systematically implement the ERP package. In addition, the experience provides greater insight for misfit solving confronted in the case, and thereby reduce the risk of ERP implementation. The main purpose of this study is to probe into the proper structure, evaluation model, expectation and the implementation process of ERP. The results of this study can provide some thoughts for managers who will make decisions about the implementation of ERP system.

Latinos are one of the fastest growing ethnic minority group s in the United States, and their influence on natural resource allocation and management, especially in Texas to date, has been largely ignored. For this reason, the purpose of my study was to determine Texas Latinos' attitudes toward natural resources and the environment, while considering many cultural factors often lacking in previous studies. Texas Latino community college and university students (n = 635) were surveyed. The survey was derived from three commonly used indices, as well as an acculturation rating scale. Of the 12 independent variables tested (ethnicity, gender, age, religious preference, religiosity, combined parent's income, parent educational level, environmental identification, political affiliation, political candidate's position on environmental issues, number of grandparents born in the United States, and acculturation level), only 6 (gender, religiosity, political candidate's position on environmental issues, combined parent income, mother's education level, and generation) were important in predicting environmental concern (P < 0.05). However, within group comparisons, four variables appear to be important predictors of environmental concern: gender, political candidate's position on environmental issues, mother's education, and combined parent income. The results indicate that: women are more environmentally aware (1.5 x odds) than men; survey respondents who identified a political candidate's position on environmental issues as important had greater environmental concern (1.5-2.5 x odds) than those who did not; as parent combined income increased, environmental concern values also increased (2.0-3.0 x odds); and environmental concern values decreased with an increase in mother's education level (4.5-8.0 x odds). My findings suggest that demographic predictors of environmental attitudes for my sample are similar to those of other study findings. Results from my study benefit natural resource and environmental organizations in program development and implementation.

Background Children with asthma usually use more medical resources than those without asthma. However, studies on the relationship between ratios of asthma-related complications and consumption of medical resources are rare. Methods We sampled data from ¡§Registry for beneficiaries¡¨ of ¡§National Health Insurance Research Database¡¨, National Health Insurance Institute, 2004. The target group was patients, aged between 1 and 18 years old, whose main diagnosis number from outpatient department (ICD-9-CM) is 493. Ratios of asthma-related complications and consumption of medical costs and resources were submitted to statistical analysis. Results Data of 394197 outpatients, of whom 62.5% are males, were included. Among the entire sample, 7627 children have asthma. Children with asthma are 8.2 times likely to get allergic rhinitis than those without asthma. Children with asthma are 2.1 times likely to get atopic dermatitis, 1.3 times likely to get otitis media, 1.5 times likely to get sinusitis than those without asthma. With regard to average expenditure on medical treatment, that of children with asthma is higher than that of children without asthma. Expenditures on medical treatment are compared among four divided groups. Children without asthma or complications ( NT$ 3714 ¡Ó 24538 ) , Children without asthma having complications ( NT$ 6448 ¡Ó 8880 ) , children with asthma not having complications ( NT$ 7396 ¡Ó 6434 ) , children with asthma having complications ( NT$ 12708 ¡Ó 10585 ) . Results of expenditures on medical treatment among these four divided groups show statistically significant. Seventy % of medical resources utilized are pediatrics, 40% are clinics, 50% are in the northern area. Conclusion Ratio of comorbidities of children with asthma is obviously higher than that of children without asthma. With regard to medical costs, that of children with asthma having comorbidities is higher than that of children with asthma not having comorbidities. Therefore, local pediatricians have an important role in the care of children with asthma.

The Little River in Blount County is home to one of the richest darter faunas in East Tennessee. Increases in agriculture and development on several tributaries and the main stem of the Little River are suspected as causes for reduced abundance in fish populations. Earlier research on the Little River identified three species, Etheostoma cinereum (ashy darter), Percina burtoni (blotchside logperch), and P. williamsi (sickle darter), as having low densities. From May – October 2009, snorkel observations were made at 16 predetermined sites along the mainstem of the river to determine abundance and habitat association of these target species, as well as abundance of P. aurantiaca (tangerine darter) for comparison with historic surveys. All fish observed while snorkeling were identified and microhabitat measurements were taken at the location of all target species. Observations included 39 fish species, including 273 P. aurantiaca, 58 P. burtoni, and 7 P. williamsi. Etheostoma cinereum were not encountered during this study. Our observations documented that darter populations during 2009 were significantly different than historic populations, indicating that local populations of the target species have been negatively impacted since the historic survey. E. cinereum has been consistently difficult to collect on the Little River, and previous sampling efforts have observed this species with less frequency in the last 30 years. The absence of this species in this study may be an artifact of habitat degradation due to development and agriculture, two consecutive years of drought in 2007-2008, or potential sampling bias due to high flows in 2009. Habitat measurements documented that P. burtoni were frequently associated with gravel and cobble substrates. This habitat association is indicative of the feeding habits of P. burtoni who use their padded snout to flip small stones and feed on the aquatic insects found underneath. Turbidity was closely associated with river mile, with a consistent increase in turbidity at downstream sites in the watershed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-239). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2002. / Field problem. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.P.D.(Prof.))--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.